Ovine Middle Cutter
Description
The Ovine Middle Cutter will perform cutting of the middle primal piece in sheep meat, separating the flaps from the back and splitting or chining.
This system is based on technology developed by ATTEC and used in the pork industry, modified to allow automatic sensing of middle size variations so as to optimise the cutting positions.
Benefits
Potential benefits of the Ovine Middle Cutter include:
- Yield and efficiency improvements
- Occupational health and safety benefits
- Cost savings, with reduced labour requirements
Availability
The Ovine Middle Cutter is a joint development between MLA, ATTEC and an Australian processor.
Once the Middle Cutter has been successfully trialled as a working system and the benefits quantified, it will be made commercially available in 2010.
The system is expected to cut at least 200 carcases per hour. It is nevertheless expected that the machine may run up to 300 pieces/hour, hence giving a better return on investment.
More Information
ATTEC has developed one of the first production machines for cutting lamb middle primal into sub-primal pieces including flap cutting, splitting and chine cutting for producing French racks. The machine has been tested has now reached the status where it may be used for production using batches of similar size and shape lamb carcasses in New Zealand, where lamb carcasses have a more uniform and better defined profile.
However, it has become apparent that Australian lambs vary to a much greater extent in shape and size and indeed such a machine needs to deal with the whole of the ovine range.
Hence the capability of the prototype machine installed at an Australian processor is currently being upgraded so as to adjust automatically to the shape and size variations in the middle primal.