Kidney Fat Removal

Description
This robotic system removes kidney fat at sheep meat plants. The system incorporates a robot, vacuum and nozzle system, linked to laser sensing technology.

Benefits
The benefits of the Robotic Kidney Fat Removal include: 

• Improvements in OH&S such as the elimination of operator strain, repetitive tasking and dangerous operational practices
• Consistency with the robotic mounting and control of the fat removal process providing improved accuracy and repeatability over systems controlled by hand
• Improved laser sensing technology and software to provide an increase in efficiency and removal of more fat
• Improved yield payback by ensuring kidney fat is removed for every carcass consistently
• Reduced labour cost with the system replacing one unit of labour per shift
• Improved food safety

 Availability
The Kidney Fat Removal system was developed by Machinery Automation & Robotics (MAR) and is currently being trialled at several Australian sites. During 2009 refinements and final testing of the system will be conducted before the the system becomes commercially available.

A brochure outlining on the Kidney Fat Removal system is available from MAR. Contact MAR for further information.

More Information
Removing the kidney fat manually is a repetitive and dirty task and has many associated OH&S risks when removing the kidney fat by hand or vacuum. These include repetitive strain injury and potential for back and shoulder injuries. 

The potential for cross contamination from one carcass to the next is also high. The speed carcases travel on the chain requires a very competent operator to maintain concentration to ensure that the quality of the sterilisation procedures is met.