Trial leads to sale
At leading London gammon steak producer Bearfields, an APC Slicer had already proven itself as a cost-effective method of producing accurate, consistent gammon steaks with a hand cut finish.
When AEW THURNE approached Bearfields to undertake a true production trial of its feedback facility, production director Alan Bearfield readily agreed. After seeing what it achieved he placed an order.
"The addition of the checkweigher has improved the productivity of the APC Slicer still further," said Alan Bearfield. "It means we can reduce product handling and utilise labour resources more effectively in other areas of the plant.
"By accurately producing individual portion weights we can assemble fixed weight packs, without the need for complex sorting - the product goes straight from the slicer to the packer. An added bonus is a saving in space."
By adding a checkweigher to an APC system, the scan-adjust-slice sequence is further enhanced with short-term average weights automatically being fed back from the target and a correction factor is used to calculate the thickness of the next portion.
This 'closed-loop' sequence of scan - predict - adjust - slice - weigh - feedback - correct - feedback - scan, is completed three times each second. This ensures that productivity and maximum efficiency in terms of accuracy, speed and yield is maintained automatically.
Alan Bearfield is enthusiastic about his enhanced system: "The checkweigher feedback addition to our APC Slicer has made an already excellent system even better."
