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Title:
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING PARTS OF SLAUGHTERED ANIMALS
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2010/046366
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
Method and system for processing parts of slaughtered animals. The system being arranged to perform the method that includes: conveying said parts in a substantially horizontal plane along a transport direction T in at least one row of a first conveyor, passing the row alongside a first camera system for first turn imaging said parts when following said direction T, releasing said parts from said first conveyor thereby inducing rotating the parts during moving and falling, and resulting in turning said parts substantially 180°, catching said parts on a second moving conveyor, passing said second conveyor row alongside a second camera system for second turn imaging said parts, processing said parts in accordance with at least said first turn and second turn imaging, wherein after catching said parts, said parts are conveyed in a substantially horizontal plane, by the second conveyor that is moving in a direction — T.

Inventors:
SLOTHOLT HENRIK (DK)
Application Number:
PCT/EP2009/063747
Publication Date:
April 29, 2010
Filing Date:
October 20, 2009
Export Citation:
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Assignee:
IHF FOOD (DK)
SLOTHOLT HENRIK (DK)
International Classes:
A22C25/08; B65G47/248
Domestic Patent References:
WO1995021375A11995-08-10
Foreign References:
DE1454072A11969-10-16
DE4022451A11992-01-23
US4744131A1988-05-17
EP1483970A12004-12-08
US4958409A1990-09-25
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
HATZMANN, M.J. (Johan de Wittlaan 7, JR Den Haag, NL)
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Claims:
Claims

1. Method for processing parts of slaughtered animals, such as there are by way of example livers, harts or suchlike matters, the method comprising: conveying said parts in a substantially horizontal plane along a transport direction T in at least one row of a first conveyor, each part substantially positioned the one after the other, passing such row alongside a first camera system for first turn imaging said parts when following said direction T, releasing said parts from said first conveyor when arriving at a corresponding free end of said first conveyor, thereby inducing rotating the parts during moving and falling, and resulting in turning said parts substantially 180° around a substantially horizontal axis, catching said parts on a second conveyor for conveying said parts as a continued corresponding row in a substantially horizontal plane, wherein the second conveyor is moving in a direction — T; - passing said second conveyor row alongside a second camera system for second turn imaging said parts, and processing said parts in accordance with at least said first turn and second turn imaging.

2. Method in accordance with claim 1, wherein said parts, during moving and falling, are guided at least partly over a substantially curved concave plate surface.

3. Method in accordance with claim 1, wherein the first conveyor subsequently is bent upwardly and backwardly thereby obtaining a mainly circular path.

4. Method in accordance with one of the foregoing claims, wherein said releasing and said catching is controlled by controlling and setting conveying speed of said first and said second conveyor.

5. Method in accordance with claim 3 or 4, wherein the speed of the second conveyor is set to be greater than the speed of the first conveyor.

6. Method in accordance with one of the foregoing claims, wherein said processing further comprises, - processing said images obtained by said imaging,

- characterizing said images in order to obtain characterized images,

- comparing said characterized images with preset criteria, and

- on basis of said comparing rejecting or accepting the imaged parts by respectively said parts removing from or maintaining in said rows.

7. Method in accordance with one of the foregoing claims, wherein during the above-mentioned conveying and/or guiding a liquid film is arranged.

8. System for processing parts of slaughtered animals, such as there are by way of example livers, harts or suchlike matters, the system comprising, a first conveyor for conveying said parts in a substantially horizontal plane along a transport direction T, each part substantially positioned the one after the other and forming at least one row, the conveyor having a free end for releasing said parts thereby starting a moving and falling trajectory, resulting in turning said parts substantially 180° around a substantially horizontal axis, a first camera system alongside said first conveyor for taking first turn images of said parts when passing the first camera system, a second conveyor for catching said parts after falling and moving from said first conveyor, said second conveyor extending in a substantially horizontal plane and configured to convey said parts as a continued corresponding row that moves in a direction -T - a second camera system alongside said second conveyor for taking second turn images of said parts when passing the second camera system, an image processing unit for processing said first and second turn images in order to obtain parts processing signals, and - a parts processing system for processing and handling said parts in accordance with at least said parts processing signals.

9. System in accordance with claim 8, wherein the system further comprises a concavely bent guiding plate for guiding through sliding said parts on at least a part of their path from the first conveyor to the second conveyor after leaving the first conveyor.

10. System in accordance with claim 9, wherein at least said guiding plate is covered with at least a liquid film.

11. System in accordance with claim 10, wherein liquid for at least said film is arranged by a liquid jet device directing a jet of said liquid to the parts just before being released.

12. System in accordance with claim 10, wherein liquid for at least said film is arranged by a liquid jet device directing a jet of said liquid to an upper part the guiding plate where guiding said parts starts.

13. System in accordance with claim 12, wherein the liquid jet device comprises spraying nozzles.

14. System in accordance with one of the claims 10 - 13, wherein the liquid is water.

15. System in accordance with one of the claims 10 - 14, wherein the liquid at least contains a disinfectant.

16. System in accordance with claim 8, wherein said first conveyor subsequently is bent upwardly and backwardly thereby obtaining a mainly circular path.

17. System in accordance with one of the claims 8 — 16, wherein the system further comprises ejectors in order to eject parts from the first or second conveyor in accordance with said parts processing signals.

18. System in accordance with one of the claims 8 - 17, wherein the system further comprises a speed control unit for controlling and setting speeds of the first conveyor and of the second conveyor.

19. System in accordance with claim 18, wherein the speed of the second conveyor is set to be greater than the speed of the first conveyor.

20. System in accordance with one of the foregoing claims 8 to 19, wherein a unit is comprised for rearranging the position and angle of said guiding plate

Description:

Title: Method and system for processing parts of slaughtered animals

The present invention concerns a method and a system for processing parts of slaughtered animals, such as there are by way of example livers, harts or suchlike matters.

In WO9521375 an advantageous and straightforward approach for processing such parts is presented. More in particular parts of meat are optically imaged, checked and characterized by on-line image processing, and sorted on quality accordingly. Especially bleedings, blood stains, fat, and further undesirable effects like exudations should be recognised, resulting in rejecting such parts. The optical imaging comprises for example a video camera system, whereas such images are analysed by digital processing. In particular processing advanced colour pictures in all detail is disclosed. Furthermore such parts will be imaged after having been aligned to mainly a stream or row of parts.

In many cases such parts exist of slicelike or waferlike flabby matter wherein they are arranged on a conveyor belt. Therefore only one side can be observed through said imaging. In WO9521375 this problem is solved by applying a section of the belt which is designed to turn the pieces of meat around so that the side which in first instance was hidden will be exposed subsequently and thus will be imaged as yet. In particular two belts are arranged in sequence wherein turning is obtained by placing the belt at the upstream end in a higher position in relation to the second belt which passes in substantially the same transport direction T under the first said upstream one, thus applying the so-called 'somersault' effect for such parts. At exposures of both sides, i.e. the one side or the other side, such parts or pieces are imaged by means of the above-mentioned imaging system.

Parts or pieces with deviating characteristics can be removed, either after the first turn of imaging on said first belt, or after the second turn of imaging on said second belt.

The above-mentioned method and system of processing works well in case of pieces not too flabby. However, in case of having liquid and humid film layers on their surfaces such pieces will stick to the supporting belt surface. More in particular loosing from the first belt and possible curling during falling can result in a very uncontrolled trajectory. Especially the movement of the second belt in the same direction may hamper complete rotation and result in undesired curling of such parts. Thus meat surface portions to be imaged are missed often.

In order to overcome such shortcomings the present invention provides a method method for processing parts of slaughtered animals, such as there are by way of example livers, harts or suchlike matters. The method comprises: conveying said parts in a substantially horizontal plane along a transport direction T in at least one row of a first conveyor, each part substantially positioned the one after the other, - passing such row alongside a first camera system for first turn imaging said parts when following said direction T, releasing said parts from said first conveyor when arriving at a corresponding free end of said first conveyor, thereby inducing rotating the parts during moving and falling, and resulting in turning said parts substantially 180° around a substantially horizontal axis, catching said parts on a second conveyor for conveying said parts as a continued corresponding row in a substantially horizontal plane, wherein the second conveyor is moving in a direction — T; passing said second conveyor row alongside a second camera system for second turn imaging said parts, and processing said parts in accordance with at least said first turn and second turn imaging.

It has appeared that the method in accordance with the invention is resulting in missing substantially less meat surface portions when imaged, thus giving far more reliable processing.

In further embodiments of the present invention the method may include: that said parts, during falling and moving, are guided at least partly over a substantially curved concave plate surface; and/or that the first conveyor subsequently is bent upwardly and backwardly thereby obtaining a mainly circular path; these embodiments are very advantageous because having completely controlled speed and movement conditions in view of predefined friction characteristics.

Further embodiments may include: that said releasing and said catching is controlled by controlling and setting conveying speed of said first and said second conveyor; that the speed of the second conveyor is set to be greater than the speed of the first conveyor; that said processing comprises processing images obtained by said imaging - characterizing said images in order to obtain characterized images, comparing said characterized images with preset criteria, and on basis of said comparing reject or accept the imaged parts by accordingly, removing such parts from, or maintaining such parts in said row; and/or that during the above-mentioned conveying and/or guiding a liquid film is arranged.

From the above it will be clear that reliable processing is highly improved.

Moreover having the second belt underneath the first one is very advantageous as to surface area to be used for such system. The invention also provides a system that is improved relative to the system as described in WO9521375, especially in relation to the performance thereof. In accordance with the invention, a system for processing parts of slaughtered animals, such as there are by way of example livers, harts or suchlike matters, is provided that comprises: - a first conveyor for conveying said parts in a substantially horizontal plane along a transport direction T, each part substantially positioned the one after the other and forming at least one row, the conveyor having a free end for releasing said parts thereby starting a moving and falling trajectory, resulting in turning said parts substantially 180° around a substantially horizontal axis, a first camera system alongside said first conveyor for taking first turn images of said parts when passing the first camera system, a second conveyor for catching said parts after falling and moving from said first conveyor, said second conveyor extending in a substantially horizontal plane and configured to convey said parts as a continued corresponding row that moves in a direction -T a second camera system alongside said second conveyor for taking second turn images of said parts when passing the second camera system, - an image processing unit for processing said first and second turn images in order to obtain parts processing signals, and a parts processing system for processing and handling said parts in accordance with at least said parts processing signals.

It has appeared very advantageous to apply this simple measure of reversing the direction of movement, thus insuring substantially that all parts to be processed have been rotated in order to take the desired pictures.

Further embodiments of the system in accordance with the invention may include: a concavely bent guiding plate for guiding through sliding said parts on at least a part of their path from the first conveyor to the second conveyor after leaving the first conveyor; that at least said guiding plate is covered with at least a liquid film; that liquid for at least said film is arranged by a liquid jet device directing a jet of said liquid to the parts just before being released from said first conveyor; that liquid for at least said film is arranged by a liquid jet device directing a jet of said liquid to an upper part of the guiding plate where guiding said parts starts; that the liquid jet device comprises spraying nozzles; that the liquid is water; that the liquid at least contains a disinfectant; ejectors in order to eject parts from the first or second conveyor in accordance with said parts processing signals; a speed control unit for controlling and setting speeds of the first conveyor and of the second conveyor; and/or that the speed of the second conveyor is set to be greater than the speed of the first conveyor. With the above system very reliable processing results are obtained wherein parts are imaged on both sides very well, so that the parts may provide processing signals with which disapproved parts may be correctly ejected.

In an advantageous way the surface area that is necessary for such system is reduced substantially by means of the provision of the reverse moving direction.

Hereinafter the method and system will be described and explained in greater detail by reference to the annexed drawing, in which, figure 1 schematically shows a first embodiment of the system of the present invention; figure 2 schematically presents a second embodiment of the system of the present invention; and figure is showing a third embodiment of the system in accordance with the invention.

In said figures the same numbers are referring to the same units, devices or components.

In figure 1 is schematically shown a system for processing parts of slaughtered material. This may be parts like bones, muscles, but also organs like livers. More in particular on a conveyor 1 parts P are conveyed in a transport direction T for further processing, i.e. after imaging by a first camera system 10 and characterizing, giving an ejection after disproval, or acceptance and further transport to a second conveyor 2. In this figure 1 the same part P is presented on different subsequent times, so showing, PO to P5. Thus at end 11 of conveyor 1 such part is following a trajectory P caused by the combined conveyor speed and gravity action.

Such a conveyor is well known to those skilled in the art. For example a driven roller conveyor (as shown in figure 1) or a flat belt conveyor, giving an endless path, can be used advantageously. Furthermore it is very well known in this field of technology to have rows of such parts. Because all kind of undesired movements of parts when conveyor should be avoided the supporting surfaces of such conveyors are arranged substantially horizontally.

Said imaging is carried out by means of a first camera system 10 in order to take pictures of the side of such part which is exposed to said camera system. Hereinafter said side will be defined as the upper side, whereas the other side is called the lower side. Those skilled in the art will apply well known solutions for such camera systems. In general such camera systems will take digital pictures suitable for further digital processing, for example processing such pictures as to colours or dimensions. Such information will be further processed in a computer to allow comparing and characterizing. On basis of such processing, parts which must be disapproved, for example for being covered with undesired liquid like gall in case of livers, and will be ejected subsequently from said conveyor 1. Such ejector unit is not presented in this figure but is know and is applied very commonly. Furthermore, the way of imaging passing products is well known to those skilled in the art, thereby having all parts imaged and accordingly having all data in the right order and suitable for processing, handling, and related control purposes.

Because of the very irregular shape of such parts it is only possible to observe mainly one side, the said upper side. Therefore at least a second turn of imaging has to be carried out after having rotated such parts in order to have the lower side exposed. As can be seen from this figure because laws of mechanics such part is rotating after having left said conveyor 1 and after having fallen over an height distance h such part may be rotated over a substantial angle, for example an angle between 90° and 180°.

In accordance with the present invention the direction of moving of the second conveyor 2 is chosen in direction -T. Thus incomplete rotations

(incomplete as compared to the 180°) will be finished by the forward movement of said conveyor 2. Furthermore it has appeared very suitable to have a larger speed for the second conveyor 2 compared to the speed of the first conveyor 1.

After arriving on said second conveyor 2 parts P are imaged for the second time by means of a second camera system 20, giving suchlike processing as explained for the first camera system 10. Correspondingly a second ejector unit (comparable with the above-mentioned one; not shown either) will be applied in order to end up at the end of the second conveyor 2 with well characterized parts P.

As shown in figure 2, giving a similar schematic set-up as shown in figure 1, in order to be even more sure on arriving at the right position of such parts on the second conveyor 2 in accordance with the invention a guidance plate 12 is applied. Such plate has a concave curvature, thus guiding the parts in a continuous flow and in the right direction onto the second conveyor 2. The curvature is chosen in accordance with average speed of such parts and in relation to the distance from the end 11 of the first conveyor 1. As can be seen a section of guiding plate 12 is shown in accordance with a curvature very similar to a part of cylinder. However, also gutterlike curvatures can be applied.

Moreover in this embodiment plate 12 starts at substantially the same height as the end 11 of the conveyor 1. However different arrangements may be chosen to have a better compliance with the speeds applied or the matter to be processed. Furthermore it should be possible to have a unit for rearranging the position and angle of such plate during processing.

In figure 3 said first conveyor 1 has at his end an upward curved part. More in particular the end of said upper part is bent backwards. Thus having the right speed during supply on the first part of the first conveyor then because of the centrifugal forces on the products p the will be carried continuously on said conveyor surface wherein at the upper end then are rotated compared to their starting position. At the end again the products will fall on the second conveyor below. In this Figure the directions of rotations of the respective conveyors are indicated Rl and R2. This embodiment has big

advantage in that every use of liquid can be avoided. Such use, although helpful in certain circumstances, gives no complete control compared to speed setting of such conveyor.

In a further embodiment the invention concerns an embodiment having a curved plate having a upward curvature. By means of the speed the plate will guide such products upwardly with help of the respective centrifugal force. When arriving at the upper end of said plate the products will fall therefrom upon a conveyor which also moves in the — T direction. In the same way as explained for the downwardly curved trajectory also for such upwardly curved trajectory during their movement the products are rotated with respect to the supply situations by means of the first conveyor.

In order to avoid undesired sticking of certain weak parts which may cause all kind of air layer effects, a layer of liquid can be applied during such guiding. For example the parts can be humidified during transport on the first conveyor 1, but also spraying liquid on the guiding plate 12 has appeared suitable. For example tubular outlets, arranged above said conveyor 1 or in said plate 12, or nozzles giving jets directed onto said conveyor 1 or the plate 12 can be used.

All kind of liquids can be used. Such must be suitable for hygienic food treatment. For example clean water mixed up with disinfectant can be applied.

For those skilled in the art it will be clear that minor modifications should be considered to be covered by the appended claims.