New development in salmon slicing and batching

Its most sold equipment, the TN200 slicer, represents almost 75% of industrial smoked salmon slicing in France. In most cases, this slicer is associated with the batching module DDV400, the other main equipment produced and sold by PROCONCEPT. These machines are already running in many countries, including France, Spain, UK, Poland, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada etc.

The slicing is done by high speed alternative blade movements - more than 220 cycles per minute. The TN200 is able to continuously and automatically control the variation of the angle and slicing thickness in order to obtain the required weight of slices.

The regular model TN200 is based on the weight recognition of each fillet. With PROCONCEPT's assistance the producer's technical team just has to build the different “recipes” (combination of angle and slicing thickness) that lead to the best result for each type/size of fish processed and final product targeted.

To obtain the best results, it is necessary to cool the fillet to about -10°C in the most homogeneous way, which is also very important for food safety issues.

The recent innovation introduced by PROCONCEPT is a system of 3D recognition. Each fillet is weighed (as formerly) and automatically scanned with an association of a digital camera and a laser beam. The data are processed in real-time and a high speed processing system calculates for each fillet the specific combination of angles and slicing thicknesses which leads to obtain the best result with the fillet introduced in the slicer.

The percentage of slices obtained in the required weight is maximised.

When the 3D slicer is linked to a DDV batching line, the feedbback of the batcher to the slicer allows a continuous fit of the slicing, which improves performance. Moreover, as each slice is designed in 3D, knowing the length and the width, allows the batching module DDV400 to associate slices, not only according to weight, but also according to shape.