Customized Weighing and Filling System for Diced Meat Impresses with Performance in Small Footprint

A sophisticated automated packing line for sticky diced meat, incorporating two Ishida 12-head Fresh Food Weighers that combine to operate as four separate machines, has met the key challenge of managing the limited space available at Swiss meat processing company Micarna.

Micarna had been asked by supermarket chain Migros to deliver a new product - fresh cooked lardons, strips of ham and chicken for adding to salads - to a challenging deadline. To give the product a longer shelf life, the fresh diced meat is packed in sterile conditions in a cleanroom at Micarna’s production facility in Bazenheid in the canton of St. Gallen. Cleanrooms are generally made as small as possible to reduce maintenance costs and floorspace, and to minimise the risk of contamination. As a result, the new packing system had to fit into a space of only 10.5 m x 2.2 m with a low ceiling height of just 2.8 m.

The filling process for the new packing system was of particular concern, as Micarna’s technical project manager Patrick Nyffenegger explains: “The low headroom was a major issue, because it ruled out a standard circular weigher. There was very little room for product feed and distribution, and the cleaning processes also had to be taken into consideration.”