The company said the Sidekick, which offers automated weighing and redirecting of multiple lines of meat, was originally developed for the auto-scaling of pork loins to eliminate the bottleneck caused by manual classifying, reduce worker injuries and improve accuracy.
“Millard designed an innovative machine called a ‘loin kicker’ to redirect automatically selected weights of meat to appropriate lines,” explained Millard director of operations Alan Circo. “We then developed a dual-lane conveyor that automated weighing and classifying cuts and integrated it prior to the kicker.”
The Sidekick can be modified to fit ham, rib, belly and other meat cuts, and Circo claimed one pork processor using the system had improved line capacity from 2,400 pieces/hour to 3,000 pieces/hour, as well as improving yields and profits due to more accurate product weights.