Your Location Within Site:
Mussel opening machine
A robust, high throughput machine that automatically opens mussels, a highly successful concept now in commercial use by Sanford.
The industry need
- Green-lipped mussels are an important part of the seafood industry
- When sold in the half shell, they attract a premium in the export market
- Automating the opening process was identified as a crucial step for improving productivity.
The challenge
- The machine must have a high throughput of 30 mussels per minute
- It needed to be robust, and not damage or degrade the product
- It must be modular to integrate with the existing plant layout and automated equipment.
The machine
- The highly successful concept is now a commercial reality and used in Sanford’s mussel processing plant in Havelock
- A key feature is the vision system that identifies the size and orientation for product verification
- Critical process steps were executed by smart mechanical devices designed to singulate, reorientate and open the product
- Multiple sensors keep each product tracked when it enters the machine.
- An in-built CIP (Clean-In-Place) system ensures hygiene regulations are met.