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Packaging of chicken wings takes off

When Canadian poultry producer Olymel automated the packaging of its chicken wings, it was able to redeploy 12 operators formerly required for manual packaging.

Frozen chicken wings are fanned out to individual weigh buckets by a dispersal cone (above). Bagged chicken drops out of the vf/
Frozen chicken wings are fanned out to individual weigh buckets by a dispersal cone (above). Bagged chicken drops out of the vf/

By automating the bagging of frozen chicken wings at its St. Rosalie, Quebec, plant, Canadian pork and poultry producer Olymel L.P. did more than take a big chunk out of its labor costs. The company also made significant gains in package consistency and reduced giveaway.

The frozen chicken pieces previously came down a chute to a packing table surrounded by 22 operators. Each operator would fill and weigh a premade bag and then introduce it to a semi-automatic heat-sealer. “It was difficult to be consistent, and giveaway was really hurting us,” says plant manager Michel Paradis. “The accuracy of the new equipment is far better, which brought us a sizable reduction in giveaway.”

The equipment he refers to is a Model A14-C8 vertical form/fill/seal machine from Triangle (Chicago, IL). Filling bags as small as 250 g (8.8 oz) and as large as 2 kilo (4.41 lb), the machine runs most sizes at a steady 32 bags/min. Before it was installed, Olymel achieved similar speeds, but 10 workers are now stationed throughout packaging instead of 22. Those no longer required on the packaging line have been redeployed elsewhere.

The chicken packaged on this line is cooked and frozen. Consumers are instructed to warm the product in their conventional or microwave ovens. Not all varieties include a sauce, but some do, and for these Olymel uses a Hinds-Bock (Redmond, WA) volumetric piston filler to inject the sauce automatically along with the chicken.

The filler, a Model SP-64B, is mounted on the back side of the Triangle machine. Its 10-gal hopper has a level-sensing probe, so whenever the hopper needs more sauce, it’s automatically pumped in by a floor-mounted pump that draws sauce from a large tote.

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