Automated grading of bacon using vision technology

Vision is an enabling technology which allows the slicers to produce greater volumes of more accurate slices to a closer tolerance with consistent pack weights.

The addition of grading maximises the yield of premium value cuts. This presented a major vision challenge due to the organic nature of the product and significant variations due to season, geography & handling. However, the latest vision technology has been utilised to create an integrated grading option which enables producers to reduce manual grading.

As Marel’s strategic vision partner, STEMMER IMAGING has selected the most appropriate high-speed cameras and developed an image processing methodology using its own versatile Common Vision Blox imaging toolkit. This has resulted in a patented, flexible and extremely accurate measurement solution that could not be achieved by traditional machine vision technology.

By working in partnership, STEMMER IMAGING is reducing Marel’s manufacturing effort by delivering the vision subsystem pre-configured and tested removing Marel’s need for the post design engineering inherent when using fast changing PC based technology.

Vision technology has also been used by Marel in other applications, such as cheese and ham slicing and high capacity automatic portioning machines for fresh or chilled boneless product.