Method and device for monitoring a meat processing machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10226053-B2
Application number	US-201314420641-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 31, 2013
Priority date	Aug 8, 2012
Publication date	Mar 12, 2019
Grant date	Mar 12, 2019

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for monitoring a meat processing machine having a meat processing unit for processing input meat products fed thereto into output meat products, an input sensor unit, and a control unit for controlling the meat processing unit, wherein the control unit is connected to the input sensor unit, comprising the steps: feeding input meat products to the meat processing unit, acquiring input product data, in particular geometric data and/or weight data, of the input meat product fed to the meat processing unit by means of the input sensor unit, and determining a tolerance variable for a yield-relevant processing parameter by means of a mathematical model or a database, in each case depending on the acquired input product data. The invention further relates to a meat processing machine for performing the method.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for monitoring a meat processing machine with
(a) a meat processing unit for processing input meat products fed thereto into output meat products,
(b) an input sensor unit, and
(c) a control unit for controlling the meat processing unit, wherein the control unit is connected to the input sensor unit, comprising the steps:
(d) feeding input meat products to the meat processing unit,
(e) acquiring input product data of the input meat products fed to the meat processing unit by the input sensor unit, wherein the input product data further consists of geometric data and/or weight data, and
(f) determining a tolerance variable for a yield-relevant processing parameter by a mathematical model or a database, in each case depending on the acquired input product data.

2. The method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the processing parameter is the yield of the processing.

3. The method according to claim 1 , characterized in that a tolerance range, an upper tolerance value and/or a lower tolerance value is determined as the tolerance variable for the processing parameter.

4. The method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the method steps for the input meat products fed to the meat processing unit are performed on a random basis or periodically with a predefined periodicity.

5. The method according to claim 1 , characterized in that
(a) the tolerance variable is assigned at least one value from the database depending on the input product data or the input product data and machine parameters,
(b) wherein tolerance variables are stored by the database depending on input product data or input product data and machine parameters.

6. The method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the tolerance variable is calculated
(a) from the input product data by a morphology model as the mathematical model, or
(b) from the input product data and machine parameters by a morphology model and a machine model together as the mathematical model.

7. The method according to claim 1 , characterized by the steps:
(a) tracking input meat products,
(b) acquiring output product data by an output sensor unit of the meat processing machine, in particular geometric data and/or weight data of the corresponding, particularly yield-relevant, output meat product fed out of the meat processing unit, wherein the control unit is connected to the output sensor unit, and
(c) determining the yield-relevant processing parameter depending on the input product data and the output product data corresponding thereto, in particular by calculating the difference or calculating the ratio.

8. The method according to claim 7 , characterized by issuing
(a) a warning signal by an acoustic and/or optical output unit if the determined processing parameter is outside of the tolerance range, and/or
(b) a status signal by an acoustic and/or optical output unit if the determined processing parameter is within the tolerance range.

9. The method according to claim 8 , characterized in that the value of the status signal is set depending on a deviation between the determined processing parameter and one of the range limits of the tolerance range.

10. The method according to claim 7 , characterized by the steps:
(a) pecifying a tolerance variable for the processing parameter corresponding to the acquired input product data, or determining the tolerance variable by the processing parameter corresponding to the acquired input product data,
(b) determining a database parameter set comprising the input product data, the tolerance variable for the associated processing parameter and/or the machine parameters, and
(c) updating the database with the database parameter set.

11. The method according to claim 10 , characterized in that the database is updated
(a) when the processing parameter is outside of or within the tolerance range, or
(b) when the processing parameter is less than or greater than the upper tolerance value, or
(c) when the processing parameter is less than or greater than the lower tolerance value.

12. The method according to claim 10 , characterized by a setup mode of the meat processing machine comprising the steps:
(a) newly setting the database parameter with a preset sample parameter dataset, and
(b) feeding reference meat products as input meat products to the meat processing unit.

13. The method according to claim 1 , characterized by registering each fed input meat product, whose input product data is outside of a predetermined product data tolerance range for input meat products to be fed.

14. The method according to claim 1 , characterized by registering each output meat product fed out, whose output product data is outside of a predetermined product tolerance range for output meat products to be fed out.

15. The method according to claim 13 , characterized in that the warning signal and/or status signal for a registered input meat product and/or output meat product is issued with a pre-determined identification.

16. The method according to claim 13 , characterized in that a database parameter set belonging to the registered input meat product is disregarded when updating the database.

17. A meat processing machine for meat processing with
(a) a meat processing unit for processing input meat products fed thereto into output meat products,
(b) an input sensor unit, and
(c) a control unit for controlling the meat processing unit, wherein the control unit is connected to the input sensor unit, characterized in that
(d) the meat processing machine is equipped and/or designed for performing the method according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Nordischer Maschinenbau

Inventors

• Jacobsen Ulf
• Pedersen Henning B

Classifications

• A22C17/00 Primary

  Other devices for processing meat or bones · CPC title

• G05B17/02

  electric · CPC title

• A22C25/16

  Removing fish-bones; Filleting fish {(combined with beheading, eviscerating A22C25/14; hand tools A22C25/006)} · CPC title

• G06F17/10

  Complex mathematical operations {(function generation by table look-up G06F1/03; evaluation of elementary functions by calculation G06F7/544)} · CPC title

• A22C25/00

  Processing fish {; Curing of fish; Stunning of fish by electric current; Investigating fish by optical means (slaughtering fish A22B3/08)} · CPC title