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Shandong Taihe transforms its operations with Marel technologies for chicken parts
Due to increasing demand for its products, the Taihe Group decided to give its Shandong Taihe facility a major upgrade.
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The whole project happened quite quickly. The contract was signed in April 2023 and the installation was finished and commissioned within 11 months in March 2024. This big transformation took place in Shandong Taihe’s existing plant, where manual operations used to predominate. The process is now almost completely automated with Marel solutions. The 12,500 bph [208 bpm] line includes an entirely revised evisceration department complete with automated giblet harvesting.
Catch up time
Just when Marel was about to ship the equipment from Europe to Shandong Taihe in China, the ‘Red Sea issue’ arose, delaying shipment for around two weeks. To catch up for lost time, hard work and effort was asked of the Marel team. It was great teamwork from all colleagues in service, project and sales departments, working over the Chinese New Year Holiday, that ensured success. Thanks to these efforts, the customer’s original target date could be met. Processing at Taihe started up right on schedule!
Primary and secondary processes
In the primary process, Shandong Taihe upgraded the entire evisceration department with a VC-16 Vent Cutter, a VO-20 Opening Machine, a Nuova 24 eviscerator, PI Gall Bladder Remover, PLH Liver Harvester, HLH Heart Lung Harvester and HLS Heart/Lung Separator.
The secondary process was also completely transformed, saving a considerable number of people. For Shandong Taihe, the production of chicken parts is an important market. They have clearly moved away from whole birds as the main end product. Fillets, wing pieces, legs, thighs, and drumsticks now take center stage. No wonder the company operates two ACM-NT cut-up lines including all conceivable modules, which mimic a skilled manual cut. The selection of chicken parts for specific destinations is done with the help of Innova PDS.
Following the ACM-NT, and keeping the legs inline, two Thigh Fillet Systems take care of the precise harvesting of deboned thighs. The Thigh Fillet System pays special attention to separation of knees, valuable products in the Chinese market. Breast caps cut by the two ACM-NT systems proceed to four AMF-i deboning systems for working into various products such as butterflies, half fillets and tenderloins.
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