Building on over 30 years of experience working in team-partnerships with fish processors large and small worldwide, Marel has gained extensive knowledge in developing innovative processing solutions to fulfill the ever-changing needs of seafood processors.

The highly innovative Salmon Grading and Distribution System is the most advanced and innovative ever developed by Marel. The system’s remarkably high level of automation ensures a seamless flow of the fish from slaughtering throughout processing to dispatching.

Moreover, it enables flexible processing capacity, allowing processors to meet seasonal or order book highs and lows, without pressures to increase or decrease the workforce.

The system has two distinct processing areas: the gutting area and the grading and distribution area which also includes packing of the whole salmon into boxes.

The entire system is powered by Marel‘s Innova Production Management software, which provides in-depth details, and managerial control, of every production stage.

Gutting

After slaughtering, salmon enters the gutting area where quality inspectors feed them into a dual-lane gutting grader. The grader weighs to high accuracy, and then directs the right size and quality of fish to the optimal gutting machines based on fixed rate function, which ensures the optimal performance of gutting machines. The feeding into the gutters is fully automatic.

Packing and distribution grader

After washing and cooling the gutted fish enters the packing area. Salmon then pass through quality control where they are examined for any defects in appearance, before entering the highly advanced whole-fish packing and distribution grader. Here, each fish is intelligently distributed to the process best suited to achieve optimum results, for example freezing, filleting, or to the automatic box filling station for whole gutted salmon.

• Ergonomic infeed of fish
• Dynamic weight grading of each fish with high accuracy
• Dual-lane gutting grader direct fish to optimal gutting machine
• Fully automatic infeed into gutters
• Whole salmon grader distributes fish to optimal processes
• Four lane fully automatic box filling line automatically matches batches with target weights from grader

The dual lane gutting grader with automatic gutting infeed has a capacity of up to 120 fish/ and handles easily the combined output rate of the seven gutting machines.

The packing grader has a capacity of up to 120 fish/min.

The four lane automatic box filling station handles up to 28 boxes/min.

Real-time monitoring with Innova

Innova Food Processing Software controls the grading process by setting up grading programs. Innova provides a comprehensive real-time reporting function that gives the operator a complete overview of the production process. Real-time data generates reports on weight distribution, average weights, a packing overview and packing list, as well as the standard overview and lists. This data can be viewed via dashboards.

Based on these valuable KPIs provided by Innova, you can make intelligent decisions on how to optimize your grading and batching results.

When the optional dynamic order control is used, the grader can be controlled by orders to minimize over production. This means that the grader will grade and batch according to order which is assigned to the grader.

Module losses in production are recorded with the optional Innova Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). The reasons for any stoppages are then collated so that it is easy to identify and track the most common causes of lost production time.

Marel offers a range of service solutions to prevent failures, maximize performance or in case of unexpected breakdowns remote or onsite assistance.

Marel has offices in 30 countries across all regions, and a global network of highly skilled professionals that provide remote as well as onsite service support. We provide quality spare parts and customized service agreements for our customers to ensure optimal performance of Marel equipment.