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Rotostrainer Externally Fed Rotary Screen - Poultry Processing

Overview

It’s simply the nature of poultry processing that carcasses may beexposed to digestive tract ingesta, fecal matter, and pick-up feathers,and other extraneous specks during the various processes. 

Problem

Before the carcasses are allowed to pass to the chiller, they are checked for these foreign objects, called “specks” by USDA inspector. If more than 20 specks are found on the bird, the bird must be reprocessed. Considering the additional costs and time involved in reprocessing, it is important to remove all extraneous materials early in the process.

Solution

Scalder water screening - In tests conducted at a Midwest poultry processor, Parkson found that by keeping the scalder water clean, the bird would stay cleaner throughout all subsequent processes and the number of specks would decrease. To accomplish this, a Rotostrainer® rotary wedgewire screen was installed on the scalder water recirculation loop. It removed as much as 250 pounds of waste during a typical 12-hour shift.

As a result, the number of specks on the birds decreased from 15 to 4. The Rotostrainer® screen handled the hot water efficiently, without screen blinding and all without operator attention. Influent flows into the headbox and is discharged over the rotating screen. The water passes through the screen while solids are captured on the screen’s surface. A doctor/wiper blade cleans the surface of the screen after each rotation and prevents blinding.

As a residual benefit, the amount of make-up water and energy consumption required to heat the water has been reduced. Screening left the scalder water cleaner so it could be used for two or even three shifts rather than 1/3 or 1/2 or a shift.

As a result, the birds are cleaner, have less unidentified foreign material and fewer blemishes from debris pushed into the skin by the feather picker. The overall quality of the processed poultry also increased… and all because of one, effective, automatic Rotostrainer® wedgewire screen integrated into the scalder system.