Safety is becoming an ever-increasing focus in meat processing and nowher more so than in the operation of bandsaws which pose one of the highest risks in terms of potential injury to those who are using them.

There are essentially two approaches to keeping operators safe: the first is to restrict access to the cutting area while the second is to ensure that the cutting area itself is as safe as possible. Interfood Technology offers solutions for both.

The first option available from Interfood’s dedicated Butchery Division is manufactured by Astech. The PW (precision weight) saw is a continuous bandsaw which is an automatic and fully enclosed machine so requires no manual intervention in the blade area.

Offering integrated weight control, it features a scanning system through which precise slices are produced to pre-determined weights/thicknesses. Continuous operation is available for frozen meat and fish or fresh bone-in products.

The second option is BladeStop, a system designed, developed and manufactured by Scott Automation & Robotics, in association with Meat & Livestock Australia. Unlike the Astech bandsaw, this system is specifically for those applications in which sections of the moving bandsaw blade are totally exposed.

If the unit senses the operator has come into contact with the blade, or is even dangerously close to it, the blade is automatically stopped in a fraction of a second. The system’s body sensing technology provides a much higher level of protection than systems based on cameras alone.

“Different processors have different approaches to their meat cutting operations,” said Richard Nethercot, Interfood’s Group Divisional Manager, Low Risk, Butchery Division.

“Some like to ensure that no access is available to the cutting area and want a completely automated process while others recognise the benefit of being able to get up closer to the actual blade, particularly for more intricate cuts, using the butchery skills of their employees.

“At Interfood we don’t adopt a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in supplying any of our equipment and we follow that philosophy through in our Butchery Division. We look at the specific requirements of a given customer and by having both Astech and BladeStop available, we are in a position to match the solution with the application.”