A Vision for the Meat Industry I’d like to share a few thoughts with you about technology. We see advances throughout the broad field of robotics, but certainly vision sensing and advanced tooling are key enablers to allow us to tackle more and more of the demanding requirements for handling meat–both animal and plant-based. We just shipped a standard Osprey case packer incorporating 3D vision that was the same price as our 2D solutions have been. 3D vision is driving us quickly into handling applications that we simply could not address with 2D cameras. In addition, we have developed a variety of mechanical tools for handling a variety of cuts of meat and have partnered with Soft Robotics on some impressive and formats.
T
VISION
technology to handle a variety of cuts
2
Our continued partnership with Reiser his is the third edition of our JLS
viable labor force. Applications that may
allows us to offer thermoformers as part
“VISION” magazine, but this one
not have met yesterday’s ROI require-
of an integrated solution with machines
has a different angle to it. Since
ments are now on the priority list for
available from Repak as well as Vario-
meat is one of our largest segments for
funding, as in many cases, labor short-
vac. Loading of thermoformers and
our hygienic food handling solutions,
ages are choking output. Additionally,
case packing downstream has been a
we felt it was appropriate to dedicate an
the competitive pressures for the labor
mainstream solution for JLS in the meat
issue specific to the meat industry.
pool have driven wages to unthink-
industry since our very first application
able levels pre-pandemic.
over a decade ago. We look forward to
JLS has been providing meat handling
partnering with many new customers
solutions since 2009 with our initial focus
I am so excited about what we have
as well as our growing list of existing
being on primary product handling in-
accomplished in the meat industry on
customers to solve the challenges of
cluding fresh cooked and partially cooked
applications like sandwich assembly
automation for packaging operations in
sausages. Since that time, we have
and our recently launched solution
meat handling.
migrated downstream and provide carton
– the Harrier – for automatic bacon
loading, case packing and complete line
draft loading. Sandwich assembly lines
Craig A. Souser,
solutions that include palletizing.
require a significant amount of labor and
President and CEO
with our solutions, these sandwiches are Our focus on hygienic robotic packag-
constructed and packaged without the
ing solutions is more relevant than ever
human hand touching them. As a result,
with the enormous challenges that our
not only is labor addressed, but so is
customers face in finding and retaining a
food safety.
ISSUE THREE + 2023
