On Fri, 03 Jul 2015 15:44:57 +1000, Jon Anderson
wrote:

On 7/3/2015 9:38 AM, Ed Huntress wrote:

Right. I've been visiting plants with robots since the late '70s. The
damned things still give me the creeps.

We have three robots at work. One on the slaughter floor has a brisket
saw. Moves pretty fast, but over a very small range from the sterilizer
to ready position, to cutting.

The other two creep me the heck out. In the boning room, the first one
grabs a lamb carcass off the line with a huge multi-finger gripper.
The second has an approx 4'dia rotary blade that saws the carcass into
sections for further processing. Have had to go into the cage a couple
times to work on the conveyor. Even with it locked out and isolated, I
stay low. Real low, below where the gripper robot operates...

Here's a PDF file that describes the setup:
http://www.ampc.com.au/site/assets/media/Innovation-Award/ME-706-AMPC-MLA-Case-12-Scott-V4.pdf

"Speeds exceeding 450 carcasses/hr were achieved for two cuts and 360
carcasses/hr for four cuts. Yield gains were achieved due to increase
in cut accuracy and reduction in bone dust when compared to bandsaw
use."

That would be creepy. Don't make them angry.

By the way, I got Larry Cherne at Praxair to write an article about
their new ProStar stainless weld treatment. It will appear in a few
weeks, in our July issue. It's running a little late because of the
holiday. Larry mentioned he had an inquiry from Australia; probably
your distributor.

Check this site in a few weeks:

http://www.fsmdirect.com/

--
Ed Huntress