—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, Feb. 22,1975
16
New Machine Automates Broiler Coop Handling
SCENE: Receiving dock of
a rr> merlcal poultry
processing plant. Con
taminated duet. Off odors.
Heat, rain, or freezing
winds, whatever the climate
may offer.
SCENARIO: Eight to ten
men are unloading trucks,
tossing coops of live poultry
onto conveyors which move
the coops into the processing
plant Every hour workers
manually move 1,000 75-
pound coops -12,000 chickens
• to meet a quota.
LAST WEEK
OFFER ENDS FEB. 28
CASH IN ON
m. EARLYBIRD
SPECIAL
On Lown & Gorden Equipment
Tune Up & Service Special
Take this coupon & your lawn mower, \
chain saw, tiller or Lawn & Garden -
tractor to John L. Stauffer Repair :
Service for a $3.00 deduction on your :
bill - ONE PER UNIT LF. ' I
OFFER ENDS FEB 28. 1975 |
joint
Stauffer
REPAIR SERVICE
V 2 mile N. of Goodville on Union Grove Rd.
Phone; 445-6175
What makes this a bad
scene? Unhealthy human
environment and bruised
birds.
Improvement is on the
way. A new chicken coop
unstacking machine, the
first component of a
mechanized coop handling
system, has been developed
by agricultural engineer
Albert D. Shackelford and
engineering technician John
Holladay at the Richard B.
Russell Agricultural
Research Center in Athens,
J - -
Ga. Unlike some proposed
semi-mechanical systems,
the unit is expected to be
adaptable to most
processing semi-mechanical
systems, the unit is expected
to be adaptable to most
processing operations. The
Center is part of USDA’s
Agricultural Research
Service.
In 1973, per capita con
sumption of chicken totaled
41.4 pounds including 37.7
pounds of broilers. Retail
broiler sales totaled $5
billion. But before the
country-fried chicken meets
the mashed potatoes on the
consumer’s table, the live
bird must be transported
from broiler house to
processing plant in coops
stacked on live haul trucks.
Individual coops must be
safely unstacked from coops
stacked up to 11 high on the
trade' and then set on a
conveyor. At an average of
12 birds per coop (10 per coop
during hot summer months,
up to 16 during cold winter
months), a 6,000-bird-per
hour processing plant
requires 500 coops of chicken
per hour. Two workers may
handle this load. The
distances between the coop
stacks on the track and the
conveyor are not great - 2 to 8
feet, depending on the
location of the crates on the
track. The distance tempts
workers to toss the coops
onto the conveyor, braising
the chickens, perhaps
causing them to be con
demned, or at best,
downgrading the dressed
product. Coops dropped or
thrown off the track onto the
conveyor are also damaged.
Because of an inherently
poor working environment
and the heavy labor in
volved, workers are in
creasingly difficult to find
and to keep. Both conditions
As late as the 18th century,
some Spaniards supposed that
copper grew in the ground
and that if a mine was left
alone, it would become pro
ductive again.
the
pnrz
■ BARN CLEANER
conditions
' See your PATZ Dealer today
CALL 717-272 0871
MARVIN J.
HORST
Dairy Equipment and
Amana Appliances
RDJI (lona |
LEBANON. PA
Located on Route 897 between
Schaefferstown and Lebanon,-
over 30 years in business at
same place.
constitute a serious major
problem to the poultry
processing Industry; it must
turn to mechanization and
automation, researchers
say.
The new unstacklng
machine works like this: A
squeeze life removes a stack
of full erstes from the haul
track and places it on a
conveyor. The conveyor
'moves the load of crates to
an elevator which raises the
stack to the top of a tower.
Then the top crate is picked
up by a series of pneumatic
tires and chains and tran
sferred to a second conveyor
which takes it to the area
where the birds are to be
removed and hung on the kill
line.
A prototype of engineer
Shackelford’s design has
been installed at a
processing plant near
Gainesville, Ga., for testing
under commercial operating
conditions. Based on test
results, the unit is capable of
handling 12,000 coops per
hour with a labor saving
potential of 3 to 4 workers.
Bruising of live brids and
damaging of coops are
greatly reduced. Im
40,000 S&H GREEN STAMPS GIVEN
ON A NEW FORD OR HINIKER CAB.
Purchased From Our Stock Now thru April 15 f 1975.
Come in orid see the many Features, such as:
STRONGER, HEAVIER, QUIETER:
Rollover protection, All weather protection.
Added weight gives you better traction. .\C
.gAvailable
<o/o
i *sj
v^ c y
H GREEN STAMPS
ON ALL TRACTOR PARTS & SERVICE
S&
YOUR COMPLETE FORD DEALER
CARS - TRUCKS - LAWN & GARDEN -
FARM - INDUSTRIAL - TRACTORS
KELLER BROS. TRACTOR
OPEN MON. thru SAT. 7 A.M. to 6 P.M.
Buffalo Springs
Route 419 Between Schaefferstown & Cornwall
Lebanon County
949-6502
portantly, the equipment
relieves employees of
manual handling of coops.
A powered feed conveyor
supplies stacks of standard
KMnch coops to the un
stacking tower on demand.
Controls on the unit supply
one stack of coops into the
tower and at the same time
position another stack at the
entrance for quick transfer
to the tower. The coops are
moved toward the tower by
powered drag chains which
travel the length of the
conveyor.
An integral part of the
unstacker is the tower
conveyor; it positions a
stack of coops on the lift
platform. The lift platform,
which supports and elevates
a stack of coops, is raised
and lowered by a powered
ball bearing screw; it is
driven by a 2-horsepower
motor equipped with a fail
safe brake to stop the lift
platform at control points.
Total cycle time from bot
tom to top and return is less
than 20 seconds.
“The unit is simple to
construct, it’s ragged and
reliable even in a dusty
atmosphere, and it is not
SPECIAL DEAL
costly or difficult <* to
operate,” said Mr.
Shakelford. “It. handles
damaged crates and stacks
that get out of alignment,
plastic and wooden coops,
and mixed stacks.”
Are there any limitations?
Mr. Shackelford finds no
major ones. “The conveyor
stores six stacks of six crates
at present, if that is a
limitation. But there’s no
reason to believe a longer*
conveyor or a higher tower ‘
couldn’t be constructed to
increase coop storage and
production rates.”
ERTH-RITE
SOI CONDITIONER
MAXICROP
LIQUID PUNT
FEEDING
FEED-RITE
Vitamin & Mineral for livestock
and poultry.
ZOOK & RANCH,
INC.
RDI, Gap, Pa. 17527
Phone 717-442-4171
CO.
949-6502
. t
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