SensorX makes a big impact in Thailand

BRF Thailand and Marel may boast a successful business relationship; it all started five years ago with portioning equipment. The main boneless products that the company is selling are boneless legs and skinless boneless breasts. Customers in Japan and Europe are very quality focused and the demand for higher quality, bone-free products continues to grow.

Higher accuracy

BRF Thailand used to have a thorough, labor-intensive, manual inspection process. But they still experienced problems regarding bones and bone fragments in the finished product. That's why they approached Marel. “We asked several companies for demonstrations of their technology,” says Thada Chittham, BRF Thailand's General Manager Primary Processing. “Marel's accuracy was significantly higher: about 98% opposed to 70%. So the SensorX bone detection system is incredibly efficient. The other X-ray systems were far more general, whereas the SensorX was specifically designed to find bone.” An additional benefit of the SensorX is its capability to detect other contaminants such as metal, stone and glass.

Incredibly accurate 

Advanced sensing technology and software development give the SensorX bone detection capabilities unprecedented among automatic bone detection systems. The SensorX commonly achieves a 99% detection rate on calcified bones larger than 2mm, with false positives below 3%.

“Before we purchased the SensorX, we had an extensive manual inspection process in place,” explains Thada. “We had to check the whole piece of meat. But now, we only need to focus in one tiny place, for any pin bones smaller than 2 mm. The SensorX is extremely accurate. It can even detect bones that the human eye would overlook.”

Greater speed, better quality 

Subin Cherdchoothum, Manager of Processing Plant 2 in Ongkarak says: “We would need 100 checking operators to achieve the same speed as the SensorX. It’s processing about 2 tons per hour, opposed to the 35 kg (77 lb) it takes an efficient person. The quality of the finished product has also significantly improved."

A first for Thailand 

The use of cutting edge technologies has raised BRF Thailand's profile in the market and boosted the company’s reputation. Thada and Subin are very proud to show their production line to their clients. “One of our customers told us that since we are the first company to use a SensorX in Thailand, we must be the best,” smiles Subin.

About BRF Thailand 

BRF Thailand is one of the nation's largest fully integrated chicken processors. The leader in value-added fully cooked chicken products employs 7,000 people.

The company was established in 1991 and sells its products all over the world, with main export markets in Europe and Japan. BRF Thailand can produce up to 4,000 tons of finished product each month.