In the United States, consumer trends, social and economic changes, the intense competition among poultry meat processors, and the requirements imposed by health authorities mean that companies in the poultry sector need to adapt their production systems toward processes with high efficiency, worker safety, and, above all, maximum productivity.

Accordingly, DCM has identified the need to research and incorporate new innovative technologies into the processes used in meat industry production systems and, in particular, in poultry processing plants.

This project, which began in April 2018 and is expected to be completed in May 2019, focuses on developing a new system capable of loading and positioning poultry on cone lines in poultry processing plants in a fully autonomous way, without the need for human intervention, regardless of the bird’s initial position, and able to adapt to the production rate of each line.

The aim is for this project to represent the first step toward automation in the U.S. poultry industry, creating a catalyst effect for the development of new technologies for cutting and deboning processes in poultry plants using cone lines.

This project, which has an estimated budget of €413,655.00, is co-financed by the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the 2014–2020 Multi-Regional Operational Programme for Spain.