Nr. 1 / 2007
Aqua Gen is at the forefront of the implementation of new technology that will have a wide range of benefits for its customers.
A new, automatic device, for the high quality grading and counting of eyed Salmonid and Trout eggs has been developed in a
project partnership that involved Aqua Gen, SINTEF Fishery and Aquaculture (a semi-governmental institution for technology
development) and the automation company Maskon. Part-funding for the project came from Innovasjon Norge and “Skattefunn”.
Grading of eyed eggs
The machine sorts out the eggs in three categories depending on the quality; bad, unsure and good eggs,at a speed of 130 000
eggs an hour. Photo: Pål Mugaas Jensen, Norsk Fiskeoppdrett.
All eggs destined for the industry have to be graded prior to despatch. When the egg has reached 320 degree days, it is exposed
to a mechanical impact by a process called shocking. This involves the pouring of the eggs from one vessel to another from
a defined height. Unfertilized and weakened eggs cannot stand this treatment, and their yolk coagulates and turns white. Following
shocking and prior to delivery to the market, the eggs are graded to remove both these dead eggs and also those live eggs
which show deviations from normal appearance and development (unfertilized eggs, micropthalmic eggs, etc). Until now dead
eggs have been removed by means of a traditional grading machine, based on photocells and live eggs with deviations have had
to be removed manually by a very labour and time consuming "egg picking" process, that, at peak times, can also be a production
bottleneck.
The newly developed device which utilises "Automatic Vision" technology will replace the manual grading of poor quality live
eggs and most importantly, because the machine can distinguish non-viable eggs without having to make the yolk coagulate,
it will also be possible to avoid the shocking process. Even though healthy eggs survive the shocking, it must be preferable
to avoid it.
The traditional grading of eggs done manually over an illuminated picking table. Each person grades 4000-5000 eggs an hour.
The machine will grade the different quality of the eggs as shown from left: unfertilized, micropthalmic and normal eggs.
Benefits
Both Aqua Gen and our clients can see the possibility of great benefits from using this technological innovation, some of
these are:
-
Improvements in product quality
A lower proportion of eggs with defects will be delivered to the market thanks to higher quality grading. This will increase
survival in the early freshwater phase and reduce the labour requirement for intensive observation at hatcheries and first
feeding units. By minimising the amount of fry with poor health there will be a reduced risk of the possibility of diseases.
-
Improvements in welfare
By the elimination of the physical shocking process another achievement will be better animal welfare as eggs of poor quality
shall not be used in production. Of course we are not totally sure that shocking can damage viable healthy eggs but the elimination
of this robust process will eliminate any such risk.
-
Improvements in data management and reliability
The machine produces a report that details the number and size selection of the eggs for each delivery. The customer can
now have the opportunity to keep better control of their own production data as well as the quality selection of the eggs.
-
Cost-benefit
This will be achieved through the improvement in labour efficiency but also because exact selection of the eggs will save
good eggs from being wasted due to erroneous grading.
-
Work environment
The manual operations of shocking and sorting out the eggs can be a very labour consuming process, which is repetitive and
tiring for employees. For the dedicated breeding and egg production company, that alone is a very good reason to use this
new technology.
About "Automatic Vision"
Automatic vision is a very specialized area in computer technology, optical engineering and industrial automation. Its most
common purpose is the inspection of product conformation. Just like human beings inspect products and parts individually,
automatic vision uses a combination of digital cameras and computer software to process a similar, but automatic, inspection
of the product.
Automatic vision is usually used when processing identical and mechanically made products where product size is precise and
appearance is more identical. The inspection of biological "live products" is much more demanding to the automatic vision
system because of the great range of variety in colour, shape and size, the live product must also be handled with care. Keeping
in mind this information, the task of developing such a machine has been quite demanding since the machine is able to process
live Salmon and Trout eggs at a very high speed (100 000- 200 000 eggs an hour).
WINNER OF THE INNOVATION PRIZE 2007
awarded by the Nor-Fishing Foundation
PDF of the Information Letter is found
here
