Mussel-opening machine a world first

A Hamilton company has built the world's first automated mussel-opening machine, the technology set to see a $23 million expansion of North Island Mussel Processors' operation in Tauranga.

Stainless Design won the contract to produce the machine components for an automated mussel opener which has been developed in a partnership between Sanford and Auckland technology company KanDO.

Stainless Design's managing director John Cook said the contract was one of several wins for the Hamilton company which was holding up against the recession.

Employing 70 staff, the business expanded last year to take up a 4000 square metre site at the Pukete industrial estate.

Mr Cook said it also recently took over Buxton Engineering, adding to its precision machining capabilities and taking on three of Buxton's staff.

Mr Cook said his company was excited to be working in an area that was helping New Zealand's export market.

Stainless Design makes the components of the mussel-shelling machines, while KanDO provides the electronics and operating systems which use a "vision system". The machine operates using two heads, opening the mussels and leaving them in a half shell, a job normally done by hand.

KanDO director Dr Niven Brown said the machine sensed which way the mussels were travelling down the conveyor belt and adjusted itself to be in the correct position to "pick" them up.

It used two heads which had knives to open the mussels, leaving them in their half shell, prepared for export.

"It opens cooked mussels into the half shell which is the major export for the industry."

Dr Niven said KanDO, based in Auckland, specialised in automation and grew out of Industrial Research Ltd, a Crown research institute.

The technology is a world first which was first trialled in Havelock and is now being rolled out at the North Island Mussel Processors (NIMPL) plant in Tauranga, which processes the bulk of the Coromandel's mussels.

The machine was developed in conjunction with Sanford.

Sanford's 2008 annual report said the machine would allow NIMPL to embark on a multimillion-dollar expansion of its Tauranga processing operations. This is now underway.