An impressive machine thought devised, revised and manufactured by just a few skilled hands, the Rapid Breast Deboner is an ongoing collaboration of Meyn’s best and brightest engineers and polished with the help of our customers. Take a look behind the Rapid’s engineering scene with Perrie Renette.  

Perrie Renette is a Senior Project Manager in Meyn’s research and development department. A mechanical engineer by trade, he’s spent much of his career behind a drawing board, drafting designs for storage silo’s, commercial elevators, and for his past several years in poultry processing –  the Rapid.  

Upon making his transition into the poultry processing industry in 2006, Perrie was initially given, in his own words, “the absolutely wonderful task of improving Meyn’s de-skinning module on the Rapid.” 

Through trial, and error, and after a successful first year making design improvements to Meyn’s complex de-skinning modules, Perrie was handed the reigns to the Rapid project.

“Within a year, I took over the project management for the Rapid, and have been working on this machine ever since. Every new release I have been involved in, has been to translate an invention into a product, one that we can manufacture repeatedly, and install successfully.

“When I started in 2007, the Rapid was installed all according to plan with three pilot clients, and as you come to expect in the engineering business, we were met with a few small obstacles to begin with,” said Perrie.

By 2009, after several years of testing, ongoing research and development, the Rapid was ready for its first commercial launch, which consisted of five machine installations in a row for a US customer. By then, enough improvements had been made to make it a successful installation, which proved the machines commercial viability as a product.

“Generation one and two were mostly about enhancing what was already a very efficient machine, adding functionality, improving performance and most important – fine-tuning it into a more reliable product that our customers could work with.

Once we got to generation three we added functionality and introduced the modular concept to better match customers demand, and required functionality, with a competitive footprint. The latest generation M4.0 is an improved machine to handle larger birds,” he said.

Today, just 10 years after becoming involved in the project, Perrie is proud that Meyn can offer the Rapid Plus M4.0, and the Rapid M4.0 ‘plug and play’ concept– marking a huge step in terms of what Meyn can offer customers.

The first Rapid M4.0 produced by the manufacturing division in Oostzaan was celebrated in 2016

When asked about what the future holds for the machine, and where the industry was going in terms of market trends, increased competition and changing customer expectations, Perrie’s answer was simple:

“We’re going to see increased capacity and machine speed from 6,000 bph to match our cut up lines which are 7,000 to 7,500 bph. That’s the next step in the engineering puzzle of course, and customers first want a solid and reliable machine that consistently gives the best yield and results. They also want a smaller workforce, and increased automation will help our customers realize this.”

“I don’t invent the stuff from scratch, but it is my baby, and we have been working together as a team on this continuously making a more polished product. I am not obsessed with my job, but in saying that, I would not let go of this project anytime soon. It continues to be my product, and I also like being one of the guys anyone can come to with a question, and be able to answer it,” said Perrie.   

Want to know more?  

If you are interested in knowing more about the Rapid Breast Deboner, please contact sales@meyn.com

*This article was originally published in Meyn WORLD Magazine, click here to read the publication online.