Comments on: Gotta keep 'em separated

Question: Gotta keep 'em separated

aubilenon — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 13:21:56 -0800

How do they separate eggs on an industrial scale?

A pastry chef friend of mine told me she separated > 200 eggs yesterday, by hand. That seems like a pretty large scale to me, but it's hard for me to believe that the cartons of egg whites you can buy in the grocery store were separated by hand.

I've tried the single egg separator kitchen gizmos and they tended to break more eggs than doing it by hand.

What do they use to fill cartons of egg whites?

By: chrismear

chrismear — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 13:33:21 -0800

With a machine like this, I assume. It seems to work by letting the white flow through an opening that's too small for the yolk to fall through.

By: blue_wardrobe

blue_wardrobe — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 13:34:21 -0800

Not sure how, but the numbers are impressive:

"Diamond Systems, based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, is the world leader in egg packing, grading and breaking machines. The company develops, manufactures, markets and services its products to egg producers and egg processors on six continents. These complex machines have capacities from 22,000 to 72,000 eggs per hour. Grading systems load, wash, inspect, weigh and pack eggs into cartons and trays at rates of 14,000 to 144,000 eggs per hour. Breaker-separators load, wash, inspect, break and separate egg yolks from egg whites at speeds of 36,000 to 144,000 eggs per hour. Not only are these machines complex, they must operate flawlessly because of the extremely fragile nature of the product they handle."

See this case study.

By: chrismear

chrismear — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 13:42:12 -0800

Ooh, blue_wardrobe's link leads us to Diamond Systems, who have loads of photos and downloadable PDFs of their egg-related machinery. Amazing.

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 17:47:15 -0800

Wow, these are all great answers. Thanks a lot guys.

Finally a solution to all life's problems!

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 17:52:41 -0800

In my gratitude I offer you this link

By: Mr. Gunn

Mr. Gunn — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 07:55:02 -0800

any backstory on that last link, OP?

By: allterrainbrain

allterrainbrain — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 16:01:51 -0800

Mr Gunn, just go to the main page at the domain where the video is and you can find their link to the project info.

Aubilenon, if you're one of the nnnnnnnn.org people, I recomend you submit this to artbots.org for next year -- it could be a great artbots exhibit.