Electrical Terminology, Measurements and Units Associated with the Stunning Technique in Poultry Processing Plants , ,

A variety of possible electrical circuits can be fabricated to stun poultry in processing plants. At the present time a lack of uniformity in terminology exists when describing the electrical features of stunners. Electrical output from several stunners is described including: AC, 60 Hz; AC, variable frequency; and pulsed DC. In addition sine wave and rectangular wave outputs are compared. When measuring the voltage output of sinusoidal and full-wave rectified sinusoidal waveforms, the average value is .63 6 times the peak value and the effective value is .707 times the peak value. For half wave rectified sinusoidal waveforms, the effective value is 0.50 times the peak value and the average is 0.318 times the peak value. For rectangular AC waveforms, with no off time, the peak, average, and effective values are all equal. A procedure is described for determining the output of a given stunner within a poultry processing plant. Two instruments are required, a multimeter and a cathode ray oscilloscope. The procedure includes an accurate description of the waveform output and a direct measure of the peak, average, and effective voltage used to stun poultry.