Active clamp flyback converter with current sharing scheme for multi-channel poultry stunning applications

This paper presents an intelligent poultry stunner with a current sharing controller for improving carcass quality and animal welfare. In this circuit structure, a stunner which is composed of active clamp flyback converter and full-bridge inverter, and a dither voltage generator which is adopted to fast breakdown the skin impedance of the poultry for reducing poultry stress and improving carcass quality during the stunning interval. To apply to multi-channel stunning system, a current sharing controller associated with the dither voltage generator is proposed to solve current imbalance of each stunning channel due to different impedances between poultry. Compared with the one without the current sharing controller, the proposed one can raise the coma effectiveness of over 10 %. Performance measurements from a prototype, which its output voltage varies form 60 to 120 V and its output power changes from 60 W to 240 W under a fixed frequency of 400 Hz, have verified the current sharing features between two channels and the feasibility of the overall system design.