Patent ID: 9295270
Filing Date: 2016-03-29
CPC Classification: A22B,A23B,A23G,F25D,F28C,F28F

Claim Text:
1. A rocker chiller for treating carcasses, comprising: an elongated tank configured to hold a body of heat exchanging liquid therein, said tank including a concave-shaped bottom wall; a dasher assembly including an axle extending in a lengthwise direction across at least a portion of said tank and a dasher blade extending in the lengthwise direction adjacent said concave-shaped bottom wall, said dasher blade mechanically coupled to the axle by at least one support arm extending in a radial direction between the axle and the dasher blade; and a series of deflectors spaced apart from each other in the lengthwise direction and positioned to collectively guide carcasses along first and second paths across opposing sides of the tank, said series of deflectors including at least one stationary side deflector and at least one central deflector, said at least one central deflector fixedly attached to the axle so that a back-and-forth oscillation of the axle and dasher blade during operation of the rocker chiller causes a corresponding back-and-forth oscillation of the at least one central deflector in unison with the back-and-forth oscillation of the axle and dasher blade; wherein each of said at least one central deflector is configured to intersect, without interruption, a surface of the body of heat exchanging liquid regardless of a position of the dasher blade in the tank during the back-and-forth oscillation of the axle and dasher blade; and wherein said at least one stationary side deflector comprises a pair of stationary side deflectors that are mounted to opposing sides of said tank and attached to each other by a pair of horizontal support bars, said pair of horizontal support bars including a lower support bar extending laterally across at least a portion of said tank and below said axle and an upper support bar extending laterally across at least a portion of said tank and above said axle.