Patent ID: 6322438
Filing Date: 2001-11-27
Classification: A22C

Abstract:
In an automated poultry processing system of the type for processing poultry carcasses suspended by shackles and moved in sequence along a processing path, with the shackles being configured to suspend the poultry carcasses upside down by their legs, a method of separating the legs from the back portions of the poultry carcasses from which the entrails and breasts have previously been removed as the carcasses move in sequence along the processing path, said method comprising the steps of:(a) placing the back portion of the poultry carcasses on a surface conveyor having a pair of parallel conveyor flights extending along the conveyor path and spaced apart and forming a longitudinal conveyor gap therebetween with the conveyor flights straddling the back bone of the poultry carcasses;(b) advancing the conveyor at a rate faster than the rate of the shackles and sliding the surfaces of the conveyor flights against the skin of the back portion of the poultry carcasses to induce the shape of the protruding exterior surfaces of the back portions of the carcasses to seek the longitudinal conveyor gap and become aligned between the conveyor flights;(c) as the exterior surface of the back portions of the poultry carcasses are aligned between the parallel conveyor flights and are moved along the processing path cutting the tissue of the carcasses adjacent the joints between the thigh bones and the back portions of the carcasses to begin the separation of the thighs from the back portions of the carcasses while leaving some of the meat extending from the back portions to the thighs uncut;(d) rotating the back portions of the carcasses relative to the thighs through an arc sufficient to dislodge the balls of the thigh bones from the sockets of the thigh joints of the back portions; and(e) pulling the back portions of the carcasses away from the thighs to separate the back portions from the thighs at the locations of the thigh joints.