Water injection system for poultry crop remover

Water is conserved and poultry raised for human consumption is cleaned by a viscera-removing machine that incorporates a unique nozzle member positioned adjacent a crop-removing tool. The close positioning of the nozzle to the crop-removing tool insures that contaminates are washed out of the internal cavity of the bird immediately upon crop removal. This prevents contaminates from being absorbed into tissue surrounding the internal cavity. The nozzle is mounted in longitudinal alignment with the crop-removing tool at the lowermost or leading end of a spiral rod that rotates about its axis of symmetry and reciprocates up and down as previously slaughtered poultry is delivered to a crop-removing and washing station. Each downward motion of the spiral rod causes the tool and nozzle to enter the vent of a bird and to exit at the neck opening. A brush and a chlorinated water spray then clean the tool and nozzle so that they are clean when they pass through the bird a second time during the upstroke of the spiral rod. Another spray of chlorinated water cleans the tool and nozzle when they have been fully retracted prior to their entry into the next bird. The nozzle produces two cone-shaped sprays that extend in opposite directions to enhance the cleaning action.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
 1. Field of the Invention
 This invention relates, generally, to poultry processing devices. More
 particularly, it relates to a poultry cropper machine that removes
 contaminates from poultry through a timely and efficient use of water.
 2. Description of the Prior Art
 Poultry crop removing machines remove the crop and other viscera from
 previously slaughtered poultry animals such as chickens.
 These machines typically include a shackle from which a previously
 slaughtered chicken or other poultry animal is suspended by its legs. The
 head and feathers of the animal are removed prior to the time it is
 attached to the shackle. A rotating device having teeth, known as a
 cropper, is introduced in a first direction into the chicken's vent and
 advanced through the digestive system thereof until it exits the chicken
 through the neck. The cropper removes the esophagus, the ingluvius (crop),
 and other viscera of the chicken, leaving an internal cavity where such
 viscera had been. The cropper is withdrawn from the internal cavity by
 displacing it in a second direction opposite to the first. The eviscerated
 poultry animal is then transported to a cleaning station where a cleaning
 device is inserted into the internal cavity to spray it with water for
 cleanliness purposes.
 The advancement of the cropper through the body is a downward motion and
 the retraction of the cropper from the body requires an upward motion. An
 endless chain of shackles is driven by a drive means that brings the
 shackles to the crop removing machine, and the same endless chain carries
 the eviscerated poultry animals to the cleaning station.
 The up and down motion of the cropper is achieved by a camming action.
 Specifically, the crop-removing machine includes a non-rotating
 frusto-conical drum having a vertical axis of symmetry. A first downwardly
 sloping helical deflection plate is secured to the drum. The downwardly
 sloping deflection plate slideably engages a protuberance that extends
 from a block so that the block is displaced downwardly as it rotates past
 the drum. The block is carried by the same drive system that carries the
 shackles and therefore it moves conjointly therewith. The block carries an
 elongate rod, known as a spiral rod, downwardly as the block is displaced
 downwardly by the deflection plate. The crop-removing means is formed at
 the lowermost end, or leading end, of the spiralted so that the
 crop-removing means enters the bird at its vent and exits through the neck
 opening during the downward stroke.
 A second, upwardly sloping helical deflection plate is mounted to the drum
 such that its lowermost end is near the lowermost end of the downwardly
 sloping deflection plate. Accordingly, the protuberance formed in the
 block disengages from the downwardly sloping deflection plate at its
 lowermost end and enters into sliding engagement with the upwardly sloping
 deflection plate as the block follows its predetermined path of travel.
 This drives the block and the spiral rod upwardly so that the
 crop-removing means re-enters the chicken at its neck opening and exits
 the chicken at the vent.
 The crop-removing means is typically washed with a spray of chlorinated
 water and a brush after it exits the neck opening on the downward stroke
 and again after it exits the vent on the upward stroke so that it is clean
 before it enters the vent of the next chicken. The brush removes the
 viscera from the cropper.
 The block also includes a rotation means to rotate the spiral rod about its
 longitudinal axis of symmetry as it alternately travels upwardly and
 downwardly. This rotates the cropper so that teeth formed therein can
 better grasp the viscera and remove it. A helix is formed along a
 predetermined extent of the spiral rod and the helix engages a cam means
 within the block that effects the desired rotation of the spiral rod as it
 reciprocates up and down.
 The primary drawback of the current apparatus, described above, is that the
 viscera is removed at a crop-removing station, and the interior cavity of
 the bird is not washed until later, at a washing station. Thus,
 contaminates in the interior cavity have time to become absorbed into
 tissue surrounding the cavity and no amount of water can properly clean
 the contaminates from the bird.
 Processing plant owners typically request chicken farmers to turn off their
 chickenfeeding machines about twenty four hours before delivering the
 birds to the processing plant so that the stomachs of the chickens will be
 substantially empty upon their arrival at the plant. A bird with an empty
 stomach is more easily cleaned and made safe for human consumption.
 However, some farmers continue to feed their chickens right up to delivery
 time, because the chickens are sold by weight and the farmer desires a
 maximum payment. When a recently-fed chicken is processed, its stomach and
 bowel contents may be splattered about during the viscera removal process,
 and chickens suspended from adjacent shackles may be contaminated thereby.
 This requires the entire lot of chickens to be rejected for human use
 because no amount of water can safely and effectively clean the
 recently-fed chicken and the nearby chickens that may have been splattered
 with fecal matter and the like.
 However, even when all of the chickens being processed have not been fed
 during the twenty four hours preceding their delivery to the processing
 plant, the known methods of removing the crop and other viscera and
 thereafter washing the interior of the bird are still inadequate because
 they are wasteful of water and too much time is allowed to elapse between
 viscera removal and interior cavity washing.
 U.S. Pat. No. 3,137,031 to Ine et al. describes a method for cleaning
 poultry during an evisceration procedure. The method employs a device that
 has a simultaneous water spray and vacuum to flush and remove fecal matter
 from the intestines of poultry. However, the method is manually operated
 and is performed before the removal of any viscera or to any handling or
 disturbance of the bowel regions of the bird (column 4, lines 29-34).
 Thus, contaminates that may be spread throughout the internal cavity are
 not washed out after viscera removal.
 U.S. Pat. No. 4,106,161 to Niccolls describes a poultry cleaning apparatus
 and method specifically for use after ingesta or fecal matter has been
 released in the abdominal cavity of the bird. This invention aims to
 sufficiently clean a contaminated bird that would normally be condemned
 for human consumption (column 1, lines 22-25). However, the structure that
 embodies this invention is manually operated and has utility only after
 contamination has occurred.
 U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,767 to Harben, III et al. describes a vent cleaning
 apparatus and method for preparing poultry. A hollow suction probe enters
 the vent of the bird and a flow of water is introduced in the vicinity of
 the probe opening to provide a mass flow sufficient to transport loose
 fecal matter into the suction opening of the probe. However, the system
 does not relate to the removal of the viscera, but simply to the initial
 preparation of the bird for evisceration (column 2, lines 27-30).
 U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,421 to Van Der Eerden describes another method and
 apparatus for removing fecal matter in poultry. The method and apparatus
 is applied to an automated system, but remains a separate step from the
 evisceration process (column 1, lines 41-48).
 U.S. Pat. No. 5,041,054 to van den Nieuwelaar et al. describes a device and
 method for washing poultry comprising a spraying element to which cleaning
 liquid can be fed, and radially projecting parts, running primarily in the
 lengthwise direction, being disposed near the spraying element, which
 parts are provided with sharp projections. However, these projections are
 not used to remove the crop but rather to pierce and/or dislodge
 respiratory system membranes in the bird which may accumulate polluted
 cleaning liquid during the washing process (column 1, lines 38-48).
 What is needed, then, is an automatic apparatus that reduces water
 consumption during the crop/viscera removal process. Moreover, it would be
 beneficial if a way could be found to combine the evisceration process and
 the cleaning process into one step. That would simplify the de-cropping
 machinery, reducing its cost and making its operation more reliable.
 However, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art how the
 needed improvements could be provided, in view of the art considered as a
 whole at the time the present invention was made.
 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
 The long-standing but heretofore unfulfilled need for an innovation that
 overcomes the limitations of the prior art is now met by a new, useful,
 and nonobvious invention. The novel apparatus for cleaning contaminates
 from poultry includes washing means for removing contaminate matter from
 an internal cavity of a poultry animal substantially simultaneously with
 removal of a crop therefrom. Accordingly, contaminate matter in the
 internal cavity is washed from the internal cavity before it can be
 substantially absorbed by tissue surrounding the internal cavity.
 The novel apparatus further includes a crop removing means mounted in
 closely spaced longitudinal alignment with the washing means so that the
 crop removing means and the washing means are positioned within the
 internal cavity at substantially the same time. The crop removing means is
 mounted in leading relation to the washing means so that washing of the
 internal cavity is accomplished almost immediately after removal of the
 crop.
 The washing means is preferably provided in the form of an elongate, hollow
 nozzle member having a trailing end that is disposed in fluid
 communication with a source of liquid fluid under pressure. A leading end
 of the nozzle is adapted to engage the crop removing means. The elongate
 nozzle member has a plurality of apertures formed therein through which
 the liquid fluid under pressure flows to impinge upon and clean the
 internal cavity.
 More specifically, the elongate nozzle member further includes a hollow
 base member having a leading end and a trailing end, a first hollow
 deflection cone mounted to the hollow base member in fluid communication
 with the leading end thereof, and a second hollow deflection cone mounted
 in fluid communication with the trailing end thereof.
 The hollow base member is a cylindrical member having a first end plate at
 its leading end and a first central aperture is formed in the first end
 plate. A second end plate is provided at the trailing end of the hollow
 base member and a second central aperture is formed therein. The first and
 second central apertures respectively provide fluid communication between
 the hollow base member and the first and second hollow deflection cones.
 A first plurality of circumferentially spaced apart apertures is formed in
 the first end plate in radially outwardly spaced relation to the first
 central aperture and a second plurality of circumferentially spaced apart
 apertures is formed in the second end plate in radially outwardly spaced
 relation to the second central aperture.
 The first deflection cone includes a first conical surface disposed in
 closely spaced apart relation to the first plurality of apertures so that
 liquid fluid flowing through the first plurality of apertures impinges
 upon the first conical surface and is directed in a first conical pattern
 away from the longitudinal axis of symmetry of the washing means. The
 first conical pattern expands in a trailing-to-leading direction.
 The second deflection cone includes a second conical surface disposed in
 closely spaced apart relation to the second plurality of apertures so that
 liquid fluid flowing through the second plurality of apertures impinges
 upon the second conical surface and is directed in a second conical
 pattern away from the longitudinal axis of symmetry of the washing means.
 The second conical pattern expands in a leading-to-trailing direction.
 It is a primary object of this invention to provide a poultry crop-removing
 machine that cleans contaminates from an internal cavity of a poultry
 animal immediately upon removal of the viscera of the animal so that said
 contaminates are not absorbed into tissue surrounding the internal cavity.
 An object closely related to the foregoing object is to provide a
 crop-removing machine where the crop-removing function and the internal
 cavity cleaning function are performed at a single station at
 substantially the same time.
 Another important object is to provide a crop-removing machine that
 conserves water.
 These and other important objects, features, and advantages of the
 invention will become apparent as this description proceeds.
 The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction,
 combination of elements and arrangement of parts that will be exemplified
 in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention
 will be indicated in the claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
 Referring now to FIG. 1, it will there be seen that an exemplary embodiment
 of the invention is denoted as a whole by the reference numeral 10.
 Crop-removal station 10 includes a stationary drum 12 of frusto-conical
 configuration. Drum 12 has a vertical axis of symmetry and includes a
 first, downwardly sloping helical deflection plate 14 and a second,
 upwardly sloping helical deflection plate 16. The lowermost end of plate
 14 is in closely spaced relation to the lowermost end of plate 16. Each
 plate 14, 16 is secured to drum 12 in perpendicular relation to the
 surface thereof.
 Block 18 carries hollow spiral rod 20 and both of said elements follow a
 path of travel around drum 12 under a motive force supplied by a drive
 means, not shown. A radially-inwardly extending protuberance, not shown,
 projects from block 18 so that when said protuberance encounters helical
 deflection plate 14, block 18 and hence spiral rod 20 are displaced
 downwardly as they rotate around the drum in the direction indicated by
 arrows 11. Continued travel of the block then brings the protuberance into
 abutting engagement with the lowermost end of upwardly sloping helical
 deflection plate 16 and the block and spiral rod are then displaced
 upwardly as they rotate about the drum. This is the up and down motion
 that carries the crop-removing means through the bird from vent to
 neck-opening and back out through the vent.
 Each bird is suspended, vent end up and neck down, on a shackle means,
 denoted 22. The shackle means follow a predetermined path of travel
 through the processing plant under the motive force of the same motive
 means that carries the blocks. In the vicinity of crop removal station 10,
 each shackle moves into juxtaposition with an associated spiral rod, Since
 both are traveling under the motive power of the same drive means, they
 are traveling at the same speed and in the same direction.
 A crop-removal tool 24 of conventional design is mounted at the lowermost
 or leading end 20a of each spiral rod 20. Tool 24 has two rows of teeth
 set at a right angle to one another. These teeth engage the viscera and
 remove it during the downward stroke of spiral rod 20. A rotating brush,
 not shown, cleans off said viscera when the spiral rod reaches the
 lowermost point in its path of travel and a spray of chlorinated water,
 not shown, further cleans tool 24 before it reenters the bird on the
 upward stroke. Another spray of chlorinated water, not shown, is applied
 to tool 24 at the uppermost point in its path of travel to clean it prior
 to entering the next shackled bird.
 The helical groove 20a formed in each spiral rod 20 engages a cam means,
 not shown, that causes rotation of the rod as it travels upwardly and
 downwardly. Such rotation enhances the action of the teeth and ensures a
 thorough removal of viscera.
 All of the above-described elements are well-known in the poultry
 processing industry.
 The revolutionary innovation that solves the contamination problem while
 also conserving water is denoted in FIG. 1 by the reference numeral 30.
 Its structure is perhaps best understood in connection with FIGS. 2 and 3.
 Significantly, novel washing means 30 is disposed in longitudinal alignment
 with crop-removing tool 24. More particularly, it is disposed in trailing
 relation thereto. Thus, it washes the interior cavity of the bird
 substantially simultaneously with the crop removal, there being little or
 no time for contaminates to become absorbed by tissue surrounding the
 interior cavity.
 It should be understood, then, that a washing means mounted adjacent to the
 crop-removal means is the breakthrough of this invention, and not
 necessarily the specific washing means used. Numerous nozzle members could
 perform the function of washing the internal cavity in a timely manner as
 long as such nozzle members are mounted adjacent the crop-removal tool as
 taught by this disclosure.
 However, representing yet another innovation, nozzle member 30 is also
 inventive in its own right. It includes a hollow base member 32 of
 predetermined geometric configuration, preferably cylindrical. A first
 transversely disposed end plate 34 has a first central aperture 36 formed
 therein and a first plurality of apertures, collectively denoted 38,
 formed in radially outwardly relation to first central aperture 36 and in
 equidistant and circumferentially spaced relation to one another. A second
 transversely disposed end plate 40 has a second central aperture 42 formed
 therein and a second plurality of apertures, collectively denoted 44,
 formed in radially outwardly relation to second central aperture 42 and in
 equidistant and circumferentially spaced relation to one another.
 A first or leading cone deflection member 50 is also of hollow construction
 and is mounted so that its hollow interior is in fluid communication with
 the hollow interior of base member 32. Leading cone deflection member 50
 includes a conical surface 52 and a cylindrical main body 54.
 Similarly, a second or trailing cone deflection member 60 of hollow
 construction is mounted to base member 32 so that the respective hollow
 interiors of said parts are in fluid communication with one another.
 Trailing cone deflection member 60 includes a conical surface 62 and a
 cylindrical main body 64.
 An externally threaded projection 63 extends from the trailing end of
 cylindrical main body 64 and screw-threadedly engages the internally
 threaded leading end of spiral rod 20. As an equivalent structure, not
 shown, cylindrical main body 64 could be internally threaded for
 screw-threaded engagement with an externally threaded leading end of
 spiral rod 20.
 Cylindrical main body 54 of leading cone deflection member 50 is internally
 threaded as at 51 (FIG. 4) to screw-threadedly receive external threads 25
 (FIG. 2) formed on the trailing end of crop-removing tool 24. As an
 alternative structure, not shown, a hollow projection having external
 threads could be formed on the leading end of member 50 and said external
 threads could engage internal threads formed in the trailing end of
 crop-removing tool 24.
 Water under pressure is introduced into hollow spiral rod 20 at its
 uppermost end and said water flows through novel washing means nozzle
 member 30 until it encounters solid crop-removing tool 24. The only exit
 for said water is through radial apertures 38 and 44, formed in first and
 second end plates 34, 40, respectively. Water exiting said apertures flows
 initially along a path of travel parallel to the longitudinal axis of
 spiral rod 20, but said water encounters conical deflection surfaces 52,
 62 as indicated in FIG. 4 and is deflected to form opposed conical spray
 patterns as depicted in FIGS. 4-6. Each spray pattern flows in a conical
 pattern including a radially outwardly component, away from the
 longitudinal axis of symmetry of spiral rod 20, and a longitudinal
 component. Specifically, leading spray pattern 52a flows in a
 trailing-to-leading direction and trailing spray pattern 62a flows in a
 leading-to-trailing direction. As indicated in FIGS. 5 and 6, this spray
 pattern enables a thorough cleaning of the interior cavity.
 Just as importantly the cleaning process takes place almost simultaneously
 with the crop-removing process. The novel machine thus provides the
 world's first combined crop-removing and washing station, eliminating all
 delay between crop-removal and internal cavity washing. Significantly,
 this avoids the waste of an entire lot if a processed bird was fed within
 twenty four hours of the evisceration process because the cleaning takes
 place immediately and there is no chance for contaminates to be absorbed
 into tissue as was the case with prior art processes.
 This invention represents a major breakthrough in the art of poultry
 processing machines. Being drawn to a pioneering invention, the claims
 that follow are entitled, as a matter of law, to broad interpretation to
 protect the heart or essence of the invention from piracy.
 It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, and those made
 apparent from the foregoing description, are efficiently attained. Since
 certain changes may be made in the foregoing construction without
 departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matters
 contained in the foregoing construction or shown in the accompanying
 drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.
 It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover
 all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein
 described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a
 matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.
 Now that the invention has been described,