DEVICE FOR DEBONING MEAT

Abstract: A deboning press has a roller (5) with a number of pressing stations (19-21) around its periphery. It is rotated stepwise to bring each station in turn under a pressing element (18). Pieces of meat (45) with at least one bone (24) therein are brought in a station when it is not under the pressing element (18) and are then, when the roller (5) has rotated to the corresponding position, pressed by the pressing element (18) so that the meat is pressed away sideways and the bone (24) remains between the pressing surfaces. A sliding ejector (34) removes the meat from the press. The pressing bodies (21,18) may be hard-elastic and there may be a bone remover (43-47) with movable hooks (43) to remove the bones (24) remaining in the stations of the roller (15).

Description: The invention relates to a device for deboning meat, having two pressure elements which can move towards and away from each other, one of which can be driven in the direction of pressing, and between which the meat with bone can be pressed in such a way that the meat is pressed out from between the pressure faces and the bone remains between the pressure faces. Such devices are known, for example from Dutch Patent Applications 81.03360 and 82.00076 of Applicants. In these, pieces of meat with bone are placed on a con­ veyor belt, carried by it into the press, and pressed. The meat is pressed off the bone and pressed out from between the pressure faces and, after opening of the press, the converyor belt moves further in order to remove the bone from the press and to bring a new piece of meat with bone. Such devices have various disadvantages. The con­ struction is fairly complex, the conveyor belt, which lies between the pressure faces during the pressing, is susceptible to damage, and the device takes up a large amount of space. The discharge of the meat by means of rotatable cutting slides is complex, the bone is not al­ ways reliably removed from between the pressure faces, and the device is not so easily accessible for cleaning. The object of the invention is to make an improve­ ment herein, and to this end a device of the type referred to in the preamble is according to the inven­ tion characterized in that disposed under said pressure element which can be driven in the direction of pressing is a roller, on which a number of press dies for pieces of meat with bone are disposed at regular intervals over the periphery, each press die itself being designed as one of the two mating pressure elements, which roller has means for stepwise rotation thereof, in such a way that each press die moves in succession past a station for bringing in pieces of meat with bone, past the pressing station with pressure element which can be driven in the direction of pressing, and past a station for discharge of the bone which has been left behind. It appears possible thus to eliminate the disadvan­ tages of the known devices through the fact that the conveyor element itself (the roller) acts as part of the press, while with a device taking up little space and simple to construct a high capacity can be achieved, and removal of the meat pressed away from the bones is pos­ sible in a simple and efficient manner, while the device has also become easily accessible for cleaning purposes. Per se, all kinds of processing machines are known, in which the objects to be processed or the processing devices move stepwise past various stations, but for the deboning of meat the invention provides a special application of this known principle which is not obvious in this special technology, and which leads to surprising results compared with known devices for this purpose. The invention also relates to a further development of the principle mentioned, particularly as regards a very advantageous system of removal of the pressed-away meat, for holding of the pieces of meat with bone, and for the removal of the bones left behind, all this as discussed below with reference to the example of an em­ bodiment of a device according to the invention shown in the drawings. In said drawings: Fig. 1 is a rather schematic vertical view, par­ tially section parallel to the horizontal axis of the roller of such a device; and Fig. 2 is a front view, partially section along the line II-II in Fig. 1 of this device, partially broken away. In the two figures, and particularly in Fig. 2, many parts are left out, for the sake of clarity. A gearbox 1, containing drive elements which are for the most part not shown, such as an electric motor with transmission or a hydraulic motor 2 and a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder for moving a meat ejection device of a type to be described below, carries on its top side two projecting bars 3. Between them hang two bearing cheeks 4. Supported and rotatably mounted therein with trunnions 6 is a compression roller 5. The right trunnion 6 is left out of Fig. 1 to show the driving means for the roller. The roller 5 is driven by the said motor 2 by means of a shaft 7 which, seen in Fig. 1, lies behind the central axis of the roller 5 (behind said right hand trunnion, which, as stated, was left out of Fig. 1). At the left in Fig. 2, part of the section of the roller 5 is shown as broken away, so that the drive means on shaft 7 are visible in both Figures. The shaft 7 carries a disc 8 bearing two rotatable small rollers 9, engaging a disc 10 in the form of a Maltese cross, but with eight recesses. This disc 10 is fixed against the right end wall of roller 5. The disc 10 has eight radial grooves, two of which are seen in Fig. 2, into which the rollers 9 fit in sliding and rolling fashion, while on the outside of the disc the walls of the grooves are rounded off smoothly outwards in a circle to form between every two grooves a cylindrical head which is flattened off on the outside as seen in Fig. 2. The two rollers 9 are diametrically opposite each other on disc 8. If one roller is in the straight part of a groove in disc 10, then the other roller is free of the disc. When one roller moves out of that groove, the other roller moves inwards into an adjoining groove, and in the intermediate positions said cylindrical head lies between the two rollers. This forms a construction which is known per se, so that it need not be discussed in any further detail and it will be clear from Fig. 2. When a roller 9 moves through the straight radial part of a groove, it turns the roller 5 and in said inter­ mediate positions the rollers 9 hold the roller 5 still through the fact that said cylindrical head is in a fitting position between them. In this way the roller 5 is rotated step by step, so that each station therein (to be described below) comes under the top pressure die 18 in turn, and the movement of said die up and down is synchronized therewith, so that each time the roller stops said die moves down to debone a piece of meat and upwards again to release the roller for the next rotat­ ing step through, in this case, 45 degrees. Disposed be­ tween the bars 3 is a top press device, formed by two push rods 12 which are guided to move vertically in blocks 11 between said bars, above this at the top of the bars rocking levers 14 journalled at 13, links 15 be­ tween said levers and the rods 12 and a hinge link 16 between the top ends of said levers. A hydraulic cylinder 17 fixed with its other end hingedly to the right end of the bars 3, as seen in Fig. 1, is hingedly con­ nected with its piston rod to the top end of the right rocking lever 14. The push rods 12 carry the top die 18. The press roller 5 has eight stations uniformly distributed over the periphery, each with a recess bounded by walls 19, which run parallel to the radial plane through the centre of the station in question and through the axis of the roller. In the bottom of each recess is a raised part 20 with sloping walls, and em­ bedded in the centre thereof is a block 21 of hard-elastic plastic such as polyurethane. A number of steel pins 22 with sharp point extend through each block 21 and rest with a thickened head on the bottom of the recess. These pins project for some distance beyond the block. Shown in Fig. 1 are twelve pins per block, but there can also be more or fewer pins per block. Disposed in the block 21 is a recess 23 for the accommodation of a bone 24 from the meat to be processed, and this recess can be simple or more complex in shape, depending on the shape of the bone, and it can if necessary be suitable for taking up more than one bone from the same piece of meat. The top die 18 has in the bottom face a lowered part 25, through slanting walls passing into the ap­ proximately horizontal face 26, and disposed in part 25 is a recess in which a hard-elastic block 27 is accom­ modated, for example in shape and material corresponding to the blocks 21 of roller 5, thus also with a bone recess 23 (Fig. 1), but without pins 22 but with recesses 28, into which said pins fit. The die 18 fits with its side walls 29 in sliding fashion between the walls 19 of each station of roller 5. If the top die 18 is pressed downwards as far as possible into a station of the roller 5, this gives rise to the situation shown in the top centre of Fig. 2, in which the die 18 closes off to the top the space between the walls 19 in the station. Spaces 30 are then left on either side of the parts 20 and 25 pressed onto each other in the process. Provided on the bearing cheeks 4 are supports 31, on which rest guide blocks 32 and 33, which - by means not shown - during the pressing are pressed hydraulically, pushing off from the bearing cheeks, onto the opposite end walls of the roller 5, and which are released during the stepwise turning of the roller. The guide blocks 32 and 33 shut off the pressing area during the pressing, in order to prevent meat from coming out at the end walls of the roller during the pressing. Block 32 has two continuous openings, through each of which a meat ejector 34 is movable. Block 33 also has two continuous openings, provided with a meat discharge pipe stub 35 which leads beyond the adjacent cheek 4. In Fig. 2 the cross section of the roller is cut away locally at top left of centre, in order to show a view of a part of block 33 with such a pipe stub 35. The two meat ejectors 34 are connected to a piston rod 36 of a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder 37 in box 1, said rod having such a long stroke that the meat ejector can move to the left from the position shown in Fig. 1 into the meat discharge pipe stub 35. Below the roller 5 is a bone remover 38. On arms 39, each fixed to a cheek 4, there is a parallelogram lever construction, the links 40 and 41 of which are urged by a spring 42 with their right ends to swing up­ wards. The parallelogram is completed by the said links 40 and 41 on the right in Fig. 2 being hingedly con­ nected to ejector hooks 43. The top links each carry a cam 44. This device works as follows. When the roller 5 being driven by the drive 2, 7-10 stops in the position shown in Fig. 2 a piece of meat 48 with bone 24, for ex­ ample a leg, shoulder or ham, is placed in the station directly top right on the block 21 and is pressed thereon so that the pins 22 stick into the meat and the bone is directly above the bone-accommodating cavity 23. It can be seen from Fig. 1 that two pieces of meat can be laid side by side in this station in this way. The roller is now turned to the left (in Fig. 2) with the top die 18 in the raised position until the station in ques­ tion with the said meat is directly underneath said top die. The cylinder 17 is now operated in order to move the top die 18 downwards. In the process it presses, with its elastic pressure block 27, the meat onto pressure block 21 of the roller, while the pins 22 pass through and out of the meat and go into the recesses 28, and the meat is gradually pressed out sideways between the pres­ sure faces and the bone is pressed into the recesses 23. This continues until the bottom face of the lowered part 25 of the die is pressed with force onto the top face of the raised part 20 of the particular station of the roller. The two meat accommodation spaces 30, which are closed all the way round during the downward movement of the top die 18, now take up all the meat pressed off the bone and pressed away sideways from between the pressure blocks 21 and 27. The tendons and ligaments connecting the meat to the bone are largely cut through in the process as a result of the high pressure forces between the narrow mating faces of the parts 20 and 25. The meat ejectors 34 are now put into opeation; they fit in sliding fashion into the spaces 30, and com­ pletely fill the cross section thereof, so that the meat is thereby taken to and through the meat discharge stubs 35, where it can be collected, while remaining tendons and ligaments still connecting the meat to the bone are torn off. The top die now moves upwards, and the roller can be turned one step, while a piece of meat with bone pre­ viously positioned can be pressed from the bone at the station coming underneath it, and so on. A collecting device, not shown, is provided under the roller for the bones. Said bones can fall out of the station once the station, after the pressing, is turned downwards so far that the parallel side walls 19 are approximaely horizontal. In a number of cases the bones will remain enclosed in the recesses 23 of the elastic blocks 21. For the recess 23 of the top die the jamming of bones therein can be avoided by making it somewhat larger and/or self-unloading that the bones will certainly not become stuck therein. If bones remain confined in the recesses 23 of the roller, they are forced out of them by the bone remover 38 while the station in question is at the lowest position. The cams 44 thereof are held by the spring 42 in cam contact with the end parts of the roller until the roller with a stud part between two stations releases the cams. When said cams come into contact with the cylindrical outside wall of said stud parts a face 45 of each cam slides in fitting fashion thereover, and the top ends of the hooks 43 do not then protrude upwards past said faces 45. When such a stud part is passed so far that it releases the cams, the spring 42 pulls the bone remover upwards until it is in the position shown in Fig. 2, while first the slanting top parts of the hooks slide along an edge of the adjoining stud part. On further turning of the roller, the pointed top ends of the hooks hook behind the bone 24 in such a way that it is loosened and falls out of the device. Immediately afterwards, the curved faces 46 of the cams contact the edge 47 of the next stud part of the roller, so that on further turning of the roller the bone remover 38 is moved downwards, and so on. The cheeks 4 give the great advantage that during pressing the pressure force is absorbed and passed on directly between the top die 18 and the roller, without putting strain on other parts of the device 9.

Claims: 1. Device for deboning meat, having two pressure elements which can move towards and away from each other, one of which can be driven in the direction of pressing, and between which the meat with bone can be pressed in such a way that the meat is pressed out from between the pressure faces and the bone remains between the pressure faces, characterized in that disposed under said pressure element which can be driven in the direct­ ion of pressing is a roller, on which a number of press dies for pieces of meat are disposed at regular intervals over the periphery, each of said press dies itself being designed as one of the two mating pressure elements, which roller has means for stepwise rotation thereof, in such a way that each press die moves in succession past a station for bringing in pieces of meat with bone, past the pressing station with pressure element which can be driven in the direction of pressing, and past a station for discharge of the bone which has been left behind. 2. Device according to claim 1, wherein a bearing cheek engages round the shaft of the roller at each end of and next to said roller, and the pressure element which can be moved towards and away from the press dies with its movement mechanism is carried by a construction to which said bearing cheeks are connected with direct force transmission for taking up the reaction force during pressing. 3. Device according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the roller is provided on the periphery with first recesses which extend parallel to the axis over the entire length, and which are laterally bounded by flat parallel walls, and in which a second recess is disposed in the bottom of said recesses for placing the pressure die therein. 4. Device according to Claim 3, wherein the second recess for the placing of the press dies is disposed in a bottom part of the first recesses which is symmetrical­ ly raised relative to a plane through the longitudinal axis of the roller. 5. Device according to Claim 3 or 4, wherein the pressure element which can be driven in the direction of pressing has longitudinal side walls which fit with little play between the side walls of the first recesses of the roller, and a third recess is disposed symmetri­ cally in said pressure element for placing of a press die. 6. Device according to claim 5, wherein the longitudinal walls of the third recess in the pressure element form raised bottom parts relative to the side walls of the pressure element, in such a way that during pressing two accommodation spaces for pressed-out meat are formed on either side of the press dies pressed on top of each other. 7. Device according to Claim 4 and 6, wherein the narrow raised bottom parts of the second recess and of the third recess at the end of the pressure stroke are pressed onto each other for separation of the pressed-­ out meat from the bones. 8. Device according to claim 6 or 7, wherein dis­ posed at the pressure station is an ejector for the meat pressed off and cut from the bones, provided with two slide dies, whose cross section corresponds to that of the accommodation spaces in the closed press position, and which are slidable over the length of the accomoda­ tion space. 9. Device according to claim 2 and possibly one of the further preceding claims, wherein at the pressure sta­ tion, between each of the end walls of the pressure space and the bearing cheeks, a hydraulically operated closing plate is provided, which is pressed against the end walls during the pressing. 10. Device according to any of the preceding claims, wherein means are provided for removing the bone mechanically or pneumatically from the roller after pressing. 11. Device according to claim 10, wherein said bone-removal means act on the stations in or near the bottom position thereof. 12. Device according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that said bone-removal means have pins or hooks which are pressed under spring load towards the pressure face of the take-up dies, that the take-up dies have recesses for accommodation therein of the bones remaining behind, and that the pins or hooks for movement are connected to cam means, which for movement are connected to cam means which through movement of the conveyor element relative thereto can be moved outwards for the purpose of removing a bone from said recess after the hooks or pins grip behind said bone. 13. Device according to any of the preceding claims, wherein each press die in the roller has one or more projecting pins for holding the meat in and past the station for bringing in pieces of meat with bone, and the press die movable in the pressing direction has openings for accommodation therein in sliding fashion of said pins during pressing. 14. Device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pressure faces in the press dies are made of elastic material and that at least one of them has a recess for taking up the bone. 15. Device according to claims 3, 13 and 14, wherein the pins rest against the hard metal end face of the second recess in which said elastic material of the press dies is accomodated. 16. Device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that each press die has means for taking up more than one piece of meat with bone side by side and for simultaneous pressing thereof.

Inventors: KETELS, GERARDUS HUBERTUS JOHANNES
Applicants: STORK PROTECON B.V.
Application year: 1987
Main classification: A22C17
IPC codes: A22C21, A22C17