Apparatus for processing poultry suspended from their legs

Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus for processing poultry suspended from their legs, comprising a processing means and a positioning brace provided for engagement between the legs of the poultry. With certain birds, such as ducks, it is desirable to move the tail of the birds out of the way of the processing means. Thus with the apparatus according to the invention a plate section (16) mounted onto the positioning brace (11) is provided, which will engage the tail and which is pivotable relative to the positioning brace around a horizontal pivot axis.

Description: The invention relates to an apparatus for processing poultry suspended from their legs, especially ducks, comprising a processing means movable upwards and downwards along a guiding and a, generally U-shaped, positioning brace provided for engagement between the legs of the poultry. Known apparatus of this type are applied for carrying out a number of operations. One may mention the evisceration of poultry according to which an eviscerating means is moved into the abdominal cavity of the poultry through an opening between the legs of the poultry, or one may mention the removal of the lungs from the poultry, in respect of which a suction means is pushed into the abdominal cavity or the removal of the craw, wherein a processing means is applied which is moved through the abdominal cavity and traverses the neck of the poultry. With each of these known apparatus it is essential that a proper positioning of the poultry to be processed occurs relative to the apparatus. Thus these apparatus comprise said positioning brace engaging between the legs of the poultry onto the lower body section. When used for processing chickens these known apparatus operate properly. However, these apparatus show disadvantages when used for processing ducks. This is caused by the fact that ducks, compared with chickens, have a rather large tail which, moreover, is rather flexible. Whereas the small, little and movable, tail of chickens hardly causes problems the larger, flexible tail of ducks forms an obstruction to the processing means. In practice it appears that the tail often fully or partially covers the opening providing entrance to the abdominal cavity of the duck, such that the processing means either cannot enter the abdominal cavity or damages the tail while entering the abdominal cavity. In the first case the desired processing of the duck does not occur, whereas in the second case an end product is obtained which is damaged and thus is commercially less attractive. US-A-4.183.118 shows an apparatus wherein a substantially vertically extending plate section is mounted onto a positioning plate, said plate section being provided for engagement with the tails of poultry. While positioning the positioning plate between the legs of the poultry the plate section mounted onto the positioning plate will engage the tail of the poultry and move it. With this known apparatus the plate section has a fixed position relative to the positioning plate. Such an embodiment is less complicated, cheap and demands little service and is especially fit for application in an apparatus of which the processing means is moved substantially rectilinearly into the poultry to be processed, for example in an apparatus for removing the craw. The Dutch patent application NL-A-7501521 discloses an apparatus for processing poultry suspended from their legs, wherein a positioning brace and a plate section is provided which plate section is however not substantially vertical, nor mounted to the positioning brace. In correspondence with the invention however the plate section is pivotable relative to the positioning brace and around the horizontal pivot axis extending transversally to the positioning brace. As a result the apparatus is extremely fit for application in apparatus, of which the processing means follows a non-rectilinear motion such as when eviscerating poultry. Then the eviscerating means firstly is positioned closely to the back side in the abdominal cavity, next is moved internally towards the belly side and stuck deeper into the abdominal cavity and finally is moved outwards along the chest side. Initially the pivotable plate section rests against the tail of the bird to be processed and thus has an inclined position in which the free end of the plate section partially enters the body opening. In this position the arriving processing means will engage the plate section such that it is lifted to a more vertical position and then pushes aside the tail. Further, during this phase, the plate section as it were will carry out a guiding function for the processing means, because a pivoting of the plate section will automatically lead to the correct positioning of the respective body opening relative to the arriving processing means. Therefore in the apparatus according to the invention the plate section carries out a double function, namely moving the tail of the poultry away from the track of the processing means and correctly positioning the processing means relative to the body cavity. Because the plate section is pivotable in accordance with the above, it is possible to provide control means co-operating with the plate section, such as sensors, switches and alike. These sensors, switches and alike will react on a pivoting of the plate section and thus can activate defined parts of the apparatus, for example the processing means itself (conceivable is an activation of a vacuum source in an apparatus for sucking the lungs out of the abominal cavity, or initiating the movement of a part of an eviscerating means). In such a case the pivoting of the plate section indicates the moment at which the processing means enters or has entered, respectively, the bird to be processed. Of course the shape of the plate section may be varied constructively. One may mention embodiments according to which the plate section is essentially planar or according to which the plate section is gutter-shaped. In the latter case the gutter is meant for reliably housing the tail such that it cannot slide sideways relative to the plate section. Hereinafter the invention will be elucidated further referring to the drawing in which: fig. 1A, B show partially an apparatus according to the state of the art, in a top plan view and a side elevational view, respectively; fig. 2A, B, C show partially a second apparatus according to the state of the art, in a top plan view, side elevational view and according to arrow 2C in fig. 2B, respectively, and fig. 3A, B, C show partially an embodiment of an apparatus according to the invention, in a top plan view, side elevational view and frontal view, respectively. In fig. 1A and 1B there is represented only part of a U-shaped positioning brace 1 of a known apparatus, with a plate section 2 connected thereto. In fact in this embodiment both the positioning brace 1 and plate section 2 are attached to two guiding blocks 3 which may move upwards and downwards along a guiding not illustrated. Such an upward and downward motion of the positioning brace 1 is known from the state of the art and thus is not to be explained further. As seen in fig. 1A a bird to be processed assumes such a position that the positioning brace 1 extends between both legs of the bird, wherein the breast of the bird is positioned at the right side (the side of the plate section 2). When the positioning brace 1 together with the plate section 2 is moved downwardly along the guiding (not shown) the plate section 2 will engage the tail of the bird, said tail reaching the gutter-shaped recess 4 and being kept in place thereby. Next a processing means not shown further can be positioned simply in the abdominal cavity through the body opening between the legs of the bird. The known embodiment according to fig. 1A and 1B is characterized by the fact that the plate section 2 has a fixed position relative to the positioning brace 1. This embodiment is especially appropriate for application in an apparatus for removing the craw of a bird. The apparatus according to the state of the art illustrated in fig. 2A, 2B and 2C again comprises a positioning brace 5 of which, in this case, both legs are attached to two arms 6, 7 which, for a reason not important here, in a limited way are pivotable around a pivot axis 8. Again a plate section 9 is attached to the positioning brace 5 having a slightly bended end 10. Again the arms 6 and 7, together with positioning brace 5 and plate section 9 connected thereto, are movable upwards and downwards along a guiding not illustrated, wherein during the downward motion the plate section 9 will engage the tail of a bird to be processed. As a result said tail will effectively be moved aside from the track of the processing means (not shown). The known embodiment of the apparatus illustrated in fig. 2A, 2B and 2C is especially appropriate for application in an apparatus meant for sucking the lungs out of the chest cavity of a bird. Finally fig. 3A, 3B and 3C illustrate an embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention. In contrast with the two embodiments illustrated before this embodiment is characterized by a plate section which is pivotable relative to the positioning brace. Now in detail a positioning brace 11 is provided which by means of supports 12 is attached to a mounting plate 13. Again this mounting plate 13 can, in a way not shown further, be movable upwards and downwards along guidings. Two braces 14 are mounted onto the U-shaped positioning brace 11, said braces at the ends thereof being connected by a horizontal pivot axis 15. A plate section 16 is suspended from this pivot axis and thus can pivot relative to positioning brace 11 around the horizontally extending pivot axis 15. When the mounting plate 13 with positioning brace 11 is moved downwards the plate section 16 will engage the tail of the bird and thus in a limited way will pivot towards its inclined position. The direction into which the plate section will pivot depends upon the positioning of the bird relative to the positioning brace 11, that is whether the spine, as seen in fig. 3B, is at the left hand side or at the right hand side. Next, when the processing means is moved towards the abdominal cavity of the bird it will engage this inclined plate section 16 and will pivot it back towards the vertical position illustrated in fig. 3B. Like this the plate section 16 not only functions as means for pushing the tail of a bird to be processed out of the way of the processing means, but the plate section 16 also takes care of a correct guiding of the processing means into the abdominal cavity of the bird (wherein generally not the movement of the processing means but the position of the body cavity of the respective bird will be adjusted.) The embodiment according to the invention is especially appropriate with apparatus of which the processing means follow a non-rectilinear motion, such as an eviscerating means for eviscerating the entrails. It should be emphasized however that in this embodiment the plate section also may comprise a gutter-shape, such as the plate section 9 in the embodiment according to fig. 2A, B and C. Not illustrated in fig. 3A, B and C are switches, sensors or alike which might be provided and might co-operate with the plate section 16 in such a way that a pivoting of the plate section 16 activates these switches, sensors or alike which, at their turn take care of activating a certain part of the respective apparatus, for example the processing means. Like this the plate section 16 also has an indicator function. The invention is not limited to the embodiment described before which may be varied widely within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims.

Claims: Apparatus for processing poultry suspended from their legs, especially ducks, comprising a processing means movable upwards and downwards along a guide, and a, generally U-shaped, substantially vertically movable positioning brace (11) provided for engagement between the legs of the poultry, wherein a substantially vertically extending plate section (16) is mounted onto the positioning brace (11), said plate section (16) being provided for engagement with the tails of the poultry for moving these out of reach of the processing means, characterized in that the plate section (16) is pivotable relative to the positioning brace (11) and around a horizontal pivot axis (15) extending transversally to the positioning brace (11). Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that control means co-operating with the plate section (16) are provided, such as sensors, switches and alike. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the plate section (16) essentially is planar. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the plate section (16) is gutter-shaped.

Inventors: JOOSTEN EGBERTUS M, JOOSTEN, EGBERTUS M.
Applicants: MACHF MEYN B V, MACHINEFABRIEK MEYN B.V.
Application year: 1995
Main classification: A22C21
IPC codes: A22C21