Patent GB-233799-A (GB)
Title: Method and machine for cutting and boning large-sized fish
IPC: A22C25/16
Filed: 1924-02-18
Abstract: 233,799. Baader, R. Feb. 18, 1924. Fish, dressing. - In a machine for splitting and boning large fish, the fish are gripped individually by the tail between opposed rotary discs and are engaged in succession by a rotary splitting knife, a spreading-plate and two disc knives, set at an angle, which cut under and peel out a predetermined length of backbone. The opposed discs 4, 5 are provided with clamping- jaws 65, 66, Fig. 7, the jaw 65 being fixed longitudinally and the jaw 66 being movable against a spring 69 by a lever 70 which engages a fixed cam during the rotation of the discs 4, 5. The jaws 65, 66 are connected by a U- shaped frame 63 and are rotatable through an angle of 45‹ to allow the fish to lie against flanges of the discs 4, 5, the jaws being returned to the normal position, between the discharge of a fish and the insertion of the next, by the engagement of a pin 91 with a fixed cam 92, Fig. 3. The splitting-knife is carried by an arm 36 on a rock shaft 35 which is oscillated to engage the knife with the fish by an arm 41 engaging with a cam 7, the shaft 35 also carrying the spreading-plate 43 which enters the cut and flattens the fish against the flanges of the discs 4, 5. The knives 60, 61 are mounted, as shown in Fig. 9, to cut under the backbone a, the knives being driven by suitable gearing. The knives are carried on a bracket 59 which is oscillated, with a shaft 44 carrying a counterweight 90, by a roller-ended arm 62 co-operating with a cam 7a integral with the cam 7. The points of engagement of the splitting and boning-knives are determined by a feeling-lever 82 on a shaft 24 carried by a lever 13 integral with a sleeve 21, Fig. 4, rotatable on the central shaft 2 on which the sleeve 3 carrying the discs 4, 5 also rotates. The lever 13 carries a spring-pressed rod 14 which engages a notch in an angularly adjustable disc 11 whereby the lever 13, shaft 24 and feeler 82 are rotated about the shaft 2, the feeler 82 sweeping over the fish which is rotated, with the discs 4, 5, in the opposite direction. The lever 13 carries co-acting pawls 17, 18, the pawl 17, which is provided with an extension 88, engaging with a partly toothed fixed disc 22 and the pawl 18 with a co-axial rotatable. partly toothed disc 26. The pawl 17 is slidable in a spring box 17<b> which is pivoted at 16 to the lever 13 and is oscillated from the feeler shaft 24 through links and arms 24<a>, 25, 25<a> so that when the feeler 82 leaves the decapitated end of the fish, it drops and allows the pawls to engage with the discs 22, 26, under the action of a spring 86. When the pawl 17 reaches the teeth on the disc 22 it is pushed into the box 17<b> and the extension 88 abuts against the arm 20 of a bell crank 19, 20 which lifts the bolt 14 from the notch in the disc 11 and the rotation of the lever 13 is stopped. The pawl 18 having rotated the disc 26 slightly, the stops 27, 28 thereon are disengaged from the arms 30 on shafts 29, journaled in the cam discs 7, 7<c> and carrying pawls 31. The pawls 31 engage a toothed wheel 6 on the sleeve 3 and the discs 7, 7<a>, at the moment of stoppage of the lever 13, rotate with the discs 4, 5 until the arms 30 again contact with the stops 27, 28 and lift the pawls 31 from the wheel 6. A stop 8 on the disc 9, which rotates. with the discs 7, 7<a>, engages a spring bolt 34 slidable in a member 32 attached to the sleeve 21 of the lever 13, the lever 13 thereby being returned to its original position. The bolt 34 is then withdrawn from the stop 8 by a ramp 89 on the disc 22.