Patent GB-1034549-A (GB)
Title: Skinning machine
IPC: A22B5/16
Filed: 1964-09-01
Abstract: 1,034,549. Skinning machines. WOLVERINE SHOE & TANNING CORPORATION. Sept. 1, 1964 [March 4, 1964], No. 35752/64. Heading A2U. A machine for skinning and removing meat from single or double hogsides comprises a rotatable drum 14, Figs 1 and 12, having a channel 66 extending across its periphery and a clamp 18 located in the channel. A hogside 110 is fed, skin downwards, into the open clamp, which is then automatically closed to grip the leading edge of the hogside, and the drum is rotated to carry the hogside under a plurality of aligned pressing rollers 350 biased by leaf-springs 354 to a knife 230, which severs meat 110M from the skin 110S. The meat is discharged from the machine by a roller conveyer 330. Skinning of a single hogside is completed when the drum has rotated about 180 degrees, but skinning of a double hogside is only completed when the drum has rotated about 270 degrees. On completion of skinning, the clamp 18 is automatically opened and the skin drops from the periphery of the drum into a receptacle (not shown). The drum completes one rotation and stops, so that another hogside can be inserted in the clamp. The clearance between the knife and the periphery of the drum may be varied by mechanism comprising a manually operated crank wheel 270. This mechanism may also be actuated automatically, as by fluid-pressure-operated rams 300, Fig. 3, to lift the knife during tehe whole or any predetermined part of the rotation of the drum, ,e.g. momentarily, when the knife is about to engage the thickest part of the hogside adjacent the backbone. The clamp 18, Fig. 6, comprises a jaw 90 fixed to a side of the channel 66, a movable jaw 92 and a movable clamping bar 94 carrying a plurality of pins 104, which are received in corresponding holes 102 passing through the jaw 92. The jaw 92 is moved towards the jaw 90 to close the clamp and grip the inserted edge of the hogside between intermeshing jaw teeth 96 and 100. The clamping bar is also moved, so that the pins pass completely through the jaw 92 and the gripped edge of the hogside into recesses 98 in the jaw 90. The jaw 92 is secured to a pair of arms 120, 122, Figs. 3 and 1, pivoted by pivots 124 to the closed ends of the drum. These arms can be moved, to close or open the jaws, by fluid-pressure-operated rams 128 actuated by compressed air. A bracket 134 is secured to each of these arms and an arm 138 is pivoted, at 140, to each bracket 134. The arms 138 carry the clamping bar 94. Each arm 138 can be moved by a fluid-pressure-operated ram 146. Compressed air is supplied to the rams 128 and 146 through a solenoid-controlled valve 162, hoses 164 and 166 and passages and ports in a sleeve 28 around a stub axle of the drum. The drum is driven by an electric motor 78 through a reduction gear 80, a chain 82 and a sprocket 84 on said stub axle. The rollers 350 may be raised and lowered by mechanism incorporating fluidpressure-operated rams 380, 382, Fig. 2 (not shown). Fluid-pressure-operated rams 400, Fig. 13 (not shown), may exert additional pressure on the three rollers at each end of the aligned rollers 350. The operations of the various parts of the machine are controlled by pins 504 on cams 500 on the said stub axle of the drum, which pins actuate microswitches 506 connected to an electric circuit 600, Fig. 11 (not shown), comprising push button switches, selector switches, other microswitches and solenoids controlling the driving motor and the valves supplying compressed air to the fluid-pressure-operated rams, and also comprising a light, which is lit when the circuit is operative, another light, which is lit when the knife is raised above its operative position.