Patent ES-346061-A1 (ES)
Title: Feed apparatus for a poultry gizzard processing machine
IPC: A22C21/06
Filed: 1967-10-14
Abstract: In cleaning poultry stomachs and/or gizzards, stomachs with gizzards attached are moved, by jets of water issuing from inclined nozzles 27, along a trough 24, Figs. 1, 2 and 3, wherein each stomach (which precedes its attached gizzard) encounters a first gate comprising two arms 29, which are connected by a bracket 32, and are pivoted on horizontal transverse pins 31, so that they can be swung in vertical planes against the action of an attached counter-weight arm 33. The arms 29 have inturned ends 30, which are separated by a gap, through which a stomach can pass to the end of the trough, namely the pickup point, where the stomach is transferred on to spikes 16 on the upper run of an endless-chain, spiked conveyer 11, which is moved by an electric motor 14 around a guide 12 secured to a main frame 10. The stomach is impaled on some of the spikes 16 and pulls the attached gizzard against the inclined inner faces of the inturned ends 30, thus swinging the first gate upwardly and allowing the gizzard to follow its attached stomach and become impaled on spikes 16 of the conveyer 11, which carries each stomach and gizzard, through an upper gate comprising two side plates 59 secured at their upper ends to a transverse pivot pin 61 journalled in slots 62 in the frame 10 and having upwardly projecting gizzard-centring guide flanges 60 and a counter-weight arm 63, to a rotating knife 17, which slits open the stomach and gizzard, then to a divider 19 having wing-portions 20, which divider opens the gizzard and drapes it over the upper run of the conveyer 11, which carries the gizzard under a guide rod 21 and through a downwardly directed jet of water from a nozzle 18, which washes and cleans the opened gizzard. The lining is then removed from the washed and cleaned gizzard as disclosed in Specification 1,196,024. The trough 24 may be downwardly inclined, and may have, in its base, a central longitudinal slot for draining off water, through which slot a stomach or gizzard cannot pass. A device for assisting the movement of a gizzard past the first gate and transfer of a gizzard on to the conveyer 11 comprises an arm 35, which is secured to a rocking shaft 36 carrying a crank 37, Fig. 2, which is connected by a link 38 to a crank-pin 39 on a gear-wheel 40, which is rotated by a gear-wheel 41 rotated by the motor 14. The upper end of the arm 35 is pivotally connected, as by a pin 45, to one end of a link 44 having a pusher 47 pivotally attached, as by a pin 46, to its other end. The lower end of the arm 35 terminates in a finger 43. When the arm 35 and the link 44 are rocked between the positions indicated by the full and broken lines in Fig. 3, the finger 43 pushes a gizzard and helps it to pass the first gate, which then closes, and the pusher 47 pushes a gizzard, e.g. through a lower gate, on to the conveyer 11. The lower gate comprises two plates 50 each mounted on a horizontal, transverse pin 53 pivoting in a slot 54 in the frame 10. The two plates 50 are connected by a counter-weight arm 56, which returns the plates to gate-closing position after they have been swung open. When the plates 50 are swung downwardly into their gate-open position, they form a bridge at the pick-up point over which bridge the gizzard passes. When gizzards without attached stomachs are being cleaned, the finger 43 pushes each gizzard past the first gate and the pusher 47 pushes each gizzard through the lower gate.