Patent ID: 8157625

Claim:
An apparatus for collecting meat from animal parts that have an elongated bone with opposite longitudinal ends that extends through a sleeve of meat, the apparatus comprising: a deboning unit including a meat stripper diaphragm and an elongated bone pusher having an end facing the meat stripper diaphragm; an elongated tubular knife concentrically surrounding the bone pusher and having a sharpened cutting end facing the meat stripper diaphragm; a holder for positioning an animal part between the bone pusher and the meat stripper diaphragm, the holder orienting the bone of the animal part with one longitudinal end in substantial alignment with the bone pusher and the tubular knife and with the other longitudinal end in substantial alignment with the meat stripper diaphragm; a first drive mechanism for relatively moving the bone pusher and the meat stripper diaphragm towards and away from one another over a first distance to push the bone of an animal part partially through the meat stripper diaphragm; a second drive mechanism for relatively moving the tubular knife and the meat stripper diaphragm towards and away from one another simultaneously with the bone pusher over a second distance to move the cutting end of the tubular knife toward engagement with the meat stripper diaphragm; a rotating drive mechanism for selectively rotating the tubular knife to sever meat from around the portion of the bone not pushed through the meat stripper diaphragm; and a bone deflector for engaging the bone portion partially extending through the diaphragm to release the bone completely from the diaphragm.