Butchering – Carcass subdivision – Cutting longitudinally through body or body portion
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-22
2004-09-28
Poon, Peter M. (Department: 3643)
Butchering
Carcass subdivision
Cutting longitudinally through body or body portion
C452S198000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06796893
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for processing worms for providing the processed worm bodies as an end product or for enabling recovery of valuable by-products from the worm bodies.
Valuable by-products can be simple and as ‘obvious’ as using the worms as a source of protein e.g. to provide a food supplement for feeding to, inter alia, fish in intensive fish farming operations or as a source of omega oils which may be found in economically viable quantities in the bodies of earthworms. For example, the omega-3 fatty acids DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), EPA (eicosopentaenoic acid), and DPA can be found in earthworm bodies and the market price of such fatty acids compounds at 99% purity is over US$50, 000 per kilogram. The term ‘worm’ when used in this specification includes an earthworm or marine worm (Chaetipoda), flat-worm (Platyhelminthes), a round-worm (Nematoda), and other suitable invertebrates.
Before the bodies of worms could be used as a protein source, it would be desirable to cleanse the worm bodies of ingested matter and/or remove the digestive tract and/or remove blood from the worm bodies. Also cleansing the digestive tract would be desirable if the worm bodies are to be processed for recovery of substances therefrom e.g. essential oils, acids, etc. Emptying the digestive tract has been proposed in the past by ‘starving’ the earthworms e.g. for 24-48 hours by keeping them in moist paper so that they naturally pass ingested matter through their digestive tracts. However, this does not remove the digestive tract or blood from the worm bodies.
It has further been proposed to cut worms longitudinally to expose the insides of the digestive tracts and then washing the split worm bodies. This process and concept has been clearly described in the PCT Patent specification PCT/AU96/00324 (Publication No. W097/19600) by the present applicant.
In PCT/UA96/000324, the method of processing worms for providing or recovering valuable products from the worm bodies has been claimed and such method includes the steps of exposing the insides of the digestive tracts of the worms along substantially the entire lengths thereof and cleansing the worm bodies to remove ingested matter and/or the exposed digestive tracts.
In one embodiment of PCT Application No. PCT/AU96/00324, the step of exposing the inside of the digestive tracts comprises eversion of the bodies. The eversion of the worm bodies may comprise drawing each worm body onto a pin located concentrically within a passage through which the worm body is fed longitudinally so that the pin partially enters the digestive tract but resistance to continued relative penetration of the pin into the digestive tract preferentially causes the worm body to evert so that the digestive tract is exposed on the outside of the worm body. The worm body may be split lengthwise after eversion so as to enable removal of the worm body from a processing zone where eversion has taken place.
In an alternative embodiment of said PCT application, the step of exposing the inside of the digestive tracts comprises splitting each worm body lengthwise so as to open the digestive tract of the worm lengthwise.
However, the applicant's own prior art as described above may suffer certain disadvantages as follows:
(a) The prior schemes for splitting the worm bodies may be too slow in practice since the time taken to separate, align, and feed worms sequentially may make the throughput rate uneconomical. This may also make the previously proposed apparatus difficult and costly to implement to achieve viable production quantities.
(b) Worm bodies can vary substantially in diameter and length. In the prior art apparatus, there is little tolerance to processing of worms of different diameters. Therefore, there is a need for modified apparatus for processing different sizes of worms. Since lengths of worms can commonly be up to about 15 cm, the prior apparatus has greater difficulty in handling and: aligning such long worm bodies for splitting.
Therefore, there is a need for a simpler, more effective, and more economically viable apparatus and process for splitting the worm bodies.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome or alleviate at least some of the drawbacks as stated above and to provide an apparatus for effectively processing worms.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a more effective and preferably economically viable method for processing worms.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention provides an apparatus for processing worms, the apparatus including:
spaced top and bottom surfaces set a sufficient distance apart so that worm bodies to be processed touch both surfaces when passing therebetween;
at least one splitter located between the surfaces and extending generally parallel to the surfaces to encounter worm bodies that travel between the surfaces, thereby splitting the worm bodies and;
means for applying force to the worm bodies to urge them between the two surfaces and onto the splitter so as to split the worm bodies lengthwise into segments.
In the present specification including in the claims, in interpreting references to “top and bottom surfaces”, and later in this specification to “top plate” and “bottom plate” which provide respectively the “top and bottom surfaces”, it is to be understood that the use of “top” and “bottom” in referring to the surfaces does not necessarily mean that the two surfaces are horizontal with the top one overlying the bottom one. Although this may be the preferred configuration, in practice the top and bottom surfaces can be inclined to the horizontal and indeed may even be both vertical. Also the surfaces need not necessarily be planar. For example, the surfaces could be generally conical or frusto conical and could be nested together with the required spacing between the surfaces.
In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus applies a centrifugal force to the worm bodies. For this purpose a rotor having spaced top and bottom plates provides respectively the top and bottom surfaces facing each other and spaced apart by the required distance. The rotor in use is arranged to be rotated about an axis passing through the top and bottom plates, preferably substantially through the centres thereof and the worm bodies when passing between the plates move outwardly from the axis of rotation under the radially acting centrifugal forces created by rotation of the rotor.
The means for applying force to the worm bodies includes means for creating a flow of fluid, preferably water, which applies force to the worm bodies to urge them between the two surfaces and onto the splitter.
The splitter may be a single splitter located substantially midway between the surfaces so as to split the worm bodies into two halves along a plane extending through the centres of the worm bodies when they are touching, and preferably partially flattened between, the top and bottom surfaces. The splitter may comprise a splitter blade although a splitter wire may also be possible. The splitter is preferably located so as to be operative to split the central digestive tracts of the worm bodies.
The apparatus preferably includes an inlet or a number of inlets located in the top surface through which the worm bodies are introduced into the space between the top and bottom surfaces. In the case of the apparatus including a rotor with spaced top and bottom plates, the inlet is preferably located substantially centrally at the centre of the top plate through which the axis of rotation of the rotor passes.
The inlet preferably has a flared inlet mouth leading into the space between the top and bottom plates into which worm bodies are introduced so that worm bodies of various diameters are compressed as they pass into the inlet mouth and into the space between the top and bottom surfaces to adopt a common thickness equal to the spacing of the top and bottom surfaces.
The apparatus may include adjustable spacing means enabling the spac
Fasth Rolf
Fasth Law Offices
Parsley David
Poon Peter M.
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