Butchering – Carcass subdivision – Cutting longitudinally through body or body portion
Patent
1999-04-12
2000-10-03
Little, Willis
Butchering
Carcass subdivision
Cutting longitudinally through body or body portion
452171, A22C 1700
Patent
active
061265357
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to an apparatus for mechanical removal of a spinal column part from a part carcass, comprising tools for separating the spinal column part from the part carcass by cuts along the spinal column part, and conveyor and guide arrangements for providing a relative movement between the tools and the part carcass during cutting.
After splitting pig carcasses, the sides are divided into three parts: the hams, middles and fore-ends. These carcass parts are processed in different ways.
A so-called rib-top sawing is performed on the middles to remove the spinal column part. The operation consists of a manual cutting off of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae of the spinal column by means of a circular saw. This cutting leaves bone peaks and ribs in the meat part. The spinous processes are also left, if the carcass has not been back-finned before splitting. These bone parts are removed by a manual finishing treatment.
The operator must take great care when making the saw cuts. If too much bone is left on the middle, the manual finishing treatment is made more difficult. If, on the other hand, the operator attempts to avoid bones, valuable meat will be lost along with the sawn-off bone parts and the tenderloin muscle may also be damaged.
Various machines for the automatic removal of the spinal column part from middles (or loins) are described in the patent literature. The machines are for the most part based on one or two circular saws which saw alongside the bone cutting through the rib heads and possibly also the spinous processes, cf. U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,181 (Schneider), EP-A1-0502.581 (Stork Protecon), EP-A1-0627.168 (Stork Protecon-Langen) and EP-A1-0714.607 (Stork Protecon-Langen). DK-A-326/96 (Slagteriernes Forskningsinstitut) describes the use of roller shears, which avoids formation of meat/bone dust which can cause keeping problems.
A device for the removal of meat in a single piece from the spinal column part and ribs of a loin from a beef carcass is described in WO-A1-9517825 (The Meat Industry Research Institute of New Zealand). The device comprises a first tool cutting along the spinous processes and spinal column, and a second wing shaped tool which separates the meat from the ribs. The device produces meat cuts without ribs giving a lower meat yield than manual boning.
Fore-ends are treated in a manner which differs from treatment of middles and loins. They contain a spinal column part, just as the middles do, but the shape of the spinal column part is more complex. Moreover, fore-ends contain other bones and have a very complicated anatomical structure. It is necessary to use different and more complex boning techniques for obtaining a high meat yield. Skilled operators are required and their time consumption is high.
Various tools have been proposed for extracting the shoulder blade from fore-ends making the boning processes easier for the operators. However, until now no device has been designed for mechanically removal of the spinal column part from fore-ends. The known automatic devices for rib-top sawing of middles and loins will give a low meat yield or leave many bone fragments in the meat if they are used for removal of the spinal column part of a fore-end.
The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus which can mechanically remove the spinal column part from a part carcass, in particular a fore-end making it possible to replace a part of the demanding work of manual boning with a mechanical operation, without decreasing the meat yield which should be on a comparable level with manual removal of a spinal column part from a fore-end. Preferably, the apparatus should use at least one knife for the mecanical removal thus reducing the amount of sawing dust on the meat.
The above object is achieved by the apparatus according to the invention, which is characterised in that it comprises a first cutting tool for mechanically separating the meat on the part carcass from the spinous processes and the dorsal side of the spinal column, said first cutting tool h
REFERENCES:
patent: 692824 (1902-02-01), Burleson
patent: 3581336 (1971-06-01), Herubel
patent: 5407384 (1995-04-01), Boody et al.
Little Willis
Slagteriernes Forskingsinstitut
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