Butchering – Support – Carcass or portion suspended
Patent
1997-05-07
1999-09-21
Little, Willis
Butchering
Support
Carcass or portion suspended
452141, 452177, A22C 1500
Patent
active
059545755
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL AREA
The present invention relates to an arrangement allowing automated handling of a carcass and parts separated therefrom. In machine-assisted cutting and boning, a hook or similar has to be applied manually into the part to be separated. This might cause a bottle-neck in the production, especially if the application would be made at an inconvenient stage of the process. According to the present invention, the hook application is located so as not to delay the operator performing the cutting and the bone removal. This means that the whole process can be automated still further.
STATE OF THE ART
Arrangements for the handling of carcasses are previously known. They generally consist of a line for transporting the carcasses, hanging from a first hook, from a preparatory work station to a work station for the separation of a part from the carcass. At the work station, a counter-hold tool is used, commonly in the shape of a hook. The application of the counter-hold hook into or onto the part to be separated has up to now been difficult to automate in a cost-efficient way, depending on the carcasses varying in size, orientation and in individual properties. Today, this has lead to a typical work procedure where the operator with his hands first collects an empty hook from a hook supply nearby, applies the hook into or onto the part to be separated, starts the equipment which is to move the carcass away from the counter-hold hook or vice versa, after which he waits for the separation to reach the point where he can start to cut. Today, this process takes 10-20 seconds out of a total processing cycle of generally 40-60 seconds in most cases.
For cutting lines with high capacity demands, processing e.g. 1,000 animal carcasses per shift or about 500 quarters per hour, a time loss of 10-20 seconds per quarter may result in the mechanizing of the cutting process being unprofitable. The actual application of the counter-hold hook in the part to be separated only takes a few seconds in itself, but the total time loss becomes approximately ten times longer due to the necessary preceding and succeding operations, including the time waiting for the stretching of the carcass/counter-hold hook before the knife-work can start.
The present invention solves the above problem partly by the application of the counter-hold hook into or onto the part to be separated being made by another operator at a preceding work station or preparatory work station, and partly by the hook and the rest of the counter-hold arrangement being so designed as to ascertain a correct counter-hold position, whether the counter-hold equipment is stationary or mobile. The waiting time, until the stretching between the carcass and the counter-hold hook has been achieved so that cutting can start, is eliminated completely by performing the stretching while the carcass and the counter-hold hook is transported to the work station.
After the counter-hold hook has been applied to the carcass it is transported automatically to the work station with its two hooks applied--the hook from which the carcass is normally always suspended as well as the counter-hold hook. This allows the automation of the entire process described above, except for the application of the counter-hold hook.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention thus provides an arrangement for the handling of slaughtered carcasses comprising a line for transportation of carcasses suspended from a first hook, from a preparatory work station to a work station for the separation of a part from the carcass. According to the invention, a second hook can be applied to said part at the preparatory work station and be transported to the work station together with the carcass.
The invention is described in closer detail in the accompanying claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of an arrangement according to the invention having a stationary counter-ho
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patent: 3748146 (1973-07-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 3774265 (1973-11-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 3940830 (1976-03-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 4985963 (1991-01-01), Norling
ConAgra Inc.
Little Willis
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