Butchering – Support – Carcass or portion suspended
Patent
1990-08-23
1991-11-05
Schmidt, Frederick R.
Butchering
Support
Carcass or portion suspended
452120, 452160, A22C 1102
Patent
active
050628208
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to the handling of animals and, in particular, to apparatus for automatic processing of animals as in abattoirs, boning plants, etc.
In Australian Patent Specification Nos. 35,992/84 and 19,034/88, an animal processing line is described which includes an animal lead up race, capture and stun assembly, and hock and horn removal stations located after the animal has been stuck. The carcass is then ready for manual or automatic dressing and boning operations.
One of the operations carried out on a carcass during dressing and boning operations is cutting of the brisket to assist in the removal of viscera from the carcass. This is usually carried out under direct manual control which adds to the processing costs per carcass. In Australian Patent Specification No. 31,317/84 there is described an automatic apparatus for cutting the brisket of a carcass suspended by the forelegs. The apparatus includes a circular saw which is lowered and moves downwardly from the neck region through the brisket and abdomen. There is still substantial risk of cutting viscera with this apparatus. Also a circular saw can easily stall due to an increase in resistance. Also circular saws can be difficult to guide. Furthermore a circular saw creates a substantial amount of bone dust requiring removal and also there is a significant loss of saleable body weight due to the width of brisket and tissue cut out by the saw.
Another operation usually carried out manually in processing of an animal carcass is removal of the head. The carrying out of this process manually requires substantial skill and strength and also requires a process operator thereby adding to the processing cost. In Australian Patent Specification No. 57,413/86 there is described an apparatus for automatically breaking or dislocating the neck of a suspended carcass, particularly a sheep carcass. However even if this apparatus were to be adapted for use with removing the head, there would be substantial loss or downgrading of saleable meat from the neck of the carcass as a result of a substantial part of the neck being removed with the head. Also, the head is relatively unrestrained leading to poor repeatability of the precise cut. Also the head would fall away from the apparatus so that further processing of the head may need to rectify potential problems with handling to achieve the required orientation and dealing with contamination of the fallen head.
A further operation carried out on a carcass involves splitting the carcass into two sides after evisceration. Although automatic apparatus for carcass splitting has been proposed in the past, the difficulties of accurately locating and tracking a saw along the spine have been unsatisfactory solved, resulting in for example wandering of the saw away from the centre of the spine, particularly when the saw reaches the neck of the carcass. Movement of the carcass, particularly the neck can result in "soft siding" where the saw blade runs off the spine and cuts through meat to one side with consequent damage to that meat and loss of or reduction in value of the meat. Circular saw blades have been used in earlier proposals to automatically split a carcass. A circular saw blade results in the creation of substantial bone dust and loss of saleable body weight as a result of the width of bone and meat cut by the saw.
Diaphragm cutting has been carried out in the past manually as a part of the evisceration of the carcass. Manual operations used in dressing and boning operations carried out on a carcass are significant contributors to the cost involved in carcass processing.
It is an object of a first aspect of the present invention to provide an automatic processing apparatus for carcasses which is capable of automatically cutting the diaphragm of the carcass during an evisceration operation.
It is an object of a second aspect of the present invention to provide automatic carcass processing apparatus which is capable of efficiently and effectively automatically cutting the brisket of the carcass with minimal
REFERENCES:
patent: 4011630 (1977-03-01), Ochylski
patent: 4087866 (1978-05-01), Aubert
patent: 4299010 (1981-11-01), Robertson et al.
Boyce Phillip R.
Buhot John W.
de Chastel, deceased David J.
Kerr David T.
Rankin Russel J.
Australian Meat & Live-Stock Research & Development Corp.
Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation
Cruz Lawrence
Schmidt Frederick R.
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