Butchering – Skinning – Peeling by movement of workpiece past cutter
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-26
2001-04-10
Little, Willis (Department: 3643)
Butchering
Skinning
Peeling by movement of workpiece past cutter
C452S125000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213863
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the meat processing industry, it is necessary to remove a certain amount of fat and membrane from animal muscles. This is conventionally accomplished by the use of open top skinning machines wherein the muscles are manipulated by hand to expose various surfaces of the muscle or meat product to the cutting blade and gripping roll of the skinning machine. This system is tedious, and can cause repetitive motion injuries. It is also relatively slow, and there is a high variation in the amount of material removed due to the differences in skinning machine operators.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a meat product skinning machine which will automate the fat and membrane removing process so that the operator needs only to place the meat product on the intake conveyor on the machine, and which will substantially increase the output of the machine.
A further object of this invention is to provide a meat product skinning machine that will be safer to operate; which will eliminate repetitive motion injuries, and which will eliminate operator-induced variations in the final “skinned” products.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A conventional meat skinning machine has a frame, a horizontal conveyor on the frame having a forward end, a tooth gripping roll rearwardly mounted on the frame and extending across the forward end of the conveyor, and an elongated cutting blade mounted on the outer surface of a meat product coming in contact therewith. An elongated flipper plate is mounted on the frame adjacent the cutting edge of the cutting blade. A pair of parallel arms are pivotally secured to the frame adjacent the sides of the conveyor and extend upwardly and forwardly from their pivotal connections. A resilient hold down roll is rotatably mounted between the forward ends of the arms. A lifting mechanism is provided on the frame and connected to the arms for raising and lowering the arms at selected intervals. A link extends from at least one of the arms and is connected to the flipper plate so that when the arms are raised, the flipper plate is partially erect so as to block the movement of a meat product moving forwardly over the plate and to allow the meat product to be rotated by the gripper roll and the conveyor across the cutting edge of the blade so that the blade can remove surface material on a plurality of exterior surfaces of the meat product.
A method is provided for automatically removing material from the outer surface of a meat product, as described above, including the further steps of simultaneously lowering the hold down roll and the flipper plate so that the hold down roll contacts the meat product which is released from the location of the cutting blade over the then substantially horizontal flipper plate.
REFERENCES:
patent: Re. 23222 (1950-04-01), Townsend
patent: 2261589 (1941-11-01), Piper
patent: 2715427 (1955-08-01), Townsend
patent: 5236323 (1993-08-01), Long et al.
patent: 5350334 (1994-09-01), Holms
patent: 5399118 (1995-03-01), Long et al.
patent: 5503593 (1996-04-01), Schill
patent: 5609519 (1997-03-01), Townsend
patent: 0 583 593 A1 (1993-06-01), None
Basile, II Vincent L.
Cate Stephen H.
Holms Donald D.
McCloskey Douglas N.
Little Willis
Townsend Engineering Company
Zarley McKee Thomte Voorhees & Sease
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