Butchering – Epidermal outgrowth remover – Power driven
Patent
1996-05-10
1998-12-29
Little, Willis
Butchering
Epidermal outgrowth remover
Power driven
452 89, 452 92, A22C 2102
Patent
active
058533206
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to poultry plucking apparatus and related processing equipment.
In a typical poultry-processing plant, birds are shackled to an overhead conveyor and then, sequentially, pass from equipment which stuns, kills and scalds the birds to plucking equipment which removes the feathers before the carcasses pass on for evisceration and further processing.
Existing plucking equipment uses rubber fingers mounted on rows of contra-rotating discs or drums to rub the feathers off of the birds. These fingers run all the time as the stream of birds pass through the plant at a rate of, typically, 100 to 200 birds per minute.
Although existing plucking equipment is disinfected at the beginning of the day and feathers may be hosed off during meal breaks, significant cross contamination can occur through the rubbing fingers wiping micro-organisms from bird to bird and from micro-organisms colonised on the fingers being deposited onto the birds.
An object of the present invention is to improve the hygiene of plucking equipment in this respect.
According to one aspect of the present invention, poultry processing equipment comprises a shackle line, a plurality of individual plucking units, one for each of a number of carcasses to be plucked at any one time, shielding means included in or provided additionally to said plucking units whereby the plucking heads of each said unit are shielded from the plucking heads of the neighbouring units during plucking, and means for cleaning each of the plucking units between successive plucking operations by that unit.
In some cases, the plucking units will include rotary plucking heads which spin off contaminated water along paths which, unless appropriate steps are taken, would have direct or indirect access to the carcasses on their way to or from the plucking units. Accordingly, in such cases, the shielding means is preferably designed to interrupt these paths so as to shield the carcasses whether at the plucking units or at locations other than the plucking units. Where the shields substantially fully enclose the carcass, the droplets and droplet mists generated by the plucking action on one bird are retained near that bird.
Other aspects of the invention include plucking units for use in said plucking apparatus, and poultry processing equipment including said plucking apparatus and comprising the shackle line and means for cleaning each of the plucking units between successive plucking operations by that unit.
Conveniently, in such equipment, the shackle line operates intermittently e.g. by using a variable pitch shackle chain to obtain a desired intermittent movement of the carcasses, so that the carcasses may be plucked while temporarily halted in their forward motion through the apparatus.
In an alternative arrangement, the shackle line operates continuously and drive means are provided to move the plucking units and the shielding means at the same speed as the carcasses during plucking.
The plucking units will preferably each comprise groups of plucking heads mounted on an associated support.
Conveniently, the plucking heads may be of conventional design, whether of disc and finger or of drum and finger type. As alternatives to drums or discs, the plucking fingers may instead be carried on supports of conical, spherical or other suitable rotation profile.
Conveniently, the plucking heads are arranged to rotate about horizontal, vertical or otherwise inclined axes to achieve the best plucking effect consistent with their position in the apparatus.
As with conventional apparatus, the direction of head rotation is preferably so chosen that wherever practicable, adjacent heads rotate in contrary senses to one another.
In some embodiments of the invention, the supports for the plucking heads provide little or no shielding and adjacent plucking units are then separated by dedicated shielding means which, for convenience of description only, will hereinafter be referred to as "baffles". These baffles may, for example, take the form of vertical sheets spaced ap
REFERENCES:
patent: 1755665 (1930-04-01), Richards
patent: 2743477 (1956-05-01), Barker et al.
patent: 2939171 (1960-06-01), Corey et al.
patent: 3273198 (1966-09-01), Tomlinson
patent: 3422490 (1969-01-01), Zebarth et al.
patent: 3483589 (1969-12-01), Smorenburg
patent: 3596309 (1971-08-01), Vertegaal
patent: 3599278 (1971-08-01), Crane
patent: 3670365 (1972-06-01), Dillon
patent: 3716892 (1973-02-01), Miles et al.
patent: 4514879 (1985-05-01), Hazenbroek
Gibson Colin
Tinker David Bernard
Wathes Christopher Michael
British Technology Group Limited
Little Willis
LandOfFree
Plucking apparatus for poultry does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Plucking apparatus for poultry, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Plucking apparatus for poultry will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1418419