Butchering – Carcass subdivision – Extremity remover
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-14
2001-09-04
Little, Willis (Department: 3643)
Butchering
Carcass subdivision
Extremity remover
C452S167000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06283848
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to poultry processing and more particularly to the processing of a poultry foot and leg part to recover the foot.
Poultry is suspended by its legs in a head lowermost position from shackles moved sequentially through the poultry processing plant on the overhead conveyor for killing, scalding, and picking. After the feathers have been picked from the carcass, the legs and feet are separated from the rest of the carcass by separating the hock joint. The leg and foot part remains captivated in the shackles on the overhead conveyor after the hock joint separation and is eventually unloaded from the shackle. Because poultry feet are edible and the demand is high, especially in the Oriental food market, it is desirable to recover the poultry feet from the foot and leg part and skin the separated feet to render them edible. The resulting edible product is sold on a weight basis so it is important to accurately locate the point at which the leg is severed to recover the foot in order to maximize the economic return from the recovered feet. The preferred position at which the leg is severed is about ⅜ inch above the spur on the leg.
One prior art technique used to recover the edible portions of poultry feet is to cut the feet from the legs while the foot and leg parts are still carried in the shackles on the overhead conveyor and then batch process the feet to skin them. This technique is unable to accurately locate the point at which the legs are severed. While the shackles are located relative the cutting knife or saw, the position on the leg at which the shackle engages the leg varies widely once the hock cut has been made to separate the remainder of the carcass from the foot and leg parts. Moreover, the remaining portions of the leg had to be separately removed from the shackle.
Another prior art technique used to recover the edible portions of the poultry feet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,015. This patent discloses a three section piece of equipment; a blanching station, a skinning station, and a severing station through which the foot and leg parts are transported in the picking shackle on the overhead conveyor. The foot and leg parts are first immersed in hot water in the blanching station to heat the skin on the feet and legs to loosen it, then passed through the skinning station where the fingers on skinning rollers remove the skin from the feet and legs, and finally the skinned feet and legs are moved through the severing station where the feet are severed from the legs. Like the prior art technique described above, the remaining portions of the leg are still retained in the shackles and have to be subsequently separately removed.
These prior art techniques are thus not able to accurately locate the position at which the leg is severed to separate the feet resulting in loss of recovery in the weight of the edible product. Moreover, multiple pieces of equipment or multiple stations in the equipment are required to carry out the processing of the foot and leg parts to recover the edible feet thereby keeping the cost of processing high. As a result, poultry processors have had difficulty in economically maintaining a processing operation for poultry feet.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other problems and disadvantages associated with the prior art are overcome by the invention disclosed herein by providing apparatus for and method of processing poultry feet which are able to accurately locate the position at which the poultry leg is severed to separate the feet so as to maximize the recovered weight of the processed feet and which utilizes the minimum amount of equipment to perform the processing operation. All of the processing operations are integrated in a single piece of equipment so as to minimize the cost thereof. As a result, the processing cost is minimized while the recovered weight of the feet is maximized.
The poultry foot harvesting apparatus of the invention includes foot positioning means for selectively positioning a known feature on the poultry foot and leg part at a first prescribed location; and foot cutoff means for severing the leg a prescribed distance from said first prescribed location to recover the foot. The foot positioning means may comprise knuckle locating means for engaging the poultry leg at the hock knuckle so as to locate the hock knuckle at the first prescribed location, and foot engaging means for engaging and forcing the poultry foot away from the knuckle locating means to hold the knuckle in the first prescribed location. The knuckle locating means may include a pair of spaced apart guide bars defining a prescribed space therebetween which is larger than the poultry leg between the knuckle and foot but smaller than the knuckle so that the knuckle will engage the guide bars when the knuckle is forced toward the guide bars to locate the knuckle in the first prescribed location. The foot engaging means may include a pair of brush assemblies constructed and arranged to engage the feet of the poultry while the legs are engaged by the knuckle locating means; and means for rotating the brush assemblies to force the poultry feet away from the knuckle locating means and maintain the hock knuckle in the first prescribed position. Each of the brush assemblies may include a central support and a plurality of plastic bristle filaments mounted on the central support and projecting radially outwardly therefrom with the plastic bristle filaments constructed and arranged to remove the skin from the poultry feet as an incidence of forcing the feet away from the knuckle locating means. The plastic bristle filaments may be constructed and arranged to urge the poultry feet tangentially about the brush assemblies and axially along the brush assemblies. The invention may also include adjustment means for movably positioning the foot cutoff means relative to the foot positioning means to selectively change the prescribed distance from the first prescribed location that the poultry leg is severed. The foot cutoff means may include a circular knife member defining a cutting edge therearound, means for rotating the knife, and backup means for supporting the leg in opposition to the circular knife so that the leg is forced into contact with the circular knife to sever the leg. The backup means may include an elongate backup member defining a backup surface thereon to engage the poultry leg in opposition to the knife member where the backup member defines at least one knife receiving recess therein into which a portion of the cutting edge of the knife projects to insure that the knife completely severs the poultry leg.
The apparatus of the invention may be used in conjunction with an overhead conveyor including shackles for transporting the poultry feet and leg parts along a prescribed processing path and may further include shackle guide means for guiding the shackles with the poultry feet and leg parts therein past the foot positioning means and the foot cutoff means so that the foot positioning means positions the poultry feet and leg parts independently of the shackles as the shackles move the poultry feet and leg parts past the foot positioning means and the shackles are displaced out of interference with the foot cutoff means as the shackles move the poultry feet and leg parts past the foot cutoff means.
The poultry foot harvesting apparatus of the invention may be used to remove the feet from poultry foot and leg parts carried in shackles by an overhead conveyor and comprise means for exerting a force on each poultry foot and leg part carried by the shackles so as to force the hock knuckle on the leg toward the shackle; and means for severing the leg between the shackle and hock knuckle so that the foot and leg part is inherently unloaded from the shackle when the leg is severed. The means for exerting a force on each poultry foot and leg part may further be constructed and arranged to remove the skin from the poultry foot and leg part while exerting the force on the poultry foot and
Little Willis
Powell B J
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