CA1241160A

CA1241160A - Device for processing fish

Info

Publication number: CA1241160A
Application number: CA000472651A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Horst Braeger
Original assignee: Nordischer Maschinenbau Rud Baader GmbH and Co KG
Current assignee: Nordischer Maschinenbau Rud Baader GmbH and Co KG
Priority date: 1984-02-03
Filing date: 1985-01-23
Publication date: 1988-08-30
Also published as: SE8405287L; NO850415L; IS2954A7; GB8502415D0; GB2154530B; IS1320B6; DE3403771C1; FR2559032A1; FR2559032B1; GB2154530A; SE8405287D0

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE:

A device for filletting fish saddle-shaped supporting elements for receiving fish rumps in their belly cavities and for conveying the same along filleting tools are used. Using a known per se embodiment of the supporting element the part of the supporting element coming into con-tact with the skeleton of the fish is formed in such a way that a well defined alignment is made possible with the result that the filletting tools for cutting free the belly and back spokes can be adjusted more narrowly with the effect of higher yield.

Description

6~

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention The invention concerns a device for the Eilletting of Eish, ln particular of fish of the Gadidae family, comprising saddle-shaped conveying means for the fish, each including a supporting element formed with a groove for supporting and conveyingly engaging the fish in their belly cavity, for conveying the fish along filletting tools, the groove being Eormed by side walls with supporting edges provided with teeth.

2. Description of Prior Art With the mechanical processing of fish, in particular with the aim of producing muscle flesh in the form of fillets, it is of essential interest to achieve as high a profit as possible in the form of this product by high throughput, it being desirable at the same time that the fillets are produced boneless. Furthermore, these demands should be obtainable with as little expense as possible. In particular, in view of the two last mentioned requirements, for conveying purposes conveying means of the type mentioned above also called push-ing saddles, have been found favourable in the processing of fish of medium size or larger. This is based on the fact that an alignment of the saddled fish according to the position oE
the lower edge of the backbone (vertebral column) ensues by these conveying means and simultaneously the position of the belly cavity end is definitely determined by the end of the _ 1 _ 6~

pushing saddle. The latter unction in particular has the advantage that a reference point is fixed for the operation of the filletting tools, which point can be detected by the conveyor in a simple manner by monitoring the respective position of the pushing saddle during its passage. As this association is independent of the respective fish sizes, the controlling of such machines is very simple. In this way, it is guaranteed that, for example, the flank cut to cut free the ribs with the effect of high yield with simultaneous bone freedom can be made at exactly the right place. The definite alignment of the fish with regard to the position of its symmetrical plane cannot ~e safeguarded however with the known design of the pushing saddle. This becomes obvious from German Patent 12 39 827, which shows a machine with a convey-ing means of such kind. The pushing saddle termed a trough shaped supporting element here has supporting edges with teeth, which supporting edges with regard to the width of the trough are formed to support the fish skeleton next to the backbone i.e. on the lateral vertebral appendages. Since fish of non-uniform sizes come to be processed, this means, that only such fish are guided correctly laterally whose backbones show a diameter which corresponds to -the clear inside dimen-~sion oE the trough. Furthermore, lt has proved difficul-t to process "distorted" Eish satisfactorily since such a support-ing can lead to the symmetrical plane not always corresponding 312~

with the deflection plane of the conveyor. Such an imperfect position cannot be balanced out for certain by outer convey-ing means. As a result of this, the knives of the filletting tools, for example, the knives cutting free the belly and back spokes cannot be adjusted so narrowly, as would be possible according to the anatomy of the fish without the danger of cutting into the bones.

3. Object of the Invention It i5 an essenti.al of the invention therefore to suggest a suppor-ting element which ensures a perfect lateral alignment of the skeleton. It is another object to leave freedom for the alignment of the symmetrical plane in the deflection plane of the conveyor through outer guiding means.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, there is provided a device for processing fish of different size varying between a smallest fish and a largest fish to be processed, in particular of fish of the Gadidae family, which fish have a belly cavity and a vertebral column inclu-ding a plurality of vertebrae defining the diameter of said vertebral column, said device comprising a plurality of carrier saddles for conveying the fish in a conveying direc-tion through a conveying path along filleting tools of a fish processing machine, each of said carrier saddles comprising an elongated supporting element extending longi-tudinally in said convey.ing direction for supporting sa:id fish in said belly cavity and engaging them therein to con-vey them, sai~ supporting element having a top ~urface and a pair of spaced side walls upstanding from said top surface and forming a groove therebetween, each of said A side walls having a top supporting edge provided with tee-th, 16~3 the space between the -top suppor-ting edges of said side walls being smaller than said diameter of said vertebrae of the part of said vertebral column extending along said belly cavity of said smallest fish to be processed, whereby said vertebral column rests upon said top supporting edges, regardless of the size of the fish being processed.
The advantages thus achievable in particular reside in that the belly and back filletting knives can be adjusted in the region of about half a millimeter narro-wer, which amounts to an increase in yield of fillet fleshof up to around 1.5%, for example with a cod fish of about 40 cm in length. It is further to be observed in the use of scraping knives for scraping off the fillets flesh from the ribs resp. vertebral appendages that the fillet flesh positioned in the bend between the projections of the verte-bral apprendages on the backbone and the back spokes is scraped out cleaner so that the fillets so gained optically appear to be of be-tter quality.
Preferably, the side walls extend in a converg-ing manner with respect to each other towards the leadingendOf said supporting element in said conveying direction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other and further objects of the present inven-tion will be apparent from the following description andclalms and are /

~' ~ ~ -4-illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which by way of illustration schematically show preferred embodiments of the present invention and the principles thereof and what now are considered to be the best modes contemplated for applying these principles. Other embodiments of the invention embody-ing the same or equivalent principles may be used and struc-tural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the present :invention and the scope of the appended claims. In the drawings Fig. 1 shows a transparently depicted fish rump mounted on the supporting element;
Fig. 2 shows a top view of the supporting element;
Fig. 3 shows a cross section through a fish skeleton in the region of the belly cavity and the supporting element supporting it.
~ supporting element 1 as shown is a component of a con-veyor driven in a suitable way to rotate continuously, which conveyor is a known per se part of fish filletting machines and thus not shown in detail. The conveyor is e~uipped with further similar supporting organs arranged at equal pitch.
Each supporting element 1 comprises a carrying web 2 of rela-tively small thickness, which is provided at its upper edge with a groove 3 running in the longitudinal direction of the carrying we~ 2 and Eormed of two upwardly extending side walls

4. The side walls ~ are e~uipped with teeth 5 on their upper _ 5 --edges over their whole longitudinal extension and they extend beyond the carrying web 2 in a manner that their distance to each other diminishes in the conveying directlon so that the groove 3 ends in a preceeding horn 6.

The operation of the device is as Eollows and represented by way of the passage of a fish:
A fish rump 7 opened at its belly and qutted is held ready with its tail end 8 in the conveying direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. l and with its belly pointing downwardly over the path of the supporting elements 1. On the approach-ing of a supporting element 1, the fish rump 7 is lowered first of all with preference to the tail end 8 and moving together with the supporting element 1 so that the supporting element 1 penetrates into the belly cavity 9 of the fish and finally comes to rest on the backbone 11 in the region of the belly cavity end 10. By reduction of the co-movement speed it is taken care that the horn 6 of the supporting element l is brought to rest at that end 10 of the belly cavity 9. At this moment the fish rump 7 is released so that by this time the whole length of the belly cavity 9 comes to rest on the supporting element 1, the support being achieved ln such a way that the upper edges of the side walls 4 forming the groove 3 engage the single vertebrae 13 beneath the starting points of the lateral vertebral appendages 12. In this way, on the one hand, it is achieved that the a~is of the vertebral column 11 lies centrally over the groove 3 of the supporting element 1 under definite lateral guiding and, on the other hand, freedom exists for the alignment of the symmetrical plane of the skeleton by pairs of outer, centrally symmetrically synchro-nised guides.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed, are defined as follows:

1. A device for processing fish of different size varying between a smallest fish and a largest fish to be processed, in particular of fish of the Gadidae family, which fish have a belly cavity and a vertebral column inclu-ding a plurality of vertebrae defining the diameter of said vertebral column, said device comprising a plurality of carrier saddles for conveying the fish in a conveying direc-tion through a conveying path along filletting tools of a fish processing machine, each of said carrier saddles comprising an elongated supporting element extending longitu-dinally in said conveying direction for supporting said fish in said belly cavity and engaging them to convey them, said supporting element having a top surface and a pair of spaced side walls upstanding from said top surface and forming a groove therebetween, each of said side walls having a top supporting edge provided with teeth, the space between the top supporting edges of said side walls being smaller than said diameter of said vertebrae of the part of said vertebral column extending along said belly cavity of said smallest fish to be processed, whereby said vertebral column rests upon said top supporting edges, regardless of the size of the fish being processed.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said side walls extend in a converging manner with respect to each other towards the leading end of said supporting element in said conveying direction.