GB1066030A - Automatic leg boning machine and method - Google Patents

Abstract

1,066,030. Removing meat from poultry legs. CAMPBELL SOUP CO. Feb. 17, 1966, No. 6954/66. Heading A2U. In removing meat from the legs of poultry, the legs are suspended from hooks 36 pivotally mounted between spaced apart conveyer chains 34 at loading station 42 and carried past meat stripping stations 70 and 72 to station 76 where the stripped leg bones are ejected from the hooks 36 and passed via shoot 26 to a conveyer (not shown). At station 70 where most of the meat is removed, the legs are engaged by stripper bars 90 resiliently mounted on pivoted members (not shown), the members being pivoted apart to allow the leg joints to pass between the bars 90, this pivotal movement being controlled by cams operating in timed relationship with the speed of the conveyer chains 34. The meat stripped at station 70 drops into trough 122 and it is chilled as it is moved successively through troughs 122, 124 and 126 by elements 140 on conveyers 138, the troughs being supplied with cooled brine solution from tank 146 by pump 152. The chilled meat drops on to conveyer 158. At station 72 any remaining meat is removed from the bones by subjecting the bones to jets of fluid from nozzles supplied with cooled brine by pump 182 and is passed to conveyer 158 by shoot 174. The meat is drained and then rinsed by spray 186 on conveyer 158, the drained fluid and rinsing fluid being returned to tank 146 by tanks 164 and 190 and pipes 192 and 166. The meat is then dried by subjecting it to air pressure sprays by means 194 and to suction by means 202. The dried meat drop on to delivery conveyer 22.