GB493419A - Improvements in fish dressing machines - Google Patents

Abstract

493,419. Dressing fish. LAURIN, L., and LAURIN, S. L. Jan. 26, 1938, No. 2492. [Class 28 (ii)] In a fish-dressing machine, the fishes are conveyed with their backs against the conveying-means, and are traversed past two knives which make two incisions embracing the entrails and backbone of each fish, and past other knives which separate the meat from the skin of the side portions of the fish, As shown, the fish is gripped by the tail between two drums 6, 6a to which it is fed along a trough 7 having at its front end a decapitating disc knife 10 mounted on a frame 9 which is oscillated across the trough by a handle 11. The knife 10 is driven by a shaft 61 and universal couplings 60. The drums 6, 6a are separable, by means described below, to enable the tail to be inserted. The fish is conveyed to the disc knives 16 which are set at an angle to each other and substantially touch at a point near the circumference of the drums. The shafts of the knives are connected by a universal joint 15. The fish is guided for presentation to the knives 16 by plates 20, one on each of two shafts 18 having intermeshing toothed quadrants 19 at their upper ends. A spring 22 tends to swing the plates 20 towards each other. Behind the knives 16 is a trough 26, the front end of which embraces the knives, and is shaped to catch and divert the backbone and entrails cut away by the knives. Curved plates 27 deflect the sides of the fish over the surfaces of the drums. Two obliquely arranged knives 29 cut between the meat and the skin of the side pieces of the fish, the skinless fillets being discharged over a shoot 30. The skin of the fish, attached to the tail, is then released by the separation of the drums. The drums 6, 6a are mounted on a shaft 4. The drum 6 is driven by a cone clutch 32, 33 having a spring 34 which tends to disengage the clutch. A spring 31 is positioned between the drums and tends to separate them. The drum 6a is driven by the drum 6 by the fishtail jammed between the drums and is provided with a cam track 35 which is contacted by a roller 36 on a plunger 37 urged towards the drum by a spring 40 which is strong enough to overcome the springs 31, 34. The plunger 37 has a head 38 and a reduced part 39, and a slotted member 41, pivoted on the shaft 4, is swingable by a handle 43 and connecting link 44, to engage behind the head 38 and retain the plunger in its retracted position. A spring 45 tends to bring the member 41 towards the plunger 37. In operation, when the member 41 is withdrawn from the plunger, the spring 40 closes the gap between the drums and engages the clutch against the action of the springs 31. 34. The handle 43, being released, allows the member 41 to engage behind the head 38 when the cam 35 forces the plunger backwards, and to hold the spring 40 compressed when the cam 35 recedes from the roller 36. thus allowing the drums to separate and the clutch drive to cease.