GB589509A - Improvements in fish filleting machines - Google Patents

Abstract

589,509. Fish-filleting machines. ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES CO. March 22, 1945, No. 7292. Convention date, April 14, 1944. [Class 28 (ii)] In a fish-filleting machine in which side fillets are partly cut but still remain attached to the back-bone and ribs, the fish then being moved over a pair of fixed spaced ribbing knives 18 to effect final detachment as described in Specification 452,688, the fish is pressed down and moved along the ribbing knives 18 by a number of pusher fingers 44, mounted on blocks 42 pivotally secured at their end to a chain 40, each block having a pair of downwardly extending supports 46 providing at the top a passage in which the chain 40 is positioned, the pusher fingers 44 being pivoted to the inner surface of each support 46. The blocks are secured on the chain 40 by pins 122 engaging the boss 114 of one block with a pair of slots 100 of the next block, the slot allowing shifting of the block relative to the chain on passing round the sprockets 36, 38. When the chain 40 is horizontal, the surface 118, Fig. 2, rests on shoulder 102 of the block in front to hold their connections rigid, so that they cannot sag, non-sagging being also assisted if desired by the flanges 50 travelling on spaced fixed rails 130. A fixed cam guide 144, Fig. 1, acts on cam roller 82 to pivot the fingers 44 about 74, Fig. 2, so that they enter the flared portion 146 of the ribbing knives 18 and the fingers entering the belly of the fish, to press it down on the ribbing knives. As a fish passes to the left away from the below-belly slitting knives 10, a fixed cam 134, Fig. 1, acting on cam roller 82 pivots the fingers 44 so that they engage on each side of the backbone in the upper slit and in the pectoral cavity. The fingers then slide the fish along and down against the ribbing knives 18 during their lower horizontal run, to detach the fillets from the backbone and scrape the flesh from the ribs. At the end of this run, a fixed cam 146 acting on rollers 82 raises the fingers 44 out of the fish and keeps the fingers safely retracted as they pass round the sprocket 38. U.S.A. Specification 2,179,821 also is referred to.