624,478. Fish gutting &c. machine. JOHANNESSON, R., JOHANNESSON, M. A., JOHANNESSON, J. G., and JOHANNESSON, W. J. J., (trading as GWENT CO.). Feb. 17, 1947, Nos. 4539 and 4540. [Class 28(ii)] Herrings &c. are split, cleaned and may be boned in a machine comprising at least one movable band knife to split the fish while being conveyed between relatively movable parts which are actuated by guides to grip the fish at least during its presentation to the knives, the gripping then being allowed to separate to release the fish. The fish for kippering are hand loaded head first and back uppermost on the endless conveyer at A, Fig. 1, and advance to the cutting zone B where guides and, later, rollers 37 urge the grippers 26 inward to V-formation to grip the fish sides and the fish are presented at an incline to the band knife 43 which cuts down alongside the backbone and through the whole depth of the body, Fig. 5. On further advance of the conveyer, gill removers 79 are brought into operation to act on the two halves of the fish as they are spread apart by the plates 100. Thereafter, brushes 101 and 104 sweep out the guts and the fish is discharged over the fingers 108 into a receptacle. The single cutter for making a cut for kippers comprises an endless steel band knife 43, Fig. 5, with sharpened lower edge, the band being stretched between end pulleys 44, 45 mounted in a rockable cradle 50 on trunnions 51 for angular adjustment of the band. A compression spring keeps the knife band under tension. Gill removers.-After slitting the fish and spreading it open by a pair of fixed plates 100, thin rotated blades 79, Fig. 8, are automatically removed in at the correct time to remove the gills, the movement being to dotted line position 79a. This movement is started when a side gripper 26 which embraces the thicker body part of the fish moves with its conveyer to engage a control plate 98 and moves it to dotted line position 98a, Fig. 8. Thereby a block 90 is moved to travel sideways and downward along fixed curved guides 94, whereby bar 81 in the block 90 is moved to position 81a, thereby swinging the gill blades 79 into position to cut out the gills. The gill cutters are far enough ahead to allow for the distance from gills to thick body part of the fish. On further pushing aside of plate 98 by the wedge part 29, Fig. 6, (not shown), of the gripper 26 to position 98b, the block 90 slides down further to clear and free the rigidity of the hinge 84, Fig. 8, whereby spring 77 is allowed to pull the frame 68 of the gill blades back to position 79. When the closertogether-grippers at the tail advance, the plate 98 is released from contact with the grippers so that the spring 97 is allowed to pull up the block 90 until the hinge 84, now inside the block, is restored to straight line position with the bent-over part of bar 81 in line with 85, all ready for the next fish. A brush 101 rotating at a higher speed than the conveyer then removes the guts and impells them into a discharge chute 103. Jets of water may co-operate with the brush. Still further ahead a stationary brush 104 removes any remaining guts. Finally a pair of fingers 108 receives the fish and directs it into a receptacle. In the machine in Figs. 12, 13 which cuts and bones the fish and removes the head while still attached to the backbone entirely automatically, the pair of endless band knives 166 are adjusted to the required V-inclination by pivoting their their pulley - cradles by screws, the cutting edges being sufficiently spaced to allow the fish nose to enter. The body of the fish is shown at 198. Fig. 13. The pivoted grippers 153 of the flexible end-less conveyer 150 convey a fish 199, Fig. 12, head first and belly uppermost to station B where the band knives converge and cut into the fish which is presented at the desired longitudinal angle by the set of the rollers 159, 156, Fig. 12, and thereafter becomes horizontal so that the knife edges cut into the body on each side of the backbone and appendant bones 200, Fig. 13. Pins 197 on the band knives engage the upper triangular cut containing the backbone and smaller bones and since the band knives travel at a higher longitudinal speed than the conveyer the pins 197 carry the triangular backbonecontaining parts ahead, and dropping them to a waste collection point where the bandknives diverge. Further on a fixed V-blade 202 trims off parts not cut by the band knives. The remaining side-fillets are carried on the downward run of the conveyer where they are washed with water and cleaned by brushes and discharged by take-off fingers into a receptacle. The band knives overhang their pulleys forming a skirt 196, the free edges 193 of which can thereby cut into the fish. The band knives 166 are prevented from slipping down on their pulleys 168 by a rib 194 attached to the back of each band, to fit into corresponding grooves in the pulley faces. All the mechanisms are driven from the same source of power.