US3785007A

US3785007A - Fish-cleaning apparatus

Info

Publication number: US3785007A
Application number: US00238270A
Authority: US
Inventors: E Hogan; J Simpson
Original assignee: Smith Berger Manufacturing Corp
Current assignee: Smith Berger Manufacturing Corp
Priority date: 1970-03-13
Filing date: 1972-03-27
Publication date: 1974-01-15
Anticipated expiration: 1991-01-15

Abstract

Tail-impaling pins on the bull ring of fish-cleaning mechanism hold fish to the periphery of the bull ring in moving them past cleaning implements located in positions spaced circumferentially around the bull ring. A parallel-link control maintains the belly-fin cutter in proper angular relationship to the bull ring and a more direct and simplified drive arrangement is provided for the rotary cleaning scrapers and brushes alongside the bull ring.

Description

11] 3,7S5fid7 [451 Jan. 15, 11974 llnited States Patent [191.

Hogan et al.

2,166,939 7/1939 Christiansen.......i.......i.....i..... 17/59 WISH-CLEANING APPARATUS Primary ExaminerRobert Peshock Att0rneyR0bert W. Beach Assignee:

[22] Filed:

ABSTRACT.

Related US. Application Data Division of Ser. No. 19,162, March 13, 1970, Pat. No. 3,670,363.

Tail-impaling pins on the bull ring of fish-cleaning mechanism hold ii sh to the periphery of the bull ring in moving them past cleaning implements located in positions spaced circumferentially around the bull [52] 1U.S. C1. 17/59 [51] A22c 25/14 int. ring. A parallel-link control maintains the belly-fin cutter in proper angular relationship to the bull rin g and a more direct and simplified drive arrangement is provided for the rotary cleaning scrapers and brushes alongside the bull ring.

[ 56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,456,287 7/1969 Oates et 17/59 2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures nunun I lrrllnmm II-WA r-u it ammo? PATENTEB JAN 1 5 i914 SHEET 10F 4 IF ISM-CLEANING APPARATUS This application is a division of our U.S. patent application Ser. No. 19,162, filed Mar. 13, 1970, for Fish- Beheading and Cleaning Apparatus, resulting in U.S.

' Pat. No. 3,670,363. Fish-cleaning mechanism of a type generally similar to that incorporated in the present apparatus is disclosed in U. S. Pat. Nos. 1,542,196 and 3,456,287.

A principal object of the present invention is to improve the driving and supporting arrangement for the cleaning wheels operating on fish carried by the bull ring of the cleaning mechanism.

FIG. 1 is a plan of the fish-beheading and cleaning apparatus with parts broken away.

FIG. 2 is an elevation showing a portion of the beheading mechanism and an end of the fish-cleaning mechanism, parts being broken away.

FIG. 3 is an elevation of the apparatus showing a side of the cleaning mechanism and an end of the fishbeheading mechanism.

FIG. 4 is a somewhat diagrammatic side elevation of the fish-cleaning mechanism, and FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic top perspective of the drive mechanism for the various cleaning elements of the cleaning mechanism.

The apparatus of the present invention is particularly well suited to the cleaning of fish of moderate size, especially salmon.

The beheading mechanism 1 includes a feed table 2 carried by a frame 3 for supplying round fish to be beheaded. Such fish are carried along the table in a direction transversely of their lengths from right to left, as seen in FIGS. 1 and 3, by a plurality of parallel endless conveyor chains 4, 5 and 6, driven in unison.

Fish to be beheaded are moved along the beheading table 2 by the flights 12 of the block chains 4, 5 and 6, and are held down firmly for the beheading operation by holddowns 13. Such hold-downs circulate in an endless path along the lower stretch of which they are moved in synchronism with the movement of the conveyor chains 4, 5 and 6. The hold-downs are spaced apart lengthwise of their orbit at locations corresponding to the bays between the conveyor chain flights.

The construction of the mounting, drive and guide means for the hold-down mechanism is disclosed in U. S. Pat. Nos. 2,625,706 and 2,625,708, and in parent patent application Ser. No. 19,162, mentioned above, which may be referred to for structural details. In general each holddown 13 is mounted on the end ofa post 14 guided for sliding lengthwise in guides 15. The fish are supported on their sides beneath the hold-downs by three parallel rails 18 shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, which are supported by posts reciprocable in guide sleeves 20 to enable the elevation of the rails to be adjusted.

The beheading knife 31 is rotatably mouhted on the shaft 32. The hold-downs are propelled around their orbit by drive chains 33. From the beheading station the beheaded but uneviscerated fish are transported by the chains 4, 5 and 6 along the transfer table 34 to be dumped at its discharge end into the cleaning mechanism feed trough 35. The fish are moved along the beheading table 2 and the transfer table 34 back first, so that each fish will slide from the discharge end of the transfer table into the cleaning mechanism feed trough 35 back first and belly up. Each fish is then fed lengthwise, tail first, to the bull ring of the cleaning mechanism for evisceration.

' movable toward and away from each other to embrace opposite sides of the tail portion of the fish. Such tailreceiver is movable elevationally in synchronism with rotation of fish tail-impaling pins on the bull ring to place and to hold the tail portion of the fish in the proper relationship to the bull ring tail-impaling pins so that they can penetrate the tail portion of the fish to secure the fish to the bull ring for the cleaning operation.

Feeding mechanism for moving the fish along the trough 35 to engage their tail portions with the tailreceiver and for elevating the tail-receiver to enable the fish to be securedon the bull ring is shown in U. S. Pat. Nos. 2,585,267, 2,630,208 and 2,680,876. The mechanism of the present invention is somewhat similar to that shown in those patents, but includes improved mechanism.

To move a fish tail first along the trough 35 pusher lugs 36 carried by a chain 37 are moved along a slot in the trough toward the fish-cleaning mechanism indicated generally at 38. A variable-speed hydraulic motor 39 is connected to drive both the cleaning mechanism and the fish-beheading mechanism at a speed synchronized with the remainder of the fish-canning line in which the beheading mechanism and the cleaning mechanism are incorporated, as disclosed in US. Pat. No. 3,456,289. By varying the speed of such motor the fish supplied to the canning line from the beheading and cleaning apparatus of the present invention can keep pace with the remainder of the canning operation.

The drive mechanism for the fish-beheading mechanism and the fish-cleaning mechanism is shown particularly in FIGS. 1 and 2. The motor 39 drives

chains

40 and 41 in sequence to turn the main drive shaft 42 for the beheading mechanism. This shaft is connected by a coupling 43 to a second shaft section 44 that is mounted directly on the beheading mechanism. Such shaft drives a cross shaft 45 extending under the beheading table, as shown in FIG. 3 by bevel gearing 46 shown in FIG. 1.

The beheading knife shaft 32 is rotated by an upright drive shaft 47 turned by bevel gearing 48 connecting it to cross shaft 45. Such upright shaft in turn drives the beheading knife shaft 32 through bevel gearing 49. Cross shaft 45 also drives the hold-down driving chains 33 through successive chains 50 and 51. To such chain drive a further chain 53, shown in FIG. 2, is connected to drive the chains 4, 5 and 6 of the transfer table and the beheading table.

During the cleaning operation by the cleaning mechanism 38 the fish are carried on the periphery of a bull ring 95 on which drive gears 54 are mounted. These gears are turned by pinions 55 mounted on shaft 56 as shown best in FIG. 1. This shaft is turned directly and continuously by chain 40 whenever the drive motor 39 is in operation. The speed of rotation of the bull ring is controlled by regulating the speed of the motor 39.

Shaft 56 also powers mechanism for elevating the fish tail-receiver 35' in synchronism with rotation of the bull ring. Whenever shaft 56 is turning to drive the bull ring, it is also connected to drive the tail receiver elevating mechanism. This latter mechanism is driven by a roller chain 57 connecting shaft 56 to a sprocket mounted on a sleeve 59. Shaft 42 for driving the beheading table mechanism extends through sleeve 59 and serves as a bearing support for it.

On sleeve 59 is mounted a disk cam 60, the periphery of which is engaged by a cam follower roller mounted on the end of an arm 62 to effect raising of the fish-tail receiver 35.

Floating on shaft 56, which is driven by chain 40, is a sleeve on which is mounted the sprocket for driving chain 41 and a jaw-clutch part 67 which is rotatively integral with such sprocket. The other part 68 of such jaw clutch is shiftable axially along the sleeve toward and away from jaw-clutch part 67 to engage and disengage the clutch parts. The clutch part 68 is moved by swinging a shifter 69 which is moved manually by swinging handle 72.

By effecting engagement of the clutch part 68 with the clutch part 67 in different rotative relationships the relationship between the beheading mechanism and the cleaning mechanism can be established. The beheaded end of the fish will alway be located in the same position transversely of the transfer table 34 irrespective of the length of the fish, as shown in FIG. 1.

The fish-cleaning mechanism 38 is generally of the type shown in U. S. Pat. Nos. 1,542,196 and 3,456,287. The main component of such cleaning mechanism is the bull ring 95 on which the fish are carried past the several cleaning implements. As stated previously, the tail portion of a fish is impaled by pins reciprocating axially of the bull ring which drag the fish around the bull ring orbit tail first. During movement around such orbit the back and belly fins are cut from the beheaded fish, the belly is slit open, the sides of the fish are spread apart, the viscera are scraped out and the cavity is brushed clean.

While the variable-speed hydraulic motor 39 rotates the bull ring of the cleaning mechanism by the gears 55 on shaft 56 engaging the bull ring gears 54, it is preferred that the various cleaning implements be powered separately by another hydraulic motor 96, shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. This motor drives the main drive chain 97 which drives the main implement drive shaft 98 extending across the top of the cleaning mechanism and over the bull ring. From the main drive shaft 98 a drive chain 99 extends forward to drive a countershaft 100 as shown in FIG. 5. From this countershaft an elongated plate 101 shown in FIG. 4 is suspended to carry the belly fin cutter 102.

Cutter 102 is mounted on a cantilever swingable arm through which the belly fin cutter shaft extends and is driven by chain 104 connected to countershaft 100. The mounting plate 101 is swingable about the axis of shaft 100, and the attitude of mounting arm 103 about its pivot 105 is controlled by a control link I06 extending generally parallel to the cutter-mounting plate 101. The upper end of such link is connected by a pivot 107 to the frame of the machine, and the lower end of such link is connected by a pivot 108 to the belly fin cuttermounting arm 103.

The belly fin cutter 102 is a circular rotary cutting disk rotated about an axis directed substantially radially of the bull ring 95. The face of such disk will ride against the belly of a fish and the disk will be moved toward and away from the bull ring depending upon the width of the fish. As the mounting arm is swung by engagement of the cutting disk with the fish, the control link 106 will maintain the arm 103 in a substantially radial attitude so that the plane of the cutting disk is held substantially tangential to the belly of the fish whatever the fish width may be.

At the inner side of the bull ring substantially directly opposite the belly fin cutter is a rotary tail cutoff disk 109, which is powered rather directly by the implement drive motor 96. Spaced circumferentially from the belly fin cutter 102 around the bull ring adjacent to its inner circumference is a back and dorsal fin cutting saw 109 and adjacent to the outer circumference of the bull ring is a belly-slitting saw 110 mounted on the end of a cantilever arm 111. This saw is driven by a chain 112 connecting it to the main drive shaft 98, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. Slitting of the fish belly by this saw enables the sides of the fish to be spread apart to enable rotary eviscerating scrapers and cleaning brushes to enter the fish body cavity.

The end of main drive shaft 98 remote from main drive chain 97 carries a gear 113 meshing with a gear 114 on a second main drive shaft 115 to reverse the direction of shaft rotation. From such second main drive shaft an arm 116 depends, on the swinging end of which is mounted a first rotary eviscerating scraper 117. Such scraper is rotated by drive chain 118 in a direction such that the portion ofits periphery contacting the fish is moving in a direction opposite to the direction in which the fish is moved by the bull ring and scrapes toward the beheaded end of the fish.

A first countershaft 119 and a second countershaft 120 are driven by a chain 121 from the second main drive shaft 115. On the lower end of an arm 122 depending from countershaft 119 is carried a second rotary eviscerating scraper 123, which is driven by chain 124. From shaft 120 an arm 125 is suspended that carries a first rotary cleaning brush 126 on its lower end, which is driven by chain 127. This cleaning brush engages the fish following the operation on it of the second eviscerating scraper 123.

An arm 128 suspended from countershaft 120 carries an auxiliary countershaft 129, from which a further support arm 130 depends. A second rotary cleaning brush 131 is carried by the lower end of arm 130 and is rotated by a chain 132 turning shaft 129, which in turn drives chain 133. This second cleaning brush completes the cleaning of the fish cavity so that after the fish has been carried past it by the bull ring 95 the fish tail-impaling pins can be withdrawn to release the fish from the bull ring.

We claim:

1. In fish-cleaning mechanism including a bull ring for carrying fish to be cleaned, a plurality of fishcleaning implements arranged around the bull ring, including a belly-slitting disk, a fin cutter ahead of the belly-slitting disk circumferentially of the bull ring and rotary cavity-cleaning implements behind the bellyslitting disk circumferentially of the bull ring, and a drive motor for such implements, the improvement comprising a belly-slitting disk shaft carrying the bellyslitting disk, a main implement drive shaft, a chain directly connecting said main implement drive shaft and said belly-slitting disk shaft, a drive chain directly connecting the drive motor and said main implement drive shaft, and connecting means extending from said main implement drive shaft generally in one direction to drive the fin cutter and generally in the opposite direction to drive the cavity-cleaning implements.

2. In fish-cleaning mechanism including a bull ring and a plurality of fish-cleaning implements arranged around the bull ring, including a rotary belly-fin cutter located exteriorly of the bull ring, the improvement pivotally connected to said second arm at-a location spaced from said first arm to control swinging of said second arm as said first arm swings.

Claims

1. In fish-cleaning mechanism including a bull ring for carrying fish to be cleaned, a plurality of fish-cleaning implements arranged around the bull ring, including a belly-slitting disk, a fin cutter ahead of the belly-slitting disk circumferentially of the bull ring and rotary cavity-cleaning implements behind the belly-slitting disk circumferentially of the bull ring, and a drive motor for such implements, the improvement comprising a belly-slitting disk shaft carrying the belly-slitting disk, a main implement drive shaft, a chain directly connecting said main implement drive shaft and said belly-slitting disk shaft, a drive chain directly connecting the drive motor and said main implement drive shaft, and connecting means extending from said main implement drive shaft generally in one direction to drive the fin cutter and generally in the opposite direction to drive the cavity-cleaning implements.

2. In fish-cleaning mechanism including a bull ring and a plurality of fish-cleaning implements arranged around the bull ring, including a rotary belly-fin cutter located exteriorly of the bull ring, the improvement comprising a swinging first arm supported for swinging of one end toward and away from the bull ring, a second arm pivotally mounted on the swinging end of said first arm and carrying the belly-fin cutter, and a link extending generally parallel to said swinging first arm and pivotally connected to said second arm at a location spaced from said first arm to control swinging of said second arm as said first arm swings.