WO2014032836A1

WO2014032836A1 - Helical scraping rollers and apparatus for processing of pelts having helical scraping rollers

Info

Publication number: WO2014032836A1
Application number: PCT/EP2013/064116
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kurt Pedersen
Original assignee: 4M Globe Management Ltd.
Priority date: 2012-08-30
Filing date: 2013-07-04
Publication date: 2014-03-06
Also published as: DK177520B1

Abstract

An apparatus for processing the skin side of a tubular pelt (3) is disclosed comprising an elongated tapering mandrel (1) for supporting the pelt (3) with its skin side turned outwards, the mandrel (1) having a thinner, free end (2) from which the tubular pelt (3) is drawn over the mandrel (1) and a thicker end (4), a scraping device (5) comprising two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) each having a plurality of scraping edges (19, 19') and being arranged to engage a skin side of a pelt (3) on opposing sides of the mandrel (1), wherein the plurality of scraping edges (19, 19') extend substantially helically along the longitudinal direction of the principal scraping rollers (17, 18), and wherein the two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) are arranged to impose force components transversal to the mandrel (1) acting in the same direction on the skin side of a pelt (3) during their engagement with the skin side of a pelt (3).

Description

HELICAL SCRAPING ROLLERS AND APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING OF PELTS HAVING

HELICAL SCRAPING ROLLERS

The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing the skin side of a tubular pelt by scraping the skin side by means of rotating helical scraping rollers, in particularly scraping rollers designed for scraping the area of the skin side of the pelt where that covered the front legs of the furred animals as well as such helical scraping rollers. BACKGROUND

A fresh pelt taken from a furred animal such as a mink normally has a layer or residues of fat, tendons and/or flesh that is firmly attached to the skin side of the pelt. Before the pelt can be used for further processing, such layers or residues must be removed from the skin side.

A prior art apparatus for processing such pelts to remove layers or residues of fat, tendons and/or flesh on the skin side is described in Danish patent specification DK 156 669. This apparatus comprises a single scraper roller with V-shaped scraping elements to scrape the skin on each side of a mandrel, on which a tubular pelt is arranged with the skin side facing outwards.

The area beneath the front leg skin parts, i.e. the skin parts that used to cover the animal's front legs are difficult to process completely and a residue of fat may be left from the processing by the primary scraping rollers which may cause damages to the pelt as the fat may influence the fur side of the pelt negatively.

Danish patent specification DK 173 611 describes an apparatus for processing pelts on a mandrel. The apparatus comprises several scraper rollers that, while scraping the skin side of the pelt, cause the pelt to rotate about its longitudinal axis in order to obtain a complete scraping of the entire surface of the skin side. European patent specification EP 2 093 299 discloses an apparatus for processing pelts which comprises two scraper rollers engaging the same part of the pelt but driven in opposite directions of rotation to obtain an improved scraping behind and beneath the front legs by achieving both a friction force against a thick end of a mandrel on which a pelt is arranged and a friction force against the thin end of the mandrel.

WO 2012/019606 Al discloses an apparatus for scraping the skin side of a tubular pelt, where the relative motion of the mandrel and the scraper rollers is slower when the scraper roller processes the first part of the skin side of the tubular pelt for improved scraping of the area around the front legs and the neck of the pelt. Additionally or alternatively, the means for biasing the scraper rollers against the skin side may be equipped with a damper arrangement for damping the movement of the scraper rollers towards and away from the skin side, which is also intended to improve the scraping quality in particular around the front legs.

DK 177 165 discloses an apparatus for processing of the skin side of a tubular pelt which apart from primary scraping rollers comprises at least one further treatment means having a direction of treatment that deviates at least 175° from the relative direction of movement of the mandrel and with one or more axes of rotation that deviates from the direction of rotation of the primary scraping roller.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus for processing the skin side of a tubular pelt where the cleaning of the skin side is satisfactory, in particular around the skin parts that have covered the front legs of the furred animal. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing the skin side of a tubular pelt, in particular a mink pelt, the apparatus comprising an elongated tapering mandrel for supporting the pelt with its skin side turned outwards and the fur side turned inwards against the surface of the mandrel, the mandrel having a thinner, free end from which the tubular pelt is drawn over the mandrel and a thicker end, a scraping device comprising two principal scraping rollers each having a plurality, such as 7 to 12 scraping edges and being arranged to engage a skin side of a pelt on opposing sides of the mandrel, and rotation means for rotating the principal scraping rollers, moving means for conducting a relative movement between the scraping device and the mandrel in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel, wherein the plurality of scraping edges extend substantially helically along the longitudinal direction of the principal scraping rollers, and wherein the two principal scraping rollers are arranged to impose force components transversal to the mandrel acting in the same direction on the skin side of a pelt during their engagement with the skin side of a pelt so as to reduce or eliminate the tendency of such forces to rotate the pelt on the mandrel as known from the aforementioned Danish patent specification DK 173 611. The two principal scraping rollers are preferably arranged to scape an area of the skin side of the pelt that covered the front legs of the animal and may thus be named front leg scraping rollers.

The principal scraping rollers are furthermore preferably arranged so that the force components parallel to the mandrel imposed by the two principal scraping rollers on the skin side of a pelt during their engagement with the skin side of a pelt both are directed towards the thicker end of the mandrel whereby the whole pelt remains stretched on the mandrel and damages on the pelt or insufficient processing of the skin side due to unequal stretching of the pelt at the two sides are avoided. It is particularly preferred that the helical scraping edges of the two principal scraping rollers have opposite directions of turn, i.e. left-handed helical and right- handed helical. Hereby, the principal scraping rollers may be rotated in opposite directions on opposing sides of the mandrel with parallel axes of rotation and impose forces on the skin side of the pelt when in engagement with the skin side that have equal-sized components in the same direction perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the mandrel and equal-sized components in the direction towards the thicker end of the mandrel. In a particularly preferred embodiment of the present invention, the moving means consists of mandrel drive means for driving the mandrel in a longitudinal direction thereof during processing of a pelt while the scraping device is kept substantially stationary. The scraping device according to the present invention preferably comprise a first pair of primary scraping rollers arranged on opposing sides of the mandrel and a second pair of primary scraping rollers arranged on other opposing sides of the mandrel and being substantially perpendicularly oriented with respect to the first pair of primary scraping rollers, the scraping device further comprising primary rotation means for rotating said primary scraping rollers during processing of a pelt so as to engage a skin side of the pelt. The skin side of the pelt may thereby be processed by being scraped on all side of a substantially rectangular or square cross-section of the mandrel by means of the primary scraping rollers, which in a preferred embodiment each are equipped with a plurality of scraping edges being substantially V-shaped.

The V shape of the primary scraping rollers' scraping edges has several advantages. Firstly, the scraping edges prevent the pelt from rotating on the mandrel. Among other things, this results in increased control over the scraping of the pelt. The V shape also means that the pelt on the mandrel can be stretched towards or away from a plane that passes through the centre axis of the mandrel in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel so that areas around edges or curves on the mandrel are processed, depending on how the primary scraping rollers are turned. The scraping rollers with the V-shaped scraping edges are arranged preferably so that the points of contact between the scraping rollers and the pelt for each of the scraping edges, during operation, stretches the pelt towards a plane that passes through the centre axis of the mandrel in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel. Thus, e.g. the parts of the skin arranged on edges of the mandrel for example in embodiments where the mandrel comprises substantially plane surfaces, e.g. a square formed tapering mandrel with four edges extending in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel the skin parts at or near the edges are adequately scraped.

It is preferred that one of said primary scraping rollers is provided with a plurality of scraping edges of a substantially symmetrical configuration, so that said primary scraping roller will impose a substantially zero resulting force component on the skin side of a pelt in a longitudinal direction of the primary scraping roller during its engagement with the skin side of a pelt, the primary scraping roller being arranged to scrape a skin part of the tail of the pelt. Hereby, the skin side of the tail will be properly processed because it will be fully scraped by a scraping roller of a symmetrical configuration as opposed to a scraping roller having helical scraping edges, which may just turn the tail part of the pelt to the side to be directed transversal to the mandrel without being properly scraped. Said primary scraping roller of a substantial symmetrical configuration has preferably a configuration of the scraping edges selected from the group consisting of V-shaped, U-shaped and straight scraping edges. In an alternative embodiment, the pair of primary scraping rollers that are arranged to process the skin side of the pelt on the same opposing sides of the mandrel as the principal scraping rollers are processing may be equipped with scraping edges that extent substantially helical along the longitudinal direction of said primary scraping rollers so that they are arranged to impose force components transversal to the mandrel acting in the same direction in the skin side of the pelt during their engagement with the skin side, wherein that force is in the opposite direction of the force imposed by the principal scraping rollers. Hereby, the pelt is stretched in the opposite direction by this pair of primary scraping rollers and the scraping of the edges of the skin side of the pelt, i.e. the area at the edges of the mandrel, may be improved. It is particularly preferred that the helical scraping edges of the two primary scraping rollers of this pair have opposite directions of turn, i.e. left-handed helical and right-handed helical. Hereby, the primary scraping rollers may be rotated in opposite directions on opposing sides of the mandrel with parallel axes of rotation and impose forces on the skin side of the pelt when in engagement with the skin side that have equal-sized components in the same direction perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the mandrel and equal- sized components in the direction towards the thicker end of the mandrel.

The apparatus may also comprise biasing means for selectively biasing the scraping edges of the principal scraping rollers into engagement with the skin side of a pelt supported on the mandrel.

The shape of the scraping edges of the primary as well as the principal scraping rollers are preferably shaped for defining a contour substantially complementary to the cross-sectional contour of the mandrel.

The helical scraping edges of the principal scraping rollers form preferably an angle (a) with the axis of rotation of the respective scraping roller in the range of 30 to 65°, preferably in the range of 35 to 55° to ensure an actual lifting of the front leg of the pelt and an efficient scraping of the area around and in particular beneath the front leg.

The present invention also relates to the use of an apparatus as described herein, wherein the tubular pelt is arranged on the mandrel so that the force components transversal to the mandrel imposed by the two principal scraping rollers on the skin side of the pelt during their engagement with the skin side of the pelt both act from a belly side of the pelt towards a back side of the pelt, whereby the principal scraping roller will process the skin side of the pelt particularly well under and behind skin parts of the fur that have covered the front legs of the animal as these skin parts will be lifted by the action of the principal scraping rollers. The present invention furthermore relates to a scraping roller for processing of the skin side of a pelt, primarily for the processing of the skin side of the parts of the pelt that covered the front legs, and comprising a plurality of scraping edges extending substantially helically along the longitudinal direction of the front leg scraping rollers, wherein the scraping edges form an angle (a) with the axis of rotation of the respective scraping roller in the range of 30 to 65°, preferably in the range of 35 to 55°.

The scraping roller is made from an elastic material, such as a natural or artificial rubber, and it is preferred that the roller is moulded in a polyester type polyurethane having a hardness between Shore 60A and Shore 95 A.

The scraping edges of the front leg scraping roller form preferably a substantially cylindrical surface so as to match the outer shape of a mandrel having a rectangular or quadratic cross-section.

Also, the present invention relates to a pair of scraping rollers as described herein, wherein helical scraping edges of the two scraping rollers have opposite directions of turn, i.e. left-handed helical and right-handed helical scraping edges. These scraping rollers are the preferred ones for being a part of the apparatus described herein and for being used as disclosed herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

An embodiment of the present invention is shown in the accompanying drawing of which Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an apparatus according to the present invention,

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a set of principal scraping rollers or front leg scraping rollers according to the invention,

Fig. 3 is a side view of a mandrel with a tubular pelt thereon and one of the front leg scraping rollers shown, Fig. 4 is a top view of a mandrel with a tubular pelt thereon and both of the front leg scraping rollers shown, and

Fig. 5 is a partial side view of one of the front leg scraping rollers. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

A scraping apparatus for scraping the skin side of tubular pelts according to the present invention, in particular mink pelts is shown in Fig. 1, comprising a tapered, horizontal mandrel 1 having a thinner front end 2 from which the pelt 3 is drawn onto the mandrel 1 and a thicker end 4 which is connected to mandrel moving means (not shown) for moving the mandrel 1 in a longitudinal direction thereof towards the scraping device 5 during the processing of a pelt 3 and back to the starting position of the mandrel 1 in a return stroke. The mandrel 1 is of a square cross-sectional shape and the scraping device 5 is designed for processing each of the four sides of the pelt 3 drawn onto the mandrel 1.

The scraping device 5 is arranged stationary on a frame (not shown) of the apparatus and comprises four primary scraping rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 arranged in two pairs, a first pair 7, 8 arranged on the opposing vertical side of the mandrel 1 for scraping of the vertical sides of the skin side of the pelt 3 arranged on the mandrel 1 and a second pair 9, 10 for scraping of the horizontal sides of the skin side of the pelt 3. Each primary scraping roller 7, 8, 9, 10 is driven by an individual motor 11, 12, 13, 14. The primary scraping rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 are provided with V-shaped scraping edges 15, which will stretch the pelt 3 on the mandrel 1 away from the corners of the mandrel 1 and towards the centre of the plane sides of the mandrel 1. Since the two pairs of primary scraping rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 are displaced in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel 1, the V-shape of the scraping edges 15 will ensure that the part of the pelt 3 near and at the corners of the mandrel 1 will be processed by both sets of primary scraping rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 and thus be sufficiently cleaned for the following processing of the pelt 3, starting with the drying of the pelt 3. All four primary scraping rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 impose a force on the pelt 3 in the direction towards the thicker end 4 of the mandrel 1 whereby the pelt 3 is stretched on the mandrel 1 and remains stretched during the processing of the pelt 3.

The furred animal, in this example a mink, has been skinned and the fresh pelt 3 has been turned inside out and drawn onto the mandrel 1 with the fur side towards the surface of the mandrel 1 and the skin side, also known as the flesh side, outwards and ready for being processed by the scraping device 5. This processing is intended to remove flesh residues, fat, tendons and other material from the skin side of the fur. The pelt 3 comprises the skin part of e.g. the tail 16 and the skin parts 6a, 6b of the pelt 3 that have covered the front legs of the animal. The area beneath the front leg skin parts 6a, 6b are difficult to process completely and a residue of fat may be left from the processing by the primary scraping rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 which may cause damages to the pelt as the fat may influence the fur side of the pelt negatively. Therefore, the pair of principal or front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 has been provided for a separate scraping of the area around and in particular beneath the front leg skin parts 6a, 6b, i.e. in the direction towards the belly side of the pelt 3. The front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 are driven by individual motors 20, 21.

The pelt 3 is in the drawing arranged with the tail 16 and consequently the back side of the pelt 3 on top of the mandrel 1, the front leg skin parts 6a, 6b on the side of the mandrel 1 and the belly side of the pelt 3 on the lower side of the mandrel 1. The front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 are provided with helical scraping edges 19, 19' as shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 5, where it is clear from Fig. 2 that the helical scraping edges 19, 19' are turned in opposite direction on the two front leg scraping rollers 17, 18, so that one roller 17 has a left-hand turn of the scraping edges 19 whereas the other roller 18 has a right-hand turn of the scraping edges 19'. The purpose of the helical scraping edges 19, 19' is that they will provide the front leg skin parts 6a, 6b with a force in the direction towards the back side of the pelt 3 and lift these skin parts 6a, 6b so that the front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 obtain access to process the area beneath the skin parts 6a, 6b and remove the fat and other impurities, resulting in a more satisfactory overall result of the processing of the skin side of the pelt 3 by the apparatus. The helical scraping edges 19, 19' have an angle of 41° with the axis of rotation.

The two front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 are of similar diameter and are driven with the same rotational speed so that the force they impose on the skin side of the pelt 3 will have a component transversal to the longitudinal direction of the mandrel 1, in the case shown in the upwards direction, which are of the same magnitude of and have the same direction so that both front leg skin parts 6a, 6b are lifted and the pelt 3 will not rotate on the mandrel 1. This could be achieved with identical front leg scraping rollers 17, 18, of which one is turned upside down with respect to the other, but with the present embodiment, the two rollers 17, 18 are formed with mirrored directions of turn of the helical scraping edges 19, 19' so that both can impose a force on the skin side of the pelt 3 having an upwards component as well as a component in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel 1 towards the thicker end 4 of the mandrel 1 whereby the pelt 3 remains stretched on the mandrel 1 and damages on the pelt 3 or insufficient processing of the skin side due to unequal stretching of the pelt 3 at the two sides in case the two front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 rotate in different directions. A side view of the mandrel 1 with a pelt 3 arranged and one of the front leg scraping rollers 17 is shown in Fig. 3 with the axis of rotation 22 of the roller 17 indicated and a diagram of the forces imposed by the roller 17 on the skin side of the pelt 3 during processing. The helical scraping edges 19 are turning left- handed on the roller 17 and the roller 17 is rotated counter clockwise when seen from above as in Fig. 4 and the scraping edges 19 will thus impose an upward force component as well as a component towards the thicker end 4 of the mandrel 1. The front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 are in the example shown in Fig. 1 arranged to engage the skin side of the pelt 3 prior to the processing by the two pairs of primary rollers 7, 8, 9, 10, but it should be clear that the pair of front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 could as well be arranged between the two pairs of primary rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 or so that they would engage the skin side of the pelt 3 after the primary rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 have processed the pelt 3.

The apparatus also comprises biasing means (not shown) for selectively biasing the scraping edges 19, 19' of the front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 into engagement with the skin side of a pelt 3 supported on the mandrel 1. The biasing means are preferably arranged so that the front leg scraping rollers 17, 18 only engages the skin side of the pelt 3 in the region in which the front legs 6a, 6b are situated and are withdrawn from the engagement when the front legs 6a, 6b have passed the front leg scraping rollers 17, 18, whereas other biasing means (not shown) are arranged to bias the primary scraping rollers 7, 8, 9, 10 into engagement with the skin side of the pelt 3 along the whole length of the pelt 3.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

1 Mandrel

2 Thinner front end of mandrel

3 Pelt

4 Thicker end of mandrel

5 Scraping device

6a, 6b Skin parts of the pelt that have covered the front legs of the animal

7, 8 Scraping rollers of first pair of primary scraping rollers

9, 10 Scraping rollers of second pair of primary scraping rollers

11, 12, 13, 14 Motors for driving the primary scraping rollers

15 V-shaped scraping edges

16 Skin part of the tail

17, 18 Front leg scraping rollers

19, 19' Scraping edges of the front leg scraping rollers

20, 21 Motors for driving the front leg scraping rollers

22 Axis of rotation of a front leg scraping roller

Angle between scraping edge of a front leg scraping roller and the axis rotation thereof

Claims

1. An apparatus for processing the skin side of a tubular pelt (3), the apparatus comprising

an elongated tapering mandrel (1) for supporting the pelt (3) with its skin side turned outwards, the mandrel (1) having a thinner, free end (2) from which the tubular pelt (3) is drawn over the mandrel (1) and a thicker end (4),

a scraping device (5) comprising two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) each having a plurality of scraping edges (19, 19') and being arranged to engage a skin side of a pelt (3) on opposing sides of the mandrel (1), and

rotation means for rotating the principal scraping rollers (17, 18),

moving means for conducting a relative movement between the scraping device (5) and the mandrel (1) in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel (1),

wherein the plurality of scraping edges (19, 19') extend substantially helically along the longitudinal direction of the front leg scraping rollers (17, 18), and wherein the two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) are arranged to impose force components transversal to the mandrel (1) acting in the same direction on the skin side of a pelt (3) during their engagement with the skin side of a pelt (3).

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) are arranged to scape an area (6a, 6b) of the skin side of the pelt (3) that covered the front legs of the animal.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said force components of the two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) transversal to the mandrel (1) are substantially equal.

4. An apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the force components parallel to the mandrel (1) imposed by the two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) on the skin side of a pelt (3) during their engagement with the skin side of a pelt (3) both are directed towards the thicker end (4) of the mandrel (1).

5. An apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the helical scraping edges (19, 19') of the two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) have opposite directions of turn.

6. An apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) having substantially parallel axis of rotation (22).

7. An apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said moving means consists of mandrel drive means for driving the mandrel (1) in a longitudinal direction thereof during processing of a pelt (3).

8. An apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the scraping device (5) furthermore comprises a first pair of primary scraping rollers (7, 8) arranged on opposing sides of the mandrel (1) and a second pair of primary scraping rollers (9, 10) arranged on other opposing sides of the mandrel (1) and being substantially perpendicularly oriented with respect to the first pair of primary scraping rollers (7, 8), the scraping device (5) further comprising primary rotation means for rotating said primary scraping rollers (7, 8, 9, 10) during processing of a pelt (3) so as to engage a skin side of the pelt (3).

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, wherein one of said primary scraping rollers (10) is provided with a plurality of scraping edges of a substantially symmetrical configuration, so that said primary scraping roller (10) will impose a substantially zero resulting force component on the skin side of a pelt (3) in a longitudinal direction of the primary scraping roller (10) during its engagement with the skin side of a pelt (3), the primary scraping roller (10) being arranged to scrape a skin part of the tail (16) of the pelt (3).

10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein said primary scraping roller (10) has a configuration of the scraping edges (15) selected from the group consisting of V- shaped, U-shaped and straight scraping edges.

11. An apparatus according to any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the pair of primary scraping rollers (7, 8) that are arranged to process the skin side of the pelt on the same opposing sides of the mandrel as the principal scraping rollers (17, 18) are arranged to process are equipped with scraping edges that extent substantially helical along the longitudinal direction of said primary scraping rollers (7, 8).

12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said primary scraping rollers (7, 8) are arranged to impose force components transversal to the mandrel (1) acting in the same direction in the skin side of the pelt (3) during their engagement with the skin side.

13. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said force components transversal to the mandrel (1) are in the opposite direction of the forces imposed by the principal scraping rollers (17, 18).

14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the helical scraping edges of said two primary scraping rollers (7, 8) have opposite directions of turn.

15. An apparatus according to any of claims 8-14, wherein the primary scraping rollers (7, 8, 9, 10) each comprises a plurality of scraping edges being substantially V-shaped.

16. An apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the helical scraping edges (19, 19') of the principal scraping rollers (17, 18) form an angle (a) with the axis of rotation (22) of the respective scraping roller (17, 18) in the range of 30 to 65°, preferably in the range of 35 to 55°.

13. Use of an apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 12, wherein the tubular pelt (3) is arranged on the mandrel (1) so that the force components transversal to the mandrel (1) imposed by the two principal scraping rollers (17, 18) on the skin side of the pelt (3) during their engagement with the skin side of the pelt (3) both act from a belly side of the pelt (3) towards a back side of the pelt (3).

14. A scraping roller (17, 18) for processing of the skin side of a pelt (3) and comprising a plurality of scraping edges (19, 19') extending substantially helically along the longitudinal direction of the scraping roller (17, 18), wherein the scraping edges (19, 19') form an angle (a) with the axis of rotation (22) of the respective scraping roller in the range of 30 to 65°, preferably in the range of 35 to 55°.

15. A scraping roller (17, 18) according to claim 14, which is moulded in polyester type polyurethane having a hardness between Shore 60A and Shore 95 A.

16. A scraping roller (17, 18) according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the scraping edges (19, 19') form a substantially cylindrical surface.

17. Use of a scraping roller (17, 18) according to any of claims 14 to 16 for processing the skin side of a pelt (3), preferably a mink pelt.

18. A pair of scraping rollers (17, 18) according to any of claims 14 to 16, wherein helical scraping edges (19, 19') of the two scraping rollers (17, 18) have opposite directions of turn.

19. Use of a pair of scraping rollers (17, 18) according to claim 18 for processing the skin side of a pelt (3), preferably a mink pelt.