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US 11,937,610 B2Granted
System and method for operating a poultry stunning facility
AssigneeMidway Machine Technologies, Inc.
InventorTerry B. Geertman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and system for receiving, processing, and stunning poultry in a poultry processing facility includes an receiving system for receiving and unloading live poultry from a transport vehicle, a controlled atmosphere stunning system, a stunned poultry hanging station for receiving and transferring stunned poultry to another facility for further processing, such as slaughtering the stunned poultry. Shuttle conveyors and cage pushers coordinate to unload cages of live poultry from the transport vehicle and begin conveying the cages toward the stunning system. Accumulators, cage de-stackers, cage stackers, cage washers, tilted conveyors, and other features may be included with the system.
Claims18
A poultry processing system comprising:
- a receiving module for receiving and unloading a poultry transport vehicle and defining a transport vehicle drive path;
- a poultry stunning system for irreversibly stunning poultry;
- a stunned poultry hanging station configured for retrieval and processing of stunned poultry for transfer to a slaughter facility;
- a conveyor system configured to convey poultry from said receiving module to said poultry stunning system to said poultry hanging station;
- a plurality of poultry cage pushing apparatuses disposed on one side of said drive path;
- and
- a plurality of shuttle conveyors disposed on an opposite side of said drive path and configured to (i) receive poultry cages pushed by said poultry cage pushing apparatuses and (ii) convey the received poultry cages from said receiving module toward said poultry stunning system.
4 more elements
A poultry processing system comprising:
- a receiving module for receiving and unloading a poultry transport vehicle;
- a poultry stunning system for irreversibly stunning poultry;
- a stunned poultry hanging station configured for retrieval and processing of stunned poultry for transfer to a slaughter facility;
- and
- a conveyor system configured to convey poultry from said receiving module to said poultry stunning system to said poultry hanging station;
- wherein said stunned poultry hanging station comprises a hanging area for retrieving stunned poultry animals from their respective cage and transferring the stunned poultry animal to the slaughter facility for further processing.
3 more elements
A poultry processing system comprising:
- a receiving module for receiving and unloading a poultry transport vehicle;
- a poultry stunning system for irreversibly stunning poultry;
- a stunned poultry hanging station configured for retrieval and processing of stunned poultry for transfer to a slaughter facility;
- a conveyor system configured to convey poultry from said receiving module to said poultry stunning system to said poultry hanging station;
- and
- an empty poultry cage handling system adapted to transport empty poultry cages from said stunned poultry hanging station to a loading zone from which the empty cages are loaded on a transport vehicle, said empty poultry cage handling system comprising a cage washing system configured to clean the empty cages and a cage stacking system configured to stack the clean empty cages.
3 more elements
A poultry processing system comprising:
- a receiving module for receiving and unloading a poultry transport vehicle;
- a poultry stunning system for irreversibly stunning poultry;
- a stunned poultry hanging station configured for retrieval and processing of stunned poultry for transfer to a slaughter facility;
- a conveyor system configured to convey poultry from said receiving module to said poultry stunning system to said poultry hanging station;
- and
- a cage de-stacker to de-stack stacks of poultry cages.
3 more elements
A poultry processing system comprising:
- a receiving module for receiving and unloading a poultry transport vehicle;
- a poultry stunning system for irreversibly stunning poultry;
- a stunned poultry hanging station configured for retrieval and processing of stunned poultry for transfer to a slaughter facility;
- a conveyor system configured to convey poultry from said receiving module to said poultry stunning system to said poultry hanging station;
- and
- a conveyor accumulator adapted to regulate the flow of poultry cages in the poultry processing facility.
3 more elements
A poultry processing system comprising:
- a receiving module for receiving and unloading a poultry transport vehicle;
- a poultry stunning system for irreversibly stunning poultry;
- a stunned poultry hanging station configured for retrieval and processing of stunned poultry for transfer to a slaughter facility;
- and
- a conveyor system configured to convey poultry from said receiving module to said poultry stunning system, and from said poultry stunning system to said poultry hanging station;
- wherein said receiving module defines a transport vehicle drive path and comprises:
- a plurality of poultry cage pushing apparatuses disposed on one side of said drive path;
- and
- a plurality of shuttle conveyors disposed on an opposite side of said drive path;
- wherein said shuttle conveyors are configured to receive poultry cages pushed by said poultry cage pushing apparatuses and to convey the received poultry cages from said receiving module toward said poultry stunning system;
- and
- wherein said stunned poultry hanging station comprises a hanging area for retrieving stunned poultry animals from the poultry cages and transferring the stunned poultry animals to a slaughter facility for further processing.
9 more elements
A method of processing poultry for slaughter in a poultry processing facility, said method comprising:
- receiving a transport vehicle in a receiving module that defines a transport vehicle drive path;
- unloading cages of live poultry from the transport vehicle in the receiving module onto a plurality of shuttle conveyors disposed on one side of said drive path, using a plurality of poultry cage pushing apparatuses disposed on an opposite side of the drive path;
- conveying the cages of live poultry from the receiving module to a poultry stunning system on the plurality of shuttle conveyors;
- irreversibly stunning the live poultry animals in the conveyed cages inside the poultry stunning system;
- conveying the cages of stunned poultry from the poultry stunning system to a stunned poultry hanging station;
- retrieving stunned poultry animals from the conveyed cages at a poultry hanging area of the stunned poultry hanging station;
- transferring the retrieved stunned poultry animals to a slaughter facility for further processing;
- and
- conveying empty cages from the stunned poultry hanging station to a final loading area and loading the empty cages on an at least partially empty transport vehicle for transport out of the poultry processing facility.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.