Meat dewatering assembly
AssigneeWenger Manufacturing, Inc.
InventorsLaVon Wenger, Allan C. Spellmeier
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A meat dewatering assembly (10) includes a support frame (12), a twin screw dewatering unit (14), a drive assembly (16) coupled with the unit (14), and a perforated housing (60). The unit (14) has a pair of tapered, non-parallel, intermeshed, helically flighted screws (52, 54) presenting nip clearances (59) between the fighting (55). The drive assembly (16) serves to counter-rotate the screws (52, 54). In use, emulsified meat is passed into the housing (60) during counter-rotation of the screws (52, 54), in order to compress the meat within the clearances (59) and thereby express water from the meat. Adjustment collars (38) permit selective size alteration of the nip clearances (59).
Claims15
A meat dewatering assembly, comprising:
- a pair of elongated, non-parallel, tapered and intermeshed helically flighted screws, each screw presenting a longitudinal axis, said screws oriented with the included angle between the longitudinal axes thereof being from about 1-7°, the helical flighting of the screws cooperatively presenting nip clearances along the length of the screws;
- an elongated housing at least partially surrounding said helical screws with an entrance opening for emulsified meat, a series of water outlets along at least a part of the length of the housing, and a dewatered meat outlet;
- and
- a drive operably coupled with said screws in order to counter-rotate the screws during operation of the dewatering assembly.
A method of dewatering emulsified meat, comprising the steps of:
- passing said emulsified meat into and through a meat dewatering assembly, said assembly comprising a pair of elongated, non-parallel, tapered and intermeshed helically flighted screws, each screw presenting a longitudinal axis, said screws oriented with the included angle between the longitudinal axes thereof being from about 1-7°, the helical fighting of the screws cooperatively presenting nip clearances along the length of the screws;
- counter-rotating said screws during passage of said emulsified meat through the dewatering assembly, and causing meat therein to be compressed within said nip clearances in order to expel water from the meat, said method being carried out at substantially atmospheric pressure;
- and
- recovering dewatered meat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.