Rotary meat grinder with bone-collecting facilities

A perforated grinder plate adapted for use in a meat grinder of the type that comprises a horizontally elongated tubular casing having one end thereof forming a meat inlet and its other end forming a ground meat outlet and defining a meat channel between the inlet and the outlet, a meat-impelling worm extending lengthwise of and mounted for rotation in the channel, provided at its rear end with a cylindrical pilot shaft, and effective upon rotation thereof to impell meat rearwardly through the channel from the inlet to the outlet, and a knife assembly mounted on the rear end region of the worm for rotation in unison with the worm and having a series of generally radially extending blades, said perforated meat grinder plate being adapted to extend vertically across said other end of the casing with its forward face in shearing relation with the blades of the knife assembly, embodying in its central portion an axial journal-forming bore for supporting rotatably said pilot shaft, and having formed in its forward face a large-sized counterbore which is disposed in coaxial relation with the bore and defines with the adjacent portion of the pilot shaft a substantially large annular bone-collecting pocket which except for its front end is closed in order that any bone particles which collect therein do not pass through the plate, said perforated grinder plate also having formed in its forward face a narrow bone-receiving groove having a width greater than the diameter of the perforations, extending inwards from the peripheral region of the plate and having its inner end in tangential communication with the pocket.