Automatic carousel-type meat cutting machine

An automatic carousel-type meat cutting machine comprising;

• a. a rotatable carousel having a central hub removably keyed to a central drive shaft, said hub having a plurality of removable and radially extending arms projecting therefrom and lying in a horizontal plane;
• b. a pair of vertically extending bulk meat-engaging jaws carried by each arm, one of the jaws in each pair being spring biased and swingable in a horizontal plane, each pair of jaws adapted to receive a bulk meat item therebetween and to accommodate automatically to the size of the item, the bone portion of the meat being disposed against the vertical surface of the non-spring biased jaw;
• c. a circular meat supporting surface made up of an arcuate-shaped stationary platform with radially extending front and rear edges and a vertically adjustable arcuate-shaped platform with radially extending front and rear edges, the front edge of said adjustable platform being disposed close to the adjacent rear edge of the stationary platform and the front edge of the stationary platform being disposed close to the rear edge of the adjustable platform so that the bulk meat items will be supported by the platforms;
• d. means for rotating the central drive shaft and carousel for moving said arms and pairs of jaws in a circular path;
• e. means for lowering said adjustable platform below said stationary platform to a distance equal to the thickness of the slices of meat desired to be cut from the bulk meat items;
• and
• f. bulk meat cutting means disposed adjacent to the rear edge of the adjustable platform but on the same plane as the stationary platform for cutting meat slices from the bulk meat items as they are moved past said cutting means from the adjustable platform to the stationary platform.

A carousel comprising:

• a. a hub having a plurality of outwardly projecting clevises extending radially from said hub axis, each clevis having a base portion extending beyond said clevis;
• b. a socket pivotally connected to each clevis and overlying its associate base, said socket being U-shaped in cross section with the sides of the socket normally facing downwardly and resting on its base, each radially extending arm being removably receivable in said socket;
• and
• c. a pair of meat engaging jaws carried by each arm, one of the jaws in each pair being spring biased so as to be yieldingly urged toward its associate jaw.