Sheep and lamb mechanical toe-breaker
AssigneeArmour and Company
InventorsJ. R. Henry, Willis E. Teague
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A machine for breaking the foretoes of sheep and lambs carried on a moving kill chain. It has a fork presenting seriatim the open end of the tines to receive the forefeet of sheep at the knuckles, a portion of the tines spaced to closely confine and engage the knuckles and a more widely spaced portion of the tines to release the feet as the sheep is advanced by the killing chain. The machine provides means for supporting and rotating the tines of the fork around its longitudinal axis to break the toes while the sheep's feet are engaged. When the toes are broken, the fork rotates back to the original position.
Claims6
An apparatus for mechanically breaking the toes of sheep carcasses as said carcasses are presented by a killing chain comprising:
- a frame, a pair of cooperating guide members carried by said frame having means defining a slot for temporarily engaging and subsequently releasing said toes, and means carried by said frame and operatively connected to said guide members for rotating said guide members while the toes are temporarily engaged.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.