Stunner for poultry
AssigneeStork-Gamco, Inc.
InventorMichael E. Simonds
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Poultry suspended heads down from an overhead conveyor are wetted with an electrolyte while adjacent to an electrolyte holding tank. At the downstream end of the electrolyte tank, a stunning trough is adjustably pivotally mounted on the tank and is comprised of a multiplicity of longitudinal electrode rods in a transversely arcuate array with the opposite ends of the rods electrically connected to arcuate buss bars secured to non-conducting trough end plates. The spaced electrode rods are in two groups which are charged alternately with opposite polarities. The stunning trough is enclosed in a non-conducting fiberglas shell to provide safety and non-conducting end caps for the stunning trough enclose and protect the buss bars and the ends of the electrode rods connected therewith.
Claims12
In a poultry stunning apparatus, a stunning trough unit, said unit comprising non-conducting upright end plates, buss bars secured to said end plates, plural spaced longitudinally extending electrode rods extending between the non-conducting end plates and supported thereby, alternate electrode rods having corresponding ends electrically connected with one buss bar and the remaining electrode rods having their opposite corresponding ends electrically connected to the other buss bar, power supply means electrically coupled to said buss bars, and a non-conducting shell for said stunning trough unit including non-conducting end caps covering said buss bars and adjacent exposed terminal ends of said electrode rods.
A poultry stunning unit comprising a trough-like body portion forming a longitudinal through passage for poultry suspended from an overhead conveyor, a plurality of stunning electrode rods within the interior of said body portion in spaced relationship, and means to supply an electrical potential of opposite polarity to alternate electrode rods of said plurality, whereby the heads of birds wetted with electrolyte and bridging alternate electrode rods will be stunned.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.