Meat gristle puller
AssigneeOscar Mayer Foods Corporation
InventorsFrank L. Adkison, Jack L. Kress
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus is provided for pulling gristle such as tendons from cuts of meat by mechanically holding down an extending portion of the gristle as the cut of meat traverses a path that intersects the location of a wedging jaw that prevents continued traversal of the meat along the path while permitting continued movement of the gristle along the path until it is stripped from the meat. In an optional embodiment, the jaw is a mechanical one that closes to form the wedging jaw that strips the gristle from the meat, after which the jaw opens to release gristle therefrom that otherwise might have been undesirably retained therein.
Claims20
An apparatus for removing gristle from cuts of meat, wherein the apparatus comprises:
- support means;
- conveyor means affixed to said support means, said conveyor means having a tray member for supporting a cut of meat, said tray member traversing a longitudinal path;
- a hold down assembly movably mounted on said support means at a location above a preselected length of said conveyor means and for cyclical general alignment with and operative interengagement of said tray member to sandwich a portion of gristle of a cut of meat therebetween;
- and
- wedging jaw means attached to said support means at a location along said preselected length, said wedging jaw means being for generally intersecting said longitudinal path of the tray member and for permitting passage of the gristle while preventing passage therethrough of the cut of meat on said tray member to thereby remove said gristle from the meat.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.