Apparatus for producing sized controlled portions of meat
OwnerGeno N. Gasbarroinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automated meat portion sizing apparatus is disclosed which includes a plurality of mandrels provided with a meat-receiving sizing chamber mounted on a support frame for repetitive travel between a loading and unloading station. The sizing chambers are conformed to receive a selected shape and volume of a meat portion to provide the selected weight portion desired. A knife is provided along the path of travel to remove any excess meat portion extending outside the sizing chamber. The excess portion is collected separately prior to the mandrel reaching the unloading station where the controlled size portion is automatically removed from the sizing chamber for convenient collection.
Claims15
An automatic meat processing apparatus for producing a plurality of meat portions having a selected size and weight comprising, in combination;
- (1) a support frame;
- (2) a plurality of mandrels mounted on said frame and aligned in adjacent relationship to one another for continuous travel along said frame in a predetermined path, each of said mandrels including a vertically extending rear wall, a pair of spaced outwardly extending side walls carried by said rear wall, and a front wall yieldably mounted in a spaced relationship to said rear wall and spring biased away from said rear wall, said walls defining a sizing chamber having a predetermined configuration, volume and top opening for receiving a selected meat portion;
- (3) a loading station along said predetermined path of travel of said mandrels defined at a position along said frame wherein said opening of said sizing chamber is facing generally upwardly;
- (4) an unloading station along said predetermined path of travel of said mandrels defined at a selected position wherein said first opening of said mandrels is inverted relative to its position at said loading station;
- and (5) knife means mounted on said frame and disposed at a selected position along the path of travel of said mandrels to engage and separate any excess meat extending above said first opening of said sizing chamber.
A mandrel for receiving a portion of meat having a selected shape and weight in combination with cutting apparatus, said mandrel comprising a vertically extending rear wall provided with at least one generally planar face, a pair of side walls fixed to said rear wall and extending outwardly from said planar face, said side walls being spaced from one another to define a selected configuration, and a front wall yieldably fixed in spaced relationship to said rear wall to define a sizing chamber having a selected configuration, volume and a top-opening for receiving a meat portion;
- and means to move said mandrel past a cutting means to sever any excess meat portion extending beyond the selected sizing chamber, said mandrel including an arcuate cam surface and said cutting means being formed by a high pressure fluid jet stream mounted for vertical movement responsive to a cam follower portion engagable with said cam surface on said mandrel as said mandrel moves past said cutting means to define an arcuate cutting path relative to excess meat extending outside of said sizing chamber.
An automatic meat processing apparatus for producing a plurality of meat portions having a selected size and weight comprising, in combination;
- (1) a support frame;
- (2) a plurality of mandrels mounted on said frame and aligned in adjacent relationship to one another for continuous travel along said frame in a predetermined path, each of said mandrels provided with a sizing chamber provided with a first opening conformed to receive a selected portion of meat, said sizing chamber having a configuration and volume selected to receive and contain a predetermined portion of meat;
- (3) a loading station along said predetermined path of travel of said mandrels defined at a position along said frame wherein said opening of said sizing chamber is facing generally upwardly;
- (4) an unloading station along said predetermined path of travel of said mandrels defined at a selected position wherein said first opening of said mandrels is inverted relative to its position at said loading station;
- and (5) knife means mounted on said frame and disposed at a selected position along the path of travel of said mandrels to engage and separate any excess meat extending above said first opening of said sizing chamber, said knife means formed by a jet water nozzle and mounted on said support frame for relative vertical movement in relationship to the travel of each mandrel past said knife means to define a selected arcuate cutting path.
A mandrel for receiving a portion of meat having a selected shape and weight in combination with cutting apparatus, said mandrel comprising a vertically extending rear wall provided with at least one generally planar face, a pair of side walls fixed to said rear wall and extending outwardly from said planar face, said side walls being spaced from one another to define a selected configuration, and a front wall yieldably fixed in spaced relationship to and biased away from said rear wall to define a sizing chamber having a selected configuration and volume and forming a top-opening for receiving a meat portion;
- and means to move said mandrel past a cutting means to sever any excess meat portion extending beyond the selected sizing chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.