Abstract: The machine employs a plurality of individual, pointed mandrels that are attached to a closed loop conveyor having an upper processing run and a lower return run. As the mandrels move along the upper run, they are periodically reoriented into a number of successive positions so that skin removal operations can be performed on carcasses that have been impaled on the mandrels by workers stationed at the loading end of the machine. At a first station the wings are severed from each successive carcass in an upright position with special movement of the cutters being effected to prevent overly deep cutting into the breast meat. As the carcass approaches a second station with the back up and the posterior end leading, a slit is made in the back skin down the full length of the backbone by a slitting nozzle that injects air under the back skin while it is inserted between the back skin and the meat therebeneath.

Abstract: Apparatus for fileting breast meat and removing tenders and wings from a front poultry section includes two pairs of rotary cutters which are mounted for swinging movement in front of the path of the poultry carcass which is carried on a mandrel. the two pairs of rotary cutters provide slightly overlapping cuts to partially sever the connection between the wings and the carcass at precise locations consistent from bird to bird. Downstream of the rotary cutters, two pairs of depending peeling fingers incremently slice through connections between the tenders and the sternum and a pair of wiping elements mounted for pivotal movement swing inwardly around the severed shoulder joint to firmly engage the carcass and peel away the remaining connections and the tenders and the sternum.

Abstract: Apparatus for fileting breast meat and removing tenders and wings from a front poultry section includes two pairs of rotary cutters which are mounted for swining movement in front of the path of the poultry carcass which is carried on a mandrel. The two pairs of rotary cutters provide slightly overlapping cuts to partially sever the connection between the wings and the carcass at precise locations consistent from bird to bird. Downstream of the rotary cutters, two pairs of depending peeling fingers incremently slice through connections between the tenders and the sternum and a pair of wiping elements mounted for pivotal movement swing inwardly around the severed shoulder joint to firmly engage the carcass and peel away the remaining connections and the tenders and the sternum.

Abstract: With manual labor reduced to but two loaders for a high output, cut-up machine for lowering labor costs in poultry processing plants, a series of equally spaced, bird-receiving, block-like heads, swingable on elongated, upright carriers, and advanced continuously along an elliptical path by a conveyor past seven, spaced-apart, constantly rotating blades to automatically and consistently provide successive, precision severances of the keel, the wings and the legs, as well as split and quarter the broilers into at least nine high quality pieces ready for packaging of the fast food product into one or more chickens per bag. The carriers span the distance between the arc connected to upper and lower, power driven conveyor chains. Swinging of the roller-equipped heads and actuation of components on the heads for supporting and stretching the birds thereon are effected solely, and throughout each cycle of advancement, by a number of elongated, stationary, roller-engaging, rod-like controllers.

Abstract: The two spindle machine has an innermost, elongated, vent-entering probe associated with one spindle and an elongated, cylindrical cutter associated with a second spindle concentrically receiving the probe. The probe may be telescoped into and out of the open end of the cutter, the latter having notched cutting teeth at the lower end thereof, so that, when extended, the probe and an enlargement at the lower end of the probe may be inserted into the vent opening. When the probe is partially retracted up into the cutter, cooperating, close-fitting surfaces between the latter and the probe grip the intestine and retain the same as the cutter is then rotated to sever the skin surrounding the vent; whereupon the probe and the cutter may be withdrawn together to likewise partially withdraw the intestine from the carcass.

Abstract: In the processing of poultry, the heads are separately and individually pulled downwardly along a vertical path during continuous advancement to automatically separate the heads from the necks at the jaw bone and at the base of the skull, salvaging all of the edible neck skin, while at the same time, removing certain inedible organs from within the body by pulling the same straight down through the vertical neck without separation of the head from either the esophagus or the trachea.

Abstract: A bird is gripped by its thighs adjacent the vent hole and is shifted toward a knife until the hole has reached a predetermined location that corresponds to a certain depth of insertion of the knife into the hole. Since location of the hole is being used as the determining factor with respect to depth of knife insertion, the knife always enters to the same extent regardless of the length of the bird. Operation of the knife once fully inserted causes the skin to be slit between the hole and the keel bone, thus making an enlarged opening to the body cavity.

Abstract: In the course of the mechanized eviscerating procedure, the viscera-removing tool is introduced into the body cavity of a carcass in an entry stroke through an opening at the stern of the carcass. The tool moves arcuately along the breast of the carcass during the entry stroke, and substantially at the full innermost limit of the entry stroke of the tool, the carcass is lifted by its shoulders upwardly against the lowermost tip of the tool to locate the latter substantially at the intersection of the neck and the shoulders within the body cavity. Simultaneously with this action, the neck of the carcass is cocked abruptly toward the breast side of the carcass to maximize the depth of insertion of the tool into the body cavity.

Abstract: A bird is gripped by its thighs adjacent the vent hole and is shifted toward a knife until the hole has reached a predetermined location that corresponds to a certain depth of insertion of the knife into the hole. Since location of the hole is being used as the determining factor with respect to depth of knife insertion, the knife always enters to the same extent regardless of the length of the bird. Operation of the knife once fully inserted causes the skin to be slit between the hole and the keel bone, thus making an enlarged opening to the body cavity.

Abstract: In a machine for use in poultry processing plants, a succession of birds, suspended by their legs from an overhead conveyor, are advanced through a zone of arcuate movement in conjunction with a horizontal rotor so constructed that each bird is separately handled and individually controlled until a cut is effected into its neck sufficient to sever at least one blood vessel, causing the bird to bleed to death, all without decapitation. In the killing method, as the necks are guided horizontally along the arcuate path, the head and the neck are simultaneously captured adjacent and below the precise area where cutting is to take place at the skull. At the same time, the neck is captured near the bird's body and is stretched during rotation with the rotor while the head is held against ascent such that little, if any, neck skin remains attached to the skull along the slice that is produced by the cutter.

Abstract: A rotary picking unit has its drive shaft journaled by bearings that must be sealed against exposure to moisture and the escape of lubricant. A housing which contains the bearings is fitted at its open end with an annular seal that is disposed outwardly adjacent the bearings in surrounding, sealing relationship with the shaft which projects outwardly from the housing and carries feather picking means at its outer end. A close fitting sleeve, preferably of a synthetic resinous material, surrounds that portion of the shaft projecting outwardly from the seal and is held stationary during rotation of the shaft within the sleeve so as to keep feathers, grit and grime from working along the shaft and deteriorating the interface between the shaft and the seal. The stationary sleeve bears against the backside of a rotating disc of the picking means and has a beveled outer end so that only a thin, knife edge of the sleeve actually makes contact with the disc.

Abstract: A knife is carried in a protective holder that permits only limited exposure of the cutting edge. Initially, the knife swings through an arc with its cutting edge trailing as the bird is simultaneously swung in a direction to cause a previously prepared hole at the vent of the bird to intersect and receive the knife during the latter's movement. With the knife thus inserted into the hole, the bird is then held against further movement with the knife and the latter is suddenly flipped outwardly and upwardly so as to slit the skin between the hole and the keel bone, thereby preparing an enlarged opening to the body cavity that will permit the subsequent entry of an eviscerating tool.

Abstract: The digestive tract of a poultry carcass is removed for inspection without stretching the weak section of the esophagus beyond its breaking point by simultaneously pulling on the gizzard and proventriculus at opposite ends of the weak section using two separate tools. The tool which hooks beneath the proventriculus is withdrawn from the carcass at substantially the same or slightly faster rate than the tool which pulls on the gizzard and the remainder of the organs in the tract, thereby transferring stress from the weak section of the esophagus to the stronger section below the proventriculus. The tool for the gizzard comprises a generally U-shaped, open loop, while the tool for the proventriculus comprises a tongue having a bifurcated tip which can be cocked into a position for hooking beneath the proventriculus after the tongue has been fully inserted.

Abstract: In the automatic evisceration of poultry, a vacuum scrubber is utilized to detach and extract organs such as lungs and kidneys from sockets in the body cavity of a continuously moving bird, which organs may, for example, have been intentionally left intact during prior stages of the evisceration process in which other organs such as the heart, spleen, gizzard and associated entrails were removed. Scrubbing action is initially concentrated in the lung area of the bird as the vacuum scrubber is reciprocated along its back, and then is concentrated in the kidney area of the bird. A momentary swinging of the scrubber outwardly away from the back of the bird during scrubbing facilitates an inrush of ambient air to aid in extraction of the lungs, and an automatic neck-cracking assembly operates simultaneously with the scrubber during lung and kidney extraction to crack the neck of the bird and sever a portion of the skin associated therewith.