Abstract: A shrimp processing machine wherein conveyor means transports shrimps past a serrated cutter wheel, severing the abdominal shell while disrupting the swimmerets and the musculature interconnection between the swimmerets and the shrimp body, said shrimp thereafter being pneumatically transferred onto needles of a driven disc, said disc carrying the shrimp to a further station wherein the shells are removed and the vein is removed. A further cut may be made to "butterfly" the shrimp. A second disc with needles thereon effect transfer of the processed shrimp from the first disc.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for processing shrimp and like arthropoda, comprising a housing, positively driven transport means disposed within the housing and containing a plurality of peripherally extending needles for engaging and impaling deheaded shrimp in a predetermined attitude to sequentially advance them through a plurality of operating stations in a path, defined at least in part, by a selectively shaped tunnel within said housing. The entry to said tunnel is contoured to properly orient the shrimp and to facilitate its initial positioning and displacement relative to the transport means by pneumatic forces. At the first operating station, the relatively thin abdominal shell or membrane disposed on the ventral side of the first five shell segments is longitudinally severed and the interconnection between the swimmerettes and the shrimp body is disrupted.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for processing shrimp and like arthropoda, comprising a housing, positively driven transport means disposed within the housing and containing a plurality of peripherally extending needles for engaging and impaling deheaded shrimp in a predetermined attitude to sequentially advance them through a plurality of operating stations in a path, defined at least in part, by a selectively shaped tunnel within said housing. The entry to said tunnel is contoured to properly orient the shrimp and to facilitate its initial positioning and displacement relative to the transport means by pneumatic forces. At the first operating station, the relatively thin abdominal shell or membrane disposed on the ventral side of the first five shell segments is longitudinally severed and the interconnection between the swimmerettes and the shrimp body is disrupted.