Abstract: A device and method for slaughtering fish, in particular white fish, has at least one fish receptacle for positioning and receiving the fish, a throat cutting apparatus for cutting through the throat in preparation for the pharynx cut, a pharynx cutting apparatus for completely cutting through the pharynx, a slaughtering apparatus for opening the abdominal cavity, a gut severing apparatus for releasing the entrails from the abdominal cavity and a peripheral fish receiving drum with which the fish can be moved to the individual processing stations. The fish receiving drum is driven intermittently in rotation about a horizontal shaft. The fish are movable transversely to their longitudinal axis on an essentially vertical circular path. The fish receptacle includes pectoral fin receptacles and a torso clamp for fixing the fish torsos. Also, a head support with a head clamp is provided.

Abstract: In a device and method for controlling the commencement of operation of at least one tool in a fish processing machine, a guide element penetrates the interior of the fish so as to perform alignment of the fish before the tool begins its application. A monitoring device associated with the guide element includes a sensor for determining the guide element/fish position. An evaluating unit connected to the sensor compares nominal and actual position values. On reaching an adjustable nominal position value, a signal for actuating the tool is triggered. Therefore, the tool comes into operation only when the monitoring device yields an actual value for the fish position which corresponds to the nominal value when the guide element has penetrated properly.

Abstract: Poultry carcasses are conveyed on saddles with their breastbone plate facing downwards to a scraping device having left and right scraping elements arranged adjacent to each other to simulate the contour of the approaching poultry carcass. The scraping elements are spaced apart by a signal from the control unit in relation to the individual width of the poultry carcass. Each scraping element has a sinew restraint that finds and restrains the tender sinew located in the region of the body joint, so that the scraping element can pass unhindered into the region between bone and meat and so obtain an optimum yield. A second scraping device, arranged essentially symmetrically to the direction of conveying, has left and right discs that are slidable by pivot levers to move on the corresponding part of the symmetrical wishbone in order to detach the meat connected to the wishbone.

Abstract: A device for processing flesh includes at least one transport belt, at least one element for position detection as well as at least one separating device and at least one control device, wherein the separating device communicates via the control device with the element for position detection which provides information to be recorded and processed into geometric data of the flesh and image data of the flesh so that separating cuts based on the geometric and image data can be made with the separating device.

Abstract: Device for processing flesh, including at least one transport means, at least one element for position detection as well as at least one separating means and at least one regulating and/or control device, wherein the separating means communicates by means of the regulating and/or control device with the element for position detection.

Abstract: In a poultry-processing machine a suspension conveyor is provided, with the aid of which poultry carcasses are guided individually through processing stations. The poultry carcasses are held for this purpose on shackles fastened to the suspension conveyor, which accommodate the poultry carcasses suspended by the legs. For the purpose of carrying out processing procedures in various levels of the carcass, the shackles are arranged on the suspension conveyor so as to rotate about a shackle shaft. The rotational mechanism comprises a plate element that is equipped with tappets in the form of pins projecting from its top and bottom sides, in the path of which a pair of stationary cam elements in an oppositely mirror-symmetrical arrangement impinge in such a manner that one tappet respectively from the top and the bottom side is in contact during the rotational process with the end-face cams of the cam elements.

Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus for separating legs from poultry carcasses having a saddle-shaped carcass section with a pelvis, a lower portion of a vertebral column, and hip joints connecting the legs to the pelvis. The apparatus comprises a main conveyor defining a conveyance path and having shackles configured to hold the poultry carcasses by the legs to convey the carcasses along the path with the vertebral column in longitudinal direction. A guide member runs along the conveyance path between the main conveyor and the vertebral column and is configured to engage an inside contour of the pelvis and both legs along a substantial length of the legs. A support conveyor is positioned below the main conveyor and has a surface to engage the carcasses and move them along the conveyance path.

Abstract: A fish harvester for the automatic and humane slaughter of fish comprises a fish accommodating space having an entrance for insertion of a fish and an exit for removal of a fish. The harvester includes means for positioning and retaining a fish, a slaughtering member for slaughtering a fish by contact with some portion of a fish; and driving means for driving said slaughtering member. The slaughter member preferably includes spikes for insertion into the brain of the fish. The harvester preferably automatically severs a major blood vessel in order to allow bleeding of said fish. The harvester preferably automatically gauges the size of the fish and positions the fish and the slaughtering member relative to each other, with reference to the size of the fish, in order to allow effective operation. A method of automatically slaughtering fish is also provided.

Abstract: An apparatus for gaining fish meat in pulp form is described. The apparatus comprises a fish filleting machine, a separating device arranged downstream of said filleting machine and comprising a perforated drum and a pressing belt wrapped around a portion of the drum, and a transport apparatus. In order to ensure that the fish enter the straining apparatus in the correct orientation and substantially flat so that the straining apparatus may operate efficiently even when double fillets are produced by the filleting machine, the transport apparatus comprises upper and lower conveying belts which positively engage the fish fillets between them and convey the fillets fixed in the correct orientation.

Abstract: A method for processing fish fillets by separating a superficial layer of said fillet comprising the skin and an apparatus for performing this method is described. The apparatus essentially comprises a conveying roller (3) for carrying the fish fillets skin-side down and a pressing shoe (6) which, with its pressing surface (7) forms a conveying gap witht he conveying roller (3). At the input side of the conveying gap, the pressing shoe (6) is formed as a first knife (11), above which a driven second knife (16) is arranged in a knife guide (14). With this arrangement, it is possible to detach a further superficial layer apart from the skin layer and to collect these two layers separately.

Abstract: A material mixture is separated into components of different flowability using a perforated drum mounted in a housing and supported by a detachable mounted portion. The drum is partially wrapped by a presser belt with is pressed against the drum by an adjustable pressure roller. The housing is formed as a parallelepiped-shaped shaft with a dividing wall to separate the drive section from the service section. The presser belt is guided to form an angle of 20.degree. to 30.degree. with respect to the drum and the drum is driven to have a peripheral speed of two to six percent higher than that of the presser roller.

Abstract: An apparatus for severing poultry legs at the knee joint is described. The poultry legs consisting of an thigh and drumstick are suspended from the distal end of the drumstick by a conveyor and are received in recesses in a synchronously revolving supporting disc just above the knee joint. Guide rails above and below the supporting disc push the leg against a projecting edge at the base of the recesses and progressively bend the leg in the natural bending position while simultaneously lifting it until the supporting edge lies in the crook of the knee joint. This position is maintained by means of openings in the disc in which the thigh is blocked and by webs extending downwards from the trailing flank of the recesses which likewise prevent the thigh from twisting out of alignment. A cutting device then severs the joint at an angle which halves the bending angle of the leg.

Abstract: The invention concerns a method for deboning fish of the mackerel family such as the Thunnus genus, the scomboid type and the like, and an apparatus for performing this method. Fish of this family have belly spokes extending along the full length of the backbone into the area of the belly cavity, so that conventional cutting free of the back and belly spokes will lead to a separation of the ribs from the remaining bone structure. To allow an accurate filetting of mackerel fish with their specific bone structure in the ventral cavity region, the invention suggests a slice of fish meat including the ribs to be cut free automatically by providing a computer controlled tool including a knife with a cutting edge diverging with respect to the conveying path of the fish, and a supporting element, which in combination with the knife allows the ribs to be cut away progressively while respecting the anatomical characteristics of the fish.

Abstract: The invention concerns an apparatus for separating sausages from a string of sausages linked by connecting portions and comprises a conveyor system including at least two conveyors connected in series and comprising upper and lower belts, between which the sausage string is held. The apparatus further comprises a sensing device and cutting means controlled by the sensing device. In order to ensure reliable operation of the apparatus at high speeds and when sausages are misshapen, the connecting portion detection is improved by driving the downstream conveyor at a higher speed than the upstream conveyor so effecting a stretching of the sausage string as it is transferred from one to the other and by using two photosensing detectors mutually spaced along the conveyor and adapted to signal the detection of a connecting portion when the downstream detector registers a low light value and the upstream detector registers a high light value.

Abstract: A method and apparatus serve to packaging material and its contents, specifically from packaging elements filled with soft material such as food packaging. The method allows a clean separation of the packaging and content materials so that, according to the application, each of these materials can be reused individually with substantially no further preparation. The apparatus comprises a combination of a coarse cutter in the form of a shredder and a soft separator working on the drum and pressing belt principle with a further fine cutter or fragmenter in the form of a blower mill arranged downstream of these. By coarsely cutting the packaging materials prior to compression, cavities in which amounts of contents material may remain trapped cannot be formed, the soft separator can thus operate more effectively to cleanly separate the two materials.

Abstract: The invention concerns a pressing belt for separators which include a hollow drum having a perforated outer surface around which an endless flexible pressing belt is partially wrapped under pressure to form a pull-in or input zone with the drum. Separators of this kind serve to separate the flowable components from the less flowable components of material mixtures and are principally used in the food industry. In order to improve the wear and thus the durability of the belt, it is provided with a multi-layer structure with a high-tenacity intercalation and an upper layer, the material characteristics of the various layers being adaptable to the precise nature of the application and thereby allowing the durability to be optimised.

Abstract: In a method for automatically gutting fish of the catfish species, the belly cavity is opened around the anal orifice either before or after opening the gills by severing the gullet and opening the blood stream, and the contents of the belly cavity are removed by pushing these from one of the openings of the cavity out of the other. In a machine for carrying out this method, the fish are conveyed sideways by a recessed conveyor. The belly cavity is opened in the vicinity of the anus by separating away the cartilaginous plate carrying the ventral fins. The contents of the ventral cavity are removed by a rotary body rotating synchronously with the conveyor and having tools successively arranged in a cantilevered helix around its circumference which comprise a clearing tool with scraping segments, a brush tool, a high-pressure spray device and a cutting tool for slitting open the belly cavity along its length.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatically positioning fish with respect to their plane of symmetry and for the periodic transfer of the fish to a fish processing machine is proposed. The apparatus comprises a supply conveyor in the form of a trough conveyor and a feed conveyor arranged below and essentially perpendicular to the supply conveyor for feeding the fish into the processing machine. The feed conveyor includes a support conveyor equipped with support elements onto which each fish is placed with the support elements protruding into the belly cavity. This is achieved by a holding element which is arranged between the supply conveyor and the feed conveyor and is controlled by a signal to open and release the temporarily held fish. The generation of the signal is varied according to a measurement value representing the size of the fish being positioned so that each fish is released to land exactly positioned with its belly cavity on a support element irrespective of its size.

Abstract: A device for cutting up the wings of poultry bodies into their component parts is described. The device comprises a saddle conveyor for receiving the poultry bodies in the form of front halves with wings. The wings are engaged and synchronously accompanied by auxiliary conveyors and guided into a guide system where they are cut up by means of "anatomic" cuts, i.e. cuts running through the joints. The device is adapted to by integrated into a processing line for filleting breast meat or the like.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing flat fish is disclosed. The fish (5) are placed on a conveyor (1) and transported on a conveying surface (1.1) over an array of photosensing elements (3.4) which generate light absorbtion signals as the fish is advanced. These signals are sent to a computer, which determines the contour of the fish using information regarding the conveyor speed and computes cutting control signals using pre-programmed proportionality factors relating to the fish species. The cutting line control signals are sent to a cutting apparatus (4). As the advanced fish arrives at the cutting apparatus, two rotary knives (4.1) cut into the dorsal and ventral sides of the fish in response to the control signals to remove the dorsal fin together with a strip of fatty tissue (5.12) from one edge of the fish and the internal organs, the anal fin and the ventral strip of fatty tissue (5.11) from the other edge of the fish.