Abstract: Previously eviscerated poultry carcasses with legs and backs remaining are suspended from shackles (25) by their legs and moved in sequence along a processing path. The backs are received on a surface conveyor (18) having parallel conveyor flights (36, 37), so that the rounded portions (31) of the surfaces of the backs (30) seek the space between the conveyor flights, thereby tending to center the carcasses moving along the poultry path. The backs are turned from inverted attitudes to upright attitudes while the legs remain inverted, thereby tending to rotate the thighs with respect to the backs, loosening the sockets between the thighs and backs, and the visceral cavities are placed on a rotary disk (28) formed of UHMW and having peripheral teeth with radially extending teeth surfaces which engage the backbone areas of the visceral cavities of the carcasses.

Abstract: Poultry thighs (13) are placed on carrier trays (22) of a tray conveyor (14) and move on an endless loop conveyor first through a rectilinear loading run (24), then through a curved deboning run (26), and then through a lower return run (25). The curved deboning run extends about the deboning unit (35), which includes a stationary cam drum (36) and a revolving carrier assembly (38) that carries the series of deboning modules (55) about the drum (36). Each deboning module becomes aligned with a carrier tray and is actuated by the cam tracks (81) of the stationary cam drum (36) so as to engage and push the bone of the turkey thigh through the aperture (63) of a stripper disk (61). The stripper disk reciprocates toward the carrier tray during the initial deboning of the thigh and separates from the carrier tray to allow enough space to remove the meat from the apparatus.

Abstract: Poultry drumsticks (13) are placed on carrier trays (22) of a tray conveyor (14) and move on an endless loop conveyor first through a rectilinear loading run (24), then through a precutting run, then a curved deboning run (26), and then through a lower return run (25). The pre-cutting run involves pre-cutting separate drumsticks of poultry, especially turkeys, with a pre-cutting device 110 in preparation of its deboning, comprising means to transversely cut the muscular tissue, especially tendons, at or near their connection to the drumstick bone. The curved deboning run extends about the deboning unit (35), which includes a stationary cam drum (36) and a revolving carrier assembly (38) that carries the series of deboning modules (55) about the drum (36). Each deboning module becomes aligned with a carrier tray and is actuated by the cam tracks (81) of the stationary cam drum (36) so as to engage and push the bone of the poultry drumstick through the aperture (63) of a stripper disk (61).