Abstract: Method and device for separating one or more organs or a part thereof from a cluster of interconnected internal organs from a slaughtered animal, making use of a fixing device which is moved through an evisceration opening into the body of the slaughtered animal, in which method a part of the cluster is fixed with the aid of and relative to the fixing device, the connection between the organs and the body is broken, and the organs are taken out of the body. The fixing is maintained after the organs have been taken out of the body and until a separating operation has been carried out on one or more organs or a part thereof in a spatial orientation determined by the fixing. The fixing is achieved by clamping a part of the cluster. During the fixing, organs can be separated from the cluster of organs with the aid of guide elements, stripping elements, separating rollers, and cutting elements.

Abstract: An apparatus for decropping poultry including a probe for use with an automatic poultry cropping machine of the type adapted for advancing the probe through the belly cavity of the bird and into the neck and for rotating the probe. The probe includes an elongate body having a hollow interior chamber and adapted to be connected to a vacuum source. The elongate body has two rows of teeth for capturing the crop, gullet, windpipe, etc., of the poultry as the probe is advanced into the neck and rotated, with at least some of the teeth pointing generally toward the forward end of the probe. In one embodiment the elongate body is tapered and the teeth have ball-shaped tip portions.

Abstract: Device for cutting out the vent of a slaughtered bird, including an elongated centring pin, a rotatable cutting element with an axially directed cutting edge, and an axially movable positioning element. In an end position of the positioning element relative to a thickened end portion of the centring pin between these two elements an annular space is formed for the accommodation of the orbicular muscle of the vent, while in this end position between the positioning element and the thickened end portion of the centring pin an annular gap remains open with a width which is smaller than the thickness of the orbicular muscle.

Abstract: A device for making an incision around the vent of a slaughtered bird and pulling the end of the rectum out of the opening thus made, including: a centering pin which is movable relative to the bird, and is provided with a thickened end portion; and a cylindrical rotary cutter with an annular cutting edge, which cutter is movable relative to the bird and is movable coaxially relative to the centering pin. The device further comprises one or more holding elements which are recessed relative to the cutting edge and which can interact with a contacting surface of the thickened centering pin end portion situated opposite them for holding the vent between these elements and the contacting surface near or at the orbicular muscle. The drive of the cutter is designed in such a way that the cutter carries out a small number of turns during the cutting operation.

Abstract: A device for the removal of the gullet, crop, windpipe and adhering parts from the neck part of slaughtered poultry, comprising a rotary driven mandrel which is conveyed from the belly cavity into and through the neck opening of the poultry, wherein the mandrel, preferably a hollow cylinder, in the wall of which one or more openings are provided, forms part of a vacuum system, and is provided with gripping means for the parts to be removed, while openings are provided in the vacuum system near the gripping means. The gripping means advantageously lie entirely inside the outer wall of the cylinder. The gripping means may be composed of a lip which, viewed in the axial direction, is fitted above an opening in the cylinder wall. The mandrel may be composed of one or more strips which are fitted in the axial direction at the end of the decropper, one or more strips being provided with notches forming the gripping means.

Abstract: Plucking device with two elongated, cylindrical, plucking elements positioned at some distance from each other, to be rotated in opposite directions and mounted along a conveyor track for slaughtered poultry said elements being provided with helical toothing with such a pitch, that with a suitable chosen rotational speed of the elements, the poultry is driven by the elements in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor track.