Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
1063059
This invention relates to a device for removing meat
hangers from meat such as bacon or the like.
In the processing of bacon bellies, bacon sides and
jowls and the like, the meat is impaled on the needles of a
bacon ilanger or bacon comb which serves to support the meat
during subsequent processing operations such as smoking and
setting-up. Prior to the curing operation the meat hanger can
be secured with respect to the meat without great difficulty
because at this stage the meat is soft and readily penetrated.
As a result of curing operations such as smoking and chilling
of the meat prior to slicing, the meat becomes firmly secured
to the hanger so that great difficulty is experienced in
removing the hanger. ~ -
To date all attempts to remove bacon hangers or combs
from cured and chilled meat employ a manual operation. The
manual operation is time consuming and frequently results in
damage to the hanger and the meat, and injury to the operator.
In order to reduce the likelihood of such difficulties, some
processing operations permit slight warming of the meat to take
place, 80 that it becomes more pliable, before attempting the
removal of the hanger. If the meat is allowed to become more
pliable, difficulties can be experienced in attempting to slice
the meat in a subsequent operation. Thus, while chilling of
the meat i8 important to maintain the characteristic of the meat
which facilitates slicing, the same freezing makes the removal
of the hanger more difficult.
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The difficulties of the prior art described above are
~ overcome by the apparatus of the present invention which permits
- the mechanical removal of the hangers with minimum damage to the
meat.
The device of the present invention is designed to remove
the penetrating needles of the hanger in a direction opposite to
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the direction in -hich they extend ~nto the meat so that the
~eat is not dama~ed by the removal of the needles.
According to one aspect Or the present invention, there
is provided a device for removing meat hangers ~rom r.eat such as
bacon or the 1- ~e . The mea~ hangers lihich are re~!oved consist of
a body portion having a suspension hook at one end thereof and
a plurality of meat penetrating needles at the ot]~er end thereof,
the meat penetrating nee~les being inclined with respect to the
body portion in a penetrating direction towards said suspension
hook. The device ror removing the hanger comprises, a frame having
a stripping station located therein, rirst support means at a
first side of said stripping station for supporting a hanger,
second support means at a second side Or said station opposlte
said first side rOr supporting said body of meat with said hanger
extending across said stripping station with its needles oriented
in a first directinn with respect to said stripping station,
stripper means mounted for movement with respect to said ~rame
to extend into said stripping station between sald first and
second supports to engage said meat hanger and drive said needles
in a second direction opposite said rirst direction to remove
said needles from said meat in said second direction, arid drlve
means for driving said stripper member with respect to said rrame.
According to a rurther aspect of the present invention,
the frarne Or the devlce has a hanger discharge passage opening
rearwardly from said stripper statlon and a hanger s$and com-
prising a base member, gulde rod means pro~ecting upwardly from ¦
said base member arld having rree ends disposed rearwardly rrom
said discharge passage Or said stripper station and aligned with
passages in said hanger to be threaded through said passages when
~3 said hangers may be stacked one on top o~ the other on saidhanger stand.
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The invention w~ll be more clearly understood with
re~erence to the followin~ detailed specification read in con-
~unction with the drawings, wherein
Fig. 1 is a pictorial view of a meat hanger Or a t~pe
which may be removed by the apparatus of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a pictorial front view of the device rOr re-
moving meat hangers according to an embodiment of the present
invention; and
Fig. 3 is a detailed view of the device Or Fig. 1 showing
the stripper plate in the lowered position.
With reference to Fig. 1 of the drawings, rererence
numeral 10 refers generally to a meat hanger or meat comb as it -
is commonly known of a type commonly used to support meat such as
bacon bellies, bacon sides, jowls and cured meats of various types
during curing and setting-up stages of a meat processing oper- -
ation. -
The hanger 10 is in the form of a sta~nless steel wire
frame having a main body portion 12, suspension hook 14 and a
plurality of penetrating needles 16. The needles are generally
lncllned at an angle of about 65 to the main body portion 12 so
that the welght of the meat supported on the needles provides a
load component whlch urges the meat towards the plane of the main
body portion 12. ~ -
Wlth re~erence to Fig. 2 o~ the drawings, the reference
numeral 20 refers generally to a device ror removing meat hangers
10 ~rom a body of meat 22.
The devlce 20 comprlses a frame, generally identl~ied by
the numeral 24, whlch supports a plat~ Q rm 26 in an angularly
lnclined plane. The platform 26 is preferably made from a block
o~ plastics materlal whlch may be removed from time to tlme ~or
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1063059 , I
cleaning and sterilizatlon. The platform 26 is retained on the i
~rame by a plurality of stop brackets 28. The platform 26 is
preferably inclined with respect to the horizontal plane at an
angle of about 25 so that when a body of meat is supported on the
platform, as ~.~ill be described hereinafter, the needles 16 extend L~
in a substantially vertical plane.
The device 20 has a stripper station 30 located outwardly
from the upper edge of the platform 26. A mounting fin~er 32 is
secured to a support bar 34 whlch is in turn secured to an arm
36 which is mounted on the frame 24. The mounting finger 32 is
located at one side of the stripping station 30 and provides a
first support for supporting a hanger and the platform 26 is
supported at the opposite side of the stripping station and
supports a body of meat which is secured to the hanger. The
strlpper plate 40, which has a rounded nose portion 42 at the
lower end thereof, is mounted on the shaft 44 of the double-
acting cylinder 46. A guide rall 48 extends longitudinally of
the frame and a pair of arms 50 pro~ect outwardly from the
stripper plate 40 and are arranged one on either side Or the guide ~
rall 48. The arms 50 move along the guide rail 48 as the stripper ;
plate is reciprocally driven by the cylinder 46 to maintain the
stripper plate in a position extending parallel to the upper edge
of the platform 26. The supply of air to the cylinder 46 to
reciprocally drive the shaft 44 is controlled by a control valve
having a control lever arm 52.
A stop plate 54 is mounted on the frame 28 in the
strlpping station directly below the stripper plate 40. The stop
plate 54 is made from sheet metal and has a receiving channel 56
extending longitudlnally thereor- I -
A hanger stand, generally ldentifled by the reference
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10630S9
numeral 60 is located below the stripper station. The hanger
stand 60 consi~s of a frame which includes a pair of elongated
arms 62 which extend upwardly from a base 64 and have their
upper ends 66 located at the lower end of the stripper station
30. The base 64 is angularly inclined with respect to ~le
vertical plane at an angle equal to half the inclUded angle
between the main body portion 12 and the needles 16 so that the
hangers 10 may nest one within another when stacked as shown
in Fig. 2. me nesting of the hangers which is achieved by the
angularly inclination of the base 64 greatly increases the
capacity of the support and makes the removal of hangers a simple
operation.
In use, a body of meat with the hanger 10 attached
thereto is positioned, as shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, with
the hook portion 14 of the hanger extending around the finger
32 and the body of meat 22 resting on the platform 26 80 that
the body portion of the hanger and the needles of the hanger
are located in the stripper station 30. As previously indicated,
the angle of inclination of the platform 26 is preferably such
that when the hanger is located in the opposite position in the
stripper station illustrated in Fig. 1, the needles 16 are
substantially vertically oriented. The stripper plate 40 is
also substantially vertically oriented and is positioned with
the rounded nose portion 42 thereof aligned with the recessed
channel 56 in the stop plate 54.
; When the control lever 52 is moved to the position
shown in E~ig. 3 of the drawings, air is supplied to the
cylinder 46 to drive the stripper plate 40 downwardly through
the str~pping statiQn. As the stripper plate 40 moves down-
wardly, the Do~e portion 42 engages the main body portion 12 of
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the hanger and forces it dow~rdly to withdraw the needles
16 from the body of meat 22. The stripper plate 40 continues
to move downwardly until the hanger is seatsd in the stop
plate 54. During the stripping operation, the hook portion
14 of ~le hanger remains in co~tact with the finger 32. When
the stripper plate is raised, the hook portion 14 of the hanger
will be freed with respect to the finger 32 and the weight
of the body of the hanger will cause the hanger to fall freely
from the stop plate 54. The upper ends 66 of the arms 62 of
the stand 60 are positioned to underlie passages in the frame
10 so that when the frame 10 falls under its own weight, the
arms 62 are threaded through passages inthe frame so that after
the hangers have been removed they may be accumulated automatic-
ally upon the hanger stand.
From the foregoing it will be apparent that the
apparatus of the present invention provides a simple and ;
efficient device for removing meat hangers from a body of meat.
The device of the preferred embodiment has various
features which contribute to its success and although all of
these features are not necessarily essential to the invention,
they do contribute significantly to the successful operation
of the device.
For example, it will be apparent that the apparatus
could operate with the support platform extending in a sub- ;
~ tantially horizontal plane. Nevertheless, the angular inclin-
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~ ation of the support platform provides several distinct
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advantages. In particular, the angle of inclination of the
platform 26 serve~ to present the needles 16 toward the
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stripper plate in a substantially vertical plane so that when
30 the ~tripper plate move~ dow~w~rdly and engages the hangor, -
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the needles are withdrawn in a plane which is subst ntially
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1063059
vertical so that the needles are not torn through the body
of the meat. In addition, the angle of inclination of the plat-
form serves to locate the hanger in the required operative
position by reason of the fact that the weight of the meat
resting on ~he table llas a component extending away from the
support finger 32 so that the hanger hook 14 is drawn
against the finger 32 by the weight of the assembly.
The finger 32 has an arcuate curvature extending
rearwardly and downwardly from the stripper station. This
curvature assists the removal of the needles in a substantially
vertical plane as it permits the hook portion 14 to ve -
freely along the finger 32. In addition, the finger 32 has
a rounded outer end so that when the hanger is located in the
position shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings, it will fall freely
from the finger 32 when the stripper plate 40 is raised. -
If the hanger stand 60 is not used, the finger 32
may be elongated in a direction away from the stripper station
80 that one or more hangers may be located on the finger 32.
While the stop plate 54 is not essential to the
20 successful operation of the stripper mechanism, it does serve ~ -
to control the motion of the hanger immediately following the
removal of the needles. Without this stop plate, the hanger
might be violently expelled from the apparatus after the
finger~ have been withdrawn from the meat.
These and other advantages of the apparatus of the
present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
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