Gordon Johnson Company

Homer Augusta Haynes

Donald J Scheier

Henry E Frederick

J D Hawthorn

In the automatic evisceration of poultry, a vacuum scrubber is utilized to detach and extract organs such as lungs and kidneys from sockets in the body cavity of a continuously moving bird, which organs may, for example, have been intentionally left intact during prior stages of the evisceration process in which other organs such as the heart, spleen, gizzard and associated entrails were removed. Scrubbing action is initially concentrated in the lung area of the bird as the vacuum scrubber is reciprocated along its back, and then is concentrated in the kidney area of the bird. A momentary swinging of the scrubber outwardly away from the back of the bird during scrubbing facilitates an inrush of ambient air to aid in extraction of the lungs, and an automatic neck-cracking assembly operates simultaneously with the scrubber during lung and kidney extraction to crack the neck of the bird and sever a portion of the skin associated therewith.

Apparatus for use in evisceration of poultry

Poultry carcasses are suspended by their legs and advanced by an overhead conveyor to a machine which automatically severs the vent from each carcass in succession as advancement continues and then partially withdraws each severed vent from its carcass to drape the same over the outside of the carcass for inspection. Each carcass is initially positioned angularly against a support so that the cutter begins severance generally toward the backbone of the carcass, whereupon the carcass is rocked inwardly toward the support and relative to the cutter to position the backbone flatly against the support and generally in line with the cutter. This motion causes the cutter to move along rather than toward the backbone during the short period of further severance so that membranes attaching urinary organs and muscular tissues to the backbone are fully severed. A short segment of helical flighting around the outside of the cutter engages fatty tissues surrounding the vent during entry of the cutter and causes such tissues to climb up the cutter so as to assure complete severance without requiring entry of the cutter to such an extent that entrails might be severed to spill fecal contaminants throughout the carcass. Vacuum pressure applied through the cutterhead adheres the severed vent to the cutter such that when the latter is retracted from the carcass, the vent is pulled partially therefrom until the vacuum pressure is discontinued to release the vent.

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Kansas City, MO, United States of America

Homer Augusta Haynes