Poultry eviscerating tool

Abstract

A system for eviscerating poultry carcasses including a movable conveyor (10) having shackles (18) for suspending the carcasses by their hocks, means (12) for supporting the conveyor at an elevated height, means for moving the conveyor to move the carcasses along a processing line, means (27) below the conveyor for supporting the breasts of carcasses to be eviscerated, and a plurality of tools (28) mounted on a carousel (14) for eviscerating the carcasses by entering the body cavities of the carcasses from rear access openings, each tool including a shaft (42) and a loop member (44) mounted on the shaft the loop being vertically elongated and being formed of two symmetrical interconnected halves (46, 48) which lie on opposite sides of a central plane (47), each of the halves of the loop including an upper portion (50), an intermediate portion (52), a lower portion (53), and a bottom (54), each upper portion extending downwardly from the shaft in a direction which diverges from the central plane, each intermediate portion extending downwardly from the upper portion in a direction which converges toward the central plane, each lower portion extending downwardly from the intermediate portion toward the central plane, and each bottom extending from the lower portion to the central plane and having a center of curvature located in the central plane and a radius (y) which is less than the distance (x) from the central plane to the lower end (51) of the upper portion.