Poultry leg and thigh processor

Abstract

Previously eviscerated poultry carcasses with legs and backs remaining are suspended from shackles (,) by their legs and moved in sequence along a processing path. The backs are received on a surface conveyor (,) having parallel conveyor flights (,), so that the rounded portions (,) of the surfaces of the backs (,) 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 (,) formed of UHMW and having peripheral teeth with radially extending teeth surfaces which engage the backbone areas of the visceral cavities of the carcasses. The rotary disk is sufficiently wide in order to span the backbone area of the visceral cavity, to urge the carcasses through a downward arc while the legs and thighs are carried horizontally and cut away from the backs of the carcasses.