Importance

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Abstract

An automated skinning and deboning apparatus for processing poultry thigh portions to remove the skin and bone from the meat portion in a single pass includes a support frame and housing having a feed inlet and a product discharge outlet. The feed inlet includes a guide chute which aligns the thigh portion such that the longitudinally extending bone is disposed parallel to the chosen path of travel. A first pair of conveyors receives the thigh portion and transports it to a skinning station wherein the skin is pulled away from the underlying meat portion via a pinching or trapping action of the skin engaged between a rotating fin and an arcuate surface of a pinch block mounted along the path of travel. Conveyors continue to transport the skinned thigh product to a deboning station and maintain the thigh portion with the longitudinally extending bone disposed in a parallel relationship with the selected path of travel to deliver the skinned thigh product through a ring-shaped nozzle wherein a plurality of water streams are directed at the juncture of the bone and meat portions to effectively separate the meat from the bone. The separated meat is collected as the bone passes through the ring-shaped nozzle for collection at a separate location.

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First Claim