Carcass cutting methods and apparatus

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing a longitudinal cut along a saddle section of a carcass. A pair of spaced apart tines are located in one end of a spinal column of the saddle section. The saddle section is then moved relative to a cutting tool to cut longitudinally through the spinal column to cut the saddle section in half with the cutting tool passing between the pair of spaced apart tines.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13 / 262,828 filed Oct. 3, 2011, which is a national phase application of International Application No. PCT / NZ2010 / 000062 filed Apr. 1, 2010, which claims priority to New Zealand Application No. 576070 filed Apr. 3, 2009.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to automated methods of cutting an animal carcass and apparatus therefor.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]There is a general need to automate the processing of animal carcasses into required cuts. The manual butchering of animal carcasses requires skill and judgement in the manipulation of both meat and tools. With skilled staff manual butchering methods are able to produce a relatively high standard of butchered meat product. However, these methods can be time consuming and a considerable amount of training is required to achieve good results. Furthermore, the skill and judgement of the butcher can falter, res...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method and apparatus for cutting a carcass in half. The method involves using a cutting tool with a blade that passes between two tines that are in contact with the spinal column of the saddle section. This allows for a longitudinal cut through the spinal column. The apparatus includes a pair of tines and a cutting tool with a blade positioned between the tines. This allows for a more precise and efficient cutting process.

Problems solved by technology

However, these methods can be time consuming and a considerable amount of training is required to achieve good results.

Furthermore, the skill and judgement of the butcher can falter, resulting in an inaccurately butchered meat product and reduced yield or injury to the butcher.

Human contact with the carcass also increases the risk of bacterial contamination of the meat product.

Manual processing is also costly and working hours may be inflexible.

However, such systems have been expensive and are typically only capable of performing a limited number of the required processing operations, require transfer between manual and automated processes and are often not adapted to take into account variations between different animal carcasses.

Such systems may also create processing bottlenecks—particularly where manual processing cannot be performed at the rate of automated processing.

A significant problem preventing the full automation of animal carcass cutting operations has been the absence of an end to end system capable of performing all major processing cuts.

Prior systems have not been truly integrated so that product and information flows with processing.

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