Crab butchering apparatus and method for butchering crabs

Abstract

The invention relates to a crab butchering apparatus (10) configured and adapted for the automatic butchering of crabs (11) having a crab body (12) and legs (13) extending on each side of the crab body (12), comprising a frame structure (14), a conveyor element (15) disposed in the frame structure (14) with at least one transport saddle (16) for supporting and guiding a crab (11) along a transport path, with at least one measuring unit (17) for detecting product-specific information about the crab (11), and means (18) for butchering, i.e., for separating and removing a carapace, jaws, and a tail from a crab body of each crab (11), disposed along the transport path in the transport direction T of each crab (11).and a control device (19) for controlling the butchering means (18) depending on the information about the crab (11) determined by the measuring unit (17), characterized in that the measuring unit (17) comprises at least one detection means (20) that is configured and adapted to determine at least the size and / or weight of the crab (11) to be processed, and at least one camera means (21) that is configured and adapted to capture images of the upper part of at least parts of the crab (11). The invention further relates to a corresponding method for butchering crabs (11).