Crustacean Leg Meat Extraction Rollers
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge lies in efficiently removing meat from crustacean legs without mangling or shredding it, which is crucial for obtaining high-value, intact pieces of crustacean meat, as existing methods often result in labor-intensive and inefficient processes.
Innovation Solution
A conveyor-based system with leg slots and meat extraction rollers, assisted by pressurized fluid and vacuum suction, along with mechanical grippers, is used to align, extract, and separate the meat from the shell, ensuring consistent and intact meat removal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If mechanical apparatus is used for meat extraction, then productivity increases, but the meat may be mangled or shredded
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical cutting and scraping systems with a roller-based extraction system that uses friction and controlled motion to pull meat from shells, reducing mechanical damage while maintaining high-speed automated processing
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies the physical parameters of the extraction process by controlling roller speed, surface texture, and pressure to optimize meat extraction while preserving integrity - using specific speed ranges and surface characteristics to prevent manging
2Manufacturing precision
If hand processing is used for meat extraction, then meat integrity is maintained, but labor costs increase and efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system processes multiple legs simultaneously through the roller mechanism, with each leg automatically fed and extracted without individual handling, achieving both high throughput and consistent quality through automated self-processing
Solution Approach 2:
The roller extraction mechanism serves multiple functions - gripping, pulling, and separating meat from various leg types in a single unified system, replacing multiple specialized manual operations with one versatile apparatus
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method reduces labor costs and increases efficiency by ensuring clean extraction of meat from crustacean legs, maintaining the integrity of the meat and reducing the risk of damage during the processing.
Implementation Method 1
directing a flow of pressurized fluid in a cross-machine direction against the crustacean leg to move the crustacean leg outwardly
Implementation Method 2
applying vacuum suction to the leg meat to resist movement of the leg meat through the meat extraction rollers with the shell
Data Source
AI summary
An apparatus for removing meat from crustacean legs includes a conveyor, and a plurality of leg meat extraction rollers. The conveyor has a crustacean body region flanked by laterally opposed crustacean leg regions. Each crustacean leg region includes a plurality of leg slots extending laterally outwardly of the crustacean body region. The leg meat extraction rollers are positioned laterally outwardly of the leg slots and oriented to receive crustacean legs moved laterally outwardly from the leg slots.