Knee Meat Scraper for Automated Poultry Leg Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for processing defeathered whole leg poultry products are inefficient in harvesting knee meat together with thigh meat, often resulting in the knee meat being discarded due to its difficulty in automated harvesting and manual harvesting being time-consuming and inconvenient.
Innovation Solution
A system and method involving a knee meat scraper device with a knee cap scraper and counter element, which performs a transverse cut at the knee joint to create connected cut planes, allowing for the scraping of knee meat from the knee cap while keeping it connected to the thigh, and optional cutting to separate the knee cap, facilitating the harvesting of knee meat and thigh meat as a unitary piece.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If knee meat is harvested manually from severed knee caps, then harvesting can be performed, but it is time-consuming and inconvenient due to the small, slippery nature of knee caps and strong connection between knee meat and knee cap
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces manual mechanical harvesting with an automated scraping device that uses a scraper element to mechanically separate knee meat from the knee cap. The device includes a scraper that engages with the knee cap surface and removes meat through controlled scraping motion, eliminating the need for manual handling of slippery knee caps.
Solution Approach 2:
The scraping device is designed to automatically position and engage with the knee cap as it passes through the processing line. The device self-adjusts to maintain contact with the knee cap surface during the scraping operation, requiring no manual intervention while processing multiple knee caps continuously.
2Ease of manufacture
If knee meat is trimmed off together with the knee cap using regular processing methods, then processing is simplified, but valuable knee meat is discarded along with inedible tissues
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the inedible knee cap and its attached tissues from the knee joint, while leaving the valuable knee meat attached to the drumstick. The scraper selectively removes the cartilaginous knee cap structure without removing the attached muscle tissue, thereby separating desirable from undesirable portions.
Solution Approach 2:
The processing method segments the knee joint into three distinct components: the removed knee cap, the retained knee meat attached to the drumstick, and the main leg portion. This segmentation allows selective harvesting of valuable meat while removing only the inedible portions.
3Manufacturing precision
If mechanical positioning means operate on the kneecap to achieve cutting accuracy, then precise cutting is obtained, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical positioning and cutting systems with a simpler scraping mechanism. Instead of using positioning means to guide precise cuts, the device uses a scraper that naturally conforms to the knee cap surface geometry, achieving effective separation without requiring precise mechanical positioning.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameter from precise cutting position control to scraping force and motion control. The scraper element is designed to engage the knee cap surface at optimal angles and apply controlled scraping force, achieving effective meat removal without requiring precise positioning of the entire device.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention pertains to a method and a corresponding system for harvesting kneemeat and thighmeat from a whole leg poultry product. The method comprises the following steps: - providing a leg product having: - a thigh, - a drumstick, - a knee, - a transverse cut at the knee, extending from the rear side to a cut end adjacent to the rear of the knee cap, the thigh and the drumstick being connected to each other and the knee cap being intact, creating a drumstick side cut plane and a thigh side cut plane, - with the leg product suspended from a poultry product carrier, arranging it adjacent to a counter element, with the drumstick side cut plane facing the counter element, - bringing a knee cap scraper in engagement with the leg product adjacent to the knee cap and the counter element with the leg product at the rear of the knee cap, - moving the knee cap past the knee cap scraper while the counter element engages the leg product at the rear of the knee cap, therewith scraping kneemeat from the knee cap while leaving the kneemeat connected to the thigh, after the scraping step the kneemeat and thighmeat being present on a first side of the knee cap scraper and the knee cap on a second side.