Poultry Wishbone Separation Device with Curved Cutting Paths
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for separating the wishbone from poultry carcasses leave significant meat attached, reducing the yield of harvested meat.
Innovation Solution
A device with a primary wishbone knife and secondary wishbone knives, guided by actuator assemblies along curved cutting paths that follow the outer contour of the wishbone, ensuring minimal meat remains attached during separation, and dedicated wishbone joint cutters that anatomically cut through soft tissues to disconnect the wishbone from coracoids without cutting through bones.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If conventional cutting methods are used to separate the wishbone from the carcass part, then the wishbone can be removed, but significant meat remains attached to the wishbone, reducing meat yield
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting operation is divided into multiple sequential stages: first cutting through the wishbone legs, then cutting the membrane connecting the wishbone to the keelbone, and finally separating the wishbone from surrounding meat. This segmentation allows each cutting action to be optimized independently, achieving complete separation with minimal meat attachment.
Solution Approach 2:
The device performs preliminary positioning of the wishbone using a support block with a recess that anatomically conforms to the wishbone shape. This preliminary action stabilizes the wishbone and defines the cutting path, enabling subsequent precise cuts that maximize meat yield by ensuring the knife follows the exact contour of the wishbone.
2Loss of substance
If cutting paths do not follow the outer contour of the wishbone, then the cutting process is simpler, but more meat remains attached to the wishbone
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting path is designed to follow the curved outer contour of the wishbone, requiring the knife to traverse a curved trajectory rather than a straight line. This curvature matches the anatomical shape of the wishbone, enabling complete separation while minimizing meat attachment, despite increasing the complexity of the cutting path.
3Reliability
If wishbone joint cutters cut through bones to separate the wishbone, then separation is more effective, but bone splinters are created
Solution Approach 1:
The device extracts and removes only the soft tissue components (membrane and connecting tissues) that attach the wishbone to the carcass, while deliberately avoiding cutting through the hard bone structure. This selective extraction achieves effective separation without generating harmful bone splinters.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the cutting system are designed with different properties: the membrane cutters are positioned and angled to cut only soft tissue, while the wishbone support block provides rigid support to prevent bone fracture. This local differentiation of cutting qualities ensures effective separation without bone damage.
Data Source
Figure 1A~1D
Figure 1E~1H
Figure 1I
AI summary
A device for separating the wishbone from the coracoids of a carcass part of slaughtered poultry comprising a wishbone joint cutters actuator assembly, and two wishbone joint cutters. The support on which the wishbone joint cutters are arranged is moveable along between a first position and a second position, wherein during the movement of the support from the second position to the first position, at least for a part of the path between the second position and the neck opening the wishbone joint cutters are in an active position, in which active position the wishbone joint cutters project from the outer contour of the support and extend between the coracoids and the wishbone or between the bone parts of the wishbone joints.