JPS6260048B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing fish, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for processing fish in the production of canned fish such as sardines.

Conventionally, this type of fish processing method involves transporting one fish into each tray of a slat conveyor, transferring the fish in each tray to another conveyor that intersects at right angles to the slat conveyor, and transporting the fish in each tray. Each fish oriented in the flow direction on a conveyor is turned across the conveyor, with its heads aligned, and transferred to two synchronously operating belt conveyors placed adjacent to each other with a slit-like spacing between them. The fish's head was cut off using a rotating blade placed between the slits, and the fish's tail was then hooked onto a fishhook to remove the internal organs.

As described above, the conventional fish processing method is very time-consuming as it requires transferring the fish to a conveyor each time it performs various operations such as maintaining the distance between the fish, setting a predetermined direction and position, and cutting off the fish's head. Furthermore, when cutting off the fish's head, the direction and positioning of the fish is not accurate, resulting in various drawbacks, such as the cut being oblique to the length of the fish. Moreover, the conventional apparatus for carrying out this method requires a number of belt conveyors, which has the disadvantage of making the apparatus very large.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to process fish bodies, such as sardines, in the production of canned fish, by continuously performing the process from cutting off the head of the fish to cutting off the tail without much human intervention; To provide a fish body processing method and device which eliminates diagonal cutting of the fish body trunk by suspending the fish, has a good degustation rate, makes it easy to adjust the meat height, and does not increase the size of the device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The fish processing method and apparatus of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

1 and 2 show a fish processing device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

This fish processing device 10 includes a planet conveyor 11 that primarily transports fish, and a pair of endless chains 1 arranged above and below to hold fish.
2a and 12b. This lower endless chain 12a has a sprocket 13 disposed approximately in the middle of the planet conveyor 11 in the conveying direction;
A sprocket 14 arranged at a predetermined position on an extension line beyond the outlet of the planet conveyor 11.
and the sprocket 13,1
4 is installed so that the tension side of the upper part of the chain is very adjacent to the side edge of the belt of the planet conveyor 11, and the upper surface of the tension side is located on substantially the same horizontal plane as the conveying surface of the planet conveyor 11.

Further, the upper endless chain 12b is connected to a sprocket 15 disposed on the conveyor side near the outlet of the planet conveyor 11, and a sprocket 16 disposed almost directly above the sprocket 14 for the lower endless chain 12a. These sprockets 15 and 16 are arranged so that the lower chain portion, which is the tension side of the upper endless chain 12b, faces the tension side of the lower endless chain 12a. . As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the inner sides of the opposing tension sides of these upper and lower endless chains are designed to ensure that when a fish is caught between the chains, the fish will not be separated from each other. Regulating guides 17a, 17b are arranged so that they can be held and moved, and in particular, these regulating guides 17a, 17b are arranged over a predetermined transport length of the endless chain in which fish are processed.

A pair of rotary blades 18a, 18b for cutting the heads of fish are arranged horizontally near the entrance side of the fish processing range extending over the length of these regulation guides 17a, 17b, on both sides of the moving path of the fish to be transported. has been done. Each of these rotating blades 18a, 18b is attached to a vertical rotating shaft 19, and each rotating shaft 19 is supported by a bearing provided on the machine frame, and motors 20a, 20b installed at appropriate positions on the machine frame. It is connected to the.

A vacuum suction table 21 is installed on the side in the fish movement direction (left side in FIGS. 1 and 2) with respect to the installation position of the rotary blades 18a and 18b. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, this vacuum suction table 21 is located almost directly below the regulation guide 17a and is elongated along the movement path of the fish, and its upper surface is located in approximately the same plane as the position of the rotary blades 18a and 18b. It is set up to be located at. Four openings 22a to 22d are formed along the length direction on the upper surface of this vacuum suction table 21, and each of these openings 22
a to 22d are connected to a vacuum suction source (not shown) via pipes 23a to 23d, respectively.
This vacuum suction table 21 is used to cut off the head of a fish F suspended by a pair of endless chains 12a and 12b with its tail held between the pair of rotary blades 18a and 18b. When the cut end passes in contact with the upper surface of the vacuum suction table 21, the internal organs of the fish are sequentially suctioned and removed from each opening 22a to 22d.

Two pairs of rotary blades 24a, 24b and 25a, 25b are installed further toward the direction of movement of the fish relative to the installation position of the vacuum suction table 21 for lowering the fish F from which the internal organs have been removed into two pieces. There is. That is, the rotary blades 24a, 25a are located on one side of the moving fish F and are arranged in two stages, upper and lower, and the other rotary blades 24b, 25b are located on the other side of the fish F, and the rotary blades 24a, Corresponding to 25a, it is installed so that the peripheral edges, which are the cutting edges, are in contact with each other. The upper and lower two stages of rotary blades on each side are mounted at intervals on a common rotary shaft 26, and the rotary shaft 26 is supported by a bearing installed in the machine frame and is placed at an appropriate position on the machine frame. The motors 27a and 27b are connected to the motors 27a and 27b.

These two pairs of rotary blades 24a, 24b and 25
a and 25b were provided to first unload the fish F into two pieces, but the number of these rotary blades in the vertical direction is greater than the number of fish F.
It can be changed as appropriate depending on the desired number of sheets to be unloaded. In this case, it is only necessary to attach and detach a desired number of rotary blades to and from the common rotating shaft 26.

As mentioned above, when cutting off the head of the fish F and removing the internal organs by suction, the horizontal movement of the fish F and the pair of rotating blades 1
A pair of support belts 28a, 28b are provided to stably support the fish F during the processing process in order to prevent the fish F from rebounding when entering the fish 8a, 18b.

That is, each of the support belts 28a and 28b is arranged on the left and right sides of the moving path of the fish F, respectively.
One of the support belts 28a is basically disposed in front of the rotating blade 18a for head cutting in the moving direction and on the moving direction side of the rotating blades 24a and 25a on one side for cutting to size, respectively, close to the moving path of the fish. The other support belt 28b is made up of an endless V-belt that is placed around rollers 29a and 30a, and the other support belt 28b is also made of an endless V-belt that is placed on rollers 29b and 30b that are arranged symmetrically with respect to the movement path of the rollers 29a and 30a. Consists of a belt. These rollers 29a, 30a and 29b, 30b are
Two endless support belts 28a and 28b are placed so as to be able to sandwich the body of the fish, facing each other in the movement path of the fish. Note that reference numerals 31a and 31b indicate guide rollers for expanding the loose side of each support belt to avoid contact with other attached equipment and for applying a predetermined tension to the belt.

By the way, when the fish F suspended by a pair of endless chains and held between support belts 28a and 28b passes over the upper surface of the vacuum suction table 21 from which internal organs are removed, the cut end thereof passes precisely over the opening. Therefore, the accuracy of the movement route must be improved. Therefore, directly above the vacuum suction table 21, a guide plate 32 is installed along the moving path so as to sandwich the tension side of each support belt 28a, 28b (within the loop for each loop-shaped support belt).
a, 32b are arranged. As a result, the fish F held between the support belts 28a and 28b will accurately pass over the vacuum suction table 21.

Further, near the end of the clamping section of the endless chains 12a, 12b in the moving direction from the end position of the arrangement section of the support belts 28a, 28b, a rotary blade 33 is arranged to finally cut off the tail of the fish suspended by the chain. There is. As clearly shown in FIG. 7, only one rotary blade 33 is disposed on the side where the fish is hung, and the peripheral edge of the rotary blade is an endless chain 12a, 12b.
The chain is installed close to and obliquely to the chain in order to cut the part of the fish clamped by the chain.

The operation of the fish body processing apparatus 10 of the above embodiment configured as described above will be explained next.

As shown in FIG. 1, fish F are first placed on the planet conveyor 11 one after another. At this time, the tail of the fish F is directed toward the side where the endless chain 12a is arranged, and is made to protrude from the planet conveyor.
As the fish F placed on the planet conveyor 11 is transported by the conveyor, its tail rides on the endless chain 12a that moves at the same speed as the conveyor, and comes down from above near the end of the conveyor. Another endless chain 12b (operating at the same speed as the other chain 12a) pinches the tail of the fish F as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and as it passes the exit end of the planet conveyor 11. Hanged. When the fish's tail enters the arrangement area of the regulating guides 17a, 17b arranged along the endless chains 12a, 12b, the fish's tail is held even more firmly, and then the body slightly above the head of the fish F is moved by the chains. It enters between a pair of support belts 28a and 28b that move at the same speed as , and is held stably. Fish F moved in this state
passes between the rotary blades 18a and 18b for cutting off the head, the head thereof is cut off, and is subsequently moved toward the vacuum suction table 21.

The fish F whose head has been cut off is placed on the guide plates 32a, 3.
2b, and passes directly above the vacuum suction table 21, which is a precisely determined path, and at that time, the cut end of the fish F almost touches the top surface of the vacuum suction table 21, so that
The internal organs of the fish F are suctioned and removed from each of the openings 22a to 22d. The reason why these four openings were arranged in a row is
Since the fish are continuously moving, it may not be possible to suction them completely with just one suction, so this is to ensure completeness, and the number of suctions does not necessarily have to be four.

Then, the fish F from which the internal organs have been removed is cut by two pairs of upper and lower dimension cutting rotary blades 24a, 24b and 25a,
25b, the body portion is first lowered into two pieces as shown by the cutting lines 34 and 35 in FIG. Separated from the tail. The tails clamped by the endless chains 12a, 12b are released from their clamps and dropped downward when the endless chains 12a, 12b separate into upper and lower sections at the end outlet of the endless chain device and are removed. Note that a chute is provided below each rotary blade for collecting the cut off head or body part of the fish.

As explained above, according to the fish body processing method and apparatus of the present invention, in the processing of fish bodies in the production of canned fish such as sardines, most of the processes from cutting off the fish head to cutting the tail can be done manually. The process can be carried out automatically and continuously, and the device can be manufactured at low cost without increasing its size. As a result, the ability to process fish can be dramatically improved and productivity can be increased.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing a fish processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of the fish processing device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line - in FIG. 3, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a side view partially showing the device in the vicinity; FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the vacuum suction table and the guide plate placed above it; FIG. 7 is a section taken along the - line in FIG. 2. FIG. 10...Fish processing device, 11...Planet conveyor, 12a, 12b...Endless chain, 17a, 17b...Regulation guide, 18a, 1
8b... Rotary blade for cutting off the head, 21... Vacuum suction stand, 22a to 22d... Suction opening, 24a, 2
4b, 25a, 25b...Rotary blade for dimension cutting, 2
8a, 28b...Support belt, 32a, 32b...
...Guide plate, 33...Rotary blade for tail cutting, F...
fish.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. While transporting the fish along a predetermined route while holding the fish by its tail and suspending it, the head of the fish is cut off at a first position, and the internal organs are sucked from the cut end at a second position. A method for processing a fish in a continuous manner by removing the body of the fish, cutting the body of the fish to a predetermined size at a third position, and cutting the tail at a fourth position. 2. A pair of endless chains for clamping, which clamps only the tail of a fish carried on a conveyor and transports the fish in a suspended state after passing the exit end of the conveyor; a first cutting device that cuts off the head of a fish suspended by the pair of endless chains with its tail held between the ends; and a vacuum suction source disposed on a passage surface of the cut end of the fish whose head has been cut off. a vacuum suction table having a plurality of vacuum suction openings communicated with the vacuum suction table; and a second cutting device for further cutting into predetermined dimensions the body portion of the fish whose internal organs have been suctioned and removed by the vacuum suction table and subsequently transported by the pair of endless chains. a third cutting device provided near the outlet end of the pair of endless chains for cutting the tail held by the pair of endless chains and the remainder of the body of the fish; A fish processing device comprising the first cutting device and a support device further supporting the body portion of the fish to hold the fish stably during passage through the vacuum suction stage.