GB1343533A - Apparatus for shelling edible crustacea - Google Patents

Abstract

1343533 Shelling crustacea R J HARMAN 24 Jan 1972 [26 Jan 1971] 3229/71 Heading A2U Edible, crustacea, e.g. prawns or scampi, are peeled by a method which consists in severing the shell-like covering along the back and belly whilst the crustacea are moving longitudinally past cutting means, and removing the severed parts of the covering from the fleshy body portion. In the apparatus shown, crustacea are placed head first and belly down on an endless belt 3 where it passes over a pulley 4. The belt, which extends to a pulley 5 and passes also over an intermediate pulley 6, is divided longitudinally to provide a gap through which an adjustably mounted, belly-slitting rotary saw 12 protrudes. The crustacea are pressed against the belt 3 by a pair of squaresection belts 23 running side-by-side over V- grooved pulleys 24, 25, 26, 36, 22, 28, 29, 30. The pulleys 22 are freely mounted on a shaft 13 on either side of a back-slitting saw 11 which is power driven through the shaft 13. The pulleys 28, 29, 30 are carried by spring- loaded levers 31, 32, 33 pivotally mounted on an arm 19 carrying the shaft 13 so that the height of the saw 11 is automatically adjusted by the crustacea passing under the pulleys 28, 29, 30. As a crustacean leaves the saw 11 the slit on its back is opened firstly by a sharpedged wheel 35 between the pulleys 36 and then by a small fixed plough 37. The crustacean is then conveyed to a point where the slit on its back is engaged by a square-section endless belt 54 running through a groove under a fixed plough 51 which forces the two sides of the shell apart, resulting in separation of the shell from the body which is delivered over the end of the belt 3.