Donald J Scheier, 93501 W 107Th St APT 216, Kansas City, MO 64114

4004320, Jan 25, 1977

Oct 3, 1973

5/403119

Donald J. Scheier - Kansas City MO
Homer A. Haynes - Kansas City MO

Gordon Johnson Company - Kansas City MO

A22C 2106

17 11

In the automatic evisceration of poultry, a vacuum scrubber is utilized to detach and extract organs such as lungs and kidneys from sockets in the body cavity of a continuously moving bird, which organs may, for example, have been intentionally left intact during prior stages of the evisceration process in which other organs such as the heart, spleen, gizzard and associated entrails were removed. Scrubbing action is initially concentrated in the lung area of the bird as the vacuum scrubber is reciprocated along its back, and then is concentrated in the kidney area of the bird. A momentary swinging of the scrubber outwardly away from the back of the bird during scrubbing facilitates an inrush of ambient air to aid in extraction of the lungs, and an automatic neck-cracking assembly operates simultaneously with the scrubber during lung and kidney extraction to crack the neck of the bird and sever a portion of the skin associated therewith.

4257142, Mar 24, 1981

Apr 26, 1979

6/033486

Jack L. Hathorn - Springdale AR
Donald J. Scheier - Kansas City MO

Gordon Johnson Company - Kansas City MO

A22C 2100

17 11

A bird is gripped by its thighs adjacent the vent hole and is shifted toward a knife until the hole has reached a predetermined location that corresponds to a certain depth of insertion of the knife into the hole. Since location of the hole is being used as the determining factor with respect to depth of knife insertion, the knife always enters to the same extent regardless of the length of the bird. Operation of the knife once fully inserted causes the skin to be slit between the hole and the keel bone, thus making an enlarged opening to the body cavity.

3958303, May 25, 1976

Dec 16, 1974

5/532826

Donald Joseph Scheier - Kansas City MO
Homer Augusta Haynes - Kansas City MO
J. D. Hawthorn - Independence MO
Henry Evans Frederick - Parkville MO

Gordon Johnson Company - Kansas City MO

A22B 308

17 111R

Poultry carcasses are suspended by their legs and advanced by an overhead conveyor to a machine which automatically severs the vent from each carcass in succession as advancement continues and then partially withdraws each severed vent from its carcass to drape the same over the outside of the carcass for inspection. Each carcass is initially positioned angularly against a support so that the cutter begins severance generally toward the backbone of the carcass, whereupon the carcass is rocked inwardly toward the support and relative to the cutter to position the backbone flatly against the support and generally in line with the cutter. This motion causes the cutter to move along rather than toward the backbone during the short period of further severance so that membranes attaching urinary organs and muscular tissues to the backbone are fully severed. A short segment of helical flighting around the outside of the cutter engages fatty tissues surrounding the vent during entry of the cutter and causes such tissues to climb up the cutter so as to assure complete severance without requiring entry of the cutter to such an extent that entrails might be severed to spill fecal contaminants throughout the carcass. Vacuum pressure applied through the cutterhead adheres the severed vent to the cutter such that when the latter is retracted from the carcass, the vent is pulled partially therefrom until the vacuum pressure is discontinued to release the vent.

4669148, Jun 2, 1987

Jan 23, 1985

6/694010

Donald J. Scheier - Kansas City MO

Simon-Johnson, Inc. - Kansas City KS

A22C 2100

17 11

With manual labor reduced to but two loaders for a high output, cut-up machine for lowering labor costs in poultry processing plants, a series of equally spaced, bird-receiving, block-like heads, swingable on elongated, upright carriers, and advanced continuously along an elliptical path by a conveyor past seven, spaced-apart, constantly rotating blades to automatically and consistently provide successive, precision severances of the keel, the wings and the legs, as well as split and quarter the broilers into at least nine high quality pieces ready for packaging of the fast food product into one or more chickens per bag. The carriers span the distance between the arc connected to upper and lower, power driven conveyor chains. Swinging of the roller-equipped heads and actuation of components on the heads for supporting and stretching the birds thereon are effected solely, and throughout each cycle of advancement, by a number of elongated, stationary, roller-engaging, rod-like controllers.

4019222, Apr 26, 1977

Jan 30, 1976

5/653666

Donald J. Scheier - Kansas City MO
Henry E. Frederick - Parkville MO

Gordon Johnson Company - Kansas City MO

A22C 2100

17 11

The digestive tract of a poultry carcass is removed for inspection without stretching the weak section of the esophagus beyond its breaking point by simultaneously pulling on the gizzard and proventriculus at opposite ends of the weak section using two separate tools. The tool which hooks beneath the proventriculus is withdrawn from the carcass at substantially the same or slightly faster rate than the tool which pulls on the gizzard and the remainder of the organs in the tract, thereby transferring stress from the weak section of the esophagus to the stronger section below the proventriculus. The tool for the gizzard comprises a generally U-shaped, open loop, while the tool for the proventriculus comprises a tongue having a bifurcated tip which can be cocked into a position for hooking beneath the proventriculus after the tongue has been fully inserted.

4136421, Jan 30, 1979

Sep 22, 1977

5/835671

Donald J. Scheier - Kansas City MO
Henry E. Frederick - Parkville MO

Gordon Johnson Company - Kansas City MO

A22C 2518
A22C 2100

17 52

A knife is carried in a protective holder that permits only limited exposure of the cutting edge. Initially, the knife swings through an arc with its cutting edge trailing as the bird is simultaneously swung in a direction to cause a previously prepared hole at the vent of the bird to intersect and receive the knife during the latter's movement. With the knife thus inserted into the hole, the bird is then held against further movement with the knife and the latter is suddenly flipped outwardly and upwardly so as to slit the skin between the hole and the keel bone, thereby preparing an enlarged opening to the body cavity that will permit the subsequent entry of an eviscerating tool.

4262387, Apr 21, 1981

Sep 10, 1979

6/074255

Donald J. Scheier - Kansas City MO
Jack L. Hathorn - Springdale AR

Simon-Johnson Inc. - Kansas City MO

A22C 2106

17 45

In the course of the mechanized eviscerating procedure, the viscera-removing tool is introduced into the body cavity of a carcass in an entry stroke through an opening at the stern of the carcass. The tool moves arcuately along the breast of the carcass during the entry stroke, and substantially at the full innermost limit of the entry stroke of the tool, the carcass is lifted by its shoulders upwardly against the lowermost tip of the tool to locate the latter substantially at the intersection of the neck and the shoulders within the body cavity. Simultaneously with this action, the neck of the carcass is cocked abruptly toward the breast side of the carcass to maximize the depth of insertion of the tool into the body cavity. Consequently, upon the withdrawal stroke of the tool along the backbone of the carcass, prongs on the tip of the tool snag the veins and arteries interconnecting the heart and lungs so that lungs are peeled out of their sockets substantially wholly intact by virtue of the pulling force generated by the veins and arteries.

4827570, May 9, 1989

Jan 25, 1988

7/147703

Donald J. Scheier - Kansas City MO
Jack L. Hathorn - Springdale AR

Simon-Johnson, Inc. - Kansas City KS

A22C 2100

17 46

Apparatus for fileting breast meat and removing tenders and wings from a front poultry section includes two pairs of rotary cutters which are mounted for swining movement in front of the path of the poultry carcass which is carried on a mandrel. The two pairs of rotary cutters provide slightly overlapping cuts to partially sever the connection between the wings and the carcass at precise locations consistent from bird to bird. Downstream of the rotary cutters, two pairs of depending peeling fingers incremently slice through connections between the tenders and the sternum and a pair of wiping elements mounted for pivotal movement swing inwardly around the severed shoulder joint to firmly engage the carcass and peel away the remaining connections and the tenders and the sternum.