BACKGROUND ART To facilitate the effective pelting or skinning of animal carcasses, several automated means are known. The apparatus used to date has been particularly adapted for use with the predominant animal types'encountered in abattoirs such as sheep, beef, pigs, goats and so forth. The differing physical constraints of each animal imposes specific pelting considerations on the physical size and the working space required for the necessary apparatus. Clearly, there is a requirement to minimise the floor space necessary for each individual pelting apparatus to maximise the utilisation of a given work space. There is also a fundamental requirement to maintain an acceptable level of workplace safety, particularly in view of the hazardous operating characteristics of many pelting apparatuses.

Current pelting apparatuses primarily configured for use with sheep typically operate in a two-stage process in which the major working parts of the apparatus move through an arc rather than in a linear motion. The combination of natural human limitations and the inherent properties of a lamb carcass means that the most appropriate motion for removing a pelt manually involves pulling the pelt outwards and downwards away from the hindquarters and this motion was replicated in the operation of automated devices developed for the same purpose. However, the non-linear motion of the main reciprocating parts involved in the stripping action, together with the typical dimensions of a lamb, prevent the whole device being orientated vertically as this

would either require a well or pit or such like to be formed in the floor to accommodate the necessary operating length or the provision of a significantly elevated platform to enable the operators to reach the top of the carcass. Either of these options would be disadvantageous from a efficiency and/or cost perspective.

After an animal carcass has been appropriately prepared for attachment to an automated pelting machine by being worked up, it is attached via its hind or forequarters to a clamping/securing device, and a part-peeled section (s) (typically the socks) of the animal pelt is/are attached to a further clamping device. Thereafter, the pelting machine strips the pelt from the animal by forcing the two clamped regions apart. Typically, this stripping action only involves the actual movement of one clamping device whilst the other remains fixed. In the case of lamb pelting apparatuses, the clamping of the partly-removed pelt is conducted as a distinct individual operation and only after its completion would an operator manually activate the means of stripping the pelt from the animal via the aforesaid relative movements of the two clamps. The reason for separating these two stages is to prevent possible injury due to the inadvertent trapping of the operators fingers/hands in the clamping means and then subjecting the operator to the stripping action of the apparatus. Clearly, if the process of clamping the animal pelt and then automatically stripping the pelt could be achieved without any adverse reduction in safety, this would provide an increase in efficiency of pelt processing.

Furthermore, if the predominant motion of the working parts of the apparatus could be constrained to move in a substantially linear vertical orientation, this would enable a corresponding reduction in the amount of work/floor space required by the apparatus.

A reduction in any adverse marking or damage to the pelt due to the pinching action of conventional hinged jaws employed to secure the part-peeled section of the pelt would also enhance the economic value of the pelt and thus be advantageous.

All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.

It is acknowledged that the term'comprise'may, under varying jurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusive meaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwise noted, the term'comprise'shall have an inclusive meaning-i. e. that it will be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components it directly references, but also other non-specified components or elements. This rationale will also be used, when the term'comprised'or'comprising'is used in relation to one or more steps in a method or process.

It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for removing the pelt from an animal carcass, said apparatus including; - a first securing means, capable of retaining a predetermined portion of said carcass,

- a second securing means, capable of retaining a partially detached portion of the pelt between at least two substantially opposed clamping surfaces, - a detector, capable of detecting the presence of at least one said clamping surface at a predetermined position, - a triggering means, capable of activating the second securing means to secure said detached portion of the pelt upon detection of at least one clamping surface at said predetermined position, - a displacement means, capable of automatically effecting relative movement between said first and second securing means automatically upon activation of said second securing means.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating the said apparatus for removing the pelt from an animal carcass in accordance with the following steps; - the carcass is secured to said first securing means, and - the partially detached portion of the pelt is interposed between the substantially opposed clamping surfaces, - said clamping surfaces are manually moved together, until said detector detects at least one said clamping surface is located at said predetermined position, and - said triggering means activates said second securing means to secure said predetermined portion of said pelt, whereupon - said a displacement means automatically increases the relative separation between said first and second securing means.

As used herein, the term'worked-up'refers to the known techniques of preparing an animal carcass for skinning/pelting (including gutted and de-furred carcasses), the removal of the animal head and hoofs/claws/feet, performing standard incisions to aid the detachment of the skin/pelt from the carcass limbs to form the respective pelt socks suitable for securing by said second securing means and any such further incisions and/or manipulations of the carcass as appropriate to facilitate the subsequent removal of the complete skin/pelt.

It will be further appreciated that the invention is equally applicable to the removal of a carcass skin or pelt and although the invention is particularly suitable for use with small fur-bearing animals such as possums, mink, sable, ferrets and so forth, the term pelt is defined herein as encompassing short or non haired animal skins.

Correspondingly, the said predetermined portion of said pelt would typically be the socks of either the fore or hind limbs, though again, any portion of the pelt detached from the carcass could be employed.

The said first securing means, may take the form of any suitable clamping, holding or restraining means capable for preventing the carcass from moving or slipping during the pelting process and includes mechanical clamps or jaws, forks, spaced tines (v- shaped or parallel), tying, strapping, spiking, and so forth.

However, whilst said a second securing means may also include any appropriate mechanical clamping, holding or restraining means, it is a requirement of the invention that said second securing means incorporates some form of substantially opposing clamping surfaces. The specific shape of the clamping surfaces may be varied according to the nature of the carcass and the specific type of pelting operation, including the use of straight, curved, concentric, serrated or asymmetric jaws.

The detector may consist of any appropriate means of sensing the presence of an object (such as one of the said opposing clamping surfaces) at a-specific location, and

includes proximity, displacement or location sensors, whether mechanical, electrical, magnetic, optical, any combination of same.

Any suitable triggering means may be utilised provided it has the capacity to receive a signal from the detector indicating the presence of one of the said clamping surfaces at the said predetermined position and then automatically and instantaneously send an activation signal to the said displacement means. Whilst appropriate triggering means would typically be electrical, electronic or electro-mechanical, a purely mechanical arrangement is feasible and would not be precluded by the nature of the invention.

The said displacement means includes any drive or actuator means, capable of exerting sufficient force to peel the pelt held by the said second securing means away from the animal carcass held by the said first securing means. The direction of movement of the two securing means may replicate the arcuate movement employed in known pelting apparatuses, though alternatively, a substantially linear movement may be employed, substantially aligned about the longitudinal axis of the carcass. The motive force of said displacement means may be provided by any suitable known means such as pneumatic, hydraulic, or electrical force.

Preferably, the second securing means and said displacement means may be configured to either'pull the pelt from the carcass in the conventional manner or to effectively push the pelt away from the carcass by the insertion of an apparatus between the pelt and the carcass skin in a known manner.

The relative separation between said first and second securing means is preferably effected in a substantially linear direction.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a pelting apparatus substantially as described above wherein the second securing means comprises at least one pair of substantially opposed jaws, moveable between an opened and closed position in a predetermined plane, one of said jaws being slideably hinged

to the other said jaw of said paid of jaws via an elongated slot orientated co-planar with said predetermined plane and projecting laterally from the clamping surfaces of said opposed jaws when in said closed position.

Preferably, one end of both jaws of said pairs of substantially opposed jaws are free.

Preferably, the said clamping surfaces are closeable by an actuation means providing a closure force applicable to at least one of said jaws intermediate said free end (s) and said slideable hinge.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a frontal perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 shows a simplified side elevation of the embodiment shown in figure 1, with the invention in a start position; Figure 3 shows a side simplified elevation of the embodiment shown in figure 1, with the invention at the completion of the pelt removing action, and Figure 4 shows an enlarged plan view of second securing means of the embodiment shown in figure 1-3.

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Figures 1-4 show a first preferred embodiment of the present invention of a pelting apparatus (1) including a first securing means in the form of a pair of horizontally opposed tapered forks (2), a second securing means in the form of a pair of slideably

hinged jaws (3) attached to a displacement means in the form of vertically orientated hydraulic or pneumatic ram (4). The pelting apparatus (1) shown in the first embodiment is primarily configured for use with relatively small animals, in particular possums and is dimensioned accordingly. To aid clarity, non-essential elements have been omitted from the drawings and the invention has been described in terms of possum pelting, though it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to same.

Prior to attachment of a possum carcass (5) to the pelting apparatus (1), the gutted and de-furred carcass (5) is worked up in accordance'with known techniques to facilitate the pelting operation, including the separation of the hind pelt socks (11) from the carcass.

The carcass is then mounted on the pelting machine (1) in the start position as shown in simplified form in figure 2 by securing both hind legs onto the tapered forks (2) claws so that the hind leg socks (11) face the operator. The hind leg socks (11) are then pulled down individually to carefully release the adhesion above the tail region. The forks (2) are then rotated 180° so that the pelt socks (11) face away from the operator.

Thereupon, the operator places each sock in the gap between the clamping surfaces of the jaws (3) and manually pulls the clamp jaws (3) together. As shown in figure 1 and in more detail in figure 4, the jaws (3) are comprised of a pair of substantially opposed clamping surfaces, one half of which being formed by a common continuous elongated rod (6) fixed to the said pneumatic ram (4). The other half of each said pair of opposing jaws is/are formed by two elongated rods (7) free at one end and slideably hinged at the other end to said fixed elongated rod (6).

In the preferred embodiment as shown in figure 4, said slideable hinges are formed as elongated slots (8) within a projecting stub (13) orientated substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the jaw (7) and constrained in the vertical plane by a clevis pin (9) extending through the elongated slot (8) whilst permitting of lateral movement in the horizontal plane along the length of said elongated slot and rotational movement

about the axis of said clevis pin (9).

The movement of both jaws (7) is/are provided by actuators (10) attached to said displacement means (4) and pivotally attached to said jaws at the point intermediate the ends. The actuators (10) are shown as double-acting hydraulic cylinders controlled by dual-acting centre-exhaust solenoid valves though it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that a variety of such activators may be employed. In use, the actuators (10) are initially placed in a relaxed, neutral condition whereby the movement of the jaws (7) is solely restricted by the inherent friction of the system and this enables the operator to place the partially detached portions of the pelt (i. e. the socks (11)) between the opposing clamping surfaces of the jaws (3) and thereupon pull the moveable jaws (7) towards the operator thereby gripping the socks (11) within the mating surfaces of the jaws (6,7).

When the moveable jaws (7) have reached a predetermined position, i. e., a position in which it would be physically impossible to have an operators fingers and/or hands trapped between the said clamping surfaces of the jaws (3), a detector in the form of a magnetically-operated reed switch (12) located on said actuators (10) detects that the moveable jaws (7) is/are in said predetermined position and sends a signal to the actuators (10) via the respective solenoid valve controller to apply sufficient force to the moveable jaws (7) to securely grip the socks (11) between the moveable jaws (7) and the fixed jaws (6). The slideable hinging arrangement (8,9) permits the said clamping/mating surface of the jaws (7) to align itself along the maximum surface area of the socks (11) rather than potentially trapping or pinching the portion of the socks in closest proximity to the hinge point (8).

After the closure of the jaws (3), the pelting apparatus (1) automatically initiates the ram (4) to separate the jaws (3) from the forks (2) by being driven vertically downwards for a predetermined distance. In the case of the preferred embodiment, this equates to the length of the possum carcass (5) plus an additional distance to account

for the stretching of the pelt during the removal process. The pelting apparatus need not be arranged to operate in the vertical plane though this does permit-the minimisation of the necessary floor space required for the pelting apparatus (1). After the ram (4) reaches the end of its stroke (as shown in figure 2), it reverses direction to return to its start point leaving the pelt hanging by the hind socks (11) ready for the operator to detach and repeat the process with a new carcass (5).

It will be appreciated that the reduction in the number of manual steps required by the operator due to the elimination of the separate stages of clamping of the socks (11) and subsequent manual activation of the ram (4) increases efficiency without any adverse reduction in safety and that the linear motion of the reciprocating ram (4) together with its attendant stripping action of the pelt from the carcass (5) provides the aforesaid improvements in workspace utilisation.

It will also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the slideably hinged pivot means (8, 9) of attaching the clamping surfaces of (6,7) of the jaws (3) need not be necessarily used solely in conjunction with the aforesaid pelting apparatus (1) but could conceivably used in a variety of alternative applications.

Furthermore, the pelt of the carcass (5) need not be necessarily stripped from the carcass by the above described means and instead could be separated from the carcass skin by the insertion of a carcass encircling device between the pelt and the carcass skin as described in NZ Patent No. 190012. The nature of the invention described therein does not impinge of the novel aspects of the present invention. However, it will be appreciated that the above described advantages relating to an automated clamping and stripping of the pelt are equally applicable to the pelting technique described in NZ Patent No. 190012 whereby the pelt is essentially pushed from the animal with the aid of said interposed insertion device encircling the carcass body.

Aspects of the present invention have been described by way of example only and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions may be made thereto without departing from the scope thereof.