Meat skinning machines conventionally have a toothed gripping roll located adjacent a sharpened skinning blade for separating the skin from meat, fish and poultry products. The products to be skinned are moved manually into the gripping roll and towards the blade as the skinning operation takes place. Obviously, any contact between the operator's hands and the gripping roll and blade is likely to invite injury to the operator.
Safety circuits have been incorporated into skinning machines whereby the power to the operating components of the machine will immediately stop whenever the hands of the operator move into and contact a danger zone in the immediate area of a gripping roll and blade. Typical safety circuits are disclosed in my copending applications Ser. No. 426,668 filed Oct. 26, 1989 and Ser. No. 447,156 filed Dec. 7, 1989. The safety circuits of these two applications are incorporated herein by reference.
One of the difficulties in providing a safety circuit and apparatus for meat skinning machines dwells in the matter of instantaneously stopping the power mechanism when the operator inadvertently contacts components in the danger zone of the machine. The inertia of electrical motors contributes to this problem of obtaining instantaneous stoppage of the machine when a dangerous situation arises.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a safety means for meat skinning machines which will substantially instantaneously stop the gripping roll of the machine when a safety circuit is actuated without also having to deactivate the power source of the machine.
A further object of this invention is to provide a safety means for meat skinning machines which is adaptable for use with a plurality of different safety circuits.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a safety means for meat skinning machines which is reliable and easily serviced.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.