Beheader and degutter for fish carcasses - has separately driven units, and pressing plate moves between floating guides

The machine has a separate unit, individually driven for each operation, arranged beneath a working gulley and secured to a swinging lever. The fish are aligned for both units by a loading arrangement comprising the gulley, formed by two floating panels, and a mechanism including a plate for pressing the fish through the gulley. During the working sequences the pressing plate follows a path very close to the plane of symmetry of the gulley panels. The degutting unit, actuated by the control system, responding to the load on the fish, swings on the driving shaft of a motor, and is jointed to a telescopic arrangement, the piston rod of which is anchored to the machine frame. The loading and pressing arrangement is linked by a balance and overload clutch to the head shearing unit, and the two units can be disengaged. The fish are fed accurately forward into the working groove relatively to the working tools, esp. to the degutting tool, by a partial widening of the panels of the gulley. The machine is compact with totally enclosed gear boxes and can be used either for topping the fish alone or for both operations.