Patent GB-674542-A (GB)
Title: Method and apparatus for making stuffed products
IPC: A22C13/00
Filed: 1950-05-05
Abstract: 674,542. Packeting plastic materials. AMERICAN-VISCOSE CORPORATION. May 5, 1950. [May 19, 1949; Jan. 21, 1950]. No. 11243/50. Class 94(i). [Also in Groups VI; VIII and XXVIII]. Sausage skins are made and filled at the same time continuously by guiding a roll of sheet material into tubular form around a stuffing nozzle 10 by a tube guide 15 and sealing the edges of the tube by an adhesive strip or thread 19 guided between the overlapped edges of the tube and pressed down by a heated roller 24 or a shoe or brush. The thread 19 is made adhesive by passing it through a solvent bath 20a or by heat applied by the pressure roller 24 on the seam. If the sealing strip is made adhesive by passing through an alkali soluble bath, the excess alkali is neutralised by an acid applied at least to the inside of the casing, e.g. by a perforated conduit 23 receiving the acid from a container 21. The sealing strip 19 may be of composite material of which one part is made adhesive by the alkali, the other part being unaffected so that the unsealed part may be gripped and torn open. Alternatively the strip may be partly thermoplastic and partly non-thermoplastic for the same purpose and/or a tearing cord 37, Fig. 5, may be incorporated in the strip. The sheet material forming the casing can also be made adhesive by liquid from an under trough 30 applied by a roll 31 to the roll of material. The advance of the casing through the machine may depend on the extruding pressure of the filling but it may be assisted by endless driving belts 38 around its periphery. The flow of the filling material from the extruder 9 can be controlled by hand valve 8. The casing may be twisted at intervals to form links. In Fig. 6 a skin tearing strand 48 is guided between the overlapped edges of the tubular casing before sealing. The sealing strand, 63, also guided between the edges, is made adhesive in an alkali and bath 68 which alkali is neutralised after sealing when passing between top and bottom pressure shoes 57 and 56. Neutralising vinegar &c. is supplied from 54 by a pipe 63 to the inside surface of the stuffing pipe 50 which also acts as the mandrel round which the flat casing material from 41 is guided by guides 61, 62. Vinegar from 76 is also dripped to reach the outside of the seal. The formed casing is drawn along through the tube forming parts by driven endless belts 71, 72 the top belt receiving the vinegar drip. To support the casing as it is being stuffed through 50, a long pair of semi-cylindrical shoes 79 and 80 are provided where the pressure of stuffing is greatest. The filled sausage is formed into lengths or links at 83 where spaced sets of pins 88, 89, on chains, pinch the sausage into the desired lengths after which co-operating scroll cams 84, 85 on respective shafts 86 and 87 engage the sausage link to twist its ends. The links then proceed to cooking or smoking chambers 88a and through a cooling chamber 89a. Thereafter if skinless sausages are desired, a travelling belt 98 and hold down 99 conveys the sausages against a skin cutting blade 97 on a compressed air supply tube 96 which separates the skin from the meat. The sausage-shaped meat is deflected broadside on at 105 into cartons 103 supplied by conveyer belt 104 while the skin drops into a receptacle 102. The casing web for making up into sausage skins may contain reinforcing fibres, e.g. loose natural or artificial short fibres may be dispersed in a solution of alkalisoluble, water insoluble cellulose ether and. formed into a web. Alternatively a thin tissue paper formed of natural or artificial fibres may be impregnated and coated with a solution of the alkali soluble water insoluble cellulosic material which is coagulated by acid and washed and dried. Other materials may be stuffed into the casings such as ice cream, fats, cheese, lard, margarine, greases, snuff or caulking compound. The sheet material may be printed inside or outside, the inside print being, if desired, transferable to the meat so as to show when the skin is removed. The used skins may be cleaned and redissolved to make new webs. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification 595,797.