Abstract:
A device for filling tubular casings with edible material is disclosed. The device includes a tube upon which the casing can be shirred onto, a tube inlet, a tube outlet and tube support means. The support means allows the device to be supported for the manual insertion of edible material into the tube inlet and furthermore the manual forcing of this edible material through the tube and out of the tube outlet.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to the manufacture of food products. In one particular form, the present invention relates to equipment involved in the manufacturing of meat products.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     In the manufacture of food products, and in particular in respect of the manufacture of meat products, natural or artificial casings in the form of elongated tubes are normally pumped full of meat from a filling machine specifically designed for this purpose. These machines pump or force meat through a stuffing tube over whose external surface a tubular casing has been shirred onto. The meat is thus extruded under pressure from the stuffing tube into the casing which is first clipped and closed at one end, drawing the casing off the stuffing tube in the process. Depending on the desired length of the meat product, the process is interrupted at various stages so that clips or twists may be applied to form separate and individual meat product portions.  
         [0003]     These filing machines can be used either with minced meat products, meat portions or whole meat muscle and the means used to force the meat through the stuffing tube includes a hydraulically or pneumatically forced piston ram or alternatively, in the case of minced or chopped meat, by direct pumping. The tubular casing is typically shirred onto the stuffing tubes as a separate first step. The stuffing tube is then attached to the outlet port of the filling machine using either a screw thread or pin bayonet arrangement. As can be readily appreciated, these filling machines represent a significant capital expense. Often only small batch amounts are contemplated and the additional overhead of configuring and loading a filling machine makes these small batches relatively costly when compared to larger amounts.  
         [0004]     It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device which allows for the efficient stuffing of casings in small batches or by hand.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     In a first aspect the present invention accordingly provides a device for filling tubular casings with edible material, said device including: 
        a tube upon which said casing can be shirred onto;     a tube inlet;     a tube outlet; and     tube support means, wherein said support means support the device for manual insertion of said edible material into said tube inlet and manual forcing of said edible material through said tube and out of said tube outlet.        
 
         [0010]     As the device is simple to manufacture and is manually operated there is no requirement for sophisticated and, expensive filling machines making it ideal for preparing small batches.  
         [0011]     Preferably said tube inlet is adapted to allow substantially full insertion of an arm into said tube. This allows a large amount of pressure to be generated on the contents of the tube. In addition, this will facilitate cleaning of the device which is always important in the preparation of food products.  
         [0012]     Preferably said tube includes mounting means to rigidly mount said device when shirring said tubular casing onto said tube. This will facilitate the shirring operation considerably which in turn makes the overall process more convenient and efficient.  
         [0013]     In a second aspect the invention accordingly provides a method for manually stuffing edible material into tubular casing, said method including the steps of: 
        shirring said casing onto a tube having a tube inlet and a tube outlet, leaving an end section of said casing extending from said tube outlet;     supporting said tube, and     manually inserting edible material into the tube inlet and forcing said edible material through said tube and out said tube outlet into said casing.        
 
         [0017]     The end section of the casing may be closed by clipping (for example) or may be left open. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0018]     An illustrative embodiment of the present invention will be discussed with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:  
         [0019]      FIG. 1  is a side view of a manual stuffing tube according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0020]      FIG. 2  is a top view of the stuffing tube illustrated in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0021]      FIG. 3  is a cross-sectional view of the stung tube illustrated in  FIG. 1  when viewed from the tube inlet end.  
         [0022]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of a device for automatically shirring casing onto the manual stuffing tube illustrated in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0023]      FIG. 5  is a side view of the device illustrated in  FIG. 4  depicting the interference sleeve. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0024]     Referring now to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , there is shown a preferred embodiment of the invention suitable for stuffing meat products into tubular casing including: a tube  10  having a tube inlet  20  and tube outlet  30 . As would be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the invention may be used to stuff other edible materials having a similar physical consistency. Tube  10 , in this preferred embodiment, is constructed from 3 mm stainless steel but other material equally suitable for handling food such as various plastics may be employed. In addition, whilst tube  10  in this preferred embodiment has a circular cross section, other non regular cross sections that allow for the transferring of material through the tube are considered to be within the scope of the invention. Tube  10  has a diameter of 150 mm and a length of 850 mm.  
         [0025]     Tube inlet  20  includes a section  21  having a length of 200 mm and depth of 30 mm cut away from a top area of the cylinder. As the length of the tube is longer than that of the average arm, cut away section  21  allows the operator of the stuffing tube to gain greater penetration with a hand or any other manually operated plunger device.  
         [0026]     Attached to the periphery of section  21  is a lip  60  of 20 mm width, also of stainless steel. Lip  60  is incorporated as a safety measure which ensures that the operator of the manual stuffing tube will not encounter any sharp edges. As a secondary function, lip  60  also facilitates the insertion of material into the tube. As this embodiment is designed to be operated in a vertical position, tube  10  also includes an angle bracket  40  attached to the exterior of the cylinder. Diametrically opposed to bracket  40  a protruding section  50  of the lip  60  also forms a separate support, so that tube  10  may be mounted on a frame with outlet end  30  pointing downwards. Clearly, the invention is not limited to a vertical orientation and therefore other types of support means which allow orientation of the stuffing tube  10  in a horizontal or other inclined position are considered to be within the scope of the invention.  
         [0027]     Inlet end  20  also includes a flange  70  of width 15 mm which is formed to join with lip  60 . Referring now to  FIG. 3 , there is shown a cross sectional view of the stuffing tube depicted in  FIGS. 1 and 2  showing holes  71  and  72  in the flange. In operation, tube  10  will be mounted using these holes to a rigid support and casing shirred onto the exterior of tube  10  either manually or by specialised apparatus. When shirring, angle bracket  40  and lip section  50  also form a convenient abutment region for the casing material. After shirring has been completed, the casing is clipped at one end and the tube  10  is mounted using bracket  40  to a mounting frame. In a preferred embodiment, the mounting frame includes inclined slots allowing tube  10  to be mounted at predetermined inclinations. Typically, tube  10  will be mounted vertically initially. Suitably prepared meat products are then continuously manually inserted at the inlet end  20 , thereby forcing these products through tube  10  and extruding them from outlet end  30  into the casing which is drawn off in the process. This operation generally requires two people, the first person inserting the goods into tube  10 , and the second person helping to urge the casing off the tube where necessary and clipping it to form discrete meat product portions.  
         [0028]     Refuting now to  FIG. 4 , there is illustrated a casing loader  100  for shirring casing on tube  10 . Casing loader  100  includes a base section  150  which incorporates pneumatic and control systems. In addition, base section  150  includes casing storage and dispensing compartment  130  which contains casing  131  rolled flat to form a cylinder for easy dispensing during shirring operation. Tube  10  is fixedly mounted onto platform  110  using holes  71 ,  72  (see  FIG. 3 ) using suitable retaining nuts. Platform  110  is slidable on column supports  114 ,  115 ,  116  by pneumatic lifting sections  111 ,  112 ,  113 . At the top of column supports  114 ,  115 ,  116  is located shirrer  170  which includes a number of fingers  171  which bias towards tube  10  to grip and shir casing  131  onto tube  10  as it is moved upwards due to movement of platform  110 . On downwards movement of platform  110 , fingers  171  release from tube  10  allowing more casing  131  to be dispensed as tube  10  moves downwards. To ensure casing  131  does not tangle when being shirred, casing loader  100  includes side arm  140  which includes retractable portion  141  further including hanging guide members  143  and  144  through which casing  131  is threaded.  
         [0029]      FIG. 5  illustrates shirrer  170  in more detail, showing interference sleeve  160  which when inserted into shirrer  170 , opens fingers  171  outwards to allow initial insertion of tube  10  into the shirrer  170 . After tube  10  is mounted, interference sleeve  160  is retracted using pivotable horseshoe arm  161 , which pivots about hinge  163  to raise sleeve  160  from shirrer  170  so that shirring operation may commence. Sleeve  160  is of sufficient diameter to allow clearance for the casing to be shirred onto tube  10 .  
         [0030]     Referring now to FIGS.  1  to  5 , to load casing onto tube  10 , first a mandible (not shown) is fitted to tube outlet  30  and an initial portion of casing  131  is threaded through guide members  143 ,  144  through interference sleeve  160  which has been inserted into shirrer  170  and onto tube  10 . Tube  10  is then inserted into shirrer  170 , which is possible as fingers  171  are held outwards from tube  10  by interference sleeve  160 . Tube  10  is then fixed to platform  110  as described previously. Interference sleeve  160  is then removed from shirrer  170 , allowing fingers  171  to move inwards and engage the initial portion of casing  131  onto tube  10 .  
         [0031]     Platform  110  is moved upwards by pneumatic lifting sections  111 ,  112 ,  113  and guided by columns  114 ,  115 ,  116  thus also raising tube  10  through shirrer  170 . Fingers  171  engage the casing  131  and drive it down to bracket  40  and protruding lip section  60  as tube  10  is raised. This prevents casing  131  from moving further down tube  10  towards inlet end  20 . After completion of the upstroke, platform  110  moves downwards and fingers  171  release from tube  10 , allowing further casing to be drawn from casing storage and dispensing compartment  130 . Shirred casing  180  is thus shirred onto tube  10 . This process is repeated until a suitable amount of casing  131  is shirred onto tube  10  at which point tube  10  may be removed from casing loader  100 , the mandible removed and casing  131  then tied off at the outlet end before commencing stuffing of the tube.  
         [0032]     It will be understood that the term “comprise” and any of its derivatives (eg. comprises, comprising) as used in this specification is to be taken to be inclusive of features to which it refers, and is not meant to exclude the presence of any additional features unless otherwise stated or implied.  
         [0033]     Although a preferred embodiment of the method and apparatus of the described in the foregoing detailed description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiment disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications and substitutions without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.