Patent ID: 7399219

Claim:
A gathered tubular caterpillar-type element of artificial sausage skin, comprising: a tubular film having a base outside diameter; the tubular film being longitudinally gathered about a longitudinal axis into a caterpillar-type configuration; wherein the caterpillar-type configuration has a multitude of ring sections each of which have been radially pulled out by a unilateral radial tensile force into an oval shape and longitudinally compressed, each said ring section including (a) a folded-over outside edge which extends only over a part of a circumference of the gathered tubular film and which is a distal end portion of the longitudinally compressed oval shaped ring section which is distal from the longitudinal axis, and (b) an oblong through-hole; wherein the caterpillar-type configuration has (a) a sequence of the folded-over outside edges which have, relative to one another, staggered orientations distributed about the circumference of the caterpillar-type configuration, and (b) a central round through-hole which is composed of overlapping portions of the oblong through-holes of the longitudinally compressed oval shaped ring sections, where the longitudinal axis is a central axis of the round through hole; and wherein the caterpillar-type configuration has an outside diameter which is at least 10% greater than the base outside diameter of the tubular film.