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US 4,044,426 AGranted
Stuffing apparatus
AssigneeUnion Carbide Corporation
InventorsVytautas Kupcikevicius, Anton LeRoy Mika
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus and method for stuffing viscous food product into a shirred tubular casing article contaning a casing diameter sizing means confined within an unshirred portion of one closed end, comprising means to stretch-size and snub the casing to a predetermined diameter as it is being stuffed and control means to regulate the shape of the leading end and trailing end portions of a clip closed food product.
Claims31
An apparatus for controlling the uniformity of stuffed diameter and conformation of the terminal ends of an encased product comprising in combination, a frame;
- a stuffing horn assembly including a central support tube having an inlet end and a discharge end for conveying emulsion from a supply source, an emulsion cut-off tube rotatably mounted with respect to said support tube and a sleeve means axially movably mounted with respect to said support tube and adapted to mount and secure a shirred tubular casing on said sleeve means, and emulsion cut-off means disposed at the discharge end of said support tube to control the flow of emulsion into a mounted casing;
- snubbing means associated with said stuffing horn assembly and adapted to be partially advanced over and retracted from said emulsion cut-off tube and further adapted to provide a closure means adapted for enclosing an encased product after a predetermined stuffing length;
- motive means to operate said sleeve means and snubbing means to regulate the position of said snubbing means over said emulsion cut-off tube and the position of said sleeve means relative to said snubbing means;
- and control means operatively associated with said stuffing horn assembly and said snubbing means to selectively control a cycle of successive stuffing and closing operations, thereby producing a stuffed closed encased product of predetermined length and diameter with controlled shape of the leading and trailing ends of said product.
1 more element
An apparatus for controlling the uniformity of stuffed diameter and conformation of the terminal ends of an encased product comprising in combination, a frame;
- a stuffing horn assembly including a central support tube having an inlet end and a discharge end for conveying emulsion from a supply source, an emulsion cut-off tube rotatably mounted with respect to said support tube and a sleeve means axially movably mounted with respect to said support tube, a casing sizing means confined within an unshirred portion of a closed end of a shirred tubular casing, said sizing means being detachably secured on said sleeve means to mount said casing thereon, and emulsion cut-off means disposed at the discharge end of said support tube to control the flow of emulsion into said casing;
- snubbing means associated with said stuffing horn assembly and adapted to be partially advanced over and retracted from said emulsion cut-off tube, and further adapted to provide a closure means adapted for enclosing an encased product after a predetermined stuffing length;
- motive means to operate same sleeve means and said snubbing means to regulate a restraining force on said unshirred portion of casing positioned on said sizing means by varying the clearance between said sizing means and said snubbing means;
- and control means operatively associated with said stuffing horn assembly and snubbing means to selectively control a cycle of successive stuffing and closing operations, thereby producing a stuffed closed encased product of predetermined length and diameter with controlled shape of the leading and trailing ends of said product.
1 more element
A method for controlling the uniformity of stuffed diameter and conformation of the terminal ends of an encased product which comprises:
- a. positioning a closed end shirred tubular casing article containing a sizing means and having a leading end unshirred portion of casing length secured by a closure, onto a movably mounted support sleeve of a stuffing horn assembly;
- b. moving said support sleeve and sizing means to deshirr a predetermined length of casing at the beginning of a first cycle and for successive cycles;
- c. introducing a pressurized emulsion through a central support tube into said deshirred portion of shirred tubular casing article;
- d. providing and regulating a time interval for returning said sizing means and deshirred casing length to impose a predetermined tension on said casing length to provide a controlled shape leading end of said encased product;
- e. continuing the stuffing of said casing with emulsion after formation of said shaped leading end by continually feeding emulsion into said casing while regulating the diameter by passing the casing length over said sizing means and through an annular ring to provide a snubbing force;
- f. controlling the shape of the trailing end of the stuffed encased product by providing and regulating a time interval for advancing and retracting said sizing means to deshirr a predetermined length of casing and impose a predetermined sizing tension on said casing length to provide a controlled shaped trailing end of said product;
- g. gathering said trailing end and applying a trailing end closure thereto;
- h. advancing the stuffed encased product and applying a leading end closure to a succeeding casing length adjacent said trailing end closure;
- and thereafter,
- i. severing the stuffed closed product from the succeeding casing length and doffing the product from a product conveyor.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.