Rotatable sausage forming sleeve member for the inlet of a sausages producing apparatus

In a sausage producing apparatus using a tubular casing, a rotatable sleeve member having an inlet and an outlet, a source of flowable meat mass, a tubular injector connected to said source and having a nozzle housed within said inlet, for injecting said flowable meat mass into said tubular casing which is to be rotated by the sleeve injector defining a longitudinal axis, and a pulling and constricting assembly for pulling the meat filled casing through the sleeve member and constricting at short intervals the meat mass filled casing to form a string of sausages, the improvement wherein said inlet is a converging inlet portion including a plurality of longitudinal radially extending projections forming longitudinal grooves therebetween, a through passage in said sleeve extending between said inlet portion and said outlet and including a plurality of freely rotatable rolling means providing peripheral surfaces for moving the tubular casing there along, with a minimum frictional engagement and in the direction of said longitudinal axis, to enable the tubular casing to freely slide out of said outlet of said sleeve member.