US 5,579,892 AGranted

Apparatus for the counting, collection and transportation of sausage casings and process

AssigneeHoechst Aktiengesellschaft

InventorJakob Jahn

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Abstract

An apparatus 1 for counting, collecting and transporting sausage casings is equipped with collecting rails 3, 4, initiators 6, 12, a lever 5, a counter 7 and a rotating collecting chain 10 with drivers 11, 14, 24. The sausage casings 15 are counted by way of the lever 5, a first initiator 6 and counter 7, and are pushed into the gap between the collecting rails 3, 4 and stored there. After a preselectable number of sausage casings has been counted, the counter 7 sets the collecting chain 10 and sausage casings in motion, until the collecting chain 10 is disengaged by an electromagnetic coupling via the further driver 24 and a second initiator 12. At increased working speeds of the tying-off machine, the number of preselected sausage casings is likewise increased correspondingly, so that, even in the case of an unchanged collecting chain speed, the number of articles supplied to the gap can be transported away.

Claims12

Dependent claims

An apparatus for counting, collecting and transporting sausage casings supplied to said apparatus by an ejector of a tying-off machine, said apparatus comprising;

a transport unit which includes upper and lower collecting rails positioned to form a gap therebetween through which the sausage casings run,
a collecting chain having drivers mounted thereon and adapted for engaging said sausage casings present in said gap,
a plurality of chain wheels, wherein said collecting chain rotates in an endlessly closed manner around said chain wheels and
a drive for driving said collecting chain, said drive including a motor, a gear in communication with one of said plurality of chain wheels, a drive chain coupled to said motor and gear, and an electromagnetic coupling for engaging and disengaging said motor from said collecting chain;
and
a control unit, wherein said transport unit is activated by said control unit when said ejector has supplied a preselected number of sausage casings to said transport unit, and wherein said control unit deactivates said transport unit after the sausage casings have been transported over a predetermined distance.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.