Abstract: A sausage casing plug is gripped by a pair of gripper arms to pull a short length of casing through a plate; the arms are then rotated to twist the gripped end of the casing; heat seal crimp arms are then moved to surround but not grip the twisted portion; heat is applied while gripper arms continue to rotate to further provide twists in the slug tail to tighten up the material in the form of a "bud" behind the twisted seal; a cutter then severs the tail being held by the gripper arms and seal and crimp arms are opened simultaneously to release the tail. An inserter then pushes the twisted seal and "bud" into the bore of the slug.