Abstract: A sausage encasing machine has a computer and a casing diameter sensor located on a frame downstream of an exit end of a meat stuffing tube. The sensor is connected to the computer to transmit casing diameter data to the computer as the casing is being sensed. The computer is programmed to sausage diameter parameters, and the computer is programmed to signal a machine power system to cease operation whenever the computer detects that the casing diameter exceeds the predetermined parameters.

Abstract: An end-cutting and stripping station for removing casings from sausages is disclosed. The station comprises a carousel having end-cutting units spaced around its perimeter. The carousel is connected to a conveyor, each unit receiving a sausage as the conveyor advances. Each unit includes a sausage support and a carriage slidably mounted below the support. An actuator is connected between the carriage and the carousel. As the actuator retracts, sensor fingers on the carriage slidingly engage a sausage on the support. When the finger tips reach the bottom end of the sausage, the fingers move inwardly, actuating a control valve and halting the carriage. A casing cutter is then actuated to cut off the lower end of the casing above the finger tips. As the conveyor exits the carousel, a pair of stripper bars positioned below the conveyor engage the tops of the sausages and force them out of the casings.

Abstract: A sausage encasing machine has a computer and a casing diameter sensor located on a frame downstream of an exit end of a meat stuffing tube. The sensor is connected to the computer to transmit casing diameter data to the computer as the casing is being sensed. The computer is programmed to sausage diameter parameters, and the computer is programmed to signal a machine power system to cease operation whenever the computer detects that the casing diameter exceeds the predetermined parameters.

Abstract: A conveyor assembly for moving an extruded strand of sausage (26) from an extruding machine (10) and for coagulating the outer surface (28) of the strand (26) has first (48) and second (49) conveyor elements mounted on a frame (36). The conveyor assembly on the frame (36) moves from a point of beginning (38) to a discharge station (40) and thence back to the point of beginning (38). A brine fluid circuit is disposed on the frame above the conveyor with a plurality of discharge nozzles thereon to spray brine on a strand of sausage moving with the conveyor assembly. A pair of laser lights (88) project beams (90) on the unlinked strand (26) to determine the diameter thereof. A signal is sent from the lasers to a controller (92) who compares the diameter of the strand to a predetermined diameter.

Abstract: Apparatus for producing sausages, including a mechanism for automatically drawing new sausage casings onto a filling tube.

Abstract: Machine to produce sausages with twisted casing, comprising a feeding pump for minced meat, a skin dressing tube located at the exit of said pump in order to sustain a flexible casing and to consent the introduction of meat into the casing itself for the formation of a continuous sausage. A device of separation and feed of the sausage provided with mobile pincers that can be brought near to each other is located at the exit of the skin dressing tube in order to advance the sausage and to nip the casing so as to form a squeezing point between each sausage downstream and the rest of the sausage upstream. The machine provides for controlling means to produce the rotation of the skin dressing tube for the twisting of the casing around said squeezing point in such a way as to obtain a separation tang between a sausage downstream and the rest of the sausage upstream.

Abstract: A metal detector is incorporated in a discharge horn of a product filling machine in a manner which shortens the length of the horn to thereby prevent the formation of aesthetically displeasing product due to extended transport of the comminuted product through a filling horn and metal detection equipment.

Abstract: An automatic control for terminating the filling of a sausage casing on a sausage casing machine has a sensor on the machine to detect when the rearward end of a telescopic casing is closely adjacent the discharge end of a meat stuffing tube. The sensor is connected to the meat emulsion pump for stopping the pump under such conditions. A timer or pulse counter is associated with the computer on the machine to "measure" when the rearward end of the casing substantially reaches the discharge end of the stuffing tube. The timer or counter is operatively connected to the power system for rendering the machine inoperative after a predetermined amount of time or pulses. The sensor and timer are connected to the above stated respective components through a computer so that the computer can automatically compensate for the operating time of the second cycle to accommodate for speed changes imposed on the power system in the second cycle.

Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus for portioning a food mass, comprising: a path to be traversed by the food mass which is connected on one side to a feed device for feeding the food mass for portioning; a cutting device incorporated in the path for severing the food mass situated in the path; and a channel incorporated in the path which is connected to the feed device at its feed end and which is open at its other end, wherein control means are arranged in order to control the feed means and the cutting device such that the distance between successive cuts made in the food mass is adjustable. The invention further relates to a cutting device for severing a food mass situated in a channel, comprising a cutting blade which extends substantially perpendicularly of the axis of the channel and which is movable substantially parallel to itself, wherein the cutting blade is formed by a plate provided with at least one hole.

Abstract: A meat encasing machine has a looper horn, linking chain and conveyor which, prior to production, have home positions which are determined. A pulsed signal is generated as the looper horn rotates and is transmitted to an amplifier from an encoder on the servo motor for the looper horn and the conveyor. The output pulse signal is then reduced in frequency so that it can be read by a PLC. The PLC counts the pulses in the signal and can determine the relative position of the looper horn based on the count and can therefore minimize the rotation of the looper horn in the home position at the beginning of each new cycle. The meat encasing machine may also be controlled such that the linking chain, looper, and conveyor have no direct mechanical or electrical interaction between each other. By driving the components with separate servo motors, each can be precisely controlled in the desired ratios with respect to each other.

Abstract: A sausage making machine (10) has a meat pump, (22), a twister with a chuck 30 to rotate a strand of sausage, a linker (32) to create links in the strand of sausage, a conveyor (38) with movable hooks to grasp loops in the sausage strand. Four separate motors (22A, 30A, 32A, 38A) are operatively connected to the pump (22), twister (30), linker (32) and conveyor (38), and the motors (22A, 30A, 32A, 38A) are all connected to and controlled by a computer (44) control having a memory with the operating parameters of the separate components. The method of operation involves imposing the operational parameters on the memory of the computer (44) to permit the computer (44) to control and coordinate the components (22A, 30A, 32A, 38A).

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for filling sausage casings, comprising a filling machine in which the filling material is ejected through a filling tube into a sausage casing, said casing being twisted off after a portion which is representative of an individual sausage has been filled in, so as to form individual sausages, the filled sausage casing being discharged at a speed which is set in dependence upon a set filling-material output characteristic. For obtaining sausages of identical length and volume in a natural casing, the sausage discharge speed is controlled according to the invention in compliance with a function which is applied to the set filling-material output characteristic and comprises charge-dependent parameters, the function simulating the actual filling-material output characteristic.

Abstract: A meat encasing machine has a looper horn, linking chain and conveyor which, prior to production, have home positions which are determined. A pulsed signal is generated as the looper horn rotates and is transmitted to an amplifier from an encoder on the servo motor for the looper horn and the conveyor. The output pulse signal is then reduced in frequency so that it can be read by a PLC. The PLC counts the pulses in the signal and can determine the relative position of the looper horn based on the count and can therefore minimize the rotation of the looper horn in the home position at the beginning of each new cycle.

Abstract: A method of and an apparatus for manufacturing sausages or the like. The apparatus includes a stuffing pump for supplying a material to be stuffed; a stuffing nozzle over which a casing is fitted and which receives the material to be stuffed fed out from the stuffing pump; a hampering member into which the tip of the stuffing nozzle is inserted; and a conveying device for conveying the casing in which the material to be stuffed discharged from the hampering member is stuffed, wherein the material to be stuffed is continuously discharged from the tip of the stuffing nozzle into the casing while the casing is being pulled in its longitudinal direction by the hampering member and the conveying device.

Abstract: This invention relates to a process of producing sausages, wherein a tubular sausage casing closed at one end and provided with a figurative print is filled with sausage meat by pressing the sausage meat through the open end of the sausage casing into the same, where the sausage casing is carried along against the resistance of a casing brake and, corresponding to markers on the sausage casing, filled partial lengths of the sausage casing are divided off by compressing and closing them and are subsequently cut off from the remaining sausage casing, which process is characterized in that each filled partial length (sausage) is weighed after having been cut off, and the weight difference between a predetermined desired weight and the actual weight of the partial length is determined, and that the braking force of the casing brake is increased when the actual weight of the filled partial length is smaller than its desired weight, but is decreased when the actual weight is larger than the desired weight, until th

Abstract: A method for removing a splice at a location on a tubular food casing product applies a tape to the food casing proximate the position of the splice, which tape has metallic properties. At least one of the metallic properties is detected when the tape reaches a particular location during movement of the casing. The splice is removed in response to the detection of the tape. Apparatus for removing a splice from a tubular food casing product employs a detector for detecting the tape when the tape reaches a particular location during movement of the casing; and employs a casing cutting apparatus for removing the splice which is activated in response to detection of the tape.

Abstract: A shirred fibrous casing article containing about 20% to about 30% moisture by total casing weight and composed of shirred portions spliced together and retained in an overwrap wherein a flag which identifies the splice location between the shirred portions is extended radially through the overwrap.

Abstract: In a method and apparatus for making sausages in the form of a continuous string with subsequent separation thereof into individual sausages or into groups of interconnected sausages, means are provided for varying the separating operating in a simple manner according to the length of the sausage and the number of interconnected sausages in groups thereof desired, while still ensuring an accurated separating perfomance. In the spearating operation separator elements are mounted opposite one another on either side of the string that revolve synchronously in the conveying direction along respective opposite circular paths, their revolving speed being variable over the non-operative sector of their revolutions relative to the operative sector where their speed is compatible with the sausage conveying speed.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatically feeding and packing surimi of fish or shellfish, including a feed hopper having a top inlet for feeding the surimi therefrom and a bottom outlet for discharging the surimi therefrom. A screw feeder connected to the bottom outlet of the fed hopper has two screws for passing the surimi through the screw feeder. A feed pump feeds a predetermined quantity of the surimi flowing out from an exit of the screw feeder in which the predetermined quantity of the surimi is formed into a desired shape by a forming tube. A wrapping tube forming device forms a plastic film into a continuous wrapping tube to be packed with the surimi.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for producing sausages of equal length by dividing a sausage string produced by a filling machine and discharged from a dividing means, which include sensing the central, cylindrical part of the sausage is with a measuring roll and producing length pulses in the course of this process simultaneously producing volume pulses corresponding to the meat volume transported during this period of length measurement and comparing length pulses with the volume pulses, whereupon the total number of volume pulses required for producing the desired length of the sausage is calculated in a control means and the discharge of the sausage meat is stopped when said total number of volume pulses has been reached, the dividing process than being initiated.

Abstract: Apparatus (20) for successively supplying substantially equal portions of a flowable comminuted product such as sausage from a source thereof to a delivery zone is disclosed wherein dual product portioning chambers (80, 88, 82, 90) are provided which function such that as meat to be portioned is directed into a first chamber which increases in volume to a predetermined extent, portioned meat is delivered from the other chamber as it decreases in volume to the same predetermined extent. Means (114) is provided externally of the chambers for substantially equalizing the increase and decrease of the effective product-receiving volume of each of the chambers.