Abstract: The present invention relates to a method, a coextrusion apparatus and a filling machine including a coextrusion apparatus of the type in question, wherein, during production of the sausage strand, the ratio of the volume flow of the casing material to the volume flow of the inner mass is variable along the sausage strand.

Abstract: Casing holding device for filling tubular cases with a pasty foodstuff material. A casing brake, in a portioning position, is in contact with a case drawn on to a filling tube and produces a pressing force between case and filling tube. An adjusting device is configured for moving the casing brake between the portioning position and a casing change position in which the casing brake is uncoupled from the filling tube. The adjusting device has a guide linkage which has a plurality of links and which is adapted for the casing brake in at least a first phase of the movement out of the portioning position into the casing change position to be moved substantially axially relative to the longitudinal axis of the filling tube and to be pivoted in at least a second phase of the movement relative to the longitudinal axis of the filling tube.

Abstract: An apparatus for processing a foodstuff material is provided, specifically for producing sausage products from sausage meat. The apparatus includes a stationary housing which has a wall and which can be connected in fluid-conducting relationship to a conveyor pump, and has a discharge opening for delivery of the foodstuff material. Arranged within the housing is an element for partially swirling the foodstuff material within the housing, which is rotatable relative to the wall and along which in operation at least a partial amount of the foodstuff material to be conveyed flows. The rotatable element ends within the housing before the discharge opening for delivery of the foodstuff material. The apparatus can produce a string with a substantially cylindrical outer contour from a foodstuff material like sausage meat.

Abstract: A method for transferring process material between a first container and a second container has, as its essential constituent parts, at least one first tensioning unit, which has a first tensioner and a second tensioner, which can be actuated independently of one another, and also a tubular liner piece, which extends indirectly between the containers in order to seal off the transition between the containers from the exterior. The tensioning unit has fixed in it, temporarily, the near end portion of the liner piece and the near end portion of a tubular liner remainder left over from a previous transfer operation. In specific applications, a transfer means is installed between the containers. The process material is usually of a sensitive nature—e.g. a pharmaceutical component—and must be neither contaminated by the exterior surroundings nor pass into the surroundings. The containers are typically constituent parts of a production installation, such as big bags, steel containers or drums.

Abstract: Apparatus for filling tubular casings with a pasty material, in particular gathered-together sausage cases with sausagemeat. The apparatus includes at least one filling tube which is drivable and rotatable about its longitudinal axis and onto which a casing which can be filled with a material can be drawn, wherein an end of the filling tube is rotatably moveably mounted to a receiving portion and associated with the opposite open end is a sausage case braking unit which can be brought into operative relationship with a casing which has been drawn over the filling tube. Arranged on the receiving portion is a support device which has a support element for the filling tube, that is arranged at a spacing (x) relative to the receiving portion in the longitudinal direction of the filling tube, wherein the support element is adapted to carry transverse forces acting on the filling tube.

Abstract: Various systems and methods are provided for the manufacture of sausages. In one example, a method for manufacturing sausages with a filling machine comprises ejecting a mass through a filling tube into a sausage casing ruffled on the filling tube, and exerting a brake force on the sausage casing via a sausage casing brake on a braking area of a brake ring pressing onto the sausage casing, wherein the braking area extends around a longitudinal axis of the filling tube such that the braking area presses onto a part, and not the entirety, of a circumference of the sausage casing in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis, and wherein the brake force is distributed in a direction along the longitudinal axis.

Abstract: The subject matter of the invention is a sausage packaging apparatus for filling pasty stuffing material into tubular casing material, with a filling pipe (1) which opens at a filling zone (5) and, on its outside, has a receptacle for gathered tubular casing material (80), SO that, in order to fill a sausage (8), the casing material (80), which is sealed on one side, is pulled off from the filling pipe (1) under the pressure of the stuffing material (85) and, when a certain size is reached, is sealed by a sealing device (2), and with a removal device (4), which comprises a moving belt (40), for the sausage (8) filled in this manner.

Abstract: What is described is an apparatus for stuffing casings or similar receptacles with paste, in particular with sausage meat or other foods in the form of paste, using a portioning means (16) that stuffs adjustable portions of the paste through a stuffing horn (14) into a casing (62) of a pre-defined caliber or caliber group, wherein said casing is pulled portion-wise during stuffing from a casing holder (casing brake 24). A guide tube (26) is disposed after and as an extension to the casing holder (24), the internal diameter of said guide tube 26 being approximately the same as the smaller outer diameter of the pre-defined casing caliber and/or the pre-defined casing caliber group, such that the guide tube 26 has a coating of lubricant on its inner surface and that the casing is pulled into and through the guide tube 26 in the process of being stuffed.

Abstract: A snap-on adjustable one piece sizing ring comprising an inner horn ring and an outer horn ring. The inner horn ring comprises an inner horn ring elliptical plate to which is attached a tubular section about an off-center hole therethrough. The outer horn ring comprises an outer horn ring elliptical plate having an off-center hole which fits over and is free to rotate about the tubular section so that overall circumference of the combined plates can be varied. The tubular section of the inner horn ring is provided with means for releasable attachment to an inner tube of a two-part stuffing horn comprising concentric inner and outer tubes. The outer horn ring is provided with means for releasable attachment to the outer tube of the two-part stuffing horn so that rotation of the concentric tubes relative to each other causes rotation of the elliptical plates relative to each other so that the overall circumference of the sizing ring is varied. The elliptical plates may be circular.

Abstract: A product stuffing horn assembly includes a vacuum ring affixed near the outlet end of the stuffing horn over which shirred casing may flow. The vacuum ring is connected via appropriate tubing to a vacuum source so that air may be withdrawn from the region adjacent the outlet end of the stuffing horn and within the discharged casing.

Abstract: A joining system for flat end discs is used in an elongated encased food product. The food casing is joined to the flat end discs permitting food stuffing of the casing. An adhesive joining, a clamping joining, a tension band joining or a piercing joining takes place in an area external to and within the peripheral boundaries of the flat end discs. The axial outward force of the food product on the discs is thus coupled to the axial tension of the casing joined to the discs.

Abstract: An apparatus for filling tubular casings includes a filling tube having a locking device, the locking device including at least one locking element, and a calibrating ring that is lockable on the filling tube. A method for filling a tubular casing includes the steps of mounting a gathered casing stick on a filling tube, sliding a calibrating ring onto the filling tube, locking the calibrating ring on the filling tube, drawing the start of the gathered casing stick over the calibrating ring, introducing the filling material into an extruder, and pressing the filling material through the filling tube and into the tubular casing.

Abstract: A joining system for flat end discs is used in an elongated encased food product. The food casing is joined to the flat end discs permitting food stuffing of the casing. An adhesive joining, a clamping joining, a tension band joining or a piercing joining takes place in an area external to and within the peripheral boundaries of the flat end discs. The axial outward force of the food product on the discs is thus coupled to the axial tension of the casing joined to the discs.

Abstract: Casing material is paid out from the stuffing horn of a food emulsion extrusion system to stuff a food emulsion product. The casing material is drawn over a sizing means which provides varying degrees of sizing and hold back force to the casing material as it is paid out. The degrees of sizing and hold back force are adjustable while the casing is being stuffed with extruded food emulsion. New casing material may be loaded onto the stuffing horn over the sizing means without removal of any element of the sizing means from the stuffing horn.

Abstract: Internal sizing ring assembly and method for its use on a stuffing horn to extract air from within a tube-like casing having a closed end during stuffing operations, includes a sizing ring having an inner mounting surface adapted to conform to the outer surface of the stuffing horn, a peripheral casing-expanding surface to expand the casing into an open configuration, and front and back surfaces; and vacuum means defined by at least one port extending through the sizing ring and a longitudinally extendable tube connected to the port and in cooperation with a vacuum source. The internal sizing ring assembly can further include a hollow mold having an internal cross-section configured to slidingly receive the sizing ring with the casing effectively sealed between the two for producing shaped products substantially free of air voids.

Abstract: A stuffing apparatus and method which avoids the smearing of fat just under the casing surface by using a stuffing horn which discharges food product in an axial stream and a plurality of radial streams so the food product swirls as it enters the casing. The horn extends into the casing during stuffing so that the casing is in an expanded and substantially fully stuffed condition as it traverses the radial streams being discharged into the casing.

Abstract: A casing brake is disclosed for use in combination with a generally tubular stuffing horn over which casing is released for filling with material discharged from the horn. The brake is of the type which includes a rigid housing which retains a deformable insert that fits over the horn and cooperates with the horn to engage the casing against the horn. Thus casing brake includes a first annular insert that has a throughbore with a circumferential groove on the inside of the throughbore with a second annular inner member which is comprised of a helical coil positioned within the groove, the inner member preferably being comprised of polytetrafluoroethylene with the outer member being elastically deformable with respect to the inner member to thereby alter the effective diameter of the groove causing an increase or decrease the diameter of the coil which, in turn, more loosely or more tightly grips the outside surface of the casing as it passes over the horn.

Abstract: A highly versatile, resilient and durable food casing sizing device for regulating the release of unfilled casing from a stuffing horn is specially useful in filling casings having string tied end-closures. The sizing ring provides a high degree of product dimensional uniformity and density. The sizing device which is flexible can also be used for stuffing delicate thin walled casings, such as unreinforced thermoplastic types and collagen casings without damage. The sizing devices are especially useful in relation to the production of smaller code products stuffed in plastic or plastic coated casings.

Abstract: A stuffing method and apparatus is disclosed which produces a stuffed log having a front end portion which is larger in diameter than the remainder of the log. This is accomplished by spacing the sizing disc and pressure ring apart when food product is first introduced into the casing and the immediately pressing the sizing disc and pressure ring together while stuffing the front end portion of the casing and then moving the sizing disc and pressure ring to a set predetermined distance apart and holding them in this position while stuffing the remainder of the product.

Abstract: A sizing ring suitable for use with a tubular casing and a stuffing horn includes a cylindrical sleeve portion and a frustoconical portion, and an adjustable air bladder disposed around the frustoconical portion.

Abstract: A tensioning ring comprising a ring with a plurality of roller balls disposed circumferentially around the inner circumference of the ring, and capable of accommodating an unshirred casing passing between the ring and a stuffing horn.