CA1113776A - Collagen net-like casing, extruder and process therefor - Google Patents
Collagen net-like casing, extruder and process thereforInfo
- Publication number
- CA1113776A CA1113776A CA349,867A CA349867A CA1113776A CA 1113776 A CA1113776 A CA 1113776A CA 349867 A CA349867 A CA 349867A CA 1113776 A CA1113776 A CA 1113776A
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- Prior art keywords
- ropes
- casing
- collagen
- extruder
- gel
- Prior art date
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Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
The disclosure describes a smooth surfaced collagen casing having a tubular structure comprising two hardened con-centric layers united with one another. Each of the layers possesses a plurality of collagen ropes oriented in a direction opposite to the ropes in the other of said layers. The products of the invention, after suitable finishing treatments, are par-ticularly adapted to be utilized as an edible casing for fresh pork sausage which must be cooked before they are consumed, as well as sausages of the weiner or frankfurter type. The latter type sausages are generally processed by being smoked and cooked by the packer and are generally merely reheated before they are consumed. When sausages are provided with edible casings, it is unnecessary to remove the casing before the sausage is eaten.
The disclosure describes a smooth surfaced collagen casing having a tubular structure comprising two hardened con-centric layers united with one another. Each of the layers possesses a plurality of collagen ropes oriented in a direction opposite to the ropes in the other of said layers. The products of the invention, after suitable finishing treatments, are par-ticularly adapted to be utilized as an edible casing for fresh pork sausage which must be cooked before they are consumed, as well as sausages of the weiner or frankfurter type. The latter type sausages are generally processed by being smoked and cooked by the packer and are generally merely reheated before they are consumed. When sausages are provided with edible casings, it is unnecessary to remove the casing before the sausage is eaten.
Description
1377~; ~
1 This invention relates to tubular collagen products
1 This invention relates to tubular collagen products
2 such as sausage casings, and more particularly, to improved
3 tubular collagen products and to methods and apparatus for making ¦
4 such tubular collagen products.
The products of the invention, after suitable finishing 6 treatments, are particularly adapted to be utilized as an edible 7 casing for fresh pork sausage which must be cooked before they are 8 consumed, as well as sausages of the weiner or frankfurter type.
9 The latter type sausages are generally processed by being smoked and cooked by the packer and are generally merely reheated before 11 they are consumed. When sausages are provided with edible casings ¦
12 it is unnecessaryto remove the casing before the sausage is eaten.
13 Naturai casings produced from the intestines of sheep, 14 hogs and cattle have certain inherent shortcomings including nonuniformity and porosity of casing wall, variations in casing 16 size and edibility, and wide fluctuations in market price and 17 availability. Except for some made from sheep intestines, they 18 are tough and hard to masticate. Also, natural casings are 19 difficult to clean and prepare for human consumption. In addition the thickness of the wall and diameter of natural casings will 21 vary, causing difficulty during modern high speed stuffing. In 22 view of these deficiences, many attempts have been made to pro-23 duce better edible casings from protein sources such as collagen.
24 There are commercially available at this time tubular collagen products such as sausage casing. However, the use of 26 collagen casings in the production of sausages and similar items 27 on extremely high speed automatic equipment has had only limited 28 success. Thus, collagen casings exhibiting tenderness are subject 29 to excessive machine breakage while casings strong enough to machine well are tough and may not be generally acceptable as an 31 edible item.
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.
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1 ¦ Prior Art Practices 2 1 United States Patent No. 3,122,788, granted March 3, 1964 3 to Emanuel Roy Lieberman describes many of the prior practices to 4 produce tubular collagen products for use as sausage casings. Thei - : aforementioned Lieberman patent is specifically directed to an 6 apparatus and method for producing collagen tubing by a continuous 7 extrusion operation and is in commercial use today. It also des-8 cribes an extruder mechanism and process for making such collagen ; 9 casings.
It is known to those skilled in the art that collagen 11 has unique rheological characteristics. Thus, when acid swollen 12 collagen gel (sometimes also called "extrusion mass" or "dispersion 13 in prior art patents) is fed through an extruder, there is a ten-14 dency of the swollen collagen fibrils and/or fibers to mat togetherl and become oriented in the direction of the extruder flow. Further, 16 it has been found that when the collagen is formed into a tubular 17 construction, certain orientation occurs which cause the casing 18 to split or tear in the direction of this orientation.
19 ¦ Thus, it has been known that one of the major causes of weak spots in extruded collagen casings is the tendency of the 21 collagen fibrils and/or fibers to become oriented in the direction 22 of collagen flow when such fibrils and/or fibers accidentally 23 encounter an obstacle in their path of travel during extrusion.
24 For example, this characteristLc may manifest itseIf in a generally longitudinal seam or fault in the casing wall. -26 Another phenomena that occurs in treating swollen 27 collagen material, whether fibrous of fibrillar, is that when a 28 fluid collagen mass undergoes conditions of flow, it is affected -29 in such a manner that it "remembers" the boundary conditions under 30 which i has been flowed. Thus it has been fo~nd that vl~en two l . I .
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1 such fluid masses are brought into contact with each other, the 2 boundary area defined by their contacting surfaces continues in 3 the fluid mass and persists even in forms, e.g. tubular, into 4 which such mass is subsequently extruded or otherwise shaped. It has heretofore been thought that the formation of such boundary 6 areas in articles extruded from collagen masses creates areas of 7 weakness which weaken the product formed in this manner.
8 For example, if a fluid mass of swollen collagen fibrils is caused to flow into an annular cavity, such as by extrusion, from a peripheral inlet whereby the flowing mass is divided and 11 thereafter the divided streams are caused to flow together, the 12 area where the divided streams meet and merge remains in the memor 13 of the material as a persistent boundary area and becomes, in 14 ultimate use, an area of weakness.
The aforementioned Lieberman patent attempted to overcome -;
16 the foregoing inherent problems and difficulties occuring when the 17 swollen collagen was subjected to extrusion by an extrusion appara-18 tus and method which subjected the swollen collagen mass to forces 19 to effect a random orientation of the collagen to eliminate the above-mentioned problems inherent in extruding swollen collagen.
21 Thus, in the extruder of the 3,122,788 patent, care is taken to 22 erase the previous memory by using a rotating disk.
23 The Present Invention ., 24 In order to define the invention so that it will be clearly understood, certain terms are used herein which are 26 defined as follows:
27 The term "rope" refers to the shape of the collagen gel 28 after it has been forced through a small orifice, whereupon in 29 appearance it resembles a rope or a piece of spaghetti in that it ¦ is relatively long in relation to its diameter which is relatively I .
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1 small. The fibrils and/or fibers of collagen present on the 2 external surface of the rope will be mainly oriented in the 3 longitudinal direction as a result of the forces to which the 4 collagen gel is subjected to during its passage through the orific~ .
The collagen fibrils and/or fibers present in the interior portions 6 of the ropes may have any orientation and probably are closest to 7 a random orientation.
8 The term "layer" as used herein refers to a set or 9 plurality of ropes of collagen gel, which ropes are oriented generally in the same direction as each other and are roughly 11 parallel to each other.
12 The term "hardened layers" as used herein refers to the 13 layers as they exist in the finished casing. In the hardened 14 layers of the final casing, the collagen, as will be explained in detail subsequently, has been formed into a casing whose thick-16 ness is considerably smaller than the diameter of the original 17 ropes. The layers and, more particularly, the ropes of which the 18 layers are formed, during the manufacturing process, have been 19 flattened by the shearLng action of two counter-rotating extruders, by the width of the annular space between the extruders, and by the 21 hardening and drying action of the finished casing, 80 that the 22 ropes in the finished casing are no longer spaghetti-like in appe r-23 ance, but are somewhat irregular in cross-section. The ropes do 24 not, at this time, exist in discrete orm since they have been par-tially merged in their boundary areas with ad~acent ropes and with 26 one somewhat flattened rope perhaps slightly overlapping an adjacent rope. Yet, because of the longitudinal orientation of 28 the majority of the fibrils and/or fibers present on the external 29 surface of the ropes making up the layers, the outline of the ropes remain detectable in tbe final casing, at least when the ~1 -6-1 ~ 1 3 cas ng is wet. ~ollowing the process according to this invention 2 ¦ the product is subject to further treatment. This further treat-3 ment results in a neutralization of the acid swollen gel, a 4 removal of much of its water content, and a hardening of the .. 5 tubular structure into a casing which is then dried.
6 The present invention is in direct contrast to the 7 ¦ teachings of the aforementioned Lieberman patent.
8 ¦ In accordance with the present invention, no effort is 9 1 made to obtain random orientation of the collagen fibrils 10 ¦ and/or fibers. According to the present invention, the 11 1 inherent characteristics of swollen collagen, to become 12 oriented and to "remember" or have "memory" is utilized to 13 form a tubular collagen casing which is stronger than casings 14 made according to the aforementioned Lieberman patent and yet is 15 tender and edible. The present invention therefore utilizes what :
16 heretofore has been thought of as undesirable characteristics of 17 swollen collagen to form a stronger tubular collagen casing which :
18 can be successfully machined on extremely high speed automatic :-19 sausage making equipment. .-.~ 20 In accordance with the present invention, the swollen 21 collagen is subjected to mechanical force so that the fibrils - 22 and/or fibers become oriented in the direction of flow of the .
23 ¦ collagen. The swollen collagen is, .thereafter, formed into a .. :
~ 24 j tubular construction wherein the orientation of the fibrils and/or 1 -25 ¦ fibers serves to strengthen the tube against bursting or splitting 26 ; while at the same time remaining edible.
27 In accordance with the invention, the swollen collagen, 28 sometimes hereafter referred to as the "gel", is provided in the 29 form of an inner gel and an outer gel. To obtain the advantages ~of the w thin invention the~e ael~ may have identic~l or different ,"
I , . .
--111377~i 1 formulations. The inner and outer gels are then subjected to ~-2 mechanical force, such as by extrusion, so that each of the gels 3 1 is formed into a plurality of individual ropes of gel. More 4 ¦ particularly, the ropes are formed by passing the two gels through counter-rotating extrusion members having a plurality 6 of orifices corresponding in number to the number of ropes to be 7 formed. Typically, each of the gels is formed into a multiplicity 8 e.g. thirty-two, ropes, although more or less ropes may be employed 9 as will be described more fully hereinafter.
When the inner and outer gels are formed into the above-11 described multiplicity of small ropes, the fibrils and/or fibers 12 ¦ in the swollen collagen become oriented in the direction of extru-13 sion. After the outer and inner gels have been formed into the 14 plurality of ropes, the outer and inner gels are brought together to form a single fluid mass having a substantially annular cross-16 section with ropes from the outer gel being predominantly located 17 adjacent the outer surface of the annulus and the ropes from 18 the inner gel being predominantly located adjacent the lnner 19 ¦ surface of the annulus. The annular fluid mass of gel is then~
20 ¦ passed between two counter-rotating cylindrical surfaces to form 21 1 a tube and then is exited through an annular stabilizing orifice 22 which sizes the tubular product.
23 ~uring this passage between the counter-rotating surfaces 24 the ropes from the outer gel remain located adjacent the outer surface of the resultant tube while the ropes from the inner gel 26 remain adjacent the inner surface thereby forming a tube comprising 27 an outer layer consisting predominantly of the outer gel and an 28 inner layer consisting predominantly of the inner gel. It has 29 ¦ been found that although all the ropes have been united in this ¦ space, the memory characteristics of the fibrils and/or fibers l -8-l . ' I I . _ `
~13776 1 prevents such ropes from being destroyed. In fact, upon exit 2 from the two counter-rotating surfaces and the stabilizing annulusl 3 the inner gel ropes will be helically oriented or directed in one ¦
4 direction whereas the outer gel ropes will be helically oriented or directed in the opposite direction. Thus, the resulting tube consists of two layers each containing ropes oriented in opposing 7 ¦ directions and forming a net-like structure.
8 1 It has been observed that these layers remain discrete 9 1 layers even after subsequent treatment and that these layers can 10 ¦ be separated from one another.
11 ; Stated in other words, the inner and outer gels of 12 swollen collagen are each divided into a multitude, e.g. thirty-13 two ropes by extruding the swollen collagen through two counter 14 rotating series of orifices. As the two layers thus generated are forced through the extruder, they are formed into concentric 16 helices of opposite direction about the longitudinal axis of the 17 casing. As the casing is hardened, the "memory" of these ropes 18 persists and the outline of the hardened ropes may be detected -19 ¦ in hardened layers of the finished product. Since the ropes from the inner and outer gel are formed into opposing 21 concentric helices, they appear net-like in the casing wall. The 22 net-like structure so formed permits the two layers to reinforce 23 each other enabling a high stress resistance to be obtained in the 24 finished product.
Thus, in accordance with this invention, even though 26 the two sets of ropes of gels have been brought together to 27 apparently form a single fluid mass of gel while between the 28 counter-rotating surfaces, the inherent characteristics of orienta-29 tion and memory causes the gels to be discharged from the counter-rotating surfaces in two layers still consisting of the same I _g_ I ~
l ., I , .' . '. - "
111377~ 1 1 l plurality of ropes into which they were orlginally formed. Furthe;r 2 !~ the orientation of the fibrils and/or fibers resulting from the 3 extrusion through the small orifices remains despite the additional 4 mechanical work and subsequent treatment of the collagen gel.
The products of the invention, after suitable finishing 6 treatments, are particularly adapted to be utilized as an edible 7 casing for fresh pork sausage which must be cooked before they are 8 consumed, as well as sausages of the weiner or frankfurter type.
9 The latter type sausages are generally processed by being smoked and cooked by the packer and are generally merely reheated before 11 they are consumed. When sausages are provided with edible casings ¦
12 it is unnecessaryto remove the casing before the sausage is eaten.
13 Naturai casings produced from the intestines of sheep, 14 hogs and cattle have certain inherent shortcomings including nonuniformity and porosity of casing wall, variations in casing 16 size and edibility, and wide fluctuations in market price and 17 availability. Except for some made from sheep intestines, they 18 are tough and hard to masticate. Also, natural casings are 19 difficult to clean and prepare for human consumption. In addition the thickness of the wall and diameter of natural casings will 21 vary, causing difficulty during modern high speed stuffing. In 22 view of these deficiences, many attempts have been made to pro-23 duce better edible casings from protein sources such as collagen.
24 There are commercially available at this time tubular collagen products such as sausage casing. However, the use of 26 collagen casings in the production of sausages and similar items 27 on extremely high speed automatic equipment has had only limited 28 success. Thus, collagen casings exhibiting tenderness are subject 29 to excessive machine breakage while casings strong enough to machine well are tough and may not be generally acceptable as an 31 edible item.
-3~
.
: . .. . -37'7t~
1 ¦ Prior Art Practices 2 1 United States Patent No. 3,122,788, granted March 3, 1964 3 to Emanuel Roy Lieberman describes many of the prior practices to 4 produce tubular collagen products for use as sausage casings. Thei - : aforementioned Lieberman patent is specifically directed to an 6 apparatus and method for producing collagen tubing by a continuous 7 extrusion operation and is in commercial use today. It also des-8 cribes an extruder mechanism and process for making such collagen ; 9 casings.
It is known to those skilled in the art that collagen 11 has unique rheological characteristics. Thus, when acid swollen 12 collagen gel (sometimes also called "extrusion mass" or "dispersion 13 in prior art patents) is fed through an extruder, there is a ten-14 dency of the swollen collagen fibrils and/or fibers to mat togetherl and become oriented in the direction of the extruder flow. Further, 16 it has been found that when the collagen is formed into a tubular 17 construction, certain orientation occurs which cause the casing 18 to split or tear in the direction of this orientation.
19 ¦ Thus, it has been known that one of the major causes of weak spots in extruded collagen casings is the tendency of the 21 collagen fibrils and/or fibers to become oriented in the direction 22 of collagen flow when such fibrils and/or fibers accidentally 23 encounter an obstacle in their path of travel during extrusion.
24 For example, this characteristLc may manifest itseIf in a generally longitudinal seam or fault in the casing wall. -26 Another phenomena that occurs in treating swollen 27 collagen material, whether fibrous of fibrillar, is that when a 28 fluid collagen mass undergoes conditions of flow, it is affected -29 in such a manner that it "remembers" the boundary conditions under 30 which i has been flowed. Thus it has been fo~nd that vl~en two l . I .
' _l~
~377~
1 such fluid masses are brought into contact with each other, the 2 boundary area defined by their contacting surfaces continues in 3 the fluid mass and persists even in forms, e.g. tubular, into 4 which such mass is subsequently extruded or otherwise shaped. It has heretofore been thought that the formation of such boundary 6 areas in articles extruded from collagen masses creates areas of 7 weakness which weaken the product formed in this manner.
8 For example, if a fluid mass of swollen collagen fibrils is caused to flow into an annular cavity, such as by extrusion, from a peripheral inlet whereby the flowing mass is divided and 11 thereafter the divided streams are caused to flow together, the 12 area where the divided streams meet and merge remains in the memor 13 of the material as a persistent boundary area and becomes, in 14 ultimate use, an area of weakness.
The aforementioned Lieberman patent attempted to overcome -;
16 the foregoing inherent problems and difficulties occuring when the 17 swollen collagen was subjected to extrusion by an extrusion appara-18 tus and method which subjected the swollen collagen mass to forces 19 to effect a random orientation of the collagen to eliminate the above-mentioned problems inherent in extruding swollen collagen.
21 Thus, in the extruder of the 3,122,788 patent, care is taken to 22 erase the previous memory by using a rotating disk.
23 The Present Invention ., 24 In order to define the invention so that it will be clearly understood, certain terms are used herein which are 26 defined as follows:
27 The term "rope" refers to the shape of the collagen gel 28 after it has been forced through a small orifice, whereupon in 29 appearance it resembles a rope or a piece of spaghetti in that it ¦ is relatively long in relation to its diameter which is relatively I .
~ _5_ ~ ~
.: : , , . . : . ... .
. ,-. ' , . ,- ~ ' ' , ~', . .
~ ~ 3~7~
1 small. The fibrils and/or fibers of collagen present on the 2 external surface of the rope will be mainly oriented in the 3 longitudinal direction as a result of the forces to which the 4 collagen gel is subjected to during its passage through the orific~ .
The collagen fibrils and/or fibers present in the interior portions 6 of the ropes may have any orientation and probably are closest to 7 a random orientation.
8 The term "layer" as used herein refers to a set or 9 plurality of ropes of collagen gel, which ropes are oriented generally in the same direction as each other and are roughly 11 parallel to each other.
12 The term "hardened layers" as used herein refers to the 13 layers as they exist in the finished casing. In the hardened 14 layers of the final casing, the collagen, as will be explained in detail subsequently, has been formed into a casing whose thick-16 ness is considerably smaller than the diameter of the original 17 ropes. The layers and, more particularly, the ropes of which the 18 layers are formed, during the manufacturing process, have been 19 flattened by the shearLng action of two counter-rotating extruders, by the width of the annular space between the extruders, and by the 21 hardening and drying action of the finished casing, 80 that the 22 ropes in the finished casing are no longer spaghetti-like in appe r-23 ance, but are somewhat irregular in cross-section. The ropes do 24 not, at this time, exist in discrete orm since they have been par-tially merged in their boundary areas with ad~acent ropes and with 26 one somewhat flattened rope perhaps slightly overlapping an adjacent rope. Yet, because of the longitudinal orientation of 28 the majority of the fibrils and/or fibers present on the external 29 surface of the ropes making up the layers, the outline of the ropes remain detectable in tbe final casing, at least when the ~1 -6-1 ~ 1 3 cas ng is wet. ~ollowing the process according to this invention 2 ¦ the product is subject to further treatment. This further treat-3 ment results in a neutralization of the acid swollen gel, a 4 removal of much of its water content, and a hardening of the .. 5 tubular structure into a casing which is then dried.
6 The present invention is in direct contrast to the 7 ¦ teachings of the aforementioned Lieberman patent.
8 ¦ In accordance with the present invention, no effort is 9 1 made to obtain random orientation of the collagen fibrils 10 ¦ and/or fibers. According to the present invention, the 11 1 inherent characteristics of swollen collagen, to become 12 oriented and to "remember" or have "memory" is utilized to 13 form a tubular collagen casing which is stronger than casings 14 made according to the aforementioned Lieberman patent and yet is 15 tender and edible. The present invention therefore utilizes what :
16 heretofore has been thought of as undesirable characteristics of 17 swollen collagen to form a stronger tubular collagen casing which :
18 can be successfully machined on extremely high speed automatic :-19 sausage making equipment. .-.~ 20 In accordance with the present invention, the swollen 21 collagen is subjected to mechanical force so that the fibrils - 22 and/or fibers become oriented in the direction of flow of the .
23 ¦ collagen. The swollen collagen is, .thereafter, formed into a .. :
~ 24 j tubular construction wherein the orientation of the fibrils and/or 1 -25 ¦ fibers serves to strengthen the tube against bursting or splitting 26 ; while at the same time remaining edible.
27 In accordance with the invention, the swollen collagen, 28 sometimes hereafter referred to as the "gel", is provided in the 29 form of an inner gel and an outer gel. To obtain the advantages ~of the w thin invention the~e ael~ may have identic~l or different ,"
I , . .
--111377~i 1 formulations. The inner and outer gels are then subjected to ~-2 mechanical force, such as by extrusion, so that each of the gels 3 1 is formed into a plurality of individual ropes of gel. More 4 ¦ particularly, the ropes are formed by passing the two gels through counter-rotating extrusion members having a plurality 6 of orifices corresponding in number to the number of ropes to be 7 formed. Typically, each of the gels is formed into a multiplicity 8 e.g. thirty-two, ropes, although more or less ropes may be employed 9 as will be described more fully hereinafter.
When the inner and outer gels are formed into the above-11 described multiplicity of small ropes, the fibrils and/or fibers 12 ¦ in the swollen collagen become oriented in the direction of extru-13 sion. After the outer and inner gels have been formed into the 14 plurality of ropes, the outer and inner gels are brought together to form a single fluid mass having a substantially annular cross-16 section with ropes from the outer gel being predominantly located 17 adjacent the outer surface of the annulus and the ropes from 18 the inner gel being predominantly located adjacent the lnner 19 ¦ surface of the annulus. The annular fluid mass of gel is then~
20 ¦ passed between two counter-rotating cylindrical surfaces to form 21 1 a tube and then is exited through an annular stabilizing orifice 22 which sizes the tubular product.
23 ~uring this passage between the counter-rotating surfaces 24 the ropes from the outer gel remain located adjacent the outer surface of the resultant tube while the ropes from the inner gel 26 remain adjacent the inner surface thereby forming a tube comprising 27 an outer layer consisting predominantly of the outer gel and an 28 inner layer consisting predominantly of the inner gel. It has 29 ¦ been found that although all the ropes have been united in this ¦ space, the memory characteristics of the fibrils and/or fibers l -8-l . ' I I . _ `
~13776 1 prevents such ropes from being destroyed. In fact, upon exit 2 from the two counter-rotating surfaces and the stabilizing annulusl 3 the inner gel ropes will be helically oriented or directed in one ¦
4 direction whereas the outer gel ropes will be helically oriented or directed in the opposite direction. Thus, the resulting tube consists of two layers each containing ropes oriented in opposing 7 ¦ directions and forming a net-like structure.
8 1 It has been observed that these layers remain discrete 9 1 layers even after subsequent treatment and that these layers can 10 ¦ be separated from one another.
11 ; Stated in other words, the inner and outer gels of 12 swollen collagen are each divided into a multitude, e.g. thirty-13 two ropes by extruding the swollen collagen through two counter 14 rotating series of orifices. As the two layers thus generated are forced through the extruder, they are formed into concentric 16 helices of opposite direction about the longitudinal axis of the 17 casing. As the casing is hardened, the "memory" of these ropes 18 persists and the outline of the hardened ropes may be detected -19 ¦ in hardened layers of the finished product. Since the ropes from the inner and outer gel are formed into opposing 21 concentric helices, they appear net-like in the casing wall. The 22 net-like structure so formed permits the two layers to reinforce 23 each other enabling a high stress resistance to be obtained in the 24 finished product.
Thus, in accordance with this invention, even though 26 the two sets of ropes of gels have been brought together to 27 apparently form a single fluid mass of gel while between the 28 counter-rotating surfaces, the inherent characteristics of orienta-29 tion and memory causes the gels to be discharged from the counter-rotating surfaces in two layers still consisting of the same I _g_ I ~
l ., I , .' . '. - "
111377~ 1 1 l plurality of ropes into which they were orlginally formed. Furthe;r 2 !~ the orientation of the fibrils and/or fibers resulting from the 3 extrusion through the small orifices remains despite the additional 4 mechanical work and subsequent treatment of the collagen gel.
5 i¦ In short, the collagen gel is subjected to ~Lechanical
6 ¦ force which causes a certain orientation which because of the
7 1 memory characteristics of the collagen gel persists in the final
8 product.
9 1! Thus~ the fibrils and/or fibers becbme oriented along
10 ¦l the length of the spaghetti-like rope as a result of being ex-
11 I truded through the small orifices. Next, the layers of ropes are
12 1 helically oriented in opposite directions as a result of passing
13 ~ between the counter-rotating extrusion members. These orienta-
14 1 tions persist in the final product. However, as noted previouslyJ
5 l the ropes tend to beco~Le flattened somewhat as a result of pass-16 1 ing between the concentric counter-rotating surfaces and as a re-17 ¦ sult of the subsequent treatment. Also, it is possible that as a 18 ~¦ result of the wiping action of the concentric counter-rotating 19 ¦¦ surfaces some disorientation of the fibrils and/or fibers may occ- Lr.
20 ! Hence, upon discharge, there will be one layer of ropes 21 ¦ helically directed in one direction and a second layer of ropes -22 j helically directed in the opposite direction. The helical angle 23 ! can be controlled to produce any angle in the net-like structure ¦
24lofthecasing 25~l Objects 26 ¦~ In view of the foregoing, it is an ob3ect of this 27 ¦ invention to provide a new and improved tubular collagen casing 28 ¦ having a strùcture resulting in enhanced strength and a method 29 ¦ and apparatus for forming the same.
Another object of this invention is to provide a new an~
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improved edible collagen casing for sausages and the like having a unique organization of the collagen fibrils and/or fibers resulting in enhanced strength characteristics and methods and apparatus for making the same.
Another object of this invention is to provide a new and improved edible tubular collagen casing for sausages and the like wherein the casing is formed of a unique net-like structure including two layers of ropes of collagen which are oppositely helically directed and overlapping to form a tubular casing having enhanced strength and methods and apparatus for making the same.
Another object of this invention is to provide a novel method of forming a tubular col~ gen casing which includes forming two sets of a plurality of ropes by extrusion thereby orienting the fibrils and/or fibers in the direction of movement, un~ting said sets of ropes into a single fluid mass and subjecting said mass to counter-rotating surfaces and thereafter forming said stream into a tubular construction where the original groups of ropes are detectable.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method of making a tubular collagen casing comprising:
(a) directing an inner collagen gel and an outer collagen gel to an extruder: (b) feeding the inner gel radially outwardly through a first group of radially extending orifices to form a plurality of inner gel ropes: (c) feeding the outer gel radially inwardly through a second group of radially extend- -ing orifices to form a plurality of outer gel ropes (d) bringing said radially inwardly directed outer gel and said radially outwardly directed inner gel together to form a fluid mass having a substantially annular cross section with . . . - . . .
1~137'7~i the ropes from the outer gel being predominantly located adjacent the outer border of the annulus and the ropes from the inner gel being predominantly located adjacent the inner border of the annulus, and (e) feeding the annular mass between two counter-rotating concentric surfaces to thereby direct said outer gel ropes and said inner gel ropes in opposite helical directions and form a two-layered tubular casing.
A still further object of this invention is to provide an extruder apparatus which includes two counter-rotating extruders each having a series of orifices (memory nozzles) therein which divides the two main gel sources into a plurality of ropes which ropes are discharged from the extruder to form a tubular casing wherein the casing consists of a net-like structure of ropes formed in layers wherein -the ropes of said layers are helically directed in opposite directions.
Another object of this invention is to provide - an apparatus for forming a tubular collagen casing comprising:
(a) a stationary frame, ~b) a stationary member mounted on said frame, (c) an inner hollow extruder-member mounted on said frame, said inner hollow extruder member having a plura-lity of radially extending orifices therethough for directing collagen outwardly, (d) means for mounting said inner extruder member on said frame concentric with respect to said stationa-ry member and spaced outwardly therefrom, (e) an outer extru-der member having a plurality of radially extending orifices therethrough for directing collagen inwardly; (f) means for mounting said outer extruder member on said frame concentric with respect to said inner extruder member and spaced out-wardly therefrom to form a passageway therebetween for merging said collagen of said inwardly and outwardly directions, and -lla-'. ,' 111377~
(g) means for rotating said inner extruder member in one direction and means for rotating the outer extruder member in the opposite direction. '~
Another object of this invention is to provide a new and novel process for forming collagen gel into a net-like casing for use with sausages and the like.
A further object of this invention is to provide a ' smooth surfaced collagen casing having a net-like non-porous tubular structure comprising two concentric layers united in an overlapping relationship with one another, each of said layers possessing a plurality of collagen ropes helically oriented in a direction opposite to the ropes in the other,of said layers, said collagen ropes having fibrils and/or fibers which, at least on the outside surface of said ropes, are sub-stantially aligned in the direction of the ropes.
A further object of this invention is to provide a new . ,.~ ~ .
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, 111377~i ~
1 and novel extrusion apparatus for forming collagen gel into a 2 ¦ casing for use with sausages and the like.
3 Other objects and advantages of the invention will be 4 obvious or may be learned by practice of the invention, the same being realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and 6 combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
7 The invention consists in the novel steps, constructions, 8 arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and des-9 cribed.
The accompanying drawings referred to and constituting 11 a part hereof, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and 12 together with the description, serve to explain the principle 13 ¦ of the invention.
14 ¦ OF THE DRAWINGS:
FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic flow diagram illustrating, 16 in general, the method of extruding gels in accordance with this 17 invention.
18 FIGURE 2 is a schematic perspective view of a portion 19 of the finished end product of this invention.
FIGURE 2A is a schematic end view of the product shown 21 in Figure 2.
22 FIGURE 3 is an end view of the forward portion of the 23 machine.
24 FIGURE 4 is an end view of the exit end of the machine.
FIGURE 5A is a vertical section of the forward portion 26 of the machine, taken generally along line 5A - 5A of Figure 3.
27 FIGURE 5B is a vertical section of the exit portion 28 of the machine, this figure being a continuation of Figure 5Af 29 and is taken generally along line 5B - 5B of Figure 4.
FIGURE 6 is a vertical section taken along line 6 - 6 31 of Figure 5A, and shows the drive mechanism for rotation of the 32 1 inner extruder member.
Il -12-, 1S 1377~i ~
1 ~ FIGUR~ 7 is a fig~re si~ilar to Figure 6, this fi~ure 2 being taken along line 7 - 7 of Figure 5A, and shows the drive 3 1 mechanism for rotation of the outer extruder member.
4 'I FIGURE 8 is a vertical section of the exit portion of the machine shown in Figure 5B, drawn to a somewhat larger scale.
6 FIGURE 9 is a vertical section taken along line 9 - 9 7 of Figure 8.
8 FIGURE lO is a vertical section taken generally along 9 line lO - 10 of Figure 8.
FIGURE 11 is a vertical section taken generally along 11 line ll - ll of Figure 5B.
12 FIGURE 12 is a vertical section taken along line 12 - 12 13 of Figure 5B.
14 FIGURE 13 is an enlarged showing of the area where the inner and outer gels meet for rotation and extrusion.
16 FIGURE 14 is a modified form of the stabilizing annulus 17 for the machine.
18 FIGURE 15 is another modification of the stabilizing I9 annulus which may be used with the machine.
General Description 21 For a general understanding of the invention, reference 22 is made to Figures 1, 2 and 2A.
23 In accordance with this invention, the apparatus includes 24 an inner extruder sub-assembly having an inner mandrel and an ¦ outer extruder sub-assembly having an outer mandrel. Gear means 26 ¦ described subsequently, rotates the inner extruder sub-assembly 27 in one direction (clockwise, as shown in the drawings) and the 28 outer extruder sub-assembly in the opposite direction (counter-29 clockwise, as shown in the drawings).
The inner gel A is fed to the interior of the apparatus ~ -13-ll .
- . . : : .
1~L1377~;
1 ¦¦ through an inlet located at the forward end of the machine and 2 !¦ goes through a circular passageway, one wall of which is the inner 3 ¦1 extruder sub-assembly, the other wall of which is a stationary 4 1I tube described subsequently. The outer gel B is fed to the ma-5 ¦I chine through an inlet and is fed to the outer extruder sub-6 1¦ assembly. The inner gel A is directed through two sets of a 7 1i plurality of orifices generally radially outwardly and the outer 8 ll gel B is fed through a plurality of orifices generally radially 9 inwardly. Thus, the inner and outer gels are formed into a series of ropes which later are joined into layers and the collagen fib-11 rils and/or fibers become oriented in the direction of flow as a 12 result. As shown in Figure 1, the two gels come together near 13 1 the exit of the machine and move for a short distance in the space 14 between the outer and inner extruder sub-assemblies which are rotating in opposite directions and then between an inner and oute 16 stabilizer which forms a stabilizing annulus. The ropee of the 17 inner and outer gels are thus directed in a generally helical 18 direction by the inner and outer counter-rotating extrusion mem-19 ~ bers. As can be seen in Figuresl and 2A, the product being dis-charged from between the outer and inner stabilizers consists of a 21 ¦ net-like structure of layers formed from ropes having oppositely 22 ! directed helical orientations. -23 This helical orientation remains even after the tubular 24 collagen product has been subjected to further treatment which results in a neutralization of the acid-swollen gel, a removal of 26 I much of its water content, and a hardening of the tubular structur 27 into a casing which is then dried, as can be seen in Figure ?.
28 Figure 2 illustrates the final product showing that the 29 resultant tubular product maintains the helical net-like structur ~-3o Thus, as can be seen in Figure 2A, the final product cansists of 377~
I
1 j a net-like structure of two concentric layers 3 and 5 of oppositel 2 ¦ helically directed hardened ropes. As there shown by the wavy 3 line 7 where the two layers meet, there may be a relatively 4 small amorphous boundary region where the orientation of the fibrils and/or fibers may be random. At any ratP it is clear 6 that the outer layer consists predominantly of outer gel 7 ropes helically directed in one direction and the inner layer 8 consists predominantly of inner gel ropes helically oriented in 9 the other direction.
As shown in Figure 2, the angle of the helix measured 11 from a line extending along the longitudinal length of the casing 12 is preferably about 35-50 although this angle can be widely 13 varied if desired.
14 Different angles may be desired for maximum casing strength depending on particular machines with which the casing 16 will ultimately be used in sausage manufacture, since various 17 machines will place different kinds of stress on the casing.
18 Basically, however, as shown in Figures 2 and 2A, the 19 finished product consists of two hardened layers 3 and 5 with each layer being formed from a plurality of ropes 9 with the ropes 21 of one layer being helically directed in a direction opposite 22 from the ropes in the other layer.
23 After the tubular product is discharged from the extrude~
24 of this invention it is subjected to further treatment such as set forth in U.S. Patent No. 3,535,125.
26 The final casing thus prepared contains two layers of 27 ropes of collagen which are now in hardened form. The action of 28 the counter-rotating extruders, the effect of the width of the 29 annular passage, which is less than the diameter of the individual -~
ropes making up the layers, and the hardening and drying steps 1113~i'7~
1 used to finish the casing result in the ropes present in the 2 hardened layers no longer retaining their original spaghetti-like 3 appearance. Instead, the ropes are somewhat irregular in cross-section and have a more flattened appearance and the ropes are partially merged in the boundary areas with the adjacent rope 6 with one rope overlapping the next. Yet, because of the longi-7 tudinal orientation of the majority of fibrils and/or fibers on 8 the external surface of the rope, the outline of the ropes remains 9 detectable, particularly when the casing is wet, in the hardened layers of the casing. Each layer of the casing appears to have 11 a banded effect with the bands being somewhat irregular but 12 roughly parallel and suggestive of the original ropes from which 13 they were prepared. The outer surface of the finished casing is 14 relatively smooth, and does not contain ridges or striations such as in British Patent No. 1,166,398. Because the orientation which 16 is visible in the hardened ropes forming one layer is in opposed 17 direction to that on the other concentric layer, the tubular 18 structure has a net-like appearance. The structure is not truly 19 a net, however, since there are no holes in the casing walls. The final casing is a laminate (the two layers of the casing actually 21 can be pulled apart by careful manipulation) and looks like a net.
22 Within each layer, the hardened ropes making up the layer have 23 a banded appearance in which, when the casing is wet, there are 24 alternating lighter and darker areas which enables one to visualize the original ropes and their boundaries and to see the 26 net-like appearance of the final casing.
27 Thus, it will be appreciated that ropes and layers as 28 ¦ illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 2A are shown in a somewhat idealize d 29 ¦ condition whereas in actual practice the ropes tend to flatten out and become merged at their borders.
L3q7b 1 Detailed Description .
2 Reference is now made to Figure 5A, Figure 5B and 3 Figure 8.
4 - As shown therein there is a stationary housing or frame 6 on which the remaining elements of the extruder mechanism are 6 mounted. Attached to the frame in any convenient fashion is a 7 hollow stationary member 8. The stationary member 8 is hollow so 8 as to accomodate the passage of ammonia gas which is used in further processing occuring after the tubular collagen is dis-charged from the apparatus of this invention.
11 The inner stationary member 8 is threaded 10 at one 12 end for receipt of a nut 12. The nut 12 maintains an inner 13 stabilizer member 16 in fixed position on the frame 6 (Fig. 5B).
14 The inner stabilizer 16 is immediately adjacent to an outer stabilizer 18 forming a stabilizing annulus. As will be 16 ¦ seen, the gel after being extruded between the inner extruder 55 ar d 17 outer extruder 57 passes between the inner and outer stabilizer -18 as the collagen product is discharged from the extruder mechanism 19 to thereby size the product as it is discharged. The outer stabil-izer is attached to the housing flange 17 by any convenient means 21 such as screws 20. The space between the inner and outer stabiliz~ r 22 can be varied depending upon the desired size and/or characteristic s 23 of the final product.
24 Located at the opposite or forward end of the extruder is an inlet 22 through which the inner gel A is fed to the machine 26 (Figure 5A). -27 Mounted in inner mandrel bearing 24 is the inner mandrel 28 2. The inner mandrel 2 is concentric with ar.dspaced from the 29 hollow stationary member 8 to form a passageway 11 for the inner gel A. Inner mandrel 2 and inner extruder 55 together form the 37'7~i 1 ~ inner extr~der sub-assembly.
2 In addition to the inner mandrel 2 there is an outer 3 mandrel 4 mounted on outer mandrel bearing 26. The outer mandrel 4 4 is mounted so as to be concentric with respect to the inner mandrel 2. Outer mandrel 4 together with outer extruder 57 6 form the outer extruder sub-assembly.
7 The outer extruder 57 is spaced from the inner extruder 8 55 forming a passageway for the gels to pass after the inner gel 9 and outer gels are brought together. The width of the passageway between the inner and outer extruder can vary depending on the 11 desired characteristics of the final product but in one practice 12 was .019 inches. The outer gel is fed to the outer extruder 13 ¦ through inlet 27.
14 In accordance with this invention, means are provided whereby the inner and outer extruder sub-assemblies are rotated 16 in opposite directions. This means is best shown in Figs. 5A, 6 17 and 7. As embodied there is a drive shaft 28. The drive shaft 18 is rotated by any conventional motor means not shown. The drive 19 shaft 28 is keyed by key means 30 to a relatively wide driving gear 32.
21 In the case of the inner extruder sub-assembly, the 22 driving gear 32 engages an intermediate gear 34 which in turn 23 engages gear 36 which is attached to the inner mandrel 2 by key 24 means 38 to rotate the inner extruder sub-assembly in a clockwise direction (see Figs. 1 and 6). On the other hand, driving gear 32 26 engages gear 40 directly which is attached to the outer mandrel 4 27 by key means 42, to rotate the outer extruder sub-assembly in a 28 ¦ counter-clockwise direction. The direction of movement of the 29 inner and outer extruder sub-assembliee is not important so long as the inner and outer extruder sub-assemblies ro~ate in opposite Il I
~ ~13~
1 ¦ directions.
2 ~ It is not necessary, but is preferable, that the inner 3 j and outer extruder members rotate at about the same speed. The 4 i helical angle of the streams of collagen in each layer of the casir g 5 ¦ can be varied by modifying the relative speed of the counter-6 rotating extruders and the casing extrusion speed.
7 In accordance with this invention, the inner and outer extruders 55 and 57 have a plurality of orifices therein to 9 extrude both the inner and outer gels into a plurality of ropes.
It is the extrusion of the collagen gel through the orifices ll which orients the fibrils and/or fibers in the direction of 12 extrusion at least in the outer surface o the ropes which 13 make-up the layers, which orientation remains even after subsequen 14 treatment. The memory of these ropes and their oriented fibrils and/or fibers persists in the finished product. The orifices may, 16 therefore, be thought of as memory nozzles.
17 The specific construction is shown in Figures 9 and lO -1~ and Figure 13.
19 Turning to Figure 9, the outer gel enters through inlet 27 into a first manifold 44, through a series of openings 46 to a 21 second manifold 48 through another series of openings 50 to a 22 third manifold 52. The outer gel then passes, as shown by the 23 arrows, through a series of outer gel orifices 54 in outer 24 extruder 57.
As shown, there are thirty-two such orifices but there 26 can be a greater or lesser number of such orifices, the specific 27 number not being a critical factor. Thus, satisfactory collagen 28 1 casing has been made with sixteen and with twenty-four orifices 29 in the extruder. Possibly even a lesser or greater number of ~ orifices would be satisfactory. In addition, although as illustrat ed ' ~ ~
1S 1377~i 1 in the drawings, each extruder has the same number of orifices, 2 this is not believed to be a requirement. The outer gel by being 3 passed through the outer orifices 54 is formed into a series of 4 ropes which causes the fibrils and/or fibers to become aligned in the direction of extrusion. The fibrils and/or fibérs will 6 "remember" this alignment despite formation of the ropes into 7 layers and subsequent treatment.
8 The inner gel is extruded through a series of orifices i 9 as can be seen in Figures 9 and 10. Tn the case of the inner gel the inner extruder 55 has two sets of orifices 56. As shown, the 11 number of orifices is thirty-two as in the case of the outer 12 extruder but the number could be greater or lesser, the number 13 not being a critical factor.
14 The greater the number of orifices, the greater the number of ropes in the streams in each layer, and the finer the 16 net-like appearance of the finished casing.
17 Because of the relatively small diameter of the inner 18 extrusion member, it was found convenient to use two sets of 16 19 orifices rather than one set of thirty-two. Also, as can be seen from Figure 13, the sets of orifices are offset rather than in 21 line.
22 Figure 13 which illustrates the ofset orifices 56 also 1 23 shows the use of a manifold 65 for receipt of the gel immediately 24 before the gel passes into the passageway between the inner and 25 outer extruders. -26 The diameter of the orifices in the inner and outer 27 extruders is relatively small and in one practice of the invention 28 was .062 inches.
29 This distance it will be noted is considerably larger than the width of the passageway between the outer and inner , . .
I
1~1377~i l ~ ext uder. This re~lts, as indic~ted above, in changin~ the shape 2 1 f the ropes somewhat in that they lose their true rope like appear-3 ¦ ance which they had when being extruded and take on a somewhat 4 ! flattened form. However, for illustrative purposes, the tubular 5 1 product shown at the exit of the machine (Fig. 1) is schematic 6 and shown in a somewhat idealized form.
7 Figures 9 and 10, by way of the arrows, illustrate the 8 path of travel of the inner gel A moving radially outwardly of 9 the inner extrusion member whereas the outer gel B moves radially inwardly. The outer and inner gels come together in the space 11 between the inner and outer extruders and move together until -12 ischarged. (See Fig. 5B and Fig. 8). While the two gels are 13 moving together, they, in effect, maintain their separate identity 14 in what has been referred to as layers because of the previous extrusion forming the inner and outer gels into separate ropes.
16 The product is discharged after passing between station-17 ary inner 16 and outer 18 stabilizer members. The inner and outer 18 stabilizers are similar to die members and serve to give the 19 resultant product dimensional stability. As indicated, the space between the inner and outer stabilizers can vary depending on the 21 desired thickness and/or characteristics of the final product.
22 Then the extrudate is subjected to further treatment as described 23 ¦in the prior art and preferably as described in Patent No.
24 3,535,125 which results in forming the hardened layers of ropes which are in the final product.
26 Figures 14-15 illustrate how the diameter of the end product can be varied by changingthe path of travel of the gels 28 as they pass between the inner and outer stabilizer. Thus, for 29 example, Figure 14 illustrates the passageway between the inner ¦ ' and outer stabilizer going generally outwardly so as to increase . :.
1~ -21-I :
:
~3~7~ 1 the diameter of the resultant product. Figure 15 illustrates the i 2 ¦ passage between the inner and outer stabilizers going generally ¦ :
3 1 inwardly to thereby reduce the diameter of the resultant product.
4 ¦It will be appreciated that because of the attaching means used 5 ¦ for the inner and outer stabilizing members, described above, it 6 ¦ is a relatively simple matter to change the diameter of the casing 7 1 product.
8 I Figure 11 illustrates another feature of the invention.
9 ¦ There is shown an inlet 60 leading to a cooling passageway 62 10 ¦ which terminates in an exit 64 from which the cooling fluid exits.
11 ¦ The drawings also illustrate various vents and cooling.,lubrication 12 ¦ and/or pressure relief passageways which have been found helpful 13 ¦ in the practice of the invention but are not deemed critical and ..
14 therefore have not been described in detail. ~ :
The following example illustrates the advantages of 16 the present invention as compared to prior art practices as 17 exemplified by the aforementioned Lieberman patent.
18 As used herein, the following terms are defined as 19 follows:
Breakin~ Strength:
21 This is the tension in pounds needed to break the 22 casing when a 2 to 3 foot length of casing is stretched to the 23 breaking pointwith a h~dheld maximum reading strength gauge.
24 Air Burst Pressure:
This is the air pressure required to break a 2-3 foot 26 length of casing inflated with compressed air until it bursts.
27 The pressure required to burst the casing is measured with a :: :
28 maximum reading pressure gauge.
29 Water Burst Pressure: ~
This is the water pressure required to burst a 2-3 ¦ :
. I ~
!
. . . . :
,,1 I
l ~ 7'7~
l , 1 foot length of casing filled with water at ambient temperature 2 measured on a maximum reading pressure gauge.
3 Example I
4 ¦ Unlimed hide as used in commercial collagen casing production was gr~und to 1/4 inch particle size. About 170 Kg.
6 of ground hide was further comminuted in a water slurry through 7 a high-speed rotary cutter, The comminuted slurry (about 500 1.) 8 was mixed with an equal volume of about a 19% cellulose slurry 9 in 0.46% hydrochloric acid. The mixture was homogenized through a two-stage homogenizing valve operated at a pressure of 1,500 11 psi in each stage. The extrusion mass so formed was held 12 overnight and again homogenized through a two-stage homogenizer 13 operated at 2,000 psi for each stage. After holding 16 to 24 14 hours, the extrusion mass was filtered through a 9 mil and then a 6 mil wire wound filter and pumped through a single stage 16 homogenizer at a total pressure of 2,500 psi.
17 The gel so made was fed to an extruder such as that 18 described in the prior art (Lieberman U.S. Patent No. 3,122,788).
19 The extruder of the prior art was operated with an impeller speed of 175 rpm and tubular casing with a flattened width 21 of 43 to 44 mm was extruded at a speed of about 25 fpm. The 22 casing so extruded was received in inflated form on an endless 23 belt and washed, plasticized, dried and shirred as described 24 in Fagan, U.S. Patent No. 3,535,125. Approximately, 0.8 gms./min.
of a 30nia was used on the inside of the casing and 1.6 gms./min.
26 in the exterior chamber to harden the newly extruded casing.
27 The plasticizer consisted of 5.5% glycerin, 1.1% sodium 28 carboxymethylcellulose and 450 ppm of dextrose in water. A
29 ¦thin-coating of mineral oil was applied to the surface after ;~
Idrying and before shirring.
1~L1377~
1 l¦ The same gel fed to the prior art extruder was fed to 2 ',the extruder of this invention and the casing so produced was 1, 3 Iprocessed in the same way. The gel stream was split evenly 4 ll be-ween the two inlets for the inner and outer gel and tubular 5 l¦casing was extruded with a flattened width of 42.5 to 43.5 mm. at 6 ll 25 feet per minute. The counter-rotating extruder members were 7 'leach operated at a speed of 105 r.p.m. in opposite directions. , 8 ,IThe ammonia flows were 1.2 g/min. both inside and outside of the g l¦casing. This casing was plasticized in same plasticizer bath and ¦
10 ¦ coated with oil as in the case of the prior art casing.
11 ¦ The casing produced by the extruder of this invention has 12 1 a readily discernable net-like structure formed by the crossing of 13 !¦the helical ropes of the inner and outer layers during extrusion.
14 ¦¦Before hardening with ammonia, this structure was readily visible
5 l the ropes tend to beco~Le flattened somewhat as a result of pass-16 1 ing between the concentric counter-rotating surfaces and as a re-17 ¦ sult of the subsequent treatment. Also, it is possible that as a 18 ~¦ result of the wiping action of the concentric counter-rotating 19 ¦¦ surfaces some disorientation of the fibrils and/or fibers may occ- Lr.
20 ! Hence, upon discharge, there will be one layer of ropes 21 ¦ helically directed in one direction and a second layer of ropes -22 j helically directed in the opposite direction. The helical angle 23 ! can be controlled to produce any angle in the net-like structure ¦
24lofthecasing 25~l Objects 26 ¦~ In view of the foregoing, it is an ob3ect of this 27 ¦ invention to provide a new and improved tubular collagen casing 28 ¦ having a strùcture resulting in enhanced strength and a method 29 ¦ and apparatus for forming the same.
Another object of this invention is to provide a new an~
!
improved edible collagen casing for sausages and the like having a unique organization of the collagen fibrils and/or fibers resulting in enhanced strength characteristics and methods and apparatus for making the same.
Another object of this invention is to provide a new and improved edible tubular collagen casing for sausages and the like wherein the casing is formed of a unique net-like structure including two layers of ropes of collagen which are oppositely helically directed and overlapping to form a tubular casing having enhanced strength and methods and apparatus for making the same.
Another object of this invention is to provide a novel method of forming a tubular col~ gen casing which includes forming two sets of a plurality of ropes by extrusion thereby orienting the fibrils and/or fibers in the direction of movement, un~ting said sets of ropes into a single fluid mass and subjecting said mass to counter-rotating surfaces and thereafter forming said stream into a tubular construction where the original groups of ropes are detectable.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method of making a tubular collagen casing comprising:
(a) directing an inner collagen gel and an outer collagen gel to an extruder: (b) feeding the inner gel radially outwardly through a first group of radially extending orifices to form a plurality of inner gel ropes: (c) feeding the outer gel radially inwardly through a second group of radially extend- -ing orifices to form a plurality of outer gel ropes (d) bringing said radially inwardly directed outer gel and said radially outwardly directed inner gel together to form a fluid mass having a substantially annular cross section with . . . - . . .
1~137'7~i the ropes from the outer gel being predominantly located adjacent the outer border of the annulus and the ropes from the inner gel being predominantly located adjacent the inner border of the annulus, and (e) feeding the annular mass between two counter-rotating concentric surfaces to thereby direct said outer gel ropes and said inner gel ropes in opposite helical directions and form a two-layered tubular casing.
A still further object of this invention is to provide an extruder apparatus which includes two counter-rotating extruders each having a series of orifices (memory nozzles) therein which divides the two main gel sources into a plurality of ropes which ropes are discharged from the extruder to form a tubular casing wherein the casing consists of a net-like structure of ropes formed in layers wherein -the ropes of said layers are helically directed in opposite directions.
Another object of this invention is to provide - an apparatus for forming a tubular collagen casing comprising:
(a) a stationary frame, ~b) a stationary member mounted on said frame, (c) an inner hollow extruder-member mounted on said frame, said inner hollow extruder member having a plura-lity of radially extending orifices therethough for directing collagen outwardly, (d) means for mounting said inner extruder member on said frame concentric with respect to said stationa-ry member and spaced outwardly therefrom, (e) an outer extru-der member having a plurality of radially extending orifices therethrough for directing collagen inwardly; (f) means for mounting said outer extruder member on said frame concentric with respect to said inner extruder member and spaced out-wardly therefrom to form a passageway therebetween for merging said collagen of said inwardly and outwardly directions, and -lla-'. ,' 111377~
(g) means for rotating said inner extruder member in one direction and means for rotating the outer extruder member in the opposite direction. '~
Another object of this invention is to provide a new and novel process for forming collagen gel into a net-like casing for use with sausages and the like.
A further object of this invention is to provide a ' smooth surfaced collagen casing having a net-like non-porous tubular structure comprising two concentric layers united in an overlapping relationship with one another, each of said layers possessing a plurality of collagen ropes helically oriented in a direction opposite to the ropes in the other,of said layers, said collagen ropes having fibrils and/or fibers which, at least on the outside surface of said ropes, are sub-stantially aligned in the direction of the ropes.
A further object of this invention is to provide a new . ,.~ ~ .
- 11 b -:: . . -, . ~.
, 111377~i ~
1 and novel extrusion apparatus for forming collagen gel into a 2 ¦ casing for use with sausages and the like.
3 Other objects and advantages of the invention will be 4 obvious or may be learned by practice of the invention, the same being realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and 6 combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
7 The invention consists in the novel steps, constructions, 8 arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and des-9 cribed.
The accompanying drawings referred to and constituting 11 a part hereof, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and 12 together with the description, serve to explain the principle 13 ¦ of the invention.
14 ¦ OF THE DRAWINGS:
FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic flow diagram illustrating, 16 in general, the method of extruding gels in accordance with this 17 invention.
18 FIGURE 2 is a schematic perspective view of a portion 19 of the finished end product of this invention.
FIGURE 2A is a schematic end view of the product shown 21 in Figure 2.
22 FIGURE 3 is an end view of the forward portion of the 23 machine.
24 FIGURE 4 is an end view of the exit end of the machine.
FIGURE 5A is a vertical section of the forward portion 26 of the machine, taken generally along line 5A - 5A of Figure 3.
27 FIGURE 5B is a vertical section of the exit portion 28 of the machine, this figure being a continuation of Figure 5Af 29 and is taken generally along line 5B - 5B of Figure 4.
FIGURE 6 is a vertical section taken along line 6 - 6 31 of Figure 5A, and shows the drive mechanism for rotation of the 32 1 inner extruder member.
Il -12-, 1S 1377~i ~
1 ~ FIGUR~ 7 is a fig~re si~ilar to Figure 6, this fi~ure 2 being taken along line 7 - 7 of Figure 5A, and shows the drive 3 1 mechanism for rotation of the outer extruder member.
4 'I FIGURE 8 is a vertical section of the exit portion of the machine shown in Figure 5B, drawn to a somewhat larger scale.
6 FIGURE 9 is a vertical section taken along line 9 - 9 7 of Figure 8.
8 FIGURE lO is a vertical section taken generally along 9 line lO - 10 of Figure 8.
FIGURE 11 is a vertical section taken generally along 11 line ll - ll of Figure 5B.
12 FIGURE 12 is a vertical section taken along line 12 - 12 13 of Figure 5B.
14 FIGURE 13 is an enlarged showing of the area where the inner and outer gels meet for rotation and extrusion.
16 FIGURE 14 is a modified form of the stabilizing annulus 17 for the machine.
18 FIGURE 15 is another modification of the stabilizing I9 annulus which may be used with the machine.
General Description 21 For a general understanding of the invention, reference 22 is made to Figures 1, 2 and 2A.
23 In accordance with this invention, the apparatus includes 24 an inner extruder sub-assembly having an inner mandrel and an ¦ outer extruder sub-assembly having an outer mandrel. Gear means 26 ¦ described subsequently, rotates the inner extruder sub-assembly 27 in one direction (clockwise, as shown in the drawings) and the 28 outer extruder sub-assembly in the opposite direction (counter-29 clockwise, as shown in the drawings).
The inner gel A is fed to the interior of the apparatus ~ -13-ll .
- . . : : .
1~L1377~;
1 ¦¦ through an inlet located at the forward end of the machine and 2 !¦ goes through a circular passageway, one wall of which is the inner 3 ¦1 extruder sub-assembly, the other wall of which is a stationary 4 1I tube described subsequently. The outer gel B is fed to the ma-5 ¦I chine through an inlet and is fed to the outer extruder sub-6 1¦ assembly. The inner gel A is directed through two sets of a 7 1i plurality of orifices generally radially outwardly and the outer 8 ll gel B is fed through a plurality of orifices generally radially 9 inwardly. Thus, the inner and outer gels are formed into a series of ropes which later are joined into layers and the collagen fib-11 rils and/or fibers become oriented in the direction of flow as a 12 result. As shown in Figure 1, the two gels come together near 13 1 the exit of the machine and move for a short distance in the space 14 between the outer and inner extruder sub-assemblies which are rotating in opposite directions and then between an inner and oute 16 stabilizer which forms a stabilizing annulus. The ropee of the 17 inner and outer gels are thus directed in a generally helical 18 direction by the inner and outer counter-rotating extrusion mem-19 ~ bers. As can be seen in Figuresl and 2A, the product being dis-charged from between the outer and inner stabilizers consists of a 21 ¦ net-like structure of layers formed from ropes having oppositely 22 ! directed helical orientations. -23 This helical orientation remains even after the tubular 24 collagen product has been subjected to further treatment which results in a neutralization of the acid-swollen gel, a removal of 26 I much of its water content, and a hardening of the tubular structur 27 into a casing which is then dried, as can be seen in Figure ?.
28 Figure 2 illustrates the final product showing that the 29 resultant tubular product maintains the helical net-like structur ~-3o Thus, as can be seen in Figure 2A, the final product cansists of 377~
I
1 j a net-like structure of two concentric layers 3 and 5 of oppositel 2 ¦ helically directed hardened ropes. As there shown by the wavy 3 line 7 where the two layers meet, there may be a relatively 4 small amorphous boundary region where the orientation of the fibrils and/or fibers may be random. At any ratP it is clear 6 that the outer layer consists predominantly of outer gel 7 ropes helically directed in one direction and the inner layer 8 consists predominantly of inner gel ropes helically oriented in 9 the other direction.
As shown in Figure 2, the angle of the helix measured 11 from a line extending along the longitudinal length of the casing 12 is preferably about 35-50 although this angle can be widely 13 varied if desired.
14 Different angles may be desired for maximum casing strength depending on particular machines with which the casing 16 will ultimately be used in sausage manufacture, since various 17 machines will place different kinds of stress on the casing.
18 Basically, however, as shown in Figures 2 and 2A, the 19 finished product consists of two hardened layers 3 and 5 with each layer being formed from a plurality of ropes 9 with the ropes 21 of one layer being helically directed in a direction opposite 22 from the ropes in the other layer.
23 After the tubular product is discharged from the extrude~
24 of this invention it is subjected to further treatment such as set forth in U.S. Patent No. 3,535,125.
26 The final casing thus prepared contains two layers of 27 ropes of collagen which are now in hardened form. The action of 28 the counter-rotating extruders, the effect of the width of the 29 annular passage, which is less than the diameter of the individual -~
ropes making up the layers, and the hardening and drying steps 1113~i'7~
1 used to finish the casing result in the ropes present in the 2 hardened layers no longer retaining their original spaghetti-like 3 appearance. Instead, the ropes are somewhat irregular in cross-section and have a more flattened appearance and the ropes are partially merged in the boundary areas with the adjacent rope 6 with one rope overlapping the next. Yet, because of the longi-7 tudinal orientation of the majority of fibrils and/or fibers on 8 the external surface of the rope, the outline of the ropes remains 9 detectable, particularly when the casing is wet, in the hardened layers of the casing. Each layer of the casing appears to have 11 a banded effect with the bands being somewhat irregular but 12 roughly parallel and suggestive of the original ropes from which 13 they were prepared. The outer surface of the finished casing is 14 relatively smooth, and does not contain ridges or striations such as in British Patent No. 1,166,398. Because the orientation which 16 is visible in the hardened ropes forming one layer is in opposed 17 direction to that on the other concentric layer, the tubular 18 structure has a net-like appearance. The structure is not truly 19 a net, however, since there are no holes in the casing walls. The final casing is a laminate (the two layers of the casing actually 21 can be pulled apart by careful manipulation) and looks like a net.
22 Within each layer, the hardened ropes making up the layer have 23 a banded appearance in which, when the casing is wet, there are 24 alternating lighter and darker areas which enables one to visualize the original ropes and their boundaries and to see the 26 net-like appearance of the final casing.
27 Thus, it will be appreciated that ropes and layers as 28 ¦ illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 2A are shown in a somewhat idealize d 29 ¦ condition whereas in actual practice the ropes tend to flatten out and become merged at their borders.
L3q7b 1 Detailed Description .
2 Reference is now made to Figure 5A, Figure 5B and 3 Figure 8.
4 - As shown therein there is a stationary housing or frame 6 on which the remaining elements of the extruder mechanism are 6 mounted. Attached to the frame in any convenient fashion is a 7 hollow stationary member 8. The stationary member 8 is hollow so 8 as to accomodate the passage of ammonia gas which is used in further processing occuring after the tubular collagen is dis-charged from the apparatus of this invention.
11 The inner stationary member 8 is threaded 10 at one 12 end for receipt of a nut 12. The nut 12 maintains an inner 13 stabilizer member 16 in fixed position on the frame 6 (Fig. 5B).
14 The inner stabilizer 16 is immediately adjacent to an outer stabilizer 18 forming a stabilizing annulus. As will be 16 ¦ seen, the gel after being extruded between the inner extruder 55 ar d 17 outer extruder 57 passes between the inner and outer stabilizer -18 as the collagen product is discharged from the extruder mechanism 19 to thereby size the product as it is discharged. The outer stabil-izer is attached to the housing flange 17 by any convenient means 21 such as screws 20. The space between the inner and outer stabiliz~ r 22 can be varied depending upon the desired size and/or characteristic s 23 of the final product.
24 Located at the opposite or forward end of the extruder is an inlet 22 through which the inner gel A is fed to the machine 26 (Figure 5A). -27 Mounted in inner mandrel bearing 24 is the inner mandrel 28 2. The inner mandrel 2 is concentric with ar.dspaced from the 29 hollow stationary member 8 to form a passageway 11 for the inner gel A. Inner mandrel 2 and inner extruder 55 together form the 37'7~i 1 ~ inner extr~der sub-assembly.
2 In addition to the inner mandrel 2 there is an outer 3 mandrel 4 mounted on outer mandrel bearing 26. The outer mandrel 4 4 is mounted so as to be concentric with respect to the inner mandrel 2. Outer mandrel 4 together with outer extruder 57 6 form the outer extruder sub-assembly.
7 The outer extruder 57 is spaced from the inner extruder 8 55 forming a passageway for the gels to pass after the inner gel 9 and outer gels are brought together. The width of the passageway between the inner and outer extruder can vary depending on the 11 desired characteristics of the final product but in one practice 12 was .019 inches. The outer gel is fed to the outer extruder 13 ¦ through inlet 27.
14 In accordance with this invention, means are provided whereby the inner and outer extruder sub-assemblies are rotated 16 in opposite directions. This means is best shown in Figs. 5A, 6 17 and 7. As embodied there is a drive shaft 28. The drive shaft 18 is rotated by any conventional motor means not shown. The drive 19 shaft 28 is keyed by key means 30 to a relatively wide driving gear 32.
21 In the case of the inner extruder sub-assembly, the 22 driving gear 32 engages an intermediate gear 34 which in turn 23 engages gear 36 which is attached to the inner mandrel 2 by key 24 means 38 to rotate the inner extruder sub-assembly in a clockwise direction (see Figs. 1 and 6). On the other hand, driving gear 32 26 engages gear 40 directly which is attached to the outer mandrel 4 27 by key means 42, to rotate the outer extruder sub-assembly in a 28 ¦ counter-clockwise direction. The direction of movement of the 29 inner and outer extruder sub-assembliee is not important so long as the inner and outer extruder sub-assemblies ro~ate in opposite Il I
~ ~13~
1 ¦ directions.
2 ~ It is not necessary, but is preferable, that the inner 3 j and outer extruder members rotate at about the same speed. The 4 i helical angle of the streams of collagen in each layer of the casir g 5 ¦ can be varied by modifying the relative speed of the counter-6 rotating extruders and the casing extrusion speed.
7 In accordance with this invention, the inner and outer extruders 55 and 57 have a plurality of orifices therein to 9 extrude both the inner and outer gels into a plurality of ropes.
It is the extrusion of the collagen gel through the orifices ll which orients the fibrils and/or fibers in the direction of 12 extrusion at least in the outer surface o the ropes which 13 make-up the layers, which orientation remains even after subsequen 14 treatment. The memory of these ropes and their oriented fibrils and/or fibers persists in the finished product. The orifices may, 16 therefore, be thought of as memory nozzles.
17 The specific construction is shown in Figures 9 and lO -1~ and Figure 13.
19 Turning to Figure 9, the outer gel enters through inlet 27 into a first manifold 44, through a series of openings 46 to a 21 second manifold 48 through another series of openings 50 to a 22 third manifold 52. The outer gel then passes, as shown by the 23 arrows, through a series of outer gel orifices 54 in outer 24 extruder 57.
As shown, there are thirty-two such orifices but there 26 can be a greater or lesser number of such orifices, the specific 27 number not being a critical factor. Thus, satisfactory collagen 28 1 casing has been made with sixteen and with twenty-four orifices 29 in the extruder. Possibly even a lesser or greater number of ~ orifices would be satisfactory. In addition, although as illustrat ed ' ~ ~
1S 1377~i 1 in the drawings, each extruder has the same number of orifices, 2 this is not believed to be a requirement. The outer gel by being 3 passed through the outer orifices 54 is formed into a series of 4 ropes which causes the fibrils and/or fibers to become aligned in the direction of extrusion. The fibrils and/or fibérs will 6 "remember" this alignment despite formation of the ropes into 7 layers and subsequent treatment.
8 The inner gel is extruded through a series of orifices i 9 as can be seen in Figures 9 and 10. Tn the case of the inner gel the inner extruder 55 has two sets of orifices 56. As shown, the 11 number of orifices is thirty-two as in the case of the outer 12 extruder but the number could be greater or lesser, the number 13 not being a critical factor.
14 The greater the number of orifices, the greater the number of ropes in the streams in each layer, and the finer the 16 net-like appearance of the finished casing.
17 Because of the relatively small diameter of the inner 18 extrusion member, it was found convenient to use two sets of 16 19 orifices rather than one set of thirty-two. Also, as can be seen from Figure 13, the sets of orifices are offset rather than in 21 line.
22 Figure 13 which illustrates the ofset orifices 56 also 1 23 shows the use of a manifold 65 for receipt of the gel immediately 24 before the gel passes into the passageway between the inner and 25 outer extruders. -26 The diameter of the orifices in the inner and outer 27 extruders is relatively small and in one practice of the invention 28 was .062 inches.
29 This distance it will be noted is considerably larger than the width of the passageway between the outer and inner , . .
I
1~1377~i l ~ ext uder. This re~lts, as indic~ted above, in changin~ the shape 2 1 f the ropes somewhat in that they lose their true rope like appear-3 ¦ ance which they had when being extruded and take on a somewhat 4 ! flattened form. However, for illustrative purposes, the tubular 5 1 product shown at the exit of the machine (Fig. 1) is schematic 6 and shown in a somewhat idealized form.
7 Figures 9 and 10, by way of the arrows, illustrate the 8 path of travel of the inner gel A moving radially outwardly of 9 the inner extrusion member whereas the outer gel B moves radially inwardly. The outer and inner gels come together in the space 11 between the inner and outer extruders and move together until -12 ischarged. (See Fig. 5B and Fig. 8). While the two gels are 13 moving together, they, in effect, maintain their separate identity 14 in what has been referred to as layers because of the previous extrusion forming the inner and outer gels into separate ropes.
16 The product is discharged after passing between station-17 ary inner 16 and outer 18 stabilizer members. The inner and outer 18 stabilizers are similar to die members and serve to give the 19 resultant product dimensional stability. As indicated, the space between the inner and outer stabilizers can vary depending on the 21 desired thickness and/or characteristics of the final product.
22 Then the extrudate is subjected to further treatment as described 23 ¦in the prior art and preferably as described in Patent No.
24 3,535,125 which results in forming the hardened layers of ropes which are in the final product.
26 Figures 14-15 illustrate how the diameter of the end product can be varied by changingthe path of travel of the gels 28 as they pass between the inner and outer stabilizer. Thus, for 29 example, Figure 14 illustrates the passageway between the inner ¦ ' and outer stabilizer going generally outwardly so as to increase . :.
1~ -21-I :
:
~3~7~ 1 the diameter of the resultant product. Figure 15 illustrates the i 2 ¦ passage between the inner and outer stabilizers going generally ¦ :
3 1 inwardly to thereby reduce the diameter of the resultant product.
4 ¦It will be appreciated that because of the attaching means used 5 ¦ for the inner and outer stabilizing members, described above, it 6 ¦ is a relatively simple matter to change the diameter of the casing 7 1 product.
8 I Figure 11 illustrates another feature of the invention.
9 ¦ There is shown an inlet 60 leading to a cooling passageway 62 10 ¦ which terminates in an exit 64 from which the cooling fluid exits.
11 ¦ The drawings also illustrate various vents and cooling.,lubrication 12 ¦ and/or pressure relief passageways which have been found helpful 13 ¦ in the practice of the invention but are not deemed critical and ..
14 therefore have not been described in detail. ~ :
The following example illustrates the advantages of 16 the present invention as compared to prior art practices as 17 exemplified by the aforementioned Lieberman patent.
18 As used herein, the following terms are defined as 19 follows:
Breakin~ Strength:
21 This is the tension in pounds needed to break the 22 casing when a 2 to 3 foot length of casing is stretched to the 23 breaking pointwith a h~dheld maximum reading strength gauge.
24 Air Burst Pressure:
This is the air pressure required to break a 2-3 foot 26 length of casing inflated with compressed air until it bursts.
27 The pressure required to burst the casing is measured with a :: :
28 maximum reading pressure gauge.
29 Water Burst Pressure: ~
This is the water pressure required to burst a 2-3 ¦ :
. I ~
!
. . . . :
,,1 I
l ~ 7'7~
l , 1 foot length of casing filled with water at ambient temperature 2 measured on a maximum reading pressure gauge.
3 Example I
4 ¦ Unlimed hide as used in commercial collagen casing production was gr~und to 1/4 inch particle size. About 170 Kg.
6 of ground hide was further comminuted in a water slurry through 7 a high-speed rotary cutter, The comminuted slurry (about 500 1.) 8 was mixed with an equal volume of about a 19% cellulose slurry 9 in 0.46% hydrochloric acid. The mixture was homogenized through a two-stage homogenizing valve operated at a pressure of 1,500 11 psi in each stage. The extrusion mass so formed was held 12 overnight and again homogenized through a two-stage homogenizer 13 operated at 2,000 psi for each stage. After holding 16 to 24 14 hours, the extrusion mass was filtered through a 9 mil and then a 6 mil wire wound filter and pumped through a single stage 16 homogenizer at a total pressure of 2,500 psi.
17 The gel so made was fed to an extruder such as that 18 described in the prior art (Lieberman U.S. Patent No. 3,122,788).
19 The extruder of the prior art was operated with an impeller speed of 175 rpm and tubular casing with a flattened width 21 of 43 to 44 mm was extruded at a speed of about 25 fpm. The 22 casing so extruded was received in inflated form on an endless 23 belt and washed, plasticized, dried and shirred as described 24 in Fagan, U.S. Patent No. 3,535,125. Approximately, 0.8 gms./min.
of a 30nia was used on the inside of the casing and 1.6 gms./min.
26 in the exterior chamber to harden the newly extruded casing.
27 The plasticizer consisted of 5.5% glycerin, 1.1% sodium 28 carboxymethylcellulose and 450 ppm of dextrose in water. A
29 ¦thin-coating of mineral oil was applied to the surface after ;~
Idrying and before shirring.
1~L1377~
1 l¦ The same gel fed to the prior art extruder was fed to 2 ',the extruder of this invention and the casing so produced was 1, 3 Iprocessed in the same way. The gel stream was split evenly 4 ll be-ween the two inlets for the inner and outer gel and tubular 5 l¦casing was extruded with a flattened width of 42.5 to 43.5 mm. at 6 ll 25 feet per minute. The counter-rotating extruder members were 7 'leach operated at a speed of 105 r.p.m. in opposite directions. , 8 ,IThe ammonia flows were 1.2 g/min. both inside and outside of the g l¦casing. This casing was plasticized in same plasticizer bath and ¦
10 ¦ coated with oil as in the case of the prior art casing.
11 ¦ The casing produced by the extruder of this invention has 12 1 a readily discernable net-like structure formed by the crossing of 13 !¦the helical ropes of the inner and outer layers during extrusion.
14 ¦¦Before hardening with ammonia, this structure was readily visible
15 ¦ to the naked eye. After drying the casing could be examined by
16 j filling with water and observing the casing surface. Under these
17 1 conditions, the net-like structure was again apparent to the naked
18 , eye. In this example, the angle of the helical ropes in each layer
19 ¦ was about 45 relative to the axis of the casing, or about 90 re-
20 ¦ lative to each other.
21 1 Both the prior art casing and the casing of this inventio n
22 1 were then heat cured by heating from room temperature to 85C. over
23 1 a period of 12 hours and then held at 85C for 6 hours. After !
24 ¦ humidification to a moisture content of about 20 to 40% the 1 following physical properties were measured.
26 ~ Prior Art Casin~ Net-Like Casing 27 ¦ Width of Flattened Tube 44,7mm 44.5mm 28 1 Thickness 1.48 mil 1.50 mil 29 ,¦Breaking Strength30.2 lbs 44.2 lbs 30 jlAir Burst Pressure16.7 psi 19.6 psi 31 ¦lWater Burst Pressure8.2 psi 8.7 psi 32 l¦ Sausages of the frankfurter-type were prepared using a Ty! -33 I¦Linker (Linker Machines, Inc., Newark, New Jersey, Model 140 ACL). ¦
¦* Trademark ~37'7~;
1 Five strands (35 foot length) of each of the stuffed 2 casings were double-tied with the following percentage of breaks 3 for the two test casings:
4 ¦ TEST # 1 -Sample Prior Art Casin~ Net-Like Ca~
6 #1 0.83% 2.5%
7 #2 1.67% 0%
8 #3 2.5% 0%
9 #4 0.83% 0%
#5 0% 0%
11 In double ty-linking the links are formed by cinching 12 strings ir~to a knot simultaneously at both ends of the link. This 13 action is resisted more successfully by the net-like casing of 14 this invention.
On another day a similar test of more strands from this 16 experiment showed the following percentage of breaks:
17 TEST # 2 -18 ~ Prior Art Casing Net-Like Casing 19 #1 1.67% 0%
#2 0% 0.83%
21 #3 0.83% 0%
22 #4 1.67% %
23 #5 2.5% 0%
24 Using the novel extruder apparatus and generally following the aforementioned example but varying slightly the 26 operating conditions and starting materials, a number of different¦
27 net-like collagen casings within the scope of the present inventior 28 were prepared. These proved highly satisfactory for use on high 29 speed sausage-making machinery, such as; the Townsend semiautomatic 1 DB4A stuffer and linker and the fully automatic Townsend model * Trader ark 'I , ~377~i 1 ~ DB2A. Prior art casings made from substantially identical collagen I
2 1 formulations and under substantially identical conditions, except 3 1 using the prior art extruders, resulted in excessive breakage 4 1 when used with such high speed machinery and wer~ considered to have failed badly on such equipment.
6 This invention, in its broader aspects, is not limited 7 to the specific steps, procedures and elements shown and described 8 ut departures can be made therefrom within the scope of the 9 accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.
11 This application is a division of Canadian Patent App icat on Serial No. 2-3,892 f 1 -1 J~ruar 1~, 1976.
28 . . -:
29 .
. -
26 ~ Prior Art Casin~ Net-Like Casing 27 ¦ Width of Flattened Tube 44,7mm 44.5mm 28 1 Thickness 1.48 mil 1.50 mil 29 ,¦Breaking Strength30.2 lbs 44.2 lbs 30 jlAir Burst Pressure16.7 psi 19.6 psi 31 ¦lWater Burst Pressure8.2 psi 8.7 psi 32 l¦ Sausages of the frankfurter-type were prepared using a Ty! -33 I¦Linker (Linker Machines, Inc., Newark, New Jersey, Model 140 ACL). ¦
¦* Trademark ~37'7~;
1 Five strands (35 foot length) of each of the stuffed 2 casings were double-tied with the following percentage of breaks 3 for the two test casings:
4 ¦ TEST # 1 -Sample Prior Art Casin~ Net-Like Ca~
6 #1 0.83% 2.5%
7 #2 1.67% 0%
8 #3 2.5% 0%
9 #4 0.83% 0%
#5 0% 0%
11 In double ty-linking the links are formed by cinching 12 strings ir~to a knot simultaneously at both ends of the link. This 13 action is resisted more successfully by the net-like casing of 14 this invention.
On another day a similar test of more strands from this 16 experiment showed the following percentage of breaks:
17 TEST # 2 -18 ~ Prior Art Casing Net-Like Casing 19 #1 1.67% 0%
#2 0% 0.83%
21 #3 0.83% 0%
22 #4 1.67% %
23 #5 2.5% 0%
24 Using the novel extruder apparatus and generally following the aforementioned example but varying slightly the 26 operating conditions and starting materials, a number of different¦
27 net-like collagen casings within the scope of the present inventior 28 were prepared. These proved highly satisfactory for use on high 29 speed sausage-making machinery, such as; the Townsend semiautomatic 1 DB4A stuffer and linker and the fully automatic Townsend model * Trader ark 'I , ~377~i 1 ~ DB2A. Prior art casings made from substantially identical collagen I
2 1 formulations and under substantially identical conditions, except 3 1 using the prior art extruders, resulted in excessive breakage 4 1 when used with such high speed machinery and wer~ considered to have failed badly on such equipment.
6 This invention, in its broader aspects, is not limited 7 to the specific steps, procedures and elements shown and described 8 ut departures can be made therefrom within the scope of the 9 accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.
11 This application is a division of Canadian Patent App icat on Serial No. 2-3,892 f 1 -1 J~ruar 1~, 1976.
28 . . -:
29 .
. -
Claims (2)
1. A smooth surfaced collagen casing having a net-like non-porous tubular structure comprising two concentric layers united in an overlapping relationship with one another, each of said layers possessing a plurality of collagen ropes helic-ally oriented in a direction opposite to the ropes in the other of said layers, said collagen ropes having fibrils and/or fibers which, at least on the outside surface of said ropes, are substantially aligned in the direction of the ropes.
2. A collagen casing having a cross-section in the shape of an annulus and comprising a first and second set of collagen ropes with the ropes from the first set being predominately located adjacent the outer border of the annulus and the ropes from the second set being predominately located adjacent the inner border of the annulus, said first and second sets of ropes being helically oriented in opposite directions in an overlapping, united relationship with one another to form an essentially non-porous, tubular structure, said ropes having fibrils and/or fibers which at least on the outer surfaces of said ropes are substantially aligned in the direction of the ropes.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA349,867A CA1113776A (en) | 1975-01-16 | 1980-04-14 | Collagen net-like casing, extruder and process therefor |
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| US541,465 | 1975-01-16 | ||
| US05/541,465 US4060361A (en) | 1975-01-16 | 1975-01-16 | Extruder apparatus for forming a tubular casing |
| CA243,892A CA1081032A (en) | 1975-01-16 | 1976-01-15 | Collagen net-like casing, extruder and process therefor |
| CA349,867A CA1113776A (en) | 1975-01-16 | 1980-04-14 | Collagen net-like casing, extruder and process therefor |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1113776A true CA1113776A (en) | 1981-12-08 |
Family
ID=27164289
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA349,867A Expired CA1113776A (en) | 1975-01-16 | 1980-04-14 | Collagen net-like casing, extruder and process therefor |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1113776A (en) |
-
1980
- 1980-04-14 CA CA349,867A patent/CA1113776A/en not_active Expired
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