GB2058540A - Sausage stuffing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The apparatus comprises an external casing formed by a lower base plate 1 and by an upper removable cover 3 having an inner cavity 8 surmounted by a head 9 passed through by a supply duct 10 and by a delivery duct, the latter communicating with a rotatable stuffing tube, on which a tubular casing is mounted. A rotor 24 including a pair of vertical cylinders 28 and 29, in which respective pistons 32 and 33 are slidingly housed, is inserted in said inner cavity and rotated to put cyclically said cylinders in communication with said ducts, which have freely open vertical ports 12 and 13. The movement of the pistons in the respective cylinders is controlled by a plate 36 at adjustable tilt, which can be displaced from the outside of said casing. After each delivery stroke the stuffing tube is rotated to form links between the sausages. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Portioning and twisting apparatus for chainarranged sausages The present invention is concerned with a portioning and twisting apparatus, which is adapted for the production of chain-arranged sausages.

In the production of small sausages, such as for example the known "wurstel", it is common to portion the meat product at equal weight for the several sausages directly during the sacking operation and to twist the external bowel for some turns at the end of each portion delivery so as to produce a clear separation between the several portions.

This process is carried out in several ways, a classic one of which consists in that a conventional meat sacking and portioning pump is provided with an apparatus which causes the sacking tube of the pump, on which the bowel is mounted, to rotate at the wanted time. In this way, the sacking pump portions sequentially, while in the rest periods between successive portion deliveries the sacking tube is causes to rotate for twisting the bowel about itself and thus separating the portions from one another.

According to a modern concept of production, the above explained conventional process is somewhat out-of-date, since, being requested a greater and greater weight precision, almost without tolerance, and a greater and greater number of sausages to be produced each hour, the classic sacking pumps, as a result of the considerable size of their component members and the consequent big masses to be started and stopped at each portion delivery, are no longer adapted for the high rates as presently requested (some hundreds of portions per minute).

In addition, the considerable size of the conventional sacking pumps, which were studied to produce usually also salami of great size, makes the above mentioned pumps, unsuitable for portioning small amounts (usually some tens of grams) with absolute precision.

The unavoidable errors are due to the not always constant compressibility, to the great amount of meat product driven by the pump and to the unavoidable leakage of product between each other of the several movable and stationary members of the sacking pump.

The sausage production art has therefore directed their steps towards portioning and twisting apparatuses separated from the properly said pump. Such apparatuses, which can reach very high production rates as a result of their reduced size and weight, are fed continuously with product at a selected pressure by a conventional sacking pump and operate in turn to portion the product with the necessary precision and to carry out the twisting of the bowel.

The manufacturers of these apparatuses usually direct their efforts to adjustable-delivery piston pumps, which exhibit some problems as regards the cleaning, which is made difficult by the fact that the delivery producing members are usually in contact with the product and are not therefore easily demountable. For the same reason, moreover, there exist non-negligible problems as regards the lubrication, which even lacks in some portioning apparatuses of known type. Finally, the component members of such portioning apparatuses are generally subjected to high stresses, so that they cannot be made of inoxidable material to evident prejudice of the hygienic conditions of the apparatus.

The object of the present invention is to realize a portioning and twisting apparatus, which is particularly simple, compact, easily and conveniently cleanable, excellently lubricable and with pumping members made of inoxidable material.

According to the invention, this object is reached by a portioning and twisting apparatus characterized in that it comprises an external casing formed by a lower base part and by an upper removable cover having an inner cavity surmonted by a head passed through by a pair of supply and delivery ducts which end in said cavity at freely open ports having diametrally opposite vertical axes, the delivery duct communicating with a sacking tube which can be driven to rotate, a rotor with vertical axis rotatably housed in said cavity of the cover and provided with a driving shaft housed in said base part of the casing, said rotor including a pair of cylinders with diametrally opposite vertical axes which are spaced from one another and from the rotor axis as much as said ports, said cylinders being open upwards so as to be able to communicate cylically with said ports during the rotation of the rotor and slidingly housing respective pistons provided with vertical rods projecting downwards from said cylinders and said rotor to rest on a plate at adjustable tilt, which is arranged coaxiallywith said shaft but is not fixed thereto for rotation, there being provided means operable from the outside of said casing for the adjustment of the tilt of said plate.

The greatest merit of the apparatus according to the present invention consists in that, while the members intended to contact the product to be sacked, particularly the cylinders and the respective pistons, are housed within the cavity of the cover in condition of full hygienic safety, all the members intended to control the rotation of the rotor, the sliding of the pistons and the adjustment of the tilt of the plate, on which the rods of said pistons rest, are housed on the contrary in the base part of the casing, which part can easily be hydralically separated from the cover by means of a watertight seal.This allows, on one hand, the easy and rapid cleaning of the members in contact with the product without any necessity of carrying out demounting operation, exception being made for the removal of the cover, and, on the other hand, the advantageous immersion of all the control members in an oil bath which protects them against the wear. Since said control members are not in contact with the product, they can also be made of a material at high wear resistance, while those in contact with the product, not being subjected to high stresses, can be made of inoxidable material; the quality of the product is thus protected better. It is also to be noted in this regard that possible oil leakages from the base part are not able to contaminate the product, since the apparatus is arranged in vertical position.

The features of the present invention will be understood better by means of the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof, which is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 shows an apparatus according to the invention as sectioned in an axial vertical plane passing through the line I-I of Fig. 2; Fig. 2 shows said apparatus as sectioned horizontally along the line ll-ll of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 shows said apparatus as sectioned along the line Ill-Ill of Fig.1; Fig. 4 shows a detail of said apparatus as sectioned along the line IV-IV of Fig.2.

The apparatus shown in the drawings comprises an external casing formed by a lower base part 1 inserted in and made integral with a protecting enclosure 2, which houses all the several control mechanisms of the apparatus, and by an upper removable cover 3 releasably fastened to the base part 1 by means of knobs 4 with threaded rods 5.

The cover 3 has a lateral wall 6 with passingthrough radial bores 7, which wall defines a cylindrical inner cavity 8 surmonted by a head 9. The latter is passed through by a pair of L-shaped ducts 10 and 11, intended for supplying and, respectively, delivering the product to be sacked, which ducts end in said cavity 8 at respective freely-open ports 12 and 13 having diametrally opposite vertical axes (Fig. 2).

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the supply duct 10 communicates with an inlet pipe 14 rigidly fixed to the cover 3 and further directly connected to the delivery mouth of a sacking pump of common type.

As shown on the contrary in Figs. 1 and 4, the delivery duct 11 communicates with an outlet pipe 15 rigidly fixed to the cover 3 and further connected, through a suitable seal not shown in the drawings, to a rotatable hollow sleeve 16, as a prosecution of which there is fixed by a ring nut 17 a common sacking tube 18, on which a bowel 19 destined to receive the product to be sacked is mounted in known manner. The rotatable sleeve 16 is rotatably supported by a case 20, in which there are housed two mutually engaged gears 21 and 22, of which the fist is rigidly fixed to the hollow sleeve 16 and the second is keyed on the shaft of a driving motor 23.

Inside the cavity 8 there is rotatably housed in coaxial position a rotor 24, which is integral with a driving shaft 25 housed in the base part 1 and projecting therefrom at a lower end which bears a driving pulley 26. A sealing gasket 27 is interposed between the rotor 24, the cover 3 and the base part 1 (Fig. 1).

In the rotor 24 there are two cylinders 28 and 29, which have respective diametrally opposite vertical axes spaced from one another and from the axis of the rotor as much as said ports 12 and 13 (Fig. 2) and are open upwards so as to be able to communicate periodically firstly with one and then with the other of said ports during the rotation of the rotor 24. The lower ends of said cylinders 28 and 29 communicate with the inside of the cavity 8 through radial bores 30 and 31 (Fig. 1).

Inside said cylinders 28 and 29 there are slidingly housed respective vertical rods 34 and 35, which project downwards from said cylinders and said rotor and rest on an adjustablytilted plate 36, which is born in freely rotatable way by an underlying support 37 through a ball-bearing 38. As shown in Fig. 3, the support 37 is made integral for rotation with a horizontal shaft 39, which is rotatably supported by the base part 1 and can be rotated about its own axis by means of a lever 40. A proper actuation of the latter allows the adjustment of the tilt of the support 37, and therefore of the plate 36, with respect to the horizontal position (tilt equal to zero) illustrated in dotted line in Fig. 1.

In order to understand the mode of operation of the apparatus illustrated in the drawings, it should be assumed that the lever 40 is initially in the position illustrated in dotted line in Fig. 1. The plate 36 is consequently in horizontal position and the rods 34 and 35, which rotate together with the rotor 24, while resting on a horizontal plane, do not impart any movement to the pistons 32 and 33. The product supplied in pressurized condition to the supply duct 10, therefore, is not transferred to the delivery duct, i.e. a null portion is delivered.

By moving the lever 40 to a different position, for example that shown in dashed line in Fig. 1, on the contrary, the plate 36 tilts with respect to the horizontal position and, at each revolution of the rotor 24, causes an up-down movement of the pistons 32 and 33 in the cylinders 28 and 29. The excursion of such up-down movement obviously depends on the preselected tilt ofthe plate 36. Supposed that the cylinder 28 is initially in the position of Figs. 1 and 2, corresponding to the maximum lifting of the piston 32, an anticlockwise rotation of the rotor 24 puts the cylinder progressively in communication with the supply port 12, from which it receives a progressively increasing amount of product to be sacked.

Simultaneously, the piston 32 lowers, since it is obliged to maintain the contact between the rod 34 and the plate 35 by its own weight and by the weight of the pressurized product which progressively enters the cylinder 28.

The filling of the cylinder 28 ends when the latter, having left the communication with the supply port 12, reaches a position diametrally opposite to the initial one (i.e. the position illustrated for the cylinder 29 in Figs. 1 and 2), in which opposite position the piston 32 reaches a position of maximum lowering.

From that moment on, the plate 36 forces the piston 32 to go up again and to push towards the delivery port 13, now in communication with the cylinders 28, all the product previously introduced into the same cylinder 28. Of course, the amount of product supplied and delivered during the two strokes of lowering and rising of the piston 32 depends on the tilt of the plate 36 and can be adjusted at will, by means of the lever 40, between 0 and a maximum value.

Of course, the piston 33 operates exactly in the same manner, exception being made forthe operative phase displacement of 180" imposed by the geometry of the apparatus. Two will therefore be the portions of product introduced into the bowel 19 at each revolution of the rotor 24.

At each, obviously very short, interval between the end of a pumping operation and a start of the next one, the motor 23 is actuated to control one or more revolutions of the sacking tube 18 and thus to cause the twisting of the bowel between one portion and the other for the production of a succession of sausages (Fig. 4).

Possible leakages of product between the pistons and the cylinders and between the rotor and the lateral wall of cover are exhausted by the bores 30 and 7 during the lowering strokes of the pistons 32 and 33.

Such bores are also used for the discharge of the washing water introduced into the cylinders 28 and 29 during the cleaning operations, afterthatthe cover 3 has been removed from the base part 1 with previous unscrewing of the knobs 4. It is to be noted that in this way the rotor 24, which is the part in contact with the product, can easily and perfectly be cleaned, while the mechanisms housed in the underlying base part 1 can be maintained in an oil bath without any danger of adulteration of the product or infiltration of the same product or the washing water.

Claims (4)

1. Portioning and twisting apparatus for chainarranged sausages, characterized in that it com- prises an external casing formed by a lower base part and by an upper removable cover having an inner cavity surmounted by a head passed through by a pair of supply and delivery ducts which end in said cavity at freely open ports having diametrally opposite vertical axes, the delivery duct communicating with a sacking tube which can be driven to rotate, a rotor with vertical axis rotatably housed in said cavity of the cover and provided with a driving shaft housed in said base part of the casing, said rotor including a pair of cylinders with diametrally opposite vertical axes which are spaced from one another and from the rotor axis as much as said ports, said cylinders being open upwards so as to be able to communicate cyclically with said ports during the rotation of the rotor and slidingly housing respective pistons provided with vertical rods projecting downwards from said cylinders and said rotor to rest on a plate at adjustable tilt, which is arranged coaxially with said shaft but is not fixed thereto for rotation, there being provided means operable from the outside-of said casing for the adjustment of the tilt of said plate.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said plate is supported in freely rotatable manner by a support at adjustable tilt integral with a control lever.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said cylinders and said cavity of the cover have lower ends communicating with said cavity of the cover and, respectively, with the outside of the casing through respective groups of radial bores.

4. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, substantially as hereinafter described and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.