Butchering – Sausage making
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-11
2001-09-11
Little, Willis (Department: 3643)
Butchering
Sausage making
C452S035000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06287188
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feeding device for a stuffing and dosing pump of a vacuum stuffing machine for alimentary pastes, preferably ground or extruded meat.
More specifically, the invention relates to mechanical thrusting means positioned in the space under the hopper in order to operate continuously on the meat paste, thrusting and compacting it in the direction and toward the inlet of said stuffing pump.
2. Prior Art
The expression “meat paste” must be intended as relating to a bulk of meat more or less finely ground by a grinder, or meat extruded from a die plate, which substantially generates a meat emulsion. Traditional stuffing machines, currently on the market, comprise essentially a truncated cone hopper combined with an internal rotating mixing element, which facilitates the conveyance of the meat paste downward in the direction of the inlet hole of the stuffing pump whose chamber, operating in a condition of substantial vacuum, sucks the meat paste in.
Said internal rotating mixer is, as it is known, constructed both as a shaft provided with radial jutting pegs located at angularly and axially staggered positions, and as a spiral helix which generates a downward thrust on the food product paste stored in the hopper in the direction of the stuffing pump.
Over the last few years there emerged as highly desirable the need to improve the quality of the stuffing operation, particularly, as it is well known to the skilled in the art, in the attempt to guarantee a perfect withdrawal of air from the product by means of new use techniques for the thrusting devices which thrust the material toward the stuffing pump, in order to make the product itself bright in its sliced state, ready for consumption. This is a desirable objective for any food product paste which is conveyed to the stuffing and for all the various shapes and dimensions of the stuffing itself.
The currently known stuffing systems are ill-suited to meet the needs of the different kinds of meat pastes intended for stuffing, and they do not always result in high quality products. With regard to this, it must be stressed that when the stuffing is obtained by means of traditional hoppers operatively linked with the known conveyor devices quite a few problems arise, whose solution has frequently proved rather difficult. It has been known for a long time that obtaining a constant feeding of the food product paste with the traditional hoppers and the known associated elements is difficult, because the vacuum differential between the existing vacuum in the chamber of the stuffing pump and the vacuum generated in the hopper for an improved deaeration of the paste itself is not enough to generate a sufficiently positive pressure on the product, so as to guarantee continuously a complete filling of the stuffing pump chamber through suction.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The aim of the present invention is to overcome the above stated drawbacks connected with the known devices by setting up a stuffing pump feeding device able to guarantee the perfect withdrawal of air from the paste of the product intended for stuffing, in order to present to the consumer sliced products in a bright and compact state and with a pleasant look, i.e. a higher quality food product of the stuffed type.
A further aim of the present invention is to generate a continuous mechanical thrust exerting an advantageously sufficient pressure on the product intended for stuffing so that the product itself will be pressed into the inlet hole of the stuffing pump even in the presence of a very small difference between the value of the existing vacuum in the hopper and the value of the existing vacuum in the chamber of the stuffing pump.
All this guarantees a complete and continuous filling of the stuffing pump allowing, moreover, for the exploitation even in the hopper of a high vacuum value which carries out a complete effective withdrawal of the air possibly present in the product, aided also by a rotating mixing shaft located in the hopper above said feeding device.
Therefore, an aim of the present invention is also to provide a perfect mixing homogeneity so that the feeding device will be ideal for use in any branch of the food industry as it mixes in an optimal way and conveys to the stuffing pump all kinds of meat products, spun
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paste cheese and more or less soft food preserves.
Another aim of the present invention is to provide an extremely hygienic application as every part which gets in contact with the product is easily removable for cleaning and disinfection operations, which must be carried out systematically in order to eliminate the product particles which, by sedimenting in the interstices between the fixed and moving elements, would cause, as it is well known to the skilled in the art in the food industry, the growth of bacteria which are not completely eliminated by means of the usual cleaning operations.
A further aim of the present invention is to provide a stuffed product of higher density with the related advantages of a better ripening over time, as well as a longer preservation period.
More still, a further aim of the present invention is to provide a compact product with the advantage, for the same weight, of economizing considerably on the casings and improving the aspect of the product for presentation to the client.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and still further aims are all obtained by means of the feeding device, according to the present invention, of a stuffing machine operating under vacuum for products such as ground meat or any food product which is conveyed to a storage hopper in order to be conveyed to a stuffing and dosing pump by means of mechanical feeding thrusting means, made up by helical scroll elements placed immediately and sequentially in the space under the hopper and operating separately with continuity on said product by thrusting and compacting it in the direction and toward the inlet of said stuffing pump, said helical thrusting elements, facing each other, operating through helixes equivalent to each other, free of direct contact.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the feeding device for the stuffing machine operating under vacuum comprises two helical thrusting elements shaped as conical or truncated cone scroll and with helixes with a development differentiated as a function of the characteristics of the product intended for stuffing and of the formation dynamics of the stuffing itself.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4032049 (1977-06-01), Roberts
patent: 4370779 (1983-02-01), Meier
patent: 5367860 (1994-11-01), Cullen
patent: 5595865 (1997-01-01), Possanza et al.
patent: 0138830 (1957-01-01), None
Righele Giampietro
Righele Paolo
Browdy and Neimark
Little Willis
Refin S.r.l.
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