Butchering – Sausage making – Sausage link handling
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-14
2001-09-18
Little, Willis (Department: 3643)
Butchering
Sausage making
Sausage link handling
C452S186000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06290591
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Sausage making machines of the type long known in the industry (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,191,222 and 3,115,668) are often accompanied by a conveyor which holds the strand of linked sausages in loops, each supported by a hook on the conveyor. The loops of linked sausages are then manually removed from the conveyor by use of an elongated smokestick wherein the smokestick is inserted through a plurality of loops, and then lifted from the hooks. The loaded smokestick is then delivered to a smokehouse for conventional processing. It is important that each smokestick be fully loaded to fully utilize the capacity of the smokehouse. Completely filling the smokestick optimizes the cooking process and serves to control the thermo process better in the smokehouse. Utilization of the full length of the smokestick is also a savings in labor in that fewer sticks must be inserted and hung in the smokehouse if they are full as compared to being half empty.
Another benefit of optimally filled smokesticks is to minimize the amount of touching of sausages of adjacent loops. The touching of adjacent sausages leave white spots where they engage each other. This product is fully cooked but does not look that way, and the white spots can possibly be a basis for downgrading the product. Thus, the smokestick should be fully loaded, but not overloaded so that the touching phenomenon takes place.
As is well known, shirred artificial casings of known length are commonly used to encase a strand of sausage material. The strand is extruded into the casing which is then twisted and pinched into a plurality of sausage links of equal length. The linked strand is then sequentially looped on the hooks of a conveyor with each hook carrying a loop of linked sausages containing a predetermined number. With these shirred casings the casing length can be chosen to optimally fill the smokestick, the machine is programmed to set the number of sausages per loop and the hook spacing on the conveyor will determine the gap between loops. For example, with an artificial casing having a total length of 120 feet, (102 useable feet) and with sausages being linked to a length of 5 inches, 243 sausages per casing will be produced. If the hook spacing in the conveyor is 1⅞ths inches, 9 sausages per loop would give the operator 27 loops of sausage spaced at intervals of 1⅞ths inches. In that case, 51″ of a 61″ smokestick would be used, leaving sufficient length for hanging the smokestick in the smokehouse. As shirred artificial casings are supplied in consistent lengths, there is no need to count the number of loops for each stick.
However, in the case of natural casings, which vary in diameter and length, the process of fully loading a smokestick is much more difficult. Fully loading a smokestick with natural casings can involve the use of a partial casing, multiple casings, or multiple casings and partial casings. Currently, sausage machine operators have to count off loops of the product and then make separations in the middle of a natural casing if necessary.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus for determining the number of linked sausages for deposit on a smokestick for both artificial and natural casing materials.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus for determining the number of linked sausages for deposit on a smokestick which is accurate and efficient.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus for determining the number of linked sausages for deposit on a smokestick which will permit the operator of the sausage encasing machine to easily and quickly recognize when a predetermined number of linked sausages and loops have been delivered to the conveyor for optimally loading a smokestick of predetermined length.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The method for determining the number of linked sausages for deposit on a smokestick involves extruding meat emulsion into an elongated casing, and then moving the filled casing through a conventional linker to create an elongated strand of linked sausages. The number of linked sausages in a loop is predetermined to provide the size of the loop of linked sausages to be placed on a given hook of the conveyor. This is done by preprogramming the gear ratio between the linker and the conveyor to hang the preprogrammed number of sausages per loop.
When a controller determines the total number of sausages to be deposited on a given smokestick, by taking into account the number of loops and the number of sausages per loop, the conveyor will advance at a greater or smaller velocity with respect to its normal velocity. This displacement will create a marker through a modified shorter or longer loop. A removed or missed hook will also result in a loop of modified configuration which will serve as a visible marker to the operator. The modified loop will be an immediate visual identifier to the operator that sufficient loops comprising the desired number of sausages have been delivered to the conveyor. The controller can also momentarily stop the meat pump, either by momentarily cutting power to the motor or declutching it, so that there is insufficient meat to completely fill the sausage, which will also act as a visual indicator. Accelerating the pump output will create an overfilled sausage. The operator will then cut the strand in the area of the visual indicator and tie off the ends of the strand on opposite sides of where the cut has taken place. This will allow the person handling the smokestick to know how many loops are to be on the stick without counting or estimating. The spacing of the loops on the stick will be sufficient to avoid the touching phenomenon by the predetermined calculation of the number of loops desired to be on the stick.
The cycle continues and the controller begins to count again the number of linked sausages being produced. If the amount of casing is exhausted before the total count for the second smokestick is reached, the controller will stop the sausage making machine to load a casing, and will resume or restart counting on the next cycle when the next supply of casing material is positioned on the casing machine. The controller will then continue the count until the total amount of linked sausages is reached for the second smokestick, whereupon the controller will create a marker through one of the modes described above and wherein the operator will sever and tie off the strand when the total desired number of linked sausages has been produced. The steps are repeated throughout the run of the particular program designated or until the sausage making machine is powered down.
The apparatus for performing the above method comprises a conventional sausage linking machine with a meat emulsion pump to supply meat emulsion through a stuffing horn into the casing material. A conventional sausage linking apparatus with a plurality of pinching elements causes the filled casing strand of sausage to be linked and to be deposited upon the hooks of a conveyor according to a predetermined program as described heretofore. A controller associated with the machine is programmed to control the meat pump to reduce pumping of meat emulsion if it is desired to use that mode to create a visible marker. Similarly, the controller can control the conveyor to cause the conveyor to advance at a greater or smaller velocity with respect to its normal velocity if that mode of marking is desired.
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patent: 5102368 (1992-0
Basile, II Vincent
Hergott Steven P.
Myers James Linden
Ottow Marcelinus Franciscus
Simpson Michael S.
Little Willis
Townsend Engineering Company
Zarley McKee Thomte Voorhees & Sease
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