Butchering – Sausage making
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-30
2004-02-10
Jordan, Charles T. (Department: 3644)
Butchering
Sausage making
Reexamination Certificate
active
06688959
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages.
2. Description of the Related Art
As apparatuses of this type, two types of apparatuses are widely known conventionally, i.e., one which has a structure unsuitable for high-speed operation and is designed for using natural intestine casings and another which has a structure suitable for high-speed operation and is designed for using artificial casings. The natural-intestine-sausage manufacturing apparatus is required to be compact, and although known apparatuses satisfy the requirement, they are still unsuitable for high-speed operation. In addition, in recent years, there have been noticeable demands for the sanitation of the apparatus and the quality of sausages with respect to the manufacture of natural intestine sausages; however, it is difficult to say that the known apparatuses sufficiently meet these demands.
The aforementioned known apparatus include those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,346, U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,563, U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,186, and the like.
FIGS. 1 and 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,346 show an apparatus in which a housing incorporating a braking member is provided at a distal end portion of an elongated arm portion attached to an apparatus frame. With such an apparatus, since it is difficult to obtain perpendicularity between the apparatus frame and the arm portion, the relative positional accuracy of the braking member and a nozzle is low, so that such an apparatus is unsuitable for high-speed operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,346 discloses a sausage manufacturing apparatus comprising a raw-material supplying means for intermittently supplying a fixed amount of a material into a natural intestine casing and a pinching means for pinching the stuffed natural intestine casing by operating in synchronism with the intermittent supply of the material. With this apparatus, the quantity of the casing being pulled out from the stuffing nozzle by force of discharging the raw material is difficult to be made uniform, with the result that the stuffing degree of the sausage links (the tension of the sausages) is also difficult to be made uniform.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,563 (FIG. 10) discloses an apparatus in which a housing incorporating a spindle to which a nozzle is attached is provided in a vertical plane, and a high-load, high-vibration linking device is supported in opposing two horizontal planes. With this apparatus which requires these three reference planes (the vertical plane and the two horizontal planes) on a main body frame, the relative positional accuracy of the nozzle and the link linking device is low. Further, in this apparatus, since a metering pump is not disposed in the same plane as the vertical plane, the relative positional accuracy of the nozzle and the metering pump is low, so that this apparatus which has low relative positional accuracy is unsuitable for high-speed operation.
With the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,563, the sausage material is charged into a natural intestine casing which is moving with pincher members at a fixed speed. If the deviation of the diameter of the natural intestine casing is excessively large, sausages having differences in the stuffing degree of the sausage links (the tension of the sausages) are manufactured.
In the sausage manufacturing apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,186, driving units for a metering pump, a chuck, and a linking means are disposed in a right-hand area within a frame, while a box accommodating inverters which are speed changing means for motors for the metering pump, the chuck, and the linking means is disposed in a left-hand area within the frame. Since this manufacturing apparatus has the right-hand area and the left-hand area, the frame is large in the horizontal direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,186 discloses an apparatus in which the metering pump, a housing for the chuck (braking member), and a housing for rotating a stuffing tube are disposed on an upper plate member of the frame, and lower portions of the housings are made open to allow the interiors of the housings to communicate with the interior of the frame. With this apparatus, there is possibility that water and the raw material may enter the interior of the frame and accumulate therein.
In addition, the known apparatuses further require a moving means which moves in a circular motion with the pincher members attached thereto as well as a conveying means which is disposed at a position downstream thereof and moves in a circular motion, so as to change the size of sausages. Such a known apparatus is disclosed in FIGS. 8 and 9 of International Laid-Open No. WO 96/41539. This known apparatus comprises the moving means to which the pincher members are attached and which moves in a circular motion, and the conveying means which is disposed at a position downstream thereof and moves in a circular motion. In this known apparatus, since the stuffed casing whose pinching has been released is moved at a fixed speed by the conveying means, the moving speed of the stuffed casing does not change. Accordingly, this known apparatus is hardly applicable to manufacturing natural intestine casing sausages having appropriate stuffing degrees by using natural intestine casings having large deviation in the diameter.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been devised in view of the above-described aspects, and its objects are as follows:
1. To provide an apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages which is compact and particularly suitable for the manufacture of natural intestine sausages, and permits high-speed operation.
2. To provide an apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages which is compact and particularly suitable for the manufacture of natural intestine sausages, and permits high-speed operation and excels in sanitation.
3. To provide a method and a compact apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages which permit high-speed production of sausages having a fixed quantity and an appropriate stuffing degree by using a natural intestine casing having large deviation of the diameter.
4. To provide a method and a compact apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages which are particularly suitable for the manufacture of natural intestine sausages and make it possible to change the link length of sausages and the stuffed weight of the links.
To these ends, in accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for manufacturing linked food products having twisted portions such as sausages including a stuffing nozzle for discharging from its distal end a food product material supplied from its material inlet port and for forming a stuffed casing stuffed with the food product material, a hollow spindle for rotating the stuffing nozzle, and a braking member for engaging an outer surface of the casing on the stuffing nozzle, the apparatus comprising: a main body housing having a base plate extending in the same direction as a direction in which the stuffing nozzle extends from the material inlet port toward the distal end, and a side plate extending from a specific portion in the direction of the base plate in such a manner as to meet the base plate at an angle; a spindle housing attached to the base plate so as to rotatably support the hollow spindle; and a braking-member supporting member disposed at a position opposing the side plate so as to support the braking member at a predetermined position with respect to the stuffing nozzle, or a braking-member supporting member supported by the side plate so as to support the braking member at a predetermined position with respect to the stuffing nozzle. In this apparatus, since the braking-member supporting member is disposed at a position opposing the side plate of the main body housing, or since the bra
Kasai Minoru
Nakamura Minoru
Alimenti Susan C.
Hitec Co. Ltd.
Jordan Charles T.
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
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