Package making – Methods – Enclosing contents within progressively formed web means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-07
2001-04-17
Sipos, John (Department: 3721)
Package making
Methods
Enclosing contents within progressively formed web means
C053S459000, C053S053000, C053S064000, C053S550000, C053S567000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06216425
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a method of producing sausage-like products, where for filling a tubular or bag-shaped packaging casing filling material is pressed into the unilaterally closed packaging casing, and the packaging casing material is withdrawn from a reservoir due to the filling pressure and thereby retarded by a casing brake, and the packaging casing is closed at a second end after it has been filled to the desired extent. The invention also relates to an apparatus for producing sausage-like products.
Known apparatuses for filling tubular or bag-shaped packaging casings with a filling material comprise a filling tube and a casing brake. The packaging casing to be filled is closed at one end and has been drawn onto the outside of the filling tube such that the closed end of the packaging casing is disposed before an outlet opening of the filling tube, while the rest of the packaging casing material forms a reservoir disposed on the outside of the filling tube. In the vicinity of the outlet opening of the filling tube, the packaging casing is pressed by the casing brake onto the outside of the filling tube with an adjustable force.
For filling the packaging casing, the filling material is pressed with a determinable filling pressure through the filling tube into the unilaterally closed packaging casing. In the process, further packaging casing material is withdrawn from the reservoir as a result of the filling pressure. The force required for withdrawing the packaging casing material can be adjusted by means of the casing brake. As a result of the adjustable braking force of the casing brake, which must be overcome by the filling pressure, tight and taut packages are obtained. When these packages contain the desired amount of filling material, they are closed at their other end and separated from the remaining packaging casing material. For closing purposes, the packaging casing material is usually crimped to form a neck, onto which two clips are then mounted at a certain distance from each other for keeping the packaging casing closed. Subsequently, the packaging casing is cut through between the two clips, so that one of the two clips keeps the already filled package closed at its second end, while the other clip forms the aforementioned unilateral closure of the packaging casing yet to be filled.
What is important is that the filled and closed package is taut enough. The tautness of the package depends on the internal pressure existing in the package. In particular in the case of sausages, this internal pressure should be so high that there is no deposition of jelly: In the case of sausages, the packaging casing is filled with pasty sausage meat, which among other things contains meat juice. When the internal pressure in the packaging casing after filling and closing the packaging casing is too low, the meat juice may accumulate and turn into jelly. The result is the undesired deposition of jelly, which can be prevented by a sufficient tautness of the package. The degree of tautness and accordingly the internal pressure in the packaging casing, which is sufficient for preventing the undesired deposition of jelly, depends on the kind of sausage meat.
In practice, there are some problems in connection with the above-described filling of packaging casings: The tautness of the finished package may for instance vary so much as a result of varying consistency of the filling material or non-uniform quality of the packaging casing that scrap is produced, because the package is not taut enough or too taut. In some cases, the packaging casing even bursts. The amount of scrap produced is often high, because with a production quantity of 100 to 150 sausages per minute there has often already been produced a major amount of scrap before the operating personnel of the filling machine detects the error.
Should a packaging casing burst already during filling, no further casing material will be withdrawn from the reservoir, because the required filling pressure can no longer be produced. This is the knowledge on which the apparatus described in DE-PS 44 12 697 is based, where a small wheel is rolling on the packaging casing at a fixed location and rotates when the packaging casing moves. From the rotation of the wheel it may be concluded that packaging casing material is indeed withdrawn from the reservoir during filling. Non-rotation of the wheel indicates that the packaging casing has burst during filling. Other production errors, in particular great fluctuations in tautness, cannot be detected with the known apparatus.
From U.S. Pat. No. 4,766,645 there is known a method where the outside diameter of a filled packaging casing is measured, and the measured value is used for setting a force required for withdrawing the packaging casing from a reservoir, so as to regulate the outside diameter of the sausage to the desired degree.
From GB-A-2,050,801 a method is known where there is measured the filling pressure with which a packaging casing is filled, in that the tensile stress is measured which exists in the still unfilled packaging casing when it is withdrawn from a reservoir. Since downstream of the point of measurement the packaging casing is also guided through a ring
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whose inside diameter is smaller than that of the filled packaging casing, the friction between the packaging casing and the ring
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leads to the fact that the tension of the packaging casing at the point of measurement does not correspond to the tension of the filled packaging casing. Since the packaging casing is closed downstream of the point of measurement, the already filled length of the packaging casing cannot be monitored with this method during closure.
All known methods are not satisfactory with respect to monitoring the production of sausage-like products if possible around the periphery thereof, so that production errors, for instance when closing the packaging casing, remain undetected.
It is therefore the object underlying the invention to indicate how scrap can be reduced in the production of sausage-like products.
In accordance with the invention, the solution of this object consists in a method as described above, where both during filling and during closing the tautness of the packaging casing is detected by means of a sensor, and filling or closing is interrupted both when an upper limit value for the tautness is exceeded and when a lower limit value for the tautness is not reached.
The tautness of the sausage results from the internal pressure of the filling material, which in turn depends on the filling pressure and the braking force of the casing brake. As a result of the internal pressure, the packaging casing is expanded more or less depending on the material, so that the tautness of a sausage is also indicated by its diameter. In the case of an elastic expansion of the sausage casing, there exists a restoring tension force inside the same, which is in equilibrium with the internal pressure of the sausage. The tension of the sausage casing exerts a measurable resistance, which depends on the tautness of the sausage, against a deformation of the sausage. The invention is based on the knowledge of the above-described relations and utilizes the fact resulting therefrom that the tautness of a sausage can be detected by means of sensors for instance from the force required for a deformation of the sausage casing or in the case of a defined action of force from the resulting deformation. The expansion of the sausage casing by the internal pressure existing inside the same leads to the fact that the filling diameter of the taut package after filling is larger than the nominal diameter of the unexpanded packaging casing. The increase in diameter as a result of the internal pressure in particular depends on the elasticity of the sausage casing. With a knowledge of this property, the tautness of a sausage can also be taken from its increase in diameter during filling. When the nominal diameter of the packaging casing is known, the tautness of the package may also be determined by measuring the
Norris & McLaughlin & Marcus
Poly-Clip System GmbH & Co. KG
Sipos John
LandOfFree
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