MANUFACTURING ARCUATELY CASED PRODUCTS

摘要

1490913 Packaging apparatus and process KUREHA KAGAKU KOGYO KK 7 Feb 1975 [8 Feb 1974] 5425/75 Heading B8C [Also in Divisions A1-A3] In a method of, and apparatus for, forming and filling a tubular film casing 10 to provide a product, e.g. a sausage, curved along its length, a film 8 of thermo-shrinkable synthetic resin has its opposed edges overlapped by a forming device 2 and fused to form a tubular film casing 10, material such as ground meat or cheese to fill the casing 10 is supplied via a stuffer nozzle 7 which passes through the forming device 2, and heating means 14 positioned along the path of travel of the casing 10 intermediate the forming device 2 and the position at which filling is completed heats a portion of the tubular film casing 10 corresponding to only a part of the circumference thereof and extending along the length of the casing so that the resultant filled product 13 becomes curved along its length when the casing 10 has shrunk due to subsequent heat treatment. The heating means 14 is disposed outside a sizing ring 4, preferably of PTFE, over which the tubular casing 10 passes, and may comprise an electric heater, an infra-red radiator, or, as shown, a hot air blaster with a bank of vanes 16 variably positioned to control the hot air flow. The proportion of the casing 10 circumference subject to heating is between 40% and 60%, preferably 50%. A cooler 15 is provided just downstream of the heater 14. The overlapped edges of the plastics film 8 are fused by a high frequency heater 3 with electrodes 3a, 3b to form the tubular casing 10, which is drawn over the sizing ring 4 by winding rollers 5. The filled casing is tied at fixed intervals by a binding device 6 which applies pairs of aluminium wire ties 12, 121 between which the casing may be severed. The cased product passes to a hot water or steam bath, not shown, where the contents are sterilized and the casing heat shrunk to take up the characteristic curved form. Suitable materials for the plastics film 8 are a copolymer film of vinylidene chloride with a monomer copolymerizable therewith, thermoshrinkable nylon, polypropylene, polystyrene, or PVC film; thermo-shrinkable three-plyfilm of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymervinylidene chloride copolymer-ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer; or a three ply film of polyethylene-vinylidene chloride copolymer-polyethylene.