APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FORMING SAUSAGE LINKS

摘要

Apparatus for forming a chain of sausage links is described in which the formed links are less likely to unwind. The apparatus includes a conveyor (10) for moving a tubular food casing (18) filled with a food emulsion around an axis (12), the conveyor having a plurality of crimping (14a-h) and twisting (15a-h) means for forming a continuous adjacent links. The conveyor (10) moves the links through a semicircular path past station (A-I) where twisting and crimping operations are performed. The links so formed have a first set twisted in one direction about the tubular food casing axis and a second set of adjacent links twisted in the opposite direction. The twisted links are then fed to apparatus (90) for arranging the twisted sets of links in vertical hanging loops (91) using a screw thread (104) of variable decreasing pitch with clamps (96) for clamping between the oppositely twisted sets of links so that as the twisted links move along the screw thread (104), oppositely twisted sets of links form hanging loops which have little tendency to unwind.