公开(公告)号：EP0693880A1

公开(公告)日：1996-01-31

申请号：EP94912621.0

申请日：1994-04-15

申请人： DEVRO LIMITED

发明人： HANLON, Allan James ,  LYNCH, Tom Saddler ,  NORWOOD, Derek Samuel David ,  BRINK, Frederikus Johannes ,  SCHIPPER, Jan

IPC分类号： A22C11 ,  A22C15

CPC分类号： A22C11/108

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.