Devro Plc

Allan James Hanlon

Frederikus Johannes Brink

Derek Samuel Norwood

Jan Schipper

Tom Saddler Lynch

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.

Apparatus and method for forming sausage links

A strand of sausage casing is closed at one end by an end closure formed by coating the inner surface of an end portion with adhesive and crimping opposite sides together to form a seal, a restricted air passage being left through the seal. The strand is preferably a shirred strand of a thin-walled collagen sausage casing, the adhesive being collagen hydrolysate and the seal being heated during the crimping. A method of, and apparatus for, end-closing a strand of sausage casing are described.

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Stirlingshire, United Kingdom

Allan James Hanlon