GB2211203A

GB2211203A - Drying of skins

Info

Publication number: GB2211203A
Application number: GB8824244A
Authority: GB
Inventors: John Kittelsburg Nielsen
Original assignee: RC PLAST AS
Current assignee: RC PLAST AS
Priority date: 1987-10-19
Filing date: 1988-10-17
Publication date: 1989-06-28
Anticipated expiration: 2008-10-17
Also published as: GB2211203B; FI90883B; NO884642D0; NO884642L; IT1229950B; NO176444C; DE8813140U1; CA1312474C; DK157084C; DK545587D0; FI884708A; BE1003756A3; GB8824244D0; SE8803678L; DK157084B; IT8822346A0; SE502194C2; FI90883C; FI884708A0; NO176444B

Abstract

A sheath (3) for use in the drying of skins (1) is an elongate bag produced from a soft, clingable, resilient, fat-absorbing material of substantially homogeneous air-permeability, especially non-woven polypropylene. Unlike prior art sheaths, this sheath (3) covers the entire length of the drying board (2), thereby providing improved protection of the board against getting smudged by remains from the inside of the skin (1). Moreover, more homogeneous air dispersion during the drying process is obtained and thereby also more uniform drying of the skins. <IMAGE>

Description

DRYING OF SKIN5 The invention relates to the drying of skins by arranging fresh skins (incluainy furs) on a generally slightly tapered board having a channel and cut-outs providea therein and covered by a sheath in the form of an elongate bag made from a fat absorbing, air-permeable material and passing a conditionea air current through said channel and cut-outs to contact the inside of the skins.

The sheaths fulfil various purposes. Firstly, they protect the board against dirt from the inside of the individual skins, and secondly, they contribute to drying the skin by absorbing its fat.

Prior art sheaths are made from comparatively coarse paper and are most frequently shaped as slightly conical tubes surrounding the central portion of the board but not the extreme portions thereof.

Saia design is an indispensable consequence of the fact that paper having the necessary strength and absorbing properties is not porous or air-permeable to such a degree that the air current supplied through the board can penetrate the sheath and get into contact with the inside of the skin. The sheath must therefore be made shorter than the board so as to expose some of the vent holes of the board. Air is then blown between the inside of the skin ana the outer surface of the sheath. ln oraer to proviae reasonable venting conditions, prior art sheaths typically terminate at the level of the tail head of the mounted skin, so that, in order to protect also the part of the boara located opposite the rippea-up tail, it is necessary to apply a separate piece of "tail paper".Said piece of paper has to be fastened separately, thereby impeding and protracting the mounting procedure.

As mentioned above, one of the purposes of the sheath is to protect the board against getting smudgea by flesh remains, blooa etc. from the inside of the skin. The necessary exposure of the board counteracts said aim because it causes direct contact between the inside of the skin and the board. This means that the board gets smudged and hence it is necessary to clean the board after every use which is both time consuming and adds to the expense of drying.

In order to solve the problem of incomplete wrapping, International Patent Application No.

PCT/F185/00049 (published Patent Specification No.

W086/00091) proposes the provision of a protecting bag fitting to the drying board or shaping itself therearound. Ihis bag consists of two strips of paper glued together at their longitudinal sides by adhesive seams. In order to adapt to the tapered end of the drying board the bag is further provided either with a number of secondary adhesive seams parallel to the longitudinal siaes and which on inserting the drying board are individually torn over a length corresponding to the edyes of the tapered ena or with an adhesive seam substantially similar to the tapered end.

Besides the productional complications implicated by providing secondary or shape-adapted adhesive seams, it is a drawback of this design that there are flaps around the taperea end of the drying board which, due to the natural stiffness of the paper, have to be bent in over the tapered end prior to pulling the unprocessed skin on to the drying boara.

Moreover, where the fitting to the drying board is effected by tearing parallel secondary adhesive seams, difficulties in pulling off the bag will often occur because the bag partially adheres to the board due to adhesive remains thereon.

According to the above suggested design of bag it is possible to proviae individual bags from a roll of bags of the same length separated by transverse perforations.

In spite of the possibility of the adaptation aimed at, the above outlined design of the bag does solve another arawback of known sheaths in that the sheaths are not resilient or flexible ano therefore cannot easily be adapted to different boara sizes, e.g. such boards used for example for skins from male and female minks. It is therefore necessary to purchase and stock as many sizes of sheaths as there are sizes of boards, and every time a sheath is pulled on to a board it must be ensured to choose the correct size of sheath.

The sheath according to the present invention differs from prior art sheaths in that it is aesignea as a hose of uniform width and made from a soft clingable, resilient material of substantially homogeneous air-permeability and having a certain natural resiliency, e.g. non-woven fibres of polypropylene.

In an aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of drying skins by mounting a fresh skin on a tapered board having gas-distribution means therein and covered by a sheath of fat-absorbing, gas-permeable material in the form of an elongate bay and passing a conditioned gas current through said means to contact the inside of the skin, wherein the sheath is of uniform width, is made from a soft, clingable, resilient material of substantially homogeneous gas-permeability and covers the entire length of the board.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a skin-drying board comprising a tapered board having gas-distribution means therein and covered by a sheath of fat-absorbing air-permeable material in the form of an elongate bag, wherein the sheath is of uniform width, is made from a soft, clinyable, resilient material of substantially homogeneous gas-permeability and covers the entire length of the board.

The sheath of the invention is capable of covering the entire board, due to the fact that the sheath is air-permeable per se, thereby protecting the board against gettiny smudged and making any cleaning of the board after use superfluous or at least reducing the possibility of such cleaning being required. As the sheath is actually in contact with the entire inside of the skin an efficient absorption of fat from the skins concurrently obtained.

Moreover, a favourable consequence is that it also becomes much easier to pull off the skin from the board after completed drying because the skin is not in a position to adhere firmly to the board. by virtue of the homogeneous air-permeability of the sheath improved air dispersion auring the drying process is obtained and thus a more uniform drying of the skins compared with the prior art paper sheaths.

Further, the present invention entails particularly the advantage that, within certain limits, it is possible to make use of sheaths of only one size since the clingable, resilient and flexible sheath easily adapts to boards of varying sizes. If the width of the board is a little larger than the width of the sheath in its flaccid condition, the sheath enlarges a little thereby clinging closely to the board while, conversely, the bag-shaped sheath forms soft folds around the board.

The clingability and the resiliency of the sheath and its tubular form of uniform width provides the additional advantage of rationalization in that the sheaths can be offered as "endless" tubes on rolls instead of either inoividual sheaths or as rolls with perforations for tearing off at predetermined lengths.

In an embodiment of the sheath according to the invention single sheaths are thus obtained by cutting from a tube roll at a desired length, following which the cut-off length is closed by transverse sealing at one end. In use, a suitable length of tube is unwouna which length is then cut off and sealed, following which it is ready for use. The closing and cutting-off may be effected in any suitable manner; for example tape, staples or hot welaing may be used for the sealing.

The invention will now be explained in more aetail with reference to the somewhat schematical drawing illustrating a board on which a sheath according to the invention is mounted and a skin. For the sake of clarity the skin is not shown on the right half of the drawing.

A skin 1 to be driea is pullea on to a slightly wedge-shaped or tapered board 2 which, prior to arranging the skin on it, is first covered with an elongate sheath 3 according to the invention. The board 2 is made from wooa and has a central, continuous slit or slot 4 which extends from a point close to the tapered end of the board substantially throughout the length of the skin. Slit 4 is in communication with approximately semi-circular notches or cut-outs 5 provided in the narrow lateral edges of the board and extending parallel to the plane of the board. An air current is suppliea as illustrated by the arrow 6 through a central tube 7 insertea through the mouth opening of the skin and the sheath and discharges opposite slit 4. The air will then be dispersed along the board through cut-outs 5 and slit 4 proper.

Sheath 3 having the form of an elongate bag or sock is pulled in over the narrow end of the board and is fastened, after stretching, close to the wide end of the board by means ot pins 8 or in any other suitable way. The sheath is made from non-woven fibres of polypropylene and, by virtue of its natural resiliency, it is adaptable to the size of the board.

For the sake of clarity the skin is illustrated on the drawing as fitting loosely around the board.

However, in practice, the skin fits tightly on the board 2 and sheath 3 in order to provide the contact of the inside of the skin with the sheath necessary to effect the fat absorption and because the board 2 is intended to serve as stretching board. Skin 1 is secured to board 2 in a conventional manner (not shown).

The sheath according to the invention does not need to be made from non-woven fibres of polypropylene and other materials having similar properties, such as air-permeability, clingable resiliency and natural stiffness, can be used.

Claims

1. A method of drying skins by mounting a fresh skin on a tapered board having gas-distribution means therein and covered by a sheath of fat-absorbing, gas-permeable material in the form of an elongate bag and passing a conditioned gas current through said means to contact the inside of the skin, wherein the sheath is of uniform width, is made from a soft, clingable, resilient material of substantially homogeneous gas-permeability and covers the entire length of the board.

2. A method as claimed in Claim l, wherein the said material is non-woven polypropylene.

3. A method as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the sheath is provided by cuttiny a length from a roll of tubular said material and transversely closing an end of said length.

4. A method as claimed in Claim 1 and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.

5. A skin-drying board comprising a tapered board having gas-distribution means therein and covered by a sheath of fat-absorbing air permeable material in the form of an elongate bag, wherein the sheath is of uniform width, is made from a soft, clingable, resilient material of substantially homogeneous gas permeability and covers the entire length of the board.

6. A skin-drying boara as claimed in Claim 5, wherein the said material is non-woven polypropylene.

7. A skin-drying board as claimea in Claim 5 or Claim 6, wherein the sheath is provided by cuttiny a length from a roll of tubular said material and transversely closing an end of said length.

8. A skin-arying board as claimea in Claim 5 and substantially as hereinbefore describea with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawing.

9. A sheath or covering case (3) to be applied in the type of drying skins or furs (1), where the fresh skins are arranged on a generally slightly tapered board (2) fitting to the actual skins and adapted to pass through channels (4) and cut-outs (5) provided therein a supplied conitioned air current into contact with the inside of the skins, the sheath (3) having the form of an elongated bag made from a fat absorbing, air-permeable material, characterised in that the sheath is designea as a hose of uniform width and made from a soft, clingable, resilient material of subtantially homogenous air-permeability and having a certain natural resiliency, e.g. non-woven fibres of polypropylene.

10. A sheath as claimed in Claim 9, characterisec in that the individual sheaths are provided by unwinding and cutting from a hose roller at a aesired length, following which the cut length is closed by transverse sealing at one end.