GB2380179A

GB2380179A - Packaging meat in elasticated netting

Info

Publication number: GB2380179A
Application number: GB0229507A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Stuart Baird Revill; Zoltan Perer Kovacs
Original assignee: Trunature Ltd
Current assignee: Trunature Ltd
Priority date: 1999-05-10
Filing date: 1999-05-10
Publication date: 2003-04-02
Anticipated expiration: 2019-05-10
Also published as: AU4593500A; WO2000068084A1; GB2349861B; GB9910634D0; GB0229507D0; GB2380179B; GB2349861A

Abstract

A method for the encapsulation of a meat product with elasticated netting comprising displacing a predetermined length of a sleeve of said netting along the exterior of a tube 16 by net gripping means 24 which are reciprocable relative to the tube 16 and relatively moving a meat product out of an end of the tube 16 so that the meat product is surrounded by said netting, whereby the product is encapsulated by said predetermined length of the sleeve without applying substantial tension to the sleeve. The net gripping means 24 may comprise an annular array of fingers each spring loaded to an operative position in which they make contact with the exterior of the tube 16 and an inoperative position where no contact with the tube 16 is made. The means for displacing the meat product out of one end of the tube 16 maybe a piston.

Description

"PACKAGING MEAT IN ELASTICATED NETTING" This invention relates to elasticated netting and more particularly to an improved method and apparatus for the containment of meat products in individual lengths of elasticated netting cut from a continuous sleeve.

Elasticated netting for the containment or binding of joints of meat is knitted as a continuous sleeve which, in its unstressed condition, is of much smaller diameter than the pieces of meat which it is to enclose. It is expanded to insert the meat so that when released it will bind the meat, thus maintaining the integrity of the joint during processing such as cooking. It can then be stripped off before the meat is consumed.

The netting may be expanded onto storage tubes of greater internal diameter than the pieces of meat to be enclosed. By folding or rucking the netting on the outside of a tube a considerable length of netting can be stored on a much shorter tube. Apparatus for folding netting onto storage tubes is disclosed in our British Patent Specification Serial No. GB 2336826, to which reference is made for a clearer understanding of the field and background of the present invention.

Tubes on which lengths of netting have been stored are taken to a different location where joints of meat are passed one at a time through the interior of the tube. The netting overhangs one end of a tube, where it shrinks sufficiently partially to obstruct the opening. Therefore as a joint of meat passes out of that end of the tube it drags netting with it off the exterior of the tube until the joint is fully enclosed. The netting is then severed behind the joint of meat, leaving a cut end overhanging the said end of the tube to be engaged by the next joint of meat emerging from it.

One of the problems associated with the dispensing of netting in this or a similar way is that there is normally a substantial length of the tube adjacent said end thereof where the netting is not rucked or folded and thus tightly grips the tube periphery. In the process of dragging it off it is stretched and distorted so that when it is cut it springs back giving a loose and ragged appearance to one end of the package.

An object of the present invention is to dispense measured lengths of netting which, when they encapsulate the meat, are in an unstressed condition and therefore package the meat products more neatly.

In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method for the encapsulation of a meat product with elasticated netting, the method comprising displacing a predetermined length of a sleeve of said netting along the exterior of a tube by net-gripping means reciprocable relative to the tube along the axis thereof and relatively moving a meat product out of an end of the tube to be surrounded by said predetermined length whereby the product is encapsulated by said predetermined length of the sleeve without applying substantial tension to the sleeve.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for carrying out the method of the immediately preceding paragraph, the apparatus comprising a tube, means for relatively displacing a meat product out of one end of the tube and net-gripping means reciprocable relative to the tube along the axis thereof to position a predetermined length of a sleeve of elasticated netting surrounding the tube where it may be caused to encapsulate said meat product without applying substantial tension to the sleeve.

Said net-gripping means may comprise an annular array of fingers each spring loaded to an operative position in which it will make contact with the exterior of the tube and gas or fluid operated ram means arranged to reciprocate said array along the tube.

A control ring may be arranged to abut the fingers and to displace the same against their spring bias to an inoperative position.

Said means for displacing a meat product may comprise a piston actuable to displace a meat product along the tube.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of non-limitative example with reference to the accompanying drawing, which is a plan view of apparatus for carrying out the method of the invention.

Figure 1 illustrates a spreader means 10 which has a fixed position within openings in plates 11,12 and 13. The position of plate 13 is fixed and it is connected to plate 12 by first pneumatic rams 14. Plate 12 is connected to plate 11 by second pneumatic rams 15. Coaxial with the spreader means 10 is a tube 16. This passes through an opening in a fixed plate 17 and is secured at its distal end to a plate 18. Plate 18 is connected to plate 17 by third pneumatic rams 19, the arrangement being such that when rams 19 are extended the tube 16 is carried away from the spreader means 10. At 20 is shown the cylinder of a piston (not shown) which can be extended through an opening in plate 18 and through the open, distal end of tube 16. Cylinder 20 has a fixed position, being mounted on a fixed end plate 21.

Elasticated netting for the containment or binding of meat products is produced by a circular knitting machine as a continuous sleeve which, in its relaxed condition, is of small diameter. The product of the knitting machine falls into a box and when this is filled with a considerable length of the sleeve it is cut off and the filled box is replaced with an empty one.

In use of the apparatus illustrated a filled box (not shown) is located near the tapered end 22 of the spreader means 10 and the leading end of the sleeve (not shown) is taken by hand out of the box, inserted over the tapered end 22 and drawn down the spreader means 10 until it reaches the castellated end 23 of the spreader means. At this time the tube 16 is advanced by the rams 19 so that its leading end lies, as shown, within the castellated end 23 of the spreader means.

Rams 14 and 15 are now simultaneously extended so that plates 11 and 12 move along the tube 16 while plate 11 moves away from plate 12. An annular array of fingers 24 is mounted on plate 11, each finger being pivoted at its end nearer to plate 11 and the fingers being commonly biassed by a circular spring (not shown) from the inoperative position in which they are shown in full lines to the operative position indicated in broken lines. The fingers are held in the inoperative position against their spring bias by a control ring 25 which is held in a fixed position relative to plate 12 by rods 26. Thus as plate 11 is moved away from plate 12 by rams 15 control ring 25 is withdrawn from the fingers 24,

allowing them to adopt their operative positions in which their free ends will make contact with the exterior of the tube 16.

The purpose of the castellated end 23 of the spreader means is to enable the free ends of the fingers to penetrate the net before contacting the tube 16. Thus as the fingers are displaced with plate 11 by rams 14 along tube 16 they will drag the netting sleeve along the tube 16 until the free end of the sleeve is near to the plate 17. Rams 14 are now retracted, reversely moving the array of fingers 24 along the tube 16, but the fingers 24 do not drag the netting back along sleeve 16 because of their angular relationship to the tube.

The structure and operation of the array of fingers 24 and the control ring 25 are similar to those employed in the apparatus for loading storage tubes which is described in the Specification of our British Patent Serial No. GB 2336826. Reference is made to that Specification for a clearer understanding of these features of the apparatus of the present invention.

Simultaneously with or immediately before this an operative has dropped a meat product (not shown) into tube 16 through a lateral opening 27 in the end of the tube remote from the spreader means 10. The piston is now extended from cylinder 20 to push the meat product into the other, closed end of the tube 16 which is now surrounded by the leading end of the sleeve.

Arcuate clamps 28 are now actuated to grip the net against the cylindrical surface of the spreader means 10. With the piston still extended from the cylinder 20 the rams 19 are now extended so that the tube 16 moves away from the spreader means 10. Through the action of clamps 28 the net cannot move with tube 16 and is therefore drawn off the tube so that it collapses onto the meat product held stationary, as the tube moves, by the piston. The portion of the leading end of the sleeve which now contains the meat product is cut off near to the castellated end 23 of the spreader means, the piston is withdrawn into cylinder 20, the bound meat product is removed and the whole procedure is repeated By contrast to known methods for the encapsulation of meat products with elasticated netting the cut-off length of the sleeve which encapsulates a product is in a relatively relaxed condition, not subject to substantial

tension, and so it has less tendency to spring back when cut and presents a more neatly packaged item. This is because the cut-off length has previously been selected by the reciprocable gripping means and the encapsulation does not entail dragging along a tube a substantial length of tightly gripping netting.

Claims

CLAIMS: 1. A method for the encapsulation of a meat product with elasticated netting, the method comprising displacing a predetermined length of a sleeve of said netting along the exterior of a tube by net-gripping means reciprocable relative to the tube along the axis thereof and relatively moving a meat product out of an end of the tube to be surrounded by said predetermined length whereby the product is encapsulated by said predetermined length of the sleeve without applying substantial tension to the sleeve.
2. Apparatus for carrying out the method claimed in claim 1, comprising a tube, means for relatively displacing a meat product out of one end of the tube and net-gripping means reciprocable relative to the tube along the axis thereof to position a predetermined length of a sleeve of elasticated netting surrounding the tube where it may be caused to encapsulate said meat product without applying substantial tension to the sleeve.
3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said net-gripping means comprises an annular array of fingers each spring loaded to an operative position in which it will make contact with the exterior of the tube and gas or fluid operated ram means arranged to reciprocate said array along the tube.
4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 and comprising a control ring arranged to abut the fingers and to displace the same against their spring bias to an inoperative position.
5. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 2-4, wherein said means for displacing a meat product comprises a piston actuable to displace a meat product along the tube.
6. A method for the encapsulation of a meat product with elasticated netting as claimed in claim 1 substantially as hereinbefore described.

6. A method for the encapsulation of a meat product with elasticated netting as claimed in claim 1 substantially as hereinbefore described.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 for use in carrying out the method claimed in claim 1 or claim 6 substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying Drawing.

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Amendments to the claims have been filed as follows 1. A method for the encapsulation of a meat product with elasticated netting, the method comprising displacing a predetermined length of a sleeve of said netting along the exterior of a tube by net-gripping means reciprocable relative to the tube along the axis thereof, introducing a meat product into the tube and relatively moving the meat product out of an end of the tube to be surrounded by said predetermined length whereby the product is encapsulated by said predetermined length of the sleeve.

2. Apparatus for carrying out the method claimed in claim 1, comprising a tube, means for relatively displacing a meat product and the tube whereby the product emerges from one end of the tube and net-gripping means reciprocable relative to the tube along the axis thereof to position a predetermined length of a sleeve of elasticated netting surrounding the tube where it may be caused to encapsulate the emerging meat product.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said net-gripping means comprises an annular array of fingers each spring loaded to an operative position in which it will make contact with the exterior of the tube and gas or fluid operated ram means arranged to reciprocate said array along the tube.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 and comprising a control ring arranged to abut the fingers and to displace the same against their spring bias to an inoperative position.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 2-4, wherein said means for displacing a meat product comprises a piston actuable to displace a meat product along the tube.