GB909778A - Improvements in meat-stuffing machines - Google Patents

Abstract

909,778. Meat shaping &C. UNITED GAS INDUSTRIES Ltd. Nov. 6, 1958 [Aug. 6, 1957 ; Oct. 2, 1958], Nos. 24768/57 and 31474/58. Class 28 (2). [Also in Group XVII] Boneless meat is pressed to shape in a trough 3 by a cover 8, carried by arms 11, which is forced down on it by air pressure, one end of the trough being closed by an end pressing plunger 21 and the other end by a closure plate 24 carrying a nozzle 26. The trough 3 is mounted on a table 2 to receive or be exchanged for troughs of different size, the cover 8 also being exchangeable to fit the trough in use. After pressing, the plate 24 is slid aside to allow the meat to be forced through the nozzle and into a casing of fibrous or plastic material mounted thereon. The meat then drops on to a platform 52, Fig. 7, and is passed to a closure device where the free end of the plastic cover is gathered together and clipped by a U-shaped clip in dies 60, Fig. 9, where the lower die 58 is forced up by a lever 68 to close the dies 60 around the clip. The clips are supplied from a magazine 77. The casing is gripped for sealing between jaws 90, 91, Fig. 12, closed by a hand lever 95 and operation of an air cylinder 87 moves the gripping device away from the dies and tightens the casing around the meat. The casing is first open ended and is slid over a sleeve 27, Fig. 1, on the nozzle and is later sealed as above by a clip at each end, the meat being reversed for the second clip. If the meat is to be boiled or steamed it is forced from an appropriately shaped trough and cover-plate into an open-ended rectangular tubular metal case (Figs. 15 and 16, not shown), the ends being covered by plates while being cooked and one end being compressed inwards by a spring to take up shrinkage. When the meat is to be smoked it is inserted in an openwork cage. The meat mass may be inserted in flexible casings before insertion in the metal cases or cages.