NZ205482A - Suspension loop for meat injection moulded then stretched to final length - Google Patents

Description

205482 Priority Date(s): Complete Specifics tion Filed: aass: A vs. JCQ; .. 3G£fT3 JGQ; .^£i5£7?.yQ l't"JLfWY986 Publication Date: ............

P.O. Journal, No: . .1^%?^.' Patents Form No. 5 NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION "TRANSPORTLOOP FOR THE TRANSPORT OF MEAT PIECES SUSPENDED FROM HOOKS" -I,WE TECHNOPLAST B.V. of 4a, VLOTLAAN, 2680 AA Monster, The Netherlands, a Dutch company, hereby declare the invention, for which-J-/we pray that a patent may be granted to-me/us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement * (followed by pap« T - 1A - 205482 TRANSPORT LOOP FOR THE TRANSPORT OF MEAT PIECES SUSPENDED FROM HOOKS The invention relates to a transport loop for the transport of meat pieces suspended from hooks, comprising a loop which can be passed through a hole being preformed in the meat, and having an upper loop portion serving for the suspension of a piece of meat and a lower loop portion serving for holding said piece of meat.

Such transport loops are knotted from a string and passed through the meat, whereafter the upper end of the loop is passed through the lower end, and then the free end of the loop with the piece of meat is suspended. The string is knotted by means of a machine. However, because the machine has to pass also the loopstring through the meat, serious operating failures are caused very frequently owing to the clogging of the machine. The removal of these failures takes much time and because of the expenses involved one does not readily wish to install a second reserve machine.

It would appear that the knotting and later on the passing through of the slack loop are causing the above-mentioned problems. Consequently, it appears appropriate to improve the construction of the loop.

According to the invention there is provided a method for manufacturing a transport loop body for the transport of meat pieces to be suspended from hooks by said loop bp.dyT which is a unitary body of plastics material comprising / a loop portion proper and a holding portion protrud i sideways from and substantially perpendicular to the- 205482 longitudinal axis of the loop portion, characterized in that the transport loop is made in one piece of polypropylene material by an injection-moulding process, in which on manufacturing the length of the loop portion is chosen substantially 1/4 - 1/6 times the ultimately contemplated length of the loop portion, and that after said moulding process by means of a stretching process the loop portion is stretched with a stretch ratio of substantially 4:1 - 6:1 till the ultimate length is reached.

Preferably a flat holding plate supported by stiffening ribs is formed integrally with said loop as the holding portion .

During the transport rather high tensile strain occurs in the transport loop when, e.g. the meat is caught by the holding portion and, consequently, the additional stress of the impact will also have to be compensated for by tensile strain. Therefore, preferably the total sum of the cross-section surfaces of the loop lying above the holding portion is less than the greatest dimension of the holding portion.

For practical reasons it has further been shown that, contrary to known transport loops, the transport loop of the invention is able to be used in a multiple way.

This is possible because the transport loop of the invention is made in one piece from smooth plastics material without having knots.

When the transport loop according to the present invention is intended to carry pieces of meat having a relatively heavy weight, the cross-section of the loop ■t? 205482 should be adapted to such a weight by making use of substantially more material from which the transport loop is formed. As polypropylene is used which is a relatively expensive material, the use of more material 5 would mean that the transport loop would become rather expensive. Moreover, on using more material greater dimensions of the injection moulds would be required which entails also greater expenses.

To avoid said disadvantages and to obtain relatively 10 cheap transport loops suited to carry heavy meat pieces, the present invention provides for a method in which the transport loop is made in one piece of polypropylene material by an injection moulding process, in which on manufacturing the length of the loop portion is chosen 15 substantially 1/4 - 1/6 times the ultimately contemplated length of the loop portion, and in which after said moulding process by means of a stretching process the loop portion is stretched with a stretch ratio of substantially 4:1 to 6:1 until the ultimate length is reached. 20 By this method the advantages are achieved that relatively little material will have to be used, while the required strength of the loop portion is obtained by the stretching process, in which the loop portion is stretched 4-6 times the original length and by that, 25 as a special characteristic of the polypropylene material, the material is strengthened. By using relatively little material the dimensions of the injection moulds can be kept small and, consequently inexpensive. The cross section ■v ■J' of the stretched loop portion is less than the injections ^ if * „ 3 0 moulded portion yet the allowable yield strength has jj if', V ' i'.' Jrj\ Vv % *5482 substantially improved.

Some preferred embodiments of a transport loop according to the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 shows a known transport loop being made by a machine and consisting of a normal string; Fig. 2 is a front view of a transport loop; Fig. 3 is a side view of the transport loop shown in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a front view of a further form of transport loop; Fig. 5 is a side view of the transport loop shown in Fig. 4; Fig. 6 shows a lead-through tool for leading or passing the transport loop through the meat; and Fig. 7 is a view of a transport loop made in accordance with the method of the invention.

The known transport loop 1, shown in Fig. 1, comprises a knot 2, which has been made before by means of a machine. That machine is working with a needle which threads the loop through the meat and thereafter is retracted again (not shown). After both ends of the loop have been passed through each other, as shown in Fig. 1, the piece of meat 3 can be held thereon.

Fig. 2 and 3 show a further transport loop 4, the upper end 5 which has the same function as the usual normal loop. However, in this form this end 5 is extended downwards a bar-shaped portion 6. $48& The cross-section 7 of the upper portion is oval, the bar- cross-section 8 of the/shaped portion 6 is round, and the tensile forces being generated therein are taken up by the cross-section of the transport loop.

Further downwards via a rounding 9 the bar-shaped portion 6 passes into a flat plate 10 which is at right angles to the bar-shaped portion 6 and has a shape that is shown in a bottom view in Fig. 2. The plate 10 has % an oval form and is provided with a stiffening rib 11 which extends substantially along the length of the plate 10. That stiffening rib 11 provides the plate 10 with the desired strengthat the lower end of the transport loop such that the meat cannot be stripped off from the bar-shaped portion. It should be arranged that, obviously, the hole being preformed in the meat shall not be greater than the cross-section of the bar-shaped portion 6. It is preferred that the height of the bar-shaped portion 6 be substantially equal to the length of the plate 10 and that the stiffness of the holding portion 10 with respect to the loop 4 is maintained. Due to the length of the transport loop it will be rather easy to pass the upper portion of the loop together with a tool, e.g. a kind of piercer, see Fig.6, through the meat.

In Fig. 4 and 5 a further form of a transport loop 12 is shown. With respect to the first form of the transport loop 4, as described above, the only difference is that the bar-shaped portion 13 is much longer than the length of the corresponding part 6. At times it can be advantageous to make the upper loop portion 14 smaller e.g. to provide for V 205482 more friction with respect to the suspension hook, in combination with a rather stiff bar-shaped portion 13 which can be easily handled. In this form shown in Fig. 4 and 5, additional stiffening ribs 15 and 16 are provided on the holding portion 17. This holding portion has a substantially rectangular shape. Care will have to be paid also to ensure that the tensile forces occuring during the transport can be taken up by the loop portion.

Fig. 6 shows, by way of example, a hand tool for leading or passing the transport loop through a hole pre being/formed in the meat. The front side of that tool, e.g. a piercer 18, is provided with a sharp nose part 19 and further backwards with a hook 20. The loop portion 15 of the transport loop is hooked in that hook 20 and there after is passed through the meat. Then the piercer will be drawn back and thereafter the piece of meat is ready to be suspended from a hook provided in a transport vehicle. The piercer can also be made as a part of a machine such that 20 the transport loops can be hooked automatically. However, the invention is restricted to the novel method of manufacturing the transport loop as described hereinafter.

When the transport loop according to the invention is intended to carry heavy meat pieces, the cross-section 25 of the lbop portion should be adapted to such heavy weights by making use of more material. Where polypropylene is chosen which is a relatively expensive material, the use of more material would mean that the transport loop wouM^ become rather expensive. To obtain relatively cheap \Y^ TfQn transport loops suited to carry heavy meat pieces a methoo^^-^ 205482 for manufacturing is provided, in which the transport loop is made in one piece of polypropylene material by an injection-moulding process. On manufacturing, the length of the loop portion is chosen substantially 1/4-1/6 times the ultimately contemplated length of the loop portion, and after said moulding process the loop portion is stretched by means of a stretching process with a stretch ratio of substantially 4:1 - 6:1 till the ultimate length is reached.

The transport loop obtained by this method is shown in Fig. 7 and comprises a loop portion 21 and a flat holding plate 22 which is supported by stiffening ribs 23, 24. The transport loop is made in one piece of polypropylene material. By means of the injection-moulding process a transport loop is made having a relatively short loop portion B. After said process the loop portion is stretched with a stretch ratio of substantially 4:1 - 6:1 till ultimately a strong loop portion A is achieved.

Thus a relatively small amount of material will have to be used to obtain a transport loop having a loop portion with sufficient length and required strength so as to be able to carry relatively heavy pieces of meat. Moreover, by using only a small amount of material the expense of the injection moulds can be reduced.

V" 20S48Z

Claims (4)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A method for manufacturing a transport loop body 10 15 for the transport of meat pieces to be suspended from hooks by said loop body, which is a unitary body of plastics material comprising a loop portion proper and a holding portion protruding sideways from and.substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the loop portion, characterized in that the transport loop is made in one piece of polypropylene material by an injection-moulding process, in which on manufacturing the length of the loop portion is chosen substantially 1/4 - 1/6 times the ultimately contemplated length of the loop portion, and that after said moulding process by means of a stretching process the loop portion is stretched with a stretch ratio of substantially 4:1 - 6:1 till the ultimate length is reached.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 in which a flat holding plate supported by stiffening ribs is formed integrally with said loop as the holding portion.'

3 . A method for manufacturing a transport loop substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 7 of the accompanying drawings.

4. A transport loop made according to the method as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3.