MXPA00002324A - Conveyor for supporting sausage strands during coagulation cycle, and method of rinsing and drying the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A conveyor assembly (34) for moving an extruded strand of sausage (26) from an extruding machine (10) and for coagulating the outer surface (28) of the strand has first and second conveyor elements mounted on a frame (36). The conveyor assembly (34) on the frame (36) slopes downwardly from a point of beginning to a first discharge station (40) and hence back to the point of beginning. A brine fluid circuit (74) is disposed on the frame (36) above the conveyor with a plurality of discharge nozzles (82) thereon to spray brine on a strand of sausage (26) moving with the conveyor assembly (34). The first conveyor element (48) extends from the point of beginning to an intermediate discharge station (35) upstream from the first discharge station (40). The second conveyor element (49) extends from the immediate discharge station (35) to the first discharge station. The second conveyor element (49) has a plurality of openings therein so that brine fluid can pass therethrough by gravity.

Description

CONVEYOR ARA SUSTAINING SAUSAGE SIDES DURING? L COAGULATION CYCLE AND RINSING AND DRYING METHOD D? THE SAME DESCRIPTION D? THE INVENTION In recent times it has been known to coextrusion a sausage material string having an internal meat emulsion core having an outer surface material which can be coagulated to provide a coating for the string. Coagulation usually includes subjecting the extruded string to a brine solution. The brine is applied immediately after the string is removed. The brine is sometimes sprayed onto the sausage string as the string moves through an elongated conveyor that is comprised of a plurality of pivotally interconnected links that have a support surface that can retain part of the sprayed brine to treat the string of sausage. A disadvantage of this process is that there is no way to easily remove the residual brine on the sausage string after the brine treatment has ended. Conveyors are well known in the art for moving a sausage string to coagulate a sausage string such as described in US-A 3500743 of Cameron. Cameron does not involve the use of brine for coagulation. It is therefore a main object of this invention to provide a conveyor for coagulating the outer surface of the sausage string discharged from a sausage extruder where the sausage string will be rinsed with potable water after it leaves the conveyor for a second conveyor that will not retain any residual fluid. This and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art. The sausage string is extruded on a belt or conveyor and transported through a brine bath system for approximately 40 seconds. The brine is sprayed through nozzles on the sausage as it moves on the belt. The conveyor is comprised of a plurality of links having a flat support surface interrupted by a plurality of spaced projections whose channels therebetween allow the brine to fill the channels and engage the bottom surface of the sausage string held on the projections. The band is a Multi-Flex chain made of plastic Acetal The links are secured with stainless steel pins. Twenty-four meters of band traveling on four rows provide the brine bath residence time required. The improvement of this invention is the provision of a second conveyor for receiving the sausage treated with brine, wherein the saucer is sprayed with potable water as it moves on the second conveyor, and the second conveyor is of an open construction to allow drainage of all the fluid on the string to rinse and dry it. BRIEF DESCRIPTION D? THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a plan view of the sausage extruder unit and the associated conveyor; Figure 2 is a side elevation view thereof as viewed from the bottom of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a schematic view of the conveyor unit; Figure 4 is - an enlarged perspective view of the conveyor belt; Figure 5 is an enlarged scale sectional view taken on line 5-5 of Figure 1; Figure 6 is an enlarged scale plan view of a conveyor link; Figure 7 is a sectional view on line 7-7 of Figure 6; Figure 8 is an enlarged partial plan view taken on line 8-8 of Figure 9; and Figure 9 is a partial enlarged side elevational view taken on line 9-9 of Figure 8.

The term "sausage" as used herein refers to any type of emulsified meat product that is formed in form of sausage or frankfurter sausage links or similar. The number 10 designates an existing co-extruder machine suitable for the conveyor of this invention. The number 12 is a meat emulsion hopper that uses a meat pumping machine 14 to pump emulsified meat. A collagen gel pump 16 has a hopper 18 for receiving the collagen gel. It is connected via conduit 19 to in-line mixer 20. A tube 22 connects in-line mixer 20 to co-extruder 24 which is capable of extruding a cylindrical meat emulsion string with a collagen gel material on the outer surface of the same The co-extruder 24 is connected by the tube 25 to the meat pump 14. The conventional coextruded sausage string 26 (Figures 3, 4) has a core of meat material emulsified with the collagen gel comprising the outer surface 28 thereof. The liquid smoke coming from the liquid smoke nozzle 30 is used as a coagulation material to coagulate the outer surface 28 of the sausage string 26. The liquid smoke nozzle 30 can be connected in any conventional manner such as by the line 32 to the in-line mixer 20 (Figure 1). A conveyor system 34 is mounted on the structure 36 and has a starting point 38 adjacent to the exit end of the co-extruder 24 and a discharge station 40 which is located outwardly and downwardly from the starting point 38. Three sprockets 42 they are rotatably mounted on the structure 36 and are adapted to rotate about a horizontal axis. As best shown in Figure 2, two of the sprockets 42 are positioned vertically with respect to each other below the starting point 38, and the third sprocket 42 is located at the outer end of a conveyor system 34 adjacent to the intermediate discharge station 35. Two vertical arrows 44 are mounted on opposite ends of the structure 36. Each arrow has five rotatable gears 46 thereon which are adapted to rotate about the arrows 44 about the vertical axis of the arrows. Each set of five sprockets 46 are located in the same parallel plane as each of the sprockets in the opposite vertical arrow 44. One of the arrows 44 can be driven by the motor 44A (Figures 1 and 2). An endless band 48 is mounted in the form of a circuit on the sprockets 42 and 46. A second conveyor 49 (Figures 8.9) is rotatably mounted on the sprockets 49A and 49B (Figure 2). The gearwheels 49A are adjacent to and below the sprocket 42 at the intermediate discharge station 35. The conveyor 49 (FIG. 8) is comprised of a plurality of corrugated parallel wires 49C interconnected by pivot bars 49D. It is noted that the conveyor system 34 includes conveyors 48 and 49. In the intermediate discharge station 35, a ramp plate 35A (Figure 9) is secured to the machine 10 and extends over the conveyor 48 and the gear 42; and therefore it extends slightly downwards towards the upper part of the conveyor 49. A water nozzle 35B is mounted on the ramp plate 35A and is connected to a source of drinking water (not shown) by the tube 35C for spraying potable water on the string 26. An infrared heater 50 is mounted on the structure 36 adjacent to the discharge station 40. A driving arrow 51 for the conveyor 49 is located adjacent to the discharge station 40 as best shown in Figures 1 and 2. The conveyor 48 (Figure 5) is positioned between a plurality of elongated L-shaped guides 54 which are secured to the structure 36. The elongated rails 56 mounted on bearing 58 are provided with They extend longitudinally through the guides. With reference to Figure 4, the conveyor 48 is comprised of a plurality of conveyor segments or links 60 each having a circular male member 62 at one end thereof with a laterally extending connecting groove 64. A female semicircular groove 66 appears at the edge of the segment 60 opposite the circular male member 62. The laterally extending openings 68 extend through the semi-circular female slot 66. The laterally extending pins 70 extend through the opening. 68 and thence through the slot 64 to interconnect the band segments 60. The openings 68 allow the segment 60 to pivot about the longitudinal axes of the openings 68 and the slot 64 allows the segments 60 to have limited pivoted movement about of an axis vertical that passes through the slots 64 so that the conveyor 48 can reverse its direction of travel around the sprockets 46. The central portion of each segment 60 is comprised of a flat support surface 72 that is in the same plane that the upper surfaces of the circular core member 62 and the segment body surrounding the female grooves 66. The support surface 72 has a plurality of projections 72A that are preferably aligned in rows to create channels 72B therebetween. Projections 72 are approximately 0.063 square inches and 0.045 inches high, thus making the 72B channels 0.063 inches wide and 0.045 inches deep. A string 26 of an inch in diameter will usually have its lower surface 28A that touches 4-6 members 72A and will expand from 4-6 channels 72B. When the channels 72B are filled with brine, the brine 72C in the channels couples the lower surface 26A of the sausage string 26. With reference to Figure 2, a brine circuit system 74 includes a brine pump 76. A plurality of various control valves 78 are placed in the brine circuit 74 to selectively control the flow of brine through the system. A fluid line 80 extends from the pump 76 and includes a plurality of separate nozzles 82 which, as discussed above are located in a plurality of locations on the structure 36 directly above the conveyor 48 (see Figure 5) to supply a fluid brine spray on the sausage string 26. The brine circuit 74 includes a brine tank 84 that is connected to a brine collection tray 86 located under several rows of the conveyor 48 and below the conveyor 45. In the operation , the meat emulsion hopper 12 is loaded with a supply of meat emulsion and the collagen hopper 18 is loaded with an amount of collagen gel. Similarly, the liquid smoke jet 30 is charged with liquid smoke so that the liquid smoke is combined with the collagen gel inside the inlet mixer 20. The mixture of liquid smoke and collagen gel is transmitted through the tube 22 towards the co-extruder 24 which conventionally discharges the sausage string 26 with the central core of the meat emulsion and an external surface 28 comprised of the collagen gel and the liquid smoke. The liquid smoke is adapted to coagulate the collagen gel in the presence of air and a brine solution. The sausage string 26 is discharged from the extruder 24 onto the starting point of the conveyor 34. The sausage string advances along the moving conveyor 48 of the conveyor 34 and moves under a plurality of nozzles 82 that spray an amount of brine on the sausage string in motion. The brine filling channels 72B help the brine to couple the lower surface 26A of the string. A controller (not shown) coordinates the speed of the discharge rate of the sausage string 26 with the longitudinal movement of the conveyors 48 and 49 as determined by the motor 44A and the conveyor driver 51 so that the elongated string will not be extended during his movement.

The infrared heater 50 emits heat to stimulate coagulation of the outer surface 28 as the sausage string moves therethrough on the conveyor 48. Excess brine from the nozzles 82 flows downwardly into the collection tray. brine 86 and from there into the brine tank 84 where the excess brine is recirculated through the system. The controller (not shown) is also adapted to cause the sausage string 26 to move from the starting point 38 to the intermediate discharge station 35 in about 40 seconds to allow sufficient time in brine to coagulate the outer surface 28 of the sausage string 26. When the sausage string reaches the unloading station 40, the outer surface 28 is sufficiently coagulated to provide resistance to the sausage string where it is discharged into any suitable collection receptacle. The sausage string can also be formed in a plurality of lengths in that location by conventional structure. When the string 26 reaches the discharge station 35, it is very wet from the brine solution. It moves on the ramp plate 35A (Figure 9) and below the potable water nozzle 35B and from there on the open wire conveyor 49. The residual brine on the string is washed by the drinking water and all the water in the The same flows by gravity from the string down through the openings between the corrugations in the corrugated wire 49C in the conveyor 49 to deposit in the tray 86. It is thus seen that the conveyor system of this invention achieved at least its main objectives .

Claims (14)

1. CLAIMS 1. A conveyor for moving an extruded string of sausage from an extruder, and for coagulating the outer surface of the sausage string, having a structure, a conveyor assembly on the structure extending from a starting point to a first discharge station and towards the starting point characterized in that it comprises a brine fluid circuit placed on the structure and on the conveyor with a plurality of discharge nozzles thereon for sprinkling brine on a sausage string that moves with the conveyor assembly, the conveyor assembly which is comprised of first and second conveyor elements, the first conveyor element extending from the starting point to an intermediate discharge station upstream from the first discharge station and which is capable of retaining the fluid of brine, the second conveyor element that extends from the station intermediate discharge towards the first discharge station for transporting a sausage string that leaves the first conveyor element towards the first discharge station, the second conveyor element having a plurality of openings therein so that the brine fluid can pass through through them by gravity. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the first conveyor element has a construction for retaining the brine fluid therein to process a sausage string therein. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that a ramp is secured to the structure to cover the first conveyor element in the intermediate discharge station to facilitate the movement of a sausage string from the first conveyor element to the second element transporter. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that a water nozzle is mounted on the intermediate discharge station so that the potable water can be sprayed on the discharge station intended for rinsing a string of sausage which passes through of the intermediate discharge station. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the first and second conveyor elements have closely spaced ends at the intermediate discharge station in order for the second conveyor element which is lower than the end of the first conveyor element. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the second conveyor element is of a woven wire construction having a plurality of openings therein. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the first and second conveyor elements are of continuous construction. 8. A method of coagulating an extruded string of sausage from an extruder machine, characterized in that it comprises the movement of a sausage string on a first conveyor capable of retaining the brine fluid to coagulate the surface of the string, transferring the string from the first conveyor to the second conveyor that is not able to retain the fluid to allow any brine fluid on the string to drain from the string by gravity. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that the drinking water is sprayed onto the string as it moves from the first conveyor to the second conveyor. 10. The method of compliance with the claim 8, characterized in that it comprises the additional step of draining the fluid from the string while it is on the second conveyor through openings in the second conveyor. 11. A process for coagulating the outer surface of a coextruded food product characterized in that it comprises; coextruding a string of food material to create a substantially uniform layer of collagen-containing gel around an internal string of food material, subjecting the string with a coagulation solution to coagulate the layer on the string and remove any residue from the coagulation solution from the string after coagulation. 12. The process according to claim 1, characterized in that the residue of the coagulation solution is removed by rinsing the string with a fluid. A machine for making a sausage string with a coagulated outer surface comprising means for coextruding a sausage string having an external surface, means for coagulating the outer surface by applying a brine bath; and means for removing any residual brine material on the string after the coagulation has been completed. The compliance machine of claim 10, characterized in that the means for removing the residual brine material are means for rinsing the string with a fluid.