Claims
- 1. A method of terminating a casing stuffing operation prior to the exhaustion of a casing supply, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a casing article including a hollow substantially rigid, tubular core and a shirred strand of casing on said core, said strand having a fore end from which casing is first to deshirr and a rear portion which contains the trailing end of said strand and which is last to deshirr, said casing and core being in sufficient contact over the length of said strand to provide a resistance to relative forward movement between said strand and core responsive to the deshirring of casing from said strand, the magnitude of said resistance decreasing as casing is deshirred and the length of said strand decreases;
- (b) mounting said casing article to a stuffing apparatus such that the product being stuffed will pass through said hollow tubular core;
- (c) stuffing the product through said tubular core and into casing which deshirrs from the fore end of said strand and continuing said stuffing until the supply of casing contained in said strand is deshirred and exhausted back to said rear portion;
- (d) during said stuffing step (c), restraining said rear portion and the trailing end of said strand against forward movement along said core by engaging said rear portion against a projection provided on the outer peripheral surface of said tubular core;
- (e) continuing said stuffing by deshirring casing from said rear portion adjacent said projection and allowing the deshirring of casing to pull the remaining rear portion of shirred casing towards, but not beyond, said projection;
- (f) detecting the longitudinal movement of said trailing end as the rear portion is pulled towards said projection; and
- (g) initiating the termination of said stuffing step responsive to the longitudinal movement of said trailing end.
- 2. A method as in claim 1 including the step of spinning said casing article about its longitudinal axis during said stuffing step.
- 3. A method as in claim 1 wherein said detecting step is accomplished after said trailing end moves longitudinally along said core to a predetermined position which is no farther than the location of said projection.
- 4. A method as in claim 1 wherein said detecting step is accomplished by placing a sensor in position to track longitudinal movement of the trailing end of said strand, said sensor issuing a signal responsive to either the complete deshirring of said rear portion, including said trailing end, or the movement of said trailing end to a predetermined position along said core.
- 5. A method as in claim 1 wherein said mounting step is accomplished by placing said core over a stuffing horn of the stuffing apparatus.
- 6. A method as in claim 1 wherein said mounting step is accomplished by attaching an end of said tubular core to a discharge of the stuffing apparatus and utilizing said core as the stuffing horn of the apparatus.
Parent Case Info
This application is a division of prior U.S. application Ser. No. 481,034, filed Mar. 31, 1983, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,379 issued Aug. 19, 1986.
US Referenced Citations (11)
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
481034 |
Mar 1983 |
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