Claims
- 1. A casing hopper for sausage encasing machines, which can be adjusted for different sized casings with a single control.
- 2. A casing hopper for sausage encasing machines, comprising,
a hopper having a downwardly sloping bottom terminating in a downwardly extending fence wall, a chute wall substantially vertically disposed and being in lateral spaced relation to the fence wall to form a substantially vertical passageway, the chute wall terminating in an inclined flange that extends upwardly and inwardly below the passageway to form a cradle portion to receive only a single hollow casing, the passageway being only of sufficient width to receive a plurality of vertically stacked elongated hollow casings, the flange terminating in an inward elongated edge spaced from a lower end of the fence wall to permit only the single casing in the cradle to be moved relative to the hopper laterally outwardly from the flange beneath the fence wall, when it is on the stuffing tube and the hopper moves away from the stuffing tube position, and wherein the chute wall and the fence wall can be adjusted for different sized casings.
- 3 The machine according to claim 2 wherein the chute wall and the fence wall can be adjusted by a single control for different sized casings.
- 4 The machine according to claim 3 wherein the chute wall and the fence wall are adjusted for different sized casings by linkages to a single lever.
- 5 The machine according to claim 4 wherein the lever can be locked in position when set to run a particular sized casing.
- 6 The machine according to claim 4 wherein the position of the lever can be calibrated for individual casing sizes.
- 7 A method for loading elongated hollow casings onto the outer surface of an elongated hollow sausage stuffing tube, comprising,
providing a hopper which can be adjusted for different sized casings by a single control.
- 8. A method for loading elongated hollow casings on the outer surface of an elongated hollow sausage stuffing tube, comprising,
providing a hopper having a downwardly sloping bottom terminating in a downwardly extending fence wall, providing a chute wall substantially vertically disposed and being in lateral spaced relation to the fence wall to form a substantially vertical passageway, the chute wall terminating in an inclined flange that extends upwardly and inwardly below the passageway to form a cradle portion to receive only a single hollow casing, the passageway being only of sufficient width to receive a plurality of longitudinally vertically stacked elongated hollow casings, the flange terminating in an inward elongated edge spaced from a lower end of the fence wall to permit only the single casing in the cradle to be moved laterally outwardly relative to the hopper from the flange beneath the fence wall, when it is on the stuffing tube and the hopper moves away from the stuffing tube position, placing a plurality of casings in the hopper to create a vertical column in the passageway upwardly from the cradle, moving the cradle into a position of longitudinal alignment with the discharge end of a sausage stuffing tube, moving the stuffing tube longitudinally to penetrate the casing in the cradle, moving the cradle away from the stuffing tube to allow another casing in the passageway to fall into the cradle, extruding meat emulsion from the tube into the casing that is on the stuffing tube, and providing a means of adjusting the hopper for different sized casings with a single control.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/225,389 filed Aug. 21, 2002.
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10225389 |
Aug 2002 |
US |
Child |
10443245 |
May 2003 |
US |