CYLINDRICAL COLLAGEN CASING

The invention relates to cylindrical collagen casings for foodstuff, such as sausages or fish products, that are edible so that it is unnecessary to remove the casing before the foodstuff is eaten and at the same time have increased resistance to tearing without the need of using additional nets. The invention also relates to methods and devices for manufacturing such collagen casings, including special heads for such devices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Publication of patent application US 2008/0217820 discloses a tubular tissue scaffold which comprises a tube having a wall, wherein the wall includes biopolymer fibrils that are aligned in a helical pattern around the longitudinal axis of the tube where the pitch of the helical pattern changes with the radial position in the tube wall. The scaffold is capable of directing the morphological pattern of attached and growing cells to form a helical pattern around the tube walls. Additionally, an apparatus for producing such a tubular tissue scaffold is disclosed, the apparatus comprising a biopolymer gel dispersion feed pump that is operably connected to a tube-forming device having an exit port, where the tube-forming device is capable of producing a tube from the gel dispersion while providing an angular shear force across the wall of the tube, and a liquid bath located to receive the tubular tissue scaffold from the tube-forming device. A method for producing the tubular tissue scaffolds is also disclosed. Also, artificial tissue comprising living cells attached to a tubular tissue scaffold as described herein is disclosed. Methods for using the artificial tissue are also disclosed.

Other exemplary biopolymer casings with a number of layers of substantially parallel aligned fibrils are disclosed in the patent publications WO 98/21973 and CN 200962804.

It has been an object of the present invention to provide a cylindrical collagen casing having improved strength and gas permeability parameters. Additionally it has been . . an object of the invention to provide a method of producing such an improved casing as well as devices for realizing such a method.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the invention it has been provided an extruding head of an extruder apparatus for producing cylindrical collagen casings having an axially internal side for delivering collagen gel mixture for extrusion and an axially external side for receiving extruded layers of collagen fibrils comprising:

- a housing member provided with a cylindrical opening,

- a cylindrical member arranged concentrically inside the cylindrical opening of said housing member,

- at least two sleeve members disposed concentrically inside an annular channel between the circumferential surface of the cylindrical opening of said housing member and the circumferential surface of said cylindrical element, which are rotatable inside this channel, wherein the circumferential surface of a sleeve member and the circumferential surface of an element neighbouring this member define annular gap that connects the axially internal side with the axially external side of said housing member.

According to the invention said sleeve members are provided with annular projections tapered in an axial direction and the outlets of said annular gaps between each pair of neighbouring sleeve members are located at the ends of the corresponding annular projections.

Preferably the extruding head according to the invention additionally comprises a radially internal adapter provided with radially external annular surface which substantially matches the radially internal annular surface of the annular projection of the radially innermost sleeve member and/or additionally comprises a radially external adapter provided with radially internal annular surface which substantially matches the radially external annular surface of the annular projection of the radially outermost sleeve member.

Preferably directions of rotations of neighbouring sleeve members are opposite to each other. . _

Preferably a radial width of the annular gaps is smaller than 1 mm, and more preferably is within a range from 340 to 625 pm.

An extruding head according to the present invention enables for producing casings of very diverse thicknesses of a casing wall. It further enables for producing casings having high mechanical strength and at the same time relatively small wall thickness. It also enables to predefine the gas permeability of the extruded casing within a wide range of values.

The invention also provides an extruder apparatus for producing cylindrical collagen casings, comprising an extruding head, at least one engine, and at least one pump for delivering collagen gel mixture to the extruding head, wherein the extruding head has a construction as defined above, said at least one engine drives the sleeve members of the extruding head and said at least one pump delivers collagen gel mixture to said at least one annular gap.

Further the invention provides a cylindrical collagen casing formed by axial extrusion of collagen gel mixture through at least one annular gap, where at least one circumferential surface defining the gap rotates during the extrusion process, having a form of a matrix of biopolymer fibrils submerged in a filler, comprising at least one laminated gap layer extruded from said at least one annular gap, wherein each of said gap layers comprises at least two sublayers of fibrils aligned helically around the longitudinal axis of the casing and substantially in parallel to each other, and directions of fibrils alignments of said at least two sublayers of said at least one gap layer are different.

The term "gap layer" as used herein refers to a layer extruded through an annular gap of an extrusion head, while the term "sublayer" refers to a layer of fibrils disposed over substantially the same radius from the longitudinal axis of the casing and usually in the same winding direction.

Spiral direction of fibrils alignment in casings according to the present invention, and especially differentiation of spiral directions of fibrils alignments in separate layers/sublayers, reduce mechanical stresses on a surface of a casing during its drying, and thus ensure elimination of defects and/or disturbances which might have resulted in forming roughness on internal/external surface of a casing. - -

Moreover, opposite directions of spiral fibrils alignments in particular sublayers of the casing according to the present invention form a pseudo-intersecting spatial structure which features substantially the same tear strength in axial and radial directions.

Preferably at least one of said gap layers comprises additional sublayer of fibrils of substantially undetermined cross-alignment, located between said two sublayers of this gap layer and both circumferential surfaces defining the extrusion gap for this gap layer rotate in the opposite directions during the extrusion process.

Finally the invention provides a method of producing a cylindrical collagen casing comprising the steps of

(a) delivering collagen gel mixture to an axially internal side of a housing member of a head of an extruder apparatus,

(b) extruding collagen gel mixture axially through at least one annular gap connecting axially internal side with axially external side of said housing member, where at least one circumferential surface defining the gap rotates during the extrusion process, to form at least one gap layer, wherein the method further comprises the step (c) of drying said at least one gap layer at the axially external side of said housing member to form at least two sublayers of fibrils aligned helically around the longitudinal axis of the casing and substantially in parallel to each other, wherein pitch directions of fibrils alignments of said at least two sublayers of said at least one gap layer are different.

Said step (b) preferably involves extruding collagen gel mixture through at least two annular gaps and at least one of these gaps is located between two sleeve members provided with annular projections tapered in an axial direction and extending outside the external side of the housing member and the outlets of said annular gaps between each pair of neighbouring sleeve members are located at the ends of corresponding annular projections.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The other features of the invention shall be presented below in exemplary embodiments and in connection with the attached drawings on which:

Fig. 1 schematically illustrates a device for manufacturing cylindrical collagen casings according to the invention; . .

Fig. 2 schematically illustrates a head that may be applied in the device shown in Fig. 1 in cross-section during the process of manufacturing three-layered collagen casing shown here in partial cross-section;

Fig. 3 illustrates the head and three-layered collagen casing of Fig. 2 in a perspective view, wherein the casing is shown separated from the head to increase the clarity of the drawing;

Fig. 4 illustrates particular layers of the three-layered casing in a side view;

Fig. 5 shows an exploded schematic side view of a formed dried-up three-layered casing according to the present invention;

Fig. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the head according to the invention for manufacturing four-layered collagen casing according to the invention; and

Fig. 7 illustrates another embodiment of the head according to the invention with an internal and external cylindrical adapter, and

Fig. 8 illustrates yet another embodiment of the head according to the invention with an internal cylindrical adapter only.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference is now made to Fig. 1 which functionally illustrates an exemplary device 1 for manufacturing cylindrical collagen casings according to the invention and to Figs. 2 and 3 showing detailed views of the head of the extruder apparatus of Fig. . The device 1 comprises an engine 11 , motoreducer 12, blowing engine 13, pumps 14a-c coupled with the tank 15 containing collagen gel mixture. These elements of the device are known from the state of art, e.g. as disclosed in the specification US 4,138,503 which is incorporated within the scope of disclosure of this specification by reference. As shown in Fig. 1 , the device 1 further comprises a head 2a having a housing member 21 having a cylindrical opening defining the longitudinal axis L of the head. Inside the cylindrical opening of the housing member 21 a cylindrical element 22 is disposed having a channel 23. Between the peripheral surface of the cylindrical opening of the housing member 21 and peripheral surface of the cylindrical element 22, two sleeve members 24 and 25 are disposed defining annular gaps 31 , 32 and 33 correspondingly between radially external peripheral surface of the cylindrical element 22 and radially internal peripheral surface of the sleeve member 24, _ _ between radially external peripheral surface of the sleeve member 24 and radially internal peripheral surface of the sleeve member 25, and between radially external peripheral surface of the sleeve member 25 and radially internal peripheral surface of the cylindrical opening of the housing member 21. All these surfaces, i.e. the internal surface of the cylindrical opening in the housing member 21 , the external 34 and internal 37 surfaces of the sleeve member 25, the external 38 and internal 35 surfaces of the sleeve member 24 and the cylindrical element 22 external surface, defining annular gaps 31 , 32 and 33, are polished.

The sleeve members 24, 25 are provided with annular projections 28, 29 which are tapered in an axial direction L. The external surface 34 of the sleeve member 25 converges to the longitudinal axis L wherein the internal surface 35 of the sleeve member 24 diverges out from the axis L. The sleeve members 24, 25 extend outside of the external side of the housing member 21. The outlet of annular gap 32 between the pair of neighbouring sleeve members 24, 25 is located at the ends of the annular projections 28, 29. Circumferential surfaces 37, 38 of said annular projections 28, 29 that face each other and define the annular gap 32 are circumferentially parallel to each other.

Sleeve members 24 and 25 may rotate around the axis L driven by the engine 11 , through the motoreducer 12 and parallel gear boxes 16 and 17, so that directions of their rotations are opposite. Technical details of transmission of rotations between the engine (or engines) 11 to sleeve members 24 and 25 are disclosed in various prior art documents such as WO 98/21973, PL 287902, GB 988875 which are enclosed herein by reference.

The annular gaps 31 , 32 and 33 join axially internal 26 and external 27 sides of the housing 21. At the axially internal side 26 of the housing member 21 a collagen gel mixture is fed from a tank 15 by means of pumps 14a-14c to the annular gaps 31-33, wherein for each gap 31-33 a separate pump 14a-14c is connected what enables for individual regulation of a gel mixture pressure delivered to particular gap. Therefore different gel mixture pressure may be set depending on gap dimensions and a required structure of a casing to be produced. The blowing engine 13 feeds air under a pressure to the channel 23 of the cylindrical element 22. _ _

Description of an operation of the extruding heads of the invention shall be provided with reference to the manufacturing of three-, two- , and one-layered casings.

Example 1

Three-layered casing The head 2a of a construction depicted in Figs. 1-3 with gaps 31 , 32 and 33 having radial width of about 340 pm, was used for extruding a three-layered collagen casing having collagen fibrils of differentiated orientations in relation to the longitudinal axis L in three individual formation regions corresponding to particular gaps.

Collagen gel mixture had the following composition: - collagen, comprising fibrils of a length of from 2.0 to 7.5 mm, in an amount of 10.8 % by wt., glycerine in an amount up to 2.6 % by wt., water in an amount of from 89 to 93 % by wt., oxidized starch in an amount up to 50% by wt. in relation to the weight of collagen, glyoxal in an amount to 0.01 % by wt. in relation to the total weight of collagen and glycerine.

Collagen gel mixture was delivered into the gaps 31 , 32 and 33 at the formation pressures maintained within the ranges: gap 31 3.024 - 9.936 [MPa] gap 32 3.36 - 11.04 [MPa] gap 33 3.5 - 11.5 [MPa]

Pressure value of air delivered to the channel 23 was maintained in a range from 15 to 100 Pa. Sleeve members 24 and 25 rotated in opposite directions with the same angular velocity of the value dependent of the linear velocity of a collagen gel mixture flowing through gaps, according to the following empirical formula:

Ut/Us = A S ² - B S + C _ _ where:

Ut - angular velocity of a sleeve member expressed in degrees per second;

Us - linear velocity of a collage gel mixture in gaps 31 , 32 and 33;

S - radial gap width;

A, B, C - parameters having the following values: A = 4; B = 0.9; C = 1.

By putting into this equation the radial width of 340 pm, the ratio of these velocities amounts 1.1564.

Three-dimensional cylindrical collagen matrix produced in this manner is depicted in Figs. 2-5. Collagen fibrils have lengths of 2.0-7.5 mm and diameter of about 150 nm and are submerged in a water solution of plasticizer which in this embodiment is a water solution of glycerine and oxidized starch. Another suitable plasticizer includes glycerine or other plasticizers known from the prior art.

After drying, the casing ready for use contained: - collagen, comprising fibrils of a length of from 2.0 to 7.5 mm, in an amount up to 83 % by wt., glycerine in an amount up to 20 % by wt., water in an amount up to 15 % by wt., oxidized starch in an amount up to 50% by wt. in relation to the weight of collagen, glyoxal in an amount to 0.01 % by wt. in relation to the total weight of collagen and glycerine.

The matrix of such a casing comprised three main layers 100, 200 and 300 corresponding to the gaps 31 , 32 and 33, which as a whole was divided into seven sublayers: one internal sublayer 101 and one external sublayer 302, having respectively a right- and left-handed fibrils orientation at the angle in a range from 5 to 12,5°; four intermediate sublayers, consisting of two sublayers (102 and 201 ) of right- handed fibrils orientation and two sublayers (203 and 301 ) of left-handed fibrils orientation at the angle in a range from 40 to 50°; and one intermediate sublayer in which collagen fibrils were oriented randomly without any dominating direction.

The diameter and the thickness of the matrix at a point of contact of particular layers directly after extrusion (before drying) obviously depend on the size of the extruding head, wherein diameters of from about 10 to about 30 mm and thicknesses of from about 200 μητι to about 600 μιτι are considered as preferable.

Further details of layers 100, 200 and 300 of the casing are described below.

Layer 100

The first internal cylindrical layer 100 of the casing was formed in a result of a flow of a collagen gel mixture through the annular gap 31 between the circumferential external surface of the cylindrical element 22 and the circumferential internal surface of the sleeve member 24 and corresponding collagen gelation. After leaving the gap 31 the layer 100 radially expanded due to the pressure of air delivered through the channel 23 and due to collagen viscosity causing this layer to adhere to the internal surface 35 of the annular projection 29 of the sleeve member 24.

Since the sleeve member 24 rotated in relation to the static cylindrical element 22 and the collagen gel was delivered from the internal side 26 of the housing member 21 of the head under a pressure directed parallelly to the longitudinal axis L, the layer 100 after leaving the head consisted of two sublayers of right-handed fibrils orientation: sublayer 101 of fibrils oriented at an angle in a range of 5 to 12,5° and - sublayer 102 of fibrils oriented at an angle in a range of 40 to 50°. Layer 200

The second intermediate cylindrical layer 200 of the casing was formed in a result of a flow of a collagen gel mixture through the annular gap 32 between the - - circumferential external surface of the sleeve member 24 and the circumferential internal surface of the sleeve member 25 and corresponding collagen gelation.

Since the sleeve members 24 and 25 rotated in opposite directions and the collagen gel was delivered from the axially internal side 26 of the housing member 21 of the head under a pressure directed parallelly to the longitudinal axis L, the layer 200 after leaving the head consisted of three sublayers: sublayer 201 of right-handed fibrils oriented at an angle in a range of 40 to 50°, sublayer 202 of chaotical fibrils orientation (due to opposite rotations of sleeve members 24 and 25, internal energy of gel particles neighbouring these members were eliminated in the central region of this layer) and sublayer 203 of left-handed fibrils oriented at an angle in a range of 40 to 50°.

Layer 300

The third external cylindrical layer 300 of the casing was formed in a result of a flow of a collagen gel mixture through the annular gap 33 between the circumferential external surface of the sleeve member 25 and surface of the cylindrical opening in the housing member 21. After leaving the gap 33 the layer 300 undergoes a radial contraction due to helical arrangement of collagen fibrils and collagen viscosity which caused the layer to adhere to the external surface 34 of the annular projection 28 of the sleeve member 25. Since the sleeve member 25 rotated in relation to the housing member 21 and the collagen gel was delivered from the axially internal side 26 of the housing member 21 of the head under a pressure directed parallelly to the longitudinal axis L, the layer 300 after leaving the head consisted of two sublayers of left-handed fibrils orientation: - sublayer 301 of fibrils oriented at an angle in a range of 40 to 50° and sublayer 302 of fibrils oriented at an angle in a range of 5 to 12,5°.

Fig. 4 illustrates particular gap layers 100, 200, 300 of a three-layered casing according to Example 1. The internal gap layer 100 shown in Fig. 4a consists of two _ _ sublayers 101 , 102 of parallelly aligned fibrils. The intermediate gap layer 200 shown in Fig. 4b consists of two sublayers 201 , 203 of parallelly aligned fibrils with a sublayer 202 of chaotically cross-aligned fibrils sandwiched in between. The external gap layer 300 shown in Fig. 4c consists of two sublayers 301 , 302 of parallelly aligned fibrils, similarly as layer 100.

Fig. 5 illustrates relationships between directions of fibrils alignments of particular gap layers. Tangent lines crossing the longitudinal axis L of the casing illustrate the angles at which the fibrils are aligned in relation to the longitudinal axis L as listed in the Table below:

Example 2

Two-layered casing

The head 2a of a construction depicted in Figs. 1-3, in which radial widths of the gaps 31 , 32 amounted 500 pm, was used for extrusion of a two-layered collagen casing through the gaps 31 and 32, wherein the gap 33 was blocked.

The composition of a collagen gel mass has been the same as in the Example 1 , wherein the pressures were set as follows: formation pressure [MPa] gap 31 2.88 - 9.6 gap 32 3 - 10 _ .

Similarly as in the Example 1 , pressure of air delivered to channel 23 was maintained in a range from 15 to 100 Pa and the sleeve members 24 and 25 rotated in the opposite directions with the same angular velocity.

Three-dimensional cylindrical matrix of collagen fibrils having length of 2.0-7.5 mm and submerged in a water solution of plasticizer has been formed. The matrix comprised two main layers corresponding to gaps 31 and 32 separated into five sublayers of structures analogical to layers 100 and 200 of three-layered casing described in Example I.

Example 3

One-layered casing

The head 2a of a construction depicted in Figs. 1-3, in which radial width of the gap 32 amounted about 625 μιτι, was used for extrusion of one-layered collagen casing. Gaps 31 and 33 were blocked.

The composition of a collagen gel mass remained the same as in the Example 1 , wherein the gel mixture was delivered at the pressure of 6.0 MPa. Air was delivered to the channel 23 at the pressure of about 60 Pa.

Three-dimensional cylindrical matrix of collagen fibrils having length of 2.0-7.5 mm submerged in water solution of plasticizer has been formed. The matrix comprised one main layer 200 divided into three sublayers analogically as layer 200 of three- layered casing of Example 1.

Obviously the invention enables to form various casings in dependence of the gaps used for extrusion.

Another embodiment of a head 2b according to the present invention is shown in Fig. 6. In this embodiment the head 2b comprises three rotatable sleeve members 24, 25, 43 wherein the internal and the external sleeve members 43, 25 rotate in the same direction and the intermediate sleeve member 24 rotates in the opposite direction. The head 2b comprises four annular gaps 31 , 32, 44, 33, the two of which are defined between the counter-rotating members 24, 25, 43. The annular projection 45 of the intermediate sleeve member 24 is tapered symmetrically in relation to the central axis L of the longitudinal section with internal diameter and - - external diameter respectively increasing and decreasing along this axis. The head 2b enables for forming four-layered casing comprising two intermediate layers 200 described in Example I and corresponding to gaps 32 and 44.

An extruding head 2c shown in Fig. 7 comprises an internal adapter 39 and an external adapter 40. The internal adapter 39 is provided with an external annular surface 41 parallel to the internal annular surface 35 of the annular projection of the innermost sleeve member 24. The external adapter 40 is in turn provided with an internal annular surface 42 parallel to the external annular surface of the outermost sleeve member 25. Both adapters 39 and 40 form a gap 46 responsible for the final diameter of the extruded casing.

An extruding head 2d shown in Fig. 8 comprises only an internal adapter 39 having an annular external forming surface 41 parallel to the internal surface 35 of the annular projection of the internal sleeve member 24. The forming surface 41 extends ends up with a cylindrical section of a constant diameter corresponding to a final diameter of the extruded casing.

The above disclosed embodiments of the present invention are merely exemplary. Figures are not necessarily to scale, and some features may be exaggerated or minimized. These and other factors however should not be considered as limiting the spirit of the invention, the intended scope of protection of which is indicated in the appended claims.