Where sausages are to be made in bulk, this is done with high speed linkers which extrude the sausage into casings, which are located on a stuffing horn or the like, rotate the casing at predetermined intervals to individually form the sausages and even cut the links after a predetermined number of sausages have been produced.

Generally, these sausages are packed into boxes, say in a box of 15 kilograms, and are delivered to stores for resale.

At the store the precut links are taken, the sausages are folded to lie in a side by side relationship, they are placed into a retail container, which is usually in an open topped tray, and then a plastic film is located thereover, and very often heat shrunk or otherwise sealed.

This means there is very substantial handling of the sausages once it reaches the retailer and before it is purchased by the customer.

Supermarkets these days, prefer that their product, as far as possible, are supplied to them in a form which is immediately retailable. Further the more handling there is of a short shelf-life product, the more likely there will be contamination of the product.

The obj ect of the present invention is to provide a method of processing and a processing apparatus whereby sausages from linkers, or other products can be packed directly into retail containers for sale.

The invention includes a method of packaging products which are delivered as a group of elongated articles connected end to end including the steps of separating the groups into at least two adjacent paths along which they can be conveyed, feeding the groups to at least a second path along which they can be conveyed which is travelling at a speed less than that of the first part with the articles of the group being alternatively displaced from direction of the first path as they enter the second path so the articles are forced to adopt a zig-zag formation because of the speed differential fo the two paths.

Also provided by the invention there is a packaging apparatus at the outlet of a linker, having conveyor means whereby product from the linker can selectively be fed to a plurality of conveyors whereby the effective speed of the links of product is reduced by a factor equivalent to the number of conveyors used, the product on each conveyor being in turn fed to a second conveyor which is travelling at a speed slower than the first conveyor whereby the products are forced towards each other, a third conveyor at the end of the second conveyor which is travelling at a speed slower than the second conveyor whereby the partially grouped products are formed into closely abutting groups and are passed for delivery.

The delivery may be to a further conveyor or it could be an automatic or manual operation wherein the groups of product are packed into a retail container which could be a tray or the like.

It is preferred that the products are sausages and they may well be sausages of the type known as breakfast or barbeque sausages, which use a relatively liquid mixture and when they are delivered from the linker are relatively soft and can be difficult to handle.

It may be preferred that, as the sausages leave the first conveyor to enter the second conveyor, they may be physically moved to provide a commencement of the folding process which is completed passing over the second and third conveyors.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood we shall describe, in relation to the accompanying drawing, one process for handling foodstuffs in accordance with the invention together with the apparatus which is being used.

The drawing shows a schematic plan view of the operation of the process; High speed linkers to manufacture sausages which can also incorporate cut off means provide links of a predetermined number of sausages are well known in the art and these linkers can produce between 250 and 500 sausages a minute. The actual number depends upon the volume of filling material to be placed into each sausage, and the diameter and/or length of the sausage.

Normally, the completed sausages are simply fed to a conveyor where they pass into containers, often containers which will hold 15 kilograms of sausage and they are then delivered to the purchaser in these containers.

In accordance with the invention, the links of sausages are cut off at 10 by cutting knives 100 which are part of normal sausage making equipment. As illustrated the links each have eight sausages as this is a normal requirement of supermarkets and the links may be manufactured to weigh 500 grams. The actual properties may readily be varied.

The sausages pass to a diverter which has two components, a receiving conveyor 11 and a number of diversion conveyors, as illustrated three.

The receiving conveyor 11 has three adjacent conveyors 110,111,112 each of which are of sufficient length to receive a full link of sausages and these conveyors run at the same speed as the linker.

At the input end, there is diversion means 113 which sequentially passes the links to the three conveyors.

The diversion means can comprise a pneumatic means which can drive the links from entering the conveyor 111 which is effectively a continuation of the flow through the linker onto a selected one of conveyors 110 and 112.

The conveyors 110, 111 and 112 can converge at their input ends and could, if required be at different angles to the horizontal.

That is the arrangement is such that links are fed to the three conveyors without there being any restriction on the speed of delivery.

Each of the conveyors 110,111, 112 is associated with an adjacent conveyor 121. These conveyors, as they receive the sausages initially run at the same speed as the associated conveyor so that the sausages are fed thereto, and this is for one third of the cycle. After this time, wen the full links are received on the conveyors, the conveyors are slowed.

The sausages on the conveyors 121 are then passed to first grouping conveyors 131 which run at a speed less than the conveyors 121, at their slower speeds, so the sausages commence to assume a zig-zag orientation as can be seen at 132.

Means are provided at the output of the conveyors 131 to start to cause the diversion and this can be operated so as to cause each sausage of the link to be diverted in the opposite sense to the preceding sausage.

This may be effected by a guide at the end of the conveyor 121 which can deflect the sausages as they leave the conveyor from moving in a direction axial of the conveyors.

This deflection means is arranged so that adjacent sausages in the link are deflected in opposite directions. This may be done by sensing the smaller diameter portion between sausages of the link as by the use of an infrared or other detector and rapidly changing position of the guide as this leaves the end of the conveyor.

The deflection means may be pneumatic or servo-motor operated so that there is relatively rapid change of direction at the required position on the length of the sausage to ensure that damage to the sausage is minimised but that it is moved through the required angular displacement before delivery.

The conveyors 141 run at a still slower speed so that as the sausages pass from a conveyor 131 to the associated conveyor 141, the zig-zag orientation is compressed so that the sausages a effectively in a side by side orientation.

The conveyors 131 may have longitudinal walls 133 and the conveyors 141 walls 142 to maintain the zig-zag formed sausages on the conveyors.

From the conveyors 141 the sausages can be manually packed into individual containers, can be automatically packed into individual containers or trays or can be fed to a delivery conveyor for later packaging.

If the sausages are placed in individual containers, there would normally be then passed to a machine which can cover the container and seal this. The cover may be a transparent plastics material and this can be sealed by compression or heat or shrink wrapped if required.

As will be appreciated, the groups of sausages leave the conveyors 141 sequentially at a speed relatively slow compared to the speed at which they leave the linker.

For example, where 250 sausages a minute are being formed, the speed of the conveyors 110,111,112 may be 41m/min whilst that of the conveyors 141 is only 5m/min.

It will be appreciated that as the sausages being made for use with the invention are relatively soft as they leave the linker they must be handled as gently as possible notwithstanding the fact that they are moving at very substantial speeds.

Whilst we have described herein the use of three delivery conveyors it will be understood that there could be two of these, although if only two were used the output may be too great to be readily handled, or more than three should the linker speed be such as to warrant this.

Also, we have not discussed the mode of driving the conveyors or any control measures or emergency stop measures should there be any disruption in the flow of sausages. It will be understood that these would be arrangements which are well known in the art and would be applied by any person fully aware of the art.