An interchangeable hook-and-bracket system for a manufacturing process is disclosed. The interchangeable hook-and-bracket system may be configured to cooperate with a vertical conveying system of a food-processing system. Interchangeable hooks of the conveyor system may comprise hook portions and bracket portions that may be configured to releasably attach to one another. The bracket portions may be made substantially of a structurally robust material such as a metal and may be non-releasably attached to the conveyor system, and the hook portions may be made substantially of a flexible material such as a polymer-based material. More than one hook portion may correspond to a bracket portion, each hook portion having a configuration corresponding to a particular product, casing, throughput, and/or process condition.

The present invention relates to a transfer arrangement for transferring sausage-shaped products, like sausages, to a rod-like element, like a smoking rod, provided in a loading position in a hanging line, each of the sausage-shaped products contain a flowable filling material in a tubular or bag-shaped packaging casing provided with a suspension element, like a suspension loop, through which the sausage-shaped products can be suspended on the rod-like element. The transfer arrangement comprises an infeed device having an infeed conveyor and a guide bar along which the suspension elements of the sausage-shaped products are guided in an infeed direction to the rod-like element, a transport device which is arranged above the rod-like element and the guide bar and which has a conveyor device with transportation elements for transporting the sausage-shaped products along the guide bar towards the rod-like element, and a drive device for driving the conveyor device, and an indexing device for supporting the guide bar. The indexing device includes at least two pairs of indexing pins configured to be reversibly moved pairwise and alternately into an engagement position for engaging with the guide bar for supporting the guide bar and into a release position for disengaging with the guide bar for allowing the passage of a suspension element of a sausage-shaped product to be suspended on the rod-like element in the loading position, wherein the indexing pins of each pair of indexing pins are arranged on opposite sides of the guide bar and at least substantially opposite to each other, and a transmission arrangement for driving and controlling the movement of the indexing pins. The transmission arrangement is driven by the transport device.

The present disclosure relates to a hanging device, a smoke bar top module as well as a method for extracting a sausage group that hangs on multiple hanging hooks of a hanging device. The hanging hooks have a device for guiding a smoke bar or a smoke bar top module.

The present invention relates to a transfer arrangement for transferring sausage-shaped products, like sausages, to a rod-like element, like a smoking rod, provided in a loading position in a hanging line, each of the sausage-shaped products contain a flowable filling material in a tubular or bag-shaped packaging casing provided with a suspension element, like a suspension loop, through which the sausage-shaped products can be suspended on the rod-like element. The transfer arrangement comprises an infeed device having an infeed conveyor and a guide bar along which the suspension elements of the sausage-shaped products are guided in an infeed direction to the rod-like element, a transport device which is arranged above the rod-like element and the guide bar and which has a conveyor device with transportation elements for transporting the sausage-shaped products along the guide bar towards the rod-like element, and a drive device for driving the conveyor device, and an indexing device for supporting the guide bar. The indexing device includes at least two pairs of indexing pins configured to be reversibly moved pairwise and alternately into an engagement position for engaging with the guide bar for supporting the guide bar and into a release position for disengaging with the guide bar for allowing the passage of a suspension element of a sausage-shaped product to be suspended on the rod-like element in the loading position, wherein the indexing pins of each pair of indexing pins are arranged on opposite sides of the guide bar and at least substantially opposite to each other, and a transmission arrangement for driving and controlling the movement of the indexing pins. The transmission arrangement is driven by the transport device.

The present invention relates to a method for removing a rod-like element from a loading position of a hanging line in which the rod-like element can successively be loaded with sausage-shaped products, each of which contain a flowable filling material in a tubular or bag-shaped packaging casing provided with a suspension element through which the sausage-shaped products can be suspended on the rod-like element in the loading position. The method comprises the steps of feeding successively sausage-shaped products to a take-up position of the hanging line at a basic feeding speed, taking up one sausage-shaped product being positioned in the take-up position, by one of several transportation elements of a transport device of the hanging line, the transportation elements circulating along a circulation path at a basic transportation speed, loading by the transportation elements a predefined number of sausage-shaped products on the rod-like element being positioned in the loading position by the transportation elements, and replacing the loaded rod-like element by an empty rod-like element after the final sausage-shaped product has been suspended on said rod-like element. The method further comprises the steps of varying the basic transportation speed of the transport device or the basic feeding speed, or both, after the final sausage-shaped product to be stored on the rod-like element, has been picked up by a transportation element, such that the subsequent transportation element remains empty, and setting back the varied transportation speed and/or the varied feeding speed to the basic transportation speed and/or the basic feeding speed during loading of the subsequent rod-like element.

The present invention relates to a device for removing a rod-like element, like a smoking rod, from a loading zone of a hanging line, wherein the rod-like element is arranged in a loading position of said loading zone, in which the rod-like element can successively be loaded with sausage-shaped products, like sausages, each of which contain a flowable filling material in a tubular or bag-shaped packaging casing provided with a suspension element, like a suspension loop, through which the sausage-shaped products can be suspended on the rod-like element in the loading position. The device comprises discharge means for discharging the loaded rod-like element out of the loading zone of the hanging line in a discharge direction and transfer means being reversibly movable in a transfer direction between an engagement position in which the transfer means engage the rod-like element to be removed from the loading position, and a retracted position in which the loaded rod-like element is transferred to said discharge means. The device further comprises a drive assembly having a single drive device and transmission means for intermittently driving the discharge means in a discharge direction, and for reversibly driving the transfer means in the transfer direction between the engagement position and the retracted position.

Provided is a sausage sticking system capable of changing a position and an interval at which a chain of sausages is hung on a stably held stick according to a length of a casing. The sausage sticking system includes a hook conveying unit, a stick holding unit, and a pivoting imparting unit. A loop of a chain of sausages hooked on each of the pivoting hooks of the hook conveying unit is configured to be dropped onto a stick passing through the loop by which pivoting hooks are pivoted. The stick holding unit holds both ends of the stick, and includes a fixed arm and a pair of actuating arms, wherein the pair of actuating arras alternately holds the stick and avoids the loop of the chain of sausages. The pivoting imparting unit sequentially pivots the plurality of pivoting hooks at a predetermined pivoting imparting position.

The present invention relates to a system and a method for producing sausage-shaped products, like sausages, containing a flowable filling material in a tubular or bag-shaped packaging casing and a suspension element, like a suspension loop. The system includes a clipping machine for producing the sausage-shaped products, a discharge device for discharging the sausage-shaped products out of the clipping machine and a feeding device for feeding a rod-like element into a loading position in which the sausage-shaped products are stored on the rod-like element by the discharge device.

The present disclosure relates to a suspension unit and a method for taking up and transporting sausage loops with a guide rail and hooks circulating around the guide rail, where the guide rail has an elongate front side and an oppositely disposed rear side. The guide rail is inclined relative to a horizontal plane such that the front side is at a higher level than the rear side.

An apparatus is provided for transferring at least one sausage link into a packaging item. The apparatus includes at least one drivable, rotatable conveyor device having at least one protruding vane, with the conveyor device being adapted and configured in such a way that the at least one sausage link can be placed on the vane in a receiving position, and that by rotating the conveyor device, the at least one sausage link can be placed onto or into the packaging item by the vane in a delivery position. The conveyor device may further include an impeller that forms, in part, a horizontal support surface for a group of sausage links.