Corrugation

Casings corrugation is the process of compressing a large section of the shell into a corrugated doll of a given size.

The collection of the sleeves of sausage casings into folds and molding in the form of corrugated dolls is carried out on special equipment - corrugators. They may have different designs, but the principle of shirring remains the same: the shirring casing is delivered in rolls, it is unwound from the reel on the shirring machine and filled with air. The shell inflated with air is pulled over a pipe, which has a diameter that subsequently determines the inner diameter of the corrugated doll. On the corrugated pipe, the shell is folded. After the corrugation of the required length has been made, the shell is cut off and compressed. Important in the process of corrugation is the compression ratio, which is determined by the ratio of the length of the non-corrugated shell to the length of the corrugated doll.

In the case when a mesh is put on the corrugated and compressed sleeve of the shell to fix the shape and density of the corrugated doll, then we are talking about "soft" corrugation.

To obtain a "rigid" form of corrugation during the corrugation process, the surface of the shell is treated with a special composition, then the shell sleeve is very tightly compressed and dried. After that, the shape of the corrugated doll remains fixed, stable and does not need additional fixation with a mesh.

The use of corrugated casings has a number of significant advantages:

Significant time savings:

• the use of a corrugated casing makes it possible to fill large lengths of the casing with minced meat without stopping in one working cycle, which ensures the continuity and manufacturability of the stuffing process;
• corrugation allows you to avoid the process of unwinding the shell from the bay and putting the shell on the lantern of the syringe-filler manually;
• corrugation facilitates the process of soaking the casing, as it allows you to avoid additional operations such as spillage inside the sleeve
• the use of a corrugated casing, in general, reduces the complexity of the processes of preparing the casing for use and molding sausage sticks, and increases labor productivity.

Less likely to cause damage to the integrity of the shell during its preparation for use:

• since the corrugation makes it possible to avoid the process of unwinding the casing from the bay and putting the casing on the lantern of the filler syringe manually, the risk of injury to the casing is also reduced;
• the wetting of the shell with water occurs from the inside and outside more evenly than if the shell were soaked in the form of a sleeve with spilling water from the inside.

Casings consumption is reduced:

• it is impossible to manually squirt such a quantity of the shell onto the lantern of the syringe filler, therefore, there will be more waste of the shell when shirring onto the lantern manually.

The use of a corrugated casing is an essential attribute of a modern meat processing enterprise. Therefore, the leaders of the meat processing industry work exclusively on shirred casings.