During the fully automatic production of sausages, normally filling machines are used which determine the sausage geometry with regard to length, weight and caliber. Here the term “filling machine” comprises the complete sausage-producing unit, consisting of vacuum filler, twist-off unit, length unit including the parting unit.
Numerous filling machines possess a parting device to subdivide the produced sausage skein into individual sausage portions, i.e. single sausages or chains of sausages with a predetermined number. Once the subdivided sausage portions have left the filling machine, they lie without arrangement on the table provided for them or on a conveyor belt. A conveyor belt can, for example, serve as a feeder for higher level systems, such as a freezing tunnel or cooking equipment.
If sausage portions are transferred onto a table or onto a conveyor belt in a disarranged manner, they must be placed into a suitable package involving increased manual work in sorting. With a disarranged transfer into a freezing tunnel or continuous-flow cooking system optimum distribution cannot occur, because the sausages lie over one another randomly. Consequently, the maximum throughput through the following processing equipment is not achieved.