The Thinnest Fibrous Casing Ever

MARIEHAMN, Finland, January 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

The thinnest fibrous casing ever produced by ViskoTeepak is also our most recent innovation. We call it FLX and it will provide you with increased meters per reel and strand compared to traditional fibrous casing. Despite the increased meters in a strand you will experience faster soaking times. It has an improved transparency and will challenge the outlook of collagen casing without compromising on any of the normal benefits of fibrous casing.

     (Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140106/655388 )

We all know fibrous casing as one of the most versatile casing for various types of applications due to its high mechanical strength, excellent shrink/stretch properties and smoking capabilities. What is additionally new with FLX casing is the improved transparency (transmission of light through the casing) and its new construction. The feature provides an appearance even more appealing to the eye and therefore the structure of the sausage becomes more visible. This is a very important feature for many sausage applications and also for many manufacturers.

The thinnest fibrous in the world

This feature of the construction is based on a new production concept which utilizes the united casing manufacturing technology knowhow of our company. The outcome is the thinnest fibrous ever produced. This will open a lot of new possibilities to use fibrous in traditionally untapped applications and markets. It will also create potential for time and cost savings in production processes. The product is designed to be used mainly in all kinds of dry / semi-dry and cooked/smoked chunk sausages.

More meters on a shirred strand

All ViskoTeepak fibrous casing nowadays are customized according to the end producer requirements and one of the benefits of FLX is the significant improvement in shirred meters per strand. Our tests have shown that we can shirr up to 15-20% more meters per strand versus other fibrous casing types, while still using the same shirring specifications. This does not only provide cost reduction opportunities for convertor partners but also the possibility for higher efficiency for end customers. ViskoTeepak will deliver the FLX casing in 1000 m reels instead of 800/600m which will give costs savings in logistic operations. Together with more meters per shirred strands and/or box/pallet this will provide a significant storage and transport cost saving opportunity for all parties. Other converting properties of FLX like those in printing and the printed quality are equal with other fibrous products.

Strong

Despite its thinner construction the new FLX is strong enough to meet the efficient stuffing requirements of today's standards. During the development process of FLX casing we were testing the stuffing performance with the most recent designed and fastest clipping machine with speeds of 120 sausages / minutes (250 g portion/ cal 45). FLX coped with the tough testing conditions without any problems.

Improved stuffing output

With capabilities like this together with increased shirred meters per strand one can foresee good opportunities to improve the stuffing outputs as well. Of course due to FLX casing construction we do not recommend to use FLX in sliced applications where sausage length and weight have an impact on size stability as FLX is not designed for slicing applications. FLX is a good option for sausages which are sold as chunks.

Fast soaking and overstuffing capabilities

Due to construction and design the new FLX soaks very easy and fast at the same time as field tests have confirmed other interesting features of the FLX casing. One of these is excellent overstuffing capabilities. This creates some savings in casing usage and provides nice round shoulders for your sausages. The outlook of the final sausage is closer to collagen outlook than what other fibrous can offer, which makes FLX an interesting option for traditional collagen applications where fibrous casing has so far not been able to compete due to outlook difference.

To read more about FLX go to viskoteepak.com

Contact: Johannes Dahlman, Marketing Manager, +358-457-5483-163