JP4942186B2 - Packaged food separation pretreatment apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

  TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a prepackaged food sorting pretreatment apparatus and a method thereof, which is a pretreatment for separating packed food such as lunch boxes and side dishes into packaging materials and food waste.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, cooked foods such as lunch boxes and side dishes are placed in synthetic resin lunch boxes and trays and covered with synthetic resin lids and wraps. Cooking pans and rice balls are sold in plastic resin bags. The foods packaged in this way have a limited expiration date due to seasonal storage temperatures and changes in the environment at the time of sale. Since these packaged foods cannot be sold as commodities after the expiry date, they are removed from stores such as convenience stores and food departments at department stores and discarded.

  These discarded packaged foods are disposed of as plastic packaging containers, lids and wraps as non-combustible waste, and food waste is incinerated as combustible waste (food waste). It is necessary to separate things. However, in sales outlets and manufacturers, salespersons and workers remove packaging materials such as lids and wraps from individual packaged foods and dispose of them as non-combustible waste, and the packaging materials are removed and food waste is taken out as combustible waste. Since the sorting method such as disposal requires labor and time, the packaged food is discarded as combustible waste without separating the packaging material and the food waste without separating the packaging material.

However, when incinerated as combustible waste without separating the packaging material and food waste, it is possible to remove harmful substances such as dioxins from synthetic resin lunch boxes, trays, lids and wraps. There is a problem that environmental hormones occur.
In addition to the waste problem, which is one of the familiar environmental problems described above, packaging materials such as lunch boxes and trays made of synthetic resin and food waste are separated by the Container and Packaging Recycling Law, which has recently been enacted. A separate collection is now required.

In view of such an actual situation, as in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, an invention for separating packaged food into packaging material and food waste has been proposed.
According to Patent Document 1, a device is proposed in which a lunch box to be discarded is struck by a striking material in a charging chamber, the lid is removed, food inside the lunch box is scraped, and these operations are performed manually. ing. More specifically, the lunch box put into the charging chamber is once locked, and the locked lunch box is hit by a striking member to remove the lid, and at the same time, the food as the contents is scraped out. The food scraped out from the lunch box falls by gravity to the lower food receiving chamber through the cage, and if necessary, is scraped out to the outlet provided in the floor wall by the wiping plate.
In addition, the lid removed from the lunch box and the lunch box that has been lightened by scraping the food inside is either swung in the radial direction by the striking member or blown away by the air sent from the lower air nozzle. And sent to the box outlet.

Patent Document 2 proposes an apparatus that, when packaged food is introduced into an input section, wraps the packaged food with a crushing rotor and separates the packaged food into packaging material and food waste.
The apparatus disclosed here includes a crushing rotor, a charging unit, a separation plate, a garbage storage box, and a packaging material discharge unit. The packaged food charged in the input unit is crushed by a crushing blade of a crushing rotor that rotates at a rate of about 500 to 600 revolutions per minute, and the garbage is thrown into the garbage storage box from the through hole of the separation plate by its own weight and the pressing force of the crushing blade. To separate food waste and packaging materials.
The packaging material thus sorted is collected and recycled, and the food waste is used as fertilizer and livestock feed.

JP 2000-140814 A JP 2002-126555 A

  However, in the inventions described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, the packaged food can be separated into the packaging material and the food waste, but the sorted food waste is a state in which cooked rice, prepared dishes, etc. are mixed Therefore, there is a problem that the crude fat content and the crude protein are high and it is difficult to use it as it is. For example, when fed to domestic pigs as feed, there is a concern about the occurrence of soft fat due to the high crude fat content.

Further, food waste does not always contain a constant amount of components such as carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and salt. The use of waste food for livestock feed is fundamentally unstable in nutritional balance, and it is difficult to stabilize the quality and quality of livestock, so stable nutritional value is required. Therefore, in order to include a stable nutritional value with good nutritional balance for livestock, it is required to manually sort food waste and mix it so as to be optimal for livestock feed.
However, as described above, it takes a lot of time and labor to take the packaged food covered with the synthetic resin film one by one by hand, peel off the packaging material, and take out the food waste.
Therefore, in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, the present invention enables easy separation of packaged food such as lunch boxes and prepared foods into packaging materials and food waste manually. It is an object of the present invention to provide a processing apparatus and method.

The present invention achieves such an object, and is a pretreatment device for separating and disposing of the packaged food to be discarded into a packaging material and a food body to be discarded (hereinafter referred to as food waste). A pair of conveyor belts each having a partition space formed on a surface thereof are provided with a gap in the belt circumferential direction so as to be adjacent to each other and a packaged food placed in the partition space on the pair of conveyor belts is pressed. And support means to support
The packaged food arranged across the pair of conveyor belts is configured to be capable of being pressed and supported by support means, and the pressed and supported packaged food is cut by a blade protruding from an adjacent space between the pair of conveyor belts. possible and,
Further, the supporting means is configured such that a pair of rotating bodies that circulate synchronously are disposed adjacent to each other with a gap in the rotating direction, and a pressing support member (preferably substantially rectangular) is disposed on the outer peripheral surface of the pair of rotating bodies. A plurality of the gaps are formed at intervals, and the pressing support member urges and supports pressing force on the packaged food .

According to the present invention, when food waste is taken out from a packaged food covered with a packaging material such as a synthetic resin film, it is easily taken from a cut section without manually removing the packaging material by hand. Food waste can be removed. Therefore, it becomes easy to separate the packaged food into the packaging material and the food waste, and the manual operation for sorting the food waste is performed smoothly.
Further, since the packaged food can be cut while being conveyed, the packaged food can be cut continuously, and the work can be performed efficiently.

Moreover, by the structure of the support means of the present invention , the packaged food on the transport conveyor can be pressed and cut against the packaged food having a height by supporting the packaged food on the conveyor by urging the pressing force with the pressing support member. It is possible to cut a wide variety of packaged foods having different sizes and shapes with a single device. In addition, it is possible to prevent the packaged food from escaping out of the conveyor during cutting.

Furthermore, the support means has a sprocket that engages and operates with the pair of chain conveyors, and the sprocket is provided on an input part side for supplying packaged food and on a discharge part side for discharging packaged food after cutting. It is provided and the input part side sprocket is provided above the discharge part side sprocket.
In this way, by providing the input part side sprocket above the discharge part side sprocket, the packaged food input from the input part is gradually pressed down as it goes downstream, and a wide variety of packages with different sizes and heights. The food can be pressed and supported.

According to the invention, the adjacent space of the pair of rotating bodies is larger than the adjacent space between the pair of conveyor belts, the pressing support members are arranged at pitch intervals, and the partition space intervals of the conveyor are It has at least 1 press support member, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.
In this way, after cutting the packaged food, food waste can be reduced to a minimum in the adjacent space between the pair of conveyor belts. Further, it is safe and easy to replace the blade from above the rotating body.
Furthermore, the packaged food on the conveyor can be reliably pressed and supported by arranging the pressing support members at pitch intervals.

In the prepackaged food sorting pretreatment apparatus described above, there is provided a pulling means for locally widening the orbiting position of the orbiting body located on the blade mounting portion of the pair of orbiting bodies.
Thereby, the blade provided between the conveyors of the pre-sorting apparatus can be exchanged safely and easily.

The invention of the method is a pretreatment method for separating and disposing of packaged food to be discarded into packaging material and food waste,
A pair of conveyor belts having a partition space formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof is pressed adjacently to a conveyor conveyer disposed with a gap in the belt circumferential direction and the packaged food placed in the partition space on the pair of conveyor belts. The packaged food arranged across the pair of conveyor belts is configured to be capable of being pressed and supported by the support means.
While making it possible to cut the packaged food supported by pressing using a blade protruding from the adjacent space between the pair of conveyor belts ,
In the supporting step, a pair of rotating bodies that circulate synchronously are disposed adjacent to each other with a gap in the rotating direction, and a pressing support member (preferably substantially rectangular) is disposed on the outer peripheral surface of the pair of rotating bodies. And the pressing support member is a supporting step for urging and supporting the pressing force on the packaged food .
Thereby, the same effect as the above-described device invention can be obtained.
The above-described configurations can be combined with each other without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

As described above, in the present invention, when taking out food waste from packaged food covered with a packaging material such as a synthetic resin film, the packaging material is removed by hand from the packaged food one by one. Food waste can be easily removed. Therefore, it becomes easy to separate the packaged food into the packaging material and the food waste, and the manual operation for sorting the food waste is performed smoothly. Moreover, since it can cut | disconnect while conveying packaged food, it can cut | disconnect continuously and it becomes possible to perform an operation | work efficiently.
Furthermore, by pressing and supporting the packaged food on the conveyor with a pressing support member, the packaged food is prevented from escaping out of the conveyor and pressed against the packaged food with height. A wide variety of packaged foods having different sizes and shapes can be cut with a single device.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the dimensions, materials, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like of the components described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention unless otherwise specified, but are merely illustrative examples. Not too much.
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a pre-sorting processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a transport conveyor according to the first embodiment, (a) is a plan view, and (b) is a transport of packaged food. FIG. 3A and 3B are schematic views of a rotating body in Example 1, where FIG. 3A is a plan view and FIG. 3B is a side view. 4 is a side view of the cutter unit in the first embodiment, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining the state of conveyance of the packaged food in the first embodiment, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a pressing support state of the packaged food in the first embodiment, and FIG. These are the figures explaining the position of the blade in Example 1. FIG.

The packaged food used in this embodiment includes, for example, a lunch box with a tray, a cup-shaped food, and an aluminum pan-type instant food, which are sold at convenience stores, department stores, and the like. In addition, the size, height, and shape may be different, and a packaged food covered with a synthetic resin film can also be suitably used.
Examples of the packaging material include containers and films made of the above-described synthetic resin, paper, aluminum, and the like. Any soft body can be used in the pre-sorting apparatus in this embodiment.

First, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
The pre-sorting processing apparatus 1 mainly includes a conveyor 3 that conveys packaged food, a rotating body 2 that presses and supports the packaged food on the conveyor 3, and a cutter unit 4 that includes a cutter 41 that cuts the conveyed packaged food. And a water tray 14 for receiving food waste or moisture scattered at the time of cutting, and a frame 13. Although not shown in the drawings, safety covers are provided in various parts such as the front and side doors of the pre-sorting processing apparatus 1, the input unit 15 that inputs packaged food, and the discharge unit 16 that discharges packaged food.
In this embodiment, the pre-sorting processing apparatus 1 has a total length of 2160 mm, a width of 1120 mm, and a height of about 1680 mm. The above-described transport conveyor 3, the rotating body 2, the cutter unit 4, the water tray 14, etc. Contained.

The packaged food input from the input unit 15 is transported at a maximum of 30 m / min using the transport conveyor 3 and is pressed and supported by the rotating body 2. The packaged food sandwiched between the transport conveyor 3 and the rotating body 2 is cut at a substantially central portion by the cutter 41 and discharged from the discharge portion 16.
In the input unit 15, the packaged food is input manually so as to be placed on the substantially central portion of the conveyor. One packaged food is preferably placed in one partition space of the conveyor 3. At that time, 100 pieces of packaged food can be cut continuously per minute.

  In this embodiment, the circulating body 2 uses a pair of chain conveyors arranged adjacent to each other with a gap in the circulating direction. The orbiting body 2 has a sprocket that engages and operates with the orbiting body 2, and as shown in FIG. 1, the input portion side sprocket 11a is provided above the discharge portion side sprocket 11b. Moreover, the tension | pulling means which expands locally the circumference position of the circumference body 2 located on the attachment part of the cutter 41 is provided. In this embodiment, the tensioner 12 is used as the tensioning means. However, the tensioning means is not limited to the tensioner as long as the circumferential position of the circulating body 2 is locally widened.

As shown in FIG. 2, the conveyor 3 is disposed adjacent to each other with a pair of conveyor belts having a partition space on the outer circumferential surface with a gap in the belt circumferential direction d. As shown in FIG. 2A, the partition space is formed by a plurality of partitions 31 provided on the outer peripheral side of the conveyor belt.
Then, as shown in FIG. 2B, the packaged food 17 placed in the partition space of the transport conveyor 3 is transported in the circumferential direction d.
In this embodiment, a plastic belt conveyor with two-divided bars is used as the conveyor 3, and the width of the partition space is approximately 300 mm. By using a plastic belt conveyor, even if the waste food or the seasoning contained in the waste food is scattered, it is difficult to corrode and can be easily washed. Moreover, the motor with a brake of the fully open fan type by inverter control is used as motive power.

Next, the circulating body 2 will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, in the present embodiment, the rotating body 2 uses a pair of chain conveyors arranged adjacent to each other with a gap in the rotating direction. As shown in FIG. 3A, a plurality of substantially rectangular pressing support members 22 are formed on the outer peripheral surface of the rotating body 2 at pitch intervals.
As shown in FIG. 3 (b), the end portion of the pressing support member 22 is bent in an eight-letter shape in the outer peripheral side direction of the rotating body 2. In addition, although not shown in figure, the shape of the press support member 22 will not be ask | required if it is a shape which urges | biases and supports a packaged food and can prevent a packaged food from escaping out of a conveyance conveyor. Moreover, it is preferable that the length of the press support member 22 is larger than the minimum width which can press-support the packaged food.
The circulating member 2 used in the present embodiment is a stainless steel chain conveyor, and uses a fully open fan type motor with a brake by inverter control as power.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the cutter unit 4 includes a cutter 4, a shaft 42, and a bearing 43. The cutter 41 in this embodiment uses a round blade cutter (φ296 mm) that is rotated by a motor. Moreover, the cutter unit 4 is made of stainless steel, and uses a fully open fan type motor by inverter control as power.

Here, with reference to FIGS. 5, 6, and 7, the pressing support state of the packaged food 17 and the positional relationship among the conveyor 3, the rotating body 2, and the cutter 41 at the time of cutting will be described in detail.
As shown in FIG. 5, the packaged food 17 is placed in the space partitioned by the partition 31 and is transported by the transport conveyor 3. And while being conveyed in the circumference direction d, it is pressed and supported by the circumference body 2. At this time, the input portion-side sprocket 11a that engages and operates with the rotating body 2 is set to be higher than the discharge portion-side sprocket 11b so that it is gradually pressed toward the cutter 41. The

  The packaged food 17 is pressed by a pressing support member 22 formed on the rotating body 2. For example, as shown in FIG. 6 (a), it is possible to press the packaged food 17 having a height, and as shown in FIG. 6 (b), the packaged food has a larger width than the conveyor 3. 17 may be pressed and fixed using the bent end portion of the pressing support member 22.

The packaged food 17 pressed and supported as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is cut by the cutter 41 while being conveyed. As shown in FIG. 7, the cutter 41 is provided so as to be interposed in the gap between the conveyor 3 and the pressing support member 22. At this time, it is preferable that the space | gap of the conveyance conveyor 3 has the space which can reduce the food waste in the packaged food 17 falling to the minimum, and has the space where the cutter 41 is provided. .
Moreover, it is preferable that the space | gap of the press support member 22 has the space where replacement | exchange of the cutter 41 is safe and easy from the upper side of the rotary body 2. FIG.

  The pre-sorting processing apparatus according to the present embodiment configured as described above cuts a packaged food having a length of 100 mm × width of 100 mm × height of 40 mm to a length of 300 mm × width of 300 mm × height of 100 mm as a target work. Can do.

Although not shown, the pre-sorting processing apparatus 1 in the present embodiment may have the following configuration in addition to the above.
Safety covers provided on the front and side doors of the pre-sorting processing device 1, the input unit 15 and the discharge unit 16 are provided with instantaneous stop sensors to prevent the scattering of food waste and when the safety cover is opened. It is preferable to provide a function for emergency stop of the apparatus.
In addition, the transport conveyor 3, the circulating body 2, the cutter unit 4, the water tray 14 and the like housed in the pre-sorting processing device 1 have a waterproof structure that is not adversely affected by direct water jets from any direction. It is preferable. By adopting a waterproof structure, for example, a cleaning nozzle is provided in the pre-sorting processing apparatus 1, and it can be washed at once, and daily maintenance can be easily performed.

  By using the prepackaged food separation pretreatment apparatus and method according to the present embodiment, it becomes easy to sort a wide variety of packaged foods into packaging materials and food waste, and manual food waste sorting work is facilitated. It is done smoothly and efficiently. Moreover, the pre-sorting processing apparatus according to the present embodiment can be used as a cutting device for only a packaging material or only a food body regardless of whether or not the packaged food is discarded.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a sorting pretreatment apparatus in Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the conveyance conveyor in Example 1, (a) is a top view, (b) is a top view which shows conveyance of a packaged food. It is the schematic of the surrounding body in Example 1, (a) is a top view, (b) is a side view. It is a side view of the cutter unit in Example 1. It is the schematic explaining the conveyance state of the packaged food in Example 1. FIG. It is a figure which shows the press support state of the packaged food in Example 1. FIG. It is a figure explaining the position of the blade in Example 1. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sorting pretreatment apparatus 2 Rotating body 3 Conveyor 17 Packaged food 22 Press support member 31 Partition 41 Cutter

Claims (6)

A pretreatment device for separating and disposing of the packaged food to be discarded into a packaging material and a food body to be discarded (hereinafter referred to as food waste),
A pair of conveyor belts having a partition space formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof is pressed adjacently to a conveyor conveyer disposed with a gap in the belt circumferential direction and the packaged food placed in the partition space on the pair of conveyor belts. And supporting means for energizing and supporting,
The packaged food arranged across the pair of conveyor belts is configured to be capable of being pressed and supported by the support means,
With the blade protruding from the adjacent space between the pair of conveyor belts, the pressed and supported packaged food can be cut ,
Further, the supporting means includes a pair of rotating bodies that circulate in synchronism with each other having a gap in a rotating direction, and a plurality of pressing support members are formed at pitch intervals on an outer peripheral surface of the pair of rotating bodies, A pretreatment apparatus for pre-sorting packaged food, wherein a support member urges and supports the packaged food with a pressing force .   The pre-sorting processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pressing support member is a substantially rectangular pressing support member. The support means includes a sprocket that engages and operates with the pair of chain conveyors, and the sprocket is provided on a loading portion side for feeding packaged food, and a discharge portion side for discharging packaged food after cutting, The pretreatment apparatus for pre-sorting packaged food according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the input part side sprocket is provided above the discharge part side sprocket. The adjacent space of the pair of rotating bodies is larger than the adjacent space between the pair of conveyor belts,
The pretreatment apparatus for pre-sorting packaged food according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the press support members are arranged at pitch intervals and have at least one press support member for each partition space interval of the transport conveyor. Sorting preprocessing device packaging food according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that a tensioning means for locally widening the orbital position of the orbiting body located on the blade mounting portion of the front Symbol pair of orbiting body . A pretreatment method for separating and disposing of packaged food to be discarded into packaging material and food waste,
A pair of conveyor belts having a partition space formed on the outer peripheral surface thereof is pressed adjacently to a conveyor conveyer disposed with a gap in the belt circumferential direction and the packaged food placed in the partition space on the pair of conveyor belts. A support process for energizing and supporting,
The packaged food arranged across the pair of conveyor belts is configured to be capable of being pressed and supported by the support means,
While making it possible to cut the packaged food supported by pressing using a blade protruding from the adjacent space between the pair of conveyor belts,
In the supporting step, a pair of rotating bodies that circulate synchronously are arranged adjacent to each other with a gap in the rotating direction, and a plurality of pressing support members are formed at pitch intervals on the outer peripheral surface of the pair of rotating bodies, and the pressing support A pretreatment method for pre-sorting packaged food, wherein the member is a supporting step for energizing and supporting a pressing force on the packaged food.

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