JP2000167489A - Method for separating md removing foreign matter and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus which surely separates and removes foreign matter, such as hair, insect shells, paper pieces, thread dust, plastic pieces, wooden pieces and dust, intruded into food materials in a production process for the food materials consisting of granular and massive dry vegetables without changing the existing apparatus line in a final stage. SOLUTION: A needle-like electrode 18 into which blowers 17 and 18 are built, and a plane electrode 10 are arranged on both sides of the falling locus of objects 15 which are released from the end of an endless belt 14 and fall by drawing parabolas. The foreign matter 21 which is relatively light in weight and has large shape resistance is separated from the materials 20 to be separated by blowing of air and is electrified by the corona discharge field of an anode formed by the needle-like electrode 18. The separated and electrified foreign matter is sucked to the plane electrode 19 of a cathode, is neutralized after adsorption and is dropped. The foreign matter is then recovered into a recovering box 25. The materials 20 to be separated which are relatively large in weight and small in shape resistance are less affected by the blowers and are dropped and recovered as they are into a recovering box 26.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a process for producing a granular or bulky object to be treated, for example, granular dried vegetables such as beans and corn, dry fish and dry meat, etc. The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for removing foreign substances such as hair, insect shells, paper chips, lint, vinyl chips, wood chips, and dust (hereinafter, referred to as “foreign substances such as dust”).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are various types of methods for removing foreign substances such as dust from granular or massive objects to be treated. FIG. 1 shows an example of the conductive particles 1 and the semiconductive particles 2.
And a device for electrostatically sorting the mixed particles of the insulating particles 3 and having an anode rotating electrode 4 rotating in the direction of arrow A in the figure and a cathode needle electrode 7 directed to the electrode 4, The mixed particles supplied from the hopper 5 through the vibrating feeder 6 onto the rotating electrode are passed under the needle-like electrode 7 by the rotation of the electrode 4, charged by the high-voltage electric field applied to the electrode 7, and then discharged from the electrode 4. The conductive particles, the semiconductive particles, and the insulating particles are separated according to the difference in the amount of charge. That is, the conductive particles having a large amount of charge are separated from the electrodes 4 by the repulsive force with the electrodes 4 first, and then the semiconductive particles 2 are separated from the insulating particles 3 at the end.

FIG. 2 shows another example of a sorting apparatus, which is an apparatus for adsorbing and removing magnetic impurities. The processing object transferred by a belt 10 from a hopper 8 via a vibrating feeder 9 is a pulley made of a magnet. Pulley 1 on 11
During the transfer along with the rotation of 1, the mixed magnetic impurities are attracted to the pulley 11 via the belt 10, while the non-magnetic processing object draws a falling curve according to the transfer speed of the belt 10 from the belt end. The magnetic impurities that fall to the outside of the guide plate 12 and are attracted to the pulley 11 fall inside the guide plate 12 as the belt 10 is turned away from the pulley 11.

[0004]

By using the above-described conventional apparatus, the weight difference between the substance to be separated and the foreign matter such as garbage which is the garbage is several tens times, and the garbage can be removed from the mixture having a greatly different shape. For example, in a process of manufacturing a food material made of granular dried vegetables, there are the following problems in separating foreign substances such as garbage and the like.

That is, the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is used for separating pulverized dust in which insulating particles, semiconductive particles, and conductive particles are mixed, and is a method of sorting according to a drop position from a rotating electrode. It is necessary to increase the diameter of the electrode. When the size of the rotating electrode is increased, the size of the driving device is increased, and the size of the entire device is increased. Further, in the apparatus shown in FIG. 2, it is possible to separate and remove magnetic impurities, but foreign substances such as dust still remain in the non-magnetic processing object from which magnetic impurities have been removed. In order to remove such foreign matter, it was ultimately necessary to rely on human power for visual selection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a method and an apparatus capable of accurately separating and removing foreign matter, for example, foreign matter such as dust, from a granular or massive object to be treated.

[0007]

The invention according to claim 1 relates to a method for separating and removing foreign matter from a granular or massive object to be treated, wherein an anode and a cathode are arranged on both sides of a falling trajectory of the object to be treated. A voltage is applied between both electrodes, the object to be processed is dropped, air blow is performed from the side, and a light weight, foreign matter having a large shape drag is deflected and adsorbed to one electrode. The method is characterized in that foreign matter is separated and removed by changing the falling trajectory of the foreign matter mixed into the processing object by the synergistic action of the electric field.

[0008] The term "air blow" as used herein includes the blowing or suction of air. The invention according to a second aspect relates to an apparatus used in the method according to the first aspect of the present invention, which is disposed on one side of a falling trajectory of the processing object, and a discharging means for discharging a granular or massive processing object. It is characterized by comprising air blowing or suction means, and anode and cathode electrodes arranged on both sides of a falling trajectory below the blowing or suction means, and is preferably adsorbed to one electrode below the electrode. A branch plate is provided for separating the fall trajectory of the foreign matter and the fall trajectory of the processing object from which the foreign matter has been separated.

[0009] In the production process of a food material comprising granular or bulky dried vegetables, foreign substances such as metal pieces, stones and sand are removed in advance in the previous step, and foreign substances remaining in the final step are, for example, hair. It is light and small, such as, insect shells, paper chips, lint, vinyl chips, wood chips, dust, etc. The food material consisting of granular or bulky dried vegetables and these foreign substances such as garbage have a difference of several tens of times in weight when viewed alone, and the foreign substances such as garbage are thin, long or thin in terms of shape. There are many things and they are very different. Therefore, when the food material of the dried vegetables mixed with these foreign substances is released at a certain lateral speed from the release means, it falls in a parabola, and the falling locus differs between the food material and the foreign substances such as dust. That is, a food material having a large weight and a small shape drag flies far, and a foreign substance such as dust having a small weight and a large shape drag hardly flies far. Therefore, the fall trajectory drawn by the food material and the fall trajectory drawn by foreign matter such as dust are different, and the fall trajectory of the former is outside the fall trajectory of the latter. In such separation, it is difficult to obtain a clear separation depending on the falling trajectory and the release speed. Therefore, air is blown from the side to the object to be dropped as in the present invention, and foreign matter such as dust having a light weight and a large shape drag is blown or sucked to separate it from the food material of dried vegetables.

[0010] In the case of discharging at a speed lateral to the discharging means, when air is blown from the outside to the inside or sucked in from the inside of the processing object, a locus different from the food material inside the food material is obtained. Foreign matter such as garbage falling by drawing is blown inward or sucked in, and is clearly separated from the fall trajectory of the food material. Foreign matter such as dust blown inward or sucked in by air blow is charged while passing between the electrodes to which a voltage is applied, and is deflected so as to be sucked by one of the electrodes, and separated by a synergistic action with the air blow. Is performed more reliably.

In the present invention, the processing object discharged from the discharging means may have a lateral speed of 0 as in the case of naturally falling from the hopper, but is preferably discharged from the belt end. As in the case of the above, it is released with a certain lateral velocity. As a result, the foreign matter is separated from the object to be processed and falls in a parabola as described above.

As the discharging means of the present invention, the above-mentioned hopper and belt are exemplified. A typical example of the means for blowing or sucking air is a blower. As the electrode used in the present invention, it is desirable to use an electrode from which foreign matter such as dust is sucked as a flat electrode plate so that foreign matter is easily sucked.

[0013]

FIG. 3 shows an example of a foreign matter removing apparatus according to the present invention. In an upper part of a housing 28, an endless belt 14 serving as a discharging means is horizontally arranged.
The processing object 15 put into the hopper 27 is cut out by a fixed amount on the endless belt.

The object to be treated 15 is a foreign substance 21 such as light dust.
Consists of the substance to be separated 20 mixed with magnetic impurities, stones,
Sand and the like have been removed in advance in the previous step, and the particle size has been sorted out. Object 15 cut out on endless belt
Is conveyed by the belt 14, discharged from the belt end, and falls in a parabola.

On both sides of the falling trajectory, an electrode unit 3 with a blower
0 and the plane electrode plate 19 are arranged. That is, as shown in the enlarged view of FIG. 4, for example, a needle-like electrode 18 for generating a corona discharge at the anode, blowers 16 and 17 as air blowing means above and below the fall trajectory, An electrode unit 30 having a structure incorporating a damper 23 for adjustment is arranged. A flat electrode plate 19 of, for example, a cathode is attached to the insulator 24 inside the fall trajectory, and is arranged so that the angle can be adjusted in the direction of arrow E. ing.

A branch plate 22 for separating a substance 20 to be separated and foreign matter 21 such as dust from the lower part of the housing is indicated by an arrow F in the housing.
It is arranged so that the angle can be adjusted in the direction. In the figure, 25 is a collection box for foreign substances such as dust, 26 is a collection box for the substance to be separated, 31 is a high-voltage power supply for the needle electrode 18, 32 is a high-voltage power supply for the flat electrode plate 19, and these power supplies 31 and 32 are controlled by a control device 33 shown in FIG.

The present apparatus is configured as described above, and its operation will now be described. The processing object 15 conveyed by the belt 14 is charged by friction between the belt 14 and the processing object while being conveyed, is discharged at a certain speed from the belt end, and falls down in a parabola. At this time, the substance to be separated 20 having a relatively large weight and a small shape drag substantially falls on the outer falling trajectory, and the foreign matter 21 such as dust having a small weight and a large shape drag falls along the inner falling trajectory. While falling, air is blown from the blowers 16 and 17 from the sides with the air volume adjusted by the damper 23 and the needle electrode 1
A charge is given to the substance 20 to be separated and foreign matter 21 such as dust by the corona discharge field of the anode formed by the anode 8. The charged foreign matter 21 such as dust is separated from the substance 20 to be separated by blowing air and is blown in the direction of arrow D. The foreign matter 21 is attracted to the flat electrode plate 19 by the suction effect of the flat electrode plate 19 charged to the cathode. . Immediately after adsorption, foreign substances such as dust 2
1 is neutralized and separated from the flat electrode plate 19, falls, and is collected in the foreign matter collection box 25. On the other hand, the material to be separated 20 having a relatively large weight and a small shape drag is less deflected by the blowing of air, and then falls. Then, it is collected in the collection box 26 directly or by hitting the branch plate 22.

FIG. 5 shows an example in which air suction means is provided inside the falling trajectory instead of the air blowing means of the apparatus shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and the suction means comprises a needle-shaped electrode 18.
And blowers 34 and 35 incorporated above and below.
In the case of this apparatus, foreign matter such as dust is sucked from inside by the blowers 34 and 35. Then, similarly to the above, it is separated from the substance 20 to be separated and adsorbed on the flat electrode plate 19, neutralized and collected in the collection box 25.

[0019]

According to the method and the apparatus of the present invention, a foreign substance such as dust is separated from a substance to be separated by a synergistic effect of static electricity and wind force so as to change a falling trajectory. can do. Particularly in the case of a process for producing a food material comprising granular or bulky dried vegetables, for example, in this process, various foreign matter removing devices are used in multiple stages to separate and remove magnetic impurities, non-magnetic metals, stones, sand, and the like. However, the method and apparatus of the present invention can be easily added to the final process without changing existing equipment lines, and can be used for hair, insect shells, paper pieces, lint, vinyl pieces, wood pieces, dust, etc. And other foreign substances can be reliably separated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional separation and removal device.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of another example of a conventional device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a separation and removal apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a main part of the device shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 14. Endless belt 15 Processing object 16, 17, 34, 35 Blower 18 Needle electrode 19 Planar electrode plate 20 Material to be separated 21 Foreign matter 22 Branch plate 23・ Damper 24 ・ ・ Insulator 25 ・ ・ Foreign matter recovery box 26 ・ ・ Recovery box for substance to be separated 27 ・ ・ Hopper 28 ・ ・ Housing 30 ・ ・ Electrode unit with blower 31,32 ・ ・ Power supply 33 ・ ・ Control device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for separating and removing foreign matter from a granular or massive object to be treated, wherein an anode and a cathode are arranged on both sides of a falling trajectory of the object to be treated, and a voltage is applied between the two electrodes.
A method for separating and removing foreign matter, wherein a processing object is dropped and air is blown from a side thereof to deflect a light-weight foreign matter having a large shape drag and adsorb it to one electrode. 2. A discharge means for discharging a granular or lumpy processing object, an air blowing or suction means disposed on one side of a falling locus of the processing object, and a falling locus below the blowing or suction means. 2. An apparatus for separating and removing foreign matter according to claim 1, comprising an anode electrode and a cathode electrode arranged on both sides of said foreign substance.