JP2003189837A - Apparatus for processing granular food - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for processing a granular food capable of sufficiently loosening the granular food, sufficiently feeding cooling air into a space in the mutual granular food and preventing the food from becoming a lump without a fear of causing problems such as formation and contamination of scrap metal. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus for processing the granular food is equipped with a loosening apparatus 11 provided with rotating shafts 12a and 12b intersecting the forward direction of a conveyor 2 at right angles in an adequate site on the steel conveyor 2 horizontally placed in a processing chamber 1 and loosening members 14 and 14 installed around the rotating shafts 12a and 12b. Furthermore, a paddle stirring apparatus 15 having a rotating shaft 16 intersecting the forward direction of the conveyor 2 at right angles and a plurality of paddle plates 17 made of a synthetic resin parallel the axial line direction of the rotating shaft 16 from the rotating shaft 16 in the outer peripheral direction is provided. The apparatus is composed so that granular food transported in the processing chamber 1 with the conveyor 2 is stirred to the lowermost layer with the paddle stirring apparatus 15 and then loosened with the loosening apparatus 11. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for cooling or freezing granular food such as cooked rice such as pilaf and fried rice, corn and beans, or finely chopped vegetables.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some food processing devices cool or freeze food by blowing cooling air to the food conveyed in a cooling chamber by a steel conveyor.

By the way, when cooling and freezing rice such as pilaf, fried rice, cooked rice, etc., and granular foods such as corn and beans or finely chopped vegetables, the granular foods on the conveyor become lumps, Cooling air does not come into sufficient contact with the granular foods, the time required for cooling and freezing becomes long, the conveying distance of the granular foods by the conveyor must be lengthened, the cooling energy becomes large, and the granular foods If there is a lump in the product, there is a problem that the commercial value is reduced.

In the conventional processing apparatus, in order to prevent the granular foods from agglomerating, a rotary shaft orthogonal to the traveling direction of the conveyor is provided on the conveyor, and the comb shaft-shaped loosening member, which is a loosening pin, is provided on the rotary shaft. There is a disassembling device in which the disassembling device is provided, and disassembling the granular food on the conveyor by the disentangling pin that rotates together with the rotating shaft, and the cooling air is sufficiently supplied to the granular food.

In the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, when the distance between the rotation path of the tip of the loosening pin and the upper surface of the conveyor is large, the granular food cannot be sufficiently loosened, and a plate-shaped or block-shaped food is formed on the conveyor. Since the lumps of granular food are formed and mixed in the product, and the commercial value is impaired, the above interval is made as small as possible.However, when the above interval is small, the tip of the loosening pin is the conveyor. There is a risk that the loosening pins and metal scraps on the conveyor will be generated by this contact, and will be mixed into the granular food.

[0006]

[Purpose] The object of the present invention is to be able to sufficiently loosen granular foods, to sufficiently feed cooling air between granular foods, and to prevent foods from agglomerating. Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide a processing apparatus that is free from problems such as generation and mixing of metal scraps.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the apparatus for processing granular food according to the present invention comprises a rotary shaft orthogonal to the traveling direction of the conveyor at an appropriate position on a steel conveyor provided horizontally in the processing chamber. A loosening device having a loosening member provided around this rotation axis is provided, above the conveyor on the front side of the conveyor movement direction of this loosening device, a rotation axis orthogonal to the traveling direction of the conveyor, and rotating from this rotation axis in the outer peripheral direction. Provided with a paddle type stirring device having a plurality of synthetic resin paddle plates parallel to the axial direction of the shaft, granular food conveyed in the processing chamber by the conveyor is stirred to the bottom layer by the paddle type stirring device After that, it is configured to be loosened by the loosening device.

Further, the paddle plate is made of a high molecular weight polyethylene resin having a sliding property equivalent to that of a fluororesin and having excellent durability. Further, the paddle plate on the outer side of the paddle plate in the paddle type stirrer is used. The distance between the rotation track and the upper surface of the conveyor is 1 to 2 mm, and the distance between the rotation path of the tip end of the loosening member in the loosening device and the upper surface of the conveyor is 5 to 10 mm.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the specific examples shown in the accompanying drawings. Processing room 1
Is divided into a front chamber 1A for taking rough heat of the granular food and a rear chamber 1B for freezing the granular food, and an endless conveyor 2 is horizontally arranged in the front-rear direction in the processing chamber 1. Indicates that a steel belt is stretched between the driven wheel 3a and the driving wheel 3b before and after the cooling chamber.
It is designed so that it is circulated between the front chamber and the rear chamber by the rotational drive of the.

A rectifying body 4 for blowing air is provided above the endless conveyor 2 in parallel with the conveyor belt, and a large number of slit-shaped outlets 5 are formed in the rectifying body at appropriate intervals over the lateral width. is there.

A plurality of air coolers 7 (two in FIG. 1) each including a blower 6 are provided above the rectifier in the front chamber 1A, and above the rectifier in the rear chamber 1B. A plurality of air coolers 9 (two in FIG. 1) each provided with a blower 8 are provided, and when manufacturing frozen foods, at least the air cooler 9 in the rear compartment supplies cooling air at a temperature below freezing. There is.

At a plurality of places (four places in FIG. 1) on the conveyor 2, loosening devices 11, 11 for the granular food 10 conveyed on the belt are provided. Each loosening device 11 has, for example, 2 units. It is composed of two parallel comb-shaped rotors 12 and 13.

The comb-tooth-shaped rotating bodies 12 and 13 are provided with rotating shafts 12a and 13a, respectively, which are arranged on the conveyor so as to be orthogonal to the traveling direction of the conveyor. Material loosening pin 14,
14 are provided at equal intervals along the rotation axis so as to form a comb tooth shape.

These two comb-shaped rotors have the same agitating pin disposition intervals, but the disposition positions in the axial direction of the rotating shafts are shifted, and the intervals between the rotating shafts are loosened and the length of the pin is increased. It is set to less than twice the length so that one loosening pin interleaves between the other loosening pins as shown in FIG.

The above-mentioned comb-tooth-shaped rotating bodies 12 and 13 are rotationally driven so as to be opposite to each other, and the front one is the same as the traveling direction of the conveyor, and the rear one is the opposite direction.
The granular food product 10 is loosened so as to be scooped between these two rotating bodies.

In the apparatus of the present invention, however, the paddle type stirring device 15 is provided on the front side of each of the loosening devices 11 in the traveling direction of the conveyor. The paddle type stirring device 15 includes a rotary shaft 16 arranged on the conveyor so as to be orthogonal to the traveling direction of the conveyor, and a plurality of (two in this embodiment) paddle plates 17 are provided on the outer periphery of the rotary shaft. , 17
Are mounted radially so as to be parallel to the axial direction of the rotary shaft. More specifically, the support plates 16a radially protruding from the rotary shaft are provided with countersunk bolts and nuts on the front side in the rotational direction of the support plates 16a. It is attached by a fastener 18, and is driven to rotate in the same direction as the traveling direction of the conveyor by driving the rotating shaft 16.

The paddle plate 17 is made of a synthetic resin plate whose surface has sliding properties as good as fluororesin and excellent durability such as abrasion resistance. For example, ultra high molecular weight polyethylene is molded into a plate shape. Use one.

Therefore, the paddle type stirring device 15 is
Rotation locus 1 of the outer side of the paddle plate 17 shown by a virtual line in FIG.
The gap α between the upper surface 9 and the upper surface of the conveyor 2 is set to 1 to 2 mm so that the lowermost granular food 10 can be stirred.

Therefore, even if the outer edge of the paddle plate 17 comes into contact with the upper surface of the conveyor due to the motion of the conveyor or the like, since the paddle plate is made of the synthetic resin plate, metal scraps are generated by the contact between the paddle plate and the upper surface of the conveyor. There is no possibility of occurrence, and the granular food product is thoroughly agitated up to the lower layer.

Further, since the paddle plate 17 having a good sliding property is used, there is not much possibility that the granular food sticks to the surface of the paddle plate, and there is an advantage that it can be continuously moved.

As described above, since the granular food 10 can be stirred to the lowermost layer by the paddle type stirring device 15, it is not necessary to loosen the granular food product immediately after passing through the paddle type stirring device to the lowermost layer. , Loosening device 1
The gap β between the rotation loci 20, 20 of the tips of the loosening pins 14 in 1 and the upper surface of the conveyor 2 can be opened up to about 5 to 10 mm at which there is no risk of contact between the loosening pins and the upper surface of the conveyor. It is possible to prevent the generation of metal scraps due to the contact between the two.

The result of the freezing test performed by the processing apparatus of the present invention having the above-described structure will be described. The test conditions were such that the granular food was fried rice, and it was placed on the conveyor belt so as to form a layer of about 25 mm, and the temperature in the front chamber 1A was set to -28 ° C and the temperature in the rear chamber 1B was set to -45 ° C.

Under the above test conditions, when the time for which the granular food passed through the processing chamber was changed and the frozen state was visually confirmed, the granular food was frozen in the freezing time of 9 to 10 minutes, and the frozen state was rice grain. It was in a good condition where each of them was loosened. That is, it was confirmed that the stirrer and the disentangling device of the present invention firmly disentangled the granular food without causing lumps, and the cooling air was sufficiently supplied between the granular foods.

In the embodiment described above, the paddle plate 17 of the paddle type agitator 15 is rotated about the rotation axis by 180.
Two sheets are provided at intervals of 4 degrees, but three or more sheets may be provided at equal angular intervals. In addition, the loosening pins 14, 14 of the loosening device 11 may be similarly provided in three or more around the rotation axis.

Further, although the loosening member in the loosening device is composed of the loosening pins arranged in a comb-like shape, the loosening screw blades provided spirally around the rotation axis may be used as the loosening member. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the processing chamber 1 is divided into the front chamber 1A and the rear chamber 1B, but it may be divided into one processing chamber without division, or may be divided into three or more.

[0026]

Since the processing apparatus according to the present invention is provided with the paddle type agitating device in front of the loosening device, the granular food conveyed to the conveyor is first the paddle plate of the agitating device to the lowermost layer. It is stirred and then loosened by a loosening device so that no lumps form.

Moreover, since the paddle plate of the paddle type stirrer is made of synthetic resin having the same sliding characteristics as fluororesin and excellent durability, the steel belt is not damaged even if it comes into contact with the steel belt. Therefore, no metal scrap is generated, and a processed food product free of metal scrap can be produced.

Further, since the granular food is sufficiently stirred by the stirring device and then sent to the loosening device, the gap between the loosening device and the upper surface of the conveyor does not come into contact with the loosening device even if the conveyor belt sways. A sufficient space can be provided, and even if such a space is provided, the granular food product is firmly loosened.

Therefore, when the frozen food is produced by freezing the granular food, the cooling air is sufficiently fed between the granular foods in the stirring device and the loosening device, and the time required for freezing can be shortened. Moreover, reduction of energy required for cooling can be expected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view showing an embodiment of a freezing device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a conveyor.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional side view showing an enlarged main part.

[Explanation of symbols] 1 cooling room 1A front room 1B rear room 2 Steel conveyor 3a driven wheel 3b drive wheel 4 Rectifier 5 outlet 6 blower 7 Air cooler 8 blower 9 Air cooler 10 Granular food 11 loosening device 12, 13 Comb-shaped rotor 14 loosening pin 15 Paddle type stirring device 16 rotation axes 17 paddle boards 18 fasteners 19 Rotation locus of outer edge of paddle board 20 Rotation locus of the loosening pin tip

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 3L044 AA04 BA04 BA05 CA04 DA01                       FA01 FA06 KA04                 4B022 LB01 LB05 LF02 LP10                 4B023 LE22 LT43 LT61 LT63                 4B048 PE02                 4B069 CA03 HA01 HA18

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A rotating shaft orthogonal to the traveling direction of the conveyor, which is provided at a proper position on a steel conveyor horizontally provided in the processing chamber.
A loosening device having a loosening member provided around this rotation axis is provided, above the conveyor on the front side of the conveyor movement direction of this loosening device, a rotation axis orthogonal to the traveling direction of the conveyor, and rotating from this rotation axis in the outer peripheral direction. Provided with a paddle type stirring device having a plurality of synthetic resin paddle plates parallel to the axial direction of the shaft, granular food conveyed in the processing chamber by the conveyor is stirred to the bottom layer by the paddle type stirring device A processing device for granular food that is loosened by the loosening device. 2. The apparatus for processing granular food according to claim 1, wherein the paddle plate is made of a high molecular weight polyethylene resin having sliding characteristics equivalent to those of a fluororesin and having excellent durability. 3. The distance between the rotation locus of the outer side of the paddle plate and the upper surface of the conveyor in the paddle type stirring device is 1 to 2 mm.
The apparatus for processing granular food according to claim 1, wherein the distance between the rotation locus of the tip end of the loosening member and the upper surface of the conveyor in the loosening device is 5 to 10 mm.