JP2007306879A - Small granulator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inexpensively produce a fresh pet food pleasing a pet at a home or the like. <P>SOLUTION: The granulator has a stirred vessel 5, a discharging passage 8, an opening member 16 having a plurality of extrusion holes, a rotary shaft 10 equipped with a stirring blade 12, a screw blade 11, a pushing-in member 19 and a cutting member 22, and a first driving motor 9 for normally or reversely rotating the rotary shaft 10. The stirring blade 12 has a bottom arm 14, and the screw blade 11 has an inserted part inserted to the discharging passage 8 and a protruded part protruded into the stirred vessel 5. The stirring and mixing of a pet food material are carried out by the normal rotation of the driving motor 9 by the protruded part and the bottom arm 14, and the pet food material 33 is conveyed to the position of the opening member 16 by the reverse rotation of the driving motor 9, and pushed into the extrusion holes. The pet food material 33 extruded from the extrusion holes is cut to afford the objective pet food. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a small granulation apparatus suitable for producing a small-scale granulated product.

Conventionally, various pet food production apparatuses have been proposed.
For example, Patent Literature 1 below discloses a pet food manufacturing apparatus that includes a granular material inside and the granular material is coated with an outer layer. This device is manufactured to extrude linear pet food using an extruder.
Patent Document 2 below proposes a mincing device that pushes out food in a minced form to feed foods that have expired, and a small granulator equipped with a drying device that dries the minced food.

JP 2000-060443 “Dry Pet Food and Manufacturing Method Thereof” JP 2002-253862 “Small Granulator”

Veterinary hospitals often prescribe oral medications for sick dogs, cats, and other pets, but pets are reluctant to take these medications, and even veterinarians may have trouble getting medication .
In recent years, dogs and cats are also increasingly affected by lifestyle-related diseases such as allergies, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Treatment for these lifestyle-related diseases is long and difficult to perform by injection or the like. Therefore, oral drugs are administered at home, but dogs and cats are reluctant to take these drugs, and the current situation is that they are in trouble at home.

  On the other hand, there has been a demand for eating pet food that matches the state of pets even at home, and an inexpensive and small pet food manufacturing apparatus that can be purchased at home that satisfies such demand has been desired.

Considering the above prior art from the viewpoint of easily making pet food at a veterinarian or home, there are the following problems.
The technique of Patent Document 1 is an apparatus for manufacturing commercial dry pet food. When manufacturing pet food in individual homes or animal hospitals, the apparatus is too large and difficult to handle.

On the other hand, the small granulator disclosed in Patent Document 2 is supposed to be a small apparatus that can be placed in a convenience store. However, there is a problem that the food is merely stirred and minced, and a full-fledged dry-type pet food that pleases pets cannot be manufactured.
Furthermore, there has been a demand for manufacturing not only pet food but also food such as sprinkles, etc., and manufacturing small-sized granular materials in various laboratories.

This invention is made | formed in view of the said subject, and the objective of this invention is providing the small granulation apparatus which can solve the said subject.
An example of a specific purpose is as follows.
(A) To make it possible to produce fresh pet food that makes pets happy at home or the like at low cost.
(B) Make it easy for pets to take oral medicine prescribed by veterinarians.
(C) To make it possible to produce individualized granular materials at low cost.
In addition, the subject of invention other than having described above, its solution means, and its effect are demonstrated in detail in description in the specification mentioned later.

  Although the present invention can be expressed in many ways, for example, typical ones are configured as follows. In each of the following inventions, each symbol is shown as an example for easy understanding of the correspondence with the embodiment described later, and each component of the present invention corresponds to the configuration related to the symbol described in the embodiment. It goes without saying that it is not limited.

The small granulator according to the first invention comprises a stirring tank 5 for stirring and kneading raw materials, a discharge passage 8 provided in the lower part of the stirring tank 5, a plurality of extrusion holes 17 provided in the discharge passage 8. An opening member 16 having a stirring blade 12, a transport blade 11, a pushing member 19, and a cutting member 22 are mounted on the rotating shaft 10, and the rotating shaft 10 is rotated forward. A drive motor 9 that can rotate in the reverse direction,
The stirring blade 12 includes a lower arm 14 that rotates at least in the bottom region of the stirring tank 5;
The conveying blade 11 includes an insertion portion S inserted into the discharge passage 8 and a protruding portion L protruding into the stirring tank 5;
By rotating the drive motor 9 in a forward direction, the material 33 in the stirring vessel 5 is stirred and kneaded by the protruding portion L of the conveying blade 11 and the lower arm 14 of the stirring blade 12,
By reversing the drive motor 9, the conveying blade 11 conveys the material 33 in the stirring tank 5 to the position of the opening member 16,
The material 33 is pushed into the extrusion hole 17 of the opening member 16 by the pushing member 19,
Cutting the material 33 extruded from the extrusion hole 17 of the opening member 16 by the cutting member 22;
It is characterized by manufacturing the individualized granular material.

As described in an embodiment described later, a screw blade 11 can be exemplified as the conveying blade. It is also possible to change the shape of the blade between the insertion portion S and the protruding portion L of the conveying blade. That is, the blades of the insertion portion S are configured to be suitable for conveyance, and the blades of the protruding portion L are configured to have a preferable shape by stirring and kneading in addition to the conveyance function. Examples of the “particulate material” include animal foods, etc. in addition to medicines and foods. Examples of animals include dogs, cats, domestic animals, wild animals, fish and the like. In addition, this apparatus is suitable for manufacture of pet food. In the present invention, “particulate matter” is used to include linear matters.
The length of the protruding portion L of the conveying blade is preferably set to such a length that the protruding portion L can perform the operations of conveying, stirring and kneading even when the raw material is put in the stirring tank 5 at the maximum.
The length ratio (L / S) between the insertion portion S and the protruding portion L of the conveying blade 11 is preferably set to 0.5 <L / S <2.

According to a second invention, in the first invention, the conveying blade 12 is constituted by a screw blade 11, and the length ratio of the small portion and the large portion of the screw blade 11 in the range of 1.2 to 3 times. It is characterized by being set to.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to second aspects, the stirring blade 12 is laterally directed from the rotary shaft 10 of the drive motor 9 toward the peripheral wall 7 of the stirring tank 5. It is provided with a protruding horizontal support shaft 13 and the lower arm 14 extending downward from the horizontal support shaft 13, and the lower arm 14 has a shape along at least the bottom wall 6 of the agitation tank 5. It is characterized by.

The fourth invention is characterized in that, in the third invention, the lower arm 14 is shaped not only to the bottom wall 6 but also to the peripheral wall 7 of the stirring vessel 5.
According to a fifth invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to fourth inventions, the cutting member 22 is configured to be detachable from the rotary shaft 9, and the number of cutting blades 23 of the cutting member 22 is reduced. A plurality of types of the cutting members 22 that have been changed are provided.

6th invention provides the drying apparatus 3 which dries the manufactured granular material in the invention as described in any one of 1st invention from 5th invention,
The drying device 3 includes a casing 24, a dish plate part 25 provided in the casing 24 and provided with a plurality of ventilation openings 35, a drive motor 30 that rotates the dish plate part 25, and a hot air generator 37. The hot air from the hot air generating device 25 is guided into the casing 24 so that the hot air rotates in the lower space 44 of the dish plate part 25, and is substantially in the central area of the dish plate part 25. A conical cap 36 is provided so that the granular material in the central region is guided to the peripheral portion of the dish plate portion 25.

7th invention provides the drying apparatus 3 which dries the manufactured granular material in the invention as described in any one of 1st invention to 5th invention,
The drying device 3 includes a casing 24, a dish plate part 25 provided in the casing 24 and provided with a plurality of ventilation openings 35, a drive motor 30 that rotates the dish plate part 25, and a hot air generator 37. The hot air from the hot air generator 25 is guided into the casing 24 so that the hot air rotates in the lower space 44 of the dish plate part 25, and the central area of the dish plate part 25 is A plurality of convex line portions 47 extending outward from the center of the central area are provided without providing the ventilation openings 35, and the granular material in the central area is guided to the peripheral portion of the dish plate section 25 by the convex line portions 47. It is configured as described above.
As a method of not providing the ventilation opening 35 in the central region of the dish plate portion 25, there are a configuration in which the ventilation opening 35 is closed with a plate material or the like, and a configuration in which the ventilation opening 35 is not provided in the central region of the dish plate portion 25 in advance.
The sixth and seventh inventions can also be grasped as independent inventions (particulate drying apparatus) that are not dependent on the first invention.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the sixth to seventh aspects, a roof portion 27 is provided to cover the upper portion of the dish plate portion 25, and the periphery of the dish plate portion 25 and the casing 24 are provided. The gap d with the inner peripheral wall 24a is set to 0.5 mm to 10 mm.
According to a ninth invention, in the invention according to any one of the sixth to eighth inventions, a return member 48 for moving the granular material approaching the outside is provided on the inner peripheral wall 24a of the casing 24. It is characterized by.
As an example of the return member, there is a method of fixing the plate material to the inner peripheral wall of the casing.

The effects of each invention will be described below.
If it is 1st invention, it has the following peculiar effects.
(A) Since all the rotating members of the stirring blade, the conveying blade, the pushing member, and the cutting member are driven by the power of a single drive motor, the configuration is simple and can be manufactured at low cost.
(B) Since the material in the agitation tank is agitated and kneaded by forward rotation of the drive motor, and the material is discharged by reverse rotation, a compact and low cost individualized granular material can be manufactured. .

If it is the 2nd invention, material can be satisfactorily sent while being compressed to an opening member by setting to the above-mentioned range. Further, the balance between the stirring and mixing process and the discharge process can be improved.
If it is 3rd invention, the raw material thrown into the stirring tank will be stirred by the protrusion part of a conveyance blade in the lower center area of a stirring tank, and the bottom part periphery of a stirring tank will be stirred by a lower arm. Therefore, practically sufficient stirring and kneading can be performed while the rotation shaft has a simple configuration with a single shaft.

If it is 4th invention, the material which exists near the surrounding wall of a stirring tank can also be stirred and knead | mixed favorably.
If it is 5th invention, the length of the material extruded can be shortened by increasing the number of cutting blades of a cutting member, the length of material can be lengthened by reducing the number, and a desired length can be adjusted easily. .

  If it is the 6th invention, heat can be uniformly transmitted to a saucer plate part by hot air turning in the lower space of a saucer plate part. Moreover, the granular material on a saucer plate part can be favorably dried by comprising a several ventilation opening so that a hot air blows up. Furthermore, a substantially conical cap is provided in the central area of the dish plate part, and the granular material in the central area is configured to be guided to the peripheral part of the dish plate part. And the efficiency of drying can be increased.

  If it is the 7th invention, heat can be uniformly transmitted to a saucer plate part by a hot air turning in the lower space of a saucer plate part. Moreover, the granular material on a saucer plate part can be favorably dried by comprising a several ventilation opening so that a hot air blows up. Further, since the granular material in the central region is guided to the peripheral portion of the dish plate portion by the convex line portion, the peripheral portion where the granular material moves well can be used, and the drying efficiency can be enhanced.

If it is 8th invention, the hot air of lower space can be blown out from a clearance gap by setting the clearance gap between the periphery of a saucer plate part, and the inner peripheral wall of a casing in the said range, The hot air is blown from a roof part to a saucer plate part It can be applied so as to pour onto the upper granular material, and uniform drying can be realized at low cost.
If it is the 9th invention, the granular material which approached the outside with the centrifugal force of the saucer plate part can be moved inside by the return member, and good drying can be realized.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a front view in which a small granulator according to the present invention is applied to a small pet food manufacturing apparatus, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the stirring granulator, and FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view showing a configuration in the vicinity of a discharge passage. It is.
The pet food manufacturing apparatus 1 is composed of a stirring granulator 2 and a drying device 3. The agitation granulator 2 is installed on the upper stage of the base 4, and the drying apparatus 3 is installed on the lower stage of the base 4.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a stirring tank 5 is attached to the upper stage of the base 4. The stirring tank 5 is composed of a gentle bottom wall 6 and a cylindrical peripheral wall 7. A discharge passage 8 is attached in the vertical direction from the center of the bottom wall 6. A pet food raw material inlet 15 is formed in the upper part of the stirring tank 5.
A first drive motor 9 is provided above the stirring tank 5, and the rotary shaft 10 of the first drive motor 9 enters the stirring tank 5 so as to coincide with the center of the stirring tank 5. A screw blade 11 is attached to the tip of the rotating shaft 10, and the screw blade 11 is inserted into the discharge passage 8. The space between the spiral projections of the screw blade 11 is formed so that the upper side is wide and the lower side is narrow. The screw blade 11 has a ratio of a portion having a small interval (pitch) to a portion having a large interval (pitch) set in a range of 1.2 to 3 times. For example, if the largest pitch on the inlet side on the stirring side is 90 mm, the pressure can be increased by reducing the pitch on the discharge passage 8 side to a maximum of 30 mm (90/30 = 3 times).

As shown in FIG. 3, the screw blade 11 protrudes from the bottom wall 6 into the stirring tank 5 by a protruding portion L. The length of the protruding portion L is set to a length that can be conveyed and stirred by the screw blade 11 even when the pet food material 33 (see FIG. 2) is accommodated in the stirring tank 5 to the maximum.
The pet food material 33 in the discharge passage 8 is conveyed upward by the screw blades 11 by the forward rotation of the first drive motor 9, and the pet food material 33 in the stirring tank 5 and the discharge passage 8 is moved by the reverse rotation of the first drive motor 9. It is configured to be conveyed downward.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a stirring blade 12 is attached to the rotary shaft 10 above the screw blade 11. In the configuration shown in FIG. 2, the stirring blade 12 has a horizontal support shaft 13 and a lower arm 14 bent in an arc from the horizontal support shaft 13 inward.

4A is a partial cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 3, FIG. 4B is a diagram showing a state of pet food production by a die, and FIG. 5 is an arrow along the line VV in FIG. FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, a disc-shaped die 16 that forms a linear pet food is attached to the discharge side (lower side) of the discharge passage 8. As shown in FIG. 4, the die 16 has a large number of extrusion holes 17 on one side. The rotating shaft 10 passes through the center of the die 16 through a bearing, and rotating members are attached to the rotating shaft 10 with the die 16 interposed therebetween.

  One rotating member is a pushing member 19 attached so as to face the upper surface of the die 16. As shown in FIG. 4A, the pushing member 19 has three pushing arms 20 at intervals of 120 °. As shown in FIG. 4B, the pushing arm 20 has an inclined surface 21, and the pet food material 33 conveyed downward by the screw blade 11 (see FIG. 3) by the inclined surface 21 is inserted into the extrusion hole of the die 16. There is a function to push into 17.

  The other rotating member is a cutting member 22 for cutting the pet food material coming out of the extrusion hole 17 as shown in FIG. The cutting member 22 is detachably attached to the distal end portion of the rotary shaft 10, and has four cutting edges 23 in the configuration shown in FIG. A plurality of types of cutting members 22 having different numbers of cutting blades 23 are prepared, and the length of the pet food can be determined by the number of cutting blades 23 when the rotary shaft 10 is rotated at a set number of rotations. .

Next, the drying apparatus 3 will be described.
FIG. 6 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the main part of the drying apparatus, and FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the main part of the drying apparatus.
As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, the drying device 3 has a disk-shaped dish plate portion 25 rotatably installed in a cylindrical casing 24, and hot air is blown into the casing 24 to stir and granulate apparatus 2. The pet food 26 discharged from the water is dried.
As shown in FIG. 6, a roof portion 27 is provided on the upper portion of the casing 24 so as to cover the upper side, and an insertion port 28 for introducing the pet food 26 is provided on the roof portion 27. A hopper 29 is attached to the inlet 28.

A second drive motor 30 for rotating the dish plate portion 25 is provided at the lower portion of the casing 24, and the rotating shaft 31 of the second drive motor 30 is protruded from the lower portion of the casing to a predetermined height position, and the tip portion thereof is a dish plate portion At the center of 25. The rotation shaft 31 is fixed so that the center of the casing 24 and the center of the dish plate portion 25 coincide with each other, and the dish plate portion 25 can be rotated while maintaining a horizontal state.
A cylindrical cover 34 is provided so as to cover the rotating shaft 31 on the lower side of the dish plate portion 25.

  The dish plate portion 25 has a large number of ventilation openings 35 formed on one surface. The dish plate portion 25 is formed in a shape in which the periphery rises over the entire circumference, and the whole is a dish shape having a shallow bottom. A substantially conical cap 36 is attached to the center of the dish plate portion 25 so that the pet food 26 does not get on the central area. This cap 36 is quite large, and when the diameter of the plate portion is D, the area where the cap is located is in the range of 0.3D to 0.8D, preferably in the range of 0.4D to 0.6D. For example, in the case of 0.5D, the peripheral portion with the ventilation opening 35 exists in an annular shape with a width of D / 4.

The pet food 26 that has fallen on the cap 36 is guided to the peripheral portion of the dish plate portion 25 along the conical inclined surface. Further, since the ventilation opening 35 is closed by the cap 36, the hot air can be concentrated only in the peripheral portion where the pet food exists.
In addition, the clearance gap d between the inner peripheral wall 24a of the casing 24 and the peripheral edge of the dish plate portion 25 is set to a short distance of about 0.5 mm to 10 mm.

As shown in FIG. 1, the hot air generator 37 includes a blower 38 and an electric heater 39 for heating the blown air, and has a configuration similar to a dryer as a whole.
As shown in FIG. 7, the peripheral wall of the casing 24 is provided with an introduction port 40 for introducing hot air from the hot air generator. The inlet 40 is provided facing the lower space 44 (see FIG. 6) of the casing 24.

Hot air is supplied into the casing 24 through the duct 41. The duct 41 has a wall surface 42 that is tangent to the inner peripheral edge of the casing 24, and the hot air flows along the wall surface 42 along the circumferential surface of the casing 24 so as to draw a circle as indicated by an arrow P. It is configured to be sent.
An outlet 43 for the pet food 26 is provided on the substantially opposite side of the inlet 40 across the center of the casing 24.

As shown in FIG. 1, a control device 45 is provided near the first drive motor 9 at the upper position of the base 4. The control device 45 is configured to perform at least switching between normal rotation and reverse rotation of the first drive motor 9 and the rotational speed control of the first drive motor 9 and the second drive motor 30.
The control device 45 is configured so as to be able to set the ventilation (drive / stop and strength adjustment) of the blower 38 and the heat generation temperature of the electric heater 39. The control device 45 controls the hot air generation device 37. An operation unit may be provided in the hot air generation device 37, and the operation unit may be configured to adjust the blast intensity and the temperature of the hot air. .

The operation of the pet food manufacturing apparatus having the above configuration will be described.
First, raw materials for pet food, minced meat, various grains, vegetables, moisture, and the like are charged from the charging port 15 while the first drive motor 9 shown in FIG. In this state, the screw blade 11 rotates so as to convey the pet food material 33 in the discharge passage 8 upward from below, so that the input raw material does not go out of the discharge passage 8. Furthermore, since the screw blade 11 protrudes from the bottom wall 7 by a protruding portion L as shown in FIG. 3, not only the upward movement of the pet food material 33 from the bottom to the top by the screw blade 11 but also the stirring blade 5 The pet food material 33 is mixed and kneaded.

Further, since the tip of the lower arm 14 of the stirring blade 12 extends to the vicinity of the screw blade 11 and rotates with a slight gap from the peripheral wall 7 and the bottom wall 6 of the stirring tank 5, The pet food material 33 is well stirred and kneaded by the rotational movement of the arm 14.
In other words, the pet food material 33 that has entered between the screw blades 11 falls so as to be scattered at the protruding portion L of the screw blades 11, and the pet food material 33 that has fallen causes convection by the rotational movement of the lower arm 14. The mixture is stirred and kneaded in the stirring tank 5.

  When the pet food material 33 is in a good state as a pet food by stirring and kneading for a predetermined time, the first drive motor 9 is reversed. This rotation direction is switched manually or automatically. In this reverse direction, the pet food material 33 in the stirring tank is pushed out through the discharge passage 8. Further, the lower arm 14 that rotates slightly above the peripheral wall 7 in the stirring tank 5 functions to push the pet food material 33 around the stirring tank 5 to the central portion. The collected pet food material 33 is pushed out to the lower side of the discharge passage 8. The extruded pet food material 33 is pushed into the pushing hole 17 of the die 16 by the pushing arm 20 as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, since the cutting blade 23 of the cutting member is rotating on the lower surface of the die 16, the pet food material 33 is cut according to the discharge length from the extrusion hole 17 corresponding to the moving time of the cutting blade 23. The
That is, if the number of cutting blades 23 of the cutting member 22 is large, the total length of the manufactured pet food is shortened, and if the number of cutting members 22 is small, the total length of the manufactured pet food is long.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the cut pet food passes through the inlet 28 of the casing 24 of the drying device 3 and falls onto the upper surface of the plate 25 that is rotating at a predetermined rotational speed. Since the pet food 26 that has fallen on the cap 36 moves to the peripheral portion, it receives hot air intensively in the peripheral portion where the movement is intense, and drying can be accelerated. With such a configuration, the pet food 26 is prevented from sticking to the dish plate portion 25 and good drying without unevenness is realized.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the hot air blown from the gap between the dish plate portion 25 and the inner peripheral wall 24a prevents the pet food from fitting into the gap. Further, the hot air blown up flows along the inner peripheral wall 24a and the wall surface of the roof portion 27 as indicated by the arrow Z and flows so as to pour onto the pet food on the dish plate portion 25, so that the pet food is uniformly and rapidly dried. Can do.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, since the hot air is introduced so as to rotate as indicated by an arrow P in the lower space of the casing 24, the dish plate portion 25 can be heated uniformly without temperature unevenness.
After drying by the drying device 3 for a predetermined time, the take-out port 43 is opened and the pet food 26 is taken out.
The pet food 26 is dried by the hot air that blows down from the gap and the ventilation opening 35 and the hot air that pours down while moving on the dish plate part 25 by the rotation of the dish plate part 25. If it is the structure of such a drying apparatus, pet food can be dried at high speed uniformly with a simple structure.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 1, a stirring tank 5 is provided on the base 4, and the pet food that has come out of the discharge passage enters the inlet of the casing 24 of the drying device 3 by dropping below the stirring tank 5. By providing the drying device 3, space can be saved in the width direction, and a device for transporting the pet food that has exited the discharge passage to the charging port of the drying device 3 becomes unnecessary, thereby reducing manufacturing costs. be able to.

  In addition, when putting oral medicine into pet food at animal hospitals and homes, when putting granular or tablet medicine in a stirring tank, when embedding tablets in pet food that has been pushed out of a die and not dried, etc. Can be illustrated. In either case, pets can naturally take medicine by eating their favorite pet food, and veterinarians and owners can reduce the trouble of giving medicine to pets.

In the pet food manufacturing apparatus according to the present embodiment, there are only two drive motors as driving means as power, and the control is only forward / reverse rotation control and rotation speed control, which can be configured easily and inexpensively.
In addition, the combination of the screw blade projecting from the bottom wall of the stirring tank into the stirring tank and the lower arm provided along the bottom wall and the inner peripheral wall of the stirring tank has a very simple configuration. Pet food can be mixed and kneaded well.

(Second Embodiment)
2nd Embodiment of the drying apparatus of the granular material which concerns on this invention is described.
FIG. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view of the main part of the drying apparatus, and FIG. 9 is a transverse sectional view of the main part of the drying apparatus.
The feature of the second embodiment is that a circular block plate 46 is attached to the central region of the plate plate portion 25 to block the ventilation opening 35 and a curved convex line extending outward from the center of the block plate 46. A portion 47 is provided, and the pet food in the central region is configured to be guided to the peripheral portion of the front dish plate portion 25 by the convex line portion 47.
Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the return member 48 for moving the pet food that has approached the outside to the inside is provided on the inner peripheral wall 24 a of the casing 24.
If it is this structure, the pet food of a center area can be moved to a peripheral part by the convex line part 47. FIG. In addition, as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 9, the pet food biased to the outside of the peripheral portion can be returned to the center of the peripheral portion by the action of the return member 48, and drying with hot air can be performed satisfactorily.

The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention.
(1) It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the rotating shaft of the first drive motor and the stirring tank are inclined as required.
(2) The control device may be configured so that the forward rotation time, the reverse rotation time of the first drive motor, and the on / off control of the second drive motor and the hot air generator are automatically performed. In this case, prepare multiple types of operation data of the agitation granulator and drying device that match the typical pet food ingredients and moisture content, and veterinarians and general purchasers can prepare the operation data. It is also possible to configure so that a predetermined pet food can be manufactured simply by selecting. Further, an operation sequence of a stirring granulator and a drying device for producing a standard pet food may be prepared in advance so that the operation sequence can be adjusted according to the situation of the pet.

(3) In the above embodiment, the drying apparatus using the rotating dish plate portion is exemplified, but other types such as a belt conveyor type and a method of sliding the dish plate portion can be adopted.
(4) As described above, the present invention can be widely used not only for producing pet food, but also for producing individualized granulated products.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a case where the small granulator according to the present invention is applied to a small pet food manufacturing apparatus. FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the stirring granulator according to the small granulator. FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view showing a configuration in the vicinity of the discharge passage according to the agitation granulator. 4A is a partial cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 3, and FIG. 4B is a diagram showing a state of manufacturing a granular material (linear material) using a die. FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along line VV in FIG. FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of the drying device according to the small granulator. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the main part of the drying device according to the small granulator. FIG. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view of an essential part of another drying apparatus according to the above-mentioned small granulator. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the main part of another drying apparatus according to the above-mentioned small granulator.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Pet food manufacturing apparatus, 3 ... Drying device, 5 ... Stirring tank, 6 ... Bottom wall of stirring tank, 7 ... Perimeter wall of stirring tank, 8 ... Discharge passage, 9 ... First drive motor (drive motor), 10 ... Rotating shaft, 11 ... screw blade (conveying blade), 12 ... stirring blade, 13 ... horizontal support shaft, 14 ... lower arm, 16 ... die (opening member), 17 ... extrusion hole, 19 ... pushing member, 22 ... cutting member , 23 ... Cutting blade, 24 ... Casing, 24a ... Inner peripheral wall of casing, 25 ... Dish plate part, 26 ... Pet food (granular material), 30 ... Second drive motor, 33 ... Pet food material (material), 35 ... Ventilation opening, 37 ... hot air generator, 44 ... lower space, 47 ... convex line part, 48 ... return member, S ... insertion part, L ... projection part, d ... gap between the peripheral edge of the plate part and the inner peripheral wall of the casing .

Claims (9)

A stirring tank (5) for stirring and kneading raw materials, a discharge passage (8) provided in the lower part of the stirring tank (5), a plurality of extrusion holes (17) provided in the discharge passage (8). An opening member (16), a stirring blade (12), a transport blade (11), a rotary shaft (10) to which a pushing member (19) and a cutting member (22) are attached, and the stirring tank (5) A drive motor (9) disposed above and capable of rotating the rotary shaft (10) in forward and reverse rotations;
The stirring blade (12) includes at least a lower arm (14) that rotates in a bottom region of the stirring tank (5),
The conveying blade (11) includes an insertion portion (S) inserted into the discharge passage (8) and a protruding portion (L) protruding into the stirring tank (5),
By rotating the drive motor (9) in the forward direction, the protruding portion (L) of the conveying blade (11) and the lower arm (14) of the stirring blade (12) in the stirring tank (5) Stirring and kneading the material (33);
By reversing the drive motor (9), the conveying blade (11) conveys the material (33) in the stirring tank (5) to the position of the opening member (16),
The material (33) is pushed into the extrusion hole (17) of the opening member (16) by the pushing member (19),
Cutting the material (33) extruded from the extrusion hole (17) of the opening member (16) by the cutting member (22);
A small granulator characterized by producing individualized granular materials. In the small granulator of Claim 1, the said conveyance blade (12) is comprised with a screw blade (11), and the length ratio of the part with the small pitch and the large part in the screw blade (11) is set to 1. Small granulator set in the range of 2 to 3 times. In the small granulator as described in any one of Claim 1 to 2, the said stirring blade (12) is the surrounding wall (of the said stirring tank (5) from the rotating shaft (10) of the said drive motor (9). 7) a horizontal support shaft (13) projecting laterally toward the horizontal support shaft (13), and the lower arm (14) extending downward from the horizontal support shaft (13), wherein the lower arm (14) is at least the A small granulator having a shape along the bottom wall (6) of the stirring tank (5). The small granulator according to claim 3, wherein the lower arm (14) is shaped not only along the bottom wall (6) but also around the peripheral wall (7) of the stirring vessel (5). Small granulator. The small granulator according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the cutting member (22) is configured to be detachable from the rotating shaft (9), and the cutting blade of the cutting member (22) A small granulator having a plurality of types of the cutting members (22) in which the number of (23) is changed. In the small granulator as described in any one of Claims 1-5, the drying apparatus (3) which dries the manufactured granule is provided,
The drying device (3) includes a casing (24), a plate (25) provided in the casing (24) and provided with a plurality of ventilation openings (35), and the plate (25). A drive motor (30) for rotating and a hot air generator (37) are provided, and hot air from the hot air generator (25) is circulated in the lower space (44) of the plate (25). It is configured to be guided into the casing (24), and a substantially conical cap (36) is provided in the central region of the dish plate portion (25), and the granular material in the central region is placed in the dish plate portion (25 ) Is a small granulator configured to be led to the periphery. In the small granulator as described in any one of Claims 1-5, the drying apparatus (3) which dries the manufactured granule is provided,
The drying device (3) includes a casing (24), a plate (25) provided in the casing (24) and provided with a plurality of ventilation openings (35), and the plate (25). A drive motor (30) for rotating and a hot air generator (37) are provided, and hot air from the hot air generator (25) is circulated in the lower space (44) of the plate (25). A plurality of convex line portions that are configured to be guided into the casing (24), do not have a ventilation opening (35) in the central region of the dish plate portion (25), and extend outward from the center of the central region. (47) A small granulator configured to guide the granular material in the central region to the peripheral portion of the dish plate portion (25) by the convex line portion (47). In the small granulator as described in any one of Claims 6-7, the roof part (27) which covers the upper direction of the said plate part (25) is provided, The periphery of the said plate part (25), A small granulator in which a gap (d) between the casing (24) and the inner peripheral wall (24a) is set to 0.5 mm to 10 mm. In the small granulator as described in any one of Claims 6-8, the return member (48) which moves the said granular material which approached the outside to the inner side is used for the inner peripheral wall (24a) of the said casing (24). A small granulator installed in

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