JP2009268662A - Heating/conveyance apparatus for food manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a heating/conveyance apparatus for food manufacture of a dry heat heating method which is capable of providing a fine temperature gradient control in the conveying process for the objects of food manufacture and heating the objects of food manufacture. <P>SOLUTION: The heating/conveyance apparatus for food manufacture which heat-treats the objects of food manufacture while conveying them is provided with: an intermittently feeding mechanism which puts the objects onto the conveying line sequentially and sends them intermittently; a plurality of heaters which are provided along the conveying line in a plural number to pinch and heat the objects at the intervals of intermittent sending; a driving mechanism which gives an action to pinch the objects to a plurality of heaters; and a control means which controls the intermittent intervals and the pinching action of the heater and also controls the temperature of the plurality of heaters individually. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a food production heating / conveying apparatus that heats / conveys food to be produced in an apparatus for producing food.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is an apparatus for mass-producing food (for example, processed meat products) directly sandwiched on a conveyance line and heated by an IH heater (electromagnetic induction heater) (for example, Patent Literatures 1 to 3).

  On the other hand, dry noodles such as pasta are packed together with water in a sealed state, and the packaging pack is boiled in a hot water bath to boil the dry noodles into an ardente (solid boiled noodle production method) (See, for example, Patent Document 4).

  To boil dry noodles such as pasta and improve the finish (taste and texture) of boiled noodles, the heating step is repeated several times, and the temperature is changed at each step and heated. Therefore, when heating dry noodles, fine temperature gradient control is required for the heating temperature.

JP 2002-373770 A JP-A-9-215605 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-4817 Japanese Patent No. 3634116

  In a conventional pasta fast-boiled noodle manufacturing apparatus, a large amount of hot water is used because a sealed pack containing noodles and water is put in a hot water bath and boiled. Therefore, the amount of heat consumed to heat a large amount of hot water becomes enormous, and environmental considerations for the wastewater after use are necessary. Therefore, a method of heating an object for food production such as noodles by dry heating (dry heating) that does not require a large amount of hot water is conceivable.

  However, for example, in the dry heating food heating apparatus used for heating the processed meat products described above, the heating object is continuously conveyed in non-contact with or in contact with the heating means, and therefore the temperature applied to the heating object. The gradient is constant, and it is difficult to sequentially heat the object to be heated by imparting several different temperature gradients during the conveyance process. In particular, heat treatment of dry noodles, etc. requires precise temperature gradient control, and even when the above-mentioned heating production apparatus is applied to the heat treatment of dry noodles, the finished noodle finish (taste and texture) is good. To achieve this, there are considerable difficulties in setting the temperature and time.

  The object of the present invention is to provide a heating / drying heating method for food production that can heat the food production object by subjecting the food production object to fine temperature gradient control during the conveyance process in order to solve the above problems. It is to provide a transport device.

  In order to achieve the above object, a heating / conveying apparatus for food production according to the present invention is a heating / conveying apparatus for food production that heat-treats an object for food production while conveying the object on the conveying line. A plurality of intermittent feeding mechanisms that are intermittently fed on the carrier, a plurality of heaters that are provided along the transport line, and that heats the object sandwiched between the intervals of the intermittent feeding, and the objects to the plurality of heaters And a control mechanism for controlling the temperature of the plurality of heaters individually while controlling the intermittent feeding interval and the sandwiching operation of the heaters.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to dry-heat the food production object by applying fine temperature gradient control to the food production object during the conveyance process.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG.1 and FIG.2 is the schematic which shows the structure of the heating and conveyance apparatus for foodstuff manufacture of this embodiment, FIG. 1 shows the state at the time of conveyance, and FIG. 2 has shown the state at the time of heating.

  In the present embodiment, an object 5 for food production (hereinafter referred to as “heating object”) 5 is dry noodles such as pasta. More specifically, in the heating object 5, dry noodles 51 and water 52 are sealed together in a resin pack 53 (see FIG. 3 for details).

  In addition, this heating / conveying device is disposed and used on an extension of a production line of another food production device (for example, a food cooling device, a packaging device, etc.) not shown.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the heating / conveying device of this embodiment includes an intermittent feed mechanism that intermittently feeds a heating object 5 and a plurality of upper and lower pairs of heaters that sandwich and heat the heating object 5 during an intermittent feed interval. 2 (21 to 24), 3 (31 to 34), a sandwiching mechanism (drive mechanism) 9 that gives an operation of sandwiching the heating object 5 between the pair of heaters 2 and 3, an interval of the intermittent feed mechanism, and a sandwiching mechanism 9 And control means 4 for individually controlling the temperature of the plurality of heaters 2 and 3 for each pair.

  The intermittent feed mechanism includes two transport drums 6 and 7, a transport belt 1 movably stretched between the two transport drums 6 and 7, and a motor that rotates a drive drum 6 that is one of the transport drums ( For example, it is composed of a servo motor 12 and a drive circuit 11 that drives the motor 12.

  The upper surface of the stretched portion of the conveyance belt 1 is a conveyance surface (conveyance line) for the heating object 5. The intermittent feeding speed and interval time of the conveyor belt 1 are controlled by the control means 4, and the motor is driven 12 via the drive circuit 11 and transmitted as rotation of the drum 6. The conveyor belt 1 is preferably formed of a material having excellent heat resistance and thermal conductivity and high friction.

  Moreover, the conveyance belt 1 is controlled to perform a rocking motion by forward and backward movement after releasing the pinching operation of the heaters 2 and 3 to the heating object 5 during the intermittent feeding interval. Specifically, the driving conveyance drum 6 is rotated forward and backward in small increments, and the conveyance belt 1 is moved back and forth. Thereby, the heating object 5 on the conveyance belt 1 swings back and forth.

  The plurality of pairs of heaters 2 and 3 are electric heaters (IH heaters or resistance electric heaters). The plurality of pairs of heaters 2 and 3 are disposed along the conveyor belt 1 and above and below the conveyor belt (conveying surface) 1. The upper heater 3 and the lower heater 2 are opposed to each other with their heater surfaces facing each other, and make a pair with the conveyor belt 1 in between. The plurality of pairs of heaters 2 and 3 have a clamping mechanism 9 that clamps and heats the heating object 5 from above and below during the intermittent feeding interval. Specifically, the clamping mechanism 9 is a mechanism that holds the upper heater 3 so that it can be moved up and down by the lifting device unit 8, and is controlled to move up and down (up and down) by the drive circuit 10 based on a command from the control means 4. . When the heating object 5 is conveyed, the heater 3 is positioned above the conveyance belt 1 with a gap h, and as shown in FIG. 2, the heater 3 is in contact with the upper surface of the heating object. Descend to The heater 2 below the conveyor belt is fixedly disposed on the inner side of the conveyor belt 1 (under the conveyor surface) in almost contact with the conveyor belt 1. As an elevating device serving as the clamping mechanism 9, there is a pinion / rack mechanism using a motor, a ball screw mechanism, a cam mechanism, or the like. The drive circuit 10 includes heater drive circuits for the heaters 2 and 3 in addition to the drive circuit for the lifting device.

  The heaters 2 and 3 are temperature-controlled via a heater drive circuit 10 controlled by the control means 4. In the present embodiment, the upper heater 3 and the lower heater 2 that are paired with each other are set to the same temperature. Different temperature control is possible for each pair.

  The drive circuit 10 is provided for each pair of heaters 2 and 3. Each position on the transfer line where the pair of heaters 2 and 3 are arranged is referred to as a first station, a second station,... Sequentially from the transfer upstream side. In the figure, four pairs of heaters 21 to 24 and 31 to 34 are arranged and the number of stations is four. However, five or more stations may be provided, or three or less may be provided. When the stations (heaters 2 and 3 and circuit 10) are added, a larger amount of food can be produced quickly.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 3 (a), the heating object 5 conveyed on the conveying belt 1 is intermittently controlled, and the heating object is positioned between a pair of heaters 2 and 3 at each station. Stop time (interval). When the heating object 5 stops at each station, as shown in FIG. 2, the upper heater 3 moves down until it comes into contact with the upper surface of the heating object 5, and the heating object 5 moves downward with the upper heater 3. It will be in the state pinched by the heater 2 of this. The temperature of each heater 2, 3 is controlled by the control means 4 and is kept at a constant temperature by the heater drive current of the drive circuit 10.

  Thereby, in each station, the heating object 5 is sandwiched between the upper and lower heaters 2 and 3 and heated at a constant temperature for a predetermined time. At this time, since the heating object 5 has almost no distance from both the heaters 2 and 3, it is heated with high heat transfer efficiency, and there is no temperature variation between the heating objects.

  However, as shown in FIG.3 (b), in each heating target object 5, the temperature distribution from which temperature differs in the surface part A, the side part B, and the center part C by the side of a heater has arisen (FIG. 3 ( In b), a dotted line shows an isotherm). Therefore, after the upper heater 3 is raised and separated from the heating object 5, the conveying belt 1 is alternately moved several times in the front-rear direction, and the heating object 5 on the conveying belt 1 is shaken. As shown in FIG. 3C, the hot water 52 in the packaging pack 53 is agitated by the shaking of the heating object 5, and the temperature distribution in the packaging pack 53 is made uniform. As shown in FIGS. 3A to 3C, when the object 5 to be heated is a noodle 51 such as dry noodles, the object to be heated is arranged so that the core direction of the noodle is perpendicular to the transport line direction. The effect of stirring by swinging the object 5 is great.

  The heated object 5 is heated and stirred, then intermittently sent to the next station, and again subjected to heat treatment.

  FIG. 4 is a graph showing the relationship between the heating time of the heating object 5 and the temperature T. In the heating / conveying apparatus of the present embodiment, the heaters 21 and 31 of the first station are set to the temperature θ1, and the heaters 22 and 32 of the second station are set to the temperature θ2. The heaters 23, 33 and 24, 34 of the third and fourth stations are also set to their own temperatures according to the noodle boiling conditions. In addition, these temperature setting conditions are various and are arbitrary things which are not specifically limited numerically. The heating time t at each station is the same. As shown in FIG. 4, the heating object 5 is heated at a high heating temperature in the first station, and is heated at a temperature lower than that in the previous station in the second station (solid line in the figure). That is, the heating object 5 is given a steep temperature rise gradient at the first station and a gentle temperature rise gradient at the second station. A desired temperature increase gradient is also applied to the third and fourth stations. In the conventional general heating / conveying device indicated by a broken line in the figure, since it is continuously conveyed while being heated, it is difficult to arbitrarily set the temperature gradient regardless of time.

  As described above, the heating / conveying apparatus is configured so that the heating temperature can be set for each station. For example, fine temperature gradient control such as gradual heating after rapid heating on one line or heating pause is performed. Can be applied to object 5. When the heating object 5 is noodle as in the present embodiment, the temperature gradient is controlled sequentially by the heaters 2 and 3 that are individually set in temperature, so that the finish (taste and texture) is good. Boiled noodles can be obtained.

  As described above, according to the heating / conveying device of the present embodiment, the heating object 5 is intermittently fed, and the heating object 5 is heated in direct contact with the heaters 2 and 3 during the interval, and a plurality of heating operations are performed. By setting it as the structure which sets the heating temperature of the containers 2 and 3, respectively, a temperature gradient control can be performed and a heating target object can be heated. Accordingly, foods that require delicate temperature gradient control can be mass-produced with a good finish. Moreover, since this apparatus heats food by dry heating using the heaters 2 and 3, it does not require a large amount of hot water, can be manufactured at low cost, and is environmentally friendly. Further, immediately after the heating at the interval, the conveying belt 1 is moved forward and backward alternately to impart a swing to the heating object 5 and to stir the inside of the heating object 5 so that the temperature distribution of the heating object 5 is uniform. Can be.

  As described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various other ones are assumed. For example, a stopper that prevents the displacement of the heating object 5 during agitation may be provided on the conveyance surface of the conveyance belt 1.

  In the present embodiment, when the heating object 5 is agitated, the conveyor belt 1 is alternately advanced and retracted. In addition, the pair of heaters 2 and 3 that sandwich the heating object 5 are moved up and down, front and rear, Further, the heating object 5 may be agitated by moving in at least one direction of the left and right. In that case, the lower heater 2 is provided with a mechanism for moving up and down in conjunction with the upper heater 3 (not shown). Further, after heating by the pair of heaters 2 and 3, the upper heater 3 is moved up and down (see FIG. 3 (c)), and intermittent pressure is applied to the upper surface of the heating object 5, and the sealed container The water in 53 may be stirred.

  When the heating object 5 is agitated by moving the heaters 2 and 3 up and down, the heating and the agitation may be performed simultaneously.

  In the present heating / conveying device, a cooling means may be provided in place of the heaters 2 and 3, and the heating / conveying device can be used as a cooling / conveying device.

  Moreover, the object to be heated is applicable to foods other than noodles.

In the heating and conveying apparatus of one Embodiment which concerns on this invention, it is a schematic block diagram which shows the state at the time of intermittent feeding. FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a state during heating in the heating / conveying device of FIG. 1. It is sectional drawing for demonstrating temperature equalization by stirring of a heating target object. It is a graph which shows the temperature characteristic of a heating target object.

Explanation of symbols

1: Conveying belt 2, 3: Heater 4: Control means 5: Heating object 9: Clamping mechanism

Claims (6)

In a food production heating / conveying device that heats food production objects while conveying them,
An intermittent feeding mechanism that intermittently feeds the object on a conveying line sequentially;
A plurality of heaters that are provided along the transport line and that heat the object sandwiched between the intermittent feed intervals;
A drive mechanism for providing an operation for sandwiching the object in the plurality of heaters;
A heating / conveying device for food production, comprising a control means for controlling the interval between the intermittent feeding and the sandwiching operation of the heaters and individually controlling the temperature of the plurality of heaters.   The heating / conveying apparatus for food production according to claim 1, wherein the object is a noodle to be boiled and water used for boiling are sealed in a pack.   3. The heating / conveying apparatus for food production according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of heaters includes a pair of heaters that are vertically opposed to each other with a conveyance belt forming the conveyance line interposed therebetween. A heating / conveying device for food production in which one of the heaters forming the above is fixed to the lower side of the conveyor belt and the other is held on the upper side of the conveyor belt so as to be movable up and down via the drive mechanism.   The heating / conveying device for food production according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the intermittent feeding mechanism releases the pinching operation of the heater on the object during the intermittent feeding interval. A heating / conveying device for food production, which has a mechanism for moving the conveying belt that forms the conveying line back and forth to shake the object from the outside.   The heating / conveying device for food production according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the object is moved up and down, front and back via the driving mechanism that sandwiches the heater during the intermittent feeding interval. And a heating / conveying device for food production having a mechanism that swings in at least one direction of right and left.   The heating / conveying device for food production according to claim 3, wherein the heater on the upper side of the pair of heaters is moved several times in the vertical direction intermittently on the upper surface of the object during the intermittent feeding interval. A heating / conveying device for food production having a mechanism for applying a pressing force.

Images