JP2018033408A - Powdered green tea furnace and method for producing unrefined tea using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a powdered green tea furnace in which throughput is increased, further, drying efficiency is improved and production cost is reduced without damaging quality, and a method for producing unrefined tea using the same.SOLUTION: Provided is the powdered green tea furnace comprising: a drying chamber 42; a belt conveyor 43 conveying tea leaves by one step net-shaped belt; a hot wind generation apparatus 44 blowing hot wind from the lower part thereof; a stir-returning part 49 arranged at a charge part to be fed with the tea leaves and uniformizing the overlapping of the tea leaves scattered on the belt; and a stir-feeding part 50 turning over the tea leaves. They include a cylindrical rotary member, a plurality of support shafts radially fixed to the outer circumference thereof in circumference equidistant, and rectangular blades fixed to the tips thereof, in which tip parts are bent so as to be formed into a saw blade shape, a gap between each tip and the belt is set to prescribed dimensions, further, the rotary member of the stir-returning part is confronted with the belt progression direction a, and the rotary member of the stir-feeding part rotates in a direction along the belt progression direction a.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

  BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tea ceremony furnace that places tea leaves (fresh leaves) on a net-like belt conveyor and performs drying with hot air, and a method for producing crude tea using the same, and more particularly, a tea tea furnace with improved drying efficiency and increased processing capacity And a method for producing crude tea using the same.

  Sencha, gyokuro, matcha, bancha, houjicha, etc. are known as crude tea (Japanese tea) produced from tea leaves. Sencha is steamed and dried from shoots. The dried tea is dried with a mortar and then dried into fine powder. Bancha is a tea made from hardened shoots and stems. Roasted tea is roasted with bancha and sencha over high heat. Says the fragrant tea. Moreover, tencha is a kind of steamed green tea that is used as a raw material for green tea and the like.

  When producing rough tea leaves, first, the harvested tea leaves are sifted to remove small foliage and cut leaves compared to normal shoots. The sieved tea leaves are steamed in a short time by a net-cylinder rotary stirring type steamer that can be steamed continuously, and become steamed leaves. The steamed leaves are cooled by, for example, a tea ceremony machine composed of quadruple sprayers.

  Next, the steamed leaves are put into a tea machine to be dried. The tea ceremony machine includes an initial drying chamber and a late drying chamber, and includes, for example, conveyors arranged in three stages, an upper stage, a middle stage, and a lower stage. The steamed leaves are sprayed at the entrance of the lower conveyor of the tea machine and go to the drying process. Thereafter, the steamed leaves that have been dried and discharged from the tea machine are separated into leaves and stems in a tree stem separator. The separated leaves and stems are separately put into a ventilator and finished and dried at an appropriate temperature.

  By the way, the input amount and the degree of drying are in a relationship in which drying is promoted when the input amount is small, and difficult to proceed when the input amount is large. If the drying time is short, the quality is not stable, and if the time is long with the same input amount, the tea leaves on the conveyor overlap due to an increase in the amount of application, and it is difficult to obtain good conditions for both. Since the raw leaf processing capacity per unit of a standard tea machine is about 100 kg per hour, it is necessary to increase the number of tea machine to increase the processing capacity as a producer. In addition, when increasing the processing capacity per unit, it is necessary to increase the temperature of the furnace and increase the speed of the conveyor. However, the water vapor transpiration from the tea leaves stagnates, resulting in dampness and lack of drying, which degrades the quality of the tea.

  In recent years, there has been a demand for rough tea production methods such as processes, simplifications, cost reduction lines, energy savings, etc. corresponding to the changing trend of consumption forms in the stagnation of green tea consumption and the downward trend of tea prices. Under such circumstances, it is an important technique to produce mass-produced matcha tea for confectionery and cooking by reducing production cost and enabling mass production without impairing quality. In the case of strawberry tea, those with little bitter and astringent taste elution are considered good quality while taking advantage of the unique sweetness, but it is difficult to achieve a uniform and stable quality while increasing the production amount of such strawberry tea.

  A tea-tea drying apparatus that solves such problems is known. This tea tea drying device divides the drying chamber into an upper part and a lower part, each of which has a multi-stage endless transport belt (belt conveyor), a prime mover, and a heat exchanger. The upper endless endless belt is made of Teflon (registered trademark) processing, and the upper stage 1 stage and the second stage are operated without inverting the transport band, and the remaining stages In addition, the outer plates and the ducts are heat-insulated, and a far-infrared irradiator can be attached to a necessary place.

  The tea leaves put into the tea drying apparatus contain a considerable amount of water, but in this drying apparatus, the drying chamber is divided into an upper stage and a lower stage, and each is provided with a heat exchanger and a driving part. Since the temperature setting of each heat exchanger and the speed adjustment of the endless conveyance belt can be independently performed, various temperature controls are possible.

  Furthermore, by improving the air permeability and attaching a far-infrared irradiator, the drying efficiency of the tea leaves can be improved by preventing the attachment of tea leaves by the wire mesh structure of the endless transport belt and Teflon processing (see, for example, Patent Document 1). .)

Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 4-080382

  In this conventional tea brown drying device, the tea leaves transported in the endless transport belt are dried by the far infrared rays irradiated from the far infrared irradiation body. However, since the tea leaves are configured not to overlap each other, there is a restriction on the amount that can be put on the endless transport belt of tea leaves, which has been a factor that hinders the reduction of production cost due to mass production.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, enabling mass production by increasing the processing amount per unit time, and improving the drying efficiency, thereby reducing the production cost without impairing the quality. An object of the present invention is to provide a tea ceremony furnace and a method for producing crude tea using the same.

  In order to achieve such an object, the invention described in claim 1 of the present invention includes a drying chamber, a belt conveyor that is disposed in the drying chamber and conveys tea leaves with a net-like belt, and the belt conveyor in the drying chamber. A hot air generator for generating hot air, a charging unit for supplying the tea leaf, a scraping unit disposed in the charging unit for supplying the tea leaf, and a plurality of layers disposed above the belt on the upper stage of the belt conveyor, and stacked And a device for reversing the front and back of the tea leaves.

  Thus, a drying chamber, a belt conveyor that is arranged in the drying chamber and conveys tea leaves with a net-like belt, a hot air generator that generates hot air to the belt conveyor in the drying chamber, a charging unit that supplies tea leaves, A processing unit per unit time is provided with a scraping unit arranged in the input unit for supplying tea leaves and a device arranged in a plurality above the belt on the upper stage of the belt conveyor to invert the front and back of the stacked tea leaves. Can be mass-produced by increasing the number of tea leaves, and the tea leaves can be laminated on the belt evenly, improving the drying efficiency of the tea leaves and reducing the production cost without impairing the quality.

  Preferably, as in the invention described in claim 2, if the hot air generator is disposed between the upper belt and the lower belt of the belt conveyor, the lower side of the conventional belt conveyor The hot air is not obstructed by the lower belt, and the drying efficiency can be prevented from lowering compared to the tea furnace disposed below the belt.

  Further, as in the invention according to claim 3, provided with a scraping unit that is arranged in the charging unit that supplies the tea leaves and that aligns the overlap of the tea leaves sprayed on the belt conveyor with a certain thickness. The tea leaves can be dried efficiently and stably, and hot air escapes from the gaps between the tea leaves, preventing the drying efficiency from decreasing and increasing the processing amount of tea leaves. Can be reduced.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the scraping portion and the reversing device are each a cylindrical rotating member that is rotatably attached via a bracket, and a radial circumference around the outer periphery of the rotating member. A plurality of support shafts fixed at equal intervals, and a member fixed to the tip of the support shaft; a clearance between the tip of the member and the upper belt is set to a predetermined size; If the rotating member of the return portion rotates in a direction opposite to the traveling direction of the upper belt and the rotating member of the reversing device rotates in the traveling direction of the upper belt, the tea leaves are stacked on the belt evenly and uniformly. It is possible to increase the processing amount of tea leaves and improve the drying efficiency of tea leaves.

  Among the present inventions, the invention described in claim 5 is a method for producing crude tea using the tea ceremony furnace described in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the oxidase of the tea leaves added is used. A step of inactivating, a cooling step of cooling the tea leaves supplied from the step of inactivating the oxidase, a drying step of drying the tea leaves in the wood tea furnace after the cooling step, and the tea leaves And a finishing drying process to finish rough tea.

  Thus, in the method for producing crude tea using the tea ceremony furnace according to any one of claims 1 to 4, a step of inactivating the oxidase of the input tea leaves, Since it has a cooling process for cooling the tea leaves supplied from the deactivation process, a drying process for drying the tea leaves in a tea-tea oven after this cooling process, and a finishing drying process for finishing the tea leaves into rough tea In addition, it is possible to provide a method for producing crude tea that increases the throughput per unit time and enables mass production, improves the drying efficiency, and reduces the production cost without impairing the quality.

  In addition, as in the invention described in claim 6, if the tea leaves are subjected to a pressing process between the cooling step and the drying step, the tea leaves receive a repulsive force and are fragmented. In addition, it is possible to apply a striking pressure to make the water surface uniformly float on the surface and to improve the extraction rate.

  According to a seventh aspect of the invention, a step of separating a stem portion and a leaf portion of the tea leaf of the drying step by a tree stem separator between the drying step and the finish drying step, and the stem by wind force If you have a stem and leaf sorting process to sort the leaves and leaves, the leaves will be too dry by separating the stems that have more water content than the leaves and are difficult to dry Can be prevented and the drying time can be shortened.

  The tea ceremony furnace according to the present invention includes a drying chamber, a belt conveyor that is disposed in the drying chamber and conveys tea leaves by a net-like belt, a hot air generator that generates hot air to the belt conveyor in the drying chamber, and the tea leaves A feeding unit that feeds the tea leaves, a scraping unit that is arranged in the feeding unit that feeds the tea leaves, and a device that is arranged above the belt on the upper stage of the belt conveyor and reverses the front and back of the stacked tea leaves. Therefore, it is possible to increase the throughput per unit time to enable mass production, and evenly spread tea leaves on the belt evenly, improving the drying efficiency of tea leaves, and reducing the production cost Can be reduced.

  In addition, the crude tea production method according to the present invention is a crude tea production method using the tea ceremony furnace according to the present invention, the step of inactivating the oxidase of the input tea leaves, and the deactivation of the oxidase A cooling process for cooling the tea leaves supplied from the process, a drying process for drying the tea leaves with the tea-tea furnace after the cooling process, and a finishing drying process for finishing the tea leaves into rough tea. Therefore, it is possible to provide a crude tea production method that increases the throughput per unit time and enables mass production, improves the drying efficiency, and reduces the production cost without impairing the quality.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the process of the rough tea manufacturing method which concerns on this invention. It is a side view which shows the schematic of the tea steaming apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a principal part side view of FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the steamed tea leaf processing machine which concerns on this invention. It is the VV sectional view taken on the line of FIG. (A) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the coffee tea furnace concerning this invention, (b) is VI-VI arrow line view of (a). (A) is the principal part enlarged view of the A section of FIG. 6, (b) is the VII arrow directional view of (a), (c) is the principal part enlarged view of the B section of FIG. (A) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the stem separator which concerns on this invention, (b) is a VIII arrow directional view of (a). It is the side view and front view which show the wind power sorter which concerns on this invention. (A) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the schematic of the drying furnace used for the finish drying process based on this invention, (b) is a side view of (a).

  A drying chamber, a belt conveyor that is arranged in one stage in the drying chamber and conveys tea leaves by a net-like belt, and is disposed between an upper belt and a lower belt of the belt conveyor, below the upper belt A hot air generator for generating hot air from the top, a feeding unit for supplying the tea leaves, a scraping unit for aligning the overlap of the tea leaves sprayed on the belt conveyor with a certain thickness, and the upper stage A reversing device for reversing the front and back of the tea leaves stacked and laminated above the belt, and a cylindrical rotating member in which the scraping unit and the reversing device are rotatably attached via a bracket; A plurality of support shafts that are radially fixed on the outer periphery of the rotating member, and a support member that is detachably fixed to the tip of the support shaft. Where And a blade having a tip formed in a saw blade shape, and a clearance between the tip of the blade and the upper belt is set to a predetermined size, and the scraping is performed. The rotating member of the part rotates in a direction opposite to the traveling direction of the upper belt, and the rotating member of the reversing device rotates in a direction along the traveling direction of the upper belt.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing steps of a method for producing crude tea according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view showing a schematic view of a tea steaming apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a side view of the main part of FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a steamed tea leaf processing machine according to the present invention, FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line VV of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6A is a longitudinal sectional view showing a tea tea furnace according to the present invention. , (B) is a view taken in the direction of arrows VI-VI in (a), FIG. 7 (a) is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 6A, (b) is a view taken in the direction of arrows VII in (a), c) is an enlarged view of the main part of B part of FIG. 6, FIG. 8 (a) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing a stem separator according to the present invention, (b) is a view taken along arrow VIII of (a), FIG. 9 is a side view and a front view showing a wind power sorter according to the present invention, FIG. 10 (a) is a longitudinal sectional view showing a schematic view of a drying furnace used in a finish drying process according to the present invention, and (b). These are side views of (a).

  FIG. 1 shows a process of a method for producing crude tea according to the present invention. In an oxidase deactivation process, for example, tea leaves introduced from a leaf feeder are heated and softened in a steamer. It passes through the steamer main body that steams by applying physical and chemical changes, and while the steamed leaves supplied from the steamer main body are continuously conveyed by the net conveyor, cold air or hot air, etc. A cooling process in which the tea leaves are cooled, followed by a punching process in which the tea leaves are treated, and a drying process in which the tea leaves are placed on a mesh belt conveyor and dried with hot air.

  The tea leaves that have undergone the drying process are subjected to a slicing (tree stem separation) process in which the stem part and the leaf part are separated by a tree stem separator, and then a tree stem sorting process in which the stem part and the leaf part are sorted by wind power. Part is finished in rough tea in the finish drying process. On the other hand, the stem portion separated in the vine cutting process and the tree stalk selection process is finished into a rough tea in the finish drying process of another route.

  The tea-making steamer 1 has a steamer body 2 and a cooler 3 as shown in FIG. The steamer main body 2 has a movable frame 5 that is rotatably supported with respect to the machine frame 4, and a steam cylinder 6 including a fixed cylinder 6 a and a rotary cylinder 6 b is supported on the movable frame 5. The stationary drum 6 a of the steam drum 6 is provided with a charging port 8 to which a leaf feeder 7 is connected and a steam supply unit 10 to which a steam generator (not shown) is connected through a steam pipe 9. Further, a stirring shaft 11 is disposed in the steam cylinder 6 in the axial direction, and a large number of stirring blades (not shown) protrude from the stirring shaft 11. A drive mechanism 12 that rotates the rotating drum 6 b and the stirring shaft 11 is disposed on one end side of the machine casing 4. The steam drum 6 has a discharge port 13 on the rotary drum 6b side, and a sink plate 14 and the like for collecting leaves and stems falling downward from the steam drum 6 are disposed below the steam drum 6. The tea steaming apparatus 1 is not limited to such a tea steaming device 1, but is, for example, a cylindrical member that is rotatable around an axis, and has a side face that is hermetically sealed to receive tea leaves from an inlet at one end. Uses a tea leaf stirrer that has a structure that allows superheated steam to be sent into the blue killing drum, and a burner that can send tea leaves to the outlet at the other end and a burner that can heat the outer peripheral surface of the blue killing drum. You may do it.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the cooler 3 includes a machine frame 15 having a substantially triangular shape when viewed from the side. The machine frame 15 includes a net conveyor 16 for transporting steamed leaves T and a lower fan for scattering and cooling. 17 and an upper fan 18 for cooling are disposed. The net conveyor 16 is made of, for example, a stainless steel wire mesh, and is wound around a plurality of sprockets 20 a to 20 g provided in the machine casing 15. The sprocket 20a is connected to the motor 22 via the chain 21, and the rotation of the motor 22 causes the sprocket 20a and the like to rotate, so that the net conveyor 16 circulates in the direction of arrow A. A hopper 23 is disposed at a position where the steamed leaves T are supplied to the net conveyor 16.

  The lower fan 17 disposed in the machine casing 15 has a discharge port 17 a communicating with a scattering chamber 24 formed by fixing a side plate to the machine casing 15. The scattering chamber 24 has an upper side opened, and a bottom side and a front side (left side in FIG. 3) are formed by the net conveyor 16. The cool air discharged from the lower fan 17 flows into the scattering chamber 24, and most of the air is exhausted from the net conveyor 16.

  An upper fan 18 is disposed on the downstream side of the net conveyor 16. The discharge port 18 a of the upper fan 18 is connected to the scattering chamber 24, and the bottom thereof is connected to the wind tunnel 25 formed by the net conveyor 16. The cool air discharged from the upper fan 18 is blown to the net conveyor 16 at the bottom of the wind tunnel 25 and is exhausted from the exhaust port 26 provided at the bottom. The upper fan 18 and the lower fan 17 are connected to a motor 27, respectively.

  Next, the operation of the tea making apparatus 1 will be described. First, by operating a control device (not shown), the driving mechanism 12 of the steamer main body 2 is operated to operate the steamer main body 2. When the steamer main body 2 is operated, the tea leaves t are fed into the steamer 6 from the feeder 7 through the insertion port 8, and are transported through the steamer 6 in an elapsed time of several tens of seconds to several minutes (FIG. 2). reference). During this transfer, the tea leaves t are physically moved by the heating by the steam supplied from the steam supply unit 10, the rotating action of the rotary drum 6 b, and the striking pressure and stirring by the rotating action of the stirring blade protruding from the stirring shaft 11. Steamed while undergoing chemical and chemical changes.

  On the other hand, in the cooler 3, the motors 22 and 27 are rotated by the control signal of the control panel, the net conveyor 16 is circulated, and the lower fan 17 and the upper fan 18 are operated, and the discharge ports 17a and 18a are operated. Cold air is discharged from each.

  Steamed leaves T steamed by the steamer main body 2 and discharged from the discharge port 13 of the steamer 6 are continuously supplied onto the net conveyor 16 via the hopper 23 of the cooler 3.

  The steamed leaves T move on the net conveyor 16 in the direction of the scattering chamber 24 and fall into the scattering chamber 24 at the position of the sprocket 20e. At the time of the fall, the steamed leaves T are scattered and cooled by the cold air discharged from the lower fan 17, and most of them fall down on the net conveyor 16 in the scattering chamber 24 and are transported again. When the steamed leaves T in the scattering chamber 24 are conveyed and flow into the wind tunnel 25, they are blown onto the net conveyor 16 by the cool air discharged from the upper fan 18 and further cooled.

  The steamed leaves T cooled by the lower fan 17 and the upper fan 18 are transported (not shown) such as a vibrating conveyor provided below the discharge end 34 from the discharge end 34 provided at the right end of the machine frame 15. And is sent to the next punching process.

  4 and 5 show the steamed tea leaf processor, and reference numeral 35 denotes a rotating drum, which is the main body of the steamed tea leaf processor. The rotating drum 35 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape, and a steaming tea leaf inlet 31 is formed at the tip and the end is opened so that the steaming tea leaf can be continuously pressed. It is configured. The rotary shaft 36 has a screw 37 attached to the front half and a stirring blade 38 attached to the rear half in the body. By rotating the rotating shaft 36, the steamed tea leaves introduced from the insertion port 31 can be pushed backward and pressed. Several ridges (duck) 40 project from the inner wall surface of the cylinder, and the swirling of steamed tea leaves in the cylinder is restricted.

  Next, an operation for punching steamed tea leaves using the steamed tea leaf processing machine shown in FIG. 4 will be described. First, while rotating the rotating shaft 36, the steamed tea leaves that have been steamed according to a conventional method are cooled to near room temperature, and then charged into the rotating drum 35 through the charging port 31. Then, the steamed tea leaves are efficiently sent to the rear of the barrel without damaging the tea leaves by the screw 37, stirred by the stirring blades 38, softened, and discharged from the end of the barrel to the outside of the machine.

  The steamed leaves are broken into pieces by receiving a strong striking pressure between the ridges 40 and the stirring blades 38. By this hitting step, it is possible to apply a hitting pressure to the tea leaves to uniformly lift the moisture on the surface and to improve the extraction rate.

  Next, the drying process according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 6A includes a drying chamber 42, a belt conveyor 43, and a hot air generator 44. At the entrance (right side in the figure) of the drying chamber 42, a tea leaf feeding part 45 is arranged, and at the outlet (left side in the figure), a tea leaf take-out part 45a is arranged. In addition, a tea machine 46 is disposed in front of the charging unit 45.

  Next, the steamed leaves are put into the drying chamber 42 to be dried. Specifically, after being transferred to the belt conveyor 43 of the charging unit 45 of the tea ceremony machine 46, it is cooled by the blower 47 and dew is removed. The powder tea machine 46 is a type of cooler that uses hot air or hot air (about 130 ° C.) for the tea leaves and cools the tea leaves by the heat of vaporization when the moisture on the surface of the steamed leaves evaporates. Good.

  The belt conveyor 43 is arranged in one stage in the drying chamber 42 and conveys tea leaves, which are to-be-dried materials containing a lot of moisture, in a wide-spread state with a mesh belt 43a. The steamed leaves are evenly sprayed from the tea ceremony machine 46 onto the belt 43a of the feeding unit 45. The belt conveyor 43 includes an endlessly formed synthetic resin belt 43a such as polyester, a drive mechanism 43b that circulates and drives the belt 43a, and a plurality of guide portions that change the direction of the belt 43a within a desired space. 43c and a plurality of tensioners 43d for applying a desired tension to the belt 43a. The belt 43a may be a net made of a material made of a material that can be used in a high temperature environment in the drying chamber 42 in addition to the synthetic resin, and may be, for example, a stainless steel wire mesh.

  The hot air generator 44 shown in FIG. 6B is disposed separately from the drying chamber 42 and is connected to the side of the drying chamber 42 through a duct (wind guide) 44a. The duct 44a shown in FIG. 6A is arranged between the belt 43a on the upper stage (conveying section) of the belt conveyor 43 and the belt 43e on the lower stage (returning section) with a gap in the conveying direction, and the drying chamber 42 Inside, hot air is supplied from the lower side of the upper belt 43a of the belt conveyor 43 to the upper side. As shown in FIG. 6B, the hot air generator 44 includes a trumpet-shaped air supply duct 48 extending to the vicinity of the upper belt 43a. The air supply duct 48 blows hot air from below the upper belt 43a. Heavy oil is used as the heat source, but in addition to this, a combustible gas, that is, a gas such as natural gas, propane gas, or city gas can be exemplified. For example, in a hot air generating furnace, heavy oil is burned by a burner or the like, and air heated by a heat exchanger is supplied to a duct 44a and an air supply duct 48 by a blower (not shown). Moreover, in the case of gas, hot air is created by mixing air into the flame with a blower.

  Here, in this embodiment, since the supply port (air supply duct 48) of the hot air generator 44 is disposed between the upper belt 43a and the lower belt 43e of the one-stage belt conveyor 43, the conventional art Compared with the tea ceremony furnace disposed below the lower belt, the hot air is not hindered by the lower belt, and the drying efficiency can be prevented from decreasing.

  At the front end portion (right side in the figure) of the feeding portion 45, a scraping portion 49 for arranging the tea leaves spread on the belt conveyor 43 to have a constant thickness is disposed. As shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 7A, the scraping portion 49 is disposed above the upper belt 43 a of the belt conveyor 43, and is rotatable through a rolling bearing 52 disposed on the bracket 51. An attached cylindrical rotating member 53, a plurality (four in this case) of support shafts 54, 54 fixed to the outer periphery of the rotating member 53 radially and equally, and a tip of the support shaft 54 And blades 55, 55 that are detachably fixed with screws or the like. Although the number of support shafts 54 is four here, the number is not limited to this, and may be three or five. That is, the number of rotations is set according to the number of rotations, such as three when the rotation number of the rotation member 53 is high and five when the rotation number is low.

  The blade 55 is formed in a rectangular shape from a steel plate, and its tip is bent at a predetermined inclination angle α on the cross section. Here, the inclination angle α is set so that the intersection angle between the tip of the blade 55 and the conveying surface of the upper belt 43a is in the range of 40 ° to 50 °. Further, as shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 7B, the tip of the blade 55 is formed in a saw blade shape, and the gap S between the blade tip and the upper belt 43a is such that two to three tea leaves overlap. Set to dimensions. This gap S, in combination with the inclination angle α of the tip of the blade 55, is related to the efficiency and processing amount of tea leaf turning upside down (reversing the front and back), which will be described later. The tip of the blade 55 may not be formed in a saw blade shape but may be flattened. However, by forming the blade 55 in a saw blade shape, the tea leaves can be widely and evenly stacked on the upper belt 43a. Can be increased, the reversal efficiency can be improved, and the drying efficiency of tea leaves can be improved.

  In the present embodiment, the upper belt 43a of the belt conveyor 43 is configured to advance counterclockwise (from the right to the left in the figure) as shown by arrows A in FIGS. The rotating member 53 also rotates counterclockwise so as to face the traveling direction of the upper belt 43a.

  The pile of tea leaves placed on the upstream side (the right side in the figure) of the upper belt 43a is repeatedly scraped back by the blade 55 as the upper belt 43a advances, and only the tea leaves stacked at a predetermined thickness are removed. The remaining state is conveyed downstream (left side in the figure). At this time, since the tea leaves are uniformly placed in a state where the tea leaves are laminated without gaps on the entire surface of the upper belt 43a, in the drying process described later, the gap between the tea leaves is caused by hot air blown from below the upper belt 43a. The scavenging unit 49 can efficiently and stably dry the tea leaves, and can increase the processing amount of the tea leaves that are continuously fed, thereby reducing the production cost. Can be reduced.

  Next, tea leaves are conveyed to the drying chamber 42 of the tea-tea furnace 41 by the belt conveyor 43. Here, a plurality of reversing devices (squeezing units) 50 are arranged at equal intervals on the upper belt 43a. (See FIG. 6). As shown in FIG. 7C, the reversing device 50 basically has the same configuration as the scraping unit 49 described above.

  The reversing device 50 is disposed oppositely above the upper belt 43 a of the belt conveyor 43, and has a cylindrical rotating member 53 that is rotatably attached to the bracket 51, and a circumferentially equidistant distribution on the outer periphery of the rotating member 53. And a plurality of support shafts 54 and 54 fixed to the blades and blades 55 and 55 fixed to the tips of the support shafts 54.

  Similar to the scraping portion 49 described above, the gap between the tip of the blade 55 and the upper belt 43a is set to a predetermined size. Here, the rotation direction of the rotation member 53 is set clockwise along the traveling direction of the upper belt 43a. The tea leaves placed on the upstream side (right side in the figure) of the upper belt 43a are repeatedly scraped back and up by the blade 55 as the upper belt 43a advances. The front and back sides of the tea leaves stacked on the belt 43a with a predetermined thickness are reversed, and the tea leaves are evenly placed on the entire surface of the upper belt 43a without gaps. The tea leaves sequentially pass through these reversing devices 50, are dried, and are conveyed downstream (left side in the figure).

  By adopting such a configuration, the hot air does not escape from the gap between the tea leaves due to the hot air blown from below the upper belt 43a, and the tea leaves can be dried efficiently and stably. In addition, it is possible to increase the processing amount of tea leaves by suppressing the escape of hot air from the gaps between the tea leaves and reducing the drying efficiency, thereby reducing the production cost.

  The tea leaves that have passed through the drying process are sent to the slicing process. The water content of the leaves after the tea machine has been dried is approximately 10%, which is almost dry, while the stem part has a higher water content than the leaves, and the drying is difficult to proceed, leaving 100 to 130% of moisture. Therefore, it is necessary to continue drying. However, when dried in the state as it is, the leaf portion is dried too much, so in this slicing process, the stem portion and the leaf portion are separated by the tree stalk separator.

  FIG. 8 shows a tree stem separator 56 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8 (b), the tree stalk separator 56 includes a main body cylinder 57 extending in the axial direction, a semi-cylindrical metal mesh 59 fixed to the main body cylinder 57, and rotation in the metal mesh 59. The rotary shaft 60 is mainly provided.

  As shown in FIG. 8A, a plurality (four in this case) of screw blades 61 are fixed to the outer periphery of the rotating shaft 60 at equal circumferences. The tip of the screw blade 61 is opposed to the inner periphery of the wire mesh 59 via a predetermined radial clearance. Further, both ends of the rotary shaft 60 are formed to have a small diameter, and are rotatably supported by rolling bearings 62 and 62. And one end part is connected with the electric motor M, and a rotational force is provided. The rolling bearing 62 is attached to the main body cylinder 57 so as to be adjustable in height, and the center of the rotary shaft 60 can be easily adjusted. Further, the size of the mesh of the wire mesh 59 is set to a size through which the tea leaves pass. That is, the tea leaves passing through the mesh are discharged from the lower part of the main body trunk 57 and sent to the next process. On the other hand, the large stem that has not passed through the mesh is discharged from the bucket 64.

  Reference numeral 63 denotes a hopper disposed in the upper part of the main body drum 57. By introducing the tea leaves into the hopper 63, the tea leaves rotate while being caught by the screw blades 61 of the rotary shaft 60, and do not stay in the axial direction (in the figure). To the left). At this time, the tea leaves are separated into a large stem portion, a small stem portion, and a leaf portion by a screw blade 61 that rotates in the wire mesh 59, and the small stem portion and the leaf portion that have passed through the mesh fall, and the mesh The large stem portion that has not passed through is taken out into a bucket 64 disposed in the opening of the main body trunk 57. The small stem part and leaf part that have passed through the mesh are conveyed to the next process, the tree stem selection process.

  FIG. 9 shows a wind power sorter 65 used in the tree stem sorting process, which includes a main body 66, an input conveyor 58, a bucket conveyor 67 as a conveying means, a fan 68 as a blowing means, an air guide 69, and the like. A hood 70 that mainly accommodates a fan 68 and an air guide 69 is provided. An upper chute 71 is connected to the hood 70 to guide and take out the selected tea leaves. Moreover, the stem discharge screw 72 is arrange | positioned in the lower part of the air guide 69, and the separated stem is moved to the stem discharge port 73 side with a screw.

  The main body 66 includes a charging hopper 74 as a carry-in port, and the tea leaves are input to the charging hopper 74 from the rear chute 58a by rotating the charging conveyor 58 in the forward direction. For example, by introducing medium fire tea or the like into the charging hopper 74, a series of sorting described later is performed. The bucket conveyor 67 is inclined up by a predetermined angle from a position below the discharge port of the charging hopper 74 and extends to the front of the hood 70, whereby the tea leaves carried by the charging hopper 74 reach the hood 70 having a predetermined height. It is to be transported. Note that a part of the cover 75 of the hood 70 is made of a wire mesh, and is configured such that the air blown by the fan 68 is removed from the body 66.

  The tea leaves transported by the bucket conveyor 67 are transported to the end of the bucket conveyor 67 while being leveled to a constant thickness by the leveling tool 77, and sequentially reach the end of the bucket conveyor 67. Be dropped. On the other hand, the air guide 69 located below the end of the bucket conveyor 67 communicates with the fan 68. Thus, when the fan 68 is driven, it is possible to blow air toward the tea leaves falling from the air guide 69 from the end of the bucket conveyor 67. Of the tea leaves mixed with leaves and stems, only the leaves move along the air guide 69 and are discharged at the main tea discharge port 76 via the hood 70 and the upper chute 71 where the wind pressure is applied. .

  Specifically, the leaves and stems dropped from the end of the bucket conveyor 67 fall along the fall path C in a state where they are not blown by the fan 68. It is blown by wind power, moves along the sorting path D to the hood 70 and the upper chute 71 side, and is discharged at the main tea discharge port 76. On the other hand, the stem part falls along the fall path C like the leaf part in a state where it does not receive airflow, but since the weight of the single body is heavier than the leaf part, even when it receives airflow, Again, it falls along the fall path C. It should be noted that the state of the stem at the stem outlet 73 and the state of the leaf at the tea outlet 76 are verified. On the contrary, when many leaves are mixed in the stem outlet 73, the separation performance of the stem can be adjusted as appropriate by increasing the rotational speed of the fan 68. In addition, when it is desired to discharge the leaf portion and the stem portion together without temporarily selecting them, the rotation speed of the fan 68 is set to the maximum vicinity, and the leaf portion and the stem portion are discharged to the main tea discharge port 76 together. It is also possible.

  Next, the operation of the wind power sorter 65 having the above-described configuration will be described. First, when making tea leaves that do not require sorting between the leaf part and the stem part like the most tea, only the bucket conveyor 67 is driven without driving the fan 68 and the scraper 77. Then, the tea leaves (medium tea) are filled in the charging hopper 74, and the tea leaves are dropped in front of the hood 70 by the bucket conveyor 67. The dropped tea leaves are not sorted by the fan 68 and fall along the fall path C without sorting. When the input conveyor 58 is installed as in the present embodiment, the function of the main body 66 is stopped when the leaf portion and the stem portion are not sorted, that is, the bucket conveyor 67 and the fan 68 are not driven and input is performed. The conveyor 58 can be rotated in the reverse direction, the cover 75 can be removed and the front chute 58b can be attached, and the tea leaves and stems can be directly fed into the hood 70 from the front chute 58b. The introduced tea leaves are transferred to the next process by a leaf conveyor (not shown). By adopting such a wind sorter 65, there is no need for a tea leaf detour line when sorting is not necessary, and it is possible to reduce the equipment cost of the tea production line, and the installation area is smaller than the processing capacity. The separation between the parts and the optimum processing amount can be easily performed.

  The leaf part and the stem part selected in the tree stalk selection process are each dried in the finish drying process, and the leaf part is finished into rough tea. The finish drying step is performed by a drying furnace 80 shown in FIG. In this drying furnace 80, as shown in FIG. 10A, a drying chamber 81 and a plurality of (here, three) belt conveyors 82, 82, 82 are disposed inside the drying chamber 81, respectively. ing. The belt conveyor 82 is driven by a drive mechanism 84 with a chain (not shown) wound around sprockets 83 and 83. The belt conveyor 82 is formed in an endless shape, for example, a belt 82a made of a synthetic resin such as polyester, a plurality of guide portions 82b and 82b for guiding the belt 82a in a desired space, and a desired belt 82a. A plurality of tensioners 82c for applying the tension of The belt 82a may be a net made of a material made of a material that can be used even in a high temperature environment in the drying chamber 81 other than the synthetic resin, and may be, for example, a stainless steel wire mesh.

  An exhaust device 85 and a tea powder collecting device (cyclone) 78 are provided in the upper portion of the drying chamber 81. Reference numeral 86 denotes an input unit for supplying the tea leaves conveyed from the previous process to the input port 87 of the drying chamber 81, and is a leveling device for adjusting the tea layer thickness of the input tea leaves. 88 is provided.

  The hot air generator 89 is disposed separately from the drying furnace 80 and is connected to a side portion of the drying furnace 80 through an air guide 90 as shown in FIG. Reference numeral 91 in FIG. 10A denotes an outlet, and the dried tea leaves are discharged to the transport device 92. A vibrating conveyor is used for the transporter 92, and several units are connected in series according to the layout of the factory, and dried tea leaves are sent to the next process.

  Next, the operation mode of the drying furnace 80 will be described. The tea leaves taken out from the previous process are put into the drying chamber 81 from the charging port 87 by the charging machine 86. The tea leaves are transported on the forward surface indicated by the arrow of the belt conveyor 82, eventually fall on the backward surface and are transported, and then fall on the belt conveyor 82 at the next stage. This is repeated, and the inside of the drying chamber 81 is transferred to the outlet 91. On the other hand, the hot air generator 89 uses gas or heavy oil as fuel and burns with a gun type burner. The furnace tube heated to high temperature by combustion and the air sent by the fan to the combustion path are heat-exchanged to become hot air, and are supplied into the drying chamber 81 through the air guide 90. The tea leaves that have been dried by hot air are discharged from the outlet 91 and transported to the next process by the transporter 92.

  The embodiment of the present invention has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and is merely an example, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Of course, the scope of the present invention is indicated by the description of the scope of claims, and further, the equivalent meanings described in the scope of claims and all modifications within the scope of the scope of the present invention are included. Including.

  The tea-tea furnace according to the present invention can be applied to a drying process for producing crude tea in which tea leaves are placed on a mesh belt conveyor and dried with hot air.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Tea-making steamer 2 Steamer main body 3 Cooler 4, 15 Machine frame 5 Movable frame 6 Steamer 6a Fixed barrel 6b Rotating drum 7 Feeder 8, 31 Feed port 9 Steam pipe 10 Steam supply part 11 Stirring shafts 12, 43b, 84 Drive mechanism 13 Discharge port 14 Flow plate 16 Net conveyor 17 Lower fan 17a Lower fan discharge port 18 Upper fan 18a Upper fan discharge ports 20a to 20g, 83 Sprocket 21, 31 Chain 22, 27 Motor 23, 63 Hopper 24 Scattering Chamber 25 Wind tunnel 26 Exhaust port 35 Shaft drum 36 Rotating shaft 37 Screw 38 Stirring blade 40 Projection (tag)
41 碾 Tea Furnace 42 Drying Chambers 43, 82 Belt Conveyors 43a, 43e Belts 43c, 82b Guides 43d, 82c Tensioners 44, 89 Hot Air Generator 44a Duct 45 Input Portion 45a Extraction Portion 46 Tea Distributor 47 Blower 48 Air Supply Duct 49 Return unit 50 Inversion device (skid feed unit)
51 Brackets 52 and 62 Rolling bearing 53 Rotating member 54 Support shaft 55 Blade 56 Tree trunk separator 57 Main body barrel 58 Conveyor 58a Rear chute 58b Front chute 59 Wire mesh 60 Rotating shaft 61 Screw blade 64 Bucket 65 Wind sorter 66 Wind sorter Main body 67 Bucket conveyor 68 Fan 69 Air guide 70 Hood 71 Upper chute 72 Stem portion discharge screw 73 Stem portion discharge port 74 Input hopper 75 Cover 76 Main tea discharge port 77 Scraper 78 Tea powder collecting device (cyclone)
80 Drying furnace 81 Drying chamber 82a Belt 85 Exhaust device 86 Input section 87 Input port 88 Scraping and leveling device 90 Air guide 91 Outlet 92 Transport machine M Electric motor S Clearance between blade and belt t, T Tea leaf, steamed leaf α blade Tilt angle of tip

Claims (7)

A drying chamber;
A belt conveyor that is placed in the drying chamber and conveys tea leaves with a net-like belt;
A hot air generator for generating hot air to the belt conveyor in the drying chamber;
An input unit for supplying the tea leaves;
A scraping unit disposed in the charging unit for supplying the tea leaves;
A tea-tea oven comprising: a plurality of devices disposed above the belt on the upper stage of the belt conveyor and inverting the front and back of the stacked tea leaves.   2. The tea ceremony furnace according to claim 1, wherein the hot air generator is disposed between an upper belt and a lower belt of the belt conveyor.   The tea-tea furnace of Claim 1 provided with the scraping part which arrange | positions the overlap of the said tea leaves sprayed on the said belt conveyor to fixed thickness.   A cylindrical rotating member in which the scraping unit and the reversing device are rotatably attached via a bracket, a plurality of support shafts fixed radially and equally on the outer periphery of the rotating member, and A member fixed to the tip of the support shaft, and a clearance between the tip of the member and the upper belt is set to a predetermined size, and the rotating member of the scraping portion is a traveling direction of the upper belt 2, and the rotating member of the reversing device rotates in the traveling direction of the upper belt. A method for producing crude tea using the tea ceremony furnace according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A process of inactivating the oxidase of the tea leaves,
A cooling step for cooling the tea leaves supplied from the step of inactivating the oxidase,
After this cooling step, a drying step of drying the tea leaves by the wood tea furnace,
And a finish drying process for finishing the tea leaves into rough tea.   The method for producing crude tea according to claim 5, further comprising a step of pressing the tea leaves between the cooling step and the drying step. A step of separating a stem portion and a leaf portion of the tea leaf of the drying step by a tree stem separator between the drying step and the finish drying step;
The method for producing crude tea according to claim 5, further comprising: a tree stalk selection step of selecting the stem part and the leaf part by wind power.

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