JP2019033716A - Tea-leaf hot-air processor - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a tea-leaf hot-air processor capable of performing tea processing excellently without burning tea leaves.SOLUTION: As one aspect, a tea-leaf hot-air processor is provided with a control means for confirming the amount of tea leaves in a processing cylinder, and for changing setting by the amount of tea leaves, which is constituted of the cylindrical processing cylinder having one end as an input port for tea leaves, and the other end as a take-out port for tea leaves, a driving means for rotating the processing cylinder, a crosspiece provided inside the processing cylinder, and a hot-air supply means for blowing hot air from one end of the processing cylinder.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus for efficiently removing moisture from tea leaves by hot air.

  In conventional tea making lines, tea leaves after killing are dried at a constant rate in order to pursue the taste, color and shape of tea products. Therefore, in order not to dry up, the tea leaves are rubbed in, the internal moisture of the tea leaves is pushed to the surface, and the tea leaves are dried while keeping the temperature at about 35 to 40 degrees.

  In recent years, the production of low-cost tea products has been considered, and there is a demand for drying tea leaves in a short time.

  Apparatuses such as Patent Documents 1 and 2 have been developed by the present applicant. The apparatus of patent document 1 is an apparatus for killing fresh tea leaves, and is an apparatus intended to deactivate oxidase of fresh tea leaves. Therefore, it was fresh tea leaves to be put into this Patent Document 1. In the apparatus of Patent Document 2, the tea leaves to be introduced were not green tea leaves but killed tea leaves.

JP 2013-34405 A JP 2006-152774 A

  Since the apparatus of patent document 1, 2 dries a tea leaf with a hot hot air, the setting temperature of a hot air becomes quite high temperature of 150-400 degree | times. Originally, the set temperature of the hot air is based on the premise that a suitable amount of tea leaves are put into the processing cylinder and the tea leaves are processed continuously. If the amount of tea leaves in the processing cylinder is small, the balance between the hot air temperature and the amount of tea leaves is poor. It was in a state, not a product, and had to be disposed of. Furthermore, when burnt tea leaves are mixed into the tea product, the entire mixed tea product cannot be used as a product. The amount of tea leaves in the processing cylinder decreases when tea leaves start to be introduced or after all tea leaves have been introduced.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a tea leaf hot air treatment apparatus that can produce tea without burning the tea leaves.

The first means of the present invention comprises a cylindrical processing cylinder having one end for tea leaf inlet and the other end for tea leaf outlet, driving means for rotating the processing cylinder, and a rail provided inside the processing cylinder. And a hot air supply means for blowing hot air from one end of the processing cylinder, and a control means for checking the amount of tea leaves in the processing cylinder and changing the setting according to the amount of tea leaves is provided. Tea leaves hot air treatment equipment.
According to a second means of the present invention, in the first means, a tea leaf confirmation means is provided in the vicinity of the inlet, and the setting of the control means is changed depending on the presence or absence of tea leaves.
The third means of the present invention provides a predetermined confirmation time before changing the setting in the second means.
The fourth means of the present invention changes the setting of the hot air temperature in the first, second or third means.

  With the tea leaf hot air treatment device of the present invention, when the amount of tea leaves in the processing cylinder is small, the hot air temperature is set so that the tea leaves are not overdried. Therefore, a good tea leaf can be produced and a stable tea product can be produced.

FIG. 1 is a partial front sectional view of a tea leaf hot air processing apparatus. FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a flowchart of the tea leaf hot air processing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the state of the tea leaves in the processing cylinder from when the tea leaf hot air processing apparatus of the present invention is turned on to when the power is turned off.

  The processing cylinder 1 is provided with an insertion port through which the tea leaves 20 are introduced from one end, and the tea leaves 20 are continuously and quantitatively introduced into the insertion port by the introduction device 3. The processing cylinder 1 is rotated by driving means 5. A hot air blowing pipe 22 is inserted as one of hot air supply means 7 at one end of the processing cylinder 1, and the hot air blowing pipe 22 is a tube having an arbitrary length and is made of a breathable member. Blow into. The shape of the hot air blowing tube 22 is not limited to this, and may be other shapes such as a device in which hot air is blown from the tip of the tube or a portion of the tube made of a breathable member. The hot air supplied to the hot air blowing tube 22 is generated by the hot air generator 21, and the hot air generator 21 and the hot air blowing tube 22 are connected by the hot air supply tube 23. The hot air blowing pipe 22 is fixed to the processing cylinder 1 by a fastener (not shown) and rotates together with the processing cylinder 1. A thermometer (not shown) is provided in the hot air supply pipe 23 to monitor and adjust the temperature of the hot air. The hot air generator 21 can supply hot air of about 150 to 400 degrees, preferably about 250 degrees, and both the temperature and the air volume can be adjusted. It changes according to etc.

  A plurality of substantially straight bars 6 are attached to the inner surface of the processing cylinder 1 in the longitudinal direction so that the tea leaves 20 diffuse and move in the processing cylinder 1. In the case of this embodiment, the processing cylinder 1 is relatively large with a diameter of about 1000 mm and an overall length of about 5000 mm. Since the material is made of stainless steel of about 1.5 mm and the processing cylinder 1 is not directly heated, a thin plate having a small heat capacity can be used. The number of rotations of the processing cylinder 1 is about 24 rpm at maximum, and can be adjusted steplessly, so that the staying time of tea leaves can be controlled.

  On the outside of the outlet at the other end of the processing cylinder 1, there is a chute 15 that serves to take out and exhaust the tea leaves 20. The tea leaves 20 fall downward, and the exhaust gas escapes upward. Exhaust can be sufficiently achieved by setting up the exhaust pipe 16 above the chute 15, but a forced exhaust device may be installed.

  A sensor 11 (tea leaf confirming means) is provided for confirming the presence or absence of the tea leaf being transported onto the conveyor 8 for feeding the tea leaf 20 into the feeding device 3. When the sensor 11 continues to confirm that there is a tea leaf, and after a certain amount of time (confirmation time) has elapsed, an appropriate amount of tea leaf is present in the processing cylinder 1. Input means from these sensors 11, confirmation time setting means and measurement means, hot air temperature setting means, and the like are incorporated in the control panel 17 (control means). Basically, when the tea leaves are in the processing cylinder 1, the operation setting is set, and when the tea leaves are not in the processing cylinder 1, the standby setting is set.

  The movement after turning on the tea leaf hot air processing apparatus of the present invention will be described. The tea leaf hot air treatment device is turned on before the tea leaves are added, and the temperature of the hot air is adjusted in a standby setting. In this embodiment, the hot air temperature set for standby is lowered as much as possible and set to 160 degrees. The hot air is generated by the hot air generator 21, passes through the hot air supply pipe 23, is sent to the hot air blowing pipe 22, and fills the inside of the processing cylinder 1 with hot air of 160 degrees. Thereafter, the tea leaves 20 are first supplied to the charging device 3 by the conveyor 8 in order to load the tea leaves 20 into the processing cylinder 1. At this time, when the tea leaves 20 pass through the sensor 11 of the conveyor 8, a tea leaf presence signal is sent to the control panel 17. The tea leaves 20 are transferred from the charging port to the processing cylinder 1 by the charging device 3. In this embodiment, since a confirmation time (1 minute in this embodiment) is set, even during the confirmation time, even if the tea leaves are in the processing cylinder 1, adjustment is made so that the hot air temperature is set to the standby setting. When the confirmation time has elapsed, the operation is switched to the operation setting, and the temperature is adjusted so that the hot air temperature of the operation setting is reached. In this embodiment, the hot air temperature set for operation is set to 250 degrees. During the confirmation time, the hot air temperature is low but the amount of tea leaves is small, so the heat of the hot air is sufficiently transmitted to the tea leaves. When the inside of the processing cylinder 1 becomes an appropriate amount of tea leaves 20, the hot air temperature is around the set temperature of the operation setting.

  The input tea leaves are transferred from an input port of the processing cylinder 1 where the input device 3 is provided to an outlet where the chute 15 is provided. The tea leaves 20 that have entered the processing cylinder 1 from the inlet are dried by hot air of about 250 degrees blown from the hot air blowing pipe 22. At this time, the tea leaves 20 can be evenly diffused by the straight beam 6 and can be uniformly applied to the hot air. The degree of drying of the tea leaves is adjusted on the control panel 17 by adjusting the rotational speed of the processing cylinder 1, the hot air temperature, the amount of hot air, and the like. The tea leaves dried in the processing cylinder 1 fall from the take-out port of the processing cylinder 1, travel from the lower part of the chute 15 onto the conveyor 9, and are conveyed to the next tea making machine (not shown). Exhaust gas is exhausted well from the exhaust pipe 16.

  Since the tea leaf hot air processing apparatus of the present invention continuously supplies tea leaves, the tea leaves continuously pass on the conveyor 8, and the sensor 11 continuously outputs a tea leaf presence signal. When the tea leaves are interrupted, the sensor 11 does not output a tea leaf presence signal. Then, when the tea leaf presence signal comes out again immediately, it can be seen that the tea leaf is again supplied on the conveyor 8. When the confirmation time is measured after the tea leaf presence signal is no longer output, and the confirmation time has elapsed (1 minute in this example), the supply of tea leaves has ended or the supply of tea leaves has stopped due to a problem, etc. The hot air temperature is switched from the operation setting to the standby setting. When a small amount of tea leaves are in the processing cylinder 1, it is processed at the hot air temperature set at standby (160 degrees in this embodiment).

  In this embodiment, the hot air temperature is changed by the tea leaf presence signal from the sensor 11, but other settings such as the hot air amount and the rotational speed of the processing cylinder 1 may be changed instead of the hot air temperature.

  In this embodiment, the confirmation time is 1 minute. However, the confirmation time may be longer, very short, or no confirmation time. In this embodiment, the setting is changed depending on the presence or absence of tea leaves, but a sensor for confirming the amount of tea leaves in the processing cylinder 1 may be attached, and the setting may be set more finely according to the amount of tea leaves.

  It is the same even if the tea leaves hot air treatment apparatus of the present invention is used for killing blue instead of drying.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Processing cylinder 3 Input device 5 Driving means 6 Cross 7 Hot air supply means 8 Conveyor 9 Conveyor 10 Worker 11 Sensor 13 Cover 15 Chute 16 Exhaust pipe 17 Control panel 18 Machine frame 19 Inspection port 20 Tea leaf 21 Hot air generator 22 Hot air outlet pipe 23 Hot air supply pipe

Claims (4)

  From a cylindrical processing cylinder having one end serving as a tea leaf inlet and the other end serving as a tea leaf outlet, a driving means for rotating the processing cylinder, a rail provided inside the processing cylinder, and one end of the processing cylinder A tea leaf hot air processing apparatus comprising: a hot air supply means for blowing hot air; and a control means for checking the amount of tea leaves in the processing cylinder and changing the setting according to the amount of tea leaves.   The tea leaf hot air processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein tea leaf confirmation means is provided in the vicinity of the inlet, and the setting of the control means is changed depending on the presence or absence of tea leaves.   The tea leaf hot air processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a predetermined confirmation time is provided before the setting is changed.   The tea leaf hot air treatment apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the setting of the hot air temperature is changed.

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