JP2021010865A - Freezing agitation device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a freezing agitation device with less downtime capable of quickly cooling a cooling object medium by efficiently using cold heat of a cooling medium.SOLUTION: A freezing agitation device includes a freezing tank and a cooling medium injection mechanism 20 for injecting a cooling medium. The cooling medium injection mechanism 20 includes an injection nozzle 21 having a cooling medium introduction passage 22, and a heating case 23 for heating a wall surface of the cooling tank around an opening 24 of the injection nozzle 21. An outer periphery 25 of the opening 24 and the heating case 23 are separately arranged at a prescribed interval.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

The present invention relates to a freezing and stirring device that cools an object to be cooled by injecting a cooling medium while stirring.

Products such as chicken nuggets and meatballs that are manufactured by mixing meat and fish with a seasoning liquid have the problem that the product temperature rises due to frictional heat and heat from the mixer in the process of mixing with a mixer, and the quality deteriorates. Therefore, in general, a cooling medium such as dry ice or liquefied nitrogen is charged from the upper part of the mixer to prevent the temperature from rising and control the hardness of the mixture so as to improve the moldability of the next process.

However, when the cooling medium is put in from the upper part, only the meat and fish in the upper part of the mixer are cooled, and the cooling efficiency is poor. Therefore, when the rotation speed of the mixer is increased in order to increase the efficiency, there is a problem that fibers such as meat are torn off and the texture of meat is lost.
Therefore, as a method of efficiently cooling foods at the time of mixing and controlling the temperature, for example, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, there is a device for supplying a cryogenic cooling medium such as liquid nitrogen from the bottom of a freezing agitator. ..

In such a device, the injection nozzle for injecting the cooling medium becomes extremely low temperature, so that the injection nozzle freezes due to meat or the like. In order to prevent this, a method of cooling while warming the injection nozzle with hot water or the like is disclosed (for example, Patent Document 2).

International Publication No. 2018/172627 UK Pat. No. 2,547,489

However, in the method disclosed in Patent Document 2, since the vicinity of the injection nozzle is directly heated by a warm medium such as hot water or a heater, the liquefied gas may be overheated and the cooling efficiency may decrease.
Further, when hot water is used, there is a problem that the hot water freezes at a low temperature due to the liquefied gas unless the hot water is constantly flowing, and the hot water does not flow at the time of restarting. In the refrigerating and stirring device, the steps of charging the material to be cooled, cooling the charged material to be cooled, and taking out the cooled material to be cooled are repeated in this order. The cooling medium is used only in the cooling process, but the injection nozzle is in a state where the cooling medium is sealed even when the cooling medium is not used. Therefore, the injection nozzle is in an extremely low temperature state even during a process other than the cooling process, and the warm medium circulating around the injection nozzle freezes. If the warm medium is frozen, the cooling process cannot be started and downtime occurs in the manufacturing process.

Therefore, it has been desired to develop a freezing and stirring device capable of rapidly cooling the cooled medium by efficiently utilizing the cold heat of the cooling medium and having a small downtime.

The freezing and stirring device according to the present invention for solving the above problems is
A freezing agitator having a freezing tank and a cooling medium injection mechanism for injecting a cooling medium.
The cooling medium injection mechanism includes an injection nozzle provided with a cooling medium introduction path, and a heating case for heating the wall surface of the freezing tank around the opening of the injection nozzle.
The outer periphery of the opening and the heating case are arranged at predetermined intervals.

In the above-mentioned freezing and stirring device, the predetermined distance provided between the outer circumference of the opening and the heating case may be 5 mm or more and 50 mm or less.

The freezing and stirring device according to the present invention may also have a heat insulating portion between the outer periphery of the opening and the heating case.

The heat insulating portion is filled with a solid heat insulating material, and the solid heat insulating material contains at least one of a silicon resin, a fluororesin, an organic resin, a woven fabric material, a non-woven fiber material, and a porous matrix material. It may be.

The injection nozzle in the freezing and stirring device includes an on-off valve, and the on-off valve closes the opening of the injection nozzle when the cooling medium is not injected from the injection nozzle. can do.

The heating case in the above freezing and stirring device can have a hot medium circulation path or a heater through which the hot medium fluid circulates.

When the hot medium fluid is circulated in the above heating case, the hot medium fluid may be hot water having a temperature of 30 ° C. or higher and lower than 100 ° C. or oil having a temperature of 30 ° C. or higher and lower than 200 ° C.

The cooling medium used in the above-mentioned freezing and stirring device can be liquid nitrogen or liquefied carbonic acid.

According to the above-mentioned freezing and stirring device, the outer periphery of the opening into which the cooling medium is injected and the heating case are arranged apart from each other. Therefore, the cooling medium that has passed through the injection nozzle is injected into the freezing and stirring device in a low temperature state without being heated. Therefore, the cooling heat of the cooling medium can be efficiently used to cool the object to be cooled, and the cooling can be performed quickly. Further, since the cooling medium is used for cooling the object to be cooled without being heated, it is possible to reduce the amount of the cooling medium used.

Further, when the hot medium fluid is circulated in the heating case, freezing of the hot medium fluid can be prevented. The cooling medium is ejected from the injection nozzle toward the refrigerating / stirring device during the step of cooling the object to be cooled, but stays in the injection nozzle during the other steps. Here, in the present invention, since the injection nozzle and the heating case are arranged apart from each other, the hot medium fluid in the heating case is not frozen by the cold heat of the cooling medium. Therefore, it is possible not to circulate the hot medium fluid for the purpose of preventing freezing at times other than the cooling step, and it is possible to reduce the amount of the hot medium fluid used. There is also no downtime to thaw the frozen warm medium fluid.

Further, since the periphery of the opening of the injection nozzle is heated by the warm medium fluid or the heater in the heating case, it is possible to suppress the phenomenon that the object to be cooled freezes around the opening of the injection nozzle.
Since the cooling medium is injected from the opening of the injection nozzle while the object to be cooled is being cooled, the cooling medium accompanies the cooling medium even if the object to be cooled temporarily freezes at the opening and its immediate vicinity. Since it is sprayed into the refrigerating and stirring device, the opening is not blocked by the frozen material.

It is a figure which shows the structural example of the freezing agitator which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which saw through the wall surface of the freezing tank 10 from the inside direction of the freezing tank 10 of a heating case 23. It is a figure which saw through the wall surface of the freezing tank 10 from the inside direction of the freezing tank 10 about another heating case 23. It is a perspective view which shows the structural example of the heating case which concerns on this invention. It is a perspective view which shows the structural example of the heating case which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the heating case and the injection nozzle which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the heating case and the injection nozzle which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the injection nozzle in this invention.

The freezing and stirring device according to the present invention is a device that freezes an object to be cooled, particularly food, while stirring. Examples of foods to be cooled include processed foods in which meat and fish are mixed with a seasoning liquid.

The freezing and stirring device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4.
The freezing and stirring device 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes a freezing tank 10 and a cooling medium injection mechanism 20 for injecting a cooling medium. In the freezing and stirring device 100, the object to be cooled 11 is held in the freezing tank 10 and stirred while being cooled by the cooling medium.

The cooling medium injection mechanism 20 injects the cooling medium supplied from the outside toward the inside of the freezing tank 10. At this time, it is possible to inject the cooling medium downward from the upper part of the freezing tank 10 toward the inside of the freezing tank 10, but it is better to inject upward from the lower part of the freezing tank 10 as shown in FIG. High thermal efficiency.
In the present invention, the cooling medium injection mechanism 20 is arranged in the freezing tank 10 below the height at which the object to be cooled 11 is held (position shown by A in FIG. 1), that is, from the middle to the bottom of the freezing tank 10. ..

The cooling medium used is not particularly limited as long as it can transfer cold heat, but when the object to be cooled is food, the medium having high safety and inactivity to the object to be cooled is used. preferable. For example, liquid nitrogen or liquefied carbonic acid can be used.

The cooling medium injection mechanism 20 includes an injection nozzle 21 having a cooling medium introduction path 22 and a heating case 23.
2 and 3 are views of the heating case 23 seen through the wall surface of the freezing tank 10 from the inside of the freezing tank 10. A heat insulating portion 40 is formed around the opening 24, and the heat medium or the heater is housed in a portion surrounded by the outer circumference 32 and the inner circumference 31 of the heating case 23.
The heating case 23 may have a structure capable of accommodating a heating medium or a heater, may have a square shape having a hollow portion as shown in FIG. 2, or may have a donut shape as shown in FIG. ..

The cooling medium introduction path 22 shown in FIG. 1 is a path for introducing the cooling medium supplied from the external cooling medium storage tank (not shown) into the injection nozzle 21.
The cooling medium is injected from the opening 24 of the injection nozzle 21 toward the inside of the freezing tank 10. Therefore, inside the freezing tank 10, the opening 24 and its surroundings are particularly low temperatures.

The heating case 23 heats a portion of the wall surface of the freezing tank 10 that is around the opening 24 and is separated from the outer circumference 25 of the opening 24 at predetermined intervals.
A heater may be arranged in the heating case 23, or a hot medium circulation path for circulating the hot medium fluid may be provided. When the warm medium fluid circulation path is provided in the heating case 23 on the quadrangle having the hollow portion, as shown in the perspective view of FIG. 4, the introduction line 50 for introducing the warm medium fluid into the heating case 23 and the heating case 23 are added. A lead-out line 51 derived from the warm case 23 may be provided, and the entire inside of the warm case 23 may be used as a hot medium fluid circulation path.
FIG. 5 is a view of the heating case 23 shown in FIG. 4 as viewed from the back side (that is, the direction in which the heating case 23 is on the wall surface side of the freezing tank 10 when the heating case 23 is attached to the freezing tank 10). The warm medium flowing in from the introduction line 50 can be circulated in the portion surrounded by the outer circumference 32 and the inner circumference 31 of the heating case 23, and can be discharged from the lead-out line 51.

The hot medium fluid is not particularly limited as long as it is a fluid that can be heated, and may be, for example, hot water or oil. Considering the convenience and safety of handling and the heating efficiency, when hot water is used, the temperature is preferably 30 ° C. or higher and lower than 100 ° C., and more preferably 50 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower. When oil is used, it is preferably 30 ° C. or higher and lower than 200 ° C., and more preferably 50 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower. This is because if the temperature of the warm medium is too low, the warm medium freezes easily, and if it is too high, the cooling efficiency of the object to be cooled decreases.

FIG. 6 shows the positional relationship between the opening 24 and the heating case 23 as viewed from the inside of the freezing tank 10. FIG. 7 shows the positional relationship between the opening 24 and the heating case 23 as viewed from the outside of the freezing tank 10. Since the cooling medium is injected from the opening 24, the temperature of the opening 24 and the outer circumference 25 of the opening is the lowest. However, even if there is an object to be cooled in the vicinity of the opening 24 and the outer periphery 25 of the opening, the object to be cooled is jetted along with the cooling medium, so that the object to be cooled is frozen at that location or due to the frozen object to be cooled. The opening 24 of the injection nozzle 21 is not blocked.

In the present invention, the portion heated by the heating case 23 is a location separated from the outer peripheral 25 of the injection nozzle 21 at a predetermined interval (indicated by a solid double-headed arrow in FIG. 6). Specifically, the predetermined interval can be determined according to the temperature inside the heating case, and for example, the distance from the outer circumference 25 to the inner circumference 31 of the heating case 23 can be 5 mm or more and 50 mm or less. .. The temperature inside the heating case 23 (the temperature of the heater when the heater is arranged in the heating case 23, and the temperature of the warm medium fluid when the hot medium fluid is circulated in the heating case 23). If it is high, the distance from the outer circumference 25 to the inner circumference 31 of the heating case 23 may be narrowed. When the temperature inside the heating case 23 is low, if the distance from the outer circumference 25 to the heating case 23 is too short, the inside of the heating case 23 is excessively cooled, and when a warm medium fluid is used, the warm medium is used. This is because the fluid may freeze. On the other hand, if the distance is too long, the periphery of the opening 24 may be excessively cooled, and the object to be cooled may freeze around the opening 24 to block the opening 24.

The distance from the center of the opening 24 to the outer circumference of the portion heated by the heating case 23 (indicated by the dotted double-headed arrow in FIG. 6) of the wall surface of the freezing tank 10 is not particularly limited, and is, for example, 30 mm or more. It may be 100 mm or less. If this distance is too short, the object to be cooled may freeze and adhere to the outside of the outer circumference 32 of the portion to be heated, and the stirring of the portion may be insufficient. On the other hand, if this distance is too long, the amount of the warm medium used increases, which is inefficient, and the cooling efficiency of the freezing and stirring device also decreases.
The distances from the outer circumference 25 of the opening to the inner circumference 31 and the outer circumference 32 of the portion to be heated can be determined according to the amount of heat, temperature, flow rate, and the like of the heat medium.

It is preferable that the outer circumference 25 of the opening 24 and the heating case 23 are insulated by having a heat insulating portion 40. When the heat input from the heating case 23 is not directly transmitted to the cooling medium, the cooling medium having a lower temperature can be supplied to the freezing tank 10, and the freezing of the warm medium fluid due to the cooling heat of the cooling medium can be suppressed. Because. The heat insulating portion 40 may be a gap through which air enters, but may be filled with a solid heat insulating material. The solid heat insulating material is not particularly limited as long as it has heat insulating performance, and includes, for example, at least one of a silicone resin, a fluororesin, an organic resin, a woven fabric material, a non-woven fiber material, and a porous matrix material. It may be a material.

An on-off valve 61 may be provided in the opening 24 of the injection nozzle 21. A spring 62 is arranged below the on-off valve 61, and when the cooling medium is not injected, the on-off valve 61 is pushed down by the spring 62 to close the valve. When a cooling medium having a predetermined pressure is supplied from the cooling medium introduction path 22, the on-off valve 62 is pushed up so as to repel the pressing by the spring 62, and the cooling medium is injected from the gap with the cooling medium flow path 22. To. By arranging the on-off valve 61 in this way, it is possible to suppress the phenomenon that the object to be cooled invades the inside of the injection nozzle 21 and the injection nozzle 21 is blocked.

(Example)
A freezing agitator equipped with the cooling medium injection mechanism 20 having the shape shown in FIGS. 4 to 7 was manufactured, and the freezing condition in the vicinity of the injection nozzle 21 was confirmed.
The freezing and stirring device is a mixer having a stainless steel wall surface having a thickness of 5 mm and a freezing tank having a capacity of 550 L. 100 kg of minced meat and 200 L of seasoning liquid were introduced therein, and cooling and stirring were performed. The freezing step was completed when the stirring of the minced meat and the seasoning liquid was completed and the overall temperature of the finished mixture was lowered to -4 ° C., and the extraction step of taking out the mixture was carried out.
As the cooling medium, liquid nitrogen having a liquid feeding pressure of 0.5 MPa and a temperature of -195.8 ° C. was used.

(Example 1)
In the first embodiment, the distance from the outer circumference 25 of the opening 24 of the injection nozzle 21 to the inner circumference 31 of the heating case 23 is 10 mm, and the distance from the center of the opening 24 to the outer circumference 32 of the heating case 23 is 60 mm. Hot water having a temperature of 60 ° C. was introduced into the heating case as a hot medium fluid at a flow velocity of 2 SLM. In the first embodiment, the average temperature of the portion of the inner wall surface of the freezing tank 10 that is in contact with the portion surrounded by the inner circumference 31 and the outer circumference 32 of the heating case 23 is 40 ° C. No freezing of the seasoning liquid) was confirmed. Moreover, the time until the freezing process was completed was 10 minutes.
After the freezing step is completed, there is a take-out step for taking out the object to be cooled from the freezing tank 10. During the take-out process, the supply of the cooling medium is stopped, and the cooling medium stays inside the injection nozzle 21. However, the warm medium fluid in the heating case 23 did not freeze even after the completion of the taking-out step, and the next freezing step could be carried out as it was.

(Comparative Example 1)
In Comparative Example 1, the shape is such that the heating case 23 is in direct contact with the opening 24 of the injection nozzle 21 (the distance from the outer circumference 25 of the opening 24 to the inner circumference 31 of the heating case 23 is 0 mm). Other conditions are the same as in Example 1. In Comparative Example 1, the average temperature of the portion of the inner wall surface of the freezing tank 10 in contact with the portion surrounded by the inner circumference 31 and the outer circumference 32 of the heating case 23 is 20 ° C., and the object to be cooled is frozen in the portion. Not confirmed. However, since the temperature of the cooling medium when injected into the freezing tank 10 was raised by heating with the hot medium fluid, the time until the freezing step was completed was 15 minutes, which was longer than that of Example 1, and was used. The amount of liquid nitrogen was higher than in Example 1.
Further, since the hot water in the heating case 23 was frozen during the take-out step performed after the completion of the freezing step, a downtime of 20 minutes for melting the hot water occurred before starting the next freezing step.

(Comparative Example 2)
In Comparative Example 2, the heating case 23 was not installed, and the cooling medium was sprayed into the freezing tank 10 under the same conditions as in Example 1. In Comparative Example 2, the average temperature of the same portion of the inner wall surface of the freezing tank 10 as the portion where the temperature was measured in Example 1 was −50 ° C., and a large amount of the object to be cooled was frozen in the portion. This is because the cold heat of the cooling medium is directly transmitted to the wall surface of the freezing tank 10 and is excessively cooled. Due to the occurrence of freezing, the injection nozzle 21 was blocked, and the injection of the cooling medium was stopped. Since the quality of frozen foods deteriorates, they cannot be used as products, resulting in a decrease in yield.

From the above results, it can be said that by using the freezing and stirring device of the present invention, the cold heat of liquid nitrogen, which is a cooling medium, can be efficiently utilized, and the ground meat and seasoning liquid, which are the cooling media, can be cooled quickly. In addition, in the process of taking out the mixture of minced meat and seasoning liquid after cooling, the phenomenon of freezing of hot water, which is a hot medium fluid, could be suppressed, so that downtime for thawing the frozen hot water can be avoided. I was able to.

100. Freezing and freezing equipment 10. Freezer 11. Object to be cooled 20. Cooling medium injection mechanism 21. Injection nozzle 22. Cooling medium introduction route 23. Heating case 24. Opening 25. Outer circumference of the opening 31. Inner circumference of the heating case 32. Outer circumference of the heating case 40. Insulation 50. Introduction line 51. Derivation line 52. Distribution line 61. On-off valve 62. spring

Claims (8)

A freezing agitator having a freezing tank and a cooling medium injection mechanism for injecting a cooling medium.
The cooling medium injection mechanism includes an injection nozzle provided with a cooling medium introduction path, and a heating case for heating the wall surface of the freezing tank around the opening of the injection nozzle.
A freezing and stirring device, characterized in that the outer periphery of the opening and the heating case are arranged at predetermined intervals. The freezing and stirring device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined interval is 5 mm or more and 50 mm or less. The freezing and stirring device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a heat insulating portion between the outer periphery of the opening and the heating case. The heat insulating portion is filled with a solid heat insulating material, wherein the solid heat insulating material contains at least one of a silicon resin, a fluororesin, an organic resin, a woven fabric material, a non-woven fiber material, and a porous matrix material. Item 3. The refrigerating / stirring device according to Item 3. The injection nozzle includes an on-off valve and
The on-off valve according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the on-off valve is closed so as to close the opening of the injection nozzle when the cooling medium is not injected from the injection nozzle. Freezing and stirring device. The freezing and stirring device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the heating case has a hot medium circulation path or a heater through which a hot medium fluid circulates. The freezing and stirring device according to claim 6, wherein the hot medium fluid is hot water having a temperature of 30 ° C. or higher and lower than 100 ° C. or oil having a temperature of 30 ° C. or higher and lower than 200 ° C. The freezing and stirring device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the cooling medium is liquid nitrogen or liquefied carbonic acid.

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