JP2021193931A - Soybean curd cutting device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a soybean curd cutting device capable of equalizing cut soybean curds by cutting out from large-sized soybean curds, and overturning in a same position and at same timing.SOLUTION: A soybean curd cutting device 40 includes: a cutter section 411 for cutting large-sized soybean curds T1 sequentially from edges; an opening conveyor 43 for conveying soybean curds T2 cut off from the large-sized soybean curds T1 by the cutter section 411; and a blocking rod 42 for blocking advancement of upper parts of the cut-off soybean curds T2 due to the opening conveyor 43. Although the soybean curds T2 cut off from the large-sized soybean curds T1 continue to advance toward a conveyance direction F1 by the opening conveyor 43, the upper parts of the soybean curds T2 are blocked from advancing by the blocking rod 42. With this, the soybean curds T2 can be securely overturned in a position of the blocking rod 42 only by blocking the advancement of the upper parts of the cut-off soybean curds T2 due to the blocking rod 42.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a tofu cutting device that sequentially cuts large-sized tofu from the end.

When producing a large amount of tofu, a coagulant is added to the soymilk in the mold to make the raw tofu in a semi-coagulated state, and the large-sized tofu obtained by pressurizing and dehydrating the raw tofu is sequentially cut from the end. At this time, a tofu cutting device is used.
When selling tofu, it is more valuable to sell it with the cut surface facing up than to face the other side, which is less smooth than the cut surface. Therefore, when cutting tofu having a thickness about the width of the tofu at the time of sale with a tofu cutting device, the tofu is turned over and the cut surface is turned upward.
Such a conventional tofu cutting device is known, for example, in Patent Documents 1 and 2.

In the tofu cutting / separating device described in Patent Document 1, the upper surface of the tofu is suppressed by a second pressing member that moves together with the adjacent hanging piece to prevent the tofu from moving to the other end side of the guide rail. The tofu placed on each horizontal plate is scooped up so that the tofu rolls over with the cut surface facing up.

Further, in the tofu manufacturing apparatus and the tofu manufacturing method described in Patent Document 2, when the second tofu dough is formed, the cutting blade and the holding portion sandwich the second tofu dough from the upstream side and the downstream side. In this state, the second tofu dough is moved to the downstream side by a predetermined distance to move the second tofu dough to the downstream side, so that the second tofu dough is knocked down to the downstream side and sent to the dividing part, and then the cutting blade is moved upward. It moves a predetermined distance to the upstream side, then moves a predetermined distance to the upstream side and returns to the initial position.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-173067 Japanese Patent No. 6542323

However, in all of the conventional tofu cutting devices described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the top surface of the cut tofu is pressed and elastically deformed, and the tofu is forcibly overturned. Therefore, it is difficult to control various conditions for determining the position where the tofu is toppled, such as the degree of force for pressing the tofu and the speed at which the bottom surface of the tofu is moved. Therefore, if the tofu falls at an unexpected speed or position, the tofu may be chipped or cracked, and it is difficult to make the product uniform.
In order to make the tofu uniform, it is important to cut the large-sized tofu sequentially from the end and turn it over at the same position and at the same timing when the cut tofu is turned over.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a tofu cutting device capable of homogenizing the cut out tofu by cutting it out from a large-sized tofu and making it possible to invert it at the same position and at the same timing. ..

The tofu cutting device of the present invention has a cutter portion that sequentially cuts large-sized tofu from the end, a transport device that transports the tofu separated from the large-format tofu by the cutter portion, and the separation by the transport device. It is characterized by having a blocking rod that blocks the progress of the upper part of the tofu.

According to the tofu cutting device of the present invention, the tofu separated from the large-sized tofu continues to progress in the transport direction by the transport device, but the upper part of the separated tofu is blocked by the blocking rod. There is. Therefore, the separated tofu gradually begins to incline in the direction opposite to the transport direction, so that the separated tofu can be overturned at this position.

A sensor unit for detecting that the separated tofu has arrived, and a control device for instructing the progress of the transport device to be faster than the speed before cutting when the sensor unit detects the separated tofu. Can be provided.
When the control device is notified that the tofu separated by the sensor unit is detected, the control device instructs the progress of the transport device to be faster than the speed before cutting. By doing so, the lower part of the suddenly separated tofu moves faster, so that the separated tofu can be made easier to tip over.

The blocking rod may be rotatably arranged. When the upper part of the separated tofu slides on the outer peripheral surface of the blocking rod, the contact surface pulls the blocking rod downward, so that the blocking rod rotates axially due to the inclination of the separated tofu. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the tofu separated by friction with the blocking rod from becoming difficult to tilt.

The distance between the cutter portion and the blocking rod may be formed to be narrower than half the thickness of the large-sized tofu. If the distance between the cutter and the blocking rod is narrower than half the thickness of the large-sized tofu when the tofu is blocked from progressing by the blocking rod and falls, the separated tofu becomes a large-sized tofu. Since they come into contact with each other and lean against each other, the impact of the separated tofu falling over can be mitigated by the large-sized tofu.

According to the tofu cutting device of the present invention, the separated tofu can be surely overturned at the position of the blocking rod only by hindering the progress of the upper part of the tofu separated by the blocking rod. By making it possible to cut out and turn it over at the same position and at the same timing, it is possible to make the cut out tofu uniform.

It is a schematic diagram of the tofu production apparatus using the tofu cutting apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the structure of the tofu cutting apparatus shown in FIG. 1, (A) is the figure which looked at the tofu cutting apparatus from the downstream side, (B) is the figure which looked at the tofu cutting apparatus from the side. .. It is a figure for demonstrating the control apparatus which controls the tofu cutting apparatus shown in FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the operation of the tofu cutting apparatus shown in FIG. It is a figure for.

A tofu manufacturing apparatus using the tofu cutting apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The tofu producing apparatus according to the present embodiment cuts out tofu having a thickness of one chome from a large-sized tofu produced from soymilk. Large-sized tofu is long in the length direction and is formed into a size that not only can be cut out to take multiple pieces of tofu in the length direction, but also divided in the width direction so that multiple pieces of tofu can be taken. Is. In the present embodiment, cotton tofu will be described as an example, but the present invention can be similarly applied to silken tofu.

The tofu manufacturing apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a continuous coagulation apparatus 20, a continuous press forming machine 30, a tofu cutting apparatus 40, and a control apparatus 50 (see FIG. 3).
The continuous coagulator 20 includes a soymilk tank 21 for storing soymilk, a coagulant tank 22 for storing a coagulant for coagulating soymilk, a soymilk pump 23 for sending soymilk from the soymilk tank 21, and a coagulant tank 22. The coagulant pump 24 that sends the coagulant from the above, the mixer 25 connected to the soymilk pump 23 and the coagulant pump 24 via a valve, and the soymilk to which the coagulant is added are used as the raw material tofu in a semi-coagulated state. The coagulation tank 26 is provided with a coagulation tank 26 and a coagulation conveyor 27 that moves at the bottom of the coagulation tank 26 to convey the raw tofu.

The continuous press forming machine 30 includes a transport conveyor 31 and a press conveyor 32.
The transport conveyor 31 is a belt conveyor on which the raw tofu from the continuous coagulator 20 is mounted and transports the large-sized tofu molded from the raw tofu to the tofu cutting device 40. The transport conveyor 31 is arranged parallel to the horizontal direction so as to extend along the transport direction F1 from the continuous coagulation device 20 on the upstream side to the tofu cutting device 40 on the downstream side.

The conveyor 31 for transport is wound around a motor (not shown) which is a drive unit, a drive pulley 311 driven by the motor, a driven pulley 312 paired with the drive pulley 311 and a drive pulley 311 and a driven pulley 312. It is provided with an endless belt 313 formed in a band shape.
The conveyor 31 for transport includes an encoder (not shown) for detecting the position of large-sized tofu.

The press conveyor 32 is a belt conveyor that pressurizes and dehydrates semi-solidified tofu to form large-sized tofu. The press conveyor 32 is arranged above the transport conveyor 31. The press conveyor 32 is arranged so that the distance between the press conveyor 32 and the conveyor 31 gradually becomes shorter and closer toward the downstream side in the transport direction F1.

The press conveyor 32 is wound around a motor (not shown) which is a drive unit, a drive pulley 321 driven by the motor, a driven pulley 322 paired with the drive pulley 321 and the drive pulley 321 and the driven pulley 322. It is provided with an endless belt 323 formed in a band shape.
A cotton cloth or a synthetic fiber cloth is laid on the outer peripheral surface of the endless belt 323.

The tofu cutting device 40 has a cutting portion 41 that cuts the end of the large-sized tofu at a position as thick as one tofu, and a blocking rod 42 that blocks the progress of the upper part of the tofu that has been cut and separated from the large-sized tofu. And an opening conveyor 43 that functions as a transport device for transporting the tofu that has fallen by the blocking rod 42.
Further, the tofu cutting device 40 includes a sensor unit 44 for detecting that the separated tofu has arrived, and a transfer plate 45 arranged in a gap between the transport conveyor 31 and the open conveyor 43.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cutting portion 41 includes a cutter portion 411 for cutting the end of large-sized tofu and an elevating device 412 for raising and lowering the cutter portion 411.
The cutting edge of the cutter portion 411 is formed into wavy irregularities. The cutter portion 411 is arranged along the width direction (direction orthogonal to the transport direction F1) of the large-sized tofu. The cutter portion 411 is located on the open conveyor 43. The length of the cutter portion 411 is formed longer than the width of the large-sized tofu. The elevating device 412 lowers the cutter portion 411 at the time of cutting, and returns the cutter portion 411 to the original position after cutting.

The blocking rod 42 is arranged along the width direction (direction orthogonal to the transport direction F1) of the large-sized tofu. The blocking rod 42 is rotatably supported by the stay 46. The blocking rod 42 is arranged so that the distance from the cutter portion 411 is narrower than the thickness of the large-sized tofu T1.
The open conveyor 43 is formed by a belt conveyor. The open conveyor 43 is wound around a motor (not shown) which is a drive unit, a drive pulley 431 driven by the motor, a driven pulley 432 paired with the drive pulley 431, and the drive pulley 431 and the driven pulley 432. It is provided with an endless belt 433 formed in a band shape.

The sensor unit 44 can be a photoelectric sensor. The photoelectric sensor is, for example, a transmissive sensor in which the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion are arranged facing each other to detect shading due to tofu, or the light emitting portion and the light receiving portion are integrally arranged so that the reflected light of the tofu is reflected. It can be a retroreflective sensor that detects light.

As shown in FIG. 3, the control device 50 controls the start, stop, and speed adjustment of the rotation of various conveyors. In FIG. 3, only the part related to the cutting of the tofu cutting device 40 is shown.
The control device 50 controls the elevating timing of the elevating device 412 that raises and lowers the cutter unit 411 based on the signal from the encoder of the conveyor 31 for transfer and the signal from the sensor unit 44, and controls the transfer speed of the open conveyor 43. It has a function to control.

The tofu manufacturing apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to the drawings.
First, as shown in FIG. 1, soymilk is sent from the soymilk pump 23 of the continuous coagulator 20, the coagulant is sent from the coagulant tank 22, and the soymilk and the coagulant are mixed and coagulated by the mixer 25. It is charged into the tank 26. The soymilk to which the coagulant is added becomes the raw material tofu in a semi-coagulated state in the coagulation tank 26.

When the raw tofu conveyed from the continuous coagulation device 20 by the coagulation conveyor 27 enters the continuous press forming machine 30, it is conveyed by the transfer conveyor 31.
The raw tofu on the transport conveyor 31 is pressed by the press conveyor 32 to pressurize and dehydrate the raw tofu and form it into a large-sized tofu.

As shown in FIG. 3, the control device 50 monitors the position of the large-sized tofu T1 (see FIG. 1) based on the signal from the encoder of the transport conveyor 31.
When the control device 50 detects that the end of the large-sized tofu T1 has entered the open conveyor 43 from the transport conveyor 31 via the transfer plate 45 and has been transported to a predetermined position, as shown in FIG. 4 (A). The control device 50 instructs the elevating device 412 to lower the cutter portion 411.
When the cutter portion 411 is lowered according to the instruction from the control device 50, the position of the thickness of one tofu of the product is cut at the end of the large-sized tofu T1.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 4B, the tofu T2 separated from the large-sized tofu T1 continues to travel toward the transport direction F1 by the open conveyor 43, but the upper part of the tofu T2 is the blocking rod 42. Is blocking the progress. Therefore, the separated tofu T2 gradually begins to incline backward (in the direction opposite to the transport direction F1) and falls.

In this way, the tofu T2 can be reliably overturned at the position of the blocking rod 42 only by hindering the progress of the upper portion of the tofu T2 separated by the blocking rod 42.
Therefore, since it can be overturned at the position of the blocking rod 42, it can be overturned at the same timing. Therefore, the tofu cutting device 40 according to the present embodiment can cut out the large-sized tofu T1 and turn it over at the same position and at the same timing, so that the cut out tofu T2 can be made uniform. be.

Further, as compared with the conventional tofu cutting device such as Patent Documents 1 and 2, the structure is simple by tipping over with the blocking rod 42, so that cleaning is easy.
Further, if the blocking rod 42 is formed to have a length that matches the width direction of the large-sized tofu T1, even if the large-sized tofu T1 has a long width, it can be overturned at the same time.

In the tofu cutting device 40 according to the present embodiment, the tofu T2 is located at the sensor unit 44 when the tofu T2 is tilted by blocking the progress of the upper part of the tofu T2 with the blocking rod 42.
When the control device 50 is notified that the tofu T2 has been detected by the sensor unit 44, the control device 50 instructs the opening conveyor 43 to advance at a speed higher than the speed before cutting.
By doing so, the lower part of the tofu T2 suddenly moves faster, so that the tofu T2 can be more easily overturned. Therefore, even if the tofu T2 is one-chome thick and has a long length along the length direction of the blocking rod 42, it should be turned over at the same timing without variation between one end and the other end. Can be done.

When the progress of the tofu T2 is blocked by the blocking rod 42, the lower portion of the tofu T2 moves in the transport direction F1 and the upper portion tilts backward while contacting the outer peripheral surface of the blocking rod 42. The blocking rod 42 is rotatably installed. Therefore, when the upper portion of the tofu T2 slides on the outer peripheral surface of the blocking rod 42, the contact surface of the tofu T2 pulls the blocking rod 42 downward, so that the blocking rod 42 rotates axially due to the inclination of the tofu T2. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the tofu T2 from becoming difficult to tilt due to friction with the blocking rod 42, so that the tofu T2 can be smoothly overturned.

Further, the distance between the cutter portion 411 and the blocking rod 42 is formed to be narrower than half the thickness of the large-sized tofu T1. Therefore, if the distance between the cutter portion 411 and the blocking rod 42 is narrower than half the thickness of the large-sized tofu T1 when the blocking rod 42 blocks the progress of the tofu T2 and the tofu T2 falls, the tofu T2 When tilted so as to rotate around the lower part, the separated tofu T2 comes into contact with the large-sized tofu T1 and leans against it.
Then, due to the movement of the open conveyor 43, the tofu T2 separates from the large-sized tofu T1 and falls down on the open conveyor 43.
Therefore, since the large-sized tofu T1 alleviates the impact when the separated tofu T2 falls over, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of cracks and chips as compared with the case where the tofu T1 directly falls on the open conveyor 43.

In the present embodiment, when the tofu T2 separated from the large-sized tofu T1 falls backward, the separated tofu 2 is brought into contact with the large-sized tofu T1 and leaned against it.
However, even if the tofu 2 falls without contacting the large-sized tofu T1, cracks and chips do not occur, and if there is no problem, the distance between the cutter portion 411 and the blocking rod 42 is equal to or larger than the thickness of the large-sized tofu T1. May be expanded to.

The tofu cutting device of the present invention is suitable for a company that manufactures a large amount of tofu.

10 Tofu production equipment 20 Continuous coagulation equipment 21 Soymilk tank 22 Coagulant tank 23 Soymilk pump 24 Coagulant pump 25 Mixer 26 Coagulation tank 27 Coagulation conveyor 30 Continuous press molding machine 31 Conveyor conveyor 311 Driven pulley 312 Driven pulley 313 Endless Belt 32 Press conveyor 321 Drive pulley 322 Driven pulley 323 Endless belt 40 Tofu cutting device 41 Cutting part 411 Cutter part 412 Elevating device 42 Blocking rod 43 Opening conveyor 431 Drive pulley 432 Driven pulley 433 Endless belt 44 Sensor part 45 Control device F1 Conveyor direction T1, T2 Tofu

Claims (4)

A cutter part that cuts large-sized tofu sequentially from the end,
A transport device for transporting tofu separated from the large-sized tofu by the cutter portion,
A tofu cutting device provided with a blocking rod that prevents the progress of the upper part of the separated tofu by the transport device. The sensor unit that detects the arrival of the separated tofu, and
The tofu cutting device according to claim 1, further comprising a control device instructing the progress of the transport device to be faster than the speed before cutting when the sensor unit detects the separated tofu. The tofu cutting device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the blocking rod is rotatably arranged. The tofu cutting device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the distance between the cutter portion and the blocking rod is narrower than half the thickness of the large-sized tofu.

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