JP2023124081A - Washing device and washing method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a washing device and a washing method capable of efficiently washing objects to be washed.SOLUTION: A washing device for washing objects to be washed includes two or more washing brushes rotatably operated around a rotation shaft for washing the objects to be washed. The two or more washing brushes include a first washing brush and a second washing brush whose inclination angles of the rotation shafts differ from each other.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method for objects to be cleaned, particularly elongated tableware such as spoons, forks, knives and chopsticks.

In the food service industry such as restaurants and food service centers such as schools and hospitals, etc., a large amount of tableware and cutlery (Western tableware such as knives, forks, and spoons, and serving servers such as tongs and ladles) that are soiled with food residue are generated. However, since the food residue adheres firmly, various cleaning methods have been proposed to remove the food residue.
For example, in Patent Document 1, there is a washing machine equipped with a washing tank in which an object to be washed, which is a cutlery, is housed in a cavity with an arc-shaped bottom surface and a vibration mechanism for vibrating the washing tank. Cleaning methods for cleaning objects have been proposed.
In the cleaning method proposed in Patent Document 1, there are steps of storing an object to be cleaned, a plurality of cleaning media, water, and, if necessary, a cleaning aid in a cleaning tank, and activating a vibrating mechanism to vibrate the cleaning tank. and a step of moving the cleaning medium along the arc-shaped ridgeline of the cavity in the cleaning tank by means of vibration force that vibrates the cleaning tank, thereby fluidizing the cleaning medium and removing food residue adhering to the object to be washed. are doing.

JP 2016-202689 A

However, cutlery made of metal, etc. is particularly susceptible to water spots such as scale stains after washing, and it is necessary to manually wipe and polish each piece of tableware. The work of finishing the tableware is time-consuming and troublesome, and especially the large number of long-shaped tableware such as knives, forks, and spoons places a heavy burden on workers. Therefore, an efficient cleaning apparatus that can reduce the burden on workers is desired.

An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning apparatus and a cleaning method capable of efficiently cleaning an object to be cleaned.

In order to solve the above-described problems, a cleaning apparatus according to the present invention is a cleaning apparatus for cleaning an object to be cleaned, comprising two or more cleaning brushes rotating about a rotating shaft and cleaning the object to be cleaned. , the two or more cleaning brushes have a first cleaning brush and a second cleaning brush with different rotation axis angles.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the cleaning apparatus and cleaning method which can wash the to-be-cleaned material efficiently can be provided.

1 is a plan view of a cleaning device according to an embodiment; FIG. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 1; 1 is a front view of a cleaning mechanism according to an embodiment; FIG. It is a figure which shows the longitudinal direction and lateral direction of the to-be-cleaned material in embodiment. It is an image which shows the fixing method of the to-be-cleaned material in an Example. It is an image showing an experimental result in an example.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
In the following description, "items to be washed" include Western tableware such as tableware, knives, forks, and spoons, and longitudinal tableware such as serving servers such as tongs and ladles (hereinafter referred to as cutlery). .

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cleaning apparatus includes a loading mechanism 1 for loading an object to be cleaned 100 into the cleaning apparatus, a transport mechanism 2 for transporting the object to be cleaned 100 to the next process, and a plurality of A washing mechanism 3 for washing the object 100 to be washed using a brush, a rinsing mechanism 4 for rinsing the object 100 to be washed after washing, and a sterilization mechanism 5 for sterilizing the object 100 to be washed after rinsing by heat. , and a discharge mechanism 6 for discharging the object to be cleaned 100 after sterilization from the cleaning device.

(Throwing mechanism 1)
The input mechanism 1 is a mechanism for inputting the object to be washed 100 into the cleaning apparatus, and has an obliquely inclined body 11 and a detergent input tube pump 12 for inputting the detergent. In addition, the width W of the inclined body 11 is narrow (about 5 cm to 10 cm) so that the number that can be thrown in at one time is limited. Therefore, the objects to be cleaned 100 are put into the cleaning apparatus one by one.

(Conveyance mechanism 2)
The transport mechanism 2 is a mechanism for transporting the object to be cleaned 100 to the cleaning mechanism 3, which is the next step, and includes a transport belt 21 for transporting the object to be cleaned 100 and a drive source for driving the transport belt 21. 22 (eg, a motor or a sprocket driven by a motor). As shown in FIG. 3, the transport belts 21 are arranged so that the transport surfaces 21a of the two transport belts 21 are V-shaped when viewed from a direction perpendicular to the transport direction of the transport belts 21. The object 100 to be cleaned is configured to be fed between the cleaning brush 31 and the feed roller 32 in an upright state. The upright state means that the longitudinal direction of the object 100 to be cleaned is perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the rotating shaft 31a of the first cleaning brush 31A (that is, horizontal or substantially horizontal), and the lateral direction of the object 100 to be cleaned. is parallel or substantially parallel (that is, perpendicular or substantially perpendicular) to the rotating shaft 31a of the first cleaning brush 31A. 4 shows the longitudinal direction and the lateral direction of the object 100 to be washed (in FIG. 4, a spoon is indicated as the object 100 to be washed).
Moreover, a shower nozzle S is provided on the upper portion of the transport mechanism 2, and is configured to wet the object to be cleaned 100 being transported with water.

(Washing mechanism 3)
As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the cleaning mechanism 3 includes a plurality of cleaning brushes 31 for cleaning the object 100 to be cleaned, and a plurality of feed rollers 32 for feeding the object 100 to the next step. Prepare. In this embodiment, the object 100 to be cleaned is cleaned by a rotating cleaning brush 31, and the cleaning brush 31 directly contacts the dirt adhering to the object 100 to improve the cleaning performance.
The plurality of cleaning brushes 31 has a first cleaning brush 31A and a second cleaning brush 31B. angle (tilt angle) is different.
The angle of the rotation axis 31a of the first cleaning brush 31A and the angle of the rotation axis of the second cleaning brush 31B are preferably different in the range of 25 to 65 degrees, and in the range of 45 to 55 degrees. are more preferably different.
In this embodiment, the rotating shaft 31a of the first cleaning brush 31A is parallel or substantially parallel to the vertical direction, and the rotating shaft 31a of the second cleaning brush 31B is rotated at an angle of 25 degrees to the vertical direction. to 65 degrees, preferably 45 to 55 degrees.
As described above, the object to be washed 100 is washed while standing upright and sandwiched between the washing brush 31 and the feed roller 32 .
In this embodiment, a first cleaning brush 31A whose rotation axis 31a is parallel or substantially parallel to the vertical direction, and a first cleaning brush 31A whose rotation axis 31a is in the range of 25 to 65 degrees, preferably 45 degrees to the vertical direction. By washing the object 100 to be washed with the second cleaning brush 31B inclined in the range of 55 degrees from part) are configured to be washable.

(rinsing mechanism 4)
The rinsing mechanism 4 includes a conveyor belt 41 for conveying the object 100 washed by the washing mechanism 3, a drive source 42 (for example, a motor or a sprocket driven by the motor) for driving the conveyor belt 41, An injection nozzle 43 is provided for injecting water onto the object 100 to be washed on the conveying belt 41 to rinse the detergent or the like adhering to the object 100 to be washed.

(Sterilization mechanism 5)
The sterilization mechanism 5 includes a conveyor belt 51 that conveys the object to be cleaned 100, a drive source 52 (for example, a motor or a sprocket driven by the motor) for driving the conveyor belt 51, and a cleaning target on the conveyor belt 51. An injection nozzle 53 is provided for injecting hot water and steam onto the object 100 to sterilize the object 100 to be cleaned by heat.
The object 100 to be cleaned is sterilized by spraying hot water and water vapor onto the object 100 to be cleaned, and the object 100 to be cleaned is heated to promote drying of the moisture adhering to the object 100 to be cleaned. It is possible to suppress the occurrence of spots. Water spots are conspicuous on the object to be cleaned 100 made of metal. Therefore, suppression of water spots is particularly important for the metal object 100 to be cleaned.

(Ejection mechanism 6)
The discharge mechanism 6 is a mechanism for discharging the object to be cleaned 100 out of the cleaning apparatus, and has an obliquely inclined body 61 . The object 100 to be cleaned is discharged out of the cleaning apparatus so as to slide on the inclined body 61 .

[Example]
Next, an example will be described. In the present embodiment, differences in the degree of cleaning of the depressions of the object to be cleaned 100 due to differences in the angle of the rotating shaft 31a of the cleaning brush 31 with respect to the vertical direction were verified.

(Item to be cleaned 100)
A spoon was prepared as the object 100 to be cleaned. In addition, grid lines were drawn on the concave part of the spoon with a permanent marker as a pseudo stain.

(Second cleaning brush 31B)
A spiral cone brush of φ60 mm was used as the second cleaning brush 31B.

(Test method)
As shown in FIG. 5, fix the spoon in an upright state (the upright state is a state in which the longitudinal direction of the spoon is horizontal or substantially horizontal and the short direction of the spoon is vertical or substantially vertical), Rotate the concave portion of the spoon for 2 minutes in a state where the inclination angle of the rotation axis is 0 degrees, 15 degrees, 25 degrees, 35 degrees, 45 degrees, 55 degrees, 65 degrees, and 75 degrees with respect to the vertical direction, I checked how well the grid-like marker lines drawn with a permanent marker were drawn on the recessed portion of the spoon.

(Test results)
FIG. 6 is an image showing the test results when the spoon was washed with the above settings. In FIG. 6, a region R of each spoon (object to be washed 100) is a region where grid-like magic lines (pseudo dirt) do not remain.
As shown in FIG. 6, at the inclination angles of 0 degree and 15 degrees, grid-like magic lines (pseudo dirt) remained in two-thirds or more of the hollow portion of the spoon.
On the other hand, at the tilt angles of 25 degrees, 35 degrees, 45 degrees, 55 degrees, and 65 degrees, grid-like magic lines (pseudo-dirt) remained in areas of less than 2/3 of the recessed portion of the spoon. there were.
In particular, at the inclination angles of 45 degrees and 55 degrees, grid-like magic lines (pseudo-dirt) remained in less than 1/2 of the concave portion of the spoon.
When the inclination angle was 75 degrees, the grid-like magic lines (pseudo-dirt) drawn on the recess of the spoon remained almost unremoved.

(Discussion)
From the above, the rotation shaft 31a of the second cleaning brush 31B is preferably inclined in the range of 25 to 65 degrees, more preferably in the range of 45 to 55 degrees. I found out.
In addition, the first cleaning brush 31A whose rotating shaft 31a is perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to the vertical direction, and the rotating shaft 31a which is in the range of 25 degrees to 65 degrees, preferably 45 degrees to 55 degrees with respect to the vertical direction. By providing the second cleaning brush 31B inclined in the range of , it can be expected that dirt adhering to both the handle portion and the hollow portion of the spoon can be dealt with.

[Modification of embodiment]
It should be noted that the above-described embodiment merely shows an example of implementation of the present invention, and the technical scope of the present invention should not be construed to be limited by this. Thus, the invention may be embodied in various forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. For example, various additions, various omissions, various replacements, and various modifications may be made to the above embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.

1 Input mechanism 11 Inclined body 12 Tube pump 2 Conveying mechanism 21 Conveying belt 21a Conveying surface 22 Drive source (for example, a motor or a sprocket driven by a motor)
3 cleaning mechanism 31 cleaning brush 31a rotating shaft 32 feed roller 4 rinsing mechanism 41 conveying belt 42 drive source (for example, a motor or a sprocket driven by a motor)
43 Injection nozzle 5 Sterilization mechanism 51 Conveyor belt 52 Drive source (for example, motor or sprocket driven by motor)
53 Injection nozzle 6 Ejection mechanism 61 Inclined body 100 Object to be cleaned

Claims (7)

A cleaning device for cleaning an object to be cleaned,
comprising two or more cleaning brushes that rotate around a rotation axis and clean the object to be cleaned;
The two or more cleaning brushes are
Having a first cleaning brush and a second cleaning brush with different angles of the rotation axis,
A cleaning device characterized by: The first cleaning brush is
The rotation axis is parallel or substantially parallel to the vertical direction,
The second cleaning brush is
the axis of rotation is inclined in the range of 25 to 65 degrees with respect to the vertical;
The cleaning device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The second cleaning brush is
the axis of rotation is inclined in the range of 45 to 55 degrees with respect to the vertical;
3. The cleaning device according to claim 2, characterized in that: a transport mechanism for transporting the object to be cleaned to the cleaning brush;
The transport mechanism is
A conveying surface for conveying the object to be cleaned is configured to be V-shaped when viewed from a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the object to be cleaned,
The cleaning device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: A mechanism for heating the object to be washed after washing is provided,
5. The cleaning apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: heating the object after washing with hot water or steam;
6. The cleaning device according to claim 5, characterized in that: A cleaning method for cleaning an object to be cleaned,
The object to be cleaned is cleaned by a first cleaning brush and a second cleaning brush rotating about a rotation axis and having different inclination angles of the rotation axis.
A cleaning method characterized by:

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