JP2661498B2 - Automatic filling equipment for grains, etc. - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for automatically filling fixed quantities of grains into a container, for example, when manufacturing potage cans containing frozen corn grains. To a device that

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the diversification of consumer needs, a wide variety of beverage cans such as canned corn potage containing frozen corn grains and canned oshiruko cans containing azuki grains have been commercialized and generalized. Conventionally, in the production of these canned beverages containing granules,
As a method of adding the grains to the preparation liquid such as potage or pulp, there are premixing method in which the grains and the preparation liquid are mixed in the preparation process and filled with filler, and the empty cans are filled with the grains in advance and then A post-mix method of filling a preparation liquid is known.

[0003] Conventionally, in the case of the post-mix system, there is no known device for automatically and efficiently filling a predetermined number of grains into empty cans, and in general, a spoon is supplied directly to empty cans conveyed by a conveyor by hand. Therefore, the manufacturing efficiency is low and the cost is high. Further, as a device for supplying the granular material, it is generally performed to supply the granular material by pressure feeding from a hopper by a screw conveyor (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 46-22680,
However, continuous feeding using a screw conveyor has a drawback in terms of quantitative feedability, and it is difficult to quantitatively feed a small amount of particulate matter.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems in the production of canned beverages containing grains and the like. It is another object of the present invention to provide an automatic filling device for grains and the like that can be supplied and filled well without crushing the grains.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventor has adopted an apparatus for automatically filling a potage can with frozen corn grains by using a conventional supply spiral having a single groove in an experimental process. And made an experiment,
The pass rate was 59.3% or less with respect to the target number of filled grains per can, and the frozen corn grains were often crushed, and no satisfactory corn was obtained. The cause was as follows. The amount of grains filled into empty cans is relatively determined by the transport speed of the empty can, the size of the groove of the supply spiral and the rotation speed, but the transport speed of the empty can is defined by the speed of the filler and the tightening device, It is usually operated at a constant speed. Therefore, in order to drop a fixed amount of frozen corn grains while the can of a fixed diameter passes through the dropping port and to make the filling amount constant, the rotation speed of the supply spiral or the size of the groove so that the filling amount is satisfied. Must be set. However, if the width of the groove is large, the amount of drop at one time from the drop point increases, making it difficult to supply a precise quantitative supply and increasing the variation in the filling amount. On the other hand, if the rotation speed is increased by reducing the width of the groove, the frozen corn grains are crushed and the quality is deteriorated. Based on this fact, as a result of further research, the above problems can be solved by adopting a supply spiral having a double groove and improving the width of a hopper and a filling chute, and reached the present invention. It was done.

That is, the automatic filling apparatus for grains and the like according to the present invention comprises:
A hopper for storing the grains, a supply spiral for delivering the stored frozen corn grains, a cover surrounding the outer periphery of the supply spiral to form a grain transport path with the supply spiral, and a conveyor for transporting the grains transported by the supply spiral. The supply spiral has a two-curved groove, and the hopper has a fall port in the transport direction above the upstream side of the supply spiral. The object can be achieved by adopting the technical means characterized in that the supply spiral is provided so as to be opposed to two grooves of the supply spiral. The supply spiral is detachably supported on a supply spiral drive shaft, and is preferably replaceable with another supply spiral formed with a different size of the curved groove with a change in the filling amount. ,
Thereby, the amount of grains to be filled can be controlled according to the product. The grain apparatus for beverage cans can be suitably used as an apparatus for automatically filling a small amount of frozen corn grains in the production of canned corn potage.

[0007]

The grains stored in the hopper are falling from the outlet of the hopper on the two grooves of the supply spiral by their own weight, and are sequentially sent to the downstream side by the rotation of the supply spiral. When it reaches the portion, it falls into the filling chute, which is opened substantially two grooves wide, and is guided by the filling chute and falls into the empty can. Since the spiral has two grooves, the lead is doubled, and the same amount can be supplied at half the rotation speed of one groove. Even if the width of each groove is narrow, it is necessary to rotate at high speed. Absent. Therefore, the quantitative filling can be performed relatively accurately, and the grain can be satisfactorily filled without being crushed. When the filling amount is changed depending on the type of the can or the like, it can be easily controlled by replacing the supply spiral with a groove having a different size.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of an apparatus for filling frozen corn grains for beverage cans according to an embodiment of the apparatus for automatically filling grains and the like of the present invention, and the apparatus comprises, as main components, a hopper for storing frozen corn grains. 9. A feed spiral 12 for feeding the stored frozen corn grains, a filling chute 14 for positioning the frozen corn grains in the can, and installed above an in-feed conveyor 15 for feeding the can to the filling machine. You. The supply spiral 12 is made of synthetic resin such as nylon resin from the viewpoint of hygiene and transportability of frozen corn grains.
It is formed as a double groove having a curved groove with a constant pitch, and the increase and decrease in the number of frozen corn grains can be controlled by the width and depth of the curved groove. In the present embodiment, a plurality of supply spirals having different widths and / or depths of curved grooves are prepared, and when the number of particles to be charged is different depending on the type of can, the supply spiral is replaced with a supply spiral having a groove of a corresponding size. Thus, it is possible to cope with a change in the number of grains. Supply spiral 12
Is removably fitted and fixed to the shaft 5 bearing the bearings 6 and 13, so that the supply spiral can be easily changed in response to a change in the number of grains. The supply spiral 12 is controlled by the variable motor 1 with a speed reducer.
It is rotationally driven in one direction via a drive chain 3, a sprocket 4, and a shaft 5.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 7 denotes a semi-cylindrical lower cover, and 11 denotes a semi-cylindrical upper cover, which is formed of a synthetic resin such as nylon resin similarly to the supply spiral.
The supply spiral 12 is fitted into a cylindrical space formed by the lower cover and the upper cover, and a transport path for frozen corn grains is formed. The upstream end of the upper cover is one of two grooves
It is formed shorter than the supply spiral so as to leave the width of the groove, that is, approximately two grooves, in which a hopper 9 is provided such that its outlet faces the groove of the supply spiral, and the two grooves are stored in the hopper. The frozen corn particles are supplied by their own weight. In addition, the downstream end of the lower cover is formed to be shorter by substantially two grooves, and the filling chute 14 is provided there. The filling chute 14 is provided such that the upstream side vertically hangs from the end of the lower cover,
The downstream side is formed in the shape of a lower drawing, and the infeed conveyor 1
5 is formed so that the frozen corn particles fall naturally into the opening of the empty can 8 conveyed by 5. In addition, 18
Is an air cylinder for urgently stopping a can on an infeed conveyor. Reference numeral 19 denotes a cover provided on the upper portion of the infeed conveyor to prevent dust from being mixed into the empty can.
Frozen corn grains can be supplied to empty cans.

FIG. 2 shows the supply spiral 12 in detail, partially broken away. In the drawing, reference numeral 20 denotes a first curved surface groove, and reference numeral 21 denotes a second curved surface groove which is formed spirally. Both the curved grooves 20 and 21 are formed so as to have arc surfaces having the same radius r. Reference numeral 22 denotes a shaft hole through which the supply spiral shaft 5 penetrates.
Reference numeral 3 denotes a screw hole for fixing the supply spiral to the shaft.

[0011] The beverage can frozen corn granulator of the present embodiment is configured as described above, and operates as follows. After the empty cans 8 have been cleaned by the rinser in the previous step, they are sent in contact with each other by the infeed conveyor 15 and reach the dropping port below the filling chute 14. On the other hand, the frozen corn particles 10 stored in the hopper are in a state of being dropped on the supply spiral by their own weight, and are sequentially sent downstream by the rotation of the supply spiral 12. When the frozen corn particles 10 reach the downstream end of the lower cover 7, they fall from the lower cover downstream end 16 into the filling chute, are guided by the filling chute, and fall into the empty can. As a result of the experiment, the chute wall of the filling chute 14 was formed vertically on the upstream side where the cone grains fell, as shown in the figure, so that it did not contact the chute when falling. As a result, it was confirmed that the composition had excellent quantitative filling properties. When the filling amount is changed depending on the type of can or the like, the spiral is removed from the spiral shaft 5 and replaced with another supply spiral having a different groove size, or the rotational speed of the variable motor 1 with a speed reducer is reduced. It can be adjusted arbitrarily by controlling. The can to which the frozen corn particles have been supplied as described above is transported to the next preparation liquid filling step, or during the transportation, a monitoring person visually inspects the filling amount of the number of particles,
Or the can is weighed by passing through a weighing machine,
Rejected products are removed.

With the above-mentioned apparatus, the empty cans were transported at 550 cans / min (seamer speed) with the frozen corn grains targeted at 16 ± 4 grains / can and the operation was carried out for 100 cans. The pass rate of the packed frozen corn grains was 80%, and very good results were obtained with almost no collapse of the frozen corn grains. In addition, there were no rejected cans that were not filled with frozen corn particles at all, confirming that the practicability was extremely high.

[0013]

The present invention is constructed as described above, and supplies small quantities of grains to empty cans in which grains are continuously conveyed in a nearly constant amount automatically and satisfactorily without grain collapse. Can be filled. Also, to change the filling amount of grains,
It can be easily controlled by replacing the supply spiral with a different groove size.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus for putting grain for a beverage can according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional front view of a supply spiral.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Variable motor with reduction gear 5 Supply spiral shaft 7 Lower cover 9 Hopper 8 Empty can 10 Frozen cone grain 11 Upper cover 12 Supply spiral 14 Filling chute 20, 21 Curved groove

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A hopper for storing grains, a supply spiral for delivering the stored grains, a cover surrounding the outer periphery of the supply spiral and forming a grain transport path together with the supply spiral, and conveyed by the supply spiral. A filling chute for dropping and filling the grains into a can conveyed by a conveyor, wherein the supply spiral has a two-step curved groove, and the hopper has a dropping port located above an upstream side of the supply spiral. Is provided so as to face substantially two grooves of the supply spiral in the conveying direction. 2. The supply spiral is detachably supported on a supply spiral drive shaft, and can be replaced with another supply spiral formed with a curved groove having a different size according to a change in a filling amount. The automatic filling device for grains and the like according to claim 1, wherein Wherein the grain is frozen corn kernel, claims, characterized in that automatically supplies refrigeration corn kernel empty cans
Item 6. An automatic filling device for grains or the like according to item 1 or 2 .