JP2871068B2 - Method and apparatus for treating food materials under pressure - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a treatment under pressure of a food material, which performs a treatment for sterilization, denaturation, etc. on a food material, especially a fluid food material having fluidity under high pressure. The present invention relates to a method and a processing device.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, foods have been processed mainly by using heat, but in recent years, there has been a movement to actively use a thermodynamic variable called pressure.

An example of using pressure in food processing is a twin-screw extruder. However, this is intended to modify and organize the food by mechanical action such as temperature, kneading, and shearing, and the pressure is not intentionally controlled, but changes depending on the physical properties of the food. In addition, high pressure such as 1000 kgf / cm ² cannot be applied.

Therefore, a technology has been proposed in which a cold isotropic pressure pressurizing device is used to supply a pressurized medium to a pressurizing chamber of a high-pressure container and pressurize the same, thereby applying pressure to an object to be processed in a processing chamber and performing processing. I have.

In this case, it is necessary to isolate the object to be treated and the pressure medium,
The most commonly used isolation means include a method using a bag such as a vacuum pack and a method of isolating with a flexible wall, which has already been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-89877.

On the other hand, apart from this, as a device for melting a food material mainly composed of an animal protein consisting of fish meat or the like under pressure, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 1-203539, the present applicant has An apparatus and a method for performing pressure treatment via a free piston provided in a pressure vessel have been proposed (however, this is not a known technique).

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Among the above-mentioned proposed devices, in the latter device using a free piston, a common pressure medium supply and a pressure adjustment device are supplied to a plurality of pressure vessels, and further, an object to be processed is supplied. Although a configuration for connecting the devices is disclosed, the point that the series of processes of supply, pressurization holding, and removal of the object to be processed to the pressure vessel are efficiently performed is necessarily considered. It is not.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and an apparatus for efficiently performing the above series of steps.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention includes at least three pressure vessels, and includes a free piston in each of the pressure vessels. Each free vessel is partitioned by the free piston so that both sides of the free piston are provided. The free piston is freely movable to an equilibrium position where equal hydraulic pressure is provided in each of the two chambers and is slidable in the axial direction of each pressure vessel, and is partitioned by the free piston. A supply unit for the medium to be treated, which is commonly connected to each of the chambers, and a supply unit for the object to be treated, which is commonly connected to each of the other chambers; A method for treating a food material under pressure using a treatment device provided with a collecting device for collecting the foodstuffs, comprising the following technical means in order to achieve the above object.

That is, in the present invention according to claim (1), in the first pressure vessel among the pressure vessels, an object to be processed is charged and supplied from the supply device to the one chamber while extracting the pressure medium in the vessel. In the second pressure vessel, the object supplied to one chamber of the vessel is pressurized by applying a pressure medium pressure to a free piston in the vessel, and in the third pressure vessel, The object to be processed, which has been pressurized in the container, is recovered by sliding a free piston in the container in the container axial direction by supplying a pressure medium.

The present invention also includes at least three pressure vessels,
A free piston is provided in each of the pressure vessels so as to be slidable in the vessel axis direction, and a pressure medium supply / discharge device is provided which is commonly connected to each of the chambers partitioned by the free piston. A pressurized food material treatment apparatus comprising a supply device for the material to be treated commonly connected to each of the other chambers and a recovery device for collecting the processed material to be treated, The following technical measures have been taken to implement the method.

That is, in the present invention according to claim (2), a branch line connected to each of the one chambers is provided in a pressure medium supply common line of the pressure medium supply / discharge device, and an opening / closing valve is provided in each of the branch lines. Is provided, a bypass line for discharging the pressure medium is connected to a branch line between each of the on-off valves and the one chamber, and an on-off valve is provided for each of the bypass lines.
Further, a branch line connected to each of the other chambers is provided in a supply common line of the supply device of the processing object, and an on-off valve is provided on each of the branch lines, and each of the on-off valve and the other of the other is provided. A collection bypass line connected to the collection device is provided in a branch line between the chamber and the collection device, and an opening / closing valve is provided in each of the bypass lines.

(Examples and Functions) Hereinafter, examples and functions of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 relates to one embodiment of the present invention,
Reference numerals 1a, 1b, 1c denote three pressure vessels, each of which is easily opened at both ends in the axial direction, and these both openings have closing members 2a, 2b, 2c, and closing member 3a, respectively. , 3b and 3c are detachably fitted, respectively, and are sealed via a seal structure or the like. These closing members 2a to 2c and
In 3a to 3c, an axial force acts at the time of pressurizing treatment with a pressure medium,
In order to support these axial forces, a screw fitting structure is used for the pressure vessel opening as shown in the drawing, or in consideration of the simplicity of entering and exiting the workpiece, for example, a stepped screw fitting structure, or It is possible to provide a support structure in which the closing members 2a to 2c and 3a to 3c are sandwiched by press frames.

In each of the pressure vessels 1a to 1c, sealing members 5a, 5b and 5c
Are slidably loaded with free pistons 4a, 4b and 4c, respectively. One of the chambers (pressure medium chambers) 6a, 6b and 6c in each of the pressure vessels 1a to 1c divided into two chambers by the free pistons 4a to 4c is commonly provided with a pressure medium supply / discharge device 7 having a pressure adjusting unit. It is connected.

The pressure medium supply / discharge device 7 sucks a pressure medium from a pressure medium tank 8 by a pressure pump 9, pressurizes the pressure medium to a predetermined pressure via a pressure adjustment valve 10, and pressurizes the same to a pressure medium supply common line 12 having an on-off valve 12 A.
And the on-off valves 13 branched from this line 12, respectively.
The pressure medium chambers 6a to 6c can be supplied through branch lines 14a, 14b, and 14c having a, 13b, and 13c, and through holes 15a, 15b, and 15c provided in the closing members 3a to 3c. On-off valve 13a-1
The branch lines 14a to 14c between the pressure medium chambers 3a and 6a to 6c are connected to bypass lines 16a, 16b and 16c for discharging the pressure medium, and on-off valves 17a, 17b and 17c are respectively connected to the lines 16a to 16c. And through the throttle valve 18, it is possible to reduce the pressure in each pressure medium chamber and to collect the pressure medium in the pressure medium tank 8.

At that time, with respect to the pressurized supply of the pressure medium, in the case of a relatively low pressure, an electric pump can be used as shown in the figure, and in the case of a high pressure, for example, a hydraulic drive type intensifier type is used. However, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which a low-pressure pump is used for pressurizing at a low pressure and a pressure intensifier is used for pressurizing at a high pressure by coexisting them.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a pressure gauge provided in the pressure medium supply system. As for the setting of the pressurizing force, a method of stopping the pressurizing pump or the intensifier according to the signal of the pressure gauge can be adopted.

Furthermore, as a processing object supply device 21 into the other chambers (processing object storage chambers) 20a, 20b, and 20c, a processing target provided with a vacuum pump 22 for defoaming (air bleeding) through an on-off valve 23. A common line 26 having an on-off valve 24A for supplying an object to be processed by a supply pump 25 is provided from the material supply tank 24, and the common line 26 has a branch line 2 having on-off valves 27a, 27b, and 27c.
8a, 28b, 28c are connected, and the object to be processed is the closing member 2a to
Through the through holes 29a, 29b, 29c provided in the 2c, it is supplied to each of the processing chambers 20a to 20c.

In addition, as a path for taking out an object to be processed after the pressurization processing, recovery bypass lines 30a, 30b, 30c are connected to branch lines 28a to 28C between the on-off valves 27a to 27C and the chambers 20a to 20c, and this line 30a Each of .about.30c has an on-off valve 31a, 31b, 31c, and a path is provided through these on-off valves 31a-31c and 32 to a collection device 33 indicated by a tank.

The on-off valve 34 is, for example, a bypass valve for preventing an object to be processed leaked from the valves 31a to 31c during the pressurization process from entering the collection device 33, and is connected via a pipe 35. The liquid is returned to the processed material supply tank 24.

In addition, as a constituent material of these devices, from the viewpoint of handling food materials, pressure vessels, valves, pipes, etc.
Generally, stainless steel is recommended as preferred. As the pressure medium, water is recommended as the most preferable one.

The method according to the present invention having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIG. The second
In the figure, white valves are open and black valves are closed. That is, in the pressure vessel 1a, the processing object accommodation chamber 20a
The pressurized medium is supplied to the other pressurized medium chamber 6a for the object to be processed stored therein, and is pressurized by the upward movement of the free piston 4a. Pressurization and holding are performed with the on-off valves 13a, 17a, 27a, 31a of the pipeline closed.

At the time of the pressurization holding, in the pressure vessel 1b, during the pressure holding, the object to be processed, which has already been pressurized and held, is taken out (recovered to the recovery device 33). In this case, the removal is performed by opening the on-off valves 13b and 31b and moving the free piston 4b upward by the supply of the pressure medium by driving the pressurizing pump 9. The on-off valves 17b and 27b are closed.

On the other hand, in the pressure vessel 1c, during this time, the open / close valves 27c and 17c are opened and the open / close valves 31c and 13c are closed, and the free piston 4c slides downward (pressure medium) by driving the supply pump 25 for the workpiece. Of the object to be treated
Supply to 20c is performed.

That is, in each of the pressure vessels, the pressurized holding, removal, and supply of the object to be processed are performed simultaneously, and in the following order,
A batch continuous repetition operation is performed so that the three operations are performed in parallel within the same time.

Pressure vessel 1a: Pressurized → Discharge → Supply Pressure vessel 1b: Discharge → Supply → Pressurized Pressurized vessel 1c: Supply → Pressurized → Discharge In this example, heating for each pressure vessel Alternatively, although the cooling means is omitted, these can be appropriately equipped, and the number of pressure vessels can be increased.

Further, in the illustrated example, one chamber 6a to 6c is a lower part, the other chamber 20a to 20c is an upper part, and a pressure medium acts on the chambers 6a to 6c to supply an object to be processed to the chambers 20a to 20c. However, contrary to the illustrated example, the workpiece may be supplied to the lower chambers 6a to 6c, and the pressure medium may be applied to the upper chambers 20a to 20c. To clean the inside of the pressure vessel
Cleaning is possible and advantageous if the free piston is pulled down and water, which is a pressure medium, flows from above. Of course, pressure vessel 1a
1c may be arranged horizontally instead of vertically, and the pressure vessel may have any direction.

(Effects of the Invention) The present invention is as described above. A series of operations such as pressurized holding, removal, and supply of an object to be processed can be continuously performed in a batch at the same time, and water as a pressure medium is used. The use ensures the detergency required for handling food, thereby further promoting the industrial use of pressurized food.

[Brief description of the drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is an elevation view before operation, and FIG. 2 is an elevation view showing an example of an operation state. 1a ~ 1c …… Pressure vessel, 4a ～ 4c …… Free piston, 6a ～
6c: One chamber, 7: Pressure medium supply / discharge device, 12: Pressure medium supply common line, 13a to 13c: Open / close valve for pressure medium supply, 14a to 14c
…… Pressure medium supply branch line, 16a to 16c …… Pressure medium bypass line, 17a to 17c …… Pressure medium bypass valve, 20a to 2
0c: the other chamber, 21: workpiece supply device, 26: workpiece supply common line, 28a to 28c: workpiece branch line, 30a to 30c: workpiece recovery line , 31a-31c ...
... On-off valve for recovering processed material, 33 ... Recovery device.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) A23L 1/00-1/035

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] A pressure vessel having at least three pressure vessels, each pressure vessel having a free piston therein, each pressure vessel being partitioned by the free piston to form two chambers on both sides of the free piston; The piston is freely movable to an equilibrium position where the two chambers have the same hydraulic pressure, and is slidable in the axial direction of each pressure vessel, and is common to each of the chambers partitioned by the free piston. A pressure medium supply / discharge device connected to the other chamber, and a supply device for the processing object commonly connected to each of the other chambers and a recovery device for recovering the processed processing object. A method of treating a food material under pressure using a treatment apparatus, wherein the first pressure vessel of the pressure vessels is configured to remove an object to be treated from a supply device while removing a pressure medium in the vessel. In the second pressure vessel, the object to be treated supplied to one chamber of the vessel is pressurized by applying a pressure medium pressure to a free piston in the vessel. In the third pressure vessel, the pressure-treated object in the vessel is
A method for treating a food material under pressure, wherein the material is recovered by sliding a free piston in the container in the container axial direction by supplying a pressure medium. 2. A pressure vessel comprising at least three pressure vessels, wherein each of the pressure vessels has a free piston slidably in an axial direction of the vessel, and one of the chambers partitioned by the free piston. It is connected and provided with a pressure medium supply / discharge device, and is provided with a supply device of the processing object connected in common to each of the other chambers and a recovery device for collecting the processed processing object. A pressure material treatment device for food material, wherein a branch line connected to each of the one chambers is provided in a pressure medium supply common line of the pressure medium supply / discharge device, and an on-off valve is provided in each of the branch lines. A bypass line for discharging the pressurized medium is connected to a branch line between each of the on-off valves and the one chamber; an on-off valve is provided for each of the bypass lines; and a supply device for the workpiece. Supply of A branch line connected to each of the other chambers is provided in the communication line, an on-off valve is provided on each of the branch lines, and the recovery line is provided on a branch line between each of the on-off valves and the other chamber. A pressurized processing apparatus for food material, comprising: a collection bypass line connected to the apparatus; and an on-off valve provided in each of the bypass lines.