JP3059903B2 - Frozen dessert production equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing frozen desserts such as soft ice cream.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this kind of frozen dessert producing apparatus for producing frozen desserts such as soft ice cream is disclosed in, for example, Jikku 63-203
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 04, a hopper for storing a mix (frozen dessert mix) serving as a raw material of a soft ice cream, a cooling cylinder for producing a soft ice cream from the mix supplied from the hopper, a compressor, a condenser, a decompression device, Further, a cooling and heating device including a cooling cylinder and a cooler provided in each of the hoppers is provided.

[0003] The refrigeration cycle of the cooling and heating device is changed by a four-way valve to open the cylinder cooling valve and the hopper cooling valve (both of which are solenoid valves) during the production of frozen desserts during business hours. The gas valve and the hopper hot gas valve are closed), and the high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant (hereinafter, referred to as hot gas) discharged from the compressor is radiated and liquefied by the condenser and decompressed by the decompression device. The ice cream is produced in the cooling cylinder by flowing into a cooler and evaporating to cool the cooling cylinder and the hopper to a predetermined temperature.

In addition, when heat mixing and cooling of the cooling cylinder and the hopper are performed after the business is closed, the cylinder cooling valve and the hopper cooling valve are closed, and the cylinder hot gas valve and the hopper hot gas valve (both are solenoid valves). And the hot gas discharged from the compressor flows directly into each cooler to heat the cooling cylinder and the hopper.

[0005]

As described above, a plurality of solenoid valves are used in the cooling and heating device of this kind of frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus to switch the flow path of the refrigerant, and these valves stop the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus. The inside is naturally closed without electricity. On the other hand, when the compressor is out of order for replacement or the like, the inside of the refrigerant circuit of the cooling and heating device must be evacuated. However, since the above-mentioned solenoid valves are closed, a portion that cannot be evacuated as it is occurs.

Therefore, conventionally, when performing such evacuation,
A means for attaching another electromagnetic coil to each electromagnetic valve and forcibly opening the valve by energizing the electromagnetic coil has been employed, and the evacuation work has been extremely complicated. The present invention has been made in order to solve such a conventional technical problem, and provides a frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus which can smoothly perform an operation even when the inside of a refrigerant circuit of a cooling and heating device is evacuated. The purpose is to:

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a frozen dessert production apparatus comprising: a hopper for storing a mix; a cooling cylinder for producing a frozen dessert such as soft ice cream from the mix supplied from the hopper; and a hopper provided in the hopper. A cooler, a cylinder cooler provided in the cooling cylinder,
Equipped with these coolers and a plurality of solenoid valves , constitute a cooling circuit for cooling the hopper and the cooling cylinder by each cooler during the manufacture of frozen desserts, and a heating circuit for heating the hopper and the cooling cylinder by each cooler during heat sterilization. A cooling and heating device to be configured, and a control device for executing control of the cooling and heating device including opening and closing control of the plurality of electromagnetic valves , and the control device is configured to evacuate the cooling circuit.
On the basis of the operation of pressing a predetermined switch for a predetermined time ,
The electromagnetic valves are forcibly opened.

[0008]

According to the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, the inside of the cooling circuit is
The control device forcibly opens each solenoid valve of the cooling and heating device based on an operation of pressing and holding a predetermined switch for a predetermined time when evacuation is performed. At the time of performing, for example, each solenoid valve can be forcibly opened only by the switch operation, and almost the entire area in the cooling and heating device can be brought into a communicating state. Therefore, the electromagnetic
This eliminates the need to use a special electromagnetic coil for opening the valve , and significantly improves the repair / maintenance workability of the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view of a frozen dessert production apparatus SM according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the dessert production apparatus SM, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control device C of the dessert production apparatus SM, and FIG. It is a front view of operation panel 50 of SM.

The ice confection producing apparatus SM of the embodiment is an apparatus for producing and selling ice confections such as vanilla and chocolate soft ice creams and shakes. In FIG. A hopper 2 for storing a mix (frozen dessert mix) is provided. The hopper 2 has an opening on the upper surface, and this opening is opened and closed by a detachable cover 3, and the cover 3 is removed when replenishing a mix or the like. A hopper cooler 4 is wound around the hopper 2, and the mix in the hopper 2 is kept cool by the hopper cooler 4.

A hopper stirrer 5 called an impeller is provided at the inner bottom of the hopper 2, and is driven to rotate by a stirring motor 6 provided below. Further, a mix level sensor 7 composed of a pair of conductive electrodes is attached at a position at a predetermined height on the side wall of the hopper 2, and the electrodes of the mix level sensor 7 conduct to allow a predetermined amount (mix) in the hopper 2. The hopper stirrer 5 is continuously rotated in a state of detecting a mix equal to or higher than the height at which the level sensor 7 is provided. Rotated intermittently.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a cooling cylinder for producing a frozen dessert by rotating and stirring a mix appropriately supplied from the hopper 2 by a mix supply device 9 with a beater 10, and a cylinder cooler 11 is mounted around the cooling cylinder. The beater 10 includes a beater motor 12, a drive transmission belt, and a speed reducer 1.
3 and rotated via a rotating shaft. The manufactured frozen dessert is
Extraction lever 15 disposed on the freezer door 14 on the front
By operating, the plunger 16 moves up and down,
The extraction path 17 is opened, and the beater 10 is taken out by being rotationally driven.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, three take-out levers 15A, 15B and 15C are provided for vanilla, chocolate and a mixture thereof. And two chocolates for chocolate desserts. Next, in FIG. 1, R is a cooling and heating device for producing frozen desserts. Hereinafter, the cooling and heating device R will be described. Reference numeral 18 denotes a compressor, and 19 denotes a refrigerant discharged from the compressor 18 in a cooling circuit (solid arrow) and a heat sterilization circuit (dashed arrow). A four-way valve 20 for switching the flow direction in reverse is a water-cooled condenser. When the four-way valve 19 constitutes a cooling circuit, the high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant discharged from the compressor 18 flows into the condenser 20 via the check valve 21, where it is condensed and liquefied to form a liquid refrigerant. Become.

The liquid refrigerant passes through the check valve 22 and passes through the dryer 2
After exiting from 3, the pressure is reduced in two directions, one of which is depressurized through a cylinder cooling valve 24 composed of an electromagnetic valve and a cooling cylinder capillary tube 25, flows into the cylinder cooler 11, evaporates there, and cools the cooling cylinder 8. . The other is decompressed through a hopper cooling valve 26 also composed of an electromagnetic valve, and a hopper capillary tube 27 in the former stage, flows into the hopper cooler 4 and evaporates there, cools the hopper 2, and then passes through a capillary tube 28 in the latter stage. leak.

After cooling the cooling cylinder 8 and the hopper 2, the refrigerant is joined by the accumulator 30, and then returns to the compressor 18 via the four-way valve 19 to perform a cooling operation (sales state) (solid arrow flow). ). The hopper 2 is provided with a hopper sensor 32 for detecting the temperature of the hopper 2, and the cooling cylinder 8 is provided with a cylinder sensor 31 for detecting the temperature of the cooling cylinder 8.

Next, the case where the four-way valve 19 forms a heat sterilization circuit will be described. In this case, the four-way valve 19 is operated to flow the refrigerant in the direction of the dashed arrow in the figure. That is, the high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant discharged from the compressor 18, that is, the hot gas, is divided into two directions by the four-way valve 19 and the accumulator 30, one of which flows directly into the cylinder cooler 11, and the other of which is the check valve 33. The cooling cylinder 8 and the hopper 2 are heated at a specified sterilization temperature for a predetermined time (+ 72 ° C., 40 minutes) by flowing into the hopper cooler 4 through the hopper cooler 4.

The refrigerant liquefied by heat radiation here, after merging via a cylinder hot gas valve 34 and a hopper hot gas valve 35 comprising an electromagnetic valve respectively, and the gas-liquid separator in the condenser 20, the refrigerant gas is parallel A heat sterilization operation is performed through the reverse electromagnetic valve 36 and the reverse capillary tube 37 connected to the compressor 18 and returning to the compressor 18 via the four-way valve 19. Reference numeral 38 denotes a sterilization sensor that detects the heating temperature of the cooling cylinder 8.

A water cooling device 40 for cooling the condenser 20 includes a water saving valve 41, a pressure sensor 42 for detecting a refrigerant pressure in the condenser 20, and a water supply passage 43. Then, when a high-temperature and high-pressure gas refrigerant flows into the condenser 20 from the compressor 18 and the refrigerant pressure in the condenser 20 increases, the pressure sensor 42 detects this and opens the water saving valve 41. When the water saving valve 41 is opened, the cooling water is circulated through the water supply passage 43 into the water cooling device 40 as shown by a dashed line in the figure, and cools the condenser 20.

Reference numeral 44 denotes an electrical box, 45 denotes a front drain receiver, and 46 denotes a water tap which is supplied with water when washing the mix. An operation panel 50 is provided above the freezer door 14 on the front of the main body 1. As shown in FIG. 4, the operation panel 50 has two sets of switches and indicators having the same function on the left and right with respect to a sterilization switch 51 and a sterilization monitor display 52 (corresponding to each of the cooling and heating devices R, R).
Are located.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 53 denotes a cooling operation switch. When this switch is pressed, the cooling cylinder 8 and the hopper 2
Is cooled to within a predetermined set temperature range. Reference numeral 54 denotes an energy-saving cooling operation (power save) switch, which is pressed in a time zone far from the customer's feet, and performs cooling control at a set value slightly shifted up from the cooling temperature. Reference numeral 55 denotes a defrost switch, which is used to soften and remove the mix in order to recover the mix from the cooling cylinder 8.
Alternatively, a pressing operation is performed when a hardened soft ice cream is regenerated because it is not sold for a long time, and a hot gas flows to raise the temperature of the cooling cylinder 8 to a certain temperature.

Reference numeral 56 denotes a washing switch which, when depressed, rotates the beater 10 for a predetermined period of time. When the mix is collected after defrosting, or when the hopper 2 and the cooling cylinder 8 are washed. Is operated. A stop switch 57 stops all control operations (cooling, defrosting, washing, and sterilization).

Next, in FIG. 3, the control device C is constituted by a general-purpose microcomputer 77.
1. hopper sensor 32, sterilization sensor 38, extraction switch SW and operation panel 5 linked to the take-out lever 15.
Each output of each switch provided at 0 is connected.
The output of the microcomputer 77 includes the motor 18M of the compressor 18, the beater motor 12, the stirring motor 6, the cylinder cooling valve 24, the hopper cooling valve 26,
Cylinder hot gas valve 34, hopper hot gas valve 3
5, the four-way valve 19 and the reverse valve 36 are connected.

Next, the operation of the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus SM according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of the microcomputer 77 shown in FIG. The microcomputer 77 resets everything after the start of operation, and then proceeds to step S
At 1 the microcomputer 77 counts a one-minute timer as its function. Next, in step S2, it is determined whether or not one minute has elapsed from the start of counting by the one-minute timer, and if it has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S6, and normal control described below is executed.

In the control of step S6, when the cooling operation switch 53 is pressed during business hours, the microcomputer 77 executes the cooling operation (sales state). In this case, the microcomputer 77 is provided with the four-way valve 19.
And the reverse valve 36 is closed. Then, based on the output of the cylinder sensor 31, the lower limit temperature (set value) and the upper limit temperature (set value + 1.
5 ° C) ON (open)-OFF of the cylinder cooling valve 24
(Closed), the compressor motor 18M is turned on and off to cool the cooling cylinder 8 to a set temperature (about −3 ° C. to −8 ° C.).

The microcomputer 77 turns on (opens) and turns off the hopper cooling valve 26 in the temperature range of + 10 ° C. to + 8 ° C. based on the output of the hopper sensor 32.
(Closed), the hopper 2 is cooled by turning on / off the compressor motor 18M. The microcomputer 7
7 turns on the stirring motor 6 and turns on the hopper cooling valve 26.
The hopper 2 is driven in synchronization with (open) to rotate the hopper agitator 5 while the hopper 2 is being cooled (soft cream temperature control described later).

However, in this cooling operation, the cooling of the cooling cylinder 8 is given priority, and the hopper cooling valve 26 is turned on under the condition that the cylinder cooling valve 24 is turned off. In this cooling operation, the microcomputer 77 closes the cylinder hot gas valve 34 and the hopper hot gas valve 35 (OFF). Next, when the sterilization switch 51 is pressed with the closing of the business, the microcomputer 77
Executes the heat sterilization operation. In this case, the microcomputer 77 switches the four-way valve 19 to configure the heat sterilization circuit, and opens the reverse valve 36. Then, based on the output of the sterilization sensor 38, the cylinder hot gas valve 3 is set between a predetermined lower limit and an upper limit set temperature so as to maintain a specified sterilization temperature for the mix.
4 ON (open)-OFF (closed), compressor motor 1
By turning on and off the 8M, the cooling cylinder 8 is sterilized by heating.

The microcomputer 77 turns on (opens) -OF the hopper hot gas valve 35 at the temperature set in the cooling cylinder 8 based on the output of the hopper sensor 32.
F (closed), the compressor motor 18M is turned on and off to heat the hopper 2, and the mix in the hopper 2 is sterilized by heating. The microcomputer 77 closes the cylinder cooling valve 24 and the hopper cooling 26 during the heat sterilization operation, drives the stirring motor 6 and rotates the hopper stirrer 5. The microcomputer 7
Reference numeral 7 denotes cooling after heat sterilization, and ON-OFF control of the compressor 18 so that the cooling cylinder 8 and the hopper 2 are maintained at a certain low temperature state, that is, a cooling temperature (+ 8 ° C. to + 10 ° C.) until the point of sale the next day. In addition, a cooling operation for performing ON-OFF control of the cylinder cooling valve 24 and the hopper cooling valve 26 is executed.

Here, the compressor 18 breaks down,
When the inside of the refrigerant circuit of the cooling and heating device R is evacuated after the replacement, the stop switch 57 and the defrost switch 55 of the operation panel 50 are turned off within one minute after the power is supplied to the frozen dessert production device SM as described above. Press (ON). After turning on the power, the microcomputer 77 proceeds from step S2 to step S3 before the lapse of one minute from the start of counting by the one-minute timer, and determines whether the stop switch 57 and the defrost switch 55 are simultaneously pressed (ON). If the switch operation is performed within one minute after the power is turned on, the process proceeds from step S3 to step S4.
To count the 10-second timer that the microcomputer 77 has as a function.

In step S5, it is determined whether or not 10 seconds have elapsed from the start of counting by the 10-second timer. If it has elapsed, steps S7 to S10 are executed to execute the cylinder cooling valve 24, hopper cooling valve 26 Then, the cylinder hot gas valve 34 and the hopper hot gas valve 35 are forcibly opened (ON). Thus, the entire region of the refrigerant circuit of the cooling and heating device R is in communication with the compressor 18. Then, a vacuum is drawn by a well-known operation, a refrigerant is sealed in the cooling and heating device R, and the operation is completed. When restarting the operation of the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus SM, the power may be once turned off and then turned on again.

As described above, in the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus SM of the present invention, if the stop switch 57 and the defrost switch 55 of the operation panel 50 are simultaneously pressed for 10 seconds within one minute after the power is turned on, the cylinder cooling valve of the cooling and heating device R is pressed. 24, the hopper cooling valve 26, the cylinder hot gas valve 34, and the hopper hot gas valve 35 are forcibly opened, so that it is not necessary to use a special electromagnetic coil for opening each valve as in the prior art, and the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus SM repair / maintenance workability is significantly improved.

[0031]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, cooling
When evacuating the circuit, press the specified switch for the specified time.
Each collector of ever based on the operation, the control device cooling heating device
Since the magnetic valve is forcibly opened, when evacuation of the cooling and heating device is performed, for example, each solenoid valve is forcibly opened only by the switch operation, and substantially the entire area of the cooling and heating device is opened. The communication state can be established. Therefore, it is not necessary to use a special electromagnetic coil for opening the electromagnetic valve as in the related art , and the repair / maintenance workability of the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus is remarkably improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view of a frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control device of the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of an operation panel of the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a program of a microcomputer of the control device of the frozen dessert production apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Hopper 4 Hopper cooler 8 Cooling cylinder 11 Cylinder cooler 18 Compressor 19 Four-way valve 20 Condenser 24 Cylinder cooling valve 26 Hopper cooling valve 34 Cylinder hot gas valve 36 Hopper hot gas valve C Control device R Cooling / heating device SM Frozen confectionery

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A hopper for storing a mix, a cooling cylinder for producing frozen desserts such as soft ice cream from the mix supplied from the hopper, a hopper cooler provided in the hopper, and a cooling cylinder provided in the cooling cylinder. Cylinder cooler, comprising these coolers and a plurality of electromagnetic valves , while configuring a cooling circuit to cool the hopper and cooling cylinder by each cooler during the manufacture of frozen desserts, the hopper by each cooler during heating sterilization. A cooling and heating device that forms a heating circuit that heats the cooling cylinder, and a control device that performs control of the cooling and heating device including opening and closing control of the plurality of solenoid valves , and the control device controls the inside of the cooling circuit. When vacuuming
Based on the operation of holding down a certain switch for a predetermined time ,
A frozen dessert production apparatus characterized by forcibly opening each solenoid valve .