JP3234726B2 - Heating and cooling processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heating / cooling apparatus provided with a heating tank, a cooling tank, and a conveying means for sequentially immersing food.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In this field, for example,
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-29359, a hot water tank is provided on the upper side of a frame, a cooling tank for inflowing cold water is provided on a lower side, and a hollow heating tank is attached to the bottom of the hot water tank to discharge steam into the heating tank. A perforated pipe is arranged, and an endless chain that passes through the hot water tank, turns over, and runs in the cooling tank is hung over a chain wheel that supports the front and back of the frame. A number of sealed containers filled with materials are arranged in rows on an L-shaped transport plate,
Further, on the side where the chain is inverted and enters the cooling tank, a guide plate that is curved according to the inversion and extends in the cooling tank is fixed,
Furthermore, there is disclosed a tofu finishing apparatus in which a product receiving plate extending horizontally outside a cooling tub is provided at an end of a bottom surface of the cooling tub on a product delivery side.

[0003]

However, since the tofu finishing apparatus transports the filled tofu in a state of being laid down along the traveling direction of the transport plate, the area required for transporting one packed tofu is large. There was a problem of inefficiency. Moreover, since the transport plate is opened perpendicular to the transport direction, a guide plate for preventing the fall is attached to the portion where the transport plate is inverted as described above, or the bottom of the cooling tank is flattened. Care had to be taken so that the packed tofu could be transported smoothly.

[0004] In view of the above circumstances, the present invention has high productivity,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a heating / cooling apparatus capable of reliably supplying a semi-finished product and discharging a product.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a heating and cooling apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that a conveying means circulating in a heating tank and a cooling tank has a plurality of conveying plates formed in a caterpillar shape. Each transport plate stands up in the traveling direction, and its base and tip are bent in a hook shape in directions opposite to each other in the traveling direction. . The rocking plate may be supported at a bent portion on the base side of each transport plate.

[0006]

The respective transport plates are erected in the running direction and the base and the tip are bent like hooks in directions opposite to each other in the running direction. And the area occupied by one filled tofu is reduced. In addition, by supporting the rocking plate at the bent portion on the base side of each transport plate, the tilting of the food interposed between the adjacent transport plates is prevented.

[0007]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a heating / cooling apparatus according to the present invention. In this embodiment, the frame 9
A heating tank 1 for filling with hot water is provided at the upper part of the tank, a cooling tank 2 for filling with cold water is provided at the lower part, and a conveying means 3 for circulating at a constant speed through both tanks is provided.

The conveying means 3 comprises a pair of left and right endless chains 1
A number of transport plates 4 are provided in parallel over the entire length of the transport plate 4, and each transport plate 4 has its upright portion 11 opposing the traveling direction and standing slightly inclined in the opposite traveling direction. Also,
Each transport plate 4 bends the base 5 in the running direction to form a base hooking piece 12, and bends the front end 6 substantially at right angles in the anti-running direction to form the front hooking piece 13. A through-hole 14 is provided to make it easy to flow hot water and cold water and drain the water. The interval between the adjacent transport plates 4 is set to be about the thickness of general tofu, and the protruding lengths of the base hook 12 and the front hook 13 are also substantially equal to the interval between the adjacent transport plates 4. When reinforcing the transport plate, a side plate may be provided as necessary.

The endless chain 10 is hung on a feed wheel pivotally supported on the front and rear portions of the frame 9 and is connected to the heating tank 1 and the cooling tank 2 so that the immersion and pulling up of the heating tank 1 and the cooling tank 2 are sequentially and suitably performed. As shown in FIG. 3, a traveling guide 17 is provided along the left and right inner walls of the cooling tank 2 so as to face horizontally, and extends obliquely upward and forward and rearward of each tank.

[0010] A feed wheel provided on the frame 9 has two small upper and lower diameter feed wheels 15 provided at a front portion (a position into the heating tub 1) and a rear portion (a position at an exit position from the heating tub 1). Of the two large feed wheels 16 provided in front of the upper feed wheel 15U (the supply position 2)
1), the supply conveyor 23 is disposed below the lower feed wheel 15L (discharge position 22) so that the discharge conveyor 24 runs in the width direction of the frame.
A feed plate 25 having a length substantially equal to that of the transport plate 4 is supported above the feed plate 3.

A heating pipe through which steam from the boiler circulates is provided inside the heating tank 1, and a flow rate of the steam is controlled by an opening control valve interposed in the pipe.
The water temperature in the heating tank 1 is always kept at a constant value, and a cooling pipe through which cooling water flows is disposed inside the cooling tank 2 so that the water temperature in the cooling tank 2 is always kept low. I have.

According to the above configuration, the feed plate 25 rotates in accordance with the rise of the empty transport plate 4E at the front portion of the frame 9, and the number of semi-finished products (for example, tofu material before hardening) ) Are supplied to the empty transport plate 4E in a parallel state. The semi-finished product 18 is placed on the upright portion 11 that is in a horizontal state at the time of supply. However, the semifinished product 18 gradually rises along the periphery of the front upper feed wheel 15U as the vehicle travels, and follows the inclination of the upright portion 11. The semi-finished product 18 with the sealing surface facing up slides down until it comes into contact with the base hooking piece 12. Since the interval between the adjacent transport plates 4 is set to be about the thickness of a general tofu as described above, a semi-finished product 18 having a thickness almost matching the thickness does not fall over during transport.

The transport plate 4 on which the semi-finished product 18 is placed enters the heating tank 1 along the traveling guide 17 on the outward path, and after the entire semi-finished product 18 is immersed in the warm water inside for less than one hour and passed therethrough,
The traveling guide is pulled up along the gentle inclination, descends along the peripheral edge of the rear feed wheel 16 and gradually inclines in the traveling direction. After entering the cooling tub 2 along, the vehicle reaches a horizontal traveling state. By the time the transport plate 4 is turned upside down, the semi-finished product 18 on the transport plate 4 tilts in the traveling direction along with the tilt of the transport plate 4, and finally moves onto the front transport plate 4 to form a sealing surface. Is slided down until it comes into contact with the front hooking piece 13 with. In the meantime, the traveling along the curvature of the periphery of the feed wheel 16 causes some expansion in the interval between the leading ends 6 of the respective transport plates 4, but the expansion is suppressed by setting the diameter of the feed wheel 16 to be sufficiently large. Therefore, the semi-finished product 18 of the general tofu size is conveyed without any trouble.

The transport plate 4 which has passed through the cooling tank 2 in less than one hour on the return path is lifted up along the gentle inclination of the traveling guide 17 and will soon reach the periphery of the lower feed wheel 15L pivotally supported in front of the frame 9. It rises along the way and returns to the starting point of the outbound route again. The semi-finished product 18 on the transport plate 4 is a product 19 that has been heated, cooled, and sterilized when it is lifted from the cooling tank 2, and is greatly spread by being wound up by a small-diameter feed wheel 15 </ b> L. It falls from the gap of the plate 4 and is transferred to the shipping process via the discharge conveyor.

As described above, a semi-finished product of general tofu size can be transported without any trouble. For example, when a small-sized filled tofu 26 is transported, the feed wheel 16 behind the frame is used. When the distance between the adjacent conveying plates 4 and 4 is increased when approaching, the filled tofu is tilted between the two conveying plates 4 and 4 as shown by the arrow in FIG. In many cases, the space between the adjacent transport plates 4 and 4 is narrowed, and the filled tofu 26 is crushed.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a flat rocking plate slightly smaller than the upright portion 11 of the transport plate 4 is provided at the bent portion 7 on the base 5 side of each transport plate 4 so that the size of the product 19 is not limited. 8 is pivotally supported, and the rocking plate 8
The rear surface of the carrier plate 4 is in contact with the front surface of the upright portion 11 of the transport plate 4 which is supported,
The front end portion 20 of the oscillating plate 8 abuts on the rear surface of the upright portion 11 of the transport plate 4 located in front of the oscillating plate 8 by the forward swinging.

The rocking plate 8 comes into close contact with the front surface of the upright portion 11 in accordance with the inclined state of the transport plate 4 on the outward path, and is laid under the semi-finished product 18. When the conveying plate 4 is turned upside down and the semi-finished product 18 is transferred to the conveying plate 4 located in front of the semi-finished product 18, the swinging plate 8 holds the semi-finished product 18 by its own weight. Even in this case, it is possible to prevent the transport plate 4 from being tilted over and falling from the transport plate 4 at a place other than the discharge location.

[0018]

As described above, if the heating / cooling apparatus according to the present invention is used, the adjacent transport plates play the role of a sealing lid, so that a guide for preventing the dropping is unnecessary, and the entire apparatus is simplified. can do. In addition, since the area occupied by one filled tofu is reduced, the number of products that can be transported is increased and the production efficiency is increased. In addition, a swing plate is added to each transport plate to prevent the product from tilting or falling. Because there are few defective products due to the size of the size, the temperature control device of the water filled in the heating tank and the cooling tank,
If an appropriate motor control device for driving the device is provided, an unmanned manufacturing line with very few defective products is realized, which contributes to a reduction in manufacturing costs.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a conveying means in a heating / cooling apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a main part of the transfer means.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the main part.

FIG. 4 is an overall view of the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a state of conveying small-sized filled tofu in an embodiment in which no swing plate is provided.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Heating tank 2 Cooling tank 3 Conveying means 4 Conveying plate 5 Base 6 Front part 7 Bending point 8 Rocking plate

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F25D 1/02 A23L 3/04 A23L 3/36 B65G 17/12 B65G 17/46

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A heating and cooling treatment apparatus comprising a heating tank (1), a cooling tank (2), and a conveying means (3) circulating inside the two tanks, wherein the conveying means (3) includes a plurality of conveying means. Each transport plate (4) is formed by connecting plates (4) in a caterpillar shape.
Is formed so as to face the traveling direction and to have its base (5) and tip (6) bent in a hook shape in directions opposite to each other in the traveling direction, so that the base (5) of each transport plate (4) is formed. A heating / cooling treatment apparatus characterized in that a rocking plate (8) is supported at a bent portion (7) on the side of (1).