JP3762832B2 - Method and apparatus for freezing and granulating cooked rice - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for freezing cooked cooked rice so that a single grain of rice is loosened apart and a device therefor.
[0002]
[Prior art and its problems]
Cooked frozen foods include frozen cooked rice with frozen pilaf and white rice.
Because rice is rich in moisture and sticky on the surface, freezing cooked rice as it is makes it easy for rice grains to stick together, and this mass causes uneven thawing when thawed. It will damage your mouth.
In addition, if there is a lump in the frozen cooked rice, the lump may be caught on a measuring instrument or packaging machine during weighing or bagging.
[0003]
Conventionally, cooked rice is placed on a net conveyor that runs in the cooling chamber, cooling air is supplied from below the net conveyor, the rice is frozen while flowing the rice by the wind pressure of the cooling air, and the frozen rice The lump was broken by a loosening device provided on the conveyor near the exit of the cooling chamber.
The said loosening device is radially provided with comb-like teeth around a rotation axis perpendicular to the running direction of the conveyor, and the comb-like teeth rotated by driving the rotation shaft press the lump and break it.
[0004]
However, in the conventional apparatus described above, a lump having a diameter smaller than the interval between the comb teeth may remain.
In addition, in the conventional apparatus, the rice is easily clogged in the mesh of the conveyor net, and the flow of the cooling air is obstructed. Therefore, the net must be washed at regular intervals, and the cooling air is supplied to the cooked rice from the lower side of the net. Since it is sprayed, small grains in the cooked rice such as broken rice are blown up by the cooling air and scattered into the cooling chamber, resulting in a problem of sanitary management and maintenance.
[0005]
Furthermore, since the cooling air is supplied from the lower side of the net, it is necessary to provide a cooler below the net. Therefore, the height of the net becomes high (about 3 m), making maintenance dangerous and complicated. There is also a problem.
[0006]
【the purpose】
The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, and allows the frozen rice to be in a state in which a single grain of rice is loosened and the apparatus can be easily maintained.
[0007]
【means】
In order to achieve the above object, the method for freezing and granulating cooked rice according to the present invention blows cooling air below the freezing point from above to the cooked rice conveyed in the cooling chamber by a conveyor having a belt that does not transmit air. The rice on the conveyor is agitated and frozen so that the cooling air is sufficiently fed between the rice grains, and at least one pair of front and rear gears arranged in parallel in the axial direction are made long. Furthermore, both gears are disposed at intervals at which the gears do not mesh with each other, and are inserted between the two gears of the granulating apparatus that is rotationally driven so that the opposite sides face downward. A lump of rice grains contained in the cooked rice is sandwiched between gears and loosened.
[0008]
The cooked rice freezing and granulating apparatus according to the present invention includes a conveyor having a belt that does not allow air to pass through the cooling chamber, and a cooler that supplies cooling air from above to the cooked rice conveyed through the cooling chamber by the conveyor. And a stirring device that stirs the cooked rice on the conveyor and sends cooling air between the rice grains of the cooked rice, and is disposed in parallel in the axial direction at the carry-out end of the conveyor. Assuming that there is at least one pair of front and rear gears, and that both gears are arranged at intervals at which the gears are not meshed with each other, and that the granulating device is rotationally driven so that the opposite sides face downward. A loosening device having a plurality of comb-like teeth radially around a rotation axis perpendicular to the running direction of the conveyor on the conveyor near the cooling chamber outlet, Apparatus is 2 Taisonae the gear in the vertical direction, the spacing between the gear periphery between the lower gears is as small made than the spacing between the gear periphery between the upper gear.
[0009]
【Example】
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings 1 to 5.
An endless conveyor 2 is horizontally disposed in the front-rear direction in the cooling chamber 1, and the conveyor 2 is configured such that a conveyor belt 4 is stretched between a driving wheel 3 a and a driven wheel 3 b before and after the cooling chamber. The conveyor belt is made of, for example, a steel belt that does not transmit air, and rotates around the cooling chamber by the rotational driving of the driving wheel 3a.
[0010]
Above the endless conveyor 2, a rectifying body 5 for blowing air is provided in parallel with the conveyor belt 4, and a plurality of slit-like air blowing holes 6 are formed in the rectifying body at an appropriate interval across the width. .
[0011]
A plurality of air coolers 8 (four in FIG. 1) each provided with a blower 7 are provided above the rectifier, and the air cooler supplies cooling air having a temperature below freezing point.
[0012]
Among the places where the cooling air from the air blowing holes 6 is blown on the conveyor belt 4, the stirring devices 10 for stirring the cooked rice 9 on the belt are arranged at approximately equal intervals at a plurality of places (three places in FIG. 1). It is provided to become.
[0013]
As shown in FIG. 2, the stirring device 10 includes radial stirring blades 12 around a rotation shaft 11 orthogonal to the traveling direction of the conveyor belt. When the rotation shaft 11 is driven by a motor (not shown), the stirring blades are The rice 9 on the belt is stirred so as to be scooped backward, and cooling air is sufficiently fed into the rice.
[0014]
On the conveyor belt near the exit of the cooling chamber, there is provided a loosening device 13 for loosening the frozen cooked rice 9a. The loosening device 13 is arranged around a rotating shaft 14 orthogonal to the running direction of the conveyor belt as shown in FIG. The teeth 15 are arranged radially in a comb shape. The interval between the comb teeth 15 in the rotation axis direction is, for example, about 30 mm, and the rotation shaft 14 is driven by a motor (not shown). The comb-like teeth 15 press the cooked rice 9a frozen in a block shape to form a lump 9b of cooked rice having a diameter of about 30 mm.
The cooked rice pressed by the loosening device 13 may contain small pieces such as pieces of rice grains, and when the cooling air is blown, the small pieces may scatter in the cooling chamber. No air blowing holes are provided in the fluid production 5 from the outlet to the cooling chamber.
[0015]
The carry-out end of the endless conveyor 2 faces above the input port 16a of the granulating device 16 that loosens the frozen cooked rice into a single grain, and the discharge port 16b of the granulating device opens on the carry-out conveyor 17.
[0016]
As shown in FIG. 4, the granulating device 16 includes a pair of gears 19 a, 19 b, 20 a, and 20 b in the front and rear in a casing 18, and each gear has an axial direction of the endless conveyor. It is orthogonal to the running direction, and the length in the axial direction is substantially the same as the width of the endless conveyor, and at least the pair of gears have the same shape.
[0017]
Further, each pair of gears is not meshed, and the gap W ₁ between the outer circumferences of the upper gears 19a and 19b is larger than the gap W ₂ between the outer circumferences of the lower gears 20a and 20b. The gap W ₁ between the upper gears 19a and 19b is about 5 mm, and the gap W ₂ between the lower gears 20a and 20b is substantially 0 mm.
It should be noted that the crests 21 and troughs 22 of the gears that are paired face each other at the closest position.
[0018]
Each gear is driven by a motor (not shown), and is driven to rotate in a direction in which the side facing each pair of gears faces downward.
[0019]
Next, the operation of the above-described apparatus of the present embodiment will be described.
In the cooling chamber 1, the air cooled below the freezing point by the air cooler 8 is sent out from the blower 7 and blown to the cooked rice 9 conveyed by the conveyor belt 4 from the slit-like air blowing holes 6 of the rectifier 5.
[0020]
At this time, a large number of the air blowing holes 6 are provided in the rectifying body 5 at appropriate intervals, so that the cooling air is intermittently blown onto the cooked rice 9. That is, just below the air outlet hole is a strong wind zone where the cooling air is blown at a high wind speed and the cooked rice is cooled rapidly, and other places are a weak wind zone where the air speed of the cooling air is low and gently cooled. In the wind zone, the heat inside the cooked rice is released to the outside, so that the cooked rice is cooled and frozen almost evenly.
[0021]
The cooked rice 9 cooled to some extent by the intermittent cooling described above is loosened by the stirring blades 12 of the stirring device 10 so that the cooling air is sufficiently sent between the cooked rice, and thus the time required for freezing is set. Shortened.
Since the cooked rice is stirred by the stirring device 10, it is loosened to some extent, but the rice grains still stick to each other at the time of freezing and become a block-shaped frozen cooked rice 9 a.
[0022]
The block-shaped frozen cooked rice 9a is sent to the loosening device 13, and is pressed by the comb-like teeth 15 so as to be loosened so as to become a lump 9b having a smaller diameter than the interval between the comb-like teeth (30 mm in this embodiment).
The cooked rice loosened by the loosening device 13 is carried out of the cooling chamber without applying cooling air to prevent scattering, and is put into the granulating device 16.
[0023]
In the granulating apparatus 16, when the cooked rice lump 9b passes between the upper gears 19a and 19b and between the lower gears 20a and 20b, it is sandwiched between the gears so that one grain is loosened by the loose rice 9d.
[0024]
That is, the lump having a diameter larger than the gap W ₁ between the outer circumferences of the gears in the upper gear is loosened to at least the lump 9c having a diameter smaller than the gap W ₁ when passing between the upper gears. When passing between the gears, each grain is loosened so that it becomes a rice 9d in a disjointed state.
The loose rice 9d is sent from the discharge port 16b to the carry-out conveyor 17, and is sent to a process such as weighing and packaging by the carry-out conveyor.
In the embodiment described above, the stirrer 10 is provided immediately below the air outlet 6, but as shown in FIG. 5, the front and rear air outlets 6 are opened toward the stirrer and blown to the stirrer. The air volume of the cooling air may be increased.
[0025]
[Operation and effect of the invention]
In the present invention described above, the cooked rice conveyed in the cooling chamber is stirred by the stirring device, so that the cooling air from the air cooler is sufficiently fed between the cooked rice grains, and is frozen uniformly in a short time.
[0026]
In the frozen cooked rice, there is a lump formed by sticking rice grains, but when the frozen cooked rice passes through the loosening device, the lump is pressed by comb-like teeth and loosened to a small diameter lump.
[0027]
A small-diameter lump remains in the cooked rice that has passed through the loosening device, but when passing between the gears in the granulating device, the small-diameter lump is sandwiched between the gears to loosen one individual grain.
Therefore, thawing unevenness due to lumps does not occur at the time of thawing, and the trouble that frozen rice is clogged in the measuring device or the packaging device at the time of weighing or packaging is solved.
[0028]
In the apparatus of the present invention, the belt of the conveyor is not allowed to transmit air, so there is no problem that the rice is clogged in the net of the net unlike the net conveyor in the conventional apparatus, and the cooked rice such as broken rice There is almost no risk that small particles inside are blown up by the cooling air and scattered in the cooling chamber, and the complexity of hygiene management and maintenance such as cleaning of the conveyor belt and the cooling chamber can be reduced.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment of an apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view showing a stirring device.
FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view showing a loosening device.
FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of a granulating apparatus.
FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view showing another example of air blowing holes in the stirring device portion.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cooling chamber 2 Endless conveyor 3a Drive wheel 3b Driven wheel 4 Conveyor belt 5 Rectifier 6 Air blowing hole 7 Blower 8 Air cooler 9 Cooked rice 10 Stirrer 11 Rotating shaft 12 Stirring blade 13 Unraveling device 14 Unwinding device rotation Shaft 15 Comb teeth 16 Granulating device 17 Unloading conveyor 18 Casings 19a, 19b, 20a, 20b Gear 21 Gear crest 22 Gear trough

Claims (4)

Cooling air below the freezing point is blown from above to the cooked rice conveyed in the cooling chamber by a conveyor having a belt that does not transmit air, and the cooked rice on the conveyor is agitated and frozen so that the cooling air is sufficiently sent between the rice grains. The frozen cooked rice has at least one pair of front and rear two gears that are elongated in the axial direction and arranged in parallel, and the two gears are arranged at intervals at which the two gears do not mesh with each other. Freezing and granulation of rice that is thrown between the gears of the granulating apparatus that is rotationally driven so that the opposite side of the gear faces downward is sandwiched between the gears and the rice grains contained in the frozen rice are loosened between the gears Method. A cooling chamber is provided with a conveyor having a belt that does not allow air to pass through, and a cooler that supplies cooling air from above to the rice that is conveyed through the cooling chamber by the conveyor, and the cooked rice on the conveyor is agitated on the conveyor. Provided with a stirring device for sending cooling air between the rice grains of the cooked rice, and having at least one pair of front and rear two gears arranged in parallel in the axial direction at the carry-out end of the conveyor, Is a rice freezing and granulating device provided with a granulating device that is arranged at intervals at which both gears do not mesh with each other and that is rotationally driven so that the opposite sides of these gears face downward. The rice freezing and granulating apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a loosening device having a large number of comb-like teeth radially around a rotation axis orthogonal to the running direction of the conveyor on the conveyor near the cooling chamber outlet. The granulating apparatus includes two pairs of the gears in the vertical direction, and the interval between the outer gears between the lower gears is smaller than the interval between the outer gears between the upper gears. The apparatus for freezing and granulating rice as described.

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