JP4637049B2 - Method and apparatus for cooling and solidifying fluid food - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for cooling and solidifying fluid food free from liquid leakage without complicating production work: and to provide a device for cooling and solidifying fluid food. <P>SOLUTION: The method for cooling and solidifying fluid food comprises charging fluid food containing oil and fat, or starch and wheat flour to a conveying belt through a fluid food-charging part formed at the approach of the conveying belt followed by cooling and solidifying the fluid food (hereinafter referred to 'workpiece') conveyed via the belt due to coldness given via the conveying belt, wherein the work is cooled and solidified until the workpiece loses fluidity due to the coldness given to the work starting from at least the approach of the conveying belt while a gas flow dam formed of gas flow along both of the right and left sides of the conveying belt prevents the workpiece from protruding to the side faces of the conveying belt. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a fluid food cooling and solidifying method and apparatus for obtaining a band-like or plate-like solidified member from a liquid such as curry roux, stew roux or frozen juice.

Conventionally, for example, to obtain a carrero, animal fats and oils, wheat flour, seasonings, spices, etc. are mixed and heat-treated in appropriate amounts to form a liquid, poured into a mold, cooled and solidified, and shaped into a belt or plate .
In the case of freezing juice, etc., the extract or concentrated liquid is transferred to the freezing step and pulverized and dried, but in the previous step of the drying step, it is rapidly frozen to a thickness of several mm on the moving stainless steel belt. Is going.

  Since such a mold casting method is a batch type, it takes a long time to fill the mold container with the liquid work, and not only does it take time to move to the next process after solidification, but also the raw material yield is poor and the cost is high. Form the cause of.

  Moreover, as a continuous cooling solidification method and apparatus of a fluid food, the continuous production apparatus of the strip | belt-shaped gel-like material currently disclosed by patent document 1 and the manufacturing method of a strip | belt-shaped gel-like material are mentioned. The above prior art relates to a method and apparatus for continuously forming a band-like gel using a packing belt for shaping, and cooling and solidifying it. A pair of packing belts that are sandwiched between the transport conveyor and the counter conveyor and rotated in synchronization with the transport conveyor are provided horizontally, with the opposing surfaces running in the same direction and at the same speed. The spacing is set to a dimension corresponding to the width of the workpiece, and the above-described conveyor, counter conveyor, and packing belt form a space having the same spatial dimension from the beginning to the end of the conveyor, and are injected into the space. A belt-shaped solidified member having a certain width is formed by gelling and shaping by cooling while carrying a sol-like liquid.

By the way, in order to obtain a belt-shaped solidified member having a certain width by shaping the liquid work by cooling on the conveyor,
a, the liquid workpiece injection member has no liquid leakage from the contact surface between the packing belt and the conveyor, which regulates the width;
b, the interval between the packing belts regulating the width dimension of the workpiece is always constant from the beginning to the end of the dimension regulation;
However, in the method and apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, the occurrence of a gap has a structural defect that tends to be noticeable especially in the middle part of the conveyor, and in order to avoid this, the belt is stretched strongly. However, since a means to increase the degree of contact with the conveyor surface is required, it is conceivable to increase the degree of pressing, but conversely, the belt causes left and right meandering, and the liquid workpiece is injected. There is a problem that the position of the rectangular space is displaced and the regulation width is changed.
As described above, the method and apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 cannot be said to sufficiently solve the problem of liquid leakage.

  Therefore, as a continuous cooling and solidifying device for fluid food, Patent Document 2 discloses a continuous shaped cooling and solidifying device for a liquid workpiece. The above-mentioned prior art is a steel belt when freezing fluid food containing fats and oils or starch and wheat flour while being conveyed by a steel belt by a pair of parallel weir conveyors with the left and right workpiece mounting surfaces of the steel belt as the running side. This prevents protrusion and sagging.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-57316 JP 11-155541 A

However, in the apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 2, the side facing the steel belt in the dam conveyor is always in contact with the dam conveyor, and the driving mechanical part of the dam conveyor has to be washed for every daily batch production, Production work becomes complicated.
Therefore, in view of the problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a fluidized food cooling and solidifying method and an apparatus therefor which do not leak liquid without complicating production work.

In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention,
After the fluid food containing fats and oils or starch and flour is introduced into the conveyor belt from the fluid food input part provided at the entrance of the conveyor belt, the fluid food (hereinafter referred to as workpiece) conveyed by the belt In the liquid food cooling and solidifying method, which is cooled and solidified by cold heat applied via a conveyor belt,
From at least the inlet side of the conveyor belt, between the cold addition to the work to the fluidity of the workpiece is eliminated, the conveyor belt of the workpiece by a gas weir generated by positive pressure gas flow along the lateral sides of the conveyor belt While cooling and solidifying while preventing protrusion to the side ,
The pressure of the positive pressure gas flow of the gas flow weir is varied in a plurality of stages from the front side in the workpiece conveyance direction to the rear side, and the pressure in the front side in the workpiece conveyance direction is made larger than the pressure in the rear side .

In this way, by providing the gas flow weirs generated by the gas flow along the left and right sides of the conveyor belt until the fluidity of the workpiece is lost due to the addition of cold heat from at least the entrance side of the conveyor belt, the workpiece conveyor belt is provided. The protrusion to the side surface can be prevented and liquid leakage can be prevented. At this time, until there is no weir, there is a possibility that the weir may protrude to the side of the work and cause liquid leakage if there is no weir. It is necessary until there is no more.
Moreover, since the weir for preventing the workpiece from protruding to the side of the conveyor belt is a gas flow weir, there is no need to clean the weir, so that the production work is not complicated.

Further, the gas flow is a positive pressure gas flow generated substantially in a curtain shape in parallel with the conveyance belt conveyance direction.
Here, the substantially curtain shape may be a state in which there is no gap in the gas flow in the portion in contact with the workpiece in the gas flow. For example, the nozzle for creating a gas flow has a form in which a slit is formed in the nozzle and a gas flow is generated by the gas emitted from the slit, and a gas flow is generated by the gas discharged from the hole by providing a plurality of holes in the nozzle. Can take.
In this way, by making the gas flow a positive pressure gas flow generated in a substantially curtain shape in parallel with the conveying direction, it is possible to reliably prevent a portion that may overflow to the side surface of the workpiece and cause liquid leakage. , It can be prevented more reliably from protruding to the side of the workpiece and liquid leakage.

Further, the positive pressure gas flow is a pair of parallel curtain flows located on the left and right sides on the conveying belt, and the width of the pair of parallel curtain flows is smaller than the width of the conveying belt.
First, by making the positive pressure gas flow a pair of parallel curtain flows located on the left and right sides on the conveyor belt, it is possible to eliminate the bias of the workpiece on the conveyor belt. And since the width | variety of this pair of parallel curtain flow is made smaller than a conveyance belt width, a clearance gap is not made also in the conveyance belt edge part but the protrusion to the side surface of a workpiece | work and a liquid leak can be prevented more reliably.

Moreover, the ambient temperature on the conveyor belt is set to input temperature equal to or less than the fluid food (work), or further the equivalent input temperature of the positive pressure gas flow to the flowable food (work) It is characterized by being set below that.
As a result, the work in the vicinity of the curtain flow on the conveyor belt, which is prone to overflowing and leaking from the workpiece, is cooled and solidified before the other parts, preventing protrusion to the side of the workpiece and prevention of liquid leakage. Furthermore, it can be performed efficiently.

Claim 5 is an invention relating to an apparatus for suitably carrying out the present invention. A fluid food input part for introducing fluid food containing fats and oils or starch and flour into the entrance of the conveyor belt, In a fluid food cooling and solidifying device that cools and solidifies a workpiece by a cooling body located on the upper part of the workpiece and on the back side of the belt while conveying the workpiece)
From at least the inlet side of the along the right and left sides of the conveyor belt provided with means for generating a positive pressure gas flow towards the conveyor belt from the work above, the conveyor belt the positive pressure gas flow, work by cold addition to the work The positive pressure gas flow generating means for generating the positive pressure gas flow is positioned on both sides of the belt side end across the work mounting surface of the conveyor belt so that the positive pressure gas flow exists until the fluidity of the belt is lost. With
The pressure of the positive pressure gas flow generating means is varied in a plurality of stages from the front side to the rear side in the workpiece conveyance direction, and the pressure on the front side in the workpiece conveyance direction is made larger than the pressure on the rear side in the workpiece conveyance direction. To do.

Further, the positive pressure gas flow generating means is a nozzle body for ejecting compressed gas, and the nozzle body is a slit in which nozzle holes are arranged in a line or formed in parallel with the conveying belt conveying direction. And

Further, the nozzle body is a pair of nozzle bodies extending in parallel on the left and right sides of the conveyance belt, and the arrangement width of the pair of nozzle bodies is smaller than the width of the conveyance belt.

Further, the cooling body is a cooling unit that cools the work upper part of the transport belt and the back surface of the mounting surface, and a jet that cools the work upper part and the mounting surface of the transport belt by the downstream flow in the transport direction of the positive pressure gas flow generating means. It is characterized in that there is a state cooling means.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the workpiece from protruding to the side of the conveyor belt, to prevent liquid leakage, and to prevent the workpiece from protruding to the side of the conveyor belt. By doing so, there is no need to clean the weir, so that the production work is not complicated.
Therefore, it is possible to provide a fluid food cooling and solidification method and apparatus without leaking without complicating production work.

  Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the dimensions, materials, shapes, relative arrangements, and the like of the components described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention unless otherwise specified, but are merely illustrative examples. Not too much.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a fluid food cooling and solidifying apparatus that performs fluid food cooling and solidification according to the first embodiment. In the present Example 1, a curry having a viscosity of 5000 cP to 15000 cP was used as a workpiece.
As shown in FIG. 1, the fluid food cooling and solidifying device includes a workpiece conveyor 10, an air nozzle 15, a workpiece (carreous) injection unit 13, and a heat-insulating housing 20. The interior is divided into a front chamber 21, a cooling chamber A22, and a cooling chamber B23.
The air nozzle 15 is provided over a range from the entrance side of the housing 20 to the front chamber 21.
The workpiece conveyor 10 includes a driving roller 11 driven by a driving source 18, a driven roller 12, a steel belt 10a made of a stainless steel member and the like, and an adjusting mechanism 17 with an elastic member for adjusting the belt tension. Further, a belt cleaning unit 19 is provided at the lower part of the driven side of the steel belt so that the steel belt which is easily contaminated is always kept clean.
In this embodiment, a steel belt is used as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this.

Here, in the front chamber 21, the ambient temperature on the conveyor 10 is set to be equal to or lower than the input temperature of the workpiece, and further, the gas flow formed by the air nozzle 15 is changed to the fluid food (work). or input temperature equal it is set to less than a chamber for surface hardening a workpiece that has been injected from the work injector 13, the chamber upper upper cooling unit 26 in order to keep the front chamber 21 to the low-temperature atmosphere Is provided.

The cooling chamber A22 is a chamber for cooling and solidifying the workpiece solidified in the front chamber 21, and the upper and lower surfaces of the workpiece mounting surface of the steel belt 10a of the conveyor 10 are cooled by a cold air jet, A plurality of cold air sources 27a and 27b provided above and below the steel belt are provided, the cold air source 27a applies cold heat from the lower surface of the work through the steel belt 10a by the cold air jet 28a, and the cold air source 27b directly receives the liquid work by the cold air jet 28b. The surface is solidified by applying cold heat. Such a cooling method is considered optimal when high-speed cooling and solidification is required.

The cooling chamber B23 is a chamber for adjusting the temperature, and adjusts the temperature of the workpiece to the outside air temperature or higher. The temperature in the cooling chamber B23 may be kept at the outside temperature so that heat can be exchanged with the outside, or the temperature may be kept by providing a thermostatic device 29 that can keep the outside temperature or higher. . Thus, by adjusting the temperature of the workpiece to the outside air temperature or higher, the workpiece can be solidified to the inside, and when the workpiece is packed in a subsequent process, it is possible to prevent condensation from forming in the packing.

  FIG. 2 is a front view of the front chamber 21 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of air nozzles 15 are provided on the inner side of the outer ends 10 b on both the left and right sides of the transfer conveyor 10 from the entrance side of the heat-insulated housing 20 toward the inside of the housing 20. The lower part of the air nozzle is configured to spray the air in the air nozzle. For example, the nozzle holes may be arranged in a line or may be a slit formed in parallel with the transport direction of the transport conveyor 10.

Although the air velocity and air volume of the air sprayed from the air nozzle 15 may be uniform over the entire air nozzle, the surface of the work 31 is gradually solidified as it is transported through the front chamber 21, so that the work surface is solidified. Of the air sprayed in the first half portion 15b of the air nozzle 15 where the air flow is not advanced, the air velocity introduced into the first half portion 15b and the second half portion 15c so that the air velocity and air volume of the air sprayed in the second half portion 15c are larger than the air velocity and air volume. The pressure is different.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for introducing air into the air nozzle 15. The pressure control device 41 adjusts the degree of opening of the pressure control valve 41b so that the pressure at the inlet of the front half 15b of the air nozzle is constant for a part of the air introduced from the outside or inside the casing to obtain constant pressure air. The opening of the pressure control valve 41b is introduced so that the pressure at the inlet of the rear half 15c of the air nozzle is constant and lower than the pressure at the inlet of the front half 15b. It adjusts and introduces into the air nozzle latter half part 15c as air of fixed pressure.
In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the air nozzle is divided into two stages of the first half and the second half. However, when a work having high fluidity is used, the air pressure is set to 2 in the first half and the second half. In addition to changing in stages, it is better to increase the air pressure in the three or more stages and closer to the front stage.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. By introducing air into the air nozzle 15, air was ejected in a band form from a slit with an amplifying mechanism provided at the lower part of the air nozzle 15 to form an air curtain 15 a. The cross section of the air nozzle 15 has a teardrop shape as shown in FIG.
By using such an air nozzle 15, there is little pressure loss, a large wind speed can be obtained, air can be efficiently rectified, and high-speed air can be ejected into a film. Furthermore, the air blown out from the slits can entrain the surrounding air by the amplifying mechanism, thereby realizing an effective air blow.

  The air introduced into the air nozzle 15 is configured to remove impurities such as dust by the air filter 16a and to be introduced to the air nozzle 15 by the blower 16b.

FIG. 5 shows another example of the AA cross-sectional view in FIG. Although the illustration of the air filter, the blower, and the associated piping is omitted in FIG. 5, air is supplied to the air nozzle in any of FIG. 5 as in the case shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.
FIG. 5A is a cross-sectional view when the same nozzle as the air nozzle shown in FIG. 4 is used and the direction of the slit is inclined toward the inside of the conveyor belt 10. Thus, the direction of the slit may not be directly below the nozzle.
FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view when an air nozzle having a circular cross section and having a slit in the lower part is used. An air nozzle having such a shape may be used, and the shape of the air nozzle is not particularly limited.

The fluid food cooling and solidifying apparatus schematically shown in FIG. 1 was operated.
A work (carreaux) 31 having a fluidity and temperature of 50 to 65 ° C. is sent to the work supply device 13a and automatically controlled from the work injection unit 13 which is a plurality of supply pipes of the work supply device 13a. 21 and supplied on the steel belt 10a of the transporting conveyor 10 that is running. The conveyor was run at 1.4 m / s. The supplied workpiece 31 is cooled in the front chamber 21 having an ambient temperature of 0 ° C. or lower (−5 ° C. in the present embodiment) by the upper cooling section 26 while dispersing the steel belt 10a in all directions to form an appropriate thickness. The surface was solidified and transferred to the cooling chamber A22. In the meantime, the dispersed workpiece immediately before the surface solidification immediately after injection cannot be moved out of the air curtain 15a by the air curtain 15a formed by the pair of air nozzles 15 provided on the left and right sides of the steel belt 10a. . In other words, it was possible to almost completely prevent the work from protruding to the outside of the air curtain 15a and the liquid leakage. The pressure of the air introduced into the air nozzle was 20 kPa in the first half and 10 kPa in the second half. The air velocity of the air curtain 15a was set to 10 m / s to 30 m / s.
In this way, in the front chamber 21, the work 31 was solidified while preventing the work 31 from protruding to the outside of the steel belt 10a and preventing liquid leakage, and the fluidity was lost as a whole.

The work 31 solidified and transported to the cooling chamber A22 was further cooled and solidified at a low temperature, for example, −20 ° C. by the cold air jets 28a and 28b in the cooling chamber A22, and transported to the cooling chamber B23. Here, the work 31 cooled and solidified in the cooling chamber A22 has a solidified surface and no fluidity, but its central portion is, for example, about 35 to 40 ° C. and is still in a molten state or a semi-molten state. However, the vicinity of the surface became semi-solid.

Further, the workpiece 31 cooled and solidified and transferred to the cooling chamber B23 was adjusted to a temperature (for example, 20 to 30 ° C.) equal to the outside air temperature by the thermostatic device 29 in the cooling chamber B23 and discharged to the outside.
Here, when the work 31 is held in the cooling chamber B23 at 20 to 30 ° C. for a predetermined time, the crystallization of the fat and oil in the center portion and the surface in the molten state or in the semi-molten state and the vicinity of the surface proceeds. It is solidified sufficiently and satisfactorily and becomes a solidified work (carreaux).
Here, the air nozzle 15 and the air curtain 15a are not provided in the cooling chamber B23, but the work 31 is solidified and does not have fluidity in the cooling chamber A22, so that it protrudes outside the steel belt 10a or leaks. I never did.

  The present invention can be used as a fluid food cooling and solidifying method and apparatus without complicating production work and without causing liquid leakage.

It is the schematic of the fluid food cooling solidification apparatus which performs fluid food cooling solidification which concerns on the present Example 1. FIG. It is the front view seen from the inside of the front chamber 21 of FIG. It is a flowchart of the air introduction to an air nozzle. It is AA sectional drawing in FIG. It is another example of AA sectional drawing in FIG.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Conveyor 10a Steel belt 13 Work injection part 15 Air nozzle 15a Air curtain 20 Case 21 Front chamber 22 Cooling chamber A
23 Cooling chamber B
26 Upper cooling part 27a, 27b Cold air source 28a, 28b Cold air jet 31 Workpiece

Claims (8)

After the fluid food containing fats and oils or starch and flour is introduced into the conveyor belt from the fluid food input part provided at the entrance of the conveyor belt, the fluid food (hereinafter referred to as workpiece) conveyed by the belt In the liquid food cooling and solidifying method, which is cooled and solidified by cold heat applied via a conveyor belt,
Between at least the entrance side of the conveyor belt and until the fluidity of the workpiece disappears due to the addition of cold heat to the workpiece, the workpiece conveyor belt is conveyed by the gas flow weir generated by the positive pressure gas flow along the left and right sides of the conveyor belt. While cooling and solidifying while preventing protrusion to the side,
The flow is characterized in that the pressure of the positive pressure gas flow of the gas flow weir is varied in a plurality of stages from the front side to the rear side in the workpiece conveyance direction, and the pressure on the front side in the workpiece conveyance direction is made larger than the pressure on the rear side. Food cooling and solidification method.   2. The fluid food cooling and solidifying method according to claim 1, wherein the positive pressure gas flow is a positive pressure gas flow generated substantially in a curtain shape parallel to the conveyance belt conveyance direction.   3. The flow according to claim 2, wherein the positive pressure gas flow is a pair of parallel curtain flows located on both the left and right sides of the conveyor belt, and the width of the pair of parallel curtain streams is smaller than the conveyor belt width. Food cooling and solidification method. The transfer temperature of the atmosphere on the belt is set lower than or equal the input temperature of the fluid food (work), further the positive pressure gas stream input temperature equal to or below the flowable food (work) The fluid food cooling and solidifying method according to claim 1, which is set. A fluid food input part that feeds fluid food containing fats and oils or starch and flour into the entrance of the transport belt, and a fluid food (hereinafter referred to as a work) is transported by the transport belt and positioned on the upper part of the work and on the back side of the belt In a fluid food cooling and solidifying device that cools and solidifies a workpiece with a cold body that
From at least the inlet side of the along the right and left sides of the conveyor belt provided with means for generating a positive pressure gas flow towards the conveyor belt from the work above, the conveyor belt the positive pressure gas flow, work by cold addition to the work The positive pressure gas flow generating means for generating the positive pressure gas flow is positioned on both sides of the belt side end across the work mounting surface of the conveyor belt so that the positive pressure gas flow exists until the fluidity of the belt is lost. With
The pressure of the positive pressure gas flow generating means is varied in a plurality of stages from the front side to the rear side in the workpiece conveyance direction, and the pressure on the front side in the workpiece conveyance direction is made larger than the pressure on the rear side in the workpiece conveyance direction. A fluid food cooling and solidifying device. The positive pressure gas flow generating means is a nozzle body that ejects compressed gas, and the nozzle body is a slit in which nozzle holes are arranged in a line or formed in parallel with the conveying belt conveying direction. The fluid food cooling and solidifying apparatus according to claim 5.   7. The fluid food according to claim 6, wherein the nozzle body is a pair of nozzle bodies extending in parallel on the left and right sides of the conveyor belt, and the arrangement width of the pair of nozzle bodies is smaller than the conveyor belt width. Cooling and solidifying device. The cooling body is a cooling unit that cools the work upper part of the conveyor belt and the back surface of the mounting surface, and jet-like cooling that cools the work upper part and the mounting surface of the conveyor belt by the downstream flow in the transport direction of the positive pressure gas flow generating means. 6. A fluid food cooling and solidifying device according to claim 5, wherein means are present.

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