JP5358345B2 - Cooked rice forming apparatus and control method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cooked rice molding apparatus that produces vinegared rice balls one by one in accordance with a bodily movement when an operator requires a vinegared rice ball. <P>SOLUTION: The cooked rice molding apparatus has a vinegared rice ball tray 5 for receiving vinegared rice balls at the downstream side of a molding part 4, a sensor 6 for sensing an operator's hand is arranged at the side-wall part 52 of the vinegared rice ball tray 5 and the operator molds vinegared rice balls one by one, every time the operator holds the operator's hand to the sensor 6. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a cooked rice molding apparatus that forms sushi rice into rice balls for sushi. More specifically, the invention relates to a rice cooker that can produce individual rice balls when needed by an operator.

  In food retailers and carousel sushi restaurants, dedicated rice-forming equipment is used to mechanically produce sushi balls for nigiri sushi. For example, as shown in Patent Document 1, the cooked rice forming apparatus includes a forming unit that forms sushi rice while compressing sushi rice supplied from a hopper.

  The forming unit has a pair of forming rollers that rotate in directions opposite to each other about a predetermined horizontal rotation axis, feeds sushi rice from the upstream side of the forming roller, and forms the concave mold surfaces formed on the outer surface of the forming roller. By sandwiching and compressing the sushi rice, the bowl-shaped rice balls are released from the downstream side.

  The cooked rice molding apparatus is provided with a sharp ball tray that receives the sharp balls under the molding portion, and the sharp balls discharged from the molding portion are placed on the sharp ball tray. The cooked rice forming apparatus is further provided with a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a sharp ball on the tray.

  According to this, when a sharp ball is placed on the sharp ball tray, the operation of the molding part is stopped by the detection signal of the sharp ball, and when the worker collects the sharp ball, The molding part is driven by the detection signal, and new sharp balls are automatically discharged onto the sharp ball tray.

  However, the conventional cooked rice molding apparatus has the following problems. That is, in this cooked rice molding apparatus, when an operator forgets to collect or cannot collect the shrimp balls for some reason, the shrimp balls are left on the shrimp tray for a long time. There is a risk of drying out and increasing germs. Thus, it is not preferable to make a sharp ball and use it as necessary.

JP 2006-197823 A

  Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and the purpose of the present invention is to produce each one of the sharp balls according to the operation when the worker needs the sharp balls. The purpose is to provide a cooked rice molding device.

  In order to achieve the above-described object, the present invention has several features described below. The invention according to claim 1 is a cooked rice forming apparatus comprising a casing including a hopper for supplying sushi rice, and a molding section for molding the sushi rice supplied from the hopper into a rice ball for nigiri sushi. A part of is provided with a sensor for driving the molding part by sensing the hand of the operator.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the molding unit has a pair of molding rollers that rotate in directions opposite to each other about a horizontal rotation axis, and is fed from the upstream side of the molding rollers. The sushi rice is compressed in the mold surface of the molding roller, and discharged as the sharp balls from the downstream side of the molding roller.

  The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that, in the above-mentioned claim 1 or 2, the downstream side of the molded part has a sharp ball tray for receiving the sharp ball discharged from the molded part, And a flat portion on which the ball is placed and a side wall portion raised from the periphery of the flat portion, and the sensor is provided on the side wall portion.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first, second, or third aspect, the sensor is a reflective sensor.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, the sharp ball tray is provided integrally with the base of the housing, and the sensor is a sensor body. And a support plate for supporting the sensor body, and the sensor is detachably attached to each unit from the bottom surface side of the base.

  A sixth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in any one of the first to fifth aspects, a detachable tray cover is further provided on the sharp ball tray.

  The present invention includes a method for controlling the cooked rice molding apparatus. That is, the invention described in claim 7 includes a housing including a hopper for supplying sushi rice, and a molding part for molding the sushi rice supplied from the hopper into a sushi ball for sushi. A pair of forming rollers rotating in directions opposite to each other about a horizontal rotation axis, and the sushi rice fed from the upstream side of each forming roller is compressed in the mold surface of the forming roller, In the control method of the cooked rice forming apparatus that is discharged from the downstream side as the sharp balls, it has a control unit that controls the driving of the forming roller, and is discharged from the forming unit on the downstream side of the forming unit. A sharp ball tray for receiving the sharp ball and a sensor for sensing the operator's hand are provided, and the control unit detects the molding roller when the sensor detects the worker's hand. Drives the La, is characterized by releasing the rice ball one by one.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, a sensor that detects the operator's hand and drives the molding portion is provided on a part of the housing, so that when the worker needs a sharp ball, Shari balls can be molded one by one by holding your hand.

  According to the invention of claim 2, since the sushi rice fed from the upstream side of each molding roller is released as a sharp ball from the downstream side of the molding roller, it can be molded with a simple structure, Production efficiency is also good.

  According to the invention described in claim 3, by providing the sensor on the side wall portion of the sharp ball tray, the sharp ball is placed on the worker's hand every time the worker holds his hand under the molding portion. Since it can be released directly, the time until the gripping work can be reduced as much as possible. In addition, forgetting to remove the sharp balls can be prevented.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, by using a reflective sensor as the sensor, not only can the hand be surely sensed by holding the hand, but also erroneous detection of the sharp ball can be reliably prevented.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the sensor is composed of the sensor main body and the support plate as a unit, and the entire unit can be attached and detached from the bottom surface side of the base, so that the sensor can be easily maintained. Can do.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, by providing the removable tray cover, when storing the shrimp balls on the shrimp ball tray, by removing the tray cover from the shrunk ball tray together, Shari balls can be moved safely without increasing the number of contacts.

The perspective view of the cooked rice molding apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The disassembled perspective view of the said cooked rice molding apparatus. The expansion perspective view of the shari ball tray of the above-mentioned rice cooker. The enlarged front view of the above-mentioned sharp ball tray. The perspective view of the base of the said cooked rice molding apparatus. The perspective view of a sensor unit. Explanatory drawing explaining the attachment aspect of a sensor unit.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cooked rice forming apparatus 1 includes a housing 10 that is entirely covered with a decorative panel made of synthetic resin. The decorative panel may be made of metal.

  A front cover 11 for concealing the internal structure is provided on the front surface of the housing 10 so as to be detachable from the housing 10. The front cover 11 is also made of synthetic resin like the decorative panel, but may be made of metal.

  An operation panel 12 for operating the cooked rice forming apparatus 1 is further provided on the front surface of the housing 10. In this example, the operation panel 12 is provided on the left side of the housing 10 as viewed from the front. In addition to various setting buttons and a display unit for setting the amount and number of sushi rice during automatic operation, the operation panel 12 includes a power switch and an emergency stop switch. In the present invention, the configuration of the operation panel 12 is an arbitrary matter.

  The casing 10 includes a hopper 2 into which sushi rice is charged, a compression unit 3 that compresses the sushi rice supplied from the hopper 2 into, for example, a rod shape, a molding unit 4 that molds sushi rice into a sharp ball, and a release from the molding unit 4. And a sharp ball tray 5 for receiving the sharp plate.

  The hopper 2 is formed in a funnel shape whose upper surface is opened and whose volume gradually decreases from the top to the bottom of the housing 10. A storage container 21 for storing sushi rice and a lid 22 for closing the upper surface of the hopper 2 are provided at the upper part of the hopper 2.

  The lid 22 is provided with an upper surface portion 22a covering the upper surface of the hopper 2 and a front surface portion 22b covering the front surface from the upper surface so that the front surface 22b can be bent to the upper surface portion 22a side via a hinge. It has become.

  A stirrer (not shown) that pushes sushi rice to the downstream side while stirring the sushi rice is provided downstream of the hopper 2. The agitation unit is provided with an agitation shaft (both not shown) that is connected to the opening of the hopper 2 and is rotationally driven via a predetermined driving means. In the present invention, the specific configuration of the stirring unit may be arbitrarily selected according to specifications.

  In the housing 10, a shred guide 13 is provided for guiding the sushi rice pushed out from the hopper 2 to the next compression unit 4. The shari guide 13 has a plate shape that is fitted along the front surface of the housing 10, and a funnel-shaped guide plate 13 a that gradually decreases in volume from upstream to downstream is integrally provided at an upper portion thereof. .

  The compression unit 3 is disposed on the exit side of the guide plate 13a of the guide 13 and is disposed on the upper compression roller pair 31 for compressing the sushi rice supplied from the hopper 2 and on the downstream side (delivery side) of the upper compression roller pair 31. And a second-stage compression unit having a lower-stage compression roller pair 32 for further compressing the sushi rice compressed by the upper-stage compression roller pair 31.

  The upper compression roller pair 31 includes a pair of left and right upper compression rollers 31a and 31b that rotate about horizontal rotation shafts 311 and 311. The upper compression rollers 31a and 31b are arranged with a predetermined interval therebetween.

  Similarly, the lower compression roller pair 32 includes lower compression rollers 32 a and 32 b that rotate about horizontal rotation shafts 321 and 321. The lower compression rollers 32 a and 32 b are arranged so that the interval is narrower than that of the upper compression roller pair 31.

  Both the upper compression roller pair 31 and the lower compression roller pair 32 are set to rotate in directions opposite to each other in order to move the sushi rice poured between the opposed rollers from the upstream side to the downstream side. In this example, both the upper compression roller 31a and the lower compression roller 32a rotate clockwise, and both the upper compression roller 31b and the lower compression roller 32b rotate counterclockwise.

  In this example, the compression unit 3 is a two-stage compression roller. However, the compression unit 3 may be a single stage or a multi-stage depending on the specification. In this invention, the specific structure of the hopper 2 and the compression part 3 is arbitrary matters, The shape, arrangement | positioning, etc. can be arbitrarily changed according to a specification.

  The molding unit 4 includes a pair of molding rollers 41 a and 41 b arranged on the downstream side of the compression unit 3. Each of the molding rollers 41a and 41b is made of a synthetic resin having the same shape, and is designed so that they rotate synchronously in directions opposite to each other via horizontal rotating shafts 411 and 411. In this example, one forming roller 41a rotates clockwise and the other forming roller 41b rotates counterclockwise.

  On the outer periphery of each of the forming rollers 41a and 41b, a concave surface 42 for forming the sushi rice into a sharp ball is provided. The concave surface 42 is formed of a concave portion having a semi-cylindrical cross section having a volume corresponding to approximately half of the sharp ball from the outer surface of the forming roller 410 toward the center, and has a predetermined shape in the circumferential direction of each of the forming rollers 41a and 41b. Six points are provided at intervals of 60 ° in this example.

  The forming rollers 41a and 41b are arranged so that their circumscribed circles are in contact with each other. According to this, the sushi rice fed from the upstream side of each forming roller 41a, 41b is packed into the concave mold surfaces 42, 42, and when the molding rollers 41a, 41b rotate, the sushi rice is compressed in the concave mold surface 42. After being formed into a bowl-shaped shaving ball, it is discharged from the downstream side.

  At the lower part of the housing 10, a sharp ball tray 5 that receives the sharp balls is provided. The sharp ball tray 5 is provided integrally with the base 14 of the housing 10 and is provided so as to protrude from the front surface of the base 14.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the sharp ball tray 5 includes a flat portion 51 that receives the sharp ball and a side wall portion 52 that rises from the outer edge of the flat portion 51. The flat portion 51 is a bottom portion of the concave portion 53 with the front surface and the upper surface of the sharp ball tray 5 open, and the front surface side of the concave portion 53 is substantially the same as the flat portion 51 so that the sharp ball can be easily taken out or a hand can be inserted. Open to height.

  The flat portion 51 is a flat surface that is substantially parallel to the installation surface of the base 14, and is formed horizontally long along the width direction of the housing 10. The flat portion 51 is provided with a detachable tray cover 54 as shown in FIG.

  The tray cover 54 is made of a synthetic resin plate having substantially the same area as the flat portion 51 and is attached so as to cover the flat portion 51. The tray cover 54 is made of synthetic resin, but may be made of metal. In consideration of food hygiene, antibacterial treatment or fungicidal treatment may be performed.

  With reference to FIG. 4, a sensor unit 6 that senses the operator's hand is provided in the sharp tray 5. The sensor units 6a and 6b are provided at positions facing each other (a pair of left and right in FIG. 4) of the side wall portion 52 of the sharp ball tray 5.

  Referring also to FIG. 6, the sensor units 6 a and 6 b include a support stay 61 for attaching to the sharp ball tray 5 and a sensor main body 62 controlled by control means (not shown). The support stay 61 is formed by bending a metal plate, and a sensor main body 62 is screwed to a part of the support stay 61.

  In this example, the sensor units 6a and 6b are reflective sensors in order to prevent sensor light from passing through the gap between the rice grains of the sharp balls and becoming undetected. That is, one sensor unit 6a is a light emitting / receiving unit that emits and receives sensor light, and the other sensor unit 6b is a reflection unit that reflects sensor light.

  In this example, the sensor units 6a and 6b are reflective sensors, but may be, for example, transmissive sensors as long as the malfunction described above can be prevented. In that case, one sensor unit 6a is the issue side and the other sensor unit 6b is the light receiving side. Specific specifications of the sensor units 6a and 6b can be arbitrarily selected.

  The sensor units 6 a and 6 b are attached so as to be detachable together with the unit from the bottom side of the sharp ball tray 5. Referring also to FIG. 7, two openings 56 for attaching the sensor units 6 a, 6 b are provided at the bottom of the spear ball tray 5 formed integrally with the base 14.

  The opening 56 is provided at the boundary between the base material 14 and the sharp ball tray 5, and the sensor units 6 a and 6 b are fixed by inserting the sensor unit 6 from the opening and screwing the support stay 61. Has been.

  According to this, when trouble occurs in the sensor units 6a and 6b, the sensor units 6a and 6b can be easily removed to perform repair or maintenance work.

  Next, an example of a procedure for using the cooked rice forming apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIG. First, after the storage container 21 containing sushi rice is attached to the upper part of the hopper 2, the power switch of the operation panel 12 is turned on. Along with this, a stirring rod (not shown) of the hopper 2 starts to rotate.

  Next, the operation panel 12 is operated to set various items such as the amount of sushi rice and the number of formed sprout balls, and then the operation start button is operated. Upon receiving the work start button, a control unit (not shown) first initializes all mechanisms and checks whether an error signal or the like is output.

  When the check is completed, the control unit rotates each compression roller pair 31 and 32 of the compression unit 3 and conveys the sushi rice fed from the hopper 2 to the upstream side of the molding unit 4 while compressing, and then the control unit Enter molding standby mode.

  When the operator holds his / her hand near the exit of the molding unit 4 in the molding standby mode, the sensor unit 6a, 6b senses the operator's hand and the control unit issues a command to the molding unit 4. Thus, the molding rollers 41a and 41b of the molding unit 4 rotate by one sharp ball (in this example, 60 °) to discharge one sharp ball.

  At this time, if the operator puts his hand under the molding part 4 as it is, the sharp ball discharged from the molding part 4 is dropped directly onto the operator's hand. According to this, since the sharp ball is dropped directly on the operator's hand, the number of times and the time that the sharp ball contacts the object can be reduced.

  As another method, after holding the hand over the sensor unit 6 by the number of necessary balls, the corresponding balls are dropped from the molding unit 4 onto the ball tray 5. You may make it collect | recover the sharp balls on the sharp ball tray 5 at a stretch.

  Further, the sensor unit 6a, 6b senses not only the hand but also the presence of the sharp ball on the sharp ball tray 5, and as soon as the sharp ball disappears, a new sharp ball is dropped on the sharp ball tray 5. You may control a shaping | molding part.

  In the above-described embodiment, the cooked rice forming apparatus 1 is exemplified for the case of forming a rice ball for sushi rice as a cooked rice molded product. However, the cooked rice forming apparatus 1 of the present invention has the above-described characteristics. It may be applied to a cooked rice product other than balls. Furthermore, it may be applied not only to cooked rice products but also to various food molded products such as meat dumplings and croquettes.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rice cooker 2 Hopper 3 Compression part 31 Upper compression roller pair 32 Lower compression roller pair 4 Molding part 41 Molding roller pair 5 Shaving ball tray 51 Flat part 52 Side wall part 6a, 6b Sensor unit

Claims (7)

In the cooked rice forming apparatus comprising a housing including a hopper for supplying sushi rice and a molding unit that forms the sushi rice supplied from the hopper into a sushi ball for sushi.
A cooked rice molding apparatus characterized in that a part of the casing is provided with a sensor for driving the molding unit by sensing an operator's hand.   The molding unit has a pair of molding rollers that rotate in directions opposite to each other about a horizontal rotation axis, and the sushi rice fed from the upstream side of each molding roller is compressed in the mold surface of the molding roller. The cooked rice molding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rice balls are discharged from the downstream side of the molding roller as the sharp balls.   On the downstream side of the molding part, there is a paper ball tray for receiving the paper ball released from the molding part, and the paper ball tray has a flat part on which the paper ball is placed, and a flat part of the flat part. The cooked rice molding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is provided on the side wall portion.   The cooked rice forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is a reflective sensor.   The sharp ball tray is provided integrally with the base of the housing, and the sensor is formed by unitizing a sensor main body and a support plate for supporting the sensor main body. The rice cooker according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein each unit is detachably attached from the bottom side of the base.   6. The cooked rice molding apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a detachable tray cover. A hopper that supplies sushi rice, and a casing that includes a sushi rice supplied from the hopper and a molded part that molds the sushi rice into a sushi ball for sushi. The sushi rice fed from the upstream side of each molding roller is compressed in the mold surface of the molding roller, and discharged as the sharp balls from the downstream side of the molding roller. In the control method of the cooked rice forming apparatus
A control unit for controlling the driving of the molding roller is provided, and on the downstream side of the molding unit, there is a sharp ball tray that receives the sharp ball discharged from the molding unit, and a sensor that senses an operator's hand. When the operator's hand is detected by the sensor, the control unit drives the forming roller to discharge the sharp balls one by one. Control method.

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