JP5649689B2 - Method and apparatus for drying solid sugar - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a solid sugar drying method and a drying apparatus that can efficiently dry solid sugar such as sugar cubes.

  Conventionally, as a means for molding solid sugar such as sugar cubes, for example, as described in Patent Document 1, a flat mold in which a plurality of molding holes that are open at the top are arranged vertically and horizontally is provided. Filled with appropriate crystal grains such as granulated sugar as a raw material for solid sugar, and solidified by pressurizing it from above, and then molded and molded into a plurality of solid sugars.

  In such solid sugar molding means, it is difficult to remove the mold, etc., and when molding a large number of solid sugars, it is difficult to improve the working efficiency, and when molding a relatively small solid sugar, There were also problems such as making die cutting more difficult.

  Therefore, the applicant of the present invention has previously provided a solid sugar molding method and molding apparatus described in Patent Document 2 to enable continuous molding of solid sugar. In other words, the movement of the piston rod operated by a plurality of cams automatically and sequentially repeats filling and compression of crystal grains into the molding hole, extrusion from the molding hole, etc. Can be continuously formed efficiently.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-231800 Japanese Patent No. 3610448

  However, although it succeeded in carrying out continuous shaping | molding of solid sugar with the shaping | molding apparatus of patent document 2, the operation | work which dries many molded solid sugars efficiently became difficult.

  That is, according to the molding method of Patent Document 2, the solid sugar immediately after molding is conveyed to the drying chamber by the conveyor device, and is dried and solidified over a day. In the conventional drying process, a plurality of molded solid sugars are transported onto an aluminum plate, and the aluminum plate is transported to a drying chamber for drying.

  That is, since the solid sugar immediately after molding has a high water content, there is a risk that it will lose its shape if it collides or overlaps with each other during transportation. For this reason, the work has been carried out by carefully arranging the aluminum plates on the aluminum plate from the conveyor device so that the solid sugars do not overlap, and then transporting the aluminum plate together with the drying chamber.

  In order to transport the aluminum plate Q into the drying chamber, the aluminum plate Q is placed on the carriage 40 while the solid sugars S are arranged, and the entire carriage 40 is transported into the drying chamber (see FIG. 4). . Therefore, at present, the number of solid sugars that can be dried at one time is limited to the number arranged in a plane on each aluminum plate.

  For example, if a 250g aluminum plate that can arrange approximately 400g of solid sugar is used, 100 aluminum plates can be loaded on one cart, and the solid sugar that can be dried with one cart is about 40kg. Therefore, the weight of the cart will be about 100kg. When drying solid sugar together with such a carriage in the drying room, in order to dry 40 kg of solid sugar, the current situation is that a 125 kg carriage or an aluminum plate was stored inside the drying room and warmed with the solid sugar. is there. For this reason, the amount of heat in the drying chamber cannot be fully utilized for solid sugar.

  Therefore, the present invention was created to solve the above-mentioned problems, and can provide a solid sugar drying method and a drying apparatus that can efficiently dry solid sugar that is continuously molded and that has excellent thermal efficiency during drying. It is the purpose.

  In order to achieve the above object, the drying method of the first means in the present invention is a drying method after the solid sugar S such as sugar cubes is compression-molded, and the water content on the surface of the solid sugar S is reduced. A pre-drying process 100 for pre-drying until the solid sugar S reaches a certain hardness that can be loaded, a loading process 200 for stacking a plurality of solid sugars S after the pre-drying in the storage container 30, and a solid sugar S were loaded. And a main drying step 300 in which a plurality of storage containers 30 are mounted on a carriage 40 and are transported into the drying chamber 50 together with the carriage 40 and dried.

  The preliminary drying step 100 of the second means is a step performed while the compression-molded solid sugar S is conveyed by the conveyor device 10 that conveys the solid sugar S.

  In the stacking step 200 of the third means, the storage container 30 is a lightweight and breathable bowl-shaped storage container 30 used.

  A fourth means is a drying device that dries the solid sugar S after the solid sugar S such as sugar cubes is compression-molded. The conveyor device 10 conveys the compression-molded solid sugar S and A pre-dryer 20 that is preliminarily dried until the water content of the solid sugar S is reduced to a certain degree of hardness while being transported, and a bowl-like shape in which the solid sugars S pre-dried by the pre-dryer 20 are loaded together. The drying apparatus includes a storage container 30, a carriage 40 on which a plurality of storage containers 30 are mounted, and a drying chamber 50 that dries the solid sugar S in the storage container 30 together with the carriage 40.

  In the fifth means, the preliminary dryer 20 forms a cover surrounding the upper part of the conveyor belt 11, and covers the conveyor belt 11 that conveys the solid sugar S, and the cover body. 21 is provided with a hot air blower 22 for blowing hot air inside.

  According to claim 1 of the present invention, the surface of the solid sugar S is stacked in the storage container 30 of the loading step 200 in a state where the surface of the solid sugar S has a certain hardness by the preliminary drying step 100 and is completely dried by the main drying step 300. it can. As a result, it is possible to dry the solid sugar S that has been conventionally arranged and dried in a plane on an aluminum plate in a state of being stacked in the storage container 30, and the solid sugar S that is continuously molded is deformed. And can be efficiently dried.

  Since the pre-drying process 100 is a process performed while conveying the compression-molded solid sugar S by the conveyor apparatus 10 which conveys the compression-molded solid sugar S, the compression-molded solid sugar S can be loaded. It can be pre-dried in a state immediately after molding without applying an extra load until it has a certain hardness.

  As in claim 3, in the loading process 200, since the storage container 30 is a lightweight and breathable bowl-shaped storage container 30, it is lighter than a conventional aluminum plate and has a large amount of solid sugar. S can be efficiently dried. Therefore, when the solid sugar S is dried, the amount of heat for drying can be used efficiently.

  As in the drying apparatus according to claim 4, a carriage 40 on which a plurality of bowl-shaped storage containers 30 on which the solid sugar S preliminarily dried by the preliminary dryer 20 is stacked and loaded are mounted, and the entire carriage 40 and the storage container 30. By providing the drying chamber 50 for drying the solid sugar S therein, the amount of heat in the drying chamber 50 can be efficiently increased compared to the conventional apparatus for drying the solid sugar S placed on the aluminum plate together with the carriage 40. And can be dried in a short time.

  As in claim 5, the preliminary dryer 20 has a cover shape surrounding the upper part of the conveyor belt 11, a cover body 21 that allows the conveyor belt 11 that conveys the solid sugar S to pass through, and a cover body 21. Since the hot air blower 22 that blows hot air inside is provided, the solid sugar S can be efficiently preliminarily dried while the solid sugar S is conveyed by the conveyor belt 11.

It is the schematic which shows a part of drying apparatus of this invention. It is a schematic perspective view which shows one Example of the preliminary dryer of this invention. It is the schematic which shows the trolley | bogie and drying chamber of this invention. It is the schematic which shows the conventional aluminum plate and a trolley | bogie. It is a block diagram which shows the drying process of this invention.

  According to the present invention, the initial objectives such as being able to efficiently dry the solid sugar that is continuously molded and being excellent in thermal efficiency during drying have been achieved.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below. The method for drying solid sugar of the present invention is a method for drying solid sugar S such as compression-molded sugar cubes, and includes a preliminary drying step 100, a loading step 200, and a main drying step 300 (FIG. 5).

  The preliminary drying step 100 is a step of reducing the water content of the surface of the solid sugar S immediately after being compression-molded and drying until the solid sugar S has a certain hardness that can be loaded (see FIG. 2). The preliminary drying step 100 is performed while the molded solid sugar S is conveyed by the conveyor device 10 that conveys the solid sugar S. That is, it is a step of forcibly drying the solid sugar S on the conveyor belt 11 by blowing hot air or the like.

  The fixed hardness that can be loaded is, for example, a hardness that does not collapse when stored in the storage container 30 from a height of about 20 cm. In the experiment, the hardness that does not lose its shape varies depending on the size of the solid sugar S. For example, in the case of 1 g of solid sugar S, an average hardness of 0.4 N (Newton) or more is required, and in the case of 2 g, 3 N or more, in the case of 3 g, 10 N or more, in the case of 4 g, 18 N or more. Therefore, in the preliminary drying step 100, the moving speed of the conveyor belt 11 is adjusted and the preliminary drying time is changed to correspond to the size and amount of the solid sugar S.

  The stacking step 200 is a step of stacking the solid sugar S dried to a predetermined hardness after being preliminarily dried in the storage container 30 (see FIG. 2). As this storage container 30, a light-weight and air-permeable bowl-shaped storage container 30 is used. In the conventionally used aluminum plate Q, it was necessary to carefully arrange the solid sugar S so as not to lose its shape, but the surface of the solid sugar S is hardened by the preliminary drying step 100 of the present invention. Therefore, in the stacking process 200, for example, it is possible to continuously store in the storage container 30 from a height of about 20 cm.

  The main drying process 300 is a process in which a plurality of storage containers 30 loaded with the solid sugar S are mounted on the carriage 40 and are transported into the drying chamber 50 together with the carriage 40 to be dried (see FIG. 3). Conventionally used carts 40 and drying chambers 50 are used as they are. However, since a large number of storage containers 30 loaded with a large amount of solid sugar S can be stacked on the cart 40, compared with the case where the cart 40 is mounted on the cart 40 in a state of being placed on the conventional aluminum plate Q, 4 to Six times or more of the solid sugar S can be loaded on the carriage 40.

  Moreover, when drying in a state where it is placed on the conventional aluminum plate Q, this aluminum plate Q has hindered drying, but when the solid sugar S is dried in the state of being stored in the bowl-shaped storage container 30, Since the whole circumference | surroundings of each solid sugar S can be dried, the thermal energy used by this drying process 300 can be utilized more effectively. And after drying, solid sugar S dried to the hardness as a product is conveyed with the cart 40 to the work place of a packaging process.

  The main configuration of the solid sugar drying device of the present invention is composed of a conveyor device 10, a preliminary dryer 20, a storage container 30, a cart 40, and a drying chamber 50, and is a device that implements the above-described steps of the present invention. .

  The conveyor apparatus 10 is an apparatus that conveys the solid sugar S immediately after being compression molded by the compression molding machine P to the storage container 30 (see FIG. 1). In the illustrated example, a preliminary dryer 20 is installed on the conveyor device 10.

  The preliminary dryer 20 is a device that dries and hardens the surface of the solid sugar S while the compressed solid sugar S is conveyed into the storage container 30. The illustrated pre-dryer 20 includes a cover body 21 and a hot air machine 22 (see FIG. 2).

  The cover body 21 has a cover shape surrounding the upper portion of the conveyor belt 11 and is a portion through which the conveyor belt 11 that conveys the solid sugar S passes (see FIG. 2). On the other hand, the hot air machine 22 blows hot air into the cover body 21. In the illustrated example, a pair of hot air blowers 22 are installed on the cover body 21, and hot air is blown into the cover body 21 from the blower pipes 23 installed on the upstream side and the downstream side of the conveyor belt 11.

  In the experiment, a cover body 21 having a total length of about 10 m is installed on the conveyor belt 11, and the solid sugar S is passed while the internal temperature of the cover body 21 is heated from 90 ° C. to 110 ° C. by the hot air blower 22. By setting the time to about 2 to 3 minutes, it was possible to dry to a hardness that could prevent the shape loss during the loading process 200.

  The storage container 30 is a bowl-shaped container in which the solid sugars S preliminarily dried by the conveyor device 10 are loaded together. As the storage container 30, two types of storage containers 30, large and small, are used depending on the size of the solid sugar S. For example, 1 to 2 g of solid sugar S uses a small storage container 30, and 3 to 4 g of solid sugar S uses a large storage container 30. In the experiment, 4 kg to 5 kg can be stored in the small-sized storage container 30, and about 8 kg can be stored in the large-sized storage container 30.

  The cart 40 is for mounting a plurality of storage containers 30 (see FIG. 3). The cart 40 uses the cart 40 that has been used in the past. However, when the aluminum plate Q is mounted as in the prior art, a framework for mounting the cart 40 is required. For this reason, the weight of the conventional truck 40 is about 100 kg. However, the truck 40 of the present invention does not require a mounting frame, and can be used with the original weight of about 30 kg.

  The drying chamber 50 is for drying the solid sugar S in the storage container 30 together with the carriage 40 (see FIG. 3). The drying chamber 50 needs to keep the internal temperature at a constant high temperature, and therefore requires an amount of heat to warm all the objects placed in the drying chamber 50. Therefore, when the conventional aluminum plate Q is used, in order to dry the solid sugar S, the aluminum plate Q and the reinforced cart 40 also require heat. Then, in the conventional drying process, the weight of the aluminum plate Q is 255 g × 100 sheets = 25.5 kg in order to dry about 40 kg of solid sugar S that can be loaded on one carriage 40. The weight of the conventional truck 40 is about 100 kg. A total of 125.5 kg of these objects took away the amount of heat in the drying chamber 50.

  On the other hand, in the drying apparatus of the present invention, the weight of the storage container 30 is 1.43 kg × 21 pieces = 30 kg in order to dry 160 kg to 200 kg of solid sugar S that can be loaded on one carriage 40. The weight of the cart 40 alone is about 30kg. The total of these is 60 kg, and the thermal efficiency in the drying chamber 50 is about half that of the example using the aluminum plate Q. And since the weight of the solid sugar S which can be dried with the one trolley | bogie 40 becomes 4 to 5 times, the thermal efficiency per 1 kg of the solid sugar S will be improved 8 to 10 times.

  Further, when comparing the conventional drying apparatus with the drying apparatus of the present invention, the conventional drying apparatus requires 75 carts 40 and 7,500 aluminum plates Q to produce 3 tons of solid sugar S. On the other hand, in the present invention, it is possible to produce with 18 carts 40 and 375 storage containers 30. In addition, the transportation of the carriage 40 to the drying chamber 50 conventionally requires transportation of 25 vehicles × 3 times, whereas in the present invention, it is 6 vehicles × 3 times. As a result, when the equipment of the drying chamber 50 and the presence or absence of the carriage 40 and the aluminum plate Q are compared, the drying apparatus of the present invention can be greatly simplified, and the amount of heat to be used is extremely small.

  Further, when 8 kg of solid sugar S is stored in the cart 40, conventionally, it is necessary to store the aluminum plate Q on which about 400 g of solid sugar S is placed about 20 times for each sheet. The storage container 30 loaded with 8 kg of solid sugar S need only be stored once. Therefore, the number of reciprocations of the operator is reduced to 1/20. As described above, the efficiency by the drying method and the drying apparatus of the present invention is remarkably improved in all of work efficiency, thermal efficiency, and production efficiency.

  In the drying device of the present invention, each configuration is not limited to the illustrated example, and the conveyor device 10, the preliminary dryer 20, the storage container 30, the carriage 40, and the drying chamber 50 do not change the gist of the present invention. The range can be freely changed.

P Compression molding machine Q Aluminum plate S Solid sugar 10 Conveyor device 11 Conveyor belt 20 Pre-dryer 21 Cover body 22 Hot air machine 23 Air blower 30 Storage container 40 Carriage 50 Drying chamber 100 Pre-drying process 200 Loading process 300 Main drying process

Claims (5)

  A drying method after compression molding of a solid sugar such as sugar cubes, a pre-drying step of reducing the water content of the surface of the solid sugar and pre-drying until the solid sugar has a certain hardness that can be loaded; A loading step of stacking a plurality of solid sugars after drying in a storage container, and a main drying step of mounting a plurality of storage containers loaded with solid sugar on a carriage and transporting the carriages together with the carriage into a drying chamber for drying. A method for drying solid sugar, comprising:   The said preliminary drying process is a drying method of the solid sugar of Claim 1 performed while conveying with the conveyor apparatus which conveys the compression-molded solid sugar.   The method for drying solid sugar according to claim 1, wherein in the loading step, a bowl-shaped storage container having a light weight and air permeability is used as the storage container.   A drying device that dries the solid sugar after the solid sugar such as sugar cubes is compression-molded. A pre-dryer that is preliminarily dried until reduced to a certain hardness, a bowl-shaped storage container that collectively loads the solid sugar that has been pre-dried by the pre-dryer, and a carriage on which a plurality of the storage containers are mounted, A drying apparatus for solid sugar, comprising: a drying chamber for drying solid sugar in a storage container together with the carriage.   The pre-dryer has a cover shape surrounding the upper part of the conveyor belt, a cover body that allows the conveyor belt that conveys the solid sugar to pass through, and a hot air blower that blows hot air inside the cover body. The drying apparatus of the solid sugar of Claim 4 provided.

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