JP6320817B2 - Granular material supply apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for supplying a granular material having a generally uniform shape. In particular, the present invention relates to a granular material supply apparatus and method suitable for supplying an appropriate amount of granular food such as fried balls.

In the food industry, granular foods having a size of approximately 2 mm to 2 cm, such as fried balls, drying ingredients, or granular soups, are widely used. For example, in instant noodles, these granular foods are widely used as ingredients. In a production line using these granular foods, it is necessary to sequentially supply an appropriate amount of granular materials. For example, Patent Literature 1 is disclosed as an apparatus for supplying granular food.

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-182782 It is considered that the quantitative substance supply apparatus disclosed in the above prior art is an excellent apparatus capable of supplying granular foods in a sealed state in a sealed state. However, the target is food with a fine particle size such as powdered milk. Moreover, since it is a type which rotates a fixed quantity filling chamber part, when a granular material is a certain size, a granular material will be caught at the time of rotation, and the case where rotation becomes difficult is also anticipated. Further, as another method, a method of holding and supplying an appropriate amount of particles by suction can be considered, but it is pointed out that the apparatus itself becomes large.

Then, the present inventors made it a subject to develop the supply apparatus of the granular material which made object the granular food of about 2 mm-2 cm in magnitude | size.

As a result of intensive studies by the present inventors, the following method has been found. First, a cylindrical storage body having a hole on the bottom surface having a size through which a granular material can pass is prepared. Further, the blade-like member can be rotated in contact with or close to the bottom surface on the upper surface side of the bottom surface of the storage body.
Next, a large number of granular materials are supplied into the storage body so that the granular materials are laminated to the upper part of the blade-like member. In this case, since a large number of granular materials are stored densely, the mutual positions of the granular materials interfere with each other and are pressed, and even if a small amount of particles pass, It becomes impossible to pass through the hole on the bottom surface of the storage body. In particular, particles having oils and fats and sugars and having moisture or oil on the surface or sticky particles tend to have this tendency and easily exhibit a blocking phenomenon.

However, if the blade-like member is moved (swept) near the bottom surface of the storage body in this state, the denseness of the granular materials collapses and the granular material moves near the inner surface of the storage body, and the plurality of granular materials move to the bottom surface. It was found that it was possible to pass through the hole and drop it to the bottom of the bottom part. Furthermore, by making the rotation angle and rotation speed constant, it is possible to drop a substantially constant granular material.
Furthermore, it discovered that the quantity of the granular material which passes the bottom face of a storage body can also be adjusted by adjusting the movement area | region of a blade-shaped member. In this way, the present invention has been completed.

That is, the first invention of the present application is
“A supply device for discharging a granular material of a predetermined size, in which a cylindrical storage body having a plurality of holes larger than the size on the bottom surface thereof, and a blade-like member sweeping close to the inner surface side of the bottom surface. A granular material supply device including a mechanism to pass. "
Next, a drive part can be provided in the blade-shaped member in the supply apparatus of this invention.
That is, the second invention of the present application is
2. The granular material supply apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a drive unit for sweeping the blade-like member.

Furthermore, the present applicant also contemplates the method itself for supplying the granulate of claim 1.
“A supply method for supplying a granular material of a predetermined size, wherein the granular material is stacked inside a container having a plurality of holes larger than the size on the bottom surface thereof, and is close to the upper surface side of the bottom surface. The granular material supply method, wherein the granular material is passed through the lower part of the bottom surface by sweeping the blade-like member. "

  By using the granular material supply apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently supply a granular food having a size of about 2 mm to 2 cm.

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] It is a perspective view of the 1st embodiment of the supply apparatus of the granular material of this invention. It is the isometric view schematic diagram which decomposed | disassembled each component of the supply apparatus of the granular material of the 1st embodiment of this invention. (A) It is the front schematic diagram which decomposed | disassembled each structure of the supply apparatus of the granular material of the 1st embodiment of this invention. (A) It is a front schematic diagram at the time of combining each structure of (A). It is the front view which provided the shutter in the lower part of a plate-shaped object. It is a perspective schematic diagram at the time of inserting a 1st storage body in a 2nd storage body. It is the isometric view schematic diagram which showed rotation of the blade-shaped member in the bottom face of a 2nd accommodating part. It is a perspective view at the time of arrange | positioning a several main-body part in series. It is a schematic diagram explaining the movement of a granular material in the case of storing a granular material and driving the supply apparatus of this invention.

3 Fixing weight 4 Sprocket 8 Partition 10 Blade member 12 Bush 14 Thrust bearing 16 Support 18 Plate 20 Leg 25 Center rod 30 Shutter 50 Container 60 Granule 80 Bottom housing 100 Main body 111 First storage body 122 Second storage body 200 Drive unit

  The first embodiment of the present invention will be described below. However, the present invention is not limited to the first embodiment. FIG. 1 shows an overall perspective view of a first embodiment of the granular material supply apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the supply device of the first embodiment. Furthermore, the schematic diagram which isolate | separated each component in the said exploded perspective view is shown. FIG. 3 is an exploded front view and an overall view showing configurations of the storage body 2 and the plate-like body. In FIG. 3, only the support is shown in cross section for convenience.

The granular material supply apparatus according to the first embodiment is roughly divided into a main body 100 and a drive unit 200. Further, the main body portion 100 includes a first storage body 111 and a second storage body 122 as components.
The first storage body 111 is a cylindrical body having an upper and lower opening, and the blade-like members 10 are mounted at three locations around the inner circumference of the lower portion thereof. The second storage body 122 is a cylindrical body having an upper opening and a bottom, and the bottom surface portion 80 is provided with a number of holes. The hole has a size through which the particulate matter can pass.

The outer diameter of the first storage body 111 is smaller than the inner diameter of the second storage body 122, and the first storage body 111 can be integrated by being inserted into the second storage body 122. To complete. In order to adjust the positional relationship between the first storage body 111 and the first storage body 111, the partition portion 8 is provided on the outer periphery of the first storage body 111.
In addition, a sprocket 4 is provided in the vicinity of the middle stage of the first storage body 111 for transmitting a rotational force from a driving unit 200 described later. Moreover, the space | interval of the blade-shaped member 10 and the bottom face part 80 of a 2nd storage body is prescribed | regulated by the arrangement position of the partition part 8. FIG. A bar-like convex portion is provided along the longitudinal direction of the storage body 2 at the upper portion of the receiving portion, and defines a position around the circumference of the fixing weight 3 and the sprocket 4.

A lower portion of the first storage body 111 is inserted into the thrust bearing 14 via the bush 12, and the storage body 2 itself can be rotated.
A driving unit 200 is provided separately from the main body unit 100. The storage body 2 and the drive unit 200 are connected via a belt, and the rotational force in the drive unit 200 is converted into rotation of the storage body 2 via the belt. 1 to 3 do not show a specific motor or the like for driving.
In this embodiment, when the granular material is supplied to the first and second storage bodies (111, 122), even when the granular material is supplied from the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122, the granular material may be granular. Objects may fall. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the slide-type shutter 30 is appropriately slid so that the large hole portion of the leg portion 20 can be opened and closed, and the supply state of the particulate matter and the filling state of the particulate matter are clearly distinguished. Form may be sufficient.

The granular material is filled into the supply device from the upper part of the cylindrical first storage body 111. The filled granular material is stored in the first storage body 111 until a predetermined height is reached. After being stored, the blade-like member 10 provided at the lower end portion of the first storage body 111 and positioned near the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122 is rotated. Due to the rotation of the blade-like member 10, the denseness of the granular materials is broken, whereby the granular materials move near the inner surface of the bottom surface 80, and the plurality of granular materials can pass through the holes in the bottom surface 80. Note that “sweep” in the present specification means that the blade-like member 10 passes close to the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122 having a plurality of holes.
1 and 2 also show the drive unit 200 that applies a rotational force to the blade-like member 10, the present invention may be a drive unit 200 other than the type shown in FIGS. Of course, manual operation without using the drive unit 200 may be used.

In the following, each main part in the first embodiment will be described in detail.
1) Granular material The granular material referred to in the present invention can be applied to various substantially uniform shapes and sizes such as plastic and metal, as well as foods such as fried balls, drying tools, and dried plums. The uniformity of the shape is not strict and does not require that all particles are included in a predetermined range. For example, a fried ball of food has a substantially spherical shape, but has various shapes such as an irregular shape and a substantially spherical shape. In addition, there are cases where there are irregularly small particles and conversely large particles, and such a case is naturally included.

The granular material referred to in the present invention particularly contains oil and water, and the surface of the particles can be suitably used in the case of food with water and oil. For example, in the case of fried balls, since the particles contain oil, the particles are likely to block each other. For this reason, when filling the said container 2 with the said particle | grain, even if it is a case where the diameter of a particle shape is smaller than the diameter of a hole, it will not pass a hole easily but will be in the clogged state. In this state, as will be described later, the holes can be passed through the granular material by sweeping the blade-like member 10 close to the bottom surface having the holes.

2) First storage body The first storage body 111 is a storage body for granular materials, and is integrated with the second storage body 122 to store granular materials. The first storage body 111 in this embodiment is a cylindrical body having an upper and lower opening, and the blade-like members 10 are mounted at three locations around the inner surface of the lower part thereof. The first container 111 can be made of various metal plates such as iron and stainless steel, and materials such as plastic.
A partition 8 is provided near the center of the first storage body 111, and the lower end of the partition 8 is placed on the thrust bearing 14 via the bush 12. It is possible to rotate.

The thrust bearing 14 is placed on the upper portion of the support 16. The positional relationship between the first storage body 111 and the second storage body 122 can be adjusted by the position of the partition portion 8 of the first storage body 111. The position of the lower end of the blade-like member 10 of the first storage unit is adjusted so as to maintain an interval of about 1 to 2 mm from the upper part of the bottom surface of the second storage unit. The blade member 10 is welded to the inner surface of the lower end portion of the first storage body 111.
On the upper part of the partitioning portion 8 of the first storage body 111, a rod-like convex portion is provided along the longitudinal direction of the first storage body 111, and the sprocket 4 provided with a concave portion corresponding to the convex portion on the inner periphery. Then, the fixing weight 3 is mounted on the upper part. This is transmitted as the rotational force of the power unit via the sprocket 4 described above.

3) Second storage body The second storage body 122 is a bottomed cylindrical body at the upper opening of the upper opening, and is integrated with the first storage portion 111 to store the particulate matter. As shown in FIG. 5, the outer diameter of the first storage body 111 is smaller than the inner diameter of the second storage body 122, and the first storage body 111 can be inserted into the second storage body 122. A storage part is formed. The second storage body 122 can be made of various metal plates such as iron and stainless steel, and materials such as plastic.

The bottom surface 80 of the second storage body 122 is provided with a plurality of holes having a substantially uniform size. The hole has a size through which the particulate matter can pass. The size of the hole needs to be larger than the size of the granular material to be stored. The actual size can be appropriately changed according to the number of granular materials to be dropped and the shape and physical properties of the granular materials to be stored. That is, if the number of granular materials to be dropped is increased, the hole size can be set slightly larger than the size of the granular materials.
Further, even in the case of a granular material that contains a large amount of oil and fat and easily adheres to each other, the size of the holes can be set larger.

Furthermore, in the present invention, the shape of the granular material generally assumes a substantially spherical shape, but is not limited to this, and may be an elliptical shape, for example. In the case of an oval-sized granular material, the size can be made larger than the size of the oval and adjusted by the rotation time, rotation radius, etc. of the blade-like member 10 described later.
In addition, if there is a possibility that the granular material to be supplied contains irregularly-sized particles, the granular material to be supplied is passed through a large filter before being supplied to the granular material supply device. The particles having a regular size may be removed. The horizontal sectional shape of the first and second storage bodies 122 is not particularly limited. For example, a rectangular shape is possible, but a cylindrical shape is possible. It is preferable.

4) Blade-shaped member The blade-shaped member 10 is welded to the inner surface of the lower end of the first storage body 111 at three locations, and the second storage is performed with the first storage body 111 inserted into the second storage body 122. The blade-shaped member 10 of the first storage body 111 is disposed above the bottom surface portion 80 having the hole of the body 122. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6A, the blade-like member 10 welded to three locations inside the lower portion of the first storage body 111 is disposed above the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122. However, instead of using the first storage body 111, the blade portion with the blade-like member 10 attached to the rod-shaped tip as shown in FIG. An inserted form or the like is also possible. Further, as shown in FIG. 6 (c), the blade-like member 10 is welded to the three inner portions of the lower portion of the first storage body 111, and the particulate matter does not stagnate near the center of the bottom surface 80 at the center. In addition, it is also possible to prevent the stagnation of the granular material by providing the center rod 25. In this embodiment, the interval between the blade-like member 10 and the plate-like body 18 having holes is set to about 1 to 2 mm.

  The blade-like member 10 only needs to be arranged so as to sweep the upper surfaces of the plurality of holes of the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122. The shape of the blade-like member 10 is not particularly limited. Further, the number, size, direction, and the like of the blades are not limited. What is necessary is just to arrange | position so that the top of the several hole provided in the bottom face 80 of the 2nd storage body 122 can be swept.

It is preferable that the space | interval of the blade-shaped member 10 and the bottom face 80 of the 2nd accommodating body 122 is smaller than the diameter of the granular material to supply. As a result, the particulate matter close to the bottom surface 80 can be moved by the rotation of the blade-like member 10, and the holes in the bottom surface 80 can be easily passed.
The method of sweeping the surface of the bottom surface 80 by the blade-shaped member 10 is not particularly limited, and in this embodiment, a mode of sweeping the circular surface with three blade-shaped members 10 is shown. The mode of sweeping is not limited.

The rotation angle and rotation speed of the blade-like member 10 can be set arbitrarily. When the rotation of the blade-shaped member 10 is performed as an intermittent operation, the rotation angle is generally 30 ° to 360 °, and the time required for the rotation is generally about 0.3 second to 2 seconds. Moreover, although it is common to perform rotation by intermittent operation | movement, the aspect rotated continuously continuously is also possible.
In addition, when it is set as an intermittent operation | movement, since a granular material falls through a hole at the time of rotation of the blade-shaped member 10, an appropriate amount is supplied at the time of rotation to the container 50, such as a cup which supplies the dropped granular material, and rotates. A method of transferring to the next container 50 in a state in which is stopped is possible. Rotation → stop → rotation is sequentially performed, and the containers 50 under the plate-like body 18 are sequentially replaced in synchronization with this, whereby the granular materials can be sequentially supplied to the containers 50.

5) Plate-shaped body In the present embodiment, the second storage body 122 is held, the position thereof is defined, and the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122 is placed on the plate-shaped body 18 in order to allow the granular material to pass therethrough. A hole that fits into the shape is provided. As shown in FIG. 4, the hole of the plate-like body has a hole portion that matches the size of the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122 and fits with the bottom surface portion 80, and a bottom surface portion that is smaller than the size of the bottom surface portion. It has a two-stage hole part for supporting the 80.
Furthermore, in this embodiment, the leg part 20 which supports the above-mentioned plate-shaped body 18 is provided. When a container 50 such as a cup to be supplied with granular materials is placed in the lower space provided by the legs 20 and the blade member 10 is rotated, the granular materials are removed from the bottom surface 80 of the second storage body 122. It is dropped and supplied to the container 50 through the hole of the plate-like body 18.

6) Drive unit The drive unit 200 can be arbitrarily provided. In the drive unit 200, a rotational force can be applied to the blade-like member 10. In this embodiment, an embodiment in which a rotational force is applied via a belt is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this. The rotation direction is not limited. The rotation direction may be the same, or the rotation direction may be changed alternately. Also, the rotation speed can be set as appropriate.

7) Other members In the first embodiment, the sprocket 4 and the thrust bearing 14 other than those described above are configured, but these members are not necessarily required in the supply device of the present invention. About these structures, it can select suitably.

8) Other Embodiments As another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7 below, a plurality of supply devices may be connected in series and supplied to a plurality of cup-shaped containers 50 at the same time. In this case, what is necessary is just to make it the structure which supports the 2nd storage body 122 in the lower end part of the support body 16. FIG. In this case, the plate-like body 18 in FIG. 2 is not required.
Since each supply apparatus can supply a granular material independently, it can supply a granular material to the several cup-shaped container 50 simultaneously.
The supply devices may be bridged with a material such as metal or plastic, and the cup-shaped container 50 may be disposed at a height such that the cup-shaped container 50 can be disposed below the supply device.

Next, the movement of the granular material when the granular material is stored in the above-described filling device and the device is driven will be described.
As shown in (1) of FIG. 8, the first container 111 and the second container 122 are filled with the granular material 60 to be supplied. At this time, a large number of granular materials 60 are supplied into the first storage body 111 so that the granular materials 60 are laminated to the upper part of the lower end portion of the first storage body 111 than the blade-like member 10. Since there are a large number of granular materials 60 that are densely stored, the mutual positions of the granular materials interfere with each other, and the mutual positions are determined, and the holes in the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122 are formed. Even if a small amount of particulate matter passes, it cannot immediately pass through the hole.

Next, when the first storage body 111 positioned above the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122 is rotated to rotate (sweep) the blade-like member 10, as shown in FIG. 8 (2). The denseness of the granular materials collapses, the granular materials move at the bottom surface portion 80 of the second storage body 122, the plurality of granular materials 60 can pass through the holes, and the granular materials 60 pass through the bottom surface portion 80 and are dropped. Can do.
Thereby, as shown in (3) of FIG. 8, a necessary amount of the granular material 60 can be supplied to the container 1 having a predetermined shape arranged at the lower part of the second storage body 122.

Next, when the container 1 is replaced with the container 2 as shown in FIG. Can be dropped. Thereafter, the supply can be continued similarly.
The supply amount of the granular material 60 can be adjusted by the rotation angle, rotation speed, rotation time, hole size, hole shape, and the like of the first storage body 111 (blade-like member 10). Further, the shape of the granular material can be arbitrarily selected, and supply can be realized by providing a hole larger than the shape.
In the case of continuous production of a plurality of supply devices in a plurality of lines, a plurality of supply devices may be arranged as many as the number of lines as shown in FIG. By arranging a plurality, it is possible to cope with a plurality of production lines.

Claims (3)

A supply device for granular material for feeding granules,
A cylindrical body with upper and lower openings;
A blade-like member attached to the lower part of the cylindrical body;
A cylindrical storage body into which the cylindrical body is inserted and having a plurality of holes on the bottom surface ;
A rotating mechanism of the cylindrical body ;
A granular material supply apparatus. The granular material supply apparatus of Claim 1 provided with the drive part for rotating the said cylindrical body . A supply method for supplying a granular material,
Insert a cylindrical body having a plurality of holes on the bottom surface, with the top and bottom open and a blade-like member attached to the lower part,
After laminating particulate matter inside the tubular body, the tubular body is rotated to sweep the blade-like member close to the top surface of the bottom surface of the storage body and pass the particulate material below the bottom surface. A method for supplying particulate matter, characterized by comprising:

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