JP6727528B2 - Green tea production line and hybrid line equipped with green tea production line - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a green tea production line having a drying step in which tea leaves (fresh leaves) are placed on a mesh belt conveyor and dried by hot air, and in particular, a green tea production line having improved drying efficiency and increased processing capacity and the same. The present invention relates to a hybrid line equipped with a tea production line.

Sencha, gyokuro, matcha, bancha, houjicha, etc. are known as rough tea (Japanese tea) produced from tea leaves. Sencha is made by steaming and sprouting new shoots, and gyokuro is a high-quality tea and green tea grown in the same manner as gyokuro, by covering the tea garden with Yoshizushi shelves, increasing the umami by avoiding direct sunlight, and raising bitterness. Then, dry steamed green tea without grinding the steamed leaves is ground with a stone mill to make fine powder, bancha is tea made from hardened sprouts and stems, and hojicha is roasted bancha or sencha over high heat. , Refers to the fragrant tea. In addition, tencha is a kind of steamed green tea and is a raw material for matcha tea and the like.

Green tea is made into a green tea product by rubbing blue-leaved tea leaves and destroying the tissue to make it easier to produce the components of the tea. The production of green tea by a machine is generally performed through the steps of roasting leaves, kneading, water-drying, tightening roasting, and drying. Here, the heat treatment called blue-killing is an important step in which the oxidase contained in the tea leaves is inactivated and an aroma peculiar to green tea is produced. Traditionally, the term “blue-killing” is mainly steam-heated green-killing, where steam is applied to the tea leaves to kill them, and in part there is kettle roasted blue-killing that kills tea leaves in a kettle heated by an open flame. The kneading means that the tea leaves after the rough kneading are subjected to a rotary kneading by applying a load to make the entire amount of water uniform.

Excessive laboratory studies have recently shown that compounds such as catechins present in green tea may reduce the risk of various diseases. Furthermore, catechins have been shown to suppress the accumulation of visceral fat, and are therefore known to be effective in controlling body weight and body shape. These studies show that with increasing consumer taste complexity, consumption of green tea is increasing even in markets such as the United States and Western Europe where there is no tradition of consuming green tea.

Although some of the health benefits of green tea are manifest even at low consumption, many have not achieved even this modest rate of consumption on a long-term basis. Furthermore, tea beverages are easier to prepare than beverages prepared from non-tea-based beverage precursors, such as instant coffee, due to the relatively slow rate of tea leaf brewing and the slow rate of tea powder dissolution. Was not. The beverage precursor refers to a processed composition suitable for preparing a beverage.

Beverage precursors capable of ingesting catechins derived from a smaller number of beverages that need to be prepared from such beverage precursors and methods for producing the same are known. In this production method, for example, tea leaves having a water content of about 80% are air-dried to a water content of about 75% and then steam-treated at a predetermined temperature to inactivate the enzyme and prevent fermentation. The tea leaves are then passed through two hot air drum dryers followed by a vibrating bed hot air dryer to reduce the water content of the steamed tea leaves.

Then, at the end of the vibrating bed, the tea leaves are cooled to room temperature, and then the tea leaves that have passed through the rotavan (which utilizes the structure of a meat grinder to squeeze the tea leaves into fine pieces), Then, it supplies two CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) machines. After the CTC step, a step of drying the material in a fluidized bed dryer to a predetermined water content, removing fibers and secondary substances, and sieving the tea leaves is provided.

By such a tea production method, it is possible to provide good catechin delivery and provide a tea material in the form of a granule that is easy to combine with a food grade additive (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Publication No. 2009-544298

In this conventional method for producing green tea, bancha made from hardened sprouts, stems, and the like may have a woody stem portion mixed therein, and a plurality of dryers must be provided. In this case, there is a problem that not only the manufacturing time becomes long, but also the capital investment and the running cost rise, and it is impossible to provide an inexpensive tea product.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and increases the throughput per unit time to enable mass production, improves the drying efficiency, and reduces the production cost without impairing the quality. It is an object of the present invention to provide a green tea production line using an green tea furnace and a hybrid line equipped with the green tea production line.

In order to achieve such an object, the invention according to claim 1 of the present invention provides an oxidase deactivating step for deactivating an oxidase of introduced tea leaves, and the tea leaf supplied from the oxidase deactivating step. The, while continuously conveyed by a belt conveyor, a cooling step of cooling with cold air or warm air, after this cooling step, the tea leaves are placed on a mesh belt conveyor and dried with hot air A drying step, a cutting step for treating with a rotavan or a mincing machine, and a CTC step and a finishing drying step after the cutting step. The drying step is arranged in the drying chamber and the drying chamber. A belt conveyor that conveys tea leaves with a mesh belt, a hot air generator that generates hot air into the drying chamber, and is placed in the input section, and the overlapping of the tea leaves sprinkled on the belt conveyor has a constant thickness. An aligning and scraping back unit is provided, and the tea leaves are provided with a green tea production line that uses an edible tea furnace that is conveyed in a state where the tea leaves are laminated in a uniform thickness over the entire surface of the upper belt, and the drying step is performed. The tea leaves that have passed through are branched into an tea production line for producing tea, and tea is produced .

In this way, the oxidase deactivating step for deactivating the oxidase of the introduced tea leaves, and the tea leaves supplied from this oxidase inactivating step, while being continuously conveyed by the belt conveyor, cold air or warm air Cooling step, and after this cooling step, the tea leaves are placed on a mesh belt conveyor to dry with hot air, a drying step consisting of a tea oven, and a cutting step to be processed with a rotavan or a mincing machine, After the cutting process, a CTC process and a finish drying process are provided, and the drying process generates a hot air into the drying chamber, a belt conveyor arranged in the drying chamber to convey tea leaves with a mesh belt, and the drying chamber. It is equipped with a hot air generator and a scraping-back unit, which is placed in the feeding unit and arranges the overlap of the tea leaves scattered on the belt conveyor to a constant thickness, so that the tea leaves have a uniform thickness over the entire surface of the upper belt. Since the tea ceremony furnaces that are transported in a stacked state are used, the throughput per unit time is increased to enable mass production, while the drying efficiency is improved, and the production cost is reduced without impairing quality. A green tea production line can be provided.

Preferably, as in the invention described in claim 2, a plurality of devices arranged above the belt in the upper stage of the belt conveyor are provided with a device for reversing the front and back of the stacked tea leaves, and the reversing device and the scraping unit Is a cylindrical rotating member that is rotatably attached via a bracket, a plurality of support shafts that are radially fixed to the outer periphery of the rotating member in a circumferentially equidistant manner, and are fixed to the tip of this support shaft. A member, the gap between the tip of the member and the upper belt is set to a predetermined dimension, the rotating member of the scraping back portion rotates in a direction opposite to the traveling direction of the upper belt, If the rotating member of the reversing device rotates in the traveling direction of the upper belt, the tea leaves can be widely and evenly stacked on the belt, improving the drying efficiency of the tea leaves and reducing the production cost without impairing the quality. Can be made.

Further, as in the invention according to claim 3, if a pressing step for pressing the tea leaves is provided between the cooling step and the drying step, the tea leaves are subjected to a kneading force and are torn. The water can be subdivided and a pressing force can be applied to evenly lift the water on the surface, and the extraction rate can be improved.

Further, as in the invention according to claim 4, if a tree stem selecting step of selecting the stem portion and the leaf portion is provided between the drying step and the cutting step, the stem portion that has been converted into wood is provided. The quality of green tea can be improved by suppressing the mixture of

Further, as in the invention described in claim 5, in the green tea production line according to any one of claims 1 to 4, the tea leaves that have undergone the drying step are separated into leaves and stems by a tree stem separator. It consists of a smooth line (branching) (separation of tree stems) and a hybrid line for branching into a tea production line consisting of the tree stem selection process in which stems and leaves are separated by wind force and the finish drying process. Thus, it is possible to provide a green tea and an amber tea that enable mass production in a large-scale tea garden or the like, meet various needs, and reduce costs without impairing quality.

The oxidase deactivating step for deactivating the oxidase of the introduced tea leaves, and the tea leaves supplied from the oxidase deactivating step are cooled by cold air or warm air while being continuously conveyed by a belt conveyor. Cooling step, after this cooling step, the tea leaf is placed on a reticulated belt conveyor to dry with hot air, a drying step consisting of the tea oven, a cutting step to be processed by a rotavan or a mincing machine, and this cutting After the process, a CTC process and a finish drying process are provided, and the drying process includes a drying chamber, a belt conveyor that is arranged in the drying chamber to convey tea leaves with a mesh belt, and generates hot air into the drying chamber. A hot air generator that is provided, and a scraping unit that is disposed in the feeding unit and that aligns the overlap of the tea leaves scattered on the belt conveyor to a certain thickness, and the tea leaves are the entire surface of the upper belt. Since it uses an tea oven that is conveyed in a state of being laminated in a uniform thickness without any gap, it increases the throughput per unit time to enable mass production and improves the drying efficiency to impair the quality. Therefore, it is possible to provide a green tea production line with reduced production cost.

It is explanatory drawing which shows the process of the green tea manufacturing method which concerns on this invention. It is a side view which shows the schematic of the tea steaming apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a principal part side view of FIG. It is a longitudinal sectional view showing a steamed tea leaf processing machine according to the present invention. It is the VV sectional view taken on the line of FIG. (A) is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the tea ceremony furnace, and (b) is a VI-VI arrow view of (a). 6A is an enlarged view of an essential part of an A part in FIG. 6, FIG. 7B is an enlarged view of an VII arrow in FIG. 6A, and FIG. (A) is a longitudinal cross-sectional view showing a tree stem separator according to the present invention, and (b) is a view on arrow VIII of (a). It is a side view and a front view showing a wind power sorter concerning the present invention. (A) is a longitudinal sectional view showing a schematic view of a drying furnace used in a finish drying step according to the present invention, and (b) is a side view of (a).

The oxidase deactivating step for deactivating the oxidase of the introduced tea leaves, and the tea leaves supplied from the oxidase deactivating step are cooled by cold air or warm air while being continuously conveyed by a belt conveyor. Cooling step, after this cooling step, a pressing step for pressing the tea leaves, a drying step consisting of a tea-tea oven for placing the tea leaves on a mesh belt conveyor and drying with hot air, a rotor van or mince A cutting step to be treated, and, after this cutting step, through a tree stem selecting step in which the stem portion and the leaf portion are selected by wind force, a CTC step and a finish drying step for forming the tea leaves into a desired particle size shape, The drying step, a drying chamber, a belt conveyor that is arranged in a single stage in the drying chamber to convey tea leaves with a mesh belt, and in the drying chamber, the upper belt and the lower belt of the belt conveyor And a hot air generator that generates hot air from below to above the upper belt, and the tea leaves that are arranged in the feeding section and are sprinkled on the belt conveyor are arranged to have a uniform thickness. A scrape-back unit is provided, and the tea leaves are provided with a green tea production line that uses a green tea furnace that is conveyed in a state where the tea leaves are laminated in a uniform thickness over the entire surface of the upper belt, and the drying step is performed. The thus-obtained tea leaves are branched into a tea production line for producing tea, and tea is produced .

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing the steps of a method for producing green tea according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view showing a schematic view of a tea-steaming apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a side view showing a main part of FIG. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the steamed tea leaf processing machine according to the present invention, FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line VV of FIG. 4, FIG. 6(a) is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a green tea furnace, and FIG. VI-VI arrow view of (a), FIG. 7(a) is an enlarged view of a main part of A part of FIG. 6, (b) is a view of VII arrow of (a), and (c) is a view. 6 is an enlarged view of a main part of B part, FIG. 8A is a vertical sectional view showing a tree stem separator according to the present invention, FIG. 8B is a view taken along arrow VIII of FIG. The side view and front view which show the wind power sorter which concerns on invention, FIG.10(a) is the longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows the schematic of the drying furnace used for the finish drying process which concerns on this invention, (b) is (a). FIG.

FIG. 1 shows steps of a green tea production method (line) according to the present invention. For example, although not shown, it is composed of a cylindrical member rotatable around an axis, and a side surface is hermetically sealed to accommodate tea leaves. While being equipped with a blue-killing cylinder that can send tea leaves from the inlet on one end to the outlet on the other end, and a burner that can heat the outer peripheral surface of this blue-killing cylinder, by sending superheated steam into the blue-killing cylinder, An oxidase inactivating step of inactivating the oxidase of tea leaves, and the tea leaves supplied from this oxidase inactivating step, while continuously conveyed by a net conveyor, a cooling step of cooling with cold air or warm air, After this cooling step, there are provided a pressing step of pressing the tea leaves and a drying step of a tea ceremony furnace in which the tea leaves are placed on a mesh belt conveyor and dried by hot air. In the oxidase deactivation process, tea leaves fed from a kyouyou machine, which will be described later, are heated and softened in a steamer to impart physical and chemical changes, and steamed tea steam. A device may be adopted.

The tea leaves that have undergone the drying process are composed of a hybrid line consisting of a green tea production line (indicated by a black arrow in the figure) and a green tea production line (indicated by a white arrow in the figure). In the tea production line, the leaves and stems are separated by a stem separator (tree stem separation) process, and then the stems and leaves are sorted by wind force to select the stems and leaves. Is finished into green tea in the finishing drying process. On the other hand, the stems separated in the vine cutting process and the tree stalk selecting process are finished into rough tea in a finishing drying process of another route. Further, the green tea production line is provided with a cutting process in which a rotavan or mince treatment is performed from the tree stem selection process, and a CTC process and a finish drying process after the cutting process.

<Green Tea Manufacturing Line>
In the tea production line, the tea-steaming device 1 has a steamer main body 2 and a cooler 3, as shown in FIG. The steamer main body 2 has a movable frame 5 which is rotatably supported with respect to the machine frame 4, and a steam cylinder 6 including a fixed barrel 6 a and a rotary barrel 6 b is supported on the movable frame 5. The stationary barrel 6a of the steam drum 6 is provided with an inlet 8 to which a leaf feeder 7 is connected, and a steam supply unit 10 to which a steam generator (not shown) is connected via a steam pipe 9. A stirring shaft 11 is arranged in the steam cylinder 6 in the axial direction thereof, and a large number of stirring blades (not shown) are projected on the stirring shaft 11. A drive mechanism 12 for rotating the rotating drum 6b and the stirring shaft 11 is disposed on one end side of the machine frame 4. The steam cylinder 6 has a discharge port 13 on the side of the rotary cylinder 6b, and below the steam cylinder 6, a sink plate 14 for collecting leaves and stems falling from the steam cylinder 6 and the like is disposed.

As shown in FIG. 3, the cooler 3 has a machine frame 15 having a substantially triangular shape in a side view. The machine frame 15 has a net conveyor 16 for transporting the steamed leaves T and a lower fan for scattering and cooling. 17 and an upper fan 18 for cooling are arranged. The net conveyor 16 is made of, for example, a stainless steel wire mesh, and is wound around a plurality of sprockets 20a to 20g provided on the machine frame 15. The sprocket 20a is connected to the motor 22 through the chain 21, and the rotation of the motor 22 causes the sprocket 20a and the like to rotate, causing the net conveyor 16 to circulate in the direction of arrow a. A hopper 23 is arranged at a position where the steamed leaves T are supplied to the net conveyor 16.

A discharge port 17a of the lower fan 17 arranged in the machine frame 15 communicates with a scattering chamber 24 formed by fixing a side plate to the machine frame 15. The scattering chamber 24 has an open upper side, and a bottom side and a front side (left side in FIG. 3) are formed by the net conveyor 16. The cool air discharged from the lower fan 17 flows into the scattering chamber 24, and most of it is discharged from the net conveyor 16.

An upper fan 18 is arranged on the downstream side of the net conveyor 16. The discharge port 18a of the upper fan 18 is connected to the scattering chamber 24, and the bottom thereof communicates with the wind tunnel 25 formed by the net conveyor 16. The cool air discharged from the upper fan 18 is blown to the net conveyor 16 at the bottom of the wind tunnel 25 and is exhausted from the exhaust port 26 provided at the bottom. The upper fan 18 and the lower fan 17 are connected to the motor 27, respectively.

Next, the operation of the tea steaming apparatus 1 will be described. First, by operating a controller (not shown), the drive mechanism 12 of the steam generator main body 2 is operated to operate the steam generator main body 2. When the steamer main body 2 is operated, tea leaves t (see FIG. 2) are thrown into the steamer 6 from the leaf feeder 7 through the charging port 8 and transferred in the steamer 6 within a time period of several tens of seconds to several minutes. To be done. During this transfer, the tea leaves t are physically produced by heating by the steam supplied from the steam supply unit 10, rotation of the rotary drum 6b, and pressing and stirring by the rotation of the stirring blades protruding from the stirring shaft 11. Is steamed while undergoing dynamic and chemical changes.

On the other hand, also in the cooler 3, the motors 22 and 27 are respectively rotated by the control signal of the control panel, the net conveyor 16 is circulated, and the lower fan 17 and the upper fan 18 are operated to discharge the discharge ports 17a and 18a. Cold air is discharged from each.

The steamed leaves T that have been steamed by the steamer main body 2 and discharged from the discharge port 13 of the steam drum 6 are continuously supplied onto the net conveyor 16 via the hopper 23 of the cooler 3.

Then, the steamed leaves T move on the net conveyor 16 toward the scattering chamber 24 and fall into the scattering chamber 24 at the position of the sprocket 20e. At the time of this drop, the steamed leaves T are scattered and cooled by the cold air discharged from the lower fan 17, and most of them fall down onto the net conveyor 16 in the scattering chamber 24 and are conveyed again. When the steamed leaves T in the scattering chamber 24 are conveyed and flow into the wind tunnel 25, the cold air discharged from the upper fan 18 is blown to the net conveyor 16 and further cooled.

The steamed leaves T cooled by the lower fan 17 and the upper fan 18 are transported from a discharge end 34 provided at the right end of the machine frame 15, for example, a transportation means (not shown) such as a vibration conveyor provided below the discharge end 34. And discharged to the next pressing step.

4 and 5 show a steaming tea leaf processing machine, and reference numeral 35 is a rotary cylinder, which is the main body of the steaming tea leaf processing machine. The rotary drum 35 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape, and a steam tea leaf inlet 31 is formed at the tip and an end is opened so that the steam tea leaf can be continuously pressed. It is configured. A screw 37 is attached to the front half of the rotary shaft 36 and a stirring blade 38 is attached to the rear half of the rotary shaft 36. By rotating the rotary shaft 36, the steamed tea leaves fed through the feeding port 31 can be pushed backward and pressed. Several ridges (duck) 40 are provided on the inner wall surface of the body so as to regulate the turning of the steamed tea leaves inside the body.

Next, the operation of pressing the steamed tea leaves using the steamed tea leaf processing machine shown in FIG. 4 will be described. First, while rotating the rotary shaft 36, the steamed tea leaves that have been steamed according to a conventional method are cooled to around room temperature, and are then charged into the rotary drum 35 through the charging port 31. Then, the steamed tea leaves are efficiently sent to the rear of the drum by the screw 37 without damaging the tea leaves, stirred by the stirring blades 38 to be softened, and discharged from the end of the drum to the outside of the machine.

The steamed leaves are subjected to a strong striking force between the ridges 40 and the stirring blades 38 and are shredded into pieces. By this pressing step, the pressing force can be applied to the tea leaves so that the water content can be uniformly floated on the surface, and the extraction rate can be improved.

Next, the drying process according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. The tea ceremony furnace 41 shown in FIG. 6A includes a drying chamber 42, a belt conveyor 43, and a hot air generator 44. At the inlet (right side in the figure) of the drying chamber 42, a tea leaf input portion 45 is arranged, and at the outlet (left side in the figure), a tea leaf take-out portion 45a is arranged. Further, a tea-discharging machine 46 is disposed in front of the charging unit 45.

Next, the steamed leaves are put into the drying chamber 42 to be dried. Specifically, after being transferred to the belt conveyor 43 of the charging unit 45 of the tea diffuser 46, it is cooled by the blower 47 and the dew is removed. Note that the tea-discharging machine 46 may be a cooler that uses warm air or hot air (about 130° C.) for tea leaves and cools the tea leaves by the heat of vaporization when the water on the surface of the steamed leaves evaporates. Good.

The belt conveyor 43 is arranged in one stage in the drying chamber 42, and conveys the tea leaves, which is an object to be dried containing a large amount of moisture, by the reticulated belt 43a in a widely spread state. The steamed leaves are uniformly sprayed from the tea diffuser 46 onto the belt 43a of the feeding unit 45. The belt conveyor 43 includes an endless belt 43a made of synthetic resin such as polyester, a driving mechanism 43b for circulatingly driving the belt 43a, and a plurality of guide portions for changing the direction of the belt 43a in a desired space. 43c and a plurality of tensioners 43d that apply a desired tension to the belt 43a. The belt 43a may be made of a material other than synthetic resin as long as it is made of a material that can be used even in a high temperature environment in the drying chamber 42, and thus may be, for example, a stainless wire mesh.

The hot air generator 44 shown in FIG. 6B is arranged separately from the drying chamber 42, and is connected to the side portion of the drying chamber 42 via a duct (air guide) 44a. The duct 44a shown in FIG. 6A is arranged between the belt 43a in the upper stage (conveying section) and the belt 43e in the lower stage (returning section) of the belt conveyor 43 with a gap in the conveying direction, and the drying chamber 42a. Hot air is supplied from below to above the upper belt 43a of the belt conveyor 43. As shown in FIG. 6B, the hot air generator 44 includes a trumpet-shaped air supply duct 48 extending near the upper belt 43a. The air supply duct 48 blows hot air from below the upper belt 43a. Heavy oil is used as the heat source, but other than this, flammable gas, that is, gas such as natural gas, propane gas, or city gas can be exemplified. Then, for example, in the hot air generating furnace, heavy oil is burned by a burner or the like, and the air heated by the heat exchanger is supplied to the duct 44a and the air supply duct 48 by a blower (not shown). Also, in the case of gas, hot air is created by mixing air into the flame with a blower.

Here, in this embodiment, since the supply port (air supply duct 48) of the hot air generator 44 is disposed between the upper belt 43a and the lower belt 43e of the one-stage belt conveyor 43, As compared with the tea ceremony furnace arranged below the lower belt, hot air is not blocked by the lower belt, and it is possible to prevent the drying efficiency from decreasing.

A scraping-back unit 49 for aligning the overlapping of the tea leaves sprinkled on the belt conveyor 43 to a constant thickness is provided at the tip of the charging unit 45 (on the right side in the drawing). As shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 7A, the scraping-back section 49 is arranged above the upper belt 43 a of the belt conveyor 43 and is rotatable via a rolling bearing 52 arranged on the bracket 51. The attached cylindrical rotating member 53, a plurality of (in this case, four) support shafts 54 radially fixed to the outer periphery of the rotating member 53 in a circumferentially equidistant manner, and the tip of the support shaft 54. Blades 55, 55 that are detachably fixed with screws or the like. Although the number of the support shafts 54 is four here, the number is not limited to this and may be three or five. That is, the number of rotations of the rotating member 53 is set to 3 when the number of rotations is high, and 5 when the number of rotations is low.

The blade 55 is formed of a steel plate in a rectangular shape, and a tip end portion thereof is bent and formed at a desired inclination angle α on the cross section. Here, the inclination angle α is set so that the angle of intersection between the tip of the blade 55 and the transport surface of the upper belt 43a is in the range of 40° to 50°. Further, as shown in an enlarged view in (b), the tip of the blade 55 is formed in a saw-tooth shape, and the gap S between the blade edge and the upper belt 43a has a size such that 2-3 tea leaves overlap each other. It is set. The gap S, in combination with the inclination angle α of the tip of the blade 55, is related to the efficiency and processing amount of the upside-down (upside-down) of tea leaves, which will be described later. Although the tip of the blade 55 may not necessarily be formed into a saw blade shape but may be formed into a flat shape, the saw blade shape allows the tea leaves to be widely and evenly stacked on the upper belt 43a. It is possible to increase the treatment amount, improve the front-back reversal efficiency, and improve the tea leaf drying efficiency.

In the present embodiment, the upper belt 43a of the belt conveyor 43 is configured to travel counterclockwise (from right to left in the drawings) as indicated by an arrow A in FIGS. The rotating member 53 also rotates counterclockwise so as to face the traveling direction of the upper belt 43a.

The pile of tea leaves placed on the upstream side (the right side in the figure) of the upper belt 43a is repeatedly scraped back by the blade 55 as the upper belt 43a advances, and only the tea leaves stacked with a certain thickness are collected. The remaining state is conveyed to the downstream side (left side in the figure). At this time, since the tea leaves are evenly placed on the entire surface of the upper belt 43a in a state of being laminated without any gap, in the drying process described later, the gap between the tea leaves is blown by the hot air blown from below the upper belt 43a. Since hot air does not escape from the tea leaves, the scraping back portion 49 can efficiently and stably dry the tea leaves, and can increase the throughput of the tea leaves that are continuously fed, resulting in a production cost. Can be reduced.

Next, the tea leaves are conveyed to the drying chamber 42 of the green tea furnace 41 by the belt conveyor 43. Here, a plurality of reversing devices (scraping parts) 50 are arranged at equal intervals on the upper belt 43a. (See Figure 6). As shown in FIG. 7C, the reversing device 50 basically has the same configuration as that of the scraping-back unit 49 described above, and therefore, the same reference numerals are given and duplicate description is omitted.

The reversing device 50 is disposed above the belt 43a in the upper stage of the belt conveyor 43 so as to face each other, and has a cylindrical rotating member 53 rotatably attached to the bracket 51, and a radially outer circumference of the rotating member 53. A plurality of support shafts 54, 54 fixed to the support shaft 54, and blades 55, 55 fixed to the tip of the support shaft 54.

Similar to the scraping-back section 49 described above, the gap between the tip of the blade 55 and the upper belt 43a is set to a desired dimension. Here, the rotating direction of the rotating member 53 is set clockwise along the traveling direction of the upper belt 43a. The tea leaves placed on the upstream side (the right side in the figure) of the upper belt 43a are repeatedly scraped back and turned upside down by the blade 55 as the upper belt 43a advances. The front and back sides of the tea leaves laminated with a certain thickness on the belt 43a are inverted, and the tea leaves are uniformly placed again on the entire surface of the upper belt 43a without any clearance. The tea leaves are successively passed through these reversing devices 50 to be dried, and then conveyed to the downstream side (left side in the figure).

By adopting such a configuration, the hot air blown from below the upper belt 43a does not escape from the gap between the tea leaves, and the tea leaves can be dried efficiently and stably. In addition, it is possible to prevent hot air from escaping from the gaps between the tea leaves and reduce the drying efficiency, thereby increasing the processing amount of the tea leaves and reducing the production cost.

The tea leaves that have passed the drying process are sent to the next vine cutting process in the green tea line. After the drying of the tea machine, the leaf has a moisture content of about 10% and is almost dry, while the stem has a higher moisture content than the leaf, making it difficult to dry and leaving 100 to 130% of water. Therefore, it is necessary to continue drying. However, if the leaf portion is dried as it is, the leaf portion is too dry, and thus the stem portion and the leaf portion are separated by the tree stem separator in this hanging step.

FIG. 8 shows a tree stem separator 56 according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8B, the tree stem separator 56 has a main body cylinder 57 extending in the axial direction, a semi-cylindrical wire net 59 fixed to the main body cylinder 57, and a rotation in the wire net 59. The rotary shaft 60 is mainly provided.

As shown in FIG. 8A, a plurality of screw blades 61 (here, four) are fixed to the outer periphery of the rotary shaft 60 at equal intervals around the circumference. The tip of the screw blade 61 faces the inner circumference of the wire net 59 with a certain radial clearance. Further, both ends of the rotary shaft 60 are formed to have a small diameter, and are rotatably supported by rolling bearings 62, 62. Then, one end is connected to the electric motor M and a rotational force is applied. The rolling bearing 62 is attached to the main body 57 so that the height of the rolling bearing 62 can be adjusted, and the core of the rotating shaft 60 can be easily adjusted. Further, the size of the mesh of the wire net 59 is set to a size through which the tea leaves pass. That is, the tea leaves passing through the mesh are discharged from the lower part of the main body cylinder 57 and sent to the next step. On the other hand, the large stalk that has not passed through the mesh is discharged from the bucket 64.

Reference numeral 63 is a hopper disposed on the upper part of the main body cylinder 57. When tea leaves are introduced into the hopper 63, the tea leaves rotate while catching on the screw blades 61 of the rotary shaft 60, and do not stay in the axial direction (in the figure). It is transported to the left side). At this time, the tea leaves are separated into a large stem portion, a small stem portion and a leaf portion by the screw blade 61 rotating in the wire net 59, and the small stem portion and the leaf portion passing through the mesh fall and the mesh is The large stalk that has not passed through is taken out into the bucket 64 arranged in the opening of the main body 57. The small stalks and leaves that have passed through the mesh are conveyed to the next tree stem selection step.

FIG. 9 shows a wind power sorter 65 used in a tree stem sorting step, which includes a main body 66, a charging conveyor 58, a bucket conveyor 67 as a transporting means, a fan 68 as a blowing means, and a wind guide 69. A hood 70 for accommodating the fan 68 and the air guide 69 is mainly provided. An upper chute 71 is connected to the hood 70 to guide and take out the selected tea leaves. Further, a stem discharging screw 72 is disposed below the air guide 69, and the separated stem is moved to the stem discharging port 73 side by the screw.

The main body 66 is provided with an input hopper 74 as a carry-in port, and tea leaves are input to the input hopper 74 from the rear chute 58a by rotating the input conveyor 58 forward. A series of selections, which will be described later, is configured to be carried in by, for example, carrying in medium heat tea or the like into the input hopper 74. The bucket conveyor 67 extends upward from the position below the discharge port of the input hopper 74 by a predetermined angle and extends to the front of the hood 70, so that the tea leaves carried in the input hopper 74 reach the hood 70 of a predetermined height. It is to be transported. A part of the cover 75 of the hood 70 is made of a wire mesh and is configured so that the air blown by the fan 68 can escape to the outside of the main body 66.

The tea leaves conveyed by the bucket conveyor 67 are conveyed to the end of the bucket conveyor 67 while being evened by the scraping leveling tool 77 to a constant thickness, and the tea leaves that have reached this end are sequentially transferred. Be dropped. On the other hand, the air guide 69 located below the end of the bucket conveyor 67 communicates with the fan 68. As a result, when the fan 68 is driven, it is possible to blow air from the end of the bucket conveyor 67 toward the tea leaves falling from the air guide 69. Of the tea leaves mixed with the leaves and the stems, only the leaves move along the air guide 69 and are discharged at the true tea discharge port 76 via the hood 70 and the upper chute 71 on which wind pressure is applied. ..

Specifically, the leaf portion and the stem portion dropped from the end of the bucket conveyor 67 fall along the fall path C in a state where the fan 68 does not blow the air. It is blown off by the wind force, moves along the sorting path D to the side of the hood 70 and the upper chute 71, and is discharged through the main tea discharge port 76. On the other hand, the stem part falls along the fall path C like the leaf part when it is not blown, but since the weight of the simple substance is heavier than the leaf part, even if it is blown, its wind force It falls along the fall path C against it. In addition, the state of the stem at the stem outlet 73 and the state of the leaf at the true tea outlet 76 are verified. If a large amount of stem is mixed in the leaf, the rotation speed of the fan 68 is changed. If a large amount of leaves are mixed in the stem discharge port 73 by lowering it, conversely, the separation performance of the stem can be adjusted as appropriate by increasing the rotation speed of the fan 68. Further, when it is desired to discharge the leaves and the stems together without temporarily selecting them, the rotation speed of the fan 68 is set to a maximum value so that the leaves and the stems are discharged together to the true tea outlet 76. It is also possible.

Next, the operation of the wind power sorter 65 having the above-described configuration will be described. First, when making a tea leaf that does not require the selection of the leaf portion and the stem portion like the first tea, the fan 68 and the scraping leveling device 77 are not driven, and only the bucket conveyor 67 is driven. Then, the tea leaves (medium-fired tea) are filled in the charging hopper 74, and the tea leaves are dropped in front of the hood 70 by the bucket conveyor 67. Since the dropped tea leaves are not blown by the fan 68, they fall along the falling path C without being sorted. When the feeding conveyor 58 is installed as in the present embodiment, the function of the main body 66 is stopped when the leaves and the stems are not sorted, that is, the bucket conveyor 67 and the fan 68 are not driven and the loading is performed. It is possible to rotate the conveyor 58 in the reverse direction, remove the cover 75, attach the front chute 58b, and directly put the tea leaves and the stems into the hood 70 from the front chute 58b. The supplied tea leaves are transferred to the next step by a leaf part vibration conveyor (not shown). By adopting such a wind power sorter 65, a bypass line for tea leaves when sorting is not required can be eliminated, the equipment cost of the tea manufacturing line can be reduced, and the installation area can be smaller than the processing capacity, and the stem Separation of parts and matching with the optimum throughput can be easily performed.

The leaves and stems selected in the tree-stem selection process are each dried in the finish drying process, and the leaves are rough brown. The finish drying step is performed by the drying furnace 80 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 10A, the drying furnace 80 includes a drying chamber 81 and a plurality of stages (here, three stages) of belt conveyors 82, 82, 82 arranged inside the drying chamber 81. ing. In this belt conveyor 82, a chain (not shown) is wound around sprockets 83, 83, and is driven by a drive mechanism 84. The belt conveyor 82 is formed in an endless shape, for example, a belt 82a made of synthetic resin such as polyester, a plurality of guide portions 82b and 82b for guiding the belt 82a in a desired space, and a desired belt 82a. A plurality of tensioners 82c that apply the tensions are provided. The belt 82a may be made of a material other than synthetic resin as long as it is a net-like member made of a material that can be used even in a high temperature environment in the drying chamber 81, and may be, for example, a stainless steel wire net.

An exhaust device 85 and a tea powder recovery device (cyclone) 78 are provided above the drying chamber 81. Reference numeral 86 is a charging unit for charging the tea leaves conveyed from the previous process to the charging port 87 of the drying chamber 81, and is a scraping leveling device for adjusting the tea layer thickness of the supplied tea leaves. 88 are provided.

The hot air generator 89 is provided separately from the drying oven 80, and is connected to the side portion of the drying oven 80 via the air guide 90, as shown in FIG. Reference numeral 91 in FIG. 10A is an outlet, and the dried tea leaves are discharged to the transport machine 92. An oscillating conveyor is used as the transportation machine 92, and several units are continuously installed according to the layout of the factory to send the dried tea leaves to the next process.

Next, an operation mode of the drying furnace 80 will be described. The tea leaves taken out from the previous step are put into the drying chamber 81 from the feeding port 87 by the feeding machine 86. The tea leaves are placed on the forward surface indicated by the arrow of the belt conveyor 82 and transferred, and eventually fall on the backward surface to be transferred, and then drop onto the belt conveyor 82 of the next stage. By repeating this, the inside of the drying chamber 81 is transferred to the outlet 91. On the other hand, the hot air generator 89 uses gas or heavy oil as fuel and burns with a gun type burner. The furnace tube heated to a high temperature by combustion and the air sent to the combustion path by the fan are heat-exchanged to become hot air, which is supplied into the drying chamber 81 through the air guide 90. The tea leaves that have been dried by the hot air are discharged from the outlet 91, and are transported to the next step by the transport machine 92.

<Green tea production line>
The tea leaves that have undergone the above-described drying process proceed to a green tea production line different from the tencha production line. In this green tea production line, tea is manufactured in the order of a tree stem selection step, a cutting step in which a rotavan or mince treatment is performed, and after this cutting step, a CTC step and a finish drying step. The tea leaves that have undergone the drying step may be directly subjected to the cutting step by omitting the tree stem selecting step, but here, the tree stem selecting step is provided to eliminate the thick stem portion. As a result, the quality of green tea can be improved by suppressing the mixing of woody stems. A rotavan is a machine that uses the structure of a meat grinder to squeeze and cut tea leaves into fine pieces. The rotor van has a cylindrical barrel having an inlet for introducing tea leaves at one end and an outlet at the other end. Inside the barrel, a screw for sequentially pushing the tea leaves into the barrel, a rotary vane (van) for squeezing and cutting the tea leaves, and four baffle plates are arranged in parallel between the rotary vanes. Then, the tea leaves are finely crushed by passing through the rotor van. It should be noted that a mincing machine used for a meat grinder for crushing tea leaves and extruding them into minced meat may be used instead of this rotavan.

Next, in the CTC process, a CTC machine used for black tea is used. In this CTC machine, a pair of stainless steel rolls having fine sharp blades engraved on the outer peripheral surface are arranged so as to face each other, and the rolls are rotated inward at a speed of, for example, 72 to 720 rpm, and between the rolls. , And then round the tea leaves into fine particles. It should be noted that instead of this CTC machine, a pressing process for pressing the tea leaves described above may be used. Finally, the finish drying process is performed by the drying furnace 80 described above.

In the present embodiment, since the tea leaves that have undergone the drying process are composed of a hybrid line that is made by branching into two directions, a tena tea production line and a green tea production line, mass production is possible in a large-scale tea garden and the like. It is possible to select and manufacture green tea and tencha, which meet various demands and reduce costs without impairing quality, according to the tea season and variety.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments at all and is merely an example, and further various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. It is needless to say that the scope of the present invention is shown by the description of the claims, and further, the equivalent meanings described in the claims and all modifications within the scope are Including.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The method for producing green tea according to the present invention can be applied to a method for producing green tea, which includes a drying step in which tea leaves are placed on a mesh belt conveyor and dried by hot air.

1 Tea Making Steaming Device 2 Steaming Machine Main Body 3 Cooling Machines 4, 15 Machine Frame 5 Movable Frame 6 Steaming Cylinder 6a Fixed Cylinder 6b Rotating Cylinder 7 Leaf Feeder 8, 31 Input Port 9 Steam Pipe 10 Steam Supply Section 11 Stirring Shafts 12, 43b, 84 drive mechanism 13 discharge port 14 sink plate 16 net conveyor 17 lower fan 17a lower fan discharge port 18 upper fan 18a upper fan discharge port 20a to 20g, 83 sprocket 21, chain 22, 27 motor 23, 63 hopper 24 scattering chamber 25 Wind tunnel 26 Exhaust port 35 Kneading drum 36 Rotating shaft 37 Screw 38 Stirring blade 40 Convex strip (tag)
41 Heaven Tea Furnace 42 Drying Chamber 43, 82 Belt Conveyor 43a, 43e Belt 43c, 82b Guide 43d, 82c Tensioner 44, 89 Hot Air Generator 44a Duct 45 Inlet 45a Ejector 46 Tea Scatterer 47 Blower 48 Air Supply Duct 49 Returning unit 50 Reversing device (scraping unit)
51 Brackets 52, 62 Rolling Bearings 53 Rotating Member 54 Support Shaft 55 Blade 56 Tree Stem Separator 57 Main Body 58 Feeding Conveyor 58a Rear Chute 58b Front Chute 59 Wire Mesh 60 Rotating Shaft 61 Screw Blade 64 Bucket 65 Wind Power Sorter 66 Wind Power Sorter Main body 67 Bucket conveyor 68 Fan 69 Air guide 70 Hood 71 Upper chute 72 Stem discharge screw 73 Stem discharge port 74 Input hopper 75 Cover 76 Real tea discharge port 77 Scraping device 78 Tea powder recovery device (cyclone)
80 Drying Furnace 81 Drying Chamber 82a Belt 85 Exhaust Device 86 Charger 87 Charger 88 Scraping Device 90 Air Guide 91 Exit 92 Transport Machine M Electric Motor S Gap between Blade and Belt t, T Tea Leaf, Steam Leaf α Blade Angle of tip of

Claims (5)

An oxidase deactivating step for deactivating the oxidase of the introduced tea leaves;
The tea leaves supplied from this oxidase deactivation step, while continuously conveyed by a belt conveyor, a cooling step of cooling with cold air or warm air,
After this cooling step, a drying step consisting of the tea ceremony furnace in which the tea leaves are placed on a mesh belt conveyor and dried by hot air,
A cutting process that is processed with a rotavan or mincing machine,
After the cutting step, a CTC step and a finish drying step are provided,
The drying step includes a drying chamber,
A belt conveyor arranged in this drying chamber to convey tea leaves with a mesh belt,
A hot air generator for generating hot air into the drying chamber,
Arranged in the charging unit, and a scraping back unit for aligning the overlapping of the tea leaves scattered on the belt conveyor to a constant thickness,
The tea leaves are provided with a green tea production line using an tea tea oven that is conveyed in a state where the tea leaves are laminated in a uniform thickness over the entire surface of the upper belt, and the tea leaves that have undergone the drying process produce tea. A hybrid line that is characterized by branching to the tea production line to make tea . The tea ceremony furnace is provided with a plurality of devices arranged above the upper belt of the belt conveyor, and includes a device for reversing the front and back of the stacked tea leaves, and the reversing device and the scraping back portion are rotatable via a bracket. A cylindrical rotating member attached, a plurality of support shafts radially fixed to the outer periphery of the rotating member at equal circumferential intervals, and a member fixed to the tip of this support shaft are provided. And a gap between the upper belt and the upper belt is set to a predetermined size, the rotating member of the scraping unit rotates in a direction opposite to the traveling direction of the upper belt, and the rotating member of the reversing device is The hybrid line according to claim 1, which rotates in the traveling direction of the upper belt. The hybrid line according to claim 1, further comprising a pressing step for pressing the tea leaves between the cooling step and the drying step. The hybrid line according to claim 1, further comprising a tree stem selection step of selecting the stem portion and the leaf portion between the drying step and the cutting step. In the green tea production line, the tea leaves that have undergone the drying step are vine-cutting (tree stem separation) step in which the leaf portion and the stem portion are separated by a tree stem separator, and the stem portion and the leaf portion are selected by wind force. the hybrid lines according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in the Turkey such from the Kikuki sorting step and a finishing drying step.

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