JP7123368B2 - Continuous coagulation device for tofu material - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a continuous coagulating apparatus for tofu materials that is useful when continuously producing tofu products such as firm tofu and silken tofu.

Continuous production of tofu products requires a continuous coagulating device that continuously coagulates the tofu material mixed with soymilk and a coagulant.

A conventional continuous coagulating apparatus continuously feeds tofu material onto a conveyor belt at the upstream end of a transfer conveyor, and coagulates the tofu material while horizontally conveying it (for example, Patent Document 1). In this case, the conveyor belt is provided with a barrier plate at the upstream end and a guide member with a concave cross-section below the conveying surface in order to load the liquid tofu material to a predetermined thickness and solidify it. are folded upward along the guide member and run. The conveyor belt can be smoothly wound around the rollers and run by being deformed so as to spread flat on the front and rear rollers.

Also, a form in which a pair of guide belts are disposed facing each other on the right and left sides of a conveyor belt of a conveyer has been known for a long time (for example, Patent Document 2). Each guide belt stands vertically along the side edge of the conveyor belt and runs synchronously with the conveyor belt to form a gutter-shaped coagulation chamber on the conveyor belt.

Japanese Patent No. 4613252 JP-A-8-116903

According to such conventional technology, the conveyor for the continuous coagulation device must be a large facility with a total length of 10 meters or more in order to secure the necessary coagulation time while achieving a predetermined production capacity. A large factory building is indispensable, and there is a problem that the total investment amount tends to be excessive.

Therefore, in view of the problems of the prior art, the object of the present invention is to reduce the overall size and reduce the size by combining a cutter, a discharge conveyor, and a transfer conveyor with a rectangular cylindrical body into which tofu material is injected and solidified. To provide a continuous coagulating apparatus for tofu materials capable of solving the problem of a factory building and the associated investment amount.

The structure of the present invention for achieving such an object consists of a vertically long cylindrical body with a rectangular cross section into which tofu material is injected and solidified into a tofu tissue, a nozzle disposed at the top of the cylindrical body, and a device at the bottom of the cylindrical body. a cutter, a discharge conveyor installed under the cylinder so that it can move up and down, and a transfer conveyor arranged downstream of the discharge conveyor, and the cylinder has a cross-sectional shape equivalent to a plurality of tofu products. Then, a liquid tofu material is injected from above through a nozzle, and a sheet-like product of a predetermined thickness is sequentially cut from the lower side of the cylindrical body through a cutter, a discharge conveyor, and a transfer conveyor, and discharged onto the transfer conveyor. The gist of this is that the operation of injecting the tofu material and the operation of cutting out and discharging the product are performed simultaneously and operated continuously.

The cutter can move forward horizontally into the cylinder to cut the tofu material in the cylinder and close the lower part of the cylinder, and retreat out of the cylinder to open the lower part of the cylinder.

In addition, the discharge conveyor may have a horizontal conveying surface that conforms to the cross-sectional shape of the cylindrical body, and the conveying surface moves from a raised position directly below the cutter to an intermediate position below the cutter by a predetermined thickness of the product. After that, it may move up and down until it reaches a lowered position at the same level as the transfer surface of the transfer conveyor.

In addition, the transfer conveyor can discharge the product from the discharge conveyor and transfer it onto the transfer conveyor of the next process.

According to the configuration of this invention, the vertically long cylindrical body having a rectangular cross section is fed from above with a tofu material in which soymilk and a coagulant are mixed at a predetermined ratio, and is fed to a predetermined thickness through a cutter, a discharge conveyor, and a transfer conveyor. By sequentially cutting and discharging the product from the lower side, it is possible to substantially continuously supply the solidified product to the next process downstream of the transfer conveyor. However, in order to achieve the target production capacity of tofu products and secure the solidification time required for the liquid tofu material to solidify into a homogeneous tofu structure, the necessary amount of tofu material is always kept in the cylinder. It shall operate while storing. Therefore, the cylindrical body can solidify the tofu material and continuously supply it to the next process without any substantial horizontal movement of the tofu material. amount can be reduced.

By retracting the cutter outside the cylinder to open the lower part of the cylinder, the tofu material in the cylinder can all be lowered while being integrated. The finished lower end portion can be horizontally cut to form a sheet having the same cross-sectional shape as the cylindrical body and cut out as a product that can be discharged from the cylindrical body. The lower portion of the tofu material descending in the cylindrical body has already been coagulated into a tofu tissue, and the upper portion is in an uncoagulated liquid state.

The discharge conveyor having a conveying surface that conforms to the cross-sectional shape of the cylindrical body stably supports and holds the lower end of the tofu material on the conveying surface when the cutter is retracted outside the cylindrical body and the tofu material in the cylindrical body descends. can be done.

When the conveying surface of the discharge conveyor is at a raised position directly below the cutter, the cutter can be retracted out of the cylindrical body to smoothly transfer all the tofu material in the cylindrical body onto the conveying surface, and then lowered to an intermediate position. As a result, all of the tofu material can be lowered by a predetermined thickness when the product is discharged. Therefore, if the discharge conveyor is lowered to the intermediate position and the cutter is advanced horizontally into the cylindrical body, a product of a predetermined thickness can be cut into sheets on the discharge conveyor. , the sheet-like product on the discharge conveyor can be brought to the same level as the transfer conveyor and smoothly discharged onto the transfer conveyor.

After discharging the sheet-shaped product on the discharge conveyor, the transfer conveyor can transfer the product onto the transfer conveyor of the next process. When the product is discharged from the discharge conveyor, the transfer conveyor is synchronized with the discharge conveyor and operated at high speed to minimize the discharge time. shall be synchronized and run at low speed.

Overall configuration schematic side view Schematic front view corresponding to X arrow in FIG. Operation flow chart Operation diagram (1) Operation diagram (2) Operation diagram (3) Operation diagram (4) Operation diagram (5) Operation diagram (6) Operation diagram (7) Operation diagram (8) Operation diagram (9) Operation diagram (10) Operation diagram (11) Operation diagram (12) Operation diagram (13) Operation diagram (14)

Embodiments of the invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The continuous coagulating apparatus for tofu material comprises a vertically long cylindrical body 11 having a rectangular cross section, a cutter 12, a discharge conveyor 20 and a transfer conveyor 30 (Figs. 1 and 2). However, in FIGS. 1 and 2, the discharge conveyor 20 is shown in the lowered position and the raised position, respectively. Also, in FIG. 2, the transfer conveyor 30 is omitted.

The tubular body 11 is formed in a square tubular shape with an open top and bottom. A nozzle 13 for injecting the tofu material W3 is arranged downward on the upper part of the cylindrical body 11, and a static mixer 14 is connected upstream of the nozzle 13. As shown in FIG. The soymilk W1 from the soymilk tank 15 and the coagulant W2 from the coagulant tank 16 are supplied to the static mixer 14 via pumps P1 and P2, respectively. Therefore, the static mixer 14 uniformly mixes predetermined amounts of the soymilk W1 and the coagulant W2 from the pumps P1 and P2, and continuously injects them into the cylindrical body 11 through the nozzle 13 as a liquid tofu material W3. can. The pumps P1 and P2 are driven by variable speed motors (not shown).

The cutter 12 is provided below the cylindrical body 11 . The cutter 12 is formed in the shape of a rectangular thin plate slightly larger than the cross-sectional shape of the cylindrical body 11 . The cutter 12 can advance horizontally into the cylindrical body 11 via a driving cylinder 12a to close the lower part of the cylindrical body 11, and retreat to the outside of the cylindrical body 11 to cover the entire lower part of the cylindrical body 11. can be opened effectively.

The discharge conveyor 20 is installed under the cylinder 11 so as to be able to move up and down. The endless conveyor belt 21 of the discharge conveyor 20 is formed with a width corresponding to the long side of the cylindrical body 11, and includes a lower driving roller 22, an upper guide plate 23, intermediate guide rollers 24, 24, and a tension roller 24a. , and a horizontal conveying surface conforming to the cross-sectional shape of the cylindrical body 11 is formed at the upper end through the guide plate 23 . The discharge conveyor 20 as a whole is assembled to a lifting frame 25, and the lifting frame 25 is vertically mounted on a fixed frame 25a via linear actuators 26, 26 and guide rods 26a, 26a. The discharge conveyor 20 is driven by a variable speed motor (not shown).

The discharge conveyor 20 can raise and lower the lift frame 25 via the linear actuators 26, 26 to move it between the lowered position in FIG. 1 and the raised position in FIG. The horizontal conveying surface of the discharge conveyor 20 substantially coincides with the lower end of the cylindrical body 11 in the lowered position, and is positioned directly below the cutter 12 in the cylindrical body 11 in the raised position. However, the lower end of the cylindrical body 11 is formed with an opening 11 a with a lower opening on one long side corresponding to the downstream side of the discharge conveyor 20 .

The transfer conveyor 30 is arranged downstream of the discharge conveyor 20 . The endless conveyor belt 31 of the transfer conveyor 30 is formed to have the same effective width as the conveyor belt 21 of the discharge conveyor 20, and is hung on a lower driving roller 32, an upper guide plate 33, and intermediate guide rollers 34, 34. It is rotated to form a horizontal conveying surface at the upper end via the guide plate 33 . The transfer conveyor 30 is mounted on a fixed frame 35, and the transfer surface of the transfer conveyor 30 is level with the transfer surface of the discharge conveyor 20 in the lowered position. The transfer conveyor 30 is driven by a variable speed motor (not shown).

A transfer conveyor 41 for the next process is arranged downstream of the transfer conveyor 30 . The transport conveyor 41 is formed to have the same effective width as the discharge conveyor 20 and transfer conveyor 30 . However, the conveying conveyor 41 shown in the figure exemplifies the breaking process for making firm tofu, and is provided with a breaking device 42 for continuously breaking the curds of the tofu material W3 on the conveying conveyor 41. The transfer conveyor 41 is driven at a predetermined line speed by a variable speed motor (not shown).

The operation of such a continuous coagulating apparatus for tofu material is, for example, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. However, the flow chart of FIG. 3, as shown in FIG. On the other hand, soymilk W1 and coagulant W2 are prepared in a soymilk tank 15 and a coagulant tank 16, respectively. (FIG. 4), and start with the completion of preparation.

Therefore, first, the pumps P1 and P2 are operated to supply the soymilk W1 and the coagulant W2 at a constant rate, and the tofu material W3 is injected all at once to the vicinity of the upper end of the cylindrical body 11 via the static mixer 14, the nozzle 13 and the auxiliary pipe 13a. (Step (1) in FIG. 3, hereinafter simply indicated as (1), dashed-two dotted line in FIG. 4). At this time, the auxiliary pipe 13a prevents harmful air bubbles from being generated in the tofu material W3 injected into the cylindrical body 11. As shown in FIG. Also, the mixing ratio of the soymilk W1 and the coagulant W2 in the tofu material W3 can be set by adjusting the discharge ratio of the pumps P1 and P2. Subsequently, the tofu material W3 in the cylinder 11 waits for the solidification time to elapse (2), the auxiliary pipe 13a in the cylinder 11 is removed, and the subsequent actual work is started. However, the auxiliary pipe 13a may be removed before the coagulation time elapses.

After the tofu material W3 in the cylinder 11 has been allowed to solidify (2), the discharge conveyor 20 is raised to a raised position immediately below the cutter 12 via the linear actuators 26, 26 (FIG. 5). Also, the soymilk W1 and the coagulant W2 are supplied via the pumps P1 and P2, and the quantitative injection of the tofu material W3 is started and continuously continued thereafter (3). A cutting step for cutting out the tofu material W3 is carried out (4).

That is, when the cutter 12 is retracted outside the cylinder 11 via the cylinder 12a (FIG. 6), all of the tofu material W3 in the cylinder 11 moves onto the conveying surface of the discharge conveyor 20. As shown in FIG. Therefore, when the discharge conveyor 20 is lowered to the intermediate position via the linear actuators 26, 26 (FIG. 7), the tofu material W3 in the cylindrical body 11 descends together with the discharge conveyor 20 as one piece, so that the cylinder The cutter 12 is advanced into the cylindrical body 11 via 12a (FIG. 8) to cut the coagulated lower end of the tofu material W3 to a predetermined thickness, thereby forming a sheet-like product W4 on the conveying surface of the discharge conveyor 20. can be cut out. That is, the intermediate position of the discharge conveyor 20 is set below the cutter 12 by a predetermined thickness of the product W4.

Thereafter, when the discharge conveyor 20 is lowered to the lowered position (FIG. 9), the product W4 on the discharge conveyor 20 is lowered to the same level as the transfer conveyor 30. Therefore, if the discharge conveyor 20 and the transfer conveyor 30 are operated synchronously at high speed, the product W4 on the discharge conveyor 20 can be quickly discharged onto the transfer conveyor 30 through the opening 11a at the lower end of the cylindrical body 11. ((5), FIG. 10).

When the product W4 on the discharge conveyor 20 is discharged onto the transfer conveyor 30 ((6), FIG. 11), the speed of the transfer conveyor 30 is reduced in accordance with the line speed of the transfer conveyor 41 in the next process, and the transfer conveyor 41 at the line speed to start the transfer operation to transfer the product W4 on the transfer conveyor 30 onto the transfer conveyor 41 (7). The transport conveyor 41 continues to operate at the line speed thereafter. Also, the discharge conveyor 20 is stopped and raised to the raised position.

After that, the process proceeds to the next step of cutting out the tofu material W3 (8). That is, the cutter 12 is retracted outside the cylinder 11 (Fig. 12), and the tofu material W3 inside the cylinder 11 is transferred onto the discharge conveyor 20 at the raised position. At the same time, while continuing the transfer operation of the product W4 from the transfer conveyor 30 onto the transfer conveyor 41, the discharge conveyor 20 is lowered to an intermediate position (FIG. 13), and the cutter 12 is advanced into the cylindrical body 11 for the next step. A sheet of product W4 is cut out onto the discharge conveyor 20 (FIG. 14). After that, the discharge conveyor 20 is lowered to the lowered position (FIG. 15), the next product W4 on the discharge conveyor 20 is made to stand by at the same level as the transfer conveyor 30, and the preceding product W4 on the transfer conveyor 30 is ready for the next process. It waits to be transferred onto the transfer conveyor 41 (9).

When the trailing end of the preceding product W4 has passed through the transfer conveyor 30 and transfer conveyor 41 (9), the discharge conveyor 20 and the transfer conveyor 30 are synchronously operated at high speed, and the product W4 on the discharge conveyor 20 is transferred to the transfer conveyor. 30 ((10), FIG. 16). Therefore, when the front end of the succeeding product W4 discharged onto the transfer conveyor 30 contacts the rear end of the preceding product W4 on the transfer conveyor 41 ((11), FIG. 17), the speed of the transfer conveyor 30 is changed to The line speed is reduced to 41, and the transfer of the succeeding product W4 is started while the preceding and succeeding products W4, W4 are continued together (12), and the discharge conveyor 20 is stopped and raised to the ascending position. Thereafter, returning to step (8) and the operation of FIG. 12, the operations of steps (8) to (12) may be repeated.

When one or both of the soymilk W1 in the soymilk tank 15 and the coagulant W2 in the coagulant tank 16 are exhausted, the pumps P1 and P2 are stopped to terminate the constant injection of the tofu material W3 started in step (3). . Further, when all the tofu ingredients W3 in the cylindrical body 11 are discharged as products W4, W4, . Then, when the last product W4 has passed through all the lines on the downstream side of the transfer conveyor 41, the operation of the entire line is finished. The quantitative injection of the tofu material W3 by the pumps P1 and P2 is such that the liquid level of the tofu material W3 in the cylindrical body 11 rises during one cycle of the cutting and discharging operation of the product W4 by the cutter 12, discharge conveyor 20 and transfer conveyor 30. It is preferable to set the variation so that it is equal to or less than the predetermined thickness of the product W4. However, the tofu material W3 may be injected intermittently instead of continuously into the cylinder 11 as long as the fluctuation range of the liquid surface inside the cylinder 11 can be appropriately controlled.

An example of specifications of the continuous coagulation apparatus is as follows. That is, assuming a continuous production line of 90×100×45 mm, 400 g in weight, 400 g in weight, and 60% dehydration rate, and a continuous production line at a line speed of 450 mm/min, the cylindrical body 11 is 300 in length, width, and height. 1000 x 1500 mm, length and width thickness of product W4 300 x 1000 x 75 mm, weight 22.5 kg (equivalent to 33 sticks of firm tofu), solidification time of tofu material W3 in cylindrical body 11 is 12 minutes, storage amount is 18 of product W4. Equivalent to one sheet, the cut-out discharge cycle time of product W4 is 40 seconds/sheet.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be widely and suitably applied to continuous production of arbitrary tofu products such as firm tofu, soft tofu, silken tofu, and filled tofu, and secondary processed products thereof.

W3... Tofu material W4... Product 11... Cylindrical body 12... Cutter 20... Discharge conveyor 30... Transfer conveyor 41... Transfer conveyor

Patent applicant International Frozen Tofu Co., Ltd.

Claims (5)

A vertically long cylindrical body with a rectangular cross section for injecting tofu material and solidifying it into a tofu tissue, a nozzle arranged at the upper part of the cylindrical body, a cutter installed at the lower part of the cylindrical body, and a vertical movement under the said cylindrical body. It comprises a freely installed discharge conveyor and a transfer conveyor disposed downstream of the discharge conveyor, wherein the cylindrical body has a cross-sectional shape corresponding to a plurality of tofu products, and the liquid state is discharged through the nozzle. The tofu material is injected from above, and a sheet-like product of a predetermined thickness is sequentially cut from the lower side of the cylindrical body through the cutter, discharge conveyor, and transfer conveyor, and is discharged onto the transfer conveyor. A continuous coagulating apparatus for tofu materials, characterized in that the tofu material injecting operation and the product cutting out and discharging operation are simultaneously performed and continuously operated . The cutter advances horizontally into the tubular body to cut the tofu material in the tubular body and closes the lower part of the tubular body, and retreats out of the tubular body to open the lower part of the tubular body. The continuous coagulating apparatus for tofu material according to claim 1. 3. The apparatus for continuously solidifying tofu material according to claim 1, wherein said discharge conveyor forms a horizontal conveying surface that conforms to the cross-sectional shape of said cylindrical body. The discharge conveyor moves from a raised position where the conveying surface is directly below the cutter, through an intermediate position below the cutter by a predetermined thickness of the product, to a lowered position at the same level as the conveying surface of the transfer conveyor. 4. The continuous coagulating apparatus for tofu material according to claim 3, characterized in that it moves up and down between. 5. The apparatus for continuously solidifying tofu materials according to claim 1, wherein said transfer conveyor discharges the product from said discharge conveyor and transfers it onto a transfer conveyor for the next process.

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