JP7464909B2 - Rice hulling and sorting machine - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a rice huller and sorter, and in particular to a mechanism for uniformly supplying raw materials in the raw material supply section.

Patent documents 1 and 2 disclose conventional rice hulling and sorting machines. These will be described with reference to FIG. 6. The hulling section 100 of the rice hulling and sorting machine connects a rice hulling funnel (raw material hopper) 101 for raw rice and a hulling fan 102 via a rice supply passage 103 arranged vertically, and a flow rate control valve 104 is provided near the connection between the rice hulling funnel 101 and the rice supply passage 103. The flow rate control valve 104 is opened and closed to adjust the amount of rice supplied, and rice according to the valve opening is supplied through the rice supply passage 103 to the vicinity of the center of the hulling fan 102 of the impeller-type hulling device at the bottom.

In this type of rice huller and sorter 100, the rice supply path 103 is arranged vertically from the rice husking funnel 101 to the husking fan 102, so the rice is supplied to the husking fan 102 by natural flow. When the raw material reaches the husking fan 102, a large amount of the raw material flows near the center of the flow path of the rice supply path 103, while a slightly smaller amount of raw material flows near the wall surface of the flow path of the rice supply path 103 due to frictional resistance.

As a result, the liner member 105 attached to the inner surface of the casing of the dehulling fan 102 (Figures 6(a) and 6(b)) became unevenly worn, with more wear near the center of the liner member 105 and less wear near both ends (Figure 6(c)), and it was necessary to replace the liner member 105 before it was evenly worn down. A liner member 105 in such an unevenly worn state did not improve the processing capacity or dehulling rate, and there were also problems with durability.

JP 2001-252577 A JP 2012-148224 A

In consideration of the above problems, the technical objective of the present invention is to provide a raw material supply section that makes the flow of raw material in the rice supply passage uniform and prevents uneven wear on the components that cause the husking action (liner members and rubber rolls).

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a rice hulling and sorting machine equipped with a rice supply chute that supplies rice from the funnel mouth of a rice hopper to a husking section below, and in order to evenly supply rice to the members that generate the husking action of the husking section, the rice supply chute is provided with a plurality of partition walls in the flow path width direction to form a plurality of equal distribution flow paths ,
A vibrating supply mechanism consisting of a vibrating device and a vibrating trough is interposed between the rice hopper and the rice supply chute, and a distribution partition plate is provided on the vibrating trough to form a plurality of conveying paths corresponding to the plurality of equal distribution flow paths of the rice supply chute .

According to the invention described in claim 2, a rice supply shutter that can adjust the opening of the funnel mouth of the rice hopper is provided at the funnel mouth of the rice hopper.

According to a third aspect of the present invention , the vibrating trough of the vibration supply mechanism is provided with a flow rate adjusting plate capable of adjusting the amount of material conveyed on the vibrating trough .

According to the present invention, there is provided a rice husking and sorting machine having a rice supply chute that supplies rice from the funnel mouth of a rice hopper to a husking section below, and the rice supply chute is provided with a plurality of partition walls in the flow path width direction to form a plurality of equal distribution flow paths ,
A vibrating supply mechanism consisting of a vibrating device and a vibrating trough is interposed between the rice hopper and the rice supply chute, and a distribution partition plate is provided on the vibrating trough to form multiple conveying paths corresponding to the multiple equal distribution flow paths of the rice supply chute.The rice flows evenly into each of the multiple equal distribution flow paths along the width direction of the rice supply chute, and at the lower end of the rice supply chute, the rice is transported evenly from the multiple equal distribution flow paths toward the center of the husking fan.

The rice grains come into contact with the rotating impeller and collide with the liner member attached to the inner surface of the husking fan case, destroying the husks and splitting them to expose the brown rice, which then undergoes husking. In this process, compared to conventional devices, the liner member (e.g., a consumable member made of resin), which is the component that causes the husking action, does not wear unevenly because the rice grains collide with it evenly across the width. This in turn improves the durability of the liner member, improving processing capacity and husking rate.

1 is a side cross-sectional view showing the entire rice huller and sorter (vertical impeller type) of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing the internal structure of the rice supply chute (vertical impeller type). FIG. 13 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing the internal structure of another embodiment of the rice supply chute (vertical impeller type). 13 is a schematic explanatory diagram showing the internal structure of another embodiment of the rice supply chute (horizontal impeller type). FIG. This is a side cross-sectional view of an embodiment in which an optical sorting system is used as the sorting section of the rice huller and sorter (vertical impeller type) of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a rice grain supply chute of a conventional rice huller and sorter (vertical impeller type).

A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 is a side cross-sectional view showing the entire rice huller and sorter of the present invention. The main parts of the rice huller and sorter 1 shown in Figure 1 are an impact type (also called an impeller type) husking section 2, a wind sorting section 3 that winds the husked rice, and a sorting section 4 that sorts the husked rice into husks and brown rice after wind sorting.

The dehusking section 2 is disposed at a side end of a horizontally long rectangular housing 5, the air sorting section 3 is disposed at approximately the center of the housing 5 adjacent to the dehusking section 2, and the sorting section 4 is disposed at a side end of the housing 5 opposite the dehusking section 2. In FIG. 1, the dehusking section 2 is disposed on the left side of the housing 5, and the sorting section 4 is disposed on the right side of the housing 5.

The husking section 2 is provided with a rice hopper 6 for feeding rice. A funnel opening 70 at the bottom of the rice hopper 6 is provided with a rice supply shutter 71 for adjusting the opening degree or opening and closing the funnel opening 70. The funnel opening 70 is also provided with a rice return flow path 72 for returning rice sorted in the sorting section 4 for re-husking. The funnel opening 70 is also provided with a rice supply chute 73 for supplying rice downward to the husking section 2.

The structure of the rice supply chute 73 will be described with reference to Figure 2. The rice supply chute 73 is provided with a number of partition walls 74 in the width direction of the flow path (symbol W in Figure 2(b)) between the funnel mouth 70 and the husking section 2. The spaces partitioned by the partition walls 74 form equal distribution flow paths 75, and a number of equal distribution flow paths 75 are formed.

Returning to FIG. 1, the structure of the dehusking section 2 will be described in detail. The lower end of the rice supply chute 73 is connected and arranged so that the center of the dehusking fan case 7 is located therein. The dehusking fan 8 is housed in this dehusking fan case 7. A horizontal shaft 9 is supported in the dehusking fan case 7 via a bearing (not shown), and the dehusking fan 8 is fixed to the horizontal shaft 9. The dehusking fan 8 is composed of a pair of rotating disks 10 that rotate around the horizontal shaft 9, and a number of impellers 11 that are sandwiched between the rotating disks 10, 10 and fixedly arranged radially around the horizontal shaft 9. Rice can be transported to the dehusking fan case 7 toward the center of the dehusking fan 8 through the rice supply chute 73. The rice transported to the center of the dehusking fan 8 comes into contact with the rotating impeller 11 and collides with a liner member 12 (a member that generates the dehusking action. It is made of resin such as urethane rubber, and is a consumable part that is replaced when worn out) attached to the inner surface of the dehusking fan case 7. This impact destroys the husk, which splits open and exposes the brown rice, which then undergoes husking.

With the above configuration, when raw rice is fed from the rice hopper 6, the amount of rice supplied is adjusted by opening and closing the rice supply shutter 71, and the amount of rice supplied according to the opening of the shutter 71 is supplied to the rice supply chute 73. At this time, rice flows evenly into each of the multiple equal distribution channels 75... along the width direction of the rice supply chute 73, and at the lower end of the rice supply chute 73, rice is transported evenly from the multiple equal distribution channels 75... toward the center of the husking fan 8.

The rice grains come into contact with the rotating impeller 11 and collide with the liner member 12 attached to the inner surface of the husking fan case 7, destroying the husks and splitting them to expose the brown rice, which then undergoes husking. At this time, the rice grains are evenly supplied to the center of the husking fan 8 from multiple equal distribution channels 75... and collide evenly across the width of the liner member 12. This means that, compared to conventional devices in which no distribution channels are provided in the rice supply chute 73, uneven wear of the liner member 12 as shown in Figure 6(c) does not occur.

The partition walls 74 do not need to extend all the way to the bottom of the rice supply chute 73. As shown in FIG. 2(c), it is preferable to position the partition walls 74 at a position above the bottom of the rice supply chute 73. In other words, rice is not supplied on the extension of the partition walls 74, so this is suitable for preventing uneven wear between the parts of the liner member 12 where rice collides and the parts where it does not.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing the internal structure of another embodiment of the rice supply chute 73. The rice supply chute 73 shown in Figure 3 is provided with a vibrating supply mechanism 80 to evenly supply rice from the rice hopper 6 to multiple equal distribution channels 75... along the width direction of the rice supply chute 73. This vibrating supply mechanism 80 is interposed between the rice hopper 6 and the rice supply chute 73. The vibrating supply mechanism 80 is composed of a vibrating device 81 and a vibrating trough 82. In addition, a distribution partition plate 83... and a flow rate adjustment plate 84 are provided on the vibrating trough 82, and multiple conveying paths 85... corresponding to the multiple equal distribution channels 75 of the rice supply chute 73 are provided.

With the above configuration, when raw rice is fed from the rice hopper 6, the supply amount of rice is adjusted by opening and closing the rice supply shutter 71, and the rice according to the opening degree of the shutter 71 is supplied onto the vibration trough 82 of the vibration supply mechanism 80. In the conveying path 85 of the vibrating trough 82, the grains are separated by the vibration device 81 to form a thin layer, and are evenly supplied to the equal distribution flow path 75 of the rice supply chute 73.

At the bottom end of the rice supply chute 73, rice grains are evenly transported from multiple equal distribution channels 75 toward the center of the husking fan 8. The rice grains come into contact with the rotating impeller 11 and collide with the liner member 12 attached to the inner surface of the husking fan case 7, destroying the husks and splitting them to expose the brown rice, which is then husked. At this time, the rice grains are evenly supplied to the center of the husking fan 8 from multiple equal distribution channels 75. Compared to conventional devices in which the rice supply chute 73 does not have distribution channels, the liner member 12 does not wear unevenly as shown in Figure 6 (c).

Figure 4 shows another embodiment in which a vertical shaft 9a is rotatably mounted on the dehusking fan case 7 via a bearing (not shown), and a dehusking fan 8a is fixed to the vertical shaft. The embodiment shown in Figure 4 can also be applied to the rice supply chute 73 as shown in Figure 2 (shown in Figure 4(a)) and the rice supply chute 73 as shown in Figure 3 (shown in Figure 4(b)).

The partition walls 74 do not need to extend all the way to the bottom of the rice supply chute 73. As shown in FIG. 4(c), it is preferable to position the partition walls 74 at a position above the bottom of the rice supply chute 73. In other words, rice is not supplied on the extension of the partition walls 74, so this is suitable for preventing uneven wear between the parts of the liner member 12 where rice collides and the parts where it does not.

After being supplied to the dehusking section 2, the dehusked brown rice, broken rice husks and a small amount of unhusked rice grains are transported in the tangential direction of the dehusking fan case 7 by the blowing action of the rotating impeller 11, and are conveyed to the wind sorting section 3 through the grain sending tube 13 (see Figure 1) that is connected to the tangential direction.

The wind sorting section 3 (see Figure 1) is located approximately in the center of the housing and is used to sort and remove light-weight foreign matter such as broken rice husks after husking. The wind sorting section 3 is mainly composed of a cyclone separation section 14 that separates the air pressure flow sent from the husking section 2 into solid and gas, a wind sorting path 15 that is located below the cyclone separation section 14 and winds the dehusked mixture from which the airflow has been separated as it flows down onto multiple sieve shelves, and an exhaust fan 16 installed on the leeward side of the wind sorting path 15.

The cyclone separation section 14 is connected to the grain sending tube 13 of the dehulling section 2. The dehulled mixture containing the airflow is subjected to the combined force of gravity and centrifugal force as a settling force, and the solid dehulled mixture is separated from the airflow and reaches the bottom. Meanwhile, the separated pressurized airflow is discharged outside the cyclone separation section 14. A guide pipe 17 is connected to the cyclone separation section 14, and a flow rate control valve 18 is provided midway through the guide pipe 17. The flow rate of the airflow discharged from the cyclone separation section 14 can be adjusted by adjusting this flow rate control valve 18.

The winnowing path 15 (see FIG. 1) located below the cyclone separation section 14 is formed by arranging multiple sieve shelves in a cascade shape (like a small waterfall). The winnowing path 15 also includes an air passage 21, a secondary air intake 22, a fan-side air passage 23, and a transfer path 24. The secondary air intake 22 may be provided with a shutter that allows the opening area to be adjusted. This allows the amount of secondary air taken in to be adjusted. Reference numeral 26 denotes a lifting machine that transfers high-density refined products such as brown rice and unhulled rice after winnowing to the sorting section 4 in the next process. The transfer path 24 is connected to the starting end of the lifting machine 26, and the sorting section 4 is connected to the terminal end of the lifting machine 26. For example, a lifting slewer or a lifting conveyor using a bucket belt can be used as the lifting machine 26.

The exhaust fan 16 installed on the leeward side of the winnowing path 15 is equipped with many fan blades and has a suction port in the center. The aforementioned fan side air duct 23 is connected to the suction port. The midway part of this fan side air duct 23 is connected to the induction pipe 17 connected to the cyclone separation section 14. The fan side air duct 23 and the induction pipe 17 are collected and connected to the suction port 31. As a result, the compressed air flow separated from the cyclone separation section 14 is guided to the fan side air duct 23 through the induction pipe 17. Therefore, fine impurities and dust such as crushed rice husks are not scattered around. In other words, by collecting the fan side air duct 23 and the induction pipe 17, the large rice husks transported in the fan side air duct 23 and the fine impurities and dust transported in the induction pipe 17 are discharged from the exhaust fan 16 to the outside of the machine. There is no need to provide a separate dedicated exhaust fan for the induction pipe 17. The exhaust fan 16 alone can discharge all the rice husks and fine impurities outside the machine, which has the advantage of not worsening the environment or atmosphere around the rice huller and sorter 1. A dust exhaust pipe 27 is provided on the wind outlet side of the exhaust fan 16.

The sorting section 4, which separates the ground rice after wind sorting into husks and brown rice, can adopt a rocking sorting system (see Figure 1). The mixed rice consisting of husks and brown rice that has been wind sorted by the wind sorting section 3 is lifted by the lifter 26 and stored in the temporary storage section 32 before being supplied to the rocking sorting section 4.

The oscillating sorting section 4 includes an oscillating mechanism (not shown), a rectangular sorting unit 33, and multiple sorting plates 34. The sorting plates 34 are inclined in the oscillating direction (left-right direction in FIG. 1) and in the discharge side direction (front side direction in FIG. 1). In the discharge side direction, a brown rice partition plate 35 is movably provided on the upper side of the inclination in the oscillating direction, and a rice husk partition plate 36 is movably provided on the lower side of the inclination in the oscillating direction.

The area on the lower side of the swaying direction from the paddy partition plate 36 is the paddy area, the area on the upper side of the swaying direction from the paddy partition plate 36 and on the lower side of the husked rice partition plate 35 is the mixed rice area, and the area on the upper side of the swaying direction from the husked rice partition plate 35 is the husked rice area. Below the paddy area, a paddy collection gutter 37 is provided. This paddy collection gutter 37 is piped so that it is returned to the paddy hopper 6 of the husking section 2. Below the mixed rice area, a mixed rice receiving gutter 38 is provided. A connecting gutter 39 that connects to the mixed rice lifter 26 is connected to the lower part of this mixed rice receiving gutter 38. In addition, a brown rice receiving gutter 40 and an external discharge gutter 41 that discharges brown rice outside the machine are connected to the upper part of the swaying direction of the mixed rice receiving gutter 38. In addition, a switching valve 42 is installed above the external discharge gutter 41 to switch between discharging brown rice outside the machine and circulating it inside the machine. The external discharge gutter 41 is connected to a refined product discharge slot 43 for discharging refined products.

When a mixture of brown rice and unhulled rice is supplied onto the sorting plate 34 of the oscillating sorting section 4, it is discharged from the front side of the sorting plate 34 separately into unhulled rice, mixed rice of unhulled rice and brown rice, and brown rice. The unhulled rice discharged into the unhulled rice area on the lower slope of the unhulled rice partition plate 36 is re-threshed into the hulling section 2 through the unhulled rice collection trough 37 and the unhulled rice hopper 6 for re-threshing. The mixed rice discharged into the mixed rice area on the upper slope side of the unhulled rice partition plate 36 and the lower slope side of the unhulled rice partition plate 35 is not completely sorted, so it is guided through the mixed rice receiving trough 38 and the connecting trough 39 to the mixed rice lifter 26 and is supplied to the sorting plate 34 again. The brown rice discharged into the brown rice area on the upper side of the incline from the brown rice partition plate 35 is discharged outside the machine through the brown rice receiving trough 40 and the external discharge trough 41 from the refined product discharge slot 43, and can be collected by a bag receiver or the like.

In addition to this, in the present invention, an optical sorting system can also be used as the sorting section 4 that separates the ground rice after winnowing into husks and brown rice (see Figure 5).

Figure 5 shows an optical rice discriminator 50 instead of the oscillating sorting section 4 described above. The rice discriminator 50 is equipped with a cyclone hopper 51 on the top of the machine body that receives the mixed rice consisting of rice and brown rice discharged from the wind sorting section 3, a vibration supply mechanism consisting of a vibration device 52 and a vibration trough 53, and a flow-down supply mechanism consisting of an inclined flow-down trough 54.

The lower part of the unhulled/brown rice discriminator 50 is equipped with optical inspection units 55, 55 arranged opposite the falling trajectory of the ground rice at the lower end of the downflow trough 54, and an ejector unit 56 that discriminates between brown rice and unhulled rice based on the inspection results of the optical inspection units 55, 55 and removes only the unhulled rice from the falling trajectory.

Below the ejector section 56, there is provided a brown rice collection hopper 57 that collects brown rice below the falling trajectory, and a rice husk recovery hopper 58 that recovers rice husks that have been removed from the falling trajectory. Furthermore, the brown rice collection hopper 57 is provided with a refined product discharge thrower 59 equipped with a conveying mechanism that discharges brown rice outside the machine, and the rice husk recovery hopper 58 is provided with a rice husk discharge section 60 that can transfer the rice husks to the husking section 2 for rehusking. The rice husk discharge section 60 may be a lifter (not shown) that can return the rice husks to the husking section 2.

The optical inspection units 55, 55 can be provided with a full-color camera on one side (the front side) and a near-infrared camera on the other side (the rear side). A background is provided on either side of the flow trajectory of the optical axis of each camera.

Each camera is also equipped with multiple lighting means for illuminating the object to be inspected.

It is advisable to appropriately use cameras and lighting means that have wavelength ranges and light sensitivity specific to detecting unhulled rice, and those that have wavelength ranges and light sensitivity specific to detecting brown rice, and to adopt specifications that enable identification and discrimination between unhulled rice and brown rice. For example, it is advisable to repeat verification experiments that enable identification of unhulled rice, brown rice, and other foreign matter, and determine the specifications of the parts to ensure reproducibility.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the funnel mouth 70 of the rice hopper 6 is provided with a rice supply chute 73 that supplies rice grains downward to the husking section 2, and multiple partition walls 74... are provided in the flow path width direction of the rice supply chute 73 to form multiple equal distribution flow paths 75... so that rice grains flow in evenly, and at the lower end of the rice supply chute 73, rice grains are transported evenly from the multiple equal distribution flow paths 75... toward the center of the husking fan 8.

The rice grains come into contact with the rotating impeller 11 and collide with the liner member 12 attached to the inner surface of the husking fan case 7, destroying the husks and splitting them to expose the brown rice, which is then husked. At this time, the rice grains are evenly supplied to the center of the husking fan 8 from multiple equal distribution channels 75..., so compared to conventional devices in which the rice supply chute 73 does not have distribution channels, uneven wear of the liner member 12 as shown in Figure 6(c) does not occur.

The present invention can be applied to a rice husker and sorter. In this embodiment, the member that produces the husking action of the husking section is the lining (liner) member of an impact type (also called impeller type) husker. However, this is not limited to this, and the member that produces the husking action may also be the rubber roll of a roll type husker. In addition, the sorting section may be a Mankoku type consisting of an upper screen, a middle screen, and a lower screen other than that of this embodiment, or a rotary sorting type equipped with a cylindrical sieve screen.

1 Rice husker and sorter 2 Husking section 3 Wind sorting section 4 Sorting section 5 Housing 6 Rice hopper 7 Husking fan case 8 Husking fan 9 Horizontal shaft 10 Rotating disk 11 Impeller 12 Liner member 13 Grain feeder 14 Cyclone separation section 15 Wind sorting path 16 Exhaust fan 17 Guide pipe 18 Flow rate control valve 19 Machine frame 20 Sieve shelf 21 Air passage 22 Secondary air intake 23 Fan side air passage 24 Transport path 25 Shutter 26 Grain lifter 27 Dust discharge bin 28 Opening adjustment shutter 29 Fan casing 30 Fan blade 31 Suction port 32 Temporary storage section 33 Sorting unit 34 Sorting plate 35 Brown rice partition plate 36 Rice partition plate 37 Rice collection trough 38 Mixed rice receiving trough 39 Connecting trough 40 Brown rice receiving trough 41 External discharge gutter 42 Switching valve 43 Polished product discharge thrower 50 Rice/brown rice discriminator 51 Cyclone hopper 52 Vibration device 53 Vibration trough 54 Flow down gutter 55 Optical inspection section 56 Ejector section 57 Brown rice collection hopper 58 Rice recovery hopper 59 Polished product discharge thrower 60 Rice discharge section 61 Vibration device 62 Vibration trough 63 Vibration supply mechanism 70 Funnel mouth 71 Rice supply shutter 72 Rice return flow path 73 Rice supply chute 74 Partition wall 75 Even distribution flow path 80 Vibration supply mechanism 81 Vibration device 82 Vibration trough 83 Distribution partition plate 84 Flow rate adjustment plate 85 Conveying path 100 Hulling section 101 Rice insertion funnel 102 Hulling fan 103 Rice supply path 104 Flow rate adjustment valve 105 Liner member

Claims (3)

A rice husking and sorting machine equipped with a rice supply chute that supplies rice from a funnel mouth of a rice hopper to a husking section below,
In order to uniformly supply rice to the member that generates the rice husking action of the rice husking section, the rice husking chute is provided with a plurality of partition walls in the flow path width direction to form a plurality of uniform distribution flow paths ;
A rice hulling and sorting machine characterized in that a vibrating supply mechanism consisting of a vibrating device and a vibrating trough is interposed between the rice hopper and the rice supply chute, and a distribution partition plate is provided on the vibrating trough, forming a plurality of conveying paths corresponding to the plurality of equal distribution flow paths of the rice supply chute by the distribution partition plate . The rice huller and sorter according to claim 1, wherein the funnel mouth of the rice hopper is provided with a rice supply shutter capable of adjusting the opening degree of the funnel mouth. 3. The rice huller and sorter according to claim 1 , wherein the vibrating trough of the vibrating supply mechanism is provided with a flow rate adjusting plate capable of adjusting the amount of rice conveyed on the vibrating trough .

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