JPH0223834A - Tampering apparatus for cacao butter and similar fat material, especially chocolate material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide stabilized beta crystal at the outlet of a tempering device for prepared materials by specifying the ratio of added areas between the heat exchange plane of a heating stage and all the heat exchange planes of cooling and heating stages. CONSTITUTION: A cooling stage 43 is formed by a cooling step 6 surrounding the lower area of a rotary driving shaft 1, and a heating step 45 is provided on an upper heating stage 44. The heat exchange plane of the heating stage is set to 40% at least, mainly, to 50% in the added areas of all the heat exchange planes of cooling and heating stages, and the temperature of a tempering medium or the temperature on the heat exchange plane of the heating stage is kept constant higher than the melting temperature of instable crystal but lower than the melting temperature of stable beta crystal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises a material chamber and at least one cooling stage equipped with a mixing/stirring member in the material chamber, and the material is cooled and circulated on the heat exchange surface of the cooling stage by heat exchange. Cocoa butter and similar oil and fat materials are cooled by a cooling medium connected to a tempering circuit and then introduced into a heating stage, where this material is warmed again by heat exchange on the heat exchange surface of the heating stage by a tempering medium connected to a tempering circuit. , in particular relates to a device for tempering chocolate materials.

A tempering device such as L is described in West German Patent No. 2536063.
It is known from the publication no. The cooling stages used therein include cooling chips having cooled covers and floors that overlap each other and are connected to cooling circuits. In the material chamber of the cooling stage, there is a scraper as a mixing/stirring member. These cooling stages are followed by heating stages surrounding the chamber into which the material enters. The cylindrical outer surface of this chamber is formed as a heat exchange surface of the heating stage and is connected to a tempering circuit with a tempering medium.

The heat exchange surface of the heating stage is made considerably smaller than the heat exchange surface of the cooling stage, so that about 10% of the total heat exchange surface is located in the heating stage. No mixing/stirring member is installed in the material chamber of the heating stage.

This material chamber is rather used for material homogenization and for distributing materials equipped with pre-formed crystals. In this case, an increase in the temperature of the material occurs. The time the heating stage spends in the material chamber is designed so that the less soluble unstable crystals have time and opportunity to dissolve and convert to more soluble crystalline forms. The temperature of the tempering medium of the tempering circuit is controlled here as a function of the discharge temperature of the material of the heating stage. This temperature is measured by a temperature detector located on the heating stage. During this control process, a large temperature rise occurs in the temperature of the tempering medium in the tempering circuit.

This temperature increase does not necessarily have a desirable effect on the crystalline form of the heating stage material. High final temperatures in some places not only melt unstable beta crystals, but also stable beta crystals. This makes it disadvantageous for the material to be made into a chocolate bar product, for example, where the chocolate is deposited, requiring longer solidification times to reach the solid state and/or solidification of the processed product only at relatively low temperatures. occurs. This leads to other well-known drawbacks such as temperature sensitivity of the product, short shelf life, gray film formation and soft cracks. In order to prevent some of these drawbacks, it is known to choose a relatively low discharge temperature of the product from the heating stage, i.e. to process the tempering medium in the tempering circuit at a relatively low temperature. . However, this is also undesirable since it deteriorates the workability of the material with the tempering device. Some of the unstable crystals are relatively thick.

Conventional tempering devices have a cooling stage and a heating stage, but generally these devices are used to first cool a relatively warm material and then reheat it in a heating stage. In this case, the configuration of the cooling stage will be particularly modified. It is found that it occupies a large amount of space relative to the cooling stage and is an expensive construction compared to the heating stage. That is, the heat exchange surface of the cooling stage is partially formed to be quite large, but in any case it is larger than the heat exchange surface of the heating stage. Additional stirring and mixing elements are often installed in the material chamber of the cooling stage. In contrast, a heating stage generally has only one closed material chamber.

There may be multiple material chambers in the heating stage, which stage is equipped with stirring and mixing equipment.

It is also required for post-processing of the material that the temperature of the material is not too high. For this reason, it has been proposed that the heating stage be made much smaller than the cooling stage. In this field of tempering machines, machines of the type in which the heating stage is designed to be larger and smaller than the cooling stage have become established and widespread. During cooling, a relatively large number of unstable crystals are often formed, which melt again on subsequent heating to a relatively high temperature. In this case, usually the stabilized crystals of the cooling stage are not sufficiently formed as required for the rapid and controlled solidification of the chocolate material after processing. In order to solidify the material precisely at the required rate,
The amount of unstable crystals remaining must be very small. If such a material is cooled very rapidly after processing and attempted to solidify even faster at lower temperatures and higher air velocities, a large number of unstable crystals will form. The result is a soft chocolate with no grains. From these points of view, the heat exchange surface of the heating stage is usually chosen to be much smaller than the heat exchange surface of the cooling stage.

It is known that cholate materials cannot be processed directly from the hot state. The reason is that the cocoa butter in the material is very slow to form solidification nuclei. Therefore, coagulation takes place very slowly. The pre-crystallization carried out in the tempering apparatus significantly reduces the solidification time.

Furthermore, cocoa butter is diverse. In other words, it solidifies in various crystal forms, and only the crystals with a high degree of melting are stable overnight. Only this stable crystalline form exhibits good gloss, durability and good formability due to shrinkage.

Besides, cocoa butter is in a simple state. That is, the various crystal forms change automatically, but only in the -force direction, in other words, from a low melting to a high melting crystal form. The conversion of the crystals of chocolate products increases their ability to spread oil onto the surface of the product.

Cocoa butter, upon final cooling, i.e. when solidifying into a chocolate product, tends to solidify into the same crystalline form as that of the seed crystals. However, in this case, it is necessary to pay attention to the heat exchange rate of the crystal. That is, it is necessary not to cool the material too rapidly until it solidifies. All tempering devices are
- Used for pre-crystallization in boat fishing, in which a certain amount of fats and oils contained in a still liquid material is solidified into stable beta crystals of high melting degree. In that case, a large number of small crystal aggregates must be ideally distributed in the material.

The object of the invention is to provide a tempering device of the type mentioned at the beginning, in which the material produced has beta crystals that are almost stable at the exit of the tempering device, and whose number is not reduced in the heating stage. It is in. In addition, a heating stage can reduce the temperature difference and provide enough time to melt unstable crystalline forms.

The above object has been achieved by the present invention as follows. That is, in order to keep the heat exchange surface of the heating stage at a constant and controlled temperature, the heat exchange surface of the heating stage covers at least 4 of the total heat exchange surfaces of the cooling stage and the heating stage.
0%, mainly by 50%. Therefore, the heat exchange surface of the heating stage is formed to have approximately the same size as the heat exchange surface of the heating stage. That is, the heating stage equipped with the individual components occupies approximately the same spatial location as the cooling stage. Therefore, the heating stage is much larger and more powerful than that of conventional devices. In this tempering device, the temperature at the outlet of the tempered material is not maintained constant in the heating stage, but the temperature of the tempering medium or the temperature of the heat exchange surface of the heating stage is maintained constant. The above temperature, maintained constant, is between about 31°5°C and 33°C, which is above the melting temperature of unstable crystals and below the melting temperature of stable beta crystals.

Depending on the prescribed and designed charge load for the tempering device, the ratio of the heat exchange surface of the heating stage to the heat exchange surface of the cooling stage is somewhat different.

Approximately equal or nearly identical shapes are valid in all cases.

The main advantages of this new tempering device are:

It means that the material to be created is 31.5 at the exit of the heating stage.
°C to 32.5 °C, at the point where this temperature is about 2 °C higher than in conventional tempering equipment. This results in a low material viscosity, making the produced material free-flowing and easy to process. If you cover something, such as covering chocolate, cutlets and bars, you will save on materials. Despite the high temperature, the material solidifies quickly because it has a large amount of stable beta crystal components. This material makes the product last longer, is particularly less susceptible to the formation of gray frost, and is more thermally stable. Excellent shrinkage, which is important during the molding process, can be achieved. This material has excellent luster in the solidified form and provides brittle cracks, such as those attempted in -S.

On the other hand, existing tempering devices are equipped with a material temperature detector at the exit of the heating stage, and the temperature of the tempering medium is controlled in accordance with this temperature detector.

The method described in F is not adopted in this invention. On the contrary, the temperature of the tempering medium is measured by a temperature detector, and the temperature of the tempering medium is controlled to be constant using a temperature control device. Due to the relatively large heat exchange surface of the heating stage, the material to be tempered is brought to a constant temperature at the end of the heating stage. The absolute value of this temperature is no longer important. Rather, the key is to use a large surface area for the heating stage so that the temperature difference is small (so that the stable beta crystals contained in the material are not destroyed, and, on the contrary, the unstable crystal forms are dissolved. If the final product falling onto it is of high quality, a stable heta-crystalline content is important in the final part of the heating stage in any case, i.e. to maintain a constant temperature of the tempering medium and thus of the heat exchange surfaces of the heating stage. The heating stage is equipped with a temperature sensor on the side of the tempering medium to maintain the temperature.

The tempering circulation path of the heating stage is formed to have a spiral flow. In this case, the mixing device, which operates in the material chamber of the heating stage, generates a strong mixing and vortex of the material.
A stirring member is provided.

Using a swirling flow on the tempering medium side of the heating stage,
Excellent heat transfer is possible even when the temperature difference is small. The vortices created in this material initiate very strong crystal growth, and when the material leaves the cooling stage, there are still unstable crystals, but there are also enough stable crystals (4-5%) that After passing through the heating stages with sufficient numeric spacing, there are no or only a few unstable crystals remaining in the material. By vigorously mixing the materials and creating a vortex, a high concentration of stabilized heta crystals can also be obtained. Cooling of the tempered material following processing occurs faster than in the conventional case.

The reason is that stable crystals with high solubility solidify faster than crystals with low solubility.

A cooling circuit forming a spiral flow may also be formed in the cooling stage. Even if the cooling stage is also affected by fairly large temperature differences, the strong use of the heat exchange surface can be demonstrated, so that the overall structural volume of the tempering device can be constructed correspondingly small, and in any case is not as large as before.

The cooling stage and the heating stage can be formed directly or identically. Both the material chamber of the cooling stage and also the material chamber of the heating stage can be equipped with similar or similarly configured mixing and stirring elements. The only important point is that
The purpose is to provide two independent circulation paths, a cooling circulation path and a tempering circulation path.

The present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to preferred embodiments.

The device shown in FIG.
The structure is basically the same as the device shown in FIG. 1 of Publication No. 6189.9). This application specifically describes the configuration of the mixing/stirring member. For clarity, these components are not shown again. In the lower region, the drive shaft 1 is again surrounded by a cooling step 6 . These cooling steps together form a cooling stage 43, on top of which is a heating stage. A further storage chamber 7 can be installed following the heating stage 44, but in many cases this is not necessary. The heating stage 44 includes a heating step 45 . These steps are cooling step 6
It differs in principle not only in its structure but also in its operating method as follows. The point is that the material cools down in the area of the cooling stage 43, but warms up again in the area of the heating stage 44. In every heating step 45 a material chamber 46 is formed, again with leak openings 14 and 16 arranged internally or externally. The structure of the heating step 45 does not differ from the cooling step 6. That is, the heating step 45 also has a heating chamber 47 and a heat exchange surface 48, and the material is heated in these chambers. The stirring equipment is not drawn to improve visibility. This stirring device is continuously driven in the material chamber 46. The material to be treated is communicated to the lowermost material chamber 8 via a conduit 13 and an internal leakage opening 16 by means of a pump (not shown). The material is then agitated by a stirring device to a larger diameter.

As a result, the material is introduced into the next chamber via the externally installed leak opening 14. In this way, the material is transported by a pump (not shown), passes through all the material chambers 8 of the cooling stage 43, and reaches the lowest material chamber 46 of the heating stage 44 connected thereto. The material is thus rewarmed.

The various circulation paths are formed and arranged as follows. That is, it reaches the injection valve 51 via the conduit 28 equipped with a retrofilter 49 and a manual gate valve 50, so that the cooling circuit of the cooling stage 43 is filled. In this cooling circuit there is a mixing storage tank 20. One conduit 21 is connected to the pump 2 from this storage tank.
Leads to 2. A conduit 23 leads from this pump to the cooling chamber 9 of the uppermost step 6 of the cooling stage 43. Via conduit 26, cooling water returns from the lowermost cooling chamber 9 to the mixing reservoir 20. A conduit 52 leading from the conduit 28 to the conduit 21 is provided with a control valve 29 formed as a pressure reducing valve, a solenoid valve 30, and a manual gate valve 53. If cooling water is needed from a reserve reservoir to reduce the temperature of the circulating water in the cooling stage 43, it can be added to the circuit. Drain valves 54 and 55 are arranged in this first circulation path. Behind the pump 22 is a reverse valve 5.
6 and a manometer 57 are installed. A heating device 58 is arranged in the mixing reservoir 20, which can be driven by a heat detector 59 via a contact thermometer 60, so that the chocolate material is kept only in liquid form in the device, especially for night-time heating.
Used at no point in the product. Via a temperature sensor 41 that measures the temperature of the material at the end of the cooling stage 43, the temperature of the cooling circuit is regulated or controlled by a temperature controller 42 so that the amount of water circulated is kept constant at all times; However, slight temperature control is provided such that the material reaches the desired set low temperature at the end of the cooling stage 43. The solenoid valve 30 is operated by the temperature controller 42 .

The area of the cooling stage 43 is equipped with a safety pressure switch 61. The conduit 13 through which the warm material passes may be equipped with a temperature detector 62 and an indicator 63 for the material introduction temperature.

The second circuit, which is a tempering circuit, is basically constructed in the same way as the first circuit, but here it branches off from the conduit 23, which only heats the material inside the heating stage 44. The conduit 64 has a flow control valve 65, a solenoid valve 66 and a manual gate valve 67, so that the warm water thus reaches the mixing tank 68 of the tempering circuit from the cooling circuit.

From there, conduit 69 reaches pump 70 via check valve 1 and manometer 72 in conduit 73 to heating stage 4.
4 is introduced into the highest stage heating chamber 47.

Again, the tempering medium, water, is added back through the heating step 45 and via conduit 74 to the mixing reservoir 6.
Returned to 8. This mixing tank 68 is equipped with a heating device 75. This device is driven by a temperature sensor 76 and a contact thermometer 77 for night heating. A conduit 78 equipped with a manual gate valve 79 branches off from the conduit 73 . This conduit 78 leads to the material outlet 18 . The conduit component of this discharge section carries the material to be tempered by arrow 1.
9, the material may be heated or the temperature may be kept constant during transport to the processing location so as not to lose the desired material discharge temperature. A manual gate valve 81 is installed in the return conduit 80. Temperature detector 82 and safety thermometer 83 allow monitoring of material temperature at problem locations on heating stage 44. Furthermore, there is a temperature detector 84 for measuring the material discharge temperature, which detector is connected to a display device 85 for displaying the material discharge temperature. Furthermore, a water discharge valve 86 is disposed in this heating circuit. Temperature detector 87 is connected to conduit 7
3 and is connected to a temperature controller 88. This controller in turn controls the solenoid valve 66. Via the cooling water return channel 89, excess water is discharged both from the tempering circuit and from the cooling circuit.

FIG. 2 shows the temperature transition of the tempering device of FIG. 1. In this case, the cooling stage 43 is replaced by the heating stage 44.
It is formed almost the same way.

In other words, the number of cooling steps 6 and the number of heating steps 45 are the same. Since the residence period in the cooling stage 43 is 2.5 minutes, the residence period in the heating stage 44 is also 2.5 minutes. The material to be processed is approximately 43°C
It is introduced into the lowermost cooling step 6 via a conduit 13 brought to a temperature of ~50°C.

The temperature of the cooling water in the cooling circuit is of the order of 16 DEG C. to 22 DEG C., and is shown here only schematically for the region of the cooling stage 43. Since the cooling water is flowing in the opposite direction,
The horizontal line shown in the diagram is actually trending somewhat upward,
The heat taken from the material heats the cooling water to about 0.5°C. The important point is that the amount of water being circulated is very large in order to obtain the vortex in the cooling chamber 9. The temperature of the cooling circuit is measured by a temperature detector 41 as a function of the material temperature obtained at the end of the cooling stage 43 and is regulated via the solenoid valve 30 using a temperature controller 42 . At the end of the cooling stage 43, the temperature of the material is between 28°C and 29°C and remains at this temperature until it enters the heating stage 44. Here, warm water is circulated around 31
．． The temperature will be between 5°C and 33°C. In that case, this treatment is also carried out in a countercurrent manner.

The required hot water is taken from the cooling circuit and heated accordingly by the heating device 75. The hot water is supplied to the hot water chamber 46.
As it passes through, it lowers its temperature, so it needs to be heated another degree. The chocolate is warmed in heating stage 44, with material release temperatures of 31.5°C and 32.5°C.
The size will be between.

This material release temperature is approximately 2° C. higher compared to known devices, thus resulting in improved subsequent processing properties.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the main parts of a tempering device having a cooling circulation path and a tempering circulation path. FIG. 2 is a graph of temperature versus time for the tempering apparatus of FIG. Reference symbols in the figure: ■... Drive rotating shaft, 6... Cooling step, 8... Material chamber, 9... Cooling chamber, 13.21, 23, 26.2B, 52, 64° 69. 7
3,74.78... Conduit, 14 16... Penetration port, 18... Material discharge port, 19... Arrow, 20.68... Mixing storage tank, 22.70... Pump, 29 ...Control valve, 30.66...Solenoid valve, 41.59.62.76...Temperature detector, 42...
Temperature controller, 43... Cooling stage, 44... Heating stage, 45... Heating step, 47... Heating chamber, 48... Heat exchange surface, 49... Dirt filter, 50. 53,67.79.81...Manual gate valve, 51
...Filling valve, 54.55...Water discharge valve, 56.71...Check valve, 57...Manometer, 58.75...Heating device, 60.77...Contact thermometer , 61... Safety pressure switch, 63... Display unit, 65... Passage amount adjustment valve, 80... Return conduit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A material chamber comprising a material chamber and at least one cooling stage equipped with a mixing/stirring member in the material chamber, and the material is connected to the cooling circulation path at the heat exchange surface of the cooling stage through heat exchange. The cocoa material is cooled by the cooling medium in the heating stage (44), and then introduced into the heating stage (44), where this material is warmed again by heat exchange on the heat exchange surface (48) of the heating stage (44) by the tempering medium connected to the tempering circuit. In apparatus for tempering butter and similar fatty materials, especially chocolate materials, the heat exchange surface (48) of the heating stage (44)
) to a constant and regulated temperature, the heat exchange surface (48) of the heating stage is at least 40%, preferably 50%, of the combined area of the heat exchange surfaces of the cooling stage (43) and the heating stage (44). A tempering device characterized by: 2. A temperature detector (8) is installed on the tempering medium side of the heating stage (44) in order to maintain a constant temperature of the tempering medium and therefore the temperature of the heat exchange surface (48) of the heating stage (44).
7) The tempering device according to claim 1, further comprising: 7). 3. The tempering circulation path of the heating stage (44) is formed to obtain a vortex-like flow state.
3. A tempering device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the mixing and stirring member driven in the material chamber (46) of step 4) is equipped for intensive mixing and stirring of the materials. 4. The tempering device according to claim 3, wherein the cooling stage (43) is also provided with a cooling circulation path for obtaining a spiral flow state. 5. A claim characterized in that the material chamber (8) of the cooling stage (43) and the material chamber (46) of the heating stage (44) are equipped with mixing/stirring members having similar or identical configurations. 4. The tempering device according to 3 or 4. 6. The material chamber (8) of the cooling stage (43) and the material chamber (46) of the heating stage (44) have the same leakage surface and otherwise the same geometrical conditions, and have the same residence time for the material. 6. The tempering device according to claim 5, characterized in that: