JPH0432956Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a steamer for heat-treating tea leaves with hot water at the beginning of the tea manufacturing process.

[Conventional technology]

As a conventional steamer, for example, JP-A-61-
An example of this is the device shown in Publication No. 111655.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the heat treatment of tea leaves, it is most important to carry out the treatment time appropriately, and it is no exaggeration to say that the suitability of the treatment determines the quality of tea production. It is also important to make the processing time of each tea leaf, that is, the degree of steaming, even and uniform.

In the apparatus shown in the above-mentioned publication, transport of tea leaves in hot water is carried out by a net conveyor 3 and stirring blades 10 arranged in the hot water. However, since tea leaves tend to float in hot water, direct transfer by the net conveyor 3 can hardly be expected, and the stirring blades 10
The transfer is also unstable because it does not affect the entire tea leaves in the boiling water. Therefore, in the above-mentioned apparatus, it is very difficult to adjust the transfer time of tea leaves, that is, the heat treatment time.

[Means to solve the problem]

The water steamer of the present invention has a water-permeable steaming barrel disposed inside the hot water tank, and a rotating shaft with spiral transfer blades is installed in the center of the steaming barrel, and near one side of the steaming barrel. A tea leaf input port is formed, and the other side is opened to serve as a tea leaf discharge port, and a take-out conveyor that continues to the outside of the hot water tank is disposed at the tea leaf discharge port.

[Effect]

When tea leaves are put into a steamer barrel placed in a hot water tank through a tea leaf inlet, the tea leaves are transferred as the rotary shaft with spiral transfer blades rotates and are discharged from the tea leaf outlet, where they are taken out by a take-out conveyor. It is then taken out of the hot water bath.

〔Example〕

A steaming barrel 3 is disposed inside the hot water tank 1 by a machine stand 2. The steam barrel 3 has a cylindrical aggregate 4 and a wire mesh 5.
It is similar to the steaming barrel of a general steamer that uses steam, and its starting end 6 is closed to form a tea leaf inlet 7 at the top, and the other end is open to form a tea leaf outlet 8. shall be. A rotary shaft 10 having a spiral transfer blade 9 is rotatably held by pillows 11 and 12 and is housed in the center of the steam barrel 5 . Rotating axis 1
One end of the inverter motor 13 is connected to the inverter motor 13, and the rotation speed can be changed by a control section (not shown). A take-out conveyor 14 is arranged below the tea leaf outlet 7. The take-out conveyor 14 may be of any type as long as it takes out the tea leaves discharged from the tea leaf outlet 8 to the outside of the hot water bath 1. It should be noted that the steamer barrel 3 has a cylindrical shape and may have other structures as long as it is water permeable.

15 is a steam pipe, which blows out steam to the boiling water tank 1.
Heat the boiling water inside. 16 is a temperature sensor.
The pump 17 sucks hot water in the hot water tank 1 through a drain port 18 and discharges it through a dispersion port 19 disposed above the tea leaf inlet 7. Reference numeral 20 is a cooling pipe that cools the tea leaves by spouting room temperature water onto the tea leaves on the take-out conveyor 14, and 21 is a replenishment pipe for keeping the hot water level constant.

The heat treatment of tea leaves by the apparatus of this embodiment is carried out as follows. First, a necessary amount of water is supplied into the hot water tank 1 from the supplementary water pipe 21. The water surface is set at position A, where the steamer barrel 3 is completely submerged, or at position B, where the steamer barrel 3 is about half submerged. Position A has the advantage that the tea leaves are kept under water at all times during processing, making the processing temperature uniform. Position B has the advantage that the transfer is stable and the processing time is uniform. Steam is ejected from the steam pipe 15 in parallel with water supply to perform heating,
Raise the water temperature to a predetermined value (for example, 90 degrees). Thereafter, the amount of steam is adjusted according to the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 16 to maintain the hot water temperature constant. And pump 1
7 is started to discharge hot water from the sprinkling port 19, and the inverter motor 13 is activated to rotate the rotary shaft 10, tea leaves are input one after another from the tea leaf input port 7. The tea leaves are smoothly pushed into the steamer barrel 3 by the hot water discharged from the sprinkling port 19, and are sent forward by the rotation of the spiral transfer blades 9. The tea leaves then reach the tea leaf outlet 8, where they are taken out from the hot water by the take-out conveyor 14, where they are cooled by room temperature water spouted from the cooling pipe 20, and then transported to the next process. The tea leaves are heat-treated for a period of time (for example, 60 seconds) after they are introduced into the tea leaf inlet 7 and before room temperature water is spouted. By changing the rotation speed of the rotary shaft 10, the speed at which the tea leaves pass through the steamer barrel 3 increases or decreases, and the time that the tea leaves stay in the steamer barrel 3 increases or decreases, thereby changing the processing time.

〔effect〕

According to the steamer of the present invention, since the tea leaves are transferred uniformly, the heat treatment time becomes uniform, and the quality of tea production is improved. In addition, the heat treatment time, which has a great effect on the quality of tea production, can be adjusted simply by changing the rotation speed of the rotating shaft, and therefore can be easily and reliably adjusted.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawing is a partially cutaway side view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1...Hot water tank, 3...Steam barrel, 7...Tea leaf inlet, 8...Tea leaf outlet, 9...Transfer blade, 10...
...rotating shaft, 14...take-out conveyor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A water-permeable steaming barrel is arranged in the boiling water tank, a rotating shaft with a spiral transfer blade is installed in the center of the steaming barrel, and a tea leaf inlet is formed near one side of the steaming barrel. The side is open to serve as a tea leaf outlet, and the tea leaf outlet is equipped with a take-out conveyor that continues to the outside of the hot water tank.
Steam machine.