JPH06277267A - High pressure liquid continuous processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To sucessively and continuously execute pressurization and supply of an object to be treated by providing a liquid feeding route with two sets of converters containing a free piston in parallel, in that which allows the object to be treated of food and medical supplies to be subjected to high pressure treatment in a high pressure vessel. CONSTITUTION:To a supply side conducting tube 23 for communicating with an entry and a discharge side conducting tube 24 for communicating with a delivery of a high pressure vessel 1 in which a high pressure pressurizing chamber 2 for receiving an object to be treated is formed, two sets of converters 3, 4 are connected in parallel, and to these converters 3, 4, one set of high pressure water pump 5 is connected. In each converter 3, 4, free pistons 8a, 8b, 9a and 9b are fitted and installed in the left and the right liquid chambers, respectively, and in each liquid chamber, the object to be treated and a treating object can be stored temporarily. The high pressure pump 5 has water chambers 22a, 22b on both sides of a hydraulic cylinder 20 in the center, and by allowing a piston 21 to be subjected to reciprocating motion by hydraulic pressure, water in the water chambers 22a, 22b is pressurized, and the free pistons of converters 3, 4 are subjected to reciprocating motion alternately.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for high-pressure processing a liquid or pasty food or pharmaceutical product to be processed in a high-pressure container.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for the sterilization or insecticidal of foods, heating, chemical treatment, irradiation of radiation or ultraviolet rays, etc. have been carried out, but this causes destruction of active ingredients and formation of malignant substances. On the other hand, research on sterilization and insecticidal methods by high-pressure treatment has been actively conducted in recent years, but it is known that this high-pressure treatment means does not cause the above-mentioned adverse effects.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a conventional high-pressure processing apparatus for food or the like. As shown in the figure, this device is installed on the pressure reducing pump side of the pressure increasing / reducing reciprocating pump 5'and the same pump 5'for injecting the liquid to be treated into the high pressure container 1'and discharging the treatment liquid from the high pressure container 1 '. Auxiliary pressure-increasing / decreasing reciprocating pump 4'is connected and installed, and the forward circuit 29 'passing through these is provided with automatic opening / closing valves 25'a, 25'b and pressure gauge 24'a, and the returning circuit 30' is provided with an automatic opening / closing valve. 26'a, 26'b and a pressure gauge 24'b are installed respectively.

The auxiliary pressure increasing / reducing reciprocating pump 4'performs pressure increasing and pressure reducing operations on the object to be processed, and the pressure increasing / reducing pressure reciprocating pump 5'performs circulation and discharge of the object to be processed. The control of the pressure increase / decrease of each pump 4 ', 5'and the circulation discharge operation is performed by setting the stroke end position of the piston of each pump to the limit switches 27'a, 27'b and 28'a, 2'.
8'b, and each circuit pressure is detected by the pressure gauges 24'a, 24'b, and the hydraulic pressure to each automatic opening / closing valve and each pump is appropriately switched based on these detection signals. Has become.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, a hydraulic cylinder portion (not shown) and its hydraulic units 21 'and 22' are installed in the boosting / depressurizing pump 5'and the auxiliary boosting / depressurizing pump 4 ', respectively. When a plurality of sets, for example, four sets, of the above-mentioned pumps are connected in parallel in order to improve the processing efficiency, a total of eight sets of hydraulic units are required, resulting in an increase in installation space and an increase in equipment cost. At the same time, there was a problem that the hydraulic control system became complicated. Further, the sliding seals of the boosting / depressurizing pump and the auxiliary boosting / depressurizing pump need to directly high-pressure seal the liquid to be treated, and there is a problem that the sealing structure and the material become special and the cost becomes high.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a high-pressure liquid continuous treatment apparatus which does not use a drive unit composed of a large number of hydraulic units and requires a small installation space. Another object of the present invention is to provide a high-pressure liquid continuous treatment device capable of effectively performing high-pressure treatment with low energy consumption.

[0007]

The present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems in a high-pressure liquid continuous processing apparatus for continuously high-pressure processing a liquid material to be processed in a high-pressure container while maintaining a preset pressure. , Two converters with free pistons that are movably fitted are connected in series,
A high-pressure water pump and a high-pressure water discharge valve are connected to the same connection part, a supply port for the liquid to be treated is provided on the opposite side of the connecting side of one converter, and the treatment liquid is discharged on the opposite side of the connecting side of the other converter. It is intended to provide a high-pressure liquid continuous treatment device in which an outlet is provided and the supply port and the discharge port are communicated with each other through the high-pressure container.

[0008]

By arranging two sets of converters in parallel with respect to one set of high-pressure liquid feed pumps, the liquid substances to be sequentially supplied to the converters of each set are sequentially pressurized by the high-pressure liquid feed pump and fed. Then, it is injected into a high-pressure container and subjected to high-pressure treatment. On the other hand, the liquid processed material subjected to the high-pressure treatment is interlocked with the above-mentioned supply operation, pressurizing operation, and feeding operation, and is sequentially introduced into the converters of each set, decompressed and discharged.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 4 show the structure of a high-pressure liquid continuous processing apparatus of the present invention and its operation procedure. As shown in the figure, a high-pressure pressurizing chamber 2 for containing a liquid material to be processed is formed in the high-pressure container 1, and a supply-side connecting pipe 23 communicating with the inlet side of the high-pressure container 1 and a discharge side communicating with the outlet side. 2 for the conduit 24
A set of converters 3 and 4 is connected in parallel, and one set of high-pressure water pump 5 is arranged for the two sets of converters.

Each converter 3, 4 has liquid chambers 10a, 10b and 11a, 11b on the left and right, and free pistons 8a, 8b and 9a, 9 are provided in each liquid chamber.
b is movably fitted, and the object to be processed or the object to be processed is temporarily stored in the left and right liquid chambers according to the movement of the piston. The high-pressure water pump 5 has a hydraulic cylinder 20 in the center and water chambers 22a and 22b on the left and right sides thereof, and a common piston 21 is movably fitted in the cylinder 20 and the water chambers 22a and 22b. have.

By the water supply pump 7, water chambers 22a, 22a
After supplying water into b, the hydraulic pressure is alternately applied to the left and right chambers of the hydraulic cylinder 20 to reciprocate the piston 21 to pressurize the water in the water chambers 22a and 22b, and to connect the conduits 30 and 31. Through the rear side 26a, 26 of each free piston 8a, 8b and 9a, 9b of the converter 3, 4.
b and 27a, 27b.

As a result, each free piston moves left and right to pressurize and feed the object to be treated in the liquid chambers 10a and 11a, or to depressurize and discharge the object to be treated in the liquid chambers 10b and 11b. The movement of each of these free pistons is detected at the stroke end position by a position sensor such as a limit switch (not shown).

On the other hand, the automatic open / close valves 16a and 16b and the pressure gauge 2 are sandwiched between the contact points between the supply side conducting pipe 23 and the converter 3.
8a also sandwiches the contact points between the supply-side conduit tube 23 and the converter 4 to automatically open / close valves 18a and 18b and the pressure gauge 29a.
Are installed respectively. The automatic opening / closing valves 17a, 17b and the pressure gauge 28b sandwich the contact between the discharge side conducting pipe 24 and the converter 3, and the automatic opening / closing valves 19a, 19b and pressure sandwiching the contact between the discharge side conducting pipe 24 and the converter 4. A total of 29b are installed.

Automatic opening / closing valves 12a, 12b, 12c and 13 are provided in the connecting pipes 30 and 31 connecting the converters 3 and 4 to the high pressure water pump 5 and the drainage tanks 32 and 33, respectively.
a, 13b, 13c are installed. The automatic opening / closing valves are opened / closed based on the detection symbols of the position sensor (not shown) and the pressure gauges 28a, 28b, 29a, 29b. Note that 14, 15 and 25a, 25b are check valves.

Next, the operation of this device will be described. First, when the pressure gauge 28b detects that the inside of the right side liquid chamber 10b of the converter 3 has been depressurized by the depressurizing operation in the previous step, the supply side automatic opening / closing valve 16a is opened based on the detection signal.
6b is closed, the discharge side automatic open / close valve 17a is opened, 17b is closed, and the high pressure liquid feed pump side automatic open / close valves 12a and 12b and the drain tank side automatic open / close valve 12c are both closed. The processed material is supplied into the left side liquid chamber 10a of the converter 3, the free piston 8a moves to the right side, and in conjunction with this, the free piston 8b also moves to the right side, and is subjected to high-pressure treatment in the previous process, and the right side liquid chamber The processed material temporarily stored in 10b is discharged (FIG. 1). Meanwhile, on the other converter 4 side, the pressurized object to be processed is fed and the high-pressure processed object is introduced into the right side liquid chamber 11b in conjunction with this supply / discharge operation.

When the position sensor detects that the object to be processed is filled in the left side liquid chamber 10a of the converter 3 and the free piston 8a reaches the right stroke end position, the supply side and the discharge side are detected based on the detection signal. Automatic open / close valve 16a, 1
6b, 17a, 17b are all closed, the high-pressure water pump side automatic opening / closing valve 12a is opened, 12b is closed, and the drain tank side automatic opening / closing valve 12c is closed. As a result, the water supplied from the water supply pump 7 is pressurized by the high-pressure water pump 5 and the back side 26 of the free pistons 8a, 8b of the converter 3 is pressurized.
a, 26b, whereby the free piston 8a
Moves to the left, and the object to be treated in the liquid chamber 10a is pressurized (FIG. 2). On the other converter 4 side, the depressurizing operation of the processed material in the right side liquid chamber 11b is performed in conjunction with this pressurizing operation.

When the pressure gauge 28a detects that the object to be treated in the liquid chamber 10a of the converter 3 has risen to a predetermined pressure,
Based on this detection signal, the automatic opening / closing valve 16a is closed, 16b
Is open, 17a is closed, 17b is open, and the automatic open / close valve 12
Both a and 12b are opened and 12c is closed, and subsequently, the high pressure water pump 5 transfers the pressurized water in the water chamber 26b to the water chamber 26a. As a result, the free pistons 8a and 8b are moved to the left, the object to be treated in the left side liquid chamber 10a is fed and injected into the high pressure container 1, and the treated liquid in the high pressure container is transferred to the liquid chamber 10b.
(Fig. 3). On the other converter 4 side, the operations of supplying the object to be processed to the left side liquid chamber 11a and discharging the processing liquid in the right side liquid chamber 11b are performed in conjunction with the feeding / introducing operation.

The position sensor indicates that the object to be processed in the left side liquid chamber 10a of the converter 3 has been completely fed and the right side liquid chamber 10b has been filled with the object to be processed, and the free piston 8a has reached the left stroke end position. Is detected, the automatic opening / closing valves 16a, 16b, 17a, 17b based on this detection signal.
Are all closed, the automatic open / close valves 12a and 12b are both closed, and 12c is open, whereby the processed material in the right side liquid chamber 10b is depressurized (FIG. 4). In addition, on the other converter 4 side, the pressurizing operation of the object to be processed is performed in advance in conjunction with this depressurizing operation.

By performing the above-mentioned respective operations successively by the two sets of converters, it is possible to continuously and efficiently perform the high pressure processing on the object to be processed. Although the case where two sets of converters are arranged for one set of high-pressure liquid feed pump is shown here, the same effect can be obtained by arranging one set, four sets, or other plural sets of converters.

As is clear from the above description, the present apparatus has a common drive section (high-pressure liquid feed pump), and a plurality of converters are arranged in parallel with respect to one set of drive section, so the apparatus is compact and installed. Space becomes narrow. In addition, since a general high-pressure water pump is used for the drive unit, a general-purpose product can be applied, which is advantageous in design. In addition, the converter is a free piston type and slides under the same pressure on the left and right, so a simple seal structure can be applied, and the liquid to be treated such as fruit juice or the liquid to be treated and water are alternately injected and discharged into the converter. , The cleaning effect is improved automatically, so that it is not necessary to use a high-grade material for the converter material. The present invention has been specifically described above based on the illustrated embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and within the scope of the present invention set forth in the claims, various shapes and structures can be used. It goes without saying that changes may be made.

[0021]

As described above in detail, according to the high-pressure liquid continuous processing apparatus of the present invention, one set of high-pressure liquid feed pumps is provided with a plurality of sets of converters each having a built-in free piston in parallel, and an object to be processed is arranged. Since each converter sequentially pressurizes and feeds, and depressurizes and discharges the processed material, the high-pressure processing of the processed material can be efficiently performed. In addition, the device becomes compact and the installation space becomes small. Furthermore, since a high-pressure water pump can be used as a general-purpose pump, it can be procured cheaply, which is advantageous, and the converter is a free piston type,
Since it slides under the same pressure on the left and right, a simple seal structure can be applied, and the liquid to be treated such as fruit juice or the liquid to be treated and water are alternately injected and discharged into the converter, so the cleaning effect is demonstrated. Therefore, there is an effect that it is not necessary to use a high-grade material (corrosion resistant material or the like) as the converter material.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a high-pressure liquid continuous processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a state in which an object to be processed is supplied to a converter 3 and an object to be processed is supplied from a converter 4 to a high-pressure container 1. ing.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram similar to FIG. 1, showing a state in which a pressure is applied to an object to be processed by a converter 3 and a pressure reduction of the object to be processed is performed by a converter 4;

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram similar to FIG. 1, and shows a state in which pressurization of an object to be processed is sent from a converter 3 to a high-pressure container and the object to be processed is supplied to a converter 4.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 1, showing a state in which the depressurization of the processing object is performed by the converter 3 and the pressurization of the processing object is performed by the converter 4;

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a conventional high-pressure liquid continuous processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 High-pressure container 2 High-pressure pressurizing chamber 3,4 Converter 5 High-pressure water pump 6 Liquid supply pump 7 Water supply pump 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b Free piston 10a, 10b, 11a, 11b Liquid chamber 12a, 12b, 12c, 13a, 13b, 13c Automatic opening / closing valve 14, 15 Check valve 16a, 16b, 17a, 17b, 18a, 18b, 1
9a, 19b Automatic opening / closing valve 20 Hydraulic cylinder 21 Common piston 22a, 22b Water chamber 23, 24 Conducting pipe 25a, 25b, Check valve 26a, 26b, 27a, 27b Free piston rear side 28a, 28b, 29a, 29b Pressure gauge 30 , 31 Continuity pipe 32, 33 Drainage tank

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Tetsuo Tanimoto 4-6-22 Kannon Shinmachi, Nishi-ku, Hiroshima City Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. Hiroshima Research Laboratory

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A high pressure liquid continuous processing apparatus for continuously high pressure processing a liquid material to be processed in a high pressure container while maintaining a preset pressure, and a converter having a freely-fitted free piston built therein. Are connected in series, a high-pressure water pump and a high-pressure water discharge valve are connected to the same connection part, a supply port for the liquid to be treated is provided on the opposite side to the connection side of one converter, and the connection side of the other converter. An outlet for the processing liquid is provided on the side opposite to the above, and the supply outlet and the outlet are communicated with each other through the high-pressure container.