JPH0628572B2 - Food extrusion machine - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a food extruder.

For example, in a food extruder for sweets and the like, generally, a shaft fitted with a screw in a barrel is provided with one shaft or a plurality of shafts, and the shaft is rotated. In the case of one shaft, a slight gap is formed between the inner wall of the barrel and the screw. In the case of multiple shafts, the screws are engaged or disengaged to rotate while maintaining a slight gap with the inner wall of the barrel. In such a configuration, starches such as corn starch and wheat and / or foodstuffs such as meat and fish are introduced into the barrel, crushed or crushed finely, and crushed into granules or powder by pressurizing and heating, and further briquetting. This was extruded through small holes to form a food product.

In this case, as the screw, a screw shape for the purpose of transfer and compression, a screw shape for the purpose of kneading, or a screw shape for promoting crushing is used in combination with different purposes. The food is kneaded, crushed, and heated and pressed by being strongly pressed between these screws and the inner wall of the barrel and between the screws of a plurality of shafts, and the food is cooked, steamed, or otherwise processed for gelatinization. To be There is a problem of water addition and heating to the foodstuff as an important factor for promoting the gelatinization of the foodstuff.

When water is supplied to the food, the viscosity increases, and when the viscosity increases, the pressure increases, and the temperature is expected to increase in the case of heating. That is, when pressure is applied to the food material to heat it, the boiling point temperature is about 10 ° C per atmospheric pressure.
A substance that rises and usually boils at 100 ° C. can be heated to 100 ° C. or higher, and moisture can be used as a heat transfer medium between foods to expect a better heating effect.

In this way, the food material is finely crushed or pressurized when it is transferred by the screw inside the barrel, or the temperature rises due to friction with the inner wall of the barrel or the screw, and the temperature rises to 200 ° C or more depending on the pressure condition. Sometimes,
Conversely, adding a large amount of water will lower the food temperature. Therefore, when trying to extrude foodstuffs for a certain purpose, it may not necessarily require high pressure or high temperature, and of course the screw rotation speed, the amount of foodstuffs fed into the barrel, barrel temperature, die temperature, foodstuff temperature and The amount of water added should be controlled to the most suitable conditions for the intended processing.

[Prior art]

Here, an example of the food extruder will be described with reference to FIG. First, the food extruder 11 has a plurality of barrels 1 on a base 12.
3A, 13B, 13C ... 13N are integrally attached to the inside of the base 12, and on the outer periphery of the shaft 14 rotated by a drive unit (not shown) provided on the right side of the base 12 in the drawing, transfer or kneading is performed. Multiple screws 1 for various work
5 are assembled and fitted together. A hopper 16 for receiving food (not shown) is provided on the right barrel 13A.
The hopper 16 is provided with a fixed amount of food from a feeder 17 having a screw therein. A die 21 having a small hole 20 is fixed to the end surface of the barrel 13N at the tip. Barrels 13B and 13
C ... 13N has pressure resistance.

A plurality of heat exchangers 18B, 18C ... 18N and 21A for cooling or heating the second barrel 13B and the second barrel from the right and the outer periphery of the die 21 are attached,
The temperature of each barrel and the die 21 can be arbitrarily controlled by temperature sensors 19B, 19C ... 19N and 21B provided on them and an automatic temperature controller (not shown).

A tank 32 having an upper opening as a water adding mechanism 31 and storing water therein is provided with an opening / closing valve 33 and a metering pump 34 from its lower surface.
The check valve 35 is connected in series to the hole 22 opened in the flange of the barrel 13A.

In order to form the food with such a mechanism, the screw 15 is rotationally driven by the drive unit via the shaft 14 and the barrel 13A is passed from the feeder 17 through the hopper 16.
Introduce ingredients inside. The introduced ingredients are screws 15.
Transfer kneading by pressure crushing and heating while barrel 1
3A, 13B, 13C ... 13N goes left and α
It is processed and extruded through the small holes 20 of the die 21. Barrel 13A when food is traveling inside barrel 13A, etc.
Water in the tank 32 is pressurized and injected from the hole 22 of the tank 32 by the measuring pump 34. Then, the addition of water to the food promotes the gelatinization of the food, and the food having the desired properties is processed.

In such a food extruder, the temperature detection for heating control is performed by the temperature sensors 19B to 19N inserted from the outer circumference of the barrels 13B to 13N toward the center of the screw 15 at a position close to the inner wall of the barrel 13B or the like. 1
The temperature of 3B etc. is measured and detected. Also in the die 21 at the tip, the temperature of the die is detected by the temperature sensor 21B, and the temperature is controlled by the heat exchanger 21A. The plurality of barrels 13B and the like and the die 21 are set and operated at the optimum temperature.

However, the food in the barrel 13B and the like generates heat due to friction and shear between the screw 15 and the inner wall of the barrel 13B and the like, and the temperature varies depending on the composition of the raw material, but the amount of the food supplied to the barrel 13B or the like, that is, the extrusion amount. The food temperature also varies depending on the amount of water added, the amount of water added, and the number of screw revolutions, due to the difference in heat generated by food friction and shear. Therefore, the food temperature is different from the temperature in the temperature detection unit such as the barrel 13B. Therefore, even if the food temperature becomes an abnormally high temperature, the temperature is not immediately transmitted to the barrel 13B or the like, and as a result, the food is burnt at last. The food cannot be extruded from the die 21. In this way, it is difficult to stably extrude foodstuffs by simply detecting the barrel temperature.
For this reason, it has been proposed to set the barrel temperature low or operate with a large amount of water from the beginning,
With such a method, it is impossible to extrude a food having desired properties.

[Object of the Invention]

The present invention eliminates such drawbacks and its purpose is to
An object of the present invention is to provide a food extruder capable of stable extrusion molding by detecting the temperature of the foodstuff itself and adjusting the amount of water added, the amount of foodstuff supplied, the screw rotation speed, etc. based on the signal.

[Main points of the invention]

The food extruder according to the present invention has a die having a small hole attached to the tip and a screw which is rotatably inserted into the barrel having a heat exchanger attached to the outer periphery thereof, and supplies food ingredients from the vicinity of the rear end of the barrel by a feeder. The main temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the barrel and the die itself in a food extruder that transports foodstuffs to the tip side by rotating the screw and waters the foodstuffs by a watering mechanism to obtain extruded food from the small holes in the die at the tip. And an auxiliary temperature sensor that detects the temperature of foodstuffs inside the barrel and die, a watering mechanism that can change the amount of water by receiving the signal from the auxiliary temperature sensor, and detects that foodstuffs are being extruded from the die. In order to do so, an extrusion detection mechanism provided in the die or its vicinity, and a screw rotation speed adjuster that receives the signal of the extrusion detection function and adjusts the rotation speed of the screw,
It is characterized by comprising a food supply amount adjuster for adjusting the food supply amount of the feeder.

Example of Invention

The present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 showing an embodiment. In the food extruder 51, the base 12, barrels 13A to 13N, shaft 14, screw 15, hopper 16, feeder 17, heat exchangers 18B to 18N,
21A, the small hole 20, the die 21, the hole 22, the tank 32, the opening / closing valve 33, the metering pump 34, and the check valve 35 are the same as those in FIG. 2 which is the conventional example, and therefore a detailed description will be omitted and only different parts will be described. To do. Note that 19B to 19N and 21B are the same as those in FIG. 2, but their names are referred to as A main temperature sensor and B main temperature sensor.

The water addition mechanism 52 has two spaces between the metering pump 34 and the check valve 35.
The system, that is, the main water injection pipe 53 on one side, and the solenoid valve 54 and the auxiliary water injection pipe 55 on the other side are connected in series. The barrel 13N at the tip is provided with an A main temperature sensor 19N that detects the temperature of the barrel 13N itself, and an A auxiliary temperature sensor 56N that contacts the food (not shown) inside the barrel 13N and detects the temperature. The A auxiliary temperature sensor 56N may be provided in all of the barrels 13B to 13N, or may be provided by selecting a barrel which is particularly required. The output signal of the A auxiliary temperature sensor 56N causes the solenoid valve 54, which is normally closed, to open for a certain period of time via the A timer 57.

The die 21 is also provided with a B main temperature sensor 21B that detects the temperature of the die 21 itself and a B auxiliary temperature sensor 21C that detects the temperature of the food inside the die 21, and the B auxiliary temperature sensor 2
The output signal of 1C is sent to the A timer 57.

Further, the extrusion detection mechanism 5 for detecting that the food is surely extruded from the die 21 or in the vicinity of the die 21.
8 is attached, and the mechanism 58 is a mechanism for detecting the food pressure inside the die 21 when the food pressure is abnormally high or low, a mechanism for detecting the food temperature, or a projector and a light receiver in front of the small hole 20. There are various mechanisms such as a mechanism in which light is blocked by foodstuffs when it is normally installed and light is not received, but light is received when extrusion is stopped, or a flowmeter for measuring the discharge speed or flow rate of foodstuffs. The output signal of the push-out detection mechanism 58 is added to the A tire 57, and the feed amount adjuster 60 for adjusting the rotational speed of the screw (not shown) of the feeder 17 and the like via the B tire 59 and the shaft of the screw 15. It is added to a screw rotation speed adjuster 62 that issues a command to a drive unit 61 that drives the motor 14.

Next, the operation of the above-described embodiment will be described. During normal operation, the food is not burned and the food is extruded from the die 21. At this time, the temperatures of the barrel 13N and the die 21 and the die 21 itself are detected by the A main temperature sensor 19N and the B main temperature sensor 21B. The barrel 13N and the like are fed back to the automatic temperature controller, and the temperature of each of the barrels 13N and the like is controlled to the temperature set by the automatic temperature controller. On the other hand, the extrusion detection mechanism 58 naturally does not operate, and the A and B auxiliary temperature sensors 56N and 2N.
1C is not working because the foodstuff is at the normal temperature.

Here, for example, when the food temperature in the barrel 13N becomes abnormally high and the A auxiliary temperature sensor 56N detects this, the output signal causes the A tire 57 to operate to open the solenoid valve 54 for a certain period of time. Auxiliary water injection pipe 5
5 and the like to add water to the barrel 13A to lower the food temperature. At the same time, the heating of the heat exchangers 18B, 18C ... 18N or a part of the heat exchangers is stopped via the automatic temperature controller by the above signal to lower the temperature of the barrels 13B, 13C. Reduce the temperature and shift to normal operation.

Further, when the food is excessively supplied by the feeder 17 or the food is stopped from being extruded from the small hole 20 of the die 21 due to the food being burnt or the like, the push detection mechanism 58 detects this and the A timer 57 and the solenoid valve 54, etc. A large amount of water is added to the barrel 13A to increase the temperature drop and the fluidity of the food and stop the heating of all the heat exchangers or a part of the heat exchangers, and via the B timer 59. In order to reduce the food supply amount by the feeder 17 and the food movement amount by the screw 15, the respective screw rotation speeds are reduced by the food material supply amount adjuster 60 and the screw rotation speed adjuster 62. In this way, normal operation is restored by increasing the amount of water added for a certain period of time, stopping the heating of the heat exchanger, and similarly reducing the amount of food supply and the amount of food movement for a certain period of time.

For the setting time of both the A and B timers 57 and 59, the setting of the food material supply amount adjuster 60, the setting of the screw rotation speed adjuster 62, and the adjustment of the amount of acceleration, the optimum value is set in advance by experience or a preliminary test. Set in advance.

Although the feeder 17 is of the screw type, it is not limited to this and may be of the belt type or the like. Barrel 1 as water
It goes from one place of hole 22 of 3A, but barrel 13A
The main water may be used as the main water and the auxiliary water may be used from other barrels including the barrel 13A. Further metering pump 3
4 shows only one, but it may be divided into a main and an auxiliary, and two or more mains and auxiliarys may be provided so that the amount of water can be adjusted in a wide range.

[Effect of the invention] Not only the temperature of the barrel or die is controlled by the main temperature sensor, but also the food temperature inside the barrel and die is directly detected by the auxiliary temperature sensor and a signal is sent to the automatic temperature controller to interlock with the main temperature sensor. The temperature of the barrel or die while controlling the temperature of the barrel or die, and when extrusion failure such as abnormal overheating of the food or clogging of the die is about to occur, the signal from the auxiliary temperature sensor or extrusion detection mechanism will add water to the food or the screw rotation speed and barrel. It is possible to prevent accidents such as the extrusion process of the food extrusion machine becoming impossible because the automatic control is performed so that the stable amount of food can be extruded by changing the supply amount of food to the inside. It enables highly economical production without causing any damage.

Furthermore, since the temperature range of foodstuffs can be controlled small and strictly by the combination of the main temperature sensor and the auxiliary temperature sensor, a stable extruded product with uniform texture, specific gravity, hardness, expansion degree, and color tone of the extruded product can be stabilized. It has the effect that it can be produced by

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view in which a part of one embodiment of the present invention is shown in section, and FIG. 2 is a side view in which a part of a conventional example is shown in section. 13 …… Barrel, 15 …… Screw, 17 …… Feida, 19,2
1B ... Main temperature sensor, 20 ... Small hole, 21 ... Die, 52 ...
… Water addition mechanism, 56N… Auxiliary temperature sensor, 60 …… Food supply amount regulator, 62 …… Screw rotation speed regulator

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshio Suzuki 2068 Ooka, Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture Numazu Works, Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-61-212269 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A screw having a small hole is attached to the tip and a screw is rotatably inserted into the barrel having a heat exchanger attached to the outer periphery thereof, and food is supplied by a feeder near the rear end of the barrel. In a food extruder that obtains an extrusion-molded food from a small hole in a die at the tip by watering the ingredient by a watering mechanism by transferring the ingredient to the tip side by rotation of a screw, the main temperature for detecting the temperature of the barrel and the die itself. A sensor, an auxiliary temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the food material inside the barrel and the die, a watering mechanism that can change the amount of water by receiving a signal from the auxiliary temperature sensor, and the food material is extruded from the die. The extrusion detection mechanism provided in the die or in the vicinity thereof to detect that the screw is rotating, and a screw for adjusting the rotation speed of the screw in response to a signal from the extrusion detection mechanism. A food extruder comprising a cru speed adjuster and a food supply amount adjuster for adjusting the food supply amount of the feeder.