JPH0713515Y2 - Conveyor for packed food - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a packed food conveying device for carrying out various heat treatments in a heat treatment tank while continuously conveying packed semi-solid foods such as tofu. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art Packed foods of this kind, such as tofu,
In the case of semi-solid foods such as tokoroden, mizu-yokan, jelly, and pudding, they are filled in a rectangular container, for example, made of plastic and having an opening at the top and a flange portion at the opening edge, and the opening is closed. In this mode, a lid made of a plastic sheet material or the like is fixed to the flange portion and hermetically sealed. For example, the packed food is stored in a large number of buckets arranged in parallel on a processing conveyor such as a chain conveyor that runs endlessly so as to pass through heat treatment tanks for heating or cooling arranged above and below. During the transportation, necessary heat treatments such as solidification molding, heat sterilization, and cooling are performed in the heat treatment tank.

FIG. 7 shows the configuration of a conventionally known transporting device using a chain conveyor. As shown in the figure, the sprocket 23 on the side for supplying the packed food P (hereinafter referred to as the pack P), the sprocket (not shown) in the heat treatment tank, and the sprocket 24 on the side separating the heat treatment tanks 21 and 22 and the discharge A chain 26 is endlessly laid between the side sprockets 25 to form a processing conveyor. This chain 26 includes
As shown in FIG. 5, a large number of substantially Z-shaped buckets 27 are mounted in parallel via mounting plates 29. The bucket 27 includes a bottom plate 27a, left and right side plates 27b, and a bottom plate 2
7a, a partition plate 27c that rises in an inclined shape and a top plate 27d that extends from the upper end of the partition plate 27c in the transport direction. If the length in the transport direction is b and the height is a, the pack P is inverted. For the convenience of transportation, a> b.

In the processing conveyor, the bucket 27 attached to the chain 26 is driven in the direction of arrow D by rotating a sprocket by a drive device (not shown). The bucket position of the supply unit 30 into which the pack P is inserted is higher than the shaft position of the sprocket 23, and the winding angle of the chain 26 with respect to the bucket 27 is not limited. When the packed pack P is continuously pushed into the bucket 27 by the insertion pusher 31 (a plurality of packs P in the left and right direction of the bucket 27),
The pack P transported by the bucket 27 passes through the upper heat treatment tank 21 for heating and the lower heat treatment tank 22 for cooling, and is subjected to desired heat treatment. It is discharged onto the discharging conveyor 33 which is driven in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the bucket 27 is conveyed by the processing conveyor.

As described above, in the conventional transfer device, the supply unit 3
In the state where the pack P inserted at 0 is an upright state, that is, the printing surface of the lid attached to the opening is the upper side, that is, the upside where the food contents are filled up, that is, the bucket 27 is upright.
When the pack P is placed on the partition plate 27c of the pack P when it passes through the upper heat treatment tank 21 for heating,
Is conveyed in an inverted state in which the bottom surface of the is leaned against the inclined partition plate 27c. The pack P is transferred to the partition plate 27c of the adjacent front bucket when the chain 26 is turned around by the sprocket 24, and when passing through the lower cooling heat treatment tank 22, the upper surface of the pack P (printing). Surface) is conveyed in an inverted state in which the inclined partition plate 27c of the front bucket leans against the inclined surface.
Further, in the discharging section 32, when the sprocket 25 on the discharging side changes the direction of the processing conveyor, the interval between the adjacent buckets 27 is opened at a position directly above the discharging conveyor 33, and the stored pack P is It is vertically dropped onto the discharge conveyor 33 located immediately below.

[0006]

However, when the pack P is accommodated in the bucket 27 in an inverted state and passed through the heat treatment tanks 21 and 22 as in the conventional transfer device, the food contents 34 are removed during the heat treatment by heating or cooling. As shown in FIG. 10, the pack main body (container) P1 is contracted in the length direction, and a gap is formed between the pack main body P1 and the contraction amount k. When the gap is formed in this way, the appearance of the product is deteriorated, the product value is reduced, and the product is easily damaged by vibration or the like during transportation after shipping. Further, when the pack P is conveyed in an inverted state, the pack P is unstable and vibrates in the bucket 27 or an unreasonable load is applied, and when the pack P is rubbed against the bucket 27, a pinhole is generated in the pack main body P1. The printed surface of the lid attached to the opening edge of the upper surface may be damaged. In this case, especially when the flange is protrudingly provided at the opening edge of the pack upper surface,
This makes it more difficult to stably hold the pack P in the bucket 27, and the above-mentioned phenomenon becomes more remarkable, which is extremely undesirable. Further, when the pack P is discharged from the bucket 27 to the discharging conveyor 33 in the discharging unit 32 as described above, the following various problems occur. First,
As shown in FIG. 11, since the buckets 27 travel in the transport path of the discharging conveyor 33 in a manner that the buckets 27 cross at right angles, in order to prevent the subsequent buckets 27 from colliding with the packs P discharged onto the discharging conveyor 33. Is the bucket 27
A space H1 that is at least the height of the deepest pack in the packs P to be transported is required between the discharge conveyor 33 and the discharge conveyor 33. Therefore, the pack P is dropped from a high position, and the drop impact may damage the pack body P1 and the food contents 34. When the packs P are deep, the flanges of the packs P that are discharged at the same time are caught on the top plate 27d of the bucket 27, and the discharge timing is shifted, resulting in an unaligned state as shown in FIG. 11A. Since it is placed on the discharge conveyor 33, its alignment process is difficult. If the pack P is shallow,
As shown in FIG. 11 (b), the bottom of the pack P rides on the top plate 27 d of the bucket 27, and the pack P drops while rotating and lands in an upright state. Damage due to impact becomes more problematic.

Therefore, the present invention has been proposed in order to solve such a problem, and by making the pack horizontal and passing it through the heat treatment tank in a stable state, the loss of the food contents can be made inconspicuous. In addition to preventing the product value from degrading and damaging due to vibration, etc., at the time of discharge, the pack is smoothly landed on the discharge conveyor so that the pack body and food contents are not damaged. The purpose is to provide a carrier device.

[0008]

In order to achieve this object, the present invention has a large number of buckets mounted in parallel on a processing conveyor which is run endlessly, and which is provided in the middle of a running path of the processing conveyor. Is provided with a heat treatment tank, and a supply unit that sequentially supplies packed food to each of the buckets in a traveling passage behind the heat treatment tank,
In the traveling passage in front of the heat treatment tank, discharge units for sequentially discharging the packed foods from the respective buckets onto the discharge conveyor are provided adjacent to each other, and these buckets horizontally pass through the heat treatment tank. Then, in the packed food conveying device for performing desired heat treatment on the packed food at that time, the bucket is a bottom plate located on the mounting side to the processing conveyor, and the processing conveyor. The top plate located away from the mounting side of the is arranged in a stepwise parallel manner, and the front end of the bottom plate and the rear end of the top plate are connected at right angles with a partition plate to form a staircase shape. Each of the adjacent buckets is formed when the processing conveyor horizontally passes through the heat treatment tank.
The top plate of the rear bucket protrudes parallel to the upper side of the bottom plate of the front bucket, and the packed food is accommodated horizontally in an upright or upright state between the top plate and the bottom plate of each adjacent bucket. It is a device for transporting packed foods that is carried and transported. Further, the processing conveyor in the device for conveying packed food conveys an arc-shaped trajectory in which each bucket gradually approaches the upper surface of the discharging conveyor in the discharging portion and then moves away in the upward tilting shape. The inner surface of the top plate of the bucket that is slanted downward when approaching is used as a chute, and the packed food is discharged to the upper surface of the discharge conveyor. It is a device.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A concrete embodiment of a packed food conveying device according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of this carrying device. In this figure, chains 6 are mounted endlessly on the front and rear sprocket 3, 4 and 5 which sandwich the upper and lower heat treatment tanks 1 and 2 and a plurality of sprocket rotatably arranged in these heat treatment tanks. A processing conveyor C is configured, and a large number of stepped buckets 7 are provided between the left and right chains 6.
However, the adjacent buckets are mounted in parallel with each other such that some of the buckets overlap each other. This bucket 7
As shown in FIG. 2, a bottom plate 7a on which the pack P is placed, side plates 7b and 7b that stand up from both left and right sides of the bottom plate 7a to prevent the pack P from falling off, and a rear part that is joined to the front end of the bottom plate 7a and stands up at a right angle. Partition plate 7c and this partition plate 7c
The rear end is joined at a right angle to the upper part of c and protrudes in the transport direction.
It is composed of a top plate 7d extending in parallel so as to cover the bottom plate 7a of the adjacent front bucket from above. The bucket 7 is provided with a large number of holes 8 so that the pack P can be immersed in the hot water 1a and the cold water 2a in the tanks when passing horizontally through the heat treatment tanks 1 and 2.

Further, in the bucket 7, the lengths of the bottom plate 7a and the top plate 7d in the carrying direction are formed to be long in order to carry the pack P in the upright or upright state as shown in FIGS. If the length in the carrying direction is b and the height is a, then
<B. If the pack to be conveyed is upright or upside down, the opening surface of the pack body on the side where the food contents are packed will be parallel to the conveying direction, and the shrinkage of the food contents after processing will be the height of the pack. Will occur in the direction.
Between the left and right chains 6 and 6, the bottom plate 7 of this bucket 7
Both side parts of a are fixed via the mounting plate 9.

The processing conveyor C is provided with a sprocket 3 in the pack P supply unit 10 by means of the upper and lower heat treatment tanks 1, 1.
Between the two, the sprocket 4 is used to discharge the pack P from
The sprocket 5 is configured to be turned in each direction, and the pack P stored in each bucket 7
Each sprocket (not shown) that regulates a passage so as to travel horizontally in each of the heat treatment tanks 1 and 2 is disposed at a required position. When the sprocket of the processing conveyor C is rotated by a driving device (not shown), the bucket 7 attached to the chain 6 is conveyed in the direction of arrow D in the drawing, and the upper heat treatment tank 1 for heating and the lower heat treatment tank 1 are provided. An endless series of patrols is performed along a transfer path that horizontally passes through the cooling heat treatment tank 2. Further, in the processing conveyor C, the supply unit 10 of the pack P is set at the position of the sprocket 3 and the discharge unit 12 of the pack P is set at the position of the sprocket 5, respectively.
A supply means for supplying the pack P by the insertion pusher 11 is provided at a position adjacent to the supply part 10, and a drive means is provided at a position adjacent to the discharge part 12 in the same direction as the direction in which the bucket 7 is conveyed by the processing conveyor C. A discharging conveyor 13 is provided. In the supply unit 10 for the pack P, the bucket 7 to be inserted is located below the sprocket 3 so that the pack P can be easily inserted into the bucket 7 by pressing the insertion pusher 11. The winding angle A of the chain 6 with respect to 3 is an elevation angle of, for example, about 0 ° to 50 °, and the inner surface of the top plate 7d of the bucket 7 is set to a position where it is inclined upward. In the discharging section 12 of the pack P, each bucket is configured to be conveyed in an arcuate locus that gradually approaches the upper surface on the starting end side of the discharging conveyor 13 in a downward slope and then moves away in an upward slope. During this proximity, the inner surface of the top plate 7a of the bucket 7 is, for example, 30 ° to 45 °.
The winding angle B of the chain 6 with respect to the sprocket 5 is set so as to form a depression angle.

In the transport device having the above structure, the chain 6
Is continuously conveyed by the drive of the feeding section 10 and the inner surface of the top plate 7d in the supply section 10 is shifted to an elevation angle, the pack P placed in the horizontal state is inserted by the pusher 11 for inserting the inner surface of the top plate 7d. It is pushed into the bucket 7 as a shoot. When the processing conveyor C is turned around by the sprocket 3, the pack P is inverted and transferred onto the adjacent front bottom plate 7a, and when passing through the heating heat treatment tank 1, the adjacent front bottom plate 7a. The heat treatment tank 1 for heating is placed on the upper side in an upright or upside-down state opposite to that at the time of supply, and the upper surface side thereof is horizontally conveyed in a state in which it is prevented from rising by an adjacent rear top plate 7d. Heat treated in. After that, the pack P is turned over again when the processing conveyor C is turned by the sprocket 4 and transferred to the inner surface of the adjacent rear top plate 7d, and passes through the lower cooling heat treatment tank 2. At this time, it is placed on the inner surface of the top plate 7d in the same upright or upright state as when it is supplied, and its upper surface side is conveyed horizontally in a mode in which it is prevented from rising by the adjacent front bottom plate 7a, It is heat-treated in the heat treatment tank 2 for cooling.

When the pack P is inserted into the bucket 7 in the upright state (the printing surface is on the upper side) in the supply unit 10 as in the embodiment of FIG. 1, the pack P is passed when passing through the upper heat treatment tank 1. P is accommodated and conveyed in the bucket 7 in an upside-down state with the printing surface down, and when passing through the lower heat treatment tank 2, the pack P is accommodated in the bucket 7 in an upside-down state with the printing surface up. It is transported in the state. In addition, the supply unit 10
When the pack P is inserted into the bucket 7 in the upside-down state in which the printing surface is facing downward, the pack P is accommodated in the bucket 7 in the upside-down state when passing through the heat treatment tank 1 as shown in FIG. When passing through the heat treatment tank 2, the pack P is accommodated in the bucket 7 in an upright state and conveyed.

As described above, according to the present invention, the pack P conveys the heat treatment tanks 1 and 2 horizontally in an upright or upright state instead of an inverted state as in the conventional case, so that the pack P can be conveyed in a stable state with little vibration. As a result, the food content 14 does not lose its shape, and even if the food content 14 shrinks slightly in the height direction of the pack body P1 during heat treatment as shown in FIG. If 14 is filled thickly, there will be almost no loss after treatment. Note that FIG.
5A shows an upright state, and FIG. 5B shows an upright state.

The heat-treated pack P is discharged from the discharging section 1
In FIG. 2, the pack P accommodated is discharged by sliding down the pack P which is accommodated by using the inner surface of the top plate 7a of the bucket 7 which is shifted downward as a chute.
3 is placed on the upper surface. Therefore, unlike the case of the conventional discharging means, the pack P and the food contents 14 are not damaged by dropping impact, and the discharge timings between the packs P discharged at the same time are aligned. The sheet is discharged onto the upper surface of the discharging conveyor 13 at the starting end side in a substantially horizontal row with little deviation.

On the terminal side of the above discharge conveyor 13,
For example, as shown in FIG. 6, a conventional discharge conveyor 3
Similar to 3, the starting end side of the discharge conveyor 16 having a narrow lateral width that vertically conveys the packs P in another direction different in the conveying direction by 90 degrees is arranged adjacent to each other in an orthogonal manner. In addition, a front end portion 17a between the discharge conveyors 13 and 16 is slightly higher than the upper surface of the discharge conveyor 13, and the crossover plate 17 is provided.
Is provided, and a discharge pusher 15 having a push rod 15b attached to the tip of an arm 15a whose base end is pivotally mounted and pivotally rotated in an arc by a driving means (not shown) is provided above the Has been. Each of the packs P discharged onto the discharging conveyor 13 is conveyed to the end side of the discharging conveyor 13 and the front end portion 1 of the transition plate 17 is conveyed.
7a is temporarily locked to be in an aligned state, and is pushed to the starting end side of the discharging conveyor 16 in an aligned state by the pushing rod 15b of the discharging pusher 15 which swings and rotates. It is transported to the process and boxed and other work is performed.

However, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, but various modifications can be made within the scope of the invention. For example, in the embodiment, the upper heat treatment tank 1
Is for heating and the lower heat treatment tank 2 is for cooling. However, when the upper heat treatment tank is for cooling and the lower heat treatment tank is for heating, or when the upper and lower heat treatment tanks are both for heating or cooling, It can also be applied to the one in which the heat treatment tank is provided only on one of the upper and lower sides. Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the chain conveyor is used as the bucket conveying means, but it can be applied to other conveyors having the same function. Further, as means for aligning the packs P on the discharging conveyor 13 and means for transferring to another discharging conveyor 16,
A known means different from the above-described embodiment may be used, or the discharging conveyor 13 may be omitted and the discharging portion 12 of the processing conveyor C may be directly discharged onto another discharging conveyor 16. May be.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, the pack is not conveyed upside down as in the conventional case, but is horizontally held in the heat treatment tank by being stably held in the bucket in the upright or upright state. As a result, the loss of food contents is not noticeable and the product value is enhanced, and no gap is formed between the food and the pack itself, so the food contents may collapse during heat treatment of the product or during transportation after shipping. No trouble occurs. Further, since the pack is conveyed in the upright or upright state, it is possible to prevent the pin pole and the print surface from being damaged due to the pack rubbing against the bucket. Further, when the food contents filled in the pack body are those which solidify during heat treatment or cooling, such as tofu, the additives are evenly distributed without unevenness and, for example, in the same pack such as a water canister. In the case of filling with different hue specific gravity, it is finished by being divided into upper and lower two layers. Further, the heat-treated pack P is smoothly discharged onto the upper surface of the discharging conveyor by sliding down the inner surface of the top plate of the contained bucket as a chute, so that there is a possibility that the pack or food contents are damaged by a drop impact. At the same time, the discharge timings of the packs to be discharged at the same time coincide with each other, and the positional deviation is small, and the packs are discharged in a substantially horizontal row. Therefore, the subsequent alignment process is unnecessary and significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of a device for conveying packed food according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a bucket taken out.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a packed state of a pack in a bucket.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing another storage state (1) of the pack in the bucket.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing how food contents are reduced.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a discharge unit.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a conventional transfer device.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a conventional bucket.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view showing a packed state of a pack in a conventional bucket.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a conventional loss of food contents.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing an unaligned state of packs in a discharge portion that has conventionally occurred.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 Heat treatment tank 3, 4, 5 Sprocket 6 Chain 7 Bucket 8 Hole 10 Supply part 11 Insertion pusher 12 Discharge part 13 Discharge conveyor 14 Food contents 15 Alignment bar 16 Discharge conveyor 17 Cross plate 17 Discharge pusher C Chain conveyor P Packed food (pack)

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A large number of buckets are mounted in parallel on a processing conveyor that travels endlessly, and a heat treatment tank is disposed in the middle of a traveling passage of the processing conveyor, and A supply part for sequentially supplying the packed foods to the buckets is provided in the rear traveling passage, and a discharging part for sequentially discharging the packed foods from the buckets is provided on the traveling passage in front of the heat treatment tank. Each of these buckets is arranged adjacent to each other, and each of these buckets horizontally passes through the heat treatment tank to perform a desired heat treatment on the packed food at that time. Means that the bottom plate located on the side of attachment to the processing conveyor and the top plate located away from the side of attachment to the processing conveyor are in parallel steps. Along with the arrangement, the front end of the bottom plate and the rear end of the top plate are formed in a stepwise manner by connecting them at right angles with a partition plate, and each adjacent bucket has the processing conveyor in the heat treatment tank. When passing horizontally through the, the top plate of the rear bucket is projected parallel to the upper side of the bottom plate of the front bucket, and the packed food is properly placed between the top plate and the bottom plate of each adjacent bucket. A conveying device for packed foods, which is accommodated and conveyed horizontally in an upright or inverted state. 2. The processing conveyor is configured so that each bucket is conveyed in an arcuate trajectory in which the buckets gradually approach the upper surface of the discharging conveyor in the discharging section and then move away in the upward tilting direction. The packed food according to claim 1, wherein the packed food is discharged to the upper surface of the discharging conveyor by using the inner surface of the top plate of the bucket which is configured to be inclined downward when approaching as a chute. Transport device.