JPH0745446Y2 - 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,
Tokoroden, semi-solid foods such as jelly, jelly, pudding, etc., are packed, for example, a square container with an upper opening made of plastic is filled with the food contents, and a plastic sheet material is used to close the opening. It is hermetically sealed by fixing a lid such as. In addition, depending on the food, a flange is provided on the opening edge and necessary printing is performed on the lid. These packed foods are respectively housed in a large number of buckets arranged side by side on a 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, for example. During the transportation, necessary heat treatments such as solidification molding, heat sterilization, and cooling are performed in the heat treatment tank.

FIG. 8 shows the configuration of a conventionally known transport device using a chain conveyor. As shown in this figure, the sprocket 23 on the side for supplying the packed food P (hereinafter referred to as the pack P), the sprocket (not shown) arranged in the vicinity of the inside and outside of the heat treatment tanks 21 and 22, and the heat treatment tank 2
Between the sprocket 24 on the side separating the Nos. 1 and 22 and the sprocket 25 on the discharge side, there is an endless chain 26.
Are laid over to form a processing conveyor. As shown in FIG. 9, a large number of substantially Z-shaped buckets 27 are attached to the chain 26 via mounting plates 29 in parallel at equal intervals. This bucket 27 has a bottom plate 2
7a, left and right side plates 27b, a partition plate 27c rising from the bottom plate 27a in an inclined shape, and a top plate 27d extending from the upper end of the partition plate 27c in the transport direction.

The processing conveyor has a chain 26 when the sprocket is rotated by a driving device (not shown).
The bucket 27 attached to is driven in the direction of arrow D. When the pack P containing the contents is continuously pushed into the bucket 27 by the insertion pusher 31 in the supply unit 30 (a plurality of packs P in the width direction of the bucket 27), the pack P conveyed by the bucket 27 is moved upward. Heat treatment tank 21 for heating and lower heat treatment tank 2 for cooling
After passing through 2, the desired heat treatment is carried out, and the pack P containing the contents is discharged from the discharging section 32 to the discharging conveyor 33 which is driven in the direction orthogonal to the carrying direction of the bucket 27 by the processing conveyor.

In this carrying device, the food is generally discharged on the discharge conveyor 33 in an upright state in which the opening for filling the food contents is up, that is, the printed surface of the attached lid is the upper surface. As described above, when the pack P is inserted by the supply unit 30, the pack P is placed on the partition plate 27c of the bucket 27 in an upright state. This pack P is a heat treatment tank 2 for heating on the upper side.
When passing through 1, the pack P is conveyed in an inverted state in which the bottom surface of the pack P leans against an inclined partition plate 27c as shown in FIG. Further, the pack P is transferred to the partition plate 27c of the adjacent front bucket when the chain 26 is turned by the sprocket 24, and when passing through the lower cooling heat treatment tank 22, the pack P of FIG. As described above, the upper surface (printing surface) of the pack P is conveyed in an inverted state in which the upper surface (printing surface) leans against the inclined partition plate 27c of the front bucket.

This pack P includes a sprocket 2 on the discharge side.
When the direction of the processing conveyor is changed by 5 in the discharging section 32, the interval between the adjacent buckets 27 expands in a fan shape, so that the stored packs P are discharged and on the discharging conveyor 33 located immediately below. Will be dropped vertically. It should be noted that the pack P may have a rectangular shape and a flange portion P1 as shown in FIG. 11, and may have a shallow depth d or a deep depth. is there.

[0007]

In this carrying device, the pack P between adjacent buckets 27 has a partition plate 27 without the side plate 27b of the front bucket 27 as shown in FIG. 10 (b).
When the pack P is transported while being positioned on the outer surface side of d, the pack P moves by buoyancy when passing through the heat treatment tank 22,
In particular, the packs P on both sides are squeezed out as shown in FIG. 12, and the squeezed packs P may collide with the side plates 27b of the rear bucket 27. For this reason, the food filled in the pack P is damaged or the pack P is discharged from the discharge part 32 in an unaligned state. That is, the pack P located in the center of the bucket 27 is shown in FIG.
Although it is immediately discharged as shown in (a), the packs P located on both sides of the bucket 27 are disturbed by the side plates 27b of the rear bucket 27 as shown in FIG. Therefore, it is discharged to the discharge conveyor 33 in a non-aligned state, and the subsequent alignment work becomes difficult.

Further, as shown in FIG. 14, in the discharging section 32, the bucket 27 travels on the conveying passage of the discharging conveyor 33 in such a manner that the buckets 27 cross each other at right angles.
In order to prevent the succeeding bucket 27 from colliding with the pack P discharged above, the bucket 27 and the discharging conveyor 3
A space H1 of at least the depth d of the pack P to be conveyed is required between the first and second packs. When the pack P is discharged from such a high position, the pack P is easily damaged by the drop impact and it becomes difficult to discharge the pack P in the aligned state. Particularly when the pack P is 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 as shown in FIG. When the pack P is placed on the discharge conveyor 33 and the pack P is shallow, the bottom of the pack P rides on the top plate 27d of the bucket 27 as shown in FIG. 14B, and the pack P falls while rotating. The discharge state is not stable due to landing in an upright state, and damage due to a drop impact becomes a further problem.

Further, as shown in FIG. 15, even when the pack P is conveyed so that the direction of the pack P is reversed and the pack is discharged, as shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), the top plate 27d of the bucket 27 is not necessarily slid to land in an upright state.
The flange portion P1 of the pack P is caught on the top plate 27d of the bucket 27 and lands in an upright state, or the flange portion P1 of the pack P enters the inside of the bucket 27 and lands in an upright state as shown in FIG. The landing condition is not constant due to such reasons.

The present invention has been proposed in order to solve such a problem, and provides a packed food conveying device which can convey a pack in a stable state and discharge it safely and in an aligned state. The purpose is to provide.

[0011]

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 path in front of the heat treatment tank, discharge parts for sequentially discharging the heat-treated packed food from each of the above buckets are provided adjacent to each other. Below the discharge parts, the discharged packed food is processed in the next step. In a packed food conveying device provided with a discharge conveyor for conveying to, each of the buckets is a bottom plate that is an attachment side to the processing conveyor, and a top plate arranged in parallel with the bottom plate. The space is connected by a partition plate and a side plate to form a box-shaped box with a U-shaped cross section, and the bucket is attached to the processing conveyor with the opening facing rearward in the transport direction and packed in the pack. The food is stored in an inverted state in the space formed by the front bucket and the outer surface of the partition plate of the adjacent rear bucket, and is conveyed so as to horizontally pass through the heat treatment tank, and then discharged. The conveyor is intermittently driven at the same speed as or slightly faster than the conveying speed of the bucket in the same direction as the conveying direction of the bucket by the processing conveyor, and the processing conveyor has each bucket in the discharging section. The discharge conveyor is configured such that it gradually moves closer to the upper surface of the starting end side in a downward slope and then is conveyed so as to draw an arcuate trajectory that goes away upward, and between adjacent buckets is expanded. The packed foods carried by the above-mentioned discharge conveyors in which the front side of the bottom face is stopped between the buckets and the front side of the bottom face is stopped at the inner side of the top plate of the front bucket are further expanded to spread the top of the front bucket. While being separated from the inner surface of the plate and discharged to the discharge conveyor,
This is a device for conveying packed food that is pushed forward by the outer surface of the partition plate of the rear bucket and aligned, and is then conveyed by the driven discharge conveyor.
Further, according to the present invention, the packed food is provided with a flange portion on the upper surface of the pack body, and the packed food is conveyed to the processing conveyor while being housed in the bucket with the flange surface facing the inner surface of the partition plate. It is a transportation device for packed foods.

[0012]

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, a heat treatment tank 1 for heating is arranged on the upper side, and a heat treatment tank 2 for cooling is arranged on the lower side, respectively, and a sprocket 3 is provided at a point where the direction is changed so as to pass through the heat treatment tanks 1 and 2. ，
An endless chain 6 is mounted between 4, 5 and a plurality of sprockets (not shown) to form a processing conveyor C. On this processing conveyor C, a large number of buckets 7 for accommodating and transporting packed foods (hereinafter referred to as packs P) filled with food contents are installed between the left and right chains 6 as shown in FIG. In this manner, they are attached in parallel at equal intervals. The bucket 7 has a partition plate 7 between the bottom plate 7a, which is the mounting side of the processing conveyor C, and the top plate 7d, which is arranged in parallel with the bottom plate 7a.
It is formed into a box shape in which the cross section connected by c is U-shaped and both sides are connected by side plates 7b, and is attached to the chain 6 via the attachment plate 9 with the opening 10 facing rearward in the transport direction. ing. In the bucket 7, the heat treatment tank 1,
2 when passing horizontally through the pack P is warm water 1a in the tank
Also, a large number of holes 8 are formed so as to be immersed in the cold water 2a.

The processing conveyor C comprises the sprocket 3
The supply section 11 for the pack P is located at the location where the direction is changed by the sprocket 5, and the discharge section 1 for the pack P is located at the location where the direction is changed by the sprocket 5.
4 are respectively set, and a means for supplying the pack P by the insertion pusher 12 is provided at a position adjacent to the supply section 11, and the passage between the upper and lower heat treatment tanks 1 and 2 is regulated at a key point. Each sprocket is arranged so that each bucket 7 travels horizontally, and below the discharge portion 14 of the processing conveyor C, the bucket 7 is intermittently provided in the same direction as the carrying direction of the bucket 7. A driven discharge conveyor 13 is provided. When each sprocket of the processing conveyor C is rotated by a drive device (not shown), each bucket 7 attached to the chain 6 is conveyed in the direction D of the arrow in the drawing, and is fed into each bucket 7 by the supply unit 11. After the desired heat treatment is performed on the stored packs P in the heat treatment tanks 1 and 2, the packs P are discharged from the discharging section 14 to the discharging conveyor 15 in an endless series. Is patrolled.

In the transporting device having the above-described structure, the pack P pressed by the insertion pusher 11 onto the inner surface of the partition plate 7c horizontally moved by the supply unit 10 with respect to the buckets 7 which are continuously transported. Are housed in an upright position. When the processing conveyor C is turned around by the sprocket 3 so that the partition plate 7c of the bucket 7 stands up and horizontally passes through the heat treatment tank 1 for heating, the pack P is fed to the pack P as shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), the front bucket 7 with the opening 10 directed in the opposite direction to the transport direction, and the partition plate 7c of the adjacent rear bucket 7
The heat treatment is performed while being conveyed while being placed in an inverted state in a space formed by the outer surface. After that, when the processing conveyor C is turned around by the sprocket 4 and horizontally passes through the cooling heat treatment tank 2 on the lower side, the pack P is fed to the pack P as shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), it is placed upside down in a space formed by the front bucket 7 whose top and bottom are reversed and the opening 10 is directed in the direction opposite to the transport direction, and the partition plate 7c outer surface of the adjacent rear bucket 7. It is heat-treated while being conveyed in a mode.

In this carrying device, the adjacent buckets 7 are
The movement of the packs P accommodated in a plurality of rows between them is restricted by the side plate 7b of the front bucket 7 in the left-right direction and the partition plate 7 of the rear bucket 7 in the front-rear direction as shown in FIG.
c As it is transported while its movement is restricted by the outer surface,
When passing through the heat treatment tanks 1 and 2 as in the above-described conventional transfer device, these packs P move due to buoyancy or the like, so that the packs P on both sides particularly stick out to the outside or collide with the side plate 7b of the rear bucket 7. There is no fear of doing it. Each bucket 7 has a side plate 7b and a partition plate 7c as shown in FIG.
May have a box shape with a U-shaped cross section.

In the discharging portion 14 of the pack P, as shown in FIG. 6, each bucket 7 draws an arcuate locus that gradually approaches the upper surface of the discharging conveyor 13 on the starting end side in a downward sloping direction and then moves upward. It is configured to be transported. The approach angle of the bucket 7 is, for example, 30 °.
The winding angle A of the chain 6 with respect to the sprocket 5 is set so as to form a depression angle of about 45 °, and when the bucket 7 comes closest to the discharging conveyor 13, the top plate 7d of the bucket 7 and discharging The distance H to the upper surface of the conveyor 13 is set to be, for example, about 5 to 10 mm. The discharge conveyor 13 has a speed V which is the same as or slightly higher than the transfer speed V1 of the bucket 7.
In addition to being driven at 2, the discharge conveyor 13 is intermittently driven at predetermined time intervals as described later.

The bucket 7 that has entered above the discharge conveyor 13 as shown in FIG. 6 (a) is changed from the direction of the processing conveyor C by the sprocket 5 as shown in FIG.
Since the top plate 7d side of each adjacent bucket 7 is expanded in a fan shape as in (c), the packs P accommodated between the respective buckets 7 are sequentially discharged onto the upper surface of the discharge conveyor 13. That is, initially, as shown in FIG. 6A, the inverted packs P in which the upper surface is supported by the inner surface of the partition plate 7c of the front bucket 7 and the flange portion P1 by the inner surface of the top plate 7d of the front bucket 7 are adjacent to each other. When the buckets 7 are spread apart, as shown in FIG. 6 (b), the inner surface of the top plate 7d is used as a fulcrum to rotate to the upright state while being tilted in the clockwise direction, and the bottom of the pack P is temporarily discharged. It is held between the upper surface of the conveyor 13 and the inner surface of the top plate 7d of the front bucket 7. After that, when the adjacent buckets 7 are further expanded as shown in FIG. 6C, the top plate 7d of the front bucket 7 is opened.
The pack P is separated from the inner surface and discharged onto the upper surface of the discharging conveyor 13, and the discharged pack P is discharged by the outer surface of the partition plate 7c of the rear bucket 7 from the discharging conveyor 1.
3 is extruded to the front side to be in an aligned state. In addition, during the period up to this point, the discharge conveyor 13 is stopped,
After that, the discharging conveyor 13 is driven to drive the pack P
To the end side. In this case, the discharge conveyor 1
As a means for controlling the intermittent drive of the bucket 3, for example, the bucket 7
Alternatively, a detection switch (not shown) that is activated by engaging with the pack P may be provided adjacent to the traveling passage, and the drive source of the discharging conveyor 13 may be activated by the output of this detection switch.

Unlike the conventional discharging means, the pack P thus heat-treated is not subject to a drop impact, so that there is no risk of damage, and the packs P are discharged at the same time. Since the timings coincide with each other and the positional deviation is small and the buckets 7 are aligned by the subsequent pressing of the buckets 7, they are discharged to the upper surface of the starting end side of the discharging conveyor 13 in a substantially horizontal row.

At the end side of the discharging conveyor 13, for example, an aligning discharging means can be added as shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, the start end side of the narrow discharge conveyor 16 that conveys the packs P in a vertical direction in a different direction by 90 degrees in the same manner as the discharge conveyor 33 according to the conventional example is arranged adjacent to each other in an orthogonal manner. There is. A crossover plate 17 is erected between the discharge conveyors 13 and 16 in a manner that the front end portion 17a is slightly higher than the upper surface of the discharge conveyor 13, and a base end is pivotally mounted above the crossover plate 17. There is provided a discharge pusher 15 having a push rod 15b attached to the tip of an arm 15a which is oscillated and rotated in an arc shape by a driving means (not shown). Each pack P discharged onto the discharging conveyor 13 is conveyed to the terminal end side of the discharging conveyor 13 and temporarily locked at the front end 17a of the crossover plate 17 to be in an aligned state and swing and rotate. After being pushed out in an aligned state by the pushing rod 15b of the discharge pusher 15 toward the starting end side of the discharge conveyor 16, the discharge conveyor 16 conveys it to the next step for packing and other work.

However, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, but various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist. 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.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention,
For each bucket arranged in parallel on the processing conveyor with a U-shaped cross section and the opening facing the direction opposite to the conveying direction, the front side bucket and the outer surface of the partition plate of the rear side bucket adjacent to the front side bucket are formed. Since the packed food is accommodated in an inverted state in the space and is transported, it is possible to prevent the packed food from being indiscriminately moved or colliding during transportation,
It is possible to stably carry and discharge. In addition, the packed food that is discharged from the discharge section of the processing conveyor after the desired heat treatment is discharged to the discharge conveyor is directly above the discharge conveyor that is intermittently driven at the same speed or at a slightly high speed in the same direction as the bucket conveying direction. When passing through the proximity position, the packed food partially landed on the discharge conveyor is discharged so as to be separated from the bucket, and the discharged packed food is pressed against the succeeding bucket. Since they are aligned, unlike the conventional one in which they are discharged from a high position and dropped onto a discharge conveyor, problems such as damage of packaged food and discharge in a misaligned state are solved.

[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 according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a carrying state of a bucket accommodating a pack according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a rear view of a bucket accommodating a pack according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a bucket according to another embodiment of the present invention in a carrying state.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation state in which a pack is discharged from a discharging unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the operation of the alignment discharge means added to the discharge conveyor of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram showing a conventional conveying device.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a conventional bucket taken out.

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view showing a carrying state of a bucket accommodating a pack in the conventional example.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing an aspect of a pack to be conveyed in the present invention and the conventional example.

FIG. 12 is a front view of a bucket containing a pack according to a conventional example.

FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation state in which the pack is discharged from the discharging portion in the conventional example.

FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation state in which a pack is discharged from a discharging portion in a conventional example.

FIG. 15 is a cross-sectional view showing an operation state in which the pack is discharged from the discharging unit in the conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2 Heat treatment tank 3, 4, 5 Sprocket 6 Chain 7 Bucket 11 Supply part 12 Insertion pusher 13, 16 Discharge conveyor 14 Discharge part 15 Discharge pusher 17 Crossing plate P Packed food (pack) P1 Flange part

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 Adjacent to the traveling path in the rear is a supply unit for sequentially supplying the packed foods to the buckets, and to the traveling path in front of the heat treatment tank is an adjacent discharge unit for sequentially discharging the heat-treated packed foods from the buckets. It is provided, and in the packed food conveying device provided with a discharge conveyor for conveying the discharged packed food to the next step below the discharging section, each of the buckets is connected to the processing conveyor. The bottom plate that is the mounting side and the top plate that is arranged in parallel with the bottom plate are connected by a partition plate and side plates to form a box-shaped box with a U-shaped cross section. Together they mounted on the processing conveyor while Tsu bets is toward an opening at the rear in the conveying direction,
The packed food is accommodated in the space formed by the front bucket and the outer surface of the partition plate of the rear bucket adjacent to the front bucket, and is conveyed so as to horizontally pass through the heat treatment tank. Is intermittently driven in the same direction as or at a slightly higher speed than the transport speed of the bucket in the transport direction of the bucket by the processing conveyor. It is configured so that it gradually conveys to the upper surface of the starting end side of the discharging conveyor in a downward slope and then is conveyed in an arcuate trajectory that goes away upward, and the adjacent buckets are expanded, and at that time, each bucket is temporarily opened. The packed foods each carried by the above-mentioned discharge conveyor in the state of falling backward between the front side of the bottom surface and the back side at the inner surface of the top plate of the front bucket are stopped. With further expansion, it is separated from the inner surface of the top plate of the front bucket and discharged to the discharge conveyor, and is pushed forward by the outer surface of the partition plate of the rear bucket to be aligned and then conveyed by the driven discharge conveyor. A packed food conveying device characterized by the above. 2. The packed food is provided with a flange portion on an upper surface of a pack body, and the packed food is conveyed to the processing conveyor in a state of being accommodated in the bucket with the flange surface facing the inner surface of the partition plate. The packed food conveying device according to claim 1, wherein the conveying device is a packaged food.