JPH08261618A - Thermal insulation device and frozen article manufacturing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide the structure of a thermal insulation vessel capable of reducing loss of chilled air in a thermal insulation vessel and provide a frozen article manufacturing device capable of taking out a frozen article easily and reducing loss of a low temperature liquefied gas. CONSTITUTION: A frozen article take out opening 13 provided with an openable shelter member 12 is installed to the bottom of a thermal insulation vessel 11. A frozen article manufacturing device provides a low temperature liquefied gas flow passage 23 having a frozen article charging part 23 on the upstream side and a separation part 2 which separates a frozen article A on the downstream side in the thermal insulation vessel 11 respectively and a liquid accumulation part 25 which collects the low temperature liquefied gas separated at the separation part 24 and houses a pump 22 which circulates the low temperature liquefied gas in the liquid accumulation part 25 in the low temperature liquefied gas flow passage 21 while the frozen article take out opening 13 is laid out at the position at which the frozen article A drops, being separated at the separated part 24 drops.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cold-storage container and a frozen product producing apparatus, and more specifically, to a granular or small frozen product frozen in a rose shape, for example, liquid droplets such as water, fruit juice and blood. Structure of a cool container suitable for storing frozen ones, frozen small solid products such as shrimp, shirasu, and red beans, and frozen products for freezing the liquid or solid products in a rose shape The present invention relates to the structure of manufacturing equipment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the problems to be solved by the invention
As a cold storage container for storing various frozen products, a container provided with an opening / closing door on the front surface or the upper surface like a freezer is generally used. However, in the cold storage container provided with the opening / closing door on the front surface, if the opening / closing door is opened at the time of putting in / out the frozen material, a large amount of cold air will flow out of the container, resulting in energy loss. Further, in the case of the one having the opening / closing door on the upper surface, the outflow of the cold air was not so large, but the taking in and out of the frozen product was troublesome.

On the other hand, in order to freeze the above-mentioned liquid substances such as water, fruit juice and blood, and small solid substances such as shrimp, shirasu and azuki beans into roses, they are put into a low temperature liquefied gas such as liquid nitrogen. There is known a frozen product manufacturing apparatus for freezing and then freezing. In a frozen matter manufacturing apparatus using such a low temperature liquefied gas, for example, a structure as shown in FIG. 5 is adopted so that the freezing process can be continuously performed. The frozen material manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. 5 is provided with an outlet 3 for frozen material 2 near the top of the cold container 1, and the frozen material 2 is transferred from the separating section 4 at the bottom of the cold container to a conveyor means 5 such as a belt conveyor or a screw conveyor. The frozen material 2 is transferred to the outlet 3 and taken out of the apparatus (see US Pat. No. 4,655,047).

However, in this structure, the space occupied by the conveying means 5 becomes large, so that there is an inconvenience that the apparatus becomes large in size, and the equipment cost also increases. Moreover, since the take-out port 3 of the frozen material 2 is always open and in contact with the atmosphere, loss of the low-temperature liquefied gas occurs due to release of the cold air of the low-temperature liquefied gas, and further, the transport means 5 is cooled. A low temperature liquefied gas was also needed.

As another frozen matter manufacturing apparatus, for example, one described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-284856 is known. This frozen matter manufacturing apparatus is provided with a to-be-frozen object charging section upstream of a gutter-shaped low-temperature liquefied gas flow path arranged in a cool container, and a separating section at the end for separating the low-temperature liquefied gas and frozen matter. However, if a frozen matter outlet for taking out the frozen matter separated in the separation section to the outside is provided at the bottom of the cold insulation container with an open atmosphere, the frozen matter can be easily taken out, but in the cold insulation container Since the specific gravity of the cold air and that of the outside air are different, the cold air of the low temperature liquefied gas tends to flow downward, and a large amount of low temperature gas leaks to the outside of the device at the same time when the frozen material is taken out, consuming more low temperature liquefied gas than necessary It will be.

Therefore, the present invention provides a structure of a cold insulation container which can reduce the loss of cold air in the cold insulation container, can easily take out frozen products, and reduce the loss of low temperature liquefied gas. It is an object of the present invention to provide a frozen product manufacturing apparatus capable of performing the above.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the cold-storage container of the present invention is a cold-storage container for storing frozen products, wherein the frozen-product container is provided with an opening / closing shield member at the bottom thereof. An outlet is provided, and further, a plurality of shielding members for the frozen matter outlet are provided in series, and can be opened and closed independently.
In addition, a rotary valve having a plurality of vane plates is provided at the frozen matter outlet instead of the openable / closable shielding member.

The frozen matter producing apparatus of the present invention comprises a cryogenic liquefied gas stream having a portion for feeding a frozen material in the upstream and a separating section for separating the frozen liquefied gas and the frozen matter in the downstream, in the cold insulation container having the above structure. A passage, a liquid reservoir for collecting the low-temperature liquefied gas separated in the separation unit, and a pump for circulating the low-temperature liquefied gas in the liquid reservoir to the low-temperature liquefied gas flow path, and separating in the separation unit The frozen product take-out port is arranged at a position where the frozen product falls.

[0009]

[Operation] According to the above configuration, since the frozen matter outlet is provided at the bottom of the cold insulation container, the frozen matter can be taken out by gravity falling by gravity. Since the frozen material outlet provided at the bottom of the cold storage container is provided with a shield member that can be opened and closed, the shield member is "opened" to open the frozen material only when a predetermined amount of frozen material is accumulated on the shield member. By removing the shielding member and immediately closing the shielding member, the cold air in the cold insulating container flows into the atmosphere for a short time when the frozen product is taken out, so that the loss of the cold air is reduced.

Further, when a plurality of shielding members are provided in series, at least one of the shielding members is operated so as to be always "closed", so that outflow of cold air in the cool container can be suppressed. The loss of cold air can be further reduced.

If a rotary valve having a plurality of vanes is used instead of the shielding member, some of the vanes will always block the frozen matter outlet,
By rotating the two rotary valves, it becomes possible to take out frozen products while keeping the inside of the cold insulation container closed.

By storing the frozen product manufacturing apparatus having the above-mentioned configuration in the cold-storage container thus constructed, the consumption amount of low-temperature liquefied gas can be greatly reduced, and liquids such as water, fruit juice, blood and shrimp. , Freezing treatment of small solid products such as shirasu and red beans can be performed efficiently and at low cost. further,
The device can be made compact because no special transportation means is required.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the frozen material manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, in which various equipments required for frozen material manufacturing are arranged in a cold container according to the present invention.

First, the cold storage container 11 is a box-shaped container whose peripheral wall is formed by a well-known heat insulating structure, and has a frozen material outlet 13 provided with a shield member 12 that can be opened and closed at the bottom. The cold storage container 1
A frozen material recovery container 14 for recovering the frozen material A taken out from inside 1 is provided.

A gutter-shaped low temperature liquefied gas flow path 21 through which a low temperature liquefied gas flows is provided in the cold insulation container 11 as a device for producing frozen products. This low temperature liquefied gas channel 21
A pump 22 that circulates the low-temperature liquefied gas to the flow path 21 and a frozen-object input section 23 that inputs the frozen object B into the low-temperature liquefied gas flowing in the flow path 21 are provided in the upstream portion 21a of The downstream end 21b of the low-temperature liquefied gas flow path 21 is provided with a separation unit 24 for separating the frozen material A frozen in the flow path 21 from the low-temperature liquefied gas.

The separating section 24 has a shape which allows the low-temperature liquefied gas to pass through but does not allow the frozen material A to pass through, for example, is formed by a net-like material or a grid-like material having small holes.
The separating unit 24 is provided at a position where the separated frozen product A can be dropped toward the frozen product outlet 13. On the other hand, the low temperature liquefied gas separated by the separation unit 24 is
Although it flows down to the bottom portion of the cold insulation container 11, the bottom portion of this cold insulation container 11 is used as a liquid reservoir 25 for collecting the low temperature liquefied gas. The liquid reservoir 25 is provided with a low temperature liquefied gas supply pipe 26 for supplying low temperature liquefied gas.

The low temperature liquefied gas passage 21 is provided with a pump 22.
The frozen object B can be sufficiently brought into contact with the low temperature liquefied gas depending on the flow rate of the low temperature liquefied gas supplied from the unit and the shape, physical properties, etc. of the frozen object B input from the frozen object input unit 23. It has such a shape that it can be surely frozen at least the surface portion of the frozen object B.

As the pump 22, any pump such as an air lift pump or a screw pump can be used, but the air lift pump is most suitable. That is, as is well known, an air lift pump supplies a gas for pumping liquid as bubbles with a particle size of about 1 mm from a gas introduction pipe opened at the lower end of the pumping pipe, and lifts the liquid by the levitation force of the bubbles. Since it does not require power such as electric power, it has no mechanical moving parts, it does not compress liquid, and it has good cleaning properties. Most suitable as a pump used in the device. The pumping gas (driving gas) for the air lift pump can be easily obtained by heating a part of the low-temperature liquefied gas used in the atmosphere, etc. No need at all, just a simple heat exchanger, piping, valves, etc.

Further, as shown in the present embodiment, by forming the low temperature liquefied gas flow passage 21 in upper and lower two stages, the length of the entire apparatus can be shortened without changing the effective length of the flow passage, Since the length of the cold insulation container 11 surrounding the flow path can be shortened, the freezing device can be downsized, the installation area can be reduced, and the amount of low-temperature liquefied gas used can be reduced.

In the frozen product manufacturing apparatus having such a configuration, the pump 22 is operated to flow the low temperature liquefied gas, for example, liquid nitrogen, into the low temperature liquefied gas flow path 21, and the frozen material input unit 2
When a frozen substance B, for example, a liquid substance such as water or fruit juice or a small solid substance such as shrimp or shirasu is added from 3, the frozen substance B is
Is cooled while flowing downstream with the flow of the low-temperature liquefied gas, frozen and then separated from the low-temperature liquefied gas in the separation unit 24 and dropped to the frozen material outlet 13.

Then, when the amount of the frozen material A dropped to the frozen material outlet 13 reaches a predetermined amount or after a predetermined time has passed, the plate-shaped shielding member 12 is, as shown by an imaginary line in FIG. Frozen object A by opening on both sides in the horizontal direction
Can be taken out and collected in the frozen material collecting container 14. At this time, the frozen material A can be taken out by gravity falling, and by closing the shielding member 12 except when the frozen material A is taken out, the outflow of cold air in the cold insulation container 11 can be suppressed. it can.

The shielding member 12 may be a single opening instead of the double opening as shown, or may be a combination of a plurality of sheets. In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, a shield member 1 having the same configuration as the shield member 12 is provided at the frozen material outlet 13.
By arranging 2a and 12b vertically in two stages and forming each of them so that they can be opened and closed independently, it is possible to further suppress the outflow of cold air in the cold insulation container 11. That is, when the frozen material A is taken out, the upper and lower shield members 12a, 12b
By alternately opening and closing, and always closing one of them, it is possible to prevent the inside of the cold insulation container 11 and the outside air from communicating with each other, so that the outflow of cold air can be significantly reduced.

Further, as the opening / closing mechanism of the shield member at the frozen material outlet 13, not only the above-mentioned horizontal movement system, but also a swing system (double door opening) for rotating the shield members 12c and 12d as shown in FIG. Method). At this time, the shield members 12c and 12d may be rotatably supported by springs or the like, and the shield members may be naturally opened and closed by the weight of the frozen material A accumulated on the shield members 12c and 12d.

Further, even if a rotary valve 15 as shown in FIG. 4 is provided at the frozen product outlet 13, the loss of cold air can be suppressed. In this rotary valve 15, an impeller 17 having a plurality of swirl vanes 17a at predetermined intervals is rotatably provided inside a cylindrical valve box 16, and the tip of the swirl vane 17a is the inner peripheral surface of the valve box. Is formed so as to be in contact with the.

According to such a rotary valve 15, by rotating the impeller 17, the cold storage container 11
The swirl vanes 17a, 1 are kept in a state where the inside air and the outside air are cut off.
The frozen material A accumulated in the recess 17b between the 7a can be taken out to the outside. Further, if the rotation speed of the impeller 17 is kept constant, the frozen material A can be quantitatively taken out.

The drive mechanism for actuating the shielding member is arbitrary, and for example, it can be opened and closed directly by a cylinder, a motor or the like or indirectly through a gear or a link. In addition, when the shielding member is provided in two or more stages,
Different opening / closing mechanisms may be combined, and the opening / closing operations of the respective shielding members may be mechanically or electrically interlocked.

In the above embodiment, the cold storage container is
Although the case of storing the frozen material manufacturing device has been described as an example,
The cold storage container of the present invention can also be used for storing and storing frozen products. For example, as a container for storing the frozen or granular frozen product in a frozen state collected in the frozen product recovery container at a low temperature, or in place of the frozen product recovery container, at the frozen product outlet, at the bottom. A cold storage container of the present invention having a frozen material outlet provided with an openable / closable shielding member is continuously provided, and the frozen material is collected and stored in the cold storage container, and a required amount of frozen material is taken out from the bottom thereof. You can also

[0028]

As described above, since the cold storage container of the present invention is provided with the frozen material outlet provided with the openable / closable shielding member at the bottom, the frozen material in the container can be easily dropped by gravity. It is possible to reduce the loss of cold air in the container by removing the frozen matter and closing the shielding member except when the frozen matter is removed. In particular, by providing a plurality of shielding members in series or providing a rotary valve having a plurality of vanes, it is possible to suppress the outflow of cold air in the cool container and further reduce the loss of cold air. You can

Further, since the frozen material producing apparatus of the present invention is provided with the frozen material outlet having the above-mentioned configuration below the separating portion for separating the frozen material frozen and the low temperature liquefied gas, loss of cold air is suppressed. However, it is possible to take out frozen products by free fall, and it is not only necessary to install a carrier device for taking out frozen products, but also low-temperature liquefied gas is not consumed to cool the carrier devices and low-temperature liquefaction is achieved. The amount of gas used can be reduced. Furthermore, since power and space for operation are not required, frozen products can be manufactured and stored at low cost, and a compact device can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a frozen product manufacturing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment in which two shield members are provided in series at a frozen matter extraction port.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the same.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment in which a rotary valve is provided at a frozen material outlet.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing an example of a conventional frozen material manufacturing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Cooling container, 12 ... Shielding member, 13 ... Frozen material outlet, 14 ... Frozen material collecting container, 15 ... Rotary valve,
16 ... Valve box, 17 ... Impeller, 17a ... Swirling blade, 17b
... Recess 21 ... Low temperature liquefied gas flow path, 22 ... Pump, 23 ... Frozen object input section, 24 ... Separation section, 25 ... Liquid storage section, 26 ... Low temperature liquefied gas supply pipe A ... Frozen object, B ... Frozen object Stuff

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A cold-storage container for storing a frozen product, characterized in that a frozen-product outlet provided with an openable / closable shielding member is provided at the bottom of the cold-storage container. 2. The cold insulation container according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the shielding members for the frozen matter outlet are provided in series and can be opened and closed independently. 3. The cold insulation container according to claim 1, wherein a rotary valve having a plurality of vane plates is provided at the frozen matter removal port instead of the openable / closable shielding member. 4. A low temperature liquefied gas, which has a frozen material input part upstream and a separation part for separating a low temperature liquefied gas and a frozen product downstream from the inside of the cold insulation container according to any one of claims 1 to 3. A flow passage, a liquid reservoir for collecting the low temperature liquefied gas separated in the separation unit, and a pump for circulating the low temperature liquefied gas in the liquid reservoir into the low temperature liquefied gas flow passage, and in the separation unit A frozen material manufacturing apparatus, wherein the frozen material outlet is arranged at a position where the separated frozen material falls.