JPH08266218A - Prechilling/cold insulating device for fruit/vegetable using rotary rack - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a device capable of efficiently prechilling vegetables/fruits in a short time and concurrently capable of efficiently conducting a cold insulation of them. CONSTITUTION: In a prechilling device with forced ventilation scheme equipped with a refrigerating machine, a unit cooler and a pressurizing fan and designed to chill vegetables/fruits housed in boxes each having a vent, a prechilling chamber and a cold insulation chamber are connected to each other, an electric rotary rack 2 common to both the chambers is installed in both the chambers, vegetables/fruits housing box pallets 1 each having a vent are disposed in several tiers on the rotary rack 2, the unit cooler and the pressurizing fan are placed on the upper part of the prechilling chamber and on the side face of the rotary rack, respectively, and chilling air from the unit cooler and the pressurizing fan is blown against the pallets 1 uniformly and in a laminar flow fashion and circulated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a forced draft precooling device for vegetables and fruits equipped with an electric rotating rack to carry out forced draft cooling. The present invention relates to a vegetable / fruit pre-cooling / cooling device that is automated by using a rack to improve storage efficiency and work efficiency.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Vitamin C keeps vegetables and fruits fresh for a long time
It is known that the respiratory action of harvested vegetables and the like should be suppressed in order to prevent wastage of the oysters. That is, in order to suppress the respiratory action of vegetables and maintain their freshness for a long time, it is necessary to cool the product temperature to about 5 ° C as soon as possible after harvesting. Currently used cooling methods include vacuum cooling and ventilation cooling. The vacuum cooling is a method of storing vegetables in a vacuum tank, decompressing them with a vacuum pump, and skillfully utilizing latent heat when water contained in the vegetables evaporates. Ventilation cooling is a system in which cold air of 0 to −3 ° C. is generated in a refrigerating device and this is blown onto a vegetable cardboard box to cool vegetables by heat exchange. There are two methods for ventilation cooling: differential pressure ventilation and forced ventilation. For differential pressure ventilation, a negative pressure box is created by rotating a pressure fan,
This is a method of sucking cold air in the refrigerator at -3 ° C into a negative pressure box through a vegetable corrugated cardboard box having a ventilation hole. As shown in FIG. 5, forced draft cooling is a method in which cold air is circulated in the refrigerator to cool vegetables and fruits from around the cardboard box. Figure 5
In FIG. 1, 1 is a cardboard box for storing vegetables, 7 is a unit cooler, and a refrigerator is separately installed and connected to the unit cooler 7. Cold air of 0 to -3 ° C. is blown out from the unit cooler 7, cools the vegetable cardboard box 1 from the outside, and circulates to return to the unit cooler.

[0003]

In the conventional forced draft pre-cooling device, the cold air first cools the cardboard box and the vegetables are cooled by conduction heat, so that a cooling time of 12 hours or more is required. Therefore, the precooling work can be performed only once a day, which is not practical. In addition, a floor area for rotation is required near the door to load vegetables in consideration of ventilation and to bring in vegetables with a forklift, and a ventilation space is required between pallets for effective cooling. However, the volumetric efficiency is poor, and there is a problem of about 60%. Therefore,
It has been desired to eliminate wasted space to increase volumetric efficiency, and particularly to shorten the required cooling time to enable storage on the day, completion of cooling, and storage. On the other hand, if night precooling operation implementation and early morning shipment are possible, it is advantageous in the precooling process, and the cost of electricity is saved by using the nighttime electricity, but precooling more than once is impossible as a practical problem because it involves nighttime work, The development of automation was eagerly awaited.

[0004]

As a result of various studies to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present inventor has integrally connected a pre-cooling box and a cold storage box in a forced draft pre-cooling device to form the pre-cooling box and the cold storage box. The present invention has been found to solve the above problems all at once by installing a common electric rotating rack, placing a vegetable storage cardboard box on the electric rotating rack, and precooling. That is, the present invention provides (1) a refrigerator,
In a forced draft pre-cooling device that cools vegetables and fruits stored in a box with ventilation holes equipped with a unit cooler and a pressure fan, a pre-cooling box and a cold storage box are connected, and a pre-cooling box is placed between the pre-cooling box and the cold storage box. A common electric rotating rack is installed in the cold storage box and a plurality of pallets for storing vegetables and fruits having ventilation holes are arranged in the rotating rack, the unit cooler is placed above the pre-cooling box, and the pressure fan is installed in the rotating rack. Forced with a cool box, installed in the front of the side and made to circulate by chilling air from the unit cooler and pressure fan to the vegetable and fruit storage pallet on the rotating rack in an average and laminar flow state. Ventilation pre-cooling device, and (2) vegetables in boxes with ventilation holes
In the forced draft precooling method of vegetables, which stores fruits and cools them by directly contacting vegetables and fruits through the ventilation holes,
Using the forced draft pre-cooling device with a cool box described in (1), cold air cooled to 0 to -3 ° C by a refrigerator and a unit cooler is put on a vegetable / fruit storage box pallet placed on a rotating rack. A pre-cooled vegetable / fruit storage box pallet is automatically circulated using a pressure fan to cool the vegetables / fruit to about 5 ° C in a few hours, and then the carousel is automatically operated by a time relay. A forced ventilation pre-cooling method for vegetables and fruits, which is characterized by moving and storing the pallets of storage boxes for vegetables and fruits that are loaded on a rotating rack for pre-cooling to a pre-cooling warehouse and restarting pre-cooling. Regarding

[0005]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of a forced draft precooling device with a cool box according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a vegetable / fruit cardboard box pallet, 2 is an electric rotating rack, 3 is a lower rail, 4 is a rack wheel, and when moving, the rotating rack is on the lower rail 3 at a speed of 12 m / min. Run smoothly. 5 is an upper support rail. 6 is a pre-cooling refrigerator and 7 is a unit cooler, which cools the inside of the refrigerator to 0 to -3 ° C to cool vegetables. Numeral 8 is a cold air circulation pressure fan, which cools about 1.5 m /
It is sprayed in a laminar flow state on a cardboard box of vegetables at a speed of sec, enters the box through the ventilation holes, contacts the vegetables, and is cooled to about 5 ° C. FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the precooling box. Cold air flows in the order of unit cooler 7 → cold air circulation pressure fan 8 → vegetable cardboard box 1 → unit cooler 7 to circulate and cool. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the vegetable cardboard box, which has ventilation holes 15 on the side surface of the cardboard box 14. Cool air enters from this ventilation hole 15,
The cold air can directly contact the vegetables to accelerate the cooling.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the basic structure of a horizontal carousel.

In the present invention, pallets for the corrugated box 14 of vegetables are stacked in two stages on the rotary rack 2, and the circulating cold air of 0 to -3.degree.
It is cooled to ℃. When the pre-cooling of the vegetables is completed, the automatic device operates, the carousel rotates in the clockwise direction, the racks (a to g) on which the pre-cooled cardboard box pallets are placed move to the cool box, and instead the racks (h ~ N) enters a pre-cooling box and is cooled. The movement of the pre-chilled vegetables does not require any manpower, and the midnight power can be effectively used. In this way, the vegetables cooled to + 5 ° C in the precooling box are transferred to the cold storage box cooled to 0 to -3 ° C, and the low temperature is maintained until shipping. The loading and unloading of vegetables varies depending on the situation at the site, but normally the producer carries the vegetable cardboard boxes into the collection point at around 9 to 12 o'clock,
If necessary, pre-cooled shipping is done once a day, and most of them are loaded on pallets by 17:00 and loaded on a carousel. Then, it is pre-cooled and kept cold by 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, three times at night. For loading and unloading, the push-button can be pressed to bring the carousel up to the door, so loading and unloading can be done efficiently at a single location outside the warehouse.

In the present invention, in order to shorten the cooling time, a ventilating hole is provided in the vegetable cardboard box, cold air having a pressure is blown, the cold air is sent into the box, and the cold air and the vegetables are brought into direct contact with each other for cooling. It is a thing. This results in a cooling time of about 5 hours. A vegetable cardboard box is placed on a fully automatic rotating rack 7 that rotates with an electric motor and a chain, and cold air is blown onto the vegetable cardboard boxes 14 stacked on the rotating rack to cool them. For cooling, a unit cooler is attached to the upper stage of the pre-cooling box to cool it to 0 ° C to -3 ° C, and cold air is circulated using the pressure fan 8. After the pre-cooling is completed, the carousel is automatically moved on the track (lower rail 3) on the floor of the pre-cooling box, for example, by 12 m.
By rotating the vegetables at a speed of about / min, the cooled vegetables are transported to and stored in a cool box. The cardboard boxes are stacked on the carousel 2 at the pallet loading / unloading port 11 at one door. This saves manpower. Further, the internal stowage by the forklift is not necessary, the labor and space for it are saved, and the storage capacity is increased. The required cooling time is about 5 hours because the cold air directly contacts the vegetables, and precooling can be performed four times a day. Pre-cooled vegetables must be stored at a low temperature, so a cool box is required, and humans are required to move the vegetables from the pre-cool box to the cool box, but in the pre-cooling device of the present invention, the cool box is placed in the pre-cool box. Since they are connected to form the same refrigerator and a common carousel is used, there is no need for manpower for movement. That is, if a cool box with twice the amount of pre-cooling is connected, the first time (17:00 to 22
Hour), 2nd time (22:00 to 3:00), 3rd time (3:00 to 8:00)
Since the pre-cooling is completed and it can be moved to the cool box, the vegetables brought into the pre-cool box at 3 pm can be pre-cooled 3 times, and at 8 o'clock tomorrow, the automatic device will pre-cool and cool the vegetables and fruits in a triple amount. It is possible to achieve the intended purpose.
Cooling facilities are different between the cool box and the pre-cool box. That is, the capacity of the refrigerator is large in the pre-cooling box, and a pressure fan for circulating the cold air is required. Since the cool box only needs to keep the vegetables cooled in the pre-cool box at a low temperature, only a small-capacity refrigerator is sufficient. If the fan of the pre-cooling box is stopped, it can be used as it is as a cool box. In this case, the rotation of the carousel can be performed when the pre-cooled vegetables in the pre-cooling box are moved to the cold storage box and new vegetables are introduced into the pre-cooling box. Therefore, it is planned in advance every time the pre-cooling is completed (about every 5 hours). It only has to rotate the number of racks that have been created. Note that, for example, when the production volume in July is maximum, pre-cooling is performed during the daytime, and when the production volume is small in early June, only the late-night power may be used, thereby saving the electricity bill.

[0008]

EXAMPLE Next, an example of cooling vegetables using the apparatus of the present invention will be shown, but it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this example. In the device shown in FIG.
The lettuce (10 kg) was stored in a cardboard box (14) having a ventilation hole (15), loaded on a pallet (1100 W × 1000 D × 150 t) in 7 rows × 7 stages, and the weight was about 500 kg. This pallet was loaded on the rotary rack 7 in two stages. The rotating rack 7 has a total of 20 units (a to t) rotated by a motor with a reducer.
The racks were connected by a chain. The refrigerating device of the pre-cooling box was provided with a 22 kW air-cooling refrigerator 6 and a ceiling-hung unit cooler 7, piped with R-22 (CHClF ₂ (Daikin Co., Ltd.), and cooled to 0 to -3 ° C. Used a 7.5 kw air refrigerator 10 × 1 unit and a unit cooler 9 to keep the inside of the chamber at 0 to −3 ° C. The pressure fan 8 for circulating the cold air was a static pressure 20 mmH ₂ O, 0.4 kw fan. The cold air was circulated at a cold air speed of 1.5 m / sec using 4 units x 2 trains.
Load all of the vegetable cardboard box pallets at 0 minutes, 17
When cooling started. According to the automatic temperature recorder after the operation, the lettuce having an initial temperature of 26 ° C was cooled to + 3 ° C in about 4.5 hours. The automatic equipment (time relay) operates at 22:00, and the lettuce that has completed cooling rotates the rotating rack and automatically sends it to the cold storage box. The lettuce to be newly cooled is loaded on the rotating rack in advance and cooled in the pre-cooling box. Set to start. The vegetables in the pre-cooled box were cooled to + 3 ° C, and the cold air circulation blower was stopped. The temperature inside the cold storage was kept at -2 ° C, and the lettuce temperature remained at + 3 ° C. Table 1 below shows the number of times the pre-cooling box is used when the cold-preserving box is connected to a certain pre-cooling box and a common carousel is used.

[0009]

[Table 1]

Table 2 shows an example of specifications of various types of the forced draft pre-cooling device with a cool box according to the present invention.

[0011]

[Table 2]

Table 3 shows the results of comparison between the forced draft precooling device with a cool box of the present invention and the vacuum cooling device. Since the vacuum cooling device has a short cooling time of 40 minutes each time,
Equipment capacity increases and equipment costs increase. The carousel rack type has a long cooling time and a large amount of electric power used, but since it uses nighttime electric power, the electric charge used and the basic charge are low, which is technically and economically advantageous.

[0013]

[Table 3]

[0014]

【The invention's effect】

(1) Improvement of work environment The rotating rack is called by a push button, and when the required rack comes to the vegetable loading / unloading port of the pre-cooling device, the forklift can carry in and carry out the pallet for the cardboard box for storing vegetables. This is advantageous for maintaining the health of the workers because it does not require personnel to enter and can work outside. (2) Saving labor costs It is no longer necessary to go into the warehouse to carry out loading work, and only loading / unloading work at a certain place at the doorway has become necessary. In addition, it is possible to open and close the door of the pre-cooling box wirelessly while riding on the forklift and call the required rack to the doorway with the push button, thus improving work efficiency. (3) Carrying in to the cool box Since the pre-cool box and the cool box use a common rotating rack, it is possible to automatically move and store the vegetables in the cool box without reloading the vegetables that have been cooled, and at the same time, to prepare the next pre-cool. Because you can
Saves time and labor costs. (4) Increased volume efficiency Since the forklift does not need to go inside, passages can be saved. The distance between carousel lanes is 150mm,
Does not require much floor space. The cardboard box pallet has a large storage capacity because it has a stack of two or three carousels. (5) Cooling efficiency is high. Since the volume of the whole pre-cooling box is relatively small with respect to the amount of vegetables stored, the number of circulation of cold air increases. Although cold air is circulated using a pressure fan, the cool air velocity is as high as 1.5 m / sec and the cooling effect is great. Further, since the surface area of the pre-cooling box is relatively small, the leakage heat loss is small, and since the forklift and the worker are not put in the box, heat loss is eliminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a pre-cooling device in which a forced draft pre-cooling box and a cold storage box of the present invention are connected, (a) is an elevation view and (b) is a plan view.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a precooling box of the precooling device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a vegetable cardboard box with ventilation holes.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a basic structure of a horizontal carousel.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an internal structure of a precooling chamber of a forced draft type precooling device which has been conventionally used.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Vegetable Cardboard Box Pallet 2 Rotating Rack 3 Lower Rail 4 Rack Wheel 5 Upper Support Rail 6 Precooler Refrigerator 7 Precooler Unit Cooler 8 Cold Air Circulation Pressure Fan 9 Cooler Unit Cooler 10 Cooler Refrigerator 11 Pallet Carry Out Entrance 14 Vegetable cardboard box 15 Ventilation hole 17 Polyurethane heat insulation panel 18 Heat insulation door

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A forced draft precooling device for cooling vegetables and fruits stored in a box having a ventilation hole, which is provided with a refrigerator, a unit cooler and a pressure fan, wherein a precooling box and a cold storage box are connected to each other. An electric rotating rack common to the pre-cooling box and the cold-cooling box is installed in the cold storage and the cold storage, several stages of vegetable / fruit storage box pallets having ventilation holes are arranged in the rotation rack, and the unit cooler is placed above the pre-cooling storage. A pressure fan was installed on the side of the rotating rack, and the cool air from the unit cooler and the pressure fan was blown to the vegetable / fruit storage pallet on the rotating rack in an average and laminar state to circulate. A forced draft pre-cooling device with a cool box. 2. The vegetables and fruits are stored in a box having a ventilation hole,
In a forced draft pre-cooling method for vegetables, which cools by directly contacting vegetables / fruits through a draft hole, using the forced draft pre-cooling device with a cool box according to claim 1, which has a draft hole placed on a rotating rack. The chilled air cooled to 0 to -3 ° C by a refrigerator and a unit cooler is circulated in a pallet for storing vegetables and fruits in an average manner using a pressure fan, and the vegetables and fruits are heated to about 5 ° C in several hours. After cooling, the carousel is automatically operated to move and store the pre-cooled vegetable / fruit storage pallet to the cool box, and at the same time, the pre-cooled vegetable / fruit storage pallet is pre-loaded on the carousel. A forced ventilation pre-cooling method for vegetables and fruits, which is characterized by rotating and moving to a cold storage and restarting pre-cooling.