JPH09121752A - Fermentation apparatus for grain dough - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To simplify a whole structure of humidification devices by consolidating the humidification devices each supplying humidity controlled air independently into each fermentation chamber into a single unit to enable the reduction of production cost corresponding to the simplification in a fermentation apparatus for grain dough having plural fermentation chambers. SOLUTION: A humidification apparatus is provided with a water tank 9 for storing raw water for humidification. The inside of the water tank 9 is divided into humid air chambers 16 of the number the same as that of fermentation chambers 2 by partition walls 15 in such a manner that air cannot communicate but water can freely move among sections. The humid air chambers 16 commonly use the water tank 9. Each humid air chamber 16 is provided with an oscillator 20 for generating ultrasonic vibration, a blasting fan 21 and an exit port 19 for humidity controlled air. A water supply channel 10 having a water supplying valve 12, a drainage channel 11 having a drainage valve 13 and a water level sensor 14 are installed in one humid air chamber 16, and they are commonly used.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fermenter for fermenting flour dough, such as bread dough and donut dough, and an improved humidifier.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a fermenter of this type, there is a puller for adjusting the temperature and humidity inside the fermenter to a state suitable for fermentation. In addition to the fermentation function, there is also a retarder puller that can thaw frozen bread dough and a dough conditioner that can freeze the dough and thaw it when necessary (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-115888). Such a fermenter is equipped with a humidifying device for humidity adjustment.

[0003]

The present applicant has already sold a fermenter for bread dough and the like having a fermentation chamber at the top and bottom. The temperature and humidity of the upper and lower fermentation chambers can be controlled independently. For that purpose, a freezing unit and a humidifying device are provided for each of the fermentation rooms in a dedicated manner. Two sets of humidifiers are placed on the top of the fermenter along with the refrigeration unit.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic structure of a conventional humidifier.
There, a vibrator 31 attached to the bottom of the water tank 30 oscillates ultrasonic vibrations to generate minute water droplets from the liquid surface, and these water droplet groups are sent to the fermentation chamber together with the air sent by the blower fan 32. To pay. The water tank 30 is provided with a float switch 33 that keeps the water level constant, a water supply valve 34 that opens and closes according to an output signal from the float switch 33, a drain valve 35, and the like. One humidifier is provided for each fermentation chamber. 36 is an outlet for the conditioned air.

An object of the present invention is to allow a plurality of humidifiers to be integrated into one while supplying moisture to each fermentation chamber independently, thus reducing the cost required for the humidifiers. Only to provide a fermenter that can reduce the overall cost. Another object of the present invention is to provide a fermenter by consolidating a plurality of humidifiers so that the space occupied by the humidifiers can be reduced and the degree of freedom in designing the equipment can be improved accordingly.

[0006]

A fermenter according to the present invention has a plurality of fermentation chambers 2.2, and a humidifier 5 capable of independently supplying humidity control air for humidity adjustment to each fermentation chamber 2.2. ing. The humidifying device 5 has a water tank 9 in the form of a closed container for storing raw water for humidification, and the inside of the water tank 9 is divided into a plurality of sections by a partition wall 15 to correspond to each fermentation chamber 2.2. 16 ・ 16
Are provided in the water tank 9. Facing the respective humidity chambers 16 and 16, fans 21 and 21 for air supply, vibrators 20 and 20 for oscillating ultrasonic vibrations, and a delivery port for the conditioned air containing minute water droplets are provided, respectively. The water tank 9 is provided with a water supply passage 10 including a water supply valve 12, a drainage passage 11 including a drain valve 13, and a liquid level sensor 14 for detecting the liquid level in the water tank 9. The humidity chambers 16 and 16 communicate with each other freely below the lowest liquid level of the raw water.

According to the humidifying device 5 integrated as one device as described above, the water tank 9, the water supply valve 12, the drain valve 13, and the liquid level sensor 14 can be shared, and the cost required for the humidifying device 5 can be reduced accordingly. You can The occupied space is reduced as compared with the case where a plurality of humidifiers are provided.

Specifically, the space extending from the gas phase portion inside the water tank 9 to the upper portion of the liquid phase portion is divided by the partition wall 15, and water is freely passed between the humidity chambers 16 and 16 below the partition wall 15. Communicate with. Partition wall 1 submerged in the liquid phase portion in the water tank 9
On the surface wall of No. 5, a through hole 25 is formed to communicate with each of the humidity chambers 16, 16 so that water can freely pass therethrough.

[0009]

EXAMPLES In FIGS. 1 to 3, a fermenter is a dough conditioner capable of continuously fermenting bread dough or the like after rapid freezing or thawing the frozen dough or the like. As shown in FIG. The inside of the vertically long rectangular box-shaped storage body 1 is divided into upper and lower parts, and the fermentation chambers 2 are provided at the upper and lower parts. Each fermentation chamber 2.2 can be opened and closed individually by swingable doors 3.3.

A dedicated refrigerating unit 4, a humidifying device 5 and the like are arranged on the upper surface of the storage main body 1 in order to independently control the temperature condition and the humidity condition in each fermentation chamber 2. 6 is a control panel, on the surface of which temperature, humidity,
Various operation buttons and indicators for setting and displaying time etc. and operation buttons for setting the operation mode are provided. A fan for air circulation and a heater for heating are provided inside each fermentation chamber 2.2.

In FIG. 1, the humidifier 5 has a horizontally long box-shaped water tank 9 for storing raw water for humidification, and a water supply channel 10 for supplying the raw water is connected to the upper right part of the water tank 9 to drain water from the inner bottom of the water tank 9. The path 11 is derived. An electromagnetically operated water supply valve 12 and a drain valve 13 are provided in both the water channels 10 and 11, respectively. A liquid level sensor 14 for detecting the liquid level of raw water is provided in the water tank 9. The liquid level sensor 14 detects that the liquid level of the raw water has dropped to a predetermined position and outputs a detection signal. Based on this signal, the control circuit gives a valve opening command signal to the water supply valve 12 to open the water supply passage 10 and replenish the raw water. Similarly, the liquid level sensor 1 indicates that the liquid level of the raw water has risen to a predetermined position.
4, and the water supply valve 12 is closed. The drain valve 13 is opened every time the fermentation operation is completed, and the raw water is discarded. As the liquid level sensor 14, a float switch or various level switches can be applied.

Inside the water tank 9, a partition wall 15 is provided at the center of the left and right.
And a humidity chamber 16.16 corresponding to each fermentation chamber 2.2.
Are divided into left and right sides. The partition wall 15 is provided so as to partition a space extending from the gas phase portion inside the water tank 9 to the upper portion of the liquid phase portion. The raw water can freely flow between the two chambers 16 and 16 while completely separating the gas phase portions of the left and right humidity chambers 16 and 16.

A fan case 18 and a delivery port 19 are provided on the upper wall of each humidity chamber 16, and vibrators 20 and 20 for oscillating ultrasonic vibration are fixed to the outer surfaces of the bottom walls of the humidity chambers 16 and 16, respectively. Each fan case 18 is provided with an axial-flow type fan 21 for supplying external air into each humidity chamber 16 and a dustproof filter 22. Each outlet 19, 19 communicates with the corresponding fermentation chamber 2 via a duct hose 23. The oscillator 20 shares one power transformer, but each oscillator 20
It can be driven independently by turning on / off the power supply state to the switch. The fan may be a radial fan.

For example, in the case of humidifying the dough fermentation in the upper and lower fermentation chambers 2.2 simultaneously, each vibrator 20
20 and the fans 21 and 21 are driven. The vibrator 20 oscillates ultrasonic vibrations and discharges minute water droplets from the liquid surface of each of the humidity chambers 16 and 16 to the gas phase portion. On the other hand, fan 2 to the gas phase
1, the external air is continuously fed. Therefore, the sent air is made to have a high humidity by containing a large amount of minute water droplets before passing through the gas phase portion and reaching the outlet 19. By feeding this humidity-controlled air into the fermentation chamber 2 through the duct hose 23, humidity can be supplied into the fermentation chamber 2. The conditioned air is discharged to the suction port side of the fan 7 (see FIG. 2).
The feed control of the conditioned air is performed by a control device that operates or stops the fan 21 and the vibrator 20 based on an output signal from a humidity sensor provided in each fermentation chamber 2 and a preset fermentation condition. Then do.

In the state in which the conditioned air is supplied only to either the upper or lower fermentation chamber 2, the supply pressure of the fan 21 acts inside the operating humidity chamber 16 and the other. The pressure in the humidity chamber 16 is equal to atmospheric pressure. Therefore, the liquid level on the moisture chamber 16 side of the former is slightly lower than the liquid level on the moisture chamber 16 side of the latter. The lower liquid level when the liquid level sensor 14 detects the lower limit liquid level and the difference in the liquid levels between the adjacent humidity chambers 16 and 16 is set as the lowest liquid level of the raw water, The lower edge of the partition wall 15 is located at. Actually, in consideration of a sufficient margin, about 10 to 20 mm on the lower edge side of the partition wall 15 is submerged below the minimum liquid level line.

The partition wall 15 in the above embodiment is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the upper wall and the bottom wall inside the water tank 9 may be provided so as to be completely separated from each other. In this case, a plurality of openings 26 are opened in the surface wall of the partition wall 15 which is submerged in the liquid phase portion so that the left and right humidity chambers 16 and 16 can freely communicate with each other.
Furthermore, some of the through holes 25 are provided at the lower end of the partition wall 15 to ensure the discharge of raw water.

In addition to the above embodiment, it is also possible to provide two dedicated water tanks corresponding to each fermentation chamber 2.2, and to connect both water tanks freely through a pipe. However, there is an inevitable disadvantage that one of the aquariums, the pipeline, and the structure for connecting the pipeline to the aquarium is additionally required.

In addition to the above, in a fermenter having two or more fermentation chambers 2, the number of humidity chambers 1 corresponding to the inside of the water tank 9
6 is provided. The fan 21 can be provided at an arbitrary position on the outer surface of the water tank 9, and the point is that the air finally pressurized and fed by the fan 21 is fed to the vapor phase portion of each humidity chamber 16. The fermenter may be a fermenter for fermenting flour dough other than bread dough and donut dough.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical sectional front view of a humidifier.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional front view of a fermenter.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a fermenter.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional front view showing another embodiment of the water tank.

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional humidifier.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Fermenter 5 Humidifier 9 Water tank 10 Water supply channel 11 Drainage channel 12 Water supply valve 13 Drainage valve 14 Liquid level sensor 15 Partition wall 16 Moisture chamber 19 Outlet port 20 Transducer 21 Fan

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of fermentation chambers 2, 2, each fermentation chamber 2 being provided.
In a fermenting machine for flour dough, which is equipped with a humidifying device 5 capable of independently supplying humidity control air for humidity adjustment to 2, the humidifying device 5 has a water tank 9 in the form of a closed container for storing raw water for humidification. The inside of 9 is divided into multiple wards by the partition wall 15,
Moisture chambers 16 and 16 corresponding to the fermentation chambers 2.2 are provided in the water tank 9, and a fan 21 for air supply faces each humidity chamber 16 and 16.
21 and a vibrator 20/20 that oscillates ultrasonic vibration,
An outlet 19 for the conditioned air containing minute water droplets is provided, and a water supply channel 10 including a water supply valve 12 and a drain valve 13 are provided in the water tank 9.
Is provided with a drainage channel 11 and a liquid level sensor 14 for detecting the liquid level in the water tank 9, so that the humidity chambers 16 and 16 communicate with each other freely below the minimum liquid level of the raw water. Fermenter of flour flour dough. 2. The partition wall 15 divides the space from the gas phase portion inside the water tank 9 to the upper portion of the liquid phase portion, and each humidity chamber 1
The fermenter for flour dough according to claim 1, wherein the six and sixteen communicate with each other below the partition wall 15 so that water can flow freely. 3. A partition wall 15 submerged in a liquid phase portion in the water tank 9.
The fermenter for flour dough according to claim 1, wherein a through-hole 25 for allowing water to freely communicate with each of the humidity chambers 16 and 16 is opened on the surface wall of the above.