JPS55118345A - Method and device for tea processing - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prepare high quality processed tea leaves, automatically and continuously, without excessive denaturation, by beating steamed and cooled tea leaves, weighing the leaves, and feeding directly into a coarse rolling machine through an intermittent conveyor.

CONSTITUTION: Tea leaves are steamed, cooled, and charged into the drum 7 of a tea-beater 4. The leaves are dehydrated and cooled in the first chamber (a), and stirred and pressed in th second chamber (b). After the beat-treatment, the tea leaves are transferred to a metering conveyor (A), on which the leaves are accumulated to form a thin layer and cooled spontaneously. When a predetermined amount of leaves are accumulated on the conveyor (A), a weight pushes a limit- switch to actuate a controller and to start an intermittent conveyor (B). A transfer valve 12 and a discharge valve 13 are stopped their rotational motion, and the feed of tea leaves from the tea-beater 4 to the metering conveyor (A) is stopped. The weighed tea leaves are dropped from the metering conveyor (A) to one end of the intermittent conveyor (B), and gathered to the other end. When the amount of the tea leaves collected on the intermittent conveyor (B) reaches to the total amount to be charged to a coarse rolling macine, a feed conveyor is energized to feed the leaves into the rolling machine.

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