JPS5851748B2 - food forming method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a food forming method that can easily form various foods that have the same hardness and taste as those made by hand by compacting and compacting food raw materials into a specific shape. .

Conventionally, foods with the same shape, such as rice balls, makunouchi, sushi, hamburgers, and croquettes, have been processed and shaped by manually curing raw materials such as rice and meat in fixed amounts.

Therefore, molding in large quantities requires a large number of personnel, and the amount of processing is small, making it unsuitable for mass production.

However, processed foods such as onigiri, makunouchi, and hamburger steaks are in great demand due to recent dietary reforms, but food processing and shaping operations have become difficult due to rising labor costs. It's coming.

For example, makunouchi, which is used in makunouchi bento, is rice shaped into a semicylindrical shape, and is very popular for use in ekiben.

This makunouchi is to hold the amount of rice that will be served,
When relying on manual labor, it is inevitable that the shape of the makunouchi will vary in size, and it is not easy to make a large number of makunouchi at once.

However, if the process of turning rice into makunouchi was mechanized and it became possible to quickly make makunouchi using a fixed amount of rice at all times, makunouchi could be sold at stores as before, or made at home. It is thought that this will open up not only ways to use it, but also ways to use it for school lunches at schools and workplaces.

In particular, when it comes to school lunches, food must be arranged fairly and quickly, and the effort involved in transporting tableware from the kitchen to the classroom during meals cannot be underestimated. These factors are hindering the rationalization of school lunches.

Therefore, if it were possible to form everything from rice to makunouchi through mechanization without the hassle of manpower, it would provide an extremely effective means for streamlining school lunches.

However, this type of food forming apparatus has hardly been proposed to date.

A conventional food forming method is known to place rice into a wooden mold with a recess formed in the shape of a makunouchi, and then forcefully compress the rice from above to create a makunouchi.

The makunouchi made in this way is usually too hard and does not have the unique taste of makunouchi made by hand.

If the compression force used to harden the rice is weakened in order to adjust the hardness of the makunouchi, the rice grains will gradually fall out of the makunouchi and the shape of the makunouchi will not be maintained.

In addition, mechanical forming mechanisms have been devised in recent years, but
There had not yet been anything available that had the same firmness and taste as the one made by hand to form makunouchi from rice.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide a food molding method that can mold various foods having the same hardness and taste as those molded by hand.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be explained.

In this embodiment, a method for processing and forming rice into a makunouchi shape will be described.

Fig. 1 is a schematic front view of the food forming apparatus of this embodiment, Fig. 2 is a side view of the same as above, Fig. 3 is a plan view of the material supply mechanism of the same as above, and Figs. 4 and 5 are of the material supply mechanism. Explanatory drawings showing the action, FIGS. 6 and 7 are sectional views showing the action of the forming mechanism.

The main body 1 of the molding machine has a vertically flat front surface, and rollers 2 and 3 are pivotally supported on the lower left and right sides of the front surface, and a conveyor belt 4 is wound horizontally between the rollers 2 and 3. It's a turn.

Above the conveyor belt 4, a material supply mechanism 5 and a forming mechanism 6 are arranged at intervals in the left-right direction.

The material supply mechanism 5 has a hopper 7 at its upper rear end, and a conveyor case 8 with an upper opening that is long in the front and back direction is connected to the lower part of the hopper 7. Rollers 9 and 10 are pivotally supported at intervals, and a conveyor belt 11 is wound horizontally around the rollers 9 and 10.

Further, above both side plates of the conveyor case 8, there are three rotating shafts 12 located at the front end of the conveyor belt 11, at the front of the lower part of the hopper I, and between them in the transverse direction of the conveyor belt 11.
, 13 and 14 are horizontally supported.

On the rotating shaft 12 at the front end of the conveyor belt 11, there are a plurality of scraping rods 15 for scraping food materials at equal intervals and alternately orthogonal to each other, and on the rotating shaft 13 at the front of the lower part of the hopper 7, there are also a plurality of scraping rods 15 for scraping food materials at regular intervals and perpendicular to each other. Similarly, a plurality of leveling rods 17 are respectively protruded from the loosening rod 16 and the rotating shaft 14 between them.

Note that the leveling rod 17 may not be necessary depending on the food material.

Further, at one end of each rotating shaft 12, 13, 140, a rope wheel 18, 19, 19' is located outside the conveyor case 8.
20 and 20' are fixed to each other, and among them, rope car 1
A rope 21 is strung between the rope wheel 8 and the rope wheel 20 so as to rotate in the opposite directions in the directions shown by the arrows in the figure, and between the rope wheel 19' and the rope wheel 20', the ropes 21 rotate in the same direction in the directions shown by the arrows in the figure. The rope 22 is hung so that the

Then, the rope car 19 is connected to the rope car 2 via the rope 23.
4 and is driven by a motor (not shown).

A rope sheave 25 is also fixed to the shaft end of the roller 10, and this rope sheave 25 is also connected to the rope sheave 21 via a rope 26 and driven by a motor (not shown).

Next, on the lower surface of the conveyor case 8 in front of the roller 9, a pair of side plates 28 and 29 are connected in parallel with an interval in the front and back direction.

Each of the side plates 28 and 29 has a short lower side and an S-inverted trapezoidal shape, and between these side plates 28 and 29, a pair of driving rollers 30 and 31 and tension rollers 32 and 3 are installed in order from the top.
3, 34, 35, 36, 37, guide roller 38, 3
9 is the position.

The driving rollers 30, 31 are located at the upper part of the side plates 28, 29 with a large distance left and right.
The distance between the axes of the guide rollers 35 and 37 is gradually narrowed, and the distance between the axes of the guide roller 38 and the guide roller 39 is 2 equidistant from that of the tension roller 36 and the tension roller 3γ. .

Supply belts 40, 41 are wound between the rollers 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38 and between the rollers 31, 33, 35, 37 and 39, respectively, and each supply belt 40, 41 has an opening at the top. It is formed into an object shape.

Further, near the lower end of the side plate 28.290, an operating arm 42.43 that protrudes horizontally from the main body 1 and operates in the left-right direction.
A shutter 44, 45 is fixed to the tip of each arm 42, 430 so as to be located below between the guide rollers 38, 39.

Next, the forming mechanism 6 will be explained based on FIGS. 6 and 7.

The forming mechanism 6 is inserted and held by an angle 46 protruding from the front surface of the main body 1, and is held by an auxiliary rod 47 held vertically.
A base plate 48 having a rectangular shape is fixed to the lower end of the base plate.

In addition, a cylindrical main rod 4 is provided on the outer periphery of the sub rod 4γ.
9 is slidably inserted therein, and a return spring 50 is interposed between the main rod 49 and the base plate 48.

At the lower end of this main rod 49, ear portions 51 are made to protrude in the front, back, right and left directions in a cross shape, and on each of the four sides of the base plate 48, actuating bodies 52 as pressurizing means are provided with pins 51.
3, it is rotatably connected to the shaft.

Each ear portion 51 and the actuating body 52 each have a link 54.
It is connected by.

Further, the upper surface of a molded body 55 made of another elastic material such as natural rubber, synthetic rubber (silicon rubber), or sponshiso is fixed to the lower surface of the base plate 48.
A recess 56 for inserting food is opened on the lower surface of the container.

On the other hand, an arm 51 that is moved up and down by a motor or the like is connected to the outer periphery of the main rod 49, and a stopper 58 whose position can be adjusted is fixed to the upper part of the sub rod 47.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

When the production control switch is turned on, the rollers 2, 3 and drive rollers 30, 31 are rotated, and the conveyor belt 4 and supply belts 40, 41 are moved in the directions indicated by arrows in the figure, respectively.

On the other hand, when the rope wheel 27 is rotated by a motor (not shown), the rotational force is transmitted to the rope wheel 25 via the rope 26, rotates the rollers 9 and 10, and rotates the conveyor belt 11.
move forward as shown by the arrow in the figure.

At the same time, the rope wheel 24 rotates and its rotational force is applied to the rope 23.
When the transmission is transmitted to the rope cars 19 and 19' via the rope 22, the rope cars 20 and 20'
19', and the rope wheel 18 rotates via the rope 21 in the opposite direction to the rope wheel 20, 20'.

As a result, the rotating shafts 13, 140, the food material loosening rod 16,
The leveling rods 1T are rotated in the same direction as the conveyor belt 11 in the directions shown by the arrows in the figure, while the scraping rods 1 on the rotating shaft 12 are rotated in the same direction as the conveyor belt 11.
5 in the opposite direction to the conveyor belt 11.

When food material, for example rice a, is put into the hopper 7 in this state, it is placed on the rear side of the conveyor belt 11 as shown in Fig. 4, and gradually moves forward as the conveyor belt 110 rotates. First, the rice a is stirred and loosened by a loosening rod 16 that rotates in the opposite direction to the direction in which the rice travels, and then it is loosened to a certain degree by a leveling rod 17 that rotates in the same direction as the loosening rod 16. The rice is leveled to maintain its density, and finally it is smoothly scraped out from the front end of the conveyor belt 11 by a scraping rod 15 that rotates in accordance with the direction in which the rice a travels.

In this way, the rice a falls between the side plates 28 and 29, is piled up between the supply bells 40 and 41, and is moved downward along the direction of rotation of the supply belts 40 and 410.

That is, the rice a inserted between the drive rollers 30 and 31 is placed between the tension rollers 3 whose spacing is gradually narrowed.
As it moves between 2, 33, 34, 35, 36, and 37, it reaches guide rollers 38 and 39 while being compressed.

Then, at a predetermined time, the shutters 44 and 45 open as the operating arms 42 and 43 move left and right, and the compressed rice a falls from between the guide rollers 38 and 39, and then the shutters 44 and 45 close. This results in cutting by a predetermined amount.

The operation of dropping and cutting the rice a will be explained with reference to FIG. 5. In FIG. Food that was moving and falling a
This will push it down and compress it appropriately.

At the entrance in FIG. 5, the shutters 44 and 45 are opened and the suitably compressed rice a is pushed down according to the supply bell) 40 and 41.

In FIG. 5C, when an appropriate amount of rice a is pushed out, the shutters 44 and 45 are closed to prevent the rice a from falling, and the above operations A22B and C are repeated.

During the above operation, the rotational speed of the drive rollers 30, 31 is adjusted according to the hardness of the rice a, etc., and the shutter 44,
450 opening/closing speed) 40,410 to adjust the moving speed.

Next, the rice a cut by the shutters 44 and 45 is placed on the conveyor belt 4, or as the conveyor belt 4 is intermittently moving in the direction of the arrow in the figure, the rice a cut into a predetermined amount is placed on the conveyor belt 4. a moves in the direction of the forming mechanism 6.

When the rice a reaches the bottom of the forming mechanism 6 and stops, the arm 57 descends and pushes down the sub rod 47, main rod 49, etc. in the direction of the conveyor belt 4.

When the lower end of the molded body 55 comes into contact with the conveyor belt 4 and the rice a enters the recess 56, the stopper 58 comes into contact with the angle 46, the auxiliary rod 47 stops at that position, and only the main rod 49 Being pushed down.

Therefore, the main rod 49 slides on the outer periphery of the sub rod 47 against the return spring 50, causing the actuating body 52 to swing around the pin 53 via the link 54 and to come into contact with the external appearance of the molded body 55.

In this case, the rice a is held in a state in which it is wrapped in an elastic molded body 55 (in other words, only the outside is pressurized, just as it would be done by hand, and the entire body is held under uniform pressure). It will be solidified.

Next, when the rice a is held tightly for a predetermined time as described above, the arm 57 rises, contrary to the above, and the angle 46 separates from the stopper 58, and at the same time the return spring 50
In this way, the operating body 52 rotates outward and at the same time releases the rice a from the recess 56 of the molded body 55.

The rice a that has been formed in this way is removed from directly below the forming mechanism 6 by the conveyor belt 4, and the same operation as described above is repeated.

As described above, this invention includes a step in which the food material introduced into the hopper is loosened by a rotating loosening rod while being moved by a horizontal conveyor belt, and then scraped out by a scraping rod; The food material is inserted between a pair of supply belts that rotate in opposite directions while gradually narrowing the gap between them, and is gradually compressed and falls. A shutter that can be opened and closed left and right allows the food material to reach a predetermined amount. A step in which the food material cut into a predetermined amount is intermittently moved by a horizontal conveyor belt, and a step in which the food material is cut into four parts of a molded body made of an elastic material such as rubber with an opening at one end. The method is characterized by comprising a step of inserting a food material into the molded body and applying pressure from the outside of the molded body to compact the predetermined amount of the food material.

Since this invention is configured as described above, the food material can be processed and supplied in such a way that it can be easily processed into a specific shape by once unraveling the food material and then gradually compressing it. It is possible to always transfer a constant amount of food materials to the next molding process, and in the molding process, food materials can be molded into the same shape and taste as if they had been compacted by hand, and they are always the same size and hardness. It has the advantages of being able to be squeezed and hardened, being sanitary, and being mass-producable.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of a food forming apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of the same, FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of the material supply mechanism of the same, and FIGS. 4 and 5. 6 is an explanatory view showing the action of the material supply mechanism, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are explanatory views showing the action of the forming mechanism. 1... Main body, 4... Conveyor belt,
5... Material supply mechanism, 6... Forming mechanism, 7... Hopper, 15... Food material scraping rod, 16... Unraveling stick, 40.41...
... Supply heald, 44, 45 ... Shutter, 52 ... Actuation body, 55 ... Molded body, 56 ... Concave portion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Food materials put into the hopper are loosened by a rotating loosening rod while being moved by a horizontal conveyor belt.
Next, the food material is scraped out by a scraping rod, and the food material is inserted between a pair of supply belts that are provided vertically and rotate in opposite directions while gradually narrowing the gap between them, and is gradually compressed and dropped. , a step in which the food material is cut into a predetermined amount by a shutter that can be opened and closed in the left-right direction, a step in which the food material cut into the predetermined amount is intermittently moved by a horizontal conveyor belt, and one side is opened. The food material is inserted into a recess of a molded body made of an elastic material such as rubber, and the predetermined amount of the food material is squeezed and compacted by applying pressure from the outside of the molded body. Molding method.