JPS59102326A - Tea leaf dispersing blade in tea leaves thrown-down conveyor - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a tea leaf dispersing blade in a raw tea leaf dropping conveyor.

Green tea is made by processing raw tea leaves picked from tea plantations into rough tea. Processing raw tea leaves into rough tea, that is, tea manufacturing, is a process that follows plucking raw tea leaves, but the two are completely different operations, and tea manufacturing is intensive work, so both operations are They do not proceed synchronously. For this reason, the tea manufacturing workshop is equipped with a storage room for raw tea leaves, and the raw tea leaves that are picked from the tea plantation are once accumulated in the storage room, and then supplied to the tea manufacturing process as raw materials for rough tea. . By the way, the freshness of raw tea leaves as a raw material for crude tea is most important, and the freshness significantly affects the quality of the green tea product. However, since raw tea leaves are, of course, fresh leaves, they generate a small amount of heat, so if you simply put them into a storage chamber and let them accumulate, this heat will gradually accumulate and create what is called steam. , the tea leaves wilt easily. Moreover, once the tea leaves have withered, the quality of the green tea product decreases significantly, so that they can no longer be used as a raw material for crude tea. For this reason, traditionally, storage chambers are
Measures have been taken to remove the heat generated by raw tea leaves, suppress the generation of steam, and thereby maintain the freshness of raw tea leaves. The one shown in Figure 1 is an example,
Several ventilation grooves 3 are formed along the longitudinal direction on the floor 2 of the storage chamber 1, and a ventilation plate 4 is placed on the ventilation groove 3, which forms part of the floor surface. There is. A blower 5 is connected to the ventilation groove 3, and fresh air sent into the ventilation groove 3 from here blows up into the storage chamber 1 through the ventilation panel 4.

Further, a rail (not shown) is provided above the ventilation panel 4 in parallel with the ventilation panel, and a raw tea leaf dropping conveyor 6 is mounted on this rail so as to be able to move back and forth.

This raw tea leaf dropping conveyor 6 is used to evenly drop the raw tea leaves onto the ventilation plate 4. Its length is approximately half the length of the rail, and it is a forward-reverse conveyor that moves forward while rotating in the forward direction, or moves backward while rotating in reverse to aerate the raw tea leaves supplied onto it. The raw tea leaves are dropped onto the plate 4, and the raw tea leaves are deposited on the aeration plate to a substantially uniform thickness. The air blown up from the ventilation panel 4 is then used to collect the raw tea leaves A that have been deposited on top of this.
The heat generated by the tea leaves is removed by passing between the tea leaves and suppresses stuffiness.

By the way, in order to have the above-mentioned suppressing effect, it is necessary that at least enough voids exist between each tea leaf to allow air to pass through.

However, in conventional storage chambers, when raw tea leaves are piled up for about 1 meter, the air gaps between the tea leaves become extremely small, making the ventilation discs no longer effective and creating steam.

Therefore, the raw tea leaves A that have accumulated on the floor must be quickly plowed up using a fork and turned upside down, and from then on, the tea leaves A must be turned upside down at least every few hours. This work requires a lot of manpower and is hard labor.
Nowadays, the automation and labor saving of tea manufacturing work is progressing.
This work, which is not directly related to tea manufacturing, reduces green tea production efficiency and increases manufacturing costs.Additionally, delays in this work cause raw tea leaves to feel stuffy, which impairs the quality of the green tea product. This is the cause of the decrease in

The inventor of the present invention discovered that the cause of the decrease in the porosity of the raw tea leaves A deposited on the floor as described above is that the raw tea leaves are directly dropped from the drop conveyor, and based on this, It has been discovered that by separating the raw tea leaves dropped from the container and allowing them to fall, it is possible to prevent a decrease in porosity and suppress the generation of steam. That is, when raw tea leaves are dropped from the dropping conveyor 6 in order to store them in the storage chamber 1, the raw tea leaves are dropped like a waterfall onto the raw tea leaves A that have been dropped earlier and are deposited on the floor 2. The energy of the fall acts on the raw tea leaves A as a compressive force. Needless to say, this compressive force is much larger than the weight of the tea leaves themselves, so the raw tea leaves A are eventually caught in the gap by this compressive force.

On the other hand, if the raw tea leaves falling from the dropping conveyor 6 are dispersed by the dispersing blades, the raw tea leaves will be scattered individually and fall. It will be dispersed over
As a result, no compressive force that would reduce the gap is applied to the raw tea leaves A. In the conventional method, the new tea leaves dropped from the dropping conveyor are deposited with few gaps due to the energy of their own falling, but when they are distributed and dropped, the falling tea leaves are stacked against the raw tea leaves A. Due to the extremely small impact force and the elasticity of the tea leaves, they do not deform and reduce the gap;
It is deposited with sufficient porosity.

The present invention has been made in view of this point, and is provided with a distribution blade at the dropping point of the raw tea leaf dropping conveyor 6, and the raw tea leaves dropped from the conveyor 6 are first applied to the distribution blade, and then The rotational force of the blades causes the raw tea leaves to disperse and fall, and then deposit on the floor.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained based on illustrated embodiments.

In FIGS. 3 and 4, reference numeral 11 indicates a tea leaf dropping conveyor. This conveyor is similar to the conventional dropping conveyor mentioned above, and is attached to a machine frame 12 so as to be able to rotate forward and backward, and the machine frame 12 is also installed above and parallel to a ventilation panel (not shown). It is mounted on rails 13 so that it can run freely.

The one shown in Figure 2 is of a type in which raw tea leaves are directly dropped from both ends of the dropping conveyor 11, and the one shown in Figure 3 is one that is installed above the middle of two ventilation panels. A deflection chute 14 is attached to each end of the conveyor, and raw tea leaves are dropped through the deflection chute 14 onto one of the ventilation plates.

That is, the deflection chute 14 has a circular upper end, is rotatably supported by a ring-shaped support frame 15, and the direction in which the raw tea leaves are dropped from the chute 14 is changed so that it can be placed on either the left or right ventilation plate. It is designed to be dropped on The tea leaf dispersing device of the present invention is attached to the raw tea leaf dispensing device constructed in this manner, and reference numerals 16 and 17 are dispersing blades forming the main parts thereof. The distribution blade 16 is a rotating shaft (vertical axis)
18, and are provided near both ends of the dropping conveyor 11 at positions where the raw tea leaves dropped from the conveyor hit. This thing rotates in conjunction with a drive motor that rotates synchronously with the dropping conveyor 11, and the dropping conveyor 11
The raw tea leaves dropped by the machine are dispersed and fall by its rotational force. In addition, the distribution blade has several blade plates 3 on the rotating shaft 18.
In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 to 9, an example is shown in which the vane is composed of a receiving plate 19 and two or more vanes 20. In this method, the raw tea leaves dropped from the tea leaf dropping conveyor 11 are not directly applied to the rotating vanes, but are first received by the receiving plate 19.
This is then pushed in the rotational direction by the wing plate 20 to provide rotational force. That is, the distribution blades are simply replaced by the blade plate 30.
If the blades 30 are constructed with only a single blade, the blades 30 will directly collide with the falling raw tea leaves, which will cause the raw tea leaves to be extremely easily damaged. With this structure, the raw tea leaves are once placed on the receiving plate 19 and then pushed in the direction of rotation by the blades 20, so the impact force is much smaller, and even if the rotating speed of the receiving plate is slightly slowed, Since it is possible to reliably apply rotational force to the raw tea leaves, the impact force on the raw tea leaves will be even smaller, thus reducing the possibility of damaging the raw tea leaves and making it possible to obtain high quality green tea. It will become.

Here, a state in which raw tea leaves dropped from the dropping conveyor 11 to the splitting blades 16 are distributed will be described. Now, in FIGS. 5 and 6, it is assumed that the distribution blade 16 rotates clockwise, and the raw tea leaves dropped from the drop conveyor 11 are
1 to a4, the receiving plate 19 is reached. a1
The raw tea leaves that have reached the point slide down along the slope of the receiving plate 19, eventually reach the lower edge b1, and fall in the direction c1. On the other hand, when a2 slid down to point P, it was caught up by the blade 20-2, and then slid down while being pushed by the blade, and the lower edge b2
It reaches and falls in the c2 direction. Thereafter, the raw tea leaves dropped from the dropping conveyor 11 are scattered in various directions between c0 and c5 and fall in the same manner.

By the way, the velocity and direction c at which the raw tea leaves fall from the lower edge of the distribution blade 16 are determined by the circumferential velocity x at the lower edge of the distribution blade 16, the sliding velocity y of the raw tea leaves at that point, and the inclination angle θ of the receiving plate 19. (see Figure 7). Therefore, when processing small quantities of soft and easily damaged materials such as first-brown tea, increase the inclination angle θ and reduce the circumferential speed, and when processing large quantities of hard and easily damaged materials, reduce the inclination angle θ and reduce the circumferential speed. It is desirable to increase the peripheral speed. FIG. 8 shows an example of such a configuration, in which reference numeral 21 is a drive motor, 22 is a variable speed pulley, 23 is a driven pulley, and 24 is a tension pulley. Although not shown, the drive motor 21 rotates forward and backward in synchronization with the reciprocating drive motor of the machine frame 12, and its rotation is controlled by the speed change pulley 22.
It is transmitted to the rotating shaft 18 via the passive pulley 23, and rotates the distribution blade 16 at an appropriate speed.

In the figure, an example is shown in which the receiving plate 19 is formed by being divided into several pieces, and the apex portion thereof is attached to the rotating shaft 18 so as to be openable and closable. Of course, in this case, a gap will be created between adjacent receiving plates. Therefore, although the tea leaves that have fallen in this area are hardly subjected to centrifugal force by the dispersing blades, they are still subjected to a dispersion effect in that they are separated from those that have fallen onto the receiving plate 19. In addition, if you want to apply centrifugal force to tea leaves that fall in this area, you can stretch a soft sheet over this area in advance, and the receiving plate itself can also be formed using a soft sheet material. However, there is nothing wrong with that.

Although the mechanism for opening and closing this receiving plate 19 is not particularly limited, the figure shows a mechanism similar to that of an umbrella as an example. That is, the mounting tube 34 is attached to the rotating shaft 18 so as to be movable up and down, and this is connected to an appropriate point on the receiving plate 19 via the connecting rod 25.

Incidentally, reference numeral 26 denotes an auxiliary receiving plate, which is attached to cover the mounting portion of the receiving plate 19 when there is a possibility that fresh tea leaves may become entangled with this portion. Further, there may be cases where it is necessary to change the rotational speed of the conveyor 11 or the amount of raw tea leaves dropped, or it may be necessary to adjust the attachment position of the distribution blades 16 with respect to the conveyor 11. In such a case, the attachment part of the receiving plate 19 can be raised and lowered in the same way as the mounting tube 24, or the frame 27 can be attached to the machine frame 12 so as to be releasable so that the raw tea leaves can be moved against the receiving plate 19. One method is to change the destination (see Figure 9).

Next, the distribution blade 17 will be explained. This is attached to the rotating shaft (horizontal shaft) 35 and is attached to the deflection chute 14.
It is provided at a position where the raw tea leaves dropped from the chute hit. In the figure, an example is shown in which the distribution blade 17 is constituted by a central bulging drum 28 and two or more blades 29.

This means that there is less possibility of damaging the raw tea leaves than in the case where the distribution blades are simply composed of several blades, and moreover, the distribution effect of the raw tea leaves is high.

That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the distribution blade 17 is formed by attaching several blade plates 30 to the rotating shaft 35, and if the dropping trajectory of raw tea leaves from the deflection chute 14 is a and b, In order for the spreading blades to exert a spreading effect on the raw tea leaves falling along the trajectory a, the circumferential speed A of the blade 30 must be sufficiently larger than the falling speed of the raw tea leaves. However, if this is done, the vane plate 30 will directly hit the raw tea leaves falling along the trajectory b, resulting in damage to the raw tea leaves. On the other hand, if the distribution blade 17 is formed into a groove by the drum 28 and the blade 29, the distribution blade 17
The raw tea leaves that have fallen onto the drum 28 are given rotational force by the rotation of the drum. Since the raw tea leaves are slightly delayed from the rotation of the drum, they are pushed out by the blades 29. Of course, in this case, the raw tea leaves are not directly struck by the blades 29 on their way down, but once ride on the drum 28 and are struck by the blades 29 while being subjected to a rotational force in the same direction as the blades 29. Since the impact force is extremely small, damage to the raw tea leaves can be prevented, and since the number of blades 29 installed can be reduced compared to the blades 30, there is no possibility of damaging the raw tea leaves. It will decrease further. The edges of the blades are covered with synthetic rubber to further prevent damage to the raw tea leaves.
(See Figure 10). Furthermore, since the center of the drum 28 is formed to bulge out, the raw tea leaves at point c, for example, have a tendency to fall in the direction d, so they are slightly spread out and dispersed in the rotational direction e of the drum 28. It is.

As with the distribution blades 16, it is desirable that the rotational speed and the installation position of the distribution blades 17 relative to the deflection chute 14 are adjusted. FIG. 12 shows an example of such a configuration, in which reference numeral 31 is a drive motor, 32 is a variable speed pulley, 33 is a passive pulley, and 34 is a drive motor.
is a tension pulley, and the rotation of the drive motor 31 is transmitted to the passive pulley 33 via the variable speed pulley 32, thereby rotating the distribution blade 17. The upper part of the frame 36 is rotatably attached to the deflection chute 14, and the forward and backward position of the distribution blade 17 attached to the lower part is adjusted.

As described in detail above, the present invention attaches a distribution blade to the tea leaf dropping conveyor provided at the upper part of the raw tea leaf storage chamber, whereby the raw tea leaves that are about to fall from the dropping conveyor are once received by the distribution blade, and then Later, the rotational force causes the raw tea leaves to fall. Therefore, the raw tea leaves that are dropped are different from those that are dropped directly from a conventional drop conveyor or in a waterfall shape via a deflection chute, etc., and the compressive force is applied to the raw tea leaves that have been dropped first and accumulated in the storage chamber. Because the raw tea leaves are not exposed to moisture, there are enough voids in the raw tea leaves to prevent stuffiness. In particular, in the past, the dropped raw tea leaves piled up in a ridge shape, which further strengthened the tendency for the porosity to decrease, but in the present invention, the raw tea leaves are uniformly dispersed over a wide area, so the porosity is large in this respect as well. It becomes something. In addition, since the raw tea leaves are dispersed, the dropped raw tea leaves are evenly and sufficiently exposed to the air, which has the effect of cooling the stuffy air that occurs between the time they are picked and the time they are dropped. In this respect as well, deterioration in the quality of raw tea leaves is prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a conventional storage chamber, FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a part of the bottom of the storage chamber, and FIGS. 3 and 4 schematically show an embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a plan view showing an example of the movement of raw tea leaves in an umbrella-shaped distribution blade, FIG. 6 is a side view of the same, FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the same, and FIG. 8 is an example of an embodiment. FIG. 9 is a partially cutaway side view of the same as above; FIG. 10 is a side view schematically showing the horizontal distribution blade;
Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an example of a horizontal distribution blade;
The figure is a plan view of the same as above, and FIG. 13 is a perspective view showing an example of the embodiment. 11; Tea leaf dropping conveyor 12; Machine frame 13; Rail 14; Deflection chute 15; Support frame 16; Spreading blade 17; Spreading blade 18; Rotating shaft 19; Receiving plate 20; Wing plate 21; Drive motor 22; Variable speed pulley 23; Passive pulley 24; Tension pulley 25; Connection rod 26; Auxiliary receiving plate 27; Frame 28; Drum 29; Wing plate 30; Wing plate 31; Drive motor 32; Variable speed pulley 33; Passive pulley 34; Mounting pipe 35; Rotation axis 36; frame body

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A tea leaf distribution blade attached to a tea leaf dropping conveyor movably mounted on a rail installed above a raw tea leaf storage chamber, the distribution blade being attached to an umbrella-shaped receiving plate. 1. A tea leaf dispersing blade having one or more blades attached thereto, connected to a drive motor, and rotating at an appropriate speed. 2. A tea leaf distribution blade in a raw tea leaf dropping conveyor according to claim 1, wherein the receiving plate is formed to be openable and closable with respect to the rotating shaft.