JPS5931647A - Thawing and refrigerating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the water temperature in a vessel uniform and refrigerate a fish body at a unform temperature, by introducing and taking out water through a porous material capable of passing the water but not passing the fish body, and reversing the direction of the flowing water in the vessel. CONSTITUTION:A thawing and refrigerating apparatus is used as a low-temperature insulating apparatus containing fishes, kept at 0 deg.C in the presence of ice, and laminated in a vessel 1. If the thawing or low-temperature insulating after the thawing is necessary, water is filled in a flow duct 3 to a given level, and an agitating pump 2 is operated by a timer 7 in the forward and reverse directions alternately repeatedly at an interval of a given time. The water flow in the flow duct 3 is passed through a perforated plate 4 into the vessel 1 acting as a thawing chamber to flow the frozen fish bodies uniformly under agitation. The water is then passed through the perforated plate 4 and flow out to the flow duct 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a thawing device that can rapidly and uniformly thaw frozen fish stored in a container, and can also be applied as a refrigeration device that keeps fish cool with ice at 0°C. Regarding the apparatus for obtaining.

It is common practice in the fisheries industry to store fish and ice water in a container to keep it cold and thaw the fish as needed, but the following prerequisites are required for thawing.

One is that it is preferable to thaw frozen fish at as low a temperature as possible in order to maintain freshness, and secondly, if the water temperature distribution in the container becomes uneven, the freshness of fish that has been thawed quickly will decrease rapidly. It is necessary to maintain a uniform water temperature inside the container, since there are disadvantages such as not being able to take out the fish until all the fish are thawed, and also to avoid damage to the fish. One example is that the water flow needs to be slow.

Conventional equipment of this type has a relatively large structure that thaws frozen fish weighing from several tens of kilograms to several tens of tons at once.
Tap water was pumped in to speed up the thawing process, but this did not allow for sufficient agitation of the frozen fish, as the storage conditions were to maximize the amount of dried fish and minimize the amount of ice water. , large local temperature differences occur, making it extremely difficult to thaw some parts of the fish, which not only takes a long time to thaw all of the frozen fish, but also reduces the freshness of fish that are thawed quickly. There were drawbacks such as falling off.

In addition, although it has been proposed to increase the agitation effect and rapid thawing effect by increasing the water blowing pressure and supply flow rate, simply increasing the tap water blowing pressure and flow rate cannot achieve a large capacity. It is practically impossible to uniformly agitate the entire thawing container.

This is because the part where the flow velocity is high near where the tap water is blown out is particularly strongly agitated, and the further away from that position the flow velocity rapidly decreases and is hardly agitated. Even if you try to solve the problem, you won't be able to expect much success, and the water temperature inside the container will rise rapidly, making it impossible to thaw properly, and the increase in water consumption will be uneconomical. There wasn't.

However, if the blowout pressure is increased, the fish bodies near the blowout port will be violently agitated, and the fish bodies will be damaged by collisions with each other, resulting in a decrease in quality, so it is difficult to say that this is an appropriate method.

The present invention addresses this fact and has devised a new device that can satisfy the above-mentioned conditions required for a thawing/refrigerating device, and is particularly suitable for storing fish. A water circulation channel is formed including the container, and water is introduced into the container and taken out from the container through a porous body such as a perforated plate through which water passes but not the fish body.
It is characterized by a structure in which the direction of flowing water within the container can be reversed.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show an example of the apparatus of the present invention, in which a water circulation channel is formed using a container fi+ and a stirring pump +21 as elements, and four fish are placed in the container fi. They are being kept in close confinement.

When keeping fish cold, place fish and ice water in container (1). In this case, the container (1) and the stirring pump (2)
) 131, 131 is filled with cold water at around 0°C.

The container fi+ is a circulation duct (I3+ 4IJI) formed of a porous body (4) through which water passes through, such as a perforated plate, but not fish bodies, on opposite side walls that communicate with the circulation duct (131).
! Only water flows through the tank, preventing fish bodies and ice blocks from entering the tank.・ However, an example of this lever is a water tank with a heat-insulated water circulation flow path consisting of a container il+, a stirring pump (21, and a distribution duct [31).
5), the distribution duct (31) is formed as a detour that wraps around the sides of the opposite side walls made of perforated plates (4) and the lower part of the bottom wall, and the submersible type The stirring pump 21 is disposed in the middle of the distribution duct 31.

Various types of pumps can be used as the stirring pump (2), but axial flow pumps such as screw impeller type are suitable as submersible type pumps. and the suction part, and the forward rotation of the rotor blade,
It is a requirement to use a reversible type that can be converted by reversal.

In addition, in the case of a submersible type as in the above example, the pump part is disposed inside the circulation duct (31), and the motor (61 is connected to the pump shaft that penetrates the wall of the water tank [11] in a watertight manner). Just do it.

In Figure 1, (7) is a timer for reversal control, and 2 to 3
The motor f61' (J is equipped for alternating forward and reverse rotations with a reversal period of about 1 minute.) The device with the above structure is usually maintained at 0°C in the presence of ice. It is used as a cold storage device in which fish or fish frozen to around -10°C in another freezing device is stored in a stacked state in a container, but it is necessary to thaw it and then keep it cold. Sometimes, distribution duct +3 by appropriate means
After filling water to the specified level in 1, turn the stirring pump (2
) is operated by the timer (71 alternately repeats forward and reverse every predetermined time of about 3 minutes). is repeated alternately and flows into the container (1) functioning as a thawing chamber through the perforated plate +41 on the left or right side in the figure, and while stirring the frozen fish bodies existing in a layered state, it becomes a horizontal flow and flows gently and uniformly. After flowing through the perforated plate 14 on the right or left side, it flows out into the distribution duct (31).

In this case, the direction of the flowing water is not reversible but constant.
Of the perforated plates f41 and nl, fish bodies may gather on the perforated plate (4) on the outflow side, creating a clogging pattern and impairing the flow of fish, or fish bodies may not be stirred and fixed spots may be formed between stationary fish bodies. Although there is an inconvenience that the water passes through the flow path, the above device changes the flow direction before the fish body becomes clogged, so the fish body agitation effect is large.
Furthermore, it has the feature that a uniformly dispersed water stream is formed, and furthermore, since the water stream is decelerated and becomes a gentle stream after passing through the perforated plate, thawing is performed evenly and quickly.

In addition, if an axial flow pump such as a low-lift, large-capacity screw impeller pump is used for the stirring pump (21), a slow and abundant flow of water will be possible, and in addition to the average thawing effect, This is very convenient since it has the advantage of preventing damage by avoiding violent collisions of fish bodies.

The main purpose of the device of the present invention is to maintain the inside of the container +11 at a uniform temperature to uniformly M-freeze the fish and keep it cold. When thawed with room temperature water, the stirring pump (
After approximately 5 minutes have elapsed after the operation of the 21, it is fully expected that the water will become 0° C. and that it will take a long time to thaw it.

In such a case, a temperature sensor (8) is installed as shown in Figure 3.
This can be easily solved by adding a means to detect the temperature of the circulating water and add room temperature water or hot water to slightly increase the temperature of the circulating water.
It is also very suitable to employ such means in the apparatus of the present invention as needed.

Next, the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 is the same as the above-mentioned example apparatus in terms of purpose and function, and is cited as an example of the apparatus of the present invention. The majority of the distribution duct (318-) and the reversible stirring pump [2+ and 2 water tank (51
The only difference in structure from the display device shown in FIG. 1 is that it is provided outside.

This device is, for example, a cold storage tank that keeps the temperature below -10℃.
By making these few modifications, it has the advantage of being extremely easy to use as both a thawing and refrigeration device.

The present invention has the above-described structure and function, and by interposing the porous body (4) in the middle of the water circulation flow path, the inconvenience that the fish body in the container fil moves out of the container can be avoided. It will be resolved.

In addition, the flowing water is diffused through the porous body (4) into the container (1).
) and out of the vessel, the flow rate of water around the fish body becomes slow,
An average water flow velocity distribution is obtained in each corner, preventing damage to the fish body due to agitation, and thawing is carried out on the average, making it possible to eliminate differences in slow speed. Therefore, a defrosting process of high quality and high defrosting efficiency can be achieved.

Furthermore, by repeating the circulating water flow alternately and changing the flow direction 9-2, fish bodies accumulate in one place, creating a clogging pattern, which impedes water flow and causes uneven thawing. If it is possible to reliably prevent this, it will not cause ρλ loss, but it will also have a stable stirring effect.As described above, the present invention is a very useful thawing/refrigeration device that exhibits various excellent features.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional front view of one embodiment of the device of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectional side view, and FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional front view of an example of the device of the present invention. (11... Container, (21... Stirring pump. [3)... Distribution duct *141... Porous body. (5)... Water tank, (61... Motor. (71...・・Timer for reversal control, (8) ・・Temperature detector. Patent applicant: Kyoei Zoki Co., Ltd. 10- Mr. Kazuinu Wakasugi, Commissioner of the Patent Office 1. Display of the case 1982 Patent Application No. 122883 2. Invention Name: Defrosting/refrigeration equipment 3, Relationship to the case of the person making the amendment Patent applicant address 3-4° 1 person 3-9-10 Minamisenba, Minami-ku, Osaka
No. 5, Date of amendment order Voluntary amendment 6, Number of inventions increased by amendment 8, Contents of amendment The full text of the specification is amended in the attached amended specification. 9. List of attached documents 111 Amended specification 1 copy Amended specification 1. Title of invention: Defrosting/refrigeration device 2. Claim 1: Forming a water circulation channel including a container in which fish is stored, The structure is such that water can be introduced into the container and taken out from the container through a porous body through which the fish body (but not the fish body) can pass through, and the direction of the water flowing in the container can be reversed. A thawing/refrigeration device characterized in that: 2. The water circulation channel formed including a container in which fish is stored can be converted into a discharge part and a suction part; 1.
A thawing/refrigeration device according to claim 1, which is equipped with a falcon pump. 8. The thawing/defrosting system according to claim 2, wherein the reversible stirring pump is a pump equipped with a screw-type impeller.
Refrigeration equipment. 4. The water circulation flow path including the container in which the fish is housed is housed in one aquarium with a circulation duct connecting the container and the stirring pump. The thawing/refrigeration device described in Section 2. 1-5. The thawing/refrigeration apparatus according to claim 2, 3 or 3, wherein the stirring pump has a prime mover which is rotatably driven in automatic forward and reverse operation by a timer. 3. Detailed Description of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus capable of refrigerating low-temperature fish, such as frozen fish, housed in a container at a uniform temperature, including thawing, by equalizing the water temperature in the container. It is common practice in the fisheries industry to store fish and ice water in a container to keep it cold and thaw the fish as necessary. ing. One is that it is preferable to thaw frozen fish at as low a temperature as possible in order to maintain freshness, and secondly, if the water temperature distribution in the container becomes uneven, the freshness of fish that has reached <1 qlN will rapidly decrease. Not only will the water drop, but there are other inconveniences such as not being able to take it out until all the fish are thawed, so it is necessary to maintain a uniform water temperature inside the container. For example, it is necessary to scrub the water at a slow speed. Even when refrigerated after thawing, the temperature of a large amount of fish stored in a large aquarium is not necessarily uniform, and the temperature of the fish body is high in areas where crushed ice is not sufficiently mixed, resulting in internal parts of the fish body. Digestion is activated by the action of digestive enzymes,
Decay progresses and this repeats a vicious cycle that causes fever.1. It is known that this leads to increasingly uneven temperatures, and therefore it is essential to equalize the temperature distribution within the container not only during thawing but also during refrigeration at low temperatures. Previously, this transplantation device had a relatively large structure that thawed and refrigerated frozen fish weighing from several tens of kilograms to several tens of tons in bulk, and tap water was pumped in to speed up the thawing process. Normally, the amount of fish stored in the fish is kept as large as possible and the amount of ice water is kept as small as possible, but frozen fish is not stirred sufficiently, resulting in wide temperature differences locally, and It became very difficult to thaw the fish, and not only did it take a long time to thaw all of the frozen fish, but the freshness of the fish that was thawed quickly deteriorated. In addition, some proposals have been made to increase the agitation effect and rapid thawing effect by increasing the water blowing pressure and supply flow rate, but it has been proposed that simply increasing the tap water blowing pressure and flow rate will not be sufficient for large-capacity doors. It is practically impossible to uniformly stir the entire container. This is because the part where the flow velocity is high near where the tap water is blown out is particularly strongly agitated, and the further away from that location the flow velocity rapidly decreases and is hardly agitated, causing the flow rate to increase. Even if we tried to solve this problem, not only could we not expect much fruit, but the water temperature inside the container would rise rapidly, making it impossible to thaw properly, and the increase in water consumption would be uneconomical, which was undesirable. In addition, if the blowing pressure is increased, the fish bodies near the blowing outlet are violently agitated and are damaged by collisions between the fish bodies, leading to a decrease in quality, so it is difficult to say that this is an appropriate means. - In view of this fact, the present invention has devised a new device that can satisfy the above-mentioned conditions required for a low-temperature refrigeration device, and is particularly aimed at storing fish. A water circulation flow path is formed including a container in which water is introduced into the container and taken out from the container through a porous body such as a perforated plate through which water passes but not through which fish bodies pass. It is characterized by a structure in which the direction of water flowing inside the container can be reversed. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings. FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show an example of a thawing/refrigeration device according to an embodiment of the present invention, which includes a water circulation channel including a container (1) and a stirring pump (2). The container (1) is formed so that fish are densely contained within the container (1). When the fish is kept cold, the fish and ice water are stored in the container fil, but in this case, a distribution duct f3 is used to connect the container (1) and the stirring pump +21. (3) The inside is filled with cold water at around 0°C. 5- The opposite side walls of the container (1) communicating with the distribution duct (3) are formed of a porous body (4) such as a perforated plate through which water can pass through but fish bodies cannot. ) side so that only water flows to prevent fish bodies and ice blocks from entering. However, in this example, the water circulation flow path consisting of the container (11, stirring pump f2+, and distribution duct (3) is a water tank (
5), and the distribution duct (3) is formed into a detour that surrounds the sides of the opposite side walls made of perforated plates (4) and the lower part of the bottom wall. A stirring pump (2) is arranged in the middle of this circulation duct (3). Various types of pumps can be used as the above-mentioned stirring pump (2), but axial flow pumps such as screw impeller type are suitable as submersible type pumps. It is necessary to use a kyudo-type type that can change the rotation of the rotor by forward or reverse rotation of the rotor blade. In addition, in the case of a submersible type as in the above example, the pump part is arranged in the circulation duct (3), and the motor ( 6) may be connected. In Figure 1, (7) is a timer for reversal control, and 2 to 3
The motor (6) is alternately rotated in positive and
It is designed to reverse the situation. Defrosting/refrigerating equipment with the above structure is usually used to maintain fish at 0°C mixed with ice, or to keep the fish at -10°C in another freezing equipment.
Fish frozen at about After filling with water up to the level, the stirring pump (2) is operated alternately in forward and reverse directions by the timer (7) at predetermined intervals of about 3 minutes. By doing this, the water flow in the distribution duct (3) alternately repeats the flow indicated by the solid line or broken line, and after thawing and uniformly flows through the perforated plate (4) on the left or right side in the figure, The water flows out through the multi-hole plate (4) into the distribution duct (3). In this case, the direction of the flowing water is not reversible but constant.
Perforated plate +41, perforated plate on the outflow side of +41 (4)
However, there are disadvantages such as fish bodies gathering in the area causing clogging, which impairs the flow of water, and fish bodies not being stirred and water passing through the 1 ml constant flow path formed between stationary fish bodies. The device is designed to change the flow direction before the fish become clogged, so it has a great agitation effect on the fish, and it also has the feature of forming a uniformly dispersed water flow. After passing through, the water flow is decelerated and becomes a gentle water flow, so thawing occurs evenly and quickly. In addition, if an axial flow pump such as a screw impeller pump with a low hot water flow type is used as the stirring pump (2), a slow and abundant flow of water will be possible, and in addition to the average thawing effect, This is very convenient since it has the advantage of preventing damage by avoiding violent collisions with fish bodies. In addition, by continuing to operate the stirring pump (2) even after thawing is completed, the water temperature in the water tank (5) is brought down to the average temperature around 0t by 2 tons of water spouting from the porous body (41). This is a preferred mode of operation as it allows isothermal cooling and isothermal cooling.By the way, in the case of frozen fish that has been kept at a low temperature of -10°C or lower, if it is thawed with room temperature water and then refrigerated, the stirring pump (
After about 5 minutes have elapsed after the operation in step 2), it is fully expected that the water will become 0°C and it will take a long time to defrost it. In such a case, as shown in Figure 3, a temperature detector (8) is used to detect the temperature of the circulating water, and control means to add room temperature water or warm water to slightly raise the temperature of the circulating water. This can be easily solved by adding such a means to the apparatus of the present invention.The apparatus shown in FIG. This is an example of the device of the present invention, in which the container (1) and a part of the distribution duct (3) are housed in the water tank (5), and the majority of the distribution duct (3) and A reversible stirring pump (2) is installed outside the water tank (51).
The only difference in structure from the device shown in Figure 1 is that This device has the advantage that, by making some modifications to the cold storage tank that keeps the temperature below -10° C., it can be extremely easily used as a thawing/refrigerating device. The present invention has the above-described structure and function, and by interposing the porous body (4) in the middle of the water circulation flow path, the fish bodies in the container (1) can be moved out of the container. The inconvenience will be resolved. In addition, the flowing water is diffused through the porous body (4) into the container (1).
) Since the white fish are allowed to flow in and flow out of the vessel, the flow rate of water flowing around the fish body is slow, and an average water flow velocity distribution is obtained in each corner and agitation. In addition to preventing damage to the fish body due to
It is possible to perform cold storage operation with a uniform temperature in any part of the refrigerator, thus eliminating the difference in slowness of freezing when thawing is required, and still maintaining a uniform temperature during refrigeration at low temperatures. As a result, high quality fresh fish can be refrigerated stably. IO- Furthermore, by repeating the circulating water flow alternately and changing the flow direction, fish bodies may accumulate in one place, creating a clogging pattern, impairing the flow of water, and causing uneven temperature distribution. This invention not only reliably prevents this from occurring, but also provides a stable stirring effect.As described above, the present invention is an extremely useful refrigeration device that exhibits various excellent features. 4. Brief description of the drawings FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional front view of one embodiment of the device of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view, and FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional front view of an example of the apparatus of the present invention. +1. l... Container. (2)・・ Stirring pump. (3) ... Distribution duct. (4)・・・・・・・・・Porous body. (5)・・・・・・・・・Aquarium. (6)...Motor. (7)・・・・・・・Timer for reversal control. (8)...Temperature detector. ll-

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Forming a water circulation channel including a container in which fish is housed, introducing water into the container through a porous body through which water passes but not the fish body; A thawing/refrigeration device characterized in that it has a structure in which water is drawn out from the container, and the direction of flowing water in the container can be reversed. 2. The thawing/refrigeration device according to claim 1, wherein the water circulation flow path is equipped with a reversible stirring pump that can switch between a discharge section and a suction section. 6. The thawing/refrigeration apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the stirring pump is a pump equipped with a screw-type impeller 2. 4. The thawing/refrigeration device according to claim 2, wherein the water circulation channel includes a distribution duct for connecting the container and the stirring pump and is housed in one water tank. 5. Claims 2 and 3, in which the stirring pump is automatically operated in forward and reverse directions alternately by a timer.