JPS598551Y2 - food freezing equipment - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a food freezing device that freezes particulate, fibrous, or string-like foods into individual pieces.

Conventionally, there is a fluidized bed freezing method as a method of freezing food to a normal state.

This fluidized bed freezing method is a method in which food is frozen while being fluidized on the porous fluidized bed by blowing cold air from below the bed.

This method is effective for freezing non-sticky foods with relatively uniform particles, but foods that tend to be sticky such as cooked rice and fibrous foods that tend to get tangled such as artificial proteins such as crab meat. Foods, foods with a wide particle size distribution such as small particulate artificial proteins, or relatively large and elongated foods such as French fries, etc. are foods that do not easily collapse when placed in a conical shape. The corners are large, and the fluidized bed of food tends to be uneven between the intake side and the outlet side of the fluidized bed. Therefore, the cold air from below the fluidized bed tends to flow into the thin part of the fluidized bed, and only the food in this part is blown up. The surface becomes thinner and more uneven.

Therefore, there are problems in that the food on the inlet side may remain accumulated and freeze into blocks, and the food may not be smoothly transferred to the outlet side.

In addition, in the case of foods with a wide particle size distribution, if cold air is sent based on large particles, there is a problem that small particles will be scattered and the size of the blower will increase.

The present invention attempts to solve the above-mentioned problems, and uses a stirring device to stir the fluidized bed of foods that have a large angle of repose when accumulated on the fluidized bed, thereby forcing non-uniformity of the fluidized bed. To correct this problem and to thoroughly loosen food that tends to stick or get tangled, thereby ensuring smooth flow of food and preventing block freezing to obtain frozen food in an ideal bulk state. The main objective is to provide a food freezing device that can.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A food freezing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

a cooler 2 and a blower 3 having an air outlet below the cooler 2;
A porous fluidized bed 4 is disposed above the cooler 2 in the freezer compartment 1 equipped with a refrigerator 3.

A food outlet 5 is formed on the side wall 1a of the freezer compartment 1 above one end of the fluidized bed 4, and a frozen food outlet 6 is formed on the side wall 1b of the freezer compartment 1 at the other end of the fluidized bed 4. .

Then, the fluidized bed 14 is formed under the food from the inlet 5 by the cold air W blown from the blowers 3 on the fluidized bed 4, and the food is frozen into pieces before reaching the outlet 6. It has become.

In this embodiment, a stirring blade 8 is positioned above the fluidized bed 4, that is, in the fluidized bed 14 of the food product F;
A stirring device 7 consisting of a rotating shaft 9 that rotates the inlet 5
Three of them are arranged in a row toward the side exit 6 side.

Each of the rotating shafts 9 is made to protrude from the ceiling 1C of the freezing chamber 1, and a pulley 10 is attached to each upper end.

These pulleys 10 are connected to each other by a belt 11, and one of the rotating shafts 9 is connected to a motor 12 via a speed reduction device 13 to rotate each stirring blade 8 in the same direction. It looks like this.

Next, to explain the operation of the food freezing device shown in the figure, Food F is a food that tends to stick (e.g. cooked rice), a fibrous food that tends to get entangled (e.g. artificial protein like crab meat), a food with a wide particle size distribution (
e.g. small particulate artificial proteins), relatively large elongated foods (e.g.
For example, in the case of French fries), the food F introduced from the inlet 5 can be fluidized only by the cold air W flowing from below the fluidized bed 4, and the angle of repose is large as it accumulates on the inlet 5 side of the fluidized bed 4. There is a tendency for the state shown by the two-dot chain line A to occur.

In the illustrated embodiment, when each stirring device 7 is activated,
Each stirring blade 8 rotates in the same direction to break up the food F in the estimator A and sequentially transfer it to the outlet 6 side to form a uniform fluidized food bed 14 on the fluidized bed 4.

Therefore, the food F is cooled and frozen while being uniformly fluidized by the cold air W coming from below the fluidized bed 4, and is taken out from the outlet 8 as a frozen product G in pieces.

Note that the stirring blades 8 of the stirring device 7 are not limited to the two blades shown, but may be four blades or more.

Further, the installation position may be such that the fluidized bed 14 can be agitated over the entire surface, or it may be effective to install the blade with a relatively narrow width at any position at the bottom, middle, or top of the fluidized bed 14.

Furthermore, if the food F has uniform particles such as cooked rice, it will flow smoothly without stirring when the surface freezes and loses its stickiness. It is effective just to install it in a place where the water will freeze.

Next, some examples of food freezing performed using the food freezing apparatus of the present invention are listed below.

Experimental Example 1 As shown in Fig. 3, food F consisting of crab meat-like artificial protein was packed to a height of about 50 mm on the fluidized bed 4 of a cylindrical batch-type fluidized bed freezing experiment apparatus with a diameter of 200 mm. , a stirring device 7 is installed such that a stirring blade 8 consisting of two blades is positioned above the food F, and the stirring speed is 60 to 180 rpm.
2 to 3 m/sec from below the fluidized bed 4 while rotating at m.
When cold air was blown at a speed of , Food F could be successfully frozen in pieces without causing any blow-through.

Example 2 As shown in FIG. 4, a stirring device 7 having comb-shaped stirring blades 8 was installed on the fluidized bed 4 of a cylindrical batch-type fluidized bed freezing experiment apparatus with a diameter of 200 mm.
When food F consisting of cooked rice is fed little by little while rotating at 0 rpm and cool air is blown at a wind speed of 2 to 3 m/sec from below the fluidized bed 4, the surface freezes and becomes sticky before it sticks together and forms blocks. Once the particles disappeared and the surface became frozen into microblocks of 10 particles or less, they were successfully frozen into pieces without stirring.

Example 3 As shown in FIG. 5, about 5 Qm of food F consisting of artificial protein with a particle size of 5 to 50 mesh was placed on the fluidized bed 4 of a cylindrical batch-type fluidized bed freezing experiment apparatus with a diameter of 200 mm.
A stirring device 7 is installed such that two stages of two-blade stirring blades 8 are positioned below the food F, and the fluidized bed 4 is rotated at 150 to 450 rpm.
When cold air is blown from below at a low wind speed (i.e. 1 to 2 m/sec) that does not scatter the small particles in the food F, the large particles staying in the lower layer are agitated and do not form blocks, allowing them to be frozen into pieces. Ta.

Once the surface of the particles was frozen, it was difficult to form blocks, so even with relatively gentle agitation, fluid freezing was successful.

Next, the effects of the food freezing device of the present invention will be listed below.

That is, according to the present invention, (1) a stirring device 7 is provided above the fluidized bed 4 for fluidizing and freezing the food F, which has a large angle of repose when estimated, and the fluidizing food F is forcibly stirred; , the food F is crushed at the accumulation part A to form a uniform fluidized bed 14 on the fluidized bed 4, and the food that tends to stick or get tangled is easily loosened to prevent the food from forming into blocks. (2) Since the stirring device 7 helps the flow of the food F from the inlet 5 to the outlet 6, it is possible to obtain the frozen product G in an ideal bulk state. The cooling state becomes uniform, and a uniform frozen product G can be obtained.
Since fluidized freezing is achieved by the fluidization caused by the fluidization and forced stirring by the stirring device 7, even when freezing foods with a wide particle size distribution, even cold air W at a relatively low wind speed based on particles of average size can be used to completely freeze the food. There are various practical effects such as being able to sufficiently fluidize food particles within a range, and eliminating the need to increase the power of the blower 3.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a food freezing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II in Fig. 1, and Figs.
FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an experimental example of the food freezing device of the present invention. 1... Freezer, 2... Cooler, 3...
...Blower, 4...Fluidized bed, 7...
- Stirring device, F... food, W... cold air.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] In a device in which food F is fluidized and continuously frozen on the fluidized bed 4 by cold air W from below a porous fluidized bed 4 installed in the freezing chamber 1, above the fluidized bed 4 is A food freezing device characterized by being provided with a stirring device 7 for stirring food F having a large estimated angle of repose.