JPS61141922A - Preparation of flaky salt by slice system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently prepare a flaky salt having stable quality, by mechanically slicing an amorphous material formed by quenching a melt of a single salt or a mixture of salts and subsequently crushing and screening the sliced one to form a thin piece like product. CONSTITUTION:A single salt or mixture of salts is melted at temp. equal to or more than the m.p. thereof while the obtained melt is quanched to form an amorphous material having an arbitrary shape. This amorphous material is mechanically sliced and subsequently crushed and screened to obtain a thin piece like product. In the slicing process, for example, a tobacco chopper is utilized and the amorphous matertrial having a thickness and width fitted to said chopper is supplied thereto batchwise or continuously and the sliced material is crushed and screened to obtain a product. By this method, the thickness of a flaky salt unstable in a conventional mfg. method can be held to an arbitrary constant value.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

This invention relates to a method for producing flake salt, in which an amorphous material of any shape obtained by rapidly cooling molten salt is mechanically sliced, crushed and sieved to obtain a flaky product. The following description will be made using di-common salt as an example, but other salts such as potassium chloride or mixtures thereof are also included in the present invention.

[Conventional technology]

The crystal particles of common salt are cubic, but they adhere and dissolve. Flake salts are manufactured and supplied in the form of thin flakes for applications with particularly demanding requirements regarding properties such as miscibility. All flake salts currently on the market are manufactured by the following method. That is, a saturated saline solution is evaporated on the surface using a flat strip at a temperature below the boiling point. Crystal nuclei are generated on the liquid surface, but supported by two surface tensions, the crystals grow only in the horizontal direction of the liquid surface. When a suitable growth stage is reached, the flaky crystals floating on the liquid surface sink to the bottom of the liquid by gentle stirring, are scraped up, dehydrated, dried, and sieved to produce a product.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

Flake salt produced using conventional manufacturing methods may look like thin flakes, but microscopically it is made up of the cubic crystal lattice that is typical of table salt, and the product characteristics determined by the way the crystals grow are affected by operating conditions, wind, etc. It is unstable and has a poor yield because it is greatly affected by subtle changes in environmental conditions. Also,
Surface evaporation occurs at temperatures below the boiling point, and the liquid surface is covered with precipitated crystals, making it extremely inefficient as an evaporation method, requiring a large floor area, and causing large heat loss. Operation management is also not easy. Which invention attempts to solve these problems all at once by adopting a mechanical slicing method for the production of flake salt.

[Means to solve the problem]

This invention attempts to efficiently obtain flake salt having an arbitrary thickness by mechanical slicing, but for this purpose an amorphous material with a shape suitable for slicing is required. Salt has a relatively low melting point of approximately 800°C, and has a specific heat of less than 0.24, so it can be easily melted by any heating means, electric melting, etc., and does not require special equipment materials. . When molten salt is rapidly cooled, it solidifies and becomes an amorphous material, but its volume slightly decreases as the temperature drops, making it easy to take it out of the mold or draw it out continuously. In the slicing process, for example, a tobacco shredding machine is used, and an amorphous material having a thickness and width suitable for the shredding machine is fed batchwise or continuously, and the sliced material is crushed and sieved to produce a product.

[For production]

In the present invention, the thickness of flake salt, which was unstable in conventional manufacturing methods, can be maintained at an arbitrary constant value by adjusting the number of rotations of the cutting machine and the speed of feeding the material. Furthermore, the complicated dehydration and drying steps that are essential in the conventional liquid surface evaporation method are no longer necessary.

【Effect of the invention】

As explained above, in contrast to the conventional liquid surface evaporation method which is inefficient and requires a large floor area equipment and difficult operational management, the present invention can efficiently produce flake salt of any stable quality.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A slicing process characterized by mechanically slicing an amorphous material of any shape obtained by melting a single salt or a mixture of salts at a temperature equal to or higher than its melting point and then rapidly cooling the material, crushing it and sieving it into a flaky product. Method for producing flake salt by method.