JPS6141593Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a rice serving device for serving a fixed amount of cooked rice in a container such as a lunch box.

A plating device for plating cooked rice into a container such as a bento box, which takes out an appropriate amount of cooked rice stored in a cylinder and places it into a bento box, is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 58-4457. There is. In this device, an upper shutter and a lower shutter are provided at the bottom of a cylindrical body that accommodates cooked rice, spaced apart from each other in the vertical direction. After the cooked rice supported by the lower shutter is cut by the upper shutter, the lower shutter is opened and the cut cooked rice is dropped into a lunch box or the like. And, in the cylinder,
Rice is supplied from above. Therefore, the cylindrical body is always filled with rice, and the rice at the bottom is pressurized by the load, causing it to become a little hard. When the rice is pressurized and hardens, it sticks to the upper and lower shutters and the inner surface of the cylinder.
When the lower shutter is opened, there is a problem that it is difficult to fall, and there is also the problem that it tastes a bit bad when eaten.

In order to solve this problem, the specification of Utility Model Application No. 182933/1980 discloses a method of detecting cooked rice with a rod-shaped sensor provided inside the cylinder to make the amount of cooked rice in the cylinder almost constant. However, since the sensor is horizontal, and small pieces of wakame or vegetables are being added to rice in recent years, when rice is served in this way, even if there is less rice in the cylinder, The wakame seaweed remains attached to the sensor, and if this happens, the situation is the same as if cooked rice were in contact with the sensor, resulting in a malfunction in which cooked rice is not fed into the cylinder.

This invention solves the problem of pressurizing rice due to the scale by always keeping the amount of cooked rice contained in the cylinder below a certain amount, and also solves the problem of pressurizing rice due to the scale. Another object of the present invention is to eliminate malfunction of the sensor due to the above-mentioned small pieces and to ensure the adjustment of the amount of cooked rice.

In the present invention, a sensor is provided inside a cylinder that accommodates cooked rice, and the detection part of the sensor is oriented vertically, so that even when pieces of seaweed, vegetables, etc. are mixed in the cooked rice, the pieces can be detected. By dropping the rice with the rice, it prevents sensor malfunctions.

To explain this plating device with reference to the embodiment shown in the drawings, 1 is a hopper into which cooked rice is placed. A support 2 is provided. The support 2 has a protrusion 4 made of a rod or a band-shaped plate on the circumferential surface of a support shaft 3 installed in the horizontal direction.
are arranged in a radial manner, with the proximal ends of the protrusions 4 of each pair being close to each other, and the protrusions 4 being close to each other and being close to the inner surface of the hopper 1,
Each is forcibly rotated by a motor. The protrusions 4 of the pair of supports 2 may have interlocking tips, and the number of supports 2 may be arbitrary. In other words, the rice in the hopper 1 cannot fall when the support 2 is stopped.
When the support 2 rotates, the protrusion 4 scrapes off cooked rice.

5 is a cylindrical body placed below the hopper 1 to receive the cooked rice that falls from the hopper 1, and whose cross-sectional shape and size correspond to a container such as a bento box in which cooked rice is served. The rice that falls in the form of a plate from the body 5 is placed directly into a lunch box or the like. 6 is an upper shutter disposed at the lower end of the cylinder 5 so as to be horizontally slidable;
Almost the entire inside of the cylindrical body 5 can be opened and closed. A lower shutter 7 is disposed below the upper shutter 6 at an appropriate interval so as to be slidable in the horizontal direction.The shutters 6 and 7 are each composed of a pair and are butted in the cylinder body 5. Although the inside of the cylindrical body 5 is opened and closed, it is also possible to open and close the entire cylindrical body 5 with a single plate.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a sensor made of metal such as stainless steel that detects cooked rice by changes in capacitance inserted into the cylindrical body 5. Its detection part 9 is oriented vertically, and the parts other than the detection part 9 are made of synthetic resin or the like. is coated with an insulator 10. In this example, the sensor 8 is formed into an L-shape and is inserted from the top of the cylinder 5, but it can also be optionally inserted through a hole provided in the peripheral wall of the cylinder 5, and the detection part 9 of the sensor 8 can be inserted vertically. It may be any shape, and it is also possible to make it slightly inclined. It is suitable for the detection part 9 to be the lower end of the rod-shaped sensor 8, but it is possible to make the detection part 9 at any position of the sensor 8 as long as it is in the vertical direction, and almost the entire vertical part can be used as the detection part 9. It is also possible to set it to 9. Reference numeral 11 denotes a touch limit switch attached to the sensor 8. When cooked rice touches the detection part 9 and its capacitance changes, the switch 11 outputs a signal and stops the motor that drives the support 2.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a support plate attached to the fuselage, on which the housing cylinder 5 is attached, and an upper shutter 6 is arranged in a through hole 13 provided in the support plate 12 at a position overlapping the cylinder 5. 14 is a fuselage, to which a lower shutter 7 is attached. 15 is an air cylinder that slides the shutters 6 and 7;
Numeral 6 is a container such as a lunch box, which is transported by a conveyor 17 that moves intermittently and is stopped under the cylinder 5 one after another. It is also possible for the operator to repeatedly place the containers 15 under the cylinder 5 one by one.

FIG. 6 shows another example of the support 2, in which a door-like plate that moves up and down is provided at the exit of the hopper 1. That is, as the support, any structure that can prevent the cooked rice from falling in the hopper 1 and allow it to fall can be used.

The rice is arranged on the conveyor 17 using this device.
The containers 15 are intermittently transferred and stopped in sequence below the lower shutter 7. On the other hand, Hotupa 1
When rice is put in the hopper and the supporting tools 2, 2 are rotated, the rice in the hopper 2 is scraped out by the protrusion 4 and dropped into the cylinder 5. At this time, at least one of the upper and lower shutters 6 and 7 closes the inside of the cylinder 5, so the cooked rice is supported by it, but the amount of cooked rice inside the cylinder 5 increases, which causes the detection part of the sensor 8 to , the capacitance of the sensor 8 changes and the control device interrupts the rotation of the bearing 2 accordingly. When the support 2 stops, the falling of the cooked rice onto the cylinder 5 is also interrupted. For example, if the lower shutter 7 closes the cylinder 5, then the upper shutter 6
enters the cylinder 5 and divides the cooked rice between the upper and lower shutters 6 and 7. After that, the lower shutter 7 comes out of the cylindrical body 5, so the separated cooked rice falls into the container stopped below, the container 16 filled with cooked rice moves, and the empty container is removed. Lower shutter 7
Stop at the bottom. When the rice is dropped, the lower shutter 7 enters the cylinder 5, and then the upper shutter 6
comes out of the cylindrical body 5 and lowers the cooked rice in the cylindrical body 5 to the lower shutter 7, and then the upper shutter 6 enters the cylindrical body 5 to repeat the process of separating the cooked rice.
In this way, when cooked rice is put into the container and the amount of cooked rice in the cylinder 5 decreases and the cooked rice is separated from the detection part 9 of the sensor 8, the capacitance of the sensor 8 returns to its original value, and the support 2 is rotated to drop the cooked rice in the hopper 1 into the cylinder 5, and when the cooked rice is maintained in contact with the sensor 8, the support 2 is repeatedly stopped and the rice in the cylinder 5 is dropped. Always maintain the amount of cooked rice below a certain amount.

This device arranges cooked rice in a container such as a lunch box as described above, but by detecting the amount of cooked rice in the cylinder 5 with the sensor 8, the amount is always kept below a certain level. It is possible to prevent the lower part of the cooked rice stored in the cylinder 5 from being pressurized and hardened by the load of the cooked rice at the upper end. Therefore, when the upper shutter 6 enters into the cylindrical body 5, it is unlikely that the cooked rice grains will be cut, and the cooked rice is less likely to adhere to the lower surface of the upper shutter 6, so the lower shutter 7 is opened. Sometimes the separated cooked rice tends to fall down, making it possible to perform the serving work smoothly, and the plated rice becomes fluffy, making it possible to provide delicious bento boxes.

Since the amount of cooked rice is detected by the change in capacitance, the amount of cooked rice is detected when the sensor 8 comes into contact with the sensor 8.
The response when the cooked rice is separated from the rice is quick, and the dropping and stopping of the cooked rice can be performed accurately. Since the sensor 8 has at least its detection part 9 in the vertical direction,
For example, if pieces of seaweed or vegetables are mixed into the cooked rice, and even if they adhere to the detection part 9 of the sensor 8, they will not separate from the cooked rice and will descend together with the cooked rice. When the rice is separated from the detection part 9, it is possible to prevent the pieces of seaweed and vegetables from remaining attached to the detection part 9. Therefore, even though the amount of cooked rice in the cylindrical body 5 has decreased, small pieces of seaweed and vegetables remain attached to the detection part 9, so the support 2 does not operate and the cooked rice is not cooked. It is possible to eliminate malfunctions due to non-supply, and it is possible to ensure the continuation of the plating work.

This invention has a sensor inside the cylinder that houses the cooked rice, and its detection part is oriented vertically.
The amount of cooked rice in the cylinder can always be kept below a certain amount, and it also solves the problem of malfunctions caused by rice contaminants remaining on the sensor's detection part when the amount of cooked rice is low. can.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 1 is a front view, Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional front view of the shutter section, Fig. 3 is an enlarged sectional front view of the main part, and Fig. 4 is an enlarged front view of the support body. FIG. 5 is a plan view of the same, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of another example of the support. 1: Hopper, 2: Support, 5: Cylindrical body, 6: Upper shutter, 7: Lower shutter, 8: Sensor, 9:
Detection part, 10: Insulator.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] The hopper has a cylindrical body for accommodating cooked rice below the outlet, and an upper shutter and a lower shutter for opening and closing the inside are provided at the bottom of the cylindrical body with an interval in the vertical direction. A sensor that has a support that can support and drop cooked rice, and that detects changes in capacitance,
It is installed inside the cylinder with its detection part in the vertical direction,
A rice serving device in which the supporting tool stops the rice from falling when the rice in the cylinder touches the sensor.