JPS6217151B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a device for removing water droplets adhering to the surface of a cylindrical body, and more particularly to a novel device for removing water droplets adhering to the surface of a can after being water-cooled in a can manufacturing process.

Canned goods are manufactured using a mass production method, in which the cans are filled with food and drink such as meat, fish, fruit, fruit juice, etc. and sealed, then heat sterilized, cooled with cold water, and then drained. After that, the manufacturing date mark is printed and the product is packaged and shipped. The cans are continuously conveyed in a generally vertical position on conveyors installed across each process. Regarding heating canned foods, for example, mandarin oranges are heated at 80°C for 10 minutes. Canned food must be cooled quickly; gradual cooling is not only inefficient, but can also encourage the activity of thermophilic bacteria, so cool quickly from the outside by pouring plenty of water over the can.

However, if the water adhering to the surface of the cans is not completely removed after cooling, the manufacturing date mark will not be printed properly and there is a risk of serious quality defects such as rust forming on the surface of the cans that should be stored for a long time. However, in the conventional canning manufacturing process, this draining process was carried out as follows, which was extremely inadequate.

After cooling with water, many small and large bead-shaped water droplets remain on the can surface, not only on the can lid but also on the can copper and the can bottom. While cans with water droplets are transported while standing on a conveyor, multiple tubes that introduce compressed air are installed close to the cans, air is blown out from the tips of these tubes, and the force of the air is used to drain the water. was going there.
However, in such equipment, since the action of the steam is carried out partially, it is not possible to remove water droplets over the entire surface of the can in a short period of time. In particular, the draining of the canopy was extremely inadequate. FIG. 1 shows an example of a canopy drainer, and shows the fumarole tube 2 viewed from the can lid 1b of the can 1. Fumarole A acts on the area B straight ahead of it, and some of the water droplets are scattered in the direction C, but
The water droplets that hit the seamed portion 3 of the can are moved in the direction from N to E while remaining attached to the can, and remain there.

In the conventional draining process described above, in order to drain the entire can surface, a large number of nozzles must be installed in the longitudinal direction of the conveyor, and even then, the can lids are still incompletely drained. The can is hot.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and while a large number of canned goods, bottles, and similar cylindrical bodies as described above are lined up on a conveyor and conveyed continuously, countless numbers of them adhere to the surface. To provide a device that can completely remove water droplets in a short period of time.

The apparatus for removing water droplets adhering to the surface of a cylindrical body according to the present invention continuously removes a large number of cylindrical bodies in a row by placing a body and one end of the cylinder having ends on both sides of the body. It is equipped with a conveyor for conveying, and a first water droplet removal chamber and a second water droplet removal chamber that cover the conveyor and the cylindrical body on the conveyor in order from the upstream side of the conveyor, and the first and second water droplet removal chambers cover the conveyor and the cylindrical body on the conveyor. is equipped with a plurality of slit nozzles above and on both sides of the cylindrical body along the traveling direction of the conveyor, and the cylindrical body is temporarily suspended from the conveyor near the center of the first and second water droplet removal chambers. a guide rail means for inverting the cylindrical body or temporarily lifting the cylindrical body from the conveyor and swinging it; Wind speed from the slit nozzle group in the second water droplet removal chamber
means for ejecting a heated air stream with a temperature of 60°C or more at a speed of 30 m/sec or more, and configured so that the entire surface of the cylinder receives the high-speed air stream and the heated air stream from either of the slit nozzles. It is a feature.

The embodiments of the present invention shown in FIGS. 2 to 10 will be specifically described below. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to an apparatus for removing water droplets adhering to the surface of a can after water cooling in a normal can manufacturing process.

2 and 3 are a plan sectional view and a side sectional view of the present device, respectively, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are an enlarged sectional view bent along the line 3 and an enlarged sectional view bent along the line 3, respectively. In Figs. 2 to 5, reference numeral 5 denotes a top chain type conveyor, on which a large number of water-cooled cans 1, 1, etc. are placed in a line and in an upright position on the outbound side 5a, and conveyed in the horizontal direction of the arrow. . The forward side 5a of the conveyor 5 is supported by a pair of guide rails 6 disposed below, and the return side 5b is supported by rollers 7 disposed at a predetermined position below.

Above the conveyor 5, a pair of guide rails 8, 8' are provided which are spaced apart at a predetermined interval in order to regulate the cans to be conveyed in a single line and to prevent the cans 1 from falling over. .

The belt conveyor 5 and the pair of guide rails 8, 8' sequentially travel inside the first water droplet removal chamber A and the second water droplet removal chamber B for removing countless water droplets adhering to the can surface. ing.

In the first water droplet removal chamber A, the pair of guide rails 8, 8' are twisted at the center thereof so as to intersect so that their left and right positions are interchanged in the front and back, thereby forming a twisted part C. . Furthermore, a pair of guide plates 8'', 8'' are provided on both sides of the twisting section C to prevent each canned food from falling off the twisting section C, and guide rails 8, 8' are provided on both sides of the twisting section C.
Together with the twisted portion C, it forms a guide rail means for inverting the can. Therefore, each canned food 1 carried into the housing 9 with the can bottom 1a facing upward
is lifted off the belt conveyor 5 by the guide rail means at the center of the housing 9 while being pushed by the following cans, and is turned over 180 degrees, and the can lid 1b (the can lid in the figure is marked with . (distinguished from the bottom of the can) is on top, and in that state, insert the housing 9.
will be removed from. In addition, a pair of guide rails 8, 8'
The level of the position at which the canned food is guided is changed before and after the twisted portion C as a boundary.

The first water droplet removal chamber A is for removing most of the water droplets adhering to the surface of each canned food 1 carried in by the conveyor 5, and for reducing the residual water droplets that could not be removed into fine particles. It is equipped with a group of slit nozzles. The slit nozzle group of the first water droplet removal chamber A includes downward blowing nozzles 12, 16, 13 and side blowing nozzles 18, 18' arranged above and on both sides of the canned food carried into the housing 9 along the traveling direction; It consists of 19 and 19'.

The bottom blow nozzles 12, 16, 13 and the side blow nozzles 18, 18'; 19, 19' are connected to the blower 24.
The header box 22 is connected to the header box 22 via a duct 23, and the lower blow nozzles 12,1
6 and 13 are respectively disposed in front of the twisted part C of the pair of guide rails 8 and 8', at the position of the twisted part C, and in front of the twisted part C, while a pair of side blow nozzles 18, 18' is arranged in front of the twisted part C, and a pair of side blow nozzles 19, 19' are arranged in front of the twisted part C. Therefore,
For each can carried into the housing 9 by the conveyor 5, the can bottom 1a first receives a high-speed air jet from the downward blow nozzle 12, and the can body 1c receives a pair of side blow nozzles 18 on both sides. ,1
8', the can body 1c receives a high-speed airflow from the downward blow nozzle 16 at the twisted portion C of the guide rails 8, 8', and then the can body 1c receives a pair of side blows again. Nozzle 19,1
9', and finally the can lid 1b receives the high speed air jet from the downward blowing nozzle 13.

The above-mentioned nozzles are all slit nozzles in order to effectively remove or reduce water droplets adhering to the surface of the can. The slits 14 and 15 of the bottom blowing nozzles 12 and 13 have a length longer than the diameter of the can bottom 1a and the can lid 1b, respectively, and the slits 14 and 15 of the bottom blowing nozzles 12 and 13 have a length longer than the diameter of the can bottom 1a and the can lid 1b, respectively. The slits 17; 20, 20'; 21, 21' are respectively connected to the can body 1.
It has a length greater than the height dimension of c.

When a high-speed air stream is injected to the can body 1c,
Although the high-speed airflow is blocked by the pair of guide rails 8, 8', as described above, the guide rails 8, 8' change the level of the guide position before and after the twisted portion C, so that the can body 1c All parts of the can be evenly exposed to the jet of high-speed airflow.

A high-speed air stream with a wind speed of at least 100 m/sec is blown toward the can surface from the slit of each nozzle. Therefore, the blower 24 has a discharge pressure of approximately 0.06 kg/cm ² or more.

Slits 14, 15, 17, 20 of each nozzle,
The high-speed airflow blowing out from 20', 21, 21' is
Most of the water droplets on the surface of the can are blown away, but the tiny water droplets that are attached to the can have a stronger adhesion to the can, so they remain and become tiny particles with a diameter of less than 1 mm. The water is broken down into small droplets, leaving countless small particles on the surface of the can. The water removed from the surface of the can scatters and falls along the inner wall of the housing 9 and is discharged from the drain pipe 26. In addition, small portions of the scattered water mix with air to create a humid atmosphere, so they are discharged to the outside of the housing 9 through the exhaust port 27. The exhaust port 27 is connected to a blower (not shown).

Each can from which water droplets have been preliminarily removed in the first water droplet removal chamber A is subsequently carried into the second water droplet removal chamber B. This second water droplet removal chamber B is for completely evaporating fine water droplets on the can surface that could not be removed in the first water droplet removal chamber A, and has a slit nozzle group in its housing 28. However, this differs greatly in that the jet air flow in the first water drop removal chamber A is a high-speed air flow, whereas the jet air flow is a heating chamber air flow, and the general structure is that of the first water drop removal chamber A. It is similar to That is, in the approximate center of the second water droplet removal chamber B, a part of the pair of guide rails 8, 8' has a twisted part C' similar to the above-mentioned twisted part C, and the guide plates 8'', 8''. Similar guide plates 8, 8 are provided to form guide rail means for the second water drop removal chamber B. Furthermore, the levels of the pair of guide rails 8, 8' are changed in front of the twisted portion C' and in front and behind the twisted portion C', respectively. Also, although the number is different from that of the first water droplet removal chamber A,
Similarly to the first water droplet removal chamber A, a group of slit nozzles (downward blowing nozzles 32, 33, 34, 40, 35
and side blow nozzles 42, 42'; 43, 43';
44, 44'; 45, 45') are provided within the housing 28, each nozzle branching from a header box 50 which communicates via a duct 51 with a blower 52 and a heater 53. The housing 28 has a heat insulating structure to prevent internal heat from escaping.

From the slits of each nozzle, high-speed heated air is blown toward the surface of the can 1 at a rate of 30 m/sec or more. Also, the temperature of the heated air is controlled by the heater 53.
Make sure to heat it to over 60℃. However, the temperature of the heated air needs to be set at a temperature that does not deteriorate the contents of the canned food, and is preferably set to less than 100°C. This is because if the conveyor were to stop for some reason during treatment with heated air, there is a risk that the temperature of the cans would rise to the temperature of the heated air.

In the second water droplet removal chamber B having the above configuration, the slits 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 4 of each nozzle
The high-velocity heated air blown from 6, 47, 48, 49 evaporates residual water droplets on the entire surface of the atomized can in the first water drop removal chamber A. The heated air acting on the can is collected, heated to a predetermined temperature through a heater 53 connected to a duct 51, sucked into a blower 52, and then discharged, enters a header box 50 as shown by the arrow in the drawing, and is distributed to each nozzle. be done. Since the heated air thus circulated becomes more humid when water droplets evaporate, a portion of the heated air is discharged little by little from the exhaust port 54.

In the above-mentioned embodiment shown in Figures 2 to 5, the canned food is handled by the guide rail means consisting of the twisted portions C, C' of the pair of guide rails 8, 8' and the guide plates 8'', 8.
Although the can is inverted by 180 degrees, it is not necessarily limited to the guide rail means for inverting the can; in short, it is necessary to ensure that the high-speed air flow and the heated air flow hit both the can bottom 1a and the can lid 1b. Bye. Therefore, modifications can be made as shown in FIGS. 6, 7, and 8, for example. Although FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 show the first water droplet removal chamber A, the second water droplet removal chamber B may be considered in the same manner.

In FIGS. 6, 7, and 8, the same members as in FIGS. 2 to 5 are designated by the same reference numerals. In this modification of the guide rail means, the guide rails 8 and 8' do not intersect as in the previous example, but are arranged so that the canned food is almost horizontal.
After the guide rails 8, 8' are each twisted inward, they are twisted back to their original positions. Therefore, the canned goods 1 that are sequentially transported are at this twisted portion C.
At this time, the can lid 1b floats off the conveyor 5 into an approximately horizontal horizontal position, and then returns to its original position, that is, the position in which the can lid 1b is placed on the conveyor 5, making a rocking motion. However, in this modification, one guide plate 8'' shown in FIG.
The corresponding guide plate 55 is composed of a pair of divided guide plates 55', 55' separated from each other, and one side blowing slit nozzle 56 is provided between the pair of divided guide plates 55', 55', and the twisted portion At C, a high-speed air stream is injected toward the lid 1b of the canned food which is in a horizontal position. Therefore, can lid 1
This means that the entire surface of the can, including area b, is exposed to a high-speed air stream.

Moreover, the conveyor 5 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is
It consists of one conveyor that passes through the first water droplet removal chamber A and the second water droplet removal chamber B, but as shown in Figure 9, between the first water droplet removal chamber A and the second water droplet removal chamber B It may also be configured with a pair of conveyors 59 and 60 connected by. In this case, the first
The outlet end of the first conveyor 59 passing through the water droplet removal chamber A and the inlet end of the second conveyor 60 passing through the second water droplet removal chamber B are stacked next to each other,
Each can 1 conveyed by the first conveyor 59 is transferred onto the second conveyor 60 by a pair of auxiliary guide rails 61 and 62. According to one conveyor 5 shown in FIGS. 2 to 5, a large amount of water droplets deposited on the conveyor 5 is removed from the second water droplet removal chamber A in the first water droplet removal chamber A.
However, according to this modification, this does not occur and evaporation of the can surface in the second water droplet removal chamber B is promoted.

As described above, the present invention provides a first water droplet removal chamber A.
A high-speed air flow is used to remove most of the water droplets on the can surface, and the remaining water droplets are finely divided into second water droplet removal chamber B.
By using a structure in which the water droplets made into fine particles are evaporated by a heated air flow, the water droplets can be removed extremely efficiently. Thus, if the water droplets are not atomized as a preliminary treatment, the desired effect will not be obtained even if the same equipment is used to inject a stream of heated air. this is,
The can is made of thin metal with good thermal conductivity, and the surface of the can, which undergoes a rapid water cooling process, maintains the temperature of the contents at a relatively low temperature, e.g. 30°C to 40°C, which generates a heated air flow. This is because even if the water is sprayed onto water droplets, the temperature of the water droplets will not immediately rise and the water will evaporate. Therefore, in the past, special heating of the air stream has not been carried out in canning manufacturing equipment.

The running speed of canned goods on the conveyor line in the canning manufacturing process is typically 50 m/min, and with conventional, imperfect equipment, large water droplets with a diameter of 2 mm or more can be seen for 20 to 30 seconds or even before they can be seen. Moreover, the length of the equipment was 17 to 25 meters. On the other hand, according to the device according to the above embodiment, the length of the device is at most 5 to 7 meters, and it is possible to completely remove large and small water droplets from the can surface in an extremely short period of about 6 to 8 seconds. be. The length dimension of the above device is the dimension actually required in the conveyor line of the can manufacturing process.

Currently, we are using a device with a length of 7 m to remove water droplets from the can surface.
If the temperature of the canned food is 30°C to 40°C when the canned food is transported into the first water droplet removal chamber A within 8 seconds, the high-speed air flow in the first water droplet removal chamber A will be at a wind speed of 100 m. /sec or more, preferably 120m/sec or more. In this case, the residual water droplets on the can surface become fine particles with a particle size of less than 1 mm. If the wind speed is lower than that, the residual water droplets on the can surface will not become fine enough.
For example, at wind speeds of about 30 to 50 m/s, particle sizes of 2 to
Many 5mm water droplets remain. High-velocity airflow works well at room temperature and does not require special heating. Further, the heated air flow in the second water droplet removal chamber B needs to have a temperature of 60° C. or more, preferably around 90°, and a wind speed of 30 m/sec or more.

Specific examples carried out by the present inventor are shown below.

In this example, the first water droplet removal chamber A and the second water droplet removal chamber B of the apparatus illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 are used,
A separate conveyor illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 was used. The cans to be processed are youth-filled cans with an external diameter of 55 mm at the seamed part and a height of 122 mm.The temperature of the cans is 35℃ after cooling with water. Many were conveyed at a speed of 50 m/min.

The length of the first water droplet removal chamber A was 1 m, and a high-speed air flow of 120 m/sec was blown onto the can surface from a nozzle slit. The length of the second water droplet removal chamber B is 5 m, and the nozzle slit is heated to 90℃ on the can surface.
It was sprayed at a speed of 40 m/sec.

As a result, most of the moisture was removed from the surface of the cans treated for about 1.2 seconds in the first water droplet removal chamber A, and the remaining water droplets were broken down into fine particles with an average diameter of 0.5 mm. After being treated in the second water droplet removal chamber B for about 6 seconds, the water droplets on the can surface completely evaporated, and no rise in can temperature was observed because the treatment was for a short time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view schematically showing a conventional water droplet removing means, and FIGS. 2 to 10 show embodiments of the present invention.
Figures 2 and 3 are a plan sectional view and a side sectional view of the device, respectively.
Figures 4 and 5 are an enlarged cross-sectional view bent along the line of Figure 3 and an enlarged cross-sectional view bent along the line V-V, respectively, and Figures 6 and 7 are a plan cross-sectional view and a side cross-sectional view showing a modified example of the first water droplet removal chamber, respectively. Figure 8 is an enlarged cross-sectional view bent along the line shown in Figure 7, and Figures 9 and 10 are an enlarged plan view and an enlarged side view of the boundary between the first water droplet removal chamber and the second water droplet removal chamber, respectively, showing a modified example of the conveyor. It is a diagram. 1... Canned food, 1a... Can bottom, 1b... Can lid, 1
c... Can body, 8, 8'... Guide rail, 5, 5
9,60...conveyor, 12,13,16,1
8, 18', 19, 19', 32, 33, 34, 3
5, 40, 42, 42', 43, 43', 44, 4
4', 45, 45', 56...Slit nozzle, A
...First water droplet removal chamber, B...Second water droplet removal chamber,
C, C'... Twisted part of the guide rail.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A conveyor that continuously conveys a large number of cylindrical bodies in a line by placing a body and one end of a cylindrical body having ends on both sides of the body; The first water droplet removal chamber and the second water droplet removal chamber cover the conveyor and the cylindrical body on the conveyor in order from the upstream side of the conveyor, and a plurality of slit nozzles are installed in the first and second water droplet removal chambers. The cylindrical body is provided above and on both sides of the cylindrical body along the traveling direction of the conveyor, and near the center of the first and second water droplet removal chambers, the cylindrical body is temporarily suspended from the conveyor and is inverted. It is equipped with a guide rail means to temporarily float and swing the water from the conveyor, and the wind speed is
A means for ejecting a high-speed air flow of 100 m/s or more, and a wind speed of 30 m/s from a group of slit nozzles in the second water droplet removal chamber.
m/sec or more and a means for ejecting a heated airflow with a humidity of 60°C or more, the entire surface of the cylinder receiving the high-speed airflow and the heated airflow from either of the slit nozzles. Device for removing water droplets adhering to the surface of the body.