JPS6371164A - Large granulating apparatus for molding food - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To smoothly produce granular articles having uniform dimension, even using a large equipment, by providing cutter knives which are rotatively driven at the outlet of die where a number of nozzles are provided and providing a fan for sending a material under pressure synchronously driven with the cutter knives at the inlet of the die. CONSTITUTION:In a granulating apparatus for forming many pellets by discharg ing a food material sent under pressure by a quantitative pump mechanism 20 from many nozzles 7 provided at a die 6 and cutting the material with cutter knives 4 which are rotatively driven at the outlet of the die 6, a hole provided in the center of the die 6 is passed through by the extension part of axis 1 of cutter knives 4 and a fan 5 for forcedly feeding the food material is provided to the extension part. The fan 5 is positioned at the inlet of nozzles 7 and mounted on the axis 1 in a figure having proper angle alpha of inclination to a face of the nozzle inlet and proper topological angle theta to cutter knives 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention is a granulation device that discharges various food materials from a fixed die nozzle and cuts them into pellets of fixed size and uniformity, especially for mass production. This invention relates to a device that allows smooth, accurate, and uniform granulation to be easily obtained in large-scale equipment.

(Prior Art) Techniques for discharging a food material through a regular die nozzle and cutting it uniformly to a regular size need not be exemplified, and are well known in various food fields. At this time, in order to uniformly discharge the food material from the die nozzle, it is necessary to apply pressure to the food material at the inlet side of the die nozzle.
A metering pump mechanism is generally used as such a pressure generating device, and it is known that various types of pumps are employed, from mono pumps, plunger pumps, to extruders. A fixed die main body is provided on the discharge side of the pump mechanism, a plurality of nozzles are arranged in a row on the main body, the material is discharged from each nozzle, and a cutting cannon rotates along the die main body surface on the nozzle exit side, By cutting this, granular products of fixed size and fixed shape according to the nozzle shape are continuously produced.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) The production technology using the above-described pressure generating mechanism, a die nozzle provided on the discharge side thereof, and a rotary cutter placed on the outlet side of the nozzle has major problems in the following points. For example, in the pet food field, the production scale has become larger due to cost reasons, and the current production scale in the industry is 1 ton/hour to 10 tons/hour, which processes extremely large amounts of food materials. The granulation form is pellet-like, ranging from a few millimeters in diameter (or sides) to particles with a diameter of at most 1 cm. These dimensions are derived from the fact that they are made to the same size as grains of natural grains, such as corn, but it is extremely difficult to mold such granules to a uniform size, especially when processing in large quantities. . That is, in such processing of food materials, water is always involved in shaping, cohesiveness, and flow. Usually a small amount is around 10%, and a large amount is 50%.
It is granulated after the previous and subsequent moisture content conditions, and the presence of moisture means uneven distribution of moisture in the food material,
Non-uniform flow inevitably occurs during molding due to the vaporization of moisture due to heating and the reduced pressure when being discharged from the nozzle.

For large-capacity processing such as the 1 ton/hour to 10 ton/hour mentioned above, the number of die nozzles ranges from several hundred to over 1,000. However, it is extremely difficult to uniformly discharge pressurized material when using materials that include the aforementioned unstable elements.
This results in frequent variations in the shape (size) of the granulated particles. A particular technical difficulty is when almost no material comes out of the nozzle, which is generally called clogging, and when a small amount of material comes out, the cut granules are abnormally small and become pellet dregs, which is normal. When mixed with other granules, the product value is significantly reduced, and this is considered to be a major problem in the granulation process of food materials that require mass production.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The non-smoothness and non-uniformity of granulation that occurs in the above-described method of cutting and granulating the pressurized food material using a grinder nozzle and a rotating cutter is thought to be due to the following reasons. In order to cut the food material extruded from a large number of nozzles into uniform sizes, it is first necessary to output the material from the nozzles at a uniform speed. The pressure must be kept even. However, as mentioned earlier, the material has non-uniformity due to uneven distribution of moisture, vaporization, etc., so it is difficult to obtain a uniform inflow velocity at each nozzle simply by keeping the pressure uniform in the pool immediately before the die nozzle. Can not. Therefore, if only one nozzle lowers the pressure and starts flowing, the pressure drop at the other nozzles will increase, causing uneven pressure between the nozzles and increasing the variation in flow velocity. This is a problem that arises from the conventional technology, which takes into consideration the pressure equalization of the pool section that is usually provided immediately before a large number of nozzles.Therefore, in order to solve this problem, it is necessary to It is necessary to add a direct means to provide a uniform flow rate, and the present invention is one of the effective means for that,
Specifically, the food material fed under pressure by a metering pump mechanism is discharged from a large number of nozzles, and is cut into pellets by a rotary cutter provided at the outlet side of the die nozzle, in which the large number of nozzles are arranged in a row. On the nozzle inlet side of a drive shaft that penetrates through the center of a fixed die body, a force-feeding blade for the food material to be force-fed is provided, and the same number of cutter blades as the blades are provided on the nozzle outlet side, and the forced-feeding blade is The blade is positioned at a position advanced by a phase angle θ in the rotational direction of the drive shaft with respect to the cutter blade, and the blade is positioned such that a cross section in the rotational direction has an inclination angle α with respect to the nozzle entrance surface.

(Function) According to the technical means of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. death,
A large number of nozzles 7 that penetrate the plate 6 in the front-rear direction and are parallel to each other are arranged in a row, and a drive shaft is rotatably mounted on a hood 8 attached to the front surface of the die plate 6 via a bearing housing 2 and a bearing 3. One end of the shaft 1 is connected to the die plate 6.
A plurality of cutter blades 4 are movably inserted and passed through the center of the drive shaft 1 through a sealing member 9, and a plurality of cutter blades 4 are arranged radially on the die cutting surface of the drive shaft 1, that is, on the exit side of the nozzle 7, as shown in the second figure. At the end of the plate 6 which penetrates the die plate 6 of the drive shaft 1 and projects toward the inlet side of the nozzle 7, a material supply section 10 is provided by a pressure generating pump 20.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the same number of blades 5 as the cutter blades 4 are provided radially for force feeding the food material. At this time, in the present invention, as a positional relationship structure of the forcible feeding blade jYi5 with respect to the cutter blade 4, as shown contrastively in FIGS. 2 and 3, the blade 5 has a phase angle θ in the rotation direction of the drive shaft 10 The blade 5 is arranged so that it is in a forward position, and
As shown in FIG. 4, each of the nozzles 7 is oriented so that its cross section in the rotational direction is inclined at an angle α with respect to the inlet surface (die plate surface) of the nozzle 7, and is opened obliquely to the direction of movement. This will cause the following effects. In other words, the food material fed quantitatively and under pressure by the pressure generating pump 20 passes through the material supply section 10 and is press-fitted into the nozzle 7 of the die plate 6 by rotating the forced feed vane 5. , synchronized f!
Since j5 has an angle α with respect to the die plate 6 surface, the material entering the approximately triangular (fan-shaped) space created between the blade 5 and the plate 6 surface as shown in the fourth figure is By flowing the material to the narrow side of the triangular apex, the same material is forcibly pushed into the nozzle 7 opening here, and this action causes each blade 5 to rotate one after another.
This occurs continuously on the inlet side of all nozzles 7 that open on the die plate surface, so the food material is smoothly supplied to each nozzle 7 under equal pressure, and there is no excess or deficiency. The liquid is discharged from the nozzle 7 at a uniform speed. Moreover, this blade 5 has a phase angle θ in the rotation direction with respect to the cutter blade 4 on the exit side of the nozzle 7.
Since the phase is considered to be advanced, the cutter blade 4 rotates immediately after the blade 5 rotates and passes, cutting off the strand-shaped material discharged from the outlet of the nozzle 7 at a uniform speed. A pellet-like granulation process is carried out continuously, and each pellet with a uniform shape and size falls along a hood 8 and is collected in one place (not shown), which is then transferred to a subsequent process by air transportation, etc. become. That is, by arranging the cutter blade 4 on the outlet side of the nozzle 7 in the die plate 6 of the present invention and the forced feed blade 5 on the inlet side under the above-mentioned related structure, it is possible to reduce the number of the nozzles 7 in a large scale, with the number of nozzles 7 being several hundred or more. Even in the capacity pelletizing process, pellets (granules) with uniform length and shape can be obtained smoothly and accurately.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, an extruder in which a screw shaft 20-2 is rotatably installed in a fixed cylinder 20-1 as shown in the figure is used as a pressure generating pump 20 for pressure-feeding food materials. However, this has the same effect with any pump other than an extruder, as long as it is a metering pump mechanism that supplies the food material to the front of the die plate 6. In the case of the illustrated extruder, - Either a screw extruder or a twin screw extruder may be used. In the embodiment, a die plate 6 is attached to the front end of the extruder cylinder 20-1 where the material supply section 10 is formed in an integrally closed manner by a flange connection structure, etc. , a large number of cylindrical nozzles 7 are arranged in parallel in the axial direction. The number of nozzles 7 is determined based on the size of the pellet and the production volume, and the cross-sectional shape of the pellet is determined by the number of nozzles 7.
They have a cross-sectional shape of , and are arranged in a train on a plurality of circumferences around the center of the plate. An insertion hole 15 is formed in the center of the die plate 6, and one end of the drive shaft 1 is rotatably inserted into the same kind of through hole 15, and a sealing member 9 for preventing material inflow is inserted into the same kind of through hole 15.
The other end of the drive shaft 1 is rotatably inserted through a bearing housing 2 and a bearing 3 into a hood 8 which is attached to the rear surface of the goo plate 6 as a pellet scattering prevention and guide member. Although not shown, it is rotated by an appropriate drive source. At this time, the rotation speed of the drive shaft 1 may be either constant speed or variable speed. On the rear surface (cutting surface) side of the die plate 6 facing the hood 8, four cutter blades 4 are provided equally radially on the drive shaft 1, although the number thereof is arbitrary, in this embodiment. As shown in the second figure, the cutter blade 4 is preferably attached to a screw 16 or the like so that it can be detached and replaced in case of wear or damage. At this time, the clearance δ14 between the cutter blade 4 and the cutting surface of the die plate 6 is adjusted depending on the food material and the rotation speed of the drive shaft 1, but is usually 0.1 to
It is said to be approximately 0.5 m. At one end of the die plate 6 of the drive shaft 1 protruding toward the inlet side of the nozzle 7, forced feeding blades 5 are arranged in a radial row in equal parts.As shown in FIG. The blades 5 are provided in the same number as the blades 4, and each blade is positioned advanced by a phase angle θ11 in the direction of rotation with respect to the corresponding cutter blade 4, and the cross section of each blade 5 is as shown in FIG. The face of the die plate 6 on the side where the inlet of the nozzle 7 opens is inclined at an angle α, and is opened in the direction of movement. At this time, the clearance value Δ of the small clearance portion on the edge side of each blade 5 with respect to the guide plate surface
is assumed to have a gap of about 0.5 to 11. The above-described value of the phase angle θ of the blade 5 is such that the food material is forcibly pushed into the nozzle 7 by the blade 5, and a formed rod-like body of a predetermined length (pellet length) is placed on the cutting surface of the die plate 6.
The value of θ can be adjusted in proportion to a predetermined length of the pellet so that the cutter blade 4 is in a phase at which the cutter blade 4 cuts the pellet after it flies out. On the other hand, as the blade 5 rotates together with the drive shaft 1, the value of the inclination angle α is determined by the approximately triangular (fan-shaped) shape between the Goui plate surface and the blade 5.
This angle is used to more effectively push the material into the nozzle 7 that is open there by causing the material in the space 17 to flow toward the small clearance portion mentioned above. For example, For food materials with high water content and low friction, the angle α should be made large, and on the other hand, for low water content materials, the angle α should be made smaller. However, in general, the value of the angle α should be should not be larger than 45" square. In the illustrated embodiment, the center of the cutter and the center of the extruder are on the same line, but
This may be arranged at 90'', that is, at a position where these axes are perpendicular to each other, and in the pressure generating pump used in the present invention, the entire pressure to compensate for the pressure drop in the nozzle 7 is supplied as in the conventional case. There is no need.In this case, in the device of the present invention, the drive power required for the newly added forced supply blade 5 is required in comparison to the conventional cutter blade 4 only. However, since the discharge side pressure of the pressure generating pump is sufficient to be lower than the pressure generated by the vanes 5, the pump power can be lowered, so overall the power consumption is the same as the conventional type.Conventional type It was confirmed that there was no inferiority compared to .

(Effects of the Invention) According to the present invention, as explained above in the section of the operation, the forced force having a specific phase difference with respect to the cutter blade 4 and being in an inclined posture on the goo plate surface on the inlet side of the nozzle 7 is provided. By newly adding and combining the supply vanes 5, the material supplied to the inlet side of the Gui nozzle 7 is forcibly and mechanically pushed into the nozzle 7, so that a uniform and appropriate material is delivered to each nozzle 7. In this way, the cutter blade 4 cuts the strand-shaped material extruded from the outlet of the nozzle 7 under uniform pressure and uniform speed in a timely manner, thereby preventing clogging, stagnation inside the nozzle, and insufficient supply amount. This eliminates the unevenness of pellets caused by such factors, and enables the production of pellets of uniform size and uniform shape at all times.It is effective regardless of the number of nozzles, but is especially suitable for large-scale granulation projects for large capacity and mass production. It can have a remarkable effect on the conventional technology, and contributes to solving the problems in the prior art.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional front view of essential parts of an embodiment of the device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line A-A in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line B-B in FIG.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the forced feed vane. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Drive shaft, 4... Cutter blade, 5... Forced supply blade, 6... Die plate, 7... Nozzle, 8...
- Hood, 11... phase angle θ, 12... inclination angle α.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A food material that is pumped by a metering pump mechanism is discharged from a large number of die nozzles and is cut into pellets by a rotary cutter provided at the outlet side of the die nozzles, in which a fixed type is provided in which the large number of die nozzles are arranged in a row. On the nozzle inlet side of the drive shaft that penetrates through the center of the die body, a force-feeding blade for the food material to be fed under pressure is provided, and the same number of cutter blades as the blades are provided on the nozzle outlet side, and the forced-feeding blade is a cutter blade. The large structure for food molding is characterized in that the blade is positioned at a position advanced by a phase angle θ in the rotational direction of the drive shaft, and the cross section of the blade in the rotational direction has an inclination angle α with respect to the nozzle entrance surface. Grain device.