KR20220167468A - Agricultural products pre-cooling device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for pre-cooling an agricultural product. To this end, the device of the present invention comprises: a main body unit in which an opening/closing member is installed to open or block openings on both sides in a longitudinal direction, and an accommodation space is provided to accommodate a plurality of pre-cooling boxes in which pre-cooling targets are packed; a transfer unit installed to penetrate the inner accommodation space of the main body unit and transferring the pre-cooling boxes along the longitudinal direction of the main body unit; a blower unit installed on one side of the main body unit with the transfer unit in between and discharging wind; and a suction unit installed on the other side of the main body unit to face the blower unit and sucking in the wind discharged through the blower unit. The device can maintain freshness and high quality of an agricultural product even when the agricultural product is stored and distributed for a long time.

Description

Agricultural products pre-cooling device {AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS PRE-COOLING DEVICE}

The present invention relates to a pre-cooling device for agricultural products, and more particularly, to a pre-cooling device for agricultural products that rapidly cools and sterilizes agricultural products packed in boxes in order to prevent deterioration of harvested agricultural products and to increase storage stability.

In general, crops or flowers, especially cut flowers cut together with flower stalks, breathe using stored nutrients in the body to maintain life even if the supply of nutrients from the outside is stopped after harvest, and as a result, the temperature of the food rises rapidly, Quality deterioration, such as loss, decay, and softening, reduces the commercial value, so it is necessary to quickly lower the temperature of crops immediately after harvest to suppress respiration.

However, since the conventional crop distribution process was generally to be shipped directly from the farm or stored in a cold storage, there was a problem in that the freshness of the crop rapidly deteriorated and the quality deteriorated when the transportation or storage period was prolonged.

In addition, even if a low-temperature storage is used, it takes a lot of time to cool down to the temperature required for crop respiration, and quality degradation may occur in the meantime.

In addition, since boxes in which crops are packed are loaded in large quantities and stored in a low-temperature storage, the cooling effect is not uniform, so the cooling effect is low, resulting in dew condensation and microbial propagation.

Republic of Korea Patent Registration No. 10-0541207

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides a pre-cooling device for agricultural products that can quickly cool and disinfect harvested agricultural products so that they can maintain freshness and high quality even when stored and distributed for a long period of time. has a purpose to

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention does not have to be limited to the above-mentioned technical problem, and other technical problems not mentioned will be clearly understood by those skilled in the art from the description below. You will be able to.

In the agricultural product pre-cooling device according to the present invention for realizing the above object, an opening and closing member is installed to open or block openings on both sides in the longitudinal direction, and is accommodated inside to accommodate a plurality of pre-cooling boxes in which pre-cooling objects are packed. A main body portion having a space and a conveying portion installed to pass through the internal accommodating space of the main body portion and transporting the pre-cooling box along the longitudinal direction of the main body portion are installed on one side of the main body portion with the conveying portion in between to discharge wind. It is configured to include a blower and an intake that is installed on the other side of the main body to face the blower and sucks wind discharged through the outlet.

More preferably, the main body may further include a cooling unit for cooling external air and supplying it to the blowing unit.

More preferably, the conveying part is divided into a plurality of pieces along the longitudinal direction of the main body part and continuously disposed, and may be installed to enable individual operation.

More preferably, on the inner wall surface of the main body, a plurality of blowing nozzles provided in a direction in which wind is discharged from the blowing unit to control the direction of the wind and a plurality of blowing nozzles provided according to the air intake direction of the intake unit to control the air intake direction It may be configured to include an intake nozzle.

More preferably, the blowing nozzle and the intake nozzle are disposed to face each other on both sides of the main body, and may be formed at points where they cross each other.

More preferably, the main body may further include a sterilizing gas generating unit for adding chlorine dioxide gas to the blowing air to sterilize the object to be pre-cooled when blowing by the blowing unit.

More preferably, the main body includes an air purifying unit for purifying the air taken in from the intake unit and discharging the purified air in one direction, and a transfer pipe for returning the air discharged by the air purifying unit to the blowing unit. can include more.

More preferably, an air blocking unit may be further included at both side openings of the main body where the opening/closing member is installed to block air flow between the outside and the inside by forming an air oil film when the pre-cooling box is brought in and taken out.

More preferably, the pre-cooling box has a body with at least an upper portion opened and closed to accommodate a pre-cooled object therein, disposed to face both sides of the body so that air flows into the body, and ventilation holes formed at points crossing each other It may be configured to include a plurality of more.

The agricultural product pre-cooling device according to the present invention according to the above configuration has the following effects.

That is, an opening and closing member is installed to open or block openings on both sides in the longitudinal direction, and passes through a main body having a receiving space inside and an internal receiving space of the main body so as to accommodate a plurality of pre-cooling boxes packed with objects to be pre-cooled. A conveying part for conveying the pre-cooling box along the longitudinal direction of the main body, a blower installed on one side of the main body with the conveying part interposed therebetween to discharge wind, and a blower installed on the other side of the main body facing the blower By including an air intake unit that sucks in the wind discharged through the pre-cooling box, the blown wind can be directly injected into the inside of the pre-cooling box for intake, thereby rapidly lowering the temperature of the pre-cooling object packed inside the pre-cooling box, and thus the pre-cooling object It is possible to more effectively maintain the freshness of the product and eliminate the effect on the storage and distribution period.

In addition, since the effects of the present invention described as described above are naturally exhibited by the configuration of the described contents regardless of whether the inventor recognizes them, the above-described effects are only a few effects according to the described contents, and all the effects grasped or realized by the inventor should not be accepted as written.

In addition, the effect of the present invention should be additionally grasped by the overall description of the specification, and even if it is not described in an explicit sentence, those skilled in the art to which the described contents belong will have such an effect through this specification. If the effect can be recognized as such, it should be regarded as the effect described in this specification.

1 is a perspective view illustrating the configuration of a pre-cooling device for agricultural products according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 and 3 are views illustrating a state of use taken along the line A-A' of FIG. 1.
4 is an exemplary view of an agricultural product pre-cooling device according to an embodiment of the present invention viewed from a front view.
5 is an exemplary view of a use state utilizing the drawing shown in FIG. 4 .
6 is a perspective view illustrating a pre-cooling box according to an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a side cross-sectional view illustrating a state of use of a pre-cooling box according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, configuration and operation according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

This is to explain the contents of the present invention in detail so that those skilled in the art can easily practice the contents of the present invention, and this does not mean that the technical spirit and scope of the present invention are limited. .

In addition, in adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same components are marked with the same numerals as much as possible even if they are displayed on different drawings, considering the configuration and operation of the present invention. Therefore, the terms specifically defined may vary according to the intention or custom of the user or operator, and the definitions of these terms should be determined based on the contents throughout this specification.

In addition, throughout the specification, when a certain component is said to "include", it means that it may further include other components without excluding other components unless otherwise stated.

In the agricultural product pre-cooling device 10 according to the present invention, an opening and closing member 110 is installed to open or block openings on both sides in the longitudinal direction, and to accommodate a plurality of pre-cooling boxes 200 in which the pre-cooling object 1 is packed. The pre-cooling box ( 200) and a blower 130 installed on one side of the main body 100 with the transporter 120 interposed therebetween to discharge wind, and the main body facing the blower 130. The intake unit 150 installed on the other side of the unit 100 and sucking in the wind discharged through the outlet 130 may be largely classified.

Hereinafter, the present invention classified as described above will be described in more detail with reference to the illustrated drawings.

First, the body portion 100,

As illustrated in FIG. 1 , a tunnel-shaped accommodation space 101 capable of accommodating a plurality of pre-cooling boxes 200 in which the pre-cooling object 1 is packed may be provided. Opening/closing members 110 for opening or blocking openings on both sides of the main body 100 in the longitudinal direction may be further included.

The shape of the opening/closing member 110 may be configured in a structure that slides in the vertical direction or opens and closes left and right or forward and backward without needing to be set to any one shape, and is in the form of a foldable curtain as in the embodiment of the present invention. may be configured. The opening and closing member 110 can be manually opened and closed by an operator, but preferably, the opening and closing member 110 is automatically opened depending on whether the pre-cooling device 10 is operating, that is, whether the transfer unit 120 described later is operating. It can be configured to be open or closed.

The transfer unit 120,

As illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 , the pre-cooling box 200 is installed so as to penetrate the inner accommodating space 101 of the main body 100, that is, the outside of the opening and closing member 110 and the inside of the main body 100. ) can be transferred in either direction. The transfer unit 120 may be a transfer conveyor that operates in connection with a power transmission device (not shown) such as an electric motor. At this time, the transfer unit 120 is operated by an operator applying power to the power switch or automatically by detecting the pre-cooling box 200 through a sensor 121 provided on one side of the transfer unit 120. can also work with

On the other hand, the transfer unit 120 may be configured as a single transfer conveyor, but as in the embodiment of the present invention, it may be divided into sections and installed to enable individual operation. This means that even if the pre-cooling boxes 200 entering the main body 100 side by side do not enter at regular intervals, the pre-cooling boxes 200 are determined by the transfer unit 120 or sensor 121 installed for each section. This is to ensure that each location can be reached.

In addition, the opening and closing member 110 may be operated in connection with the transfer unit 120 . In other words, when the pre-cooling box 200 is loaded on the upper surface of the transfer part 120, the sensor 121 detects the pre-cooling box 200 and operates the transfer part 120 according to the detected signal. The opening and closing member 110 is also automatically opened according to the operation of the transfer unit 120, so that the pre-cooling box 200 enters the receiving space 101 of the main body 100, and the pre-cooling box 200 When reaching a predetermined point, the conveying unit 120 automatically stops and at the same time an operation of closing the opening and closing member 110 may be performed.

On the other hand, in the process of opening and closing the opening and closing member 110, a temperature change or contamination of the air inside the body portion 100 may occur due to external air outside the body portion 100. Therefore, both ends of the main body 100 are installed adjacent to the point where they are opened and closed, and an air oil film is formed when the pre-cooling box 200 is brought in and taken out to prevent air flow outside and inside the main body 100. It may be configured to further include an air blocking unit 111 that blocks.

The blower 130,

As illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5 , it is installed to pass through the internal accommodation space 101 of the main body 100 to serve as a supply source for outside air and to discharge wind. At this time, a plurality of blowing nozzles 131 may be formed on an inner wall surface of the main body 100 to control the direction of the wind by being provided in the direction in which wind is discharged from the blowing unit 130 .

The cooling unit 140,

It is installed on one side of the main body 100, that is, at a position adjacent to the blower 130, and serves to cool the temperature of the outside air sucked in by the blower 130. In the drawings of this specification, the cooling unit 140 is shown to be located on the upper surface of the main body unit 100, but is not limited thereto and may be formed in various locations or integrally with the blowing unit 130. Since the configuration of the cooling unit 140 is a well-known technology, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Meanwhile, a sterilizing gas generator 132 may be further included at a position adjacent to the blower 130 to add chlorine dioxide gas to the air blown by the blower 130 .

That is, in the case of the pre-cooling object 1 made of plants, ethylene may be generated due to microbial contamination in the packaging and early harvest stress. Ethylene is one of the plant hormones produced in various organs of plants and plays a role in inducing or controlling the maturation, flowering, and detachment of plants, thereby preventing aging and moisture evaporation of the pre-cooled object (1) as mentioned above by the generation of ethylene. This can lead to deterioration of quality. Therefore, by injecting chlorine dioxide gas through the sterilizing gas generator 132 to remove ethylene and sterilize it, the pre-cooled object 1 can be preserved for a long period of time. In the present invention, chlorine dioxide gas is described as an example, but is not limited thereto, and may be a gas of another composition for sterilizing the pre-cooled object 1.

The intake part 150,

As described above, it may be installed on the other side of the main body 100 to face the blower 130 and suck wind discharged from the blower 130 . At this time, it may include a plurality of intake nozzles 151 provided along the inner wall surface of the main body 100, that is, along the air intake direction of the intake unit 150 to control the air intake direction.

The blowing nozzle 131 and the intake nozzle 151 described above are disposed to face each other on both sides of the main body 100, and may be formed at points where they cross each other. This may correspond to the ventilation hole 211 of the pre-cooling box 200 to be described later, and the purpose and effect of such a configuration will be described later.

Meanwhile, an air purifying unit 152 purifies the air taken in by the intake unit 150 and discharges the purified air in one direction, and the air discharged by the air purifying unit 152 is returned to the blower unit. It may be configured to further include a transfer pipe 153 returning to 130.

Since the air purifying unit 152 may have the same configuration as an air purifying filter, particulate matter floating or scattering in the air, such as fine dust, may be removed. Furthermore, an ethylene remover (not shown) capable of removing hydrocarbons, ie, ethylene, which is one of plant hormones, may be disposed in the air purifying unit 152 together. Since the air purifying unit 152 is composed of an air purifying filter, it can be easily replaced depending on whether or not it is contaminated by pollutants such as fine dust or ethylene.

The transfer pipe 153 is

A pipe is connected from a direction in which air is discharged from the air purifying unit 152 to one side of the blowing unit 130 to move purified air. Accordingly, forced circulation of the air sent from the air purifying unit 152 to the blower 130 is discharged to the inside of the main body 100 by the blower 130 continuously.

On the other hand, the pre-cooling box 200,

As illustrated in FIG. 6, at least the upper part is opened and closed to have a body 210 accommodating the pre-cooled object 1 therein, and to face both sides of the body 210 so that air can flow into the body 210. It may further include a plurality of ventilation holes 211 formed at points where they are disposed and crossed with each other. The ventilation hole 211 may be disposed at a position corresponding to the blowing nozzle 131 and the intake nozzle 151 described above.

Referring again to FIG. 5 for a more detailed explanation, the ventilation hole 211 may be formed in plurality at a point where an upper end of one side and a lower end of the other side of the body 210 are crossed. That is, the ventilation hole 211 located at the upper end of one side of the body 210 faces the blowing nozzle 131, and the ventilation hole 211 located at the lower end of the other side of the body 210 faces the intake nozzle 151. can be placed to do so.

Therefore, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the wind discharged from the blowing nozzle 131 enters the inside of the body 210 through the ventilation hole 211 located at the upper end of one side of the body 210, and the air By being sucked in from the intake nozzle 151 facing the ventilation hole 211 located at the lower end of the other side of the body 210, the flow of cool air may interfere with the entire inside of the pre-cooling box 200.

The process of cooling the pre-cooling box in which the pre-cooling object is packaged through the agricultural product pre-cooling device configured as described above is as follows.

First, the pre-cooling device 10 applies power through the control unit 100a and sets a set value suitable for the pre-cooling object 1 to be pre-cooled. Here, the appropriate set value may refer to settings such as the amount of sterilizing gas generated, cooling time, and the like, along with the strength and temperature of the wind blown according to the type of the pre-cooling object 1 . When this preparation is completed, the pre-cooling box 200 in which the pre-cooling object 1 is packed is seated on the upper part of the transfer unit 120 . The seated pre-cooling boxes 200 may be stacked in one or a plurality in a vertical direction, and the stacked pre-cooling boxes 200 may be continuously prepared. It is preferable to prepare to match the blowing nozzle 131 and the intake nozzle 151 provided inside the body part 100, and a detailed description will be made later.

The pre-cooling box 200 seated on the transfer part 120 operates the transfer part 120 according to the operator's operation instruction, and by the operated transfer part 120, the pre-cooling box 200 moves to the body part 100. movement is made in the direction At this time, the opening and closing members 110 provided at both ends of the main body 100 by being physically interconnected with the transfer unit 120 are opened at the same time, and the pre-cooling box 200 can safely enter the inside of the main body 100. do.

On the other hand, when the opening/closing member 110 is opened and the pre-cooling box 200 is brought in and taken out, the air blocking part 111 is operated to form an air oil film, thereby circulating the air flow outside and inside the main body part 100. can block Therefore, the pre-cooling device ( 10) can improve energy efficiency.

In addition, when the pre-cooling box 200 reaches a predetermined point inside the body part 100, the transfer part 120 automatically stops and the opening/closing member 110 closes at the same time. Here, the predetermined point inside the main body 100 is a point where the blowing nozzle 131 and the intake nozzle 151 provided in the accommodation space 101 of the main body 100 are located, and the pre-cooling box ( 200) may refer to a position that coincides with the ventilation hole 211.

Subsequently, an operation of discharging wind to the blowing nozzle 131 through the blowing unit 130 serving as a source of outside air is performed, and the discharged wind is blown into the ventilation hole 211 located at the upper end of one side of the pre-cooling box 200. ) allows entry into At this time, the wind of the blowing unit 130 is cooled by the cooling unit 140, and chlorine dioxide gas generated from the sterilizing gas generating unit 132 may be added to the blowing wind. The wind added with such cooling and chlorine dioxide gas enters the inside of the body 210 of the pre-cooling box 200 to lower the temperature of the pre-cooling object 1 and at the same time removes microbial contamination and ethylene to propagate microorganisms blocks the Subsequently, the wind is discharged through the ventilation hole 211 located at the other lower end of the body 210 of the pre-cooling box 200, and the discharged wind is sucked in from the intake nozzle 151 of the intake unit 150. In this process, the wind uniformly interferes with the entire inside of the pre-cooling box 200, so that the temperature of the pre-cooling object 1 can be quickly and uniformly lowered and thorough disinfection can be performed.

In addition, by directly pre-cooling only the inside of the pre-cooling box 200, energy of the pre-cooling device 1 can be saved while pre-cooling efficiency can be maximized.

Meanwhile, an operation of the air purifier 152 purifies the air sucked in from the intake nozzle 151 and discharges the purified air in one direction. It is sent back to the blowing unit 130. When the cooling of the pre-cooling box 200 is completed by the above processes, air circulation operations such as blowing (cooling) and intake of the pre-cooling device 10 are stopped. Thereafter, the transfer unit 120 is operated again to move the pre-cooling box 200 toward the outside of the main body 100, that is, in a direction opposite to the direction in which the pre-cooling box 200 entered the main body 100. By moving, the pre-cooling of the pre-cooling box 200 can be completed.

As described above, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the description. Therefore, the scope of the described content does not need to be limited to the described embodiments, and should be defined by not only the claims described later, but also those equivalent to these claims.

1: pre-cooling object 10: pre-cooling device
100: body part 101: accommodation space
100a: control unit 110: opening and closing member
111: air blocking unit 120: transfer unit
121: sensor unit 130: blower unit
131: blowing nozzle 132: sterilizing gas generator
140: cooling unit 150: intake unit
151: intake nozzle 152: air purifier
153: transfer pipe 200: pre-cooling box
210: body 211: ventilation hole

Claims (9)

a main body having opening/closing members for opening or blocking openings on both sides in the longitudinal direction, and having an accommodation space therein to accommodate a plurality of pre-cooling boxes in which objects to be pre-cooled are packed;
a transfer unit installed to pass through the inner accommodating space of the body unit and transporting the pre-cooling box along the longitudinal direction of the body unit;
a blower unit installed on one side of the body unit with the transfer unit interposed therebetween to discharge wind; and
A pre-cooling device for agricultural products comprising a; intake part installed on the other side of the body part to face the blower part and sucking in the wind discharged through the air outlet. According to claim 1,
The body part,
Agricultural product pre-cooling device further comprising a; cooling unit for cooling external air and supplying it to the blowing unit.
According to claim 1,
The transfer unit,
A pre-cooling device for agricultural products that is divided into a plurality of pieces along the longitudinal direction of the main body and is continuously disposed, and is installed to enable individual operation.
According to claim 1,
On the inner wall of the main body,
A plurality of blower nozzles provided in the direction in which wind is discharged from the blower unit to control the direction of the wind; and
The agricultural product pre-cooling device comprising a; plurality of intake nozzles provided according to the air intake direction of the intake unit to adjust the air intake direction.
According to claim 4,
The blowing nozzle and the intake nozzle,
A pre-cooling device for agricultural products that is arranged to face both sides of the main body and is formed at a point where they cross each other.
According to claim 1,
The body part,
The pre-cooling device for agricultural products further comprising a sterilizing gas generator for adding chlorine dioxide gas to the wind blown so that the pre-cooling object is sterilized when the air is blown by the blower.
According to claim 1,
The body part,
an air purifying unit that purifies the air taken in from the intake unit and discharges the purified air in one direction; and
The agricultural product pre-cooling device further comprising a; transfer pipe for returning the air discharged by the air purifying unit to the blowing unit.
According to claim 1,
In the openings on both sides of the body portion in which the opening and closing members are installed,
The agricultural product pre-cooling device further comprising: an air blocking unit that blocks air flow outside and inside by forming an air oil film when the pre-cooling box is brought in and taken out.
According to claim 1,
The pre-cooling box,
It has a body with at least an upper portion opened and closed to accommodate a pre-cooled object therein, and disposed to face both sides of the body so that air can flow into the body, and ventilation holes formed at points where they cross each other; further comprising a plurality of Phosphorus produce pre-cooling device.

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