NL2030562B1 - Intelligent tea leaf spreading, withering and fermenting system - Google Patents

Abstract

An intelligent tea leaf spreading, withering and fermenting system is provided. The system comprises a green tea leaf storage tank and an intelligent processing guality sensing device; the green tea leaf storage tank comprises a tank body, a screen plate, and 5 an air deflector; an air inlet hole is formed in one end of the tank body, the air deflector and the screen plate are both arranged in the tank body, the air deflector is obliquely arranged below the screen plate, and an inclination angle of the air deflector is adjustable; the air deflector comprises a base plate 10 and a plurality of arc—shaped guide vanes on the base plate, a wind direction is regulated and controlled by the guide vanes to enable air flow in the tank body to be uniform, the screen plate is used for spreading fresh tea leaf in—process products. 15 (+ Fig. 2)

Description

INTELLIGENT TEA LEAF SPREADING, WITHERING AND FERMENTING SYSTEM

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the field of tea leaf pro- cessing equipment, and in particular to an intelligent tea leaf spreading, withering and fermenting system.

BACKGROUND ART

Tea leaf spreading is the first procedure of green tea pro- cessing, while withering and fermenting are the key procedures of black tea processing, the harvested fresh tea leaves are thinly spread, and the technical treatment process for dissipating some of water directly affects the normal operation of the subsequent procedures and the quality of the final tea leaves. At present, there are three main withering methods: natural withering, sun- light withering, and temperature-controlled withering.

Under the normal weather and good operation, the natural withering is good in withering quality; the sunlight withering is fast in speed, but around noon, withering is prone to generating defects of scorching of bud tips and leaf margins, reddening of leaves, and uneven withering, these two methods are susceptible to environmental conditions, needs frequent stirring, are highly de- pendent on manual labor, and can no longer adapt to the needs of production development.

The temperature-controlled withering refers to withering un- der the assistance of certain temperature-control and humidity- control equipment, which has the advantages of not being restrict- ed by weather, saving plant area, saving labor force, realizing controllable withering time, and being able to conduct all-weather withering, etc. If the operation technology is well mastered, the withering quality can be comparable to that of the natural wither- ing, and the temperature-controlled withering has become a widely used withering method at present.

Most of tea enterprises in China start to involve in wither- ing equipment for black tea, mainly including a green tea leaf storage tank, a withering room, and a withering machine. Due to cheap price and small space required, the green tea leaf storage tank is widely popularized and used, however, there are also the following defects: 1) in a working space, the wind speed and temperature in dif- ferent regions are nonuniform, resulting inconsistent withering quality, and energy waste; and 2) the tea leaves also need to be manually poured into a col- lecting container while collecting withered tea leaves, which con- sumes man power.

SUMMARY

An objective of the present disclosure is to provide an in- telligent tea leaf spreading, withering and fermenting multi- purpose system to solve above problems. To achieve the objective, the present disclosure adopts the following technical solutions: an intelligent tea leaf spreading, withering and fermenting system comprises a green tea leaf storage tank and an intelligent processing quality sensing device, wherein the green tea leaf storage tank comprises a tank body, a screen plate, and an air de- flector; an air inlet hole is formed in one end of the tank body, the air deflector and the screen plate are both arranged in the tank body; the air deflector is obliquely arranged below the screen plate, and an inclination angle of the air deflector is ad-

Justable; the air deflector comprises a base plate and a plurality of arc-shaped guide vanes on the base plate, a wind direction is regulated and controlled by the guide vanes to enable air flow in the tank body to be uniform, the screen plate is used for spread- ing fresh tea leaf in-process products, and the intelligent pro- cessing quality sensing device is used for detecting moisture con- tent and fermentation quality degree of spread leaves and withered leaves.

Further, two rows of symmetric guide vanes are arranged on the base plate in the length direction, a space between every two adjacent guide vanes in the same row is same, a radian of each guide vane gradually decreases along a direction far away from the air inlet hole, and an inner side face of the guide vane is to-

wards the air inlet hole.

Further, the distance between the two rows of guide vanes is 200 mm.

Further, one end, close to the air inlet hole, of the base plate is in pivot connection with the bottom of the tank body; a base plate support cylinder is arranged at the bottom of the base plate, the base plate support cylinder controls an inclination an- gle of the air deflector to change angles of the guide vanes, thus changing the wind direction and wind speed in the tank body.

Further, the maximum inclination angle of the air deflector with respect to the horizontal plane is not more than 30 degrees.

Further, one end of the tank body is provided with an open- ing, a movable door is arranged at the opening, one end, close to the movable door, of the screen plate is pivoted with the tank body, a screen plate support cylinder is arranged at the bottom of the screen plate, and the screen plate support cylinder can make the screen plate incline, thus making the tea leaves fall towards the opening.

Further, an environment control system is connected to the air inlet hole, and the environment control system blows hot air or hot and humid vapor into the tank body.

Further, the intelligent processing quality sensing device comprises a movable assembly, a quality detector, and a range sen- sor; the quality detector and the range sensor are arranged on the movable assembly and located above the green tea leaf storage tank; the movable assembly drives the quality detector and the range sensor to move along a length direction and a height direc- tion of the green tea leaf storage tank.

Further, the movable assembly comprises a portal frame, a translation mechanism, and a lifting mechanism, the translation mechanism is arranged on a cross beam of the portal frame, the quality detector and the range sensor are fixed to the lifting mechanism, and the lifting mechanism is connected to the transla- tion mechanism.

Further, the translation mechanism is a linear module, the lifting mechanism is a lifting cylinder, and the lifting cylinder is fixed to a sliding block of the linear module.

The system provided by the present disclosure has the benefi- cial effects that: 1) the air deflector can regulate and control the wind direc- tion to make airflow in the tank be uniform, the withering uni- formity is improved, and the energy utilization efficiency is im- proved; 2) the withered tea leaves can be automatically collected by inclining the screen plate, the operation is convenient, and the labor force is saved; and 3) the intelligent processing quality sensing device can sense moisture content of the fresh tea leaves in real time, the inclination angle of the air deflector and output of the environ- ment control system are adjusted according to information acquired by the intelligent processing quality sensing device, thus allo- cating the energy source reasonably.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram of intelligent tea leaf spreading and withering equipment in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional diagram of a green tea leaf storage tank in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a three-dimensional structure diagram of an air de- flector in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a three-dimensional diagram of a traditional green tea leaf storage tank in accordance with the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is side view of temperature field distribution of a traditional green tea leaf storage tank;

FIG. 6 is a top view of temperature field distribution of a traditional green tea leaf storage tank;

FIG. 7 is a side view of a temperature field distribution of a green tea leaf storage tank in accordance with the present dis- closure;

FIG. 8 is a top view of a temperature field distribution of a green tea leaf storage tank in accordance with the present disclo- sure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

To further illustrate various embodiments, the present dis- closure provides accompanying drawings. These accompanying draw- ings, which are part of the disclosure, mainly serve to illustrate 5 the embodiments and, in conjunction with the related description, explain the principles of operation of the embodiments. Other pos- sible embodiments and advantages of the present disclosure will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art with reference thereto. Components in the drawings are not drawn to scale, and like assembly numerals are generally used to denote like assem- blies.

As shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, an intelligent tea leaf spread- ing, withering and fermenting multi-purpose system is disclosed by the embodiment, the system comprises a green tea leaf storage tank and an intelligent processing quality sensing device; the green tea leaf storage tank comprises a tank body 1, a screen plate 2, and an air deflector 3, wherein one end of the tank body 1 is pro- vided with an air inlet hole 4, the air deflector 3 and the screen plate 2 are both arranged in the tank body 1; the air deflector 3 is obliquely arranged below the screen plate 2, and an inclination angle is adjustable; the air deflector 3 comprises a base plate 31, and a plurality of arc-shaped guide vanes 32 on the base plate 31; the guide vanes 32 regulate and control the wind direction to enable the airflow in the tank body 1 to be uniform; the screen plate 2 is used for spreading tea leaves, the intelligent pro- cessing quality sensing device is used for detecting moisture con- tent of fresh tea leaves and withered tea leaves, and judging whether the fermentation degree of the fermented tea leaves is moderate or not.

The screen plate 2 is horizontally arranged, and the tea leaves are uniformly spread on the screen plate 2. An environment control system is connected to an air inlet hole 4, and the envi- ronment control system blows hot air or hot and humid vapor into the tank body 1.

As shown in FIG. 3, two rows of symmetric guide vanes 32 are arranged on the base plate 21 in a length direction, and the space

L between every two adjacent guide wanes 32 in the same row is the same, the radian of each guide vane 32 gradually decreases along a direction far away from the air inlet hole 4, and the inner side face of the guide vane is towards the air inlet hole 4. The air inlet hole 4 is arranged at a lower end of the air deflector 3, the radian of the guide vane 32 closer to the air inlet hole 4 is larger, i.e., the radian of the guide vane 32 farther away from the screen plate 2 is larger, and the radian of the guide vane 32 closer to the screen plate 2 is smaller, and the radian of the guide vane 32 gradually decreases from the lower end of the base plate 31 to the higher end. Therefore, the airflow in the tank body 1 is uniform, the withering uniformity is improved, and the energy utilization efficiency is improved.

The tank body 1 of most of green tea leaf storage tank has a width of 1 m and a length of about 10 m, and the distance between the two rows of guide vanes 32 is preferably 200 mm. The maximum inclination angle o of the air deflector 3 with respect to the horizontal plane is not more than 30 degrees.

One end, close to the air inlet hole 4, of the base plate 31 is in pivot connection with the bottom of the tank body 1, for ex- ample, a hinge is used for pivot connection, a base plate support cylinder 5 is arranged at the bottom of the base plate 31, the base plate support cylinder 5 controls the inclination angle of the air deflector 3 to change the angle of the guide vane 32, thus changing the wind direction and the wind speed in the tank body 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, one end of the tank body is provided with an opening, a movable door 12 is arranged at the opening, one end, close to the movable door 12, of the screen plate 2 is in pivot connection with the tank body 1 (for example, the hinge is used for pivot connection), a screen plate support cylinder 6 is ar- ranged at the bottom of the screen plate 2, and the screen plate support cylinder 6 can make the screen plate 2 incline, thus mak- ing the tea leaves fall towards the opening.

The intelligent processing quality sensing device comprises a movable assembly, a quality detector 7, and a range sensor 8, wherein the quality detector 7 and the range sensor 8 are arranged on the movable assembly and located above the green tea leaf stor- age tank, and the movable assembly drives the quality detector 7 and the range sensor 8 to move along the length direction and the height direction of the green tea leaf storage tank. The quality detector 7 and the range sensor 8 are all market available.

The movable assembly comprises a portal frame 9, a transla- tion mechanism 10, and a lifting mechanism 11, the translation mechanism 10 is arranged on a cross beam of the portal frame 9, the quality detector 7 and the range sensor 8 are fixed to the lifting mechanism 11, and the lifting mechanism 11 is connected to the translation mechanism 10. The translation mechanism 10 may be a linear module, the lifting mechanism 11 may be a lifting cylin- der, and the lifting cylinder is fixed to a sliding block of the linear module. Various cylinders described herein are cylinders capable of driving objects to conduct linear movement, such as a cylinder with a rod, or a cylinder without a rod. The movable as- sembly composed of the portal frame, the linear module and the lifting cylinder is the content capable of being masted by those skilled in the art, which is not described in detail here.

The intelligent tea leaf spreading, withering and fermenting equipment provided by the present disclosure has a specific imple- mentation process as follows: spreading tea leaves on the screen plate 5, adjusting the base plate support cylinder 5 to make the air deflector be in an appropriate angle, blowing in hot air or hot and humid vapor by the environment control system through the air inlet hole 4, and making the air flow in the tank body 1 be uniform by the hot air or hot and humid vapor under the action of the guide vanes 32; af- ter completing withering, turning off the environment control sys- tem, pressurizing the screen plate support cylinder 6, moving a piston rod of the screen plate support cylinder 6 upwards to make the screen plate 5 overturn with respect to the tank body 1, ena- bling the withered tea leaves to slide towards the opening of the tank body 1 under the action of gravity, and opening the movable door 12 to make the tea leaves fall into a collecting device out of the tank body 1 from the opening.

FIG. 4 is a traditional green tea leaf storage tank with a straight plate-shaped air deflector, and the temperature distribu- tion field of the green tea leaf storage tank is shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 are diagrams of temperature field distribution of the green tea leaf storage tank in accordance with the present disclosure. FIG. 5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 are all acquired through calculation of CFD computer numerical simulation software. By comparing a temperature field of a traditional green tea leaf storage tank with a temperature field of the green tea leaf storage tank, the temperature distribution range of the green tea leaf storage tank is small, the temperature is uniform, and the withering uniformity is improved.

While the present disclosure has been particularly shown and described in conjunction with preferred embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may can be made to the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims, all of which are within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

Claims (5)

CONCLUSIONS An intelligent tea leaf propagation, wilting and fermentation system, comprising a green leaf storage tank and an intelligent processing quality detecting device, wherein the green tea leaf storage tank comprises a tank body, a sieve plate and includes an air deflector; wherein an air inlet hole is formed in an end of the tank body, the air deflector and the strainer plate are both provided in the tank body; wherein the air deflector is arranged obliquely below the sieve plate and an angle of inclination of the air deflector is adjustable; wherein the air deflector comprises a base plate and a plurality of arcuate guide vanes on the base plate, a direction of blowing being controlled and controlled by the guide vanes to allow an even flow of air in the tank body, the sieve plate being used for distributing fresh in the process treated tea leaf products, and wherein the intelligent processing quality detecting device is used to detect the moisture content and fermentation quality of scattered leaves and wilted leaves. The intelligent system for spreading, wilting and fermenting tea leaves according to claim 1, wherein one end, close to the air inlet hole, of the base plate is hingedly connected to the bottom of the tank body, a support cylinder for the base plate being provided at the bottom of the base plate, and the base plate support cylinder controls the angle of inclination of the air deflector to change the angles of the guide vanes, thereby changing the blowing direction and the wind speed in the tank body. The intelligent system for spreading, wilting and fermenting tea leaves according to claim 1, wherein one end of the tank body is provided with an opening, a movable door being provided at the opening, one end, close to the movable door, of the sieve plate is in hinged connection with the tank body, in which a sieve plate support cylinder is provided at the bottom of the sieve plate, the sieve plate support cylinder can tilt the sieve plate, allowing the tea leaves to the opening traps. The intelligent system for propagating, wilting and fermenting tea leaves according to claim 1, wherein an environmental control system is connected to the air inlet hole, and wherein the environmental control system blows hot air or hot and humid vapor into the tank body. The intelligent system for spreading, wilting and fermenting tea leaves according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the intelligent processing quality detecting device comprises a movable assembly, a quality detector and a distance sensor; wherein the quality detector and the distance sensor are mounted on the movable assembly and located above the green tea leaf storage tank, and wherein the movable assembly drives the quality detector and the distance sensor to move in a longitudinal direction and a height direction of the green tea leaf storage tank tea leaf to move.