JP7699497B2 - Husking device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a rice hulling device, and in particular to a rice hulling device that can suppress wear on the fixed roll and the movable roll.

A rice hulling device is known that hulls rice by passing it between a fixed roll and a movable roll. In this type of rice hulling device, there is a technique for adjusting the roll spacing by displacing the movable roll relative to the fixed roll using the driving force of a displacement motor. As an example of such a rice hulling device, Patent Document 1 describes a technique for detecting the drive current or load torque of a rotary drive motor 13 that rotates the fixed roll and the movable roll, and setting the initial spacing between the rolls based on the detection results.

Specifically, in the technology of Patent Document 1, the movable roll is first rotated by the driving force of the rotary drive motor 13, and the rotating movable roll is brought into contact with the fixed roll by the driving force of the movement motor 64. This contact generates a load (resistance) on the rotation of the fixed roll and movable roll, and the value of the drive current and load torque of the rotary drive motor 13 that rotates each roll increases. The position where this value has risen to a predetermined value is set as the reference point where the rolls come into contact, and the initial interval is set by separating the rolls by a predetermined amount from the reference point. With this technology, hulling can always be started at an appropriate initial interval, even if the fixed roll or movable roll is worn.

JP-A-09-239282 (for example, paragraphs 0018 and 0019, Figures 1 and 7)

However, the conventional technology described above requires that the rotating rolls be brought into contact with each other each time the initial gap between the rolls is set, which causes the fixed roll and the movable roll to easily wear out.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a rice hulling device that can reduce wear on the fixed roll and the movable roll.

In order to achieve this object, the rice hulling device of the present invention comprises a fixed roll, a movable roll displaceable relative to the fixed roll, a displacement motor for displacing the movable roll, displacement means for displacing the movable roll in a direction approaching the fixed roll by the driving force of the displacement motor, determination means for determining whether or not the movable roll displaced by the displacement means has come into contact with the fixed roll, and setting means for separating the movable roll from the fixed roll by a predetermined amount when the determination means determines that the contact has occurred, thereby setting an initial gap between the rolls.The rice hulling device is provided with a torque sensor for detecting a load torque of the displacement motor, and the determination means determines that the contact has occurred when the load torque detected by the torque sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value , and the rice hulling device determines that the contact has occurred when the load torque detected by the torque sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value. The system comprises a chute for supplying rice grains to the roll and the movable roll, a rotating body that rotates when rice grains are supplied to the chute, a sensor that is provided separately from the rotating body and faces the downflow surface of the chute, and detects whether rice grains are flowing down the downflow surface of the chute, a processing amount estimation means that estimates the amount of rice grains processed by the fixed roll and the movable roll after the initial interval is set by the setting means based on the period during which the rotating body rotates and the sensor detects the flow of rice grains down, a wear amount estimation means that estimates the amount of wear of the fixed roll and the movable roll from the processing amount estimated by the processing amount estimation means, and an adjustment means that adjusts the roll spacing during hulling by displacing the movable roll in a direction closer to the fixed roll in accordance with the amount of wear estimated by the wear amount estimation means .

According to the rice hulling device described in claim 1, a torque sensor is provided to detect the load torque of the displacement motor, and when the load torque detected by the torque sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the fixed roll and the movable roll are in contact. Therefore, when determining such contact, it is not necessary to make the rotating rolls come into contact with each other. Therefore, even if the initial interval between the rolls is repeatedly set, the wear of the fixed roll and the movable roll can be suppressed.

According to the rice hulling device of claim 1 , the amount of rice processed by the fixed roll and the movable roll after the initial interval between the rolls is set is estimated, and the amount of wear of the fixed roll and the movable roll is estimated from the estimated amount of processing. The roll interval during hulling is adjusted by displacing the movable roll in a direction approaching the fixed roll according to the amount of wear, so that even if the fixed roll and the movable roll wear during hulling, hulling can always be performed at an appropriate interval. This has the effect of improving the husking rate of rice.

Furthermore, the rice hulling device according to claim 1 includes a chute that supplies rice grains to the fixed roll and the movable roll, and a sensor that faces the downstream surface of the chute and detects whether rice grains are flowing down the downstream surface . Since the amount of rice grains processed is estimated based on the period during which the sensor detects the flow of rice grains, the amount of rice grains supplied to the fixed roll and the movable roll via the chute (i.e., the amount of rice grains processed) can be accurately estimated. This allows the amount of wear of the fixed roll and the movable roll to be accurately estimated, so that the roll spacing during rice hulling can be set to a more appropriate spacing. This has the effect of improving the husking rate of rice grains.

Furthermore, according to the rice hulling device of claim 1 , a rotating body is provided which rotates when rice grains are supplied to the chute , and the sensor is provided separately from the rotating body. Since the amount of rice grains processed is estimated based on the period during which the rotating body rotates and the sensor detects the flow of rice grains down, the amount of rice grains supplied to the fixed roll and the movable roll can be estimated more accurately than, for example, when the amount of rice grains processed is estimated only from the rotation speed of the rotating body. As a result, the amount of wear of the fixed roll and the movable roll can also be estimated more accurately, so that the roll interval during rice hulling can be set to a more appropriate interval. This has the effect of improving the husking rate of rice grains.

According to the rice hulling device of claim 2 , in addition to the effect of the rice hulling device of claim 1 , the rotor has a plurality of blades arranged around its rotation axis, and is a feed roller that supplies a fixed amount of rice to the chute, so that the feed roller can have the function of estimating the amount of rice processed and the function of supplying a fixed amount of rice to the chute. This has the effect of making it unnecessary to provide a separate rotor for estimating the amount of rice processed in addition to the feed roller.

1(a) is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a cross section of a rice hulling device in one embodiment of the present invention, and (b) is a schematic cross-sectional view of the rice hulling device taken along line Ib-Ib in FIG. 1(a). 13 is a flowchart of an initial interval setting process. 13 is a flowchart of a hulling process. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the rice hulling device taken along line IV-IV in FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the rice hulling device showing a state in which the angle of the chute has changed in response to the displacement of the movable roll from the state shown in FIG. 4 .

Below, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings. First, the overall configuration of the rice hulling device 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1(a) is a schematic cross-sectional view of the rice hulling device 1 in one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1(b) is a schematic cross-sectional view of the rice hulling device 1 taken along line Ib-Ib in FIG. 1(a). Note that the chute 14 (see FIG. 1(a)) is omitted from FIG. 1(b).

The rice hulling device 1 is equipped with a fixed roll 20a and a movable roll 20b housed in a housing 10, and is a device that performs hulling (dehulling) by passing rice grains through the hulling area A between the fixed roll 20a and the movable roll 20b. In the following explanation, when the fixed roll 20a and the movable roll 20b are described together, they will be described as rolls 20a and 20b.

At the top end of the housing 10 (upper side in Fig. 1(a)), a receiving port 11 is formed to receive rice supplied from a feed hopper (not shown). An inclined plate 12 extends downward from the edge of the receiving port 11 (the end on the left side in Fig. 1(a)), and a delivery roller 30 is disposed in a position adjacent to the bottom end of this inclined plate 12.

The delivery roller 30 is a rotary valve having multiple vanes 32 arranged around its rotation axis 31 (circumferential direction). This delivery roller 30 can have a known configuration, so the detailed configuration is not shown, but an example of a known configuration is the rotary valve 130 in JP 2017-064660 A.

The delivery roller 30 has multiple disk-shaped partition plates 33 arranged in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 31 (perpendicular to the plane of the paper in FIG. 1(a)). The partition plates 33 and the blades 32 define a space 34 for delivering a fixed amount of rice at a time.

The cover 13 covers approximately half of the outer periphery of the discharge roller 30 on the side where the rice grains are supplied from the inclined plate 12 (the right side of Fig. 1(a)). The cover 13 extends downward from the receiving port 11 so as to form a flow path for the rice grains between the outer periphery of the discharge roller 30 and the cover 13, and the tip (lower end) of the cover 13 is located close to the lower end of the discharge roller 30. Thus, the rice grains supplied from the inclined plate 12 to the flow path between the discharge roller 30 and the cover 13 are contained in the space 34 of the discharge roller 30, and the rice grains contained in the space 34 are discharged in fixed amounts by the multiple blades 32 as the discharge roller 30 rotates in one direction (clockwise in Fig. 1(a)) and are unwound from the tip of the cover 13.

Below the unhulled rice section, a plate-shaped chute 14 is provided that slopes downward toward each of the rolls 20a, 20b. Thus, the unhulled rice unwound from between the cover 13 and the delivery roller 30 flows down along the flow surface 14a of the chute 14 and is supplied to each of the rolls 20a, 20b. The chute 14 is rotatably supported on the housing 10 by a rotating shaft 14b, and the angle of the chute 14 caused by this rotation is adjusted by a cam 67, which will be described later.

The chute 14 is also provided with a capacitance sensor S that detects the presence or absence of rice grains flowing down its flow surface 14a. The capacitance sensor S detects the presence or absence of rice grains in order to adjust the roll spacing between the rolls 20a and 20b according to the amount of rice being processed, and the adjustment of this roll spacing will be described later.

Belt pulleys P1 and P2 with different outer diameters are fixed to the rotating shafts 21a and 21b of the rolls 20a and 20b, respectively. A belt pulley (not shown) fixed to the drive shaft of the rotation motor 40 and a drive belt (not shown) wound around belt pulley P3 journaled to the housing 10 are wound around the belt pulleys P1 and P2.

The driving force of the rotation motor 40 is transmitted via a drive belt, causing the rotating shafts 21a, 21b of the rolls 20a, 20b to rotate in opposite directions at different rotational speeds. Rims 22a, 22b formed into a cylindrical shape using a metal material (steel) are fixed to the rotating shafts 21a, 21b, and the outer circumferential surfaces of the rims 22a, 22b are covered by elastic rolls 23a, 23b made of an elastic material (rubber-like elastic body).

As the rice grains pass through the hulling area A between the rotating elastic rolls 23a, 23b, the rice grains are husked and become brown rice. The husks and brown rice separated by passing through the hulling area A are discharged to the outside of the housing 10 through the discharge outlet 15 formed at the bottom end of the housing 10 (the bottom side of FIG. 1(a)).

When the elastic rolls 23a, 23b wear down due to this type of hulling, the roll spacing between the rolls 20a, 20b increases. This increase in spacing reduces the husking rate of the rice (the percentage of brown rice obtained from the rice), so the hulling device 1 of this embodiment is configured to constantly adjust this spacing to an appropriate state. This configuration is described below.

The rotating shaft 21a of the fixed roll 20a is rotatably supported by the housing 10, while the rotating shaft 21b of the movable roll 20b is rotatably supported by the swing arm 16. The shaft 16a of the swing arm 16 is rotatably supported by the housing 10, and the driving force for swinging (rotating) the swing arm 16 about this shaft 16a is applied from the distance adjustment mechanism 50.

The gap adjustment mechanism 50 includes a displacement motor 51, a rotating shaft 52 rotatably supported on the housing 10, and a connecting body 53 which constitutes a ball screw mechanism together with the rotating shaft 52 and is connected to the swing arm 16. A chain (not shown) is looped between a gear 51a fixed to the drive shaft of the displacement motor 51 and a gear 52a fixed to the rotating shaft 52.

The driving force of the displacement motor 51 rotates the rotating shaft 52 in the forward or reverse direction, and the connecting body 53 moves linearly in the extending or shortening direction relative to the rotating shaft 52, pushing or pulling the swinging arm 16 by the connecting body 53. This causes the swinging arm 16 to swing (rotate) around the shaft 16a, increasing or decreasing the distance between the opposing rolls 20a, 20b.

The displacement motor 51 is provided with a torque sensor (not shown), and the load torque generated in the displacement motor 51 is detected by the torque sensor. In this embodiment, the load torque detected by this torque sensor is used to set the initial value of the roll spacing (hereinafter referred to as the "initial spacing"). The process of setting this initial spacing will be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the initial spacing setting process. The initial spacing setting process is executed by the control device (CPU) of the rice huller 1 when power is applied to the rice huller 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the initial interval setting process first displaces the movable roll 20b from the retracted position toward the fixed roll 20a (S1). The retracted position is the position where the movable roll 20b is moved a predetermined distance away from the fixed roll 20a after an instruction to stop hulling is given in the process of S18 (see FIG. 2) of the hulling process described below.

After the process of S1, it is confirmed whether the load torque value of the displacement motor 51 detected by the torque sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value (S2). If the detected value of the torque sensor does not exceed the predetermined threshold value (S2: No), the movable roll 20b is displaced while separated from the fixed roll 20a (or the rolls 20a and 20b are slightly in contact with each other), so the process of S2 is repeated.

On the other hand, if the detection value of the torque sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold, i.e., if the load torque acting on the displacement motor 51 is greater than a predetermined value (S2: Yes), the movable roll 20b is in contact with the fixed roll 20a, so the movable roll 20b is displaced in a direction away from the fixed roll 20a (S3).

After the process of S3, it is confirmed whether the amount of displacement of the movable roll 20b in the direction away from the fixed roll 20a exceeds a predetermined threshold (S4). The threshold of S4 can be changed appropriately according to the initial interval to be set. If the amount of displacement of the movable roll 20b in the direction away from the fixed roll 20a does not exceed the predetermined threshold (S4: No), the desired initial interval has not been reached, so the process of S4 is repeated.

On the other hand, if the amount of displacement of the movable roll 20b exceeds the predetermined threshold (S4: Yes), the roll spacing has reached the desired initial spacing, so the displacement of the movable roll 20b is stopped (S5) and the initial spacing setting process is terminated.

In this way, the position where the rolls 20a, 20b come into contact is set as a reference point, and the rolls are separated from each other by a predetermined amount from the reference point to set the initial interval, so that hulling can always be started at an appropriate initial interval even if the rolls 20a, 20b are worn. In this embodiment, when the load torque of the displacement motor 51 detected by the torque sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the rolls 20a, 20b are in contact. This makes it unnecessary to rotate the rolls 20a, 20b by the rotation motor 40 when determining whether the rolls 20a, 20b are in contact, as in the conventional technology (for example, JP-A-09-239282). Therefore, even if the initial interval between the rolls is repeatedly set, wear on the rolls 20a, 20b can be suppressed.

By setting the initial interval in this way, hulling can be started with an appropriate roll interval, but if hulling is continued, the roll interval will increase due to wear of each of the rolls 20a, 20b. Therefore, in this embodiment, a process to adjust the roll interval during hulling after the initial interval is set is performed. This process will be described with reference to Figure 3. Figure 3 is a flowchart of the hulling process. The hulling process is executed when an instruction to start hulling is input (for example, when the switch to start rotation of each of the rolls 20a, 20b is pressed).

As shown in FIG. 3, in the hulling process, the delivery roller 30 is first driven (S10) to deliver a fixed amount of rice grains toward the chute 14. After the process of S10, it is confirmed whether the rice grains are flowing down the flow surface 14a of the chute 14, i.e., whether the capacitance sensor S is ON (S11).

When the capacitance sensor S is ON (S11: Yes), rice is being supplied to each of the rolls 20a, 20b via the chute 14, so the number of rotations of the feed roller 30 is calculated from the time that the capacitance sensor S is ON and the rotation speed of the feed roller 30 (S12). In other words, the cumulative number of rotations of the feed roller 30 during the period that the capacitance sensor S is ON is calculated.

After the process of S12, the processing amount of rice grains is estimated from the calculated rotation speed of the delivery roller 30 (S13). This processing amount is estimated by referring to processing amount data stored in the rice huller 1, which is a pre-measured relationship between the rotation speed of the delivery roller 30 and the amount of rice grains delivered from the delivery roller 30 at that rotation speed.

After processing in S13, the amount of wear on each of the rolls 20a, 20b is estimated from the amount of rice processed estimated in S13 by referring to pre-programmed data showing the correlation between the amount of rice processed and the amount of wear on each of the rolls 20a, 20b (S14).

After estimating the amount of wear of each roll 20a, 20b in the process of S14, the movable roll 20b is displaced in a direction approaching the fixed roll 20a by the amount of the estimated amount of wear (S15). As a result, even if each roll 20a, 20b wears during hulling after the initial interval is set, hulling can always be performed at an appropriate interval, thereby improving the husking rate of rice.

The amount of rice processed in S14 is estimated based on the period (ON time) during which the capacitance sensor S detects the flow of rice. In other words, the amount of rice supplied to each roll 20a, 20b is estimated based on the period during which rice actually flows down to each roll 20a, 20b via the chute 14, so the amount of rice processed by each roll 20a, 20b can be estimated with high accuracy. This allows the amount of wear on each roll 20a, 20b to be estimated with high accuracy, so the roll spacing during hulling can be set to a more appropriate spacing.

Here, for example, it is possible to omit the capacitance sensor S and estimate the amount of rice processed only from the rotation speed of the delivery roller 30. However, in such a configuration, for example, when the delivery roller 30 is rotating idly, the amount of rice processed (the amount of wear of each roll 20a, 20b) is estimated by adding up the period during which no rice is actually supplied to each roll 20a, 20b.

In contrast, in this embodiment, the amount of rice processed is estimated from the period during which the feed roller 30 is rotating and the capacitance sensor S detects the flow of rice down (the number of rotations of the feed roller 30 during that period). This allows the amount of rice processed by each roll 20a, 20b to be estimated with greater accuracy than, for example, when the amount of rice processed is estimated only from the number of rotations of the feed roller 30. Therefore, the amount of wear of each roll 20a, 20b can also be estimated with greater accuracy, allowing the roll spacing during hulling to be set to an appropriate interval.

In addition, by estimating the amount of rice processed from the rotation speed of the delivery roller 30, which supplies a fixed amount of rice to the chute 14, the delivery roller 30 can be endowed with both the function of estimating the amount of rice processed and the function of supplying a fixed amount of rice to the chute 14. This makes it unnecessary to provide a separate rotating body for estimating the amount of rice processed in addition to the delivery roller 30, thereby reducing the manufacturing cost of the rice hulling device 1.

After the process of S15, or if the capacitance sensor S is not ON in the process of S11 (S11: No), it is checked whether there is an instruction to stop the hulling process (for example, whether the end or pause switch has been pressed) (S16). If there is no instruction to stop the hulling process (S16: No), the process returns to S11.

On the other hand, if there is an instruction to stop the hulling process (S16: Yes), the delivery roller 30 is stopped (S17), the movable roll 20b is displaced to the retracted position (S18), and the series of processes is terminated.

Next, the configuration for making the chute 14 follow the displacement of the movable roll 20b will be described with reference to Figures 4 and 5. Figure 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the rice hulling device 1 taken along line IV-IV in Figure 1(b), and Figure 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the rice hulling device 1 showing a state in which the angle of the chute 14 has changed from the state shown in Figure 4 in response to the displacement of the movable roll 20b. Note that in Figures 4 and 5, the parts hidden by the partition wall 17 (see Figure 1) that separates the housing 10 are shown by dashed lines.

As shown in Figures 4 and 5, when the movable roll 20b is displaced closer to the fixed roll 20a in accordance with wear of the rolls 20a and 20b, the hulling area A between the rolls (see Figure 4) moves closer to the fixed roll 20a as wear of the rolls 20a and 20b progresses (see hulling area B in Figure 5). The hulling device 1 is provided with a link mechanism 60 for making the chute 14 follow the movement of the hulling area A.

The link mechanism 60 includes a boss fitting 61 that is fixed to the swing arm 16. The boss fitting 61 is fixed to the side opposite the shaft 16a of the swing arm 16 (the upper end of the swing arm 16) across the rotation shaft 21b of the movable roll 20b.

A first shaft 62 extending in the same direction as the shaft 16a of the swing arm 16 (perpendicular to the plane of the paper in FIG. 4) is fixed to the boss fitting 61, and one end of a first link 63 is rotatably supported on this first shaft 62.

The first link 63 extends from the connection with the first shaft 62 in a generally horizontal direction toward the upper side of the rotation shaft 21a of the fixed roll 20a, and the other end of the first link 63 is rotatably supported on a second shaft 64 that extends in the same direction as the first shaft 62.

The second shaft 64 is fixed at one end (upper end) to the second link 65, and the second link 65 extends downward (towards the rotating shaft 21a of the fixed roll 20a) from the connection with the first link 63. A cam shaft 66 is fixed to the other end (lower end) of the second link 65, and the cam shaft 66 is rotatably supported on the partition wall 17 of the housing 10 (see FIG. 1).

A cam 67 is attached to the camshaft 66 at a location opposite the second link 65 across the partition wall 17 (see FIG. 1). The cam 67 is a plate cam that is eccentric upward from the camshaft 66, and the eccentric portion contacts the back surface 14c of the chute 14 opposite the flow-down surface 14a. In other words, the rotation of the chute 14 due to its own weight around the rotation shaft 14b (see FIG. 1(a)) described above is supported by the cam 67.

When wear occurs in each of the rolls 20a, 20b, the swing arm 16 swings (rotates) around the shaft 16a, bringing the movable roll 20b closer to the fixed roll 20a. This swing of the swing arm 16 also rotates the boss metal fitting 61 fixed to the swing arm 16 in a direction closer to the fixed roll 20a.

When the boss metal fitting 61 rotates, the first link 63 rotates around the first shaft 62 and the second shaft 64 while pushing the second link 65, causing the cam shaft 66 fixed to the second link 65 to rotate integrally with the second link 65. As the cam shaft 66 rotates, the cam 67 rotates in a direction away from the back surface 14c of the chute 14, causing the chute 14 to rotate around the rotation shaft 14b (see FIG. 1(a)) due to its own weight. This rotation of the chute 14 causes the tip of the chute 14 to be directed toward the hulling area B after the wear of each roll 20a, 20b.

In this manner, in this embodiment, the angle of the chute 14 is adjusted by the camshaft 66, which rotates in accordance with the displacement of the first link 63 and the second link 65, and the cam 67 attached to the camshaft 66. This allows the angle of the chute 14 to be fine-tuned by adjusting the attachment angle of the cam 67 relative to the camshaft 66 or by adjusting the shape of the cam 67. In other words, the chute 14 can be fine-tuned to an angle that makes it easier for rice grains to be supplied to the hulling areas A and B, thereby improving the husking rate of rice grains.

Here, in a conventional rice hulling device (for example, JP 2008-259924 A), one end of the link rod 29 is simply inserted into the engagement opening 281 of the regulating member 28. In this type of configuration, when vibration caused by the rotation of the movable roller 24 around the movable shaft 23 is transmitted to the link rod 29, the link rod 29 rattles in the engagement opening 281, causing the rice supply plate 27 (chute) to swing. When this swing occurs, the rice that flows down from the rice supply plate 27 falls onto the fixed roller 22 or the movable roller 24 at a position that is shifted from the hulling area. As a result, the rice becomes violent (jumps) when it comes into contact with the rotating rollers, which tends to reduce the husking rate of the rice.

In contrast, in this embodiment, one end of the first link 63 (the end on the left side in Figs. 4 and 5) is rotatably connected to the swing arm 16 (boss metal fitting 61). Therefore, even if vibrations caused by the rotation of the movable roll 20b around the rotation shaft 21b are transmitted to the first link 63 and the second link 65 via the swing arm 16, the relative positions of the first link 63 and the second link 65 with respect to the swing arm 16 can be kept unchanged. In other words, the rattling of the links as in the conventional embodiment described above can be suppressed, and therefore swinging that changes the chute 14 from the desired angle (the angle at which the tip faces the hulling areas A and B) can be suppressed. Therefore, the rice grains flowing down from the chute 14 are more easily supplied directly to the hulling areas A and B, improving the husking rate of the rice grains.

In this embodiment, when the plane including the axis of each of the rotation shafts 21a, 21b of each of the rolls 20a, 20b is taken as a virtual plane V, the rolls 20a, 20b are arranged so that the virtual plane V is at an angle of 20° to 40° with respect to the horizontal direction. This is to make the flow surface 14a of the chute 14, which is inclined with respect to the horizontal direction, approximately perpendicular to the virtual plane V, and to position the hulling areas A, B on the extension of the flow surface 14a of the chute 14. As a result, the rice grains that have been aligned by flowing down on the flow surface 14a of the chute 14 can be easily supplied directly to the hulling areas A, B while maintaining their alignment, improving the husking rate of the rice grains.

In addition, since the movable roll 20b is disposed above the fixed roll 20a and the camshaft 66 is located below the upper end of the movable roll 20b, the camshaft 66 and the swing arm 16 supporting the rotation shaft 21b of the movable roll 20b can be disposed at approximately the same height. This allows the length of the first link 63 and the second link 65 connecting the camshaft 66 and the swing arm 16 to be relatively short, thereby reducing the space required for disposing the first link 63 and the second link 65.

In this manner, in this embodiment, the chute 14 rotates following the displacement of the movable roll 20b, so when the initial spacing between the rolls is set as described above or when the roll spacing is adjusted during hulling, the tip of the chute 14 can be rotated so as to face the hulling areas A and B between the rolls. Furthermore, the angle of the chute 14 can be fine-tuned by adjusting the mounting angle and shape of the cam 67 as described above. This allows the roll spacing at the start of hulling and during hulling to always be set appropriately, and makes it easier for rice grains to be directly supplied toward the hulling areas A and B between the rolls, improving the husking rate of rice grains.

The present invention has been described above based on the embodiments, but the present invention is in no way limited to the above embodiments, and it can be easily imagined that various improvements and modifications are possible within the scope of the invention without departing from its spirit.

In the above embodiment, the amount of wear of each roll 20a, 20b is estimated from the amount of rice processed, but, for example, the amount of wear may be estimated from the number of rotations (accumulated time of rotation) of each roll 20a, 20b. In this case, the amount of wear can be estimated based on the number of rotations of each roll 20a, 20b during the period when the delivery roller 30 is rotating or the period when the capacitance sensor S is ON.

In the above embodiment, the amount of rice processed is estimated from the number of rotations of the feed roller 30 during the period during which the feed roller 30 rotates and the capacitance sensor S detects the flow of rice, but this is not necessarily limited to the above. For example, the amount of rice processed may be estimated only from the ON time of the capacitance sensor S without calculating the number of rotations of the feed roller 30, or the capacitance sensor S may be omitted and the amount of rice processed may be estimated only from the number of rotations of the feed roller 30. Also, for example, a rotating body that is rotated by the rice supplied to the chute 14 (or the rice flowing down the chute 14) may be provided separately in addition to the feed roller 30, and the amount of rice processed may be estimated from the number of rotations of the rotating body.

In the above embodiment, a capacitance sensor S is used as an example of a detection means for detecting the presence or absence of rice grains flowing down the chute 14, but this is not necessarily limited to this. For example, the detection means may be a known configuration such as a laser sensor or an infrared sensor.

In the above embodiment, the case where the imaginary plane V including the axis of each of the rotation shafts 21a, 21b of the rolls 20a, 20b is at an angle of 20° to 40° with respect to the horizontal direction has been described. However, for example, the imaginary plane V may be configured to be aligned along the horizontal direction, or the angle of the imaginary plane V may be less than 20° or more than 40° with respect to the horizontal direction.

In the above embodiment, the movable roll 20b is disposed above the fixed roll 20a, and the camshaft 66 is located below the upper end of the movable roll 20b. However, for example, the fixed roll 20a may be disposed above the movable roll 20b, or the camshaft 66 may be disposed above the movable roll 20b.

In the above embodiment, the angle of the chute 14 is fine-tuned by adjusting the attachment angle of the cam 67 relative to the cam shaft 66 or by adjusting the shape of the cam 67, but this is not necessarily limited to the above. For example, the first link 63 may be formed from a known expandable member such as a ball screw, and the angle of the chute 14 may be fine-tuned by extending or shortening the first link 63.

In the above embodiment, the method of fixing the cam 67 to the camshaft 66 has been omitted, but an example of such a fixing method is a configuration in which the camshaft 66 is inserted into a through hole formed in the cam 67, and a set screw is screwed into the camshaft 66 from the outer surface of the cam 67. However, other fixing methods may be used as long as the cam 67 can be detachably attached to the camshaft 66.

1 Hulling device 14 Chute
14a downstream surface
20a: fixed roll 20b: movable roll 30: delivery roller (rotating body)
31 Rotating shaft 32 Blade 51 Displacement motor S Capacitive sensor ( sensor )
S1 Displacement means S2 Determination means S3-S5 Setting means S11-S13 Processing amount estimation means S14 Wear amount estimation means S15 Adjustment means

Claims (2)

A rice hulling device comprising: a fixed roll; a movable roll displaceable relative to the fixed roll; a displacement motor for displacing the movable roll; a displacement means for displacing the movable roll in a direction approaching the fixed roll by the driving force of the displacement motor; a determination means for determining whether the movable roll displaced by the displacement means has come into contact with the fixed roll; and a setting means for separating the movable roll from the fixed roll by a predetermined amount when the determination means determines that the contact has occurred, to set an initial interval between the rolls,
a torque sensor for detecting a load torque of the displacement motor;
The determination means determines that the contact has occurred when the load torque detected by the torque sensor exceeds a predetermined threshold value ,
The rice hulling device is characterized in that it comprises a chute that supplies rice grains to the fixed roll and the movable roll, a rotating body that rotates when rice grains are supplied to the chute, a sensor that is provided separately from the rotating body and faces the downflow surface of the chute and detects whether rice grains are flowing down the downflow surface of the chute, a processing amount estimation means that estimates the amount of rice processed by the fixed roll and the movable roll after the initial interval is set by the setting means based on the period during which the rotating body is rotating and the sensor detects the flow of rice down, a wear amount estimation means that estimates the amount of wear of the fixed roll and the movable roll from the processing amount estimated by the processing amount estimation means, and an adjustment means that adjusts the roll spacing during hulling by displacing the movable roll in a direction closer to the fixed roll in accordance with the wear amount estimated by the wear amount estimation means. 2. The rice hulling device according to claim 1 , wherein the rotating body is a delivery roller having a plurality of blades arranged around its rotation axis and supplying a fixed amount of rice to the chute.

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