JP7716280B2 - dryer - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a dryer for, for example, plant seeds, and in particular to improvements to a dryer suitable for use in a dryer with multiple tiers of drying trays.

An example of a dryer with multiple trays is the "Soaked Rice Seed Drying Device" described in Patent Document 1 below. In this device, net bags of soaked rice seeds are placed in multiple stacked drawers and stored in the dryer frame. When the drying air supply means is driven, drying air passes through the raw material net bags from one side of each drawer, exits to the other side, and is then exhausted outside the machine via the exhaust duct and exhaust port. This allows the soaked rice seeds in each drawer to be dried individually.

Patent Publication No. 2008-14517

However, in the background art described above, drying air is supplied from the underside of one side of the dryer where the drawer bodies are stacked, and the drying air is exhausted from an exhaust duct provided on the other side of the dryer. This results in an uneven supply of drying air to the stacked drawer bodies. In other words, the lower drawer body has a larger air volume than the upper drawer body, which could result in the seeds drying condition differing between drawers.

The present invention addresses the above points and aims to provide a dryer that can uniformly dry items on each tray, even when trays are stacked in multiple tiers.

The present invention is a dryer that dries objects to be dried by blowing air from an air supply control unit into a drying chamber in which a plurality of trays containing objects to be dried are arranged side by side, and is equipped with an air supply chamber separated by a partition and into which air is supplied from the drying control unit, tray holders in which the trays are placed and which blow air to the objects to be dried on the trays, air supply fans provided at portions of each tray holder that extend into the air supply chamber, and a fan control device that controls the rotation speed of each of the air supply fans, and is characterized in that the fan control device controls the rotation speed of each of the air supply fans by inverter control so that the amount of air sent to each of the trays is uniform.

According to one of the main aspects, the tray support is provided with a dispersion plate for rectifying the air from the blower fan. The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

According to the present invention, a blower fan is provided for each tray arranged in multiple tiers, and the air volume is controlled by inverter control , which makes it possible to equalize the air volume on each tray.In addition, the distribution plate ensures that the air sent from the blower fan is distributed evenly throughout the tray, allowing the objects to be dried evenly.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing how air is blown onto each tray. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing how air is blown when multiple trays are arranged horizontally.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the examples.

Figure 1 shows the entire dryer embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a drying chamber 100 is provided on the front side of the dryer (left side of the figure), and a drying control unit 300 is provided on the rear side (right side of the figure). An air supply chamber 200 is provided between the drying chamber 100 and the drying control unit 300.

Of these, the drying chamber 100 is equipped with a shelf frame 110, which in turn is equipped with multiple drying shelves 120. Each drying shelf 120 has trays 124 for storing seeds and the like placed on the upper side of a tray holder 122, and the bottom of these trays 124 is meshed to allow ventilation. This allows air blown from the tray holder 122 to pass through the bottom of the tray 124 and be sent to the items to be dried, as shown by the arrows in the figure. The tray holder 122 is sloped so that it becomes deeper as it goes towards the air intake side (right side of the figure).

Next, the air supply chamber 200 is separated from the drying chamber 100 by a partition wall 210 and is equipped with an air supply chamber 220 that supplies drying air to the drying chamber 100. The tray holders 122 described above extend into the air supply chamber 220, with blower fans 230 attached to their ends. If necessary, a dispersion plate 126 for rectifying the air is provided on the air output side of the blower fan 230. Furthermore, between the drying chamber 100 and the drying control unit 300 on the rear side, an air supply port 302 is provided on the upper side and an exhaust port 304 is provided on the lower side.

In other words, the air supplied from the drying control unit 300 to the air supply chamber 220 of the air supply room 200 through the air supply port 302 is not supplied directly to the drying chamber 100 due to the partition wall 210, but is instead supplied to the drying chamber 100 from the tray holder 122 by the air blower fan 230. The air also hits the seeds in the trays 124 of the tray holder 122. The air exhausted from each tray 124 is guided from the front side of the drying shelf 120 to the underfloor side and returns to the drying control unit 300 through the exhaust port 304. The drive of each air blower fan 230 is controlled by the fan control device 400.

Next, various types of drying control unit 300 may be used, but the example shown includes a heater unit 310, a cooler unit 320, a unit control device 330, and a fan control device 400. An air intake OA and an exhaust vent EA are provided on the rear side of the drying control unit 300. The cooler unit 320 is equipped with a dehumidifier (not shown). These allow heated air and dehumidified/cooled air to be supplied from the circulation fan (main fan) FM to the intake chamber 220 of the intake chamber 200.

Temperature and humidity sensors are installed in the drying chamber 100, air supply chamber 200, and drying control unit 300 as needed, and the operation of the drying control unit 300 is controlled by the unit control device 330 based on the detection results of these sensors. The operating status is displayed on a display 312 installed above the front of the dryer. For example, it displays whether the dryer is running or stopped, the remaining time, temperature, humidity, dew point temperature, etc.

Next, the operation of the air supply chamber 200 in this embodiment will be described. Drying air is supplied to the air supply chamber 220 of the air supply chamber 200 from the air supply port 302 by the circulation fan FM of the drying control unit 300. The air is sent to the tray holder 122 by the blower fan 230. After drying or cooling the seeds in the tray 124 from the tray holder 122, the air flows downward at the front side of the drying chamber 100, passes under the floor, and is exhausted from the exhaust port 304 to the drying control unit 300 side.

In this case, conventionally, the air supplied from the drying control unit 300 would flow in the direction that was easiest for it to flow, resulting in uneven distribution of air to each tray 124. Therefore, in this embodiment, the fan control device 400 controls the operation of each blower fan 230 so that the amount of air blown to each tray 124 is uniform. Specifically, control is performed using an inverter control method, and the inverter control frequency is set for each blower fan 230 on each stage. This setting is made using a touch panel 410 mounted on the front door of the drying chamber 100.

In this embodiment, air is supplied from above the air supply chamber 200, so in the past, the force of the airflow would be weaker on the lower trays 124 than on the upper trays 124. Therefore, in this embodiment, the touch panel 410 is operated to adjust the frequency of the inverter control, and the fan control device 400 controls the current of each blower fan 230 so that it is uniform. If the current of the blower fans 230 is the same, it can be assumed that the air volume is also the same. This ensures that the amount of air supplied to each tray 124 is uniform above and below the drying shelf 120.

This is shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 (A) shows the case where there is no blower fan 230, with the trays 124 located at the top receiving more air and the trays 124 located at the bottom receiving less air. In contrast, according to this embodiment, as shown in Figure 2 (B), the blower fan 230 controls the air volume of each tray 124 uniformly. In addition, the dispersion plate 126 ensures that the air sent from the blower fan 230 is distributed evenly throughout the trays 124.

As described above, according to this embodiment, even when multiple trays 124 are installed in a stacked configuration, a blower fan 230 is provided for each tray 124, which allows for a uniform air flow rate for the multiple trays 124 and allows the seeds stored in each tray 124 to be dried uniformly.

Other Embodiments The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, the following modifications are also included.
(1) The shapes and structures shown in the above embodiments can be modified to achieve the same functions. For example, the number of stacked trays 124 and the number of horizontal rows in the drying chamber 100 can be appropriately changed as needed.
(2) The configuration of the drying control unit 300 shown in the above embodiment is also an example, and various configurations may be used.
(3) In the above embodiment, the blower fan 230 is provided at the end of the tray support 122. However, the orientation of the blower fan 230 (the direction of the rotation axis) may be either horizontal or vertical, or may be tilted from the horizontal or vertical direction. The blower fan 230 may also be provided on the side of the tray support 122.
(4) In the above embodiment, the blower fan 230 is provided for each tray holder 122, but it is also possible to provide one blower fan for each of a plurality of upper and lower stages (for example, two stages).
(5) Although seeds are one of the suitable examples of the object to which this embodiment is applied, it is possible to apply this embodiment to various objects.
(6) In the above embodiment, the trays 124 are stacked vertically. However, even when the trays are arranged horizontally, a blower fan may be provided for each tray to ensure a uniform airflow. This is shown in Figure 3, where the tray holders 122 and trays 124 are arranged horizontally. The blower fan 230 controls the airflow to each tray 124 uniformly.

According to the present invention, a blower fan is provided for each tray arranged in multiple tiers, and the air volume is controlled by inverter control , which makes it possible to make the air volume uniform for each tray.In addition, the distribution plate ensures that the air sent from the blower fan is distributed evenly throughout the tray, allowing the objects to be dried evenly, making this a suitable dryer for seeds, etc.

100: Drying chamber 110: Shelf frame 120: Drying shelf 122: Tray holder 124: Tray 126: Dispersion plate 200: Air supply chamber 210: Partition wall 220: Air supply chamber 230: Blower fan 300: Drying control unit 302: Air supply port 304: Exhaust port 310: Heater unit 320: Cooler unit 330: Unit control device 312: Display 400: Fan control device 410: Touch panel EA: Exhaust port FM: Circulation fan OA: Air intake port

Claims (2)

A dryer that dries objects to be dried by blowing air from a drying control unit into a drying chamber in which a plurality of trays containing objects to be dried are arranged side by side,
an air supply chamber separated from the drying chamber by a partition wall and supplied with air from the drying control unit;
A tray holder for placing the tray and blowing air onto the object to be dried on the tray;
a blower fan provided at a portion of each tray holder that extends into the air supply chamber;
a fan control device for controlling the rotation speed of each of the blower fans;
It is equipped with
The fan control device controls the rotation speed of each of the blower fans by inverter control so that the amount of air blown to each of the trays is uniform. 2. The dryer according to claim 1, wherein the tray holder is provided with a dispersion plate for rectifying the air from the blower fan .