JPS5911527B2 - Shaped dry ice manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing shaped dry ice using liquid carbon dioxide as a raw material.

That is, the present invention relates to a shaped dry ice manufacturing apparatus used by a dry ice maker to mass-produce shaped dry ice for restaurants, ice cream factories, confectionery shops, and the like.

Among regular shaped dry ice manufacturing devices, a conventional device similar to the device according to the present invention is disclosed in British Patent No. 433018 (“Improvements in solid dry ice manufacturing press”).
The outline is shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8.

Liquid carbon dioxide is ejected from the nozzle 51 at the top of the charging cylinder 50 to generate snow-like dry ice through adiabatic expansion, which fills the charging cylinder 50. The shutter 52 is opened and the snow-like dry ice is transferred to the press cylinder. After falling into the dry ice block 53 by gravity, the shutter 52 is closed again, and the dry ice block 57 is compressed by the press plunger 55 and formed into a dry ice block 57.

At this time, in parallel with the compression in the press cylinder 53, the charging cylinder 50 is filled with snow-like dry ice for the next cycle.

Thereafter, the press cylinder 53 is lowered by the cylindrical piston 58 at its lower part, so that the dry ice block 57 on the press plunger 55 is exposed outside the press cylinder 53 and taken out.

However, this conventional device still has the following drawbacks.

(1) In order to take out the dry ice block 57 from inside the press cylinder 53, the inside of the press cylinder 53 is raised and lowered, so a driving means for the cylindrical piston 58 is essential, which complicates the structure and reduces durability. , becomes expensive.

(2) In the case of automatic operation, it is necessary to provide a transfer means for taking out the dry ice block 57 remaining on the press plunger 55, which further complicates the structure of the apparatus.

(3) Since the snow-like dry ice supplied into the press cylinder 53 is compressed and solidified, the large dry ice block 5
7, it is necessary to increase the height of the press cylinder 53 and to increase the stroke of the high-output press drive device 56, making the device large and extremely expensive.

(4) When the snow-like dry ice is compressed in the press cylinder 53, the carbon dioxide gas in the snow-like dry ice is trapped within the dry ice, and this carbon dioxide gas prevents compression, so the density of compression is reduced. Not only will it be smaller, but the compression work speed will be slower.

The dry ice block 57 becomes easily cracked or chipped due to the high pressure of the carbon dioxide gas sealed inside.

(5) By providing two shutters 52, even when quantifying the dry ice block 57, some of the snow-like dry ice adheres to the inner wall of the charging cylinder 50 and remains, so the dry ice block 57 is difficult to quantify.

In order to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, the present invention arranges a snow-like dry ice generating cylinder and a regular dry ice forming cylinder above and below each other with a shutter space in between, and forms the forming cylinder at the outlet at the lower end of the generating cylinder. A shutter that simultaneously opens and closes the intake port at the upper end is arranged so as to be movable back and forth in the shutter space, and a preload suppressor is installed inside the production cylinder so that it can be moved up and down, and the snow-like dry ice in the production cylinder is pre-compressed. By supplying dry ice into the forming cylinder from the top of the shutter, and by moving an auxiliary shutter forward from the top of the shutter, it is possible to open only the receiving port while keeping the sending port closed. While the production continues, regular-shaped dry ice is formed in the molding cylinder, and the shaped dry ice is extruded into the shutter space by a pressing tool, and the regular-shaped dry ice is taken out by pushing it with the product extrusion surface on the front of the shutter. This is what I did.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, a snow-like dry ice generating cylinder 1 and a regular dry ice forming cylinder 2 are arranged vertically in series with a shutter space 3 in between. A receiving port 5 at the upper end of the shutter space 3 is opened to the shutter space 3, and a shutter 6 that simultaneously opens and closes the sending port 4 and the receiving port 5 is disposed so as to be movable back and forth within the shutter space 3.

A preload tool 8 is installed inside the production cylinder 1 so as to be able to move up and down via a pre-squeezing drive device 9 consisting of a hydraulic cylinder, and a compression tool 10 is installed inside the forming cylinder 2 via a forming drive device 11 consisting of a hydraulic cylinder. The interior is movable up and down.

A pair of snow-like dry ice blowing cylinders 12 are attached symmetrically upward to the upper part of the generation cylinder 1. A liquid carbon dioxide gas spouting nozzle 13 is attached to the top of the pair, and the snow-like dry ice generated by this nozzle 13 is is blown into the production cylinder 1 to fill it, and then pre-squeezed with the pre-loading tool 8 to compress snow-like dry ice to a low density, which is then allowed to fall by gravity into the forming cylinder 2 and compressed within the forming cylinder 2. The device 10 compresses and solidifies the ice to a high density to form a regular-shaped dry ice.During the process of producing snow-like dry ice in the production cylinder 1 and pre-squeezing, the compressing and shaping process takes place in the forming cylinder 2. By performing the process of taking the dry ice out of the molding cylinder 2 in parallel, high-quality regular-shaped dry ice is manufactured with high efficiency.

Here, the detailed structure of the regular shaped dry ice production apparatus will be explained based on FIGS. 2 and 3.

The snow-like dry ice producing cylinder 1 and the regular dry ice forming cylinder 2 are each formed from a rectangular metal cylinder and are supported between a support frame 17 made of a pair of steel plates at the front and rear.

The generation cylinder 1 is made of a stainless steel plate, and a full-mesh gas vent 18 is opened near its upper end to release carbon dioxide sublimated from the snow-like dry ice.
The carbon dioxide gas is collected in a duct 19 surrounding the outside of the duct and released to the outside through a gas discharge port 20 of the duct.

The outer liquid carbon dioxide blowing nozzle 13 generates snow-like dry ice from liquid carbon dioxide using the principle of adiabatic expansion, and is attached to the rear end of the snow-like dry ice blowing tube 12 to generate liquid carbon dioxide. It is connected to a liquid carbon dioxide gas cylinder 21 via a supply path 22 .

The snow-like dry ice blowing tube 12 is formed of a rectangular tube that is slanted downward and widens toward the end, and a snow-like dry ice blowing port 14 opens into the production tube below the gas relief hole 18.

The regular dry ice forming cylinder 2 is made of a stainless steel plate, and reinforcing ribs and heat-absorbing fins 24 are formed on the outside of its upper part.

That is, at the end of the process of compressing the snow-like dry ice in the forming tube 2, the snow-like dry ice is compressed under high pressure.
It is necessary to increase the strength of the upper part of the molding cylinder 2.

In addition, the reinforcing ribs 24 are arranged so that when the regular-shaped dry ice 16 is pushed out into the shutter space 3, the inner circumferential wall surface of the forming cylinder 2 and the outer peripheral surface of the regular-shaped dry ice 16 are easily melted and peeled off. The surface area is made as large as possible to increase the heat absorption performance, and the reinforcing ribs and heat absorption fins 24 are formed.

Further, in order to improve the peeling off of the regular shaped dry ice 16, it is necessary to form the inner circumferential surface of the molding cylinder 2 into a smooth surface.

The shutter 6 is provided with a shutter drive device 25 consisting of a hydraulic cylinder in the shutter space 3 between the production cylinder 1 and the green cylinder 2.
The shutter 6 is attached so as to be horizontally movable back and forth through the shutter 6, and the outlet port 4 at the lower end of the production cylinder 1 and the receiving port 5 at the upper end of the forming cylinder 2 can be opened and closed at the same time.

In addition, the auxiliary shutter 7 extended forward from the upper front surface of the shutter 6 can close the outlet 4 and open the inlet 5, and when the shutter 6 is pulled rearward, the outlet 4 and the inlet 5 are closed. will be released together.

In other words, the shutter 6 and the auxiliary shutter 7 are in a fully closed position where the shutter 6 closes the outlet 4 and the intake 5, and a fully closed position where the shutter 6 moves back to open the intake 5 and the auxiliary shutter 7 closes the outlet 4. The bottom opening position and the top closing position, and the shutter 6 and auxiliary shutter 7 are moved back and the outlet port 4 is closed.
It is configured to be switchable between three positions via a shutter drive device 25, including a fully open position in which both the opening and the receiving port 5 are opened.

Here, the process for manufacturing regular shaped dry ice will be explained based on FIG.

At the initial startup, as shown in (I), the shutter 6
is set to the fully closed position, and the preload suppressor 8 is switched to the standby position above the snow-like dry ice inlet 14 to close the production cylinder 1.
Then, in (II), the pre-pressing device 8 is driven downward from the standby position to the pre-squeezing position below the snow-like dry ice inlet to pre-press the snow-like dry ice. After switching the shutter 6 and the auxiliary shutter 7 to the fully open position in step (1), lowering the preload suppressor 8 from the preloading position to a lower push-down position,
The pre-squeezed snow-like dry ice 15 is dropped into the forming tube 2, and then in step 2, the shutter 6 is again set to the fully closed position, and the pre-pressed snow-like dry ice 15 is dropped into the forming tube 2, for example, about approx. While compressing with a surface pressure of 150 kg/ffl to form regular dry ice 16, the production cylinder 1 is simultaneously filled with snow-like dry ice.

After that (in (■), the regular-shaped dry ice 16 is pushed out from the inside of the molding cylinder 2 into the shutter space 3 with the bottom open and top closed position, and when the shutter 6 is moved to the fully closed position, the regular-shaped dry ice 16 is The product is pushed forward by the product extrusion surface 28 on the front side of 6, slid on the product take-out table 29, and transferred to the front side of the shutter space 3.

Further, in parallel with the above, snow-like dry ice is continuously generated in the production cylinder 1 to fill the production cylinder 1 with a predetermined amount of snow-like dry ice.

Thereafter, the process (■(IIHI)-4) is repeated periodically to produce dry ice with high efficiency.

Here, the explanation based on FIGS. 2 and 3 will be continued again.

When pre-squeezing the snow-like dry ice in the production cylinder 1, carbon dioxide gas in the snow-like dry ice is made easy to escape, and when molded into regular-shaped dry ice 16 in the forming cylinder 2, the carbon dioxide gas in the dry ice is Shutter 6 to make it easier for the person to escape.
is made of sintered metal, which is a porous material with air permeability, and has a gas venting space 30 open to the outside formed therein.

In this way, shaped dry ice can be efficiently formed without being hindered by the gas pressure of carbon dioxide gas, and the shaped dry ice 16 as a product also has a high density and is of high quality and difficult to break.

From the above point of view, as shown in FIG. 5, the lower part 31 of the generating cylinder 1 can also be formed of the above-mentioned sintered metal.

Furthermore, it is desirable that the upper part of the forming tube 2 is also made of sintered metal.

Next, a heat insulation structure between the forming drive device 11 and the pressing tool 10, and between the pre-squeezing drive device 9 and the pre-suppressing tool 8 will be explained.

Since the squeezing tool 10 and the preload suppressor 8 are almost always in contact with dry ice at an extremely low temperature of about -70°C, the hydraulic oil in the hydraulic cylinder is cooled and its viscosity increases. Not only does this result in a decrease in output, but also heat is absorbed from the hydraulic cylinder through the compressor 10 and the preload suppressor 8, promoting sublimation of the dry ice and reducing yield.

In order to prevent this, stainless steel pressure receiving plates 8c and 10c of the preload suppressing tool 8 and the pressing tool 10 and the base plate 8a.

The structure is such that heat insulating plates 8b and 10b made of FRP heat insulating material with excellent heat insulating properties are interposed between the heat insulating plates 10a and 10a.

Furthermore, the hydraulic cylinder of the shutter drive device 25 is also cooled via the auxiliary shutter 7 and the piston rod.
It is desirable to interpose a heat insulating material (path shown) between the auxiliary shutter 7 and the piston rod.

In the above, the hydraulic supply device 31 for supplying pressure oil to each hydraulic cylinder is composed of an oil tank, a hydraulic pump, an electric motor, a direction switching solenoid valve, a pressure switch, and the like.

Furthermore, the control device 32 is equipped with a sequence control circuit, and the direction switching solenoid valve of the pressure oil supply passage 33 and the opening/closing solenoid valve 23 of the liquid carbon dioxide supply passage 22 are based on the detection signals of the limit switches LS1 to LS8. By controlling the opening and closing of the dry ice, the regular dry ice manufacturing equipment is automatically operated.

However, manual operation is also possible if necessary.

Here, detailed explanation of the control system is omitted, but for one cycle of each operation sequence of the preload suppressing tool 8, the pressing tool 10, the shutter 6, and the auxiliary shutter 7, the simple explanation shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. Explain.

The upper limit position, pressurization limit position, and lower limit position of the compression tool 10 that moves up and down in the forming cylinder 2 are detected by a limit switch LSI, a limit switch LS2, a pressure switch (path shown), and a limit switch LS3, respectively.

The standby position, precompression position, and falling position of the preload tool 8 in the production cylinder 1 are detected by a limit switch LS7, a pressure switch (path shown), and a limit switch LS8, respectively.

In addition, the fully open position, bottom open top close position, and fully closed position of the shutter 6 and the auxiliary shutter 7 are controlled by limit switches L, respectively.
S4° is detected at LS5 and LS6.

When the automatic start button is pressed, the opening/closing solenoid valve 22 of the liquid carbon dioxide gas supply path opens, filling the production cylinder 1 with snow-like dry ice, and detecting signals from each limit switch LS1 to LS8 and the pressure switch and sequence control. The operation is controlled as follows based on signals from timers and relays in the circuit.

That is, the pre-loading tool 8 is lowered to pre-squeeze the snow-like dry ice (indicated by the symbol a), and after the shutter 6 and the auxiliary shutter 7 are opened to the fully open position (already illustrated), the pre-squeezed dry ice is The snow-like dry ice 15 falls by gravity from the inside of the production cylinder 1 into the formation cylinder 2 (indicated by symbol C).

Next, the shutter 6 is switched to the fully open position (indicated by reference numeral d), and the compressing tool 10 is driven upward within the molding cylinder 2 to compress and mold the preloaded snow-like dry ice 15 into regular-shaped dry ice 16 ( (Illustrated with symbol e).

After this compression molding, the shutter 6 and the auxiliary shutter 7 are switched to the downward opening position (indicated by symbol f), and then the pressing tool 10 is raised to the upper limit position (indicated by symbol g) to dry the regular shape. When the ice 16 is transferred to the shutter space 3 (indicated by the reference numerals) and the shutter 6 is moved forward and switched to the fully closed position, the shaped dry ice 16 is pushed by the product extrusion surface 28 on the front of the shutter 6, and the product is removed. The product is moved to the product take-out position on the platform 29 (indicated by reference numeral i).

As shown by the same reference numeral J, in parallel with the step e=i, the opening/closing solenoid valve 23 of the liquid carbon dioxide gas supply path 22 is opened to create a snow formation in the production cylinder 1 for the next process cycle. Dry ice is provided.

Since the present invention is configured and operates as described above, it has the following effects.

1) When taking the shaped dry ice out of the molding cylinder, a compressor is used to push it up into the shutter space, and a shutter is used to transport the product to the top.

As a result, the forming cylinder can be fixedly installed, so that a driving device for the forming cylinder can be omitted.

In addition, a device dedicated to taking out regular dry ice is omitted,
Since it can be pushed out using a shutter, the overall structure of the device can be simplified and miniaturized, and it can be manufactured at low cost.

2) Since the snow-like dry ice is pre-squeezed in the production cylinder and then fed into the forming cylinder, the snow-like dry ice in the production cylinder is pre-squeezed and its height is reduced. The total height of the molding device can be reduced, and the stroke of the high-output molding drive device can also be shortened and the molding device can be made smaller.

Therefore, the overall height of the device can be reduced, the weight can be reduced, and it can be manufactured at low cost.

3) Then, by pre-squeezing the constant weight of snow-like dry ice produced in the production cylinder with a pre-loading tool and then letting it fall,
All of the ice can be fed into the molding cylinder, and regular shaped dry ice of constant weight can be stably produced.

4) Possibly, some of the carbon dioxide gas trapped in the pre-pressed dry ice easily escapes between the time when the snow-like dry ice is pre-pressed and transferred from the production cylinder to the forming cylinder and the start of compression. , the amount of carbon dioxide trapped in regular dry ice is significantly reduced.

As a result, compression molding is almost never hindered by the carbon dioxide gas trapped in the dry ice during compression molding, so the output of the molding drive device is reduced, improving molding efficiency, and improving the quality of shaped dry ice. can be increased.

5) If the shutter is made of a porous material with air permeability, the carbon dioxide gas in the snow-like dry ice escapes to the outside through the shutter when the snow-like dry ice is compressed, so that the compression is carried out by the gas pressure of the carbon dioxide gas. Since it is no longer obstructed, the molding drive device can be downsized, molding efficiency can be increased, and the quality of shaped dry ice can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 to Fig. 6 show examples of the present invention, Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of the basic configuration, Fig. 2 is a vertical side view, Fig. 3 is a front view, and Fig. 4 is production of regular dry ice. Explanatory diagram of the process, 5th
The figure is a partial view corresponding to section V in Figure 2 of a modified example, and Figure 6 is a diagram of the operating sequence of the squeezing tool, pre-pressure suppressor, shutter and auxiliary shutter whose drive is controlled based on the detection signals of each limit, tosswitch, etc. , FIG. 7, and FIG. 8 are longitudinal sectional front views of the conventional device. 1... Snow-like dry ice generation cylinder, 2...
・Standard dry ice forming cylinder, 3... Shutter space, 4... Delivery port, 5... Receiving port,
6...Shutter, 7yu;J""79-. 8
“71°°゛), 9... Pre-squeezing drive device, 10...
Pressing tool, (1ob...insulation material), 11...
... Molding drive device, 13... Nozzle, 14...
... Snow-shaped dry ice inlet, 16 ... Regular-shaped dry ice, 24 ... Reinforcement and heat absorption fin,
25... Shutter drive device, 28...
・Extrusion surface, 29...Ejection stand.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A regular shaped dry ice forming cylinder 2 is arranged below the snow-like dry ice generating cylinder 1 with a shutter space 3 left open, and a snow-like dry ice outlet 4 is opened at the bottom surface of the generating cylinder 1. A receiving port 5 for snow-like dry ice is opened on the upper surface of the generating cylinder 2, and a shutter 6 that opens and closes the sending port 4 and the receiving port 5 at the same time is arranged in the shutter space 3. The carbon dioxide gas jetting nozzle 13 is faced, the shutter 6 is driven to open and close back and forth by the shutter drive device 25, and the pressing tool 10 is inserted into the molding cylinder 2 so as to be slidable up and down.
is made vertically movable by the molding drive device 11, liquid carbon dioxide is ejected from the nozzle 13 to generate snow-like dry ice in the generation cylinder 1, and the shutter 6 is moved by the shutter drive device 2.
5 to open the snow-like dry ice in the generation cylinder 1 to the outlet 4.
, inject into the molding cylinder 2'' from the shutter space 3 and the intake port 5, close the shutter 6 with the shutter drive device 25, drive the compressing tool 10 upward with the molding drive device 11,
In a shaped dry ice manufacturing apparatus configured to compress snow-like dry ice and form it into shaped dry ice 16 in a shaping tube 2, a preload suppressor 8 is inserted into the production tube 1 so as to be slidable up and down. , the precompression suppressor 8 is moved by the precompression driving device 9 to a standby position higher than the snow-like dry ice inlet 14 facing the nozzle 13, a precompression position lower than the suction inlet 14, and a plunge position lower than the precompression position. configured so that it can be switched between
An auxiliary shutter 7 is provided to protrude forward from the top of the shutter 6, and the front surface of the shutter 6 is formed as an extrusion surface 28 for the regular dry ice 16, and the height of the extrusion surface 28 is set higher than the height of the regular dry ice 16. A take-out table 29 for the regular dry ice 16 is installed on the lower surface of the front side of the shutter space 3.
a fully closed position in which the shutter 6 closes the outlet port 4 and the inlet port 5, and a bottom-open top closed position in which the shutter 6 retreats to open the inlet port 5 and the auxiliary shutter T closes the outlet port 4; A feature is that the shutter 6 and the auxiliary shutter 7 can be switched and driven by a shutter drive device 25 in three positions: a fully open position in which both the shutter 6 and the auxiliary shutter 7 are moved back and both the outlet port 4 and the inlet port 5 are opened. A manufacturing device for shaped dry ice. 2. In the shaped dry ice production apparatus described in claim 1, each of the drive devices 9, 11°25 is composed of a hydraulic cylinder, and the forming drive device 11 is located directly below the forming cylinder 2, and the pre-squeezing drive device 9 is disposed directly above the generating cylinder 1, and a shutter drive device 25 is disposed at the rear side of the shutter space 3. 3. In the shaped dry ice manufacturing apparatus set forth in claim 2, the compressing tool 10 and the pre-compression suppressing tool 8 are each provided with a heat insulating material 10b on the piston rod of each hydraulic cylinder of the forming drive device 11 and the pre-squeezing drive device 9, respectively. Connected via 8b. 4 Any one of claims 1 to 3
In the regular-shaped dry ice production apparatus described in 1., the regular-shaped dry ice forming cylinder 2 and the snow-like dry ice producing cylinder 1 are each formed by a rectangular cylinder. 5 Any one of claims 1 to 4
In the shaped dry ice production apparatus described in 2. above, reinforcing ribs and heat-absorbing fins 24 are attached to the outside of the upper part of the shaped dry ice forming cylinder 2. 6. In the shaped dry ice manufacturing apparatus described in any one of claims 1 to 5,
At least the upper part of the inner circumferential surface of the regular dry ice forming cylinder 2 is made of stainless steel and formed into a smooth surface. 7 Any one of claims 1 to 6
In the regular shaped dry ice production apparatus described in 2. above, the shutter 6 is made of an air-permeable porous material. 8. The shaped dry ice manufacturing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the porous material is a sintered metal. 9 Any one of claims 1 to 8
In the regular shaped dry ice production apparatus described in 2.2, two liquid carbon dioxide gas ejection nozzles 13 are arranged symmetrically in a part of the snow-like dry ice production cylinder 1. 10 Any one of claims 1 to 9
In the shaped dry ice production apparatus described in 2. above, at least the lower peripheral wall of the snow-like dry ice production cylinder 1 is formed of an air-permeable porous material.