JPH024255B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a tea leaf dispersing blade in a raw tea leaf dropping conveyor.

(Prior art) Green tea is made by processing raw tea leaves picked from tea gardens into rough tea. Processing raw tea leaves into rough tea, that is, tea manufacturing, is a process that follows plucking raw tea leaves, but the two are completely different operations, and tea manufacturing is intensive work, so both operations are They do not proceed synchronously. For this reason, the tea manufacturing workshop is equipped with a storage room for raw tea leaves, and the raw tea leaves that are picked from the tea plantation are once accumulated in the storage room and then supplied to the tea manufacturing process as raw materials for rough tea. . By the way, the freshness of raw tea leaves as a raw material for crude tea is most important, and the freshness significantly affects the quality of the green tea product. However, since raw tea leaves are, of course, fresh leaves, they generate a small amount of heat, so if you simply put them into a storage chamber and let them accumulate, this heat will gradually accumulate and create what is called steam. , the tea leaves wilt easily. Moreover, once the tea leaves have withered, the quality of the green tea product decreases significantly, so that they can no longer be used as a raw material for crude tea. For this reason, measures have traditionally been taken in the storage chamber to remove the heat generated by the raw tea leaves, suppress the generation of steam, and thereby maintain the freshness of the raw tea leaves. . An example of this is shown in FIG. 1, in which several ventilation grooves 3 are formed along the longitudinal direction on the floor 2 of the storage chamber 1, and a ventilation plate 4 is further provided in the ventilation grooves 3. This is part of the floor surface. A blower 5 is connected to the ventilation groove 3, and the fresh air sent into the ventilation groove 3 from here blows up into the storage chamber 1 through the ventilation panel 4. Furthermore, a rail (not shown) is provided at the top of the ventilation panel 4 in parallel with the ventilation panel.
A raw tea leaf dropping conveyor 6 is mounted on this so that it can freely move back and forth.

This raw tea leaf dropping conveyor 6 is approximately half the length of the rail, and is a forward/reverse conveyor.
It moves forward while pointing in the right direction, or moves backward while reversing, and drops the raw tea leaves to be supplied onto the aeration plate 4, so that the raw tea leaves are spread on the aeration plate to a substantially uniform thickness. accumulate. The air blown up from the ventilation plate 4 passes between the raw tea leaves A deposited thereon, removes the heat generated by the tea leaves, and suppresses stuffiness. By the way, in order to have the above-mentioned suppressing effect, it is necessary that at least enough voids exist between each tea leaf to allow air to pass through. However, in the conventional storage chamber, raw tea leaves are
When the tea leaves are piled up to a meter or so, the spaces between the tea leaves become extremely small, making the aeration plate no longer effective and creating a stuffy atmosphere.

Therefore, the raw tea leaves A that have accumulated on the floor must be quickly plowed up using a fork and turned upside down, and from then on, it is necessary to repeat this turning over at least every few hours. This work requires a lot of manpower and is hard labor, and in today's world where automation and labor saving are progressing in tea manufacturing, this work, which is not directly related to tea manufacturing, reduces green tea production efficiency and increases manufacturing costs. In addition, the delay in this work causes the raw tea leaves to become stuffy, reducing the quality of the green tea product.

The inventor of the present invention discovered that the cause of the decrease in the porosity of the raw tea leaves A deposited on the floor as described above is that the raw tea leaves are directly dropped from the drop conveyor, and based on this, It has been discovered that by scattering raw tea leaves dropped from a container and allowing them to fall, it is possible to prevent a decrease in porosity and suppress the generation of steam. That is, when raw tea leaves are dropped from the dropping conveyor 6 in order to store them in the storage chamber 1, the raw tea leaves are dropped like a waterfall onto the raw tea leaves A that have been dropped earlier and are deposited on the floor 2. Since the tea leaves curl and fall, the energy of the fall acts on the raw tea leaves A as a compressive force. Needless to say, this compressive force is much larger than the weight of the tea leaves themselves, so the raw tea leaves A are eventually trapped by the gap. On the other hand, if the raw tea leaves falling from the dropping conveyor 6 are dispersed by the dispersing blades, the raw tea leaves will be dispersed individually and fall, so the energy of the falling of these leaves will be transferred to the raw tea leaves A. The green tea leaves A are dispersed over a wide area, and as a result, no compressive force is applied to the fresh tea leaves A that would reduce the gaps. In the conventional method, the new tea leaves dropped from the dropping conveyor are deposited with few gaps due to the energy of their own falling, but when they are distributed and dropped, the raw tea leaves of the falling tea leaves are stacked. Because the impact force on A is extremely small and the tea leaves have elasticity, they do not deform and reduce the gap, and are deposited with sufficient porosity.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and includes distributing blades at the drop-off point of a conveyor for dropping raw tea leaves, and the raw tea leaves dropped from the conveyor are first separated. The tea leaves are applied to a scattering blade, and the rotational force of the scattering blade causes the raw tea leaves to disperse and fall, thereby depositing them on the floor.

(Examples) Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described based on illustrated examples.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 11 is a tea leaf dropping conveyor. This conveyor is similar to the conventional dropping conveyor mentioned above, and is attached to a machine frame 12 so as to be able to rotate in the forward and reverse directions.The machine frame 12 is also installed above and parallel to the ventilation panel (not shown). rail 1
3, it is mounted so that it can run freely. The conveyor shown in the figure is installed above the middle of two ventilation panels, and a deflection chute 14 is attached to each end of the conveyor, and raw tea leaves are passed through the deflection chute 14 to either one of the conveyors. It is designed to be dropped onto the ventilation panel. That is, deflection chute 1
4 has a circular upper end and is rotatably supported by a ring-shaped support frame 15.
The direction in which the raw tea leaves from No. 4 are dropped is changed so that they are dropped onto either the left or right vent.

The tea leaf dispersing device of the present invention is attached to the raw tea leaf dispensing device constructed in this way, and reference numeral 16 is a dispersing blade that constitutes the main part thereof. This is attached to the rotating shaft (horizontal shaft) 17 and is provided at a position where the raw tea leaves dropped from the deflection chute 14 hit. The figure shows an example in which the distribution blade 16 is composed of a drum 18 with a bulging central portion and two or more blades 19. This means that there is less possibility of damaging the raw tea leaves than in the case where the distribution blades are simply composed of several blades, and moreover, the distribution effect of the raw tea leaves is high. That is, as shown in FIG.
It is assumed that it is formed by attaching several blade plates 20 to the
The dropping trajectory of raw tea leaves from the deflection chute 14 is a,
Assuming b, the peripheral speed A of the blade 20 must be sufficiently larger than the falling speed of the raw tea leaves in order for the distribution blades to exert a distribution effect on the raw tea leaves falling through the trajectory a. It must be done. However, if this is done, the blades 20 will directly strike the raw tea leaves falling through the trajectory b, resulting in damage to the raw tea leaves. On the other hand, the fifth
As shown in the figure, the distribution blade 16 is connected to the drum 18 and the blade 1.
9, and when the circumferential speed of the drum 18 is made slower than the falling speed of the raw tea leaves, the raw tea leaves that have fallen onto the splitting blades 16 are once mounted on the drum 18 and are given a rotational force by the rotation of the drum. From now on, the tea leaves lag slightly behind the rotation of the drum, so they are pushed out by the blades 19. Of course, in this case, the raw tea leaves are not directly struck by the blades 19 on their way down, but once ride on the drum 18 and are struck by the blades 19 while being subjected to a rotational force in the same direction as the blades 19. Therefore, the impact force is extremely small, and damage to the raw tea leaves can be prevented.In addition, since the number of blades 19 installed can be reduced compared to the blades 20, there is no possibility of damaging the raw tea leaves. It will decrease further. It is desirable to cover the edges of the blades with synthetic rubber or the like to further prevent damage to the raw tea leaves (see Figure 5).

In addition, since the center of the drum 18 is formed to bulge out, the raw tea leaves at point c, for example, have a tendency to fall in the direction d, so they are slightly spread out and dispersed in the rotational direction e of the drum 18. That's what I do. The distribution blade 16 has a rotational speed and a deflection chute 1
It is desirable to adjust the installation position relative to 4. FIG. 7 shows an example of such a configuration, with reference numeral 21
is a drive motor, 22 is a variable speed pulley, 23 is a passive pulley, and 24 is a tension pulley, and the rotation of the drive motor 21 is transmitted to the passive pulley 23 via the variable speed pulley 22, thereby rotating the distribution blade 16. be. The upper part of the frame 25 is rotatably attached to the deflection chute 14, and the longitudinal position of the distribution blade 16 attached to the lower part thereof is adjusted.

(Effects) As described in detail above, the present invention attaches a distribution blade to the tea leaf dropping conveyor provided at the upper part of the raw tea leaf storage chamber, and thereby, the raw tea leaves that are about to fall from the dropping conveyor are temporarily separated by the distribution blade. After that, the rotation force causes the raw tea leaves to fall. Therefore, the raw tea leaves that are dropped are different from those that are dropped directly from a conventional drop conveyor or in a waterfall shape via a deflection chute, etc., and are compressed against the raw tea leaves that have been dropped first and accumulated in the storage chamber. Since no force is applied, sufficient air gaps are created in the raw tea leaves to prevent stuffiness. In particular, conventionally, dropped raw tea leaves are piled up in a ridge shape, which further strengthens the tendency for the porosity to decrease, but in the present invention, the porosity is increased evenly in this respect because the raw tea leaves are uniformly dispersed over a wide area. It will become. In addition, since the raw tea leaves are dispersed, the dropped raw tea leaves are evenly and sufficiently exposed to the air, which has the effect of cooling the stuffy air that occurs between the time they are picked and the time they are dropped. In this respect as well, deterioration in the quality of raw tea leaves is prevented.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a conventional storage chamber;
Figure 2 is a sectional view showing a part of the bottom of the storage chamber;
The figures are a side view schematically showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a side view schematically showing a horizontal distribution blade, and FIG.
The figure is a longitudinal sectional view showing one embodiment of a horizontal distribution blade, FIG. 6 is a plan view of the same, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an example of the embodiment. 11; Tea leaf dropping conveyor, 12; Machine frame, 13;
Rail, 14; Deflection chute, 15; Support frame, 1
6; Distribution blade, 17; Rotating shaft, 18; Drum, 1
9; Wing plate, 20; Wing plate, 21; Drive motor, 2
2; variable speed pulley, 23; passive pulley, 24; mounting pipe.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A raw tea leaf dispersing blade attached to a tea leaf dropping conveyor mounted on a rail installed above the raw tea leaf storage chamber, the dispersing blade having two blades attached to the outer peripheral surface of a horizontal drum with a bulge in the center. A raw tea leaf dispersing blade is characterized in that it is equipped with blades of 1 or more blades, is connected to a drive motor, and rotates at an appropriate speed.