JPH0411173B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a continuous mixer that continuously kneads a mixed material of powder or granules and a liquid, typically a mixture of water and wheat flour. [Background of the Invention] Conventionally, water and flour have been used to produce noodle dough or bread dough, to produce rice cake, to produce processed marine products, or to produce a predetermined mixture of inorganic powder and liquid. It is well known that mixing is performed for the purpose of uniformity and homogenization of the entire mixture. For example, in the production of noodle dough, to which the apparatus of the present invention is typically applied, wheat flour, water, and other additives are added and kneaded, and the water is thoroughly permeated into the flour to hydrate it, forming a gluten network. Sufficient structure formation is an important factor in determining the quality of noodles. Various types of batch-type or continuous-type devices have been proposed as devices used for kneading such mixtures (hereinafter simply referred to as mixers), and in order to improve the kneading effect, there have been various types of devices used for kneading such mixtures. Proposals have also been made to carry out the process under reduced pressure (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-2666, etc.). In the above, the reason why the kneading effect can be improved by reducing the pressure is because the air present in the mixture (or the gas generated during kneading) is actively removed by reducing the pressure, which allows the added water to penetrate and hydrate well. It is believed that. Further, the material kneaded as described above (hereinafter referred to as dough) is usually transferred to the next appropriate step and processed. For example, in the process of manufacturing noodles, the kneaded noodle dough is transferred to the noodle sheet forming process using a roll mill, with or without a maturing process.
It is also known that when processing noodle dough using such a roll mill, it is desirable to promote hydration and deaeration by processing under reduced pressure in order to strengthen the bonds between dough particles. (Tokuko Showa 58-
No. 38140). By the way, based on the above-mentioned general technical conditions, the present inventors have conducted various studies with the aim of improving the quality of kneaded and rolled dough, improving productivity, and further reducing the burden on equipment, work volume, etc. According to the research, it has become clear that high-quality dough can be obtained by performing both the kneading of the mixture and the rolling in the next step under reduced pressure.
In addition, if a continuous mixer and a roll mill are suitably combined, it is possible to obtain a belt-shaped dough that is kneaded and rolled all at once using only a single device, and moreover, it is possible to obtain a belt-shaped dough that is kneaded and rolled at once using only a single device. It has become clear that it is possible to eliminate the inefficient manual transfer work that was thought to be necessary, and to reduce the number of sealing mechanisms required to configure the decompression chamber. [Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made from the above-mentioned viewpoints, and one of its objects is to provide an apparatus that can continuously perform kneading and subsequent roll rolling of a mixture. It's there to provide. Another object of the present invention is to suitably realize both kneading under reduced pressure and roll rolling under reduced pressure by such an apparatus, and to achieve uniform and homogeneous kneading by sufficient hydration and degassing. The purpose is to obtain a kneaded dough. Still another object of the present invention is to form one reduced pressure chamber in a single device, to realize kneading under reduced pressure and roll rolling under reduced pressure, and to form a reduced pressure chamber. The aim is to reduce the number of seal mechanisms required for this purpose or to simplify the pressure reduction mechanism. Another object of the present invention is to perform kneading and roll rolling all at once and continuously using a single device, thereby fundamentally eliminating the conventional manual operations and achieving high productivity. It is about realizing work efficiency. [Summary of the Invention] The gist of the first invention of the present application, which was made to achieve the above-mentioned various objects, is to provide a casing in which a cavity having a cocoon-shaped cross section is continuous in the longitudinal direction, and A raw material input section provided at one longitudinal end of the casing, a kneaded dough outlet section provided at the other end, and two rods extending along each axis of the cocoon-shaped bicircle of the casing. A pair of rotating bodies consisting of a rotating shaft body and having areas in which conveying screws and kneading blades are formed alternately in the longitudinal direction, and facing the conveying screw area at an intermediate position in the axial direction of the rotating bodies. A continuous mixer comprising a pressure reducing device for reducing pressure in the cavity connected to a casing, and airtight seal portions formed upstream and downstream of the pressure reducing device connection portion, the downstream airtight seal portion comprising: The continuous mixer is characterized in that a pair of rolling rollers disposed in the lead-out portion nip and form the lead-out dough while rotating in opposite directions with a small gap between them. In addition to the continuous mixer having the above-mentioned configuration, the second gist of the present invention relates to a delivery section consisting of a pair of rolling rolls for delivering the mixed material (dough) out of the casing. A pumping mechanism that intermittently pushes the fabric into the roll nip is located inside the casing. In the present invention, the rotary section is equipped with a conveying screw and a kneading blade that are repeated in the axial direction in order to ensure sufficient conveying force by the screw in each region of the raw material input section, the dough outlet section, and the connection section of the decompression device. Therefore, it is generally desirable that the rotating part housed in the casing has the following conveying and kneading area. Conveyance (input section area) - Kneading - Conveyance (pressure reducing device connection area) - Kneading - Conveyance (output section area), and the blades forming the kneading area within the cocoon-shaped casing apply an appropriate shearing force to the raw materials to be mixed. For example, a pair of convex lens-shaped blades that rotate while maintaining a slight clearance from the inner surface of the casing is attached to the rotating shaft body along the axis of each of the cocoon-shaped bicircles. A plurality of pairs of these blades are arranged with their phases shifted by about 90 degrees in the axial direction of the rotating shaft so that the blade pairs always rotate in contact with each other. The shape of the blade may be a convex lens shape, a rice ball shape, etc., and is not particularly limited to this shape. In the present invention, it is essential that the openings connecting the decompression chamber and the outside air be provided at one location each on the upstream side and the downstream side of the decompression device connection part in relation to the input of raw materials and the extraction of the dough. The opening on the downstream side keeps the decompression chamber airtight with a rolling roll that also serves as an airtight seal. On the other hand, for the opening on the upstream side, for example, a Rocker valve is used at the raw material input part to keep the decompression chamber airtight.
The airtightness may be maintained by forming a material seal (hereinafter referred to as a material seal) between the decompression device connection part and the input part. The continuous mixer of the present invention generally has a cocoon-shaped casing installed in a horizontally elongated state, with a raw material input section provided above one elongated end, and a dough delivery section provided below the other elongated end. It is desirable to provide one. In particular, in addition to forming such a lead-out part, if a counter-rotating screw part is added to collect the fabric from the casing toward the droplet, the dough can be drawn out from the droplet to the lead-out part without causing partial retention. Since the material falls continuously under its own weight, the dough nip between the rolling rolls provides a good airtight seal. The pumping mechanism used in the present invention is used to feed dough to the nip portion of a pair of rolling rolls without creating a gap, and to maintain an airtight seal in a suitable manner. Any material may be used as long as it functions to continuously push the dough, which is often supplied to the delivery section in a granular or lumpy state, into the vicinity of the nip section of the rolling roll. Specifically, a rod or the like extending in the axial direction of the rolls is arranged opposite to the rotational input side of the nip portion of a pair of rolling rolls, and this is moved by a reciprocating device such as an air cylinder device or a swinging device. A device of the type that is used is one that advances and retreats from the nip portion and pushes and supplies the fabric into the nip portion using the rod or the like. [Embodiments of the Invention] Hereinafter, the case where the present invention is applied to the process of manufacturing noodles will be explained based on the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1A is a perspective view showing the outline of a continuous mixer according to the present invention, in which a cocoon-shaped casing 1 is supported by a pedestal (not shown) and placed horizontally. Inside the cocoon-shaped casing 1, a cocoon-shaped cavity with partially overlapping bicircles is continuous, and both ends are closed by wall plates 2 and 3. Reference numeral 4 denotes a raw material input section provided at the upper part of one end of the casing 1, and is provided with a rectangular opening 5 that is open at the top and spans both sides of the bicircle of the cocoon-shaped casing. Reference numeral 6 denotes a decompression chamber connected to an intermediate position in the longitudinal direction of the casing 1, which is assembled to the entire upper part of the cocoon-shaped bicircle of the casing 1, communicates with the inside of the casing, and connects to a decompression device and a decompression pipe (not shown). 7
connected via. Reference numeral 8 denotes a part for introducing the mixed dough provided at the lower part of the other end of the casing 1, through which the mixed dough is led out from a rectangular opening (droplet 9) that opens downward and extends across both sides of the bicircle of the cocoon-shaped casing. A lead-out chamber 12 that is connected to the cylindrical part 10 via a flange 11 and has a lead-out port 13 extending in the lateral direction (in the width direction of the casing) at the bottom thereof, and a pair of rolling mills built in the lead-out chamber 12. Roll 14, 14
It is made up of. This pair of rolling rolls 14, 14 has a nip portion with a small gap facing the outlet 13, and rotates the dough that is dropped and supplied from above into this nip portion in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure at a predetermined speed. While rolling the noodles, the noodles are rolled to form a sheet-like noodle strip and are drawn out toward the outside. Note that this lead-out portion 8 is hermetically sealed from the outside except for the nip portion of the pair of rolling rolls, and for this reason, in this example, seal lip plates 15, 15 are elastically attached to the roll surface on both sides of the lead-out port. This provides an airtight seal. In this example, the pumping mechanism 16 is arranged on the inner side of the nip portion of the rolling rolls 14, 14 (rotation side of the rolls) to prevent breaks in the dough at the nip portion and to prevent leakage of the airtight seal. We are making sure to do this even more. This pumping mechanism 16
The rod 17 extends in the direction of the roll axis relative to the nip portion, and the rod 17 is connected to the nip portion via a plunger 18.
The air cylinder device 19 is fixed to the upper part of the casing 1. FIG. 2 shows a cross section of the inside of the casing excluding the rotating body. In this figure, reference numeral 20 indicates a jacket surrounding the casing 1, through which a temperature regulating fluid (generally water) flows. Next, the rotary body for kneading accommodated in the casing 1 having the above-mentioned configuration will be explained. The overall plan view of this is shown in FIG. 3, and the configuration and positional relationship of the kneading part with the casing 1 The correspondence is shown in Figure 1B. The rotating body includes two rotating shaft bodies 21 and 2 extending in the axial direction along each axis of the bicircle of the cocoon-shaped cavity.
2, which are rotated at the same speed and in the same direction by an external drive device (not shown). The rotating shafts 21, 21 are provided with conveying screw parts 23, 26, 28, 30 and kneading blade parts 25, 27 located between these screws in separate areas along the axial direction. There is. In other words, the loading section 4
From the side, (first conveyance area 23 located below the introduction part) - (first kneading area 2 provided via a mate seal part 24 consisting of a space and a pair of disks)
5) - (Second conveyance area 26 facing the decompression chamber 6) - (Second kneading area 27) - (Third conveyance area 28) - (Space area 29 above the droplet) - (At the end Reverse conveyance areas 30) for returning the fed fabric are sequentially formed. In the above, the mate seal section 25 consisting of a space and a pair of discs cooperates with the inner surface of the casing 1 to restrict the flow of the raw material, as shown in FIG. is hermetically sealed, but this may be omitted by using a rocker valve in the input section 4. Kneading blades 3 provided in the kneading areas 25 and 27
In this example, as shown in FIG. 5, 1, 31... are made into a pair of convex lens-like lenses and are rotated in a self-cleaning state in which they are always in contact with each other. They are arranged side by side at close intervals in the direction, and the phases of adjacent ones are shifted by 90 degrees. While rotating in the order shown in FIG. 5 (a) to (b), these give a predetermined kneading action to the raw material mixture. In this example, the reason why the second conveyance area is provided at the connection part of the depressurization chamber 6 is because it is not preferable to provide a wall opening for depressurization in the kneading section. Example: Using a continuous mixer with the above configuration,
A noodle strip used for manufacturing noodles was formed all at once, and noodle strings were produced from this noodle strip. The equipment used is as shown in the drawing above.Casing total length: 1500mm Diameter of each eyebrow-shaped bicircle: 210mm Bicycle axis spacing: 140mm Kneading vane Rotation speed: 64rpm Roll-to-roll axial length of lead-out section: 200mm Roll diameter: 120mmφ Nip gap: 6.4mm Roll rotation speed: 2rpm Degree of vacuum (residual pressure gauge pressure due to decompression)
460mHg) : 300mmHg Pumping frequency: 15 times/min Raw flour: 100 parts Water: 50 parts Salt: 4 parts The above raw materials and equipment are kneaded for 10 minutes to form noodle sheets, and then processed according to the usual method. After rolling with a roll, raw udon noodles were obtained. In contrast, the following was produced as a control group. Fresh udon noodles made using the same raw materials in the usual way (kneading under normal pressure, forming into noodle strips), and kneading using the same raw materials under reduced pressure (300 degree vacuum).
mmHg), and noodle strips were formed using similar raw materials under reduced pressure (vacuum degree
Regarding the fresh udon noodles obtained by the above-mentioned device of the present invention (invention group) and the control group,
The physical properties and sensory test results are shown in Tables 1 and 2 below.

【table】

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the continuous mixer according to the present invention provides the following various effects and is extremely useful. (1) Processing of mixtures that require kneading and rolling into sheets can be performed continuously. (2) The quality of the kneaded dough is improved by treatment under reduced pressure. (3) One decompression chamber is formed using a single device, thereby achieving depressurization during kneading and rolling into sheets, thereby reducing the number of sealing mechanisms and simplifying the decompression mechanism. (4) Since kneading and rolling into sheets are carried out simultaneously and continuously, workability and productivity are significantly improved. In addition to the above-mentioned hydrated wheat flour, the material to be used in the present invention may be other foods or non-food materials, as long as they require kneading and sheet formation.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1A is a schematic perspective view of a continuous mixer according to the present invention, and Figure 1A is a diagram illustrating the kneading area.
Figure 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the casing, Figure 3 is a plan view of the rotating body inside the casing, Figure 4 A and B are explanatory diagrams of the mate seal section, and Figures 5 A to D show the rotational state of the kneading blades. It is a diagram. 1... Casing, 2, 3... Wall body, 4...
Inlet part, 5...opening, 6...decompression chamber,
7...Reducing pressure pipe, 8...Outlet part, 9...Outlet, 10
...Delivery cylinder part, 11...Flange part, 12...Delivery part chamber, 13...Delivery port, 14...Roll roll, 15...Seal lip plate, 16...
... Pumping mechanism, 17... Rod, 18... Plunger, 19... Air cylinder device, 20...
Jacket, 21, 22...Rotating shaft body, 23, 2
6, 28, 30... Conveyance area, 24... Mate seal section, 25, 27... Kneading area, 29... Space section, 31... Kneading blade.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A casing with a cocoon-shaped cavity continuous in the longitudinal direction, a raw material input section provided at one longitudinal end of the casing, and a kneaded dough input section provided at the other end. It consists of a lead-out part and two rotating shafts extending along each axis of the cocoon-shaped bicircle of the casing, and regions in which conveying screws and kneading blades are formed are alternately provided in the longitudinal direction. a pair of rotating bodies, a pressure reducing device for reducing the pressure inside the cavity, which is connected to the casing facing the conveying screw region at an axially intermediate position of the rotating body, and a pressure reducing device formed upstream and downstream of the pressure reducing device connection portion, respectively. The continuous mixer is equipped with an airtight seal section, in which the downstream airtight seal section is configured such that a pair of rolling rollers disposed in the delivery section rotate the drawn dough in opposite directions while keeping a small gap between them. A continuous mixer characterized by nipping and forming. 2. The continuous mixer according to claim 1, wherein the airtight seal upstream of the intermediate conveyance region is a material seal in the kneading section. 3. A casing in which a cavity with a cocoon-shaped cross section is continuous in the longitudinal direction, a raw material input section provided at one longitudinal end of the casing, a kneaded dough outlet section provided at the other end, and the casing. A pair of rotating shafts consisting of two rotating shafts extending along each axis of a cocoon-shaped bicircle, and in which regions in which conveying screws and kneading blades are formed are alternately provided in the longitudinal direction. a pressure reducing device for reducing the pressure inside the cavity, which is connected to the casing facing the conveying screw region at an axially intermediate position of the rotating body; and an airtight seal portion formed respectively upstream and downstream of the pressure reducing device connection portion. In the continuous mixer, the downstream airtight seal part is formed by a pair of rolling rollers disposed in the delivery part nipping the delivery dough while rotating in opposite directions while keeping a small gap therebetween; The continuous mixer further comprises a pumping mechanism disposed inside the casing of the pair of rolling rollers for intermittently pushing the dough into the roll nip.