JPH0426891B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a seamless granule manufacturing apparatus.

Conventionally, there has been a seamless filled capsule manufacturing apparatus as a seamless granule manufacturing apparatus.

For example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 36-3700, a vibrated composite jet flow consisting of a liquid capsule material and a filling material is produced from a double pipe nozzle.
A device is described in which droplets are formed by extrusion into a cooling medium, the outer layer being the encapsulant material and the inner layer being the filling material, which are immediately cooled in the cooling medium to solidify the outer layer. . However, in the conventional device as described above, it is essential to extrude a liquid stream consisting of the capsule material and the filler material into a cooling medium, form droplets in the cooling medium, and further solidify the liquid in the cooling medium. It was hot.

This causes a fatal inconvenience when it is desired to change the material composition depending on the intended use of the capsule.

That is, depending on the type, concentration, etc. of the encapsulating material, the flow rate extruded into the cooling medium immediately solidifies, making it impossible to form droplets, and the solid material becomes rod-shaped, making it impossible to obtain spherical particles.

In order to avoid such troubles, the temperature of the cooling medium can be adjusted depending on the type and concentration of the encapsulating material, etc.
It was necessary to control the temperature to be high enough to generate droplets and low enough to solidify the droplets. However, in reality, this temperature control is extremely difficult, and the type and concentration of the encapsulating material are naturally limited.

Furthermore, the encapsulation materials that can be used in the conventionally proposed devices are only materials that gel at low temperatures, and there is a drawback that materials that do not gel at low temperatures but chemically gel cannot be used.

Furthermore, in the conventional device, since the frequency of vibration applied to the nozzle was not controlled, it was not possible to operate the device in the most efficient manner depending on the material, temperature, viscosity, etc.

The present invention was made by focusing on the above-mentioned problems in the conventional seamless filled capsule manufacturing apparatus, and it is possible to control the droplets generated in the atmosphere due to the vibration of the nozzle by changing the type of encapsulating material, By gelling using an appropriate method depending on the concentration etc.
The purpose is to solve the above problems. Furthermore, by detecting the droplet formation rate of the material and controlling the vibration of the nozzle based on the signal, the aim is to operate the seamless granule manufacturing apparatus in the most efficient manner.

The gelling device in the present invention includes a physical gelling (low-temperature gelling) device, a chemical gelling device, etc., but in the case of a low-temperature gelling device, the method of removing oily components as a cooling medium and the cooling medium are There is a disadvantage that the device becomes larger due to the necessity of installing a refrigeration device for cooling.

Embodiments of the present invention having a chemical gel device will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, the configuration will be explained.

Nozzle 2 is a nozzle for extruding material.
The nozzle 2 is supported at its upper part by a disk-shaped spring 4 against a stationary part 6. That is, the nozzle 2 is movable by a predetermined amount in the axial direction (vertical direction in the figure). A vibration device 7 is provided above the nozzle 2 . The excitation device 7 has an excitation coil 8
and a vibrator 10. The vibrator 10 vibrates up and down according to the current flowing through the excitation coil 8,
Transmit vibration to nozzle 2. A liquid material can be supplied to the nozzle 2 from a material supply device 12.
The material supply device 12 consists of a storage tank 18, a pump 24, a supply pipe 30, and a pulp 36. Note that a flexible portion 30a for absorbing vibrations of the nozzle 2 is provided in the middle of the supply pipe 30.
A reservoir 18 communicating with the nozzle 2 contains an encapsulating material 42 . A gelling agent container 48 is placed directly below the nozzle 2 at a predetermined distance.
The gelling agent container 48 is constantly supplied with a chemical gelling agent 54 from a gelling storage tank 52 via a pump 50, and the chemical gelling agent 54 in the gelling agent container 48 flows down onto a belt conveyor 56. There is.
Chemical gelling agent 54 is capable of chemically gelling encapsulant material 42 . The belt of the belt conveyor 56 is in the form of a screen,
Only the particulate matter in the chemical gelling agent flowing down is transferred, and the chemical gelling agent is returned to the gelling agent storage tank 52. From the nozzle 2 to the gelling agent container 48
A stroboscope 58, which is a droplet formation rate detection device, is provided facing the path through which the material passes. The stroboscope 58 can be synchronized with continuously falling droplets to detect the rate of droplet formation. The signal obtained by stroboscope 58 is input to control device 60 . The control device 60 is configured to control the current supplied to the excitation coil 8 based on this signal.

Next, the effect will be explained.

Encapsulating material 42 is supplied to nozzle 2 by pump 24 from reservoir 18 . For example, the encapsulant material 42 is a sol containing 0.8% sodium alginate. The material is extruded into the air from the nozzle 2 and flows downward while remaining cylindrical. Nozzle 2
Since vibration is applied by the vibration excitation device 7, vibration is also applied to the flow of the cylindrical material.
As a result, the flow of material begins to constrict after it has descended a certain distance, and eventually separates into droplets. The material thus formed into droplets falls into the gelling agent container 48. Note that the speed at which the material becomes droplets is equal to the frequency of vibration applied to the nozzle 2 (that is, the number of droplets equal to the frequency is formed).
The surface tension of the material also makes the droplet spherical.
The droplets that fall into the gelling agent container 48 react with the chemical gelling agent 54 (eg, a 3% calcium chloride solution) to chemically gel. The granules formed by gelation flow onto a belt conveyor 56 together with the gelling agent 54, and are separated from the gelling agent 54 and taken out by the belt conveyor 56. The gelling agent 54 flows into the gelling agent reservoir 52 and is circulated again.

The rate of formation of the droplet falling from the nozzle 2 is detected by the stroboscope 58 and the signal is sent to the control device 60, so that the frequency of the vibrator 10 always matches the number of flashes of the stroboscope, and the droplet formation rate during the drop is detected by the stroboscope 58 and the signal is sent to the control device 60. The shape of the droplet can be confirmed. Further, if the control device 60 is capable of amplifying the signal from the stroboscope and shaping the signal waveform, it becomes possible to perform control according to the weight of the vibrator 10, the properties of the supplied material, etc. This makes it possible to always produce filled capsules at maximum speed, for example: That is, the control device 6
0, the signal from the stroboscope 58 is the transducer 1
Oscillator 10 until just before it no longer matches the frequency of 0
Control is performed to increase the frequency of vibration. The maximum frequency at which droplets can be formed varies depending on the properties of the materials used, temperature, supply amount, etc. For example, if the viscosity increases, it becomes impossible to follow the rapid vibrations of a nozzle and form droplets. However, according to the above-described control by the control device 60, the vibrator 10 vibrates at the maximum frequency at which droplets can be formed, so that the most efficient operation under the given conditions can be performed. . This allows the temperature, supply amount, etc. of the material to be selected and set optimally.

In addition, in the above embodiment, an electromagnetic motion generating device was used as the vibration device for vibrating the nozzle.
Any other vibration excitation device may be used, such as a device that generates vibration from the rotation of a motor using a cam mechanism, a crank mechanism, or the like.

Also, any encapsulating material and gelling agent can be used as long as the former can be chemically gelled by the latter.

The present invention has been described above, which includes a chemical gelling device as a gelling device for gelling droplets. However, instead of the chemical gelling device, for example, in the figure, a heat source for cooling is installed at the outlet of the pump 50. A low-temperature gelling device was installed, which consisted of installing an exchanger and using salad oil instead of the chemical gelling agent 54.
Using gelatin, seamless granules can likewise be obtained.

As described above, the present invention includes a single tube single nozzle that is supported so as to be able to move a small distance in the axial direction, a material supply device that supplies a liquid material to the nozzle, and a material supply device that vibrates the nozzle in the axial direction. a droplet formation detection device that further detects the rate of droplet formation; A seamless granule manufacturing apparatus was constructed, which was equipped with a control device that controlled the vibration frequency of the vibrating device based on the electrical signal from the droplet formation rate detection device, so that it could be adjusted according to the gelling properties of the encapsulating material. Therefore, a gelling device can be arbitrarily selected, and therefore, the desired seamless granules can be obtained without being restricted in the use of the encapsulating material.

Furthermore, by controlling the frequency of the vibrating device based on the velocity of the droplets, the seamless granule manufacturing device can always be operated in the most efficient manner.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawing shows an embodiment of a seamless granule manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention. 2... Nozzle, 4... Spring, 6... Stationary part, 7
... Vibration device, 8 ... Excitation coil, 10 ... Vibrator, 12 ... Material supply device, 18 ... Storage tank, 24
... Pump, 30 ... Supply pipe, 30a ... Flexible part, 36 ... Valve, 42 ... Encapsulation material, 48 ... Gelling agent container, 50 ... Pump,
52... Gelling agent storage tank, 54... Gelling agent, 56
... Belt conveyor, 58 ... Stroboscope, 60 ... Control device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A single tube single nozzle supported to be able to move a minute distance in the axial direction, a material supply device that supplies liquid material to the nozzle, and a vibration device that vibrates the nozzle in the axial direction. and a gelling device that is provided at a position where the droplets fall from the nozzle and that gels the droplets, and further includes a droplet formation speed detection device that detects the droplet formation speed, and a droplet formation speed detection device that detects the droplet formation speed. A seamless granular material manufacturing apparatus is provided with a control device that controls the frequency of vibration of an excitation device based on an electric signal from a speed detection device. 2. The seamless granular material manufacturing device according to claim 1, wherein the gelling device for gelling the droplets is a chemical gelling device.