JPH0437695B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to the freezing of liquids contained in containers, and more particularly to the freezing of liquids contained in containers by flowing a cooled liquid stream over the external surface of the container.

Prior Art Prior art related to the present invention includes U.S. Pat.
There are No. 4335583, No. 4352830, No. 4324108 and the documents cited therein.

The cavity containing the freezable candy material has the general shape of an elongated truncated cone and is integral with a mold bar having several cavities of such shape. The base of each cavity is attached to a mold bar, creating an opening into which candy material can be placed. Therefore, the cross-sectional area defined by the plane perpendicular to the cavity height is greatest at the mouth of each cavity, and the amount of candy material near the mouth is greatest. Freezing of the candy material placed in each cavity is accomplished by submerging the cavity in a cooled liquid or by spraying the outside surface of the cavity with a cooled liquid. Both methods are commonly used.

Regardless of the freezing method used, it is desirable to achieve complete solidification at a rate proportional to the cross-sectional area of the cavity. In other words, the freezing rate at the mouth of the cavity where the amount of candy material is greatest should ideally be greater than the rate at the top of the cavity. Although creating heat transfer conditions for differential rate refrigeration is impractical in commercial practice and probably falls short of the theoretical ideal, the components that make up this system achieve ideal heat transfer conditions to the greatest extent possible. selected and designed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for freezing a liquid in a mold having an opening for introducing the liquid, the apparatus comprising: a supply source of the cooled liquid; a device for distributing the cooled liquid; an apparatus for supplying at least one stream of cooled liquid to an exterior surface of the mold, the stream of chilled liquid exiting from a nozzle positioned adjacent to the mold and applying its flow to the exterior surface of the mold. A refrigeration device is provided, projected in the area of the mouth.

Further in accordance with the invention, there is provided a method for freezing a liquid in a mold in the form of an elongated truncated frame having a central axis of symmetry, the method comprising: feeding the cooled liquid to a nozzle in close proximity to the base of the mold; creating and maintaining a continuous flow of cooled liquid exiting the nozzle; projecting the flow onto the base of the mold to convert substantially the entire flow into a layer of liquid covering an exterior surface of the mold; orienting the liquid layer to flow by gravity toward an opposite end of the base, wherein the cooled liquid flowing from the base to the opposite end cools the liquid therein as it flows toward the opposite end. A method of refrigeration is provided that absorbs heat from the liquid inside at a rate proportional to the decreasing amount of . A principal feature of the invention is a method and apparatus for freezing a liquid food product in a mold or cavity having a metered liquid food intake, in which the chilled liquid is directed under pressure from a nozzle having a flow field. A distributed, low-velocity stream is applied to the outer surface of a mold or cavity near the mouth and allowed to flow down along the outer surface by gravity. The rate of heat transfer to the cooled liquid decreases as the liquid flows down from the mouth toward the lower wall edge.

Further, in accordance with the present invention, the cooled liquid is distributed from a manifold to a series of regularly spaced risers having distribution nozzles;
A slow stream of cooled liquid is applied to the upper end of a tapered depending elongated mold or cavity whose cross-sectional area in a plane perpendicular to the axis of symmetry decreases towards the lower end. Supplying the cooled liquid to a larger region of the cavity increases the rate of heat transfer from the liquid candy material because the temperature difference is greatest in that region.

Furthermore, according to the invention, atomization of the cooled liquid is avoided by supplying it as a slow stream to the surface of the mold or cavity. In the prior art described above, a high-velocity stream of cooled liquid was projected directly between the cavities of the mold or a mold bar having cavities. Upon hitting the flat surface of the mold bar, the flow is dispersed into droplets on the outside surface of the depending mold partially supported by the mold bar. The droplets that collect on the outside surface of the mold freeze or solidify the candy material within the mold. In addition to being atomized by the high velocity flow, splitting the flow reduces thermal efficiency because an unnecessary amount of heat is absorbed by the cooled liquid on its way to the surface of the mold.

EXAMPLE The present candy apparatus machine 10 shown in FIG. 1 is the subject of US patent application Ser. No. 604,776.

The description of the machine of FIG. 1 is limited to the extent necessary for understanding the invention. Although the invention is described in the environment of the machine shown in FIG. 1, it should be understood that it can be used in any environment in which a chilled liquid is used to freeze a product within a mold or cavity. In frozen candy machine 10, sprockets 12, 14 are mounted to longitudinally spaced, laterally extending shafts 16, 18 on suitable support structures, not shown. These sprockets drive a chain 20 on a closed path including an upper section 22 and a lower section 24.
The chain carries laterally extending mold bars 26 at regular intervals. Each mold bar holds a plurality of molds or cavities 28.

Below the machine, over substantially its entire length, hot brine is collected and distributed by a pump 32 to a series of manifolds 34 to defrost the mold and release the resulting Candy C. There is a trough device 30 for removal from it. Additionally, as detailed in the above-referenced U.S. patent application, the mold bar, which happens to have one or more molds remaining in the candies, is overturned with an overturning device 36 that rotates the molds 180 degrees so that the cavity entrance faces downwardly. let Pump 38 then sprays a cleaning liquid of any suitable composition into the cavity from spray bar 40 in a high velocity jet. The washed-out candy material is collected in the recessed portion 42 of the trough device 30. The tipped mold bar remains in the same position. The cavity is then disinfected with disinfectant solution exiting from spray bar 44. The mold bar is again overturned by an overturning device 46, similar to overturning device 36, to return it to its original orientation with the mouth of the cavity facing upward.

As successive mold bars 26 advance along the upper portion 22 of the chain 20, a conventional fill or discharge device 48 discharges a metered amount of candy material into each cavity of the mold bar. The spacing between each mold bar 26 moving in the upper portion 22 is not only much narrower than that in the returning lower portion 24, but also much closer together (FIG. 2). The bar has a protrusion like protrusion 50,
It provides an effective solid wall that makes it difficult for salt water to enter each cavity 28 to prevent or reduce the possibility of contamination.

A brine collection tank 52 extends beneath the upper portion 22 over substantially its entire length. Therein are a plurality of interconnected tubes 54 forming a manifold structure into which cold brine is introduced by conduits 56 from a cooling system and channels 5 in which the brine collects.
It is returned to the cooling device by a suction pipe (not shown) connected to 8. The salt water supplied to the pipe 54 is supplied to a plurality of riser pipes 60, and the cavity 28 is connected to the chain 2.
0 is sprayed onto the outer surface of the cavity as it travels through the upper part 22 of the cavity.

As the mold bar advances from the discharge device 48 in the direction of arrow R, ie, from right to left in FIG. 1, the candy material gradually solidifies. Successive mold bars are temporarily placed under the rod insertion device 62. Each cavity containing partially solidified candy material is supplied with a rod 64, a portion of which is inserted into the candy material and the protruding portion provides a handle to facilitate eating.

Sequential mold bars 2 with rods inserted into each cavity
6 advances to a drawing station 66 where defrost fluid is supplied to the manifold 34 and all rows of frozen candy C are simultaneously drawn from the mold and sent to packaging equipment.

In accordance with a feature of the present invention, the cooled brine is distributed in a plurality of slow streams into the cold zone of the exterior surface of the cavity 28 near the mold bar 26 where the greatest amount of candy material is present. Although the preferred shape of the various molds or cavities 28 is elongated and tapered, various shaped molds can be used;
It will be appreciated that the brine spray apparatus of the present invention can be repositioned so that the brine stream first contacts the portion of the mold where the greatest amount of freezable material is present.

2 and 4 illustrate a preferred embodiment in which the cooled liquid is distributed over the top of the mold or cavity 28. FIG. The cooled brine as described above is supplied to tube 54 by supply line 56. The cooled liquid from tube 54 enters rectangular riser tube 60 and is removably connected to riser tube 6 by fastener 70.
It is ejected laterally by a relatively large flow area nozzle made in the cap 68 attached to the 0. The cooled directional flow is shown in Figures 2 and 4 in elevation and plan view, respectively, as vector 7.
Indicated by 2.

FIG. 5 shows riser 60 and cap 68 in more detail. The riser has a passageway 74 that directs the brine from the tube 54 upwardly toward the cap 68. The cap 68 is cut away at the bottom to create a central bulkhead 76 and a generally semicircular boss 78.
The cooled liquid from passageway 74 is thus split into two streams, and each stream is further split into two streams to create the flow pattern shown by vector 72 in FIG.

As the mold bars 26 are carried by the chain 20 in the direction R, the cavities 2 of each mold bar
8, when proceeding through the upper part 22 of the chain 20,
The flow of cooled liquid, represented by vector 72, is met and the entire outer surface of mold 28 is wetted by the flow of coolant, as can be seen in FIG. Mold 28 whose main dimension is transverse to the direction of movement
The orientation of is such that when each stream 72 first contacts the front face 28a of the mold moving in the direction of face 28b,
The cooled liquid sprayed onto the outer surface of the mold 28 is conveyed to maximize the residence time. Further movement of the mold intersects other channels of cooled liquid and wets the surface 28b and rear surface 28c. Because of the geometry of the risers 60 and the relationship of the individual mold bars to the molds, each of the four streams of cooled liquid discharged from each riser 60 sequentially passes through an individual mold 28 in the upper portion 22 of the chain 20. will be seen to form a film of cooled liquid that wets the outer surface of the As mentioned above, the velocity of the individual streams of cooled liquid is kept low enough that droplets do not form.

Although the best embodiment of the invention has been described, it will be obvious that changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the subject matter of the invention.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal elevational view of a candy making machine incorporating the refrigeration method and apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partially enlarged elevational view showing the relationship between a riser tube for discharging cooled liquid and a mold or cavity containing freezeable candy material. FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of a nozzle for distributing cooled liquid. 10... Candy manufacturing machine, 12, 14...
Sprocket, 20... Chain, 26... Mold bar, 28... Mold or cavity, 30...
...Trough, 32, 38...Pump, 60...Rising pipe, 68...Cap, C...Candy.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A device for freezing a liquid in a mold having an opening for introducing the liquid, the device including a source of a cooled liquid, a device for distributing the cooled liquid, and the device for distributing the cooled liquid. , a device for supplying at least one stream of cooled liquid to the outer surface of the mold, said stream of cooled liquid exiting from a nozzle placed beside said mold to the outer surface of the mold in the mouth region thereof. Refrigeration equipment projected at. 2. A refrigeration system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the flow of cooled liquid exits the nozzle at a rate that substantially disperses the entire flow into a film on the surface of the mold. 3. The mold is in the form of an elongated truncated cone, the mouth constituting the base of the pedestal, and the flow of the cooled liquid being directed to the base of the pedestal such that the entire flow substantially covers the mold and above The refrigeration device according to claim 2, wherein the refrigeration device is supplied so as to be developed as a layer of flowing liquid. 4. A method of freezing a liquid in an elongated truncated mold with a central axis of symmetry, comprising supplying the cooled liquid to a nozzle immediately adjacent to the base of the mold, and cooling exiting from the nozzle. creating and maintaining a continuous flow of liquid in the mold; projecting the flow onto the base of the mold to convert substantially the entire flow into a layer of liquid covering the exterior surface of the mold; the cooled liquid flowing from the base to the opposite end is proportional to the decreasing amount of liquid therein as it flows toward the opposite end; A freezing method that absorbs heat from the liquid at a rate that