JPH0524010B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for completely automating the packaging of tofu cut into appropriate sizes for transporting the tofu to the distribution process.

<Prior Art> In recent years, most tofu has been sent to the distribution process in the form of plastic bags.

This packing of tofu is done because it is difficult to handle tofu in the air, so after cutting a large block of tofu into the appropriate size required, the tofu is placed in water, and the tofu is randomly scattered in the water. Currently, each item is packed by hand. That is, when tofu is placed on a platform in the air, it cannot be easily moved and will crumble if too much force is applied to it. Therefore, they are put into the water and scooped out manually using buoyancy. However, this work requires bending forward and often uses cold water, making it hard work and low work efficiency.Additionally, a large number of tofu are stored randomly in water, and in order to scoop them out one by one, the tofu must be placed between each other or There are various problems, such as the tofu crumbling due to the contact between the tofu and the human labor, which reduces the yield, and the fact that the tofu is handled manually, there is a large chance of bacterial contamination.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of manual packing work, and to provide an automatic tofu packing method and device that is hygienic and highly efficient. It is something to do.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The above objects of the present invention can be achieved by the following method and apparatus. That is, the method involves intermittently moving tofu cut into appropriate sizes within a primary water tank, and then moving the tofu into a bottomless guide frame in a secondary water tank that is connected to the same tank only through a tofu passage. closet,
After sealing off the primary and secondary water tanks in a watertight manner, the water level in the secondary water tank is lowered and the tofu is lowered,
This is a tofu pack packing method characterized by storing tofu in packs arranged in advance below the bottomless guide frame, and the apparatus has the following configuration.

That is, the outline of the apparatus of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. In the primary water tank 1, there is a tofu guide plate that holds tofu a submerged in water, which is intermittently supplied from a large block tofu cutting machine (not shown). 2 are installed in parallel. This tofu guide plate 2 does not necessarily have to be an integral piece with a U-shaped cross section (facing sideways) as shown in Figure 1, and the bottom plate may be a plate-like body or a group of rollers that are not integral with the side plates. However, in order to support the tofu a, it needs to be a bottomed product with a bottom plate 2a. Inside this multiple tofu guide plate 2, there is a tofu moving plate 3 for pushing and moving the tofu a fed there from the rear.
The tofu moving plates 3, each of which is attached separately, can be operated using various known means, such as by installing a grooved guide plate over the primary water tank 1 and moving the tofu moving plates along the grooves of the guide plate. I can do it.

A secondary water tank 4 is arranged adjacent to such a primary water tank 1, and both the water tanks are connected with each other with only a communication part 5 necessary and sufficient for the passage of tofu a, and the communication part 5 has the same part. A partition plate 6 is provided which can watertightly shut off the tofu guide plate 2. Inside the secondary water tank 4, a bottomless guide frame 7 is provided at a location approximately on the extension of the tofu guide plate 2, and the guide frame 7 is provided with a bottomless guide frame 7. A conveyor 8 for placing and conveying the packs b is disposed below the packs 7. The bottomless guide frame 7 is provided with a first frame for temporarily holding the tofu a.
As shown in the figure, the shape has a front end plate 7a. This secondary water tank 4 is provided with a drain pipe 9 and a water supply pipe 10, respectively.

<Operation> The operation of the present invention using the apparatus of the present invention having the above configuration will be described in detail below.

First, tofu a cut to an appropriate size is pushed in the primary water tank 1 by the tofu moving plate 3, and is intermittently advanced in the tofu guide plate 2, so that the communication portion 5 of the opened primary and secondary water tanks is moved forward. It is passed through and pushed into the bottomless guide frame 7 in the secondary water tank 4 as shown in FIG. At this point, both tanks are filled with water (or hot water and the same) to maintain an appropriate water level, and although tofu a is submerged in the water, it is partially floating due to sufficient buoyancy. If the tofu moving plate 3 is pressed lightly, the tofu a will move between the tofu moving plate 3 and the bottomless guide frame 7.
It is held at that position while being held between the front end plates 7a.

On the other hand, in the secondary water tank 4, an empty pack b is fixedly placed on a conveyor 8 arranged below the bottomless guide frame 7 so that it does not float up, and in this state, the partition plate 6 is As shown in FIG. 3, the tofu moving plate 3 is moved to watertightly block the two water tanks, water is rapidly drained from the drain pipe 9, and the light pressure on the tofu a by the tofu moving plate 3 is released, and the tofu moving plate 3 is raised. After that, return to the position for the next tofu movement. As a result, the tofu (a) is lowered at that position in response to the lowering of the water level, and is stored in the empty pack (b) prepared below. In this case, if the lower limit of the water level in the secondary water tank 4 is set to about the upper surface of the lower pack b, then the tofu a
Since it fits into the pack B in a natural state, it does not damage the tofu A. The tofu packed in this way is transported to the outside of the secondary water tank 4 by operating the transport conveyor 8, and water is supplied into the secondary water tank 4 through the water supply pipe 10, whose water level is approximately equal to that of the primary water tank 1. When the water tank is used up, the partition plate 6 is released to establish communication between the two tanks, and the same operation is repeated again.

<Example> Examples of the present invention will be described below.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a primary water tank 1 and a secondary water tank are arranged adjacent to each other and communicated only through a plurality of communication parts 5 necessary and sufficient for tofu a to pass through. Next, water tank 4 was used. A partition plate 6 with a rubber seal is disposed in the communication portion 5 so as to be movable up and down by a partition plate cylinder 11, so that when the partition plate 6 is raised, both water tanks are watertightly isolated. The front end openings of the plurality of gutter-shaped tofu guide plates 2 provided in the secondary water tank 1 face the communication section 5, while the base end openings of the secondary water tank 4 face the communication section, and the front end plates Bottomless guide frame 7 having 7a
has been established. A conveyor 8 is disposed in the secondary water tank 4, and conveyor guides 12 are protruded from the upper surface of the conveyor 8 to stabilize the pack b in a fixed position. Pack b
A grooved guide rod 13 is provided to hold the upper opening edge of the pack b and hold it so that the pack b does not float up.
The drain pipe 9 attached to the secondary water tank 4 is connected to the drain tank 14 via a drain solenoid valve 14, and further connected to the water storage tank 1 located at a high place via a drain pump 16.
7 and exits from the water storage tank 17
0 is equipped with a water supply solenoid valve 18 in the middle.

The apparatus of this embodiment was used to pack silken tofu using an automatic control system built into the control panel to perform the same process as described in the <Operation> section above. Despite the silken tofu being easily crumbled, there was almost no damage to the tofu and it was packed efficiently.

In the above embodiment, the water storage tank 17 is placed at a high place, and the water is returned from the water storage tank 17 to the secondary water tank 4 by using a head, but the present invention is not limited to this. In some cases, a method of pressure feeding is used.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the present invention, tofu, which is soft and difficult to handle in air, is processed under water from the time it is cut until it is packaged.
Moreover, the movement (lowering) of the tofu during packaging is done by the force of the water flow as the water level drops, so no excessive force is applied to the tofu, so there is no damage to the tofu, and there is no need for any manual labor. It has the effect of being hygienic because there is no touching.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the main parts showing the embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2
The figure and FIG. 3 are explanatory diagrams of each process, respectively. In the figure, 1: Primary water tank, 2: Tofu guide plate, 3: Tofu moving plate, 4: Secondary water tank, 6: Partition plate, 7: Bottomless guide frame, 8: Conveyor, a: Tofu, b: Pack .

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Tofu cut to an appropriate size is moved intermittently within a primary water tank, and the tofu is placed within a bottomless guide frame in a secondary water tank that is connected to the same tank only through a tofu passage. After pushing the tofu in and sealing off watertightly between the primary and secondary water tanks, the water level in the secondary water tank is lowered, and the tofu is lowered to be stored in the pack that has been placed in advance below the bottomless guide frame. This method of stuffing tofu is characterized by: 2. A primary water tank with a built-in bottomed gutter-shaped tofu guide plate to which tofu cut into appropriate sizes is intermittently supplied, a tofu moving plate that intermittently moves the tofu within the guide plate, and the above-mentioned guide plate. It has a bottomless guide frame that temporarily holds the tofu that has passed through the process, and a secondary tank that is located below the guide frame and has a built-in transport conveyor that transports the tofu. A partition plate is provided in the communication section to allow water-tight isolation of the communication section, and a drain pipe and a water supply pipe are provided in each of the secondary water tanks, and the drain and water supply pipes are connected to each other. A tofu packing device characterized in that the water level in a secondary water tank can be adjusted.