JPH0628574B2 - Liquid injection device for food extruder - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an improvement of a liquid injection device of a food extruder that extrudes foods such as sweets and corn starch by heating while adding water.

For example, in a food extruder for sweets and the like, generally, a shaft fitted with a screw in a barrel is provided with one shaft or a plurality of shafts, and the shaft is rotated. In the case of a single shaft, a slight gap is formed between the barrel inner wall and the screw. In the case of a plurality of shafts, the screws are engaged or disengaged to rotate while maintaining a slight gap with the inner wall of the barrel. In such a structure, starches such as corn starch and wheat and / or foodstuffs such as meat and fish are introduced into the barrel, crushed or crushed finely, and crushed into granules or powder by pressurizing and heating, and further briquetted. This was extruded from the ostium and molded into food.

In this case, as the screw, different shapes such as a screw shape for the purpose of transfer and compression, a screw shape for the purpose of mixing, and a screw shape for promoting crushing are used in combination.
The food is strongly pressed between these screws and the inner wall of the barrel, and between the screws of multiple shafts, so that the food is subjected to kneading, crushing, heat and pressure, and the food is processed for gelatinization such as cooking or steaming. Has been added. There is a problem of water addition and heating to the foodstuff as an important factor for promoting the gelatinization of the foodstuff.

When water is supplied to the food, the viscosity increases, and when the viscosity increases, the pressure increases, and the temperature is expected to increase in the case of heating. That is, when pressure is applied to food materials to heat them, the boiling point temperature is about 10
Even those that rise in ° C and usually boil at 100 ° C can be heated to 100 ° C or higher, and moisture can serve as a heat transfer medium between foodstuffs, and a better heating effect can be expected.

Compared with natural starch (β starch), gelatinized starch (α starch) has a stronger swelling power with water and is easily affected by digestive enzymes and has a so-called umami taste. If this α-starch is dehydrated and dried rapidly at a high temperature to a water content of 15% or less, it will not be β-starch.
Since such α-starch can be eaten immediately without heating by simply adding water or hot water, it is widely used for dried rice, instant sticky rice, food for infants and the like. As described above, water is an important factor for promoting the processing of foodstuffs, that is, the gelatinization of starch.

Unnecessary water addition to the food material during the production of the dry α-starch described above requires dehydration of excess water, which requires heating and drying of the excess food material, resulting in high cost. For this reason, the water addition device of the food extruder must have a function of controlling the amount of water added to the food. Furthermore, when processing foodstuffs as a food extruder, it is necessary to control the most suitable temperature, pressure and moisture content, and in some cases it may be necessary to add water to foodstuffs that have been pressurized to high pressure. Therefore, a high-pressure water addition function is also required.

[Conventional technology]

Here, an example of a food extruder equipped with a conventional watering device is
This will be described with reference to the figure. First, the food extruder 11 has a plurality of barrels 13A, 13B, 13C, ..., 13N integrally mounted on a base 12, inside which is rotated by a drive unit (not shown) provided on the right side of the base 12 in the drawing. A plurality of screws 15 for the purpose of various works such as transfer or brickwork are combined and fitted around the outer periphery of the shaft 14. A shooter 16 for receiving food (not shown) is provided above the right barrel 13A, and the shooter 16 is supplied with a constant amount of food from a feeder 17. The barrels 13B, 13C ... 13N have pressure resistance.

A plurality of heat exchangers 18B, 1B for cooling or heating the second barrel 13B and the second barrel from the right are provided on the outer circumference of the barrel and after.
18N are attached, and the temperature of each barrel can be arbitrarily controlled by temperature sensors 19B, 19C ... 19N provided in each barrel and an automatic temperature controller (not shown). A die 21 having a small hole 20 is fixed to the end surface of the barrel 13N at the tip.

A tank 32 having a liquid injection device 31 having an upper opening and a liquid material such as water stored therein has an opening / closing valve 33, a metering pump 34, and a check valve 35 connected in series from the bottom surface to the flange of the barrel 13A. It is connected to the injection port 22.

In order to extrude food with such a mechanism, the screw 15 is rotationally driven by the drive unit via the shaft 14 and the food is introduced from the feeder 17 through the shooter 16 into the barrel 13A. The introduced food material moves leftward in the barrels 13A, 13B, 13C ... 13N while being transferred, mixed, pressurized, crushed, and heated by the screw 15, and during this time α processing is performed and the small holes 20 in the die 21 are processed.
Is extruded from. When the food material is traveling in the barrel 13A or the like, the water in the tank 32 is pressurized and injected from the injection port 22 of the barrel 13A by the measuring pump 34. This liquid injection accelerates processing such as gelatinization of food materials.

In FIG. 5, the liquid injection port 22 shown in the structure for injecting liquid from the liquid injection port 22 provided in the barrel 13A is not limited to the barrel 13A, but may be provided at 13B or 13C or at a plurality of locations and may be provided from the metering pump 34 The liquid inlet 22 configured to be able to receive the liquid supply and to inject the food into the barrels 13B or 13C or the plurality of barrels has barrels 13A to 13A.
N is configured as a relatively small-diameter passage, and a check valve 35 is provided so as to be built in close to the inner wall of the barrel 13A to 13N so that food in the barrel 13A to 13N does not enter the passage. In many cases. Furthermore, by injecting the liquid at a pressure higher than the internal pressure in the barrels 13A to 13N, the food material is prevented from entering the liquid injection port 22.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

When the food is extruded with such a device, it is necessary to test and adjust various operating conditions before determining the most appropriate operating conditions. The combination of screw 15 and the number of rotations, the amount of food supply, the amount of liquid injection, etc. And the heating temperature of the barrels 13A to 13N are adjusted. Barrel 13A thru 1
The food in 3N is rotated by the screw 15 and the screw 15, and the screw 15 and the barrel 13A to 1
Heat is generated due to friction or shearing between the inner walls of 3N, and is heated to a high temperature by being heated by a heat exchanger provided on the outer periphery of the barrels 13B to 13N. Improper operation adjustment will increase the residence time of foodstuffs in the barrels 13A to 13N and increase the pressure, resulting in barrels 13A to 1N.
Part of the food material near the inner wall of 3N is abnormally overheated and heat-denatured, or part of the food material enters the injection port 22 and heat-denatures,
There was a problem that a plug state was formed at the liquid injection port 22 and normal liquid injection became impossible. This problem is more likely to occur as the amount of injected liquid is smaller, not only during operation adjustment but also during normal operation of food extrusion processing, such as uneven injection due to the pulsating flow phenomenon of the metering pump, uneven food supply, and clogging of the small holes 20 of the die 21. Occurrence of various abnormal situations such as a phenomenon may cause a problem similar to the above. In the case of injecting from multiple locations, when the operation is temporarily stopped and partly in operation, there is a problem that the injection port 22 is plugged by the heat-denatured food material and re-injection becomes impossible as described above. It was Further, when a small amount of food such as egg liquid that undergoes heat denaturation at a relatively low temperature, such as egg liquid, is injected, before the liquid is injected into the barrels 13A to 13N (the injection port 22
(While flowing), it was heat-denatured to become a plug body, which caused poor injection. Next, in such a liquid injection device, the tank 32
And metering pump 34, check valve 35, piping 36, and liquid injection port 22
In some cases, it is necessary to stop the liquid injection, drain the residual liquid, and wash the product when the extrusion process is stopped or the operation is switched. Further, in order to clean the inside of the pipe 36, the tank 32 is emptied and cleaned, tap water or warm water or a cleaning liquid is stored, and the metering pump 34 is operated to pass the liquid through the pipe 36. Also in this case, if the liquid injection port 22 is clogged, the liquid cannot be passed through, and a part of the pipe must be disassembled, etc., and the cleaning must be performed. Further, when solid fats and oils such as butter, margarine and lard having a high viscosity at a low temperature are heated and melted and injected, the temperature drops midway in the pipe 36 from the conventional tank 32 to the injection port 22 provided in the barrel 13A or the like. However, there is a problem that the fluidity becomes poor and the liquid injection becomes unstable. Moreover, when the operation of the food extruder is stopped while such a liquid material is left in the pipe 36, the liquid material is solidified in the pipe 36, the pipe is clogged, and re-injection becomes impossible. .

The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and the object of the present invention is to stop the liquid injection while operating the food extruder or to perform the liquid re-injection while having a simple structure, and also to perform heat denaturation. It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid injection device for a food extruder that can perform stable liquid injection even with a material that is easy to perform and that can be easily washed.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a tank for storing a liquid material such as water, an opening / closing valve for opening and closing the discharge of the liquid material in the tank, and adding the liquid material in the tank through the opening / closing valve. A liquid injection circuit equipped with a metering pump for discharging under pressure, and a valve device for discharging the liquid material discharged from the metering pump to a liquid injection port of an extruder barrel, and controlling the liquid injection circuit to a predetermined temperature. The temperature control device and a cleaning circuit for cleaning the liquid injection circuit provided in parallel with the tank via an opening / closing valve on the upstream side of the metering pump are provided.

[Work]

That is, according to the present invention, with the above configuration, a tank for storing a liquid material such as water, an opening / closing valve for opening and closing the discharge of the liquid material in the tank, and the liquid material in the tank is pressurized via the opening / closing valve. Since a metering pump that discharges the liquid material discharged from the metering pump and a valve device that discharges the liquid material discharged from the metering pump to the liquid injection port of the extruder barrel is provided, the liquid injection can be performed while the food extruder is operating. Can be stopped or re-injection can be performed. Further, by attaching a temperature control device to the liquid injection circuit and controlling the temperature to a predetermined temperature, it is possible to eliminate the variation in viscosity due to the temperature difference of the liquid material, and thereby to reduce the unevenness of liquid injection. Further, since the cleaning circuit is attached to the liquid injection circuit so that the liquid injection circuit can be cleaned, the cleaning can be easily performed.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The food extruder 11 has already been described with reference to FIG. 5, which is a conventional example, and therefore a new description will be omitted.

The liquid injection device 41 has the following configuration. That is, the tanks 32, 42, 43 are connected in parallel to the pipe 36 via the opening / closing valves 33, 44, 45, and are further connected in series to the metering pump 34, the check valve 35, and the valve device 46 to inject the barrel 13A. A liquid injection circuit 60 is configured so as to communicate with the liquid port 22. Further, in the liquid injection circuit 60, as shown by the one-dot chain line, a temperature control device 47 is incorporated in the periphery. As this temperature adjusting device 47, for example, a heater is attached to control the output of the heater, or a jacket is provided around the heater to circulate cold / hot water or oil to control the temperature to a constant temperature. As described above, the device is devised so that the unevenness of the liquid injection due to the variation of the viscosity due to the temperature difference of the liquid material does not occur. The tank 32 and the tank 42 store one or a plurality of types of injection materials to be injected into the food extruder 11. The on-off valve 33 and the on-off valve 44 are arbitrarily switched, the metering pump 34 is operated from either one of the tanks 32 or 42, and the check valve 35 and the reverse device 46 are used to pass from the liquid injection hole 22 of the barrel 13A to the barrel. Thirteen
It is configured to be able to inject liquid into A to 13N.
Further, the washing water is stored in the tank 43, and the tank 3
Even if the liquid material remains in the liquids 2 and 42, the on-off valves 33 and 44 are closed and the on-off valve 45 is opened to operate the metering pump 34 in the same manner to operate the barrels 13A to 13A.
A cleaning circuit 61 is configured so that the cleaning liquid can be injected into the N through the pipe 36. The pipe 36, the metering pump 34, the check valve 35, and the valve device 46 are cleaned by the liquid injection from the cleaning circuit 61, and the screw 15 is also rotated on the inner walls of the barrels 13A to 13N and the outer periphery of the screw 15 to inject the cleaning liquid. It is configured such that the internal food material is transferred to the die 20 side while receiving the liquid and is extruded, and can be washed by self-cleaning of the screw 15. The tank 43 is not absolutely necessary and is not shown in the figure, but instead of the tank 43, the tap water is directly connected to directly open and close the tap water.
5 may be opened and introduced into the pipe 36, and the metering pump 34 may be operated to wash as described above. Tank 32 and tank 4
As described above, different liquid materials or the same liquid material are stored in 2, so that the liquid material can be arbitrarily switched and poured without stopping the operation of the food extruder 11 for extrusion processing. It is possible to simultaneously tank to prepare either by pouring a while either empty and the liquid material heterologous or washed were charged in another extruding due to multiple. Further, when it is desired to wash only the tanks 43, 42, 32, a washing liquid such as tap water is put into each of the tanks 43, 42, 32, and the tanks 43, 42, 3 are washed thoroughly.
The water is drained from the drain plugs 54, 55, and 56 provided in No. 2. When it is desired to completely change the combination of the screw 15 to switch the extrusion process of the food by the food extruder 11 to a completely different extrusion process of the food, after discharging the residual liquid of each tank 32, 42 and washing, tap water, etc. Of fresh water or warm water is operated to drive the metering pump 34 to pass water through the pipe 36, the metering pump 34, the check valve 35, and the valve device 46, and the screw 15 is rotated. The inside of the barrel can be cleaned at the same time. Materials that solidify at low temperatures, such as butter, margarine, lard, etc., are used in the temperature control device 4 of the liquid injection device 41.
It is configured so that it is heated at 7 to be discharged with increased fluidity, and in some cases, a cleaning liquid such as a solvent can be used for cleaning. Thus, the cleaning liquid such as water, warm water, or solvent is passed through the entire conduit extending from the tanks 32, 42 and 43 to the liquid injection port 22 of the barrel 13A or the like so that the cleaning can be easily performed. Moreover, even if there is residual liquid material in the tanks 32, 42, etc., it is configured so that only the conduit from the on-off valves 33, 44 to the liquid injection port 22 can be easily washed, so that the liquid injection can be performed temporarily. Even if it is stopped for a long time, or if it is stopped for a long time, the pipe line will not become blocked and re-injection will not be possible.

Next, the valve device 46 used in the liquid injection circuit 60 will be described. 2 to 3 show a valve device 46 provided in the liquid injection hole 22 of the barrel 13A, and the valve device 46 is the first device.
It is fixed by a liquid inlet 48A for supplying liquid from the metering pump 34 shown in the figure, a barrel 13A and a screw portion 49,
A liquid outlet 48 which communicates with the liquid injection hole 22 and enables the liquid introduced from the liquid inlet 48A to be injected into the barrel 13A.
A cylinder 48 having a C, a valve rod 50 inserted and incorporated so that the screw 48 can freely slide up and down inside the cylinder 48, and a seal member 51 for preventing liquid from leaking from the inside of the cylinder 48 to the outside. It is configured. When the valve rod 50 is operated from the outside and is inserted into the cylinder 48 and a handle 50A for sliding up and down in the cylinder 48, the handle 50A is swung to lower the valve rod 50, and then the outlet of the cylinder 48. Shoulder 50B that abuts shoulder 48B, liquid outlet 48C of cylinder 48, and barrel 1
It has a small diameter portion 50C that penetrates the liquid injection hole 22 of No. 3 and projects into the inner wall surface until it becomes flush. When the valve rod 50 is moved up inside the cylinder 48 as shown in FIG. 2, the liquid material supplied into the cylinder 48 from the liquid inlet 48A is discharged from the liquid outlet 48A.
From C to the injection hole 22 of the barrel 13A,
It is poured into the inside of A. At this time, the seal member 51 prevents the liquid from leaking to the outside of the cylinder 48. By this injection, the water content suitable for extrusion processing of food is maintained, and processing such as gelatinization is promoted. The injection from the metering pump 34, which is not shown in FIGS.
It goes without saying that the liquid is injected at a pressure higher than the pressure inside A. As a result, normal liquid injection is performed, but as described above, the food material enters the liquid injection port 22 and is thermally denatured to be in a plug state. Even when an accident of poor liquid injection occurs, the handle 50A is operated to operate the valve rod. 50 is lowered in the cylinder 48 and the small-diameter portion 5
By injecting 0C into the liquid injection port 22 as shown in FIG. 3 and pushing the stopper back into the barrel 13 and raising the valve rod again as shown in FIG. 2, normal liquid injection can be restored. When it is desired to temporarily stop the liquid injection during the test operation of extrusion, etc., the valve rod 50 is lowered as shown in FIG.
8B and the valve rod shoulder 50B strongly abutting against each other
It is possible to stop the supply of the liquid material from the inside to the liquid injection hole 22. In this case as well, the small diameter portion 50 of the valve rod 50 is inserted into the liquid injection hole 22.
The food in the barrel 13A is filled with the injection hole 2 because C is rushing in.
It does not penetrate into 2 and form a plug state. The injection can be started by raising the valve rod 50 as shown in FIG. Reference numeral 51 in FIGS. 1 and 2 denotes a jacket provided around the cylinder 48, which controls the valve device 46 to a constant temperature by circulating cold / hot water, oil or the like from a temperature control device (not shown) so that liquid material Prevents heat denaturation and clogging. 51A is the inlet of the circulating fluid and 51B is the outlet. This enabled stable liquid injection regardless of the temperature of the barrels 13A to 13N. Barrels 13A through 1
When the temperature of 3N is controlled to a high temperature, the vicinity of the injection port 22 for the above-mentioned egg solution, heat denaturation at the valve device 46, and the above when the temperature of the barrels 13A to 13N is controlled to a low temperature The phenomenon of low temperature solidification, which is found in solid fats and oils, can be suppressed. FIG. 4 shows a metering pump 34
1 is an embodiment in which the valve device 46 from 1 is provided at a plurality of positions.
Even if a problem such as the inability to inject liquid at a place arises, another valve device 4
Since the injection from 6 can be performed, more stable injection is possible. Temperature control device 47 shown in FIGS. 1 and 4
The tank 43 for storing the washing water and the washing water is not necessarily required depending on the liquid material to be injected (for example, tap water, etc.), but as another embodiment of the present invention, each tank may be combined depending on the type of the liquid material. Therefore, it can be practically used as a simpler and more stable liquid injection device.

According to the above-mentioned embodiment, the tank 3 for storing the liquid material
2, 42, 43 are provided in plural, and the open / close valves 33, 44, 45 can be operated to easily switch the liquid injection material, or while operating the food extruder, the empty tank is washed and another Ready to put in liquid material for food extrusion processing, operate valve device 46 to temporarily stop injection, re-injection, and remove clogging of injection port 22 Became. Further, the temperature adjusting device 47 provided in the liquid injection circuit 60 kept the liquid injection material at a constant temperature, and it was possible to prevent changes in viscosity and thermal denaturation, enabling stable liquid injection. The measuring pump 3 is connected to the washing tank 43 or the water supply.
No. 4 was operated to allow cleaning water or a solvent to pass through for easy cleaning. Especially screw 1 for food extruder
While rotating 5, screw 15 and barrel 13A ~
The 13N interior can be cleaned at the same time, which is a great practical effect. Stable injection of the ingredients into the food makes it possible to accurately add the water content most suitable for extrusion processing and auxiliary materials such as egg liquid and solid fats and oils. It is possible to prevent an abnormal situation, to produce with high economic efficiency, and to have an effect that a uniform and uniform extrusion-molded product of food can be stably obtained.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the injection is stopped while the food extruder is operating while having a simple structure,
It is possible to provide a liquid injection device for a food extruder that can perform re-injection, can perform stable injection of a material that is easily heat-denatured, and can be easily washed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing a partial cross-section of a food extruder to which an embodiment of the liquid injection device of the present invention is applied, and FIGS. 2 and 3 show a valve device which is an essential part of the present invention. Sectional views showing different operating states, FIG. 4 is a schematic side view showing a partial cross section of a food extruder to which another embodiment of the liquid injection device of the present invention is applied, and FIG. It is a schematic side view which shows the food extruder which applied the liquid device partially in section. 11 ... Food extruder, 13A to 13N ... Barrel, 3
2, 42, 43 ... Tank, 33, 44, 45 ... Open / close valve, 52, 53, 54 ... Drain plug, 34 ... Metering pump, 46 ... Valve device, 47 ... Temperature control device, 60 ... …
Injection circuit, 61 ... Cleaning circuit.

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Toshio Suzuki 2068 Ooka, Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture Numazu Plant, Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd. (72) Shojiro Harada, 2068 Ooka, Numazu City, Shizuoka Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd. Numazu Plant

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A tank for storing a liquid material such as water, an opening / closing valve for opening and closing the discharge of the liquid material in the tank, a metering pump for pressurizing and discharging the liquid material in the tank via the opening / closing valve, and A liquid injection circuit provided with a valve device for discharging the liquid material discharged from the metering pump to a liquid injection port of an extruder barrel, a temperature control device for controlling the liquid injection circuit to a predetermined temperature, and the metering pump. And a cleaning circuit provided in parallel to the tank via an opening / closing valve on the upstream side of the tank for cleaning the liquid injection circuit. 2. A liquid injection circuit includes a plurality of tanks, an opening / closing valve, and a valve device, and the liquid material in the tank is selectively pressurized by a metering pump by operating the opening / closing valve and discharged from the valve device. The liquid injection device of the food extruder according to claim 1, wherein the liquid injection device is provided. 3. The liquid injection device for a food extruder according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning circuit is connected to a tank for storing a cleaning liquid such as cold / hot water or a solvent. 4. The liquid injection device for a food extruder according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning circuit is of a direct water supply type. 5. A cylinder in which a valve device of a liquid injection circuit comprises a cylinder and a valve rod, introduces a liquid material supplied from a metering pump into the cylinder, and slides the valve rod in the cylinder. It is possible to open and close the discharge of the liquid material from the inside to the injection port of the barrel of the extruder, and at the time of closing, a part of the valve rod is inserted into the injection port so that the clogging of the material can be removed. The liquid injection device for a food extruder according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that.