JPH0675493B2 - Liquid injection device for food extruder - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a liquid injection device for a food extrusion molding machine, and more particularly to a liquid injection device that enables continuous and uniform liquid injection.

For example, in an extruder for food products such as sweets, generally, one or more shafts with screws fitted in the barrel are arranged and the shafts are rotated. In the case of a single shaft, a minor gap is formed between the inner wall of the barrel and the screw. In the case of multiple shafts, the screws are engaged or disengaged so that they rotate with a slight gap between them and the inner wall of the barrel. In such a configuration, 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 briquetting. This was extruded through small holes to form a food product.

In this case, as the screw, a screw shape intended mainly for transfer and compression, a screw shape intended for blending, or a screw shape for promoting crushing is used in combination with different purposes. The food is strongly pressed between these screws and the inner wall of the barrel as well as between the screws and screws of multiple shafts, so that the food is processed by kneading, crushing, heating and pressurizing, so that the food is cooked or steamed. 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 foods to heat them, the boiling point temperature rises by about 10 ° C for each atmospheric pressure, and even those that normally boil at 100 ° C can be heated to 100 ° C or more, and moreover moisture can be used as a heat transfer medium between foods. Therefore, 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. This α-starch rapidly increases at high temperature
When dehydrated to a moisture content of 15% or less, β-starch does not form. 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. Therefore, the liquid injection device of the food extrusion molding machine must have a function of controlling the amount of water added to the food material. 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.

[Prior art]

Here, an example of a food extruder having a conventional liquid injection device will be described with reference to FIG. First, the food extruder 11 is the base 12
A plurality of barrels 13A, 13B, 13C, ... 13N are integrally mounted on the upper side, and inside the outer periphery of the shaft 14 rotated by a drive unit (not shown) provided on the right side of the base 12 in the figure. ,
A plurality of screws 15 for the purpose of various operations such as transfer or kneading are combined and fitted together. A hopper 16 for receiving ingredients (not shown) is provided above the right barrel 13A, and the hopper 16 is adapted to be supplied with a certain amount of ingredients from a feeder 17. Barrel 13B, 1
3C ... 13N has pressure resistance.

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

As a water injection device 31, a tank 32 having an upper opening and having water stored therein is connected from its lower surface to a hole 22 opened on a flange of a barrel 13A in which an opening / closing valve 33, a metering pump 34 and a check valve 35 are connected in series. ing.

In order to form the food with such a mechanism, the screw 15 is rotationally driven by the drive unit via the shaft 14 and the food is introduced into the barrel 13A from the feeder 17 through the hopper 16. The introduced food material is transferred, kneaded, pressure crushed, and heated by the screw 15 while barrels 13A, 13B, 13C are being heated.
... Move left in 13N, and during this time α processing is performed, die 21
Is extruded through the small holes 20 of. When the foodstuff is traveling in the barrel 13A or the like, the water in the tank 32 is pressurized and injected from the hole 2 of the barrel 13A by the measuring pump 34.

As the metering pump, the pressure inside the barrel is high depending on the water injection location, so gear pumps and piston pumps are usually used.When these pumps are used to pressurize water, the discharge pressure and the amount of discharged water fluctuate as is well known. That is, a pulsating flow phenomenon occurs. Especially when pouring a small amount of water, if it is intermittent pouring and the food material is extruded under the condition of 20 kg / h and 10% water addition, the pouring amount is 2 kg / h and the specific gravity of water is 1 l / h. It was a small amount of water injection of 0.56 cc per second, and the liquid was discharged only in the compression process of the piston in the piston pump and the like, and the water was intermittently injected, and it was impossible to inject it into the food material continuously and uniformly. Therefore, in the case of the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 3, that is, in the case where the water injection pipe 36 made of a thin tube is connected to the downstream side of the metering pump 34, when the pump discharge amount changes, this change occurs in the water injection pipe 36. It was not resolved, and the amount of water injection fluctuated.

[Object of the Invention]

The present invention eliminates such drawbacks, and an object thereof is to provide a water injection device of a food extruder capable of continuously injecting even a small amount of water with a small pulsating flow phenomenon under high pressure. It is in.

[Main points of the invention]

The liquid injection device of the food extruder according to the present invention comprises a tank for storing a liquid such as water, a metering pump for pressurizing and discharging the liquid in the tank, and a liquid pump for allowing or blocking the discharge of the liquid in the liquid tank. In a liquid injection device of a food extruder comprising an on-off valve serially connected to the metering pump and a water injection pipe connected to the downstream of the metering pump, the water injection pipe has a thick pipe portion having a liquid reservoir function and a throttle. It is characterized by comprising a thin tube portion having a function, and providing a relief valve between the thick tube portion and the tank.

Example of Invention

The present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 showing an embodiment. The food extrusion molding machine 11 has already been described with reference to FIG. 3, which is a conventional example, and therefore a new description will be omitted.

The liquid injection device 41 has a tank 32 that stores a liquid such as water inside, an opening / closing valve 42 that has a throttle function to allow or prevent the discharge of the liquid from the tank 32, and adjusts the amount, and pressurizes and discharges the liquid. The metering pump 34, a water injection pipe 43 connected to the downstream of the metering pump 34, and a check valve 35, and the check valve 35 is connected to the hole 22 of the barrel 13A of the food extruder 11. Further, the water injection pipe 43 has an accumulator function, that is, a liquid storage function, and even if there is a pressure fluctuation of the metering pump 34, a relatively large diameter thick pipe portion 44 for absorbing this fluctuation and continuous and uniform water injection As a diaphragm function, for example, 1 mm with an inner diameter of 0.7 mm
It has a length or inner diameter of 1 mm and a length of 3 m, and consists of a thin tube section 45. A relief valve 46 is provided between the thick pipe portion 44 on the discharge side of the measuring pump 34 and the tank 32.

Although the on-off valve 42 is provided between the tank 32 and the metering pump 34, the on-off valve 42 is disposed between the metering pump 34 and the thick pipe portion 44, between the thick pipe portion 44 and the thin pipe portion 45, or in the thin pipe portion 45. And check valve 35
May be provided between the check valve 35 and the check valve 35 and the hole 22. Next, the operation of the above-described embodiment will be described. First, the liquid such as water is stored in the tank 32. In this case, normally, water is directly supplied through a solenoid valve (not shown) or the like, and a fixed amount of water is stored by controlling opening / closing of the solenoid valve by a liquid level control element (not shown).
Subsequently, when the metering pump 34 is operated after opening the on-off valve 42,
The water in the tank 32 flows out from the opening / closing valve 42, is pressurized by the metering pump 34, passes through the water injection pipe 43 and the check valve 35, and is injected into the barrel 13A. At this time, the high-pressure water discharged from the metering pump 34 is stored while being received by the thick pipe portion 44, and the fluctuation of the protrusion pressure by the metering pump 34 is absorbed to become a uniform water pressure. Then, it is squeezed by the narrow tube portion 45 and continuously and uniformly flows through the check valve 35 into the hole 22 without interruption. Also,
By adjusting the relief valve 46, the internal pressure of the thick pipe portion 44 can be set to an arbitrary constant pressure.
It is possible to variably adjust the water injection amount by changing the internal pressure of 44.

FIG. 2 shows an essential part of another embodiment of the present invention, and in the above-mentioned first embodiment, the flow rate of the liquid is controlled by an opening / closing valve and a relief valve.
It was adjusted by 46, but in this example, it is performed by replacing the thin tube part. That is, the liquid injection device 51 is
From the metering pump 34 to the downstream of the large pipe portion 44 following the measuring pump 34, for example, three thin pipe portions 52A to 52C having different diameters or lengths or different diameters and lengths are connected in parallel, and the on-off valve 53A is provided downstream thereof.
To 53C are connected to each other, the downstreams thereof are merged into one, and the check valve 35 is connected further downstream thereof.

And the adjustment of the liquid injection amount is done by either one of the thin tube parts 52A to 52C.
Select a book or multiple books and open / close valves 53A to 53C downstream thereof
Wide adjustment is possible by opening. Relief valve
46 serves in this case to return the excess liquid sent from the metering pump 34 to the tank 32. The check valve 35 is unnecessary when there is no risk of backflow, but is necessary when the pressure of the barrel 13A or the like is high. Although water is used as an example of the liquid in the above description, it goes without saying that syrups and other seasoning liquids can be injected.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the liquid injection device of the food extruder according to the present invention is connected to the barrel of the food extruder by arranging the on-off valve, the metering pump and the water injection pipe in series from the tank storing the liquid, As the water injection pipe, a thick pipe portion having a liquid storage function and a thin pipe portion having a restriction function were connected in series.

Therefore, even if a pump whose discharge water pressure and discharge water amount fluctuate is used as a metering pump, the thick pipe portion has an accumulator function, that is, a liquid reservoir function, absorbs fluctuations in water pressure, and stores uniform high-pressure water while maintaining a thin pipe portion. Liquid is continuously and uniformly supplied to the downstream thereof. This has the advantage that intermittent injection as in the past is eliminated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a part of the present invention in section, FIG. 2 is a main part system diagram in another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a side view showing a part of a conventional example. 32 …… tank, 34 …… metering pump, 42 …… open / close valve, 43 …… water injection pipe, 44 …… thick pipe section, 45 …… thin tube section.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshio Suzuki 3-2068 Ooka, Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture Numazu Works, Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd. (56) References JP 59-82035 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A tank for storing a liquid such as water, a metering pump for pressurizing and discharging the liquid in the tank, and a series connection to the metering pump for allowing or blocking the discharge of the liquid in the liquid tank. An on-off valve and a liquid injection device of a food extruder comprising a water injection pipe connected to the downstream of the metering pump, wherein the water injection pipe is composed of a thick pipe portion having a liquid storing function and a thin pipe portion having a throttling function. A liquid injection device for a food extruder, characterized in that a relief valve is provided between the thick pipe portion and the tank.