Drying device

Abstract

The invention provides a drying device capable of reducing oil content in a dried object after drying treatment. The periphery of a bottom plate 54 of the drying chamber 18 is provided with a groove 58 for oil to flow and an auxiliary discharge port 62. Since the oil exuding from the object to be dried during the drying process is discharged through the auxiliary discharge port 62, the oil contained in the object to be dried after the drying process is reduced, and the oil extraction process can be eliminated or reduced when the object to be dried is used as a livestock feed or the like. In addition, when the object to be dried fed into the drying chamber (18) contains a large amount of moisture, the auxiliary discharge port (62) is closed immediately after the drying process is started, so that the object to be dried can be prevented from flowing out.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a drying device which heats and dries food residues and other dried materials, converts them from a muddy state to a block state, and then makes them into granules or fine powders for discharge. Background Art

[0002] The present inventors have developed and put into practical use an apparatus for drying food waste and other materials to be dried, converting them into granules or fine powders, and recycling them as fertilizers or livestock feed (Patent Document 1).

[0003] [Patent Literature]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent No. 4282551

[0005] If the dried material does not contain significant amounts of salt or fat, the dry granules or fine powder produced by the apparatus described in the aforementioned patent document can be shipped directly as livestock feed. However, if the powder produced by this apparatus contains significant amounts of oil, it will require post-processing to squeeze out the oil before shipping.

[0006] The above factors are the main obstacles to reducing processing costs. Food waste comes in a variety of forms, from food factory waste to household garbage and restaurant waste. Choosing the right post-processing step for each type of dried material becomes cumbersome.

[0007] The present invention is proposed to solve this problem and aims to provide a drying device that can simplify the above-mentioned post-processing steps. Summary of the invention

[0008] <Configuration 1>

[0009] The drying device of the present invention heats and dries the object to be dried, converting it from a muddy state to a block state, and then crushing it into granules or fine powder before discharging it. The device is characterized by comprising:

[0010] Cylindrical drying chamber;

[0011] A heating device for heating the inner wall surface and the upper surface plate of the bottom plate of the drying chamber;

[0012] a rotating shaft disposed at the center of the drying chamber;

[0013] A rotation driving device, which rotationally drives the rotating shaft;

[0014] a plurality of arms extending from the rotating shaft toward the inner wall surface of the drying chamber;

[0015] A plurality of stirring blades are installed at the ends of the plurality of arms, and have an upper surface for placing the object to be dried and causing it to jump up, and a scraping edge portion along the inner wall surface of the drying chamber;

[0016] Protrusions are arranged on the upper surface of the stirring blade for crushing the object to be dried; and

[0017] A plurality of bottom wiping blades extend along the inner wall surface direction on the upper surface of the bottom plate of the drying chamber,

[0018] wherein the bottom wiping blade has: while scraping and rolling up the object to be dried attached to the bottom plate of the drying chamber and conveying it towards the stirring blade, sending out the oil component adhering to the bottom surface of the drying chamber from the exudation of the object to be dried to the side surface of the groove provided on the outer periphery of the bottom surface of the drying chamber,

[0019] The groove has a bottom surface inclined in one direction,

[0020] The drying device is provided with an auxiliary discharge port for discharging the fat component to the outside of the drying chamber at a position where the oil component sent out by the bottom wiping blade and the oil component exuded from the object to be dried and flowing down along the wall surface of the drying chamber flow according to the inclination of the groove.

[0021] <Configuration 2>

[0022] The drying device according to Configuration 1, characterized in that: an opening and closing device is installed at the auxiliary discharge port, and when the humidity detected by the humidity detector for measuring the internal humidity of the drying chamber is below a preset value, the opening and closing device changes from the closed state to the open state and discharges the oil component from the auxiliary discharge port.

[0023] <Configuration 3>

[0024] The drying device according to Configuration 2, characterized in that: wherein, when the humidity detected by the humidity detector changes from the humidity when the opening and closing device is opened to below a lower preset value, the opening and closing device changes from the open state to the closed state.

[0025] <Configuration 4>

[0026] The drying device according to Configuration 2, characterized in that: wherein, after a preset time has elapsed since the opening and closing device is opened, it changes to the closed state.

[0027] <Configuration 5>

[0028] The drying device according to Configuration 1 is characterized in that: an opening / closing device is installed at the auxiliary discharge port, and after a preset time has elapsed since the start of the drying process, the opening / closing device is changed from the closed state to the open state, and the oil component is discharged from the auxiliary discharge port.

[0029] <Configuration 6>

[0030] The drying device according to Configuration 5 is characterized in that: the opening / closing device changes to the closed state after a preset time has elapsed since it was opened.

[0031] Advantages of the Invention

[0032] Since the oil component oozing out from the object to be dried is discharged from the auxiliary discharge port during the drying process, the oil content of the object to be dried after the drying process is reduced, and the process of extracting oil can be eliminated or alleviated when the object to be dried is used as livestock feed or the like.

[0033] When the object to be dried put into the drying chamber contains a large amount of moisture, it is possible to prevent the object to be dried from flowing out from the auxiliary discharge port immediately after the start of the drying process.

[0034] After the oil discharge is completed and the drying process is carried out, the opening / closing device of the auxiliary discharge port can be automatically closed, so that it is possible to prevent the granular or fine powder-like object to be dried from being discharged from the auxiliary discharge port. Description of the Drawings

[0035] Figure 1 is a perspective view of the overall configuration of the drying equipment of the first embodiment.

[0036] Figure 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the function of the auxiliary discharge port 62 for discharging the oil component. Among them, Figure 2 A is a perspective view of the bottom wiping blade 50 and the bottom plate 54. Figure 2 B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A thereof. Figure 2 C shows a part of the cross-section taken along the line B-B thereof, and is a cross-sectional view of the peripheral part of the auxiliary discharge port 62. Figure 2 D and Figure 2 E are diagrams for explaining the operation of the opening / closing device 60.

[0037] Figure 3 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of discharging the object to be dried at the end of the drying process. Figure 3 A is a perspective view showing only a part of the above-mentioned rotating shaft 22 and the bottom wiping blade 50. Figure 3 B is a perspective view showing the force received by the object to be dried 51 after the rotation of one bottom wiping blade 50 with a dotted arrow. Figure 3 C is a perspective view of the discharge port 16 provided at the lowermost part of the drying chamber 18 and the bottom wiping blade 50. Specific embodiments

[0038] The inventors have carefully observed and analyzed how the state of the dried material changes during the drying process in a drying apparatus. Their findings indicate that, in the case of food residue containing a large amount of water, a large amount of steam is initially generated after the drying process begins, and the water disappears. Continued stirring then causes the dried material to become clay-like, at which point oil seeps out of the material for a period of time. The oil seepage then ceases as the dried material gradually hardens into a lump. The dried material is then dried and pulverized into a fine powder, and the granular or fine powder discharged after the pulverization absorbs the oil that had previously seeped out. As a result of this verification, they developed the following device for extracting oil from the drying chamber during the drying process. The following describes the detailed implementation of the present invention using examples.

[0039] [Example 1]

[0040] (Overall structure of the device)

[0041] Figure 1 This is a perspective view of the overall structure of the drying device of Example 1. The device, except for the essential components, is illustrated with dashed lines. This device heats and dries the material to be dried, converting it from a sludge-like state to a bulk state, and then crushing it into granules or a fine powder for discharge. This device is a partial improvement of the device of Patent Document 1. The drying chamber 18 of this device is a vertical cylindrical shape, outlined by dashed lines. An inlet 14 for the material to be dried is provided on its upper cover.

[0042] At the lower end of drying chamber 18 is a discharge port 16 for discharging the dried material. After the drying process is complete, discharge port 16 is opened for discharge. The inner walls and bottom plate 54 of drying chamber 18 are heated by a heating device 20, such as a steam pipe. A rotating shaft 22, located at the center of drying chamber 18, is driven by a rotary drive device 24, such as an electric motor.

[0043] A plurality of arms 26 are fixed to the rotating shaft 22 at appropriate intervals in the vertical direction. The arms 26 extend from the rotating shaft 22 toward the inner wall of the drying chamber 18. A stirring blade 32 is attached to the end of each arm 26. The upper surface 28 of the stirring blade 32 supports and lifts the dried material. Furthermore, the scraping edge 30 of the stirring blade 32 scrapes off any dried material adhering to the inner wall of the drying chamber 18.

[0044] A blower blade 40 is mounted on the upper portion of the rotating shaft 22 to blow air downward from the drying chamber 18. This blower blade 40 circulates the dry hot air within the drying chamber 18. A protrusion 36 is provided on the upper surface 28 of the stirring blade 32 to break up the dried material that collides with it.

[0045] On the upper surface of the bottom plate 54 of the drying chamber 18, a plurality of bottom wiping blades 50 extending from the rotary shaft 22 toward the inner wall surface of the drying chamber 18 are provided. The bottom wiping blades 50 have a function of scraping and rolling up the object to be dried adhering to the upper surface of the bottom plate 54 of the drying chamber 18 and conveying it toward the stirring blades.

[0046] When the object to be dried is dried into granular or fine powder form, the discharge port 16 provided on the side wall at the lowermost part of the drying chamber 18 is opened to discharge the object to be dried. Moreover, the side surface of the bottom wiping blade 50 has a function of sending the oil component that oozes from the object to be dried and adheres to the upper surface of the bottom plate 54 of the drying chamber 18 toward the groove 58 provided on the outer periphery of the bottom plate 54 of the drying chamber 18.

[0047] Figure 2 It is an explanatory diagram showing the function of the auxiliary discharge port 62 for discharging the oil component. Among them, Figure 2 A is a perspective view of the bottom wiping blade 50 and the bottom plate 54. Figure 2 B is a sectional view taken along the line A-A thereof.

[0048] Figure 2 C shows a part of the sectional view taken along the line B-B thereof, and is a sectional view of the peripheral part of the auxiliary discharge port 62. Figure 2 D and Figure 2 E are diagrams for explaining the operation of the opening and closing device 60.

[0049] The groove 58 is arranged so as to surround the periphery of the bottom plate 54. As Figure 2 shown in B, when the bottom wiping blade 50 rotates in a way of sweeping the upper surface of the bottom plate 54, the oil component adhering to the bottom plate 54 due to centrifugal force is sent to the groove 58. As Figure 2 shown in C, the groove 58 has a bottom surface inclined in one direction. The oil component sent by the bottom wiping blade 50 and the oil component that oozes from the object to be dried and flows down along the wall surface of the drying chamber 18 accumulate in the groove 58.

[0050] The oil component flows downward along the inclination of the bottom surface of the groove 58. The auxiliary discharge port 62 is arranged at the lowermost part of the bottom surface at its front end. The fat component in the groove 58 can be discharged to the outside of the drying chamber 18 from the auxiliary discharge port 62. Figure 2 D and Figure 2 E are explained in combination with the operation of the following device.

[0051] (Operation of the device)

[0052] The operation of the device of the present invention is described below. The object to be dried processed by this device is, for example, food residues after removing incombustibles or polyethylene containers in advance. The food residues are dried into granular or fine powder form and reused as livestock feed or the like.

[0053] Food residues come in various types. There are household garbage, wastes from food factories, wastes from food stores and cooking sites, etc. All contain a large amount of moisture before being put into this device. After being put in and heated and stirred, the whole gradually becomes a muddy state.

[0054] Stir the stirring blade 32 with the above-mentioned device. If the material to be dried is stirred while heating continues, the moisture in the material to be dried will gradually disappear, and the material to be dried will become a clay-like block. While crushing the lumpy material to be dried with the protrusion 36 on the above-mentioned arm 26 or the stirring blade 32 and making it jump upward, the material to be dried is further crushed. When the water content reaches about 30%, it will become granular with a diameter of about 10 mm. Sometimes it is discharged and used in this state. In addition, when the water content reaches about 10%, it will become fine powder with a diameter of about 1 mm, and sometimes it is made into fine powder and utilized in this way. Control the drying time according to the use.

[0055] The lumps attached to the inner wall of the drying chamber 18 are scraped off by the scraping edge 30 of the stirring blade 32 and jump up and are crushed. The bottom wiping blade 50 arranged at the lower end of the rotating shaft 22 peels off the material to be dried attached to the bottom plate 54 and makes it bounce up. In this way, the material to be dried finally becomes granular or fine powder. Finally, the material to be dried can be discharged from the discharge port 16 through the rotating bottom wiping blade 50.

[0056] In the middle of the above-mentioned drying process, most of the moisture contained in the material to be dried is discharged. When the material to be dried is in a clay-like or lumpy state, oil seeps out from the material to be dried. This oil flows down along the inner wall of the drying chamber 18 or along the rotating shaft 22 to the bottom plate 54. This phenomenon is temporary. If the stirring and drying and crushing processes are continued subsequently, the oil will be absorbed by the material to be dried again. As a result, in the past, the material to be dried discharged in a granular or fine powder state contained a large amount of oil, and after passing through the process of squeezing out the oil, it was put on the market as livestock feed.

[0057] In the device of the present invention, this oil can be discharged during the drying process, so that the oil content in the material to be dried discharged in a granular or fine powder state is sufficiently reduced. That is, the above-mentioned device uses the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the bottom wiping blade 50 to sweep the oil attached to the bottom plate 54 by the bottom wiping blade 50 toward the outer peripheral direction of the bottom plate 54.

[0058] This oil flows into the groove 58. The oil flowing down along the inner wall of the drying chamber 18 also flows into the groove 58. As shown in the reference Figure 2 described, the groove 58 is arranged around the outer periphery of the bottom plate 54, and the auxiliary discharge port 62 is arranged at one position of the groove 58. The depth of the bottom surface of the groove 58 is inclined as a whole so that it becomes deeper toward the auxiliary discharge port 62.

[0059] That is, the oil flowing into the tank 58 flows down toward the auxiliary discharge port 62 due to the inclination of the bottom surface of the tank 58. If the auxiliary discharge port 62 is opened during the drying process, the oil is discharged therefrom. Since the bottom plate 54 is heated, the viscosity of the oil becomes low, and the oil easily flows in the tank 58 and is discharged from the auxiliary discharge port 62.

[0060] When the drying process proceeds to the point where the object to be dried becomes a granular or fine powder, as described above, the powder of the object to be dried is discharged from the discharge port 16 provided on the side of the bottom plate 54. At this time, since the oil on the upper surface and the periphery of the bottom plate 54 has been discharged, it is possible to prevent the dried object to be dried from absorbing oil and being discharged. Therefore, in the case of using the dried object to be dried as livestock feed, there is no need for an operation to extract oil in the subsequent process, or it has the effect of being able to shorten the processing time for extracting oil.

[0061] In addition, when the object to be dried introduced into the drying chamber 18 at the start of the drying process is mostly a mud-like substance containing a large amount of water. In this case, if the auxiliary discharge port 62 is opened, there will be a problem that the object to be dried flows out from here. Therefore, the following control is performed.

[0062] When heating and stirring the object to be dried containing a large amount of moisture, first, a large amount of water vapor is discharged. If it is crushed and stirred and the moisture content decreases, the object to be dried becomes a clay-like mass. By then, there is no longer a concern about the object to be dried flowing out from the auxiliary discharge port 62. In addition, at that time, the oil will seep out from the clay-like object to be dried all at once. At this time, if the auxiliary discharge port 62 is opened, the oil can be efficiently discharged. That is, the opening and closing device 60 transfers from Figure 2 the state of E to Figure 2 the state of D.

[0063] Therefore, in the case of an object to be dried whose properties are known in advance, it can be controlled to open the auxiliary discharge port 62 after a specified time obtained from experience has elapsed since the start of the drying process. Alternatively, a buzzer can be sounded at the moment when the auxiliary discharge port 62 should be opened to prompt the operator to perform the opening operation.

[0064] If the auxiliary discharge port 62 is opened too early, the object to be dried will flow out from the auxiliary discharge port 62. If the timing of opening the auxiliary discharge port 62 is too late, the oil will remain on the upper surface of the bottom plate 54 and a part of it will be burned. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, a mechanism is provided to control the opening of the auxiliary discharge port 62 at the optimal timing even when drying objects with different properties are processed each time.

[0065] In the apparatus of this embodiment, a humidity detector 64 for detecting the humidity inside the drying chamber 18 is installed. Shortly after the start of the drying process, a large amount of moisture evaporates, and the humidity inside the drying chamber 18 becomes 100%. After that, when the object to be dried becomes clay-like, the humidity inside the drying chamber 18 decreases. For example, when the humidity is 60% or less, the opening / closing device 60 is actuated to open the auxiliary discharge port 62.

[0066] Thereby, the oil accumulated in the rear groove 58 flows out from the auxiliary discharge port 62. After that, the auxiliary discharge port 62 can be kept open, or it can be closed at an appropriate time. However, when the object to be dried becomes granular or fine powder, sometimes the object to be dried may flow out from the auxiliary discharge port 62 through the above-mentioned groove 58.

[0067] To prevent this, for example, the opening / closing device 60 can return from the open state to the closed state when the humidity detected by the humidity detector 64 becomes lower than a preset value that is lower than the humidity at the time when the opening / closing device 60 is opened. That is, the opening / closing device 60 transfers from the Figure 2 state of D to the Figure 2 state of E.

[0068] In addition, the on / off device 60 can be controlled to shift to the closed state when a preset time has elapsed since it was opened.

[0069]

Embodiment 2

[0070] (Discharge of dried product)

[0071] Figure 3 It is an explanatory diagram of the operation of discharging the object to be dried at the end of the drying process. Among them, Figure 3 A only shows a part of the above-mentioned rotating shaft 22 and the bottom wiping blade 50, and is a perspective view showing the state when discharging the dried object 51 that has become granular or fine powder. Figure 3 B is a perspective view showing the force applied to the dried object 51 due to the rotation of one bottom wiping blade 50 by a dotted arrow. Since there are no protrusions 36 on the surface of the bottom wiping blade 50 like the stirring blade 32, the dried object 51 is slidably pushed toward the inner wall of the drying chamber 18 under the action of centrifugal force.

[0072] Figure 3 C is a perspective view of the discharge port 16 provided at the lowermost part of the drying chamber 18 and the bottom wiping blade 50 (shown by a dotted line). At the end of the drying process, the door 52 of the discharge port 16 is opened, and the dried object extruded by the bottom wiping blade 50 is discharged from the discharge port 16.

[0073] As described above, the bottom wiping blade 50 can not only effectively remove the oil during the drying process, but also be effectively used for the discharge process of the dried object after the drying process.

[0074] Symbol Explanation

[0075] 14 Inlet

[0076] 16 Outlet

[0077] 18 Drying Chamber

[0078] 20 Heating Device

[0079] 22 Rotating Shaft

[0080] 24 Rotation Driving Mechanism

[0081] 26 Arm

[0082] 28 Upper Surface

[0083] 30 Scraping Edge

[0084] 32 Stirring Blade

[0085] 36 Protrusion

[0086] 38 Branch End

[0087] 40 Air Supply Blade

[0088] 48 Flat Surface

[0089] 50 Bottom Scraping Blade

[0090] 51 Object to be Dried

[0091] 52 Door

[0092] 54 Bottom Plate

[0093] 56 Arrow

[0094] 58 Groove

[0095] 60 Switching Device

[0096] 62 Auxiliary Outlet

[0097] 64 Humidity Detector

Claims

1. A drying device that heats and dries the material to be dried, converting it from a muddy state to a block state, and then crushing it into granules or fine powder before discharging it, characterized in that: Comprising: A cylindrical drying chamber; A heating device for heating the inner wall surface of the drying chamber and the upper panel of the bottom plate; A rotating shaft disposed at the center of the drying chamber; A rotary drive device for rotationally driving the rotating shaft; A plurality of arms extending from the rotating shaft toward the inner wall surface of the drying chamber; A plurality of stirring blades mounted at the ends of the plurality of arms, having an upper surface for placing and lifting the object to be dried and a scraping edge portion along the inner wall surface of the drying chamber; Protrusions disposed on the upper surface of the stirring blade for crushing the object to be dried; And A plurality of bottom wiping blades extending along the inner wall surface direction on the upper surface of the bottom plate of the drying chamber, wherein the bottom wiping blade has: while scraping and rolling up the object to be dried attached to the bottom plate of the drying chamber and conveying it toward the stirring blade, sending out the oil component adhering to the bottom surface of the drying chamber that oozes from the object to be dried to the side surface of a groove provided on the outer periphery of the bottom surface of the drying chamber, The groove has a bottom surface inclined in one direction, The drying device is provided with an auxiliary discharge port for discharging the fat component to the outside of the drying chamber at a position where the oil component sent out by the bottom wiping blade and the oil component oozing from the object to be dried and flowing down along the wall surface of the drying chamber flow according to the inclination of the groove.

2. The drying device according to claim 1, wherein: Among them, An opening and closing device is installed at the auxiliary discharge port, and when the humidity detected by a humidity detector for measuring the internal humidity of the drying chamber is below a preset value, the opening and closing device changes from the closed state to the open state, and discharges the oil component from the auxiliary discharge port.

3. The drying device according to claim 2, wherein: Among them, When the humidity detected by the humidity detector becomes lower than a preset value lower than the humidity when the opening and closing device is opened, the opening and closing device changes from the open state to the closed state.

4. The drying device according to claim 2, wherein: Among them, The opening and closing device changes to the closed state after a preset time has elapsed since it was opened.

5. The drying device according to claim 1, wherein: Among them, An opening and closing device is installed at the auxiliary discharge port, and after a preset time has elapsed since the start of the drying process, the opening and closing device changes from the closed state to the open state, and discharges the oil component from the auxiliary discharge port.

6. The drying device according to claim 5, wherein: Among them, The opening and closing device changes to the closed state after a preset time has elapsed since it was opened.

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