Somen drying room

Abstract

To provide a noodle drying room with rectified air flow.SOLUTION: Some of a plurality of ceiling fans suspended from a ceiling are rotated forward and the remaining ceiling fans are reversely rotated to have an air velocity of a predetermined speed or higher at the lower part of the noodle line wrapped around the banner, and wind tunnels with a predetermined length are provided on at least the ceiling fans reversely rotated. The ceiling fan has a blade structure in which the air blowing force is greater in the center in the radial direction and the wind tunnel is configured to correspond only to a predetermined diameter in the center of the ceiling fan. According to the above configuration, an air flow rectified from the upper side to the lower side and from the lower side to the upper side in a drying room is generated, which reduces the unnecessary air flow in the drying room and reduces the energy consumption of the entire noodle drying room and increases the drying effect.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a noodle drying chamber in which noodles are dried by applying wind generated by a plurality of ceiling fans, and more particularly to a noodle drying chamber capable of increasing the yield of high-quality somen noodles. [Background technology]

[0002] The following methods are typical for producing noodles such as somen.

[0003] That is, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, raw material flour is kneaded to form lumps called balls, which are then stretched into strings (diameter of about 5 to 10 mm) and wrapped around a pair of upper and lower rods called tubes (the distance between the upper and lower tubes is about 50 cm) in a sash-like shape.The noodle strings wound around these tubes are then stretched (about 2 mm) and hung on a banner.

[0004] As shown in the oblique view of Figure 7, for example, the above-mentioned banner 100 is configured such that a pair of upper and lower tube holders 102, 103 are supported on a pillar 101 so that they can be raised and lowered. The end of an upper tube 104, around which noodle strings are wound multiple times in a sash-like shape, is supported by the upper tube holder 102, and the end of a lower tube 105 is supported by the lower tube holder 103.

[0005] Next, the stretched noodles are dried by blowing air from above onto them using an electric fan installed on the ceiling (hereafter referred to as a "ceiling fan"). As shown in Fig. 8, this ceiling fan generally has four blades 13 connected radially to the output shaft of a motor 11 via a hub 12.

[0006] Finally, the noodles dried as described above are cut to a predetermined length. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0007] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 167750 / 1983 [Patent Document 2] Patent No. 3571035 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0008] The air blown simultaneously from the multiple ceiling fans F toward the noodles blows straight down, so the air that stops at the floor surface does not form a flow near the floor surface and becomes stagnant. As a result, the actual situation is that about 30% of the noodles on the bottom are not dried sufficiently and are of low quality.

[0009] To improve this, the applicant of this application proposed in Patent 3571035 (Patent Document 2) to rotate some of the above-mentioned ceiling fans in the reverse direction, which succeeded in reducing the defective rate of products. In this configuration, the ceiling fan that rotates in the reverse direction sucks up the air at the bottom of the drying chamber, so that the air blown out by the ceiling fan that rotates in the forward direction reaches the bottom of the drying chamber.

[0010] However, according to the above-mentioned Patent 3571035 (Patent Document 2), the airflow directions of adjacent ceiling fans are opposite to each other, so the airflow blown out from a specific forward-rotating ceiling fan is snatched by an adjacent reverse-rotating ceiling fan, forming a very rough airflow, resulting in poor efficiency and increased electricity costs.

[0011] In other words, the purpose of Patent Document 2 is to improve the air flow near the floor and promote the drying of the noodles near the bottom tube, but when imagining a situation in which rectified air circulation is formed from the top to the bottom of the drying chamber and from the bottom to the top as the ideal air flow in a drying chamber, the air flow formed by Patent Document 2 was an extremely rough circulation.

[0012] The present invention has been proposed in light of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and aims to provide a high-quality noodle product by thoroughly drying the bottom of the noodle strings. Somen noodlesIn addition to increasing the yield, the creation of a rectified airflow throughout the room reduces energy consumption. Somen noodles The purpose is to provide a drying room. [Means for solving the problem]

[0013] The present invention Somen noodles The drying chamber employs the following means to achieve the above objectives:

[0014] In the present invention, a plurality of ceiling fans having a blade structure that generates a parallel flow that is stronger toward the center in the radial direction are suspended from the ceiling in a somen drying chamber for drying somen. Some of the ceiling fans, the forward rotating fans, rotate forward to push air downward. The remaining ceiling fans, the reverse rotating fans, rotate reversely to suck up air below the strings of noodles wound around a fan, generating a wind speed above a predetermined speed below the strings of noodles.

[0015] The above A wind tunnel with a predetermined length and a diameter corresponding only to the central part of the ceiling fan that generates a strong parallel flow is provided on the ceiling side of both the forward and reverse rotating fans. . Effect of the Invention

[0016] According to the above configuration, a straight air flow is formed from the top to the bottom and from the bottom to the top in the drying chamber, which makes it possible to suppress unnecessary air flow in the drying chamber, reduce the energy consumption of the entire noodle drying chamber, and increase the drying effect. In other words, there is an advantage in that the number of ceiling fans can be reduced or the rotation speed can be reduced.

[0017] In particular, by using a ceiling fan with greater airflow power toward the center of its diameter and making the diameter of the air tunnel large enough to correspond only to the center of the ceiling fan, it is possible to utilize the airflow power of the center of the ceiling fan to form a straightened circulating flow, and also to effectively utilize the airflow that is sent out radially from the end of the ceiling fan. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0018] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the main parts of the somen drying chamber in the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a ceiling fan used in the present invention. [Diagram 3] 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a blade of a ceiling fan used in the present invention. [Figure 4] A diagram showing the installation location of a ceiling fan. [Diagram 5] A diagram showing the locations of the flags. [Figure 6] FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 7] A perspective view of a banner. [Figure 8] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional ceiling fan. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0019] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Since the process other than the drying of the noodle strings is the same as the conventional process, a detailed description will be omitted here. Furthermore, since the configuration of the flag is the same as the conventional process, the same reference numerals will be used here for the description.

[0020] In the present invention Somen noodles The drying chamber is equipped with multiple ceiling fans F (forward rotating ceiling fan F1, reverse rotating ceiling fan F2) at appropriate intervals as shown in Fig. 1. Note that, although the forward rotating ceiling fans F1 and the reverse rotating ceiling fans F2 are alternately arranged in Fig. 1, this is not limited to this, as will be explained later.

[0021] As the ceiling fan, the ceiling fan shown in Figs. 2 and 3 can be used.

[0022] As shown in the oblique view of Figure 2, the ceiling fan F comprises a motor 1 with a reducer that is supported on the ceiling, a hub 2 fixed to the output shaft, and four blades 3 that are radially connected around the hub 2.

[0023] Each blade 3 is composed of a frame 4 extending from the hub 2 to the blade tip, and an iron plate (blade) 5 welded to the frame 4. As shown in the cross-sectional view of Figure 3, the blade 5 is bent in an "H" shape at the frame 4, and is arranged so that the inclination angle θb of the lower blade portion 5b to the plane of rotation is larger than the inclination angle θa of the upper blade portion 5a to the plane of rotation. The angle θ that the chord line of the blade 5 makes with the plane of rotation (i.e., the blade angle) is uniform from the blade root to the blade tip, and the distance between the front line 6 and the rear line 7 of the blade 5 decreases uniformly from the blade root side to the blade tip side.

[0024] The outer diameter of the blades 3 may be appropriately designed taking into consideration the output of the motor 1, the size of the area to be blown, the amount of blown air, etc. In general, increasing the outer diameter of the blades 3 has the advantage of increasing the blowing area, but has the disadvantage of increasing the manufacturing and running costs because it becomes necessary to increase the blade cross-sectional area to provide the blades 3 or 5 with the necessary strength. Taking these pros and cons into consideration, it is preferable that the outer diameter of the blades 3 is 1,000 to 2,000 mm.

[0025] The shape and size of the blade 5 may be appropriately designed taking into consideration the blade outer diameter, rotation speed, air volume, etc. For example, the blade outer diameter is 1400 mm, the rotation speed is 340 rpm, and the air volume is 130 m 3 In the case of a blade speed of 1000 / min, it is preferable that the length from the blade root side to the blade tip is 587 mm, the distance between the front line 6 and the rear line 7 at the blade root side is 160 mm, and the distance between the front line 6 and the rear line 7 at the blade tip is 110 mm.

[0026] When bending the cross section of the blade 5, the included angle α between the upper blade portion 5a and the lower blade portion 5b is preferably 120° to 170° (about 150° in this embodiment). That is, if the included angle α is smaller than 120°, there are disadvantages in that the processing becomes cumbersome and the air blowing efficiency decreases. On the other hand, if the included angle α is larger than 170°, there is a disadvantage in that the effect of widening the air blowing direction in the rotation direction of the blade 3 is significantly reduced.

[0027] In this embodiment, the vane 5 is bent in an "E" shape, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, the vane 5 may be bent at two or more points between the front line 6 and the rear line 7, or may be curved uniformly between the front line 6 and the rear line 7.

[0028] In addition, the blade angle θ, the upper blade angle θa, the lower blade angle θb, and the number of blades are not particularly limited. In other words, these may be appropriately designed taking into consideration the dimensions of the blades 3, the rotation speed, the amount of air blown, and the like.

[0029] As mentioned above, when the blade width is large at the center and small at the periphery, the wind speed at the center tends to increase in parallel. On the other hand, at the blade tip side, the wind diverging in the radial direction of the blade 3 is blown down.

[0030] The noodle strings (hand-pulled noodles) hanging from the banner are pulled by upper tube 104 and lower tube 105 as described above, so they do not sway in a slight breeze. However, when a strong parallel flow is blown downward in the center and a diffusive wind is blown downwards on the periphery as described above, the wind blows from between the upper tube and the upper part of the noodle strings wrapped around it into the gap between the noodle strings below, swaying the noodle strings as they flow downward and drying the lower parts of the noodle strings. As a result, the yield of high-quality somen that is sufficiently dried and white can be increased, and the incidence of low-quality products that are insufficiently dried and brownish can be reduced to, for example, less than 10%.

[0031] Although merely changing the shape of the blades of ceiling fan F in this way can have a significant effect, the applicant further adopted the following technique in Patent Document 2, which succeeded in drying the lower part of the noodle strings more thoroughly.

[0032] That is, the noodle drying chamber disclosed in Patent Document 2 is equipped with multiple ceiling fans F at appropriate intervals, as shown in Figure 1, and these ceiling fans F are arranged to rotate in opposite directions alternately in the order in which they are arranged.

[0033] According to Patent Document 2, the air flow near the bed is improved, and the defective rate of somen noodles after drying can be significantly improved.

[0034] However, although the presence of the reverse-rotating ceiling fan F improves the air flow near the floor, the presence of a reverse-rotating ceiling fan F next to a forward-rotating ceiling fan F severely turbulently disturbs the air flow throughout the entire space of the drying room, making it far from a "straightened" state. In other words, the air flow is unnecessarily turbulent, resulting in a large loss of energy.

[0035] If the forward rotating ceiling fan F and the reverse rotating ceiling fan F are brought closer to the noodles hung on the banner, the above-mentioned waste will be reduced, but the difference between the areas near the upper tube where the wind hits the noodles strongly and weakly will become greater, which will cause drying spots.

[0036] Prior to the invention disclosed in Patent Document 2, the drying work was carried out using a ceiling fan that only rotated in the forward direction, which was sufficient to dry the area around the upper tube. Therefore, the reverse-rotating ceiling fan F contributes to creating a flow by sucking up the air near the floor and then blowing in the air from the forward-rotating ceiling fan F.

[0037] Taking the above into consideration, the present invention is configured to provide an air duct 202 extending upward at least in the direction of airflow from the reverse-rotating ceiling fan F2, as shown in Figures 1 and 6. Of course, an air duct 201 extending upward may also be provided behind the direction of airflow from the forward-rotating ceiling fan F1.

[0038] As mentioned above, the ceiling fan F (forward rotation F1, reverse rotation F2) used in the present invention has a large blade width in the center and a small blade width at the periphery. Therefore, the wind tunnel 201202 is sufficient to be configured to enclose only the area that generates a strong parallel flow in the center. With this configuration, the wind speed in the center increases faster and more parallel in the direction perpendicular to the diameter (directly below and directly above), and on the blade tip side, an air flow is formed that diffuses in the radial direction of the blades 3.

[0039] In addition, for ease of understanding, Figures 1 and 6 show the forward-rotating ceiling fan F1 and the reverse-rotating ceiling fan F2 adjacent to each other in a one-to-one relationship, but the actual arrangement is more complicated, as shown in Figure 4 (explained later).

[0040] With the above configuration, the center of the air flow from ceiling fan F1 rotating in the forward direction is straightened by air tunnel 201, pushing the air downward. Ceiling fan F2 rotating in the reverse direction draws up air from the space below the drying chamber, but because air tunnel 202 is provided as described above, the air flow from the space below the drying chamber to the space above is straightened and less turbulent. This straightened upward air flow reduces the air pressure at the bottom of the drying chamber, and the air blown downward from ceiling fan F1 rotating in the forward direction reaches the vicinity of the bottom pipe of the flag.

[0041] The air blown upward from the ceiling fan F2 rotating in the reverse direction is also rectified by the air tunnel 202, so that the air is blown up to the ceiling of the drying chamber 20 before returning to the ceiling fan F1 rotating in the forward direction.

[0042] As a result, the circulating air flow that flows from the ceiling fan F1 in forward rotation to the ceiling fan F2 in reverse rotation and back to the ceiling fan F1 in forward rotation is generated in a more streamlined and cleaner state, eliminating waste in the air flow, improving the drying effect, and reducing the amount of electricity used.

[0043] In the above, air ducts 201, 202 are provided for both the forward rotating ceiling fan F1 and the reverse rotating ceiling fan F2, but it is also possible to provide air duct 202 at least for the reverse rotating ceiling fan F2.

[0044] In other words, the reverse rotation ceiling fan F2 has its blades positioned backward in the direction of airflow, making it easier to achieve a straightened airflow. If the forward rotation side were to have the same configuration as above, it would be necessary to place the wind tunnel 201 on the opposite side to the state depicted in Figures 1 and 4. However, in this case, the wind tunnel would protrude on the opposite side of the motor 1, which creates the problem that it would be impossible to hold the wind tunnel on the motor 1.

[0045] In addition, in the above description, a forward rotating ceiling fan F1 and a reverse rotating ceiling fan F2 are arranged side by side in a one-to-one relationship. More specifically, however, the arrangement within the drying chamber 20 may be, for example, as shown in FIG.

[0046] Somen noodlesDrying chamber 20 has a rectangular area, and eight ceiling fans F are installed on the ceiling of each of areas 21-23 that are roughly equal parts of the rectangular area. Here, a total of three independent inverters, one for each of areas 21-23, control the rotation speed and direction of motor 1 of ceiling fan F. Distances L3 and L4 between ceiling fans F are both 1.8 m, and ceiling fans F are installed 2.7 m above the floor.

[0047] As shown in Fig. 5, five banners 100 are arranged horizontally in each of the areas 21 to 23. The distance L5 between the banners 100 is 1.25 m, and the distance L6 between the noodles wrapped around the banners 100 is 0.15 m. The height of the banners 100 is about 2 m, and therefore there is a gap of several tens of centimeters between the banners 100 and the ceiling fan.

[0048] Under such conditions, the ceiling fans in the sections 21 and 23 at both ends may be rotated forward and the ceiling fan F2 in the central section 22 may be rotated in reverse. Also, the sections 21 and 23 at both ends may be rotated in reverse and the central section may be rotated forward.

[0049] Even in such a case, a straightened circulating flow is generated throughout the drying chamber 20, so if the same number of ceiling fans F as before are used, the noodles will be dried evenly even if the rotation speed of each ceiling fan F is reduced, resulting in labor savings. Also, when operating at the same rotation speed as before, the number of fans used can be reduced. [Explanation of symbols]

[0050] 20 Somen noodles drying room F(F1, F2) Ceiling fan 100 Banner 201, 202 Wind tunnel

Claims

[Claim 1] In a somen drying chamber for drying somen, Multiple ceiling fans are hung from the ceiling and have a blade structure that creates a parallel flow that is stronger in the center of the radial direction. A positive rotation fan that is a part of the plurality of ceiling fans and rotates in a positive direction to push air downward; a counter-rotating fan which is the remaining part of the plurality of ceiling fans and which rotates in a counter-rotating manner to suck up air under the noodles wound around the fan and generate a wind speed of a predetermined speed or higher under the noodles; A wind tunnel having a predetermined length and a diameter corresponding only to a portion of the center of the ceiling fan that generates a strong parallel flow is provided on the ceiling side of both the forward and reverse rotating fans. A somen drying chamber comprising:

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