Material Applying Device

Abstract

To provide an ingredients giving device that can give ingredients with high positional accuracy.SOLUTION: An ingredients giving device includes: an ingredients giving head 1; an ingredients feeder that feeds the ingredients giving head with ingredients 2; and a conveyor 5 that conveys an object 4 having the ingredients to be given thereto to under the ingredients giving head. The ingredients giving head includes a vertically erected, hollow cylindrical barrel 14. Below the barrel, provided is a shutter member 15 to open / close an opening on the bottom side of the barrel. Above the barrel, provided is a depression member 16 to vertically slide inside the barrel. Between the shutter member that is closing the opening on the bottom side of the barrel and the depression member at the upper moving limit, provided is a quantitative chamber 17 having a predetermined volume. Ingredients are fed from the ingredients feeder to the quantitative chamber for measurement, causing the shutter member to be driven to open the opening on the bottom side of the barrel and also causing the depression member to move down to depress the quantified ingredients, so that the ingredients drop onto the object.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an ingredient applying device.

Background Art

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses that after applying ingredients onto sheet-shaped rice, the sheet-shaped rice is folded and molded so as to sandwich the ingredients inside, thereby manufacturing a rice ball filled with ingredients. Here, the application of ingredients is performed manually.

[0003] On the other hand, Patent Document 2 discloses a fluid discharging device including a cylindrical body and a valve body that is equally arranged at the tip of the cylindrical body and is configured to open and close according to the internal pressure of the cylindrical body, and is provided with a nozzle made of silicone rubber.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Patent Document 2

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] It is conceivable to perform the application of ingredients to the rice ball in Patent Document 1 using a fluid discharging device as disclosed in Patent Document 2 instead of manually. However, conventional devices including Patent Document 2 have room for further improvement from the viewpoint of accurately applying ingredients to the rice ball, especially when the ingredients are solid foods.

[0006] One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an ingredient applying device capable of accurately applying ingredients.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0007] According to the present invention, the following ingredient applying device can be provided. 1. An ingredient applying head, an ingredient supply device for supplying an ingredient to the ingredient applying head, a conveying device for conveying an object to which the ingredient is to be applied below the ingredient applying head, and comprising the ingredient applying head includes a hollow cylindrical barrel portion erected vertically, a shutter member for opening and closing an opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion is disposed below the barrel portion, a pressing member that slides up and down in the barrel portion is disposed above the barrel portion, a fixed - volume chamber is formed between the shutter member in a state of closing the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion and the pressing member at its upper limit of upward movement, when the ingredient is supplied from the ingredient supply device to the fixed - volume chamber and quantified, the shutter member is driven to open the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion, and the pressing member moves downward to push down the quantified ingredient, thereby dropping the ingredient toward the object to which the ingredient is to be applied. The ingredient applying device is characterized by this. 2. The ingredient applying device according to 1, wherein the downward movement speed of the pressing member is 0.5 to 2 m / s. 3. The ingredient applying device according to 1 or 2, wherein the ingredient is a flaky solid food. 4. The ingredient applying device according to any one of 1 to 3, wherein the object to which the ingredient is to be applied is food. 5. The ingredient applying device according to 4, wherein the food is a rice ball or a sheet - shaped cooked rice before being formed into a rice ball. 6. The ingredient applying device according to any one of 1 to 5, wherein the ingredient supply device is a screw feeder.

Advantages of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, an ingredient applying device capable of accurately applying an ingredient can be provided.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0009]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Embodiments for Carrying out the Invention

[0010] Hereinafter, the ingredient - applying device of the present invention will be described in detail.

[0011] FIG. 1 is a figure conceptually explaining the ingredient - applying device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] In the present embodiment, the ingredient - applying device includes an ingredient - applying head 1, a screw feeder (ingredient supply device) 3 that supplies the ingredient 2 to the ingredient - applying head 1, and a conveyor (transport device) 5 that transports a rice ball (object to be applied with the ingredient) 4 to which the ingredient 2 is to be applied from the ingredient - applying head 1.

[0013] In the present embodiment, the ingredient 2 is a flaky solid food. As the flaky solid food, for example, salmon flakes, tuna flakes, etc. are particularly suitable.

[0014] FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing the rice ball 4 to be applied to the ingredient - applying device of FIG. 1.

[0015] In this embodiment, the rice ball 4 is formed in a triangular shape. This rice ball 4 has two main surfaces 6 and 7 that are parallel to each other, and a side peripheral portion 8 that connects the edges of these two main surfaces 6 and 7. The two main surfaces 6 and 7 are each triangular. Note that the shape of the rice ball 4 (the shape given to the main surfaces 6 and 7) is not limited to a triangular shape, and may be, for example, a D shape, a circular shape, or the like.

[0016] On one main surface 6 of the rice ball 4, a material groove 9 for filling the material 2 is formed. This material groove 9 is the target when the material applying head 1 applies the material 2. The dimensions of the material groove 9 are not particularly limited. The diameter of the material groove 9 is, for example, 10 to 40 mm, preferably 12 to 30 mm, more preferably 15 to 25 mm. The depth of the material groove 9 is, for example, 5 to 20 mm, preferably 10 to 15 mm.

[0017] The screw feeder 3 includes a housing 10 and a screw blade 11 rotatably provided in the housing 10. The screw feeder 3 also includes a hopper 12 for supplying the material 2 to one end side of the screw blade 11. The screw feeder 3 is configured to convey the material 2 supplied to one end side of the screw blade 11 by the rotation of the screw blade 11 to the other end side of the screw blade 11, and discharge it from a discharge port that opens at the end of the material supply pipe 13 through the material supply pipe 13 having an inlet at the other end side.

[0018] The rice balls 4 are intermittently supplied from a processing device (not shown) provided upstream of the material applying device to the upstream side of the conveying conveyor 5. The processing device provided upstream of the material applying device is not particularly limited, and may be, for example, one or more selected from the group consisting of a rice ball forming device and a salt sprinkling device.

[0019] The conveying conveyor 5 is configured to sequentially convey the rice ball 4 with the main surface 6 on which the ingredient groove 9 is formed facing upward below the ingredient applying head 1. Further, the conveying conveyor 5 is configured to temporarily stop the conveyance when the ingredient groove 9 of the rice ball 4 reaches directly below the ingredient applying head 1. During this stop period, the ingredient 2 is applied from the ingredient applying head 1 to the ingredient groove 9. The conveying conveyor 5 resumes the conveyance after the application of the ingredient 2 and conveys the next rice ball 4 (the rice ball 4 to which the ingredient 2 has not been applied) below the ingredient applying head 1.

[0020] The rice ball 4 to which the ingredient 2 has been applied is conveyed to the downstream side of the conveying conveyor 5 and introduced into a processing device (not shown) provided downstream of the ingredient applying device. The processing device provided downstream of the ingredient applying device is not particularly limited and may be, for example, one or more selected from the group consisting of a nori wrapping device and a packaging device.

[0021] FIG. 3 is a diagram conceptually explaining the ingredient applying head 1 included in the ingredient applying device of FIG. 1.

[0022] In the present embodiment, the ingredient applying head 1 includes a hollow cylindrical barrel portion 14 erected vertically, and a shutter member 15 for opening and closing the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion 14 is disposed below the barrel portion 14. At the same time, a pressing member 16 that slides up and down inside the barrel portion 14 is disposed above the barrel portion 14. The shutter member 15 can be configured to open and close the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion 14 by being connected to an arbitrary drive mechanism such as an air cylinder and sliding in a direction orthogonal to the vertical direction. The pressing member 16 can be configured to slide up and down inside the barrel portion 14 by being connected to an arbitrary drive mechanism such as an air cylinder and moving up and down vertically between the upper movement limit and the lower movement limit.

[0023] Further, a metering chamber 17 with a predetermined volume is formed between a shutter member 15 closing the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion 14 and a pressing member 16 at the upper limit of upward movement. And, the discharge port of the ingredient supply pipe 13 opens flush with the inner surface of the barrel portion 14, and an ingredient application head 1 is connected to the end of the ingredient supply pipe 13 so as to discharge the ingredient 2 into the metering chamber 17. Thereby, the ingredient 2 is supplied from the screw feeder 3 to the metering chamber 17 so that the ingredient 2 can be metered.

[0024] Here, the volume of the metering chamber 17 can be appropriately adjusted according to the volume of the ingredient 2 to be metered so that the ingredient 2 can be metered when the metering chamber 17 is filled with the ingredient 2.

[0025] Next, the operation of the ingredient application head 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5.

[0026] First, as shown in FIG. 3, the pressing member 16 is disposed at the upper limit of upward movement. In this state, the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion 14 is closed by the shutter member 15.

[0027] Also, the conveying conveyor 5 conveys the onigiri 4 (the onigiri 4 to which the ingredient 2 has not been applied) below the ingredient application head 1 and temporarily stops the conveyance at this position.

[0028] Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the ingredient 2 supplied from the screw feeder 3 is discharged from the discharge port of the ingredient supply pipe 13 into the metering chamber 17.

[0029] At this time, it is preferably controlled such that the ingredient 2 is discharged from the discharge port of the ingredient supply pipe 13 at a predetermined discharge amount. The control method is not particularly limited, and a method known per se can be used. In the present embodiment using the screw feeder 3 as the ingredient supply device, for example, the discharge amount can be controlled by setting the rotation speed and rotation time of the screw blades 11.

[0030] Then, when the metering chamber 17 is filled with the ingredient 2 and metering is performed, as shown in FIG. 5, the shutter member 15 is driven to open the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion 14. At the same time or appropriately before and after that, the pressing member 16 is moved downward to push down the metered ingredient 2.

[0031] At this time, the downward movement speed of the pressing member 16 (the speed of pushing down the ingredient 2) is preferably, for example, 0.5 to 2 m / s, and more preferably 0.7 to 1.5 m / s.

[0032] As shown in FIG. 6, after the pressing member 16 moves downward to the lower limit, it stops. The ingredient 2 pushed down by the pressing member 16 is dropped toward the rice ball 4 disposed below the ingredient applying head 1 and lands (hits) in the ingredient groove 9. In this way, by accelerating and dropping the ingredient 2 toward the rice ball 4 which is the object to be applied, it is possible to prevent the ingredient 2 from being scattered, and preferably, the ingredient 2 can be landed in the ingredient groove 9 with high positional accuracy as a lump.

[0033] Thereafter, the pressing member 16 is raised to the upper limit. Also, the conveying conveyor 5 is driven to convey the next rice ball 4 (rice ball 4 not provided with the ingredient 2) below the ingredient applying head 1. In this way, the series of operations shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 are repeated.

[0034] According to the present embodiment, by pushing down and dropping the metered ingredient 2 with the pressing member 16, even if the ingredient 2 is a flaky solid food, the ingredient 2 can be accurately applied to the rice ball (object to be applied) 4. Also, the amount of the ingredient 2 applied can be made uniform.

[0035] Such an effect is difficult to obtain with the device of Patent Document 2 described above. That is, in the device of Patent Document 2 described above, the ingredient is likely to be pinched by the valve body after the ingredient is discharged, and there is a risk that the pinched ingredient will fall at an unexpected timing. Also, the ingredient pinched by the valve body can cause a decrease in positional accuracy or a non-uniform application amount when the next ingredient is discharged.

[0036] By using the ingredient applying device according to this embodiment, it becomes possible to automate the process of applying the ingredient 2 to the rice ball 4, which conventionally had to rely on manual work. Further, this enables the efficient production of high-quality rice balls 4 with the ingredient 2 applied at the intended positions.

[0037] In the above description, the case where the screw feeder 3 used as the ingredient supply device for supplying the ingredient 2 to the ingredient applying head 1 is vertical (the screw blades 11 are oriented in the vertical direction) has been described, but it is not limited thereto, and the screw feeder 3 may be horizontal (the screw blades 11 are oriented in the horizontal direction). Further, the ingredient supply device is not limited to the screw feeder 3, and any known ingredient supply device may be used. For example, the ingredient supply device may be a rotary pump type ingredient supply device.

[0038] In the above description, the case where the conveyance of the rice ball 4 by the conveyance conveyor 5 is stopped (the rice ball 4 is stopped) when the ingredient 2 is applied from the ingredient applying head 1 to the rice ball 4 has been mainly shown, but it is not limited thereto. For example, when the conveyance speed by the conveyance conveyor 5 is sufficiently low, the ingredient 2 can be applied to the conveyed rice ball 4 while continuing the conveyance by the conveyance conveyor 5 (without stopping).

[0039] In the above description, the case where the conveyance device for conveying the rice ball 4 is the conveyance conveyor 5 has been mainly shown, but it is not limited thereto. The conveyance device may be any known conveyance device as long as it can convey the object to be applied such as the rice ball 4.

[0040] In the above description, the case where the object to which the ingredient 2 is to be applied is the rice ball 4 (especially the shaped rice ball 4) has been mainly described, but it is not limited thereto. The object to be applied may be a rice ball before shaping. The rice ball before shaping is composed of cooked rice, and its shape is not particularly limited and may be, for example, in the form of a sheet. According to the ingredient applying device of the present invention, the ingredient 2 can be applied to a predetermined position (target) on the sheet-shaped cooked rice. Thereafter, the sheet-shaped cooked rice is folded so as to sandwich the ingredient 2 inside and formed, whereby a rice ball filled with the ingredient 2 inside can be obtained.

[0041] Also, the object to be applied may be various foods other than the rice ball 4 or the rice ball before shaping. Further, the object to be applied is not limited to foods and may be other than foods. Examples of objects to be applied other than foods include food trays and the like. According to the ingredient applying device of the present invention, for example, even when filling an ingredient into a section of a food tray, the ingredient can be filled with high positional accuracy.

Explanation of Signs

[0042] 1: Ingredient applying head 2: Ingredient 3: Screw feeder (ingredient supply device) 4: Rice ball (object to be applied) 5: Conveyor (transport device) 14: Barrel part 15: Shutter member 16: Pushing member 17: Quantitative chamber

Claims

1. A material applying head, a material supply device for supplying a material to the material applying head, a conveying device for conveying an object to which the material is to be applied below the material applying head, comprising: the material applying head includes a hollow cylindrical barrel portion erected vertically, a shutter member for opening and closing an opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion is disposed below the barrel portion, a pressing member that slides up and down in the barrel portion is disposed above the barrel portion, a fixed-volume chamber is formed between the shutter member in a state of closing the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion and the pressing member at the upper limit of upward movement, when the material is supplied from the material supply device to the fixed-volume chamber and quantified, the shutter member is driven to open the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion, and the pressing member moves downward to push down the quantified material, thereby dropping the material toward the object to be applied. A material applying device, wherein the material is a flaky solid food. The material applying device is characterized by this.

2. The material applying device according to claim 1, wherein a downward movement speed of the pressing member is 0.5 to 2 m / s.

3. The material applying device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the object to which the material is to be applied is food.

4. The material applying device according to claim 3, wherein the food is an onigiri or a sheet-shaped cooked rice before being formed into an onigiri.

5. A material applying head, a material supply device for supplying a material to the material applying head, a conveying device for conveying an object to which the material is to be applied below the material applying head, comprising: the material applying head includes a hollow cylindrical barrel portion erected vertically, a shutter member for opening and closing an opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion is disposed below the barrel portion, a pressing member that slides up and down in the barrel portion is disposed above the barrel portion, a fixed-volume chamber is formed between the shutter member in a state of closing the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion and the pressing member at the upper limit of upward movement, when the material is supplied from the material supply device to the fixed-volume chamber and quantified, the shutter member is driven to open the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion, and the pressing member moves downward to push down the quantified material, thereby dropping the material toward the object to be applied. A material applying device, wherein the object to which the material is to be applied is food. The material applying device is characterized by this.

6. The ingredient applying device according to claim 5, wherein the downward movement speed of the pressing member is 0.5 to 2 m / s.

7. The ingredient applying device according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the food is a rice ball or sheet-shaped cooked rice before being formed into a rice ball.

8. The ingredient applying device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the ingredient supply device is a screw feeder.

9. An ingredient applying head, an ingredient supply device that supplies an ingredient to the ingredient applying head, a transport device that transports an object to which the ingredient is to be applied below the ingredient applying head, comprising: the ingredient applying head includes a hollow cylindrical barrel portion erected vertically, a shutter member that opens and closes an opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion is disposed below the barrel portion, a pressing member that slides up and down in the barrel portion is disposed above the barrel portion, a metering chamber having a predetermined volume is formed between the shutter member in a state of closing the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion and the pressing member at the upper movement limit, when the ingredient is supplied from the ingredient supply device to the metering chamber and metered, the shutter member is driven to open the opening at the lower end side of the barrel portion, and the pressing member moves downward to push down the metered ingredient, thereby dropping the ingredient toward the object to be applied, an ingredient applying device, characterized in that the ingredient supply device is a screw feeder.

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