Matcha Powder Milling With Air Classification and Heat Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional grinding devices for matcha powder production face challenges such as difficulty in separating products with varying particle sizes, hindering continuous production, and generating excessive heat that affects product quality.
Innovation Solution
A device incorporating a stirred media mill with a grinding chamber, pin bar, air classifier, storage portion, collector portion, and wind guider, along with a negative pressure system, enables effective separation of particles by size and continuous production, using a cooling mechanism to manage heat and a highly automated process to optimize material feeding and airflow control.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a ball mill is used to replace manual grinding, then productivity is improved, but the grinding process generates excessive heat that affects product quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the harmful heat generation from the grinding process by removing the traditional ball mill's continuous rotation mechanism and replacing it with an intermittent stirring action. The stirred media mill uses a pin bar that rotates intermittently, allowing the grinding media to be lifted and dropped onto the material, which reduces continuous friction and heat generation while maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic action through the pin bar's intermittent rotation and the lifting-dropping motion of grinding media. This periodic stirring action allows cooling intervals between grinding cycles, preventing excessive heat accumulation while maintaining efficient particle size reduction and preserving product quality.
2Productivity
If a stirred media mill is used to grind dry powders, then grinding efficiency is improved, but products with varying particle sizes are difficult to separate and continuous production is hindered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the grinding function with the classification function in a single integrated system. The air classifier is directly connected to the stirred media mill's grinding chamber, creating a combined grinding-classification system that continuously separates particles by size while maintaining high grinding efficiency and enabling uninterrupted production.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses pneumatic principles through the air classifier, which employs airflow to separate ground particles by size. The air current carries lighter, finer particles away from heavier, coarser particles, enabling automatic size-based separation without mechanical intervention and facilitating continuous production flow.
3Manufacturing precision
If traditional grinding methods are used, then product quality is maintained, but the milling process is complex and productivity is low
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the complex mechanical grinding system with a stirred media mill that uses a simpler pin bar stirring mechanism. This substitution maintains particle uniformity through controlled media impact while significantly increasing milling speed and productivity, simplifying the overall process.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters from continuous mechanical compression (traditional grinding) to intermittent impact and stirring (stirred media mill). This parameter change achieves uniform particle size distribution while dramatically increasing processing speed and reducing process complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device achieves efficient separation of matcha powders by size, maintains product quality by managing heat, and ensures continuous production with minimal waste, resulting in high-quality matcha with uniform particle distribution and retained flavor characteristics.
Implementation Method 1
a wind guider, wherein an air outlet of the wind guider is connected, via a third tube assembly, to the outlet port and an interior of the storage portion to create a negative pressure environment
Implementation Method 2
an air classifier, connected to the outlet port through a first tube assembly and defining a first output port and a second output port
Data Source
AI summary
A device that effectively produce matcha powder is provided and includes: a stirred media mill grinding portion, having a grinding chamber inside, wherein a side of the stirred media mill grinding portion defines an outlet port; a pin bar, rotatably received in the grinding chamber, wherein an outer circumference of the pin bar defines an opening, communicated with the grinding chamber; an air classifier, connected to the outlet port through a first tube assembly and defining a first output port and a second output port; a storage portion, connected to the first output port; a collector portion, connected to the second output port through a second tube assembly; and a wind guider, wherein an air outlet of the wind guider is connected to the outlet port and an interior of the storage portion to create a negative pressure environment.