JP2020110097A - Meat mass filling machine - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a meat mass filling machine capable of filling a meat mass in a casing after subjecting the meat mass to deaeration and molding.SOLUTION: A filling machine comprises: a vacuum chamber 1 having an inlet 10 and an outlet 11; and a molding part 2 for moving a mold 20 toward a bottom face 19 of the vacuum chamber 1 and sandwiching the meat mass by the mold 20 and the bottom face 19 in the vacuum chamber 1 for molding the meat mass. The filling machine further comprises: a filling cylinder part 3 for causing a filling piston 30 to be inserted through the vacuum chamber 1 from the inlet 10 to the outlet 11, for extruding the meat mass from the vacuum chamber 1 through the outlet 11, and filling the meat mass in a casing attached to a filling nozzle 4. The filling machine comprises: an inlet opening/closing part 5 which opens the inlet 10 and closes the same airtightly; an outlet opening/closing part 6 which opens the outlet 11 and closes the same airtightly; and a vacuum suction part 7 for reducing a pressure in the vacuum chamber 1 for subjecting the meat mass to deaeration in the vacuum chamber 1.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to a meat chunk filling machine for filling a meat chunk into a casing.

This kind of filling machine is used for producing processed meat foods such as ham. For example, the filling machine of patent document 1 is provided with an accommodation part consisting of an upper mold and a lower mold. The filling machine further includes a filling cylinder portion provided on one side of the housing portion, and a filling nozzle provided on the other side of the housing portion.

Pickle liquid (salted liquid) is poured into a meat loaf (also called raw meat wood), and then the meat loaf is massaged. Then the loaf of meat is placed in the receiving part of the filling machine. The filling machine inserts a meat bolus between an upper mold and a lower mold to form a cylindrical shape. The filling machine moves the filling piston of the filling cylinder unit to push the edible meat lump out of the storage unit and fill the casing attached to the filling nozzle.

By the way, it is preferable that the meat block is deaerated to remove air bubbles therein. When slicing meat chunks to produce ham, the air bubbles cause ham with holes, that is, defective products, and deteriorate the yield.

Patent Document 2 discloses a vacuum degassing device for degassing a lump of meat. The deaerator of Patent Document 2 includes a cylindrical vacuum chamber and a vacuum pump connected to the vacuum chamber. After the lump of meat is housed in the vacuum chamber, the inside of the vacuum chamber is decompressed by the vacuum pump, and the lump of meat is deaerated.

In this vacuum deaerator, the meat lump is preliminarily filled in the casing, and the whole casing is inserted into the vacuum chamber. Therefore, there is a burden that the lump of meat must be filled in the casing by the filling machine as in Patent Document 1, then carried to the vacuum deaerator and deaerated by the vacuum deaerator.

JP2012-24047A JP 2006-217894 A

The present invention provides a meat chunk filling machine capable of degassing and shaping a meat chunk and then filling the casing.

The present invention is a meat chunk filling machine for filling a meat chunk into a casing,
A vacuum chamber having an inlet at one end and an outlet at the other end,
A molding unit having a pressing die, and moving the pressing die toward the bottom surface of the vacuum chamber to form the meat mass by sandwiching the meat lump in the vacuum chamber with the pressing die and the bottom surface;
A filling nozzle to which the casing is attached,
A filling piston is provided, the filling piston is inserted from the inlet to the outlet in the vacuum chamber, and the meat mass is pushed out from the vacuum chamber through the outlet to the casing attached to the filling nozzle. A filling cylinder portion for filling,
An inlet opening and closing unit that opens and closes the inlet airtightly,
An outlet opening/closing portion that opens and closes the outlet airtightly,
A vacuum suction unit that depressurizes the inside of the vacuum chamber to degas the lump of meat in the vacuum chamber.

The vacuum chamber is
A chamber body having the inlet, the outlet, and an inlet,
A lid attached to the chamber body for opening and closing the inlet in an airtight manner,
The molding part is
It may further include a cylinder that is hermetically penetrated through the lid and connected to the die, and that moves the die.
When the lid is attached to the chamber body, the die may be located in the vacuum chamber and may face the bottom surface of the vacuum chamber.

The vacuum suction unit,
Piping connected to the vacuum chamber,
A vacuum pump for sucking air from the vacuum chamber through the pipe;
A vacuum tank interposed in the pipe between the vacuum chamber and the vacuum pump,
An electromagnetic valve interposed between the vacuum chamber and the vacuum tank and opening and closing the pipe may be provided.

The entrance opening and closing part,
A shutter having a communication hole,
A cylinder may be provided that moves the shutter between a position where the inlet is airtightly closed by the shutter and a position where the inlet is opened by alignment with the communication hole.

The outlet opening/closing section is
A shutter having a communication hole,
A cylinder for moving the shutter between a position where the outlet is airtightly closed by the shutter and a position where the outlet is opened by alignment with the communication hole may be provided.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the meat chunk filling machine which can be deaerated and shape|molded a meat chunk and can be filled in a casing can be provided.

It is a schematic partial cross section figure of the meat chunk filling machine which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is an expanded sectional view of the principal part of the meat chunk filling machine of FIG. It is an expanded sectional view of the vacuum chamber of FIG. FIG. 4A shows the entrance opening/closing part, and FIG. 4B shows the shutter of FIG. 4A. 5A shows the outlet opening/closing part, and FIG. 5B shows the shutter of FIG. 5A.

Hereinafter, a meat chunk filling machine (hereinafter, simply referred to as a filling machine) according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the filling machine includes a vacuum chamber 1 and a forming unit 2 that is provided in the vacuum chamber 1 and that forms a lump of meat (not shown) in the vacuum chamber 1. The vacuum chamber 1 has an inlet 10 on one side and an outlet 11 on the other side.

Further, the filling machine includes a filling cylinder portion 3 provided outside the vacuum chamber 1 on the inlet 10 side and a filling nozzle 4 provided outside the vacuum chamber 1 on the outlet 11 side. A cylindrical casing (not shown) is attached to the filling nozzle 4. The filling cylinder part 3 fills the casing attached to the filling nozzle 4 with the meat chunk as described later.

Further, the filling machine is provided between the vacuum chamber 1 and the filling cylinder portion 3, and between the vacuum chamber 1 and the filling nozzle 4 and an inlet opening/closing portion 5 that opens and closes the inlet 10 of the vacuum chamber 1 airtightly. And an outlet opening/closing portion 6 which is provided and closes the outlet 11 of the vacuum chamber 1 in an airtight manner.

Further, the filling machine includes a vacuum suction unit 7 connected to the vacuum chamber 1. As will be described later, the vacuum suction unit 7 depressurizes the vacuum chamber 1 to deaerate the lump of meat in the vacuum chamber 1. Furthermore, the filling machine comprises a frame 8 housing the vacuum chamber 1.

The details of each unit will be described below. 2 shows a sectional view of the vacuum chamber 1 including the inlet 10 and the outlet 11, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the vacuum chamber 1 in a direction orthogonal to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the vacuum chamber 1 has a chamber body 12 and a lid 13. The chamber body 12 is supported by the frame 8. The chamber body 12 has a cylindrical inlet passage 14 having the inlet 10, a cylindrical outlet passage 15 having the outlet 11, and a molding chamber 16 provided between the inlet passage 14 and the outlet passage 15. Be partitioned. The molding chamber 16 has a charging port 17 that opens upward.

As shown in FIG. 3, the lid 13 is detachably attached to the chamber body 12 in order to open and close the inlet 17 in an airtight manner. The lid 13 is guided to open and close the insertion port 17 by a guide mechanism (not shown). A packing 18 such as a silicone tube is attached to the lid 13, and when the lid 13 is attached to the chamber body 12 as shown in FIG. 3, the sealing property between them is enhanced.

As shown in FIG. 3, the molding unit 2 includes a pressing die 20. The pressing die 20 has a semi-cylindrical molding surface 21 that is recessed upward.

The molding unit 2 further includes a cylinder 22 that moves the die 20. In the embodiment, two cylinders 22 (see FIG. 2) are provided, both of which are air cylinders. The cylinder 22 includes a tube 23 and a piston rod 24 that reciprocates with respect to the tube 23. The piston rod 24 is connected to the pressing die 20 by hermetically penetrating the lid 13 by using packing or the like.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the lid 13 is attached to the chamber body 12, the die 20 is located inside the vacuum chamber 1, and the molding surface 21 thereof faces the bottom surface 19 of the chamber body 12. The bottom surface 19 has a semi-cylindrical shape that is recessed downward. When the press die 20 is lowered toward the bottom surface 19 by the cylinder 22, the combination of the forming surface 21 of the press die 20 and the bottom surface 19 of the vacuum chamber 1 extends in the longitudinal direction of the vacuum chamber 1 (direction from the inlet 10 to the outlet 11). A cylindrical space is formed.

Therefore, when the die 20 moves toward the bottom surface 19 in a state where the meat chunk is placed in the forming chamber 16 of the vacuum chamber 1, the meat chunk is sandwiched between the bottom surface 19 and the forming surface 21 and formed into a cylindrical shape. It In this way, the forming unit 2 forms the meat chunk by the pressing die 20 and the bottom surface 19 of the vacuum chamber 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, the filling cylinder portion 3 includes a filling piston 30 and a rodless cylinder 31 that reciprocates the filling piston 30. The filling piston 30 has a head 32 at its tip. The rodless cylinder 31 is arranged so that the slider 33 is horizontally reciprocated. The filling piston 30 is attached to the slider 33 at its base end and is horizontally supported in the moving direction of the slider 33.

The filling nozzle 4 is connected to the outlet 11 of the vacuum chamber 1 via an outlet opening/closing portion 6 described later.

The filling piston 30, the inlet 10, the outlet 11, the filling nozzle 4, and the casing attached thereto are aligned. The rodless cylinder 31 moves the slider 33 in the horizontal direction to move the filling piston 30 in the longitudinal direction. Therefore, the filling piston 30 is located at a position retracted from the vacuum chamber 1 as shown in FIG. 1 and at a position where the head 32 thereof exceeds the filling nozzle 4 as shown by the one-dot chain line in FIG. (The position where it is inserted into the casing).

Therefore, when the filling piston 30 is moved from the state of FIG. 1 toward the vacuum chamber 1 with the formed meat chunk placed in the vacuum chamber 1, the filling piston 30 is evacuated from the inlet 10 to the outlet 11. It is inserted through the chamber 1, whereby the meat chunk is extruded from the inside of the vacuum chamber 1 through the outlet 11 by the head 32 of the filling piston 30 and is filled in the casing attached to the filling nozzle 4. In this way, the filling cylinder portion 3 pushes the meat chunks out of the vacuum chamber 1 by the filling piston 30 and fills the casing mounted on the filling nozzle 4 with the meat chunks.

As shown in FIG. 2, the inlet opening/closing portion 5 and the outlet opening/closing portion 6 are provided outside the frame 8. The inlet passage 14 of the vacuum chamber 1 penetrates the frame 8, the inlet 10 is exposed to the outside of the frame 8, and is connected to the inlet opening/closing part 5. Further, the outlet passage 15 of the vacuum chamber 1 penetrates the frame 8, the outlet 11 is exposed to the outside of the frame 8, and is connected to the outlet opening/closing portion 6.

FIG. 4A is a view of the inlet opening/closing section 5 as viewed from the right side of FIG. 2. The entrance opening/closing part 5 includes a shutter 51 having a communication hole 50. The shape of the shutter 51 is clearly shown in Figure 4B. The guide 52 is attached to the frame 8, and the shutter 51 is provided so as to be guided by the guide 52. The shutter 51 and the guide 52 are covered with a cover 56.

The inlet opening/closing unit 5 further includes a cylinder 53 that moves the shutter 51 along the guide 52. The cylinder 53 includes a tube 54 attached to the frame 8 and a piston rod 55 that reciprocates with respect to the tube 54. The shutter 51 is attached to the tip of the piston rod 55. The cylinder 53 is an air cylinder.

The cylinder 53 has a position where the shutter 51 is opened by aligning the inlet 10 with the communication hole 50 (see FIG. 4A) and a position where the inlet 10 is completely covered by the shutter 51 and is hermetically closed by the shutter 51. Move between. Thus, the inlet opening/closing unit 5 opens and hermetically closes the inlet 10 of the vacuum chamber 1.

FIG. 5A is a view of the outlet opening/closing unit 6 as viewed from the left side of FIG. 2, and the illustration of the filling nozzle 4 is omitted. The outlet opening/closing unit 6 includes a shutter 61 having a communication hole 60 formed therein. The shape of the shutter 61 is clearly shown in FIG. 5B. A guide 62 is attached to the frame 8, and the shutter 61 is provided so as to be guided by the guide 62. The shutter 61 and the guide 62 are covered with a cover 66.

The outlet opening/closing unit 6 further includes a cylinder 63 that moves the shutter 61 along the guide 62. The cylinder 63 includes a tube 64 attached to the frame 8 and a piston rod 65 that reciprocates with respect to the tube 64. The shutter 61 is attached to the tip of the piston rod 65. The cylinder 63 is an air cylinder.

The cylinder 63 has a position where the shutter 61 is opened by aligning the outlet 11 with the communication hole 60 (see FIG. 5A) and a position where the outlet 11 is completely covered by the shutter 61 and is hermetically closed by the shutter 61. Move between. In this way, the outlet opening/closing unit 6 opens and hermetically closes the outlet 11 of the vacuum chamber 1.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the fixed lever 67 is attached to the cover 66. The filling lever 4 is detachably fixed to the outlet opening/closing portion 6 by the fixing lever 67. Details of the fixed lever 67 are omitted.

As shown in FIG. 1, the vacuum suction unit 7 includes a pipe 70 connected to the lid 13 of the vacuum chamber 1, and a vacuum pump 71 connected to the pipe 70 for sucking air from the vacuum chamber 1 through the pipe 70. .. Further, the vacuum suction unit 7 is interposed between the vacuum chamber 1 and the vacuum pump 71 and the vacuum tank 72 interposed in the pipe 70, and between the vacuum chamber 1 and the vacuum tank 72 in the pipe 70. And a solenoid valve (not shown) for opening and closing.

The vacuum pump 71 sucks air from the vacuum tank 72 to bring the inside of the vacuum tank 72 into a decompressed state when the electromagnetic valve closes the pipe 70 between the vacuum chamber 1 and the vacuum tank 72. Then, when the solenoid valve opens the pipe 70, air rapidly flows from the vacuum chamber 1 through the pipe 70 into the vacuum tank 72 in a reduced pressure state.

If air is sucked from the vacuum chamber 1 as described above in a state where the inlet 10, the outlet 11, and the inlet 17 in the vacuum chamber 1 are airtightly closed, the inside of the vacuum chamber 1 can be rapidly depressurized.

Therefore, by depressurizing the inside of the vacuum chamber 1 in a state where the meat chunk is inside the vacuum chamber 1, the meat chunk can be degassed and the bubbles contained therein can be removed. In this way, the vacuum suction unit 7 decompresses the inside of the vacuum chamber 1 to deaerate the lump of meat in the vacuum chamber 1.

Hereinafter, a usage example of the filling machine will be described. Before being processed in the filling machine, the meat chunks are infused with pickle liquid and the meat chunks are massaged. Further, the casing is attached to the filling nozzle 4.

An operator removes the lid 13 from the chamber body 12 and puts the meat chunk into the chamber body 12 (forming chamber 16) through the feeding port 17. Then, the worker attaches the lid 13 to the chamber body 12 and hermetically closes the charging port 17. Then, when the operator operates a switch or the like, the inlet opening/closing unit 5 closes the inlet 10 airtightly with the shutter 51, and the outlet opening/closing unit 6 airtightly closes the outlet 11 with the shutter 61. As a result, the vacuum chamber 1 is hermetically closed except for the connection portion with the pipe 70.

Next, the vacuum suction unit 7 depressurizes the inside of the vacuum chamber 1 by sucking air from the vacuum chamber 1 through the pipe 70 by the above method, and degasses the lump of meat in the vacuum chamber 1. Thereby, the air bubbles contained in the meat chunk are removed. As described above, since the inside of the vacuum chamber 1 is rapidly depressurized, this degassing process is completed in about tens of seconds.

Then, the operation of the vacuum pump 71 is stopped, or the inlet 10 or the outlet 11 is opened, so that the vacuum chamber 1 is returned from the depressurized state to the atmospheric pressure state.

Next, the forming unit 2 forms the degassed meat block in the vacuum chamber 1 (forming chamber 16). Specifically, the pressing die 20 is lowered by the cylinder 22 toward the bottom surface 19 of the vacuum chamber 1, and the lump of meat is pressed toward the bottom surface 19 and is sandwiched between the forming surface 21 and the bottom surface 19 to form a cylindrical shape. ..

Next, the filling cylinder unit 3 pushes the formed meat chunks out of the vacuum chamber 1 and fills the casing attached to the filling nozzle 4. Specifically, the filling cylinder portion 3 inserts the filling piston 30 from the inlet 10 to the outlet 11 in the vacuum chamber 1 in a state where the inlet 10 and the outlet 11 are opened by the inlet opening/closing portion 5 and the outlet opening/closing portion 6. Then, the filling nozzle 4 is inserted into the filling nozzle 4, and the lump of meat is extruded from the vacuum chamber 1 through the outlet 11 to fill the casing.

As described above, the filling machine fills the casing with the meat chunks after deaerating and shaping. This series of processing is automatically performed by the operator's button operation, etc., so that the burden on the operator is small.

By degassing the lump of meat, air bubbles causing defective products are removed. Therefore, the yield is improved. Further, it is one of the advantages of this filling machine that there is no burden of degassing after forming a meat lump and filling it into the casing as in Patent Document 2.

The forming process of the meat chunk is performed by the forming unit 2 in the vacuum chamber 1 using the bottom surface 19 of the vacuum chamber 1. Therefore, it is not necessary to separately provide a space for the molding process and a space for the degassing process. This improves the space efficiency of the filling machine.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

For example, the vacuum chamber 1 is not limited to the shape of the embodiment and may have other shapes. Further, the inlet opening/closing unit 5 may open and hermetically close the inlet 10 by another known method without using the shutter 51 and the cylinder 53. The outlet opening/closing unit 6 may also open and hermetically close the outlet 11 by another known method without using the shutter 61 and the cylinder 63.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 vacuum chamber 10 inlet 11 outlet 12 chamber body 13 lid 19 bottom surface 2 molding part 20 pressing die 22 cylinder 3 filling cylinder part 30 filling piston 31 rodless cylinder 4 filling nozzle 5 inlet opening/closing part 50 communication hole 51 shutter 53 cylinder 6 outlet opening/closing part 60 communication hole 61 shutter 63 cylinder 66 cover 7 vacuum suction part 70 piping 71 vacuum pump 72 vacuum tank 8 frame

Claims (5)

A meat chunk filling machine for filling a meat chunk into a casing,
A vacuum chamber having an inlet at one end and an outlet at the other end,
A forming unit having a pressing die, and moving the pressing die toward the bottom surface of the vacuum chamber to form the meat block by sandwiching the meat lump in the vacuum chamber with the pressing die and the bottom surface,
A filling nozzle to which the casing is attached,
Having a filling piston, the filling piston is inserted from the inlet to the outlet in the vacuum chamber, and the meat mass is pushed out from the vacuum chamber through the outlet to the casing attached to the filling nozzle. A filling cylinder portion for filling,
An inlet opening and closing unit that opens and closes the inlet airtightly,
An outlet opening/closing part that opens and closes the outlet airtightly,
A vacuum suction unit for depressurizing the inside of the vacuum chamber to degas the meat lump in the vacuum chamber,
A meat lump filling machine characterized in that The vacuum chamber is
A chamber body having the inlet, the outlet, and an inlet,
A lid attached to the chamber body for opening and closing the charging port airtightly,
The molding part is
Further comprising a cylinder having a piston rod that is hermetically penetrated through the lid and connected to the die.
When the lid is attached to the chamber body, the die is located inside the vacuum chamber and faces the bottom surface of the vacuum chamber,
The meat lump filling machine according to claim 1, characterized in that. The vacuum suction unit,
Piping connected to the vacuum chamber,
A vacuum pump for sucking air from the vacuum chamber through the pipe;
A vacuum tank interposed in the pipe between the vacuum chamber and the vacuum pump,
An electromagnetic valve interposed between the vacuum chamber and the vacuum tank in the pipe, for opening and closing the pipe,
The meat lump filling machine according to claim 1, characterized in that. The entrance opening and closing part,
A shutter having a communication hole,
A cylinder for moving the shutter between a position where the inlet is airtightly closed by the shutter and a position where the inlet is opened by alignment with the communication hole.
The meat lump filling machine according to claim 1, characterized in that. The outlet opening/closing section is
A shutter having a communication hole,
A cylinder for moving the shutter between a position in which the outlet is airtightly closed by the shutter and a position in which the outlet is opened by alignment with the communication hole.
The meat lump filling machine according to claim 1, characterized in that.

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