JPH0787766B2 - Ultrasonic defroster - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a thawing device for thawing a frozen product such as frozen food.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the defrosting of frozen foods such as frozen foods is performed by immersing them in water or leaving them in the refrigerator (3 to 5 ° C.) for a long time, and then thawing slowly or in a relatively short time. For thawing, a so-called microwave oven 1 using a magnetron as shown in FIG. 8 is used.
That is, the microwave (about 180 W) generated by the magnetron 2 is added to the frozen food 4 placed on the turntable 3 and thawed.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention When thawing by such a method, the electric field intensity distribution of the output radio wave of the magnetron 2 is likely to occur in the oven 5, so that when the radio wave output is strong, uneven heating occurs and good thawing occurs. I couldn't. Therefore, the radio wave output needs to be a relatively small value (about 180 W), which results in a long thawing time. However, there was a drawback that the defrosting speed was slow.

According to the present invention, with such a conventional defrosting apparatus or technique, the defrosting speed of frozen foods is slow, and if the microwave output is increased to accelerate the defrosting speed, good defrosting cannot be performed due to uneven heating. It aims to solve problems.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve such problems, the present invention has the following configuration.

That is, as a first means, a thaw chamber for storing frozen foods and the like together with a liquid such as water, an electric vibrator for giving vibration energy to the thaw chamber, a driving means for urging the thaw chamber, and a housing for storing these. A body, a sealing means that is attached to the inside or outside of the housing and that seals a packaging member that stores the frozen food and the like, and a deaeration means that deaerates the air in the packaging member. .

As the second means, an opening provided with a lid is formed above the thawing chamber of the first means, and the sealing means is arranged on substantially the same plane as the lid.

As a third means, a liquid discard control unit for discarding the liquid in the thaw chamber is provided at the bottom of the thaw chamber of the first means.

And as a fourth means, a liquid detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of liquid in the thawing chamber of the first means is provided, and a control section for controlling the driving means based on a signal from the liquid detecting means is provided. Is.

Action With the configuration of the first means, the frozen material such as frozen food is sealed by the packaging member, and the air in the packaging member is degassed and placed in the water in the defrosting chamber to supply the vibration energy of the defrosting chamber. It efficiently transmits water to frozen foods as a vibration energy transmission medium, and also prevents the frozen products from being wet and contaminated by liquids because they are sealed with a packaging material such as nylon. Is. Furthermore, since the air in the packaging member is degassed, vibration energy transmission loss due to the presence of air in the packaging member is also prevented.

Further, according to the structure of the second means, by closing the opening on the upper surface of the thawing chamber with the lid, when the packaging member is sealed by the sealing means arranged on substantially the same plane as the lid, the lid is frozen food or the like. It can be used as a stand. Furthermore, the sound of vibration of cavitation bubbles, which is likely to occur during the thawing operation, can be shielded by the lid.

Furthermore, since the liquid disposal control unit is provided at the bottom of the thawing chamber by the configuration of the third means, the liquid in the thawing chamber can be easily discarded and emptied, and the cleanliness of the thawing chamber can be maintained when not in use. You can

In the configuration of the fourth means, in particular, the control unit controls the drive means by the signal of the liquid detection means for detecting the presence or absence of the liquid. Therefore, when the liquid is empty, the electric vibrator is energized. It is possible to reliably prevent the inconvenience of overheating and destroying this.

Embodiments Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an ultrasonic defroster showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a housing, inside which is provided a thawing chamber 11 which is made of a stainless steel plate 11 'and has an opening 11a at the top, and an insulating material 12 is provided on the bottom of the thawing chamber 11.
The piezoelectric vibrator 13 is bonded via the. A float switch (liquid detection means) 14 for detecting the liquid level is provided in the thawing chamber 11 and is configured to send a detection signal to the control unit 14 '. The control unit 14 'is configured to control the driving means 15 to drive the piezoelectric vibrator 13 in a state where there is no water in the thawing chamber 11 and prevent it from being destroyed by overheating. A liquid discard control unit 50 is provided at the bottom of the thawing chamber 11 so that the liquid can be discarded when not in use. Piezoelectric vibrator 13
Is configured to receive ultrasonic energy of 20 KHz to 1 MHz by the driving means 15, and receives the ultrasonic energy to vibrate ultrasonically. 16 is a cooling fan,
The drive circuit 15 and the piezoelectric vibrator 13 are air-cooled.

Reference numeral 17 denotes a lid that covers the thawing chamber 11, and also serves as a stand when the frozen food 18 is stored in a nylon packaging member 19 and is deaerated and sealed as shown in the figure.

20 is a deaeration means such as a compressor, and an intake pipe
The air inside the packaging member 19 is degassed via 21.

22 is a sealing means for sealing the packaging member 19 by heating,
It is composed of a heater or an ultrasonic vibrator. This is for sealing the packaging member 19 after the deaeration inside the packaging member 19 is completed. Further, the sealing means 22 is located on substantially the same plane as the lid 17, so that when the packaging member 19 is sealed and deaerated, the lid 17 can be used as a stand for frozen food.
When the electromagnet 23 attracts the adsorption portion 24 and the rotatable pressure lever 26 supported by the fulcrum 25 rotates as shown by the arrow in the figure, the packaging member 19 is pressed against the sealing means 22 by the pressure end 27, The structure is such that the sealing process is performed by heat welding.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the degassing / sealing processing unit.
The same reference numerals as those in the figure are the corresponding components.

When the air in the packaging member is degassed by the intake pipe 21 as shown by the arrow in the figure, the frozen food 18 is packaged in the packaging member 19 without air as shown in the figure. After this state, as described above, the pressure lever is activated by the action of the electromagnet.
26 moves down as shown by the arrow. At the same time, sealing means
When 22 is actuated, the packaging member 19 is welded at this portion, and the packaging member 19 is hermetically sealed in the deaerated state. Therefore, the frozen food 18 is in a state of being wrapped in the packaging member 19 having almost no air layer. In this way, since the lid 17 and the sealing means 22 are arranged in substantially the same plane, it is possible to realize a configuration of automatically sealing after degassing.

The frozen food 18 is packed in this state, and then put into the thawing chamber 11 together with the water 28 as shown in FIG. By adding water 28, the float switch 14 is operated by the float 29, and the piezoelectric vibrator 13 can be energized by the drive circuit 15.

As shown in FIG. 4, the piezoelectric vibrator 13 is bonded to the stainless plate 11 ′ forming the bottom surface of the thawing chamber 11 via the insulating material 12. Reference numerals 30 and 31 are adhesive layers for bonding these. Further, 32 and 33 are electrodes, which receive the above-mentioned high frequency AC voltage as ultrasonic energy from the drive circuit 15 via the lead wires 34 and 35. As a result, the piezoelectric vibrator 13 vibrates ultrasonically, and this vibration energy is efficiently transmitted to the frozen food 18 via the stainless plate 11 ′ and the water 28.

As described above, the frozen food 18 is degassed and hermetically sealed so that air does not substantially exist inside the packaging member 19. Therefore,
The vibration energy generated by the piezoelectric vibrator 13 is transmitted to the frozen food 18 extremely efficiently.

When vibration energy is applied to frozen food 18, frozen food
Since 18 absorbs vibrational energy, it is heated and thawed. Defrosting by absorbing such vibrational energy does not easily generate a heating distribution based on an electric field distribution such as dielectric heating by microwaves, and thus does not cause a heating distribution of frozen foods. There is no need to reduce the heating power and defrost for a long time. Therefore, the faster the vibration energy is applied, the faster the thawing can be performed, and the thawing failure state (a phenomenon such as partial burning) caused by the heating distribution does not occur at all. Further, when the vibration frequency of the vibration energy is increased, it is possible that a distribution of the vibration energy may occur, but since the vibration energy is added to the frozen food, the heat transfer in the food becomes good, Even if some heating energy is distributed in the food, a poor thawing condition hardly occurs. Therefore, when thawing in a microwave oven by conventional microwave heating, it was possible to supply only heating energy of about 180W, in the configuration of the present embodiment, for example, 600W ~ 1000W
It is possible to heat with a certain level of heating energy, and it is possible to realize high-speed cooking that is 3 to 5 times faster than in the past.

In addition, during this thawing process, strong ultrasonic waves are transmitted into the thawing chamber 11, so that the water 28 causes pitting, and so-called cavitation bubbles vibrate to generate bubble vibration noise and generate noise. A lid 17 is provided to open the opening 11 of the thawing chamber 11.
By closing a and closing the thawing chamber, this noise can be significantly reduced and the sensation of use can be improved, and a quiet thawing machine can be realized.

FIG. 5 shows a detailed embodiment of the driving means 15 and the control section 14 '. In the figure, when the operation switch 36 of the control unit 14 'is turned on and the float switch 14 is closed, it is detected that the liquid exists in the thawing chamber 11 and is normal. Therefore, the commercial power source 37 is connected to the driving means 15, and the diode bridge 38 and the capacitor 39 form a DC power source. On the other hand, even if the operation switch 36 is turned on without entering water into the thawing chamber 11, the float switch 14 is open, so that electric power is not supplied to the driving means 15. Inductor 40, capacitor 41,
The filter circuit network including the transistor 42, the capacitor 43, and the inductor 44 constitutes a resonance type single-stone inverter, which is supplied with electric power from the DC power source. 45 is a matching transformer, the output of which is supplied to the piezoelectric vibrator 13 via the current detection resistor 46, and the piezoelectric vibrator 13 is driven by the output of the driving means 15. Transistor 42
Receives a gate pulse from the control circuit 47 and performs a switching operation at a predetermined frequency. 6 (a), (b),
(C) shows collector-emitter voltage V _CE , collector current I _C , and matching transformer 45 of transistor 42, respectively.
Is the output voltage (terminal voltage of the piezoelectric vibrator 13) V _O , and shows the operation waveform of the resonant inverter. Therefore, the switching loss of the transistor 42 is extremely small, and a drive circuit with high conversion efficiency can be realized.

Further, the operating circuit 47 is configured such that the current flowing through the piezoelectric vibrator 13 is fed back from the current detection resistor 46. With this signal, the control circuit 47 controls the switching frequency of the transistor 42 to cause the piezoelectric vibration. The resonance frequency of the child 13 is tracked so that the drive circuit always operates at a frequency at which the electromechanical conversion efficiency of the piezoelectric vibrator is maximized. This tracking control may be performed by tracking the frequency at which the current flowing through the piezoelectric vibrator 13 is maximum, or by tracking the frequency at which the phase difference between the output voltage V _O of the matching transformer 45 and this current is minimum. May be

In FIG. 3, the piezoelectric vibrator 13 is shown to be attached to the bottom surface of the thawing chamber 11, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. The structure may be such that it is immersed in the thawing chamber 11 and the Langevin type piezoelectric vibrator 49 vibrates it. In the case of this configuration, it is possible to set the position of the piezoelectric vibrator at a position apart from the thawing chamber, which may be advantageous in terms of the configuration of the device, particularly in cooling.

In FIG. 3, the liquid discard control unit 50 is for automatically or manually discarding the liquid in the thawing chamber after the thawing is completed. When the liquid used is water or the like, the liquid is removed by ultrasonic energy. This is because it deteriorates and it is difficult to use it repeatedly.

By providing a pump or the like in this disposal control unit and automatically disposing of the liquid, it becomes possible to discharge the waste water to the domestic waste water outlet or sink without moving the defroster main body, The usability of this defroster can be significantly improved.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As described above, according to the present invention, a thaw chamber that stores a frozen product such as frozen food and a liquid such as water, an electric vibrator that supplies vibration energy therein, and a driving means thereof are provided. A liquid having a small vibration transmission loss is housed in the housing, and a sealing means for sealing a storage member such as frozen food inside or outside the housing and a degassing means for degassing the air in the packaging member are provided. It is possible to transfer the vibration energy of the electric vibrator to the frozen food or the like via the, and to prevent the frozen food or the like from being directly immersed in the liquid and being contaminated. Moreover, since the air in the packaging member can also be degassed, the vibration energy transmission loss due to the presence of the air in the packaging member can be substantially completely prevented.

Therefore, a large amount of vibration energy can be efficiently supplied to the frozen food, so that the frozen food can be thawed at an extremely high speed. Moreover, without causing a thawing failure due to heating distribution such as microwave heating,
Good thawing can be performed.

Further, by providing the lid at the opening of the thawing chamber, noise due to vibration noise of cavitation bubbles generated at the time of thawing can be prevented, and a thawing machine that is quiet and has a good feeling of use can be realized. Furthermore, by providing a sealing means on substantially the same plane as this lid, the lid can be used as a stand for frozen foods and the like.
The mechanism of automatically sealing after degassing the packaging member can be realized very easily and compactly without providing a stand or the like.

Further, by providing the liquid discard control unit, the liquid in the thawing chamber can be freely discarded when not in use, so that the user can use a free liquid such as water. Moreover, since the liquid in the thawing chamber can be discarded without moving the thawing machine body, it can be remarkably convenient.

Therefore, it is possible to provide a decompressor which is easy to use and is capable of remarkably high-speed decompression as compared with the conventional one.

The control unit controls the driving unit by the signal of the liquid detection unit, so that it is possible to reliably prevent the occurrence of inconveniences such as the destruction of the electric vibrator when the liquid is not put in the thaw chamber. It also prevents the occurrence of breakdowns due to incorrect use and realizes a decompressor with high usability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an ultrasonic defroster showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of its essential portion, FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the same during defrosting operation, and FIG. 4 is the same piezoelectric vibration. An enlarged cross-sectional view of the child portion, FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the drive circuit, and FIGS. 6 (a), 6 (b) and 6 (c).
Is an operation waveform diagram of the circuit, FIG. 7 is a partial sectional view showing another configuration example of the electric vibrator, and FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a general microwave oven. 10 ... Casing, 11 ... Thaw chamber, 11a ... Opening, 13 ... Electric vibrator, 14 ... Liquid detection means, 14 '... Control section, 15 ...
Drive means, 17 ... Lid, 20 ... Degassing means, 22 ... Sealing means, 50 ... Liquid disposal control section.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A thawing chamber for storing frozen food and the like together with a liquid such as water, an electric vibrator for supplying vibration energy into the thawing chamber, a driving means for urging the electric vibrator, and the thawing chamber. A housing that houses the electric vibrator and the driving means, a sealing means that is mounted on the inside or outside of the housing and that seals the packaging member that stores the frozen food and the like, and sucks and removes air in the packaging member. An ultrasonic defroster equipped with a degassing means. 2. An opening provided with a lid is formed above the thawing chamber,
The ultrasonic defroster according to claim 1, wherein the sealing means is arranged on substantially the same plane as the lid. 3. The ultrasonic defrosting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a liquid discarding control unit for discarding the liquid in the defrosting chamber is provided at the bottom of the defrosting chamber. 4. The ultrasonic defroster according to claim 1, further comprising a liquid detection means for detecting the presence or absence of liquid in the defrosting chamber, and a control section for controlling the driving means based on a signal from the liquid detection means.