JPS6319185B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an apparatus for continuously and rapidly heat-treating liquid foods, viscous foods, liquid medicines, industrial materials, and other liquid or viscous substances at high temperatures and sterilizing them by heating and pressurizing them at high temperatures. .

Conventionally, there are steam type and superheated water type retort sterilizers for food products as high temperature pressure heat sterilizers for liquid and viscous materials, but these are generally batch type and have the disadvantage of long indirect time. Ta. Continuous retort sterilizers are also used in some cases, but this requires enormous equipment costs and has drawbacks in its versatility to changes in packaging formats. Further, plate type and scraping type UHT sterilizers are known as continuous sterilizers, but these devices are also large-scale and have problems in versatility when changing objects to be sterilized. Furthermore, both retort sterilizers and UHT sterilizers use steam as a heat source during heating.
Since the system uses a system in which the temperature of the object to be sterilized is simply raised by the heat transfer effect, there is a drawback that the energy loss of steam is extremely large.

In order to compensate for these disadvantages, the present invention is characterized by using microwaves as a heating source, and also by continuously high-temperature heat treatment and high-temperature heat sterilization of liquid and viscous materials under constant pressure. This is what I am trying to do.

In addition, in a continuous heating sterilization system using microwaves, due to the structure of the microwave oscillator, when the object to be sterilized is not being conveyed, that is, when the Teflon pipe in the heating section is empty, some of the microwaves are reflected back to the oscillator. Otherwise, it may enter the other oscillator, causing the oscillator to malfunction. Therefore, first, the object to be sterilized is passed through the pipe, and then the object is irradiated with microwaves and heated.
Due to the temperature increase, the objects to be sterilized at the start of heating are supplied to the filling section without reaching the predetermined sterilization temperature conditions. Therefore, objects to be sterilized that do not reach the predetermined sterilization temperature conditions must be discarded.

In the present invention, it is possible to supply the material to be sterilized to the filling section outside the device after it has completely reached the predetermined sterilization conditions by adjusting the piping structure and temperature and pressure of the device.

The present invention will be explained in detail below using one example.
As shown in FIG. 1, first, a liquid or viscous substance A to be sterilized is supplied to a tank 1 and transported into the apparatus by a pump 2. The object to be sterilized is first transported to a heating section 3 equipped with a Teflon pipe through which microwaves can pass, and here the microwaves scattered from a microwave oscillator through a waveguide (not shown) are transmitted to the Teflon pipe. It is irradiated through and heated up. Next, the object to be sterilized is transported to a holding section 4 having a heat insulating material, and the temperature of the object to be sterilized is maintained.At the time of starting sterilization, the object is transported in the direction of arrow 6 by a three-way valve, and is then transported to a cooling section 7 using water cooling. After being sufficiently cooled, it is fed back to tank 1. The pressure inside the tank 1 is always controlled to a constant pressure by a solenoid valve 8.
In addition, the route through which the material to be sterilized is transported, that is, the tank 1
→ Heating section 3 → Holding section 4 → Cooling section 7 → The internal pressure of the piping in tank 1 is controlled by a solenoid valve 9. The heating section 3 is made of Teflon, while the other parts are made of stainless steel. The internal pressure of the pipe is adjusted according to the predetermined sterilization temperature of the object to be sterilized, but when the sterilization temperature is 100°C to 150°C, the appropriate internal pressure of the pipe is about 1.0 to 3.0 kg/cm. The internal pressure of the pipe in the above route is determined by the pressure gauge 10.
and 11. Further, the phenomenon of increase in the internal pressure of the pipes during the conveyance of the viscous material is confirmed by the pressure gauge 10, and the pressure in the heating section 3 can be adjusted to a predetermined pressure by the solenoid valve 9.

At this time, the heating temperature of the object to be sterilized is determined by the temperature measuring device 1.
Confirmed on 2, 13, and 14.

After confirming with the temperature measuring devices 12 and 13 whether the object to be sterilized has reached the predetermined sterilization temperature, the three-way valve 5 switches the transport route for the object to be sterilized, and a path for supplying the object to the filling section outside the apparatus is taken. The sterilized material is supplied to a filling section outside the apparatus through the cooling section 15.

Before switching the route using the three-way valve, the internal pressure of the pipe in the route supplied to the discharge and filling section is controlled by solenoid valve 1.
6 and 17, the pressure is controlled in advance to be the same as that in the path fed back to the tank 1. This pipe internal pressure is displayed on the pressure gauge 18, and it is desirable that the pressures on the pressure gauges 10 and 18 are approximately the same.

Further, the solenoid valve 16 is connected to a compressor and controls the pressure within its diameter, but a check valve 19 is provided so that the object to be sterilized is supplied only in the direction of the solenoid valve 17.

According to the above-described device, the objects to be sterilized are first fed back to the tank 1 from the start of sterilization until the predetermined sterilization conditions are reached, and only after the objects to be sterilized reach the predetermined sterilization conditions are they fed back to the filling section outside the device. Therefore, only completely sterilized objects to be sterilized can be discharged from the apparatus.

Even when the purpose is not sterilization but merely heat treatment, it is similarly possible to obtain only those treated under predetermined conditions using the above-mentioned apparatus.

Since the heat treatment and heat sterilization in this device are performed in the heating section 3 and holding section 4 using microwave irradiation, the temperature of the object to be sterilized measured by the temperature measuring device 20 and the temperature measured by the temperature measuring device 14 are simply measured by the temperature of the object to be sterilized. This is to check the temperature.

The microwave irradiation structure in the heating section 3 usually requires a structure in which the microwaves pass through a Teflon pipe and uniformly irradiate the object to be sterilized, and preferably the microwaves emitted from the oscillator pass through the pipe. A structure in which the irradiation is performed from above, below, left and right is preferable, but if the inner diameter of the Teflon pipe in the heating section is 10 to 100 m/mφ, the object to be sterilized will be uniformly heated if the irradiation is performed from at least the top and bottom, or from the left and right. Furthermore, especially when sterilizing objects to be sterilized that contain substances that easily absorb microwave energy, such as salt, it is desirable to stir the inside of the Teflon pipe in the heating section 3.

Since the present invention has the above structure, it has excellent practical effects as shown below.

In other words, since this device uses microwave irradiation for heating, there is less energy loss compared to steam heating, etc., and it can be used for heat sterilization or heat treatment of liquids, viscous materials, etc. under predetermined conditions. Not only is it possible to continuously take out only the sterilized materials that have been sterilized, but also the materials that do not reach the specified conditions due to heat sterilization, the start of heat treatment, or an accident during operation can be fed back to the tank and heat sterilized again. It has excellent practical effects in that it can be heat treated and there is no loss of materials to be sterilized during sterilization.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a flowchart of the present continuous heat sterilization apparatus. A...Object to be sterilized, 1...Tank, 2...Pump, 3...Heating part (by microwave irradiation), 4
...Holding department, 5...Three-way valve, 7,15
... Cooling section, 8, 9, 16, 17 ... Solenoid valve, 1
0, 11, 18...pressure gauge, 12, 13, 14,
20...Temperature measuring device, 19...Check valve.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A tank that supplies a fixed amount of the material to be sterilized such as liquid or viscous material, a pump that transports the material to be sterilized, a heating section by micro-irradiation, a holding section that maintains the temperature after heating, and a holding section. A three-way valve and a cooling unit that switch the conveyance route of the material to be sterilized after
It has a path that feeds back the material to be sterilized into the supply tank consisting of a pressure adjustment section, and a path that supplies the material to be sterilized to a filling section outside the device, and a temperature measuring device is installed after each of the heating section and the holding section. A continuous heat sterilizer characterized by: