JPH0479955A - Device for disinfecting and packing fluid - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer a device which makes possible a method of sterilizing a raw material through heating using low-cost, simple devices with small energy consumption by providing a hopper for receiving a raw material, a feed pump, a microwave radiating means, a heat disinfecting device and a device for packing and wrapping. CONSTITUTION:A raw material packed in a hopper 1 is preheated to 40 to 60 deg.C by the above mentioned material supplied to a jacket and is fed to a heat disinfecting device 3 by a feed pump 2 and absorbs microwave energy radiated from a microwave radiating means 5 during circulation through the conduit 4 of the device 3 and is thereby heated to predetermined temperature in the range of 50 to 100 deg.C, so that the raw material is disinfected by heating. At the initial period of operation of the device a valve 8a located on the side of a device 6 for packing and wrapping is closed and a valve 8b located on the side of a circulation passage 7 is opened so that the raw material is circulated in the hopper 1 until it becomes stable at the predetermined temperature; after the raw material becomes stable, the valve 8b is closed and the valve 8a is opened whereby the raw material is supplied to the device 6 for packing and wrapping. The raw material supplied is held at temperatures in the range of 50 to 100 deg.C and is packed and wrapped and taken outside of a system as a product.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a sterilization and filling device for heating and sterilizing fluids such as liquids and viscous materials using microwaves and then filling and packaging them.

[Prior art]

As a device for continuously heating and sterilizing fluids such as liquids and viscous materials using microwaves, Japanese Patent Publication No. 19185/1985 describes a tank for supplying a fixed amount of material to be sterilized, a conveying pump, a microwave irradiation heating section, A temperature holding holding part and a three-way valve for switching the transfer route are provided in this order, and the three-way valve switches the feedback route to the supply tank equipped with a cooling part and pressure adjustment part, and the supply to the filling part outside the device. A continuous heat sterilization device is disclosed in which a path is provided and a temperature measuring device is provided after each of a heating section and a holding section. Conventionally, as a sterilizer attached to a filling and packaging apparatus, a retort sterilizer, a heat exchange type sterilizer such as a plate type, a scraping type, etc. are generally used.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the sterilizer disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Publication No. 63-19185, as shown in the examples of the publication, the heat sterilization temperature is as high as 100 to 150°C, and the internal pressure is also high, so the pressure cannot be adjusted. In addition, it is necessary to control temperature and pressure in a correlated manner, making control complicated. In addition, microwave energy consumption is large to raise the temperature.
Moreover, the physical properties may change depending on the object to be sterilized. Especially in the case of colloidal or gel-like fluids, these conditions may be destroyed. Furthermore, since the product is cooled in a cooling section after heat sterilization, when applied to a filling and packaging device, it is necessary to fill and package aseptically using sterilized packaging material, or to sterilize it again after filling and packaging. This method has the drawbacks of being time consuming and causing a lot of energy loss. Retort sterilizers, heat exchange sterilizers, and the like use steam, superheated water, and the like, so they require oversized equipment, take a long heating time, and consume a lot of energy.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention eliminates the drawbacks that occur when applying the above-mentioned conventional heat sterilization equipment, and provides a device that consumes less energy and can perform heat sterilization, filling and packaging with an inexpensive and simple device. This includes a hopper that receives fluid raw materials, a supply pump that supplies the raw materials in the hopper to subsequent equipment, a conduit with low dielectric loss, and a microwave irradiation means that irradiates microwaves from the outside of the conduit. The raw material flowing through the conduit is 50 to 1
A sterilization and filling device for fluids, characterized in that it is equipped with a heat sterilization device for heating and sterilizing in a temperature range of 00°C, and a filling and packaging device for filling and packaging the raw material from the device while maintaining it in the above temperature range. It is also preferable to provide a means for preheating the raw material supplied to the heat sterilization apparatus.

[For production]

The fluid raw material filled in the hopper is extracted by a supply pump and supplied to a microwave heat sterilization device. While the raw material flows through the conduit with low dielectric loss of the heat sterilization device, the raw material is heated and sterilized by absorbing microwave energy irradiated from the outside of the conduit by the microwave irradiation means. Heat sterilization using microwaves can uniformly raise the temperature of raw materials to a predetermined temperature within the sterilizing temperature range of 50 to 100 degrees Celsius in an extremely short period of time. There is also less degeneration. In the above temperature range, if the heating temperature is 50° C. or lower, the sterilization effect is extremely low, and if the heating temperature is 100° C. or higher, the pressure increase due to evaporation of water cannot be ignored.

The raw material heated to a predetermined temperature is maintained within the above-mentioned temperature range and supplied to a filling and packaging device, where filled and packaged products are continuously produced. Since the raw materials to be filled and packaged are maintained within a predetermined temperature range under sterilization conditions, the packaging material can also be heat sterilized. In addition, by providing a preheating means for preheating the raw material before the microwave heat sterilization device, the heating load caused by the microwave can be reduced and the heating time can be shortened, and the microwave heat sterilization device can be downsized. .

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail based on the drawings showing examples. FIG. 1 is a system diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. A hopper 1 is filled with fluid raw materials such as liquid or viscous materials, and a jacket is provided on the outer surface of the hopper 1 to preheat the raw materials with steam, superheated water, or the like. 2 is a supply pump that supplies the raw material to the downstream device. When the flow resistance of the raw material is low, it is also possible to supply the raw material by head difference without using the supply pump 2. 3 is a heating sterilization device using microwaves, which is equipped with a conduit 4 with low dielectric loss inside, and is designed to irradiate microwaves from an attached microwave irradiation means 5 from the outside of the conduit 4, The box is made of material and structure that prevents microwaves from leaking.

The conduit 4 is made of a material with low dielectric loss, such as Teflon (trade name), and has a diameter of 2 to 120 I, and may be a straight pipe, a spiral pipe, or a spiral pipe, and its length is appropriately set depending on the temperature and humidity. . If the diameter of the conduit 4 is 2 mm or less, the flow resistance of the raw material becomes too large, and if it is 120 m++ or more, the temperature difference in the radial direction of the flowing raw material becomes large, making uniform heating difficult. Further, a stainless steel pipe or the like is used for connection with the supply pump 2 and the filling and packaging device. The microwave irradiation means 5 is usually composed of a microwave oscillator, a waveguide for guiding the microwave from the oscillator to a predetermined position, and a stirrer fan for uniformly dispersing and irradiating the microwave. Also, the microwaves used are usually 245
A 0 MHz band and a 915 MHz band are used. 6 is a filling and packaging device, and commonly used devices such as a pillow type, three-sided seal type, four-sided seal type, and stick Parker type are applicable. Reference numeral 7 denotes a circulation passage for circulating the heated raw material to the hopper 1, and is mainly used to circulate the raw material until the raw material stabilizes at a predetermined temperature at the start of operation of the equipment. 1
It can also be used as a preheating means to raise the temperature of the raw material inside.

In addition, as the above-mentioned preheating means, a jacket is provided on the outer surface of the hopper 1 to heat it with steam, or a heater such as an electric heater or a heat exchanger is provided in the flow path from the hopper 1 to the heat sterilizer 3. is preferable.

8a and 8b are valves used for flow path switching, raw material flow rate adjustment, and the like. 9a and 9b are temperature measuring devices, and lO is a pressure measuring device, and the supply pump 2 is controlled based on the respective measured values.
The raw material supply amount and microwave output adjustment are controlled by a control device (not shown). Note that the flow path for the heating raw material mentioned above is appropriately kept warm by a heat insulating material. The operation of sterilizing and filling fluid raw materials using the above-mentioned sterilizing and filling apparatus will be described in detail below. As raw materials, any liquid or viscous material with fluidity, such as various soups, sauces, spice pastes, foods such as drinks, and medicines, can be used.

The raw material filled in the hopper 1 is preheated to 40 to 60°C by the steam supplied to the jacket, and is supplied to the heat sterilizer 3 by the supply pump 2. While the supplied raw material flows through the conduit 4 of the device 3, it absorbs the energy of the microwave irradiated from the microwave irradiation means 5 and becomes 50~
The temperature is raised to a predetermined temperature in the range of 100°C and heat sterilized. If the heating temperature is 50°C or less, the sterilization effect will be extremely low, and if the heating temperature is 100°C or higher, the pressure increase due to evaporation of water cannot be ignored.

The residence time of the raw material in the conduit 4 is usually about 1 to 5 minutes, but
It is set based on the diameter and length of the conduit 4, the heating temperature, the microwave output, etc., which are set as appropriate. At the initial stage of operation, the heat-sterilized raw material is circulated to the hopper 1 until the temperature stabilizes at a predetermined temperature by closing the valve 8a on the filling and packaging device 6 side and opening the valve 8b on the circulation channel 7 side. . After the raw material is stabilized at a predetermined temperature, the raw material is supplied to the filling and packaging apparatus 6 by closing the valve 8b and opening the valve 8a. The supplied raw materials are maintained in the temperature range of 50 to 100°C, filled and packaged, and taken out of the system as a product. As the packaging material 11 used, polyethylene, polypropylene, nylon, aluminum foil, etc. are used as appropriate, but since the heating raw material is filled, these packaging materials are also heat sterilized.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The present invention has the following effects.

b) Since the heated raw materials are held within the temperature range necessary for sterilization before being filled and packaged, there is no need to sterilize the packaging material in advance or sterilize it after packaging, making the equipment inexpensive and simple. .

Since microwaves are used to heat and sterilize fluid raw materials, the time required for heating is short and thermal efficiency is good, so energy consumption is low. In addition, temperature control is easy and reliable, so there are no sterilization mistakes. Furthermore, microwave heating does not cause burning of raw materials.

c) Since the heat sterilization temperature is low and the pressure rise in the raw material distribution pipe is small, a pressure adjustment section is not necessarily required and the pressure resistance of the device can be made low.

Furthermore, energy loss is reduced, and equipment costs can be reduced.

2) By preheating the raw material using a preheating means, the heating load caused by microwaves can be reduced, the output of microwaves can also be lowered, and relatively expensive microwave heating sterilization equipment can be downsized.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. hopper, 2; supply pump, 3; heat sterilizer, 4;
Conduit, 5; Microwave irradiation means, 6; Filling and packaging device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A hopper that receives fluid raw materials, a supply pump that supplies the raw materials in the hopper to subsequent equipment, a conduit with low dielectric loss, and microwave irradiation that irradiates microwaves from the outside of the conduit. a heating sterilization device for heating and sterilizing the raw material flowing through the conduit in a temperature range of 50 to 100°C, and a filling and packaging device for filling and packaging the raw material from the device while maintaining the raw material in the above temperature range. A sterilizing and filling device for fluids, characterized in that it is provided with: 2) The sterilization and filling apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for preheating the raw material supplied to the heat sterilization apparatus.