JPH11155492A - Device for producing frozen dessert - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device for producing a frozen dessert, capable of restarting an operation for cooling and stirring raw materials after the exchange of a carbon dioxide gas cylinder or a syrup tank, even when a power source is not again switched on. SOLUTION: In a frozen dessert-producing device in which an operation for cooling and stirring raw materials is stopped, when a pressure detected with a pressure sensor 15 is lower than a predetermined lower limit set pressure or higher than a predetermined upper limit set pressure, an operation stop- canceling switch 24 for canceling the state stopping the cooling and stirring operation is disposed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing a semi-frozen beverage containing syrup and carbon dioxide.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Semi-frozen beverages containing syrup and carbon dioxide (hereinafter referred to as "chilled desserts") are generally produced by a frozen dessert production apparatus as shown in FIG. In the figure,
Reference numeral 1 denotes a main tank for stirring and stirring the ingredients to be frozen dessert. The main tank 1 is provided with a thermistor 2 for detecting the temperature in the tank 1 and a pouring cock 3. A raw material supply pipe 4 for supplying the raw material stored in the sub tank 5 (a liquid obtained by adding an appropriate amount of water and carbon dioxide to syrup) to the main tank 1 is connected.

The sub-tank 5 has a closed structure like the main tank 1. The sub-tank 5 has a carbon dioxide gas supply pipe 7 for supplying carbon dioxide gas sealed in a carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 to the sub-tank 5 and a syrup tank 8. A syrup supply pipe 9 for supplying the stored syrup to the sub tank 5 using the gas pressure of the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 is connected, and one end of a water supply pipe 10 is connected. The other end of the water supply pipe 10 is connected to a water supply tank 12 provided with a float switch 13 via a water supply pump 11. In the water supply tank 12, water for adjusting the syrup concentration is supplied from a water supply source (not shown). The water is supplied as needed through the water supply solenoid valve 14a. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 14b denotes a syrup replenishing solenoid valve for replenishing the sub tank 5 with syrup, and 14c denotes a carbon dioxide gas replenishing solenoid valve for replenishing the sub tank 5 with carbon dioxide gas.

Incidentally, such a frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus has a stirring blade inside a main tank 1 as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-215555. The raw materials in 1 are stirred. For this reason, if the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material is started in a state where the raw material in the main tank 1 is frozen, an excessive load acts on the motor driving the stirring blade, which may cause the motor to burn out. Therefore, conventionally, when the power switch is turned on, the thawing operation (defrost operation) is performed,
The raw material in the main tank 1 is thawed once before starting the cooling and stirring operation.

Further, if the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material is performed in a state where the residual amount of carbon dioxide in the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 and the residual amount of syrup in the syrup tank 8 are almost zero, the content of carbon dioxide and syrup contained in the raw material becomes insufficient. However, a desired refreshing feeling may not be obtained. For this reason, in the related art, the pressure in the sub-tank 5 is measured by the pressure sensor
5, when the pressure detected by the pressure sensor 15 is equal to or lower than a predetermined lower limit set pressure, it is determined that the remaining amount of carbon dioxide in the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 is zero. If the measured pressure is equal to or higher than the predetermined upper limit set pressure, it is determined that the remaining amount of syrup in the syrup tank 8 is zero, and if it is determined that one of these remaining amounts is zero, the cooling of the raw material is performed. The stirring operation is stopped, and replacement of the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 and the syrup tank 8 is encouraged.

[0006]

However, once the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 is replaced and the power switch is turned off once to restart the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material, the thawing operation completion flag is set to OFF. When the switch is turned on again, the thawing operation is performed, and there is a problem that the raw material in the main tank 1 returns from the semi-freezing state to the liquid state.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has an apparatus for manufacturing a frozen dessert capable of restarting the cooling and stirring operation of the raw materials without replacing the power switch after replacing the carbon dioxide gas cylinder or the syrup tank. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a main tank for stirring a raw material containing syrup and carbon dioxide while cooling, and the main tank includes A supply tank for supplying the raw material, a sub-tank connected to the main tank via the supply pipe, and a pressure sensor for detecting a pressure in the sub-tank, wherein the pressure detected by the pressure sensor is determined in advance. In a frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus in which the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material is stopped when the pressure is equal to or lower than a predetermined lower limit set pressure or equal to or higher than the upper limit set pressure, an operation stop release switch for canceling the stopped state of the cooling and stirring operation is provided. It is characterized by.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The same parts as those shown in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description of those parts will be omitted because they are redundant. I do. FIG. 1 shows a main part of a frozen dessert production apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 16 denotes a microprocessor (hereinafter abbreviated as “MPU”) as control means. A driver 17 connected to an output port of the MPU 16 includes a water supply solenoid valve 14a and a syrup replenishment solenoid valve. 14b, a carbon dioxide gas supply solenoid valve 14c, a compressor 18,
The stirring blade driving motor 19 and the feedwater pump driving motor 20 are connected.

The MPU 16 is operated by a drive voltage supplied from a power supply circuit 21. An AC voltage of 100 V is supplied to the power supply circuit 21 from a commercial power supply (not shown) via a power supply switch 22. ing. When the pressure detected by the pressure sensor 15 becomes lower than the set pressure, the MPU 16 determines that the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 is empty, and stops the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material. And an operation mode changeover switch 23 for switching from a replenishment operation mode in which only the raw material is supplied to a cooling and stirring operation mode in which the raw material is cooled and agitated while supplying the raw material to the main tank 1, is connected. The operation stop release switch 24 for releasing the stop state is connected.

In such a configuration, the power switch 2
When 2 is input, the MPU 16 controls the compressor 18, the stirring blade driving motor 19, and the feedwater pump driving motor 20 according to the flowchart shown in FIG. That is, when the power switch 22 is turned on, as shown in FIG.
U16 sets the thawing operation completion flag to OFF in step S1.

In step S1, the thawing operation completion flag is set to OF.
When set to F, the MPU 16 determines in step S2 whether or not the operation mode has been switched from the supply operation mode to the cooling and stirring operation mode based on a signal from the operation mode switch 23. Here, when the operation mode is the supply operation mode, only the supply operation of the raw material is performed in step S3, and the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material is not performed.

When the operation mode is the cooling and stirring operation mode, the MPU 16 determines whether or not the defrosting operation completion flag is set to ON in step S4, and the defrosting operation completion flag is set to OFF. In this case, it is determined in step S5 whether or not the temperature T in the main tank 1 measured by the thermistor 2 is 10 ° C. or less. If the temperature T in the main tank 1 is T ≦ 10 ° C., the thawing operation is performed in step S6 until the temperature T in the main tank 1 becomes T> 10 ° C. If T> 10 ° C., the thawing operation completion flag is set to ON in step S7.

On the other hand, if the thawing operation completion flag is set at step S4
In step 8, the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material is started. When the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material is started in this way, the MPU 16 captures the output signal of the pressure sensor 15, and the pressure detected by the pressure sensor 15 is equal to or lower than a predetermined lower limit set pressure or higher than a predetermined upper limit set pressure. Whether or not step S9
The judgment is made at a and 9b. Here, when the detected pressure of the pressure sensor 15 is not lower than the lower limit set pressure or higher than the upper limit set pressure, the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material is continuously performed, and the detected pressure of the pressure sensor 15 is lower than the lower limit set pressure or the upper limit set pressure. When the pressure is equal to or higher than the pressure, the cooling and stirring operation of the raw material is stopped in step S10.

When the cooling / stirring operation of the raw material is stopped in step S10, the MPU 16 operates the operation stop release switch 2
It is determined in step S11 whether or not 4 has been switched from OFF to ON. If the operation stop release switch 24 has been switched from OFF to ON, the stopped state of the cooling and stirring operation is released in step S12.

As described above, in the frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, the operation stop release switch 24 is turned off.
When switching from F to ON, the stopped state of the cooling and stirring operation is released. Therefore, the cooling / stirring operation of the raw material can be restarted without replacing the power supply switch 22 after the replacement of the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 or the syrup tank 8, whereby the main tank 1 is replaced when the carbon dioxide gas cylinder 6 or the syrup tank 8 is replaced. It is possible to prevent the raw material inside from returning from the semi-frozen state to the liquid state.

In the above-described embodiment, the operation stop release switch 24 is switched from OFF to ON to release the stopped state of the cooling and stirring operation. However, the operation stop release switch 24 is switched from ON to OFF to perform cooling and stirring. The stopped state of the operation may be released.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide a frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus capable of restarting the cooling and stirring operation of the raw materials without replacing the power switch after replacing the carbon dioxide gas cylinder or the syrup tank.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the frozen dessert production apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a schematic configuration of a frozen dessert manufacturing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Main tank, 4 ... Raw material supply pipe, 5 ... Sub tank,
6 ... Carbon dioxide cylinder, 8 ... Syrup tank, 11 ... Water supply pump, 15 ... Pressure sensor, 16 ... MPU, 17 ... Driver, 18 ... Compressor, 19 ... Motor for driving stirring blade, 20 ... Motor for driving water supply pump, 22 ... Power switch, 24 ... Operation stop release switch.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A main tank for cooling and stirring a raw material containing syrup and carbon dioxide gas, a raw material supply pipe for supplying the raw material to the main tank, and the main tank via the raw material supply pipe. A sub-tank connected to the sub-tank, and a pressure sensor for detecting a pressure in the sub-tank, and cooling the raw material when the pressure detected by the pressure sensor is equal to or lower than a predetermined lower limit set pressure or equal to or higher than a predetermined upper limit set pressure. A frozen confectionery production apparatus in which the stirring operation is stopped, wherein an operation stop release switch for releasing the stopped state of the cooling and stirring operation is provided.