专利汇可以提供An apparatus for heating and controlling the process temperature in a tunnel pasteuriser专利检索,专利查询,专利分析的服务。并且An apparatus for heating and controlling the process temperature in a tunnel pasteuriser, in particular for packaged food products, in which the tunnel, provided with a conveyor able to advance the product, is substantially subdivided into a first pre-heating area, into a second pasteurisation heat treatment area and a third area where the product is cooled.
The apparatus is provided at least with a heat exchanger comprising a primary loop and a plurality of secondary loops, each of which is connected to the hydraulic loop of each sub-area. Each secondary loop is further provided with servo-controlled modulating valves which serve as means for controlling the temperature of the water of the sprinkler of each sub-area.,下面是An apparatus for heating and controlling the process temperature in a tunnel pasteuriser专利的具体信息内容。
The present invention relates to an apparatus for heating and controlling the process temperature of a tunnel pasteuriser, in particular for packaged food products.
As is well known, pasteurisation of packaged food products is the heat treatment whereto are subjected some types of products already packaged in final containers, in order to improve their preservation over time.
The type of pasteurisation referred to hereinafter is "low temperature pasteurisation" and with specific reference to food products constituted by drinks. This means that it takes place at a temperature lower than 90°C by means of hot water which is sprayed in a programmed manner onto the containers in order to modify their temperature according to a defined thermal cycle.
The apparatus whereby the pasteurisation process is achieved is essentially constituted by a tunnel through which is treated the product already packaged in the containers (bottles, cans or other containers) which are made to advance in the tunnel by means of a conveyor.
From the thermal point of view, the tunnel is essentially subdivided into three areas: a first area (area 1) for pre-heating, where the temperature of the product is increased to a value beyond which the actual heat treatment takes place; a second area (area 2) for heat treatment; a third area (area 3) for cooling, where the product is brought back roughly to ambient temperature in order to prevent undesired fermentation phenomena.
Each of these three area is further subdivided into two or more parts (sub-areas) in order to: (a) avoid thermal shocks and have the opportunity to recover heat between the heating and the cooling areas, or (b) have available areas at different temperatures, variable according to determined logic criteria, in the portion of the tunnel where the actual heat treatment takes place.
In accordance with the prior art, the heating of the water that is sprayed onto the product (process water) takes place by means of a plurality of heat exchangers, whereof each is associated to a sub-area of the areas 1, 2, 3 into which the tunnel is subdivided.
Figure 3 shows a tunnel pasteuriser obtained according to the prior art in question (see also patent EP 960 574),
Each of said exchangers is formed by a single primary loop, whose fluid can be, depending on requirements, saturated steam, superheated water, hot water, etcetera, and by a single secondary loop wherein the process water circulates. Also present is a metering valve for the primary circuit and a condensation drain if the primary fluid is steam.
The process water circulates in each sub-area, through a hydraulic loop connecting the collection tank, located below the sprayed product, with sprinklers positioned above the product. The secondary loop of each heat exchanger is connected with the hydraulic loop of each sub-area, described above. To each sub-area of the pasteuriser, whose process water requires appropriate heating, must therefore be associated a specific heat exchanger.
While this constructive solution meets the operating requirements of the system very well, it does nonetheless have some drawbacks.
These are, essentially:
To solve these series of drawbacks, some manufacturers have adopted a centralised heating system, which provides for the adoption of a single heat exchanger for all areas subjected to temperature control. This exchanger provides for heating a mass of water present inside a tank, which is maintained at sufficiently high temperature, and which is mixed with the process water of the various areas, in order to increase its temperature, depending on the need of each. Thermal energy is thus distributed by means of masses of hot water which are added in the areas where a temperature increase is required.
Figure 2 schematically shows a tunnel pasteuriser obtained in accordance with this second type of prior art (see for instance patent WO 95/22352). This technical solution, while providing some unquestionable advantages over its prior art, still exhibits some drawbacks.
In particular:
The essential aim of the present invention therefore is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks, relating to current systems for heating and controlling the process temperatures in tunnel pasteurisers, making available an apparatus that allows:
These aims and others besides are all achieved by the subject apparatus for heating and controlling the process temperature, whose main characteristics are indicated in the claims that follow.
Additional characteristics and advantages of the present invention shall become more readily apparent from the detailed description that follows of an embodiment of the apparatus in question illustrated, purely by way of non limiting example, in the accompanying drawings.
With reference to Figure 3, the tunnel of the pasteuriser, which is provided with a conveyor (not shown) for advancing the product according to the direction indicated by the arrow shown in Figure 3, is subdivided into three areas, i.e.: a first pre-heating area 1 which is subdivided (in the example shown) into four thermally independent elementary sub-areas 11, 12, 13, 14; a second area 2 for the pasteurising heat treatment, which is subdivided (again with reference to the illustrated example) into three thermally independent sub-areas 21, 22, 23; a third cooling area 3 which is subdivided (also with reference to the illustrated example) into four elementary sub-areas 31, 32, 33, 34.
A suitable apparatus for measuring and processing data is able to measure and record process water temperature and to determine, by mathematical calculation, the temperature of the product in each of the elementary portions (sub-areas). Said apparatus is not shown in the accompanying drawings because it is known in itself (it is constituted by probes connected to a computer). Nor is its exact positioning shown (which in any case has to be in the areas or sub-areas of interest) because it depends on the various functional and operative requirements. Measured and recorded temperature values are constantly compared with set values (i.e. pre-determined values) defined for a characteristic point of each of the elementary sub-areas of the areas 1, 2 and 3 into which the tunnel is subdivided. Such an apparatus for computerised adjustment and control is, in any case, described in patent EP 960 574.
Again with reference to Figure 3, the apparatus for heating and controlling the process temperature shall now be described.
Each elementary sub-area of the pre-heating area 1 and of the area 2 for the pasteurising heat treatment comprises a hydraulic loop 3 which allows to spray, with process water at predetermined temperature, the packaged product in transit on the conveyor.
With reference to the pasteurising area 2, each hydraulic loop 3 in turn comprises a sprinkler 4, an underlying collection tank 5 and a pipeline 6 connecting the tank 5 with the sprinkler 4.
Note that, with reference to the pre-heating area 1, the pipeline 6 that connects the tank 5 with the sprinkler 4 extends its route to the cooling area 3. Starting from the tank 5, for instance of the sub-area 14, the pipeline 6 feeds the upper sprinkler of the sub-area 31 and hence the water drained from the tank of this sub-area 31 returns towards the sprinkler 4 of the sub-area 14. For the sake of descriptive simplicity the entire pipeline connecting the sub-areas 14 and 31 has been indicated with the same reference number 6 as the other similar pipelines.
Obviously, this holds true also for the other sub-areas 11, 12, 13 and 32, 33, 34.
According to the embodiment illustrated in Figure 3, the apparatus of the present invention comprises two heat exchangers 7 associated respectively to the first pre-heating area 1 and to the second pasteurisation heat treatment area 2.
Each exchanger 7 comprises a primary loop 8 (whereto are associated a metering valve 15 and a condensation drain 16) and a plurality of secondary loops 9 (as many as there are elementary sub-areas in which heated process water is present - this is not the case for sub-area 11). Each of the secondary loops is connected to the hydraulic loop 3 of each elementary sub-area.
More specifically, each loop 9 is fed in the lower part of the loop 3 by the process water coming from the tank 5 and ends in the upper part upstream of the sprinkler 4.
Each secondary circuit 9 is also provided with means for controlling the water temperature of the related sprinkler 4 which are constituted by a servo-controlled modulating low pressure valve 10 positioned, on the loop 9, upstream of the sprinkler 4.
The injection, or lack thereof, of process water (at a temperature deriving from the heat exchange in the exchanger 7) from the loop 9 to the hydraulic loop 3 determines the temperature variation of the water sprinkled by the sprinkler 4. This variation is a function of the water temperature in the circuit 9 downstream of the exchanger 7 and of the water flow rate injected downstream of the valve 10. Note that the use of loops 7 with multiple secondary loops 9 allows to maintain constantly active the system for adjusting the primary loop 8. And this thanks to the probability of energy demand by at least one of the secondary loops 9.
This fact allows:
Note also that if in the primary loop 8 of the heat exchanger 7 the fluid were constituted by dry saturated steam, the assembly formed by metering valve 15 and condensation drain 16 would become self-regulating.
In this case the valve 15, the exchanger 7 and the condensation drain 16 would respectively become a pressure regulator 15 (the pressure of the dry saturated steam), a condenser 7 and a condensation drain 16. This means that, as long as in the secondary loops 9 circulates water that cools the steam present in the primary circuit 8 making it condense, the condensation drain 16 opens to make the condensation flow out in a quantity proportional to the heat exchanged and the pressure regulator (valve 15) opens to restore the value of pressure whereto it is calibrated. When the steam in the loop 8 is no longer cooled by any secondary fluid, no condensation being formed, the drain 16 closes, the pressure downstream of the pressure regulating valve 15 increases, and the valve itself shuts off the flow of steam.
Since the formation and evacuation of condensation is proportional to the heat removed from the water which may circulate in the secondary loops, the pressure variation of the steam in the condenser (heat exchanger 7) is proportional to the quantity of condensation evacuated, and the opening of the pressure regulating valve 15 is proportional to the pressure downstream thereof, the flow of steam in the primary loop 8 of the exchanger 7 is consequently regulated automatically as a function of the heat removed.
Obviously the present invention may assume, in its practical realisation, different configurations from the one illustrated above, without thereby departing from the scope of protection of the present monopoly.
标题 | 发布/更新时间 | 阅读量 |
---|---|---|
一种毛驴酸奶及其制作工艺和方法 | 2020-05-13 | 334 |
一种营养食品补充剂的加工方法 | 2020-05-23 | 773 |
自动旋转高压灭菌器及具有连续操作阶段的处理方法 | 2020-05-24 | 835 |
一种牛大力果脯的制作方法 | 2020-05-25 | 616 |
容器处理系统和用于切换容器处理系统的操作的方法 | 2020-05-08 | 104 |
一种工业用水纯化设备 | 2020-05-16 | 1035 |
Water Bath Shell Egg Pasteurization Method | 2020-05-23 | 213 |
Water bath shell egg pasteurization method | 2020-05-19 | 657 |
焦げ付き抑制剤 | 2020-05-20 | 269 |
制药用纯化水灭菌系统 | 2020-05-21 | 762 |
高效检索全球专利专利汇是专利免费检索,专利查询,专利分析-国家发明专利查询检索分析平台,是提供专利分析,专利查询,专利检索等数据服务功能的知识产权数据服务商。
我们的产品包含105个国家的1.26亿组数据,免费查、免费专利分析。
专利汇分析报告产品可以对行业情报数据进行梳理分析,涉及维度包括行业专利基本状况分析、地域分析、技术分析、发明人分析、申请人分析、专利权人分析、失效分析、核心专利分析、法律分析、研发重点分析、企业专利处境分析、技术处境分析、专利寿命分析、企业定位分析、引证分析等超过60个分析角度,系统通过AI智能系统对图表进行解读,只需1分钟,一键生成行业专利分析报告。