CA1241565A - Die for extruder - Google Patents
Die for extruderInfo
- Publication number
- CA1241565A CA1241565A CA000488903A CA488903A CA1241565A CA 1241565 A CA1241565 A CA 1241565A CA 000488903 A CA000488903 A CA 000488903A CA 488903 A CA488903 A CA 488903A CA 1241565 A CA1241565 A CA 1241565A
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- die
- raw materials
- barrel
- porous plate
- openings
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
- 239000007858 starting material Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 22
- XLYOFNOQVPJJNP-UHFFFAOYSA-N water Substances O XLYOFNOQVPJJNP-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims abstract description 12
- 238000009826 distribution Methods 0.000 claims description 15
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 claims description 6
- 235000021245 dietary protein Nutrition 0.000 claims description 4
- YUBJPYNSGLJZPQ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Dithiopyr Chemical compound CSC(=O)C1=C(C(F)F)N=C(C(F)(F)F)C(C(=O)SC)=C1CC(C)C YUBJPYNSGLJZPQ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 claims description 2
- 230000004323 axial length Effects 0.000 claims 1
- 230000003467 diminishing effect Effects 0.000 claims 1
- 239000002994 raw material Substances 0.000 abstract description 167
- 235000013305 food Nutrition 0.000 abstract description 52
- 108090000623 proteins and genes Proteins 0.000 abstract description 31
- 102000004169 proteins and genes Human genes 0.000 abstract description 31
- 235000010469 Glycine max Nutrition 0.000 abstract description 13
- 244000068988 Glycine max Species 0.000 abstract description 13
- 239000000843 powder Substances 0.000 abstract description 12
- 235000013372 meat Nutrition 0.000 abstract description 7
- 235000018102 proteins Nutrition 0.000 description 28
- 239000000047 product Substances 0.000 description 22
- 230000007423 decrease Effects 0.000 description 12
- 239000012530 fluid Substances 0.000 description 12
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 description 8
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 7
- 238000010438 heat treatment Methods 0.000 description 7
- 230000027455 binding Effects 0.000 description 6
- 238000009739 binding Methods 0.000 description 6
- 238000006243 chemical reaction Methods 0.000 description 6
- 230000001276 controlling effect Effects 0.000 description 6
- 230000003247 decreasing effect Effects 0.000 description 6
- 235000012438 extruded product Nutrition 0.000 description 6
- 238000001125 extrusion Methods 0.000 description 6
- 238000004898 kneading Methods 0.000 description 6
- 230000002093 peripheral effect Effects 0.000 description 6
- 229920002472 Starch Polymers 0.000 description 5
- 239000012467 final product Substances 0.000 description 5
- 238000010008 shearing Methods 0.000 description 5
- 235000019698 starch Nutrition 0.000 description 5
- 239000008107 starch Substances 0.000 description 5
- 235000021120 animal protein Nutrition 0.000 description 4
- 238000010276 construction Methods 0.000 description 4
- 238000001816 cooling Methods 0.000 description 4
- 238000002474 experimental method Methods 0.000 description 4
- 108010082495 Dietary Plant Proteins Proteins 0.000 description 3
- 235000015278 beef Nutrition 0.000 description 3
- 230000001419 dependent effect Effects 0.000 description 3
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 3
- 238000007493 shaping process Methods 0.000 description 3
- 229940070376 protein Drugs 0.000 description 2
- 235000011888 snacks Nutrition 0.000 description 2
- 208000005156 Dehydration Diseases 0.000 description 1
- VRDIULHPQTYCLN-UHFFFAOYSA-N Prothionamide Chemical compound CCCC1=CC(C(N)=S)=CC=N1 VRDIULHPQTYCLN-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 235000013527 bean curd Nutrition 0.000 description 1
- 230000009286 beneficial effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000009835 boiling Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000018044 dehydration Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000006297 dehydration reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000009499 grossing Methods 0.000 description 1
- -1 i.e. Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000004519 manufacturing process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000035484 reaction time Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000001954 sterilising effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000126 substance Substances 0.000 description 1
Landscapes
- Formation And Processing Of Food Products (AREA)
- Meat, Egg Or Seafood Products (AREA)
Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
The present invention relates to a die for an ext-ruder for processing the food raw materials, particularly the protein starting materials such as defatted soybean powder and a high water content animal meat, from which raw materials a continuous meat-like organized and shaped food product is produced by the first and the second pro-provisions, in which first provision a length of the die opening is set to be 15 to 40 times as long as a diameter or a thickness of the die opening, and in which second provision a porous plate provided a large number of small openings is provided in an inlet portion of the die open-ing.
The present invention relates to a die for an ext-ruder for processing the food raw materials, particularly the protein starting materials such as defatted soybean powder and a high water content animal meat, from which raw materials a continuous meat-like organized and shaped food product is produced by the first and the second pro-provisions, in which first provision a length of the die opening is set to be 15 to 40 times as long as a diameter or a thickness of the die opening, and in which second provision a porous plate provided a large number of small openings is provided in an inlet portion of the die open-ing.
Description
~4~S6S
FIELD OF THE INVENTION -I
The present invention relates to a die for an extruder, and more particularly to a die for an extruder for producing a meat-like continuous organized and shaped food product from protein starting materials such as defatted soybean powder, high water con-tent animal meat and the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Food processing has a long history, which processing appears in a document published in the second half of 1800. At the begin-ning of its history, the extruder was used to conduct a food dehy-dration process or juicing process. Then,the application field of such extruder was gradually broadened to a processing/shaping area of the foods, in which area the food starting materials are thrown into a screw portion of the extruder so that such materials are kneaded and heated while transfered forward, whereby the food starting materials are extruded from the die of the extruder into a final food product having an individual shape.
The extruder is substantially classified into two types, one of which is one shaft type and the other of which is two shaft type.
The two shaft type of the extruder is further classified into sev-eral sub-types with respect to its meshing manner and the rotation-al directions of two screws.
Hitherto, the extruder has been considered merely as a mach-ine for conducting compressing, kneading, expanding and bulking ; processes on the food starting materials. However, now, the ex-truder is considered as a remarkable means for positively conduct-ing mixing/kneading, shearing, fusing, sterilizing, chemical re-acting, bulking, shaping and the like processes.
3L5~j5 2l326-8l According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a device for extruding a high water content, food protein starting material as a continuous meat-like product comprising an axially extending cylinder barrel having an inlet end and an outlet end spaced apart in the axial direction, and axially extending screw rotatably mounted in said cylinder barrel for moving the starting material through said barrel from the inlet end to the outlet end thereof, an axially elongated die of optional length connected to the outlet end of and co-axial with said barrel, said die compris-ing a plurality of axially extending die portions arranged serially and each having a die opening extending axially therethrough in axial alignment with the adjacent die portions, each of said die portions having a temperature jacket, said die openings having a minimum dimension transverse to the axial direction, said die open-ings of said die portions forming said die having a length dimen-sion 15 to 40 times as long as the minimum dimension of said die openings.
According to another aspect of the invention there is pro-vided a device for extruding a high water content food protein starting material as a continuous meat-like product comprising an axially extending cylinder barrel, having an inlet end and an out-let end, an axially extending screw rotatably mounted in said cy-linder barrel for moving the starting material through said barrel from the inlet end to the outlet end thereof, an axially elongated die extending from the outlet end of said barrel and being coaxial with said barrel, said die having an axially extending die opening therethrough, a porous plate having a thickness direction extend-ing in the axial direction of said barrel and die, a plurality of : 2 small openings extending in the thickness direction through said porous plate, said porous plate located between the outlet end of said barrel and the adjacent end of said die opening, said plate extending perpendicular to the axis of said barrel.
In the accompanying drawings:
Figure 1 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of an example of a first embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 is an ouline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of an example of a second embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 3 is a front view of a porous plate shown in Figure 2;
Figure 4 is an enlarged view of a small opening portion of the porous plate shown in Figure 2;
Figure 5 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of a second example of the second embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 6 is a front view of another example of the porous plate;
Figure 7 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of a third example of the second embodiment of the present in-vention;
Figure 8 is a partial sectional enlarged view of the porous plate shown in Figure 7;
Figure 9 is a front view of the porous plate shown in Figure 8;
Figure 10 f, g, h and j are flowing speed distribution dia-grams of the raw materials, taken along the lines F-F, G-G, H-H, and J-J in Figure 7, respectively;
Figure 11 is an outline of a longitudinal view of a die of a ~2~1565 21326-81 fourth example of the second embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 12 is a front view of another example of the porous plate;
Figure 13 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of a fifth example of the second embodiment of the present in-vention;
Figure 14 is a front view taken along the line xIv-xIv in Fig-ure 13;
Figure 15 is an enlarged sectional view of the small opening of the porous plate shown in Figure 13;
Figures 16 and 17 are longitudinal sectional views of other ex-amples of the porous plate;
Figures 18 o, p, q and r are flowing speed distribution dia-grams of the raw materials, taken along the lines O-O, P-P, Q-Q
and R-R in Figure 13, respectively;
Figure 19 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of the die of the fifth example of the second embodiment of the pre-sent invention;
Figure 20 is a front view of a further another example of the porous plate;
Figures 21 and 22 are longitudinal sectional side views of ex-amples of the conventional one shaft type extruder;
Figure 23 is a longitudinal sectional side view of an example of the conventional two shaft type extruder;
Figure 24 is a front view taken along the line XXIV-XXIV in Figure 23, viewed in an arrow direction therein;
: Figure 25 is a longitudinal sectional side view of a die of another example of the conventional two shaft type extruder;
~24~5~5 21326-81 Figure 26 is a front view viewed in an arrow direction XXVI
in Figure 25;
Figure 27 is an enlarged sectional view of the die shown in Figure 25; and Figure 28 is a front view of a slit die.
A conventional extruder is shown in Figures 21 to 28. The simplest type of the conventional extruder is shown in Figure 21, wherein the reference numeral 1 designates a hopper for feeding the food starting materials, i.e., raw materials 20, to a screw 3 which is rotated by a suitable driving unit (not shown) so that the raw materials 20 are transferred to an opening of a die 4 through a barrel 2 by means of the screw 3 while being mixed, kneaded and fused. The raw materials 20 are fused together under the effect of self-heating caused in the mixing/kneading, and the sharing processed of the raw materials 20 conducted by the screw 3 or under the effect of an outer heating conducted by a barrel heater (not shown). Then, the thus processed raw materials 20 are extruded from the opening of the die 4 as an extruded product 21. Incid-entally, a front end of the screw 3 has a conical shape.
The extruder shown in Figure 22 is provided with a temperature controlling jacket 8 which has a fluid passage 9 in an outer peri-pher~ of the barrel 7 so that the temperature of the barrel 7 is controlled by the fluid flowing therein, the temperature of which fluid is controlled in the jacket 8. Incidentally, in Figure 22 the reference numeral 10 designates a screw; the numeral 12 des-ignates a plurality of openings provided in the die; and the num-eral 11 designates a front end protion of the screw 10, which front end portion 11 is formed into a semi-spherical shape.
In Figures 23 and 24, there is shown a two shaft type of ex-truder which is provided with a hopper 14 for forcibly feeding the raw materials, which extruder is also provided with a pair of screws 15, 15' meshing with each other. The reference numerals 16 and 16 designate front end portions of the screws 15 and 15 , re-spectively, each of which front end portions 16 and 16/ is formed into a conical shape. Incidentally, in Figure 23, the reference numeral 17 designates an opening of the die.
In Figures 25 and 26, there is shown another two shaft type of extruder provided with two die openings 39 and 39', in which extruder the reference numerals 35 and 35'designate screws meshing with each other; the numeral 36 designates a barrel; and the num-eral 37 designates a die which is provided with the two die open-ings 39 and 39.
Incidentally, in the case of a slit die 4'as shown in Figure 28, such die 4 is provided with a die opening 5~having a rectang-ular shape. Incidentally, the reference character Q shown in Fig-ure 27 designates a "length of the die openings"; the character d shown in Figure 26 designates a "diameter of the die opening"; and the character T shown in Figure 28 designates a "thickness of the die opening".
In the conventional die 4 (or 4 and the like), the length Q
of the die opening is up to a length of 10 times as long as the diameter d or the thickness T of the die opening (hereinafter re-ferred to as the diameter d of the die opening for simplifying the description).
The reason why the length Q of the die opening is up to 10 times as long as the diameter d of the die opening is that, hither-~241~ 21326-81 to, the foods such as a snack and the like which are easy to shape and are processed by the extruder are mainly made from a starch starting material so that it s possible to shape such foods easily and to produce such foods as continuous products even if the length Q of the die opening is short or that there is original-ly no need for producing the continuous products so as to produce granulated products.
However, recently, it has been tried to produce a meat-like continuous product, or to perform an extrusion process on high water content food starting materials using a beneficial property of the two shaft type of the extruder in its material transferring ability .
In this case, when a length Q of a die opening up to 10 times as long as a diameter d of the die opening is used in a processing of food made prom defatted soybean powder, it is impossible to pro-duce a final product in a continuous shape, which final product is extruded from the die into a granulated shape.
In the case of high water content raw materials, a processing temperature thereof often exceeds the boiling point of water. In such a case, the raw materials are ejected from the die under the effect of the steam pressure to make it impossible to produce a continuous product, so that the product is broken in its organized structure to lose water trapped in such organized structure of the product.
Further, ln the conventional extruder, the raw materials, are kneaded by the screw to be fused together so that the thus fused raw materials are extruded from the die while subjected to various - reactions. In this time, in the conventional extruder, since the . .
P 4~ 5 6 5 21326-81 raw materials are extruded from the die after they are controlled in their kneading rate an reaction rate by changing the rotation-al speed of the screw, barrel temperature, feeding amount of raw materials and the like, there is no wide variation in the flowing speed of the raw materials after they pass through the screw. How-ever, in some types of the conventional extruders, the flowing speed of the raw materials in an oulet of the die is considerably increased relative to that of the raw materials between the barrel and the die.
The reason why the flowing speed of the raw materials in the outlet of the die is considerably increased relative to that of the raw materials between the barrel and the die lies in that it is intended to bulk out the food product, such as a snack and the like made from starch starting materials, in the outlet of the die, which food product has been processed in the extruder, or in that it is intended to organize the structure of the food product made from protein starting material in flake-like manner.
However, in such construction of the conventional extruder, in the case where is required to produce a fibriform continuous meat-like product from a vegetable protein such as defatted soy-bean powder and "Okara" which is a residue of the Japanese trad-itional soybean cake "Tofu" and from an animal protein such as mar-ine beef and scrap meat, such requirement can not be satisfied since it is not possible to obtain a product having a sufficient fibriform structure and a sufficient strength in its binding force.
This is one of problems inherent in the conventional extruder.
I; It is an object of the present invention to provide a die for an extruder which may produce a continuous meat-like organized pro-: :, ~4~5~,S 21326-81 tein product, in which extruder the raw materials such as defatted soybean powder and high water content scrap meat are subjected to a sufficient organizing action when they pass through the die op-ening.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a die for an extruder which may extrude and shape a continuous meat-like product having a sufficient strength in a binding force of its structure, in which extruder the raw materials are oriented in their flowing direction so that the raw materials are formed into a strong fibriform structure.
The present invention will now be described.
Figure 1 shows a die of a first embodiment of the present in-vention, which die comprises three portions, i.e., a die 47 fixed to a cylinder barrel by a die holder 46; a die 48 connected to the die 47; and a die 49 connected to the die 47 by the die 48. In the die 47 are provided a taper hole 47A and a cylindrical die op-ening 47B connected to the taper hole 47A which is connected to a hole of the cylinder barrel in which the screw 42 is inserted, which taper hole 47~ is gradually decreased in its cross section ; 20 toward the cylindrical die opening 47B. The dies 48 and 49 are provided with die openings 48B anA 49B respectively, each of which openings 48B and 49B has the same diameter d as that of the die op-ening 47B and is aligned therewith in a straight line.
Further, the dies 47, 48 and 49 are provided with jackets 47C, 48C and 49C respectively, in which jackets 47C, 48C and 49C flows a fluid the temperature of which is set at a predetermined value.
Incidentally, the total length of the die openings 47B, 48B and 49B
is designated by the reference character "Q"~
7~ `
iLZ~565 21326-81 In operation, the raw materials fed from a feeding source thereof (not shown) to the barrel 41 are transferred to the die 47 while subjected to compressing, mixing, fusing and heating actions, in which heating action the raw materials are changed in their properties. During their transferring through the die openings 47B, 48B and 49B of the dies 47, 48 and 49, the raw materials re-act to each other to be organized so that the thus organized raw materials are formed into a continuous meat-like food which is then transferred to a front end of the die 49. Such food is cooled and shaped into a final extruded produce after it is extruded from the die 49.
In the above reactions of the raw materials, since such re-actions require a relatively long reaction time and since the thus organized structure of the raw materials is broken when the cross-sectional shapes of the die openings 47B, 48B and 49B are changed in a reaction zone of the raw materials, it is necessary to main-tain the cross-sectional shapes of the die openings 47B, 48B and 49B substantially coincident with each other in such reaction zone from a portion where the reaction of the raw materials is started to the outlet of the die 49.
Namely, while the raw materials are transferred through the die openings 47B 48B and 49Br the abovementioned reacting, cooling and forming actions of the raw materials are conducted. Therefore, the length Q is considerably long relative to the diameter d of the die opening.
The inventor of the present invention has manufactured various types of the dies by way of trial to have various experiments con-ducted with the use of such dies, whereby he has found a fact that, ~:43~5~
in the case of extrusion processing of defatted soybean powder as a raw material or producing the meat-like organized food product, a good food product can be obtained with the use of the die having a die opening a length Q of which is at least 20 times as long as the diameter d of the die opening, most preferably 35 times as long as the diameter d of the die opening, while a suitable temp-erature around the outlet of the die is 70C.
At this time, since it is preferable to change . Y
~.24~565 1 the length Or the die opening according to the water content ratio Or the food raw materials employed, it is preferable to employ an assembly type of the die compris-ing a plurality of dies as shown in the embodiment of the present invention so as to make the length Q Or the die opening adjustable.
The above is the description of the first embodi-ment of the present invention. Now, a second embodiment of the present invention will be hereinbelow described:
Figs. 2 to 4 show a first example of the second embodi-ment of the present invention, wherein: the reference numeral 50 designates a screw; the numeral 51 designates a torpedo; the numeral 52 designates a barrel; the numeral 53 designates a heater for heating the barrel 52; the numeral 55 designates a plurality of small openings for orienting the raw materials; the numeral 56 designates a porous plate provided with the small openings 55; the numeral 57 designates a die; the numeral 58 designates a jacket for receiving a temperature controlling medium;
the numeral 60 designates raw materials immediately after they passed through the screw 50; the numeral 61 desig-nates raw materials immediately after they passed through the small openings 55; the numeral 62 designates raw mate-rials passing through a forming portion ( indicated by the reference character Q ) of the die 57; and the numeral ', !
`:
,...
;65 l 63 designates an extruded rood product ( a shaped product).
In such extruder, the food raw materials fed to a feeding portion (not shown) of the screw 50 are compre-ssed, mixed and kneaded between the screw 50 and the barrel 52 under the action of the screw 50 and then are stirred by the torpedo 51 provided in the front end portion of the screw 50 to be transferred to a front area of the barrel.
52 in which the raw materials are designated by the refer-ence numeral 60. The barrel 52 is heated by the heater 53 to be controlled in its temperature by the same 53. In some cases, it is necessary to cool the raw materials so as to control its temperature with the use of a suitable cooling unit in place Or the heater 53, which is depend-ent on the properties of the raw materials.
If a starch starting materials are used as the raw materials, such raw materials under the condition de-signated by the reference numeral 60 are already fused together into a final product condition so that it is possible to form such raw materials into the final product easily, or it is possible to bulk out such raw materials at the outlet Or the die to produce the extruded final product. Consequently, in this case, it is not necessary to provide the plurality Or the small openings for orient-ing the raw materials in the die.
In contrast with this, in case that it is required ~3 ~2~1565 1 to produce a fibriform meat-like organized protein food product rrom the raw materials such as the deratted soy-bean powder, the above-mentioned "Okara", the animal pro-teins such as the marine beef and the scrap meat, it is not possible to impart a strong fiber-like property to the raw materials even if the raw materials under the con-dition 60 are extruded from the die. Namely, in this case, only a poor fiber-like property, which is produced in the raw materials when they are subjected to shearing and trans-ferring actions caused by the screw 50, the torpedo 51 and the barrel 52 while the raw materials flow, is impartedto the food product. The raw materials are oriented when they pass through the die. However, such orientation Or the raw materials do not give the food product a suffici-ent fiber-like property.
The raw materials 60 existing in the front end portion of the barrel 52 is in a condition in which the protein molecules of the raw materials bring their reac-tive elements to the surfaces thereof of some extent thr-ough the kneading process of the raw materials conducted by the screw 50 etc., so that the raw materials are fusedtogether while such protein molecules are in a condition in which they are not reacted together. Under such condi-tion, when the raw materials are passed through the small openings 55 of the porous plate 56 of the present inven-_~_ J-24L15~5 1 tion, the protein molecules Or the raw materials are sub-jected to the shearing action to be oriented in the flow-ing direction of the raw materials. Under the effect of such orientation Or the protein molecules of the row mate-rials, the protein molecules bring further more amount of their reactive elements to the surfaces thereof in a con-dition designated by the reference numeral 61. In this condition 61, the raw materials are introduced into the forming portion ( the length of which is designated by the reference character I) of the die 57 to be reacted and shaped so as to be oriented so that the fiber-like property is imparted to the extruded food product, while such extruded food product has a strong meat-like struc-ture which is provided by organized bindings of the pro-tein molecules based on the large amount of their exposed reactive elements.
According to the properties of the food raw mate-rials and the intended extruded product, it is necessary ; to change the small openings 55 in their shapes, sizes and numbers, wherein it is preferable to make each of the small openings 55 smaller in its diameter, longer in its length and to increase the numbers Or the small openings 55 to the extent that the pressure drop across such small openings 55 enables the food product to be extruded.
, 25 As shown in Fig. 4, according to the experiments , ~_~
' ~2~1565 1 conducted by the inventor of the present invention, in case that the defatted soybean powder is used as a raw material, it is round thaw it is preferable to use the small opening 55 for orientation use, which small opening 55 has a ratio (L/D) Or the diameter D Or the small open-ing 55 to the length L of the small opening 55 within a range of from 3 to 20 so as to keep an average flowing speed Or the raw materials within a range Or from 3 to 10 cm/sec.
Incidentally, as shown in Fig. 2, the die 57 has a construction in which the porous plate 56 provided with the small openings 55 for orientation use is incorporated.
However, it is also possible to provide these small open-ings 55 in the barrel 52.
Furtherl, in Fig. 2, one shaft type extruder hav-ing one screw 50 is employed as the example of the present invention. However, it is also possible to employ the two shaft type extruder having two screws.
Further, the shape Or the small opening 55 ror orientation use is not limited to a cylindrical shape only.
As shown in Fig. 5, in a second example Or the second embodiment Or the present invention: the reference numerals 65, 66 designate dies; the numeral 67, 68 desig-nate jackets; the reference character R~ designates a length a forming portion Or the dies, which length Q, is 15 to ~L241~
l 40 times as long as the diameter of the die opening 69.
In such extruder, the raw materials in which the protein molecules are in a condition 61 are subjected to a complete reacting and forming processes for a longer period of time than that in the case of the first example of the present invention while the raw materials pass through the forming portion of the dies, so that a strongly organized meat-like product 70, in which the orientation of the protein molecules is enhanced relative to the above first example of the present invention, is extruded.
In the above example of the present invention, the small opening 55 may also have other shapes in addition to the cylindrical shape, for example, as shown in jig. 6, a slit-like shape a gap of which is hereinafter rererred to as a thickness T. In this case, the small opening forms a slit 71.
Next, a third example of the second embodiment of the present invention will be hereinbelow described. Figs.
7 to 9 show such third example, wherein: the reference numeral 80 designates a screw; the numeral 81 designates a torpedo; the numeral 82 designates a barrel; the numeral 83 designates a heater for heating the barrel 82; the nu-merals 85a, 85b and 85c designate a plurality small open-ings for orienting the raw materials, which small openings ,, I_ I. , ~2~5t~5 1 85a, 85b and 85c vary in their diameters; the numeral 86 designates a porous plate provided with the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c; the numeral 87 designates a die; the numeral 88 designates a jacket for receiving a die tempe-rature controlling medium; the numeral 90 designates raw materials immediately after they passed through the screw 80; the numeral 91 designates raw materials immediately after they passed through the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c; the numeral 92 designates raw materials passing thr-ough the forming portion Or the dies, which forming por-tion is designated by the reference character ; the nu-meral 93 designates an extruded food product ( a shaped product).
In such extruder, the food raw materials fed to the raw material feeding portion (not shown) Or the screw ; 80 are compressed, mixed and kneaded between the screw 80 and the barrel 82 under the action Or the screw 80 and then are stirred by the torpedo 81 provided in the front end portion Or the screw 80 to be transferred to a front area Or the barrel 82 in which the raw materials are de-signated by the reference numeral 90. The barrel 82 is heated by the heater 83 to be controlled in its tempera-ture by the same 83. In some cases, it is necessary to cool the raw materials so as to control their temperature with the use of a suitable cooling unit in place Or the ~.24~L565 1 heater 83, which is dependent on the properties Or the raw materials.
If the starch starting materials are used as the raw materials, such raw materials under the condition de-signated by the reference numeral 90 are already fusedtogether so that it is possible to cool and solidify such raw materials in the die portion, or to bulk out such raw materials in the outlet of the die in some food products, whereby the final food product can be extruded from the die. Consequently, in this case, it is not necessary to provide the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c for orienting the raw materials.
In contrast with this, in case that it is required to produce a fibriform meat-like organized protein food product from the raw materials, for example, from the vegetable proteins such as the defatted soybean powder and the above-mentioned "Okara", and the animal proteins such as the marine beef and the scrap meat, it is not po-ssible to impart a strong fiber-like property to the raw materials even if the raw materials under the condition 90 are extruded from the die.
In consideration of the above fact, in the extru-der of the present invention, the raw materials 90 exist-ing in the front area of the barrel 82 have been kneaded by the screw so that the protein molecules of the raw ma-I, 24iL565 1 terials bring their reactive elements to the surfaces ofthe protein molecules while these protein molecules are put in a condition in which they are fused together in an unreacted manner. In this condition, when the raw mate-rials are passed through the small openings 85a, 85b and85c, the protein molecules of the raw materials are sub-jected to the shearing action caused by a high flowing speed Or the raw materials so that these protein molecules are oriented in the flowing direction of the raw materials.
Under the effect of this orientation of the protein mole-cules of the raw materials, the protein molecules bring further more amount of their reactive elements to the sur-faces thereof in a condition designated by the reference numeral 91. In this condition, the raw materials are int-roduced into the forming portion ( the length of which isdesignated by the reference character Q ) of the die 87 to be reacted on each other and shaped so as to be oriented so that the fiber-like property is imparted to the extruded food product, while such extruded food product has a st-rong meat-like structure which is provided by organized bindings of the protein molecules based on the large amo-unt of their exposed reactive elements.
According to the properties of the raw materials and the intended extruded product, it is necessary to cha-.~ 25 nge the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c in their shapes, ~2~15~5 1 sizes and numbers, wherein it is preferable to make each of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c smaller in its dia-meter, longer in its length and to increase the numbers of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c to the extent that the pressure drop across such small openings 85a, 85b and 85c enables the food product to be extruded.
As shown in Fig. 8, according to the experiments conducted by the inventor of the present invention, in case that the defatted soybean powder is used as a raw material, it is found that it is preferable to use the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c for orientation use, each of which small openings 85a, 85b and 85c has a ratio (L/D) of its diameter D to its length L within a range Or from 3 to 20 so as to keep an average flowing speed Or the raw materials within a range of from 3 to 10 cm/sec.
Incidentally, as shown in Fig. 7, the die 87 has a construction in which the porous plate 86 provided with the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c for orientation use is incorporated. However, it is also possible to provide these small openings 85a, 85b and 85c in the barrel 82.
Further, in Fig. 7, one shaft type extruder hav-ing one screw 80 is employed as the example of the pres-ent invention. However, it is also possible to employ the two shaft type extruder having two screws in the present invention.
,:~
1 Further, the shapes of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c are not limited to the cylindrical shapes only.
On the other hand, the flowing speed of the raw materials in the die is generally fastest in a cetral por-tion of a cross section of such flow and is gradually de-creased toward a wall surface of the die, so that a diff-erence in the rlowing speed is produced between the flow-ing speed in the central portion and that near the wall surface of the die. Such difference in the flowing speed increases when a flowing resistance between the flow of the raw materials and the wall surface Or the die. In the conventional die of the extruder, once organized proteins of the raw materials in the die are subjected to an exfo-liating action in the flowing direction thereof, which ex-foliating action i6 caused by such difference in the flow-ing speed, so that their once organized structure is bro-ken, whereby they are extruded from the outlet of the die in a condition in which their structure has been torn.
The present invention also provides a means for preventing such exfoliating action from occurring, i.e., for preventing the structure Or the product from being broken.
Namely, in order to prevent the structure of the product from being broken, it is necessary to decrease the difference of the flowing speed Or the raw materials .
~L2~565 l in the cross section Or the die.
According to the present invention, such difference in the flowing speed Or the raw materials is decreased by varying a size of the cross-sectional area of each of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c for orientation use.
For example, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, the dia-meters Dc, Db and Da of the small openings 85c, 85b and 85a are gradually increased from a central portion Or the porous plate 86 to a periphery of the same 86, in which porous plate 86 are provided the small openings 85c, 85b and 85a. In this case, the length L of each of the small openings 85c, 85b and 85a is fixed. Namely, the diameter Or each Or the small openings 85c disposed in the central portion of the cross-sectional area of the die is relatively small, while the diameter of each Or the small openings 85a disposed near the periphery of the porous plate 86 is relatively large.
In general, a flowing speed of a fluid decreases when a flowing resistance increases. Since the flowing resistance is produced by a friction (in a broad sense) between the rluid and a wall surface of the fluid passage, the flowing resistance increases when the cross-sectional area, i.e., the diameter of the fluid passage decreases, provided that both the length and the shape (for example, a circular shape in this case) of the fluid passage are . ~23 .
~2~L~S~
1 fixed. In other words, the flowing speed in the outlet of each of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c decreases when the diameter of each of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c decreases.
The flowing speed distribution diagrams of the raw materials in the cross sections F-F, G-G, H-H and J-J
in Fig. 7 are shown in Figs. 10 r, g, h and j, respectively.
In the cross section F-F, the raw materials flow into the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c in a condition that there is substantially no d fference in the flowing speed between the central portion and the peripheral por-tion of the flowing passage of the raw materials. However, in the outlet of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c, i.e., in the cross section G-G, since the diameter Or the small opening 85c disposed in the central portion is smaller than that of the small opening 85a disposed in the peri-pheral portion, the flowing speed of the raw materials decreases in the central portion because the above-mentioned reason, whereby a flowing speed distrubution of the raw materials as shown in Fig. lOg is produced. Under the ef-fect Or such flowing speed distribution in Fig. lOg, it is possible to smooth the flowing speed distribution in the cross section J-J in which the difference in the flow-ing speed is considerably decreased, because the flowing speed of the raw materials near the wall surface of the ~4~565 flowing passage decreases due to the flowing resistance between the raw materials and such wall surface, which flowing resistance acts on the raw materials between the cross sections H-H and J-J, so that the difference in the flowing speed of the raw materials decreases. The conven-tional flowing speed distribution n of the raw materials in the cross section J-J is shown in Fig.lOj in which the flowing speed distribution m of the raw materials is ob-tained according to the construction of the present inven-tion. The shapes of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c are not limited to a circular shape only, for example, a rectangular shape is also applicable to such use. In case that the rectangle-shaped small openings are employed, it is possible to change an amount of the flowing resistance by changing the size Or the cross section Or the small openings, for example, by changing a length of each side of the rectangle. Namely, according to the present ir.ven-tion, it is intended that the flowing speed distribution in the die is changed by suitably arranging the small op-ening for orientation use, which small openings vary intheir cross sectional shapes and sizes.
Fig. 11 shows a fourth example Or the second embo-diment of the present invention, wherein: the reference numerals 95, 96 designate dies; the numerals 97, 98 desig-nate temperature controlling jackets; and the reference US
..
~L2~65 1 character designates a length of a forming portion of the dies, which length Al is 15 to 40 times as long as the diameter of the die opening 99.
In comparison with the first embodiment Or the present invention, the protein molecules of the raw mat-erials in a condition 91 are fully reacted and shaped thr-ough a long period time while pass through the forming portion Ql of the dies, so that the extruded product is enhanced in its orientation and provided with a strong meat-like structure.
As described above, each Or the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c may also have other shapes in addition to the cylindrical shape, for example, a slit-like shape a gap Or which is hereinarter referred to as a thickness T. In this case, the small openings form slits lOla, lOlb and lOlc.
Next, a fifth example of the second embodiment Or the present invention will be hereinbelow described. Figs.
13 to 15 show such fifth example, wherein: the reference numeral 110 designates a screw; the numeral 111 designates a torpedo; the numeral 112 designates a barrel; the nu-meral 113 designates a heater for heating the barrel 112;
the numeral 116 designates a porous plate a central por-tion Or which is thickest so that a thickness of the por-ous plate 116 is gradually decreased toward its periphery;
,~/ .,, Ox ,..
1 the numeral 115 designates a small opening a plurality of which are provided in the porous plate 116, so that a len-gth of each of the small openings 115 is different from each other according to the thickness of the porous plate 11~; the numeral 117 designates a die; the numeral 118 designates a jacket for receiving a die temperature con-trolling medium; the numeral 120 designates raw materials immediately after they passed through the screw 110; the numeral 121 designates raw materials immediately after thèy passed through the small openings 115; the numeral 122 designates raw materials passing through the forming portion Q of the die 117; and the numeral 123 designates an extruded food product (a shaped product).
In the die for the extruder shown in Figs. 13 and 14, the raw materials fed to a raw materisl feeding por-tion (not shown) of the screw 110 are compressed, mixed and kneaded between the screw 110 and the barrel 112 under the action Or the screw 110 and then are stirred by the torpedo 111 provided in the front end of the screw 110 to be transferred to a front area of the barrel 112 in which the raw materials are designated by the referenc numeral 120. The barrel 112 is heated by the heater 113 to be con-trolled in its temperature by the same 113. In some cases, it is necessary to cool the raw materials so as to cont-rol their temperature with the use of a suitable cooling ~2~15~i~
1 unit in place of the heater 113, which is dependent on the properties of the raw materials. If the starch start-ing materials are used as the raw materials, such raw ma-terials are already fused together at a time when they are transferred forward by the screw 110. The fused condi-tion of the raw materials is designated by the reference numeral 120. Consequently, such fused raw materials are cooled and solidified in the die 117, or bulked out at the outlet of the die 117, so that such raw materials are extruded from the die 117 as a food product. In this case, therefore, the provision of the small openings 115 is not required.
In contrast with this, in case that it is required to produce a fibriform meat-like organized food product from the raw materials, i.e., the vegetable protein such as the defatted soybean powder and the above-mentioned "Okara", and the animal proteins such as the scrap meat and the like, it is not possible to impart a strong fiber-like property to the food product even if the raw maze-rials under the condition 120 are extruded from the die 117. However, according to the present invention, it ispossible to produce a strong fibriform continuous meat-like product, because there is provided the porous plate 116 in the die 117, through which porous plate 116 extend a plurality of the small openings 115 in a direction of _ 3~_ ~24~56~
1 the thickness of the porous plate 116 which varies in thick-ness in a radial direction thereon. Namely, the raw mate-rials 120 existing in the vicinity of the front end por-tion Or the screw 110 is in a condition in which the pro-tein molecules Or the raw materials bring their reactiveelements to the surrace thereof to some extent through kneading process Or the raw materials conducted by the screw 110 etc., so that the raw materials are fused toge-ther while such protein molecules are in a condition in which they are not reacted together. Under such condition, when the raw materials are passed through the small open-ings 115 of the porous plate 116 Or the present invention, the protein molecules Or the raw materials bring further more amount of their reactive elements to the surfaces thereof in a condition designated by the rererence nume-ral 121. In this condition, the raw materials are intro-duced into the forming portion (the length Or which is designated by the reference character Q ) Or the die 117 so that they are reacted and shaped so as to be oriented, whereby the fiber-like property is imparted to the ext-ruded product, while such extruded product has a strong meat-like structure which is provided by organized bind-ings Or the protein molecules based on the large amount Or their exposed reactive elements.
Also, according to the present invention, the ~7 ., ~24~S65 1 following action is conducted in the forming portion of the die 117; in general, the flowing speed of the raw ma-terials in the die 117 is high in the central portion of such flow, and low in the vicinity of the wall surface of flowing passage of such flow. In the conventional die of the extruder, since flowing speed of the raw materials decreases when the raw materials flow in the vicinity of the wall surface and thereby the flowing resistance there-Or increases, once organized proteins of the raw materials existing in the die 117 are subjected to the exfoliating action in the flowing direction Or the raw materials, which exfoliating action is caused by the difrerence in the flowing speed, so that their once organized structure is broken, whereby they are extruded from the outlet Or the die 117 in a condition in which their structure has been torn. In order to prevent such structure from being broken, it is necessary to minimize the difrerence in the flowing speed of the raw materials in the die 117. With this respect, in the embodiments Or the present invention, such dirrerence in the flowing speed Or the raw materials is minimized with provision Or the porous plate 116 pro-vided with a plurality Or the small openings 115 which very in length with each other.
For example, in a case as shown in Fig. 13, the length Or the small opening 115 disposed in the central zO
;
~41565 1 portion of the porous plate 116 is longer than that dis-posed in the peripheral portion of the porous plate 116.
In general, a flowing speed of a fluid flowing through a fluid passage decreases when a flowing resistance increases.
S Since such flowing resistance is produced by a friction (in a broad sense) between the fluid and the wall surface Or the fluid passage, the flowing resistance in the small opening is proportional to the length Or such small open-ing, provided that a size Or a cross section of the small opening is fixed. In other words, the flowing speed at the outlet Or the small opening decreases when the length Or the small opening increases. The raw materials flow into each of the small openings 115 in a portion 0-0 as shown in Fig. 13 under a condition in which there is substantially no difference in the flowing speed of the raw materials, and then pass through the outlet of each of the small openings 115, or a portion P-P in which the flowing speed of the raw materials in the central portion of the porous plate 116 is small while the flowing speed of' the raw materials in the vicinity of the peripheral portion of the porous plate 116 is large.
Consequently, it is possible to minimize the diff-erence in the flowing speed of the raw materials, i.e., to smooth the flowing speed distrubution of the raw mate-rials in the die 117 by increasing the flowing speed of :, "-~31 1 the raw materials in the vicinity cr the peripheral por-tion of the porous plate 116 while the flowing speed of the raw materials in the central portion Or the porous plate 116 is decreased, because the flowing speed of the raw materials in the vicinity Or the wall surface of the die 117 in a down-stream side Or the porous plate 116, i.e., in a portion Q-Q is decreased by the flowing resist-ance due to such wall surface Or the die 117. The flowing speed distribution Or the raw materials in the portions 0-O, P-P, Q-Q and R-R in Fig. 13 are shown in Fig. 18 o, p, q and r, respectively. The flowing speed distribution n Or the raw materials in the portion R-R in Fig. 13 is in the conventional case, while the rlowing speed distri-bution m of the raw materials in the same portion R-R is in the case cr the present invention.
Under the effect Or the orienting action and the smoothing action Or the flowing speed distribution both Or which are produced by the provision Or the porous plate 116, it is possible to produce a continuous meat-like food product having a strong fiber-like property and a strongly bound structure in an extrusion manner. Namely, the fused raw materials (the protein starting materials), which have passed through each of the small openings 115 Or the por-ous plate 116 and introduced into the forming portion of the die 117, are subjected to the shearing action caused ~L24~LS6~
1 by a large flowing speed Or the raw materials so that they are oriented in the flowing direction thereof. Under the effect Or such orientation Or the raw materials, a large amount Or the reactive elements of the raw materials is exposed, which reactive elements enhance the structural binding Or the extruded food product. If there is a diff-erence in the flowing speed of the raw materials flowing through the forming portion Or the die 117, such raw mate-rials are subjected to the exfoliating action in the flow-ing direction of the raw materials so that the structureOr the food product is broken. In the die for the extruder Or the present invention, the raw materials, which flow in the vicinity of a wall surface of the barrel 112 so that their flowing speed is small due to a large flowing resistance caused by such wall surface, is introduced into the small opening 115 having a short length, which small opening 115 penetrates a thin portion of the porous plate 116, while the raw materials which flow in a central por-tion of the barrel 112 so that their flowing speed is large due to a small flowing resistance is introduced into the small opening 115 having a long length, which small open-ing 115 penetrates a thick portion of the porous plate 116. As a result, when these raw materials flow through the forming portion of the die 117, there is substantially I
no dlfference in the flowing speed of the raw materials, ""
1 so that it is possible to produce the meat-like food pro-duct having a strong fiber-like property and a high stru-ctural binding, in an extrusion manner.
Incidentally, in Fig. 13, though the porous plate 116 provided with the small openings 115 is incorporated in the die 117, it is also possible to provide such porous plate 116 in the barrel's side. Further, in addition to the one shaft type extruder provided with one screw 110, it is also possible to employ the two shaft type extruder provided with two screws. Further, the shape of the porous plate 116 is not limited to one shown in the drawings. For example, as shown in Fig. 16, it is possible to use a po-rous plate 132 in place of the porous plate 116, which porous plate 132 is provided with a convex portion in its central portion opposite to an end of the barrel 112, or as shown in Fig. 17, it is possible to use a porous plate 133 in place of the porous plate 116, which porous plate 133 is provided with a concave portion in its central por-tion opposite to the end of the barrel 112 so that the thickness of such porous plate 133 gradually decreases radially from its central portion to its peripheral por-tion. In this case, if it is possible to change the flow-ing speed distribution of the raw materials in the die 117, it is not required to elongate the length of the small opening 115 in the central portion of the porous ` 3~
.
~2~L~S6S
1 plate (116, 132, 133).
Further, according to the properties of the food raw materials and the intended food product, it is nece-ssary to change the small openings 115 in their shapes, sizes and numbers, wherein it is preferable to make each ox the small openings 115 smaller in its diameter, longer in its length and to increase the numbers Or the small openings 115 to the extent that the pressure drop across the small openings 115 enables the food product to be ex-ruded.
As shown in Fig. 15, according to the experiments, in case that the deratted soybean powder is used as a raw materials, it is preferable to use the small opening 115 having a ratio ~L/D) of the diameter D of the small open-ing 115 to the length L of the same 115 within a range of from 3 to 20 so as to keep an average flowing speed of the raw materials within a range of from 3 to 10 cm/sec.
Further, Fig. 19 shows a fifth example Or the second embodiment of the presént invention, wherein- the reference numerals 125, 126 designate dies; the numerals 127, 128 designate temperture controlling jackets; the reference character Q~ designates a length of the forming portion of the dies, which length is 15 to 40 times as long as the diameter Or the die opening 129. The protein molecules of the raw materials under a condition 121 are , I., ,3~
'I.., 1 subjected to the reacting action and the shaping action throuth a longer period of time than that in the case of the example shown in Figs. 13 and 14 while they pass thr-ough the above forming portion of the dies, so that the strong meat-like product 130 having been more oriented in its structure is produced in an extrusion manner. Incid-entally, in addition to the circular shape in its cross section, ror example, the small opening 115 is also able to have a slit-like shape in its cross section as shown in Fig. 20 in which the reference character T designates a width Or the slit 131.
The above is all the description of the embodiments of the present invention. Naturally, the scope Or the pre-sent invention is not limited to such embodiments only, and it is possible to modify such embodiments without de-parting from the spirit Or the present invention.
Field Or the industrial use of the Invention As described above, the die of the present inven-tion is most suitable for use in the extruder in an ext-rusion production of the continuous organized food product from the raw materials, particularly from the protein st-arting material.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION -I
The present invention relates to a die for an extruder, and more particularly to a die for an extruder for producing a meat-like continuous organized and shaped food product from protein starting materials such as defatted soybean powder, high water con-tent animal meat and the like.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Food processing has a long history, which processing appears in a document published in the second half of 1800. At the begin-ning of its history, the extruder was used to conduct a food dehy-dration process or juicing process. Then,the application field of such extruder was gradually broadened to a processing/shaping area of the foods, in which area the food starting materials are thrown into a screw portion of the extruder so that such materials are kneaded and heated while transfered forward, whereby the food starting materials are extruded from the die of the extruder into a final food product having an individual shape.
The extruder is substantially classified into two types, one of which is one shaft type and the other of which is two shaft type.
The two shaft type of the extruder is further classified into sev-eral sub-types with respect to its meshing manner and the rotation-al directions of two screws.
Hitherto, the extruder has been considered merely as a mach-ine for conducting compressing, kneading, expanding and bulking ; processes on the food starting materials. However, now, the ex-truder is considered as a remarkable means for positively conduct-ing mixing/kneading, shearing, fusing, sterilizing, chemical re-acting, bulking, shaping and the like processes.
3L5~j5 2l326-8l According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a device for extruding a high water content, food protein starting material as a continuous meat-like product comprising an axially extending cylinder barrel having an inlet end and an outlet end spaced apart in the axial direction, and axially extending screw rotatably mounted in said cylinder barrel for moving the starting material through said barrel from the inlet end to the outlet end thereof, an axially elongated die of optional length connected to the outlet end of and co-axial with said barrel, said die compris-ing a plurality of axially extending die portions arranged serially and each having a die opening extending axially therethrough in axial alignment with the adjacent die portions, each of said die portions having a temperature jacket, said die openings having a minimum dimension transverse to the axial direction, said die open-ings of said die portions forming said die having a length dimen-sion 15 to 40 times as long as the minimum dimension of said die openings.
According to another aspect of the invention there is pro-vided a device for extruding a high water content food protein starting material as a continuous meat-like product comprising an axially extending cylinder barrel, having an inlet end and an out-let end, an axially extending screw rotatably mounted in said cy-linder barrel for moving the starting material through said barrel from the inlet end to the outlet end thereof, an axially elongated die extending from the outlet end of said barrel and being coaxial with said barrel, said die having an axially extending die opening therethrough, a porous plate having a thickness direction extend-ing in the axial direction of said barrel and die, a plurality of : 2 small openings extending in the thickness direction through said porous plate, said porous plate located between the outlet end of said barrel and the adjacent end of said die opening, said plate extending perpendicular to the axis of said barrel.
In the accompanying drawings:
Figure 1 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of an example of a first embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 is an ouline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of an example of a second embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 3 is a front view of a porous plate shown in Figure 2;
Figure 4 is an enlarged view of a small opening portion of the porous plate shown in Figure 2;
Figure 5 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of a second example of the second embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 6 is a front view of another example of the porous plate;
Figure 7 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of a third example of the second embodiment of the present in-vention;
Figure 8 is a partial sectional enlarged view of the porous plate shown in Figure 7;
Figure 9 is a front view of the porous plate shown in Figure 8;
Figure 10 f, g, h and j are flowing speed distribution dia-grams of the raw materials, taken along the lines F-F, G-G, H-H, and J-J in Figure 7, respectively;
Figure 11 is an outline of a longitudinal view of a die of a ~2~1565 21326-81 fourth example of the second embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 12 is a front view of another example of the porous plate;
Figure 13 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of a die of a fifth example of the second embodiment of the present in-vention;
Figure 14 is a front view taken along the line xIv-xIv in Fig-ure 13;
Figure 15 is an enlarged sectional view of the small opening of the porous plate shown in Figure 13;
Figures 16 and 17 are longitudinal sectional views of other ex-amples of the porous plate;
Figures 18 o, p, q and r are flowing speed distribution dia-grams of the raw materials, taken along the lines O-O, P-P, Q-Q
and R-R in Figure 13, respectively;
Figure 19 is an outline of a longitudinal sectional view of the die of the fifth example of the second embodiment of the pre-sent invention;
Figure 20 is a front view of a further another example of the porous plate;
Figures 21 and 22 are longitudinal sectional side views of ex-amples of the conventional one shaft type extruder;
Figure 23 is a longitudinal sectional side view of an example of the conventional two shaft type extruder;
Figure 24 is a front view taken along the line XXIV-XXIV in Figure 23, viewed in an arrow direction therein;
: Figure 25 is a longitudinal sectional side view of a die of another example of the conventional two shaft type extruder;
~24~5~5 21326-81 Figure 26 is a front view viewed in an arrow direction XXVI
in Figure 25;
Figure 27 is an enlarged sectional view of the die shown in Figure 25; and Figure 28 is a front view of a slit die.
A conventional extruder is shown in Figures 21 to 28. The simplest type of the conventional extruder is shown in Figure 21, wherein the reference numeral 1 designates a hopper for feeding the food starting materials, i.e., raw materials 20, to a screw 3 which is rotated by a suitable driving unit (not shown) so that the raw materials 20 are transferred to an opening of a die 4 through a barrel 2 by means of the screw 3 while being mixed, kneaded and fused. The raw materials 20 are fused together under the effect of self-heating caused in the mixing/kneading, and the sharing processed of the raw materials 20 conducted by the screw 3 or under the effect of an outer heating conducted by a barrel heater (not shown). Then, the thus processed raw materials 20 are extruded from the opening of the die 4 as an extruded product 21. Incid-entally, a front end of the screw 3 has a conical shape.
The extruder shown in Figure 22 is provided with a temperature controlling jacket 8 which has a fluid passage 9 in an outer peri-pher~ of the barrel 7 so that the temperature of the barrel 7 is controlled by the fluid flowing therein, the temperature of which fluid is controlled in the jacket 8. Incidentally, in Figure 22 the reference numeral 10 designates a screw; the numeral 12 des-ignates a plurality of openings provided in the die; and the num-eral 11 designates a front end protion of the screw 10, which front end portion 11 is formed into a semi-spherical shape.
In Figures 23 and 24, there is shown a two shaft type of ex-truder which is provided with a hopper 14 for forcibly feeding the raw materials, which extruder is also provided with a pair of screws 15, 15' meshing with each other. The reference numerals 16 and 16 designate front end portions of the screws 15 and 15 , re-spectively, each of which front end portions 16 and 16/ is formed into a conical shape. Incidentally, in Figure 23, the reference numeral 17 designates an opening of the die.
In Figures 25 and 26, there is shown another two shaft type of extruder provided with two die openings 39 and 39', in which extruder the reference numerals 35 and 35'designate screws meshing with each other; the numeral 36 designates a barrel; and the num-eral 37 designates a die which is provided with the two die open-ings 39 and 39.
Incidentally, in the case of a slit die 4'as shown in Figure 28, such die 4 is provided with a die opening 5~having a rectang-ular shape. Incidentally, the reference character Q shown in Fig-ure 27 designates a "length of the die openings"; the character d shown in Figure 26 designates a "diameter of the die opening"; and the character T shown in Figure 28 designates a "thickness of the die opening".
In the conventional die 4 (or 4 and the like), the length Q
of the die opening is up to a length of 10 times as long as the diameter d or the thickness T of the die opening (hereinafter re-ferred to as the diameter d of the die opening for simplifying the description).
The reason why the length Q of the die opening is up to 10 times as long as the diameter d of the die opening is that, hither-~241~ 21326-81 to, the foods such as a snack and the like which are easy to shape and are processed by the extruder are mainly made from a starch starting material so that it s possible to shape such foods easily and to produce such foods as continuous products even if the length Q of the die opening is short or that there is original-ly no need for producing the continuous products so as to produce granulated products.
However, recently, it has been tried to produce a meat-like continuous product, or to perform an extrusion process on high water content food starting materials using a beneficial property of the two shaft type of the extruder in its material transferring ability .
In this case, when a length Q of a die opening up to 10 times as long as a diameter d of the die opening is used in a processing of food made prom defatted soybean powder, it is impossible to pro-duce a final product in a continuous shape, which final product is extruded from the die into a granulated shape.
In the case of high water content raw materials, a processing temperature thereof often exceeds the boiling point of water. In such a case, the raw materials are ejected from the die under the effect of the steam pressure to make it impossible to produce a continuous product, so that the product is broken in its organized structure to lose water trapped in such organized structure of the product.
Further, ln the conventional extruder, the raw materials, are kneaded by the screw to be fused together so that the thus fused raw materials are extruded from the die while subjected to various - reactions. In this time, in the conventional extruder, since the . .
P 4~ 5 6 5 21326-81 raw materials are extruded from the die after they are controlled in their kneading rate an reaction rate by changing the rotation-al speed of the screw, barrel temperature, feeding amount of raw materials and the like, there is no wide variation in the flowing speed of the raw materials after they pass through the screw. How-ever, in some types of the conventional extruders, the flowing speed of the raw materials in an oulet of the die is considerably increased relative to that of the raw materials between the barrel and the die.
The reason why the flowing speed of the raw materials in the outlet of the die is considerably increased relative to that of the raw materials between the barrel and the die lies in that it is intended to bulk out the food product, such as a snack and the like made from starch starting materials, in the outlet of the die, which food product has been processed in the extruder, or in that it is intended to organize the structure of the food product made from protein starting material in flake-like manner.
However, in such construction of the conventional extruder, in the case where is required to produce a fibriform continuous meat-like product from a vegetable protein such as defatted soy-bean powder and "Okara" which is a residue of the Japanese trad-itional soybean cake "Tofu" and from an animal protein such as mar-ine beef and scrap meat, such requirement can not be satisfied since it is not possible to obtain a product having a sufficient fibriform structure and a sufficient strength in its binding force.
This is one of problems inherent in the conventional extruder.
I; It is an object of the present invention to provide a die for an extruder which may produce a continuous meat-like organized pro-: :, ~4~5~,S 21326-81 tein product, in which extruder the raw materials such as defatted soybean powder and high water content scrap meat are subjected to a sufficient organizing action when they pass through the die op-ening.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a die for an extruder which may extrude and shape a continuous meat-like product having a sufficient strength in a binding force of its structure, in which extruder the raw materials are oriented in their flowing direction so that the raw materials are formed into a strong fibriform structure.
The present invention will now be described.
Figure 1 shows a die of a first embodiment of the present in-vention, which die comprises three portions, i.e., a die 47 fixed to a cylinder barrel by a die holder 46; a die 48 connected to the die 47; and a die 49 connected to the die 47 by the die 48. In the die 47 are provided a taper hole 47A and a cylindrical die op-ening 47B connected to the taper hole 47A which is connected to a hole of the cylinder barrel in which the screw 42 is inserted, which taper hole 47~ is gradually decreased in its cross section ; 20 toward the cylindrical die opening 47B. The dies 48 and 49 are provided with die openings 48B anA 49B respectively, each of which openings 48B and 49B has the same diameter d as that of the die op-ening 47B and is aligned therewith in a straight line.
Further, the dies 47, 48 and 49 are provided with jackets 47C, 48C and 49C respectively, in which jackets 47C, 48C and 49C flows a fluid the temperature of which is set at a predetermined value.
Incidentally, the total length of the die openings 47B, 48B and 49B
is designated by the reference character "Q"~
7~ `
iLZ~565 21326-81 In operation, the raw materials fed from a feeding source thereof (not shown) to the barrel 41 are transferred to the die 47 while subjected to compressing, mixing, fusing and heating actions, in which heating action the raw materials are changed in their properties. During their transferring through the die openings 47B, 48B and 49B of the dies 47, 48 and 49, the raw materials re-act to each other to be organized so that the thus organized raw materials are formed into a continuous meat-like food which is then transferred to a front end of the die 49. Such food is cooled and shaped into a final extruded produce after it is extruded from the die 49.
In the above reactions of the raw materials, since such re-actions require a relatively long reaction time and since the thus organized structure of the raw materials is broken when the cross-sectional shapes of the die openings 47B, 48B and 49B are changed in a reaction zone of the raw materials, it is necessary to main-tain the cross-sectional shapes of the die openings 47B, 48B and 49B substantially coincident with each other in such reaction zone from a portion where the reaction of the raw materials is started to the outlet of the die 49.
Namely, while the raw materials are transferred through the die openings 47B 48B and 49Br the abovementioned reacting, cooling and forming actions of the raw materials are conducted. Therefore, the length Q is considerably long relative to the diameter d of the die opening.
The inventor of the present invention has manufactured various types of the dies by way of trial to have various experiments con-ducted with the use of such dies, whereby he has found a fact that, ~:43~5~
in the case of extrusion processing of defatted soybean powder as a raw material or producing the meat-like organized food product, a good food product can be obtained with the use of the die having a die opening a length Q of which is at least 20 times as long as the diameter d of the die opening, most preferably 35 times as long as the diameter d of the die opening, while a suitable temp-erature around the outlet of the die is 70C.
At this time, since it is preferable to change . Y
~.24~565 1 the length Or the die opening according to the water content ratio Or the food raw materials employed, it is preferable to employ an assembly type of the die compris-ing a plurality of dies as shown in the embodiment of the present invention so as to make the length Q Or the die opening adjustable.
The above is the description of the first embodi-ment of the present invention. Now, a second embodiment of the present invention will be hereinbelow described:
Figs. 2 to 4 show a first example of the second embodi-ment of the present invention, wherein: the reference numeral 50 designates a screw; the numeral 51 designates a torpedo; the numeral 52 designates a barrel; the numeral 53 designates a heater for heating the barrel 52; the numeral 55 designates a plurality of small openings for orienting the raw materials; the numeral 56 designates a porous plate provided with the small openings 55; the numeral 57 designates a die; the numeral 58 designates a jacket for receiving a temperature controlling medium;
the numeral 60 designates raw materials immediately after they passed through the screw 50; the numeral 61 desig-nates raw materials immediately after they passed through the small openings 55; the numeral 62 designates raw mate-rials passing through a forming portion ( indicated by the reference character Q ) of the die 57; and the numeral ', !
`:
,...
;65 l 63 designates an extruded rood product ( a shaped product).
In such extruder, the food raw materials fed to a feeding portion (not shown) of the screw 50 are compre-ssed, mixed and kneaded between the screw 50 and the barrel 52 under the action of the screw 50 and then are stirred by the torpedo 51 provided in the front end portion of the screw 50 to be transferred to a front area of the barrel.
52 in which the raw materials are designated by the refer-ence numeral 60. The barrel 52 is heated by the heater 53 to be controlled in its temperature by the same 53. In some cases, it is necessary to cool the raw materials so as to control its temperature with the use of a suitable cooling unit in place Or the heater 53, which is depend-ent on the properties of the raw materials.
If a starch starting materials are used as the raw materials, such raw materials under the condition de-signated by the reference numeral 60 are already fused together into a final product condition so that it is possible to form such raw materials into the final product easily, or it is possible to bulk out such raw materials at the outlet Or the die to produce the extruded final product. Consequently, in this case, it is not necessary to provide the plurality Or the small openings for orient-ing the raw materials in the die.
In contrast with this, in case that it is required ~3 ~2~1565 1 to produce a fibriform meat-like organized protein food product rrom the raw materials such as the deratted soy-bean powder, the above-mentioned "Okara", the animal pro-teins such as the marine beef and the scrap meat, it is not possible to impart a strong fiber-like property to the raw materials even if the raw materials under the con-dition 60 are extruded from the die. Namely, in this case, only a poor fiber-like property, which is produced in the raw materials when they are subjected to shearing and trans-ferring actions caused by the screw 50, the torpedo 51 and the barrel 52 while the raw materials flow, is impartedto the food product. The raw materials are oriented when they pass through the die. However, such orientation Or the raw materials do not give the food product a suffici-ent fiber-like property.
The raw materials 60 existing in the front end portion of the barrel 52 is in a condition in which the protein molecules of the raw materials bring their reac-tive elements to the surfaces thereof of some extent thr-ough the kneading process of the raw materials conducted by the screw 50 etc., so that the raw materials are fusedtogether while such protein molecules are in a condition in which they are not reacted together. Under such condi-tion, when the raw materials are passed through the small openings 55 of the porous plate 56 of the present inven-_~_ J-24L15~5 1 tion, the protein molecules Or the raw materials are sub-jected to the shearing action to be oriented in the flow-ing direction of the raw materials. Under the effect of such orientation Or the protein molecules of the row mate-rials, the protein molecules bring further more amount of their reactive elements to the surfaces thereof in a con-dition designated by the reference numeral 61. In this condition 61, the raw materials are introduced into the forming portion ( the length of which is designated by the reference character I) of the die 57 to be reacted and shaped so as to be oriented so that the fiber-like property is imparted to the extruded food product, while such extruded food product has a strong meat-like struc-ture which is provided by organized bindings of the pro-tein molecules based on the large amount of their exposed reactive elements.
According to the properties of the food raw mate-rials and the intended extruded product, it is necessary ; to change the small openings 55 in their shapes, sizes and numbers, wherein it is preferable to make each of the small openings 55 smaller in its diameter, longer in its length and to increase the numbers Or the small openings 55 to the extent that the pressure drop across such small openings 55 enables the food product to be extruded.
, 25 As shown in Fig. 4, according to the experiments , ~_~
' ~2~1565 1 conducted by the inventor of the present invention, in case that the defatted soybean powder is used as a raw material, it is round thaw it is preferable to use the small opening 55 for orientation use, which small opening 55 has a ratio (L/D) Or the diameter D Or the small open-ing 55 to the length L of the small opening 55 within a range of from 3 to 20 so as to keep an average flowing speed Or the raw materials within a range Or from 3 to 10 cm/sec.
Incidentally, as shown in Fig. 2, the die 57 has a construction in which the porous plate 56 provided with the small openings 55 for orientation use is incorporated.
However, it is also possible to provide these small open-ings 55 in the barrel 52.
Furtherl, in Fig. 2, one shaft type extruder hav-ing one screw 50 is employed as the example of the present invention. However, it is also possible to employ the two shaft type extruder having two screws.
Further, the shape Or the small opening 55 ror orientation use is not limited to a cylindrical shape only.
As shown in Fig. 5, in a second example Or the second embodiment Or the present invention: the reference numerals 65, 66 designate dies; the numeral 67, 68 desig-nate jackets; the reference character R~ designates a length a forming portion Or the dies, which length Q, is 15 to ~L241~
l 40 times as long as the diameter of the die opening 69.
In such extruder, the raw materials in which the protein molecules are in a condition 61 are subjected to a complete reacting and forming processes for a longer period of time than that in the case of the first example of the present invention while the raw materials pass through the forming portion of the dies, so that a strongly organized meat-like product 70, in which the orientation of the protein molecules is enhanced relative to the above first example of the present invention, is extruded.
In the above example of the present invention, the small opening 55 may also have other shapes in addition to the cylindrical shape, for example, as shown in jig. 6, a slit-like shape a gap of which is hereinafter rererred to as a thickness T. In this case, the small opening forms a slit 71.
Next, a third example of the second embodiment of the present invention will be hereinbelow described. Figs.
7 to 9 show such third example, wherein: the reference numeral 80 designates a screw; the numeral 81 designates a torpedo; the numeral 82 designates a barrel; the numeral 83 designates a heater for heating the barrel 82; the nu-merals 85a, 85b and 85c designate a plurality small open-ings for orienting the raw materials, which small openings ,, I_ I. , ~2~5t~5 1 85a, 85b and 85c vary in their diameters; the numeral 86 designates a porous plate provided with the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c; the numeral 87 designates a die; the numeral 88 designates a jacket for receiving a die tempe-rature controlling medium; the numeral 90 designates raw materials immediately after they passed through the screw 80; the numeral 91 designates raw materials immediately after they passed through the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c; the numeral 92 designates raw materials passing thr-ough the forming portion Or the dies, which forming por-tion is designated by the reference character ; the nu-meral 93 designates an extruded food product ( a shaped product).
In such extruder, the food raw materials fed to the raw material feeding portion (not shown) Or the screw ; 80 are compressed, mixed and kneaded between the screw 80 and the barrel 82 under the action Or the screw 80 and then are stirred by the torpedo 81 provided in the front end portion Or the screw 80 to be transferred to a front area Or the barrel 82 in which the raw materials are de-signated by the reference numeral 90. The barrel 82 is heated by the heater 83 to be controlled in its tempera-ture by the same 83. In some cases, it is necessary to cool the raw materials so as to control their temperature with the use of a suitable cooling unit in place Or the ~.24~L565 1 heater 83, which is dependent on the properties Or the raw materials.
If the starch starting materials are used as the raw materials, such raw materials under the condition de-signated by the reference numeral 90 are already fusedtogether so that it is possible to cool and solidify such raw materials in the die portion, or to bulk out such raw materials in the outlet of the die in some food products, whereby the final food product can be extruded from the die. Consequently, in this case, it is not necessary to provide the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c for orienting the raw materials.
In contrast with this, in case that it is required to produce a fibriform meat-like organized protein food product from the raw materials, for example, from the vegetable proteins such as the defatted soybean powder and the above-mentioned "Okara", and the animal proteins such as the marine beef and the scrap meat, it is not po-ssible to impart a strong fiber-like property to the raw materials even if the raw materials under the condition 90 are extruded from the die.
In consideration of the above fact, in the extru-der of the present invention, the raw materials 90 exist-ing in the front area of the barrel 82 have been kneaded by the screw so that the protein molecules of the raw ma-I, 24iL565 1 terials bring their reactive elements to the surfaces ofthe protein molecules while these protein molecules are put in a condition in which they are fused together in an unreacted manner. In this condition, when the raw mate-rials are passed through the small openings 85a, 85b and85c, the protein molecules of the raw materials are sub-jected to the shearing action caused by a high flowing speed Or the raw materials so that these protein molecules are oriented in the flowing direction of the raw materials.
Under the effect of this orientation of the protein mole-cules of the raw materials, the protein molecules bring further more amount of their reactive elements to the sur-faces thereof in a condition designated by the reference numeral 91. In this condition, the raw materials are int-roduced into the forming portion ( the length of which isdesignated by the reference character Q ) of the die 87 to be reacted on each other and shaped so as to be oriented so that the fiber-like property is imparted to the extruded food product, while such extruded food product has a st-rong meat-like structure which is provided by organized bindings of the protein molecules based on the large amo-unt of their exposed reactive elements.
According to the properties of the raw materials and the intended extruded product, it is necessary to cha-.~ 25 nge the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c in their shapes, ~2~15~5 1 sizes and numbers, wherein it is preferable to make each of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c smaller in its dia-meter, longer in its length and to increase the numbers of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c to the extent that the pressure drop across such small openings 85a, 85b and 85c enables the food product to be extruded.
As shown in Fig. 8, according to the experiments conducted by the inventor of the present invention, in case that the defatted soybean powder is used as a raw material, it is found that it is preferable to use the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c for orientation use, each of which small openings 85a, 85b and 85c has a ratio (L/D) of its diameter D to its length L within a range Or from 3 to 20 so as to keep an average flowing speed Or the raw materials within a range of from 3 to 10 cm/sec.
Incidentally, as shown in Fig. 7, the die 87 has a construction in which the porous plate 86 provided with the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c for orientation use is incorporated. However, it is also possible to provide these small openings 85a, 85b and 85c in the barrel 82.
Further, in Fig. 7, one shaft type extruder hav-ing one screw 80 is employed as the example of the pres-ent invention. However, it is also possible to employ the two shaft type extruder having two screws in the present invention.
,:~
1 Further, the shapes of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c are not limited to the cylindrical shapes only.
On the other hand, the flowing speed of the raw materials in the die is generally fastest in a cetral por-tion of a cross section of such flow and is gradually de-creased toward a wall surface of the die, so that a diff-erence in the rlowing speed is produced between the flow-ing speed in the central portion and that near the wall surface of the die. Such difference in the flowing speed increases when a flowing resistance between the flow of the raw materials and the wall surface Or the die. In the conventional die of the extruder, once organized proteins of the raw materials in the die are subjected to an exfo-liating action in the flowing direction thereof, which ex-foliating action i6 caused by such difference in the flow-ing speed, so that their once organized structure is bro-ken, whereby they are extruded from the outlet of the die in a condition in which their structure has been torn.
The present invention also provides a means for preventing such exfoliating action from occurring, i.e., for preventing the structure Or the product from being broken.
Namely, in order to prevent the structure of the product from being broken, it is necessary to decrease the difference of the flowing speed Or the raw materials .
~L2~565 l in the cross section Or the die.
According to the present invention, such difference in the flowing speed Or the raw materials is decreased by varying a size of the cross-sectional area of each of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c for orientation use.
For example, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, the dia-meters Dc, Db and Da of the small openings 85c, 85b and 85a are gradually increased from a central portion Or the porous plate 86 to a periphery of the same 86, in which porous plate 86 are provided the small openings 85c, 85b and 85a. In this case, the length L of each of the small openings 85c, 85b and 85a is fixed. Namely, the diameter Or each Or the small openings 85c disposed in the central portion of the cross-sectional area of the die is relatively small, while the diameter of each Or the small openings 85a disposed near the periphery of the porous plate 86 is relatively large.
In general, a flowing speed of a fluid decreases when a flowing resistance increases. Since the flowing resistance is produced by a friction (in a broad sense) between the rluid and a wall surface of the fluid passage, the flowing resistance increases when the cross-sectional area, i.e., the diameter of the fluid passage decreases, provided that both the length and the shape (for example, a circular shape in this case) of the fluid passage are . ~23 .
~2~L~S~
1 fixed. In other words, the flowing speed in the outlet of each of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c decreases when the diameter of each of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c decreases.
The flowing speed distribution diagrams of the raw materials in the cross sections F-F, G-G, H-H and J-J
in Fig. 7 are shown in Figs. 10 r, g, h and j, respectively.
In the cross section F-F, the raw materials flow into the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c in a condition that there is substantially no d fference in the flowing speed between the central portion and the peripheral por-tion of the flowing passage of the raw materials. However, in the outlet of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c, i.e., in the cross section G-G, since the diameter Or the small opening 85c disposed in the central portion is smaller than that of the small opening 85a disposed in the peri-pheral portion, the flowing speed of the raw materials decreases in the central portion because the above-mentioned reason, whereby a flowing speed distrubution of the raw materials as shown in Fig. lOg is produced. Under the ef-fect Or such flowing speed distribution in Fig. lOg, it is possible to smooth the flowing speed distribution in the cross section J-J in which the difference in the flow-ing speed is considerably decreased, because the flowing speed of the raw materials near the wall surface of the ~4~565 flowing passage decreases due to the flowing resistance between the raw materials and such wall surface, which flowing resistance acts on the raw materials between the cross sections H-H and J-J, so that the difference in the flowing speed of the raw materials decreases. The conven-tional flowing speed distribution n of the raw materials in the cross section J-J is shown in Fig.lOj in which the flowing speed distribution m of the raw materials is ob-tained according to the construction of the present inven-tion. The shapes of the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c are not limited to a circular shape only, for example, a rectangular shape is also applicable to such use. In case that the rectangle-shaped small openings are employed, it is possible to change an amount of the flowing resistance by changing the size Or the cross section Or the small openings, for example, by changing a length of each side of the rectangle. Namely, according to the present ir.ven-tion, it is intended that the flowing speed distribution in the die is changed by suitably arranging the small op-ening for orientation use, which small openings vary intheir cross sectional shapes and sizes.
Fig. 11 shows a fourth example Or the second embo-diment of the present invention, wherein: the reference numerals 95, 96 designate dies; the numerals 97, 98 desig-nate temperature controlling jackets; and the reference US
..
~L2~65 1 character designates a length of a forming portion of the dies, which length Al is 15 to 40 times as long as the diameter of the die opening 99.
In comparison with the first embodiment Or the present invention, the protein molecules of the raw mat-erials in a condition 91 are fully reacted and shaped thr-ough a long period time while pass through the forming portion Ql of the dies, so that the extruded product is enhanced in its orientation and provided with a strong meat-like structure.
As described above, each Or the small openings 85a, 85b and 85c may also have other shapes in addition to the cylindrical shape, for example, a slit-like shape a gap Or which is hereinarter referred to as a thickness T. In this case, the small openings form slits lOla, lOlb and lOlc.
Next, a fifth example of the second embodiment Or the present invention will be hereinbelow described. Figs.
13 to 15 show such fifth example, wherein: the reference numeral 110 designates a screw; the numeral 111 designates a torpedo; the numeral 112 designates a barrel; the nu-meral 113 designates a heater for heating the barrel 112;
the numeral 116 designates a porous plate a central por-tion Or which is thickest so that a thickness of the por-ous plate 116 is gradually decreased toward its periphery;
,~/ .,, Ox ,..
1 the numeral 115 designates a small opening a plurality of which are provided in the porous plate 116, so that a len-gth of each of the small openings 115 is different from each other according to the thickness of the porous plate 11~; the numeral 117 designates a die; the numeral 118 designates a jacket for receiving a die temperature con-trolling medium; the numeral 120 designates raw materials immediately after they passed through the screw 110; the numeral 121 designates raw materials immediately after thèy passed through the small openings 115; the numeral 122 designates raw materials passing through the forming portion Q of the die 117; and the numeral 123 designates an extruded food product (a shaped product).
In the die for the extruder shown in Figs. 13 and 14, the raw materials fed to a raw materisl feeding por-tion (not shown) of the screw 110 are compressed, mixed and kneaded between the screw 110 and the barrel 112 under the action Or the screw 110 and then are stirred by the torpedo 111 provided in the front end of the screw 110 to be transferred to a front area of the barrel 112 in which the raw materials are designated by the referenc numeral 120. The barrel 112 is heated by the heater 113 to be con-trolled in its temperature by the same 113. In some cases, it is necessary to cool the raw materials so as to cont-rol their temperature with the use of a suitable cooling ~2~15~i~
1 unit in place of the heater 113, which is dependent on the properties of the raw materials. If the starch start-ing materials are used as the raw materials, such raw ma-terials are already fused together at a time when they are transferred forward by the screw 110. The fused condi-tion of the raw materials is designated by the reference numeral 120. Consequently, such fused raw materials are cooled and solidified in the die 117, or bulked out at the outlet of the die 117, so that such raw materials are extruded from the die 117 as a food product. In this case, therefore, the provision of the small openings 115 is not required.
In contrast with this, in case that it is required to produce a fibriform meat-like organized food product from the raw materials, i.e., the vegetable protein such as the defatted soybean powder and the above-mentioned "Okara", and the animal proteins such as the scrap meat and the like, it is not possible to impart a strong fiber-like property to the food product even if the raw maze-rials under the condition 120 are extruded from the die 117. However, according to the present invention, it ispossible to produce a strong fibriform continuous meat-like product, because there is provided the porous plate 116 in the die 117, through which porous plate 116 extend a plurality of the small openings 115 in a direction of _ 3~_ ~24~56~
1 the thickness of the porous plate 116 which varies in thick-ness in a radial direction thereon. Namely, the raw mate-rials 120 existing in the vicinity of the front end por-tion Or the screw 110 is in a condition in which the pro-tein molecules Or the raw materials bring their reactiveelements to the surrace thereof to some extent through kneading process Or the raw materials conducted by the screw 110 etc., so that the raw materials are fused toge-ther while such protein molecules are in a condition in which they are not reacted together. Under such condition, when the raw materials are passed through the small open-ings 115 of the porous plate 116 Or the present invention, the protein molecules Or the raw materials bring further more amount of their reactive elements to the surfaces thereof in a condition designated by the rererence nume-ral 121. In this condition, the raw materials are intro-duced into the forming portion (the length Or which is designated by the reference character Q ) Or the die 117 so that they are reacted and shaped so as to be oriented, whereby the fiber-like property is imparted to the ext-ruded product, while such extruded product has a strong meat-like structure which is provided by organized bind-ings Or the protein molecules based on the large amount Or their exposed reactive elements.
Also, according to the present invention, the ~7 ., ~24~S65 1 following action is conducted in the forming portion of the die 117; in general, the flowing speed of the raw ma-terials in the die 117 is high in the central portion of such flow, and low in the vicinity of the wall surface of flowing passage of such flow. In the conventional die of the extruder, since flowing speed of the raw materials decreases when the raw materials flow in the vicinity of the wall surface and thereby the flowing resistance there-Or increases, once organized proteins of the raw materials existing in the die 117 are subjected to the exfoliating action in the flowing direction Or the raw materials, which exfoliating action is caused by the difrerence in the flowing speed, so that their once organized structure is broken, whereby they are extruded from the outlet Or the die 117 in a condition in which their structure has been torn. In order to prevent such structure from being broken, it is necessary to minimize the difrerence in the flowing speed of the raw materials in the die 117. With this respect, in the embodiments Or the present invention, such dirrerence in the flowing speed Or the raw materials is minimized with provision Or the porous plate 116 pro-vided with a plurality Or the small openings 115 which very in length with each other.
For example, in a case as shown in Fig. 13, the length Or the small opening 115 disposed in the central zO
;
~41565 1 portion of the porous plate 116 is longer than that dis-posed in the peripheral portion of the porous plate 116.
In general, a flowing speed of a fluid flowing through a fluid passage decreases when a flowing resistance increases.
S Since such flowing resistance is produced by a friction (in a broad sense) between the fluid and the wall surface Or the fluid passage, the flowing resistance in the small opening is proportional to the length Or such small open-ing, provided that a size Or a cross section of the small opening is fixed. In other words, the flowing speed at the outlet Or the small opening decreases when the length Or the small opening increases. The raw materials flow into each of the small openings 115 in a portion 0-0 as shown in Fig. 13 under a condition in which there is substantially no difference in the flowing speed of the raw materials, and then pass through the outlet of each of the small openings 115, or a portion P-P in which the flowing speed of the raw materials in the central portion of the porous plate 116 is small while the flowing speed of' the raw materials in the vicinity of the peripheral portion of the porous plate 116 is large.
Consequently, it is possible to minimize the diff-erence in the flowing speed of the raw materials, i.e., to smooth the flowing speed distrubution of the raw mate-rials in the die 117 by increasing the flowing speed of :, "-~31 1 the raw materials in the vicinity cr the peripheral por-tion of the porous plate 116 while the flowing speed of the raw materials in the central portion Or the porous plate 116 is decreased, because the flowing speed of the raw materials in the vicinity Or the wall surface of the die 117 in a down-stream side Or the porous plate 116, i.e., in a portion Q-Q is decreased by the flowing resist-ance due to such wall surface Or the die 117. The flowing speed distribution Or the raw materials in the portions 0-O, P-P, Q-Q and R-R in Fig. 13 are shown in Fig. 18 o, p, q and r, respectively. The flowing speed distribution n Or the raw materials in the portion R-R in Fig. 13 is in the conventional case, while the rlowing speed distri-bution m of the raw materials in the same portion R-R is in the case cr the present invention.
Under the effect Or the orienting action and the smoothing action Or the flowing speed distribution both Or which are produced by the provision Or the porous plate 116, it is possible to produce a continuous meat-like food product having a strong fiber-like property and a strongly bound structure in an extrusion manner. Namely, the fused raw materials (the protein starting materials), which have passed through each of the small openings 115 Or the por-ous plate 116 and introduced into the forming portion of the die 117, are subjected to the shearing action caused ~L24~LS6~
1 by a large flowing speed Or the raw materials so that they are oriented in the flowing direction thereof. Under the effect Or such orientation Or the raw materials, a large amount Or the reactive elements of the raw materials is exposed, which reactive elements enhance the structural binding Or the extruded food product. If there is a diff-erence in the flowing speed of the raw materials flowing through the forming portion Or the die 117, such raw mate-rials are subjected to the exfoliating action in the flow-ing direction of the raw materials so that the structureOr the food product is broken. In the die for the extruder Or the present invention, the raw materials, which flow in the vicinity of a wall surface of the barrel 112 so that their flowing speed is small due to a large flowing resistance caused by such wall surface, is introduced into the small opening 115 having a short length, which small opening 115 penetrates a thin portion of the porous plate 116, while the raw materials which flow in a central por-tion of the barrel 112 so that their flowing speed is large due to a small flowing resistance is introduced into the small opening 115 having a long length, which small open-ing 115 penetrates a thick portion of the porous plate 116. As a result, when these raw materials flow through the forming portion of the die 117, there is substantially I
no dlfference in the flowing speed of the raw materials, ""
1 so that it is possible to produce the meat-like food pro-duct having a strong fiber-like property and a high stru-ctural binding, in an extrusion manner.
Incidentally, in Fig. 13, though the porous plate 116 provided with the small openings 115 is incorporated in the die 117, it is also possible to provide such porous plate 116 in the barrel's side. Further, in addition to the one shaft type extruder provided with one screw 110, it is also possible to employ the two shaft type extruder provided with two screws. Further, the shape of the porous plate 116 is not limited to one shown in the drawings. For example, as shown in Fig. 16, it is possible to use a po-rous plate 132 in place of the porous plate 116, which porous plate 132 is provided with a convex portion in its central portion opposite to an end of the barrel 112, or as shown in Fig. 17, it is possible to use a porous plate 133 in place of the porous plate 116, which porous plate 133 is provided with a concave portion in its central por-tion opposite to the end of the barrel 112 so that the thickness of such porous plate 133 gradually decreases radially from its central portion to its peripheral por-tion. In this case, if it is possible to change the flow-ing speed distribution of the raw materials in the die 117, it is not required to elongate the length of the small opening 115 in the central portion of the porous ` 3~
.
~2~L~S6S
1 plate (116, 132, 133).
Further, according to the properties of the food raw materials and the intended food product, it is nece-ssary to change the small openings 115 in their shapes, sizes and numbers, wherein it is preferable to make each ox the small openings 115 smaller in its diameter, longer in its length and to increase the numbers Or the small openings 115 to the extent that the pressure drop across the small openings 115 enables the food product to be ex-ruded.
As shown in Fig. 15, according to the experiments, in case that the deratted soybean powder is used as a raw materials, it is preferable to use the small opening 115 having a ratio ~L/D) of the diameter D of the small open-ing 115 to the length L of the same 115 within a range of from 3 to 20 so as to keep an average flowing speed of the raw materials within a range of from 3 to 10 cm/sec.
Further, Fig. 19 shows a fifth example Or the second embodiment of the presént invention, wherein- the reference numerals 125, 126 designate dies; the numerals 127, 128 designate temperture controlling jackets; the reference character Q~ designates a length of the forming portion of the dies, which length is 15 to 40 times as long as the diameter Or the die opening 129. The protein molecules of the raw materials under a condition 121 are , I., ,3~
'I.., 1 subjected to the reacting action and the shaping action throuth a longer period of time than that in the case of the example shown in Figs. 13 and 14 while they pass thr-ough the above forming portion of the dies, so that the strong meat-like product 130 having been more oriented in its structure is produced in an extrusion manner. Incid-entally, in addition to the circular shape in its cross section, ror example, the small opening 115 is also able to have a slit-like shape in its cross section as shown in Fig. 20 in which the reference character T designates a width Or the slit 131.
The above is all the description of the embodiments of the present invention. Naturally, the scope Or the pre-sent invention is not limited to such embodiments only, and it is possible to modify such embodiments without de-parting from the spirit Or the present invention.
Field Or the industrial use of the Invention As described above, the die of the present inven-tion is most suitable for use in the extruder in an ext-rusion production of the continuous organized food product from the raw materials, particularly from the protein st-arting material.
Claims (8)
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. A device for extruding a high water content, food protein starting material as a continuous meat-like product comprising an axially extending cylinder barrel having an inlet end and an out-let end spaced apart in the axial direction, an axially extending screw rotatably mounted in said cylinder barrel for moving the starting material through said barrel from the inlet end to the outlet end thereof, an axially elongated die of optional length connected to the outlet end of and co-axial with said barrel, said die comprising a plurality of axially extending die portions ar-ranged serially and each having a die opening extending axially therethrough in axial alignment with the adjacent die portions, each of said die portions having a temperature jacket, said die openings having a minimum dimension transverse to the axial dir-ection, said die openings of said die portions forming said die having a length dimension 15 to 40 times as long as the minimum dimension of said die openings.
2. A device, set forth in claim 1, wherein the minimum dim-ension of said die openings is a constant dimension for the axially extending length dimension of said die.
3. A device for extruding a high water content food protein starting material as a continuous meat-like product comprising an axially extending cylinder barrel, having an inlet end and an out-let end, an axially extending screw rotatably mounted in said cy-linder barrel for moving the starting material through said barrel from the inlet end to the outlet end thereof, an axially elongated die extending from the outlet end of said barrel and being coaxial with said barrel, said die having an axially extending die opening therethrough, a porous plate having a thickness direction extending in the axial direction of said barrel and die, a plurality of small openings extending in the thickness direction through said porous plate, said porous plate located between the outlet end of said barrel and the adjacent end of said die opening, said plate extend-ing perpendicular to the axis of said barrel.
4. A device, as set forth in claim 3, wherein said openings have a minimum dimension extending transversely of the axial dir-ection of said die and the ratio of the minimum dimension of said small openings of said porous plate to the axial length of said small openings is in the range of 3 to 20.
5. A device, as set forth in claim 3, wherein the length of the samll openings through said porous plate is varied for main-taining the flowing speed distribution of materials through said die opening as uniform as possible.
6. A device, as set forth in claim 5, wherein the length of said small openings through said porous plate is varied with the length being greater in the center of said porous plate and dim-inishing radially outward.
7. A device, as set forth in claim 3, including providing a uniform flowing speed distribution of the materials is said die opening by varying one of the cross-sectional shape and cross-sec-tional area of said openings is said porous plate.
8. A device, as set forth in claim 7, wherein the cross-sec-tional area of said small openings through said porous plate are varied so that said small openings in the center of said porous plate are smaller than the small openings located radially outwardly from the center.
Applications Claiming Priority (6)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP60021799A JPS61181360A (en) | 1985-02-08 | 1985-02-08 | Die for extruder |
| JP021799/1985 | 1985-02-08 | ||
| JP60047354A JPS61209580A (en) | 1985-03-12 | 1985-03-12 | Die for extruder |
| JP047354/1985 | 1985-03-12 | ||
| JP052530/1985 | 1985-03-18 | ||
| JP60052530A JPS61212268A (en) | 1985-03-18 | 1985-03-18 | Die for extruder |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1241565A true CA1241565A (en) | 1988-09-06 |
Family
ID=27283566
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000488903A Expired CA1241565A (en) | 1985-02-08 | 1985-08-16 | Die for extruder |
Country Status (2)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CN (2) | CN85106640B (en) |
| CA (1) | CA1241565A (en) |
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US10798950B2 (en) | 2013-08-08 | 2020-10-13 | General Mills, Inc. | System and method for producing an extruded protein product |
Families Citing this family (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN102028095B (en) * | 2009-09-29 | 2013-10-23 | 哈高科大豆食品有限责任公司 | Organized wiredrawing protein and preparation method thereof |
| CN104085115B (en) * | 2014-07-29 | 2016-09-07 | 中国科学院重庆绿色智能技术研究院 | The increasing material of the many tow of a kind of molten mass manufactures printing head system |
| CN107319570A (en) * | 2017-07-21 | 2017-11-07 | 贵州省贝真食业有限公司 | A kind of plain meat molding die |
| CN112704149B (en) * | 2020-12-29 | 2022-11-04 | 浙江庆源顺生物科技有限公司 | A plant protein production system |
| IT202300011274A1 (en) * | 2023-06-01 | 2024-12-01 | Pavan S P A | INSERT FOR DRAWING FOOD PRODUCTS SUCH AS PASTA, SNACKS OR ANIMAL FOOD AND DIE INCLUDING SUCH INSERT |
-
1985
- 1985-08-16 CA CA000488903A patent/CA1241565A/en not_active Expired
- 1985-09-03 CN CN85106640A patent/CN85106640B/en not_active Expired
-
1987
- 1987-05-29 CN CN87103888A patent/CN1003071B/en not_active Expired
Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US10798950B2 (en) | 2013-08-08 | 2020-10-13 | General Mills, Inc. | System and method for producing an extruded protein product |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| CN85106640B (en) | 1988-11-30 |
| CN1003071B (en) | 1989-01-18 |
| CN87103888A (en) | 1987-12-16 |
| CN85106640A (en) | 1986-08-06 |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| MKEX | Expiry |