CN104816954A - Gantry fermented grain automatic loading machine and loading method - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a gantry fermented grain automatic loading machine. The gantry fermented grain automatic loading machine comprises a gantry fermented grain loading robot, a fermented grain loading execution mechanism, a binocular vision identifying system and a control system, wherein the gantry fermented grain loading robot consists of two horizontal guide rails, two stand columns, a cross beam and a ram; the fermented grain loading execution mechanism is mounted on the ram; and the binocular vision identifying system comprises a steam running identification thermal infrared imager and a height identification thermal infrared imager, whose output ends are connected to an input end of the control system. The gantry fermented grain loading robot is excellent in loading capacity, and the performance requirement of the robot can be reduced, so that the equipment cost investment is reduced; the guide rails consisting of a flat guide rail, a V-shaped guide rail and a rack composition are adopted to bear the position deviation caused by slight displacement generated in the fermented grain loading motion process, so that the material distributing and feeding accuracy is guaranteed, and the distilling effect is improved; and the binocular vision identifying system is adopted to obtain the material surface temperature distribution and height, so that fermented grains are uniform to prevent the air way blockage and the steam pressure, and the distillation effect is guaranteed.

Description

A gantry-type wine fermented grains automatic filling machine and steamer filling method

technical field

The invention relates to the field of retort packing of wine grains, in particular to a gantry type automatic retort packing machine for wine fermented grains, and also relates to a retort packing method.

Background technique

As the saying goes, "fragrance is produced by fermentation, and aroma is obtained by distillation". In the production process of Daqu liquor, the distillation equipment of retort barrel has been used for thousands of years. The retort barrel is a circular frustum-shaped (flower pot-shaped) distiller, with an upper opening diameter of about 2m, a bottom opening diameter of about 1.8m, and a height of about 1m. The upper movable cover is connected to the cooler, and the lower part is separated from the heater by a porous retort grate. Retort filling is the process of putting the wet viscous solid loose fermented grains matured by solid-state fermentation into the retort barrel, using high-temperature steam to concentrate and separate the alcohol in the fermented grains, extracting the aroma and recombining. In the process of filling the retort, there is steam at the bottom of the retort, and it is required to spread the wine grains evenly and loosely in layers when the retort is placed, so as to achieve "spread lightly and evenly, detect steam on the retort, and have high, medium and low sides". Running out of steam, the air passage in the material is evenly distributed and unobstructed without steam pressure. The current automatic or semi-automatic retort loading devices generally use multi-joint robots. When the silo of the cloth actuator is filled with wine grains, it weighs hundreds of catties. The performance requirements of multi-joint robots are high, so that the price of the retort device is high, which affects liquor. In addition, the cloth actuator generally cannot simulate the manual loading of the retort to achieve quantitative discharge and evenly scatter the cloth, which affects the distillation effect; in addition, infrared cameras are currently used to collect temperature distribution information in the retort barrel to determine whether there is outgassing In addition, fixed-point refilling was performed on the out-of-gassing area, but the height of the material surface in the retort barrel could not be judged. The drop between the cloth actuator and the material surface caused the actual coverage area of the wine grains to be sprinkled larger than the target area when feeding, and the amount of wine grains sprinkled Exceeding the actual needs will lead to uneven distribution of the fermented grains, and it is easy to block the air passage and press the steam, which will affect the distillation effect.

Contents of the invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a gantry-type automatic retort loading machine and method for retort, which can solve the problem of high price of existing automatic or semi-automatic retort devices, which affects the production cost of liquor, and can not be realized by simulating manual retort Quantitative discharge, uniform distribution of materials, and the inability to judge the height of the material level in the retort barrel are prone to airway blockage and steam compression, which affects the distillation effect.

The present invention is realized through the following technical solutions:

A gantry-type automatic retort loading machine for wine fermented grains, comprising a gantry retort loading robot, a retort loading actuator, a binocular visual recognition system and a control system; the gantry retort loading robot consists of two horizontal guide rails, two columns, a beam and The two guide rails are respectively arranged on both sides of the retort barrel, the bottom ends of the two columns are respectively slidably connected to the two guide rails and driven with the X-axis driving mechanism, and the two ends of the beam are respectively slidably connected to the The two columns are driven by the Z-axis lifting drive mechanism. The ram is slidably connected to the beam and driven by the Y-axis drive mechanism. The retort actuator is installed on the ram through the Z-axis fine-tuning drive mechanism; the binocular vision The identification system includes a running steam recognition infrared thermal imager and a height recognition infrared thermal imager whose outputs are respectively connected to the input of the control system. The running steam recognition infrared thermal imager is installed directly above the retort, and the height recognition infrared thermal imager is installed on the column Or on the beam, the two collect the material level information in the retort barrel from different angles; the X-axis drive mechanism, the Z-axis lifting drive mechanism, the Y-axis drive mechanism, the Z-axis fine-tuning drive mechanism and the controller input end of the retort actuator Connect to the output terminals of the control system respectively.

A further solution of the present invention is that the guide rail includes an H-shaped base, the protrusions on both sides of the upper end surface of the base are respectively provided with a flat guide rail and a V-shaped guide rail, and a rack is provided in the groove on the upper end surface of the base; The lower end of the column is provided with a pulley, on which wheels respectively matched with the flat guide rail and the V-shaped guide rail, and gears matched with the rack are installed, and the gears are driven by the X-axis driving mechanism.

A further solution of the present invention is that the retort actuator includes a silo whose lower end is coaxially connected with a feeding trough, and a stirring shaft coaxially penetrating the silo. The upper part of the silo is equipped with a stirring looser, the lower part of the feeding trough is equipped with a screw feeding mechanism, and the lower end passing through the feeding trough is connected with a rotary throwing screen, and the input end of the controller of the drive motor is connected to the output of the control system. end.

A further solution of the present invention is that the stirring and loosening device is a helical blade connected to the stirring shaft, and the helical blade is provided with three layers, and each layer is provided with six pieces.

A further solution of the present invention is that the screw feeding mechanism is a variable-pitch screw composed of an upper part with a smaller pitch and a lower part with a larger pitch.

A further solution of the present invention is that a vibrating anti-sticking device is installed on the outer wall of the silo, a level gauge is installed on the top of the silo, a distance sensor is installed at the lower end of the rotary throwing screen, the level gauge and the The output end of the distance sensor is connected to the input end of the control system.

A further solution of the present invention is that the rotary throwing sieve is in the shape of a bowl, and the lower end of the stirring shaft is inserted from the mouth of the bowl and fixedly connected to the bottom of the bowl; the wall of the rotating throwing sieve is evenly provided with a plurality of sieve holes.

A further solution of the present invention is that the control system is composed of an industrial computer and a PLC programmable logic controller, and the steam recognition infrared camera and the height recognition infrared camera are infrared cameras, which are processed by image data respectively The controller is connected to the input terminal of the industrial computer, and the industrial computer communicates with the PLC programmable logic controller, the controller of the X-axis driving mechanism, the Z-axis lifting driving mechanism, the Y-axis driving mechanism, the Z-axis fine-tuning driving mechanism and the retort actuator The input ends are respectively connected to the output ends of the PLC programmable logic controller.

A further solution of the present invention is that the X-axis driving mechanism is a servo motor; the Z-axis lifting driving mechanism is a hydraulic cylinder installed vertically, and the top end of the piston rod is fixedly connected with the slide plate; the Y-axis driving mechanism is connected with the Y The Y-axis lead screw driven by the shaft drive motor, the Z-axis fine-tuning drive mechanism is the Z-axis lead screw driven by the Z-axis drive motor, and the retort actuator is installed on the screw nut seat of the Z-axis lead screw.

The retort loading method of the above-mentioned gantry type automatic retort loading machine for wine fermented grains comprises the following steps:

a. Sprinkle a layer of rice husk on the bottom of the retort, then spread two layers of wine grains, and inject steam into the bottom of the retort;

b. When the steam comes out of the surface of the wine grains, spread another layer of wine grains, divide the surface of the wine grains in the retort barrel into multiple areas and number them, and obtain the temperature distribution field of the surface of the wine grains in the retort barrel through the binocular recognition system , perform data filtering, mapping transformation and binarization processing on the temperature distribution field to obtain the gray value of the characteristic parameter in each area, compare the gray value of the characteristic parameter with the pixel of the normal threshold value, and judge whether there is a need for refueling If there is no need to run out of steam in the area, then spread another layer of wine grains;

c. If it is judged in step b that there is an area that needs to be fed with steam, extract the target features, convert the pixel distribution, brightness, and color into a digital signal, and obtain the number of the area that needs to be fed with steam according to the positional relationship between the pixels. Positioning, and feed back to the control system of the retort machine for running steam replenishment;

d. Repeat steps b and c until the number of layers of wine grains reaches 40. The control system of the retort machine counts the number of steam refills in each area, and leveling and refilling each area.

The advantage of the present invention compared with prior art is:

1. The loading capacity of the gantry steamer robot is good, which can reduce the performance requirements of the robot, thereby reducing the cost of equipment and the manufacturing cost of liquor;

2. When distributing each layer, the Z-axis lifting drive mechanism is used to lift the retort actuator at a fixed value. When feeding, the Z-axis fine-tuning drive mechanism is used to adjust the throwing height of the rotating throwing sieve to the material surface in the retort bucket in real time, so as to realize the distribution and refilling More uniform, improve the distillation effect;

3. The guide rail composed of flat guide rail, V-shaped guide rail and rack combination can withstand the position deviation caused by the slight displacement during the retort movement, so as to ensure the accuracy of cloth feeding and further improve the distillation effect;

4. A motor-driven stirring and loosening device is installed in the silo to keep the wet and sticky wine mash in the silo in a loose state, avoid sticking, and ensure that the feeding is uniform and the degree of looseness is consistent each time. The rotary throwing sieve simulates Manually shovel the retort, load the retort material layer by layer, and replenish the material, and carry out uniform material distribution, layered material distribution, and steam leakage refilling, so as to realize the retort effect of lightly spreading the retort cloth, refilling area, and high, medium and low sides;

5. The screw feeding mechanism is a variable-pitch screw consisting of an upper part with a smaller pitch and a lower part with a larger pitch. The upper small-pitch screw realizes quantitative feeding, and the lower part with a large-pitch screw can ensure that the wine grains will not be blocked during transportation and maintain To loosen the fermented grains, a certain amount of fermented grains is sent to the rotary sieve for throwing, further improving the steamer effect;

6. Using a binocular recognition system, two infrared thermal imaging cameras collect information on the material surface in the retort barrel from different angles, which can accurately obtain the temperature distribution and height of the material surface, thereby improving the accuracy of feeding and making the wine grains evenly distributed. Avoid the phenomenon of airway blockage and pressurized steam, and ensure the distillation effect.

Description of drawings

Fig. 1 is a structural schematic diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a structural schematic diagram of the guide rail 2 .

Fig. 3 is a structural schematic diagram of a column and a beam.

Fig. 4 is a structural schematic diagram of the beam and the retort actuator.

Fig. 5 is a view along the direction A of Fig. 4 .

Fig. 6 is a structural schematic diagram of the retort actuator.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of cloth area division.

Figure 8 is a cloth flow chart.

Detailed ways

A gantry-type automatic retort loading machine for wine fermented grains, as shown in Figures 1 to 5, includes a gantry retort loading robot, a retort loading actuator 7, a binocular visual recognition system, and a control system composed of an industrial computer and a PLC programmable logic controller. system.

The gantry retort robot is composed of two horizontal guide rails 2, two columns 4, a beam 5 and a ram 6. The two guide rails 2 are respectively arranged on both sides of the retort bucket 1, and each guide rail 2 includes an H-shaped Base 16, the protrusions on both sides of the upper end surface of the base 16 are respectively provided with a flat guide rail 13 and a V-shaped guide rail 14, a rack 15 is provided in the groove on the upper end surface of the base 16, and a pulley 3 is provided at the lower end of the column 4 , the pulley 3 is equipped with wheels that cooperate with the flat guide rail 13 and the V-shaped guide rail 14 respectively, and a gear that cooperates with the rack 15, and the gear is driven by a servo motor as the X-axis drive mechanism 8, and the pulley 3 The front and the rear are respectively equipped with ultrasonic sensors whose output ends are connected to the input ends of the control system to prevent obstacles from being encountered during movement; The top end of the piston rod of the directly installed hydraulic cylinder is fixedly connected, and the hydraulic cylinder is used as the Z-axis lifting drive mechanism 17; the ram 6 is slidably connected to the beam 5, and is transmitted with the Y-axis screw 11, and the Y-axis screw 11 Driven with the Y-axis drive motor 9; the ram 6 is equipped with a Z-axis lead screw 25 driven by the Z-axis drive motor 12, and the retort actuator 7 is installed on the nut seat 18 of the Z-axis lead screw 25 . The X-axis travel switch 19, the Y-axis travel switch 21, and the Z-axis travel switch 23 are respectively installed on the guide rail 2, the beam 5 and the ram 6, wherein the X-axis travel switch 19 on the guide rail 2 is used to position the center of the retort , the Y-axis travel switch 21 on the crossbeam 5 is used to ensure that the ram 6 moves back and forth laterally along the crossbeam 5, the retort actuator 7 will not collide with the retort barrel 1, and the Z-axis travel switch 23 on the ram 6 is used to Ensure that the retort actuator 7 does not exceed the adjustment range when the lead screw pair of the Z-axis lead screw 25 rises and falls, and remains within a suitable throwing range all the time. X-axis laser rangefinder 20, Y-axis laser rangefinder 22, and Z-axis laser rangefinder 24 are respectively installed on guide rail 2, beam 5 and ram 6, wherein the X-axis laser rangefinder on guide rail 2 20 real-time measurement of the throwing coordinates of the retort actuator 7 in the X-axis direction, the Y-axis laser rangefinder on the beam 5 22 the real-time throwing coordinates of the retort actuator 7 in the Y-axis direction, and the Z-axis of the ram 6 The laser rangefinder 24 is equipped with the relative coordinates between the retort actuator 7 and the ram 6 in real time.

In order to ensure the positioning accuracy and motion accuracy of the retort and reduce the impact energy, a Y-axis moving roller 26 and a Y-axis supporting roller 27 are installed between the beam 5 and the ram 6. The preload and gap between the two and the beam 6, This is achieved by adjusting its eccentric shaft.

The binocular visual recognition system includes a steam recognition infrared camera and a height recognition infrared thermal imager, wherein the running steam recognition infrared thermal imager is installed directly above the retort, and the height recognition infrared thermal imager is installed on the column 4 or the beam 5, the two collect the material level information in the retort barrel from different angles.

The said retort actuator 7 shown in Figure 2 comprises a feed bin 74 coaxially connected with a feed tank 77 at the lower end, and a stirring shaft 71 coaxially penetrating through the feed bin 74, and the stirring shaft 71 passes out of the feed bin 74. The upper end is transmitted with the drive motor 72, the upper part of the feed bin 74 is equipped with a stirring and loosening device 73, the lower part of the feeding tank 77 is equipped with a screw feeding mechanism 75, and the lower end passing through the feeding tank 77 is connected with a rotary throwing screen 76, The controller input end of the drive motor 72 is connected to the output end of the control system. The stirring looser 73 is a helical blade connected to the stirring shaft 71, and the helical blade is provided with three layers, and each layer is provided with six pieces. The screw feeding mechanism 75 is a variable-pitch screw consisting of a smaller upper part and a larger lower part; the rotary throwing screen 76 is bowl-shaped, and the lower end of the stirring shaft 71 is inserted from the mouth of the bowl and fixedly connected to the bottom of the bowl; The wall of the rotary throwing screen 76 is uniformly provided with a plurality of screen holes. The outer wall of the feed bin 74 is equipped with a vibrating anti-adhesive device 78, which can ensure that the wet and sticky fermented grains fall smoothly and will not stick to the feed bin 74; the top of the feed bin 74 is also equipped with a capacitive sensor material level A meter 79 is used for real-time detection of the height of the fermented grains in the feed bin 74 to control the feeding process; a distance sensor is also installed at the lower end of the rotary throwing sieve 76 for real-time detection of the distance between the rotating throwing sieve 76 and the material surface in the retort bucket. Distance, dynamically adjust the throwing height in the Z-axis direction to ensure that each layer of wine grains is thrown evenly when feeding; the output end of the level gauge 79 and the distance sensor are connected to the input end of the control system.

The industrial computer communicates with the PLC programmable logic controller, and the industrial computer is used as the upper computer to mainly complete the data collection of the wine grains to be loaded in the retort, the data fusion of the images of the wine grains, the temperature of the sprinkled wine grains layer, and the leakage of steam. In the process of data processing such as position detection, attitude data collection, processing and interpolation calculation of the retort actuator 7, the PLC programmable logic controller is used as the on-site controller to mainly complete the motion control of the gantry retort robot, and execute the retort installation The real-time information of the operation of mechanism 7 is transmitted to the corresponding man-machine interface through the RS232 communication data line, and the operation of the retort actuator 7 is monitored by using the touch screen, and the retort actuator 7 is directly operated and controlled through the touch screen during work.

Place two retorts between the guide rails 2 of the gantry retort loading robot, fill one retort and then fill the other retort with retort cloth, and unload the filled retort, which can improve work efficiency.

The retort loading method of the above-mentioned gantry type automatic retort loading machine for wine fermented grains comprises the following steps:

a. According to the requirements of the steamer filling process, drain the water at the bottom of the steamer before loading the steamer, check the bottom of the steamer to ensure that the perforation rate of the steam holes reaches 100%; sprinkle a layer of rice husk on the bottom of the steamer, and then spread two layers with a thickness of 5cm The left and right fermented grains cover the steam hole at the bottom of the retort, and then open the steam valve to inject steam into the bottom of the retort;

b. When the steam comes out of the surface of the wine grains, spread another layer of wine grains, divide the surface of the wine grains in the retort barrel into eleven areas as shown in Figure 7 and number them, and obtain the retort barrel through the binocular recognition system The temperature distribution field on the surface of the fermented grains, the temperature distribution field is subjected to data filtering, mapping transformation and binarization processing to obtain the gray value of the characteristic parameters of each area, and the gray value of the characteristic parameters is compared with the pixel of the normal threshold value to judge Is there any area that needs steam filling, if there is no need for steam filling, then spread another layer of wine grains;

c. If it is judged in step b that there is an area that needs to be fed with steam, extract the target features, convert the pixel distribution, brightness, and color into a digital signal, and obtain the number of the area that needs to be fed with steam according to the positional relationship between the pixels. Positioning, and feed back to the control system of the retort machine for running steam replenishment;

d. Repeat steps b and c until the number of layers of wine grains reaches 40. The control system of the retort machine counts the number of steam refills in each area, and leveling and refilling each area.

Claims (10)

1. A gantry-type automatic steamer loading machine for wine fermented grains, characterized in that: it comprises a gantry steamer loading robot, a steamer loading actuator (7), a binocular visual recognition system and a control system; the gantry steamer loading robot consists of two horizontal The guide rails (2), two columns (4), beams (5) and rams (6), the two guide rails (2) are respectively arranged on both sides of the retort bucket (1), and the two columns ( 4) The bottom ends are slidably connected to the two guide rails (2) and driven with the X-axis driving mechanism (8). The Z-axis lifting drive mechanism (17) drives, the ram (6) is slidably connected to the beam (5) and drives with the Y-axis drive mechanism, and the retort actuator (7) is installed on the slide through the Z-axis fine-tuning drive mechanism. Pillow (6); the binocular visual recognition system includes a running steam recognition infrared thermal imager and a height recognition infrared thermal imager whose output ends are respectively connected to the input end of the control system, wherein the running steam recognition infrared thermal imager is installed on the front of the retort Above, the height recognition infrared thermal imager is installed on the column (4) or the beam (5), and the two collect the material level information in the retort barrel from different angles; the X-axis drive mechanism (8), the Z-axis lift drive mechanism (17), the Y-axis drive mechanism, the Z-axis fine-tuning drive mechanism and the controller input terminals of the retort actuator (7) are respectively connected to the output terminals of the control system. 2. A gantry-type automatic filling machine for wine fermented grains according to claim 1, characterized in that: the guide rail (2) includes an H-shaped base (16), and the two sides of the upper end surface of the base (16) The protrusions are respectively provided with flat guide rails (13) and V-shaped guide rails (14), and the rack (15) is provided in the groove on the upper end surface of the base (16); the lower end of the column (4) is provided with a pulley (3) , the pulley (3) is equipped with wheels that cooperate with the flat guide rail (13) and the V-shaped guide rail (14), and a gear that cooperates with the rack (15), and the gear and the X-axis drive mechanism (8) transmission. 3. A gantry-type automatic retort loading machine for wine fermented grains according to claim 1, characterized in that: the retort loading actuator (7) includes a silo (74) whose lower end is coaxially connected with a feeding trough (77) , and the stirring shaft (71) coaxially passing through the silo (74), the stirring shaft (71) passes through the upper end of the silo (74) and drives the drive motor (72), and is located in the upper part of the silo (74) A stirring and loosening device (73) is installed, a screw feeding mechanism (75) is installed at the lower part of the feeding chute (77), and a rotary throwing screen (76) is connected to the lower end passing through the feeding chute (77), and the driving motor The controller input terminal of (72) is connected to the output terminal of the control system. 4. A gantry-type automatic retort machine for wine fermented grains according to claim 3, characterized in that: the agitating loosener (73) is a helical blade connected to the agitating shaft (71), and the helical blade There are three layers, and each layer has six pieces. 5. A gantry-type automatic retort machine for wine fermented grains according to claim 3, characterized in that: the screw feeding mechanism (75) is a variable-pitch screw consisting of an upper part with a smaller pitch and a lower part with a larger pitch . 6. A gantry-type automatic retort machine for wine fermented grains as claimed in claim 3, characterized in that: a vibrating anti-sticking device (78) is installed on the outer wall of the feed bin (74), and the feed bin (74) A material level gauge (79) is also installed on the top, and a distance sensor is installed at the lower end of the rotary throwing screen (76), and the output end of the material level gauge (79) and the distance sensor is connected to the input end of the control system. 7. A gantry-type automatic retort machine for wine fermented grains according to claim 3, characterized in that: the rotary throwing sieve (76) is bowl-shaped, and the lower end of the stirring shaft (71) is inserted from the mouth of the bowl and fixedly connected to the The bottom of the bowl; the wall of the rotary throwing sieve (76) is uniformly provided with a plurality of sieve holes. 8. A kind of gantry-type wine fermented grains automatic loading steamer as claimed in claim 1, is characterized in that: described control system is made up of industrial computer and PLC programmable logic controller, and described run-off steam recognition infrared camera and The highly recognized infrared thermal imager is an infrared thermal imager, which is respectively connected to the input end of the industrial computer through the image data processor, the industrial computer communicates with the PLC programmable logic controller, the X-axis drive mechanism (8), the Z-axis lift The controller input ends of the drive mechanism (17), the Y-axis drive mechanism, the Z-axis fine-tuning drive mechanism and the retort actuator (7) are respectively connected to the output ends of the PLC programmable logic controller. 9. A gantry-type automatic filling machine for wine fermented grains according to claim 1 or 8, characterized in that: the X-axis drive mechanism (8) is a servo motor; the Z-axis lift drive mechanism (17) is Vertically installed hydraulic cylinder, the top of the piston rod is fixedly connected with the slide plate (10); the Y-axis driving mechanism is a Y-axis screw (11) that is driven by the Y-axis drive motor (9), and the Z-axis fine-tuning drive The mechanism is a Z-axis lead screw (25) transmitted with the Z-axis drive motor (12), and the retort actuator (7) is installed on the screw nut seat (18) of the Z-axis lead screw (25). 10. The retort filling method of the gantry-type wine fermented grains automatic retort filling machine according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: a. Sprinkle a layer of rice husk on the bottom of the retort, then spread two layers of wine grains, and inject steam into the bottom of the retort; b. When the steam comes out of the surface of the wine grains, spread another layer of wine grains, divide the surface of the wine grains in the retort barrel into multiple areas and number them, and obtain the temperature distribution field of the surface of the wine grains in the retort barrel through the binocular recognition system , perform data filtering, mapping transformation and binarization processing on the temperature distribution field to obtain the gray value of the characteristic parameter in each area, compare the gray value of the characteristic parameter with the pixel of the normal threshold value, and judge whether there is a need for refueling If there is no need to run out of steam in the area, then spread another layer of wine grains; c. If it is judged in step b that there is an area that needs to be fed with steam, extract the target features, convert the pixel distribution, brightness, and color into a digital signal, and obtain the number of the area that needs to be fed with steam according to the positional relationship between the pixels. Positioning, and feed back to the control system of the retort machine for running steam replenishment; d. Repeat steps b and c until the number of layers of wine grains reaches 40. The control system of the retort machine counts the number of steam refills in each area, and leveling and refilling each area.