JPH0630707A - Apparatus for continuously producing confectionery containing center with uniform amount of filled center - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an apparatus for continuously producing a centered confectionery capable of always filling a center at a constant ratio or a constant amount of a filled center such as chewing gum or candy. CONSTITUTION:A concentrically arranged double-pipe nozzle 20 is installed in the tip of an extruder 1 and an annular nozzle 22 of the double-pipe nozzle 20 is made to communicate with a discharge outlet 5 of the extruder. The central nozzle part 21 is made to communicate with a discharge outlet of a pump 8 for a center. A rope sizer 10 for drawing and forming a discharged ropy gum, a moisture meter 11 for sensing the moisture content thereof and a stamping molding machine 12 for stamping the gum into a granular shape are connectedly installed along the downstream side of the outlet of the extruder 1. An output signal 19 from the moisture meter 11 and an output signal 20 from a sensor (6a) for the number of revolutions of the extruder are connected to a computer 15 and results of comparison with the target moisture content are outputted to a frequency converter 16 of the pump 8 for the center so as to always control the amount or the ratio of the filled center to a constant amount or ratio even if a change in physical properties or temperature of the gum is present.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for continuously producing a confectionery containing a center, such as a chewing gum containing a center, a candy, etc., which is filled while controlling the center filling amount to be always constant. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, various devices and techniques have been proposed as a technique for producing center-filled confectionery. For example, the tip nozzle of the extruder has a concentric nozzle structure, the gum is extruded from the annular nozzle to form a tube rope of gum, and the center filling material is simultaneously discharged by a pump from the central nozzle arranged in the concentric circle. Discharges the rope-shaped chewing gum with a center. Then, this rope-shaped chewing gum was stretch-molded with a rope sizer to have a predetermined outer diameter dimension, and then punched into granules with a stamping molding machine to manufacture a center-containing gum. As described above, by forcibly filling the hollow filling rope with the center filling material by the pump, the center filling amount is surely filled and stabilized. However, the filling amount of this center filling material has changed due to various factors described below. one,
The filling amount of the center material fluctuates due to changes in the temperature of the gum that forms the shell of the product and changes in the physical properties. That is, the extruder controls the gum that is extruded by supplying hot water to the jacket at a constant temperature, but it was not always discharged from the extruder at a constant temperature depending on the temperature of the supplied gum block. The change in gum temperature in the extruder appears as a change in the viscosity of the gum, and when the viscosity changes, the filling amount of the center material filled under pressure in the hollow gum rope changes. For example, when the temperature becomes lower than the target value and the gum becomes harder in viscosity, the gum is less likely to swell, and as a result, the filling amount of the center material is narrowed. On the contrary, when the temperature becomes higher, the gum becomes softer and easily swells, so that many center materials can be filled under pressure. Therefore, even if the temperature control inside the extruder is accurately controlled, the temperature of the supplied gum block varies, and the discharge temperature changes due to the poor thermal conductivity, causing the above-mentioned problem. Further, the viscosity of the gum changes due to changes in the physical properties of the gum to be supplied, which causes the same problem as the temperature change. This is because the gum is manufactured by a batch process using a kneader, and therefore physical properties change depending on the lot even if the gum is manufactured under the same conditions. Secondly, the filling amount changes depending on the type of the center material to be filled and the temperature change. For example, in the case of making a candy containing gummies, the viscosity of the gummie that is the center material varies with temperature changes, so even if this is pumped at a constant pressure, the filling amount will vary due to the viscosity change. In addition, even when the powder is filled as the center material, blocking occurs due to the influence of changes in the ambient humidity, which causes variations in the filling amount. Therefore, it has been difficult to always fill a constant amount of the center material due to the various factors described above. This problem was also a common problem for various filling techniques. For this reason, conventionally, pumps are sometimes taken out during manufacturing, inspected for a predetermined center amount, and if it is different from the standard value, a pump that manually controls the center material supply amount accordingly. I was adjusting the rotation speed of.

[0003]

However, with such a method, it was not possible to obtain a product having a large variation in the center amount and a uniform quality. When the center amount fluctuates, the quality varies and the taste when eaten differs. For example, when trying to develop a product with a texture concept based on the center material, the concept cannot be fulfilled. Further, since the center material is generally more expensive than the shell, it is not preferable that the filling amount varies. Furthermore, there is variation in the one with a large filling amount,
Not only was it unusable as a product because the contents appeared when molding with a stamping molding machine and the appearance was not good. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems of the prior art. Even if the physical properties of the product material, temperature changes, environmental temperature, etc. are changed, the center filling amount is always constant to keep the center filling amount constant. An object of the present invention is to provide a continuous production apparatus for confectionery containing various centers.

[0004]

The above-mentioned object is to make the nozzle of the extruder a double pipe nozzle arranged concentrically, and to supply the shell material discharged from the extruder to the annular nozzle portion,
In a continuous production apparatus for simultaneously supplying a center filling material from a central nozzle portion arranged in the concentric circles by a pump to discharge a rope-shaped confectionery, stretching and molding the confectionery, and then manufacturing a granular center-confectionery with a molding machine. In addition, the pump is equipped with a discharge amount control device, and a moisture detector for detecting the moisture content of the rope-shaped confectionery containing the center discharged from the nozzle of the extruder is provided, and the detection value of this moisture detector and the standard of the product. This is achieved by a continuous production apparatus for confectionery with a center having a uniform center filling amount, which is characterized in that the discharge amount of the pump is controlled according to the difference from the water content so that the center filling amount is constantly controlled.

[0005]

That is, the continuous production apparatus of the present invention constantly detects the moisture content of the rope-shaped confectionery containing the center discharged from the double tube nozzle arranged in the concentric circle at the tip of the extruder online to obtain the target moisture content. If there is a difference between the two, the rotational speed of the pump is controlled in a direction to correct this and the discharge amount of the center amount is adjusted. Therefore, even if the hollow portion capacity of the shell changes due to changes in the physical properties of the extruded material, temperature changes, etc., and even if the supply amount of the center material changes based on this, the pressurization or depressurization supply amount of the center amount is changed accordingly. It is possible to adjust and always produce an appropriate moisture content, that is, a confectionery with a center filled with a fixed amount of the center. As described above, the moisture content of the whole rope-shaped confectionery containing the center is measured.
The amount of the center can be supplied in a fixed amount by controlling the shell material that coats the center material generally has a low moisture content and a constant content because the shell material functions to coat the contents. Therefore, since the measured value of the moisture content meter indicates the value of the center material having a high moisture content, the center amount can be adjusted based on the value of this moisture content by adding the correction value.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a continuous production line for centered gum. In the figure, 1 is an extruder for extruding a shell-forming gum, 2 is a hopper for supplying a gum block to the extruder 1, and 3 is a screw for extruding the gum. Also, 6
Indicates a motor for driving the screw 3. Further, the tip end discharge side of the extruder 1 is a double tube nozzle 2 arranged concentrically.
0 is arranged, and the annular nozzle 22 is communicated with the discharge port 5 of the extruder, and the gum is uniformly kneaded and discharged in a tubular shape. On the other hand, the central nozzle 21 of the double pipe nozzle 20.
Is to discharge the center filling material into the hollow portion of the gum, receives the supply of the center filling material from the center raw material hopper 9, and discharges it by the center pump 8 in a fixed amount, and a pipe connected to the discharge side. Supplied through 7. Further, the center pump has a configuration in which the number of rotations thereof can be controlled by an inverter, and the amount of discharge of the center filling material can be adjusted by controlling the number of rotations. 10 is a rope sizer, the above 2
The rope-shaped gum containing a center discharged from the heavy tube nozzle 20 is stretch-molded to the outer diameter of the product. Reference numeral 11 is a moisture meter that continuously measures the moisture content of the rope-shaped gum stretched to this product size in a non-contact state. In the embodiment, it is composed of a microwave transmitter 11a and a microwave transmitter 11b. It The principle of operation of this moisture meter is that microwaves are absorbed by water molecules and, as a result, the amplitude and phase of the waves are changed. 12 is a stamping molding machine for stamping rope-like gum into particles. Then, the gum punched in the form of granules is individually packaged in the packaging machine 14 to produce a gum product with a center. In the above structure, the following method is used to uniformly fill the center material. First, the center ratio of gum during manufacturing is calculated by the following calculation method using a computer. The weight of the gum 30a passing in front of the moisture meter 11 per unit time is M
Assuming (g), this gum discharge amount is the number of revolutions R of the extruder.
Since it has a proportional relationship with (r.p.m.), if the proportionality coefficient A is obtained in advance by a test for each product type, the gum weight can be obtained by the following formula. M = A · R In addition, the water content Ma contained in the weight M (g) of the gum per unit time and the water content mb of the center material are preliminarily calculated online to determine the water content a (%) and b (%), respectively. I ask for it. Note that m (g) is the discharge amount of the center material per unit time. Therefore, the measurement value W of the moisture meter is obtained by W = Ma + mb. Therefore, the center amount ratio m / M can be obtained by the following formula.

[Equation 1] The obtained center amount ratio is compared with the target value, the rotation speed of the center pump is changed, and the center amount is constantly filled with a constant ratio even when there is a disturbance. A schematic diagram of this relationship is shown in FIG. That is, the center amount ratio of the gum during manufacturing is calculated by a program installed in the computer 15 and compared with a preset target value of the gum, so that the center amount ratio approaches the target value. The frequency value is output to the pump for control to control the rotation speed of the center pump 8. Since the computer 15 performs the above arithmetic control, the rotation speed detector 6a for detecting the rotation speed of the extruder and the moisture meter 1 are provided on the input side of the computer 15.
The output signal 19 of 1 is connected. Also, the computer 15
The calculation result of is the frequency converter 1 of the center pump power supply.
6 and controls the rotation speed of the center pump 8. As described above, the present invention measures the moisture content of the product being manufactured online, calculates the moisture content of the product based on this value, compares it with the target value, and according to the deviation of the center pump, The center ratio is always kept constant by controlling the rotation speed. By making the filling ratio of the center filling material constant as described above, the texture can be made constant. When the water content of the center filling material is higher than the water content of the shell, that is, the gum, the constant control of the center ratio can be equivalently controlled as the filling amount of the center amount. Generally, most of the center materials are liquid, and therefore, these can be made to function as the filling control of the center amount.
In addition, although the example of gum has been described in the present embodiment, the invention is not limited to this and can be applied to candy, chocolate and the like. Further, in the embodiment, the detection of the moisture content of the product is described as being provided after the rope sizer, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to detect the granulated product by the stamping molding machine. .

[0007]

As described above in detail, the continuous production device for a confectionery product containing a center according to the present invention has a moisture content of the rope-shaped confectionery product containing a center discharged from a double tube nozzle of an extruder.
It is detected online and the discharge amount of the center filling amount is feedback-controlled based on this value, so even if the filling amount of the center amount changes due to changes in the physical properties of the discharge material and temperature, it will follow this. It is possible to manufacture a confection with a center in which the center filling material has a constant ratio or a constant amount.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a production line diagram of a confectionery product with a center according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram for controlling the water content ratio of FIG.

FIG. 3 shows a layout of the moisture meter of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Extruder 8 Pump for center 10 Rope sizer 11 Moisture meter 12 Stamping molding machine 14 Packaging machine 15 Computer 20 Double tube nozzle

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A nozzle of an extruder is a double tube nozzle arranged concentrically, a shell material discharged from the extruder is supplied to an annular nozzle portion thereof, and a center filling material is supplied from a central nozzle portion arranged in the concentric circle. In the continuous manufacturing apparatus for simultaneously supplying a pump to discharge the rope-shaped confectionery, and then stretch-molding this to manufacture a granular centered confectionery, the pump is provided with a discharge amount control device, A moisture detector that detects the moisture content of the rope-shaped confectionery containing the center discharged from the nozzle of the extruder is provided, and the discharge of the pump according to the difference between the detection value of this moisture detector and the reference moisture content of the product. The continuous production apparatus for confectionery with a center having a uniform center filling amount, which is characterized by controlling the amount of the center filling to be constant at all times.