Refrigeration – Intermediate fluid container transferring heat to heat... – Flow line connected transfer fluid supply and heat exchanger
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-02
2001-12-25
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Intermediate fluid container transferring heat to heat...
Flow line connected transfer fluid supply and heat exchanger
C062S270000, C062S433000, C062S432000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332335
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cooling system for cooling materials such as foods, and, in particular, to a cooling system comprising a plurality of different types of coolers.
BACKGROUND ART
Sanitary management methods adopting the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) system are beginning to be employed to ensure food safety in various kinds of food industry in recent years. Management items in the HACCP include packaging materials management, ingredient management, cooking and chilling, storage and environment management. In the cooking and chilling aspect of the management system, it has become essential to adopt the so-called Cook-Chill system. The introduction of the Cook-Chill system into meals at schools, companies, hospitals, prisons and the like, and into hotels, restaurants and the like has been deliberated upon and accepted.
In the Cook-Chill system, which is a system for cooking and low temperature storage, food that has been cooked is quickly cooled and then stored over a specific length of time in a chilled (0° C.-3° C.) state until it is reheated immediately before it is served. More specifically, after the food is cooked by applying a heat to raise the temperature at the core of the food to 70° C. or higher for at least two minutes, the cooling process is started within 30 minutes to lower the temperature at the core of the food to 3° C. or lower within 60-90 minutes. This eliminates the risk of the food staying within the temperature range (16° C.-52° C.) over which bacteria in the food are most likely to propagate by passing through this temperature range quickly to reach the safe temperature range. The food that has been rapidly chilled in this manner is then stored in a chilled state within the range of 0° C.-3° C. The food that is taken out of chilled storage is immediately heated to hold a temperature of 70° C. or higher at the core of the food for two minutes or longer.
Now, in the Cook-Chill system described above, different types of cooling rooms for rapidly cooling foods must be provided dependent on the ingredients and the forms of the foods. For instance, foods with a high water content such as cooked noodles including chow mein and udon noodles and side-dishes are rapidly cooled through vacuum cooling at low temperature. In other words, by placing the food to be cooled in a vacuum state, cooling is achieved through the discharge of latent heat by vaporizing the water in the food.
In addition, dishes such as beefsteak and hamburger patties that are put on trays in a chilled state are cooled by employing a blast chiller (forced draft cooler). The blast chiller generates low-temperature air and performs cooling by directly blowing the low-temperature air at high speed with a fan onto the food. Under normal circumstances, a cooling coil is mounted on the ceiling or the like and the low-temperature air is circulated by the fan to blow against the food. Furthermore, cooling achieved through the use of a blast chiller, in which freon or the like that is at a lower temperature than brine is supplied to the cooling coil, is effective when cooling foods that need to be cooled rapidly.
Moreover, liquid foods such as soup that are placed in containers and foods that are packaged in plastic bags or through vacuum packing are cooled in a tumble chiller (chilled water cooling tank) that uses chilled water. In the tumble chiller cooling method, the ice heat storage system is normally adopted. Namely, chilled water is stored in an ice heat storage tank and the chilled water is made to circulate within the cooling tank where a packaged food or the like is stored to be cooled.
However, at facilities such as schools described earlier where the Cook-Chill system is employed, a great number of meals must be prepared each day. Installing a large vacuum cooler, a large blast chiller and a large tumble chiller to meet such broad demand, with a brine cooling means provided at each of them, causes the problem that the entire facility becomes overly large and then a large area is required for the installation of such facilities. In addition, since a heat source device must be provided for each cooler, the production cost and the power consumption will increase.
An object of the present invention, which is proposed to address the problems of the prior art discussed above, is to provide a cooling system that requires a smaller area for installation and achieves reductions in production costs and in power consumption.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a cooling system comprising: means for brine cooling provided with refrigerant circulation means constituting a refrigerating cycle for a refrigerant, that cools brine at said means for refrigerant circulation; a direct cooler that performs cooling by utilizing said refrigerant; means for refrigerant circulation that causes said refrigerant circulating through said refrigerant circulation means to circulate through said direct cooler; a vacuum cooler that achieves a vacuum state for an internal portion thereof to cool said internal portion; means for pressure reduction that reduces the pressure inside said vacuum cooler; means for condensation that takes in water contained in the air inside said vacuum cooler and condenses said water by cooling said water; a first means for brine circulation that causes said brine that has been cooled by said means for brine cooling to circulate through said means for condensation; a chilled water cooler that performs cooling by utilizing chilled water; an ice heat storage tank that stores chilled water that has been cooled by said brine; means for chilled water circulation that causes said chilled water stored at said ice heat storage tank to circulate through said chilled water cooler; a second means for brine circulation that causes said brine that has been cooled at said means for brine cooling to circulate through said ice heat storage tank; and means for switching that switches between said first means for brine circulation and said second means for brine circulation to cause said brine to circulate either through said means for condensation or through a ice heat storage tank
According to the present invention, the following advantages are achieved. During a specific period of time such as at nighttime, the means for switching selects the second means for brine circulation as the operating means for circulating brine. Then, the brine that has been cooled by the means for brine cooling is supplied to the ice heat storage tank where the water inside the ice heat storage tank is stored as chilled water.
When the actual cooling operation is performed, such as during the daytime, the means for switching selects the first means for brine circulation as the operating means for circulating brine. This causes the brine to be supplied to the means for condensation. Then, a vacuum state is achieved inside the vacuum cooler by the means for pressure reduction so that some of the water contained in the materials stored inside the vacuum cooler evaporates. This causes the internal temperature of the objects to fall. In addition, the water produced from the objects is taken into the means for condensation and the water thus taken in is cooled and condensed by the brine circulating in the means for condensation.
At the chilled water cooler, cooling is achieved by chilled water stored in the ice heat storage tank which is circulated by the means for chilled water circulation. In addition, the refrigerant circulating in the means for refrigerant circulation of the means for brine cooling circulates inside the direct cooler so that the direct cooler can perform a cooling operation.
As described above, the means for switching performs a switching operation so that the brine cooled by the means for brine cooling is made to circulate through the ice heat storage tank during the night and is made to circulate through the means for condensation during the daytime. In other words, the cooling of the chilled water cooler during the daytime is achieved by using the
Harukawa Tsuneo
Kajimoto Takeki
Doerrler William
K E Corporation Co., Ltd.
Price and Gess
Shulman Mark
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