Foods and beverages: apparatus – Cooking – With other treating or handling of material
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-26
2001-04-24
Simone, Timothy F. (Department: 1761)
Foods and beverages: apparatus
Cooking
With other treating or handling of material
C099S355000, C099S452000, C099S455000, C099S483000, C099S517000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06220151
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a plant for producing chocolate articles, comprising at least one refrigeration section.
Apart from numerous other sections, conventional plants inter alia always also comprise one or several refrigeration sections. These refrigeration sections serve the purpose of cooling the chocolate or the chocolate filling. In the case of plants for producing chocolate, known from the state of the art, each refrigeration section has a refrigeration unit, comprising a refrigeration element, a fan and optionally a respective refrigerant processing plant. This traditional allocation of a refrigeration unit to a refrigeration section is problematic from various aspects. For example, the individual refrigeration units can often not ensure adequate dryness and coldness of the refrigerated air, because if they did the expenditure in relation to the refrigeration unit would be excessive. Cooling air containing too much moisture results in components within the cooling section corroding more quickly or results in unintended build-up of micro-organisms. A further problem in the case of the known refrigeration units, each with one refrigeration unit allocated, is that they necessitate expensive cold-air temperature control. As a rule, in the case of known refrigeration units, temperature control is by way of air temperature reading prior to air entering the heat exchanger. Such a temperature control provides only for average temperature setting accuracy. The known refrigeration units have a further problem in that the pressure differential generated in the cooling section, assisted by said refrigeration units, causes an influx of non-refrigerated secondary air through leakages in the refrigeration section. This too reduces the effectiveness of the refrigeration units.
Based on the problems outlined above, it is the object of the present invention to provide a plant for producing chocolate articles which ensures significantly improved cooling of the refrigeration section.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention the above-mentioned object is met in that the cold air inlet of a refrigeration section is connected to a cold air duct of a central refrigeration system. By providing a central refrigeration system instead of decentralized refrigeration units, it is possible to provide a central refrigeration system which is optimal from a production point of view and which overall does not entail any cost increase.
If the cold air duct of the central refrigeration system is connected in parallel to a multiple number of cooling sections, then it is thus ensured that each refrigeration section has an optimal supply of cold air.
In the hitherto known conventional plants for producing chocolate articles, there is no closed loop for the cooling air. According to a further embodiment of the invention, advantageous recycling of the outgoing air is achieved in that the outgoing air outlet of a refrigeration section is connected to the incoming air duct of the central refrigeration system. This results in a closed loop for the air used for cooling.
To ensure that for the production of chocolate articles the refrigeration sections of a plant configured according to the invention are always supplied with cold air of constant quality, it is advantageous if the central refrigeration system comprises an incoming-air conditioning unit.
In this, an air dehumidifier forming part of the central refrigeration system should be an essential part of such an incoming-air conditioning unit just described. With such an air dehumidifier, the moisture of the air can be significantly reduced, leading to improved cooling results, reduced transport losses when transporting cold air, and a reduction in the corrosion as well as in the hygiene problems within the refrigeration sections.
A further improvement of the cooling results can be achieved in that the central refrigeration system comprises a cold-air temperature regulator. Such a cold-air temperature regulator ensures that the cold air fed to the refrigeration sections is always of the desired temperature; as a rule an even temperature.
Increased pressure in the cold air system ensures a reduction of the influx of secondary air from the refrigeration sections. For this purpose the central refrigeration system comprises a condenser which increases the air pressure in the cold air duct. Slight overpressure is sufficient to reduce the influx of secondary air by way of leakages to such an extent that its effect is negligible.
Furthermore, the cooling requirements of the individual refrigeration sections can be individually adjusted in that the cold air inlet of a refrigeration section is connected to the cold air duct by way of an adjustable restrictor, with each restrictor being able to be adjusted in such a way that a desired quantity of cold air enters the respective refrigeration section.
There are a host of possibilities for configuring and improving the plant for producing chocolate articles, according to the invention. Such embodiments are explained both in the subordinate claims following claim
1
and in the description of an exemplary embodiment in conjunction with the drawings.
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Gebr. Bindler Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG
Proskauer Rose LLP
Simone Timothy F.
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