Method and apparatus for continuously chopping, pulverizing and mixing frozen raw material such as animal meat, fish meat and beans

A method for continuously chopping, pulverizing and mixing beans, comprising the steps of:

• coarsely grinding soybeans soaked in water and forming a square-shaped block frozen at a temperature of 5 to -30.degree. C.;
• chopping the block continuously into particles having a first particle size;
• and
• pulverizing the chopped material into particles having a second particle size substantially smaller than said first particle size.

An apparatus for continuously chopping, pulverizing and mixing animal meat, frozen fish meat and beans comprising:

• a chopping unit constructed of;
• a chopping cylinder (5) provided with at least one feed opening (2) for feeding the blocks of frozen raw material and at least one delivery opening (3) for discharging the chopped raw material,
• a chopping rotary drum (21) rotatably mounted in the chopping cylinder (5) and having both a spiral ridge portion (19) provided on its outer peripheral surface and forming a feed screw and plural pairs of chopping knives (13) each with a cutting edge oriented in a rotational direction of the chopping rotary drum, each pair of knives being arranged in a row parallel to the axis, and on the outer peripheral surface, of the chopping rotary drum, wherein each pair different in symmetry from each other are radially oppositely disposed on the outer peripheral surface of the chopping rotary drum, the pairs of the knives being equally spaced apart from each other in both circumferential and longitudinal directions of the chopping rotary drum,
• a feeding device (7, 8) provided in the feed opening (2) for feeding the block of frozen raw material therethrough, said feeding device being provided with means for reciprocally moving the raw material in an axial direction of the chopping rotary drum (21),
• an auxiliary member (16) provided in an inner wall of the chopping cylinder (5) for preventing the chopped frozen raw material from passing through a clearance between the inner wall of the chopping cylinder (5) and an outer peripheral surface of the spiral ridge portion (19), and
• a delivery ridge portion (20) formed in an outer peripheral surface of the chopping rotary drum (21) at a position corresponding to that of the delivery opening (3);
• and
• a pulverizing unit constructed of;
• a pulverizing cylinder (25) provided with an inlet opening (23) for receiving the frozen raw material chopped by the chopping unit and an outlet opening (24) for discharging pulverized frozen raw material, and;
• a pulverizing rotary drum (28) rotatably mounted in the pulverising cylinder (25),
• said rotary drum having a plurality of pulverizing knives (26) arranged on rows which extend in an axial direction, a plurality of scraper blades (61) each provided with a scraping edge and an oblique feeding surface (62) and arranged in spirally shifted positions corresponding to said inlet opening (23) so as to define a spiral path on the peripheral surface of the rotary drum, and feeding ridge portions (64) formed in positions corresponding to that of said outlet opening (24),
• each of said pulverizing knives (26) being formed with a sectionally triangular shaped edge portion having a cutting edge (26') on a hypotenuse thereof, said pulverizing knives of each row being fixedly arranged parallel to each other and slightly deviated from the rotational direction of the rotary drum, with the cutting edges directed upward and forwardly sloped in a rotational direction of the pulverizing rotary drum, such that, between a pair of rows wherein the pulverizing knives are each different in a direction of deviation but corresponding in position and another pair of similar rows, two rows of pulverizing knives are interposed, respectively so that an axial position of each knife of one pair of rows corresponds to that of another pair of rows and each direction of said deviation is oriented at its leading edge portion toward the raw material inlet opening (23) and at its trailing edge portion toward the outlet opening (24),
• said scraper blades (61) being arranged such that each oblique feeding surface (62) constitutes a spiral element for feeding upward, and
• said outlet opening (24) for the pulverized being arranged on a position corresponding to the delivery opening (3) of the chopping rotary drum (21).