Apparatus for producing fine-textured soybean curd as placed in containers

An apparatus for producing fine-textured soybean curd as placed in containers, the apparatus comprising:

• a lower chamber having an aseptic atmosphere therein,
• an upper chamber communicating with the lower chamber and having a hot atmosphere held therein for coagulating a mixture of soybean milk and a coagulant,
• a conveyor provided both in the lower chamber and in the upper chamber and having endless chains and a multiplicity of coagulating buckets attached to the chains, each of the coagulating buckets having an opening directed upward by gravity, the coagulating buckets being movable along an upper path extending generally horizontally inside the lower chamber, a lower path extending in an approximately opposite direction to the upper path, an inverting path interconnecting the terminal end of the upper path and the starting end of the lower path, and a zigzag path deflected upward from an intermediate portion of the upper path, extending upward while zigzagging horizontally inside the upper chamber, and thereafter directed downward to join the upper path,
• means for filling the mixture of soybean milk and coagulant into the buckets at the starting end of the upper path,
• covering means for placing an inverted container over each of the buckets at the terminal end of the upper path to cover the opening of the bucket,
• a guide disposed along the inverting path for inverting the bucket and the container as placed thereover without allowing the bucket to turn by itself along with the container, and
• means for withdrawing soybean curd as accommodated in the container from the bucket by moving down the inverted container at the starting end of the lower path.