Patent Publication Number: US-2011072984-A1

Title: Automatic bean curd maker

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to bean curd maker, and particular to an automatic bean curd maker capable of automatically producing standardized bean products such as bean milk, soy bean curd, and dried bean curd by automatic control of computer. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
     Bean curds in conventional market, supermarket, or hypermarket are all fixed and mass-produced. The technique of conventional bean curd is going to disappear by its complicated and long processes. The adding of gypsum and water of the process controlled by an operator is such a waste time and man power so that people are not willing to step into especially in the modern industrial generation. The disadvantages of the prior art is that the inventor want to solve. 
     SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the primary object of the present invention is to provide an automatic bean curd maker capable of automatically producing standardized bean products such as bean milk, soy bean curd, and dried bean curd by automatic control of computer. 
     A secondary object of the present invention is to provide better quality and efficiency for bean curd manufacturing. 
     To achieve above object, the present invention provides an automatic bean curd maker having computer control device, grinding device, stirring device, and molding device comprising: the computer control device having recipes for producing bean products with proportions of soy bean, coagulator, and water; the grinding device including a bean supplier, grinder, steamer, and centrifugal filter; the stirring device including a positioning sensor, cylinder, pneumatic valve, quantified bean milk pump, quantified coagulator pump, stirring tank, retaining plate, stirring, rotary platform, and pipeline; the molding device including a pushing rod, coagulating plate, molding plate, raising cylinder, and pressing plate; by the above components, the automatic bean curd maker being capable of automatically producing standardized products such as bean milk, soy bean curd, and dried bean curd by automatic control of computer. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic view showing an assembly of an automatic bean curd maker of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic view showing a computer control device of the automatic bean curd maker of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic view showing an assembly of a grinding device of the automatic bean curd maker of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3-1  is an assembly view of a steamer of the automatic bean curd maker of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a schematic view showing an assembly of a stirring device of the automatic bean curd maker of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic view showing an assembly of a molding device of the automatic bean curd maker of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is an assembly view of a stirring tank of the automatic bean curd maker of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a schematic view showing a molding operation of the automatic bean curd maker of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     In order that those skilled in the art can further understand the present invention, a description will be provided in the following in details. However, these descriptions and the appended drawings are only used to cause those skilled in the art to understand the objects, features, and characteristics of the present invention, but not to be used to confine the scope and spirit of the present invention defined in the appended claims. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , an assembly drawing of an automatic bean curd maker according to the present invention is shown. The automatic bean curd maker  100  is assembled by a computer control device  1 , grinding device  2 , stirring device  3 , and molding device  4 . The stirring device  3  is arranged to a side of the grinding device  2 . The molding device  4  is arranged in front of the grinding device  2 . The computer control device  1  is arranged to a side of the molding device  4 . The operation of the automatic bean curd maker composed by above components is described in the following. The soy beans of certain proportion set by the computer control device  1  are grinded by the grinding device  2  as bean pulp. The steamed bean pulp is stirred in the stirring device  3  with coagulator as a semi-finished bean curd. The semi-finished bean curd is coagulated by removing moisture and gas in the molding device  4  as a finished bean curd. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , a schematic view showing the computer control device  1  of the automatic bean curd maker is illustrated. A control panel  11  is arranged to the computer control device  1  so that user can manipulate and confirm the operations. 
     Referring to FIGS.  3  and  3 - 1 , schematic views showing the assemblies of the grinding device and a steamer are illustrated. The grinding device  2  is assembled by a bean supplier  21 , grinder  22 , and steamer  23 . The soy beans are added to the bean supplier  21 . Proportioned soy beans will be supplied to the grinder  22  by the computer control device  1 . The soy beans will be meshed by the grinder  22  as soy pulp. Dregs of the bean pulp will be filtered by a centrifugal filter arranged to the grinder  22 . The filtered bean pulp will be steamed by the steamer  23  with additional water. The steamer  23  includes a cover body  29 , a sealing rubber  24  is arranged between the cover body  29  and the steamer  23 . A top surface of the cover body is concave as a cone sink  25 , the sink  25  has a backflow hole  26  and a open hole  27 . The open hole has a plate  28 , and there is a drop height between the open hole  27  and the plate  28  so as to prevent splash of the bean pulp. The backflow hole  26  locates in the lowest bottom of the sink  25 , and a pipe  261  is extended from the backflow hole  26  towards the steamer  23 . The bubbles overflowed from the open hole  27  will be liquefied and flow back to the steamer  23  from the backflow hole  26  so as to prevent bubbles and also to ensure a safety and save a cost. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 4 , schematic views showing an assembly and operation of the stirring device  3  are illustrated. The stirring device  3  is assembled by a positioning sensor  30 , cylinder  31 , pneumatic valve  32 , quantified bean pulp pump  331 , quantified coagulator pump  332 , stirring tank  34 , retaining plate  35 , stirring  36 , rotary platform  37 , bean pulp pipeline  381 , coagulator pipeline  382 , coagulator storage tank  333 , and pushing rod  39 . The steamed bean pulp is supplied to the stirring tank  34  by the bean pulp pipeline  381 . The stirring tank  34  is rotated by the rotary platform  37  and positioned by the positioning sensor  30 . The coagulator with a predetermined proportion is supplied to the stirring tank  34  from the coagulator storage tank  333  through the coagulator pipeline  382 . The retaining plate  35  and the stirring  36  are deployed by the cylinder  31  so as to stir. The quantified coagulator pump  332  and the coagulator pipeline  382  will remain cycling to prevent the coagulator from solidifying. The pneumatic valve  32  is capable of controlling the flow of the coagulator. The bean pulp will be uniformly stirred by the irregular flow caused by the blocking of the retaining plate  35  while the stirring  36  is working. When the stirring  36  is stopped, the flowing bean pulp will stay steady by the blocking of the retaining plate  35 . At least one stirring tank  34  is arranged to the maker. Each stirring tank  34  is stirred for one and half minutes by the control of the computer control device  1  and the stirring process will be completed within about 9 minutes. Each stirring tank  34  is stirred with a predetermined interval by the rotary platform  37  so as to prevent the bean milk from solidifying. The stirred bean milk will be supplied to a coagulating plate  41  through the pushing rod  39 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 5 , an assembly view showing the molding device of the present invention is illustrated. The molding device  4  includes the coagulating plate  41 , molding plate  42 , raising cylinder  43 , pressing plate  44  and waiting area  45 . The various stirred bean products will be poured downwards by the raising cylinder  43  pushing the pushing rod  39  and then will coagulate in the coagulating plate  41  and will be molded in the molding plate  42 . After being pressed by the pressing plate  44  to remove the moisture and gas, the pressed material will be stored in the waiting area for further formation so that the whole process is completed. 
     The assembly of the stirring tank of the present invention is illustrated in  FIG. 6 . The stirring tank  34  is a tank  343  having a gasket  342  fixed by a gasket retaining seat  341 , and a bottom side thereof includes the pushing rod  39  and a pushing rod retaining seat  391 . 
     The molding operation of the present invention is illustrated in  FIG. 7 . The bean pulp in the stirring tank  34  will flow into the coagulating plate  41  through the pushing rod  39  by the raising cylinder  43  pressing the pushing rod  39 . 
     Advantages of the present invention are list in the following: 
     1. The proportions of the various bean products are controlled by the computer control device so that the products are automatically produced and standardized. 
     2. Process time and man power are saved by the automatic control of the computer control device. 
     3. The automatic beam curd maker is controlled by computer so that people are willing to learn and the technique of beam curd is lasted. 
     4. The automatic beam curd maker is controlled by computer so that the tool can be continuously operated and there is no problem of underproduction. 
     The present invention is thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the present invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.