KANG, Soon Dong (112-303 Jukong Apt, 208-210-212 Sanbon-dong Gunpo-si, Kyeonggi-do 435-040, KR)
Claims
[1] An apparatus for preparing a lecithin wax composition, comprising: a hopper that supplies a raw material of lecithin wax composition through a transfer pipe while stirring the raw material using a stirrer provided therein; a heating unit that heat the hopper and the transfer pipe; a control unit that controls the heating unit to adjust a temperature of the lecithin wax composition; a nozzle that is mounted at an end of the transfer pipe to spray the lecithin wax composition in particulate form having a predetermined size; a pump that is placed on the transfer pipe and applies pressure to the transfer pipe to forcibly spray a liquid- or gel-phase lecithin wax composition through the nozzle; a cooling chamber that is provided therein with the nozzle and stores a particulate lecithin wax composition sprayed by the nozzle; a cooling air supply unit that supplies low-temperature air into the cooling chamber to cool the sprayed particulate lecithin wax composition; and an air levitation unit that is placed in the cooling chamber to levitate the particulate lecithin composition sprayed from the nozzle.
[2] The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the cooling chamber further comprises multi-staged mesh nets therein, which are arranged such that an upper mesh net has a larger mesh size.
[3] The apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a vibration unit connected to the mesh nets. |
Description
APPARATUS FOR PREPARING PARTICULATE LECITHIN
WAX COMPOSITION
Technical Field
[1] The present invention relates to an apparatus for preparing a particulate lecithin wax composition which can improve the efficiency of distribution and cosmetic manufacturing processes before a solid lecithin wax composition for forming a liposome is mixed with cosmetic raw materials, and, more particularly, to an apparatus for preparing a particulate lecithin wax composition which can obtain a particulate lecithin wax composition having a constant shape by keeping a particulate lecithin wax composition, sprayed by a nozzle to have a predetermined particle shape, in a cooling chamber for a long time and then cooling the particulate lecithin wax composition using low-temperature air. Background Art
[2] Lecithin, which is one kind of phospholipid, is a major constituent of cell membranes, and is included in egg yolks, soybean oil, seeds, yeasts, fungi, livers, cerebra, spinal cords, and the like in large quantities.
[3] Lecithin is etymologically derived from "lecithos" in Greek, dissolves in alcohols and ethers, and is emulsified in water. Further, lecithin is hydrolyzed into choline, phosphoric acid, glycerol, and fatty acids.
[4] Such fatty acids include stearic acid, palmitic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and the like. Among the three hydroxy groups of glycerol, two hydroxy groups thereof are esterified to fatty acids, and one hydroxy group is esterified to phosphoric acid. Choline is also esterified to phosphoric acid.
[5] Lecithin is decomposed by a hydrolytic enzyme, referred to as "lecithinase
(phospholipase)". This enzyme, included in snake venoms and bacteria toxins, functions to hemolyze erythrocytes and to destroy cells. For this reason, lecithin is one of the major constituents of the cell membrane.
[6] Natural lecithin is a mixture of various phospholipids, such as phosphatidyl choline
(PC), phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE), phosphatidyl inositol (PI), and the like. This mixture is generally referred to as lecithin, but, chemically, the term "lecithin" refers to phosphatidyl choline (PC).
[7] Lecithin is widely distributed as a constituent of biological membranes in the animal and plant kingdoms, and serves to maintain biological bodies. Lecithin is prepared by extracting and separating it from animal and plant oils using an organic solvent. Currently, soybean lecithin and yolk lecithin are industrially produced in large
quantities, but the production of soybean lecithin is far greater than that of yolk lecith in.
[8] The difference between soybean lecithin and yolk lecithin chiefly depends on the phospholipid composition and fatty acid composition thereof. The soybean lecithin includes PC, PE and PI in almost equal quantities. In contrast, the yolk lecithin includes 70% of PC and a small amount of sphingomyelin, and includes little PI. Further, the soybean lecithin includes a relatively small amount of saturated fatty acids, and includes linoleic acid as a main constituent.
[9] Yolk lecithin includes oleic acid and palmitic acid as main constituents in almost equal quantities. Particularly, the yolk lecithin used for foods etc. includes a large amount of paste, containing 40-50% of neutral oils and fats, and has bad colors and smells. Recently, with the advancement of refining technologies and fractionation technologies, highly-refined powdered lecithin containing a large amount of phospholipids and high-purity lecithin, in which the amount of PC is increased using the fractionation technologies, have been developed.
[10] The lecithin included in soybeans is a material which is usefully used in various fields because of its natural emulsifying property, antioxidative action, release action, dispersion action, ability to decrease the viscosity of chocolate and the like, water- retaining action, foaming-antifoaming action, and adhesivity thereof to starch and protein, and has been most widely used in the field of foods up to now.
[11] The lecithin having the above properties is used as a raw material for food emulsifying agents (food additives), mayonnaise, butter, chocolate, medical supplies, cosmetics, and health food.
[12] Conventional lecithin, used as a cosmetic raw material, constitutes a composition together with fatty acids, fatty acid esters and the like. This lecithin wax composition, as shown in FIG. 1, is used after the following process, which includes the steps of placing a solid lecithin wax composition in a pulverizer including a rotary blade 100 provided in the lower portion thereof and a fixing unit 200 provided in the upper portion thereof; pulverizing the solid lecithin wax composition by rotating the rotary blade 100; and distributing the pulverized lecithin wax composition or mixing it with a cosmetic raw material.
[13] In this case, there are problems in that the lecithin wax composition pulverized by the pulverizer endangers workers' health because it generates a large amount of dust, work areas are contaminated by the generated dust, additional work for sorting lecithin wax compositions at the time of mixing the composition with a cosmetic raw material is required because a lecithin wax composition having a constant particle size cannot be obtained through the pulverization of the composition, and a large amount of material is wasted.
Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem
[14] Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for preparing a particulate lecithin wax composition which can prevent the contamination of a work area by suppressing the generation of dust, prevent the waste of a lecithin wax composition by making it easy to form a particulate lecithin wax composition having a constant particle size, and improve the efficiency of distribution and cosmetic manufacturing processes before the particulate lecithin wax composition is mixed with cosmetic raw materials.
Technical Solution
[15] In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides an apparatus for preparing a lecithin wax composition, including a hopper that supplies a raw material of lecithin wax composition through a transfer pipe while stirring the raw material using a stirrer provided therein; a heating unit that heat the hopper and the transfer pipe; a control unit that controls the heating unit to adjust a temperature of the lecithin wax composition; a nozzle that is mounted at an end of the transfer pipe to spray the lecithin wax composition in particulate form having a predetermined size; a pump that is placed on the transfer pipe and applies pressure to the transfer pipe to forcibly spray a liquid- or gel-phase lecithin wax composition through the nozzle; a cooling chamber that is provided therein with the nozzle and stores a particulate lecithin wax composition sprayed by the nozzle; a cooling air supply unit that supplies low-temperature air into the cooling chamber to cool the sprayed particulate lecithin wax composition; and an air levitation unit that is placed in the cooling chamber to levitate the particulate lecithin composition sprayed from the nozzle. Advantageous Effects
[16] The apparatus for preparing a particulate lecithin wax composition according to the present invention is advantageous in that it can prevent the contamination of a work area by suppressing the generation of dust, prevent the waste of a lecithin wax composition by making it easy to form a particulate lecithin wax composition having a constant particle size, and improve the efficiency of distribution and cosmetic manufacturing processes before the particulate lecithin wax composition is mixed with cosmetic raw materials. Brief Description of the Drawings
[17] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
[18] FlG. 1 is a schematic view showing a conventional apparatus for preparing a lecithin wax composition;
[19] FlG. 2 is a schematic view showing an apparatus for preparing a lecithin wax composition according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
[20] FlG. 3 is a schematic view showing an apparatus for preparing a lecithin wax composition according to another embodiment of the present invention. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention
[21] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings.
[22] FlG. 2 is a schematic view showing an apparatus for preparing a lecithin wax composition according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FlG. 2, the apparatus for preparing a lecithin wax composition according to the present invention is provided with a hopper 10 for supplying raw material to a cooling chamber 80 through a transfer pipe 12 while stirring the raw material using a stirrer 11, and a heating unit 20 mounted on the hopper 10 to heat a solid lecithin wax composition, introduced into the hopper 10, to thus form the composition into a liquid- or gel-phase composition.
[23] Further, the apparatus is provided with a control unit 30 for controlling the heating temperature of the lecithin wax composition depending on the materials thereof, and the heating unit 20 heats the lecithin wax composition to a temperature ranging from 60 to 100°C.
[24] The transfer pipe 12 is provided, at the end thereof, with a nozzle 50. Here, it is preferred that the nozzle 50 be placed in the upper portion of a cooling chamber 80 for storing a particulate lecithin wax composition sprayed by the nozzle 50.
[25] Further, it is preferred that the particulate lecithin wax composition sprayed by the nozzle 50 have a size of 3 to 20 mm. The reason is that it can be easily handled because the size thereof is an intermediate size in which the size of particle is easily adjusted at the time at which the composition is mixed with cosmetics.
[26] Further, the transfer pipe 12 is provided, in a predetermined portion thereof, with a pump 70 for pressurizing a liquid- or gel-phase lecithin wax composition to forcibly spray it.
[27] Meanwhile, a cooling air supply unit 90 for cooling the sprayed particulate lecithin wax composition by supplying low temperature air into the cooling chamber 80 is connected to the cooling chamber 80. Here, it is preferred that the inner portion of the cooling chamber 80 be maintained at a temperature of 5 to 30°C.
[28] Further, the cooling chamber is provided therein with an air levitation unit 60 for maximizing the cooling effect of the particulate lecithin wax composition by levitating
the particulate lecithin wax composition sprayed by the nozzle 50, thus keeping it in the cooling chamber 80 for as long a time as possible.
[29] FlG. 3 is a schematic view showing an apparatus for preparing a lecithin wax composition according to another embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FlG. 3, the cooling chamber 80 is further provided therein with multi-staged mesh nets 40a for sequentially screening the particulate lecithin wax composition, thereby sorting the composition particles in order of large size from above, and is also further provided, in the wall thereof, with outlets. The mesh nets 40a may be connected to a vibration unit 40b to vibrate the mesh nets 40a.
[30] The operation of the apparatus for preparing the particulate lecithin wax composition configured as described above, according to the present invention, will now be described. First, after application of power to the apparatus, the control unit 30 sets the temperature of the composition depending on the materials of the composition introduced into the hopper 10, and then the heating unit 20 is activated.
[31] As the heating unit 20 is activated, a lecithin wax composition, which is to be gradually changed to a liquid phase or gel phase according to the temperature, is stirred by a stirrer 11, and is simultaneously transferred to a nozzle 50 through a transfer pipe 12. Here, the transfer pipe 12, like the hopper, is also provided with the heating unit 20 on the outer wall thereof. The lecithin wax composition is forcibly transferred to the nozzle 50 by a pump 70 which is mounted on the transfer pipe 12 to apply pressure to the transfer pipe 12 and thus to spray a liquid- or gel-phase lecithin wax composition.
[32] The liquefied lecithin wax composition, forcibly transferred to the nozzle 50 by the pump 70, is sprayed through the nozzle 50 into a cooling chamber 80 in the form of particles having a predetermined size. At this time, the lecithin wax composition sprayed through the nozzle 50 is cooled because it comes into contact with low- temperature air present in the cooling chamber 80.
[33] Meanwhile, since the cooling chamber 80 is always supplied with low-temperature air by a cooling air supply unit 90, the area inside the cooling chamber 80 is maintained at a low temperature of 5 to 30°C. An air levitation unit 60 installed in the cooling chamber 80 maximizes the cooling effect of the particulate lecithin wax comp osition by levitating the particulate lecithin wax composition sprayed through the nozzle 50 and thus making it stay in the low-temperature space of the cooling chamber 80 for as long a time as possible, thereby effectively preventing particles from adhering to each other.
[34] Meanwhile, as shown in FlG. 3, when the particulate lecithin wax composition, which is floated in the space of the cooling chamber 80 by the air levitation unit 60 and is cooled by low-temperature air, falls toward the bottom of the cooling chamber 80, a particulate lecithin wax composition having a desired particle size is obtained using the
multi-staged mesh nets 40a for sequentially screening the particulate lecithin wax composition in order of large size from above. Subsequently, the obtained particulate lecithin wax composition having the desired particle size is packed in a subsequent process, and remaining particulate lecithin wax composition is introduced into the hopper 10 again to be reused, thereby preventing the waste of the lecithin wax composition.
[35] Meanwhile, in order that the particulate lecithin wax composition screened by the mesh nets 40a can be easily automatically discharged through one side of the cooling chamber 80, the mesh nets 40a are disposed at a slant and the vibration unit 40b is connected to the mesh nets 40a. Industrial Applicability
[36] The present invention may be applied to lecithin wax compositions used in the fields of cosmetics, food, medicines, etc., wax compositions similar thereto, and compositions of plant oils, animal oils, and ester oils.
[37] Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention, described above, have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.