JPH0317185Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an ice making device capable of producing transparent ice.

[Technical background of the invention] For example, ice manufactured in the freezing chamber of a refrigerator is opaque and has an unsightly appearance because it contains countless fine air bubbles. The reason why such ice is produced is that, as is well known, water is approximately 4
℃ has the highest specific gravity, so when the ice-making container is cooled, the water that has cooled to about 4℃ sinks to the bottom of the ice-making container, causing the water at about 0℃ to rise near the water surface, which causes ice to start forming from the water surface. This is because there is no place for the air contained inside to escape.

Conventionally, the water in the ice making container was stirred and cooled using a stirring blade fixed to a rotating shaft, thereby making the temperature of the water inside as uniform as possible and preventing ice from forming first on the water surface. Ice making equipment is provided. According to this, the water inside the ice-making container tends to freeze from the part that is in contact with the inner surface of the container, and the surface part of the water freezes last, so air bubbles are not trapped inside and, therefore, highly transparent ice can be produced. It is something that can be manufactured.

[Problems with the Background Art] However, in this type of stirring method, in order to prevent the stirring blades from becoming trapped inside the ice as the water in the ice making container freezes, the stirring blades are gradually turned in line with the growth of the ice inside. had to be pulled out of the water. For this reason, in conventional ice making devices of this type, the mechanism for pulling up the stirring blades is quite complex, for example by gradually moving the motor for driving the stirring blades upward as the ice grows, and the overall size becomes large. There was a drawback.

[Purpose of the invention] The purpose of the invention is to provide an ice making device that can produce transparent ice by using a simple mechanism to raise stirring blades out of water in accordance with the growth of ice.

[Summary of the invention] The invention has a structure in which a stirring blade is attached to a driven shaft that can be moved up and down to the drive shaft and can transmit rotation, and ice is made while stirring the water in the ice making container with the stirring blade. By doing so, when making ice, the driven shaft is lowered and the stirring blade is rotated underwater,
The first feature is that the ice that grows sequentially in the ice making container pushes up the stirring blades together with the driven shaft so that they are retracted upwards to prevent them from being trapped inside the ice, and the driven shaft A structure in which the shaft is biased upward by a spring, and a descending force applying mechanism is provided between the drive shaft and the driven shaft, which is displaced by centrifugal force due to rotation and lowers the driven shaft against the biasing force of the spring. The second feature is that the driven shaft and stirring blade can be automatically lowered and raised when the drive shaft starts and stops rotating, respectively.

[Embodiment of the invention] Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the invention is applied to an ice making device disposed in the freezing chamber of a refrigerator will be described with reference to the drawings. Reference numeral 1 denotes a cooling plate provided in the form of a shelf in the freezing chamber, and a refrigerant pipe 2 for flowing refrigerant is attached to the lower surface of the cooling plate. Reference numeral 3 denotes an ice making container which is removably placed on the cooling plate 1, and 4 is a box-shaped heat insulating cover with an open bottom surface, which is placed over the ice making container 3. The inside of this heat insulating cover 4 is divided into a cooling chamber 4a that houses the ice making container 3 by a partition plate 5 provided in the center thereof, and a machine room 4b located above the cooling chamber 4a.
It is divided into. 6 is a motor, machine room 4b
The rotating shaft 6a is fixed to a bracket 8 fixed to the upper surface of the heat insulating cover 4 through a cushion material 7, with the rotating shaft 6a facing downward. 9 is the rotating shaft 6 of the motor 6
The drive shaft is a hollow drive shaft that is fixed to the drive shaft in a hanging manner, and has a pair of slits 10, 10 extending in the vertical direction formed therein. Reference numeral 11 denotes a driven shaft that is fitted into the drive shaft 9 so as to be movable up and down, and an engagement plate 12 extending in the horizontal direction is fixed to the upper end of the driven shaft. It is inserted into 10. Thereby, the driven shaft 11 is in a state where rotation can be transmitted from the drive shaft 9. Reference numeral 13 denotes a stirring blade provided at the lower end of the driven shaft 11, which has a plurality of blade pieces 13b protruding from the outer periphery of a disc-shaped base 13a whose lower surface is formed into a slightly inverted conical shape. A support protrusion 13c is formed at the center of the lower surface. Reference numeral 14 denotes a shaft support recess provided on the bottom surface of the ice making container 3, which can receive the support protrusion 13c of the stirring blade 13. 15 is a heater provided at the lower part of the machine room 4b. Reference numeral 16 denotes a compression spring that constantly urges the driven shaft 11 upward, and this is a compression spring that is inserted between the engagement plate 12 and the fixing member 17 fitted to the lower part of the drive shaft 9, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. It is set in. 18 is the first lever 19 and the second lever
The first and second levers 19 and 20 are rotatably supported by the engagement plate 12 and the fixing member 17, respectively. Reference numeral 21 denotes a weight provided at the lower end of the first lever 19, and the weight 21 and the link mechanism 18 constitute a descending force applying mechanism 22. Although not shown, a micro switch is provided that is turned off via a leaf spring or the like that contacts the engagement plate 12 when the driven shaft 11 rises to a predetermined height position, and the off operation of this micro switch turns off the motor 6. It is configured to cut off the power.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained. When making ice, first a predetermined amount of water is stored in the ice making container 3, the ice making container 3 is covered with a heat insulating cover 4, and the container is placed above the cooling chamber 1 in the freezing chamber as shown in FIG. In this state, the driven shaft 11 and stirring blade 13 are pushed up to the uppermost position by the elastic force of the compression spring 16, as shown in FIG. Then, the heater 15 and the motor 6 are energized to cause the heater 15 to generate heat and rotate the motor 6. The rotation of the motor 6 rotates the drive shaft 9, and the weight 2 of the descending force applying mechanism 22 is integrated with the drive shaft 9.
1 rotates. Then, a centrifugal force acts on the weight 21 in the direction of expanding its rotation radius, and this centrifugal force gradually compresses the link mechanism 18 downward, thereby increasing the rotation radius of the weight 21. It will be done. Due to the displacement of the link mechanism 18, the driven shaft 11 is lowered as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 against the elastic force of the compression spring 16.
The stirring blade 13 is submerged in water. Further, the rotation of the drive shaft 9 is also transmitted to the driven shaft 11 via the engagement plate 12 engaged with the slit 10 of the drive shaft 9, so that the stirring blade 13 rotates in the water. As a result, the water in the ice making container 3 is stirred, so the
Even if there is a situation in which water has the highest specific gravity and tends to sink to the bottom, the water near the bottom of the ice making container 3 is cooled to about 0° C. relatively quickly. Then, when the entire water in the ice making container 3 is cooled to approximately 0° C., freezing begins. In this case, the ice making container 3 is covered with the heat insulating cover 4 except for the bottom, and only the bottom is strongly cooled by the cooling plate 1, and the water surface inside the ice making container 3 is slightly warmed by the heat of the heater 15. In the ice making container 3, freezing starts exclusively from the bottom side. When this ice grows upward and comes into contact with the base 13a of the stirring blade 13 from below, the stirring blade 13 and the driven shaft 11
is a descending force applying mechanism 2 corresponding to the amount that the ice grows upward.
It will be pushed up against the centrifugal force of 2.
In this way, the stirring blade 13 continues to stir the water located above the ice while rising to escape from the ice that is growing upwards, thereby causing the air in the water to escape from the water surface and growing transparent ice. To go. From then on, such growth of ice and the upward movement of the stirring blade 13 based on this growth continue until the entire inside of the ice making container 3 freezes and the stirring blade 13 is removed to the top surface of the ice, causing the ice making container to freeze. Clear ice will be formed within 3 minutes. At this time, the driven shaft 11 reaches a predetermined height position, the engagement plate 12 contacts the leaf spring, etc., and the micro switch is turned off, thereby cutting off the power to the motor 6. Due to the power cut off of the motor 6, the rotation of the drive shaft 6 and thus the descending force applying mechanism 22 is stopped and the centrifugal force of the weight 21 is no longer applied, so the driven shaft 11 and the stirring blade 13 are It rises away from the top of the ice.

By the way, instead of the above-mentioned configuration in which the stirring blade 13 is automatically raised and lowered, a configuration is assumed in which, for example, a manual lever is provided for raising and lowering the driven shaft, and the stirring blade is raised and lowered by manual operation of this manual lever. In this case, the following practical problems arise. That is, when starting and completing ice making, it is necessary to operate a manual lever to raise and lower the stirring blades, which is really troublesome to operate.
Moreover, if the stirring blade is not raised when ice making is completed, the stirring blade may freeze on the ice surface, making it impossible to remove the ice.

In contrast, in this embodiment, a compression spring 16 biases the driven shaft 11 upward, and a descending force that is displaced by the centrifugal force accompanying the rotation and lowers the driven shaft 11 against the elastic force of the compression spring 16. Granting mechanism 2
2, it is possible to automatically raise and lower the driven shaft 11 and the stirring blade 13 at the start and completion of ice making by turning on and off the power to the motor 6, thereby eliminating the trouble at the start and completion of ice making. There is no need to operate a manual lever, making it easy to use.
Moreover, since the driven shaft 11 and the stirring blade 13 automatically rise to separate from the ice when ice making is completed, the stirring blade may freeze on the ice surface if the pulling operation of the stirring blade is neglected when the ice making is completed. This problem cannot occur, and the ice can be reliably taken out when the ice making is completed. In addition, such practical effects can be achieved with a simple configuration of simply providing the compression spring 16 and the descending force applying mechanism 22,
The configuration does not become complicated.

In the above embodiment, the descending force applying mechanism 11 is composed of the link mechanism 18 and the weight 21, but the present invention is not limited to this. 21 may be supported.

[Effects of the invention] As described above, in the present invention, since the driven shaft provided with the stirring blade is configured to be movable up and down with respect to the drive shaft,
The stirring blades are successively pushed up by the ice that grows inside the ice making container. This eliminates the need for a complicated lifting mechanism for pulling up the stirring blades sequentially in accordance with the growth of the ice, making it possible to make transparent ice reliably while reducing the overall size. In addition, the driven shaft and stirring blade can be automatically raised and lowered at the start and completion of ice making by the cooperation between the spring that urges the driven shaft upward and the downward force applying mechanism. This method eliminates the need for troublesome operations such as manually raising and lowering the stirring blade each time ice making is completed, making it extremely easy to use.Furthermore, the stirring blade freezes on the ice surface if the stirring blade is not pulled up when ice making is completed. This has an excellent practical effect in that it can reliably eliminate the problem of smearing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, with FIG. 1 being a longitudinal sectional view of the entire device, and FIGS. 2 and 3 being enlarged views of essential parts shown in different states to explain the operation. In the drawing, 3 is an ice making container, 6 is a motor, 9 is a drive shaft, 10 is a slit, 11 is a driven shaft, 12 is an engagement plate, 13 is a stirring blade, 16 is a compression spring (spring), 18 is a link mechanism, 21 2 is a weight, and 22 is a descending force applying mechanism.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A stirring blade is attached to a driven shaft which is provided on the drive shaft so as to be able to move up and down and to transmit rotation, and ice is made while stirring the water in the ice making container with the stirring blade, and the driven shaft is always connected to the driven shaft. a spring that biases the drive shaft upward; and a descending force applying mechanism that is disposed between the drive shaft and the driven shaft and is displaced by centrifugal force accompanying rotation to lower the driven shaft against the biasing force of the spring. An ice making device comprising: