GB911810A - Ice making machine - Google Patents

Abstract

911,810. Ice-making. KATTIS, T. June 20, 1961 [July 22, 1960], No. 22224/61. Class 29. [Also in Group XXIV] An ice-making apparatus comprises a substantially vertically-disposed refrigerated plate 22, a grid member 31, Fig. 6, having a plurality of cavities A open at each side of the member, a motor-driven cam 51 (see Group XXIV) providing means for moving the member 31 into contact with the refrigerated plate, as shown in Fig. 5, and for moving the member away from the plate. Water to be frozen into " cubes " is pumped during the freezing cycle by a motor-driven pump 59 from a tank 58, via pipes 66 and 64 and a reservoir tank 65 to discharge into a trough 34 along the top edge of the grid member 31. Water then flows through slots 36 and V-notches 35 and over the face of the grid member 31 not adjacent the refrigerated plate 22, flowing into and out of the cavities with some of the water freezing in the cavities against the refrigerated plate. A surplus quantity of water above that which is frozen flows over the face of the grid member, returning to the tank 58 via a collector 37. The grid member and the refrigerated plate are respectively made of materials of relatively low and high thermal conductivity, so that ice tends to adhere to the plate and not the grid member. The refrigerating machinery comprises a compressor 80, a condenser 83, a receiver 86, an expansion valve 87 and mounted in intimate contact with the refrigerated plate on evaporator coil 70. When sufficient ice has been formed and the refrigerated plate falls to a predetermined temperature, a thermal bulb 96 actuates a switch which terminates the freezing cycle and starts the dispensing cycle. The condenser fan 84 and the water pump 59 are switched-off and the cam motor 53 and a solenoid-operated valve 89 are switched-on. The valve allows hot gases from the compressor 80 to pass directly to the evaporator coil 70, thereby melting a film of ice on the refrigerated plate 22. The grid member is moved away from the refrigerated plate on to ejector posts 57, after a pre-determined delay, thereby ejecting the ice " cubes " from the cavities A which fall through an opening 17 into a storage bin (not shown). So that the cubes" " are not dispensed all at once thereby blocking the opening 17, the posts 57 are of staggered length with the smallest in the middle. The grid member is then returned to the plate and the freezing cycle is restarted. During the dispensing cycle, water flows from the reservoir 65 back into the tank 58, thereby flooding a siphon pipe 69 which commences to empty the tank. Fresh water supplied by pipe 61 passes through a heat-exchanger 73 in thermal relation with water discharging from the siphon pipe 69. Discharge water is evaporated in a heated tank 75 having been discharged from the tank 58 faster than the inflow of fresh water controlled by a ball valve arrangement 63.