JP2001263888A - Auger type ice maker - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an auger type ice maker in which ice blocks cut by means of an auger are made smaller to produce ice blocks of desired shape and hardness. SOLUTION: The auger type ice maker comprises a cylinder 10 having outer circumferential surface wound spirally with an evaporation tube 16 for cooling, and an auger 20 disposed rotatably in the cylinder 10 coaxially therewith and provided with a spiral cutter 22 in proximity to the inner circumferential surface of the cylinder 10. A spiral groove 17 having V-shaped cross-section is made in the inner circumferential surface of the cylinder 10 to intersect the spiral cutter 22. When the cylinder 10 is cooled, protrusions are formed continuously on the outer circumference of ice formed tubularly, as a whole, on the inner circumferential surface of the cylinder 10. When the tubular ice is cut off by means of the spiral cutter 22, these protrusions of ice engage with the groove 17 of the cylinder 10 to increase resistance against movement of ice in the axial direction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an auger ice maker.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An auger-type ice maker of this type is, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 59-18363, for example, in a cylindrical shape in which an evaporating tube for cooling is spirally tightly wound around the outer peripheral surface. Cylinder, an auger provided coaxially and rotatably inside the cylinder and provided with a helical blade close to the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder, and a plurality of ice compactors that are assembled in the upper part of the cylinder and penetrate in the axial direction of the cylinder. An ice compressing section with a passage, and the ice making water supplied into the cylinder is made to ice on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder by the cooling action of the evaporating tube,
There is a type in which auger is rotated to generate small ice pieces from ice that has been landed by a spiral blade, transported upward, and pressed into an ice compression passage to generate compressed ice. In the above-mentioned prior art, a vertical groove is formed in the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder along the axial direction in order to smoothly introduce the transferred ice into the ice compression passage.

[0003]

However, ice making water containing a large amount of impurities such as Ca, Mg, and silica by the above-mentioned conventional auger type ice making machine (in the present specification, impurities are water in ice making water. When making ice from a cylinder, relatively soft ice accumulates on the entire inner peripheral surface of the cylinder to form a thin cylindrical ice as a whole. At this time, when the spiral blade of the auger rotates, the cylindrical ice is soft and has little adhesion to the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder, so that the entire cylindrical ice slides easily on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder and hardly rotates. Move almost right above. In this case, since the spiral blade does not scrape the inside of the cylindrical ice, small ice chips are not generated.

On the other hand, when the cylindrical ice moved upward is pressed against the lower part of the ice compressing section, a blade formed on the inlet side of the partition wall of the cylindrical ice, which is a circumferential boundary of each ice compressing passage. In the vicinity of each part that hits, relatively large pieces of ice are generated, and most of the cylindrical ice that does not hit this blade is pushed up as it is in the ice compression passage without breaking and a strip of ice Pieces are generated. Then, in the ice compression passage, although the large ice pieces land on the inner surface of the strip ice, the strip ice having the large ice pieces on the inner surface is not compressed, and the ice compression passage is left as it is. Sent out. Therefore, ice of the desired shape and hardness was not produced.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an auger type ice maker with a groove formed in the inner peripheral surface of a cylinder along a circumferential direction, thereby improving the resistance to the axial movement of ice with respect to the inner peripheral surface. The rotation of the auger produces small pieces of ice to produce ice of a desired shape and hardness.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a structural feature of the present invention is to provide a cylindrical cylinder in which a cooling evaporating tube is spirally tightly wound around an outer peripheral surface and fixed. An auger provided coaxially and rotatably inside the cylinder and provided with a spiral blade close to the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder, and a plurality of ice compression passages penetrating in the axial direction of the cylinder assembled on the upper part of the cylinder. The ice making water supplied into the cylinder is made to ice on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder by the cooling action of the evaporator tube, and the auger is rotated to reduce the ice from the ice made by the spiral blade. In an auger type ice making machine that generates ice pieces, transports them upward, and presses them into an ice compression passage to generate compressed ice, a groove is formed along the circumferential direction on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder.

According to this, when the cylinder is cooled, ice is formed on the inner peripheral surface and in the groove of the cylinder.
A convex portion which is continuous with the groove of the cylinder along the circumferential direction is formed.

In the present invention, it is preferable that the groove is formed in a spiral shape.

[0009]

According to the present invention, when the inner portion of a cylindrical ice having a continuous convex portion formed on the outer peripheral surface along the circumferential direction is shaved by the auger spiral blade, the cylindrical ice is removed. Since the convex portion engages with the groove of the cylinder to increase the resistance to the axial movement of the cylindrical ice, the rotation of the helical blade allows the entire cylindrical ice to easily move with respect to the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder. Slippage is prevented, and the ice does not move upward due to the rotation of the spiral blade as a whole. Therefore, the spiral blade can surely break the cylindrical ice, so that small ice chips are generated. These small pieces of ice are successively introduced into the ice compression passage and pass through the same while pressing against each other. At this time, since the ice pieces are small, the ice pieces are easily deformed, and there is almost no gap between the ice pieces. Therefore, the ice pieces introduced into the ice compression passage are compressed as a whole, so that ice compressed to a desired shape and hardness can be generated.

[0010] According to the groove formed in a spiral shape, by appropriately selecting the lead angle of the spiral groove, the resistance to the axial movement of ice deposited on the inner surface of the cylinder can be reduced. The crushed ice pieces can be smoothly moved upward, so that a decrease in ice making capacity can be prevented.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a partial longitudinal sectional view showing an auger type ice making machine according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 2B is an enlarged sectional view of a portion surrounded by a frame B in FIG. 2A. The auger-type ice maker includes a cylinder 10, an auger 20 rotatably provided coaxially inside the cylinder 10, and an ice compressing member 30 mounted on an upper portion of the cylinder 10.

As shown in FIG. 1, the cylinder 10 has a cylinder body 11 formed of a metal material (for example, stainless steel) in a cylindrical shape, and a metal plate (for example, The lower flange 13 is placed on the base 41 such that the lower surface of the lower flange 13 is in contact with the upper surface of the base 41, and is fixed by the bolt 14.

A cooling evaporator tube 16 is helically wound around and fixed to the outer peripheral surface of the cylinder body 11, and a cooling medium flows into the evaporator tube 16 through an inlet 16a and an outlet 16b. Out of the cylinder 10
Has cooled. A water supply pipe 15 for supplying ice making water from the outside into the cylinder 10 is fixed below the evaporating pipe 16 and below the cylinder body 11.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a spiral groove 17 having a V-shaped cross section is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder body 11 so as to intersect with a spiral blade 22 of an auger 20, which will be described later. ing. The depth of the groove 17 is determined by the spiral blade 22 of the auger 20.
And the clearance between the cylinder body 11 (for example, 0.4
mm), and the opening width of the groove 17 is set to about 1 to 1.5 times the depth. In FIG. 1, a solid line and a broken line indicate the cylinder body 1.
1 shows a groove 17 formed in the back half of the inner peripheral surface,
The broken line indicates the groove 17 formed in the front half of the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder 10. Further, it is desirable that the intersection angle between the spiral blade 22 of the auger 20 and the groove 17 of the cylinder body 11 is near the orthogonality.

As shown in FIG. 1, the auger 20 includes an auger main body 21 formed of a metal material (for example, stainless steel) in a cylindrical shape, and a helical blade 22 helically fixed to the outer peripheral surface of the auger main body 21. Consists of The lower part of the auger main body 21 is supported by being spline-coupled to a rotating member (not shown) rotatably supported around a vertical axis in the base part 41, and the upper part is coaxial with the inner periphery of the ice compressing member 30 described below. Is rotatably supported by a bearing portion 31 fixed to the shaft. The outer peripheral edge of the spiral blade 22 is set to be close to the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder body 11 with the above-mentioned clearance. The rotating member supporting the auger body 21 is rotationally driven by a motor in a drive motor unit 42 via a drive mechanism built in the base 41, whereby the auger 20 is rotated.

The ice compressing member 30 is made of metal (for example, stainless steel) and integrally formed in a cylindrical shape, and is provided concentrically with the outer cylindrical portion 32 and the inner cylindrical portion 33, and between the two cylindrical portions 32, 33. It comprises a plurality of radially formed partition walls 34 and an annular flange 32a formed at the lower end of the outer cylinder 32. The lower surface of the flange 32a contacts the upper surface of the upper flange 12 of the cylinder 10 to secure the bolt. 14 fixed.
The ice compressing member 30 has a plurality of ice compressing passages 35 which are defined by an outer cylindrical portion 32, an inner cylindrical portion 33, and a partition wall portion 34 and penetrate in the axial direction of the cylinder 10. The ice compression member 3
At the upper end 21a of the auger body 21 protruding from 0, a cutter 24 for cutting ice pushed out from the ice compression passage 35 into a predetermined size is attached.

In making ice using the auger type ice maker constructed as described above, the ice making water is supplied from the water supply pipe 15 into the cylinder body 11 so that the same water level is always maintained and the cooling medium is supplied. When the cylinder 10 is supplied to the evaporating tube 16 to cool the cylinder 10 on which the evaporating tube 16 is in close contact, ice is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder main body 11 and the spiral groove 17, and the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder main body 11 is entirely formed. On the outer periphery of the ice that has landed in a cylindrical shape, a convex portion that is continuous in the circumferential direction corresponding to the groove 17 of the cylinder body 11 is formed. On the other hand, along with this formation, the drive motor is driven to rotate the auger 20 and the spiral blade 22 scrapes off the inside of the cylindrical ice.

When ice making water containing a large amount of impurities such as Ca, Mg and silica is used, the cylinder body 11
Ice deposited on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder becomes soft, but the cylindrical ice convex portion engages with the groove 17 of the cylinder body 11 so that the resistance to the axial movement of the cylindrical ice is reduced. In this shaving, the rotation of the spiral blade 22 does not cause the entire cylindrical ice to easily slide on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder body 11, and the cylindrical ice as a whole has a spiral shape. It does not move upward due to the rotation of the blade 22. Therefore, since the spiral blade 22 can surely break the cylindrical ice, a small piece of ice is generated. The small pieces of ice are successively introduced into the ice compression passage 35 and pass through the passage 35 while pressing each other. At this time, since the ice pieces are small, they are easily deformed, and there is almost no gap between the ice pieces, so that ice making water filling the gap is almost squeezed out. Therefore, since the introduced ice chips are compressed as a whole, it is possible to produce ice compressed to a desired shape and hardness.

Further, in the above embodiment, according to the cylinder 10 having the spiral groove 17 having a large lead angle, the cylindrical convex portion of the ice is less likely to engage with the groove 17 of the cylinder body 11. When the ice is scraped by the auger 20, the entire cylindrical ice slides on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder body 11 when the ice is scraped off by the auger 20 because the resistance to the axial movement of the cylindrical ice is reduced. This makes it easier for the cylindrical ice to move upward due to the rotation of the spiral blade 22 as a whole. On the other hand, according to the cylinder 10 in which the spiral groove 17 having a small lead angle is formed, the cylindrical ice convex portion engages with the groove 17 of the cylinder body 11 so that the cylindrical ice resists the axial movement of the ice. When the ice is scraped off by the auger 20, the rotation of the spiral blade 22 makes the entire cylindrical ice considerably less slippery with respect to the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder body 11, so that the cylindrical ice Is a spiral blade 22 as a whole.
It does not move upward due to the rotation of. Moreover, it becomes difficult for the crushed ice pieces to move smoothly upward. Therefore, by appropriately selecting the lead angle of the spiral groove 17, the crushed ice pieces can smoothly move upward without lowering the resistance to the axial movement of the ice deposited on the inner surface of the cylinder 10. In this way, it is possible to prevent a decrease in the ice making capacity. However, the present invention may be carried out by forming a plurality of annular grooves parallel to each other on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder body 11. The cylinder body 11
May be formed by forming a plurality of spiral grooves 17 parallel to each other on the inner peripheral surface.

In the above embodiment, the groove 17 is formed in a V-shaped cross section, but may be formed in a U-shaped cross section, a square cross section, or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially longitudinal side view of an auger ice maker according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A is a partial longitudinal sectional view of the cylinder shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 2B is an enlarged sectional view of a portion surrounded by a frame B in FIG. 2A.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... cylinder, 20 ... auger, 30 ... ice compression member, 1
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Cylinder main body, 12 ... Upper flange part, 13 ... Lower flange part, 14 ... Bolt, 41 ... Base part, 16 ... Evaporation tube, 1
6a ... inlet, 16b ... outlet, 15 ... water supply pipe, 17 ...
Spiral groove, 22 ... spiral blade, 21 ... auger body, 31
... bearing part, 42 ... drive motor part, 32 ... outer cylinder part, 33 ...
Inner cylinder part, 34 ... partition part, 32a ... flange part, 35 ... ice compression passage, 21a ... upper end part, 24 ... cutter.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cylindrical cylinder having an evaporating tube for cooling spirally tightly wound and fixed on an outer peripheral surface thereof, and a coaxially and rotatably provided inside the cylinder and proximate to an inner peripheral surface of the cylinder. An auger provided with a helical blade, and an ice compressing section having a plurality of ice compressing passages mounted on the cylinder and penetrating in the axial direction of the cylinder. The ice making water supplied into the cylinder is evaporated. Ice is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder by the cooling action of the tube, and the auger is rotated to generate small ice pieces from the iced ice by the helical blade, and is transported upward to be pressed into the ice compression passage. An auger-type ice maker for producing compressed ice by forming a groove along the circumferential direction on the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder. 2. An auger ice maker according to claim 1, wherein said groove is formed in a spiral shape.