JP2002195709A - Automatic ice feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance promptness of shipping operation by providing an automatic ice feeder which supplies ice, without freezing the ice that has been crushed in advance. SOLUTION: The automatic ice feeder comprises a hopper unit 3, which is provided with a hopper body 4 for accommodating crushed ice F, buckets 42a, 42b for freely opening and closing the bottom of the hopper body 4, and an outer frame 5 for supporting the hopper body 4 from the outside, and comprises a feeder body 2 which is provided with a storage 6 for storing the crushed ice F that has fallen with the opening of the buckets 42a, 42b, an agitator 7 for agitating the crushed ice F in the storage 6, a conveyor 8 for conveying the crushed ice F out of the storage 6, and a frame 21 accommodating and supporting the storage 6, the agitator 7 and the conveyor 8 with mounting members 25, 25 for mounting the hopper unit 3 arranged at the top.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic ice supply apparatus for automatically supplying crushed ice, and more particularly to an ice automatic supply apparatus for supplying ice to a desired amount to keep the inside of a container in a slightly frozen state when shipping fresh fish or the like. The present invention relates to an automatic ice supply device which can supply the ice according to the conditions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is known that fresh fish and the like can be kept fresh when shipped in a slightly frozen (partial freezing) state. Therefore, usually, fresh fish or the like is packed in a container together with ice (in some cases, seawater, water, and the like are also packed), and the container is shipped in a slightly frozen state.

The ice for keeping the inside of the container in a slightly frozen state is obtained by crushing an ice block to a predetermined size. The work of crushing the ice block to a predetermined size has conventionally been performed at a shipping site.

[0004]

By the way, in order to maintain the freshness, it is necessary to carry out the shipping work, especially the work of packing ice, promptly. However, if the ice blocks were crushed at the shipping site as in the prior art, the work of crushing the ice would be troublesome, and there was a problem that the shipping operation (especially the stuffing of ice) could not be speeded up. Therefore, instead of crushing ice blocks at the shipping site, prepare crushed ice in advance,
It is conceivable that the crushed ice is transported to the shipping site for use. In this case, however, there is a problem that the crushed ice freezes (blocks) with each other and the packing operation becomes difficult.

Therefore, in order to speed up the shipping work,
The development of a device capable of supplying pre-crushed ice without freezing has been desired.

In view of the above, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide an automatic ice supply apparatus capable of supplying pre-crushed ice without freezing, thereby speeding up a shipping operation. Technical issues.

[0007]

The present invention employs the following means to achieve the above object. That is,
An automatic ice supply device according to the present invention includes a hopper body that stores crushed ice therein, a bucket that allows the bottom of the hopper body to be opened and closed, and an outer frame body that supports the hopper body from outside. A hopper unit, a storage unit that stores the crushed ice dropped by opening the bucket, and a stirring unit that stirs the crushed ice in the storage unit.
A transport unit that transports the crushed ice from the storage unit to the outside, and a mounting member that stores and supports the storage unit, the stirring unit, and the transport unit, and mounts the hopper unit on the top. And a supply device main body having a frame body provided with.

According to this configuration, the supply device main body and the easily transportable hopper unit are configured to be freely separable, so that ice crushed in advance at another place is temporarily stored in the hopper unit, and the hopper unit is connected to the supply device main body. Can be transported to the shipping site where is installed. Next, the hopper unit is placed on the placing member at the top of the supply device main body, and the bucket is opened to store the crushed ice in the storage unit. Then, by stirring the crushed ice using the stirring unit, the crushed ice can be stored in the storage unit while freezing (blocking) between the ices is prevented. Further, when discharging the crushed ice, the crushed ice can be transferred to the outside from the storage unit as necessary by using the transfer unit.

Further, in the automatic ice supplying apparatus according to the present invention, the hopper main body has a hinge for rotatably supporting the bucket, and the bucket is located at a predetermined distance from the hinge from an outer wall of the bucket. When the hopper unit is mounted on the mounting member of the supply device main body, the convex portion of the bucket is engaged with the mounting member, and the hopper is supported around the hinge. The bucket is rotated by its own weight.

According to this configuration, when the hopper unit is placed on the top of the supply device main body, the bucket is rotated by its own weight with the hinge as a fulcrum, and the bottom of the hopper main body is instantly opened. By opening the bottom of the hopper body,
The crushed ice stored in the hopper unit falls to the storage unit side. Therefore, the crushed ice on the hopper unit side can be quickly moved to the storage unit side.

Further, in the automatic ice supplying apparatus according to the present invention, the storage section has a funnel shape, and the stirring section has a scraping rod imitating a funnel-shaped inner wall surface of the storage section. .

According to this configuration, even if the crushed ice freezes on the inner wall of the storage unit, the scraping rod of the stirring unit rotates while following the inner wall of the storage unit, so that the frozen ice can be scraped off and freezing can be prevented. I do.

Still further, in the automatic ice supplying apparatus according to the present invention, the transporting unit has a setting unit that switches and sets a speed at which the crushed ice is transported to a different speed.

According to this configuration, if the setting unit has, for example, a function of switching between a mode in which the transport speed is reduced and a mode in which the transport speed is set to high, any one can be selected as needed. That is, when supplying ice to a container containing fresh fish, such as when shipping fresh fish, the low speed mode is selected and ice is supplied little by little. On the other hand, when discharging a large amount of ice per unit time such as when retailing ice, the high speed mode is selected to discharge a large amount of ice.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an automatic ice supplying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. [Description of Apparatus Structure] As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, an automatic ice supply apparatus 1 according to this embodiment has a supply apparatus main body 2.
And a hopper unit 3 mounted on the upper part of the supply device main body 2. The supply device body 2 and the hopper unit 3 have a structure that can be freely separated.

[Hopper unit 3] Hopper unit 3
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a hopper body 4 for temporarily storing ice and an outer frame body 5 for supporting the hopper body 4 from the outside and forming the hopper unit 3 to be transportable.
And

The hopper body 4 has a funnel-shaped body 41 whose top opening side is larger than the bottom opening side, and two buckets 42 which allow the bottom opening side of the body 41 to be opened and closed in a direction opposite to each other.
a, 42b.

The outer frame 5 is a frame formed by assembling the sides of the rectangular parallelepiped shape using a steel material.
, A rectangular parallelepiped lower frame 52, the upper frame 51 and the lower frame 5
And a pillar 53 connecting the outer frame 5 and the outer frame 5
The hopper body 4 is fixedly accommodated therein.

The upper frame 51 supports the torso 41 from outside the top opening side of the torso 41. The upper frame 51 includes a bracket 54 fixed at two opposing positions.
a, 54b, and two brackets 54a, 54b
Buckets 42a and 42b are suspended. The two buckets 42a and 42b are connected to the brackets 54a and 54b by two hinges 43,
43 rotatably supported in opposite directions.

The two buckets 42a and 42b are
The bucket 4 is suspended from the brackets 54a and 54b.
The surfaces facing each other due to the weight of 2a and 42b are engaged with each other, thereby closing the bottom opening side of the body 41. Also,
The buckets 42a and 42b have stoppers 45 on the opening side.
a, 45a are provided, and the stoppers 45a, 45a engage with the side surface of the body 41 when the bottom opening side is closed. By this engagement, the suspended buckets 42a, 42
When b is in the closed state, buckets 42a and 42b
To prevent it from swaying left and right. Further, in the buckets 42a and 42b in the closed state, the hinges 43 and
Rollers (convex) 44, 44 protrude to the outside at a lower portion which is open at a predetermined angle θ (for example, 30 degrees) from the vertical direction of the hinges 43, 43 around the center 43. Each of them is provided in a state of being set. In this closed state, the height from the lower surface of the lower frame 52 to the rollers 44 is referred to as La for convenience of explanation. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the width between the rollers 44 (or the width of the outer frame 5) is set to W for convenience of explanation. When a moment force acts on the protruding rollers 44, 44 from below, 2
Each of the buckets 42a and 42b rotates in a direction facing the hinges 43 and 43, and the bottom opening side of the body 41 is opened (see FIG. 5). The rotation of the buckets 42a, 42b is performed by stoppers 45b, 45 protruding from the side of the body 41.
It stops by engaging with b. When the bottom opening side of the body 41 is opened and the rotation of the buckets 42a, 42b is stopped, the height from the lower surface of the lower frame 52 to the rollers 44, 44 is set to Lb (Lb> Lb) for convenience of explanation.

The lower frame 52 is mounted on the forklift 10 (FIG. 9).
11) has an insertion slot 55 into which the iron plate-shaped fork 10a can be inserted. Therefore, the hopper unit 3 has a structure that can be transported.

[Supply Apparatus Body 2] The supply apparatus body 2 includes, as shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, a storage section 6 for storing ice F, a stirring section 7 for stirring the ice F in the storage section 6, and A transport unit 8 for transporting the ice F in the storage unit 6 to the outside, an operation unit 9 for operating the stirring unit 7 and the transport unit 8, and these units are installed (supported).
Frame 2 assembled into a rectangular parallelepiped shape using steel
And 1.

The frame 21 is a frame obtained by assembling the sides of the rectangular parallelepiped shape using a steel material.
, A rectangular parallelepiped lower frame 23, the upper frame 22 and the lower frame 2
And a pillar 24 connecting the main body 3 to the main body.
The storage section 6 and the stirring section 7 are accommodated therein, and the transport section 8 and the operation section 9 are installed.

As shown in FIG. 8, the frame 21 has
Two shoulders 25, which are mounting members, protrude upward from both sides of the upper frame 22. The space between the shoulders 25 and the shoulders 25 is formed to have the same or slightly larger size as the width W of the outer frame 5 sandwiching the rollers 44 so that the hopper unit 3 can be accommodated. . When the hopper unit 3 is accommodated in the space between the shoulders 25, the rollers 44, 44 are provided above the shoulders 25, 25.
Is placed. The shoulders 25, 25 and the rollers 44, 44
The sliding plates (rails) 26, 26 are provided at positions where they engage. The rollers 44, 44 are provided on the sliding plates 26, 26.
This allows the buckets 42a and 42b to slide freely in the opening direction. Further, the upper frame 22 is provided with chute portions 27 having an inclined surface facing the center of the frame body 21. The ice F falling from the hopper 3 is
It falls into the storage part 6 along the inclined surfaces of 7,27. In addition, the height L from the upper frame 22 to the shoulders 25, 25 apex.
When the buckets 42a, 42b are opened, the height Lb is equal to or slightly larger than the height Lb from the lower surface of the lower frame 52 to the rollers 44, 44. Also, the buckets 42a, 42
b, the lower ends of the buckets 42a and 42b
It is desirable to coincide with the top of 7,27.

The storage section 6 is provided below the inside of the frame 21 and is formed in a hollow inverted conical shape having an open upper part. A discharge hole 6a for discharging the ice F is formed in the lower side surface of the storage unit 6. The storage unit 6 and the lower part of the transport unit 8 are connected via the discharge hole 6a.
Therefore, the ice F in the storage section 6 is carried out to the outside by the transport section 8 via the discharge hole 6a.

The stirring section 7 is provided in the frame 21 so as to protrude above the inner bottom of the storage section 6. And
The stirring unit 7 includes a stirring main shaft 71, a stirring rod 72 orthogonal to the stirring main shaft 71 in three directions, and a stirring main shaft 71 (and the stirring rod 7).
2) a bearing portion 73 that rotatably supports the above, a driving portion 74,
Transmission unit 75 for transmitting the rotational force of drive unit 74 to stirring main shaft 71
And

The transmission unit 75 includes a first sprocket 75a connected to the rotating shaft of the drive unit 74, a second sprocket 75b connected to the lower end of the stirring main shaft 71, and a chain connecting the first sprocket 75a and the second sprocket 75b. 7
5c. The chain 75c connects the first sprocket 75a and the second sprocket 75b under tension so that the rotation of the first sprocket 75a can be transmitted to the second sprocket 75b.

The stirring rod 72 includes an upper rod 72a perpendicular to the upper part of the main stirring shaft 71, a middle rod 72b perpendicular to the middle part,
And a lower rod 72c orthogonal to the lower part. 7, the upper bar 72a is orthogonal to the main stirring shaft 71 from the 330 ° direction, the middle bar 72b is orthogonal to the 90 ° direction, and the lower bar 72c is orthogonal to the 270 ° direction. That is, the stirring rod 72 is equiangular (1 in this embodiment).
At 20 °), it is orthogonal to the stirring main shaft 71 from three directions. Further, the stirring rods 72 have scraping rods at positions corresponding to the inner wall surfaces of the storage unit 6, respectively. The scraping rod is used to scrape ice F frozen on the inner wall surface of the storage unit 6.

The transport unit 8 is configured to move the frame 2 from below in the frame 21.
The first outer frame is provided so as to protrude obliquely upward. The transport section 8 includes a hollow cylindrical section 81, a transport shaft 82 having spiral fins, a drive section 83, a transmission section 84 that transmits the rotational force of the drive section 83 to the transport shaft 82, A discharge unit 85 provided at the top and a discharge amount setting unit 86 for setting the discharge amount of the ice F are provided.

The lower end of the cylindrical portion 81 is connected to cover the discharge hole 6a of the storage portion 6, and the inside is hollow from the discharge hole 6a to the upper discharge portion 85. The middle side surface of the cylindrical portion 81 is fixed to the outer frame of the frame body 21, and is provided in a state where the axis of the cylindrical portion 81 is inclined obliquely upward. Further, a drive unit 83 is fixed to an upper portion of the cylindrical portion 81.
Further, the cylindrical portion 81 has bearing portions at both ends, and the bearing portions rotatably support the transport shaft 82 housed in the cylindrical portion. When the transport shaft 82 rotates, the ice F is transported on the spiral fins from below to above.

The transmission portion 84 includes a first sprocket 84a connected to the rotating shaft of the driving portion 83, a second sprocket 84b connected to the upper end of the transport shaft 82, and a first sprocket 84.
a and a chain 84c connecting the second sprocket 84b. Note that the chain 84c connects the first sprocket 84a and the second sprocket 84b under tension so that the rotation of the first sprocket 84a can be transmitted to the second sprocket 84b.

The discharge portion 85 is transported by the transport shaft 82 to the cylindrical portion 81.
The ice F transported to the upper portion is discharged from the nozzle 85a to the outside.

The carry-out amount setting section 86 is provided with two types of push buttons for setting the carry-out amount (or carrying speed) of the ice F to, for example, two stages of “large (large discharge)” and “small (low discharge)”. Have. The setting of “large” is performed by pressing a “large” push button, and the setting of “small” is performed by pressing a “small” push button. That is, when the “large” push button is pressed, the rotation speed of the transport shaft 82 is switched at a high speed, and a large amount of ice F
Is set to the mode in which is discharged. When the "small" push button is pressed, the rotation speed of the transport shaft 82 is switched to a low speed, and a mode is set in which a small amount of ice F is discharged.

The operating section 9 is used when operating the automatic ice supplying apparatus 1, and is installed on the middle side surface of the frame 21 adjacent to the transport section 8 as shown in FIG. Also,
The operation unit 9 is provided with a power ON / OFF button, a stirring unit start button, and a transport unit start button. Power ON / OFF
The button is a button for switching between power-on / power-off by pressing. The stirrer start button is a button that switches the start / stop of the drive unit 74 when pressed. The transport unit start button is a button that switches between start and stop of the drive unit 83 when pressed.

[Explanation of Ice Supply Operation] Next, an ice supply operation performed by the automatic ice supply apparatus 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. It is assumed that the automatic ice supply device 1 is installed at a shipping site, and the ice crusher (not shown) is installed at a different place away from the shipping site. Also, in the ice crusher,
It is assumed that an operation of crushing the ice block to a predetermined size is performed in advance, and the crushed ice F can be supplied from the supply port N as needed.

First, by inserting the fork 10a of the forklift 10 into the insertion opening 55 of the hopper unit 3, the hopper unit 3 is gripped so as to be transported to the forklift 10. At this time, the hopper unit 3 includes the buckets 42a, 4
2b are engaged with each other by their own weight, and the bottom opening side of the body 41 is closed. Next, forklift 1
0 to the place where the icebreaker was installed, and
So that the opening side of is located immediately below the supply port N of the ice crusher,
The hopper unit 3 is moved.

After moving the hopper unit 3 to just below the supply port N, the crushed ice F is supplied from the supply port N of the ice crusher into the hopper body 4 and the hopper body 4 is filled with the crushed ice F. (See FIG. 9). Next, the forklift 10 is operated while holding the hopper unit 3 in which the ice F is full, and is conveyed to the vicinity of the supply device main body 2, and the fork 10a
To raise the hopper unit 3 to the upper part of the supply device main body 2 (see FIG. 10). Then, the hopper unit 3 is lowered toward the space between the shoulders 25, 25, and the rollers 44, 44 of the bucket 4 are moved to the shoulders 25, 2.
5 (sliding plates 26, 26).

Then, moment force acts on the rollers 44, 44 by the weight of the hopper unit 3, and the rollers 44, 44 slide on the sliding plates (rails) 26, 2 with the hinges 43, 43 as fulcrums.
6 on the bucket 42a,
42b is opened by rotating in the left-right direction (see FIG. 11). The rotation of the buckets 42a, 42b is stopped by engaging with the stoppers 45b, 45b on the side surface of the body 41.
At this time, the hopper unit 3 is connected to the supply device main body 2 (shoulder 2).
5, 25), it sinks by [Lb-La].

When the bucket 4 is opened, the ice F stored in the hopper unit 3 is regulated by the chutes 27, 27 and falls into the storage 6. Next, the power of the operation unit 9 is turned on /
The stirrer 7 is started by pressing the OFF button and the stirrer 7 start button. Then, since the ice F that has fallen into the storage unit 6 is stirred by the rotation of the stirring unit 7,
Freezing (blocking) between the ices F can be prevented. In addition, by following the inner wall surface of the storage section 6 with a scraping rod provided on the stirring rod 72 during rotation, the ice F to be frozen on the inner wall surface can be scraped off.

The ice F in the hopper unit 3 is entirely stored in the storage unit 6.
The worker operates the forklift 10, inserts the fork 10a into the insertion slot 55 of the hopper unit 3, grips the hopper unit 3, lifts the hopper unit 3, and places the fork 10a on the supply device body 2. Is released, and the empty hopper unit 3 is moved to another place.

When the ice F in the storage unit 6 is discharged,
The carry-out amount setting unit 86 sets the carry-out amount. For example, FIG.
As shown in (1), when the ice F is packed directly into the container B for shipping fresh fish from the automatic ice supply device 1, the "small" push button is pressed to set "small (small amount discharge)". When the transport unit start button is pressed in this setting mode, the transport shaft 82 rotates at a low speed,
A small amount of ice F is discharged. On the other hand, when discharging a large volume from the ice automatic supply device 1 to a container such as retailing ice,
Press the "Large" push button to set "Large (large discharge)".
When the transport unit start button is pressed in this setting mode, the transport shaft 8
2 rotates at high speed, and a large amount of ice F is discharged in a short time.

[0042]

According to the present invention, the supply device main body and the easily transportable hopper unit are configured to be separable, so that ice crushed in advance at a different location is temporarily stored in the hopper unit and the hopper unit is supplied. It can be transported to the shipping site where the device body is installed. Next, the hopper unit is placed on the placing member at the top of the supply device main body, and the bucket is opened to store the crushed ice in the storage unit. Then, by stirring the crushed ice using the stirring unit, the crushed ice can be stored in the storage unit while freezing (blocking) between the ices is prevented. Further, when discharging the crushed ice, the crushed ice can be transferred to the outside from the storage unit as necessary by using the transfer unit.

Accordingly, the block ice crushed to a predetermined size in advance can be supplied without freezing, so that it is not necessary to crush the ice blocks at the shipping site as in the prior art, and the stuffing of ice can be speeded up.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic ice supply device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the automatic ice supply device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the hopper unit, showing a state in which a bucket is closed.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the hopper unit.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the hopper unit, showing a state where a bucket is open.

FIG. 6 is a side view of the apparatus main body.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the apparatus main body.

FIG. 8 is a rear view of the apparatus main body.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for supplying ice using the automatic ice supply device of the present invention, and shows a state where ice is packed in a hopper unit.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for supplying ice using the automatic ice supply device of the present invention, and shows a state where a hopper unit is placed on the apparatus main body.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram for supplying ice using the automatic ice supply device of the present invention, showing a state in which ice is supplied to a container using a transport unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Automatic ice supply apparatus 2 ... Device main body 3 ... Hopper unit 4 ... Hopper main body 5 ... Outer frame body 6 ... Storage part 6a ... Discharge hole 7 ... Stirring part 8 ... Transport part 9 ... Operation part 10 ... Forklift 10a ... Fork 41 ... Body 42a, 42b ... Bucket 43 ... Hinge 44 ... Roller 51 ... Upper frame 52 ... Lower frame 53 ... Column 54a, 54b ... Bracket 55 ... Insertion port 71 ... Stirring spindle 72 ... Stirring rod 73 ... Bearing part 74 ... Drive part 75 ... transmission part 81 ... cylinder part 82 ... conveyance shaft 83 ... drive part 84 ... transmission part 85 ... discharge part 86 ... discharge amount setting part

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A hopper unit having: a hopper body for storing crushed ice therein; a bucket for opening and closing a bottom of the hopper body; and an outer frame body for supporting the hopper body from outside; A storage unit that stores the crushed ice dropped by opening the bucket, a stirring unit that stirs the crushed ice in the storage unit, and a transport unit that transports the crushed ice from the storage unit to the outside. A storage device body having a mounting member for housing and supporting the storage unit, the stirring unit and the transport unit, and a mounting member for mounting the hopper unit on the top. An automatic ice supply device, characterized in that: 2. The hopper main body has a hinge for rotatably supporting the bucket, the bucket has a protrusion protruding from an outer wall of the bucket at a position away from the hinge by a predetermined distance, and When mounting the hopper unit on the mounting member of the apparatus main body, the convex portion of the bucket is engaged with the mounting member, and the bucket is rotated by its own weight with the hinge as a fulcrum. 2. The automatic ice supplying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The automatic ice supplying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit has a funnel shape, and the stirring unit has a scraping bar that imitates a funnel-shaped inner wall surface of the storage unit. 4. The automatic ice supplying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transport unit has a setting unit that switches and sets a speed at which the crushed ice is transported to a different speed.