JP2005221212A - Ice maker - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ice maker with easy assembly adjustment and maintenance of a scraper, capable of preventing blocking of a drop opening by ice scraped off from an evaporator. <P>SOLUTION: The cylindrical evaporator 1 is composed such that a refrigerant circulates in an interior, it is cooled, and an ice layer is formed on an cylindrical outer surface 1a. A U-shaped support frame 5 is provided so as to surround the cylindrical evaporator 1, and the scraper 23 is provided on the support frame 5. Ice is provided by rotatively driving the support frame 5 along the outer surface of the cylindrical evaporator 1, and scraping off the ice layer formed on the outer surface 1a by the scraper 23. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an ice making machine, and more particularly to an ice making machine that obtains ice by scraping off ice.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a drum-type ice making machine as described in Patent Document 1 is known as one that produces flake-shaped ice. As shown in FIG. 5, this ice making machine is provided with an evaporator 32 in which a tubular cooling pipe is spirally wound on the outer peripheral surface of a longitudinal drum 31. Ice-making water in a water spray tank 33 installed above the drum 31 is sprinkled on the upper end portion of the inner peripheral surface of the drum 31 via a sprinkling pipe 34, cooled while flowing down the inner peripheral surface of the drum 31, and iced. Is generated. A scraper 36 is attached to a rotating shaft 35 provided at the center of the drum 31 via a mounting plate 37, and the scraper 36 rotates in conjunction with the rotation of the rotating shaft 35, whereby the inner peripheral surface of the drum 31. The ice formed in this step is scraped off to obtain flaky ice.

  The rotating shaft 35 is rotatably supported at both upper and lower ends thereof, and as shown in FIG. 6, the lower rotating support portion 38 has three pieces to secure a scraped ice drop opening 41. Beam members 42 are arranged radially. The scraped ice is stored in an ice storage (not shown) installed below, but a part of the ice accumulates on the upper surface 42 a of the beam member 42. In order to drop the accumulated ice, an auxiliary scraper 43 is installed at the lower end portion of the mounting plate 37 of the scraper 36.

JP 2003-56953 A

However, in the conventional ice making machine, since the scraper 36 is installed inside the drum 31 and the ice generated on the inner peripheral surface of the drum 31 is scraped by the scraper 36, the maintenance inside the drum 31 and the blade edge of the scraper 36 and the drum There was a problem that the workability of adjusting the gap with the inner peripheral surface of 31 (hereinafter referred to as the scraper blade edge gap) was poor.
When the ice making operation is started when the ambient temperature is high, the refrigerant circulates in the evaporator 32 while the temperature around the rotating shaft 35 to which the scraper 36 is attached remains high, so that the inner diameter of the drum 31 is contracted. Then, when the scraper blade edge gap is adjusted to be small, there is a problem that the scraper 36 comes into contact with the inner peripheral surface of the evaporator 32 to be damaged, and that rust and metal fine pieces are mixed into ice. On the other hand, when the scraper blade gap is adjusted to be large for safety reasons, there is a problem that the ice load becomes worse and the torque load is increased at the same time, so that the overload stop and the life of the gear motor and the bearing are shortened.
Further, an auxiliary scraper 43 is installed to drop the ice accumulated on the upper surface of the beam member 42 provided on the fixed member below the rotary shaft 35. However, when the ambient temperature is low, the ice is accumulated on the beam member 42. There is also a problem that the ice becomes an ice block and the auxiliary scraper 43 is deformed or dropped out. When the operation is continued for a long time under such conditions, there is a problem in that the accumulated ice protrudes in the horizontal direction of the beam member 42 and clogs the drop opening 41.

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and is an ice making machine that can easily assemble and adjust the scraper and prevent the ice scraped off from the evaporator from blocking the dropping port. The purpose is to provide.

An ice making machine according to the present invention is cooled by a refrigerant circulating inside, and a cylindrical evaporator in which an ice layer is generated on a cylindrical outer surface, and is driven to rotate along the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical evaporator. A peeling blade for scraping off the ice layer generated on the surface, and a rotation driving means for driving the peeling blade to rotate along the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical evaporator.
The rotation driving means includes a peeling blade mounting member that is fixed to the peeling blade and rotates around the axis of the cylindrical evaporator, and a portion of the peeling blade mounting member that is below the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical evaporator is: It is located in front of the peeling blade in the rotation direction of the peeling blade.

  According to the ice making machine according to the present invention, the ice generated by sprinkling water on the outer peripheral surface of the evaporator is scraped off while the scraper rotates, so that the assembly adjustment and maintenance of the scraper are easy, It is possible to prevent the ice scraped off from the evaporator from blocking the dropping port.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Embodiment 1 FIG.
The configuration of the ice making machine according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention is shown in FIG.
This ice making machine is installed in an ice storage (not shown). Shafts 2 and 3 are formed at the upper and lower ends of the vertical cylindrical evaporator 1, and these are fixed to the fixed frame 4. A support frame 5 having a U-shape is rotatably attached to the shafts 2 and 3 so as to surround the cylindrical evaporator 1. Here, the support frame 5 constitutes a peeling blade mounting member.

  A refrigerant pipe for cooling the cylindrical evaporator 1 passes through the inside of the shaft 2 and enters the cylindrical evaporator 1, spirally winds the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical evaporator 1, and again from the shaft 2. It extends to the outside. Here, a portion where the refrigerant pipe enters the inside of the shaft 2 is referred to as a refrigerant inlet 6, and a portion where the refrigerant pipe exits from the shaft 2 is referred to as a refrigerant outlet 7.

  An annular lower tank 8 for storing ice-making water is installed at the bottom of the cylindrical evaporator 1. In order to collect the ice-making water flowing down the outer peripheral surface 1 a of the cylindrical evaporator 1 in the lower tank 8, a water collecting slope 9 is installed from the lower end of the cylindrical evaporator 1 to the lower tank 8. In order to supply raw water for ice making to the lower tank 8, a water supply pipe 10 passes through the shaft 2 and is connected to a water supply valve 11 provided in the lower tank 8. The lower tank 8 is provided with a pump 12, and the pump 12 is connected to a water supply pipe 14 for supplying ice-making water to an annular upper tank 13 for storing ice-making water installed in the upper part of the cylindrical evaporator 1. Has been. The water supply pipe 14 passes through the shaft 2 and extends to the outside, and is further folded back so as to pass through the fixed frame 4 downward from above and to face the open surface of the upper tank 13.

The upper tank 13 is divided into two regions 16 and 17 by a partition plate 15. The water pipe 14 faces the open surface of the outer region 17. On the other hand, on the lower surface of the inner region 16, several watering pipes 18 for watering ice making water to the outer peripheral surface 1 a of the cylindrical evaporator 1 are installed.
As shown in FIG. 2, on the side of the partition plate, a communication hole 19 having an arbitrary shape such as a circle or a square is provided at a position away from the vicinity of the watering pipe 18.

A hub 20 having a bearing (not shown) provided therein is rotatably attached to the shaft 2, and the upper tank 13 is fixed to the hub 20 by three beam members 21 as shown in FIG. 3. ing.
The upper arm portion 22 of the support frame 5 is connected to the hub 20. A scraper 23 as a peeling blade is fixed to the support frame 5 so that the scraper blade edge gap can be adjusted. 3, the scraper 23 is disposed on the support frame 5 so that the lower arm portion 24 of the support frame 5 is in front of the scraper 23 with respect to the rotation direction indicated by the arrow.
A gear motor 26 is installed on the fixed wall 25, and a transmission belt 27 is provided between the gear motor 26 and the hub 20.
Here, the support frame 5, the hub 20, the gear motor 26, and the transmission belt 27 constitute a rotation driving means.

Next, the operation of the ice making machine according to the first embodiment will be described.
A refrigerant that has passed through a compressor, a condenser, and an expansion valve (not shown) passes through the inside of the shaft 2 from the refrigerant inlet 6 and enters the inside of the cylindrical evaporator 1 and spirally winds the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical evaporator 1 to discharge the refrigerant. The cylindrical evaporator 1 is cooled by flowing out from 7. The refrigerant is circulated by returning the gas refrigerant after the heat exchange to the compressor.
Raw water for ice making is supplied to the lower tank 8 through the water supply pipe 10. The water supply amount is adjusted by the water supply valve 11 so that the ice-making water in the lower tank 8 becomes a constant amount. The ice making water in the lower tank 8 is fed by the pump 12 to the region 17 outside the upper tank 13 through the water feeding pipe 14. The ice-making water that has moved to the inner region 16 through the communication hole 19 formed in the partition plate 15 is sprinkled from the sprinkling pipe 18 to the outer peripheral surface 1a of the cylindrical evaporator 1 and is made on the outer peripheral surface 1a. The ice making water that has not been made ice flows down the outer peripheral surface 1a, is collected in the lower tank 8 through the water collecting slope 9, and is used again as ice making water.

  When the gear motor 26 rotates, the hub 20 is driven to rotate by the transmission belt 27. As a result, the upper tank 13 and the support frame 5 fixed to the hub 20 rotate together. Ice is obtained by scraping off the ice generated on the outer peripheral surface 1a of the cylindrical evaporator 1 while the scraper 23 rotates.

Thus, by making the ice generated on the outer peripheral surface 1a of the cylindrical evaporator 1 into a structure in which the scraper 23 scrapes off, maintenance and workability of adjusting the scraper blade edge gap can be improved.
Further, by installing the scraper 22 so that the support frame 5 is in front of the scraper 23 with respect to the rotation direction, ice scraped off by the scraper 22 is placed on the lower arm portion 24 of the support frame 22. Accumulation can be prevented and clogging of the ice drop opening can be prevented.
Further, even if the operation is started when the ambient temperature is high, or even if the diameter of the cylindrical evaporator 1 is rapidly contracted, the scraper blade edge gap increases, so that the blade edge of the scraper 23 is the outer peripheral surface 1a of the cylindrical evaporator 1. There is no danger of touching. Therefore, it is possible to prevent accidents such as damage to the expensive cylindrical evaporator 1 or mixing of metal pieces with ice.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
Next, an ice making machine according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 4, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 are the same or similar components, and detailed description thereof is omitted.
In the ice making machine according to the second embodiment, only the upper end shaft 2 is fixed to the fixed frame 4 with respect to the first embodiment.
Further, in contrast to the first embodiment, the water supply pipe 14 is opposed to the open surface of the inner region 16 of the upper tank 13, and the water spray pipe 18 is provided on the lower surface of the outer region 17.
Further, with respect to the first embodiment, the gear motor 26 is installed on the fixed frame 4, and the hub 20 is driven to rotate via the transmission disk 28.

  In this way, by fixing only the upper end shaft 2, it is possible to remove the fixing member from the ice falling area, so that an auxiliary scraper or the like for removing the accumulated ice pieces becomes unnecessary. Further, it is possible to prevent the auxiliary scraper from being deformed or dropped and the ice outlet from being blocked.

The cylindrical evaporator 1 is not limited to one in which the refrigerant pipe is spirally wound on the inner peripheral surface, and is composed of two cylindrical layers, and the refrigerant inlet communicates with one cylindrical layer. The refrigerant outlet may be in communication with the other cylindrical layer.
Further, in the cylindrical evaporator 1, if a rounded corner is formed at the boundary 1b between the outer peripheral surface 1a and the upper slope portion 29, the water falling on the slope of the slope portion can be smoothly transmitted to the outer peripheral surface without being scattered. .

It is a block diagram of the ice making machine which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a side view of the partition plate installed in the upper tank which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is sectional drawing along the III-III line of FIG. It is a block diagram of the ice making machine which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a block diagram of the ice making machine which concerns on the conventional embodiment. It is the figure which looked at the inside of the ice making machine from the X direction of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Cylindrical evaporator, 2, 3 axis | shaft, 4 fixed frame, 5 support frame, 6 refrigerant | coolant inlet, 7 refrigerant | coolant outlet, 20 hub, 23 scraper, 26 gear motor, 27 transmission belt, 28 transmission disk.

Claims (2)

A cylindrical evaporator that is cooled by a refrigerant circulating inside and generates an ice layer on the cylindrical outer surface;
A peeling blade that is rotationally driven along the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical evaporator and scrapes off the ice layer generated on the outer peripheral surface;
An ice making machine comprising rotation driving means for rotating the peeling blade along the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical evaporator. The rotation drive means includes a peeling blade mounting member to which the peeling blade is fixed and rotates about the axis of the cylindrical evaporator,
2. The ice making machine according to claim 1, wherein a part of the peeling blade attachment member that is below the outer peripheral surface of the cylindrical evaporator is positioned in front of the peeling blade in a rotation direction of the peeling blade.

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