JP2005226919A - Ice making apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To supress distotion and defect caused by joining when joinning an ice making plate and an evaporator by friction agitation joining. <P>SOLUTION: This ice making apparatus 11 is provided with an ice making part 14 supplied with ice making water to make ice of required shape, and the evaporator 30 disposed at the ice making part 14 to cool the ice making part 14. The evaporator 30 comprises a plurality of body parts 34 in which passages of a refrigerant coming from a refrigerating system are partitioned, and ribs 36 provided in an outward extending manner at the plurality of body parts 34 respectively to abut in close contact with the ice making plate 16 when disposing the body parts 34 at the ice making plate 16. The ice making plate 16 and the ribs 36 are joined by friction agitation joining. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an ice making device that freezes supplied ice making water to continuously produce ice having a required shape in an ice making machine, and more particularly to an ice making device in which an ice making unit and an evaporator are fixed by friction stir welding. is there.

  An automatic ice maker that continuously manufactures ice (ice block) of a required shape is suitably used in facilities such as a coffee shop and a restaurant and other kitchens. These automatic ice making machines supply various types of ice making water from below to a large number of ice making chambers that open downward, such as a spray type that continuously produces ice blocks and a flow down type that causes ice making water to flow down on the ice making surface. There is something.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 6, there is an ice making machine equipped with a so-called open cell type ice making mechanism 10 as an injection type automatic ice making machine. In the ice making device 12 of the ice making mechanism 10, partition plates 18 are arranged vertically and horizontally on the lower surface of an ice making plate 16 arranged horizontally in a storage chamber, and a large number of ice making chambers 20 opening downward are defined in a grid pattern. An ice making unit 14 is provided. Further, an evaporation pipe (evaporator) 22 communicating with a refrigeration system (not shown) is closely and meanderingly arranged on the upper surface of the ice making plate 16, and the ice making chamber 20 is forcibly cooled by circulating a refrigerant during ice making operation. Ice blocks are produced by freezing supplied ice-making water. Further, during the deicing operation, hot gas is circulated through the evaporation pipe 22 to promote the release of ice blocks formed by icing in the ice making chamber 20.

Since the evaporation tube 22 needs to efficiently remove heat from the ice making unit 14, a copper tube having excellent thermal conductivity is generally used. Further, the members such as the ice making plate 16 and the partition plate 18 are provided with a required thermal conductivity so as not to disturb the cooling action of the evaporating tube 22, are excellent in corrosion, have a relatively high strength, and have problems in food hygiene. A metal material such as stainless steel is used. The ice making plate 16 and the evaporation tube 22 are joined at the abutting portion by using a welding means such as brazing (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 56-112484

  By the way, it is necessary to apply a high temperature to the soldering, which is a joining means between the ice making plate 16 and the evaporator tube 22, in order to melt the solder or the solder that is the filler material, and this heat makes the ice making plate 16 or the evaporator tube. There is a possibility that distortion and defects will occur in 22. Further, the brazing has a drawback that it is difficult to obtain a joining strength that can withstand a severe thermal cycle in which cooling during ice making operation and heating during deicing operation are repeated. That is, the ice making plate 16 and the evaporation tube 22 are peeled off, so that not only heat exchange is effectively performed, but also a problem that solder or the like peels off is pointed out.

  That is, in view of the problems inherent in the ice making device according to the prior art, the present invention has been proposed to suitably solve these problems, and the ice making plate and the evaporator are joined by friction stir welding. An object of the present invention is to provide an ice making device in which distortion and defects due to bonding are suppressed.

In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems and achieve the intended purpose, an ice making device according to the present invention includes:
In an ice making apparatus comprising an ice making unit that is supplied with ice making water to generate ice of a required shape, and an evaporator disposed on an ice making plate that constitutes the ice making unit,
The evaporator is
A plurality of main body portions that define a flow path of the refrigerant coming from the cooling system inside;
Each of the plurality of main body portions is provided to extend outward, and includes ribs that come into close contact with the ice making plate when the main body portion is disposed on the ice making plate.
The ice making plate and the rib are configured to be joined by friction stir welding.

  According to the ice making device of the present invention, the evaporator extends outwardly to the plurality of main body portions that define the flow paths of the refrigerant coming from the refrigeration system and to the plurality of main body portions, respectively. And an ice making plate and an evaporator by joining the ice making plate and the rib by friction stir welding. Even if there are few joint interfaces with the main-body part which makes | forms, a big joint strength can be obtained and the reliability of joining can be improved. Since soldering material such as solder is not used like brazing, there is no peeling of solder. Since the friction stir welding does not involve melting, the temperature rise at the joining portion is relatively small and the thermal effect can be reduced, so that the occurrence of distortion and defects due to joining can be suppressed for the ice making plate and the evaporator. Also, ribs extending outward are provided in the main body part in which the refrigerant flow path is defined, and the ribs of the adjacent main body parts, the metal plate joined to the ice making plate, and the end face of the rib or rib Since the end face of the ice making plate is joined, it is possible to prevent the rotating tool from interfering with the protruding main body portion by defining the flow path during the friction stir welding. And a rib can be fixed more firmly by carrying out friction stir welding to the metal plate joined to the ice-making board. Furthermore, when the main body portion is disposed on the ice making plate, a flow path is defined between the inside of the main body portion and the ice making plate, so that the refrigerant flowing through the flow path is directly applied to the ice making plate. Because of the contact, heat exchange is performed efficiently. Furthermore, since a groove is provided in the ice making plate, and the flow path of the adjacent main body is communicated through the groove, the flow path of the refrigerant can be suitably cooled by a simple process. A path can be formed.

  Next, a preferred embodiment of the ice making device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. For convenience of explanation, the same components as those of the ice making mechanism shown in FIG. 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 1, an ice making device 11 according to an embodiment includes an ice making unit formed of an ice making plate 16 disposed horizontally inside an ice making machine and a partition plate 18 disposed on the lower surface of the ice making plate 16. 14 and an evaporator 30 that defines a refrigerant flow path 38 in a meandering manner on the upper surface of the ice making plate 16. The ice making plate 16 is a horizontally long and thin rectangular plate made of stainless steel. The partition plate 18 extends downward on the lower surface of the ice making plate 16 vertically and horizontally, and has an ice making chamber 20 that opens downward. A large number of grids are defined. The ice making chamber 20 is supplied with ice making water stored in an ice making water tank (not shown) by a supply means such as a pump.

  The evaporator 30 includes a plurality (three in the embodiment) of main body portions 34 that are arranged in parallel on the upper surface of the ice making plate 16 so as to extend along the longitudinal direction thereof. The main body portion 34 is made of a metal material such as a copper material having excellent thermal conductivity, is formed in a bowl shape, and extends in parallel to the ice making plate 16 from its open end toward the outside. Ribs 36 are provided. That is, the rib 36 comes into close contact with the ice making plate 16 when the main body 34 is disposed on the ice making plate 16. The main body 34 is disposed with the lower surface of the rib 36 in contact with the ice making plate 16 with its open end facing the ice making plate 16, and in a bowl shape with the upper surface of the ice making plate 16. A refrigerant flow path 38 coming from a refrigeration system (not shown) is defined between the curved main body 34 (see FIG. 2). The adjacent main body portions 34, 34 are arranged in parallel with the end edges of the adjacent ribs 36, 36 extending in the longitudinal direction abutting each other, and the abutting portion 42 is formed by friction stir welding described later. It is joined. Further, the side edge of the rib 36 is grooved so that the joining can be easily performed, and the joining is performed when the ribs 36 and 36 of the adjacent main body portions 34 and 34 are abutted. Inclination is provided so as to open upward on the side to be operated.

  In the main body portion 34 disposed on the outermost side of the ice making plate 16, the end surface of the rib 36 extending from the main body portion 34 toward the edge of the ice making plate 16, and the end surface of the ice making plate 16 Are arranged in a line. That is, the ribs 36 of the main body 34 serving as the outer peripheral edge of the evaporator 30 are aligned with the end surfaces serving as the outer peripheral edge of the ice making plate 16, and the overlapping portions 44 are joined by friction stir welding. It has become. Note that the overlapping portion 44 may be grooved so that it can be easily joined, like the butting portion 42.

  A concave groove 24 opened upward is formed on the upper surface of the ice making plate 16 (see FIG. 2). The concave groove 24 is provided along the short direction of the ice making plate 16, which is a direction orthogonal to the extending direction of the main body 34 in the ice making plate 16, and ends of a pair of adjacent main body portions 34, 34. Corresponding to the part, they are alternately provided along the flow direction of the refrigerant. Further, when the main body 34 is disposed on the upper surface of the ice making plate 16, the refrigerant defined in the main bodies 34, 34 in the main bodies 34, 34 adjacent to the end of the groove 24 is provided. It faces the flow paths 38 and 38, respectively. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, in the embodiment, corresponding to the flow direction of the refrigerant flowing from the upper right to the lower left of the ice making plate 16, the left end portion of the main body portion 34 located at the uppermost stream and the downstream (intermediate) thereof. A concave groove 24 that communicates the left end portion of the main body portion 34 that is located, and a concave groove 24 that communicates the right end portion of the main body portion 34 that is located in the middle and the right end portion of the main body portion 34 that is located on the most downstream side. . In this manner, a refrigerant flow path is formed which connects the end portions of the adjacent flow paths 38 and meanders the upper surface of the ice making plate 16 from upstream to downstream. The depth of the concave groove 24 is set to be smaller than the thickness of the ice making plate 16 so that the concave groove 24 does not protrude toward the ice making chamber 20 (see FIG. 3).

  Refrigerant pipes 40 and 40 that supply refrigerant or hot gas from a refrigeration apparatus (not shown) to the front and rear ends of the flow path 38 in the evaporator 30 and return the refrigerant or hot gas circulated through the evaporator 30 to the refrigeration apparatus. Are arranged respectively. The refrigerant pipe 40 is connected to the main body portion 34 and communicates with a flow path 38 defined in the main body portion 34. In the embodiment, a refrigerant or hot gas is supplied from the refrigerant pipe 40 at the upper right of the ice making plate 16 to connect the flow path 38 of the main body 34 and the flow paths 38, 38 between the adjacent main bodies 34, 34. The refrigerant or hot gas circulates through the evaporator 30 through the groove 24 and is led out from the lower left refrigerant pipe 40. During the ice making operation, the refrigerant supplied from the refrigerant pipe 40 connected to the refrigeration apparatus circulates through the flow path 38 to remove heat from the ice making plate 16 and the partition plate 18 and forcibly cool them. Thus, the ice making water supplied to the inner wall surface (ice making surface) of the ice making chamber 20 is frozen. Further, at the time of deicing operation after the completion of ice making, the ice making chamber 20 is heated by hot gas circulating in the flow path 38 to promote ice block deicing.

  The main body portion 34 constituting the evaporator 30 is disposed in parallel with the upper surface of the ice making plate 16 by abutting the side edges of the ribs 36 and 36 in the adjacent main body portions 34 and 34. Are joined by the friction stir welding, and are also joined to the ice making plate 16 located below the butting portion 42. In this friction stir welding, a special rotating tool 50 constituted by a shoulder portion 50a and a pin 52 having a smaller diameter than the shoulder portion 50a is used. The rotating tool 50 is pushed into the abutting portion 42 in close contact with the rotating tool 50 until the shoulder 50a reaches the surface of the rib 36, and the rotating tool 50 is moved along the line to be joined. At this time, plastic flow due to heating by the frictional heat and rotation of the rotary tool 50 is generated around the pin 52 pushed into the abutting portion 42, and when the rotary tool 50 is moved along the joining line, Due to the effect of the special shape of 52, the metal on the front surface of the pin 52 moves to the rear of the pin 52 while plastically flowing, a joint structure is formed, and the butt portion 42 and the ice making plate 16 are joined. Then, like the adjacent main body portions 34, 34, the end surfaces of the ribs 36 in the main body portion 34 serving as the outer peripheral edge of the evaporator 30 and the end surfaces of the ice making plate 16 corresponding to the end surfaces are bonded by friction stir welding. The evaporator 30 composed of a plurality of main body portions 34 is fixed to the ice making plate 16.

(Effects of Example)
Next, the operation of the ice making device according to the embodiment will be described. The main body portions 34, 34 constituting the evaporator 30 and the rib 36 forming the outer peripheral edge of the evaporator 30 and the ice making plate 16 are joined and fixed by friction stir welding. Since the friction stir welding does not involve melting, the temperature rise of the base material can be relatively small and the thermal effect can be reduced, so that the ice making plate 16 and the main body 34 can be prevented from being distorted or defective due to the joining. Even if the joining interface between the ice making plate 16 and the main body 34 constituting the evaporator 30 is small, a large joining strength can be obtained and the joining reliability can be improved. There is no need for consumables such as filler metal as in brazing, so the cost can be reduced. As described above, the ice making plate 16 is made of stainless steel, and the main body portion 34 is made of copper in order to improve thermal conductivity. Conventionally, it has been difficult to bond firmly between such dissimilar metals, but excellent friction strength can be obtained by using friction stir welding. By using the friction stir welding, compared to brazing using a filler material such as solder or brazing, no heat source other than friction heat is required, no welding rod or flux is required, Since no gas or spatter is generated at the time of joining as in welding or gas welding, the load on the environment can be reduced. By the way, in the joining by the friction stir welding, when the base material (material to be joined) has low rigidity, the base material bends due to the contact of the rotary tool 50, and therefore backing is necessary. However, in the ice making device 11 of the present invention, when joining a copper material having a relatively low rigidity, the ice making plate 16 having a rigidity such as stainless steel functions as a backing, so that it is possible to join without requiring extra equipment. can do.

  In the evaporator 30, the main body portion 34 is provided with a rib 36 extending outward from an open end edge of the main body portion 34 that defines the flow path 38, and the adjacent main body portions 34, 34 are connected to each other. 36 and 36 are abutted and joined. In other words, the abutting portion 42 to be joined is located at a substantially central portion between the adjacent main body portions 34, 34, so that the rotation does not interfere with the main body portions 34, 34 projecting upward. The shoulder portion 50 a of the tool 50 can be brought into contact with the butting portion 42. As described above, the main body portion 34 is provided with the ribs 36 extending outward, and the ribs 36 and 36 of the adjacent main body portions 34 and 34 and the end surfaces of the ribs 36 and the end surface of the ice making plate 16 are joined. Therefore, the friction stir welding can be suitably performed by preventing the rotating tool from interfering with the protruding main body 34 by defining the flow path 38 during the friction stir welding. Further, since the flow path 38 is defined by the upper surface of the ice making plate 16 and the bowl-shaped main body 34, the refrigerant or the like flowing through the flow path 38 is in direct contact with the ice making plate 16. Excellent heat exchange efficiency.

  In the embodiment, the rib 36 extends from the open end edge of the main body 34 curved in a bowl shape. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. Alternatively, a configuration in which the rib 76 is formed to extend may be employed. That is, a refrigerant flow path 38 is defined inside the main body 74 constituting the evaporator 70 independently of the ice making plate 16. Further, a hole 74 a communicating with the flow path 38 and the groove 24 defined therein is formed in a portion of the main body 74 corresponding to the groove 24.

[Example of change]
In the embodiment, the side edges of the ribs 36 and 36 in the adjacent main body portions 34 and 34 are abutted and fixed by friction stir welding to form the evaporator 30, but as shown in FIG. The structure which interposes the metal plate 62 between the ribs 36 and 36 in 34 and 34 may be sufficient. The metal plate 62 is set to have substantially the same dimension as the thickness of the rib 36, and is separated in the lateral direction on the upper surface of the ice making plate 16 by a method such as brazing so as to correspond to the side edge of the rib 36 in advance. Are joined together. And the main-body part 34 is fitted to the recessed part enclosed by the said metal plates 62 and 62, and the edge of the said rib 36 and the edge of the metal plate 62 are joined by friction stir welding. As described above, the evaporator 60 according to the modified example can set the rib extension dimension small by interposing the metal plate 62 between the main body portions 34, and more firmly separate the main body portions 34. There is an advantage that it can be fixed to the ice making plate 16 via the plate 62. In addition, since the structure of other parts, such as the ice making part 14 and the ditch | groove 24, is the same as the structure demonstrated in the Example, description is abbreviate | omitted.

1 is a schematic perspective view showing a part of an ice making device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic perspective view which cuts and shows a part of principal part of the ice making apparatus of an Example. It is AA sectional drawing of FIG. It is AA sectional drawing which shows another example of the evaporator of an Example. It is sectional drawing which shows the ice making apparatus of the example of a change. It is sectional drawing which shows the conventional ice making mechanism.

Explanation of symbols

14 ice making parts, 16 ice making plates, 24 concave grooves, 30 evaporators, 34 body parts, 36 ribs,
38 flow path, 42 butting part, 60 evaporator, 70 evaporator, 74 body part, 76 rib

Claims (7)

An ice making unit (14) that is supplied with ice making water to generate ice of a required shape, and an evaporator (30, 60, 70) disposed on an ice making plate (16) constituting the ice making unit (14). In the ice making device provided,
The evaporator (30, 60, 70)
A plurality of main body portions (34, 74) that define a flow path (38) for refrigerant coming from the refrigeration system therein;
Each of the plurality of main body portions (34, 74) is provided to extend outward, and when the main body portion (34, 74) is disposed on the ice making plate (16), the ice making plate (16) And ribs (36,76) that are in close contact with the
An ice making device characterized in that the ice making plate (16) and the ribs (36, 76) are joined by friction stir welding.   The plurality of main body portions (34, 74) are disposed on the ice making plate (16) so that the respective ribs (36, 76) abut each other, and the ribs (36, 36, 76, 76) The ice making device according to claim 1, wherein the butt portion (42) is joined by friction stir welding.   The plurality of main body portions (34, 74) are disposed on the ice making plate (16) so that the metal plate (62) joined to the ice making plate (16) and the respective ribs (36, 76) face each other. The ice making device according to claim 1, wherein the butted portions (42) of the ribs (36, 36, 76, 76) are joined by friction stir welding.   In the main body (34, 74) disposed on the outermost side of the ice making plate (16), it extends from the main body (34, 74) toward the edge of the ice making plate (16). The ice making device according to claim 1, wherein the end face of the rib (36, 76) and the end face of the ice making plate (16) are joined by friction stir welding.   The main body (34) is disposed on the ice making plate (16), so that a refrigerant flow path (38) is defined between the inside of the main body (34) and the ice making plate (16). The ice making device according to claim 1.   The ice making device according to claim 1, wherein the main body (74) has an independent refrigerant flow path (38) defined therein. A concave groove (24) is formed at a required position of the ice making plate (16) in which the plurality of main body portions (34, 74) are disposed, and the adjacent main body portions (34, 34) via the concave groove (24). , 74, 74). The ice making device according to claim 1, wherein the refrigerant flow paths (38, 38) communicate with each other.

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