JP2021018010A - Ice storage - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide an ice storage capable of preventing ice blocks from entering the inside of a slat conveyor from a clearance between front and rear slats.SOLUTION: An ice storage comprises: a storage space 10 where ice blocks are deposited and stored; a slat conveyor 11 that is installed on the floor of the storage space 10, and conveys accumulated and stored ice blocks; a crusher 13 that is installed near the terminal part of the slat conveyor 11, and crushes ice blocks carried by the slat conveyor 11; and a screw conveyor 14 that is installed below the crusher 13, and carries out the crushed ice blocks to the outside, wherein the outer surface of a front end 20a of a slat 20 constituting the slat conveyor 11 is in contact with the inner surface of a rear end 20b of the slat 20 adjacent thereto on the front side.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to an ice storage having a function of discharging deposited and stored ice blocks.

Schematic diagrams of the ice storage 50 that has been generally used conventionally are shown in FIGS. 5 (A) and 5 (B). The ice storage 50 is a screw conveyor 53 that discharges the ice block G to the outside of the ice storage 50, a movable shielding plate 54 that shields the screw conveyor 53, and an ice block G that is suspended by a winch 55 and supplied from the ice machine 51. It is provided with a rake conveyor 52 for evenly leveling.
When the ice block G is stored in the ice storage 50, as shown in FIG. 5A, the rake conveyor 52 is driven clockwise with the screw conveyor 53 shielded by the shielding plate 54, and the ice is stored from the ice machine 51. The ice blocks G are stacked while uniformly leveling the ice blocks G supplied into the refrigerator 50.
On the other hand, when discharging the ice block G from the ice storage 50, as shown in FIG. 5 (B), the shielding plate 54 is rotated to provide a gap between the shielding plate 54 and the accumulated ice block G, and a rake conveyor is provided. By driving the 52 counterclockwise, the ice block G is dropped onto the screw conveyor 53. The dropped ice block G is discharged to the outside of the ice storage 50 by the screw conveyor 53.

However, in the case of the above-mentioned ice storage, the ice block is supplied to the upper part of the accumulated ice block, and the ice block is discharged from the upper part of the accumulated ice block, which is a so-called "first-in / last-out" method. Therefore, the lower ice block is kept in the storage. The remaining ice block in this part becomes very hard root ice and cannot be discharged. Therefore, there is a problem that the root ice must be removed manually on a regular basis.

Therefore, in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, as shown in FIG. 3, the floor of the ice storage is configured by the slat conveyor 40, and the ice block is crushed by rotating around the horizontal axis near the end of the slat conveyor 40. An ice storage in which a plurality of crushers 41 are arranged side by side is disclosed. In this ice storage, the entire ice block deposited on the slat conveyor 40 is sent out to the crusher 41 by the slat conveyor 40, and the front surface of the accumulated ice block is crushed by the crusher 41 and discharged to the outside of the ice storage by the screw conveyor 42. The so-called "first-in first-out" method becomes possible, and all ice in the refrigerator can be discharged without generating root ice.
In the present specification, with respect to the slat conveyor, the end portion where the ice block is conveyed in the direction of the wrinkle is referred to as the "end end portion", and the end portion of the opposite wrinkle is referred to as the "start end portion".

Jikkenhei 4-46675 Jikkenhei No. 5-87774

In the case of the ice storage described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, if the storage amount is large, the central portion of the slat 43 constituting the slat conveyor 40 may bend downward due to the load of ice.
As shown in FIG. 3, in the slat 43 constituting the slat conveyor 40, the front end portion 43a is bent outward and the rear end portion 43b is bent inward. Therefore, when the central portion of the slat 43 is bent, a gap is generated between the front end portion 43a of the slat 43 and the rear end portion 43b of the slat 43 adjacent to the front of the slat 43, and the slat conveyor 40 passes through the gap. A lump of ice gets inside. As shown in FIG. 4, the ice block G that has entered the inside of the slat conveyor 40 is conveyed to the starting end of the sprocket conveyor 40, adheres to the shaft of the sprocket 45, and grows. When the grown ice block G has a diameter larger than that of the sprocket 45, the drive chain 44 is pressed outward, and a tensile force acts on the drive chain 44. When the tensile force exceeds the tensile yield strength of the drive chain 44, the drive chain 44 breaks.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ice storage capable of preventing ice blocks from entering the inside of a slat conveyor through a gap between front and rear slat.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention
A storage space where ice blocks are deposited and stored, a slat conveyor installed on the floor of the storage space and transporting the accumulated and stored ice blocks, and a slat conveyor installed near the end of the slat conveyor and transported by the slat conveyor. In an ice storage equipped with a crusher that crushes the coming ice block and a screw conveyor that is installed below the crusher and carries out the crushed ice block to the outside.
The outer surface of the front end portion of the slat constituting the slat conveyor is in contact with the inner surface of the rear end portion of the slat adjacent to the front.

In the present specification, with respect to the anteroposterior direction of the slats, the direction in which the ice block is transported is defined as "front", and the opposite direction is defined as "rear". Further, the slat surface on which the ice block is placed is referred to as "outside", and the slat surface on which the ice block is not placed is referred to as "inside".

In the present invention, since the outer surface of the front end portion of the slat constituting the slat conveyor is in contact with the inner surface of the rear end portion of the slat adjacent to the front, even if the central portion of the slat bends downward due to an ice load, There is little gap between the front and rear slats.

Further, in the ice storage according to the present invention, the front end portion of the slat is curved inward toward the tip of the slat conveyor, and the front end portion of the slat adjacent to the inner surface of the rear end portion of the slat is rearwardly curved. A curved recess that is in close contact with the outer surface may be formed.

In this configuration, the outer surface of the front end of the slat is in close contact with the inner surface of the rear end of the slat adjacent to the front, so even if the center of the slat bends downward due to ice load, it will be between the front and rear slat. There are no gaps.

Further, in the ice storage according to the present invention, a scraper that abuts on the outer surface of the slat and peels off the ice block adhering to the outer surface of the slat may be installed at the end of the slat conveyor. This prevents ice blocks adhering to the outer surface of the slats from entering the inside of the slat conveyor through the gaps between the front and rear slats.

Further, the ice storage according to the present invention may be provided with an urging means for urging the scraper toward the outer surface of the slats. This makes it possible to exfoliate the ice mass that firmly adheres to the outer surface of the slats.

In the ice storage according to the present invention, since the outer surface of the front end portion of the slat constituting the slat conveyor is in contact with the inner surface of the rear end portion of the slat adjacent to the front, the central portion of the slat is lowered by the ice load. Even if it bends, a gap is unlikely to occur between the front and rear slats, and it is possible to prevent ice blocks from entering the inside of the slat conveyor through the gap between the front and rear slats.

It is a side view near the terminal part of the slat conveyor which constitutes the ice storage which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a side view of the terminal part of the slat conveyor which concerns on a modification. It is a side view near the end of a conventional slat conveyor. It is a schematic diagram of the start end part of the conventional slat conveyor. It is a schematic diagram of a conventional ice storage, (A) shows a state at the time of ice block storage, (B) shows a state at the time of ice block discharge.

Subsequently, an embodiment embodying the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings, and the present invention will be understood.

In the ice storage according to the embodiment of the present invention, a slat conveyor 11 for transporting the deposited and stored ice blocks is installed on the floor of the storage space 10 where the ice blocks are deposited and stored (see FIG. 1).
A crusher 13 for crushing the ice block conveyed by the slat conveyor 11 is installed near the end of the slat conveyor 11, and a screw for carrying the ice block crushed by the crusher 13 out of the ice storage is below the crusher 13. The conveyor 14 is installed.

The slat conveyor 11 is an endless conveyor in which strip-shaped slat 20s are connected in the width direction. A drive shaft 23 to which a plurality of drive sprockets 22 is attached is arranged at the end of the slat conveyor 11, and a driven shaft (not shown) to which a plurality of driven sprockets (not shown) is attached is arranged at the start of the slat conveyor 11. The drive chain 24 is wound between the drive sprocket 22 and the driven sprocket. Each slat 20 is fixed to the drive chain 24 by a countersunk screw 25. The top surface of the countersunk screw 25 is flush with the outer surface of the slats 20 so that the head of the countersunk screw 25 does not protrude from the outer surface of the slats 20.

As shown in FIG. 1, each slat 20 has a front end portion 20a bent inward of the slat conveyor 11 and a rear end portion 20b bent outward of the slat conveyor 11, and is outside the front end portion 20a of the slat 20. The surface is in contact with the inner surface of the rear end 20b of the slat 20 adjacent to the front. That is, the rear end portion 20b of the slat 20 adjacent to the front is located on the front end portion 20a of the slat 20.

The crusher 13 is composed of a rotating shaft 17 arranged in the longitudinal direction of the slats 20 and a plurality of protruding pins 19 planted on the outer peripheral surface of the rotating shaft 17 at predetermined intervals, and has a plurality of steps in the vertical direction. Have been placed.

The screw conveyor 14 is composed of a rotating shaft 16 arranged in the longitudinal direction of the slats 20 and a spiral screw 18 formed on the outer peripheral portion of the rotating shaft 16, and has a U-shaped cross section that expands upward. It is installed in the trough 15.

At the end of the trough 15 facing the slat conveyor 11, a scraper 26 is installed that abuts on the outer surface of the slat 20 and peels off ice blocks adhering to the outer surface of the slat 20. The scraper 26 is provided with an actuator 27 as an urging means for urging the scraper 26 toward the outer surface of the slats 20.

In a conventional ice storage, when a small ice block spills from the gap between the slat conveyor 40 and the end of the trough 42a (see FIG. 3), or when the central part of the slat 43 bends due to excessive ice weight, the end of the trough 42a It was bent, and the gap between the slat conveyor 40 and the end of the trough 42a could be further expanded. However, in this ice storage, since the scraper 26 is installed at the end of the trough 15, the above problem does not occur.

Next, the operation of the ice storage having the above configuration will be described.
(1) An ice block is thrown into the storage space 10 in the ice storage through a supply port (not shown) provided on the ceiling of the ice storage. The charged ice block is deposited on the slat conveyor 11.
(2) The slat conveyor 11 is driven, and the ice block accumulated on the slat conveyor 11 is conveyed toward the crusher 13. As shown by the arrows in FIG. 1, the front end portion 20a of the slat 20 that is bent inward of the slat conveyor 11 is conveyed to the wrinkle. Incidentally, the transport speed of the slat conveyor 11 is about 10 cm / min.

(3) At the end of the slat conveyor 11, the crushers 13 in a plurality of stages evenly fix and dissociate the accumulated ice blocks from the upper part to the lower part. The rotation speed of the crusher 13 is about 5 rpm.
(4) The ice block crushed by the crusher 13 falls on the screw conveyor 14 and is discharged to the outside of the ice storage. At that time, the ice block adhering to the outer surface of the slats 20 is peeled off by the scraper 26. The rotation speed of the screw conveyor 14 is about 15 to 60 rpm.

FIG. 2 shows a modified example of the slat conveyor.
In this slat conveyor 12, the shape of the slat 21 is different from that of the slat 20 of the slat conveyor 11. The outer surface of the front end portion 21a of the slat 21 has a step lower than that of the intermediate portion, and is curved inward toward the tip of the slat conveyor 12. Further, on the inner surface of the rear end portion 21b of the slat 21, a curved recess is formed which is in close contact with the outer surface of the front end portion 21a of the slat 21 adjacent to the rear.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the configuration described in the above-described embodiment, and is within the scope of the matters described in the claims. It also includes other possible embodiments and variations. For example, in the above embodiment, the sprocket has 8 teeth, but the sprocket is not limited to this, and 10 teeth or the like may be used.

10: Storage space, 11, 12: Slat conveyor, 13: Crusher, 14: Screw conveyor, 15: Trough, 16, 17: Rotating shaft, 18: Screw, 19: Protruding pin, 20, 21: Slat, 20a, 21a : Front end, 20b, 21b: Rear end, 22: Drive sprocket, 23: Drive shaft, 24: Drive chain, 25: Countersunk screw, 26: Scraper, 27: Actuator

Claims (4)

A storage space where ice blocks are deposited and stored, a slat conveyor installed on the floor of the storage space and transporting the accumulated and stored ice blocks, and a slat conveyor installed near the end of the slat conveyor and transported by the slat conveyor. In an ice storage equipped with a crusher that crushes the coming ice block and a screw conveyor that is installed below the crusher and carries out the crushed ice block to the outside.
An ice storage that is characterized in that the outer surface of the front end portion of the slats constituting the slat conveyor is in contact with the inner surface of the rear end portion of the slats adjacent to the front. In the ice storage according to claim 1, the front end portion of the slat is curved inward toward the tip of the slat conveyor, and the inner surface of the rear end portion of the slat is outside the front end portion of the slat adjacent to the rear. An ice storage that is characterized by having curved recesses that are in close contact with the surface. The ice storage according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a scraper that abuts on the outer surface of the slat and peels off the ice mass adhering to the outer surface of the slat is installed at the end of the slat conveyor. Ice storage. The ice storage according to claim 3, further comprising an urging means for urging the scraper toward the outer surface of the slats.

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