JP3263704B2 - Auger ice machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure of a so-called auger type ice making machine in which ice growing on an inner surface of a frozen casing to be cooled is scraped and transferred by a rotating auger.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an auger type ice making machine, an auger having a spiral peeling blade on an outer peripheral surface rotates to scrape off ice,
Since the ice is sent upward and dehydrated and solidified through the ice compression passage of the pressing head, a large load and torque are applied to the upper and lower support bearings of the auger. In addition, since these supporting bearings are exposed to the ice-making water space used mainly for mixing in beverages, an oil lubricant or the like that allows a high load on the bearings cannot be used. I have to do it. Therefore, the conditions for using the bearing are quite severe.

[0003] In addition, tap water is used as ice making water, but it may contain a large amount of silica, calcium, or the like as impurities. Since only water is cooled and frozen, only the water has an impurity concentration. In some cases, impurities may precipitate near the upper support bearing portion and enter the bearing surface as foreign matter, and therefore, the wear of the upper support bearing portion in particular tends to be accelerated.

On the other hand, as described above, the auger has a spiral peeling blade, which scrapes off the ice that has grown on the inner surface of the freezing casing with this peeling blade. Good. However, as described above, if the amount of wear on the support bearing that supports the upper part of the auger increases, the rotation axis of the auger becomes unstable and oscillates, causing the peeling blade to contact and interfere with the inner surface of the freezing casing, causing damage or accidents. May cause. Therefore, advanced techniques are required to reduce the wear of the support bearing and to manage the life of the support bearing, including the amount of wear.

Therefore, it is very important to control the amount of wear of the support bearing on the auger of the auger type ice making machine, and the present applicant has previously made a proposal to electrically detect the amount of wear. See Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 62-130374). In this proposal, an annular wear detecting means in which an electrode is embedded is arranged around the upper support bearing so that the wear is accompanied by the wear of the bearing. When the wear amount reaches a predetermined value, the embedded electrode is exposed and comes into contact with the upper support bearing portion of the auger to close the circuit, and indicates that the wear amount has reached a predetermined value (permissible limit). . Further, a proposal has been made to mechanically detect the amount of wear of the upper support bearing portion and instruct replacement of the bearing (see Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3-36858). According to this proposal, a hard adjusting washer is arranged between the lower part of the pressing head supporting the upper bearing and the upper shaft part of the auger, and the wear of the bearing proceeds, and the adjusting washer contacts the pressing head. The degree of abrasion is determined based on the presence or absence of scratches.

[0006]

In the wear detecting means using the above-mentioned electrodes, the electrodes need to be insulated. However, since the distance between the outer peripheral surface of the electrodes and the upper shaft portion is extremely small, high processing is required in manufacturing. Accuracy was required, cost was increased, and it was difficult to confirm the insulation distance. For this reason, malfunctions due to electric leakage are also expected, and the reliability tends to be lacking. On the other hand, in the proposal using the adjustment washer, generation of a flaw cannot be detected from the outside, and the pressing head must be disassembled to detect the presence or absence of the flaw. In addition, since the washer is scratched only after contact, it is not known how much the wear has progressed until then. It was big. Accordingly, the present invention is to provide an auger type ice making machine which can be easily inspected from the outside without requiring disassembly and the like as much as possible, and has a simple and inexpensive bearing wear detecting structure. It is the purpose.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an auger-type ice making machine comprising: a refrigerating casing having a refrigerant evaporating tube wound on an outer surface; An auger rotatably provided with a spiral blade formed on the outer surface thereof, a pressing head fixed inside the upper end of the freezing casing and supported through an upper shaft portion of the auger,
An auger-type ice making machine having a motor for driving the auger, wherein a gauge ring is formed above the pressing head coaxially with an upper shaft portion of the auger and defining a predetermined gap between the outer peripheral surface of the upper shaft portion. Is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an auger ice maker according to the first aspect, wherein the pressing head has an annular step formed at an upper end portion for fitting a gauge ring. .

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the ice making machine of the first aspect, an annular step is provided on an outer peripheral portion of the gauge ring, and the annular step is fitted to an upper end of the freezing casing. And

[0010]

The auger-type ice maker according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises:
By providing a gauge ring on the upper part of the pressing head coaxially with the upper shaft of the auger and defining a predetermined gap between the outer circumferential surface of the upper shaft and the gauge ring, the gauge ring is fitted to the pressing head by rotation of the auger. When the abrasion occurs in the bearing and the upper shaft portion of the auger is displaced from the center position, a predetermined gap between the gauge ring and the upper shaft portion of the auger changes.

In the auger type ice making machine according to the present invention, the gauge ring is fitted to the annular step formed at the upper end of the pressing head, so that the gauge ring and the upper shaft of the auger are good. A coaxial relationship.

Further, in the auger type ice making machine according to the third aspect, an annular step is provided on the gauge ring, and the annular step is fitted to the upper end of the freezing casing, whereby the gauge ring and the upper shaft of the auger are connected. A good coaxial relationship results.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts. In FIG. 1, a freezing casing 11 of the auger type ice making machine 10 has a cylindrical shape as a whole, and is connected via a housing 15 to a casing 13 a surrounding an output shaft of the geared motor 13. Normal bolts are used for connecting the casing 13a to the housing 15 and for connecting the housing 15 to the freezing casing 11. A water supply hose 17 is connected to a lower portion of the freezing casing 11, and an outer surface above the water supply hose 17,
A refrigerant evaporating tube 19 forming a part of a refrigeration circuit (not shown) is wound, and a heat insulating material 21 is provided outside the refrigerant evaporating tube 19. The heat insulating material 21 includes the refrigerant evaporating pipe 19 and the refrigeration casing 1.
1 so that the refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant evaporation pipe 19 takes heat only from the freezing casing 11 side.

In the freezing casing 11, an auger 23 is provided.
Is rotatably provided, and its lower shaft portion 23a is
5 is supported by the housing 15. Auger 2
The upper shaft portion 23b of the third is supported by a pressing head 29 via a bearing 27. The pressing head 29 is provided inside the upper end of the freezing casing 11 and is fixed by bolts, but defines a compression path (not shown) for ice in cooperation with the freezing casing 11. Further, at the upper end of the freezing casing 11,
The ice discharge passage 31 is fixed, and the upper shaft 2 of the auger 23 is fixed.
A cutter 33 is fixed to the upper end of 3b. The central portion of the auger 23 has a large diameter, and a peeling blade 23c is spirally formed on the outer peripheral surface.

The basic operation of the auger-type ice making machine 10 having the above structure will be described. Ice making water introduced into the freezing casing 11 from a not-shown ice making water tank via the water supply hose 17 is supplied to the refrigerant evaporating pipe 19. Heat is deprived by the refrigerant flowing through and cooled. The cooled ice making water freezes on the inner surface of the freezing casing 11 and grows.
The auger 23 is rotated by the
Scrapes the ice and sends it upward. The scraped ice contains water and is pushed into the ice compression passage (described later) of the pressing head 29 by the peeling blade 23c of the auger 23. The ice is dehydrated and solidified as it passes through the ice compression passage, and is pushed into the ice discharge passage 31. The extruded ice is broken by a cutter 33 that rotates together with the auger 23, and is sent out to an ice storage (not shown) through the ice discharge passage 31.

On the upper surface of the pressing head 29, a gauge ring 35 machined with high precision is provided. This state is enlarged and shown in FIG. 2 (plan view) and FIG. 3 (partial sectional view).
2 and 3, an annular groove 29b is formed by machining on the upper end surface of the pressing head 29 that defines a plurality of outer peripheral portions of the ice compression passage 29a, and functions as a trap space for foreign substances such as dust. ing. Further, in addition to the bearing insertion hole and the annular groove 29b of the pressing head 29, an annular step 29c is provided by machining with one chuck operation. In this annular step 29c,
The gauge ring 35 is fitted by an appropriate hook eye method. A recess 29d is provided in connection with the annular step 29c, and is used for attaching and detaching the gauge ring 35.

As described above, the gauge ring 35 fitted to the annular step 29c of the pressing head 29 has a good coaxial relationship with the upper shaft portion 23b of the auger 23 similarly inserted through the pressing head 29. Assuming that the allowable wear dimension of the bearing portion is L, the design difference (gap) 2 · d between the inner diameter D ₂ of the gauge ring 35 and the outer diameter d ₂ of the upper shaft portion 23b is L−0.05 ≦ d. It is preferable to set the range of ≦ L. Also, the allowable wear dimension L
When the design gap between the inner surface of the freezing casing 11 and the peeling blade 23c of the auger 23 is C, taking into account the manufacturing tolerance of the related parts, L = (1/2 to 3/5) × C Is set.

When operating the auger type ice making machine 10 using the gauge ring 35 having the shape and dimensions set as described above and the upper shaft portion 23b of the auger 23, the operation is continued for a certain period of time, and the ice Release passage 31 and cutter 33
And inspect the gap between them. Here, since the gauge ring 35 is provided on the upper surface of the pressing head 29, there is no need to disassemble and remove the pressing head 29 as in the above-described conventional proposal. As a result of the investigation, if the place with the smallest gap is L / 2 or more, the operation is continued as it is, and if it is smaller than L / 2, the wear state of the bearing 27 and the upper shaft part 23b is disassembled and confirmed, and replaced. .

FIG. 4 shows one inspection method.
If the skimmer gauge 41 having a thickness of L / 2 is inserted into a wide gap, moved in the a or b direction, and goes around without stopping, there is no need for component replacement. On the other hand, when the skimmer gauge 41 stops, it also moves in the opposite direction, and it can be seen that the greater the angle θ formed between the stop positions a ′ and b ′ in the a and b directions and the center O, the greater the amount of wear. As described above, the gap between the gauge ring 35 and the upper shaft portion 23b of the auger 23 can be inspected.
By removing 5, it is possible to easily detect and remove foreign matter accumulated in the annular groove 29b.

FIGS. 5 and 6 show another embodiment of the present invention. Pressing head 2 on top of freezing casing 11
When fixed 90 with bolts, the upper end portion 11a of the refrigeration casing 11 is arranged to be higher than the pressing head upper surface 290e by H _1, to form an annular recess 50 by the refrigeration casing 11 and the pressing head 290. On the other hand, gauge ring 3
50 has an annular step 350a by machining of one chuck operation.
The provided, this time, was formed so that the height H ₂ of the annular step 350a is lower than the height H ₁ of the annular recess 50, annular shoulder 35
The gauge ring is attached to the upper part of the pressing head by fitting Oa into the annular concave portion 50 in the state of a gap.
The inner diameter D ₂ of the gauge ring 350 forms the outer diameter d ₂ of the upper shaft portion 23b of auger so that the same relationship as the foregoing embodiments.

The gauge ring 35 fitted as described above.
0 is the upper shaft portion 23 of the auger inserted through the pressing head 290.
Located b good coaxial relationship, by examining the gap between the outer diameter d ₂ of the inner diameter D ₂ and auger upper shaft portion 23b of the gauge ring 350, the easy wear condition of the bearing, and more accurate Can be determined. Further, since the gauge ring 350 is fitted to the upper end portion 11a of the freezing casing 11, the attachment and detachment becomes easy.

FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 show still another embodiment of the present invention. The upper end surface 291e of the pressing head 291 and the upper end 11a of the freezing casing 11 are formed at the same height. An annular step 360a projecting downward is provided on the outer periphery of the gauge ring 360.
Is fitted to the upper outer side of the freezing casing 11 so that a gauge ring is attached to the upper part of the pressing head so that the gauge ring 360 and the upper shaft portion 23b of the auger have a good coaxial relationship. This allows the gauge ring 36
0 Check the clearance between the outer diameter d ₂ of the inner diameter D ₂ and auger upper shaft portion 23b of the easy wear condition of the bearing, and can be determined with high accuracy. Since the gauge ring 360 is also fitted to the upper outside of the freezing casing 11, it can be easily attached and detached.

[0023]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention,
According to the auger-type ice making machine described in the above, by providing a gauge ring coaxially with the upper shaft portion of the auger and defining a predetermined gap between the outer peripheral surface of the upper shaft portion at the upper portion of the pressing head When the rotation of the auger causes wear on the bearing fitted to the pressing head and the upper shaft of the auger is displaced from the center position, a predetermined gap between the gauge ring and the upper shaft of the auger changes. Therefore, this change can be easily found visually, and further, a change in the gap between the gauge ring and the upper shaft portion can be detected by a skimmer gauge without disassembling the pressing head. The wear state of the part can be easily detected.

Further, according to the auger type ice making machine of the second aspect, the gauge ring is fitted to the annular step machined at the upper end of the pressing head, so that the upper shaft of the gauge ring and the auger are fitted. Are in a good coaxial relationship, and the state of wear of the bearing portion can be determined easily and more accurately.

Further, according to the auger-type ice making machine of the third aspect, an annular step is provided on the gauge ring, and the annular step is fitted to the upper end portion of the freezing casing, so that the upper axis of the gauge ring and the auger is provided. The bearings have a good coaxial relationship, and the wear state of the bearings can be determined easily and more accurately.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway elevation view showing an ice making mechanism of an auger type ice making machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial plan view showing an enlarged main part of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a gauge ring used in another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a bearing unit to which the gauge ring of FIG. 5 is attached.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing a gauge ring used in still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view showing a bearing unit to which the gauge ring of FIG. 7 is attached.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... auger type ice machine, 11 ... frozen casing, 13 ...
Motor, 19: refrigerant evaporation tube, 23: auger, 23b: upper shaft portion, 23c: peeling blade, 29, 290, 291: pressing head, 35, 350, 360: gauge ring.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-64-66398 (JP, A) JP-A-3-140615 (JP, A) JP-A-2-101296 (JP, A) 130374 (JP, U) Jikkei Hei 3-36858 (JP, Y2) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F25C 1/14 G01B 3/00-3/56

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A refrigerating casing in which a refrigerant evaporating tube is wound around an outer surface, an auger rotatably provided in the refrigerating casing and having a spiral blade formed on an outer surface, and fixed inside an upper end of the refrigerating casing. In an auger ice machine having a pressing head supported through an upper shaft of the auger and a motor for driving the auger, an outer peripheral surface of the upper shaft coaxial with the upper shaft of the auger on the pressing head. An auger-type ice maker, comprising a gauge ring that defines a predetermined gap between the auger-type ice maker and the auger-type ice maker. 2. The auger-type ice maker according to claim 1, wherein the pressing head has an annular step formed at an upper end thereof for fitting the gauge ring. 3. The auger ice maker according to claim 1, wherein an annular step is provided on an outer peripheral portion of the gauge ring, and the annular step is fitted to an upper end of the freezing casing.