JP3497973B2 - Auger ice machine - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an auger-type ice making machine mounted on a cup-type beverage vending machine, which carries out a fixed amount of ice chips and supplies the same to a cup when selling cold beverages. And, more particularly, to the structure of an ice storage room of an ice maker. 2. Description of the Related Art The auger type ice making machine mentioned above is well known, and its configuration is basically the same as that of FIG. That is,
The auger type ice machine comprises an assembly of an ice making section 2 containing an auger (screw-shaped rotary cutting blade) 1, an ice storage chamber 3 connected to the upper part of the ice making section 2, and a drive motor 4.
The flake-like ice thinly deposited on the evaporator wall of the ice making unit 2 is sent upward while scraping with the auger 1, compressed with the fixed blade 5 and solidified into a stick shape, and then cut short at the cut end at the outlet end thereof. Ice-like pieces 6 are made, sent to the ice storage room 3 and stored there. On the other hand, the ice storage chamber 3 is an insulated container having a circular cross section, and a carry-out door 7 is provided at an ice piece outlet opening at a lower peripheral surface thereof.
And an agitator 9 for stirring / unloading ice pieces protruding radially from a rotation axis 8 of a vertical axis connected to the upper end of the auger 1 in the container, and a cage (ice) arranged on the bottom side 10 that plays a role of draining the melted drain water), and a detection disk 12 and a detection switch 13 are provided on the upper lid 11 of the container to detect the amount of ice storage. With such a configuration, the auger 1 is operated during the ice making operation.
The agitator 9 rotating in conjunction with the agitator stirs the ice pieces 6 stored in the ice storage chamber 3 to prevent the ice pieces from fusing together to form a large ice block. When the predetermined amount is reached, the drive motor 4 is stopped by the signal of the detection switch 13 and the ice making operation is interrupted. Further, when an ice piece carry-out command is given to the ice maker in association with the selling operation of the cup-type beverage vending machine, the drive motor 4 is started and the agitator 9 is started.
, While simultaneously operating the solenoid 7a.
Is opened for a predetermined time, and the agitator 9 is
Scrapes off the ice pieces 6. The ice pieces 6 carried out from the ice piece outlet are put into a drink cup via a shooter (not shown). Then, when the ice storage amount decreases below the lower limit level, the ice making operation is restarted by the signal of the detection switch 13. In the auger type ice making machine described above, in the conventional design, the play gap between the inner peripheral wall surface of the ice storage chamber 3 and the tip of the arm of the agitator 9 is made as small as possible. By keeping it small, the agitator's stirring action extends to near the inner peripheral wall of the ice storage room. Conversely, there is no direct interference with the agitator 9 between the arm of the agitator 9 and the cage 10 arranged on the bottom side of the room. In order to avoid this, a sufficient play clearance is set. Specifically, the size of one piece of ice 6 is defined as A, and the space between the inner peripheral wall surface of the ice storage chamber 3 and the arm tip of the agitator 9 is set. The gap B is set so that B <A, and the gap C between the arm of the agitator 9 and the cage 10 arranged on the bottom side of the room is C> A. [0006] However, according to the knowledge obtained from the results of use of vending machines installed at locations in various locations, it has been found that ice machines have the following problems. In other words, the quality of tap water used as ice making water for ice making machines varies depending on the location of the vending machine, and ice chips made from water with high quality of dissolved impurities and dissolved air in water have low strength. In other words, even if a slight load is applied during the ice storage, the ice pieces are easily broken into small pieces. Moreover,
The finely crushed ice pieces are easily melted by the heat that enters the ice storage chamber through the heat insulating material from the outside, thereby generating a large ice block in which the ice pieces are welded to each other. On the other hand, in the conventional ice making machine, as described above, the play gap between the inner peripheral wall surface of the ice storage chamber 3 and the tip of the arm of the agitator 9 is set smaller than the size of one ice piece. Therefore, when the agitator is rotated in the ice storage chamber, the ice pieces 6 sandwiched between the tip of the arm and the inner wall surface of the ice storage chamber are finely broken. As a result, the finely broken ice pieces 6 in the ice storage are separated from each other. It tends to fuse together to form a large ice block. On the other hand, since the gap C between the arm of the agitator 9 and the cage 10 arranged on the bottom surface side of the room is set to be larger than one ice piece, the bottom side placed on the cage 10 is reversed. The agitator 9 does not sufficiently agitate the ice pieces 6, and the ice pieces are likely to fuse together due to the influence of the molten drain flowing down the room. In addition, ice storage room 3
The ice pieces 6 accumulated on the upper side of the stagnation remain stagnant due to insufficient agitating action of the agitator 9, and if this standing state becomes longer, the ice pieces will fuse together to form a large ice block. As a result, a large variation occurs in the amount of ice pieces carried out, and in the worst case, a large amount of ice blocks an ice piece outlet, and a situation occurs in which a predetermined amount of ice pieces is not carried out at the time of sale. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to quantify ice pieces stored in an ice storage room without great variation without being affected by the quality of ice making water. An object of the present invention is to provide an auger ice machine improved so that it can be carried out. According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, an ice storage chamber for storing ice pieces fed from an ice making section is a heat insulating container having a circular cross section, and a peripheral surface thereof. Auger type ice maker equipped with an agitator for agitating / unloading ice chips with a plurality of arms protruding radially from the rotating shaft inside the room and an ice agitator arranged on the bottom side in, ice chips and larger gap than one minute ice pieces between the arm distal end of the inner circumferential wall surface and the agitator of the ice storage chamber, between the arm and the drainboard of the agitator
And setting a gap smaller than one
Ice piece exit with the carry-out door through which the agitator arm passes
The depth of the ice storage room on the inner wall of the ice storage room near the position before
A vertical rib-like projection substantially corresponding to the above was provided. [0010] [0011] By adopting the above Ki構 formed, the agitator with respect to the ice pieces stored in the ice storage chamber, and rib-like projections effectively functioning stirring / carrying-out of ice chips, and the rotation of the agitator Thus, it is possible to carry out a predetermined amount of ice pieces without great variation when the ice pieces are carried out. In addition, the effect of the fixed amount of ice chips is carried out by the inventors and evaluated and confirmed from the results of the actual machine test. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiment shown in FIG. That is, in this embodiment, the size of one ice piece 6 sent from the ice making section 2 to the ice storage chamber 3 is defined as A, and the gap between the inner peripheral wall surface of the ice storage chamber 3 and the arm tip of the agitator 9 is defined as A. B is set so that B> A, and the gap C between the arm of the agitator 9 and the cage 10 arranged on the bottom surface side of the room is set so that C <A. Further, on the inner wall surface of the ice storage room 3, there is provided a vertical rib-shaped projection 14 having a length substantially corresponding to the depth H of the ice storage room from the upper end to the lower end portion where the cage 10 is arranged. The rib-shaped protrusions 14 are formed by processing a metal plate having a mountain-shaped protrusion in the center of a vertically long band-shaped metal plate, or a resin molded product, and are formed on the inner wall surface at a position separated from the ice piece outlet of the ice storage chamber 3. Stick. Note that the rib-like projections 14 can be formed integrally with the inner wall of the ice storage room. According to the configuration of the present invention described above, the agitator and the rib-like projections function effectively for stirring / carrying out the ice pieces with respect to the ice pieces stored in the ice storage chamber. The rotation of the agitator does not crush the ice pieces, so that the ice pieces can be carried out by a fixed amount at a time when the ice pieces are carried out, thereby improving the function and reliability of the auger ice machine. .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an auger type ice making machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. Description 2 Ice making unit 3 Ice storage room 4 Drive motor 6 Ice piece 7 Carry-out door 8 Rotating shaft 9 Agitator 10 Retainer 14 Rib-shaped protrusion A Ice piece size B Between the inner peripheral wall surface of the ice storage room and the arm tip of the agitator Gap C between the agitator and the cave

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Claims (1)

(57) [Claims 1] An ice storage chamber for storing ice pieces sent from the ice making section is a heat insulating container having a circular cross section, and an ice piece outlet with a carry-out door is opened on a peripheral surface thereof. a plurality of arms protruding ice chips stirring / unloading of the agitator radially from the axis of rotation in the room, and the auger type ice making machine having a drainboard which arranged on the bottom side, the inner peripheral wall surface of the agitator of the ice storage chamber A gap larger than one piece of ice between the tip of the arm and the front
One piece of ice between the arm of the agitator and the child
Even with a small gap, set the agitator
Position before the ice chip exit with the carry-out door through which the arm passes
Near the depth of the ice storage room on the inner wall of the nearby ice storage room
An auger-type ice maker characterized by having vertical rib-shaped projections .