JP4657707B2 - Automatic ice making equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ice making device that performs operations of water supply, ice making, and ice discharging, and relates to an improvement of an automatic ice making device that is provided in a freezer and repeatedly executes ice making according to a predetermined sequence.

  In a conventional automatic ice making device, water is poured into a solid ice making tray having a predetermined shape as in the example of Patent Document 1, and after making ice by cooling the ambient temperature, the ice is removed from the ice making plate. Heat is applied to the ice tray using a heater, the ice is melted while melting the boundary of the ice in contact with the ice tray, and the ice is finally scraped by rotating the ice discharge arm connected to the motor. The method is used.

  In addition, in the automatic ice making devices disclosed in Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3, a twisting force is applied to the ice tray to easily release the ice made from the ice tray, and the adhesion between the ice tray and ice is released. Then, the method of transferring ice to the ice storage box is adopted.

  Furthermore, the automatic ice making device disclosed in Patent Document 4 is typified by a bimetal element or shape memory element that causes a shape change at a temperature lower than 0 ° C. on the bottom surface side of each of the plurality of recessed ice chambers provided in the ice tray. A temperature-sensitive displacement element is placed, and a method of deicing ice made by the deformation force of this element is adopted.

  On the other hand, from the aspect of improving the ice making capacity, the ice making apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 5 employs a method in which the ice making plate itself is cooled by blowing cool air to the bottom of the ice making plate, in particular, to increase the ice making capacity. .

As another method for improving the ice making capacity, the ice making device kit disclosed in Patent Document 6 can be attached to the automatic ice making device disclosed in Patent Document 1 separately from the automatic ice making device. The cooling fan blows cold air from the upper side of the automatic ice making device to the entire ice tray to improve the ice making capacity.
US Patent No. 5,010,738 JP-A-49-56233 JP-A 49-104242 JP 2003-161554 A US Pat. No. 6,351,955 US Pat. No. 6,438,988

  However, in an automatic ice making apparatus equipped with a deicing heater as in the prior art, heat is applied to the ice tray using the heater in the freezer, which increases the power consumption of the freezer and is inconvenient for the user. This contributes to an increase in costs.

  In addition, when the ice tray is twisted and the ice is released from the ice tray, stress is frequently applied to the ice tray due to repeated water supply, ice making, and ice removal, which may cause problems in durability. is doing.

  The conventional example disclosed in Patent Document 4 is an example in which the above-described drawbacks are improved. However, it is necessary to install individual temperature-sensitive displacement elements on each of the bottom surfaces of a plurality of ice chambers. It becomes an ice tray.

  The conventional examples disclosed in Patent Document 5 and Patent Document 6 focus on improving ice-making ability, and adopt the same ice discharging method as the conventional example disclosed in Patent Document 1, and thus are the same. In addition, since heat is applied to the ice tray using a heater in the freezer, the power consumption of the freezer is increased, which causes an inconvenience of cost increase for the user.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described drawbacks, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic ice making device having a configuration in which the ice removing heater is eliminated and the ice made in the ice tray can be easily removed. Objective.

  The present invention is provided with means for forming a temperature distribution in which freezing progresses from the opening side of the ice chamber to the water filled in each ice chamber of the ice tray and completes freezing near the bottom side of the ice chamber. The main feature is that the ice immediately before completion bursts bubbles remaining in the vicinity of the bottom of the ice chamber and detaches itself from the ice tray.

  As a result, the automatic ice making device of the present invention eliminates the need to heat the ice making tray with the heater when the ice made is detached from the ice making tray, and therefore wastes power saving caused by using the heater in the freezer. It is possible to prevent an increase in cost that is inconvenient for the user. Further, since it is not necessary to twist the ice tray when deicing, it is possible to prevent the problem of durability of the ice tray that has been caused by twisting the ice tray. Furthermore, it is not necessary to install individual temperature-sensitive displacement elements on the bottom surfaces of the plurality of ice chambers, and as a result, it is possible to provide an automatic ice making device configured with an inexpensive ice tray.

  In the automatic ice making apparatus of the present invention, the ice immediately before the completion of freezing causes air bubbles remaining in the vicinity of the bottom of the ice chamber to rupture and separate from the ice tray by itself. The main feature is that it includes means for positively forming a temperature distribution in which freezing proceeds and freezing is completed near the bottom of the ice tray.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of an automatic ice making device according to the present invention. In the figure, 101 is a control box of an automatic ice making device, 102 is an ice tray, 103 is an ice chamber wall, 104 is an ice storage box, 105 is an ice discharging mechanism, 106 is an ice discharging claw, 107 is an outer box, and 108 is a blower. . In this automatic ice making device, a bracket (not shown) provided on a part of the side wall of the ice tray 102 is fixed to an engaging portion provided in advance in the refrigerator, and the ice chamber wall 103 is filled with cold air inside the refrigerator. The water thus formed is frozen, and the ice that has been frozen is dropped into the ice storage box 104 while being scraped off by the ice discharging claw 106 of the ice discharging mechanism 105.

  In order to further explain this configuration, FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of a part thereof. A motor 204 is housed in the control box 101 to rotate the ice discharging mechanism 105, and a pinion gear 205 is provided on the output shaft of the motor 204. The driven gear 206 that meshes with the pinion gear 205 is coupled to the support shaft of the ice discharging mechanism 105, and the ice discharging claw 106 that is integrally formed with the ice discharging mechanism 105 by the rotation of the motor 204 can also rotate within the ice chamber wall 103. It has become. Inside the ice discharging mechanism 105, a ventilation main path 202 and a ventilation branch path 203 are provided in advance.

  The control box 101 is provided with a wind tunnel 211 formed of a wind tunnel wall 201 along the air flow path of the blower 108, and the end side of the air flow is directed to the ventilation main path 202 inside the ice discharging mechanism 105. It is provided in the position which touches substantially so that the flow path may be connected. As a result, the cool air of the refrigerator blown by the blower 108 is converged and blown in the F direction, and blown out to each ice chamber via the ventilation branch 203 provided in the ice discharging mechanism 105.

  On the other hand, an outer box 107 is mounted on the outside of the ice chamber wall 103 of the ice tray 102, and the ice tray 102 is blocked by the air layer 212 against the cold air of the refrigerator, so that the water 209 stored in each ice chamber is Since the cold air is sent in the ventilation branch 203, the temperature distribution in the ice chamber is formed with a temperature gradient such that freezing proceeds from the opening side of the ice chamber. The air layer 212 may be filled with a porous material such as a foam material. In several places on the bottom of the ice tray 102, ice making sensors 210 are provided to detect the completion of icing. The motor 204 is activated in response to the output of the sensor and the ice formed by the ice catching claw 106 of the ice removing mechanism 105 is frozen. The action which scrapes off is performed.

  Prior to the operation as described above, water is poured into the ice tray 102 from the water inlet 208 having the water injection valve 207. Control of the water injection valve 207, monitoring of the output of the ice making sensor 210, rotation control of the motor 204 and control of the blower are performed. , Which is performed by a control circuit (not shown) housed in the control box 101, it is possible to execute an ice making cycle from water injection to ice discharge.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the state of water freezing and icing in each ice chamber wall 103 of the ice tray 102 will be described. In FIG. 3, the water stored in the ice chamber wall 103 is cold air blown out from the ventilation passage 203 inside the ice discharging mechanism 105, freezing proceeds from the ice chamber opening surface side where the cold air hits, and immediately before the completion of freezing. Becomes the ice 301 in a state where the residual bubbles 302 contained in the water are collected while being gradually compressed on the bottom side. When the cool air is blown at the ice chamber opening, if the motor 204 is repeatedly rotated at an appropriate angle in the CW and CCW directions, the ice discharging mechanism 105 is also repeatedly repeated at a predetermined angle in the P direction and the anti-P direction. Since it is oscillated, it is possible to disperse the cold air blown out from the ventilating branch passage 203 uniformly on the opening side of each ice chamber wall 103 of the ice tray 102, thereby allowing the freezing to proceed uniformly.

  When icing is almost completed, the ice surrounding the residual bubbles 301 cannot endure compression, particularly on the bottom side of the dish, and the residual bubbles 302 burst and become ice 401 having a slight chip 402 at a part thereof. The bursting force of the residual bubbles 302 is extremely large, and the close contact between the ice chamber walls 103 in contact with the ice 401 is released, so that the residual bubbles 302 can move freely in the ice chamber. The process leading to this state can be monitored by the output of the ice making sensor 210. After the ice 401 is released, the ice discharging claw 106 is rotated in the P direction along with the rotation of the ice discharging mechanism 105 so that the ice 401 is moved. The ice 401 is scraped off and dropped into the ice storage box 104 to complete a series of ice making cycles. Thereafter, water is injected from the water injection port 208 again, and the next ice making cycle is started.

  FIG. 5 shows a main control block diagram of a control circuit built in the automatic ice making apparatus of the present invention. Reference numeral 501 denotes a CPU of the central processing unit, 210 denotes an ice making sensor, 502 denotes an internal temperature sensor, 503 denotes an ice full sensor, 504 denotes a motor control circuit, 505 denotes a fan control circuit, and 506 denotes a water injection valve control circuit. The CPU 501 sends a valve opening signal to the water injection valve 207 via the water injection valve control circuit 506 at the start of the ice making cycle, and starts water injection and when a predetermined amount of water is stored in each ice chamber, the valve closing signal is sent to the water injection valve 207. To stop water injection. Thereafter, the CPU 501 monitors the output of the ice making sensor 210 and, when detecting that the icing has been completed, sends a driving signal to the motor 204 via the motor driving circuit 504 to rotate the ice discharging mechanism 105 and discharges it. Do ice. The output of the internal temperature sensor 502 is used as a reference value for detecting the icing state, or is used for detecting an internal abnormality.

  As described above, in the automatic ice making device of the present invention, natural ice removal is realized by appropriately controlling the position of residual bubbles immediately before completion of freezing in each ice chamber, and the ice tray material, blower control method, It is apparent that modifications can be made within the scope described in the claims of the present invention, without being limited to the description of the above-described one embodiment such as the cold air ventilation method and the motor control method.

  It is possible to prepare for a section of a freezer and can be applied to an automatic ice making device that automatically creates ice in a predetermined ice making cycle.

It is explanatory drawing which showed the implementation method of the automatic ice making apparatus of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which detailed the internal structure of the automatic ice making apparatus of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state just before completion of freezing in the automatic ice making apparatus of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which shows the ice discharging state of the automatic ice making apparatus of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which showed the main control block diagrams of the control circuit incorporated in the automatic ice making apparatus of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Control box 102 Ice tray 103 Ice chamber wall 104 Ice storage box 105 Ice discharging mechanism 106 Ice discharging claw 107 Outer box 108 Blower 202 Ventilation main path 203 Ventilation branch path 204 Motor 207 Water injection valve 208 Water inlet 209 Water 210 Ice sensor 211 Wind tunnel 212 Air layer 301,401 Ice 302 Residual bubbles

Claims (3)

An ice tray that can be provided in a part of a freezer and is configured by arranging a plurality of ice chambers that are open on the upper surface, and a shaft portion that is provided on the upper side of the ice tray along the alignment direction of the ice chambers. An ice discharging mechanism configured to support a plurality of ice discharging claws corresponding to each ice chamber, and after freezing water poured into each ice chamber of the ice tray, the ice discharging mechanism is rotated. In an automatic ice making device that scrapes out the ice in each ice chamber with each ice discharging claw,
Providing a ventilation main path for guiding cool air inside the shaft portion of the ice discharging mechanism, and forming a plurality of ventilation branches branched from the ventilation main path at positions corresponding to the ice chambers of the shaft portion;
Cold air guided to the main ventilation path is supplied to the ice chambers from each ventilation branch from the opening surface side, and freezing proceeds from the opening surface side in each ice chamber of the ice tray, and freezing occurs near the bottom side of the ice tray. An automatic ice making device characterized in that a temperature distribution is completed. The shaft portion of the exhaust ice mechanism, ice time, so as to swing blowing cold air to the ice chamber from the ventilation crossroads, automatic ice according to claim 1, characterized in that it is driven to rotate in forward and reverse directions apparatus. The ice tray is provided with an outer box that covers the outside and forms an air layer between the ice tray and the outside of the ice tray that is shielded from cold air and has a temperature distribution with a temperature gradient in the ice chamber. The automatic ice making device according to claim 1 , wherein the automatic ice making device is formed.