JP6993841B2 - Ice machine - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an ice maker that employs an electronic expansion valve whose opening degree is controlled by a control device as an expansion valve of a refrigerating device that cools an ice making section.

Patent Document 1 discloses an ice maker that produces ice in an ice making section. The ice machine of Patent Document 1 has an ice making section that freezes ice making water to produce ice, an ice making water tank that stores ice making water that is circulated and supplied between the ice making sections, and an ice making section that produces ice water in the ice making water tank. It is equipped with a water supply pump that sends the ice to the ice, a refrigeration device that cools and heats the ice making section, and a control device that controls the operation of the refrigeration device and the water supply pump. The refrigerating device of this ice maker is a compressor that compresses the refrigerant, a condenser that cools and liquefies the refrigerant pumped from the compressor, and a temperature-sensitive expansion that expands the liquefied refrigerant liquefied by the condenser. A valve, an evaporator that vaporizes the liquefied refrigerant expanded by the expansion valve to cool the ice making section, a hot gas path that sends hot gas from the compressor to the evaporator, and a hot gas interposed in the hot gas path. Has a valve.

In this ice maker, the liquefied refrigerant pumped from the compressor and liquefied by the condenser is expanded by the expansion valve, and the expanded liquefied refrigerant is vaporized by the evaporator to cool the ice making part. The ice making operation in which the ice making water sent by the water pump is frozen in the ice making section to make ice, and after the ice making operation, the hot gas refrigerant sent from the compressor is sent to the evaporator by opening the hot gas valve. The ice-making part is heated and the ice-removing operation of removing the ice from the ice-making part is alternately and repeatedly executed.

JP-A-2009-2438223

In the above-mentioned ice maker of Patent Document 1, when the ice removal operation is executed and the hot gas valve is opened, the hot gas refrigerant sent from the compressor is sent to the evaporator of the ice making section, and the temperature-sensitive expansion valve is The opening was large corresponding to the ice making section to which the hot gas refrigerant was sent. For this reason, if the hot gas valve is closed after the ice in the ice making section is removed, a large amount of refrigerant whose temperature is not low will flow into the ice making section through the expansion valve with a large opening. It was not possible to quickly cool the ice to a low temperature before sending the ice-making water to the part, and there was a risk that the ice-making operation would take a long time. Although an ice maker that uses an electronic expansion valve instead of the temperature-sensitive expansion valve as in Patent Document 1, has been developed, it is electronic from the end of the ice removal operation to the time when the ice making water is sent to the ice making section. No consideration was given to the opening degree of the expansion valve, and there was a possibility that the ice-making water could not be quickly cooled to a low temperature by the time the ice-making water was sent to the ice-making part. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention makes it possible to quickly cool an ice making section to a low temperature before sending ice making water to the ice making section after closing the hot gas valve in an ice making machine that repeatedly performs an ice making operation and an ice removing operation. With the goal.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has an ice making section that freezes ice making water to produce ice, an ice making water tank that stores ice making water that is circulated and supplied between the ice making sections, and an ice making water in the ice making water tank. It is equipped with a water pump that sends water to the ice making section, a refrigerating device that cools and heats the ice making section, and a control device that controls the operation of the refrigerating device. A condenser that cools and liquefies the liquefied refrigerant, an electronic expansion valve that expands the liquefied refrigerant liquefied by the condenser with the opening controlled by a control device, and a liquefied refrigerant expanded by the electronic expansion valve. It has an evaporator that vaporizes and cools the ice making section, a hot gas path that sends hot gas from the compressor to the evaporator, and a hot gas valve interposed in the hot gas path, and the control device is a compressor. The liquefied refrigerant pumped from the ice machine and liquefied by the condenser is expanded by an electronic expansion valve whose opening is controlled, and the expanded liquefied refrigerant is cooled by the heat of vaporization vaporized by the evaporator to make ice. The ice making operation that freezes the ice making water sent by the water pump in the section to make ice, and after the ice making operation, the hot gas refrigerant sent from the compressor is sent to the evaporator by opening the hot gas valve to make ice. It is an ice maker that heats the part and repeatedly executes the ice removal operation to separate the ice from the ice making part. The control device removes the ice from the ice making part during the ice removing operation. After closing the hot gas valve, the opening of the electronic expansion valve was controlled to be smaller than the middle between the maximum and the minimum before the ice making water was sent to the ice making section by the water pump during the ice making operation. It provides an ice machine characterized by this.

In the ice maker configured as described above, the control device removes the ice from the ice making section during the ice making operation, closes the hot gas valve, and then uses a water pump to connect to the ice making section during the ice making operation. Since the opening of the electronic expansion valve was controlled to be smaller than the middle between the maximum and the minimum before the ice making water was started to be sent, before the ice making water was sent to the ice making section after the hot gas valve was closed. The ice making part could be cooled quickly to a cold temperature, and it was possible to prevent the ice making operation from becoming long.

In the ice maker configured as described above, the control device removes the ice from the ice making section during the ice making operation, closes the hot gas valve, and then uses a water pump to connect to the ice making section during the ice making operation. It is preferable to maintain the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve in a range smaller than the middle until the ice making water is started to be delivered.

It is a schematic diagram of the ice making machine by this invention. It is a block diagram of a control device.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the ice machine of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, in the ice making machine 10, a large number of downwardly open ice making chambers 13 provided in the ice making portion 11 are closed by a water pan 22 so as to be openable and closable, and ice is made from the water pan 22 to each ice making chamber 13. It is a so-called closed cell type ice maker that ejects water to produce ice. The ice making machine 10 alternately executes an ice making operation in which the ice making water is frozen in the ice making unit 11 and an ice removing operation in which the ice frozen in the ice making unit 11 is removed from the ice making unit 11 to produce ice. An electronic expansion valve 33 whose opening degree can be adjusted by the control of the control device 40 is adopted as the expansion valve of the refrigerating device 30 that cools and heats the ice making unit 11.

The ice making section 11 has a shallow box shape with a horizontally arranged lower surface open, and a large number of ice making small chambers 13 are formed by the partition members 12. Further, below the ice making section 11, an ice storage 14 for storing ice produced in each ice making small chamber 13 is provided.

The ice making machine 10 includes a water feeding unit 20 that sends out ice making water to the ice making unit 11. The water supply unit 20 is provided with a water dish 22 having an ice making water tank 21 integrally provided at the lower portion. The ice-making water tank 21 stores ice-making water that is circulated and supplied to the ice-making unit 11. The water dish 22 is tiltably supported between a closed position where the ice making chamber 13 is closed by approaching the lower side of the ice making portion 11 and an open position where the ice making chamber 13 is opened away from the lower side of the ice making portion 11. Has been done. The water dish 22 is provided with an opening / closing mechanism 23 that tilts between the closed position and the open position, and the water dish 22 opens / closes the ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11 by the opening / closing mechanism 23. The opening / closing mechanism 23 includes an actuator motor 23a, and the water pan 22 is tilted between the closed position and the open position by driving the actuator motor 23a.

The water supply unit 20 is provided with a water supply means 24 for supplying ice-making water to the ice-making water tank 21, and a water pump 25 for injecting and sending the ice-making water in the ice-making water tank 21 to the ice-making chamber 13. The water supply means 24 includes a water supply pipe 24a connected to the ice water tank 21 and a water supply valve 24b interposed in the water supply pipe 24a, and the ice water sent from the water supply pipe 24a is an ice water tank by opening the water supply valve 24b. It is supplied to 21. The ice-making water supplied to the ice-making water tank 21 is jetted and sent out to the ice-making chamber 13 by the water pump 25.

The ice machine 10 includes a refrigerating device 30 that cools and heats the ice making unit 11. The refrigerating device 30 expands a compressor 31 that compresses the refrigerant, a condenser 32 that cools and liquefies the refrigerant pumped from the compressor 31, and a liquefied refrigerant liquefied by the condenser 32 to liquefy the low pressure. It includes an electronic expansion valve 33 as a refrigerant and an evaporator 34 that vaporizes the liquefied refrigerant expanded by the electronic expansion valve 33 to cool the ice making unit 11. In the refrigerating apparatus 30, a compressor 31, a condenser 32, an electronic expansion valve 33, and an evaporator 34 are connected in an annular shape by a refrigerant pipe to form a refrigerating circuit. The electronic expansion valve 33 is an expansion valve (motor expansion valve) whose opening degree can be adjusted by a control signal of a control device 40 described later. The evaporator 34 is spirally arranged on the upper surface of the ice making section 11, and the ice making section 11 is cooled by the heat of vaporization when the liquefied refrigerant passing through the evaporator 34 is vaporized.

Further, the refrigerating device 30 includes a hot gas pipe (hot gas path) 35 that supplies hot gas to the evaporator 34 during the deicing operation. The hot gas pipe 35 connects the downstream of the compressor 31 and the upstream of the evaporator 34 so that the hot gas from the compressor 31 is guided to the evaporator 34. A hot gas valve 36 is interposed in the hot gas pipe 35, and the hot gas sent from the compressor 31 is guided to the evaporator 34 through the hot gas pipe 35 by opening the hot gas valve 36. When the hot gas is guided to the evaporator 34 by opening the hot gas valve 36 during the deicing operation, the inside of the ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11 is heated by the hot gas, and the frozen ice in the ice making chamber 13 is deiced. Will be done.

The ice making section 11 is provided with a temperature sensor 37, and the temperature sensor 37 detects the temperature of the ice making section 11. The temperature sensor 37 is mainly used not only for controlling the adjustment of the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 during the ice making operation, but also for the completion of ice making during the ice making operation and the completion of deicing during the deicing operation. Is used to detect. In this embodiment, the temperature sensor 37 is provided in the central portion of the ice making section 11, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the temperature sensor 37 is provided at the inlet portion of the refrigerant of the evaporator 34 of the ice making section 11 and the inlet portion of the refrigerant. / Or it may be provided at the outlet portion, or a temperature sensor 37 is provided in the ice making water tank 21 so as to indirectly detect the temperature of the ice making portion 11 from the temperature of the ice making water. May be.

The ice maker 10 includes a control device 40, and as shown in FIG. 2, the control device 40 includes an actuator motor 23a of the opening / closing mechanism 23, a water supply valve 24b, a water pump 25, and a compressor 31 of the refrigerating device 30. , Is connected to the hot gas valve 36 and the temperature sensor 37. The control device 40 has a microcomputer (not shown), and the microcomputer includes a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and a timer (all of which are not shown) connected via a bus. The control device 40 repeatedly executes an ice making operation in which the ice making water is frozen in the ice making unit 11 to produce ice and an ice removing operation in which the ice frozen in the ice making unit 11 is removed by the ice making operation. Have.

Next, the ice making program of the ice making machine 10 will be described. When the ice making machine 10 is started, the ice removing operation is preliminarily executed so that no ice remains in the ice making chamber 13 of the ice making unit 11. In the deicing operation, the hot gas valve 36 is opened while the compressor 31 is operated, and the water pan 22 is tilted to the open position by the actuator motor 23a of the opening / closing mechanism 23. The hot gas sent from the compressor 31 is guided to the evaporator 34 through the hot gas pipe 35 to heat each ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11. When the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37 becomes 5 ° C. or higher as a predetermined temperature for detecting that the deicing is completed, the control device 40 has no ice left in the ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11, that is, the deicing is completed. The hot gas valve 36 is closed. When the hot gas valve 36 is closed, the refrigerant pressure-fed from the compressor 31 does not pass through the hot gas pipe 35 and is sent to the condenser 32, and the liquefied refrigerant liquefied by the condenser 32 undergoes electronic expansion. The valve 33 expands to become a low-pressure liquefied refrigerant, and the low-pressure liquefied refrigerant is vaporized by the evaporator 34 to cool the ice-making unit 11. Further, the control device 40 tilts the water pan 22 to the closed position by the actuator motor 23a of the opening / closing mechanism 23, and supplies ice-making water to the ice-making water tank 21 by opening the water supply valve 24b. When the ice making water tank 21 reaches a predetermined water level, the control device 40 closes the water supply valve 24b to end the water supply.

After the ice making operation is executed in advance in the ice making unit 11, the control device 40 repeatedly executes the ice making operation and the ice removing operation in the ice making unit 11. As described above, when the hot gas valve 36 is closed, the refrigerant pumped from the compressor 31 is liquefied by the condenser 32 to become a liquefied refrigerant, and the liquefied refrigerant expands by the electronic expansion valve 33 to become a low-pressure liquefied refrigerant. It is sent to the evaporator 34 of the ice making unit 11. At this time, since it is not necessary to cool the ice-making water until the ice-making water is sent to the ice-making unit 11 by the water pump 25, the load required for cooling the ice-making unit 11 is small, and the control device 40 is electronically expanded. The opening degree of the valve 33 is smaller than the middle between the maximum and the minimum, and specifically, the opening degree is equivalent to the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 controlled when the temperature of the ice making unit 11 becomes 0 ° C. or lower. It is controlled to be. In this way, when the load required to cool the ice making section 11 is small, the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 is narrowed down to make it smaller, and the ice making section 11 is quickly cooled by a low-temperature refrigerant. ..

In the ice making operation, with the ice making section 11 sufficiently cooled as described above, the ice making water in the ice making water tank 21 is started to be sent to each ice making small chamber 13 of the ice making section 11 by the water pump 25. Since the temperature of the ice-making water in the ice-making water tank 21 is not low because it is before circulating between the ice-making part 11 and the ice-making part 11, the load for cooling the ice-making water in the ice-making part 11 is high. When the ice making water is started to be sent to the ice making section 11, the refrigerant is sent to the ice making section 11 with an opening similar to the opening of the electronic expansion valve 33 that is controlled when the temperature of the ice making section 11 becomes 0 ° C. or lower. , There is a possibility that the refrigerant required for cooling cannot be delivered to the entire ice making section 11. Further, even though it is necessary to send a large amount of refrigerant to the ice making section 11, if the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 is controlled based on the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37, the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 can be responsively improved. It may be out of control. Therefore, the control device 40 of the ice making machine 10 determines the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 when the ice making water in the ice making water tank 21 is started to be sent to each ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11 by the water pump 25. The opening degree of the ice making unit 11 is controlled to be larger than the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 which is controlled when the temperature of the ice making unit 11 becomes 0 ° C. or lower. As a result, when the ice making water in the ice making water tank 21 is started to be sent to each ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11 by the water pump 25, the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 is sufficient without being based on the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37. It has become possible to deliver a large amount of refrigerant with good responsiveness to the ice making unit 11 by controlling the opening degree at which a large amount of refrigerant can be delivered.

Further, as described above, the electronic expansion valve 33 has a predetermined opening degree from the start of sending the ice-making water in the ice-making water tank 21 to the ice-making unit 11 by the water supply pump 25 until the rise of the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37 stops. Under the above control, the ice-making water in the ice-making water tank 21 is cooled by sending a large amount of refrigerant with good responsiveness to the ice-making unit 11 until the ice-making water in the ice-making water tank 21 is sufficiently cooled. I try to shorten the time that is done. Further, the ice-making water in the ice-making water tank 21 circulates between the ice-making unit 11 and is gradually cooled, and in order to freeze the ice-making water in the ice-making chamber 13 of the ice-making unit 11, the evaporator 34 of the ice-making unit 11 is used. It is necessary to increase the degree of superheating by suppressing the flow rate of the transmitted refrigerant to lower the temperature of the ice making unit 11. Therefore, when the ice-making water in the ice-making water tank 21 is cooled to some extent and the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37 starts to decrease, the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 is controlled to be reduced. After that, the control device 40 controls to gradually reduce the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 based on the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37, and freezes the ice making water in the ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11. Let me. In particular, when the detection temperature of the ice making section 11 detected by the temperature sensor 37 becomes 0 ° C. or lower, the load for cooling the ice making water in the ice making section 11 is small, so that the control device 40 is the electronic expansion valve 33. By reducing the opening degree to a small extent, the ice making unit 11 is cooled so that the ice making water is frozen by the refrigerant whose opening degree is reduced and the temperature is lowered.

The ice making section 11 is cooled in a state where the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 is controlled based on the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37, and the ice making water jetted and sent out from the ice making water tank 21 is gradually frozen in the ice making chamber 13. , The ice making water in the ice making water tank 21 gradually decreases. At this time, if the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 is controlled so that the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37 is −5 ° C. to −15 ° C., highly transparent ice with few cracks can be produced. The detection of the completion of ice making based on the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37 is a unit which is the product of the detected temperature of the temperature sensor 37 detected every unit time from the time when the temperature of the ice making unit 11 reaches 0 ° C. and the unit time. When the total value obtained by obtaining the integrated value and sequentially adding these unit integrated values becomes the target integrated value, the control device 40 detects that block-shaped ice is formed in the ice making chamber 13 and the ice making is completed. The drive of the water supply pump 25 is stopped to end the ice making operation. By increasing the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 from the timing immediately before the completion of ice making, it is possible to prevent the frozen ice from clinging to each ice making chamber 13.

In the deicing operation after the ice making operation, the control device 40 opens the hot gas valve 36 with the compressor 31 operated, and tilts the water dish 22 to the open position by the actuator motor 23a of the opening / closing mechanism 23. The hot gas sent from the compressor 31 is guided to the evaporator 34 through the hot gas pipe 35 to heat each ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11. The temperature of the ice making section 11 at the time of completing the ice making is about −20 ° C., but the ice is separated from the inside of the ice making chamber 13 while the temperature of the ice making section 11 gradually rises. When the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37 becomes 5 ° C. or higher as a predetermined temperature for detecting that the deicing is completed, the control device 40 has no ice left in the ice making chamber 13 of the ice making section 11, that is, the deicing is completed. The hot gas valve 36 is closed to end the deicing operation, and the ice making operation is executed again as described above. In this way, by repeatedly executing the ice making operation and the deicing operation by the control device 40, the ice making unit 11 continuously produces block-shaped ice.

In the ice making machine 10 configured as described above, the ice making section 11 is provided with a temperature sensor 37, and the ice making section 11 is provided with an electronic expansion valve 33 whose opening degree is controlled based on the detection temperature of the temperature sensor 37. It is cooled by the freezing device 30. When the ice making operation is executed, the liquefied refrigerant pumped from the compressor 31 and liquefied by the condenser 32 is expanded by the electronic expansion valve 33 whose opening degree is controlled, and the expanded liquefied refrigerant is transferred to the evaporator 34. The ice making section 11 is cooled by the heat of vaporization, and the ice making water in the ice making water tank 21 circulates between the ice making section 11 cooled by the refrigerating device 30 and is cooled, and the ice making water is cooled by the ice making section 11. It gradually freezes in the ice making chamber 13 and becomes ice. When the deicing operation is executed after the ice making operation, the hot gas refrigerant sent from the compressor 31 is sent to the evaporator 34 by opening the hot gas valve 36 to heat the ice making section 11 and ice from the ice making section 11. To leave. In this way, the ice maker 10 manufactures ice by alternately and repeatedly performing an ice making operation and an ice removing operation.

In this ice making machine 10, the control device 40 separates the ice from the ice making section 11 during the ice making operation, closes the hot gas valve 36, and then uses the water pump 25 during the ice making operation to make the ice making section 11 Before starting the delivery of ice-making water, the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 was controlled to be smaller than the middle between the maximum and the minimum. By controlling the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 to be smaller than the middle between the maximum and the minimum, the amount of the liquefied refrigerant sent to the evaporator 34 of the ice making section 11 is suppressed, and the temperature of the ice making section 11 is quickly lowered. It is possible to quickly cool the ice making unit 11 before sending the ice making water in the ice making water tank 21 to the ice making unit 11 after the ice removing operation, and it is possible to prevent the ice making operation time from becoming long. did it. In particular, the control device 40 sends ice-making water to the ice-making unit 11 by the water pump 25 during the ice-making operation after the ice is separated from the ice-making unit 11 during the ice-removing operation and then the hot gas valve 36 is closed. It is preferable to maintain the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve 33 in a range smaller than the middle until before the start.

In the ice making machine of this embodiment, a large number of downwardly open ice making chambers 13 provided in the ice making portion 11 are closed by the water tray 22 so as to be openable and closable, and ice making water is jetted and supplied from the water tray 22 to each ice making chamber 13. This is a so-called closed cell type ice maker that produces ice, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is a so-called open cell type ice maker that jets and supplies ice making water with the ice making chamber open. It may be a flow-down type ice making machine in which the ice making chamber is opened in the horizontal direction and the ice making water is allowed to flow down into the ice making chamber, or the ice making water is allowed to flow down to the ice making plate which is vertically erected. May be good.

10 ... ice machine, 11 ... ice making section, 21 ... ice making water tank, 25 ... water pump, 31 ... compressor, 32 ... condenser, 33 ... electronic expansion valve, 34 ... evaporator, 37 ... temperature sensor, 40 ... control Device.

Claims (2)

The ice making department that freezes ice making water to make ice,
An ice-making water tank that stores ice-making water that is circulated and supplied to and from the ice-making part,
A water pump that sends the ice-making water in the ice-making water tank to the ice-making part,
A refrigerating device that cools and heats the ice-making part,
A control device for controlling the operation of the refrigerating device is provided.
The refrigerating device controls the opening degree of a compressor that compresses the refrigerant, a condenser that cools and liquefies the refrigerant pumped from the compressor, and a liquefied refrigerant that is liquefied by the condenser. An electronic expansion valve that expands in this state, an evaporator that vaporizes the liquefied refrigerant expanded by the electronic expansion valve to cool the ice making section, and a hot gas path that sends hot gas from the compressor to the evaporator. And a hot gas valve interposed in the hot gas path.
The control device expands the liquefied refrigerant pumped from the compressor and liquefied by the condenser by the electronic expansion valve whose opening degree is controlled, and vaporizes the expanded liquefied refrigerant by the evaporator. By cooling the ice-making part by the heat of condensation and freezing the ice-making water sent by the water supply pump in the ice-making part to produce ice, and by opening the hot gas valve after the ice-making operation. It is an ice maker that sends hot gas refrigerant sent from the compressor to the evaporator to heat the ice making section and alternately and repeatedly performs an ice removing operation to separate ice from the ice making section. hand,
The control device releases ice from the ice making section during the ice removing operation, closes the hot gas valve, and then sends ice making water to the ice making section by the water pump during the ice making operation. An ice maker characterized in that the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve is controlled to be smaller than the middle between the maximum and the minimum before starting. In the ice machine according to claim 1,
The control device releases ice from the ice making section during the ice removing operation, closes the hot gas valve, and then sends ice making water to the ice making section by the water pump during the ice making operation. An ice maker characterized in that the opening degree of the electronic expansion valve is maintained in a range smaller than the middle until the start.

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