JPH0229576A - Flowing water type ice making machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To separate granular ice generated one by one and force them to drop separated from the other ice blocks and hence reduce ice separation time by installing a hot gas pipe to the back side of a partition wall section having U-shaped cross section, which separates the interconnection between ice making compartments of an ice making pan, and circulating hot gas from a compressor side of a refrigerator by way of the hot gas pipe during ice separation time. CONSTITUTION:During ice making time, a compressor 3 is driven under a state where solenoid valves 7a and 7b are closed while a solenoid valve is opened. As a result, a refrigerant flows through a route illustrated by the solid line marked with the arrow and an ice making pan 1 is cooled by this refrigerating cycle. On the other hand, the hot gas discharged by the compressor 3 flows through an evaporator pipe 2 and a hot gas pipe 6 by way of a hot gas bypass route 8 as illustrated by the solid line marked with the arrow. This construction provides the heat retained by the hot gas to the ice making pan 1. The ice generated inside each ice making compartment 11 of the ice making pan 1 is subject to heating so that the bottom of the ice making pan and the both sides which face the partition wall surfaces are heated by this heat at the same time, which forces the ice to be separated from the ice making compartments 11 and drop under its own weight, starting with the surface of the ice slightly thawed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the configuration of a running water ice maker that is installed and used in a cup type beverage vending machine or the like.

[Conventional technology]

This type of running water ice maker is known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication No. 46-3232, and its configuration consists of a water sprinkling section, an ice making section, and an ice water separating section arranged in order from above inside a main body case serving as an insulating casing. The water storage section is composed of a water storage section, a water storage section, a water storage section that receives the water collected in the ice-water separation section, and a water pump that replenishes the water received in the water storage section by returning it to the water sprinkling section. In addition, the ice making unit has an ice making tray in which a large number of concave ice making chambers arranged in a square pattern are defined by press molding is arranged in a substantially vertical position, and an evaporator pipe of a refrigerator is installed on the back side of the bottom of the ice making tray. It is made up of close piping. During ice-making operation, the ice-making tray in the ice-making section is cooled by a refrigerator, and in this state, water is sprinkled in small amounts from the water sprinkling section to the ice-making section in a flowing manner, thereby removing the ice that has formed on the inner surface of the ice-making tray. Gradually, it grows and ice begins to form in the tray/cup.

The excess water flowing down from the ice-making section during this ice-making process is collected in the ice-water separation section and stored in the water storage section, from where it is circulated and pumped again to the water sprinkling section using a water pump. On the other hand, the growth status of the ice that has settled on the ice making section is detected by a temperature sensor, and when the ice in the ice making tray has grown sufficiently, the cooling operation of the refrigerator is temporarily interrupted and hot gas is passed through the evaporator pipe of the refrigerator. By slightly thawing the surface of the ice by letting it flow or by pouring water on the back side of the ice tray, the ice generated in the ice tray is peeled off from the ice tray and falls into the water storage section. By repeating this ice making cycle, necessary powdered ice can be made and stored in the water storage section.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, the conventional ice making machine described above, especially the structure of its ice making section, has the following drawbacks. In other words, when removing ice formed in an ice tray after ice making, simply passing hot gas through the evaporator pipe installed on the bottom back of the ice tray as described above will not allow the ice to flow far away from the evaporator pipe. The heat of the hot gas is not sufficiently transmitted to the distant parts, that is, the leading edge of the partition wall that partitions the ice-making compartments, and for this reason, even if the ice starts to thaw first in the part that touches the bottom of the ice-making tray, the partition wall As the ice does not thaw in the area in contact with the ice, the time required for ice removal increases, which lengthens the ice making cycle.This reduces the operating efficiency of the ice maker and reduces its ice making capacity. The amount of ice that thaws during this process increases, causing the rice grains to become thinner. In addition, in the method of releasing ice by pouring water on the back side of the ice tray, when the outside temperature is low such as in winter, the water spraying temperature is low, so it takes a long time to release the ice. In addition, if the thickness of the ice that has frozen on the ice tray grows to exceed the depth of the ice cube chamber, it will grow over the partition wall of the ice cube chamber and create a bridge condition where the powdered ice is connected to each other on the ice tray. Problems such as ice being stored in the ice storage chamber may also occur.

Therefore, the present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional difficulties and thaws and separates the ice frozen in the ice-making tray in each ice-making compartment in a short ice-making time without being affected by the outside temperature. To provide a running water type ice making machine, in particular, the structure of the ice making part, which prevents bridging of powdered ice and allows the ice to be released in pieces toward a water storage part in a separate state.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an ice making tray in which an evaporator pipe of a refrigerator is installed on the bottom back side of an ice making tray in which a large number of concave ice making chambers arranged in a folded manner are defined, and the ice making tray is arranged almost vertically. In a running water ice making machine that makes ice by sprinkling water from above into the ice making tray while the ice making tray is placed in a posture, the ice making machine is configured to freeze water in the ice making tray and make ice. A hot gas pipe is installed on the back side of a partition wall having a U-shaped cross section to allow hot gas to flow from the compressor side of the refrigerator during ice removal.

[Effect]

According to the above means, a hot gas pipe through which hot gas flows from the compressor side of the refrigerator during ice removal is installed on the back side of the partition wall portion having a U-shaped cross section that partitions the ice making compartments from each other in the ice making tray. With this structure, when ice is removed, hot gas is passed through both the evaporator pipe and the hot gas pipe piped to the bottom of the ice tray, and the ice is separated from both the bottom of the ice tray and the partition wall at the same time. By applying ice heat, ice frozen in an ice tray is thawed and separated in each ice making compartment, and the ice can be released toward a water storage part in a short ice removal time while preventing bridging of powdered ice.

〔Example〕

1, 2, and 3 are block diagrams of ice making sections according to different embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a refrigerant circuit diagram of the ice making section including a refrigerator. figure,
In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes an ice tray made of a press-molded product made of a highly thermally conductive metal plate such as an aluminum plate, and the ice tray 1 has a large number of concave ice chambers 11 arranged in folds vertically and horizontally.
is defined, and the upper and lower, left and right sides between the ice-making compartments are a cross section U
It is partitioned by a letter-shaped partition wall portion 12.13.

As mentioned above, this ice tray is placed below the water sprinkling unit in an almost vertical position. Further, an evaporator pipe of a refrigerator indicated by reference numeral 2 is closely connected to the back side of the bottom surface 14 of the ice tray. This evaporator pipe 2 is connected to a compressor 3 of a refrigerator and a condenser 4 as shown in FIG. Connection piping is provided via an expansion valve 5. According to the present invention, with respect to the ice making tray having such a configuration, hot gas pipes indicated by reference numeral 6 are arranged vertically and horizontally on the back side of the partition wall portion 12.13 having a U-shaped cross section and partitioning the ice making chamber 11 of the ice making tray 1. Piping is done so that they are in close contact. This hot gas pipe 6 is connected to the evaporator vibe 2 with a solenoid valve 7a as shown in the circuit of FIG.
are connected in parallel via. In addition, in the circuit shown in FIG. 4, a hot gas bypass passage 8 is connected between the discharge side of the compressor 3 and the artificial end of the evaporator vibrator 2 and has a solenoid valve 7b inserted therein, and is further connected to the inlet side of the condenser 3. A solenoid valve 7c is inserted.

Next, the ice making and ice removing operations with the above configuration will be explained. First, when making ice, the solenoid valve 7a in the circuit shown in Figure 4
, '7b is closed and the compressor 3 is opened with the solenoid valve 7c open.
drive. As a result, the refrigerant flows through the path indicated by the solid arrow, and the ice tray 1 is cooled by this refrigeration cycle. On the other hand, in this state, by supplying water little by little from the water sprinkling part to the surface side of the ice tray, the water forms ice on the surface of each ice making compartment 11, and the ice grows over time. and its thickness increases. In this ice-making process, the solenoid valve 7a in FIG. 4 is closed, and no refrigerant is allowed to flow through the hot gas pipe 8. When the ice almost completely fills the ice making chamber 11, the solenoid valves 7a and 7b in the refrigerator circuit are opened by the output signal of the temperature sensor.
7c is controlled to close. As a result, the hot gas discharged from the compressor 3 bypasses the condenser 4 as indicated by the dotted arrow in FIG. 4, and flows through the evaporator vibe 2 and the hot gas pipe 6 via the hot gas bypass path 8. Become. As a result, the retained heat of the high-temperature hot gas is applied to the ice tray 1 from the evaporator vibe 2 and the hot gas pipe 6.1. Due to this heat, the ice produced in the ice-making chamber 11 of the ice-making tray 1 is heated simultaneously on the bottom surface of the ice-making tray and both surfaces in contact with the partition walls. 11
The water begins to separate and fall downward toward the water storage area. Moreover, in this ice-making process, heat is applied to the ice-making tray 1 from both the bottom surface and the partition wall surface, so that the ice is quickly removed and the water resistance is separated from each ice-making compartment.

Furthermore, even if the thickness of the ice grows to exceed the depth of the ice-making chamber 11 during ice-making, and the adjacent ice-making chambers cross over the partition walls 12 and 13 and become connected to each other with ice, forming a bridge, Since ice-off heat is applied from the partition walls 12 and 13, the parts that bridge the anti-water resistance melt,
As a result, the ice is separated into water-resistive shapes for each ice-making compartment, and falls into the water storage section and is released.

In the above embodiment, hot gas is passed through the hot gas pipe 6 only during ice removal, and the solenoid valve 7a is closed during ice making to prevent the flow of refrigerant. It is also possible to allow liquid refrigerant to flow through the tube 6 through the expansion valve 5 to cool the partition wall similarly to the evaporator vibe.

Next, the configuration of another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, first, the ice tray 1 has a corrugated ice tray in which horizontal partition walls 12 arranged vertically are integrally formed by press molding, and a vertical partition made of a heat insulating material shown by reference numeral 15 on this ice tray. Combining partition walls side by side, vertical and horizontal partition partition walls 12
An ice-making compartment 11 is defined between and 15 in the form of a fold. In the ice tray 1, a hot gas pipe 6 having a flat cross section is installed on the back side of the horizontal partition wall 12 so as to be in close contact with the partition wall 12.

In the above configuration, first, because a part of the partition wall of the ice tray is constructed with the partition wall 15 made of a heat insulating material, the binding force between the ice made and the partition wall 15 is weaker than that of other metal plates, and the separation between It easily peels off from the partition wall 15 when it becomes iced. In addition, by forming the hot gas pipe 6 piped on the back side of the partition wall 12 with a flat cross-section, the contact area between the hot gas pipe 6 and the ice tray 1 is increased, and the contact area between the hot gas pipe 6 and the ice tray 1 is increased during ice removal. Thermal conductivity can be increased.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, hot gas is passed from the compressor side of the refrigerator during ice removal to the back side of the partition wall portion having a U-shaped cross section that partitions the concave ice-making compartments in the ice-making tray. By configuring the hot gas pipe to flow, during the ice removal process after ice making, the ice particles generated in each ice making chamber are separated into pieces in a short ice making time, and the ice cubes are separated from the ice tray into the water storage section. By shortening the ice removal time, the operating efficiency of the ice making machine can be increased, and the ice making capacity can also be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 3 are perspective views of the structure of an ice making section according to different embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a refrigerant circuit diagram of the ice making section including a refrigerator. be. In the figure, 1...ice tray, 2...evaporator pipe, 3...
- Compressor of refrigerator, 4... Condenser, 5... Expansion valve, 6... Hot gas pipe, 7a, 7b, 7c... Solenoid valve, 8... Hot gas bypass path, 11. ...Ice making compartment, 12.13...Partition bulkhead, 14...Bottom surface,
15...Cut 11 Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) An evaporator pipe of a refrigerator is installed on the back side of the bottom of an ice-making tray in which a large number of concave ice-making chambers arranged in a grid are defined, and the ice-making tray is arranged in a substantially vertical position. In a running water ice maker that makes ice by sprinkling water from above into an ice tray, the back surface of a partition wall having a U-shaped cross section that partitions the ice cube chambers in the ice tray. A running water ice maker characterized by having a hot gas pipe installed on the side of the ice maker to flow hot gas from the compressor side of the refrigerator during ice removal.