JPH0399174A - Ice guiding structure for automatic ice making machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent an ice making machine from being made into a large-sized one and further restrict a manufacturing cost by a method wherein a guide plate for use in guiding ice blocks dropped from a first ice making chamber into an ice storing block is constructed such that a plurality of plate pieces are connected through hinges in such a way as they may be pivoted. CONSTITUTION:As an ice pan 38 is inclined, a pushing member 74 abuts against a reversing lever 76 and biases it adjacent to its moving locus, thereby an ice guiding plate 67 is rotated around an axis 68 in a counter-clockwise direction and gradually fallen toward an upper part of a second ice making chamber 12 during its inclination. That is, a plate member 32 constituting the ice guide plate 67 is inclined in a counter- clockwise direction to cause the plate member 31 pivotally connected to it to be fallen. Then, upon completion of an inclination of the second ice making chamber 12 and the ice pan 38, the ice guiding plate 67 is fallen completely onto the upper surface of the second ice making chamber 12 so as to cover almost of all the second ice making sub-chambers 15. When the ice pan 38 starts to lift up in a counter-clockwise direction, its extreme end may push the plate member 32 to cause it to be rotated in a clockwise direction, the plate member 31 pivotally connected is also pulled out forwardly and it waits for a next ice guiding operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to an automatic ice making machine that is equipped with a first ice making chamber and a tiltable second ice making chamber, and that produces irregularly shaped ice such as spherical ice between the two ice making chambers. During the ice removal operation, the ice cubes falling from the first ice maker can be smoothly guided to the ice storage without being disturbed by the second ice maker in a tilted position. It concerns an ice guiding structure that does not require a large amount of space to accommodate.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In various industrial fields, automatic ice making machines that continuously produce large quantities of dice-shaped ice cubes, ice sheets of a required thickness, and ice flakes are suitably used depending on the application.

However, in recent dining facilities such as coffee shops and restaurants,
In order to gain a divine advantage over similar businesses and attract customers, they are making strenuous efforts to differentiate themselves from other companies. As part of this effort, attempts are being made to provide immediate new changes to customers by using ball-shaped (spherical) ice cubes instead of conventional ice cubes. In view of these trends, the applicant has developed a new ice maker that can produce large quantities of transparent, irregularly shaped ice, and has patented its basic structure as an "automatic ice maker" on January 29, 1988. At the same time, on November 22 of the same year, he filed a patent application entitled ``Ice Guide Structure for Automatic Ice Maker'' for a mechanism that can smoothly guide ice blocks that fall from the first ice maker to the water storage seat during deicing operation. Ta. Since the present invention is newly proposed in connection with the latter ice guiding structure, its basic structure will first be explained in order to contribute to a basic understanding. FIG. 8 is a partially longitudinal side view showing the ice guide structure of the automatic ice maker, and the ice maker 10 for manufacturing a large number of spherical ice consists of a first ice maker 11 fixed horizontally above the machine; A second ice-making compartment 12 that can tilt and close this first ice-making compartment 11 from below.
It is constructed from this. The first ice-making compartment 11 made of a metal with good thermal conductivity includes a hemispherical first ice-making compartment 1 that opens downward.
3 are recessed in a desired alignment pattern, and an evaporator 14 connected to a refrigeration system (not shown) is arranged in a meandering manner on the upper surface thereof.

The second ice making compartment 12 made of a thermally conductive metal is similar to the first ice making compartment 1.
Directly below the ice making chamber 1, the ice making chamber 15 is pivotably supported about a shaft 16 so as to be tiltable, and a large number of second ice making chambers 15 consisting of hemispherical concave portions are recessed upward in a desired alignment pattern on the upper surface thereof. During ice-making operation, the second ice-making chamber 12 is energized by an actuator (not shown) to close the first ice-making chamber 11 from below, forming a spherical ice-making space between the two small chambers, and ■ removing ice. During operation, the second ice making chamber 12 tilts diagonally downward,
The first ice making chamber 11 is opened.

At the outer bottom of the second ice-making compartment 12, there are two small ice-making compartments 13.
15 is integrally fixed with a water tray 38 for supplying ice-making water, and a water fountain hole 27 is bored at a portion of the water tray 38 corresponding to each of the second ice-making chambers 15, respectively. Further, a distribution pipe 24 serving as an ice-making water supply path is arranged in a meandering manner at the outer bottom of the water tray 38, and this distribution pipe 24 communicates with each of the fountain holes 27 in a corresponding manner.

Further, an ice-making water tank 19 is integrally provided below the water tray 38, and the distribution pipe 24 communicates with the tank 19 via a pressure chamber 23. The ice-making water in the tank 19 is pumped into the pressure chamber 23 and the distribution pipe 24 by the pump 22 during the ice-making operation.
is pumped through the water fountain hole 27 to both ice-making chambers 13.1.
5 is injected and supplied. Note that two return holes 29 and 29 are bored in the water tray 38 with the respective water fountain holes 27 in between, corresponding to the number of second ice-making chambers 15 formed therein. These return holes 29, 29 function to discharge ice-making water that has not yet frozen in both ice-making compartments 13, 15 to the tank 19 during ice-making operation.

A drain tray 69 is provided below the ice-making water tank 9 to drain remaining water from the ice making machine to the outside of the machine, and is fixed in front of the drain tray 69 and diagonally below the second ice-making chamber 12 which is in a horizontal position. An ice guide plate 67 is pivotally supported by the pair of supporting members 65 via a shaft 68. The ice guide plate 67 has a width slightly smaller than the width of the water tray 38, and a vertical dimension that can cover the entire upper surface of the second ice making chamber 12. The upper end of the ice guide plate 67 is positioned in contact with the vertical side plate 70 of the housing during the ice making operation.

A reversing lever 76 is protrudingly fixed at a portion of the ice guide plate 67 close to the shaft 68 at an angle θ with respect to the ice guide plate 67, as shown in FIG. 8, for example. This reversing lever 76 faces the movement locus of suppressing members 74 which are provided in a hanging manner and protrude from both sides of the water tray 38 which tilts during the deicing operation which will be described later.

Therefore, during deicing operation, when the second ice making chamber 12 and the water tray 38 tilt clockwise about the pivot 16 and the pressing member 74 comes into contact with the reversing lever 76, the ice guide plate 67 is reversed together with the lever 76. Rotate clockwise. When the pressing member 74 further tilts, the ice guide plate 67 moves to the left of the perpendicular line P extending above the shaft 68, and finally collapses onto the upper surface of the second ice making chamber 12 in the inclined position, and moves upward. The second ice-making chamber 15 that is opened is allowed to cool. Therefore, the ice balls falling from the first ice making compartment 12 slide down the upper surface of the ice guide plate 67 and are smoothly guided to the ice storage (not shown) located below.

Further, when the deicing operation is completed and the second Wi ice chamber 12 and water tray 38 rotate counterclockwise around the pivot 16, the second
The ice guide plate 67, which had fallen down on the sloped upper surface of the ice making chamber 12, is pressed by the tip of the water tray 38 and pivots clockwise around the shaft 68. Then, the ice guide plate 67 is connected to the perpendicular line P.
When the ice guide plate 67 is tilted further to the right, the center of gravity shifts, and the ice guide plate 67 further rotates clockwise and is positioned by coming into contact with the vertical side plate 70.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention The ice guide structure described earlier can be put to practical use without any problems in a relatively small type of automatic ice maker, and is highly praised in that respect. It is. However, in food and beverage facilities where ice consumption is generally large, such as suburban restaurants and hotels with large banquet halls, the automatic ice making machines become larger, and the structure of the ice making room also becomes larger accordingly. For example, as shown in FIG. 9, if the number of first ice-making compartments 13 and second ice-making compartments 15 is increased, the longitudinal dimension of the ice-making compartment 10 will inevitably become longer. For this reason, Fig. 9 (a
), the ice guide plate 67 is in a tilted position.
The upper surface of the ice-making compartment 12 cannot be completely covered, and some of the ice cubes get caught in the second ice-making compartment 15 that opens upward.
It no longer functions as an ice guide plate member, and the second
When the ice making compartment 12 returns to the horizontal position, ice blocks will be trapped between the two ice making compartments 11 and 12, causing a serious problem.

For this reason, as shown in FIG. 9(b), the size of the ice guide plate 67 is set to a size that can completely cover the upper surface of the second ice making chamber 12, and the size of the ice guide plate 67 is set so that it can completely cover the upper surface of the second ice making chamber 12. It is necessary to increase the opening angle when the ice chamber 12 is tilted. However, in this case, it is necessary to secure a large amount of internal space in the ice maker in both the horizontal and height directions, which has the disadvantage that the casing becomes even larger in terms of volume. In addition, the dimensions of each component including the ice guide plate 67 are increased, leading to an increase in manufacturing costs. Purpose of the Invention The present invention has been proposed in order to solve the problem in an appropriate manner in view of the above-mentioned problems. To smoothly guide a group of ice blocks falling from a first ice-making compartment to an ice storage without being obstructed by a second ice-making compartment in a tilted position during deicing operation in an automatic ice-making machine that produces irregularly shaped ice such as spherical ice. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an ice guide structure that allows the ice guide member to operate without requiring a large space within the ice maker. Means for Solving the Problems In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems and suitably achieve the intended purpose, the present invention has been devised to solve the problems described above.
A first ice-making compartment defining a large number of small ice compartments, a second ice-making compartment disposed tiltably directly below the first ice-making compartment and defining a large number of second ice-making compartments that open upward; It consists of a water tray that is fixed to the lower part of the second ice-making compartment and has a water fountain hole and a return hole that correspond to each second ice-making compartment, and an ice-making water tank that is integrally provided below this water tray. In the automatic ice making machine, the ice making water in the tank is injected from the water fountain hole to form ice cubes in both ice making chambers, and the unfrozen water is collected into the tank through the return hole. It is pivoted diagonally downward and normally blocks the falling trajectory of ice cubes, and when the second ice making compartment tilts from the first ice making compartment during deicing operation, it is energized and falls onto the top surface of the second ice making compartment. , an ice guide plate is provided for guiding the ice blocks falling from the first ice making room to the ice storage, and the ice guide plate is characterized in that a plurality of plate pieces are hingedly connected to a bent flower.

In this case, guide members are disposed on both sides of the water tray, guide pieces are formed on both sides of the open end of the ice guide plate and are slidably positioned on the guide members, and a second
As the ice making compartment and water tray are tilted and opened, the guide piece slides while being guided by the guide member, moving the ice guide plate to the second position.
It would be even more suitable if it was constructed so that it could fall down onto the top surface of the ice-making compartment. Embodiments Next, the ice guide structure of the automatic ice maker according to the present invention will be described below by giving preferred embodiments and referring to the attached drawings. The basic structure of the automatic ice maker shown in the embodiment is as already explained with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, so the same members are designated by the same reference numerals.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 5, the ice guide plate 67, which constitutes the main part of the ice guide structure according to this embodiment, is composed of two flat metal or hard synthetic resin plates 31 and 32.
Both plates 3 1 , 3 2 are hingedly connected by an appropriate number of butterfly plates 30 so as to be bendable. These two boards 3 1
．． 3. The bending direction through the butterfly plate 30 in 2 is the second
As shown in the figure, ■ one of the base plates 32 falls to the right and rests with its tip in contact with the vertical side plate 70;
(2) The other plate 31 is tilted to the left about the pivot point, and is set at an angle such that its tip rests on the upper surface of the second ice-making chamber 12.

Guide pieces 3 5.3 5 bent downward in a key shape are integrally formed on both sides of the ice guide plate 67 near the open end of the plate 31, and each guide piece 35 6
7 is installed, it can be positioned in a rail groove 34a of a guide member 34, which will be described later. In addition, ice information board 6
As you can see from the ↓ part, the size of 7 is the size of multiple plates 3
1.32 is set to such a size that it can cover almost all of the second Il ice compartment 15 when it is collapsed onto the upper surface of the second ice making compartment 12. Rail-shaped guide members 34 and 34 formed by bending a stainless steel plate, for example, are installed at opposite end portions 38a, 38a of the water tray 38, which is integrally formed with the 211th ice chamber 12. The arrangement is fixed. That is, both guide members 34, 34 extend parallel to each other along the longitudinal side surface of the second ice-making chamber 12, and the guide members 34, 34 extend parallel to each other along the longitudinal side surface of the second ice-making chamber 12.
When the ice making chamber 12 and the water tray 38 are tilted, they can be tilted integrally with these members. Each guide member 3
4 is recessed with a rail groove 34a extending in the longitudinal direction along the side end 38a, and each guide piece 35 of the ice guide plate 67 is slidably received in the rail groove 34a. In the illustrated embodiment, guide pieces 35.35 are formed on both sides of the tip of the ice guide plate 67, and guide members 34.34 are provided on both side ends 38a, 38a of the water tray 38. However, this is not an essential requirement for the claimed invention. Therefore, by omitting the arrangement of these members, as shown in FIG.
It may be made to come into direct contact with the upper surface of. However, at this time, if ice 39 remains on the upper surface of the second ice making compartment 12, the open end of the ice guide plate 67 may be blocked by the remaining ice 39, and may not operate smoothly. ．．
In addition, the ice guide plate 67 is made of a rigid and heavy material such as metal in order to have long-term durability.
If this moves on the upper surface of the second ice making chamber 12, there is a concern that the smoothness of the upper surface will be impaired. Therefore, the ice guide plate 67
In order to ensure smooth movement, it is preferable to provide the guide member 34 and guide piece 35 as described above.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the ice guide plate 67 is made up of two plates 31 and 32 connected by hinges using the butterfly plate 30, but other structures may be used as shown in FIG. Alternatively, the ice guide plate 67 may be divided into three plates and hingedly connected to each other, or the ice guide plate 67 may be composed of a number of plates as shown in FIG. 7, and these plates may be connected by hinges. Of course, it is possible.

Function of the Embodiment Next, the actual use of the ice guide structure according to the embodiment constructed as described above will be explained. In the ice-making operation state shown in FIG. 2, the second ice-making chamber 12 is located horizontally and closes the first ice-making chamber 11 from below. Ice-making water is then injected into the ice-forming space formed between the first and second ice-making chambers 13.15 through the water fountain 27, and spherical ice is gradually formed in the space. . The ice-making water that has not yet frozen is collected into the tank 19 through the return hole 29 of the water tray 38 and is recirculated by the pump 22. At this time, the ice guide plate 67 assumes the attitude shown in FIG. 2 with the axis 68 as the center. In other words, the plate material 32 on the base side is
It falls to the right and comes to rest against the vertical side plate 70, and the other plate 31 is bent to the left by the butterfly plate 30, and both guiding pieces 35.35 provided at its tips are held in a horizontal position. It is resting facing the front rail groove 34a of the guide member 34 that it is holding. Further, the reversing lever 76 provided on the ice guide plate 67 is oriented obliquely to the upper left, facing the movement trajectory of the pressing member 74 suspended from the water tray 38. When the ice making operation is completed and the operation is switched to the deicing operation, tap water at room temperature is supplied from the external water supply system to the water tray 38 to warm the second ice making chamber 12. This releases the ice between the inner wall of the 211th ice chamber 15 and the spherical ice.

However, the ice formation between the inner chamber of the first ice making chamber 13 and the spherical ice is still maintained. Next, the required sensor issues a command at an appropriate timing, and the actuator is energized to operate the second ice making compartment 1.
2 and the water tray 38 clockwise about the axis l6, the first ice making chamber 11 is gradually opened. With this tilting of the water tray 38, as shown in FIG.
As a result, the ice guide plate 67 is brought into contact with the shaft 6.
8 in a counterclockwise direction, and gradually collapses above the second ice-making chamber 12, which is currently tilting. That is, by tilting the plate member 32 constituting the ice guide plate 67 in the counterclockwise direction, the plate member 31 hinge-connected thereto
will also be pushed down. At this time, the guide piece 35 provided on the plate material 32 is connected to the rail groove 3 in the guide member 34.
4a, smooth guidance is achieved. When the second ice-making compartment 12 and the water tray 38 are completely tilted, the ice guide plate 67 completely collapses onto the upper surface of the second ice-making compartment 12, as shown in FIG. 1
This will cover most of 5. In addition, valve switching is performed in the refrigeration system (not shown), and hot gas is supplied to the evaporator l4 provided in the first ice making compartment 11.
is gradually heated. As a result, the spherical ice adhering to the first ice making compartment 13 breaks free of ice from the indoor cupboard and falls under its own weight, sliding down the ice guide plate 67 covering the top surface of the second ice making compartment 12. The ice is smoothly collected into an ice storage (not shown). When all the spherical ice is collected in the ice storage and the deicing operation is completed, the actuator is operated in reverse and the 212th ice compartment 1
2 and the water tray 38 are returned to the horizontal position to wait for the next ice making operation again. When the water tray 38 starts to rise counterclockwise in this way, the tip of the water tray 38 presses one of the plates 32 and rotates the plate 32 clockwise about the shaft 68. Perform the motion of letting the patient fall back to the original resting position. Accordingly, the plate material 31 hinge-connected to the plate material 32 also connects its guide pieces 35, 35 to the guide member 34.
It is pulled out forward while sliding in the rail grooves 34a, 34a of 34, returns to the position shown in FIG. 2, and waits for the next ice guiding operation.

Effects of the Invention As explained above, according to the ice guide structure of the automatic ice maker according to the present invention, the ice guide plate is hinge-connected with a plurality of plate members so that the ice guide plate can be bent freely, thereby meeting the requirements in the machine. The space required for the ice maker can be kept extremely small, preventing the ice maker from becoming larger and reducing manufacturing costs. In addition, guide pieces are provided on the open end sides of the ice guide plates, and guide members are provided on both sides of the water tray, so that the guide pieces are slidably exposed in the rail grooves of the members. By doing so, the operation of the ice guiding plate can be made even smoother, and therefore, a suitable ice guiding action can be achieved without causing failure. Although the description has been made regarding an ice making machine that produces spherical ice, the present invention is not limited to this, and can of course be implemented to produce polyhedral ice having other shapes.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the ice guiding structure according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the first ice making chamber with the first ice making chamber removed; FIG. 2 is a side view showing the ice guiding structure according to the preferred embodiment in an ice making operation state;
3 and 4 are side views showing the ice guide structure over time during deicing operation, and FIG. 5 is an ice guide plate and guide member that constitute the main parts of the ice guide structure according to the preferred embodiment. FIGS. 6 and 7 are perspective views showing another embodiment of the ice guide plate, and FIG. 8 is an example of an automatic ice making machine that produces irregularly shaped ice. 9(a) and 9(b) are vertical side views schematically showing the defects inherent in the ice guiding structure already proposed by the applicant, and FIG. 10 is a longitudinal side view of the ice guiding structure. FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional side view schematically illustrating possible drawbacks when an ice guide plate is configured by hinge-connecting plate materials. 1...First ice making compartment 3...First ice making compartment 9...Ice making water tank 9...Return hole 8...Water tray 2...Second ice making compartment 5...Second ice making Small room 7...Fountain holes 1, 32...Plate material 7...Ice guide plate FIG. 6 67... Ice guide board FIG. 7

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] [1] A first ice-making compartment (11) that is fixedly arranged inside the machine and defines a number of first ice-making compartments (13) that open downward, and directly below the first ice-making compartment (11). A second ice-making compartment (12) is arranged such that it can be tilted freely and defines a number of second ice-making compartments (15) that open upward. Fountain hole (27) corresponding to ice making chamber (15)
) and a return hole (29), and an ice-making water tank (19) integrally provided below the water tray (38).
), and during ice-making operation, the ice-making water in the tank (19) is injected from the water fountain hole (27) to fill both ice-making chambers (
13, 15), and the unfrozen water is collected into the tank (19) through the return hole (29). In addition to always blocking the falling trajectory of the ice blocks, when the second ice making compartment (12) is tilted from the first ice making compartment (11) during deicing operation, it is energized and the second ice making compartment (12) ) and fall onto the top of the first
It is equipped with an ice guide plate (67) that guides ice blocks falling from the ice making room (11) to the ice storage, and this ice guide plate (67) is configured to have a plurality of plate pieces (31, 32) connected by hinges so as to be flexible. An ice guide structure for an automatic ice maker that is characterized by: [2] Guide members (34) are provided on both sides of the water tray (38), and guides are slidably positioned on the guide members (34) on both sides of the open end of the ice guide plate (67). As the second ice making compartment (12) and the water tray (38) are tilted and opened, the guide piece (35) slides while being guided by the guide member (34), and the ice guide The ice guide structure for an automatic ice making machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the plate (67) is configured to fall down onto the upper surface of the second ice making compartment (12).