JPH0419411Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Industrial application field This invention relates to the water tray structure of an automatic ice maker. In an automatic ice maker that sprays water onto the surface of a tray to wash away thin ice, etc. that is blocking the water fountain or return hole, the water sprayed onto the water tray flows down uniformly over the entire surface of the water tray. The present invention relates to a water tray structure configured to effectively prevent ice from remaining.

PRIOR TECHNOLOGY A jet-type automatic ice-making machine that continuously produces a large number of ice cubes by spraying ice-making water from below into a large number of ice-making chambers that open downward is suitable for use in kitchen facilities such as coffee shops and restaurants. has been done. Since the present invention relates to an improvement of the water tray used in this jet-type automatic ice maker, prior to explaining the improvements, we will explain the general structure of this automatic ice maker in Section 6.
This will be explained with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 shows the ice-making mechanism of the injection-type automatic ice-making machine, in which an ice-making chamber 10 is arranged horizontally in the upper part of the housing, and partition plates 11 are arranged vertically and horizontally on the lower surface of this ice-making chamber 10. , a large number of ice-making chambers 12 opening downward are defined. An evaporator tube 14 that communicates with a refrigeration system (not shown) is closely arranged in a meandering manner on the upper surface of the ice-making chamber 10, and the ice-making chamber 12 is forcibly cooled by circulating a refrigerant during the ice-making cycle.

Immediately below the ice-making chamber 10, a water tray 18 equipped with an ice-making water tank 16 for storing a predetermined amount of ice-making water is tiltably supported by a support shaft 20. During ice making operation, this water tray 18 is held horizontally and parallel to the ice making chamber 10, and during ice removal operation, it is urged by an actuator (not shown) to support the support shaft 2.
It tilts clockwise around 0 and stops in an oblique position to open the ice making compartment 12.

A water sprinkler 19 connected to an external water supply system is arranged above the water tray 18, and water is sprayed onto the surface of the water tray through a plurality of through holes 19a drilled in the sprinkler 19 at predetermined intervals. be done. Note that when the water sprayed in this way is supplied with the water tray 18 stopped tilting as described later, it functions as washing water to wash away residual ice on the water tray, and also serves as washing water for washing away the remaining ice on the water tray 1
Water supplied after the ice cube 8 begins to return to the horizontal state falls into the tank 16 and is stored therein, and is used as ice-making water thereafter.

The water tray 18 is provided with a large number of fountain holes 22 for spraying and supplying ice-making water, and return holes 24 for collecting unfrozen residual water into the ice-making water tank 16, corresponding to each of the ice-making compartments 12. (See Figure 8), this fountain hole 22
is in communication with a distribution pipe 38 formed on the lower surface of the water tray 18. A pump 26 is installed on the side of the ice making water tank 16.
is arranged so that the ice-making water is pumped through a suction pipe 28 communicating with the tank 16, and is forced into a pressure chamber 34 provided in the water tray 18 through a pipe body 30 and a discharge pipe 32 shown in the figure. It's getting old. Pressure chamber 3
4 has a water distribution hole 36 communicating with the distribution pipe 38.
is drilled therein, so that the ice-making water sent under pressure to the pressure chamber 34 is further passed through the water distribution hole 36 and the distribution pipe 3.
The water is injected into each ice making chamber 12 from the plurality of water fountain holes 22 via the water outlet 8 .

Since the ice-making chamber 12 is cooled to below freezing point by the operation of the refrigeration system, a portion of the ice-making water that is circulated and supplied into the ice-making chamber begins to freeze in a layer on the inner wall surface of the ice-making chamber 12. Further, unfrozen water falls from the return hole 24 of the water tray 18 and is collected in the ice-making water tank 16. As shown in FIG. 7, when the ice-making operation progresses and ice cubes are generated in the ice-making chamber 12, this is detected by a sensor, hot gas is supplied to the evaporation tube 14 by switching the valve, and the actuator (see FIG. ) is energized, and the water tray 18
Then, tilting of the ice-making water tank 16 is started. As a result, the ice cubes are discharged from the ice making chamber 12, slide diagonally downward on the water tray 18, and are stored in an ice storage (not shown).

Problems to be solved by the invention In the injection type automatic ice maker with the mechanism described above, when the ice making operation shifts to the deicing operation, the ice making compartment 1
The water tray 18 is tilted relative to 2 to cause the ice cubes to fall and be released. However, near the end of the ice-making operation, a strong frozen layer is formed between the ice cubes produced in the ice-making chamber 12 and the surface of the water tray 18, as shown in FIG. Therefore, when the water tray 18 is tilted as shown in FIG.
A part of the frozen layer remains in the return hole 24 as thin ice. If the water fountain hole 22 or the return hole 24 is blocked in this way, the ice making water will not be sprayed uniformly during the next ice making cycle, and the return of unfrozen water to the tank 16 will also become partially defective, resulting in ice formation. This causes defects such as the ice cubes being made to become cloudy or partially chipped due to the mixed air. Furthermore, if the ice cubes get caught on the ice adhering to the surface of the water tray 18 and the water tray 18 begins to rotate again in this state, the ice cubes will be caught between the ice making chamber 10 and the water tray 18. This may cause mechanical damage.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 8, when the water tray 18 starts tilting due to the deicing operation, the water sprinkler 19
Water is sprayed onto the surface of the water tray 18 to wash away the thin ice 41 remaining in the fountain hole 22 and the return hole 24 and the ice 39 remaining on the surface of the water tray 18 together with the ice-making water. In addition, during periods other than the extremely cold season, residual ice can also be melted by the temperature difference between the ice-making water and the ice.

In this case, at the inclined upper part of the water tray 18 (upstream side of the ice-making water), the water sprayed from the sprinkler 19 flows almost uniformly over the entire water tray 18, and the thin ice 41 remaining in the fountain hole 22 and the return hole 24 Also, the ice 39 adhering to the surface of the water tray 18 can be suitably washed away. However, at the lower part of the slope of the water tray 18 (downstream side of the ice-making water), the sprayed water is influenced by the presence of a plurality of fountain holes 22 and return holes 24 drilled in the water tray 18, and the sprayed water forms streaks or branches. The water flows in a pattern and does not flow uniformly over the entire water tray 18 (see FIG. 8). In other words, the water supplied to wash away the remaining ice on the water tray flows in a streak or dendritic shape toward the lower part of the slope of the water tray 18, and as a result, it is impossible to wash away all the thin ice 41 and attached ice 39. become unable. Therefore, during the next ice-making operation, the water pressure of the ice-making water injected and supplied from the water fountain 22 is not constant, resulting in the formation of deformed ice with missing corners. Furthermore, since the return hole 24 is blocked, the return of the ice-making water is poor, resulting in cloudy ice with air mixed in due to insufficient water flow, which makes it impossible to obtain transparent, high-quality ice cubes. It is derived.

Purpose of the invention The present invention was proposed in order to suitably solve the various drawbacks mentioned above. Thoroughly wash away thin ice remaining in the holes and return holes and ice adhering to the surface of the water tray, ensure a constant spray height for the ice making water sprayed into each ice making chamber, and produce transparent, high quality ice cubes without deformation. The purpose is to provide a water dish structure that can be obtained.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems and suitably achieve the intended purpose, the present invention provides an ice-making compartment that defines a number of ice-making compartments that open downward; It is equipped with a water tray that can be tilted open from below and has a water fountain hole and a return hole that correspond to each ice-making chamber, and an ice-making water tank that is integrally formed below the water tray. is injected into the ice-making chamber from the water fountain hole to freeze on the indoor wall surface, and the unfrozen water is returned to the ice-making water tank through the return hole to generate ice cubes, and after ice-making is completed, ice is removed. An injection type configured to switch to operation and tilt the water tray and ice-making water tank to remove ice, and to supply water to the ice-making water tank by spraying water from a sprinkler onto the surface of the tilted water tray. In the automatic ice-making machine, a long groove is provided on the surface of the area of the water tray facing the ice-making compartment that intersects with the direction of flow of the sprayed water so as not to interfere with the fountain hole and the return hole and in the direction of flow of the sprayed water. It is characterized by being formed at appropriate intervals.

Embodiments Next, a preferred embodiment of the water tray structure of an automatic ice maker according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the same members already shown in the conventional automatic ice making machine described in connection with FIGS. 6 to 8 will be designated by the same reference numerals, and detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

The water tray 18 shown in FIG. 1 basically has the same structure as that described in connection with FIG. Hole arrays 40 consisting of a plurality of aligned fountain holes 22 and return holes 24 are provided at predetermined intervals in the flow direction of ice-making water. Also, the above-mentioned water sprinkler 19 connected to the external water supply system is located near the pivot point of the water tray 18, and water (hereinafter referred to as "washing water") is supplied from a plurality of through holes 19a formed in the water sprinkler 19. It is adapted to be sprinkled onto a plate 18.

As shown in FIG. 2, from approximately the middle of the water tray 18 in the flow direction of the wash water to the downstream side, there is a long groove 42 extending in a direction intersecting the flow direction of the wash water.
A plurality of holes are formed at appropriate intervals in the washing water flowing direction. That is, this long groove 42 is formed parallel to each fountain hole row 40 formed on the surface of the water tray 18, and is different from the fountain hole 22 and the return hole 24. It is located so that there is no interference.

As clearly shown in Figure 3a, this long groove 4
2 is arranged so as to face the lower end of the partition plate extending in the lateral direction of the partition plate 11 that defines the ice making compartment 12 in the ice making compartment 10 when the ice making compartment 10 is closed by the water tray 18. The location is set. That is, as shown in FIG. 3b, the long groove 42 is blocked by a frozen layer formed between the partition plate 11 and the water tray 18 during the ice-making operation, but this frozen layer has good thermal conductivity. Since it strongly adheres to the side of the partition plate 11 made of metal, when the water tray 18 is tilted during deicing operation, the ice blocking the long grooves 42 is peeled off together with the partition plate 11. Further, the horizontal partition plate 11 is actively heated by the hot gas passed through the evaporation tube 14, so that the long groove 42 is not blocked by ice during the deicing operation. The long groove 42 is formed over approximately the entire length of the water tray 18 in the width direction, and the cleaning water collected in the long groove 42 is diffused and flows to the fountain hole 22 and the return hole 24 below. .

4 and 5 show another embodiment of the long groove 42 formed in the water tray 18.
In the embodiment shown in the figure, the depth of the groove 42 is made deeper than the long groove 42 shown in the first embodiment, and after collecting a large amount of cleaning water and sufficiently spreading it in the longitudinal direction of the long groove 42, cleaning is performed from the long groove 42. It is designed to overflow with water. The embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is an example in which a substantially V-shaped long groove 42 with a large taper in one direction is formed in the cross section.

Effects of the Embodiment Next, the effects of the water dish structure according to the embodiment configured as described above will be explained. When the ice-making operation is started after the ice-making operation is finished, the water tray 18 is tilted as described above, and the ice cubes produced in the ice-making chamber 12 are released. At this time, thin ice 41 remains partially in the fountain hole 22 and return hole 24 formed in the water tray 18, and ice 39 adheres to the surface of the water tray 18. Therefore, in order to wash away the ice, washing water is sprayed onto the water tray 18 from the water sprinkler 19. This washing water spreads over substantially the entire surface of the water tray 18 at the inclined upper part of the water tray 18 and flows down.

When the wash water further flows down the water tray 18, it is collected in the first long groove 42 bored over the entire width of the water tray 18. After spreading in the longitudinal direction of the long groove 42, the cleaning water overflows almost uniformly from the longitudinal surface of the long groove 42, and flows down the upper surfaces of all the fountain holes 22 and return holes 24 bored on the downstream side of the long groove 42. do. Further, this washing water is again collected in another lower long groove 42, and then overflows from this long groove 42 and flows down the upper surface of all the fountain holes 22 and return holes 24 bored on the downstream side of the long groove 42. . As described above, in the inclined lower part of the water tray 18, the cleaning water flows alternately through the long grooves 42 and the upper surface of the fountain hole array 40, and then is drained into a drain tray (not shown).

Therefore, even at the lower part of the slope of the water tray 18, the washing water flows down uniformly over the entire surface of the water tray 18.
Thin ice 41 remaining in the fountain hole 22 and return hole 24 drilled in
can be washed away completely.

Effects of the invention According to the water tray structure of the automatic ice maker according to the present invention configured as described above, the washing water sprayed and supplied to the water tray can be uniformly flowed down over the entire water tray, so that all the water fountain holes can be Also, thin ice remaining in the return hole and ice adhering to the surface of the water tray can be washed away. For this reason, the ice-making water that is sprayed up into each ice-making chamber is evenly distributed on the wall surface of the chamber, and the ice-making water reaches every corner of the ice-making chamber, thereby preventing the formation of deformed ice with missing corners or cloudy ice. At the same time, it is possible to produce ice cubes of good quality that are transparent and of uniform size.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a water tray structure according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the water tray shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the water tray and ice-making compartment according to the present invention. FIG. 3A shows a state before the water tray is tilted, and FIG. 3B shows a state where the water tray is tilted. 4 and 5 are partial longitudinal sectional views showing different embodiments of the water tray according to the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view showing the ice making mechanism of an automatic ice maker according to the prior art. 7 is a sectional view of the water tray shown in FIG. 6 in a tilted state, and FIG. 8 is a schematic perspective view showing the surface state of the water tray according to the prior art. 10... Ice making room, 12... Ice making small room, 16...
Ice making water tank, 18...water tray, 19...water sprinkler,
22... Fountain hole, 24... Return hole, 34... Pressure chamber, 38... Distribution pipe, 42... Long groove.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] [1] An ice-making chamber 10 defining a large number of ice-making chambers 12 that open downward, the ice-making chambers 12 being closed so as to be tiltable and openable from below, and each ice-making chamber 12 having a It includes a water tray 18 having a corresponding fountain hole 22 and a return hole 24, and an ice-making water tank 16 integrally formed below the water tray 18,
The ice making water in the ice making water tank 16 is poured into the water fountain 22.
The water is injected into the ice-making compartment 12 to freeze on the indoor wall surface, and the unfrozen water is returned to the ice-making water tank 16 through the return hole 24 to generate ice cubes.After the ice-making is completed, deicing is started. The water tray 18 and the ice-making water tank 16 are switched to tilt to remove ice, and water is supplied to the ice-making tank 16 by spraying water from a sprinkler 19 onto the surface of the tilted water tray 18. In the injection type automatic ice maker, a long groove 42 is formed on the surface of the area of the water tray 18 facing the ice making chamber 10 so as not to interfere with the water fountain hole 22 and the return hole 24, which intersects with the flowing direction of the spray water. A water tray structure for an automatic ice maker, characterized in that the water trays are formed at appropriate intervals in the downstream direction of sprayed water. [2] The long groove 42 is a partition plate 1 that divides the ice making chamber 10 vertically and horizontally into a large number of small ice making chambers 12.
1, the utility model registration claim 1 is formed corresponding to the lower end of the partition plate extending in the horizontal direction.
The water tray structure of the automatic ice maker described in section.