JPH0510193Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (a) Industrial application field The present invention includes a cooler having a number of ice-making compartments that open downward, and a cooler that is arranged on the opening side of the cooler and is tilted and moved by a drive device. The present invention relates to a so-called inverted cell type ice making device equipped with a water tray, and particularly relates to improvements in the water tray. (b) Conventional technology Conventionally, water sprinklers that sprinkle water on the surface of water trays were
As disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 59-39572, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 60-15090, and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 61-46370, etc., a water tray is connected to an external water supply system through a water supply valve above the rotation fulcrum side of the water tray. It consists of a water sprinkler installed. (c) Problems to be solved by the invention The above-mentioned conventional water sprinkler is manufactured as a single component, resulting in high cost, and requires additional parts such as a support to support the sprinkler above the water tray. This increases the number of parts, and furthermore, there are other problems, such as if the positioning with respect to the water tray is not performed accurately, water may come off the water tray and be sprayed. (d) Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the problems of the prior art described above, the present invention provides a cooler having a large number of ice-making compartments that open downward, and a cooler that is arranged on the opening side of the cooler. A water tray is provided and tilted and moved by a drive device, and a water tank is installed below the water tray and tilted and moved together with the water tray, and a circulation pump supplies ice-making water in the water tank to the water tray. In an ice-making device that performs ice-making operation by supplying water from an ice-making fountain hole formed in the top plate to the ice-making chamber, a water supply port connected to an external water supply system is formed in the water tray, and a This is a water tray for an ice making device, in which a water fountain hole is formed at an upstream position of a face plate to communicate with the water supply port and supply water to the surface of the top plate. (e) Function The present invention eliminates the need to construct a water sprinkler with a single component by forming the fountain hole 17 that supplies water on the surface of the top plate 18 in the water tray 5 .
The water supplied to the surface of the top plate 18 from the fountain hole 17 formed at 8 cleans the surface of the top plate 18, and is also supplied to the water tank 6 as ice-making water necessary for the ice-making process of the next cycle. (f) Examples Examples of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings. First, the general structure of the inverted cell type ice making device will be explained with reference to FIGS. We have set up
On the lower side of this cooler 1 , that is, on the opening side of the ice making compartment 1A, there is a rotation fulcrum 3 at the rear, and a drive device 4 consisting of a drive motor 4A, a drive cam 4B, a coil spring 4C, etc. at the front side. The water tray 5 of the present invention is equipped with a water tray 5 and is configured to be able to tilt and move.Furthermore, a water tank 6 with an open top that tilts and moves together with the water tray 5 is provided below the water tray 5 . are doing. Thus, the water tray 5 has a water supply port 9 to which a flexible water supply pipe 8 of an external water supply system is connected via a water supply solenoid valve 7.
and an ice-making water inlet 1 to which the discharge pipe 11 of the circulation pump 10 whose suction side is connected to the water tank 6 is connected.
2, water flows in from the water supply port 9 through the water supply pipe 8, and water flows into the water tank 6 from the inlet 12.
The ice-making water inside is led to each water channel of the water tray 5 , which will be described in detail below. That is, the water tray 5 of the present invention, which is shown in detail in FIGS. 1 to 5, has an upper main body 13 molded by injection molding, as shown in the bottom view in FIG. 3, and a bottom view shown in FIG. 4. It is constructed by combining and joining the lower main body 14 molded by injection molding as shown in FIG. Among these, the upper main body 13 has an ice-making fountain hole 15 corresponding to the center of each ice-making chamber 1A, and return holes 16 on both sides thereof, and is located at a predetermined interval at an upstream position away from the cooler 1 . A top plate 18 having a plurality of cleaning fountain holes 17 formed in a protruding manner, a guide wall 19 standing around the top plate 18 excluding the tip formed in a curved surface, and a guide wall 19 around the entire top plate 18. The water tank 6 protrudes in the opposite direction and has an open top surface.
is constituted by a side wall 20 to which is fixed;
A shallow groove 21 into which the lower main body 14 fits is formed on the back surface of the top plate 18. On the other hand, the lower main body 14 has the water supply port 9 extending through the rear side wall 20A of the upper main body 13 protruding from the rear, and has an opening 22 on the rear bottom surface to which the ice-making water inlet 12 is connected. a lower plate 2 having an opening 23 on the bottom surface facing the return hole 16;
4 and the ice-making water inlet 12 by protruding from the bottom plate 24 and fitting the upper edge into the groove 21.
and an ice-making waterway 2 that communicates with the ice-making fountain hole 15.
5, and defines a deicing waterway 26 that communicates the water supply port 9 and the cleaning fountain hole 17, and furthermore, a return waterway 2 that communicates the opening 23 and the return hole 16.
The partition wall 28 that defines the ice-free waterway 7 and the lower surface plate 24 that forms the bottom surface of the ice-free waterway 26 are provided to protrude from the portion of the lower surface plate 24 to define the upper surface plate 18 and the ice-free waterway 26 in order to change the flow of water. The outer peripheral partition wall 28A and
It is constituted by an auxiliary partition wall 29 that exists between the two. More specifically, the ice-making waterway 25 includes a main waterway 25A that runs through the center of the water tray 5 , and a main waterway 25A that runs through the center of the water tray 5.
Consisting of a plurality of branch waterways 25B that branch from A and communicate with the fountain hole 15, the auxiliary partition wall 29 provided in the ice-removal waterway 26 divides the space between adjacent partition walls 28B that define the branch waterway 25B. , main waterway 25A
It extends toward the partition wall 28C defining the partition wall 28C. In addition, by stopping the water flow, the water in the respective waterways 25 and 26 is removed from the lower plate 24 forming the bottom of the ice-making waterway 25 and the lower plate 24 forming the bottom of the ice-removing waterway 26. Drain ports 30 and 31 are formed, respectively, for the water to be collected in the tank 6. In the above configuration, when assembling the water tray 5 , first turn the upper main body 13 to the back side as shown in FIG. 3, pour adhesive into the groove 21, and then turn the lower main body 14 to the back side as shown in FIG. In this state, the upper main body 13 and the lower main body 14 are connected by fitting the edge of the partition wall 28 into the groove 21. Note that the water tank 6 is fixed to the side wall 20 of the water tray 5 after the water tray 5 is assembled, and at this time, the front surface 6A of the water tank 6 is opposed to the front side wall 20B with at least a gap that prevents ice from entering. do. 32 is a drain port formed on the front surface 6A of the water tank 6, and 33 is a drain guide plate that guides the water drained from the drain port 32 to a drain pan (not shown) disposed below the water tank 6. . FIG. 10 is a time chart showing the opening and closing states of the water supply solenoid valve 7, and the solenoid valve 7 is at least connected to the water tray 5.
The condition is that the valve is opened before the ice is tilted, and in the embodiment, the valve is opened at the same time as ice making is completed, and closed when the water tray 5 is fully opened. Thereafter, the valve opens again upon completion of deicing, and closes when a fixed amount of ice-making water for the next cycle is supplied to the water tank 6. Next, the operation of the present invention will be explained based on the above configuration. When the ice making process is started in a horizontal state in which the water tray 5 closes the opening surface of the ice making chamber 1A, the ice making water in the water tank 6 is discharged through the discharge pipe 11 by the operation of the circulation pump 10 to the ice making water inlet 12. It enters the ice-making waterway 25 from the ice-making waterway 25, passes through the main waterway 25A, and further passes through the branch waterway 25B from the ice-making fountain hole 15 to the ice-making chamber 1.
A part of the ice-making water freezes in the ice-making chamber 1A, and unfrozen water returns to the water tank 6 from the return hole 16 through the return passage 27. (This flow of water is shown by solid arrows in Figures 1 and 6). In this way, by circulating the ice making water in the water tank 6 to the ice making compartment 1A, the ice making completion detection means such as a timer or thermostat detects that a predetermined amount of ice has grown in the ice making compartment 1A. Then, the circulation pump 10 is stopped and ice making is completed. When ice making is completed, the water supply electromagnetic valve 7 opens and the water supplied from the water supply pipe 8 is passed through the ice removal waterway 26 as shown by the dotted line arrow in FIGS. 1 and 6, and then
Water is supplied from the cleaning fountain hole 17 to the surface of the top plate 18 . In this way, when water is passed from the external water supply system to the de-icing channel 26, the sensible heat of the water is transmitted to the ice side via the top plate 18, and as shown in FIG. By melting the lower surface of the ice 34, the adhesion between the top plate 18 and the ice 34 is weakened, and at the same time, the expansion of the top plate 18 due to the temperature rise is expected to cause the ice 34 and the top plate 18 to peel off. Therefore, when the drive device 4 operates based on the completion of ice making and peels off the top plate 18 from the bottom surface of the ice 34,
The load on the drive device 4 can be reduced to almost no load. Thus, the water tray 5 is moved by the driving device 4 .
When it is fully opened, the drive device 4 stops, the water supply electromagnetic valve 7 also closes, and water flow to the ice removal waterway 26 is stopped. By the way, the water that is supplied to the surface of the top plate 18 from the cleaning water fountain hole 17 after being passed through the ice removal channel 26 flows down the surface of the top plate 18 which is being tilted, and at this time, the water flows down the surface of the top plate 18 which is tilting. After the surface of the top plate 18 is cleaned and the water is once collected into the water tank 6 from the lower edge of the top plate 18, the water is drained from the drain port 32 via the drain guide plate 33 into the drain pan. Note that it is desirable that the operation of the drive device 4 is delayed slightly from the opening of the water supply solenoid valve 7, but since there is a mechanical delay between the operation of the drive device 4 and the time when the water tray 5 starts tilting, the electrical Good experimental results were obtained even when the water supply solenoid valve 7 was opened and the drive device 4 was operated at the same time. On the other hand, the ice frozen in the ice making compartment 1A is slightly melted by the heat of the hot gas circulated to the evaporation pipe 2 upon completion of ice making, and is removed from the ice making compartment 1A and placed on the water tray 5 with the ice making compartment 1A open. It slides down the face plate 18 and is guided to an ice storage (not shown). When it is detected that the ice has left the ice making compartment 1A by the rise in temperature of the cooler 1 , the drive device 4 is operated again to cause the water tray 5 to move back. At the same time, the water supply solenoid valve 7 is opened, and water is supplied from the cleaning fountain hole 17 to the surface of the top plate 18 through the same path as described above, that is, through the deicing waterway 26, to the return hole 16 and the top plate 18. Water is supplied from the lower edge to the water tank 6 as ice-making water for the next cycle. Therefore, water plate 5
When the ice-making water returns to the horizontal position that closes the opening surface of the ice-making compartment 1A, the drive device 4 stops, and after that, when a predetermined amount of ice-making water is supplied to the water tank 6, the water supply solenoid valve 7
closes and stops water supply operation. When such water supply operation is stopped, all the water in the ice-off waterway 26 is supplied to the water tank 6 from the water drain port 31, so that no water remains in the ice-off waterway 26. (g) Effects of the invention As described above, this invention forms a water fountain hole that communicates with the water supply port connected to the external water system at the upstream position of the top plate that is removed from the cooler, and supplies water to the surface of the top plate. Since the water fountain is supplied, the water tray can have the function equivalent to a conventional water sprinkler, the number of parts is reduced, and there is no need to install the sprinkler separately. The water fountain supplied to the surface of the top plate can be used to thoroughly clean the surface of the top plate, and can also be used to supply water to the water tank used in the next cycle, which has many advantages. It is something.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a top view of the water tray of the ice making device of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a bottom view of the upper main body constituting the water tray, and Fig. 4 is the same. Fig. 5 is a side sectional view showing the relationship between the water tray and the cooler, Fig. 6 is a partially cutaway perspective view, and Fig. 7 is a bottom view of the lower main body.
The figure is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the main parts showing the frozen solid state of the ice and the top plate upon completion of ice making, Figure 8 is a side view of the ice making device equipped with the water tray of the present invention, and Figure 9 is the same when the water tray is tilted. FIG. 10, which is a perspective view of the ice making device, is a time chart showing the state of water supply to the ice removal channel. 1 ...Cooler, 1A...Ice making compartment, 4 ...Drive device, 5 ...Water tray, 9...Water inlet, 17...Fountain hole, 18...Top plate.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A cooler having a number of ice-making compartments opening downward, a water tray disposed on the opening side of the cooler and tilted by a drive device, and a water tray disposed below the water tray together with the water tray. In the ice-making apparatus, which is equipped with a tilting water tank and performs an ice-making operation by supplying ice-making water in the water tank to an ice-making compartment from an ice-making fountain hole formed in a top plate of a water tray using a circulation pump. A water supply port connected to an external water supply system is formed in the water tray, and is located upstream of the top plate detached from the cooler.
A water tray for an ice making device, characterized in that a water fountain hole is formed on the surface of the top plate to communicate with the water supply port and supply a water fountain.