JPH0541326Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed explanation of the idea] [Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to an ice-making machine, and more particularly, during an ice-making cycle, an ice-making member having a plurality of ice-making chambers opening downwardly has a rotatable water tray that closes the ice-making chambers.
This ice maker relates to an ice maker that circulates water in a water storage tank using a pump, sprinkles water into the ice making chamber, and drains the water tank by tilting the water tray and water storage tank away from the ice making member during the deicing cycle after ice making is completed. .

[Conventional technology]

1 and 2 show the ice-making mechanism of a typical conventional ice-making machine. In the figures, an ice-making member 2 having an ice-making chamber 1 opened downward has a refrigerant evaporation pipe 3 on the top surface. As shown in FIG. 1, the ice making chamber 1 can be closed by the water tray 4 with a slight gap between the ice making chamber 1 and the water tray 4 during the ice making cycle. An ice-making water conduit 5 provided on the lower surface of the water tray 4 communicates with a discharge port of an ice-making water circulation pump 6. Water from the ice-making water conduit 5 is poured into the ice-making chamber 1 into the water tray 4.
A spout hole 7 through which water is jetted out, and an outflow port 9 through which unfrozen water in the ice making chamber 1 flows down to a water storage tank 8 below are formed. As shown in FIG. 2, the water storage tank 8 integrated with the water pan 4 is rotatable about a shaft 10 during the deicing cycle, and this rotation, that is, the tilting of the water storage tank 8 and the water pan 4 This is performed slowly by an electric mechanism (not shown). Reference numeral 11 denotes a water supply pipe for sprinkling water onto the water tray 4 during the deicing cycle, and this water supply pipe 11 connected to a water source is equipped with a water supply valve 12. Water supply valve 12
is combined with a control circuit (not shown) to open the valve for a certain period of time during the deicing cycle.
Drainage pan 13 is a container that receives drainage from water storage tank 8. In the ice maker mentioned above, when the ice making is completed, the water tray 4
When the water storage tank 8 is tilted about the shaft 10 as shown in FIG. 2, the drain port 8A provided on the side of the water storage tank 8 moves to a lower position, and when the ice making is completed, the water tank 8 is tilted as shown in FIG. The water in the water storage tank 8 that has reached the water level of
The water is drained into the drain tray 13, leaving only the water up to the water level a'. During the next ice-making cycle, the water in the water storage tank 8 is circulated by the ice-making water circulation pump 6 so that it is injected from the ice-making water supply channel 5 to the ice-making chamber 1 through the spout hole 7 of the water tray 4. The water circulation pump 6 stops. After the ice making is completed, the deicing cycle begins, and the water tray 4 is tilted, and the hot gas from the refrigeration circuit is passed through the refrigerant evaporation pipe 3 to heat the ice making member 2, and the ice adhering surface to the wall of the ice making chamber 1 is heated. When the ice cubes are melted and removed from the ice making compartment 1, they slide down onto the tilted water tray 4 and into the ice storage (not shown).
be introduced within. After tilting, there is ice cubes attached to the top surface of the water tray 4. If this is left unattended, the ice cubes on the water tray 4 will not slide down smoothly as described above, and the spout hole will be damaged. 7 and water outlet 9, the water supply valve 12 is opened and water is discharged onto the upper surface of the water tray 4. The discharged water flows down the upper surface of the water tray 4, is guided into the interior of the water storage tank 8 from the water receptacle 14 defined between the edge of the water tray and the edge of the water storage tank 8, and The water is drained through the drain port 8A. As mentioned above, the ice cubes in the ice making compartment 1 are detached,
After a certain period of time that is sufficient for the ice that has been introduced into the ice storage and that has clogged the spout hole 7 and outlet 9 formed in the water tray 4 to finish melting, the water tray 4 leaves the ice making chamber 1. It rotates again in the direction of closing and enters the next ice making cycle. During this rotation, water continues to be supplied from the water supply pipe 11, and water is stored in the water storage tank 8 as ice-making water to be used in the next ice-making cycle, and the water supply ends when a predetermined amount of water is reached.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In the deicing cycle, most of the water discharged from the water supply pipe 11 is crushed by waste ice on the upper surface of the water tray 4 and ice clogging the spout 7 and outlet 9. It is used to melt ice that has adhered to water, but most of it is drained away, resulting in a huge waste of water. Furthermore, if the water supply temperature is low, the ice cubes may fall off from the ice making chamber 1 before the ice cubes adhering to the water tray 4 are completely melted, and at that time, the ice cubes may slide off the water tray. Since the ice gets caught on the adhering ice and remains on the water tray, when the water tray 4 is moved upward to close the ice making chamber 1, the ice cubes may be caught between the water tray and the ice making chamber. As a result, the electric mechanism was overloaded, causing failure of the electric mechanism and its surrounding parts. Furthermore, if the ice making cycle is started with the ice adhering to the water tray not completely melted and the nozzle 7 and outlet 9 remaining clogged, cloudy and defective ice will be formed. . Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an ice maker that can remove adhering ice on a water tray in a suitable manner while using as little water as possible, and has good ice making efficiency.

[Means to solve the problem]

To achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a refrigeration circuit having a water-cooled condenser that is cooled by cooling water passing through a cooling water pipe during the ice-making cycle, and an ice-making member having a number of ice-making chambers opening downward. a water tray rotatable to close said opening during an ice-making cycle; an ice-making water circulation pump connected to a water source for circulating ice-making water from a water storage tank through said water tray and into said ice-making compartment during an ice-making cycle; , a water supply pipe having a water supply valve that sprinkles water stored in the water storage tank for the next ice-making cycle into the water tray during a deicing cycle; A water sprinkling pipe is provided in communication with the cooling water outlet side of the cooling water pipe through a conduit in order to sprinkle the cooled water on the water tray, and the water dispensing pipe is provided in the conduit and the cooling water pipe, and the cooling water is connected to the cooling water outlet side of the cooling water pipe. A valve device that can be opened and closed so as to drain the cooling water heated through the condenser from the cooling water outlet side of the cooling water pipe and supply the cooling water that has passed through the condenser to the watering pipe during a deicing cycle. It is characterized by comprising the following.

[Effect]

During the ice-making cycle, the cooling water exchanged by the water-cooled condenser is heated to a temperature close to the condensation temperature of the refrigerant gas, and is discharged from the cooling water outlet side of the condenser at a temperature significantly higher than that of the cooling water from the water source. be done. During the deicing cycle, by opening and closing the valve device, the cooling water that has exited the condenser is not discharged from the cooling water outlet side, but is supplied to the watering pipe, from which it is sprayed onto the water tray.

【Example】

Next, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts. FIG. 3 is a sectional view schematically showing an ice maker according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a refrigeration circuit of the ice maker. In the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.
The difference from the conventional example shown in the figure is that a conduit 15A is provided on the inlet side of the water supply pipe 11 to bypass the condenser cooling water via the water sprinkler valve 15 (valve device) without discharging it from the cooling water outlet side. Connect and water supply pipe 1
1 is also used as a watering pipe. However, it is of course not necessary to connect this conduit 15A to the water supply pipe 11, and the conduit 15A can be connected to a watering pipe separate from the water supply pipe 11. In the refrigeration circuit shown in FIG. 4, a cooling water pipe 16A passing through the condenser 18 is connected to a drain port via an automatic water supply valve (valve device) 16, and a water sprinkler valve 15 is connected to the condenser 18 and the automatic water supply valve 16. The water supply pipe 1 in FIG. 3 is branched from the cooling water pipe 16A between the water supply valves 16.
It is connected to the middle of a conduit 15A extending to the inlet side of the pipe 1. The automatic water supply valve 16 in this embodiment is connected to the condenser 1.
The flow rate of cooling water can be controlled by detecting the pressure of the refrigerant gas No. 8. In addition, as a main component of the refrigeration circuit,
Compressor 17, condenser 18, expansion valve 19, evaporator 2
0, a hot gas valve 21, etc. are connected in a well-known manner. Referring again to FIG. 4, during the ice-making cycle, watering valve 15 is held closed, but automatic watering valve 1
6 is open. Cooling water pipe line 1 from cooling water source
During the ice making cycle, the cooling water supplied to 6A is
It is used to perform a condensing action in the condenser 18, and in the condenser 18, heat is exchanged with the high-pressure refrigerant gas flowing in the conduit 18A, and the gas is discharged from the condenser 18 at a relatively high temperature close to the condensing temperature, and the automatic water supply is performed. valve 16
heading towards. The automatic water supply valve 16 performs feedback control to change the amount of cooling water passing through the conduit 16A by detecting the high pressure in the conduit 18A on the outlet side of the condenser 18, thereby reducing the pressure in the conduit 18A. Maintain a nearly constant high pressure. The refrigerant gas cooled by the cooling water in the condenser 18 passes through the expansion valve 19 to the evaporator 20.
The refrigerant reaches the refrigerant evaporation pipe 3 (FIG. 3), where heat is exchanged with the ice-making water in the ice-making chamber 1 to make ice. When transitioning to the deicing cycle, the hot gas valve 21
The valve is opened to supply high-temperature gas to the evaporator 20, and this high-temperature gas melts the surface of the ice cubes adhering to the wall of the ice-making chamber, causing the ice cubes to separate from the ice-making chamber. On the other hand, since the hot gas valve 21 opens, the high pressure in the pipe line 18A decreases, so the automatic water supply valve 16 is closed. At this point, the sprinkler valve 15 also remains closed, so the heated cooling water remains in the condenser 18. Therefore, in FIG. 3, at any time after entering the de-icing cycle and before the ice cubes are removed from the ice-making compartment, i.e., when the water tray 4 and the water storage tank 8 begin to tilt, or during tilting, or When the water sprinkler valve 15 is opened at an arbitrary point after the end of the tilting, heated cooling water, that is, hot water is released from the water supply pipe 11, flows over the water tray 4, is guided from the water socket 14 to the water storage tank 8, The water is drained from the drain port 8A, but since the heated cooling water flowing over the water tray 4 has sufficient heat to melt the ice that has adhered to the water tray 4, the ice that has adhered to the water tray 4 can be removed extremely quickly. It will be held on. Thereafter, the sprinkler valve 15 closes after discharging and supplying a fraction of the amount that was previously drained onto the water tray. The closing timing of the water sprinkler valve 15 can be set at any time during the deicing cycle as long as the ice on the water tray can be removed. Such control of the water sprinkler valve 15 can be carried out, for example, by activating a timer after entering the deicing cycle, presetting a time sufficient for melting the adhering ice in this timer, and during this set time, the water sprinkler valve 15 is activated. This can be done by opening the valve. Further, the opening and closing of the water sprinkler valve 15 may be controlled in response to temperature detection of the ice making member, melting of adhering ice, water level detection, or other various signals. After the water sprinkler valve 15 is closed and the ice cubes are removed from the ice-making compartment 1, the water tray 4 and water storage tank 8 begin to rotate under the control of temperature detection or a timer, and the ice-making compartment 1 occlude. After the water sprinkler valve 15 closes, the water tray 4 enters the ice making compartment 2.
for a certain period of time until the water supply valve 12 is closed.
Opening the valve, removing the heated cooling water remaining in the water storage tank 8, and replenishing the water storage tank 8 with ice-making water up to the standard water level required for making ice, and then entering the ice-making cycle again. becomes.
As an example of such control, the water supply valve 1 is activated in response to a circuit switch that energizes an electric mechanism to return the water storage tank 8 and water tray 4 to the ice-making chamber closed position.
1 can be opened and closed at the upper water level. Although an embodiment has been shown in which hot water is obtained from a hot water source stored in the condenser cooling water pipe, such a hot water source may also be a heating tank heated by a heater or the like. You can also.

[Effect of the idea]

According to the present invention having the above configuration and operation, the following effects can be obtained. 1. Less power consumption. In other words, in the past, the water that was supposed to be used for making ice was also used to melt the ice on the water tray.
However, according to the present invention, hot water heated by a water-cooled condenser is sprinkled onto the water tray during the deicing cycle.
The amount of ice-making water supplied from the water supply valve 12 is sufficient to fill the water storage tank, and the ice adhering to the water tray can be melted using the heated cooling water of the condenser, which was conventionally simply drained. Therefore, it saves a lot of water. 2. There is no chance of ice being caught between the water tray and the ice making member (ice trapping). Since heated cooling water is used, ice adhering to the water tray can be reliably and quickly melted regardless of the temperature of the ice-making water from the water source. As a result, the ice cubes that have separated from the ice-making chamber do not remain on the water tray, which prevents the ice from forming between the ice-making member and the water tray, and there is a risk of damage to the electric mechanism and its surrounding parts. It disappears. 3. No more cloudy ice or malformed ice. In this type of ice maker, if the spout or outlet on the water tray is sealed or partially open due to blockage, ice, or adhered ice, a sufficient amount of ice-making water cannot be supplied to the ice-making compartment. Normally, the phenomenon of cloudy ice or malformed ice was produced, but the ice maker of this invention reliably removes ice chips on the water tray and ice clogged in the spout and outlet. Since it melts, this phenomenon can be prevented. 4 Ice making efficiency is improved. Conventionally, during the de-icing cycle, the valve leading to the condenser drain is closed, so heated cooling water remains in the condenser, causing the ice-making cycle to switch from the de-icing cycle to the ice-making cycle. A water-cooled condenser cannot efficiently perform a cooling action during the ice making process, but according to the present invention, the remaining cooling water is sprinkled onto the water tray during the deicing cycle, so that the cooling effect is not effective during the ice making process. In this case, the water-cooled condenser works efficiently, resulting in high refrigeration or ice-making efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are simplified sectional views showing the ice making mechanism of a conventional ice maker in different states, FIG. 3 is a simplified sectional view showing the ice making mechanism of an ice maker according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a simplified sectional view showing the ice making mechanism of a conventional ice maker in different states. , is a diagram showing a refrigeration circuit of an ice maker according to the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Ice making chamber, 2...Ice making member, 4...Water tray, 6...Ice making water circulation pump, 8...Water storage tank, 11...Water supply pipe (sprinkling pipe), 12...Water supply valve, 15... ...Water valve (valve device), 15A... Conduit,
16...Automatic water supply valve (valve device), 16A...Cooling water pipe, 18...Water-cooled condenser.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A refrigeration circuit having a water-cooled condenser 18 that is cooled by cooling water passing through the cooling water pipe 16A during the ice-making cycle, an ice-making member 2 having a large number of ice-making chambers 1 opened downward, and an ice-making member 2 having a plurality of small ice-making chambers 1 opened downwardly, the openings being closed during the ice-making cycle. a water tray 4 rotatable to close the ice-making chamber; an ice-making water circulation pump 6 for circulating ice-making water from a water storage tank 8 into the ice-making compartment 1 through the water tray 4 during the ice-making cycle; In an ice maker equipped with a water supply pipe 11 having a water supply valve 12 that sprinkles water stored in the water storage tank 8 into the water tray 4 during the next ice-making cycle, the condenser 18 A water sprinkling pipe communicating with the cooling water outlet side of the cooling water pipe 16A via a conduit 15A in order to sprinkle heated cooling water onto the water tray 4, and the conduit 15A and the cooling water pipe 1.
6A, during the ice-making cycle, the cooling water heated through the condenser 18 is drained from the cooling water outlet side of the cooling water pipe 16A, and during the de-icing cycle, the cooling water is heated through the condenser 18. An ice maker comprising valve devices 15 and 16 that can be opened and closed so as to supply water to the watering pipe.