JPH07133962A - Ice making apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce ice, which has a large grain size and a high transparency, and is hard to melt, even when a supply pressure of a cooling medium and a load on an ice making apparatus are varied. CONSTITUTION:An ice making apparatus comprises a refrigerating circuit (26a, 26b) which connects a compressor 21, a condenser 22, an evaporating section 11c of an ice making device 11 and the compressor 21 in this order so that a cooling medium having been compressed and condensed is evaporated in the evaporating section 11c to cool an ice making surface 11c of the ice making device 11, thereby freezing water on the ice making surface 11c. Provided between the condenser 22 and the evaporating section 11c in the refrigerating circuit 26a is a constant pressure evaporation valve 24 for keeping evaporation pressure of the cooling medium in the evaporating section 11c constant.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ice making device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a type of ice making device, Jitsuko Sho-3
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 643 and Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 31899/1989, a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator of an ice maker, and a refrigeration circuit connecting the compressors are provided, and a compressed and condensed cooling medium is provided. There is an ice making device that evaporates in the evaporating unit to cool the ice making unit of the ice making unit to freeze water in the ice making unit. By the way, it is generally preferable that the produced ice has a large crystal grain size, is hard to melt, and has high transparency. As means for generating such ice, it is considered to consider the thermal characteristics and smoothness of the ice making surface in the ice making machine, the heat flux in the ice making machine, and the like.

[0003]

As a result of various studies by the present inventors on the ice making device of the above-mentioned type, in the ice making device, the evaporation pressure in the evaporation part of the ice making device fluctuates and the evaporation temperature becomes unstable. At the same time, as the ice grows in the ice maker, a phenomenon occurs in which the evaporation temperature of the cooling medium in the evaporation part decreases and the heat flux increases, which results in the formation of ice with a small crystal grain size and low transparency. I knew it was the cause. Further, the cause of these phenomena is that the characteristics of the capillary interposed between the condenser and the evaporation section in the refrigeration circuit as the expansion means of the cooling medium, that is, the cooling medium supplied in a high pressure state. It is known that this is due to the characteristic that the gas flow rate of the cooling medium supplied into the evaporation section in the gas state changes due to the pressure change.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an ice-making device which solves the above-mentioned phenomenon and is capable of producing ice having a large crystal grain size, which is difficult to melt and which has high transparency.

[0005]

The present invention relates to an ice making device, and more particularly to a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator of an ice making machine and a refrigerating circuit for connecting the compressor, wherein the compressed and condensed cooling medium is In an ice making device that cools the ice making unit of the ice making unit by evaporating in the evaporation unit to freeze the water of the ice making unit, between the condenser and the evaporation unit in the refrigeration circuit, It is characterized in that a constant-pressure evaporation means for making the evaporation pressure of the cooling medium constant is provided. A constant pressure expansion valve is preferably used as the constant pressure evaporation means in the present invention.

[0006]

In the ice making device constructed as above, the characteristics of the constant pressure evaporation means are effectively utilized, and the ice state is maintained in the gas state regardless of the pressure fluctuation of the supplied cooling medium and the load fluctuation in the ice maker. The gas flow rate of the cooling medium supplied to the evaporation section can be kept constant for a long time, fluctuations of the evaporation pressure in the evaporation section can be eliminated, and the evaporation temperature can be kept constant to form a stable cooling temperature state. As a result, in the ice making device, it is possible to generate ice having a large crystal grain size, which is difficult to melt, and which has high transparency.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows an ice making device according to the present invention. The ice making device is a water circulation type ice making device, and includes an ice making unit 10 and a freezing unit 20.
The ice making unit 10 includes an ice making machine 11, an ice making water tank 12, a supply pump 13, and a water sprinkler 14. The ice maker 11 is formed by adhering a synthetic resin plate 11b to the upper surface of a substrate 11a, and an evaporation section 11c is formed on the lower surface of the substrate 11a. The substrate 11a is inclined at a predetermined angle, and the surface of the synthetic resin plate 11b is formed as an ice making surface 11d. Further, the evaporation portion 11c is formed in a meandering path on the lower surface of the substrate 11a, and a cooling medium described later is supplied to cool the ice making surface 11d.

The ice making water tank 12 is arranged below the ice making device 11, and a supply pump 13 is arranged therein. The supply pump 13 is connected to the sprinkler 14 via a supply pipe 15. The water sprinkler 14 has a pipe shape, is provided with a large number of nozzles 14 a at predetermined intervals in the longitudinal direction, and is arranged at the upper end of the ice maker 11 in the width direction of the ice making surface 11 d. As a result, the ice making water stored in the tank 12 is supplied to the water sprinkler 14 by the supply pump 13, jetted from each nozzle 14a of the water sprinkler 14 and sprayed uniformly in the width direction of the ice making surface 11d. Some of the sprinkled water for ice making freezes on the ice making surface 11d, and the rest of the ice making water flows down on the ice making surface 11d or the ice making surface and flows from the lower end of the substrate 11a to the tank 12 as indicated by a two-dot chain line. Reflux into.

The freezing section 20 includes a compressor 21, a condenser 22, a dryer 23, a constant pressure expansion valve 24 and an accumulator 25.
And a supply line 26a for a cooling medium, which is connected to the compressor 21 and the evaporation section 11c of the ice maker 11, through which each of the components 21 to 24 is interposed, and the accumulator 2
5 includes a refrigeration circuit including a cooling medium reflux pipe 26b that connects the evaporator 11c and the compressor 21. In the freezing unit 20, the supply pipeline 26a
The hot gas pipe line 26c from the compressor 21 and the condenser 22 to the evaporation unit 11c is provided, and the opening / closing valve 27 is interposed in the pipe line 26c.

In the ice making apparatus, the compressor 21 and the supply pump 13 are driven during operation. As a result, the high-pressure cooling medium compressed by the compressor 21 is discharged from the compressor 21 to the supply pipeline 26a, and the condenser 22, the dryer 23 and the constant pressure expansion valve 24 are provided.
And is supplied to the evaporation section 11c of the ice maker 11 through the ice maker 1
The ice-making surface 11c of No. 1 is cooled. The cooling medium that has contributed to the cooling of the ice making surface 11c is discharged to the reflux conduit 26b, is returned to the compressor 21 via the accumulator 25, is compressed again by the compressor 21, and circulates in the evaporator 11c.

During this time, the ice making water in the ice making water tank 12 is supplied by the supply pump 13 through the supply pipe 15 to the sprinkler 1.
4, and the water is sprayed from the nozzles 14a of the water sprinkler 14 over the entire surface of the ice making surface 11c of the ice maker 11 substantially evenly. Some of the sprinkled ice making water freezes while flowing down the ice making surface 11c, and the rest of the ice making water flows down the surface of the ice making substrate 11
Reflux from the lower end of a into the ice making water tank 12. The ice making water is supplied to the ice making surface 1 as described above while the supply pump 15 is being driven.
1c, ice nuclei gradually grow on the ice making surface 11c during this period, and after a predetermined time elapses, plate-like ice 28 having a predetermined thickness
Are formed on the entire surface of the ice making surface 11c. In the ice making device, after the ice making operation is completed, the opening / closing valve 27 is opened and the cooling medium is supplied in a hot gas state to the evaporating section 11c via the hot gas pipeline 26c to heat the ice making surface 11c from the lower surface side to form a plate shape. The ice 28 is separated from the ice making surface 11c.

In the ice making apparatus, a constant pressure expansion valve 24 is provided in the cooling medium supply pipe 26a. The constant pressure expansion valve 24 is provided for the evaporator 1 regardless of the pressure fluctuation of the cooling medium supplied from the compressor 21.
Regardless of the load on the 1c side, the evaporation pressure of the condensed cooling medium is kept constant, the evaporation temperature of the cooling medium in the evaporation section 11c is kept constant, and the ice making surface 11 of the ice making device 11 is made.
Cool c. Therefore, the ice-making surface 11c is kept at a constant cooling temperature for a long time, the cooling temperature on the ice-making surface 11c does not fluctuate even if the growth of ice progresses, the crystal grain size is large and it is difficult to melt, and Highly transparent ice is produced.

In the ice making experiment using the ice making apparatus according to the present invention, however, it was confirmed that ice having an extremely large crystal grain size is produced when the evaporation temperature of the cooling medium is set to -5 ° C to -8 ° C. ing. Further, in an ice making experiment using the ice making device and a conventional ice making device, due to the difference in the characteristics of the constant pressure expansion valve 24 and the capillary, in the ice making device, the pressure fluctuation of the supplied cooling medium and the load on the evaporation unit 11c are increased. While the evaporation temperature is constant with respect to fluctuations, in the conventional ice making device, it was confirmed that the evaporation temperature greatly fluctuates with pressure fluctuations of the supplied cooling medium and load fluctuations of the evaporation unit 11c. It was

In this embodiment, an example in which the present invention is applied to an ice making device of a type in which ice making water is made to flow down on the ice making surface 11c of the ice making device 11 is shown, but in the present invention, a large number of bottoms are opened. The present invention is also applied to a cell type ice making device which is provided with the ice making chamber (cell) and is supplied with ice-making water in a jet form from the opening of the cooled cell to produce ice in the cell. Further, instead of the constant pressure expansion valve 24 of the present embodiment, it is possible to employ an appropriate constant pressure evaporation means for keeping the evaporation pressure of the cooling medium constant, similar to the valve 24.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ice making device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Ice-making part, 11 ... Ice-making device, 11b ... Evaporating part, 11c
... ice making surface, 12 ... ice making water tank, 13 ... supply pump,
14 ... Sprinkler, 20 ... Freezing part, 21 ... Compressor, 22 ... Condenser, 24 ... Constant pressure expansion valve, 26a ... Cooling medium supply pipeline, 26b ... Cooling medium reflux pipeline, 28 ... Plate ice.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ice making unit of the ice maker, comprising: a compressor, a condenser, an evaporation unit of the ice maker, and a refrigeration circuit connecting the compressor to each other, and the compressed and condensed cooling medium is evaporated in the evaporation unit. In the ice making device for cooling water of the ice making unit by cooling the same, between the condenser and the evaporation unit in the refrigeration circuit, a constant pressure evaporation means for making the evaporation pressure of the cooling medium in the evaporation unit constant. An ice making device characterized by being provided.