JPH0760041B2 - Ice making equipment - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a new type of ice making device which is not an auger type but can collect ice from above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, there have been known ice making machines incorporating various types of ice making mechanisms. The most typical one is, for example, as disclosed in JP-B-46-10265. A fountain-type ice-making mechanism that produces ice cubes by supplying ice-making water from below into a cubic cell that has openings, and collects ice cubes by dropping ice cubes downward from the cell.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2614, after ice-making water is made to flow down on a flat plate to generate plate ice, the plate ice is cut vertically and horizontally by a heater to produce ice cubes, and the ice cubes are dropped downward. A cut type ice making mechanism is known. Further, an auger type ice making mechanism for scraping the ice layer formed on the inner surface of the cylinder with an auger screw to form flaky ice pieces and compressing the ice pieces into hard ice is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-40259. It is well known that

[0003]

However, in the fountain type ice making mechanism and the cut type ice making mechanism described above, the produced ice can only be taken out downward, and the ice storage unit is necessarily arranged below the ice making mechanism. Will be done. Therefore, the ice outlet of the ice storage unit will be provided at a lower position that is disadvantageous to the removal work, which is a problem especially for vending machines that want to design the ice discharge position from the lower part of the ice storage unit as high as possible. there were.

Further, in the auger type ice making mechanism, scraped flaky ice is sent upwards to be compressed and discharged, so that the problem of the ice making mechanism of the above-mentioned method can be solved, but the ice piece compressing step Requires a great deal of power. Therefore, a large load is applied to the bearing portion of the auger screw.Since the bearing portion is provided in the water passage, impurities such as silica and calcium contained in the water deposit and invade the bearing portion. Therefore, there is a problem that not only the life of the bearing portion is remarkably short, but also high cost is required for inspection, maintenance and repair. Further, the supply pipe and the circulation pipe of the ice making water to the ice making cylinder need to penetrate the ice making cylinder cooled by the evaporator and be directly connected to the ice making cylinder. There was a problem. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to arrange the ice outlet as high as possible,
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ice making device that does not damage the bearing portion, block the freezing of the ice making water circulation system, or drip dew.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an ice making device according to the present invention comprises a vertical cylindrical member having an ice making surface and a spiral guide rail formed on the inner peripheral surface thereof and evaporation on the outer peripheral surface thereof. An ice making cylinder provided with a container and having an open upper end, and a drive / partitioning device including a rotating hollow cylinder coaxially arranged in the ice making cylinder and having radial partition blades on an outer peripheral surface thereof. An ice making water return overflow hole is formed in the upper part of the rotating hollow cylinder, and an ice making water return discharge hole is formed in the bottom surface thereof so as to face the ice making water circulation hole in the bottom surface of the ice making cylinder. The inside serves as a return passage for ice making water.

[0006]

In the ice making operation, the ice making water that has flowed in from the bottom surface of the ice making cylinder is cooled by the evaporator on the outer peripheral surface thereof and freezes and grows on the ice making surface. Ice-making water that does not turn into ice enters into the ice-making water return overflow hole of the rotating hollow cylinder of the drive / partitioning device, flows out from the ice-making water return discharge hole on the bottom to the outside of the bottom of the ice-making cylinder, and further inside the ice-making cylinder. Circulate to. If the ice reaches a predetermined size while repeating the circulation of ice-making water, the ice-making water is discharged, and the hot gas introduced into the evaporator releases the binding between the ice and the ice-making cylinder, and the rotating hollow Rotate the cylinder. The ice is guided by the spiral guide rails on the inner surface of the ice making cylinder to rise, and is collected from the upper portion of the opened ice making cylinder.

[0007]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts. FIG. 1 shows a vertical cross-sectional view of an ice making device 1 according to the present invention. The ice making device 1 is provided with a vertical cylindrical ice making cylinder 16 in which an ice layer is formed on an inner peripheral surface 16c, as will be described later, and has an upper portion. An evaporator 23 that circulates a refrigerant by a known method is wound around the outer peripheral surface 16d of the ice making cylinder 16 having the horizontal flange portion 16b. The evaporator 23 is surrounded by the heat insulating material 19. The open upper end of the ice making cylinder 16 is provided with a rectangular opening or notch 22 having an appropriate size for releasing the ice particles 20a (FIG. 5), preferably symmetrically facing each other in the diametrical direction. The ice 20a (FIG. 5) is provided from the two opening portions 22 at the time of ice collection or deicing so that the chute 21 communicating with the two opening portions 22 guides it to an ice storage portion (not shown). I'm running. The inner peripheral surface 16c of the ice making cylinder 16 is provided with a guide portion (spiral guide rail) 16a that operates as described below. In the preferred embodiment, the guide 16
a is a predetermined pitch, knurl and radial height 2
It is in the form of a strip spiral rail, the upper end of each spiral rail ending at the position of the corresponding opening 22.

A header 17 which is hermetically sealed from below by a lid 18 is liquid-tightly attached to the lower portion of the ice making cylinder 16 by an appropriate means such as a screw. An annular partition plate 17f is provided inside the header 17, and the partition plate 17f is provided.
Cooperates with the lid 18 to define an outer annular inlet chamber 17a and an inner circular outlet chamber 17b for ice making water.
The inlet chamber 17a has a discharge pipe 18b connected to the discharge side of a circulation pump described later, and a discharge port 17c for discharging ice making water into the ice making cylinder 16, and the outlet chamber 17b is connected to the suction side of the pump. The suction pipe 18a and the suction port (ice making water circulation hole) 17d for sucking the ice making water from the inside of the drive / partitioning device 12 described later are provided. Also, header 1
A concave bearing portion 17e is formed at the center of the top of the bearing 7.

In the above-mentioned ice making cylinder 16, the guide portion 1 is provided.
The drive / partitioning device 12 is coaxially positioned and arranged by the bearing portion 17e of the header 17 so as not to contact the 6a. As can be seen from FIG. 1 and FIG.
The partitioning device 12 mainly includes a cylindrical vertical body portion (rotating hollow cylinder) 15, an extrusion head 13 provided at an upper end of the body portion 15, and a plurality of radially extending portions from the outer peripheral surface of the body portion 15 (implementation). It is composed of 12 vertical partition blades 14 in the example). The extrusion head 13 includes a substantially cylindrical guide portion 13b extending vertically upward from the body portion 15, an inverted frustoconical extrusion portion 13a extending radially outward from the upper end of the guide portion 13b, and a guide portion. From the bottom of 13b, the guide portion 1
3b and the shaft portion 13c extending upward through the inside of the pushing portion 13a are preferably integrally formed. Figure 1
As can be understood from FIG.
Can be connected, and the drive / partition device 12 is the deceleration motor 1
It is driven by 1 in the manner described later.

The body portion 15 is formed hollow and defines a cavity portion 15c therein, which is used as a return passage for ice making water as described later. In addition to the blades 14 described above, a plurality of return overflows for introducing the ice making water, which has been supplied into the ice making cylinder 16 but not frozen, into the hollow portion 15c in addition to the blades 14 described above. A hole 15b is provided in the upper peripheral edge of the body portion 15, and a plurality of return discharge holes 15a for returning the ice making water thus introduced into the cavity portion 15c to the outlet chamber 17b are provided in the bottom portion of the body portion 15. There is. Further, the convex portion 15d projects downward from the center of the bottom surface of the bottom portion of the body portion 15 and is fitted into the above-mentioned concave bearing portion 17e. The axial dimension of the convex portion 15d is from the discharge port 17c to the suction port 17d.
To prevent a large amount of water from short-circuiting,
The bottom surface of the bottom of the body portion 15 is selected to be as close to the top surface of the header 17 as possible without contacting the top surface thereof.

The size of the ice particles 20a is determined by the pitch relationship between the guide portion, that is, the spiral rail 16a and the blades 14, and the upper end of the spiral rail 16a and an imaginary line extending upward from the end are extruded portions. The distance between the position of the outer surface of 13b, that is, the position where the ice 20 rises and abuts against the pushing portion 13b is designed to be approximately equal to the pitch of the spiral rail 16a. Therefore, when the ice is pushed up and starts to hit the extrusion head 13a, the ice is broken at the position where the groove of the trace of the spiral rail 16a is formed, and becomes the individual ice grain 20a. The opening 2 is formed at a position that becomes the ice grain 20a.
2 is formed, and the ice particles 20a are collected from the chute 21 to an ice storage unit (not shown).

Next, the operation of the ice making device of the present invention having the above construction will be described with reference to the system diagram of the refrigerant and ice making water in FIG. In FIG. 7, the ice making water tank 8
A water level control device such as a float valve 9 provided inside is connected to the water supply pipe 9a and supplies ice making water to the ice making water tank 8 when the water level in the ice making water tank 8 drops below a predetermined level. , It always operates to maintain a predetermined water level. Next, when the power is turned on, the compressor 2 and the fan motor 4 are operated as is known, and the freezing operation of the ice making device is started. Along with this, the pump motor 7 of the ice making water circulation pump P is also operated. By the operation of the pump motor 7, the ice making water in the ice making water tank 8 is sent to the inlet chamber 17a via the connection pipe 10 and the discharge pipe 18b, and the header 17
From the discharge port 17c provided in the
c, each of the plurality of columnar space portions 29 defined by the both side surfaces of the blade 14 and the outer peripheral surface of the body portion 15 and extending in the vertical direction. The ice-making water that overflows from the space 29 is returned to the overflow hole 15b provided at the upper peripheral edge of the body 15.
From the bottom into the hollow portion 15c, and the bottom return hole 15a
Through the suction port 17d of the header 17 into the outlet chamber 17b, and from there, returns to the suction side of the ice making water circulation pump P via the suction pipe 18a. In this way, the ice making water circulates in the closed water circuit.

On the other hand, the temperature of the ice-making water circulated in this way is such that the refrigerant is sent to the evaporator 23 through the condenser 3 and the expansion valve 5 in accordance with the operation of the compressor 2, and the evaporator 23 and the extended temperature. Is gradually lowered as the ice making cylinder 16 is cooled. Then, an ice layer is formed on the inner peripheral surface 16c of the ice making cylinder 16 and gradually grows to form columnar ice 20 of high purity in each space 29. When the ice growth progresses to a predetermined degree, the state is detected as ice-making completion by a known ice-making completion detecting means (not shown) such as a temperature-sensitive type or a timer type, and the pump motor 7 and the fan motor 4 are detected. Is stopped in a known manner, and the hot gas valve 6 is opened. As a result, the ice making device 1 enters the deicing step and the hot gas of high temperature and high pressure from the compressor 2 is directly sent to the evaporator 23, so that the heating of the ice making cylinder 16 is started. As a result, the ice 20 formed on the inner peripheral surface 16c of the ice making cylinder 16 melts at the contact portion with the inner peripheral surface 16c and becomes ready for ice collection.

This state is detected by a deicing timer (not shown) or a temperature detection device (not shown) provided on the refrigerant outlet side of the evaporator 23, and the deceleration motor 11 is activated by the detection. Therefore, the drive / partitioning device 12 rotates, and the blades 14 also receive the force of the ice 20 in the rotational direction or the horizontal direction. However, since the guide portion 16a is formed on the inner peripheral surface 16c of the ice making cylinder 16, the guide portion 1
Since the ice 20 is not melted up to the height of 6a, the force in the horizontal direction becomes a force in the vertical direction upward, and the ice 20 is generally pushed upward and advances toward the extrusion head 13. As a result, the upper end of the ice 20 hits the extrusion head 13 and is pushed outward in the radial direction according to the shape of the extrusion head 13. At this time, most of the ice 20 is partitioned by the blades 14 in the vertical direction to form a substantially columnar shape, and the groove of the guide portion 16a is formed in the horizontal direction. Serves as the fracture start portion of the columnar ice, so that the ice can be easily fractured into each ice 20a (see FIG. 5). In this way, when the predetermined time for completely collecting the ice 20 has elapsed, the deceleration motor 11 is stopped by, for example, a timer (not shown), and the ice making operation is started again.

[0015]

As described above, according to the ice making device of the present invention, since the ice is taken out from the upper part of the ice making cylinder, it is easy to use the ice, and the driving / partitioning device is the ice making surface of the ice making cylinder. Since only the ice released from the freezing is sent upward and no compression action is performed, the bearing of the rotary hollow cylinder of the drive / partitioning device has a small load and a long life is achieved. Further, according to the present invention, since the return path of the ice making water is formed in the rotating hollow cylinder of the drive / partitioning device, it is not necessary to connect the ice making water supply pipe or the circulation pipe to the body of the ice making cylinder. Therefore, it is possible to completely prevent the freezing blockage, the frost generation in the adjacent portion, and the dropping.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of an ice making device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a drive / partition device in the ice making device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view, partially in cross section, of a drive / partitioning device used in the ice making device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of FIG.

5 is an enlarged side view showing the vicinity of an ice outlet of the ice making device of FIG. 1 in a cutaway manner.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing the vicinity of the ice outlet of FIG. 5 without breaking.

FIG. 7 is a system diagram showing a circuit of ice making water and a refrigerant.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ice making device, 12 ... Driving / partitioning device, 14 ... Blade (radial partitioning blade), 15 ... Body (rotating hollow cylinder), 15a
... ice making water return discharge hole, 15b ... ice making water return overflow hole, 16
… Ice-making cylinder, 16a… Guide part (spiral guide rail), 16c
... Inner peripheral surface of ice-making cylinder, 16d ... Outer peripheral surface of ice-making cylinder, 17d ...
Suction port (ice making water circulation hole), 20 ... Ice, 23 ... Evaporator.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ice-making cylinder having an upper end opened, which is composed of a vertical cylindrical member, has an ice-making surface and a spiral guide rail formed on the inner peripheral surface thereof, and is provided with an evaporator on the outer peripheral surface, and a coaxial shape inside the ice-making cylinder. And a drive / partitioning device including a rotating hollow cylinder having radial partitioning vanes on the outer peripheral surface thereof, and an ice making water return overflow hole is formed in the upper part of the rotating hollow cylinder, and the rotating hollow cylinder is also provided. An ice making device, characterized in that an ice making water return and discharge hole is formed on the bottom face of the ice making cylinder so as to face the ice making water circulation hole on the bottom face of the ice making cylinder, and the inside of the rotary hollow cylinder serves as a return passage for the ice making water.