JPH11270940A - Plate-type ice machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To remove the wasteful power consumption while preventing the wire breaking of a cutting heater. SOLUTION: A cooler 5 is of plane whose top is inclined, and it is cooled by the refrigerant sent from a condensing unit. Plate-shaped ice is made on the topside of the cooler 5 by sprinkling water from the upper side of the cooler 5 to the topside of the cooler by means of a sprinkler 4. When the ice comes to a prescribed thickness, a pump 3 is stopped to stop the sprinkling from the sprinkler 4, and also the made ice is separated from it and is let fall onto the cutting heater 6 by letting hot gas flow to the cooler 5. The cutting heater 6 is provided with heater wires lengthwise and crosswise in lattice form, and it cuts the plate-shaped ice let fall from the cooler 5 into block form. The ice is cut at an optimum speed by controlling the voltage to be applied to the cutting heater 6, according to the thickness of the made ice.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plate-type ice making machine in which plate ice is formed by a cooler and cut into small pieces by a cutting heater to form a large number of block ices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a plate type ice maker. In FIG. 1, 1 is a water supply valve, 2 is a water storage tank,
3 is a pump, 4 is a sprinkler, 5 is a cooler, 6 is a cutting heater, 7 is an ice storage, 8 is an electrical box, and 9 is a heater transformer.

When the water supply valve 1 is opened and water accumulates in the water storage tank 2, water is sent to the water sprayer 4 by the pump 3, and water is sprayed on the cooler 5. The cooler 5 is cooled by a refrigerant sent from a separately provided condensing unit (not shown), and water sprinkled from the sprinkler 4 to the cooler 5 As it flows, it grows into plate-like ice. At this time, the water that has flowed down from the cooler 5 without freezing is returned to the water storage tank 2 again.

When the thickness of the ice grown on the cooler 5 reaches a predetermined thickness, the pump 3 is stopped, and hot gas is supplied from the condensing unit to the cooler 5 so that the cooler 5 is cooled. The upper plate-like ice is released and dropped onto the cutting heater 6. The cutting heater 6 is provided with heater lines arranged in a lattice pattern in a vertical and horizontal direction, and is applied with a constant voltage. The generated heat divides the plate-like ice into small rectangular blocks. The block ice cut in this way falls into the ice storage 7 and is stored there.

[0005] Conventional documents relating to such a plate type ice maker include, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 46-5876.
Publication (F25C).

[0006]

However, in the above-described conventional plate type ice making machine, the voltage applied to the cutting heater 6 is always a constant voltage regardless of the thickness of the ice formed by the cooler 5. When thick ice is made, there is a case where the ice formed in the next cycle falls before the cutting of the ice dropped on the cutting heater 6 is completed. In such a case, there is a problem that the load of two thick ice pieces is applied to the cutting heater 6 and the heater wire is disconnected.

To prevent this, the voltage applied to the cutting heater 6 may be increased so that thick ice can be cut quickly. However, when the applied voltage is increased in such a manner, the power consumption in the cutting heater 6 increases, and when thick ice is not required, there is a problem that power is wasted unnecessarily. In this case, the amount of heat generated by the cutting heater 6 increases, the temperature inside the refrigerator increases, and the ice-making ability decreases.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem and to prevent the cutting heater 6 from being disconnected, while eliminating unnecessary power consumption.

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a plate-type ice making machine according to the present invention has an inclined upper surface, and is cooled by a refrigerant sent from a condensing unit to form a plate on the upper surface. A cooler for making ice-like, a water sprayer for sprinkling water for ice making from the upper side of the cooler to the upper surface of the cooler, and heater wires are provided in a grid pattern in a vertical and horizontal direction,
A cutting heater that receives plate-shaped ice made by the cooler thereon and cuts the ice into blocks, and adjusts a voltage applied to the cutting heater according to the thickness of the plate-shaped ice. And a heater voltage control device. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the cutting heater from being disconnected, and also to eliminate unnecessary power consumption.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. The structure of the plate-type ice maker is as shown in FIG.

That is, water is received from a water pipe through a water supply valve 1 and stored in a water storage tank 2. And water storage tank 2
Is pumped up by the pump 3 and sprinkled from the sprinkler 4 onto the upper surface of the cooler 5. The cooler 5 has a flat plate-like upper surface, and has an evaporator (not shown) for cooling by flowing a liquefied refrigerant sent from a condensing unit (not shown) and evaporating the liquefied refrigerant inside. (Not shown). And the cooler 5 is a sprinkler 4
Is provided so as to be higher and inclined toward the other side so that water sprinkled by the sprinkler 4 flows over the cooler 5 and returns to the water storage tank 2 again. Like that.

While cooling the cooler 5, water is sprinkled from the water sprayer 4 to grow ice in a layer on the upper surface of the cooler 5, and when the ice reaches a predetermined thickness, the pump 3 is stopped. To stop watering of the sprinkler 4. At this time, in order to stop the pump 3 when the ice has a predetermined thickness, the growth rate of the ice per unit time is grasped in advance, and the timer is set to a time corresponding to the predetermined ice thickness. Then, the pump 3 may be stopped. Alternatively, two electrodes are provided so as to face the upper surface of the cooler 5 and an ice thickness sensor is used to detect that the ice has reached a predetermined thickness depending on whether or not the ice has adhered to them and whether the ice has become conductive. The pump 3 may be stopped by a detection signal.

In any case, when the ice has a predetermined thickness and the pump 3 is stopped, hot gas, which is a high-temperature refrigerant after being compressed by the compressor of the condensing unit, is supplied to the evaporator of the cooler 5. The cooler 5 is heated by flowing, and ice on the upper surface thereof is released and dropped on the cutting heater 6. At that time, in the plate type ice making machine of the present invention, a voltage corresponding to the thickness of the formed ice is applied to the cutting heater 6. The voltage control is performed as follows.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the plate type ice maker. In FIG. 2, the reference numerals 3, 6 and 9 correspond to those in FIG.
10 is a control unit incorporated in a control board in the electrical box 8 (FIG. 1), 11 is a timer, 12 is a variable resistor, and 13 is a hot gas valve.

The thickness of ice to be made is controlled by a variable resistor 12 for adjusting the ice thickness. The set time of the timer in the control unit 10 changes according to the size of the variable resistor 12. The operation time of the pump 3 for sending water to the sprinkler 4 is determined by the timer. As a result, ice having a thickness corresponding to the length of operation time of the pump 3 is formed. When the pump 3 is stopped by the timer, the control unit 10 opens the hot gas valve 13 that sends hot gas to the cooler 5, and releases the formed ice from the cooler 5. On the other hand, the voltage applied to the cutting heater 6 from the control unit 10 through the heater transformer 9 is such that the applied voltage becomes higher when thick ice is made, and becomes lower when thin ice is made. It changes according to. The change of the voltage at that time may be changed stepwise or may be changed continuously.

In this way, an optimum voltage can be applied to the cutting heater 6 according to the thickness of the ice to be formed. When thick ice is to be formed, the voltage applied to the cutting heater 6 is increased. By increasing the calorific value of the cutting heater 6, the cutting of the ice can be completed before the next ice is formed. Therefore, before the ice falling on the cutting heater 6 has been cut,
The ice produced in the next cycle will not fall down, and the cutting heater can be prevented from breaking. On the other hand, when making thin ice, the cutting heater 6
By lowering the voltage applied to the power supply and reducing the amount of heat generated by the cutting heater 6, wasteful power consumption can be avoided, and a rise in the temperature inside the refrigerator can be prevented.

In the above embodiment, the case where the thickness of the ice being produced is adjusted by the variable resistor 12 has been described. However, the thickness of the ice being produced is directly detected by the ice thickness sensor and the predetermined thickness is obtained. Pump 3 is stopped when hot gas valve 13
The present invention can also be applied to a plate-type ice maker that opens the plate. In that case, the voltage applied to the cutting heater 6 is controlled based on the detection output of the ice thickness sensor.

[0018]

According to the present invention, as described above, the voltage applied to the cutting heater is adjusted in accordance with the thickness of the plate-like ice formed by the cooler. While preventing unnecessary power consumption.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a plate type ice maker.

FIG. 2 is a control block diagram of the plate type ice maker.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Water supply valve 2 ... Water storage tank 3 ... Pump 4 ... Sprinkler 5 ... Cooler 6 ... Cutting heater 7 ... Ice storage 8 ... Electrical box 9 ... Heater transformer 12 ... Variable resistance 13 ... Hot gas valve

Claims (1)

[Claims] An upper surface is an inclined plane, and is cooled by a refrigerant sent from a condensing unit,
A cooler for making plate-like ice on the upper surface, a water sprayer for sprinkling water for ice making from the upper side of the cooler to the upper surface of the cooler, and a heater wire provided in a grid in a matrix, and formed by the cooler. A cutting heater for receiving the plate-shaped ice thereon and cutting the ice into blocks, and a heater voltage controller for adjusting a voltage applied to the cutting heater according to the thickness of the plate-shaped ice. A plate type ice maker characterized by comprising: