JPH1163757A - Auger type ice machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an auger type ice machine which can carry out a fixed quantity of ice pieces stored in an ice storeroom without large dispersion free from water quality of ice making water. SOLUTION: For an auger system of ice machine, the ice storeroom 3 to store ice pieces 6 sent in from an ice making part 2 is a heat-insulating container circular in cross section, and an ice piece outlet equipped with a carrying- out gate 7 is opened at its peripheral face, and also this ice machine is equipped with an agitator 9 for agitation and carrying out of ice pieces where plural pieces of arms are projected radially from the rotary shaft 8 indoors, and a drainboard 10 on its bottom side. In this case, the space B between the inside peripheral wall of the ice storeroom and the tip of the arm of the agitator is set larger than the size A of one piece of ice block 1, and the space C between the arm of the agitator and the drainboard is set smaller than one piece of ice block, and further this is provided with a longitudinal rib-form projection 14 roughly corresponding to the depth of the ice storeroom, on the inner wall face of the ice storeroom. As a result, the agitator and the rib-form projection function effectively for the agitation of ice pieces, and the quantitative carrying out of ice pieces is achieved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an auger-type ice making machine mounted on a cup-type beverage vending machine, which carries out a fixed amount of ice chips at the time of selling cold beverages and supplies it to a cup. Regarding the structure.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The auger type ice maker described above is well known, and its configuration is basically the same as that of FIG. That is,
The auger type ice making machine comprises an assembly of an ice making section 2 having a built-in auger (screw-shaped rotary cutting blade) 1, an ice storage chamber 3 connected to an upper part of the ice making section 2, and a drive motor 4.
The flake-like ice, which has thinly landed on the evaporator wall of the ice making section 2, is sent upward while scraping with the auger 1, compressed with the fixed blade 5 and solidified into a stick shape, and then cut short at the cut end at the exit end thereof. Ice-like pieces 6 are made, sent to the ice storage room 3 and stored there.

On the other hand, the ice storage chamber 3 is formed as a heat insulating container having a circular cross section, and a carry-out door 7 is provided at an ice piece outlet opening at a lower peripheral surface thereof.
And an agitator 9 for agitating / unloading ice pieces protruding radially from a rotation axis 8 of a vertical axis connected to the upper end of the auger 1 in the container, and a cage arranged on the bottom side (ice) 10 that plays a role of draining the melted drain water), and a detection disk 12 and a detection switch 13 are provided on the upper lid 11 of the container to detect the amount of ice storage.

With such a configuration, the auger 1 is operated during the ice making operation.
The agitator 9 which rotates in conjunction with the agitator stirs the ice pieces 6 stored in the ice storage chamber 3 so as to prevent the pieces of ice from melting and forming a large ice block. When the predetermined amount is reached, the drive motor 4 is stopped by the signal of the detection switch 13 and the ice making operation is interrupted. Also, when an ice chip carry-out command is given to the ice maker in association with the selling operation of the cup-type beverage vending machine, the drive motor 4 is started and the agitator 9 is started.
Is rotated, and at the same time, the discharge door 7 is operated by the operation of the solenoid 7a.
Is opened for a predetermined time, and the agitator 9 is
Scrapes off the ice pieces 6. The ice pieces 6 carried out from the ice piece outlet are put into a drink cup via a shooter (not shown). Then, when the ice storage amount decreases below the lower limit level, the ice making operation is restarted by the signal of the detection switch 13.

[0005]

In the auger-type ice making machine described above, in the conventional design, the play gap between the inner peripheral wall surface of the ice storage chamber 3 and the tip of the arm of the agitator 9 is kept as small as possible. In order to prevent the agitator's stirring action from reaching the inner peripheral wall of the ice storage room, and to avoid direct interference with the agitator 9 between the arm of the agitator 9 and the cage 10 arranged on the bottom side of the room. A gap is set between the inner peripheral wall surface of the ice storage chamber 3 and the arm tip of the agitator 9 assuming that the size of one ice piece 6 is A. B <A, the gap C between the arm of the agitator 9 and the cage 10 arranged on the bottom surface side of the room is set so that C> A.

However, according to the knowledge obtained from the use results of vending machines installed at various locations, it has been found that the ice making machine has the following problems. In other words, the quality of tap water used as ice making water for ice making machines varies depending on the location of the vending machine. Particularly, ice chips made from water with high quality of dissolved impurities and dissolved air in water have low strength. In other words, even if a slight load is applied during ice storage, the ice pieces easily break into small pieces. Moreover,
The finely crushed ice pieces are easily melted by the heat that enters the ice storage chamber from the outside through the heat insulating material, thereby generating a large ice block in which the ice pieces are welded to each other.

On the other hand, in the conventional ice maker, as described above, the play gap between the inner peripheral wall of the ice storage chamber 3 and the tip of the arm of the agitator 9 is set smaller than the size of one ice piece. Therefore, when the agitator is rotated in the ice storage chamber, the ice pieces 6 sandwiched between the tip of the arm and the inner wall surface of the ice storage chamber are finely crushed, and as a result, the finely crushed ice pieces 6 are stored in the ice storage. It tends to fuse together and form large ice blocks. On the other hand, the gap C between the arm of the agitator 9 and the cage 10 arranged on the bottom side of the room is set to be larger than one ice piece. The agitator 9 does not sufficiently agitate the ice pieces 6 and the ice pieces are likely to fuse together due to the influence of the molten drain flowing down the room. In addition, ice storage room 3
The ice pieces 6 accumulated on the upper side of the stagnation remain stagnant because the stirring action of the agitator 9 is not sufficiently applied, and if the standing state becomes long, the ice pieces will fuse together to form a large ice block. As a result, a large variation occurs in the amount of ice chips carried out, and in the worst case, a large amount of ice blocks an ice chip outlet, so that a predetermined amount of ice chips cannot be carried out at the time of sale.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to quantify ice pieces stored in an ice storage room without being greatly affected by the quality of ice making water. An object of the present invention is to provide an auger-type ice machine improved so that it can be carried out.

[0009]

According to the present invention, an ice storage chamber for storing ice pieces fed from an ice making section is a heat insulating container having a circular cross section, and a discharge door is provided on the peripheral surface thereof. An auger type ice maker equipped with an agitator for stirring / carrying out ice pieces with a plurality of arms protruding radially from a rotation axis and an ice agitator arranged on the bottom side while opening an outlet with attached ice pieces, 1) Set a gap larger than one ice piece between the inner wall of the ice storage room and the tip of the arm of the agitator to prevent the ice pieces from being crushed between the wall and the arm. (Claim 1).

(2) A gap smaller than one piece of ice is set between the arm of the agitator and the piece of the aerator, so that the stirring action of the agitator works effectively on the piece of ice placed on the piece of the aerator ( Claim 2). (3) A vertical rib-like projection approximately corresponding to the depth of the ice storage room is provided on the inner wall of the ice storage room, and the rib-like protrusions and the rotation of the agitator cooperate to stir the ice pieces all over the ice storage room. And
It is possible to effectively prevent the adhesion of ice pieces and the generation of ice blocks (claim 3).

[0011] By adopting the above-mentioned components, the agitator and the rib-like projections effectively function for stirring / carrying out the ice pieces stored in the ice storage chamber, and the rotation of the agitator causes the ice pieces to rotate. This makes it possible to carry out a predetermined amount of ice pieces without great variation when the ice pieces are carried out. In addition, the effect of this ice chip quantitative transfer is evaluated and confirmed by the inventors and the like from the results of actual machine tests.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiment shown in FIG. That is, in this embodiment, the size of one ice piece 6 sent from the ice making section 2 to the ice storage chamber 3 is defined as A, and the gap between the inner peripheral wall surface of the ice storage chamber 3 and the arm tip of the agitator 9 is defined as A. B is set so that B> A, and the gap C between the arm of the agitator 9 and the cage 10 arranged on the bottom side of the room is set so that C <A. Further, on the inner wall surface of the ice storage room 3, there is provided a vertical rib-like projection 14 having a length substantially corresponding to the depth H of the ice storage room from the upper end to the lower end portion where the cage 10 is arranged. The rib-like projections 14 are made of a vertically long strip-shaped metal plate with a mountain-shaped projection formed by sheet metal processing or a resin molded product, and are formed on the inner wall surface at a position off the ice piece outlet of the ice storage chamber 3. Stick. The rib-like projections 14 can be formed integrally with the inner wall of the ice storage room.

[0013]

According to the configuration of the present invention described above, the agitator and the rib-like projections function effectively for stirring / carrying out the ice pieces with respect to the ice pieces stored in the ice storage chamber, and the rotation of the agitator. Thus, the ice pieces are not crushed into small pieces, so that the ice pieces can be carried out at a constant rate without large variation when the ice pieces are carried out, thereby improving the function and reliability of the auger-type ice making machine.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an auger type ice maker according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein (a) is a vertical side view of the ice maker, and (b) is a cross-sectional plan view of an ice storage room.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 Ice making unit 3 Ice storage room 4 Drive motor 6 Ice piece 7 Carry-out door 8 Rotating shaft 9 Agitator 10 Uonoko 14 Rib-shaped protrusion A Size of ice piece B Gap between inner peripheral wall of ice storage chamber and arm tip of agitator C The gap between the agitator and the cage

Claims (3)

[Claims] An ice storage chamber for storing ice chips sent from an ice making section is a heat insulating container having a circular cross section, and has an ice chip outlet with a carry-out door opened on a peripheral surface thereof. In an auger-type ice maker equipped with an agitator for stirring / carrying out ice pieces and an agitator placed on the bottom side, one ice piece is provided between the inner peripheral wall of the ice storage room and the tip of the agitator arm. An auger-type ice maker characterized by setting a gap larger than a minute. 2. An ice storage chamber for storing ice pieces sent from an ice making section is a heat insulating container having a circular cross section, and has an ice piece outlet with a carry-out door opened on a peripheral surface thereof. In an auger type ice making machine equipped with an agitator for agitating / unloading ice pieces protruding from the arm of the book and a cage placed on the bottom side, a gap smaller than one ice piece is provided between the arm of the agitator and the cage. An auger-type ice machine characterized by the settings. 3. An ice storage chamber for storing ice chips fed from an ice making section is a heat insulating container having a circular cross section, and has an ice chip outlet with a carry-out door opened on a peripheral surface thereof. An auger-type ice maker equipped with an agitator for agitating / unloading ice pieces protruding from the arm of the book and an auger placed on the bottom side of the auger-type ice maker has a vertical orientation substantially corresponding to the depth of the ice storage compartment on the inner wall surface of the ice storage compartment. An auger-type ice machine with rib-shaped projections.