JPS5840471A - Automatic ice machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic ice making machine that continuously makes ice.

Conventionally, the ice-making compartment has a large number of ice-making compartments that open downward, an ice-making water tank that supplies the required amount of ice-making water to the ice-making compartment, and a fountain supplying ice-making water to the ice-making compartment via a pump. 2. Description of the Related Art An automatic ice maker is known that includes an ice making water supply system that circulates to a tank and a refrigeration circuit.

In this type of automatic ice maker, the ice removal process involves transferring high-temperature, high-pressure refrigerant gas (hot gas) from a compressor to a condenser.

The ice is directly transferred to the evaporator via a valve to raise the temperature of the ice making compartment and perform the ice removal process.

However, during the ice-off process, the hot gas flowing through the evaporator is distributed between the pipes of the evaporator 6 installed in the ice-making compartment 1 at uniform intervals (IL1=:32:&5=J=lls) as shown in FIG. In some cases, the temperature was high at the inlet, but the temperature also dropped near the outlet of the evaporator, making it impossible to uniformly increase the temperature in the ice-making compartment.

For this reason, the ice cannot be dropped all at once in a well-balanced manner, and the ice removal process takes a long time.

Also, at this time, the ice gets stuck on the side with a lower temperature (the refrigerant outlet side) and tries to forcefully fall, so when some of the ice melts, ice that looks like it has been cut diagonally instead of a cube is formed. 1. There is also a problem with quality.

In the ice-making process, high-temperature, high-pressure refrigerant gas compressed by a compressor is liquefied in a condenser, reduced in pressure by an expansion valve, and vaporized in an evaporator to effect freezing in an ice-making compartment.

In this step, as in the ice removal step, when the evaporator 6 is disposed in the ice-making chamber 1 as shown in FIG. 6, ice of uniform quality cannot be produced due to variations in temperature between the inlet and outlet of the evaporator. In other words, at the refrigerant outlet of the evaporator, the cooling capacity is low because the gas has completely evaporated, and even though the refrigerant inlet is completely frozen, the ice-making compartment in this area is not sufficiently frozen and has holes. Ice is made. or,? : If you increase the amount of refrigerant or increase the evaporation pressure in order to make the ice hole on the outlet side smaller, there may be problems such as the refrigerant liquid returning to the compressor, or the ice making compartment may not cool completely and the entire ice may not be completely cooled. The problem arises that it becomes incomplete.

The present invention eliminates the drawbacks of the prior art.

An embodiment of the chamber will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an ice-making compartment that opens in one direction (downward in the figure), and this ice-making compartment 1 is equipped with a large number of square ice-making compartments 2, on the back of the upper outer wall 3.

An evaporator 6 of a refrigeration circuit 4 is provided to cool the ice making compartment 1. The evaporator 6 has all its piping in a meandering shape as shown in FIG. 6, with the piping on the side where the refrigerant flows in being sparse and the piping on the side where the refrigerant flows out is dense, that is, bl>b2>b3>b4. The ice making chamber 1 is tilted and fixed with screws 8 via spacers 7 to a horizontally arranged top plate 6. On the other hand, the opening of the ice-making compartment 1 is closed with a water tray 9, and a water supply pipe section 10 and a drain pipe section 11 are formed on the lower side of the water tray 9, and one end of the drain pipe section 11 on the groove section 12 side is It is opened to the groove portion 12 .

A water fountain hole 13 communicating with the water supply pipe section 1o is provided at a location corresponding to the center of each ice-making compartment 2 of the water tray 9, and a drain pipe section 11 is provided in the water tray 9 adjacent to the water fountain hole 13. A drainage hole 14 communicating with the drain hole 14 is provided.

Also, an ice-making water tank 16 is provided at the bottom of the open end of the groove portion 12.
A pump 16 is arranged in the ice-making water tank 16, and the pump discharge port 17 and the water supply pipe portion 1o are communicated through a circulation pipe 18.

The water tray 9 is rotatably supported by a water tray support plate 19 around a shaft 2o, and the water tray support plate 19 is slidably fitted with a sliding rod 21. It is fixed by a support fitting 22 fixed to the top plate 6. In addition, the water tray support plate 1
9 and the support fitting 22 are 5.

They are pulled together by a spring 23. Further, the water tray 9 is connected to a rotary drive source 24 driven by a signal by a flexible connecting plate 25.

Note that the refrigeration circuit 4 compresses the refrigerant using the compressor 26.

Next, the refrigerant is liquefied in the condenser 27, and then all of the liquefied refrigerant is transferred to the expansion valve 2B and evaporated in the evaporator 6, thereby cooling the ice making chamber 1. Further, the outlet of the compressor 26 and the inlet of the evaporator 5 are directly connected via a connecting pipe 30 through all the hot gas valves 29,
After the ice-making compartment 1 is completely frozen, the hot gas valve 29 is opened and hot gas is introduced into the evaporator 6 to heat the ice-making compartment 1 and perform a deicing operation. and an ice making chamber 1 using the evaporator.
Since the piping of the evaporator 6 is sparsely and densely arranged as shown in FIG. 6, cooling and heating of the evaporator 6 can be carried out efficiently and uniformly. The above-mentioned parts are housed within the main body as shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the automatic ice maker constructed as described above will be explained.

6, - First, the water supply valve 31 is opened, a certain amount of water is supplied to the ice-making water tank 16, and the pump 16 supplies ice-making water from the water fountain 13 to the ice-making chamber 2 through the water supply pipe section 10 (i7). At this time, the water tray 9 is pulled by the spring 23 and is in close contact with the lower side of the ice making compartment 1 (Figure 4, human position).
A portion of the water supplied to the ice-making chamber 2 from the ice-making chamber 2 grows ice within the ice-making chamber 2, and the remaining cooling water is collected into the ice-making water tank 16 through the drain hole 14, the drain pipe section 11, and the groove section 12. .

The above circulation is repeated until the ice making chamber 2 is filled with ice. When each ice making chamber 2 is completely filled with ice, the control circuit stops the pump 16.

Power is applied to the drive source 24, and the water tray 9 is drawn toward the drive source 24 via the connecting plate 26 and stops at a certain position (position M' in FIG. 4). As a result, a gap is created between the lower surface of the ice-making compartment 1 and the water tray 9. Further, at the same time as the drive source 24 is powered on, the hot gas valve 29 is opened, the ice making chamber 1 is heated, and ice is removed.

After the deicing is completed, the drive source 24 applies a signal to loosen the force pulling the water tray 9, so the water tray 9 returns to its original state (in close contact with the lower surface of the ice making chamber 1) by the force of the nokune 23. , close the hot gas valve 29 and return to the ice making process.

As is clear from the above embodiments, the automatic ice making machine of the present invention has a simple configuration in which the pipes of the evaporator are sparsely and densely arranged on the inflow side and the outflow side of all the refrigerant, thereby improving the cooling distribution in the ice making process. Since the heating temperature distribution in the ice process becomes uniform, the ice making cycle is shortened and at the same time, ice without holes is produced, which solves the conventional problems and is extremely practical.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of essential parts showing an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 is a circuit diagram for explaining the same, and Figure 3 is an ice-making compartment. FIG. 4 is a side view for explaining the operation of the water tray, FIG. 6 is a plan view of the evaporator, and FIG. 6 is a plan view of a conventional evaporator. 1.--Ice-making room, 2--.Ice-making small room, 4.
... Refrigeration circuit, 6 ... Evaporator, 9 ...
...Water tray, 15...Ice making water tank, 16...
...Pump, 24... Drive source. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 z Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] It is equipped with an ice-making compartment having a large number of small ice-making compartments, and an evaporator of the refrigeration circuit installed at the back of the ice-making compartment. An automatic ice maker with a tight outlet.