JPS6023652Y2 - ice machine - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The object of the present invention is to provide an ice making machine that has a large ice making capacity, can produce clean and well-shaped ice, and can reduce the number of man-hours required for maintenance management.

The raw water for water flows down onto the smooth surface of the obliquely installed ice-making plate that acts as an evaporator, and the falling raw water is caught in a water tray and then sent to the ice-making plate again, thereby forming ice on the surface. Continuous ice making machines have recently become popular, in which ice plates are produced with increasing thickness, and then the ice plates are removed and cut into ice cubes.

In addition, this type of ice making machine generally employs an ice removal operation using a hot gas defrost cycle as a means for separating the ice plate that has grown to a predetermined thickness from the ice plate.

By the way, in order to obtain ice for drinking and drinking, it is necessary that the Honkawa raw water and especially the raw water circulation part of the ice making machine be clean and free from contamination by foreign substances. If the ice is not released reliably, it will result in unsightly ice with a distorted shape, which is undesirable.Furthermore, if the ice-making plate becomes contaminated, the heat transfer rate will deteriorate and the ice-making capacity will decrease. Providing an automatic ice maker that can solve these problems has become an important issue in this field.

The present invention focuses on the above-mentioned actual situation and solves the above-mentioned problems by devising a new ice making machine that is distantly related to the intended purpose.
This is what we have come to offer here.

The specific contents of the present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The ice maker shown schematically in FIG. 1 has a compact, free-standing form like a general household electric refrigerator, and the inside of the vertically long casing 1 is divided into two upper and lower chambers, with the upper chamber being an ice-making chamber 1a and an ice-making chamber 1a. The lower chamber 1b constitutes a machine room 1b in which refrigerator equipment such as a compressor 5, a condenser 6, a fan 8, and an accumulator 7 are housed.

The ice making compartment 1a includes an ice making plate 2 formed by an obliquely installed flat plate evaporator, a raw water circulation device for circulating raw water for water to the ice making plate 2, and a water storage bottle provided below the ice making plate 2. 3 and a cutting grid 4 installed horizontally just above the water storage bottle 3.

The above-mentioned raw water circulation device includes a water tray 9 disposed near the lower edge of the ice-making plate 2, and a circulation pump 1 disposed inside the water tray 9.
2, a water spray nozzle 13 attached to the upper edge of the ice-making plate 2,
It consists of a water pipe 15 that connects the water tray 9 and the water spray nozzle 13 via a circulation pump 12. On the other hand, the water tray 9
A water supply pipe 14 through which a water supply solenoid valve 16 is connected is connected to supply main river raw water, and the raw water stored in the water tray 9 is angularly applied to the smooth lower surface of the ice-making plate 2. After flowing down, the water is dripped into the water tray 9 and is again fed to the water spray nozzle 13 by the circulation pump 12.

The water tray 9 is provided with an overflow pipe 10 and a water level detector 11 as water level detection means, and the water level detector 11 detects that the water level has risen to a level slightly lower than the opening level of the overflow pipe 10. It is equipped with a high water level detection switch lla that is activated when the water level is low and a low water level detection switch llb that is activated when the water level is detected.

The amount of water accommodated between the high water level and the low water level for operating both switches lla and llb corresponds to the amount of ice of a predetermined thickness that is produced in one ice-making operation.

On the other hand, the cutting grid 4 is made up of thin heating wires meshed in a "square" pattern, and is constantly supplied with a low voltage power source to maintain a temperature suitable for melting ice.

The water storage bottle 3 is a box with an open top surrounded by a heat insulating wall, and is formed into a container that can store ice cubes cut by the cutting grid 4 after detaching from the ice making plate 2. A water storage amount detector, such as a thermostat 17, is attached at an appropriate position to detect when a full amount of ice cubes is stored.

The ice maker with the above configuration has a refrigeration circuit as shown in Fig. 3: compressor 5 discharge → condenser 6 → expansion valve 18 → ice making plate 2 (evaporator) → accumulator 7 → compressor 5 suction On the other hand, a hot gas bypass pipe in which the condenser 6 and the expansion valve 18 are bypassed and a hot gas solenoid valve 28 is interposed is connected to the solenoid valve 28. When activated by the opening operation, a well-known defrost cycle is formed and ice removal operation is performed.

FIG. 2 shows an electric circuit for performing the ice-making operation and the ice-removing operation alternately and automatically.

As shown in the figure, this circuit includes a motor 5M for the compressor 5, a motor 8M for the condenser fan 8, a motor 12M for the circulation pump 12, a coil for the water supply solenoid valve 16, and the like as shown in the figure. 16s1 Coil of hot gas bypass solenoid valve 28 28s1 Relay 19 for compressor motor 5M
, ice-off L'-21, ice-off timer 22, timer 23 for circulation pump motor 12M, low water level detection relay 2
4. It has a high water level detection relay 25 and a holding relay 26, and also has an ice storage thermometer 17 and an ice removal completion detection thermometer 20 as control elements, and further includes an ice making notch, a stop notch,
It has a two-pole switch 27 for switching to the cleaning mode, and a cutting grid 4 to which a low voltage is applied throughout the ice-making operation.

The ice removal timer 22 is an on-delay timer having a contact 22-□ that opens in a time period of about 4 to 5 minutes, and the circulation pump timer 23 has a contact 23-4 that opens in a short time period of about 1 hoe. The ice-off completion detector E-20 has a temperature measuring section attached to the suction pipe of the refrigeration circuit, and can detect when the temperature of the suction pipe increases due to the completion of ice-off. It's a thermos that looks like this.

On the other hand, the compressor motor relay 19 has a main contactor 19-1,
It has auxiliary contacts 19-2 and 19-3, and the ice-off relay 21
has normally open contacts 21-1 to 21-3 and a switching contact 21-4, and the low water level detection relay 24 has a normally closed contact 24-1 and a switching contact 24-2.

Further, the high water level detection relay 25 has a normally closed contact 25-1 and a normally open contact 25-2, and the holding relay 26 has a normally open contact 26-1.
,． 26-2.

Next, the operation mode of the ice maker will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. Immediately after the ice maker is installed, the two-pole switch 27 is in the stop notch state, and the water tray 9 is empty and the low water level detection relay is activated. 24 contact 24-□ is open and switching contact 24-2
is reversed from the state shown.

In this state, the water supply valve 16 is closed due to the demagnetization of the coil 16S, and the circulation pump motor 12M is deenergized), so naturally water is not supplied.

Before starting the ice-making operation, the ice-making plate 2 and the raw water circulation device need to be cleaned in order to obtain clean ice cubes suitable for drinking, so the two-pole switch 27 is turned on to the cleaning notch to issue a cleaning command. Cleaning is performed by emitting .

However, even if the ice is turned on at this point, the relay 19 remains de-energized due to the reversal operation of the switching contact 24-2) and the compressor 3 is not driven, so the ice-making operation does not begin.
Misoperation is prevented.

When the water is poured into the washing tank, the water supply valve 16 is opened by the excitation of the coil 16s, water supply starts, and the water receiving tray 9 is opened.
When water accumulates inside the tank, the low water level detection switch llb opens, and as the amount of water increases, the high water level detection switch lla closes, the low water level detection relay 24 is deenergized, and the contact 2
4-0 is closed, and the switching contact 24-2 is reversed to the state shown.

Thus, by driving the circulation pump motor 12M, the water in the water tray 9 is sent to the ice-making plate 2 and circulated, thereby cleaning each part and discharging dust, limescale, etc. through the overflow pipe 10.

The operations described above correspond to the operations of the cleaning control means.

After washing for a predetermined period of time, the two-pole switch 27 is switched to the ice-making mode and an operation command is issued.
Since the inside is empty and the ice storage thermo 17 closes the contact,
The coil of the compressor motor relay 19 is energized through this contact and the switching contact 242, and the condenser fan 8 motor 8M is energized to enter ice-making operation.

On the other hand, since the contact point 21-□ of the water supply valve 16 is open, the water supply valve 16 is deenergized and closed, so that water supply stops.

In addition, the circulation pump motor 12M has time-limited contacts 23-□,
Since it is driven by closing the contact 24-1, the raw water is circulated.

In this way, the raw water flowing down the lower surface of the ice-making plate 2 is cooled by the low-pressure refrigerant liquid in the cooling coil, forms a frozen layer, and gradually increases in thickness. When the ice plate reaches a predetermined thickness, the low water level detection switch 11b is activated. Since a drop in the water level in the water tray 9 is detected, the low water level detection relay 24 is activated, and the contacts 24-
1, the circulation pump motor 12M is deenergized and the circulation of raw water is stopped, and at the same time, the switching contact 24-2 is reversed.

When this switching contact 24-2 is reversed, the ice release relay 21 and the ice release timer 2 are connected via the contact 192 of the thermostat 20.
2. The pump timer 23 and the coil 28s of the hot gas solenoid valve 28 are excited.

On the other hand, the compressor motor relay 19 has contacts 26-, . 26
-2.19-3), the compressor 5 continues to drive.

Note that the condenser fan is stopped by the reverse movement of the switching contact 21-4.

Therefore, it goes without saying that when the solenoid valve 28 is opened, the hot gas flows into the cooling coil of the ice-making plate 2, and due to its heating action, the contact surface of the ice plate with the ice-making plate 2 begins to melt and the ice-making operation is switched to ice-removing operation. .

When about 6 seconds have elapsed since the start of the ice removal operation, the contact 23-1 of the timer 23 opens, so the holding relay 26 is deenergized.

In this case, the compressor 5 remains driven because the contacts 21-2 and 21-3 continue to close.

Thereafter, the contact surface of the ice plate is completely melted by the heating action of the hot gas, and the ice plate is detached from the ice making plate 2 in its original form, and the ice plate falls onto the cutting grid 4 below, where it is heated by a thin electric heating wire. After passing through and turning into a large number of ice cubes, the ice cubes fall into the water storage bottle 3 and are stored there.

In addition, at the time when the ice-making operation is switched to the ice-removing operation, the water supply solenoid valve 16 is energized and opened by the coil 16s being energized by the closing of the contacts 21-1 and 25-□, and the supply of water is started to a predetermined amount. When water has accumulated in the water tray 9, the electromagnetic valve 16 closes due to the opening of the contact 25-1 due to the excitation of the high water level detection relay 25, and the water supply is completed.

Therefore, the water supply to the water tray 9 is carried out at the same time as the start of ice removal, and the water supply is completed within a short time.

However, when ice removal is completed after 4 to 5 minutes have passed from the start of the ice removal operation, the contact 22-1 of the timer 22 is opened, so the relay 21 is demagnetized and each contact 211 to 21-1 is returned to its original state. -4 return action causes timer 22.23.
The solenoid valve 18 begins its return movement and switches to ice-making operation.

Furthermore, when the ice-release thermo 20 detects ice removal faster than the operation of the timer 22, the ice-release timer 22, pump timer 23, and hot gas solenoid valve 28 similarly return to normal operation, and switch to the initial ice-making operation. Ru.

In the ice removal operation described above, the hot gas solenoid valve 28 is opened when the water level in the water tray 9 falls to a low water level while the compressor 5 is being driven, and the action of closing it due to ice removal is controlled by the water release control means. It corresponds to this.

When the ice cubes in the ice storage bin 3 reach full capacity while the automatic switching between the ice making operation and the ice removal operation is performed continuously in this manner, the contact of the ice storage thermometer 17 is opened and the ice storage thermostat 17 is completely stopped.

By the way, if a water outage occurs due to an accident at the water source in the water supply pipe while ice-making operation and ice-removal operation are being repeated alternately, the water supply will not be affected immediately after the ice-removal operation starts, and the water tray will be closed. The water level within 9 is a low water level).

When the de-icing operation is completed in this state, the contact 24-2 has been reversed from the illustrated operating state, and the contacts 21-2, 21 3, 2
Since 6 r and 26 2 are in the open state, relay 19
is demagnetized and the compressor 5 is stopped.

Once it is stopped, it is not turned on again, so ice-making operation is no longer performed even though the switch 27 is issuing an operation command.

On the other hand, when the contact 21-1 is opened, the water supply solenoid valve 16 is also closed.

As explained above, the ice-making operation is not restarted when the ice cubes in the ice storage bin 3 reach the required amount of water, or when the water level in the water tray 9 remains below the low water level due to a water outage accident, etc. This corresponds to the ice making operation control means.

In this way, even if the water cut-off is restored after that, the water supply is not affected and the ice-making operation is not started, so there is no inconvenience such as ice-making being affected by contaminated raw water after the water cut is restored.

When the user switches the switch 27 to the cleaning command side after the water cut is restored, the same operation as the cleaning operation before starting the ice making operation is performed as described above, and the inside of the water tray 9 and the ice making plate 2 are cleaned. This ensures that all parts are kept clean during subsequent ice-making operations.

As is clear from the above explanation, the present invention includes an operation switch 27 that can select between an operation command and a cleaning command, and an electric circuit that controls the automatic operation of the ice maker, and an electric circuit that controls the automatic operation of the ice maker. When the water level detection means provided in the water tray 9 is installed to detect the water level and the low water level, and after the ice making operation is completed under the operation command, the water level detection means detects that the water level has not reached the low water level, or when the water storage ice-making operation control means that prevents the start of the ice-making operation when the amount detector 17 detects the required amount of water;
A water supply control means that opens the water supply solenoid valve 16 immediately after the start of de-icing operation under the operation command and closes it when the water level in the water tray 9 reaches the high ice level, and a hot gas solenoid valve under the operation command. 2
8 is opened when the water level in the water tray 9 reaches a low water level while the compressor 5 is being driven, and the water release control means is closed by ice removal; The present invention is characterized in that it is equipped with a cleaning control means for operating the raw water circulation device, and has various effects as described below.

(b) In the event of a water outage or if the ice cube has been left unused for a long period of time, ice making operation will not start even if the operation switch 27 is turned to the operating side, so dirty ice cubes will be left unused. There is no risk of this happening.

In addition, since operation cannot be started unless the operation switch 27 is operated to the cleaning side, the raw water circulation system including the water tray 9 and the ice making plate 2 is kept clean by forced cleaning, so that clear ice is always produced. can be provided.

(b) The surface of the ice-making plate 2 is kept clean by cleaning, so the heat transfer coefficient is good during ice-making, and the ice-making ability is maximized.On the other hand, the ice-making plate 2 is Inconveniences such as mechanically strained parts that occur due to dirt, which makes it difficult to release ice, or ice that is released in a "distorted" shape, resulting in unsightly ice, are eliminated.

(c) Since various machines in the system in which raw water circulates, such as circulation pumps, spray nozzles, piping, and on-off valves, do not become dirty due to cleaning, labor is saved in terms of maintenance management.

2) Since water is supplied to the water tray 9 within a short period of time immediately after starting ice-off operation, water is not supplied in the middle of ice-making operation, and warm ice is supplied and circulated. Problems such as the delay in ice making caused by the rise in the temperature of raw water, which makes it impossible to make a sufficient amount of ice, and the formation of irregularly shaped ice, are all solved.

(E) During one cycle of ice making (30 to 6 inches) and ice removal (45 minutes), water is supplied for a short period of time, for example, 20 to 5 inches, immediately after ice removal starts, so water outages, There are very few chances that the water supply operation will encounter an abnormal situation with subsequent condensation, and problems such as contamination of the main river's raw water will hardly occur, making it extremely sanitary.

As described above, the present invention is a practically excellent ice making machine that has various effects.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an example of the ice maker of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a similar electrical circuit diagram, and FIG. 3 is a refrigeration circuit diagram of the ice maker shown in FIG. 1. 2...Ice making plate, 3...Ice storage bin, 5.
...Compressor, 6...Condenser, 9...
・・Water tray, 10・Bend・Overflow pipe, 16・・
・・・Solenoid valve for water supply, 17・Song・Water storage amount detector, 18・
...Pressure reducer, 27...Operation switch, 2
8... Solenoid valve for hot gas.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A refrigeration cycle consisting of a compressor 5, a condenser 6, a pressure reducer 18, and an ice-making plate 2 consisting of an obliquely installed flat evaporator;
A hot gas solenoid valve 28 is inserted between the condenser 6 and the pressure reducer 1.
A hot gas bypass circuit is provided near the lower end of the ice making plate 2 so as to be able to store raw water supplied from a water supply pipe via a water supply solenoid valve 16, and an overflow pipe 10 is provided. Equipped with a water tray 9 and a water storage amount detector 17
a water storage bottle 3 disposed to receive ice falling from the ice making plate 2; a raw water circulation device for circulating raw water between the water tray 9 and the surface of the ice making plate 2; Ice making operation generates ice sheets on the surface of the ice making plate 2 by simultaneously operating the raw water circulation system and the compressor 5, and separates the generated ice sheets by opening the hot gas solenoid valve 28 while the compressor 5 is operating. This is an ice-making machine consisting of an electric circuit for alternately repeating ice-making operation and ice-removal operation, and an operation command for alternately repeating ice-making operation and ice-removal operation, and a connection between the water tray 9 and the ice-making plate 2. an operation switch 27 that can select a cleaning command for circulating raw water; a water level detection means provided on the water tray 9 to detect a high water level and a low water level corresponding to the amount of ice made in - batches; Starting the ice making operation when the water level detection means detects that the water level has not reached a low water level after the ice removal operation is completed under the operation command, or when the water storage amount detector 17 detects the required amount of water. an ice-making operation control means that opens the water supply solenoid valve 16 under an operation command immediately after the start of the ice-removal operation, and closes it when the water level in the water tray 9 reaches the high ice level; A water separation control means that opens the hot gas solenoid valve 28 under a command when the water level in the water tray 9 reaches a low water level while the compressor 5 is driving and closes it when ice is removed; An ice maker characterized in that the electric circuit is equipped with a cleaning control means for opening the water supply solenoid valve 16 and operating a raw water circulation device.