JPS6027877Y2 - automatic ice maker - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] This invention relates to a circulating blow-up type automatic ice maker, and in particular, it removes the connecting parts of ice cubes made in each ice making compartment of the ice making compartment and completely removes the joints of ice cubes made in each ice making compartment of the ice making compartment and obtains well-shaped ice cubes. It concerns new improvements.

There are various kinds of ice-making chambers that have been used in the past, but the configuration shown in FIG. 1 has been used as a typical one.

That is, as shown in A and B in FIG. 1, a large number of partition plates 2 made of a copper material are fixed by welding to an ice making chamber 1 made of a steel material to form each ice making chamber 3, and water is sprayed from below. Ice was formed in each ice cube compartment.

However, in such a conventional configuration, the ice making compartment 1
Since both the partition plate 2 and the partition plate 2 are made of materials with good thermal conductivity, the open end of each partition plate 2 is cooled to a temperature at which ice grows, and it takes time for the returned water to turn into water droplets and fall in this area. In addition, since the opening end 4 of each partition plate 2 is common to the adjacent ice-making compartment, the return water that has fallen along the partition plate 2 may merge at this part. Ice had grown thickly at the open end 4.

Therefore, when the above-mentioned phenomenon occurs, when the ice making compartment 1 is switched to the deicing state and the ice cubes are taken out, the ice cubes 5 are connected to each other by the connecting part 6, and the ice becomes icicle-like. It is extremely difficult to obtain uniformly shaped ice cubes due to the sagging of the ice cubes, and the commercial value of the ice cubes will be drastically reduced.

Furthermore, if the ice cubes 4 that are connected to each other in this way fall into the water storage, the impact of the fall alone will not separate them into individual pieces, which is a practical problem, and the ice cubes in the water storage may not be supplied in a fixed quantity. This was a fatal flaw when incorporated into an ice vending machine.

Furthermore, as a means of dispersing such connected ice, a configuration in which a cord heater is fixed with a heat insulating frame (not shown) and melted and cut is also widely used, but this may cause disconnection of the cord heater and assembly difficulties. There were many problems in terms of complexity, service, and hygiene, and furthermore, the loss of electric energy was extremely large.

The purpose of this invention is to provide an extremely effective means for quickly eliminating the above-mentioned drawbacks, and in particular, it has a partition plate that is the same shape as the partition plate of the ice maker and faces it. A cutting frame equipped with a hot gas pipe is placed with a certain gap from the lower end of the ice-making chamber, and the connecting part of each ice cube is formed in this gap, and the connecting part of each ice cube is connected to the cutting frame during deicing. The structure is such that it is melted and cut at each partition plate and then dropped.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the automatic ice maker according to this invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 2, the reference numeral 10 is an ice-making compartment that is generally box-shaped and has a large number of small ice-making compartments 12 separated by first partition plates 11. 14 are attached to each of them, and a detection section 16 of an ice-making thermostat 15 is also provided.

At a lower position of the ice making chamber 10, a flange 10 of the ice making chamber 10 is provided.
A cutting frame 20 is provided with a collar portion 18 fixed with bolts 19 through a heat insulating material 17, and a large number of second partition plates 21 formed on this cutting frame 20 are connected to the first partition plate of the ice making chamber 10. The cutting frame 20, which is disposed at the same position facing the partition plate 11, is configured as shown in FIG. The upper and lower surfaces of the chamber 20a are penetrating, and each corner chamber 20a is connected to each ice making compartment 12 of the ice making compartment 10.
They are placed in positions facing each other.

Further, since the cut frame 20 is attached to the ice making chamber 10 via the heat insulating material 17, the lower end 11a of each first partition plate 11 and the upper end 21a of each second partition plate 21 are The heat insulators 17 are spaced apart by a gap corresponding to the thickness of the heat insulators 17, and the inner portions 17a of the heat insulators 17 are flush with the inner surfaces of the partition plates 11 and 21.

A detection section 22a of a deicing thermostat 22 is provided outside the ice making chamber 10.

Next, in the lower part of the ice making chamber 10, there are many water fountain holes 23.
A fountain pipe 24 is fixedly installed, and each spout hole 23 is configured to spray water toward the center of the small ice-making chamber 12.

Ice-making water supplied by an ice-making water pump 27 provided in an ice-making water tank 26 is supplied to a branch chamber 25 formed at one end of the fountain pipe 24 in a state shown by a chain double-dashed arrow through a pipe (not shown). At the same time, the ice-making water falling from the ice-making compartment 10 is returned to the ice-making water tank 26 via the water guide plate 28.

Furthermore, this ice-making water tank 26 is provided with a water supply pipe 30 controlled by a water supply valve 29 to supply water for ice-making, and the ice cubes 31 made in the ice-making chamber 10 are stored in an ice storage section 32. The configuration is as follows.

Furthermore, what is shown in FIG. 4 is a refrigeration circuit, in which a discharge pipe 33a from a compressor 33 is connected to a condenser 35, and refrigerant gas from this condenser 35 passes through a dryer 36 and a capillary tube 37 to an evaporator 14. sent to
The refrigerant gas that has passed through the evaporator 14 is transferred to an accumulator 39.
It is then returned to the compressor 33 through the suction pipe 40.

Hot gas from a hot gas valve 34 provided in a hot gas pipe 41 branched from the discharge pipe 33a is transferred to a hot gas pipe 41' attached to the circumferential side of the cutting frame 20.
The hot gas pipe 41' is connected to the evaporator 14.

In the above configuration, when the automatic ice maker of this invention is operated to make ice, refrigerant gas compressed by the compressor 33 is condensed in the condenser 35 via the discharge pipe 33a, and decompressed in the capillary tube 37. The refrigerant gas enters the evaporator 14, absorbs heat from the ice-making compartment 10'', is separated into gas and liquid by the accumulator 39, and is returned to the compressor 33 through the suction pipe 40. By repeating this operation, the ice-making compartment 10 is cooled down.

Furthermore, ice-making water is supplied to the ice-making water pump 2 of the ice-making water tank 26.
7 from the fountain hole 23 of the fountain pipe 24 to each ice making chamber 1
Some of the ice-making water freezes by heat exchange with the refrigerant, and other ice-making water falls and is guided by the water guide plate 28 and returned to the ice-making water tank 26.

In this way, ice begins to accumulate in the ice making chamber 12.

Furthermore, as ice making progresses, the lower end 11 of the first partition plate 11
The ice is elongated at point a, and progresses from state A, which is during ice making in Figure 5, to state B, which is just before ice making is completed, and the ice cubes 31 and 31 in the adjacent ice making compartments 12 connect together in an icicle shape. , C in which the ice making is completed, the connecting portion 31a of the ice 31 has grown into the gap formed between the partition plates 11 and 21.

In this state, the ice-making thermo 15 detects the completion of ice-making, stops the ice-making water pump, and opens the hot gas valve 34 to supply high-temperature gas to the evaporator 1 through the hot gas pipes 41 and 41'.
4 to enter the de-icing cycle.

At this time, the water supply valve 29 is also opened to supply ice-making water to the ice-making water tuff 26.

The cutting frame 20 is made of a material with good thermal conductivity and is thermally insulated from the ice making compartment 10 by a gap and a heat insulating material 17, so it does not reach a low temperature unlike the ice making compartment 10, but does not reach the high temperature of the hot gas pipe 41'. It is heated with gas and the temperature rises in a short time.

When the deicing cycle begins, the ice making chamber 10 is also gradually heated by the high temperature gas and the temperature rises, so the ice 31 starts to melt, and while the connecting portion 31a of the ice 31 is attached to the cutting frame 20, the ice 31 is not cut. Although the temperature of the frame 20 is low, when the connecting portion 31a melts as shown in the state A in FIG. As the heating of the ice 31 is accelerated, the ice 31 melts at all contact surfaces with the ice making chamber 10 and gradually begins to fall under its own weight, as shown in FIG. 6B.

It should be noted that although the surface of the insulating material 17 is also frozen, it is easily melted during the deicing cycle by the heat of the cutting frame 20 heated by the hot gas pipe 41'.

When the ice 31 (ice cubes) starts to fall under its own weight, the ice making chamber 10 and the cutting frame 20 fall as shown in C in FIG.
A connecting portion 31a formed between the upper end portion 21a of the second partition plate 21 is located on the upper end portion 21a of the second partition plate 21.

In this state, the second partition plate 21 is at a high temperature, so
The connecting part 31a immediately melts and falls from the ice making compartment 12 as shown in FIG.
As shown by E in Fig. 6,
Ice cubes with regular rectangular shapes are obtained one after another.

When the ice 31 finishes falling from the ice-making compartment 10, the temperature of the ice-making compartment 10 rises rapidly, so the de-icing thermostat 22 is activated, the hot gas valve 34 is closed, the ice-making water pump 27 is operated, and the ice-making cycle is restarted. .

Since the automatic ice maker of this invention has the above structure and function, it minimizes the connecting part that connects the ice cubes, that is, the cutting thickness, shortens the cutting time, and improves the ice making ability. By simply using the energy built into the automatic ice maker without using any additional thermal energy, the connection can be removed easily and according to natural phenomena. It is possible to reliably obtain ice, significantly improving the reliability of this type of ice maker, and giving users a great deal of confidence.

Furthermore, when ice cubes are stored in the water storage section, they fall already separated into individual pieces, so there is no longer the drawback that ice cubes do not separate as in the past.

In addition, in this example, the case where the cutting frame was attached to the ice-making compartment via a heat insulating material was described, but it is also possible to provide the cutting frame on the main body,
The same effect can be obtained by creating a gap.

In addition, although the embodiment of the present invention has been described using an ice maker using a fixed fountain pipe, the present invention can be similarly applied to an ice maker using a retractable water tray.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

A and B in FIG. 1 are a side sectional view and a side view showing a conventional ice maker and the ice made therein, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the overall configuration of an automatic ice maker according to this invention.
Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the cutting frame, Fig. 4 is a refrigeration circuit diagram of the automatic ice maker shown in Fig. 3, and A, B, and C in Fig. 5 are cross-sectional views showing the ice-making process. B is a sectional view showing a state immediately before ice making is completed, C is a state in which ice making is completed, and A, B, C, D, and E in FIG. 6 are sectional views showing a deicing process. 10 is an ice making compartment, 10a is a flange, 11 is a first partition plate, 12
1 is an ice-making chamber, 13 is an outer surface part, 14 is an evaporator, 15 is an ice-making thermostat, 16 is a detection part, 17 is a heat insulating material, 18 is a flange part, 1
9 is a bolt, 20 is a cutting frame, 21 is a second partition plate, 21
a is the upper end, 20a is the corner window, D is the gap, 22 is the deicing thermo, 22a is the detection unit, 23 is the fountain hole, 24 is the fountain pipe, 25 is the branch chamber, 26 is the ice making water tank, 27 is the ice making water Pump, 28 is a water guide plate, 29 is a water supply valve, 30 is a water supply pipe, 31 is ice (ice cubes), 32 is an ice storage section, 33 is a compressor, 33a is a discharge pipe, 34 is a hot gas valve, 35 is a condenser 36 is a dryer, 37 is a capillary cube, 3
9 is an accumulator and 40 is an inhaler? , 41.41' is a hot gas pipe.

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] (1) In an ice maker that supplies ice-making water from below to an ice-making compartment having a large number of ice-making compartments, a certain gap is provided at the position of the ice-making compartment from the lower end of each first partition plate of each of the ice-making compartments. A cutting frame having second partition plates arranged so as to face each other, and a hot gas pipe provided in the cutting frame, the ice made in each of the ice making compartments is transferred to each second partition plate of the cutting frame. An automatic ice maker characterized by being configured to melt and cut ice using a partition plate. (2) Utility model registration claim 1, characterized in that the cutting frame is configured integrally with the ice making compartment via a heat insulating material provided between the ice making compartment and the cutting frame. Automatic ice maker as described in section.