JPS6027892Y2 - Ice maker prewarming device - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to a pre-humidifying device for ice-making water in an ice-making machine.

In a conventional ice maker, the area around the ice maker chamber where ice is made is as shown in FIG.

That is, the ice-making chamber 12 is formed from a copper ice-making cup 13, and a copper cooling pipe 14 is wrapped around the ice-making cup 13 to cool it, and the outer end of the ice-making cup 13 near its downward opening A water tray 15 made of synthetic resin with poor thermal conductivity is fixed to the portion.

When ice is to be made, ice making water is sprinkled into the ice making chamber 12 using a water sprinkler (see FIG. 5), and at the same time the cooling pipe 14 is cooled to form ice.

However, although the water tray 15 is made of a resin with poor thermal conductivity, during the long ice-making time (approximately 3 inches) during which ice grows in the ice-making chamber 12, it is cooled and ice is formed in the water tray. ing.

Therefore, during the de-icing cycle, the ice that has formed in the water pan must be melted during a short de-icing period (approximately 3 minutes).

In the de-icing cycle, hot gas is flowed into the cooling pipe 14 and at the same time ice-making water from the water tray 15 is flowed to remove ice. The temperature of ice-making water decreases (approximately 5 to 15°C) and the water removal time increases.

For this reason, as shown in FIG. 2, the ice in the ice making compartment 12 on the side of the ice making cup 13 melts rapidly, while the water tray 1
The 5-side joint was difficult to melt, and when the ice removal was completed, unsightly ice cubes were formed which were considerably smaller than the size of the ice-making compartment 12 and had large brim, as shown in FIG. 3.

To prevent this, a conventional method has been adopted in which the ice-making water supplied into the water tray is previously warmed to a predetermined temperature using a heating device such as a heater and a preliminary tank.

However, installing such a heating device and a prehumidifying tank in an ice maker increases costs, increases the size of the ice maker, and increases power consumption.Furthermore, failure of heating devices such as heaters and accidents may occur. There were various drawbacks such as:

The present invention was made in order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and its main purpose is to provide a pre-humidifying device that can pre-humidify water for ice making without installing special equipment such as a preliminary tank or a heating device. There is.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a pre-humidification device capable of cooling lubricating oil that has risen in temperature within a compressor without using any special equipment.

In consideration of the above-mentioned object, the prehumidification device of the present invention includes a prehumidification pipe, one end of which is connected to a water supply solenoid valve connected to a water supply port, and the other end connected to a means for utilizing water supply, The prehumidification pipe has an oil cooling section that passes through the oil reservoir of the compressor, and an air vent pipe is connected between the one end of the prehumidification pipe and the oil cooling section. .

Next, the prehumidification device of the present invention will be explained according to the drawings.

4 to 10 show each component of the open cell ice maker equipped with the prehumidification device of the present invention.
Components that are the same as in the figure are numbered the same.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the ice making machine 1 including the prehumidification device of the present invention.

The ice making machine 1 is composed of an upper mechanical part 2, an ice making part 3 in the middle, and a water storage part 4 in the lower part.

A water supply port 5 that is directly connected to a water faucet and supplies ice-making water is protruded from the ceiling of the machine section 2.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, this mechanical section 2 includes a cooling device including a compressor CM, a condenser 7, a fan motor having a condenser fan 8a, and a water supply solenoid valve 10 at one end. The ice making section 3 includes a prehumidifying tube 9 connected to the ice making section 3 and having the other end directed into the water tray 15 of the ice making section 3.

The other end of the water supply magnetic valve 10 is connected to the water supply port 5 to supply ice making water into the prehumidification pipe 9.

On the other hand, the prehumidification pipe 9 is connected to a compressed ICM oil reservoir 21 (
It has an oil cooling part 9a that passes through the inside (see FIG. 8), and an air vent pipe 11 is connected to an upright portion on the solenoid valve side between the water supply solenoid valve 10 and the compression [M].

At the top of the ice-making section 3, there is an ice-making cup 13 made of copper that forms the majority of the ice-making chamber 12, a cooling pipe 14 fixed around this cup, and a prehumidification pipe 9 connected to the lower end of the ice-making chamber 12. A water tray 15 made of synthetic resin is provided to receive water from the water outlet and to support the ice making chamber 12.

As shown in FIG. 7, this water tray 15 is provided with an overflow pipe 16 and a small hole 15a on one bottom surface.
Only small holes 15a are provided on the other bottom surface, and ice-making water that enters the water tray 15 through the water outlet 9b of the prehumidification pipe is stored up to a certain water level determined by the overflow pipe 16. is caused to fall onto the inclined plate 17 below the water tray 15 through the small hole 15a.

The amount of ice-making water supplied from the prehumidification tube 9 is set to be greater than the total amount of water released through each small hole 15a.

A hole 17a is provided in the lower part of the inclined plate 17 below the water tray 15 for returning the frozen rice water that has not frozen in the small ice making holes 12 to the ice making water tank 18.

A water sprinkler 19 having a water sprinkling hole for sprinkling water into the ice making compartment 12 is provided on the back side of the inclined plate 17, and this water sprinkler 19 is connected to the pump motor PM via an open ring hose 2o.

FIG. 8 shows a state in which the oil cooling part 9a of the prehumidification tube of the prehumidification device of the present invention is immersed in the oil reservoir 21 inside the compressor CM, and FIG. This is a cutaway cross-sectional view showing the state in which the air vent pipe is fitted into the pipe 9. The other end of this air vent pipe is located at a higher position than the water supply solenoid valve 10 and communicates with the atmosphere. The ice-making water in the pre-humidifying tube 9a is smoothly supplied to the water tray 15, and the ice-making water in the pre-humidifying tube is completely discharged from the pre-humidifying tube.

In addition, 6 is a louver on the compressor side, 22 is a filter for the condenser, 23 is an overflow pipe of the ice water tank, 24 is a water storage, and 25 is a door of the water storage.

Next, the operation of the prehumidification device of the present invention will be explained.

When the ice maker 1 is powered on (not shown), the compressor CM is activated and the hot gas valve Y (not shown) is opened to supply hot gas from the compressor CM to the cooling pipe 14 to open the ice making cup 13.
warm up.

At the same time, the water supply solenoid valve 10 is opened, and ice-making water is supplied into the prehumidification pipe 9 through the water supply port 5 and the water supply solenoid valve 10.

Due to the air venting action of the air vent pipe 11 attached to the prehumidification pipe 9, ice-making water in the prehumidification pipe is smoothly supplied into the water tray 15 through the water outlet 9b.

The water supplied at this time is water supplied at the same time as the start of the compressor ρM, and is hardly heated in the oil reservoir of the compressor.

While the water supply solenoid valve 10 is open, ice-making water is stored in the water tray 15 up to the upper end water level of the overflow pipe 16, and the water and water that exceed this water level and fall through the overflow pipe 16 are stored in the water tray 15. Water that has fallen through the small holes 15a in the dish flows on the inclined plate 17, passes through the holes 17a, and is stored in the ice-making water tank 18.

The water remaining in the ice-making tray 15 is drained from the small hole 15a within a while after the start of ice-making, falls onto the inclined plate 17, and falls into the ice-making water tank 18 to become ice-making water.

Here, the deicing thermostat (
(not shown) detects the completion of deicing, the water supply electromagnetic valve 10 and the hot gas valve (not shown) are closed, and ice making operation is started.

When the ice-making operation starts, the cooling pipe 14 is cooled by the operation of the compressor CM, and the ice-making cup 13 is cooled.

At this time, the ice-making water stored in the ice-making water tank 18 is sprayed into the ice-making compartment 12 via the pump motor PM, the circulation hose 20, and the sprinkler 19.

The sprayed ice-making water freezes on the inner surface of the cooled ice-making chamber 12, and the unfrozen water falls onto the inclined plate 17 and returns to the ice-making water tank 18 through the hole 17a.

When the ice in the ice-making chamber 12 has grown sufficiently, ice-making completion is detected by a known ice-making completion detection means, and the ice-making operation is started.

When the deicing operation starts, the high-temperature, high-pressure refrigerant gas from the compressed gas is supplied into the cooling pipe 14 through a hot gas valve (not shown), and at the same time, the water supply solenoid valve 10, which was closed after water was supplied to the tank 18, is opened. water for ice making through the pre-humidifying pipe 9 to the water tray 1.
Supply again within 5 days.

At this time, since the compressor [M has continued to open during the ice-making operation, the temperature of the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir 21 has increased.

Therefore, at the start of the deicing operation, the heated lubricating oil and the ice-making water in the oil cooling section 9a exchange heat, the temperature of the lubricating oil decreases, and the temperature of the ice-making water in the prehumidification tube 9 rises.

According to this embodiment, during the deicing operation in the compressor CM, the
Oil cooling section 9 immersed in lubricating oil at 80°C
By supplying the ice-making water into the chamber a, the temperature of the ice-making water discharged from the outlet 9b rose by about 5 to 8°C compared to the temperature of the water supplied at the water supply port.

This means that the temperature of the ice making water supplied to the water supply port 5 in winter is 5.
℃, the temperature of the ice-making water that exited the outlet 9b would have risen to about 10 to 13°C.

Therefore, the prehumidifying water that has risen in temperature after leaving the oil cooling section 9a is discharged from the water outlet 9.
b and enters the water tray 15 and heats the ice cubes in each ice making compartment 12 together with the hot gas in the cooling pipe 14 to effectively de-ice the ice cubes. The ice is cooled and stored in the ice-making water tank 18 through the small hole 15a1 and the inclined plate 17 and its hole 17a, and is used for the next ice-making cycle.

The ice-making water stored at this time is cooled by heat exchange with the ice in the ice-making chamber 12.

Due to this effective ice removal, the ice cubes in the ice making compartment 12 are
As shown in FIG. 0 and FIG. 11, the ice cubes are removed from the ice making chamber without losing weight, fall onto the inclined plate 17, and are stored in the water storage 24.

In the above, the prehumidifying water obtained by the prehumidifying device of the present invention is used for deicing, but it can also be used for other purposes.

For example, during ice-making operation, the openings of a plurality of cells (ice-making chambers) that open downward are closed by a water tray (separate from the one in the above-mentioned embodiment) having a water fountain corresponding to each cell; During deicing operation, the water tray is rotated by the water tray opening/closing motor to open the lower opening of the cell to remove ice.The prehumidification device of the present invention is incorporated into the ice maker, and the prehumidification device of the present invention is connected to the water supply solenoid valve. If the water discharge port of the pre-humidifying pipe is directed toward the water tray, it is effective to rapidly wash away residual ice, etc. on the water tray with the pre-humidifying water during deicing operation.

As described above, in the prehumidification device of the present invention, the prehumidification pipe has an oil cooling section that passes through the oil reservoir of the compressor, and there is a space between the end of the prehumidification pipe on the water supply solenoid valve side and the oil cooling section. Since the air vent pipe is connected to the air vent pipe, the ice-making water can be pre-humidified by heat exchange between the lubricating oil inside the compressor and the ice-making water, which heated up during ice-making operation. It can cool the warm lubricating oil and reduce the high pressure inside the compressor, improving the efficiency of the compressor (especially in the summer) and extending its life.

In addition, the prehumidification device of the present invention does not require special equipment such as a prehumidification tank or a heating device such as a heater, and uses the heat generated by the compressor itself, so it has a simple configuration and is inexpensive. This leads to savings, no power consumption, fewer breakdowns, and the entire ice making machine can be made smaller.

In addition, by pre-humidifying the ice making water, the deicing time can be shortened and the ice making efficiency can be increased, and the shape of the ice obtained can be improved since the amount of ice that melts during the deicing operation is small. .

In addition, the air vent pipe installed in the middle of the prehumidifying pipe allows the water in the prehumidifying pipe to completely drain out after water is supplied to the water tray, so even if the compressor stops operating in winter when the outside temperature is low, the prehumidifying There is no possibility that the prehumidifying pipe will be damaged by water inside the pipe.

Furthermore, if the pre-humidifying water obtained by the pre-humidifying device of the present invention is used as cleaning water, the cleaning effect can be increased.

In addition, the temperature of the water that passes through the prehumidification pipe and is stored in the ice-making water tank does not become unnecessarily warm when the ice-making machine is started, as it is immediately after the compressor operates, and when the compressor is operating, the temperature of the water stored in the ice-making water tank does not increase Since it is suitably cooled by heat exchange with the ice in the small chamber and used for the next ice-making process, it is effective because the ice-making time does not take particularly long due to heating.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a cutaway cross-sectional view showing the vicinity of the ice-making chamber of a conventional ice-making machine, Figure 2 is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view showing the state of the ice inside the ice-making chamber shown in Figure 1 upon completion of the deicing operation, and Figure 3 2 is a cross-sectional view of the deicing water obtained from the ice-making chamber in FIG. 2, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an oven cell ice maker equipped with the pre-humidifying device of the present invention, and FIG. Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the mechanical part of the ice maker equipped with the prehumidification device of the present invention; Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional view showing the structure of the ice making chamber and the tray; Fig. 8 is a partially cutaway side view of the prehumidification device of the present invention, Fig. 9 is a cutaway sectional view showing the connection state of the air vent pipe and the prehumidification pipe, and Fig. 10 is ice making when using the prehumidification device of the present invention. FIG. 11 is a partially enlarged sectional view similar to FIG. 2 showing the state of the ice in the small chamber at the completion of the deicing operation, and FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of the deicing water obtained from the ice making small chamber of FIG. 10. 1...Ice maker, 2...Machine section, 3...
...Ice making section, 4...Ice storage section, 5...
・Water supply port, 9... Prehumidification pipe, 9a... Oil cooling section, 10... Solenoid valve for water supply, 11...
...Air vent pipe, 12...Ice making chamber, 15...
...Water plate, 17...Slanted plate, 18...
・Ice making water tank, 21... Oil reservoir, CM...
...Compressor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A prehumidification pipe is provided, one end of which is connected to a water supply electromagnetic valve connected to a water supply port, and the other end of which is connected to a means for utilizing water supply, and the prehumidification pipe is connected to an oil cooling section that passes through an oil reservoir of a compressor. A prehumidification device for an ice maker, wherein an air vent pipe is connected between the one end of the prehumidification pipe and the oil cooling section.