JPS61274651A - Method for cleaning soft cream manufacturing machine and apparatus therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To heat a freezing cylinder in a state without fear of damaging a compressor, by heating the freezing cylinder after manufacturing soft cream with a refrigerant condensed in a condenser, softening and recovering the soft cream, supplying water thereto and cleaning the cylinder while stirring the water. CONSTITUTION:After stopping the operation of a soft cream manufacturing machine, a changeover valve (14a) is shut to open a changeover valve (14b). A heating circuit is formed for passing a refrigerant converted into a high-temperature and high-pressure gas in a compressor 11, and condensed in a condenser 12 through a piping 33 constituting a bypass circuit, feeding the refrigerant into an evaporator 17 around a freezing cylinder 3, making the refrigerant perform heat exchange with the freezing cylinder 3, passing the resultant refrigerant through a cooling coil 18 and returning the refrigerant to the compressor 11. As a result, the soft cream in the freezing cylinder 3 is softened with 35-45 deg.C heat held by the condensed refrigerant and recovered. Cleaning water is subsequently supplied from a water supply device 21 through a mix tank 2 into the freezing cylinder 3 and stirred with a stirring device 5 to clean the interior of the freezing cylinder 3 and the cleaning water is drained.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a soft-serve ice cream manufacturing machine that manufactures soft-serve ice cream by supplying a mix into a freezing cylinder and stirring it while cooling. The present invention relates to a method for cleaning a frozen cylinder by collecting soft serve ice cream remaining in the frozen cylinder, and a cleaning device for an ice cream making machine suitable for carrying out the method.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, the freezing cylinder of an ice cream making machine is heated to forcibly soften the remaining soft serve ice cream, and the remaining soft serve ice cream is recovered effectively and in a short time. A method of cleaning by stirring while heating was published in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-9093.
It is disclosed in the publication No. However, in this method, the refrigeration cylinder is heated using high-pressure hot gas discharged from the compressor by providing a hot gas circuit for heating, so there are problems with the operating conditions, clogging, load conditions, etc. of the compressor. This causes large variations in refrigerant gas temperature, which may cause high-temperature, high-pressure gas to flow back into the compressor and damage the compressor.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and includes a cleaning method for a soft serve ice cream manufacturing machine that can heat a cooling cylinder with a refrigerant without causing damage to the compressor; The purpose of this invention is to provide a cleaning device for a soft serve ice cream manufacturing machine.

[Structure of the invention]

The method for cleaning a soft serve ice cream manufacturing machine of the present invention is to move the mix stored in a mix tank into a refrigeration cylinder cooled by a refrigeration circuit equipped with a refrigerant gas compressor, a condenser, an expansion mechanism, and an evaporator. The soft-serve ice cream manufacturing machine manufactures soft-serve ice cream by supplying it to the refrigerator and stirring it with a stirring device while cooling it. After use, the frozen cylinder is heated to soften and collect the soft-serve ice cream inside the frozen cylinder, and then washed. In the cleaning method, the frozen cylinder is heated with the refrigerant condensed in the condenser, the soft serve ice cream is softened and collected, and then water is supplied into the frozen cylinder and stirred. By using a condensed refrigerant that has sufficient temperature to heat the refrigeration cylinder even at extremely low temperatures and has little temperature change even if the compressor operating conditions are different, the compressor can It is characterized by eliminating the spreading that causes damage.

Incidentally, the refrigerant gas discharged from the compressor has a temperature range of 80 to 100 degrees Celsius in normal operation of a refrigeration cycle, but in a hot gas cycle it has a wide temperature range of 60 to 110 degrees Celsius. This will result in large variations. On the other hand, if the refrigerant is condensed, the temperature will only vary within a range of 35 to 45 degrees Celsius, around 38 degrees Celsius.
There is no risk of damaging the compressor.

In addition, the cleaning device for the soft serve ice cream manufacturing machine of the present invention that implements this method has a bypass circuit that directly connects the outlet of the condenser and the inlet of the evaporator to bypass the expansion mechanism, and A switching valve is provided to selectively switch between a part of the refrigeration circuit leading to the evaporator and the bypass circuit via a mechanism, and by operating the switching valve, condensate is supplied to the evaporator that exchanges heat with the refrigeration cylinder. It is characterized by this.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings. First, the general structure of the soft-serve ice cream manufacturing machine will be explained mainly with reference to FIG. A freezing cylinder 3 is arranged to manufacture soft serve ice cream by stirring the mixed mixture while cooling it, and the manufactured soft serve ice cream can be taken out by operating a lever 4a of a taking out device 4 on the front side of the freezing cylinder 3. There is. A stirring device 5 is arranged inside the freezing cylinder 3 (see Fig. 1), and a pulley 7 attached to the rear end of the stirring shaft 6, a transmission belt 8,
It is configured to be rotationally driven by a stirring motor IO disposed at the lower rear part of the machine frame 1 via a pulley 9.

A compressor 11 for compressing refrigerant gas is installed in the lower front part of the machine frame 1.
A condenser 12 that is cooled by an air cooling fan 13 is provided at the upper rear part of the machine frame 1.

Next, the refrigeration circuit for cooling the refrigeration cylinder 3 will be explained mainly with reference to FIG.
At the outlet of 2, the refrigerant pipe is branched into pipes 32 and 33, and one pipe 32 is connected around the refrigeration cylinder 3 via a switching valve 14a, an expansion mechanism 15 such as an expansion valve or a capillary tube, and a heat exchanger 16. The evaporator 17 is connected to the evaporator 17, which is provided to exchange heat with the evaporator 17. The other pipe 33 is directly connected to the evaporator 17 via the switching valve 14b, and this pipe 33 constitutes a bypass circuit that bypasses the expansion mechanism 15. The refrigerant leaving the evaporator 17 is transferred to the pipe 3
4, enters the cooling coil 18 provided around the mix tank 2 via the heat exchanger 16, and the outlet of this cooling coil 18 passes through a piping 35 to an accumulator (not shown) and is connected to the intake of the compressor 11. connected to the mouth.

A high-pressure regulator 9 for adjusting the discharge pressure of the compressor 11 is attached to the pipe 31, and a low temperature sensor 20 for controlling the cooling temperature is attached to the evaporator 17.

Note that the mix tank 2 is attached with a water supply device 21 that supplies washing water.

In the above structure, when manufacturing soft serve ice cream, the compressor 11 is operated, the switching valve 14a is turned on, and the switching valve 14b is closed, so that the compressor 11→condenser 12→expansion mechanism 15-evaporator 17-compressor 11 form a refrigeration circuit. Then, compression @1
The refrigerant compressed to high pressure in 1 is condensed in a condenser 12, and further reduced in pressure in an expansion mechanism 15, and then transferred to an evaporator 17.
The heat of vaporization removes heat from the refrigeration cylinder 3 and cools it, and the mix tank 2 is also cooled by the cooling coil 18. At the same time, the stirring motor 8 is activated. In this state, when the mix is supplied from the mix tank 2 to the freezing cylinder 3, the mix is stirred while being cooled, thereby producing soft serve ice cream. The finished soft-serve ice cream is removed from the lever 4a of the take-out device 4.
It can be taken out by operating.

When the business hours end, the soft serve ice cream remaining in the freezing cylinder 3 is collected and the inside of the freezing cylinder 3 is cleaned. At that time, the switching valve 14a is closed and the switching valve 14b is turned on, so that the compressor 11 The refrigerant that has been converted into high-temperature, high-pressure gas and condensed in the condenser 12 is sent to the evaporator 17 around the refrigeration cylinder 3 through the piping 33 that constitutes a bypass circuit, and after exchanging heat with the refrigeration cylinder 3,
A heating circuit is formed which returns to the compressor 11 via the cooling coil 18. Then, the condensed refrigerant has 35 to 45
The soft-serve ice cream in the freezing cylinder 3 is softened by the heat of 0.degree. C., and the soft-serve ice cream is recovered efficiently and in a short time. Subsequently, washing water is supplied from the water supply device 21 into the freezing cylinder 3 through the mix tank 2, and the inside of the freezing cylinder 3 is washed by stirring with the stirring bag W5, and then the washing water is drained.

Also during this cleaning, the cleaning water is heated by passing the condensed refrigerant through the evaporator 17, so that the cleaning can be done quickly and cleanly.

Note that if cleaning water is poured into the mix tank 2 and heated by the refrigerant passing through the cooling coil 18,
The inside of mix tank 2 can also be cleaned. Further, during the process of collecting the soft serve ice cream in the freezing cylinder 3, washing water may be put into the mix tank 2 and heated in advance. On the other hand, if the washing water does not need to be heated during washing, the compressor 11 is stopped when the collection of soft serve ice cream is completed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the method for cleaning a soft serve ice cream manufacturing machine according to the present invention, instead of using the high temperature gas refrigerant discharged from the compressor to heat the cooling cylinder as described above, a refrigerant obtained by condensing the refrigerant is used. As a result, variations in temperature due to differences in compressor operating conditions, clogging of refrigerant passages, load conditions, etc. are reduced, and there is no risk of high-temperature, high-pressure refrigerant flowing back into the compressor and damaging the compressor. It can be tightened. In addition, the temperature of the condensed refrigerant is sufficient to heat the freezing cylinder, and the soft serve ice cream can be recovered efficiently and in a short time, and cleaning can be performed efficiently and neatly.

Further, according to the cleaning device for a soft serve ice cream manufacturing machine according to the present invention, a bypass circuit is provided that directly connects the outlet of the condenser and the inlet of the evaporator to bypass the expansion mechanism, and the expansion mechanism is disconnected from the condenser. A switching valve is provided to selectively switch between a part of the refrigeration circuit that leads to the evaporator through the evaporator and the bypass circuit, so the process can be switched to heating the cooling cylinder by switching the switching valve, making it easy to operate. Moreover, the configuration is simple.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the same arrangement. 2 is a mix tank, 3 is a freezing cylinder, 5 is a stirring device, 11 is a compressor, 12 is a condenser, 14a and 14b are switching valves, 15 is an expansion mechanism, 17 is an evaporator, 21 is a water supply device, 33 is a bypass This is the piping that makes up the circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The mix stored in the mix tank is supplied into a refrigeration cylinder cooled by a refrigeration circuit equipped with a refrigerant gas compressor, a condenser, an expansion mechanism, and an evaporator. In a method for cleaning a soft serve ice cream manufacturing machine, the soft serve ice cream is manufactured by stirring with a stirring device while cooling, and after use, the frozen cylinder is heated to soften and collect the soft serve ice cream in the frozen cylinder, and then washed. A cleaning method for a soft-serve ice cream manufacturing machine, characterized in that a freezing cylinder is heated with a refrigerant condensed in a condenser to soften and collect soft-serve ice cream, and then water is supplied into the freezing cylinder and stirred. 2. Equipped with a refrigeration circuit equipped with a refrigerant gas compressor, a condenser, an expansion mechanism, and an evaporator that exchanges heat between the refrigeration cylinder and the mix stored in the mix tank into the refrigeration cylinder. In a soft-serve ice cream manufacturing machine that manufactures soft-serve ice cream by supplying water to the ice cream and stirring it with a stirring device while cooling, a bypass system bypasses the expansion mechanism by directly connecting the outlet of the condenser and the inlet of the evaporator. A cleaning device for a soft-serve ice cream manufacturing machine, characterized in that it is provided with a circuit and a switching valve that selectively switches between a bypass circuit and a part of a refrigeration circuit that extends from a condenser to an evaporator via an expansion mechanism.