JPS6128993Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention relates to an improvement in the method of compressing and dividing ice produced in an auger-type ice maker, and is intended to prevent over-compression.

Conventionally, in this type of ice maker, the ice generated on the inside of the ice cylinder is scraped off with a spiral blade, compressed, and divided. The ice pushed out by the spiral blade is compressed between a compression head and a cutter. , which was then divided with a cutter. However, the amount of ice produced by an ice maker, that is, the ice making capacity, varies depending on the outside temperature and water temperature conditions.In particular, an abnormally large amount of ice is produced under low outside and low water temperature conditions. Occasionally, ice would get stuck in the compression head and the motor for driving the spiral blade would lock up. In order to improve this, a constant pressure expansion valve was used in the refrigeration circuit in order to keep the evaporation temperature constant, or the shape of the compression head was determined to match the shape of the ice making process. If a constant pressure expansion valve is used, there is the problem of increased costs, and if the compression head shape is designed to accommodate ice making with many irregularities, uncompressed ice will be produced under the most frequently used conditions. I had a problem.

This invention was developed to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and is an ice maker that can produce stable compressed ice without the motor locking phenomenon even under the conditions of low outside temperature and low water temperature as mentioned above. The purpose is to obtain the following.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 has an evaporator 2 wrapped around the outer circumferential surface and a heat insulating material 3
The ice making tube 1 is a cylindrical ice making tube whose outer peripheral surface is surrounded by a cylindrical ice making tube 1, and an opening is formed in the upper side wall of the ice making tube 1 to guide ice. The ice slide member 4 forms an ice discharge port 5. In addition, a water inlet 6 is formed at the bottom of the ice-making cylinder 11 so that water can be supplied into the ice-making cylinder 1 through a water supply device (not shown) such as a water tank, thereby forming a thin layer of ice on the inner peripheral surface. do. Reference numeral 7 denotes a spiral blade rotated by a drive device 8 such as a motor, which has a cutting edge 7a and is provided close to the inner circumferential surface of the ice-making cylinder 1, and is constantly rotated to scrape off the thin ice layer. , which pushes upward. The shaft 7b of the spiral blade 7 is fixed to the ice making cylinder 1, and has a compression head 9 for compressing the ice pushed up by the spiral blade 7, and a compression head 9 that rotates at the same time as the spiral blade 7 to compress the ice that has passed through the compression head 9. A fan-shaped cutter 10 for compression cutting is provided.

As is well known, the compression head 9 forms a large number of ice block passages 9a, 9a, .
It is formed into a fan shape so as to close about 1/3 of the passages 9a, 9a, . . . to compress and cut the ice blocks passing through the passages 9a, 9a, . The cutter 10 also includes a spring 11 and a stopper 1, which will be described later.
2 and 12' rotate normally in synchronization with the time axis 7b, so one end surface of the fan-like shape forms the cut surface 10b. Furthermore, the cutter 10 resists the elasticity of the spring 11 and presses the shaft 7b between the stoppers 12 and 12' fixed to the shaft 7a so that the spring 11 always presses the lower stopper 12'. They are loosely fitted to rotate in the same direction by a predetermined angle (at least the angle of the adjacent passages among the passages 9a, 9a, . . . ). That is, the upper and lower ends of the spring 11 are inserted and fixed into holes in the stopper 12 and the cutter 10, respectively, so that the cutter 10 will not rotate unless a certain amount of tension is applied to the cutter 10.

Further, on the lower surface of the cutter 10, that is, on the end surface on the non-cutting side of the surface facing the ice block passages 9a, 9a... A tapered portion 10a is formed which is inclined in the same direction as the inclination of the spiral blade 7 so as to escape from the helical blade 7. That is, when the pressure exerted by the ice block from the passage 9a on the tapered portion 10a exceeds a predetermined value, the cutter 10 is configured to escape (rotate) against the elasticity of the spring 11 in the direction of rotation of the shaft 7b at a predetermined angle. .

Next, regarding the effects of these configurations, see Figure 1.
This will be explained using FIGS. 2, 3, and 4.

In order to make the content easier to understand, the explanation will be divided into normal ice making and abnormal ice making.

First, we will discuss the normal ice making process.

The thin ice produced on the inner surface of the ice-making cylinder 1 is scraped off by a spiral blade 7 that rotates to the right when viewed from below by a drive device 8 such as a motor, and is guided to a compression head 9. A fan-shaped cutter 10 is provided on the upper part of the compression head 9 and rotates at the same time as the spiral blade 7 by means of a spring 11 and stoppers 12 and 12'.
As a result, the discharged ice is compressed. Since this cutter 10 is rotating continuously, the cutter 1
The compressed ice in the compression head 9 is discharged to the upper part of the compression head 9 by the newly generated ice sent out by the spiral blade 7 after the compression by the spiral blade 7.
After rotation, the compressed ice is cut by the shearing force of the cutter 10 to obtain the desired compressed ice.

Next, we will discuss when making ice with a lot of abnormalities.

Even during abnormal ice making, ice is generated in the same cycle as during normal ice making. However, as more ice passes through the compression head and is compressed, the pressure on the cutter 10 becomes higher. However, cutter 10
Since the lower surface of the cutter 10 is tapered, the vertical force is divided in the direction of rotation of the cutter, as shown in FIG. 4, and the cutter 10 overcomes the bending force of the spring 11 and moves in the direction of the arrow. The reason why the compressive force is weakened by this movement is that the distance between the cutter 10 and the cutting edge 7a of the spiral blade 7 becomes wider. (The distance between A and B in Figure 4 is the distance between B.) As is clear from the above explanation, if an abnormally large amount of ice is generated, the position of the cutter will move in the direction of weakening compression. Furthermore, it is possible to always produce ice in the same compressed state at a low cost without the ice clogging the compression head and locking up the motor for driving the spiral blade.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an automatic ice making device showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the main parts of the ice making device, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the cutter of the ice making device.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the compression process. 1...Ice cylinder, 2...Evaporator, 7...Spiral blade,
9... Compression head, 9a... Ice block passage, 10...
Cutter, 10a... Taper part, 11... Spring.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] An ice making cylinder is provided with an ice outlet in the upper side wall, a water supply hole in the lower bottom, and an evaporator on the outer periphery.A rotating body with a spiral blade is disposed in the ice making cylinder, and ice grows on the inner wall of the ice making cylinder. The layer is cut by the rotation of the spiral blade and the ice is compressed by the compression head.The ice compressed by the compression head is divided into predetermined sizes by a cutter provided above the compression head. death,
In the device for taking out ice from the outlet of the ice discharge hole, the cutter is rotatably supported with a predetermined force with respect to the rotation axis of the spiral blade, and the compression head is attached to the rear end face in the direction of rotation of the cutter. An automatic ice-making device characterized in that the surface facing the ice block passage is tapered so that the cutter is rotated in the same rotation direction by a predetermined ice block pressure from the ice block passage.