JPS6375460A - Water pan for ice machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to a cooler having a plurality of ice-making compartments that open downward, and a cooler that is arranged on the opening side of the cooler and tilted by a drive device. The present invention relates to a so-called inverted cell type ice making device equipped with a water tray, and particularly relates to improvements in the water tray.

(b) Conventional technology In general, in this type of ice making device, when ice is formed in the ice making compartment, the water tray tilts to open the ice making compartment, and the ice that leaves the ice making compartment during the dehydration operation runs over the surface of the slanted water tray. The structure is such that it slides down and falls into the water storage to fill up the water storage, but by the time ice making is complete, the bottom surface of the frozen ice in the ice making chamber sticks to the surface of the water tray.
The viscous force of the water tray and ice can cause a large amount of torque to be applied to the drive device that tilts the water tray, damaging the drive cam.
This poses the problem of extremely shortening the life of the drive device.

In addition, ice fragments remain stuck to the surface of the water tray that has been forcibly released from the ice and opened the ice maker, which prevents the ice from sliding down the ice maker. When the tray moved back, ice was trapped between the water tray and the cooler, leading to various accidents.

In order to prevent such problems, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 53-6
In Japanese Patent No. 8457, a method is adopted in which water is sprinkled on the surface of the water tray in a fully open state to melt away stuck ice pieces.

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention However, since the method of sprinkling water on the surface of the water tray melts the stuck wood chips on the surface of the water tray, it is an effective means for solving the latter problem, and the method of sprinkling water on the surface of the water tray is an effective means for solving the latter problem. However, the problem of the durability of the driving device when opening the water tray caused by freezing and sticking of the ice to the surface of the water tray still cannot be solved.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention provides a cooler having a large number of ice-making compartments that open downward, and a water tray that is disposed on the opening side of the cooler and is tilted and moved by a drive device. and a water tank disposed below the water tray that tilts and moves together with the water tray, and a circulating pump supplies ice-making water from the water tank to the ice-making compartment from a fountain hole formed in the top plate of the water tray. In the ice making apparatus, water supply channels are defined on the back surface of the top plate in correspondence with each ice making chamber, and water from an external water supply system is allowed to flow through the water supply channels upon completion of ice making. This is a water tray for an ice making device that solves the problems of the prior art described above.

(*) Function In the present invention, when ice making is completed, the water supply solenoid valve (7) opens and the water supply channels (20A) and (20B> The water supplied from the water supply pipe (8) of the external water supply system is passed through the water supply system.The sensible heat of this water causes the bottom surface of the frozen ice that sticks to the top plate (16) of the water tray to break between the bottom surface of the ice and the top plate (16). Since the adhesive force can be weakened and the water tray (5) can be expected to expand, in such a case there is an effect of peeling the ice subsurface and the top plate (16).

(f) Examples Examples of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings. first,
To explain the general structure of an inverted cell ice making device in Figures 5 and 6, (1) is a cooler with a number of ice making chambers (IA) that open downward, and the refrigeration system is evaporated on the outer surface of the earthen wall. A vibrator (2) is installed at the bottom of the cooler (1), that is, near the opening of the ice making compartment (IA), and has a pivot point (3) at the rear and a drive motor at the front. (4A), drive cam (4B), coil spring (4C), etc.
4) of the present invention, which is configured to be tiltable and movable.
) is arranged, and further below the water tray (5) is the water tray (5).
A water tank (6) with an open top is provided which tilts and moves together with the tank.

The water tray (5) has a water supply port (9A) to which a flexible water supply pipe (8) of an external water supply system can be connected via a water supply solenoid valve (7).
) and (9B), and an ice-making water inlet (12) to which the discharge pipe (11) of the circulation pump (10) whose suction side is connected to the water tank (6) is connected, and the water supply pipe (8 ) and water flowing in from the water supply ports (9A) and (9B),
Ice-making water in the water tank (6) flowing in from the inlet (12>) is guided to each water channel of the water tray (5), which will be described in detail below.

That is, the water tray (5) of the present invention has a water fountain (5) corresponding to approximately the center of each ice making compartment (IA), as shown in detail in FIGS. 1 to 4.
13), and has a guide wall (14) projecting upward on the peripheral part except the front part and a side wall (15) projecting downward on the entire circumference.
) integrally formed with the top plate (16);
), and the peripheral edge excluding the front edge is the side wall (15
) has a bottom plate (17) glued to the inside of the top plate (1
6) and the bottom plate (17) is divided by a partition wall (18) that is integral with the top plate (16).
9) and water supply channels (20A> and (20B>).

The ice making water channel (19) is connected to the ice making water inlet (12) located at the rear of the bottom plate (17) and each water fountain (13).
), and to explain in more detail, the ice-making waterway (19) is connected to the main waterway (19A) running in the center of the water tray (5), and
It consists of a plurality of branch waterways (19B) branching from the main waterway (19A) and communicating with the fountain hole (13).

In addition, the water supply channels (20A) and (20B) are connected to the water supply port (9A) located at the rear of the top plate (16),
(9B) and the water tank (6) through an outlet (21) formed at the top of the partition wall <18A) at the front end.
B) forms a meandering shape along the ice-making channel (19) by an auxiliary partition wall (18B) that is integrated with the top plate (16) and extends from the inner surface of the side wall (15), and each ice-making compartment (IA)
corresponds to Furthermore, water supply canals (20A), (20
A drain port (22) is formed in the bottom plate (17) forming the bottom surface of B) for recovering water in the water channel (20A) to the water tank (6) when water flow is stopped.

In addition, return holes (23) are formed in the partition wall (18), located on both sides of each fountain hole (13), and penetrating from the top plate (16) to the bottom plate (17).

Thus, the water supply solenoid valve (7) opens and closes based on the time chart shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be explained based on the above configuration.

When the ice-making operation is started in a horizontal state where the water tray (5) closes the opening of the ice-making compartment (IA), the ice-making water in the water tank (6) flows from the circulation pump (10) to the discharge pipe (11). The ice-making water flows into the ice-making water inlet (12) through the ice-making water channel (19).
), water is supplied to each corresponding ice making compartment (IA) from each fountain hole (13) formed in the top plate (16), and a portion of this ice making water freezes in the ice making compartment (IA). , the unfrozen water returns into the water tank (6) through the return hole (23). (This flow of water is shown by solid arrows in Figures 1 and 4).

In this way, the water for ice making in the water tank (6) is transferred to the ice making compartment (IA).
) When a timer, a thermostat, or other ice-making completion detection means detects that a predetermined amount of ice has grown in the ice-making compartment (IA), the circulation pump (10) is stopped to complete ice-making. .

When ice making is completed, the water supply solenoid valve (7) opens and the water supply pipe (8) opens.
) flows into the water supply ports (9A) and (9B), is passed through the water supply channels (20A) and (20B), and returns to the water tank (6) from the discharge port (21).

(The flow of this water is shown by the dotted arrows in Figures 1 and 4).

In this way, the water supply channel (20A) from the external water system.

(20B), the sensible heat of the water causes the top plate (
16), the adhesion between the lower surface of the ice that has frozen and adhered to the surface of the top plate (16) and the top plate (16) is weakened, and the ice expands due to the temperature rise of the top plate (16). In order to also expect the peeling effect of the top plate (16), the torque of the drive device (4) when the drive device (4) operates to tilt the water tray (5) based on the completion of ice making. is reduced, and the drive device (4) tilts the water tray (5) to a predetermined position. The water supply solenoid valve (7) is opened for a predetermined period of time by a timer or the like, and is closed, for example, in the middle of tilting the water tray (5) to stop water supply.

In addition, it is desirable that the operation of the drive device (4) is slightly delayed from the opening of the water supply solenoid valve (7).
Since there is a mechanical delay between the activation of the water tray (5) and the start of tilting of the water tray (5), it is electrically possible to open the water supply solenoid valve (7) and operate the drive device (4) at the same time. The experimental results were obtained.

On the other hand, the ice frozen in the ice making compartment (IA) is slightly melted by the heat of the hot gas circulated to the evaporation vibrator (2) upon completion of ice making, and is removed from the ice making compartment (IA).
It slides down the top plate (16) of the water tray (5) with the IA) opened and is led to a water storage (not shown).

When it is detected that the ice has left the ice making compartment (IA) by the temperature rise of the cooler (1), the drive device (4) is activated again.
) operates to move the water tray (5) back. When the water tray (5) returns to the horizontal position that closes the opening of the ice making compartment (IA), the driving bag is activated! (4> stops, the water supply solenoid valve <7) opens again, and the same route as above, that is, the water supply waterway (20A") is opened.
, (20B), a predetermined amount of ice-making water necessary for the next ice-making operation is supplied to the water tank (6) from the external water supply system. When such water supply operation stops, the water supply channel (20A
> All the water in (20B) is supplied to the water tank (6) from the drain port (22) and then to the water supply channel (20A).

No residual water remains in (20B).

In addition, the present invention has a top plate (16) corresponding to the ice making compartment (IA).
) Water supply channel (20A> , ('2
0B), and this waterway (20A
> , By passing water through (20B) based on the completion of ice making, the ice frozen and fixed on the top plate (16) and the top plate (20B) are removed.
16), the form of the water supply channels (20A> and (20B>) is not limited to the embodiment, and the water tank (6) The water supply may be configured to be performed from another water supply route.

(G) Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention provides a water tray with a water supply channel defined on the back surface of the top plate corresponding to the ice making compartment, and upon completion of ice making, water is supplied to the water supply channel from an external water system. By passing the water through, the temperature of the top plate increases due to the sensible heat of the water, and the adhesive force between the bottom surface of the water that has frozen and stuck to the surface of the top plate and the top plate is relaxed, and the heat of the top plate increases. Because the expansion can also be expected to have the effect of separating the ice from the top plate, the torque applied to the drive device when the water tray starts to tilt can be significantly reduced, preventing short-term damage to the drive device. death,
This has the advantage that the durability of the drive device can be significantly improved.

Moreover, when the water tray is separated from the ice, ice fragments that prevent the ice from sliding down will not remain stuck on the surface of the top plate, and the ice that has left the ice-making compartment will smoothly slide down the surface of the top plate.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a partially cutaway top view of the water dish of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a side sectional view of the water dish corresponding to section A-A in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a front view of the water dish of the present invention. , FIG. 4 is a side sectional view showing the relationship between the water tray of the present invention and the cooler, FIG. 5 is a side view of an ice making device equipped with the water tray of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a perspective view, and FIG. It is a time chart figure which shows a water supply state. (1>...Cooler, (IA)...Ice making room, li)
...Drive device, (dan)...Water tray, (8)...
Water supply pipe, (13)...Fountain hole, (16>...Top plate, (20A), (20B)...Water supply waterway.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cooler having multiple ice-making compartments that open downward;
A water tray disposed on the opening side of the cooler and tilted by a drive device, and a water tank disposed below the water tray and tilted together with the water tray. In an ice-making device that performs ice-making operation by supplying ice-making water from a fountain hole formed in a top plate of a water tray to an ice-making compartment, a water supply channel is defined on the back side of the top plate corresponding to the ice-making compartment. A water tray for an ice-making apparatus, characterized in that water supplied from an external water supply system is passed through the water supply waterway upon completion of ice-making.