JPS6375461A - 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.

(Example) 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 released from the ice making compartment during the dehydration operation runs over the surface of the slanted water tray. It is structured so that it slides down and falls into the water storage and is stored there, but when the ice making is completed, the bottom surface of the frozen ice in the ice making room sticks to the surface of the water tray.
Due to the adhesive force between the water tray and the ice, a large amount of torque is applied to the drive device for tilting the water tray, causing damage to 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
No. 8457 adopts a method of spraying water on the surface of the water gate with the water pan fully open to melt away stuck wood chips.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, the method of sprinkling water on the surface of the water tray is an effective means for solving the latter problem because it melts the ice pieces stuck on the surface of the water tray. The former problem, that is, the durability of the drive device when opening the water tray due to freezing of ice and the surface of the water tray, cannot be solved yet.

(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 circulation pump that supplies ice-making water from the water tank to the ice-making chamber through a fountain hole formed in the top plate of the water tray. In an ice making device that performs ice making operation by supplying ice, on the back side of the top plate, corresponding to each ice making chamber,
A water supply channel is formed with one end connected to an external water supply system and the other end communicating with a water tank, and water is passed through the water supply channel for a predetermined period when ice making is completed and when the water tray is returned, respectively, thereby solving the problems of the prior art. This is the solved water tray for the ice maker.

(E) Function The present invention connects a water supply pipe (8) of an external water supply system to a meandering water supply channel (20A>, (20B) defined on the back surface of the top plate (16) of a water tray (5). When feed water is passed through, the sensible heat of this water can efficiently raise the temperature of the top plate (16), weakening the viscous force between the top plate (16) and the ice subsurface. The water after flowing is led from the outlet (21) to the water tank (6), so this water supply channel (2
0A) and (20B> can be used to supply water to the water tank (6) for the next cycle.

(f) Examples Examples of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings. first,
To explain the general structure of the 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 upper wall. A vibrator (2) is disposed below the cooler (1), that is, on the opening side of the ice making compartment (IA), and has a rotation fulcrum (3) at the rear and a drive shaft at the front. A drive device consisting of a motor (4A), a drive cam (4B), a coil spring (4C), etc.
4) of the present invention, which is configured to be tiltable and movable.
) is provided below 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 3.
13), a guide wall (14) protruding upward on the peripheral part except the front part, and a side wall (15) protruding 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),
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), through which the water in the waterway (20A) is collected into the water tank (6) when the 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 is frozen 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 r:J (9A), (9B), passes through the water supply channel (20A), <20B>, and returns to the water tank (6) from the outlet (21). do.

(This flow of 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). If we also expect the peeling effect of the top plate (16), the torque of the drive device (4) when the drive device (4) operates and tilts the water tray (5) based on the completion of ice making will increase. 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.

Note that it is desirable that the operation of the drive device (4) is delayed slightly 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, upon completion of ice making, the ice frozen in the ice making compartment (IA) is slightly melted by the heat of the hot gas circulated through the evaporation pipe (2), and leaves 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 escaped from 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 drive device (4) stops, and the water supply solenoid valve (7) opens again, following the same route as above, i.e., water supply. Irrigation waterway (20A)
, (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)
, (20B) is all 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).

(g) Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention has a structure on the back surface of the top plate of the water tray, which corresponds to the ice making compartment, one end of which is connected to the water supply pipe of the external water supply system, and the other end of which communicates with the water tank. By defining a water supply canal and passing water through the water supply canal when ice making is completed, the temperature of the top plate can be increased by the sensible heat of the water. The adhesion force between the ice cubes and the ice cubes is reduced, and therefore the torque applied to the drive unit when the water tray is peeled off from the bottom surface of the ice can be reduced, and the durability of the drive unit can be significantly improved.
This eliminates the possibility of ice fragments sticking to the surface of the top plate that would impede the sliding of ice, and provides excellent advantages such as smooth sliding of ice from the ice-making compartment as described above.

Further, the water supply water can be used to supply ice-making water necessary for the next cycle of ice-making to the water tank, and the water system can also be simplified.

[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 maker, (Su...Driver, (Dan)...Water tray, (6)...
Water tank, (8)... Water supply pipe, (9A), (
9B>... Water supply port, (13)... Fountain hole, (16
)...Top plate, (20A>, (20B)...
Water supply channel, (21)... Outlet.

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 the top plate of the water tray to the ice-making compartment, the top plate has a back surface corresponding to the ice-making compartment, and one end connected to the external water supply system. A water tray for an ice making apparatus, characterized in that the water tray is connected to the water tank and the other end thereof defines a water supply channel communicating with the water tank, and water is allowed to flow through the water channel for a predetermined period when ice making is completed and when the water tray is returned.