RU2447375C2 - Chiller with ice generator - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: power industry.

SUBSTANCE: chiller with inner section for storage of chilled and/or frozen food products and with ice generator, which is located in inner section of transparent ice with refrigerating rods submerged to bowl filled with water. Water in bowl has temperature more than 12°C at least.

EFFECT: this invention allows development of chiller excluding noise and vibration with fault-free assemblies.

8 cl, 2 dwg

Description

Technical field

The invention relates to a refrigerating apparatus according to the generic term of claim 1.

State of the art

Known placement in the refrigerator chamber of the refrigeration apparatus of the ice generator. Firstly, ice makers are used, which are filled with water and cooled from the outside, and the water freezes from the outside to the inside, and in this case an ice cube is obtained. Further, there are so-called transparent ice ice generators in which a plurality of cooling rods are immersed in a container filled with water. Due to the circulation of the refrigerant inside the refrigeration rods, they are cooled so that a layer of ice builds up on the refrigerated rods immersed in water. Once the ice layer on the ice rods reaches a usable size, it is removed from the refrigeration rods. A similar transparent ice machine is described in DE 10336834 A1. In general, such ice makers are installed in the refrigerator compartment of a refrigeration-freezer combination.

There are many options for implementing this type of ice machine. These include fully automatic options, which are connected to the water supply with fresh water and, after ice preparation, automatically pump the remaining water in the bowl into the sewer. The advantage of such ice makers is the ease of use when, so to speak, at the touch of a button, transparent ice is produced. However, this type of implementation option assumes the presence in the place where the refrigeration apparatus should be installed, water supply and drain lines.

To make transparent ice, the so-called refrigeration rods are immersed in a certain volume in water, which, as a rule, is in the bowl. These surface cooling rods have temperatures below freezing. Now the water begins to freeze on the cooling rods and gradually forms an ice layer around the cooling rods. Since the use of refrigeration rods introduces cold into the volume of water, this leads to the formation of layers inside the volume of water that have different temperatures and therefore different densities. These layers and densities lead to the fact that the process of freezing transparent ice becomes uncertain, and therefore it cannot be ruled out that additional crystallization points will appear in the water near the cooling rods. Therefore, the freezing process in the ice layer is uncontrolled, which leads to the formation of cloudy ice. To prevent the formation of a cloudy layer of ice, water is mechanically set in motion, most often with the help of stirrers connected to an electric motor.

However, it turned out that such mechanical systems that support the movement of water in the area of the cooling rods are prone to malfunctions. In addition, they produce noise and vibration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, the object of the invention is to equip the refrigeration apparatus with an ice machine of transparent ice so as to avoid noise and vibration, and the components used are not susceptible or only slightly susceptible to malfunctions.

The task according to the invention is solved using a refrigeration apparatus with the characteristics of claim 1. According to the invention, the water in the bowl, at least in places, has a temperature of more than 12 ° C. If now the cooling rods having a temperature below the freezing point come into contact with this temperature-adjusted water, convection starts due to the temperature difference. This convection provides the appearance of water circulation. The water on the cooling rods is cooled and lowered towards the bottom. The warmer water displaced by this cold water rises. Thus, the circulation of water occurs, which is stronger, the more the temperature between the cooling rods and the surrounding water. Due to the low temperature, a layer of ice forms on the cooling rods, which grows outward into warmer water. Since water, due to its heat, constantly circulates around the cooling rods, ice formation points do not form in the water, entailing indefinite ice formation, which would mean cloudiness of the ice layer. The growth of the transparent ice layer continues until the transparent ice reaches suitable sizes on the cooling rods. This transparent ice is laid out in a separate ice bowl by briefly heating the cooling rods.

Since it is not always possible to ensure that the water supplied to the bowl for making transparent ice has a temperature above 12 ° C, the water is preferably heated using a heating device. This heating device could be located near the bottom of the bowl into which the cooling rods are immersed. In this case, the circulation of water in the bowl is ensured not only by cooling the water on the cooling rods, but also by heating on the heating device.

If the bowl is made of heat-conducting material, a heat-conducting connection of the heating device to the outside of the bowl could be realized. A heating device, which, if possible, selectively heats the water in the bowl, on the one hand, provides sufficient convection for the production of transparent ice, on the other hand, it keeps at a low level the penetration of heat into the cooled inner chamber of the refrigerator.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the heating device is in a separate water tank. Here, the water is heated to a certain temperature and then pumped into a bowl in which transparent ice is prepared. Preferably, this water tank has a water connection equipped with a level sensor, so that enough water is always available in the tank.

To determine the temperature to which water is heated in the tank, a temperature sensor is preferably provided in the water tank. This temperature sensor in combination with the control unit allows not only to determine the temperature of the water, but also to switch the heating elements in such a way that after reaching the set water temperature this temperature could be maintained in a narrow range.

In a preferred embodiment, the water temperature is in the range from 15 ° C to 30 ° C. Rising above 30 ° C should be avoided for energy reasons. Also, at temperatures above 30 ° C, minerals dissolved in water begin to precipitate. This, in turn, could also lead to clouding of the ice.

The temperature of the water in the tank less than 15 ° C leads to the fact that the water, after it is pumped into the bowl for the preparation of transparent ice, cannot provide convection for a sufficiently long time. This leads to the fact that when convection is almost stopped, the growth of the ice layer proceeds uncontrollably, and opacification of transparent ice occurs.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the temperature of the water that is maintained in the water tank is made dependent on the mineral content of the water used. The more minerals dissolved in water, the higher should be the temperature to which the water in the tank is heated. Firstly, the mineral content in water can be determined through the electrical conductivity of the water, and secondly, through the total hardness of the water.

To reduce the variety of adjustments for the user arising from a large number of total hardness values, they can be combined into classes, similar to dishwashers, for example: soft-medium-hard. Now you need to determine the water hardness for the installation site of the refrigeration unit and make the appropriate adjustments, preferably on the control unit of the transparent ice ice generator. After that, the control unit will select the temperature to which the water in the tank is heated.

But the adjustment of water temperature can be made in a fully automatic mode. To this end, electrical conductivity can be measured using electrodes located in a tank of water. After that, the values defined here can be transferred to the control unit, in which, based on this, the temperature to which it is necessary to heat the water will be calculated.

In a preferred embodiment, the temperature on the cooling rods is not lower than -6 ° C. Lower temperatures cause ice to flow uncontrollably, as the water around the cooling rods cools too quickly. As already described above in another connection, this at least leads to undesirable cloudiness in the transparent ice. In addition, for the production of transparent ice without turbidity, it is necessary that the temperature on the surface of the cooling rods in the area that is in contact with water be very uniform.

In a preferred embodiment, the temperature on the cooling rods is not higher than -2 ° C. Temperature above -2 ° C leads to the fact that the already existing layer of ice acting as an insulator on its outer side can no longer cool below the freezing point. As a result, the layer of ice would stop growing. This effect occurs before the transparent ice reaches a usable size.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Other details and advantages of the invention arise from the dependent claims in combination with a description of an example implementation, which is explained in detail on the basis of the drawings, which depict:

Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a refrigerator with a refrigerator compartment, an ice maker and a fresh water tank, and

Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of a reservoir for fresh water and an ice maker.

The figure 1 shows a refrigerator 1 with an open door 2 and an inner compartment 3. The inner compartment 3 is divided into a refrigerator 4 and a freezer 5. For clarity, the door 5 is not shown. The refrigerator compartment 4 is usually separated by at least one height-adjustable shelf 6. In the refrigerator compartment 4 there is an ice maker 7.

The ice maker 7 is divided into a technical module 8, an ice bowl 9 and a fresh water tank 10 made in the form of a water tank. In another embodiment, the fresh water tank 10 may also be located outside the chilled inner chamber 3.

Figure 2 schematically shows an ice maker with a technical module 8 and a reservoir 10 for fresh water. The reservoir 10 for fresh water is filled with drinking water 11, which is supplied to the reservoir 10 for fresh water through the pipeline 12 for fresh water. The fill level sensor 13 and fresh water valve 14 are connected to the ice maker control unit 19. Upon reaching a certain level in the tank 10 for fresh water, the valve 14 for fresh water closes on the basis of the information transmitted by the sensor 13 of the filling level.

If necessary, the fresh water tank 10 can be completely emptied through the sewer line 15. For this, the drain valve 16. This drain valve 16 is also connected to the control unit 19 of the ice machine.

In the fresh water tank 11 filled with fresh water 11 there is an electric heating device 17, which heats the drinking water 11 to a predetermined temperature. The temperature depends on the content of minerals in drinking water 11. The higher the content of minerals in drinking water 11, the more you need to heat drinking water 11. The temperature ranges from 15 ° C to 30 ° C. An increase in the temperature of drinking water 11 above 30 ° C leads to the precipitation of minerals in the sediment. The temperature that drinking water 11 currently has is determined by the temperature sensor 18 and transmitted to the ice maker control unit 19, which controls the heating device 17 accordingly.

The temperature-adjusted drinking water 11 is pumped through the connecting pipe 21 to the bowl 22 of the ice maker of the technical module 8. The pump 20 is also activated by the ice maker control unit 19. The cooling rods 23 are immersed in water in the ice maker bowl 22, which preferably have a temperature of from -2 ° C to -6 ° C, and this temperature is maintained with high precision on the surface of the cooling rods 23.

For the production of transparent ice cubes 24 using the cooling rods 23, it is necessary that the water in the region of the cooling rods 23 is in motion. The temperature difference between the cooling rods 23 and the temperature-adjusted water, which is preferably 20 ° C. to 30 ° C., creates sufficient convection in the region of the cooling rods 23 to reliably prevent cloudiness in the ice cubes 24. An inhomogeneous temperature distribution over the portion of the surface of the refrigeration rod 23 that is immersed in water could also lead to cloudiness in the ice cube 24. Therefore, the temperature over the entire surface of the refrigeration rod 23, which is in contact with water, is the same.

Transparent ice cubes 24 after their preparation are placed in the ice bowl 9 and are ready for excavation.

Claims (8)

1. Refrigeration unit (1) with an internal compartment (3) for storing chilled and / or frozen products and an ice machine (7) of transparent ice located in the internal compartment (3) with cooled refrigeration rods (23) immersed in a bowl filled with water (22) ), characterized in that the water in the bowl (22), at least in places, has a temperature above 12 ° C. 2. Refrigeration apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the water is heated using a heating device (17). 3. The refrigeration apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that the heating device (17) is located in a separate water tank (10). 4. The refrigeration apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that a temperature sensor (18) is provided in the water tank (10). 5. The refrigerator according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the water temperature lies in the range of 15-30 ° C. 6. The refrigerator according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the water temperature is made dependent on the content of minerals in the water. 7. The refrigeration apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the temperature on the refrigeration rods (23) is not lower than -6 ° C. 8. The refrigeration apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the temperature on the refrigeration rods (23) is not higher than -2 ° C.

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