JPH0229575A - Flowing water type ice making machine - Google Patents

Abstract

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

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the configuration of a running water ice maker that is installed and used in a cup type beverage vending machine or the like.

[Conventional technology]

This type of running water ice maker is known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication No. 46-3232, and its configuration consists of a water sprinkling section, an ice making section, and an ice water separation section arranged in order from above inside a main body case serving as an insulating casing. .

It is composed of a water storage section, a water storage section that receives the water collected in the ice-water separation section, and a water pump that replenishes the water received in the water storage section to the water sprinkling section.

In addition, the ice making unit has an ice making tray in which a large number of concave ice making chambers arranged in a square pattern are defined by press molding is arranged in a substantially vertical position, and an evaporator pipe of a refrigerator is installed on the back side of the bottom of the ice making tray. It is made up of close piping. During ice-making operation, the ice-making tray in the ice-making section is cooled by a refrigerator, and in this state, water is sprinkled in small amounts from the water sprinkling section to the ice-making section in a flowing manner, thereby removing the ice that has formed on the inner surface of the ice-making tray. Gradually, it grows and ice begins to form in the tray/cup. The excess water flowing down from the ice-making section during this ice-making process is collected in the ice-water separation section and stored in the water storage section, from where it is circulated and pumped again to the water sprinkling section using a water pump. On the other hand, the growth status of the ice on the ice making section is detected by a temperature sensor, and when the ice in the ice making tray has grown sufficiently, the cooling operation of the refrigerator is temporarily interrupted and hot gas is supplied to the evaporator pipe of the refrigerator. By slightly thawing the surface of the ice by passing water through it or by running water on the back side of the ice tray, the ice formed in the ice tray is separated from the ice tray and falls into the water storage section. .

By repeating this ice-making cycle, the necessary pile wood can be made into ice and stored in the water storage section.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, the conventional ice making machine described above, especially the structure of its ice making section, has the following drawbacks. In other words, when removing ice formed in an ice tray after ice making, simply passing hot gas through the evaporator pipe installed on the bottom back of the ice tray as described above will not allow the ice to flow far away from the evaporator pipe. The heat of the hot gas is not sufficiently transmitted to the distant parts, that is, the leading edge of the partition wall that partitions the ice-making compartments, and for this reason, even if the ice starts to thaw first in the part that touches the bottom of the ice-making tray, the partition wall As the ice does not thaw in the area in contact with the ice, the time required for ice removal increases, which lengthens the ice making cycle.This reduces the operating efficiency of the ice maker and reduces its ice making capacity. During this process, the amount of ice that thaws increases and the ice grains become thinner. In addition, in the method of releasing ice by pouring water on the back side of the ice tray, when the outside temperature is low such as in winter, the water spraying temperature is low, so it takes a long time to release the ice. In addition, if the thickness of the ice that has frozen on the ice tray grows to exceed the depth of the ice cube chamber, the ice cubes will climb over the partition wall of the ice cube chamber and the ice cubes will remain connected to each other on the ice cube tray and remain in the ice storage chamber. Problems such as ice being stored may also occur.

Therefore, this invention solves the above-mentioned conventional difficulties and allows ice frozen in ice trays to be thawed and separated in each ice tray in a short time without being affected by outside temperature etc. To provide a running water type ice making machine capable of releasing ice into a water storage part in individual ice cubes, and particularly to provide a structure of the ice making part.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention installs an evaporator pipe of a refrigerator on the back side of the bottom of an ice-making tray in which a large number of concave ice-making chambers are arranged in a cross-section. and a running water ice maker configured to make ice by sprinkling water into the ice tray from above while the ice tray is arranged in a substantially vertical position, thereby freezing the ice in the ice tray. An electric heater, which is controlled to be energized during ice removal, is wired to the back side of a partition wall having a U-shaped cross section that partitions the ice making compartments.

[Effect]

According to the above means, an electric heater is wired to the back side of a partition wall having a U-shaped cross section that partitions the ice-making compartments of the ice-making tray from each other, and is energized during ice removal to apply ice-removal heat to the partition wall of the ice-making tray. With this configuration, when ice is removed, hot gas is passed through the evaporator pipe piped to the bottom of the ice tray, and at the same time, electricity is applied to the electric heater, so that the ice is released by both the bottom of the ice tray and the partition wall surface. By applying heat, the ice that has frozen in the ice tray is thawed and separated in each ice making compartment, and the ice can be directed to the water storage part and released in a short time while preventing the piles from forming in a row.

〔Example〕

1, 3, and 4 are block diagrams of ice making sections according to different embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the cooling and heating system of the ice making section including a refrigerator. First, in Fig. 1, 1 is an ice tray made of a press-molded product of a highly thermally conductive metal plate such as an aluminum plate;
There are many concave ice-making compartments arranged vertically, horizontally, and horizontally.
1 is defined, and the upper and lower, left and right sides of the ice-making compartments are partitioned by partition wall portions 12 and 13 each having a U-shaped cross section.

As mentioned above, this ice tray is placed below the water sprinkling unit in an almost vertical position. Further, an evaporator pipe of a refrigerator indicated by reference numeral 2 is closely connected to the back side of the bottom surface 14 of the ice tray. This evaporator pipe 2 is connected to a compressor 3 of a refrigerator and a condenser 4 as shown in FIG. Connection piping is provided via an expansion valve 5. According to the present invention, for the ice making tray having such a configuration, electric heaters indicated by reference numerals 6 are arranged vertically and horizontally on the back side of the partition wall portion 12.13 having a U-shaped cross section and partitioning the ice making compartment 11 of the ice making tray 1, and are arranged closely to the partition wall surface. It is wired to do so. This electric heater 6 is connected to a power source via a control switch 7, as shown in FIG. In the refrigerator circuit shown in FIG. 2, a hot gas bypass path 9 is connected between the discharge side of the compressor 3 and the inlet end of the evaporator vibe 2, and a solenoid valve 8a is inserted therein.
Further, a solenoid valve 8b is inserted on the inlet side of the capacitor 3.

Next, the ice making and ice removing operations with the above configuration will be explained. First, when making ice, the compressor 3 is operated with the solenoid valve 8a in the refrigerator circuit shown in FIG. 2 closed and one solenoid valve 8b opened. As a result, the refrigerant flows through the path indicated by the solid arrow, and the ice tray 1 is cooled by this refrigeration cycle. On the other hand, in this state, by supplying water little by little from the water sprinkling part to the surface side of the ice tray, the water forms ice on the surface of each ice making compartment 11, and the ice grows over time. and its thickness increases. Note that in this ice-making process, switch 7 in FIG. 2 is off,
The electric heater 6 is in a non-energized state. When the ice almost completely fills the ice making chamber 11, the solenoid valve 8a in the refrigerator circuit is opened by the output signal of the temperature sensor, and the solenoid valve 8b is opened in the refrigerator circuit.
is controlled so that it closes. As a result, the hot gas discharged from the compressor 3 bypasses the condenser 4 as shown by the dotted arrow in Fig. 2, and flows through the evaporator pipe 2 via the hot gas bypass path 8 to convert the retained heat of the hot gas into ice. Apply to the bottom of dish 1. At the same time, the switch 7 shown in FIG. 2 is turned on and the electric heater 6 enters the energized heating state, heating the partition wall portions 12 and 13 of the ice tray 1 with the heater.

As a result, the ice produced in the ice-making compartment 11 of the ice-making tray 1 is heated simultaneously on both sides of the bottom surface of the ice-making tray and in contact with the partition wall surface, and when the surface of the ice is slightly thawed, its own weight causes the ice-making compartment to be heated. 11 and begins to separate and fall toward the water storage section below. Moreover, in this ice-removal process, heat is applied to the ice-making tray 1 from both the bottom surface and the partition wall surface, so that the ice is removed quickly and the stakes are separated from each ice-making compartment. Furthermore, even if the thickness of ice grows to exceed the depth of the ice-making chamber 11 during ice-making, and the adjacent ice-making chambers cross over the partition wall 12.13 and become connected to each other with ice, the partition wall 12. From part 13, the parts of the stakes connected to each other are melted by heating with a heater, and as a result, the ice is separated into the shape of stakes corresponding to the number and grain of each ice-making chamber as a unit. The ice begins to fall into the water storage area and break off.

Next, the configuration of another embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. In this embodiment, first, the ice tray 1 is made up of horizontal partition walls 1 arranged vertically.
2 is a corrugated ice-making plate that is integrally formed by press molding, and vertical partition walls made of heat insulating material shown by reference numeral 15 are arranged side by side on this ice-making plate and assembled, and ice is made between the vertical and horizontal partition walls 12 and 15. The small chamber 11 is defined in the form of a fold. In the ice tray 1, an electric heater 6 is wired on the back side of the horizontal partition wall 12 so as to be in close contact with the partition wall 12. In this configuration, since a part of the partition wall of the ice tray is constructed with the partition wall 15 made of a heat insulating material, the binding force between the ice made and the partition wall 15 is weaker than that of other metal plates, and it is difficult to remove the ice. It comes to be easily peeled off from the partition wall 15. Further, when ice is removed, the electric heater 6 wired to the back side of the partition wall 12 applies heat to the ice from the partition wall portion 12 to effectively remove the ice, similar to the embodiment described above.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, when ice is removed, electricity is controlled to be applied to the back side of the partition wall part having a U-shaped cross section that partitions the concave ice making compartments of the ice making tray. By wiring an electric heater to heat the ice, in the ice removal process after ice making, the pile wood generated in each ice making chamber can be separated into individual grains in a short ice removal time, and transferred from the ice tray to the water storage section. It is possible to make the ice fall toward the target direction, and by shortening the ice removal time, it is possible to improve the operating efficiency of the ice maker and improve the ice making capacity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 3 are perspective views of the configuration of an ice making section according to different embodiments of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cooling and heating system circuit diagram of the ice making section including a refrigerator, and FIG. 4 is a longitudinal section of FIG. 3. It is a diagram. In the figure, 1...ice tray, 2...evaporator pipe, 3...
- Compressor of refrigerator, 4... Condenser, 5... Expansion valve, 6... Electric heater, 7... Electric heater control switch, 8a, 8b... Solenoid valve, 9... Hot gas bypass path, 11... Ice-making compartment, 12.13... Partitioning bulkhead portion, 14... Bottom surface, 15... Partitioning bulkhead made of heat insulating material. 1 Higashitojima Figure 1 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) An evaporator pipe of a refrigerator is installed on the back side of the bottom of an ice-making tray in which a large number of concave ice-making chambers arranged in a grid are defined, and the ice-making tray is arranged in a substantially vertical position. In a running water ice maker that makes ice by sprinkling water from above into an ice making tray, the back surface of a partition wall having a U-shaped cross section that partitions the ice making compartments from each other in the ice making tray. A running water type ice maker characterized by having an electric heater wired to the side to control energization when ice is removed.