JPH0120620Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] a. Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an operation control device for an ice-making machine that de-ices using a combination of hot gas and de-icing water.

b. Prior Art Conventionally, ice making machines generally rely solely on hot gas as a deicing means, but depending on the structure of the ice making machine, deicing using hot gas alone may not be sufficient. For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-46348 filed by the same applicant as the present application, when using an ice-making plate formed of a stainless steel plate with vertical waves, the thermal conductivity of stainless steel is relatively low. Because of the low temperature, semi-cylindrical ice grains are formed independently around the surface area corresponding to the evaporator installed on the back of the ice plate, but when deicing these ice grains, hot gas is supplied to the evaporator. If the ice is simply flushed, the ice on the surface of the ice-making plate corresponding to the evaporator will melt relatively quickly, but the ice formed on the surface of the ice-making plate away from the surface will not melt easily and will require a long deicing time. This resulted in a significant drop in ice making capacity.

Furthermore, the shape of the ice in the above case was such that the center portion thereof was melted, which was extremely inconvenient as a product.

On the other hand, when using hot gas and deicing water together, a hot gas valve with a small diameter is used to prevent the compressor from overloading under conditions where the ambient temperature or feed water temperature is high. Under some conditions, insufficient hot gas flow can make deicing times extremely long and even impossible. In addition, if a hot gas valve with a large diameter is used, it will work well under the low temperature conditions mentioned above, but under high temperature conditions, the pressure of the refrigerant gas discharged and taken in from the compressor will rise significantly, and the compressor will be severely damaged. The compressor was overloaded, making normal operation impossible and causing the compressor to malfunction.

In other words, when using hot gas and deicing water together,
Under high-temperature conditions, as can be understood just by comparing their specific heats, water has an overwhelmingly larger amount of energy.According to the creator's measurements, the influence of hot gas on deicing is about 5 times that of that of water. This was only one of the factors, and this was an extremely important factor leading to the above-mentioned problems.

c Problems to be solved by the invention Therefore, in the conventional technology, when hot gas and deicing water are used together for deicing, depending on the temperature conditions,
There was a problem that deicing could not be performed without overloading the compressor.

d Means for Solving the Problems The present invention aims to provide extremely effective means for quickly solving the above problems. In the operation control device for an ice making machine, the water supply valve 26
Normally open contact 24 of timer 23 that controls the valve opening time of
The water supply valve 26 is connected to the normally open contact 25 of the timer 23, and the hot gas valve 15, which controls the supply of hot gas to the evaporator 2, is connected to the hot gas valve 15, which controls the supply of hot gas to the evaporator 2. This device is characterized in that it is connected to a warm type de-icing detection switch device 18.

e Effect In the operation control device for an ice maker having the above configuration, the water supply valve 26 is controlled by the normally open contact 24 of the timer 23, and the hot gas valve 15 is controlled by the normally open contact 25 of the timer 23.

Under conditions of high ambient temperature and high water supply temperature,
In the deicing process, ice has already separated from the ice making section 1 and the deicing detection switch device 18 has been turned on before the timer 23 times up, so the timer times up and its normally open contact 25 closes. However, the hot gas valve 15 is not energized and hot gas is not supplied to the evaporator 2. Therefore, deicing is performed only with deicing water.

Under temperature conditions where the ambient temperature and the water supply temperature are not high, ice still remains in the ice making unit 1 when the timer 23 times up during the deicing process, so the normally closed contact 24 opens after the timer times up and the water supply stops. At the same time as the valve 26 closes, the normally open contact 25 opens, thereby opening the hot gas valve 15 and supplying hot gas to the evaporator 2. Therefore, deicing is accomplished entirely by deicing water and hot gas.

f. Embodiment Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the operation control device for an ice maker according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In the drawings, what is generally indicated by the reference numeral 1 is an ice-making plate made entirely of stainless steel plates and installed almost vertically, and a tubular evaporator 2 is installed on the back side 1a of this ice-making plate for heat exchange. It is provided. As shown in FIG. 2, the ice-making plate 1 is formed with a plurality of protrusions 3 hanging down at regular intervals, and the entire ice-making plate 1 is configured in a corrugated plate shape, with the gaps between each protrusion 3 A plurality of ice-making surfaces 4 are formed at positions corresponding to the evaporator 2 on the surface 1b side of the ice-making plate 1, and semi-cylindrical ice particles 5 are formed on each ice-making surface 4.

A de-icing water sprinkling pipe 6 and an ice-making water sprinkling pipe 6a (Fig. 3) are arranged above the ice-making plate 1, and the de-icing water sprinkling pipe 6 is connected to a de-icing water supply pipe (not shown) having a water supply valve 26, which will be described later. In addition to being connected, deicing water can be supplied to the back surface 1a of the ice-making plate 1 from the water sprinkling holes 6b. A circulation pump driven by a pump motor 22, which will be described later, is connected to the ice-making water sprinkling pipe 6a.

The lower end 2a of the evaporator 2 is connected via a first conduit 7 to a compressor 8, which is connected via a second conduit 9 to a condenser 1 having a fan motor 17 for cooling.
0 and the condenser 1 is connected to the third conduit 11
It is connected to a capillary tube 12, which is an expansion means, via a. The capillary tube 12 is the fourth conduit 1
3 to the upper end 2b of the evaporator 2, and a temperature detecting means 18' of a temperature-sensitive deicing detection switch device 18 is attached to the lower end 2a of the evaporator 2. Branch portion 9a of second conduit 9 and fourth conduit 13
A hot gas valve 15 is connected to the conduit 14 between the branch part 13a and the branch part 13a.

Next, the configuration shown in FIG. 4 is a control circuit 1 for sequentially controlling ice making and deicing processes.
9, and the first to fifth circuits 30, 40, 50, 6
It is equipped with 0.70. The relay 20 of the first circuit 30 that controls ice making and deicing of the ice maker has ₁ normally closed contact.
and normally open contacts X ₂ , X ₃ , and X ₄ , this relay 20
includes, for example, a water level detection type ice making completion detection switch device 21 provided in an ice making water tank (not shown);
The deicing detection switch device 18 in the fifth circuit 70 that detects the completion of deicing and the normally open contact 25 of the timer 23 that controls the water supply time are connected in series, and the normally open contact in the fourth circuit 60 is connected in series. A pump motor 22 for ice making water circulation is connected in series to _X2 .

The normally closed contact X ₁ of the second circuit 40 includes the hot gas valve 15, the timer 23, and the normally closed contact 2 of the timer 23.
4 and the water supply valve 26 are connected in series. Furthermore, the normally closed contact 24 of the timer 23 which is parallel to the normally open contact X ₃ of the third circuit 50 is connected in series to the fan motor 17 for the condenser, and the normally open contact X ₄ of the first circuit 30 is Perform retention.

In the above configuration, when operating the ice making machine operation control device according to the present invention, in the ice making process in which the relay 20 of the first circuit 30 is energized, the pump is activated when the normally open contact X ₂ is opened. By the operation of the motor 22, ice-making water is supplied from the ice-making water sprinkling pipe 6a to the ice-making surface of the ice-making plate 1.
The fan motor 17 rotates to cool the condenser 10, and the compressor 8 operates to cool the ice making surface 4, forming ice particles 5. When the growth of the ice grains 5 is completed, the ice making completion detection switch device 21 detects a decrease in the water level in the ice making water tank (not shown) and turns off, so the relay 20 is demagnetized and the normally closed contact is turned off.
X ₁ is on, normally open contacts X ₂ , X ₃ , and X ₄ are off,
The pump motor 22 stops, the water supply valve 26 opens, and deicing water is supplied from the deicing water sprinkling pipe 6 to the back surface 1a of the ice making plate 1, thereby starting the deicing process.

The deicing process is performed under high temperature conditions (e.g. when the ambient temperature is approx.
35°C or higher) and when the temperature is not high (for example, the ambient temperature is less than about 35°C), the control mode is significantly different. explain.

FIG. 5A shows the operating sequence of the deicing and ice making process under high temperature conditions such as high ambient temperature and high feed water temperature.

t ₀ is the start of deicing, t ₁ is the completion of deicing and the start of ice making, t ₂
indicates the completion of ice making, and operation is performed according to this process. T ₁ indicates the deicing time, T ₂ indicates the ice making time, the deicing detection switch device (thermostat) 18 is energized before and after time t ₁ , and the water supply timer 23 is activated during the deicing time T ₁ . While energized,
During the timer set time, the water supply valve 26 and fan motor 17 operate, and after the timer set time, the ice making process begins. Since the hot gas valve 15 that controls the supply of hot gas to the evaporator 2 does not operate at all under high temperature conditions, no hot gas is supplied to the evaporator 2.

FIG. 5B shows the operating sequence when moving from the de-icing process to the ice-making process under non-high temperature conditions such as low ambient temperature and low feed water temperature.

t ₀ point indicates the start of deicing, t ₁ point indicates the completion of deicing and the start of ice making, t ₂ point indicates the completion of ice making, T ₃ is the water removal time, T ₄
indicates ice making time. The water supply timer 23 is energized for a certain period of time, during which time the water supply valve 26 and fan motor 17 are operated. When the timer 23 times up, the water supply valve 26 and fan motor 17
operation is stopped, the hot gas valve 15 is opened, and electricity is supplied until the de-icing detection switch device 18 detects the completion of de-icing, after which the ice-making process begins.

Next, for each sequence control state above,
To explain in more detail, in the sequence control shown in Figure 5A under high temperature conditions, the deicing time is
Since T ₁ becomes very short, in order to ensure a constant water supply amount, the water supply valve 26 is opened for a certain period of time by the timer 23 to remove ice, but in order to prevent the low pressure of the compressor 8 from increasing abnormally. The fan motor 17 is also operated. Since the deicing thermal energy of high-temperature water is large, deicing is completed within the timer setting time and the deicing detection switch device 18 is turned on, so that the ice making process begins immediately after deicing. Here, the normally closed contact _X1 of the relay 20 opens after the timer setting time elapses, so
Since the hot gas valve 15 does not operate at all and hot gas does not flow to the evaporator 2, the low pressure of the compressor does not rise abnormally, and a high load on the compressor can be avoided.

In the sequence control shown in FIG. 5B under conditions where the temperature is not high, when the deicing process begins, the water supply valve 26
When the fan motor 17 opens, the fan motor 17 also operates, but the ice is not completely removed within the set time of the timer 23 because the water temperature is relatively low and the thermal energy for deicing the water is small. At this time, the normally closed contact _X1 of the relay 20 remains closed. Therefore, after the set time of the timer 23 has elapsed, the operation of the fan motor 17 and the water supply valve 26 is stopped, the hot gas valve 15 is opened, and hot gas is supplied to the evaporator 2, and the remaining part of the deicing process is carried out using only the hot gas. complete it.

Assuming that the time from the timer 23's time-up to the completion of deicing at _t1 is _T5 , the hot gas valve 15 is opened only during this time _T5 . As the ambient temperature and water supply temperature rise, the _T5 time becomes shorter;
On the contrary, the lower the temperature, the longer the _T5 time will be.

g. Effects of the invention Since the ice maker operation control device according to the invention has the above-described configuration and function, it can control the operation of the hot gas valve during the deicing process using different sequence programs depending on the ambient temperature and the water supply temperature. It is possible to prevent a sudden rise in low pressure, which is closely related to the load on the compressor, and to reliably avoid overload on the compressor.

Furthermore, deicing is performed reliably regardless of the ambient temperature or water temperature, and it can be assembled at low cost without adding any parts.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a refrigeration circuit diagram of an ice making machine that can implement the operation control device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing the ice making mechanism in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a partial enlargement of the ice making plate in Fig. 1. 4 is a control circuit diagram of the operation control device according to the present invention, and FIG. 5A is a chart showing a state in which the control circuit of FIG. 4 is operated in sequence under high temperature conditions such as high ambient temperature and high water supply temperature. FIG. 5B is a chart showing a state in which the control circuit of FIG. 4 is operated in sequence under conditions where the temperature is not high, such as low ambient temperature and low supply water temperature. 1...Ice plate, 2...Evaporator, 3...Protrusion,
4...Ice making surface, 5...Ice grains, 6...Deicing water sprinkling pipe, 6a...Ice making water sprinkling pipe, 8...Compressor, 1
0... Condenser, 12... Expansion means (capillary), 15... Hot gas valve, 17... Fan motor, 18... Deicing detection switch device, 19...
Control circuit, 20...Relay, 21...Ice making completion detection switch device, 22...Pump motor, 23...
...Timer, 24... Normally closed contact, 25... Normally open contact, 26... Water supply valve.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] An operation control device used in an ice making machine that supplies deicing water from a water supply valve 26 to the ice making section 1 during the deicing process, and also supplies hot gas to the evaporator 2 connected to the ice making section 1 in a heat exchange relationship. In this step, the water supply valve 26 is connected to the normally closed contact 24 of a timer 23 that controls the opening time of the water supply valve 26, and the normally open contact 25 of the timer 23 controls the supply of hot gas to the evaporator 2. A hot gas valve 15 is connected to a temperature-sensitive de-icing detection switch device 18 that is turned on when detecting the detachment of ice from the ice-making section 1;
During the deicing process, under temperature conditions such that ice leaves the ice making section 1 before the timer 23 times up,
It is characterized by being configured so that deicing is performed only with deicing water, and under temperature conditions where ice remains in the ice making section 1 when the timer 23 times up, deicing is performed only with hot gas after the timer 23 times up. Ice maker operation control device.