JPH0725575Y2 - Automatic ice machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to an automatic ice maker having a photoelectric detection device for automatically detecting the presence or absence of water in a water storage tank or the like used for the ice maker.

<Prior Art> The operation of the conventional automatic ice making machine provided in the refrigerator / freezer is
It will be described with reference to the drawings.

That is, a fixed amount of water (one time of ice making) is supplied from the water storage tank 1 to the fixed quantity tank 2 in the refrigerating chamber and is sent by the water supply pump 3 to the horizontally-made ice tray 4 in the freezing chamber. A temperature detecting element 5 is attached to the back surface of the ice tray 4 to detect the temperature of the ice tray 4. The sensing element 5
Detects the temperature of the ice tray 4. When the detection element 5 detects that the temperature of the ice tray 4 is below a certain temperature, it judges that "ice making is completed" and operates the ice removing motor 7 to operate the plurality of gears 6 for rotating the ice tray. Rotate the ice tray 4 until it is almost downward, and continue to rotate in the same direction for a while to twist the ice tray 4 to remove the ice from the ice tray and store it in an ice storage box (not shown). Stored in. When ice removal is completed, the ice removal motor 7 is rotated in the opposite direction to return the ice tray 4 to the original horizontal position, and the water in the fixed quantity tank 2 is sent to the ice tray 4 by the water supply pump 3 again.

In this way, water supply, ice making, and ice removing operations are repeated,
These series of operations are generally controlled by the control circuit 8 centered on an electronic circuit.

By the way, when the water in the water storage tank 1 or the fixed amount tank 2 is exhausted, it is useless even if the series of operations described above is performed. Therefore, as a means for detecting the presence or absence of water in the tank, for example, after the water supply operation is performed on the ice tray 4, the presence or absence of water is determined by whether or not the temperature of the ice tray 4 detected by the temperature detection element 5 rises. It was

FIG. 5 shows a graph of the temperature change of the ice tray 4 by the temperature detecting element 5. That is, in the figure, if the temperature of the ice tray rises after performing the water supply operation (graph (a)
Water (see graph (b)) means that there is water in the water storage tank 1 or the fixed amount tank 2, and there is no water when the water does not rise (see graph (b)). The control circuit 8 detects this and continues or cancels the subsequent operation.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> As described above, in the above-described conventional automatic ice making machine, the presence or absence of water in the water storage tank or the fixed amount tank cannot be detected until the water supply operation is performed once. Further, when the water supply pump is operated in the absence of water, there is a problem that a loud noise is generated as compared with the case where water is present, which makes the user uncomfortable. There is also a problem that the life of the water supply pump is shortened. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an efficient automatic ice maker that accurately detects the presence or absence of water in a tank without performing the water supply operation, prevents the failure of the water supply pump, and reduces noise.

<Means for Solving the Problems> In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a water storage tank, a metering tank for storing a fixed amount of water supplied from the water tank, and the water in the metering tank in an ice tray. In an automatic ice making machine comprising a water supply mechanism for supplying, an electric mechanism for freezing the water supplied to the ice tray by the water supply mechanism, and then removing ice, and a control circuit for controlling the series of operations, A transparent part is provided on the whole or a part of the lower part of the water storage tank or the quantitative tank, a light emitting element is provided on one side of the transparent part, and a light receiving element is provided on the other side so as to face each other. It is characterized in that it is provided with a detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of water in the tank by giving and receiving, and a control means for automatically controlling the next water supply operation based on the detection result.

<Operation> As described above, according to the present invention, the whole or a part of the lower part of the water storage tank or the fixed quantity tank is made transparent as the detection means, and the light emitting element is provided on one side of the transparent portion and the light receiving element is provided on the other side. Since, since the water is exhausted in the tank, the light from the light emitting element goes straight through the air layer in the tank to reach the light receiving element, but when there is water, the light from the light emitting element When passing through the transparent portion of the tank wall and entering the water layer, the light does not reach the light receiving element because it is refracted at the surface. In this way, the control circuit reads the signal from the light receiving element by utilizing the difference in refractive index between air and water, and judges the presence or absence of water in the tank to control the water supply operation by the water supply pump to the ice tray. .

<Embodiment> An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The present invention is not limited to this, and the same reference numerals are given to the components having the same functions as those of the conventional example.

FIG. 1 is a schematic partial plan view showing the structure of a water detecting means in a tank in an automatic ice making machine according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 and 2 are a part of a water storage tank (removable type) 1 or a fixed quantity tank (storing water for ice making for one time) 2,
As a detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of water in the tank, the light emitting element 10 is provided on one outside of the transparent portion 9 (a portion indicated by a broken line).
(Eg light emitting diode) has a light receiving element on the opposite side
11 (for example, a phototransistor) is arranged so as to be inclined with respect to the transparent portion 9 of the tank wall. Here, the transparent portion 9 may be the whole of the tank or a part thereof as shown in FIG. 1, and the material of the transparent portion 9 is a transparent material having a light refractive index close to 1, such as polystyrene resin or polycarbonate resin. Made of acrylic resin, etc. When the water in the tank is exhausted, the light from the light emitting element 10 passes through the transparent portion 9 of the tank wall as shown by the arrow a, and then the air layer in the tank (refractive index
1.00) and goes through the transparent portion 9 on the opposite side again to reach the light receiving element 11. On the other hand, when there is water in the tank, light from the light emitting element 10 is refracted at the boundary surface when passing through the transparent portion 9 of the tank wall and entering the water layer (refractive index of about 1.33) as shown by the arrow b. , Does not reach the light receiving element 11 located on the opposite side. In this way, the control circuit determines the presence or absence of water in the water storage tank 1 or the fixed amount tank 2 by using the difference in refractive index between air and water to determine whether the light from the light emitting element 10 reaches the light receiving element 11. ing.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block circuit diagram of the above embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the automatic ice making machine according to the present invention.

That is, when pulsed light emission is emitted from the light emitting element (for example, light emitting diode) 10 in FIG. 2, and if water is present in the tank, as described in the explanation of FIG. 1 above,
The light from the light emitting element 10 is refracted at the boundary surface between the transparent portion 9 on the outer wall of the tank and the water in the tank and does not reach the light receiving element such as the phototransistor 11, so that the phototransistor is used.
11 is turned off. Therefore, the microcomputer 12 determines that there is water in the tank.

On the other hand, when there is no water in the tank, the pulsed light emitted from the light emitting element 10 has the same refractive index as that of the air in the tank and the transparent portion 9, so that the phototransistor 11 does not refract.
And the phototransistor 11 is turned on and the microcomputer 12
Send a signal to the tank that there is no water in the tank.

Next, an example of the ice making process of this automatic ice making machine will be described in order of steps S1, S2, ... With reference to FIG. When the automatic ice making machine is instructed to make ice, the microcomputer 12 first confirms the presence or absence of water in the tank by a pre-installed program (S1), and it is confirmed that there is water in the water storage tank 1 or the fixed amount tank 2. Water is supplied from the fixed quantity tank 2 to the ice tray 4 by a water supply mechanism (not shown) (S2), ice making is performed (S3), and the fact that the temperature of the ice tray 4 has fallen below the set temperature When the temperature detecting element 5 attached to the back surface detects, the microcomputer 12 determines that the ice making is completed, moves the ice removing motor 7 and rotates and twists the ice making tray 4 to remove the ice from the ice making tray 4. After that (S4), the ice tray 4 is inverted by the ice removing motor 7 to return to the position before the ice making, and returns to the state of step S1 of the automatic ice making program. Then, when it is confirmed that there is no water in the water storage tank 1 or the fixed amount tank 2 (S1), the program does not proceed to step S2, and the water is replenished by the notification means provided in the refrigerator door or the operation unit. And returns to the state before checking the presence or absence of water in step S1. After that, it is programmed not to proceed to the subsequent operation until the water storage tank 1 is replenished with water.

<Effects of the Invention> As is clear from the above description, in the automatic ice making machine according to the present invention, the transparent wall is provided on the outer wall of the water storage tank or the quantitative tank, and the light emitting element and the light receiving element are provided outside the transparent section. Since the water detection means for the tank configured as described above is provided, despite the fact that the water in the tank is exhausted,
The water supply pump operates because of ice making, and the life of the water supply pump is prevented from being shortened due to idle operation. Further, the present invention has an excellent effect such as preventing unpleasant noise due to idle operation of the water supply pump.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic partial plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a schematic block circuit diagram of the same embodiment, FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the automatic ice maker according to the present invention, FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional automatic ice maker for a refrigerator / freezer, and FIG. 5 is an ice maker. It is a graph which showed the temperature change of the ice tray in a process. 1 ... Water storage tank, 2 ... Fixed amount tank, 3 ... Water supply pump (part of water supply mechanism), 4 ... Ice tray, 7 ... Ice removing motor (part of electric mechanism), 8 ... Control circuit , 9: transparent part, 10: light emitting element (detection means), 11: light receiving element (detection means), 12: microcomputer (control means)

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A water storage tank, a fixed quantity tank for storing a fixed amount of water supplied from the water storage tank, a water supply mechanism for supplying water from the fixed quantity tank to an ice tray, and a water supply mechanism for supplying water to the ice tray. In an automatic ice making machine equipped with an electric mechanism for freezing the stored water and then releasing the ice, and a control circuit for controlling the series of operations, the water storage tank or the fixed quantity tank is partially or entirely transparent. A light emitting element on one side of the transparent portion and a light receiving element on the other side of the transparent portion facing each other, and detecting means for detecting the presence or absence of water in the tank by transmitting and receiving an optical signal between both elements. An automatic ice-making machine comprising: a control means for automatically controlling the next water supply operation according to the detection result.