JPS5843372A - Automatic ice 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 The present invention relates to an automatic ice maker that continuously produces ice cubes of a fixed size, and is designed to ensure reliability and certainty in the operation of a water tray after ice production is completed.

In an automatic ice maker with a conventional ice maker compartment.

An ice-making compartment with a large number of ice-making compartments that open downward is installed, and a water tray is installed on the bottom side of the compartment to supply ice-making water to the ice-making compartment. The ice maker and water tray were separated and the ice removal process started.

However, in this opening/closing movement, the water tray is forcibly separated from the ice deposited on the ice maker by mechanical force, and unreasonable force is applied to the water tray and the point of application. In particular, a structure is being considered that has a sliding opening/closing mechanism and allows the swimsuit in the icemaker compartment to be separated from the water tray by operating a rotatable lever provided on the water tray.

In this case, the driving force for opening and closing is always concentrated on the portion that receives the shaft of the rotating body, which causes a decrease in reliability. - Therefore, the present invention has been improved by changing the points of action at the time of peeling and the time of pulling apart when the water tray is separated after ice making is completed.An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an ice-making compartment that opens in one direction (downward in the figure). An evaporator 6 is provided to cool the ice making compartment 1.

In addition, the ice making compartment 1 has a horizontally arranged top plate 6, and
It is slanted and fixed with screws 8 via spacers 7. On the other hand, the opening of the ice-making compartment 1 is closed with a water tray 9, and a water supply pipe section 10 and a drain pipe section 11 are formed on the lower side of the water tray 9, and one end of the drain pipe section 11 on the groove section 12 side is It is opened to the groove portion 12 . A fountain hole 13 communicating with the water supply pipe section 10 is provided at a location corresponding to the center of each ice-making compartment 2 of the water tray 9, and water is drained from the water tray 9 adjacent to the fountain hole 13'. A drainage hole 14 communicating with the pipe portion 11 is provided.

Also, an ice-making water tank 16 is provided at the bottom of the open end of the groove portion 12.
is provided, and the ice-making water tank 15 is connected to the pump device ゛, 1゜ through a circulation pipe 18. 'The water tray 9 has a projection 32, and the water tray 9 is rotatably held by the water tray support plate 19 around the projection 32. The water tray support plate 19 is slidably fitted to a sliding rod 21, and the sliding rod 21 is fixed by a supporting metal fitting 22 fixed to the top plate 61/.

Further, the water tray 9 and the support fitting 22 are pulled together by a spring 23.

Furthermore, the lever 33 having an abbreviated shape is configured to be rotatable around a shaft 34, and the shaft 34 is supported by the water tray 9. usually,
One end 34a of the lever 33 is located below the top surface of the water tray 9, and by operating the other end 34b, the
a protrudes above the upper surface of the water tray 9. The other end 34b is connected to a rotary drive source 24 driven by a signal by a plate-shaped member 26 configured in a bilexical configuration. For this member≧6, as shown in FIG.
A is provided, which is a solid container integrated with the water tray 9.
・): The ice making water system 4 compresses the refrigerant in the compressor 26, liquefies the refrigerant in the condenser 27, transfers the liquefied refrigerant to the expansion valve 28, evaporates it in the evaporator 6, The ice making compartment 1 is cooled. Further, the outlet of the compressor 26 and the inlet of the evaporator 6 are directly connected by a connecting pipe 30 via a bot gas valve 29.
After the ice making compartment 1 is completely frozen, the hot gas valve 2e is opened and the evaporator 6 is iced. Each of the above-mentioned parts is housed within the main body A as shown in FIG.

Next, the water tray 9 in the automatic ice maker configured as described above is
The operation centered on the opening and closing movement will be explained.

First, the water supply valve 31 is opened, a certain amount of water is supplied to the ice-making water tank 16, and the water is pulled from the water fountain 13 to the ice-making chamber 2 by the pump device 16 through the water supply pipe section 10, and the lower surface of the ice-making chamber 1. (Position A in Figure 4). and,
The water supplied from the fountain hole 13 to the ice-making chamber 2 is supplied to the ice-making chamber 2.
The remaining cooling water is collected into the ice making water tank 16 through the drain hole 14 and the drain pipe section 11° groove section 12, and the above circulation is repeated until the ice making chamber 2 is filled with ice. . When each ice making chamber 2 is completely filled with ice, the control circuit stops the pump device 16, and the drive source 2
4 is turned on, and the water tray 9 is drawn toward the drive source 24 via the member 26 and stops at a certain position (position A' in Fig. 4).
. As a result, a gap is created between the lower surface of the ice-making compartment 1 and the water tray 9. Further, at the same time as the power is turned on to the drive source 24, the hot gas valve 29 is opened to heat the ice making chamber 1 and perform ice removal. Deicing completed The JflIN drive source 24 applies a signal to loosen the force that draws the water tray 9, so the water tray 9 is returned to its original state (in close contact with the lower surface of the ice making chamber 1) by the force of the spring 230. 29 and return to the ice making process.

In the above-mentioned opening/closing operation of the water tray 9, the forces required by the driving source 24 are: the detachment force between the water tray 9 and the ice-making compartment' when ice is removed, the repulsive force of the spring 23, and the force of the water tray support plate. 19 and the sliding member 21, the weight of the water tray 9, the weight of the ice making tank 160, and the weight of the pump devices 1 and 6 are reduced. Further, when separating the water tray 9 from the ice making chamber 1, the lever 33 is operated via the member 26 and the lever action of the lever 33 is utilized. At this time, the point of force application is point A during peeling, and changes to point B as the member 26 moves. If only point A is used as the point of force during both peeling and opening/closing, stress will be concentrated on the portion of the water tray 9' that receives the shaft 34, which may cause damage. By changing the point of application of force, the reliability of the opening/closing mechanism can be improved.

In this way, the automatic ice maker of the present invention can continuously obtain ice of a fixed size, and at the same time, when the water tray is peeled off from the ice maker, the point of force is changed, and the force is concentrated on one part. This ensures that the ice-making operation is carried out reliably and smoothly.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the automatic ice making machine of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the ice-making water circulation system and the ice-making compartment, and FIG. 6 is a partial sectional view showing the state of the water tray and the lever before and after operation. 1... Ice making room, 2... Ice making small room, 4.
... Ice making water circulation system, 6 ... Evaporator, 9.
...Water plate. 16... Ice-making water tank, 16... Pump-place, 26... Member, 33...-L
/ Bar, 35...Operation unit. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person
．． , Fig. 1 27 Z6 Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4rM Fig. 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] An ice-making compartment having a large number of ice-making compartments that open in one direction, an ice-making water tank that stores a predetermined amount of ice-making water to be supplied to the ice-making compartment, and a fountain that supplies the ice-making water in the tank to the ice-making compartment via a pump device. An ice-making water circulation system that supplies ice-making water and circulates it to an ice-making water tank, and a water tray that is disposed on the lower side of the ice-making chamber and is partially rotatably supported. An automatic ice maker comprising a rotatable lever and a fixed operating part, and a member for moving and operating an ice tray is attached to the lever and is loosely attached to the operating part.