JPH0534587B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Industrial Application Field The present invention provides a method for depositing and storing flaky ice (hereinafter referred to as "flake ice") produced by an ice making machine in an ice storage warehouse. The present invention relates to an ice storage device that can uniformly store flake ice throughout the ice storage by scattering a portion of the ice flakes by blowing air.

Prior art Ice is frozen in a layer on the inner wall surface of a cylindrical freezing casing, and this ice layer is scraped off with a peeling blade. The resulting ice flakes are then released and stored in an ice storage compartment defined below. A flake ice making machine configured as described above is suitably used, for example, in the frozen preservation of seafood. Since the present invention relates to this ice storage device for flake ice, in order to contribute to the understanding of the present invention, first, the schematic structure of the flake ice making machine will be explained with reference to FIG. 5.

As shown in FIG. 5, the flake ice making machine 10 is installed at the upper part of the ice storage 12, and the flake ice produced by the ice making machine 10 falls into the ice storage 12 and is stored therein. That is, a cylindrical freezing casing 14 is installed in the upper part of the ice storage 12, and this casing 14
The lower opening thereof communicates with the ice storage 12 through an opening 12a formed in the ceiling surface of the ice storage 12. An evaporator 16 that communicates with the refrigeration system is tightly wound around the outer periphery of the refrigeration casing 14, and forced cooling of the refrigeration casing 14 is performed by circulating a refrigerant through the tube during ice-making operation. When ice-making water is sprayed onto the inner wall surface of the frozen casing 14 from an ice-making water supply source (not shown), this water immediately freezes on the inner wall surface, forming a layer of thin ice.

The refrigeration casing 14 is covered with a heat insulating box 18, and a motor 20 is disposed upside down on top of the heat insulating box 18. Further, inside the refrigeration casing 14, a rotating shaft 22 whose axis is vertically aligned with the casing is rotatably supported by bearings 24 and 26 arranged above and below, and a motor 2 is attached to the rotating shaft 22.
0 output shaft is connected via a reduction gear 28. Note that in the drawings, reference numeral 29 indicates a support member that supports the lower bearing 26.

A peeling blade 30 that extends horizontally by a dimension slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the frozen casing 14 is fixed to the rotating shaft 22, and a cutting edge 30a of the peeling blade 30 is fixed to the rotating shaft 22.
faces the inner wall of the casing with a narrow gap parallel to it. Therefore, by driving the motor 20, the thin ice that has frozen on the inner wall surface of the freezer casing 14 is scraped off by the peeling blade 30, and falls into flakes of ice from the opening 12a into the ice storage 12, and is removed from the ice storage 12. They are deposited one after another. The accumulated and stored flake ice is transported to the outside by a screw conveyor 32 disposed within the ice storage 12, as necessary. The ice storage state is detected by an ice storage detection device 34 provided in the ice storage 12, and the operation of the ice making machine is controlled accordingly.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention As shown in FIG. 5, the flake ice making machine 10 is normally placed at the top of the ice storage 12, approximately in the center. Therefore, the ice flakes produced by the manufacturing machine 10 and released falling from the opening 12a of the ice storage 12 are not stored in the upper space of each side wall, but form a mountain shape with the apex located directly below the opening 12a. It tends to accumulate. Therefore, compared to the designed ice storage capacity, it was not reported that the ice storage capacity was being utilized to the maximum extent possible.

In addition, when the flake ice making machine 10 starts making ice and restarts after stopping ice making, the frozen casing 14
A phenomenon has been observed in which some of the ice-making water supplied to the inner wall of the ice cube drips onto the accumulated flake ice. At this time, flake ice may refreeze to form ice blocks, or these ice blocks may solidify together (blocking).
There are problems that lead to this. Furthermore, when a large amount of flake ice is deposited, the solidification is also promoted by the accumulation pressure. Moreover, when the ice flakes solidify in this way, as a result of scraping out the ice from the lower part of the ice flakes by the screw conveyor 32, a cavity (arching) is formed around the screw conveyor 32, making it difficult to carry out the ice from now on. There are serious problems that cannot be resolved smoothly.

The flake ice obtained by scraping with the peeling blade 30 is a mixture of granular ice with a large surface area and powdered ice with a small surface area, and when used, these granular ice and powdered ice are mixed uniformly. The best condition is However, in the conventional structure in which flake ice scraped by the peeling blade 30 is simply dropped, the granular ice is deposited biased toward the side wall, and the powdered ice is deposited biased right below the freezing casing 14. As a result, the flake ice taken out by the screw conveyor 32 is disadvantageously concentrated in granular ice or powdered ice.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention has been proposed in order to suitably solve the drawbacks inherent in discharging flake ice produced by a flake ice making machine into an ice storage. It is an object of the present invention to provide a means for efficiently storing ice in an ice storage warehouse and effectively preventing occurrence of blocking, arching, etc.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to overcome the above-mentioned problems and suitably achieve the intended purpose, the present invention provides a system in which a rotating shaft is arranged with its axes aligned inside a cylindrical casing around which an evaporator is wound. At the same time, a flake ice making machine scrapes the ice layer formed on the inner wall of the casing into flakes with a peeling blade provided on the rotating shaft, and the flake ice making machine is vertically supported at the top, and a flake ice making machine is installed at the top. A flake ice storage device comprising an ice storage unit in which a lower opening of the ice making machine is communicated with the interior of the ice storage unit through an opening, the ice storage unit being located inside the ice storage unit directly below the opening of the flake ice making machine; a blower pipe that is coaxially connected to a rotating shaft so as to be able to rotate integrally with the rotary shaft, and has a blower outlet oriented toward a falling zone of flake ice scraped by the peeling blade; , and a blowing conduit whose other end communicates with the discharge side of a blower that sucks and sends out air inside the warehouse, and rotates together with the peeling blade to remove flakes of ice that are generated and fallen by the flake ice making machine. It is characterized by being configured so that the air is diffused into the refrigerator by the air blown from the blower pipe.

Embodiments Next, a preferred embodiment of the flake ice storage device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The ice manufacturing mechanism itself is the fifth
Since it is the same as that of the flake ice making machine according to the prior art shown in the figure, detailed explanation thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 shows a longitudinal section of an ice storage device according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
is fixed coaxially. The lower end of this connecting rod 36 is fixed to the top of a blower pipe 38, which will be described later, with its axis aligned, and the blower pipe 38 is configured to be able to rotate integrally with the rotating shaft 22 (and the peeling blade 30). That is, the blower pipe 38 is a cylindrical pipe made of, for example, vinyl chloride resin, and one end thereof is formed as a hemispherical closed top, and the end opening downward is rotated into a blower pipe 48 to be described later. Can be freely connected. The connection mode is the fourth
As shown in the figure, the lower part of the blower pipe 38 is formed as an opening 38a whose diameter is expanded, and this expanded opening 38a
It is recommended that the circular opening 48a of the air conduit 48, which opens vertically upward, be fitted in a rotatable manner.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the blast pipe 38 is branched with a branch pipe 40 that projects horizontally outward in the radial direction from the main body, and this branch pipe 40 is connected to the peeling blade 3.
The branch pipe 40 has an air outlet 4 at the tip thereof.
2 have been established. Therefore, the ice flakes scraped by the rotation of the peeling blade 30 always fall in front of the outlet 42 .

Note that the blower outlet 42 is formed flat as shown in FIG. 2, and is configured to efficiently scatter flake ice falling from the ice making machine 10. Also,
A plurality of (in this embodiment, three) through holes 44 are bored in the upper part of the branch pipe 40, and by blowing air upward from the through holes 44 (described later), ice flakes are formed in the upper part of the branch pipe 40. Prevents accumulation.

A blower 46 is installed outside the ice storage 12, and on the air suction side of the blower 46, there is an air suction pipe 5 provided with an inlet 50a that opens toward the inside of the ice storage.
0 is connected to the blower 46, and the blower conduit 48 is connected to the air discharge side of the blower 46. Therefore, when the blower 46 is driven, the cold indoor air sucked in through the suction port 50a of the suction pipe 50 is supplied to the blow pipe 38 via the blow conduit 48, and then is discharged from the air outlet 42 into the refrigerator. is blown out. Further, a part of the air inside the refrigerator is blown upward from the through hole 44 formed in the branch pipe 40. Note that it is not an essential requirement to arrange the blower 46 outside the ice storage 12, and the blower 46 may be installed inside the ice storage 12 as long as it is waterproof and has been treated to prevent heat generation.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of through holes 48a that open upward are bored at the position where the air conduit 48 faces below the opening 12a in the ice storage 12, so that air is blown through the air conduit 48 into the ice storage warehouse. A portion of the internal air can be blown upward from the through hole 48a. Thereby, the through hole 48a functions to scatter ice flakes that fall into the air conduit 48 from the ice making machine 10 with the wind, and to prevent the ice flakes from accumulating on the conduit 48.

Effects of the Embodiment Next, the effects of the flake ice storage device configured as described above will be explained. Flake ice making machine 10
When the operation starts, the ice layer that has frozen on the inner wall of the refrigeration casing 14 is scraped off in the form of flakes by the peeling blade 30 and falls, as described above, and the ice layer is scraped off in the form of flakes by the peeling blade 30 and falls.
It is discharged into the ice storage 12 via 2a. Here, the scraped ice flakes fall in a substantially elliptical area on the front side of the air outlet 42 in the air pipe 38, as shown in FIG. Therefore, if the blower 46 is driven and the low-temperature indoor air sucked from the suction pipe 50 is supplied to the blower pipe 38 through the blower pipe 48, the air will be blown out from the outlet 42 of the blower pipe 38. As a result, some of the ice flakes are blown away toward the side wall. In addition, the air outlet 42
Flake ice that has not entered the blowout area A falls directly below without being blown away.

The blow pipe 38 rotates integrally with the peeling blade 30, and the outlet 42 of the blow pipe 38 is positioned directly below the peeling blade 30, so that the ice making machine 10
Since the ice flakes that fall from the refrigerator are blown away by the constantly blown air inside the refrigerator, they can be accumulated and stored in the refrigerator evenly. Moreover, since the air blown out from the outlet 42 is air that is kept at a low temperature inside the refrigerator, it does not increase the temperature inside the refrigerator, and has the advantage that the temperature inside the refrigerator can be made uniform by air agitation. . Furthermore, by setting the wind pressure of the air blown out from the outlet 42 to such an extent that the ice flakes bounce back after hitting the inside wall of the refrigerator, it is possible to deposit the ice flakes in the ice storage compartment 12 most uniformly. can.

Furthermore, when the rotating peeling blade 30 reaches directly above the air conduit 48, the ice flakes fall onto the upper part of the air conduit 48, but air is blown out from the through hole 48a formed in the air conduit 48. Therefore, the falling ice flakes are scattered and do not accumulate on the conduit 48.

As mentioned earlier, when the ice making operation is started in the ice making machine 10, there is a phenomenon in which some of the ice making water flowing down the inner wall surface of the freezer casing 14 scatters and falls into the refrigerator. The water droplets are blown off to the side wall by the air blown out from the outlet 42 and adhere to the side wall. Therefore frozen casing 1
The water droplets falling from the ice storage 42 do not fall on the ice flakes accumulated in the ice storage 42, thereby preventing the occurrence of blocking and arching. Furthermore, by scattering the flake ice, the ice particles and powder ice in the flake ice can be stored in a uniformly mixed state, and the flake ice carried out by the screw conveyor 32 is made up of these particle ice. It can be taken out with a uniform mixture of powdered ice and powdered ice.

Note that by disposing a baffle plate (not shown) in the ice storage 12 and bringing the blown ice flakes into contact with this baffle plate, it is possible to accumulate a large amount of flake ice at a desired position, or vice versa. It is possible to provide a place where the amount of accumulated ice flakes is small.

Effects of the Invention As explained above, according to the flake ice storage device according to the present invention, by scattering a part of the flake ice that falls into the ice storage, the flake ice is uniformly distributed in the ice storage. As a result, flake ice can be efficiently stored in the ice storage to make full use of the ice storage capacity of the ice storage. In addition, the air blower used to scatter the ice flakes uses the cold air inside the refrigerator, which has the disadvantage of raising the temperature inside the refrigerator and accelerating the melting of the stored ice flakes. There isn't.

Furthermore, since the water droplets dripping from the freezing casing can be blown off onto the side wall when the ice making machine is started, it is possible to prevent the water droplets from dripping onto the accumulated flake ice and causing blocking or arching. In addition, the granular ice and powdered ice in flake ice can be deposited in a uniformly mixed state. It also has other beneficial effects.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show a preferred embodiment of the ice storage device for flake ice according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of the ice storage device according to the preferred embodiment, and FIG.
An enlarged perspective view schematically showing the air duct shown in Figure 3.
The figure is a cross-sectional view taken along the line -- in Figure 1, Figure 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing an example of a structure for rotatably connecting a blower pipe and a blower conduit, and Figure 5 is a flake ice making machine according to the prior art. FIG. 10...Flake ice making machine, 12...Ice storage,
12a...Opening, 14...Frozen casing, 16
... Evaporator, 22 ... Rotating shaft, 30 ... Peeling blade,
38...Blower pipe, 42...Blower outlet, 46...Blower, 48...Blower conduit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A rotating shaft 22 is arranged inside the cylindrical casing 14 around which the evaporator 16 is wound, with the axes aligned, and an ice layer formed on the inner wall of the casing is provided on the rotating shaft 22. A flake ice making machine 10 scrapes into flakes with a peeling blade 30, the flake ice making machine 10 is vertically supported on the top, and a lower opening of the ice making machine 10 is opened through an opening 12a opened at the top. In a flake ice storage device comprising an ice storage 12 that communicates with the interior of the ice storage, a flake ice making machine 10 is operated inside the ice storage 12.
a blast pipe 38 located directly below the opening of the rotary shaft 22, coaxially connected to the rotary shaft 22 so as to be able to rotate integrally with the rotary shaft 22, and equipped with an air outlet 42 oriented toward a falling zone of flaky ice scraped by the peeling blade 30; 38 is rotatably supported at one end in a communicating state, and the other end is communicated with the discharge side of a blower 46 that sucks and sends out air inside the refrigerator.
8, characterized in that the flake ice produced by the flake ice making machine 10 and falling is diffused into the refrigerator by the air blown from the blast pipe 38 that rotates together with the peeling blade 30. Ice storage device. 2. The ice flake ice storage device according to claim 1, wherein the outlet 42 extends in a horizontal direction intersecting the vertical axis of rotation 22 and has a flat opening.