JP2000018780A - Auger type ice maker and spacer fixing method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To alter the dimensions of a chip-like ice without replacing a cutter by altering the thickness of a spacer being placed between a cutter and an auger at the time of fixing or refixing the cutter. SOLUTION: When the thickness of a spacer 9 placed between the lower surface of a cutter 8 and the upper end face 62 at the upper shaft part 61 of an auger 6 is increased by increasing the number of the spacers 9, the dimension between the outlet of a compression passage 72 and an inclining face 81 increases to make a long and large chip-like ice. When the thickness of the spacer 9 is decreased by decreasing the number of the spacers 9, the dimension between the outlet of the compression passage 72 and the inclining face 81 decreases to make a short and small chip-like ice. The number of the spacers 9 can be adjusted by removing a bolt 10 for securing the cutter 8 to the upper shaft part 61 of the auger 6, altering the number of the spacers 9 between the upper and lower faces of the cutter 8 and simply replacing the spacer 9 between the upper and lower faces of the cutter 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an auger ice maker,
More specifically, the present invention relates to a cutter mechanism for changing the size of ice of an auger type ice maker that forms chip ice.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art First, a brief description will be given of a conventionally known auger-type ice making machine for producing chip-shaped ice (this auger-type ice making machine is called a chip ice machine). An auger type ice making machine generally supplies ice making water into a cylindrical ice making casing in which a cooling tube of an evaporator is wound around an outer peripheral surface,
The supplied ice making water is cooled by the cooling tube and frozen on the inner surface of the cylindrical ice making casing as a thin ice layer. Then, the thin ice layer is scraped off by an auger (spiral blade) provided inside the ice making casing, transferred to a compression passage of a pressing head disposed above the auger, and pressed and solidified in the compression passage as bar ice. To the cutter.

The pressing head serves also as an upper bearing of the auger, and has a shaft portion of the auger inserted therein. The cutter is fixed to the upper end surface of the auger and is disposed above the pressing head. Further, this cutter has an annular inclined surface which is inclined toward the lower side of the vertical axis in a peripheral portion of the lower surface thereof, and the rod-shaped ice sent from the pressing head is used as the inclined surface (also called a tapered surface). ) And cut from below
It produces chip ice. Accordingly, the size (size) of the chip ice in this case is determined by the feed speed of the chip ice and the distance from the upper surface of the pressing head to the inclined surface of the cutter, that is, the distance from the outlet of the compression passage to the inclined surface of the cutter. Is determined by The chip-shaped ice cut by the cutter is sent to an ice storage tank via a guide cylinder to store ice, and is taken out from the ice storage tank as needed.

[0004] The above-mentioned cutters can be divided into two types in terms of structure. One of them is Michino Sho51
The pressing head, which also serves as an upper bearing of the auger and has a compression passage, and a cutter having an inclined surface are integrally formed. Therefore, the dimension from the compression passage outlet of the pressing head to the inclined surface is unchanged.

[0005] Another example is Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 60-1
No. 7654, which has a structure in which a pressing head also serving as an upper bearing of an auger and having a compression passage, and a cutter having an inclined surface are divided. However, the dimension from the compression passage outlet of the pressing head to the inclined surface is constant.

Accordingly, these cutters have a constant dimension from the compression passage of the pressing head to the inclined surface of the cutter, and the feed speed of the ice block is also constant.
The user cannot change the size of the chip ice as needed.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the size of the chip ice can be easily changed according to a customer's request without replacing a cutter. It is an object of the present invention to provide an auger type ice maker as described above, and a method of mounting a spacer for adjusting the size of chip ice in the auger type ice maker.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 comprises a cylindrical ice making casing,
An auger that moves upward while shaving off the thin ice layer formed on the inner wall surface of the ice making casing, a pressing head that compresses the thin ice layer transferred from the auger in a compression passage, and a peripheral portion extending downwardly from the vertical axis. An auger-type ice making machine, comprising: a cutter that forms an annular inclined surface that inclines and cuts the bar-shaped ice sent from the pressing head into chip-shaped ice at the inclined surface; and detaches the cutter from the upper end surface of the auger. Attached freely, a spacer is interposed between the lower surface of the cutter and the upper end surface of the auger, and the thickness of the spacer can be adjusted.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a screw hole is provided in a center axis of the cutter in a vertical direction, and a screw portion for mounting the cutter is screwed into the screw hole of the cutter by bolting or nut fastening. It is configured to be attached to the upper end surface of the auger, and furthermore, the spacer has a thickness within a predetermined range, and a through hole for loosely inserting the screw portion is provided at the center of the spacer, and the screw portion is inserted into the through hole. The spacer is interposed between the lower surface of the cutter and the upper end surface of the auger by loose insertion.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the spacer is constituted by a plurality of spacers.

The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the spacer has at least two kinds of thicknesses.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the auger-type ice making machine according to the third or fourth aspect, a spacer necessary for adjusting the size of the chip-shaped ice is provided between the lower surface of the cutter and the upper end surface of the auger. It is a method of attaching a spacer in which an extra spacer is interposed between the head or nut of the bolt and the upper surface of the cutter.

Therefore, in the auger ice maker of claim 1,
When the thickness of the spacer interposed between the lower surface of the cutter and the upper end surface of the auger is increased, the dimension from the compression passage outlet of the pressing head to the inclined surface for cutting the ice bar increases, and the length of the ice bar to be cut becomes longer. growing. Conversely, when the thickness of the spacer interposed between the lower surface of the cutter and the upper end surface of the auger is reduced, the dimension from the compression passage outlet of the pressing head to the inclined surface for cutting the ice bar is reduced, and the cut ice bar is cut off. The length dimension is reduced. Therefore, by changing the thickness of the spacer interposed between the cutter and the auger at the time of attaching or reattaching the cutter, the size of the chip ice can be changed without replacing the cutter. As a result, it is possible to generate ice of a plurality of sizes while using only one type of cutter. In addition, when the customer is a restaurant, the size of the ice chips can be selected to make the drinks such as dishes and juices unique.

Further, in the auger type ice making machine according to the second aspect, since the auger is double-screwed and fixed, the mounting of the cutter during the ice making operation does not become loose. In addition, since the spacer is loosely inserted into the mounting screw portion of the cutter, it is easy to mount and remove the spacer. In the auger-type ice making machine according to the third aspect, the thickness of the spacer interposed between the lower surface of the cutter and the upper end surface of the auger can be easily changed by changing the number of spacers.

Further, in the auger type ice making machine according to the fourth aspect, the thickness of the spacer can be variously changed by changing the number of spacers and the combination of spacers having different thicknesses. As a result, the size of the chip ice can be variously changed.

Further, in the auger type ice making machine according to the fifth aspect, the storage of the excess spacer and the adjustment of the thickness of the spacer can be performed at the same time, so that the operation becomes easier. Further, since the extra spacer is stored between the upper surface of the cutter and the head or nut of the bolt, no special storage equipment is required, which is economical, and there is no fear of losing the spacer.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same reference numerals denote the same parts or elements, and a description thereof will be simplified.

First, an embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.
It will be described based on. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an evaporating tube 2 of a refrigerating cycle wound around an outer peripheral surface, and further, a heat insulating material 1a such as a foaming agent.
It is an ice making casing covered with. A water supply pipe for ice making water is provided on the lower side wall of the ice making casing 1, but is not shown.

Reference numeral 6 denotes an auger housed in the ice making casing 1. The auger 6 has a function of scraping a thin ice layer formed on the inner peripheral surface of the ice making casing 1 and transferring it upward. The auger 6 is pivotally supported at an upper portion and a lower portion, and is connected at a lower portion to a rotation drive source (not shown).

Reference numeral 7 denotes a pressing head similar to a commonly used pressing head. A plurality of fixed blades are provided on the outer periphery of the pressing head 7 at appropriate intervals, and are mutually connected. The space is formed as an ice compression passage 72. The pressing head 7 has a metal bearing 73 inside, and forms an upper bearing of the auger 6. Therefore, the upper shaft portion 61 of the auger 6 is fitted into the metal bearing 73 and penetrates to the upper end of the pressing head 7.

Reference numeral 8 denotes an upper end surface 6 of the shaft 61 of the auger 6.
2 is a cutter attached to the cutter. The overall shape of the cutter 8 is a slightly thick disk as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, but the lower corner is formed as an annular inclined surface 81 inclined to the vertical axis. ing. This inclined surface 8
1 presses the bar ice sent from the pressing head 7 radially outward to cut the bar ice.

The cutter 8 has a screw hole 83 at the center, and the screw hole 83 is screwed with the bolt 10,
Further, the bolt 10 is attached to the upper end surface 62 of the auger 6 by screwing into a screw hole 63 formed in the upper end surface 62 of the shaft portion 61 of the auger 6. Accordingly, during the ice making operation, an irregular force always acts on the cutter 8, but since the screw is double-tightened as described above, the screw is not loosened, and the cutter 8 is not tightened. The mounting force does not weaken.

As shown in FIG. 1, five thin plate-shaped spacers 9 are interposed between the cutter 8 and the auger 6 at the time of bolting. Each of the spacers 9 is a disk having the same thickness, and has a through hole 91 formed at the center thereof for allowing the bolt 10 to pass therethrough, as shown in FIG. These five spacers 9 can be attached so that a part or the whole thereof is interposed between the upper end surface of the cutter 8 and the head of the bolt 10 as shown in FIG. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, two spacers necessary for adjusting the position of the inclined surface 81 of the cutter 8 in the height direction are interposed on the lower surface of the cutter 8 and the other three spacers 9 are attached to the upper surface of the cutter 8. The spacers 9 can be arbitrarily distributed to the upper and lower surfaces of the cutter 8 within a range of a predetermined total number of sheets, for example, by interposing the spacers. Further, by changing the number of the spacers 9 on the lower surface of the cutter 8 in this manner, the dimension from the upper end of the compression passage 72 in the pressing head 7 to the inclined surface 81 can be changed.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a guide cylinder for guiding ice sent from the cutter 8 to an ice storage (not shown). Reference numeral 12 denotes a water receiver provided on the upper part of the ice making casing 1.

The auger-type ice maker constructed as described above operates as follows. The ice making water supplied from a lower water supply pipe (not shown) is frozen on the inner surface of the ice making casing 1 by the operation of a refrigerator (not shown) to generate a thin ice layer. The thin ice layer is scraped off by the rotation of the auger 6 and transferred to the upper pressing head 7. The pressing head 7 is compressed in the course of passing through the compression passage 72 and turns into bar-shaped ice, and is pushed upward from the outlet of the compression passage 72. The pushed-up bar-shaped ice is pressed against the inclined surface of the cutter 8, and is pushed and bent radially outward to be cut. Also,
The cut ice chips are supplied to the guide pins 8 of the cutter 8.
2 and the guide cylinder 12 cooperate to transfer to the ice storage.

In the above-mentioned chip ice making process, the size of the chip ice increases as the size between the upper end of the pressing head 7 and the inclined surface 81 increases, that is, the size of the tip of the compression passage 72 and the angle of the inclined surface 81 increase. The larger the size of the tip ice, the longer and larger the tip ice, and the smaller the size between the outlet of the compression passage 72 and the inclined surface 81, the shorter and smaller the tip ice.

Therefore, when the number of spacers 9 is increased and the thickness of the spacer interposed between the lower surface of the cutter 8 and the upper end surface 62 of the upper shaft portion 61 of the auger 6 is increased, the outlet of the compression passage 72 is reduced. And the dimension between the inclined surface 81 and
The tip ice becomes longer and larger. On the other hand, when the number of the spacers 9 is reduced and the thickness of the spacer interposed between the lower surface of the cutter 8 and the upper end surface 62 of the upper shaft portion 61 of the auger 6 is reduced, the outlet of the compression passage 72 is The dimension between the surface 81 is reduced, and the chip ice becomes shorter and smaller.

To adjust the number of spacers 9, the bolts 10 for fixing the cutter 8 to the upper shaft of the auger 6 are loosened and removed, and the number of spacers 9 on the upper and lower surfaces of the cutter 8 is changed. It is only necessary to transfer the spacer 9 between the upper and lower surfaces of the cutter 8 and the operation can be easily performed.
Further, since the spacer 9 is merely moved between the upper and lower sides of the cutter 8, no special storage facility is required for storing the spacer 9, and the number of spacers can be easily and reliably changed. Also, there is no risk of losing the excess spacer 9.

In the above description, a screw hole 63 is formed in the upper shaft portion 61 of the auger 6, and the cutter 8 and the spacer 9 are attached by screwing the bolt 10 into the screw hole 63. Instead of this structure, as shown in FIG. 6, a threaded portion 65 is integrally formed on the upper shaft portion 61, or the threaded portion 65 is implanted. Into the nut 10a
May be configured to be tightened.

In the above embodiment, the five spacers 9 have the same thickness.
If the thickness of the spacer 9 is made to be at least two types, the dimension between the exit of the compression passage 72 and the inclined surface 81 is changed more variously by changing the number of the spacers 9 or changing the combination of the number of the spacers 9 and the thickness. As a result, the size of the chip ice can be changed more variously.

[0031]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the following effects can be obtained. According to the invention described in claim 1, when the cutter is attached or re-attached,
By changing the thickness of the spacer interposed between the cutter and the auger, the size of the chip ice can be changed without replacing the cutter. As a result, it is possible to generate ice of a plurality of sizes while using only one type of cutter. In addition, when the customer is a restaurant, the size of the ice chips can be selected so that the drinks such as dishes and juices can have uniqueness.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the auger is double-screwed and fixed, the mounting of the cutter during the ice making operation does not become loose. Also,
Since the spacer is loosely inserted into the mounting screw portion of the cutter, it is easy to mount and remove the spacer.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the thickness of the spacer interposed between the lower surface of the cutter and the upper end surface of the auger upper shaft portion can be easily changed by changing the number of spacers. it can.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the thickness of the spacer can be variously changed by changing the number of spacers and changing the combination of spacers having different thicknesses. As a result, the size of the chip ice can be variously changed.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the storage of the excess spacer and the adjustment of the thickness of the spacer can be performed simultaneously,
Work becomes easier. Also, since the extra spacer is stored between the upper surface of the cutter and the head or nut of the bolt,
Not only is there no need for special storage equipment and it is economical, but there is no worry about losing the spacer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view around a cutter according to a main part of an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a view from the side of the cutter in FIG. 1,
The left half is shown in cross section and the right half is shown in side view.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the cutter of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a spacer according to a main part of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining a method of mounting a spacer in the auger type ice making machine shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a periphery of a cutter as a modification of the auger type ice making machine shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ice-making casing, 1a ... Insulation material, 2 ... Evaporation tube, 6 ...
Auger, 7: Pressing head, 8: Cutter, 9: Spacer, 1
0 ... bolt, 10a ... nut, 61 ... upper shaft, 62 ...
Upper end surface, 63: screw hole, 65: screw portion, 83: screw hole,
91 ... through-hole.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A cylindrical ice making casing, an auger for transferring upward while scraping a thin ice layer formed on an inner wall surface of the ice making casing, a pressing head for compressing the thin ice layer transferred from the auger in a compression passage, An auger-type ice making machine comprising: an annular inclined surface that is inclined downward from the vertical axis in a peripheral portion, and a cutter that cuts bar-shaped ice sent from the pressing head into chip-shaped ice on the inclined surface. An auger-type ice making machine wherein the cutter is detachably attached to an upper end surface of the auger, a spacer is interposed between the lower surface of the auger and an upper end surface of the auger, and the thickness of the spacer is adjustable. Machine. 2. A screw hole is provided in a vertical center axis of the cutter, and a screw portion for mounting the cutter is screwed into the screw hole of the cutter. In addition, the spacer has a thickness within a predetermined range and a through hole for loosely inserting the screw portion at the center of the spacer, and the screw portion is loosely inserted into the through hole to form the lower surface of the cutter. The auger ice maker according to claim 1, wherein the spacer is interposed between the upper end surface of the auger and the spacer. 3. The auger ice maker according to claim 2, wherein said spacer is composed of a plurality of spacers. 4. The auger ice maker according to claim 3, wherein said spacer has at least two kinds of thicknesses. 5. The auger ice maker according to claim 3, wherein a spacer necessary for adjusting the size of the chip ice is interposed between the lower surface of the cutter and the upper end surface of the auger, and an excess spacer is bolted. A spacer mounting method in an auger-type ice making machine, characterized in that it is interposed between a head or a nut and a cutter upper surface.