Ice making machine

Details Ice making machine Ice making machine

2003-04-22

2004-02-10

Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)

Refrigeration

Means producing shaped or modified congealed product

Heat absorber with product remover

C062S069000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06688131

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an ice making machine, and more particularly, to an ice making machine enabled to reduce ice making time and to minimize the amount of water being wasted.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An ice making machine is an apparatus for making pieces of ice by freezing water supplied from an external water supply. More recently, ice making machines enabled to prevent opacification of ice pieces, which occurs as air bubbles inside the water are frozen, has been proposed.
FIGS. 1 and 2
show a conventional ice making machine disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,243. The conventional ice making machine as shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
comprises a housing
10
, a freezing unit
20
, and an air removing means
30
.
The housing
10
of the ice making machine comprises an ice bin
11
for storing ice pieces produced in the freezing unit
20
. A compressor
12
and a condenser
13
are disposed below the ice bin
11
.
The freezing unit
20
comprises a water tray
21
, a freezing base plate
22
, and an evaporator
23
as shown in FIG.
2
. The water tray
21
is filled with water and a multiplicity of freezing fingers
24
are formed on the lower surface of the freezing base plate
22
for being dipped in the water so as to freeze it. A pivoting means
25
is disposed at one side of the water tray
21
for tilting the water tray
21
and discharging the water that does not freeze to form ice pieces. The evaporator
23
is disposed on the upper surface of the freezing base plate
22
and is connected with a freezing system. Refrigerant flows inside the evaporator
23
and the freezing base plate
22
and the freezing fingers
24
are cooled by the heat exchange of the refrigerant.
The air removing means
30
is provided for preventing opacification from occurring during the ice making process by removing air bubbles in the water to be frozen. The air removing means
30
comprises a rocking plate
31
that can rock up and down inside the water tray
21
, and a rocking motor
32
for rocking the rocking plate
31
. When an engagement piece
33
disposed in the rocking motor
32
hits an engagement pin
34
, the rocking plate
31
rocks, thereby floatingthe air bubbles upwardly and outside the water.
The freezing unit
20
further comprises a water supply pipe
14
, a pivotal shaft
26
, a water chute
27
, and a water collecting section
15
.
Hereinafter, the operation is described of a conventional ice making machine having the above-described structure.
When the water is supplied to the water tray
21
through the water supply pipe
14
and the freezing fingers
24
are dipped into the water, the water starts to form ice around the freezing fingers
24
, which are cooled below the freezing point by heat exchange of the refrigerant flowing inside the evaporator
23
. At the same time, the rocking plate
31
under the water rocks up and down as the rocking motor
32
is driven. Accordingly, the air bubbles inside the water are removed and clear ice pieces are gradually formed around the freezing fingers
24
.
After the ice pieces formed around the freezing fingers
24
reach a predetermined size, the rocking plate
31
stops rocking, and hot gas is discharged from the compressor
12
, without passing through the condenser
13
, directly into the evaporator
23
, thereby warming the freezing fingers
24
. The water tray
21
is tilted on the pivotal shaft
26
by the pivoting means
25
. Therefore, the ice pieces are separated off the freezing fingers
24
and drop into the ice bin
11
, and the water remaining in the water tray
21
is discharged into the water collecting section
15
.
Such conventional ice making machines require an amount of water exceeding what is actually needed to be frozen as the water tray is designed to hold more than the amount of water necessary to make ice pieces, thereby wasting a lot of water.
Moreover, since the freezing fingers
24
cool not only the water to be frozen but also all of the water in the water tray
21
, excessive energy is consumed and it takes too long to freeze the water around the freezing fingers
24
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to solve at least the above problems and/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages described hereinafter.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the foregoing problems by providing an ice making machine enabled to minimize the waste of water by supplying a predetermined amount of water into a multiplicity of freezing cells formed having a predetermined size and to shorten the time required to form ice pieces by increasing the freezing speed around the freezing fingers.
In order to achieve the above objective, the ice making machine according to the present invention comprises a housing, an evaporator connected to a freezing system, a base frame having a multiplicity of freezing cells for receiving water to be frozen, a freezing base plate provided with the evaporator and having freezing fingers formed on the lower surface of to be dipped into the space defined by the multiplicity of freezing cells in which water to be frozen has been introduced, and an air removing means circulating the water around the freezing fingers for removing air bubbles inside the water.
The air removing means preferably comprises a multiplicity of nozzles spraying air onto the water contained in the freezing cells.
The nozzles are disposed in grooves directed in a tangent to the rims of the freezing cells.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2133521 (1938-10-01), Wussow et al.
patent: 4217762 (1980-08-01), Sakamoto et al.
patent: 6619050 (2003-09-01), Hozumi et al.

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