JPH11101540A - Ice water cooler - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate a cooking food rack to be inserted into a water tank by preventing ice from floating on a water surface to the utmost even if much ice is introduced into the water tank. SOLUTION: A chip ice 7 made with a chip ice making machine 8 is mixed into cold water 2 in a water tank 1 to cool a cooking food bag 6 put in a rack 5. An L shaped guard plate 3 having many holes each having a size of the order not passing therethrough the chip ice 7 is provided in such a water tank 1, and a part of the chip ice 7 is put on a lower side of the guard plate. Thus, pieces of the chip ice 7 floating on a water surface are reduced. For sending the chip ice 7 to the lower side of the guard plate 3 the chip ice 87 is fallen between a longitudinal plate of the guard plate 3 and a side wall of the ice tank 1 from the chip ice making machine 8 in the state where water is put on the lower side of the guard plate 3, and water is discharged from a lower discharge pipe 14 of a pump 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ice water cooler for rapidly cooling a food or the like packed in a bag immediately after cooking to a predetermined temperature.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Cooked food is packed in a bag as it is, rapidly cooled to a predetermined temperature, for example, 3 ° C., and then stored in a refrigerator. The so-called cook chill system requires a cooler for rapidly cooling the food packed in the bag after cooking. Conventionally, a cooler for that purpose is shown in FIG.
A cooler as shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a conventional cooler. In FIG. 5, 1 is a water tank, 2 is cold water, 4 is a rack mounting angle bracket, 5 is a rack, 6 is a cooked food bag, 20 is a condensing unit, and 21 is a cooling pipe.

A water tank 1 is filled with cold water 2 and the cold water 2
Is cooled by the cooling pipe 21. The cooling pipe 21
The refrigerant supplied from the condensing unit 20 is evaporated and cooled by the heat of vaporization. Such an aquarium 1
In the rack, a cooked food bag 6 containing a food which has been cooked and has been heated to 80 ° C. or higher is placed in the rack 5 and immersed, and cooled to 3 ° C. or lower.

[0005] In such a cooler, unless the cooling capacity of the condensing unit 20 and the cooling pipe 21 is considerably increased, it takes a long time to cool the cooked food, and the efficiency is low. Therefore, we have developed an ice water cooler that can cool in a short time even with a small cooling capacity by using existing ice machines and using the ice produced therefrom (however, this ice water cooler is still open to the public. Not).

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of an ice water cooler developed earlier. In FIG. 6, reference numerals 1 to 6 correspond to those in FIG. 5, 7 is chip ice, 8 is a chip ice making machine, 9 is a chip ice dropper, 11 is a pump, 12 is a pump motor, and 22 is a pump motor. The suction port 23 of the pump 11 is a discharge port.

In this ice water cooler, chip ice 7 made by a chip ice maker 8 is put into a water tank 1 filled with cold water 2 to perform cooling. Cold water 2 in aquarium 1
The cooked food which is cooled by the chip ice 7 and constantly stirred by the pump 11 and has a temperature of about 80 ° C. or higher,
It can be cooled to 3 ° C. or less in about 90 minutes.

[0008]

However, in the above-mentioned ice water cooler, since the chip ice 7 floats tightly on the surface of the water tank 1, when the rack 5 is put into the water tank 1,
The inside of the aquarium 1 cannot be seen, and it is necessary to insert the chip ice 7 floating on the water surface while pushing it in, which makes it difficult to perform the work.

The present invention solves such a problem. Even if a large amount of chip ice 7 is put into the water tank 1, the rack 5 is moved so that the chip ice 7 does not float on the water surface. It is intended to facilitate the work of putting the contents into the box.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an ice water cooler according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises a water tank for supplying cold water for cooling, an ice making machine for supplying ice to the water tank, and A mounting portion for mounting an object to be cooled and a plurality of holes smaller than the size of ice are provided on one surface so as to be able to hold the ice on the lower side, and are disposed below the mounting portion. A guard plate is provided. In this way, by putting ice under the guard plate, the ice does not float on the water surface, and the work of putting the object to be cooled into the water tank can be facilitated.

Further, the ice water cooler according to the present invention is characterized in that a pump for feeding the ice to a lower side of the guard plate is provided. In this way, the ice made by the ice machine can be automatically put under the guard plate.

An ice water cooler according to a third aspect of the present invention is an ice water cooler provided near an ice drop opening made by the ice making machine.
A pump for generating a water flow in the lower part of the drop opening, wherein the ice sensor detects that a certain amount of ice has accumulated on the water surface below the drop port, and moves the ice collected by the water flow of the pump. It is characterized in that it is made to be. With this configuration, the outlet of the ice making machine is not clogged with ice, and ice can be manufactured continuously.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the ice water cooler, a single pump serves both as a pump for sending the ice to a lower side of the guard plate and a pump for generating a water flow in a lower portion of the drop outlet. It is characterized by doing. In this way, one pump can feed ice to the lower side of the guard plate and move ice accumulated in the lower part of the drop opening.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. The reference numerals correspond to those in FIG. 6, 3 is a guard plate, 10 is an ice sensor, 13 is a switching valve, 14 is a lower discharge pipe, 15 is an upper discharge pipe, and 16 is a suction port.

A water tank 1 contains about 200 liters of cold water 2, into which chip ice 7 made by a chip ice machine 8 is introduced. As the chip ice making machine 8, for example, an existing auger type ice making machine can be used. Lower discharge pipe 14, Upper discharge pipe 15
Are provided horizontally in the front-rear direction in the figure. Among them, the lower discharge pipe 14 is provided with a plurality of discharge holes at regular intervals in the length direction toward the lower side of the guard plate 3, and the upper discharge pipe 15 has a plurality of discharge holes diagonally upward. Discharge holes are provided at regular intervals in the length direction.

The guard plate 3 is made of a steel plate or a stainless steel plate and has an L-shaped cross section as shown in FIG.
The upper plate 3a and the vertical plate 3b are formed with a number of holes 3d which are smaller than the size of the chip ice 7 so that the chip ice 7 does not pass therethrough. Such a guard plate 3 is disposed below the rack mounting angle bracket 4 of the water tank 1, and the support plates 3c, 3c hold the upper plate 3a and the vertical plate 3b at predetermined height positions. I have. The chip ice 7 made by the chip ice making machine 8 is stored under the guard plate 3 so as not to float on the surface of the cold water 2. Note that the guard plate 3 may be a fine mesh plate other than the steel plate or the stainless plate provided with a large number of holes 3d.

The chip ice 7 made by the chip ice making machine 8 is sent to the lower side of the guard plate 3 before cooling, such as at night. The method will be described with reference to FIG. First, the cold water 2 is put into the water tank 1 so that the water surface is below the guard plate 3. Thereafter, the switch of the chip ice making machine 8 is turned on to produce the chip ice 7, and the chip ice is dropped from the chip ice falling port 9 between the vertical plate 3 b of the guard plate 3 and the inner wall of the water tank 1. At this time, the switching valve 13 is switched to the lower discharge pipe 14 and the pump 11 generates a water flow as shown by an arrow, and
The chip ice 7 that has fallen from is sent to the lower part of the lower side of the guard plate 3.

Even if the chip ice 7 is filled under the guard plate 3 and cannot be fed any more, the space between the vertical plate 3b of the guard plate 3 and the inner wall of the water tank 1 is filled with the chip ice 7. Then, the operation of the chip ice making machine 8 is continued. Thereafter, the ice melts and the water level in the water tank 1 rises. However, since the ice accumulated between the vertical plate 3b of the guard plate 3 and the inner wall of the water tank 1 decreases, the chip ice making machine 8 Is operated to supply chip ice 7. Thus, the water tank 1 is filled with cold water mixed with the chip ice 7.

When use becomes possible in this way, the rack 5 containing the cooked food bag 6 is put into the water tank 1 to start cooling. Then, when the temperature of the cold water 2 rises, the chip ice making machine 8 is operated to replenish the chip ice 7,
Reduce water temperature. At that time, the chip ice 7 falling from the chip ice making machine 8 through the chip ice falling port 9 is
Since the falling position is the same place, as shown by reference numeral 7a in FIG. 4, the chip ice 7 accumulates like a mountain, and if the operation of the chip ice making machine 8 is continued as it is, the chip ice 7 becomes the chip ice making machine 8 To the ice exit of
The limit switch provided in the chip ice maker 8 is operated, and the operation of the chip ice maker 8 is stopped.

Then, an ice sensor 10 provided immediately below the chip ice dropping port 9 detects that a predetermined amount of the chip ice 7 has accumulated, and operates the pump 11 to move the chip ice 7 from the upper discharge pipe 15 into FIG. A water flow is generated in the direction indicated by the arrow, and the accumulated chip ice 7 is moved in the direction of reference numeral 7b. Before that, the discharge port of the pump 11 is switched from the lower discharge pipe 14 to the upper discharge pipe 15 by the switching valve 13. In this way, the ice outlet of the chip ice making machine 8 is not clogged with ice, and the chip ice 7 can be manufactured continuously.

In this way, part of the chip ice 7 required for cooling (a half to two-thirds of the required amount) is stored under the guard plate 3 so that it can be stored on the water surface of the water tank 1. The amount of floating chip ice 7 is reduced. As a result, when the rack 5 containing the cooked food bags 6 is put into the water tank 1,
Can be seen, and the resistance applied when the chip ice 7 is pushed in is reduced.

[0023]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

In the ice water cooler according to the first aspect of the present invention, by putting the ice under the guard plate, the ice does not float on the water surface, and the work of putting the object to be cooled into the water tank can be facilitated.

In the ice water cooler according to the second aspect of the present invention, since a pump for feeding ice to the lower side of the guard plate is provided, the ice produced by the ice maker is automatically put in the lower side of the guard plate. be able to.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the ice water cooler, the ice sensor detects that a predetermined amount or more of ice has accumulated on the water surface below the falling port, and moves the accumulated ice by the water flow of the pump. As a result, the outlet of the ice making machine is not clogged with ice, and ice can be manufactured continuously.

In the ice water cooler according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a single pump serves both as a pump for sending ice to the lower side of the guard plate and a pump for causing a water flow to the lower part of the ice dropper. As a result, only one pump is required, and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a structure of a guard plate.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a method of sending ice below a guard plate.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a state in which ice is added during cooling.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a conventional cooler.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of an ice water cooler developed earlier.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Water tank 2 ... Cold water 3 ... Guard plate 5 ... Rack 6 ... Cooking food bag 7 ... Chip ice 8 ... Chip ice making machine 10 ... Ice sensor 11 ... Pump 13 ... Switching valve 14 ... Lower discharge pipe 15 ... Upper discharge pipe

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A water tank for supplying cold water for cooling, an ice making machine for supplying ice to the water tank, a mounting part provided in the water tank for mounting an object to be cooled, An ice water cooler comprising: a plurality of holes smaller than the size of ice provided on one side so as to be able to be held on the side; and a guard plate disposed below the mounting portion. 2. An ice water cooler according to claim 1, further comprising a pump for feeding said ice to a lower side of said guard plate. 3. An ice sensor, which is provided in the vicinity of a drop of the ice made by the ice making machine, and a pump for generating a water flow in a lower part of the drop, wherein ice is fixed on a water surface below the drop. 3. The ice water cooler according to claim 1, wherein the ice sensor detects that the ice has accumulated more than an amount, and moves the accumulated ice by the water flow of the pump. 4. A pump for sending the ice under the guard plate and a pump for causing a water flow in a lower portion of the dropping port are used as one pump. Item 3. An ice water cooler according to Item 3.