Refrigeration

669,467. Ice-making ; ice-breaking apparatus. FLAKICE CORPORATION. July 14, 1947 [July 24, 1946], No. 18685/47. [A Specification was laid open to inspection under Sect. 91 of the Acts, July 14, 1947.] Class 29. Ice-making apparatus of the kind in which water from a distributing tank is made to flow down a group of vertical tubes subjected to freezing to form ice in the tubes and to thawing to release the formed ice, comprises a row or bank of iceforming tubes presenting a pair of parallel side surfaces closely flanked by evaporator sections connected by an automatic control, other than a time cycle control, to a liquid refrigerant supply during freezing and to a hot gaseous refrigerant supply during thawing. The apparatus comprises a storage chamber 4 and an upper part 6 containing a refrigerating system the evaporator 22 of which is coiled around an aligned bank of sixteen square-section tubes 18 down which water is sprayed from a header 28 to form ice sticks, the excess water being drained to a tank and pumped back to the header 28. Between each pair of tubes 18 is a fin 21 which is drilled to locate the evaporator coils 22. The header 28 is provided at each tube 18 with a nipple 30 having holes 32 from which water sprays on to the tube sides. When harvesting, the freed rods of ice are broken by a cutter 42, the pieces falling on to a grating 35 and then into a shoot 40 from which the pieces fall through an opening 12 into the storage chamber 4. The cutter 42 comprises a bar 48 extending the lengths of the bank of tubes 18 and carrying ice picks 50. The bar 48 is suspended from pivots 47 and is oscillated during harvesting by motor driven cams 52, the bar being normally urged away from the ice-rods by a spring 60. When making large pieces of ice the ice-rods rest on the grating 35 during cutting but if small ice pieces are required a stop 160 is inserted in the path of the ice-rods by a control finger 172. The. refrigerating system is shown schematically in Fig. 8. During freezing the solenoid operated valves 92, 110 are closed and solenoid operated valve 114, open. The refrigerant proceeds from a compressor 66 to a condenser 72 and then by way of pipe 74, heat exchanger 76, evaporator 22 and pipe 86 back to the compressor. Condensing water flows from a pipe 94 to the condenser and then to a hot water storage vessel 98 the outlet 104 of which is controlled by a. valve 102 controlled by the pressure in the compressor output line. During harvesting, the valves 92, 110 are open and the valve 114 closed. Hot refrigerant gas is supplied to the evaporator 22 by pipe 108 and returns to the compressor by way of the vessel 98 where any condensate formedin the evaporator is vaporized. Make-up water for the ice tubes is supplied to a float controlled tank 34- during the harvesting period. The operation of the valves 92, 110, 114 of the cutter 42 and of the water circulating pump are controlled in accordance with the temperature of the ice tubes 18 by a thermostatic capsule 122 so that the freezing and harvesting cycles are completely automatic.