Flake ice machine
US5307646A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 25, 1991 |
| Grant date | May 3, 1994 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 25, 2011 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC F)Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
- CPC primaryF25B2500/01
- WIPO fieldThermal processes and apparatus
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
A flake ice machine (10) including a rotatable cooling member (12) defining cooling surfaces (20) and a plurality of internal refrigerant flow passages (76). The machine includes a spray tube (18) for introducing liquid material onto a portion of the cooling surfaces of the cooling member. A refrigerant supply system (30) supplies an excess of evaporative liquid refrigerant to the inlets (78) of the refrigerant flow passages, so that a portion of the liquid refrigerant evaporates within each passage to freeze the liquid material introduced onto the cooling surface, and a remaining portion of the refrigerant flows from the outlet (80) of each passage in the liquid state. Resilient removal blades (38) mounted adjacent each cooling surface remove frozen material from the cooling surface to form solid flakes of material. The flake ice machine further includes an automatic salinity control system (56, 58, 63) to automatically control the salinity of the liquid material being applied to the cooling surfaces of the cooling member.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.