Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.

Hideyuki Katayanagi

Hideaki Furutachi

Yoshiharu Abe

Kazuhiro Takahashi

A flow-type ice manufacturing machine includes substantially vertical ice making panels and equipped with a cooling pipe secured on the back of the ice making panels for cooling circulating water that flows on the ice making surfaces. The ice manufacturing machine comprises an ice storage chamber for storing ice, the chamber having a front door, a machinery room for accommodating a condensation unit, the machinery room mounted on the upper front end of the ice storage chamber, and an ice making portion mounted behind the machinery room, so that the ice produced drops into the ice storage chamber and heaps deeply in the chamber, thereby preventing the ice from spilling from the door when it is opened or forcing the door to open unexpectedly. A ice level sensor is mounted on the rear wall of the ice storage chamber so that the sensor is not liable to damage by the users' scooping operation, yet the sensor is capable of accurately detecting the amount of the ice stored in the chamber, thereby providing improved control of the ice manufacturing operation.

Flow-type ice manufacturing machine

An ice making apparatus includes a refrigeration means having ice making chambers and repeats ice making cycles that involve refrigeration processes to freeze water supplied in the ice making chambers and ice releasing processes to release the ice. These processes are controlled by means of sensors which measure thermal conditions of the apparatus such as condensation temperature and condensation pressure of a refrigerant, and the temperature of the refrigeration means. The control system stores and updates the times required for refrigeration process and ice releasing process under normal sensor conditions and, based on these data, permits the apparatus to make ice even under sensor malfunction that occurred during an ice making cycle. The control system of the invention also permits the apparatus to start ice making cycles under sensor malfunction that has occurred prior to the start up of the apparatus by storing a set of standard reference time data needed to the start up, thereby allowing the apparatus to provide ice irrespective of sensor conditions.

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Gunma, Japan

Hideyuki Katayanagi