This U.S. National stage application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. ยง 119(a) to Japanese Patent Application No. 2018-004031, filed in Japan on Jan. 15, 2018, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
The present disclosure relates to a double pipe icemaker. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a double pipe icemaker configured to make sherbet ice slurry.
Sherbet ice slurry is used to refrigerate fish or the like in some cases. There has been conventionally known, as a device configured to produce such ice slurry, a double pipe icemaker including an inner pipe and an outer pipe (see Japanese Patent No. 3888789 and the like). The double pipe icemaker described in Japanese Patent No. 3888789 includes an inner pipe, and an outer pipe provided radially outside the inner pipe and coaxially with the inner pipe. Cold water or brine as a cooling target flows into the inner pipe via an inlet provided at a first end of the inner pipe, and flows out of an outlet provided at a second end of the inner pipe. A refrigerant used to cool cold water or brine jets into an annular space between the inner pipe and the outer pipe via a plurality of orifices.
The double pipe icemaker described in Japanese Patent No. 3888789 has a refrigerant jetting direction from the orifices only in a circumferential direction of the inner pipe. The refrigerant jetting out of the orifices thus hits a region in a linear or island shape as part of an outer circumferential surface of the inner pipe, and cools around a rear side of the hit region (an inner circumferential surface of the inner pipe). When the refrigerant hits part of the inner pipe, the refrigerant and the cooling target in the inner pipe fail to uniformly exchange heat, and a heat exchanger including the inner pipe and the outer pipe cannot be utilized effectively.
It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a double pipe icemaker configured to effectively utilize a heat exchanger including an inner pipe and an outer pipe.
A double pipe icemaker according to a first aspect of the present disclosure
(1) includes an inner pipe, and an outer pipe provided radially outside the inner pipe and coaxially with the inner pipe, and configured to allow a cooling target to flow in the inner pipe and allow a refrigerant to flow in a space between the inner pipe and the outer pipe, wherein
the outer pipe has a wall provided with at least one nozzle configured to jet the refrigerant into the space, and
the nozzle has a jet port allowing the refrigerant to jet in a radial direction including at least an axial direction and a circumferential direction of the inner pipe.
The double pipe icemaker according to the first aspect of the present disclosure includes the nozzle configured to jet the refrigerant from the jet port in the radial direction including at least the axial direction and the circumferential direction of the inner pipe, so that the refrigerant is refrained from hitting only a limited region of the inner pipe as in the conventional case. The refrigerant jetted in the radial direction uniformly exchanges heat with the cooling target in the inner pipe, for effective utilization of the heat exchanger including the inner pipe and the outer pipe.
A double pipe icemaker according to a second aspect of the present disclosure
(2) includes an inner pipe, and an outer pipe provided radially outside the inner pipe and coaxially with the inner pipe, and configured to allow a cooling target to flow in the inner pipe and allow a refrigerant to flow in a space between the inner pipe and the outer pipe, wherein
the outer pipe has a wall provided with at least one nozzle configured to jet the refrigerant radially inward into the space, and a shielding plate hit by the jetting refrigerant is provided ahead of a jet port of the nozzle in a jetting direction.
In the double pipe icemaker according to the second aspect of the present disclosure, the refrigerant jetted radially inward from the jet port of the nozzle hits the shielding plate provided ahead of the jet port in the jetting direction and expands radially along a surface of the shielding plate. The refrigerant expanded in the radial direction uniformly exchanges heat with the cooling target in the inner pipe, for effective utilization of the heat exchanger including the inner pipe and the outer pipe.
(3) In the double pipe icemaker according to (1) or (2), preferably, the inner pipe has a first end provided with an inlet pipe for the cooling target and a second end provided with an outlet pipe for the cooling target,
the at least one nozzle includes a plurality of nozzles provided axially along the outer pipe, and
the nozzles have jet ports gradually reduced in size from the inlet pipe toward the outlet pipe. In this case, the cooling target immediately after flowing into the inner pipe is higher in temperature than the cooling target adjacent to the outlet pipe. The cooling target immediately after flowing into the inner pipe can be cooled with a larger amount of refrigerant by increase in size of the jet port of the nozzle adjacent to the inlet pipe, for improvement in cooling efficiency of the cooling target.
(4) In the double pipe icemaker according to (1) or (2), preferably, the inner pipe has a first end provided with an inlet pipe for the cooling target and a second end provided with an outlet pipe for the cooling target,
the at least one nozzle includes at least three nozzles provided axially along the outer pipe, and
the nozzles are disposed at pitches gradually increased in size from the inlet pipe toward the outlet pipe. In this case, the cooling target immediately after flowing into the inner pipe is higher in temperature than the cooling target adjacent to the outlet pipe. The cooling target immediately after flowing into the inner pipe can be cooled with a larger amount of refrigerant by disposing the jet port of the nozzle adjacent to the inlet pipe, for improvement in cooling efficiency of the cooling target.
A double pipe icemaker according to the present disclosure will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the present disclosure is not limited to the following exemplification, and instead is shown by the scope of claims and includes all changes which are equivalent to the claims in the meanings and within the scope of the claims.
Initially described is an icemaking system including the double pipe icemaker according to the present disclosure.
The icemaking system A adopts seawater as a cooling target, and includes, in addition to the double pipe icemaker 1 constituting a utilization heat exchanger, a compressor 2, a heat source heat exchanger 3, a four-way switching valve 4, an expansion valve 5, a superheater 6, a receiver 7, a seawater tank 8, and a pump 9. The double pipe icemaker 1, the compressor 2, the heat source heat exchanger 3, the four-way switching valve 4, the expansion valve 5, the superheater 6, and the receiver 7 are connected via pipes to constitute a refrigerant circuit. The double pipe icemaker 1, the seawater tank 8, and the pump 9 are similarly connected via pipes to constitute a seawater circuit.
The four-way switching valve 4 is kept in a state indicated by solid lines in
The refrigerant jetted into the annular space 14 exchanges heat with seawater flowing into the inner pipe 12 by means of the pump 9 to be evaporated. The seawater cooled by the evaporated refrigerant flows out of the inner pipe 12 and returns to the seawater tank 8. The refrigerant evaporated and gasified in the double pipe icemaker 1 is sucked into the compressor 2. When the refrigerant still including liquid not evaporated in the double pipe icemaker 1 enters the compressor 2, the refrigerant exits the double pipe icemaker 1 and is superheated by the superheater 6 to return to the compressor 2, in order to protect the compressor 2 that may be damaged with sudden high pressure (liquid compression) or viscosity reduction of ice machine oil. The superheater 6 is of a double pipe type, and the refrigerant exiting the double pipe icemaker 1 is superheated while passing a space between an inner pipe and an outer pipe of the superheater 6 and returns to the compressor 2.
The double pipe icemaker 1 cannot operate if seawater in the inner pipe 12 has a slow flow and ice is accumulated (ice accumulation) in the inner pipe 12 in the double pipe icemaker 1. Defrost operation is executed to melt the ice in the inner pipe 12 in this case. The four-way switching valve 4 is kept in a state indicated by broken lines in
The inner pipe 12 is an element allowing seawater as a cooling target to pass therethrough, and is made of a metal material such as stainless steel or iron. The inner pipe 12 has closed ends, and is provided therein with a blade mechanism 15 configured to scrape sherbet ice slurry generated on an inner circumferential surface of the inner pipe 12 to disperse the sherbet ice slurry in the inner pipe 12. The inner pipe 12 has a first axial end (a right end in
The outer pipe 13 is provided radially outside the inner pipe 12 and coaxially with the inner pipe 12, and is made of a metal material such as stainless steel or iron. The outer pipe 13 has a lower portion provided with a plurality of (three in the present embodiment) refrigerant inlet pipes 18, and an upper portion provided with a plurality of (two in the present embodiment) refrigerant outlet pipes 19. The outer pipe 13 has a wall 13a provided with the nozzle 11 configured to jet, into the annular space 14 between the outer pipe 13 and the inner pipe 12, a refrigerant used to cool seawater in the inner pipe 12. The nozzle 11 is provided to communicate with the refrigerant inlet pipes 18.
As depicted in
The outer pipe 13 according to the present embodiment includes three nozzles 11a, 11b, and 11c provided axially along the outer pipe 13 and having jet ports gradually reduced in size from seawater inlets 18 to seawater outlets 19. Specifically, the jet port of the nozzle 11b is smaller in size than the jet port of the nozzle 11c, and the jet port of the nozzle 11a is smaller in size than the jet port of the nozzle 11b. The jet ports of the nozzles 11 are adjusted in size in this manner to allow seawater (higher in temperature than seawater adjacent to the outlet) immediately after flowing into the inner pipe 12 to be cooled with a large amount of refrigerant, for improvement in cooling efficiency of the seawater.
The present disclosure should not be limited to the embodiment described above, but can be modified in various manners within the scope of claims.
The above embodiment exemplifies the nozzle 11 having the jet port allowing the refrigerant to jet in the axial direction and the circumferential direction of the inner pipe 12. The nozzle 11 may further have a jet port allowing the refrigerant to jet in a direction between the axial direction and the circumferential direction. That is, the nozzle 11 can be provided with the jet ports allowing the refrigerant to jet in the radial direction including the axial direction and the circumferential direction of the inner pipe. This configuration achieves more uniform heat exchange between the refrigerant and the cooling target in comparison to the case of providing the jet ports allowing the refrigerant to jet only in the axial direction and the circumferential direction of the inner pipe, for effective utilization of the heat exchanger including the inner pipe and the outer pipe.
The above embodiment provides the nozzle having the radial jetting direction to achieve effective utilization of the heat exchanger. The refrigerant can jet in the radial direction by means of a different measure. As exemplified in
The above embodiment provides the nozzles 11 having the jet ports gradually reduced in size from the seawater inlet pipe 16 toward the seawater outlet pipe 17. The nozzles may alternatively be disposed at pitches gradually increased from the seawater inlet pipe 16 toward the seawater outlet pipe 17. Specifically, among the three nozzles 11 according to the embodiment as depicted in
The above embodiment provides the three nozzles. There may alternatively be provided at most two nozzles, or at least four nozzles, in accordance with length of the inner pipe.
The above description refers to the single double pipe icemaker provided in the icemaking system. The icemaking system may alternatively include two or more double pipe icemakers disposed in series or parallelly.
The above description exemplifies the double pipe icemaker of a horizontal type. The present disclosure is also applicable to a double pipe icemaker of a vertical type
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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JP2018-004031 | Jan 2018 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2019/000626 | 1/11/2019 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2019/139109 | 7/18/2019 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20200386461 A1 | Dec 2020 | US |