Ice maker with pressure transducers
AssigneeTrue Manufacturing Co., Inc.
InventorKevin Knatt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ice maker control system includes a low side pressure transducer on a suction line and a high side pressure transducer on a discharge line. The ice maker's refrigeration system is hermetically sealed and devoid of pressure taps for servicing gauges. The ice maker can display an indication of real-time suction or discharge pressure. The ice maker can store records of suction and discharge pressure over time and display time series data for suction and discharge pressure on the display. The ice maker can cycle the condenser fan based on the discharge pressure. An additional high pressure switch can shut off the compressor independently of the controller or transducers. During a pulldown routine, the ice maker refrains from delivering water to the ice formation device until the suction pressure is below a threshold.
Claims27
An ice maker comprising:
- an ice formation device in which to form ice;
- a water system configured to deliver water to the ice formation device;
- a refrigeration system including a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator, a thermal expansion device, and refrigerant passaging connecting the compressor, the condenser, the evaporator, and the thermal expansion device, the evaporator being thermally coupled to the ice formation device to cool the ice formation device for forming at least some of the water delivered by the water system into ice;
- and
- a control system configured to control the refrigeration system and the water system to form ice in the ice formation device, the control system including a controller, a low side pressure transducer fluidly connected to the refrigerant passaging upstream of the compressor, and a high side pressure transducer fluidly connected to the refrigerant passaging downstream of the compressor, the low side pressure transducer being configured to output to the controller a signal representative of a suction pressure of the refrigeration system and the high side pressure transducer configured to output to the controller a signal representative of a discharge pressure of the refrigeration system;
- wherein the refrigeration system is hermetically sealed and is devoid of any pressure taps at which any servicing pressure gauge can be fluidly connected to the refrigerant passaging.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.