Sensor assembly for detecting ice crystal formation on heat exchange surface and ice-making machine incorporating the same
AssigneeSunwell Engineering Company Limited
InventorVladimir Goldstein
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sensor assembly for detecting ice crystal formation on a heat exchange surface in an ice-making machine comprises at least one microphone monitoring the sound made by a rotating blade assembly within the ice-making machine during ice slurry formation. A filter filters the output of the microphone to remove background noise. A comparator receives the output of the filter and compares the filtered microphone output with a threshold to determine if the filtered microphone output signifies ice crystal formation on the heat exchange surface. The operation of the ice-making machine can then be adjusted in a manner to allow the formed ice crystals to be removed from the heat exchange surface.
Claims8
An ice-making machine comprising:
- a housing having an inlet to receive a fluid from which ice is to be made and an outlet to permit the egress of ice from said housing;
- a heat exchanger having at least one heat exchange surface, a refrigerant inlet, a refrigerant outlet and at least one refrigerant passage interconnecting said refrigerant inlet and said refrigerant outlet to permit a flow of refrigerant through said heat exchanger to extract heat from fluid contacting said at least one heat exchange surface;
- at least one blade in contact with said at least one heat exchange surface and movable across said at least one heat exchange surface to remove cooled fluid therefrom;
- a drive moving said blade across said heat exchange surface;
- a sensor assembly sensing a change in sound produced by said ice-making machine thereby to detect ice crystal formation on said heat exchange surface;
- and
- a processing device communicating with said sensor assembly, said processing device conditioning said ice-making machine to operate in a manner to allow the formed ice crystals to be removed from said heat exchange surface upon detection of ice crystal formation on said heat exchange surface.
An ice-making process comprising:
- contacting a heat exchange surface cooled by flowing refrigerant with a brine solution;
- removing a layer of cooled brine solution from said heat exchange surface prior to ice crystallization thereon using a blade assembly;
- monitoring sound produced by movement of the blade assembly across said heat exchange surface during said removing;
- and
- altering the refrigerant flow process upon detection of ice crystal formation on said heat exchange surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.