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.
Claims23
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 configured to move said at least one blade across said at least one heat exchange surface;
- and
- a sensor assembly configured to detect ice crystal formation on said at least one heat exchange surface, wherein said sensor assembly comprises at least one transducer configured to sense vibration of said at least one blade resulting from ice crystal formation on said heat exchange surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.