The present invention relates to a machine for producing ice, in particular but not exclusively usable in commercial stores such as bars and ice-cream parlours .

Nowadays, as it is known, there are several machines adapted to produce blocks of ice into various shapes, such as cubes or nuggets having substantially the same size .

Such machines generally have a frame to which a mould that has a support plate carrying a plurality of shapers for the ice and a spraying device facing towards the plate so as to spray water to the shapers are associated with. The mould is usually associated with a freezing/defrosting coil with which therefore it forms an evaporator. In such cases, the mould may be placed in a raised position with respect to the spraying device with the openings of the shapers facing downwards. In this way, when the spraying device sprays water in the shapers, coolant is made to flow into the coil which evaporates, thus subtracting heat to the water in the shapers which freezes as a result. Once ice has formed in all shapers, heating fluid is made to flow into the coils which melts the ice just as much as to make it free to drop by gravity into a collection tank .

In this heating step, the ice blocks do not fall all at the same time, since the heat emitted by the coil is not immediately distributed evenly along the whole extension thereof. In the passage from the freezing step to the defrosting step, the coil is affected by a thermal transient of non-negligible duration that makes the ice blocks closer to the inlet portion of the coil melt faster and thus fall before those farthest from such an inlet portion. In order to make all the ice blocks created in the freezing step fall into the shapers of the mould it is therefore necessary that the coil emits substantially along the whole extension thereof heat sufficient for the partial melting of the ice. At each thermal inversion, therefore, the demand for energy to cool or heat the coil is very high, thus involving high costs.

This drawback is partially overcome by machines for producing ice in irregularly shaped flakes which for example provide for the presence of scraping elements acting on a sheet of ice, thus producing the ice flakes. This type of machines, however, cannot ensure the production of ice blocks having substantially the same shape and size, which is very often required by some bars to serve sought-after drinks, such as for example a brandy.

The object of the present invention is to overcome the drawbacks mentioned above and in particular to devise a machine for producing ice that can ensure the production of ice blocks having substantially the same shape and size, requiring lower energy consumption than the machines currently known.

This and other objects according to the present invention are achieved by making a machine for producing ice as described in claim 1.

Further features of the machine for producing ice are the object of the dependent claims.

The features and the advantages of a machine for producing ice according to the present invention will become more apparent from the following exemplary and non-limiting description, with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings, in which:

- figure 1 is a schematic perspective partially sectional view of a machine for producing ice according to the present invention;

- figure 2 is a lateral partially sectional view of a detail of the machine for producing ice in figure 1 ; - figure 3 is a schematic perspective view of a first mould used in a machine according to the prior art;

- figure 4 is a schematic perspective view of a second mould used in a machine according to the prior art;

- figure 5 is a schematic perspective partial view of a first embodiment of a mould used in a machine for producing ice according to the present invention;

- figure 6 is a schematic perspective partial view of a second embodiment of a mould used in a machine for producing ice according to the present invention;

- figure 7 is a schematic perspective partial view of a third embodiment of a mould used in a machine for producing ice according to the present invention;

- figure 8 is a schematic perspective partial view of a fourth embodiment of a mould used in a machine for producing ice according to the present invention;

- figure 9 is a sectional view along line IX-IX of the mould in figure 8;

- figure 10 is a schematic perspective view of a mould according to the present invention associated with a coil heat exchanger;

figures 11a and lib are two schematic perspective views of a fifth embodiment of a mould used in a machine for producing ice according to the present invention .

With reference to the figures, a machine for producing ice is shown, overall indicated with reference number 10.

Such a machine for producing ice 10 comprises a frame 11 with which a mould 20 and a spraying device 13 are associated .

Mould 20 has a plurality of shapers 15 for forming ice blocks.

Shapers 15 may be of any shape and size and are preferably equal to each other.

In particular, mould 20 may be made with a first support plate 12 having a plurality of through openings, each associated with a respective shaper 15. In detail, shapers 15 and the first support plate 12 may be made as separate bodies and then subsequently coupled by, for example, welding or even a detachable joint coupling, or they may be made as a single piece. In an alternative embodiment shown by way of example in figures 11a and lib, mould 20 may be made with a plurality of metallic separating sheets 19 arranged on and welded to a second support plate 21, preferably flat and metallic, so as to make an ice cube tray. It should be noted that in the present specification, the term ice cube tray means a plurality of shapers of any shape .

In any case, the spraying device 13 is configured to spray water towards mould 20 so that water penetrates into shapers 15. In particular, the spraying device 13 comprises one or more spraying nozzles 16 fed with water coming from a tank (not shown) . Preferably, the spraying device 13 comprises a plurality of spraying nozzles 16 facing the openings of shapers 15.

Moreover, mould 20 is associated with a cooling/heating device 14 configured for cooling the water in shapers 15 up to form the ice and then heat the formed ice so that it can be free to exit from the same shapers.

Such a cooling/heating device 14 preferably comprises a coil heat exchanger 14 coupled to shapers 15. In particular, said coil heat exchanger 14 may be coupled to shapers 15 directly by means, for example, of welding, or indirectly by means of supports constrained to the shapers .

In the coil heat exchanger 14, coolant fluid is made to flow to promote the freezing of water in shapers 15 and then heating fluid is made to flow to melt the ice blocks that have previously formed in shapers 15, making them free to exit from the same shapers. In particular, it is possible that a same fluid acts in subsequent moments as coolant and as heating fluid.

In any case, mould 20 is designed in such a way that the ice can exit from shapers 15 by falling by gravity. Mould 20, therefore, may be arranged parallel or orthogonal or inclined, with respect to the base of machine 10 with the openings of shapers 15 facing the base of the machine 10 itself.

By base of the machine it is meant a substantially horizontal surface from which the frame 11 of the machine 10 develops.

Preferably, shapers have inclined walls with respect to the support plates so as to obtain an aid for the sliding of the blocks of ice. In the particular embodiment shown in figures 1 and 2, mould 20 is inclined with respect to the base of machine 10 and placed in a raised position with respect to the spraying device 13, whose spraying nozzles 16 spray water upwards and thus towards the openings of shapers 15.

Of course, machine 10 comprises a collection container (not shown) for the ice blocks falling from mould 20. According to the present invention, each shaper 15 is connected to at least one shaper 15 adjacent thereto by at least one connection channel 17 open on the same side towards which the openings of shapers 15 face. As can be seen in figures 5-9, each connection channel 17 is made at the openings of adjacent shapers as a recess with respect to the surface of the first support plate 12 opposite that from which shapers 15 extend. Likewise, in the embodiment of figure 11a, each connection channel 17 is made at the openings of the adjacent shapers as a recess of the free end of a corresponding separation sheet.

Shapers 15 may be arranged according to any scheme, for example a lattice scheme.

In figure 5, in particular, shapers 15 are connected in rows in succession with one another.

In figures 6-9, each shaper 15 is connected to the adjacent shapers, thus forming a lattice. In detail, in figures 6 and 8 the lattice has a square or more in general, quadrangular mesh; in figure 7, the lattice has a triangular mesh.

In any case, when the spraying device 13 is activated to spray water towards mould 20, the water penetrates not only into shapers 15 but also in the connection channels 17. By cooling mould 20, therefore, ice also forms in the connection channels 17, thus forming ice bridges between the ice blocks formed in the respective adjacent shapers connected to each other. When the operation of the cooling/heating device is reversed in such a way as to heat mould 20, the first ice blocks that melt and fall towards the collection container also drag the respective ice blocks, to which they are connected, to exit from shapers 15.

Each connection channel 17 is preferably sized so that the ice bridge formed therein by cooling mould 20 is sufficiently sturdy to allow this entrainment between the connected blocks and at the same time sufficiently fragile to break when the blocks fall into the collection container.

Preferably, in the embodiments shown by way of example in figures 5-10, shapers 15 for making ice consist of a metal material, for example of a tinned copper.

In this case, in each connection channel 17, a metallic bridge element 18 is engaged. The metallic bridge element 18 may also consist preferably of tinned copper .

As shown in figure 9, the metallic bridge element 18 extends along the connection channel 17 and has two opposite ends that come into contact each with a respective shaper 15.

Otherwise, if mould 20 is made with metal separation sheets 19 welded to the second support plate 21 as described above and illustrated by way of example in figure 11a, the connection channel 17 already has metallic walls.

In any case, the ice bridges that are created between the blocks form not only a mechanical connection between the ice blocks, but also a thermal connection. In this way, when the cooling/heating device is activated to heat shapers 15, the metallic bridge elements 18 transmit heat between adjacent shapers faster than what the cooling/heating device can do. This makes the ice blocks formed into connected shapers 15 fall almost all together without requiring the full heating of the coil heat exchanger.

The machine for producing ice according to the present invention requires lower energy consumption than the currently known machines adapted to produce ice blocks of substantially the same shape and size.

The features of the machine for producing ice object of the present invention as well as the relevant advantages are clear from the above description.

Finally, it is clear that several changes and variations may be made to the machine for producing ice thus conceived, all falling within the invention; moreover, all details can be replaced with technically equivalent elements. In the practice, the materials used as well as the sizes, can be whatever, according to the technical requirements.