A water supply unit for an ice-making machine provided with a pair of freezing plates each presenting number of vertically extending partitions on their front sides, the freezing plates being mounted in an upright position with their rear sides facing to each other, and with a cooling coil mounted between the rear sides of the freezing plates. The water supply unit is placed on the top of the freezing plates and has an ice-making water conduit section connecting to the front surfaces of the freezing plates via water supply plates and a flushing water conduit section connecting to the rear sides of the freezing plates. The flushing water conduit section of the supply unit is received into and fitted between the upper ends of the freezing plates for securely positioning the water supply unit with respect to the freezing plates.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a water supply unit for an ice making machine or 
apparatus and, more particularly, to a unit including an ice-making water 
conduit section and a flushing water conduit section and adapted to be 
easily and positively mounted in position to a pair of upright freezing 
plates. 
An ice-making machine or apparatus disclosed in our filed U.S. patent 
application Ser. No. 661,325, filed Oct. 16, 1984, and in application Ser. 
No. 660,485, filed Oct. 11, 1984 and assigned to the assignee of the 
present application, comprizes a pair of upright freezing plates with a 
cooling coil of the freezing system clamped therebetween, a plurality of 
rib-like partition plates formed on the front sides of the freezing plates 
at a constant spacing from one another, a water supply unit on the top of 
the freezing plates, and a water saucer at the lower ends of the freezing 
plates. The water saucer and the water supply unit are connected together 
via a pipe by a circulating pump whereby the ice-making water is pumped in 
circulation to the freezing surfaces of the freezing plates. After the ice 
product is formed to a predetermined size, it is released from the 
freezing plates. 
In this type of the ice product making apparatus, accurate setting of the 
mounting position of the water supply unit relative to the freezing plates 
is extremely difficult to achieve so that supply of ice-making water to 
the freezing plates tends to be unstable due to fluctuations in the 
mounting position of the water supply unit thus causing turbulence so that 
it is extremely difficult to yield ice products of uniform shape. 
In the above described ice making apparatus, in order to release the ice 
products grown to a predetermined size from the freezing plates, a hot gas 
is supplied to the cooling coil and/or flushing or defrosting water is 
caused to flow on the rear sides of the freezing plates. The present 
invention is directed to such ice product making apparatus wherein at 
least the flushing or defrosting water is used in the harvesting cycle 
thereof. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide highly 
effective means for obviating the above described shortcoming of the 
prior-art device by dexterously taking advantage of the specific structure 
of the flushing or defrosting water conduit section supplying the flushing 
water to the freezing plates. The present invention provides an 
arrangement in which the projecting flushing water conduit section of the 
water supply unit also provided with the ice-making water conduit section 
is received into and fitted between the opposing upper ends of a pair of 
juxtaposed upright freezing plates, in such a manner that the water supply 
unit is mounted in position on the top of the freezing plates so as to 
allow for uniform flow of the ice-making water down the freezing plates.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The water sprinkler or water supply unit for an ice making machine or 
apparatus embodying the present invention is now explained by referring to 
the accompanying drawings. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the reference numeral 1 designates a pair of 
substantially upright freezing plates of a lower thermo-conductive 
material, such as stainless steel. These steel plates 1 are placed with 
their rear sides 1a facing each other with a small and constant gap 
therebetween and with a cooling coil 2 placed between the opposing rear 
sides 1a. The cooling coil 2 is secured to these rear sides as by welding 
or the like fastening means. The front sides, 1b of each freezing plate 1 
are formed with vertically extending rib-like projections 3 that are 
V-shaped in cross-section and transversely spaced apart at a constant 
pitch from one another. On the rear sides 1b of the freezing plates 1, 
freezing sections 1c are defined by adjacent partitions 3, and a number of 
transversely elongated projections 1d are defined in each freezing section 
1c between adjacent straight sections of the freezing coil 2. 
On the top of the freezing plates 1, there is affixed a transversely 
extending water sprinkling or supply unit 4 comprised of an ice-making 
water conduit section 4a having a rectangular cross-sectional shape and a 
flushing water conduit section 4b of generally rectangular cross section 
provided to the lower side of the conduit section 4a. The conduit 4 is 
formed unitarily as by moulding so as to provide the vertically adjacent 
conduit sections 4a and 4b. These conduit sections 4a and 4b are formed so 
as to be slightly longer than the transverse extent of the freezing plates 
1. At the ends of the ice-making water conduit section 4a and the flushing 
water conduit section 4b, there are provided an ice-making water supply 
port 5 and a flushing water supply port 6, respectively. The supply port 5 
is connected by a pipe 9 to a circulating pump 8 connected to an 
ice-making water circulating tank 7 placed below the freezing plates 1, 
while the supply port 6 is connected to a pipe 11 via a magnetic valve 10. 
On both sides of the supply conduit 4, there are formed a pair of inclined 
mounting plates 12. On each mounting plate 12, the same plurality of 
substantially L-shaped water guide plates 13 as the number of the freezing 
sections 1c on each freezing plate 1 are removably mounted in such a 
manner that the ice-making water from the ice-making water conduit section 
4a is guided from ice-making water supply ports 15 via water guide plates 
13 so as to reach and flow down along the associated freezing sections 1c 
. The flushing water conduit section 4b, which is formed with the lower 
side of the ice-making water conduit section 4a but may be formed 
separately and annexed to the section 4a, is received into and closely 
fitted between the upper ends of the freezing plates 1 (sandwiched between 
rear sides 1a) so that the water supply conduit 4 itself may be positioned 
with respect to the freezing plates 1 in a predetermined manner and the 
gap "d" between the foremost parts of the water guide plates 13 and the 
associated freezing sections 1c may be set accurately. The flushing water 
conduit section 4b is formed with a number of flushing water spray ports 
16 via which the flushing water is sprayed onto the rear sides 1a of the 
freezing plates 1. 
The water guide plates 13 may be constructed similarly to those used in our 
aforementioned filed application or may be provided with perpendicular 
side walls and a rear wall and inserted instead into the space defined 
between the mounting plate 12 and a corner 4c of the water supply conduit 
4 from the lateral side thereof, that is, from the left or right side 
thereof in FIG. 1. When the water supply conduit 4 is mounted in position 
on the upper ends of the freezing plates 1, each water guide plate 13 is 
received in a space defined between the adjacent partitions 3. 
In the ice-making operation of the above described water sprayer, a 
compressor, not shown, is actuated for supplying a cooling medium into the 
cooling coil 2, while the circulating pump 8 is also actuated for 
supplying the ice-making water in the circulating tank 7 to the freezing 
plates 1 in circulation via ice-making water conduit section 4a, 
ice-making water supply ports 15 and water guide plates 13, so that ice 
products are gradually formed on each freezing section 1c. 
During harvesting, a hot gas is supplied to the cooling coil 2, while the 
magnetic valve 10 is opened for supplying flushing water to the rear sides 
1a of the respective freezing plates 1 via flushing water spray ports 16 
of the flushing water conduit section 4b for facilitating the release of 
the ice products. 
It will be seen from the above described construction and operation of the 
water supply unit of the present invention that the spray unit itself may 
be easily and accurately attached to the upper ends of the freezing plates 
through the medium of the flushing water conduit section and, since the 
distance between the water guide plates and the associated freezing 
sections may be maintained constant and free of fluctuations, water 
turbulence may be avoided and the ice products of uniform shape may be 
formed on the freezing sections of the freezing plates. Also, since the 
flushing water conduit section is formed as one with the ice-making water 
conduit section in the water supply unit, there is no necessity to provide 
a separate flushing water circuit and not only the ice-making water supply 
ports but the flushing water spray ports may be positioned easily with 
resulting saving in time and labor of the assemblying operation.