EP2064498B1 - Ice dispenser - Google Patents

Abstract

In an ice dispenser comprising an ice block storage vessel (6, 10), a slide having a first set of fingers (9) movable over a delivery opening (12) and a group of structures with a second set of fingers, where movement of the slide alters the spacing between the two sets of fingers, the group of structures is movable between a first position in which the delivery opening is partially covered and a position in which the opening is unimpeded. An ice dispenser comprises an ice block storage vessel (6, 10); a slide movable on a specific path over a delivery opening (12) in the vessel and having a first set of fingers (9); and a group of structures (e.g. transverse stays and fingers) including a second set of fingers. At least one of the sets has at least two axially separated fingers, and movement of the slide alters the spacing between the two sets of fingers. The novel feature is that the group of structures is movable between a first position in which the delivery opening is partially covered and a position in which the opening is unimpeded.

Description

The present invention relates to an ice dispenser, in particular an ice dispenser of the type which can be used in a refrigeration device to temporarily store pieces of ice produced by an automatic ice maker of the refrigeration device and output at the request of a user.

On off US 4 176 527 A known ice dispenser comprises a storage container for ice pieces, a stirring tool which is rotatable about an axis extending through the reservoir, an output chamber which extends the reservoir in the direction of the axis, and a rotatable slide coupled in the output chamber to the stirring tool in the form of a plurality blades mounted in parallel on the axle, which, in the course of its rotation, convey ice that has entered the discharge chamber to an exit opening. The stirring tool is formed on a part of its length as a helix and on another, the output chamber adjacent part as a screw conveyor, so that by a rotation of the stirring ice pieces are conveyed into the discharge chamber. If the agitator were rotated without allowing ice out of the dispensing chamber, the ice would jam in the dispensing chamber and block rotation. Rotation of the stirring tool without simultaneous dispensing of ice is therefore not possible. If no ice is removed for a long time, there is a risk that the pieces of ice in the storage container will freeze together and block the rotation, so that the ice dispenser must be removed from the refrigerator and defrosted to make it usable again.

To counteract this danger, a very powerful drive motor for the stirring tool can be provided, and reservoir and stirring tool can be designed with high mechanical strength to allow breakage of the pieces of ice even after prolonged disuse. In this way, although the risk of blocking the ice dispenser or reduce the time of disuse, after which a blockage occurs extend, but this approach is associated with considerable costs, and there is a risk that pieces of ice in the reservoir are undesirably crushed , However, the larger the proportion of small fragments on the ice of the Reservoir is, the greater is its tendency to freeze, and the greater the force required to break the ice.

U.S. 4,846,381 proposes to solve the problem of freezing by a stirring device and a screw conveyor are mounted in the reservoir of an ice dispenser, separated from each other and each driven by its own motor. Thus, the stirring tool can be actuated to separate the ice pieces from each other, without at the same time is issued by the screw auger ice. A problem of this design is the large space requirement of the stirring tool and the separate screw conveyor and its drive motors, which makes this solution mainly for commercial, exclusively for ice making devices interesting.
Another ice dispenser according to the preamble of claim 1 is made US 4972999 known.

Object of the present invention is to provide an ice dispenser, which reliably prevents the freezing of stored pieces of ice and thereby has a compact, inexpensive realizable structure that makes it suitable in particular for use in a household refrigerator.

The object is achieved by providing in an ice dispenser with a storage container for pieces of ice, a rotatable about an axis extending through the reservoir agitator, an adjacent to the reservoir discharge chamber and a coupled in the output chamber to the agitator rotatable slide, wherein on a wall of the Output chamber in which the slider moves in its rotation, an output opening is formed for conveyed by the slide ice between the stirring tool and slide a clutch is arranged to selectively transmit or not transmit a force exerted on the agitator driving torque to the slider. When the drive torque is transmitted, the slider rotates together with the agitating tool and pieces of ice, which enter the dispensing chamber by the movement of the agitating tool or otherwise, are conveyed from the slider to the dispensing opening. If the drive torque is not transmitted, the slider remains at rest, so that the ice is not conveyed to the discharge port. In this state, it is possible to operate the stirring tool alone to disengage pieces of ice collapsing in the hopper without giving up ice at the same time.

For ease of construction, an ice dispenser is preferred in which the agitating tool and the slider have the same axis of rotation.

The discharge chamber expediently has the shape of a cylinder concentric with the axis of rotation of the slide, the discharge opening being formed in a lateral surface of the cylinder.

According to a first embodiment, an end face of the cylindrical dispensing chamber is open to the reservoir.

According to a second embodiment, a partition with a passage opening is arranged between the reservoir and the discharge chamber. The size of the port may be selected to suitably control the rate at which pieces of ice enter the dispensing chamber from the hopper when the agitator is agitated.

In order to prevent the entry of ice pieces in the discharge chamber, when the stirring tool is moved only to keep the ice pieces movable, advantageously, the slider can be fixed in a position blocking the passage opening.

In order to promote the movement of the ice cubes from the reservoir into the dispensing chamber, the reservoir preferably has a bottom sloping towards the dispensing chamber.

It is further preferred that the slider comprises a first set of fingers and that a second set of fingers is provided in the dispensing chamber, at least one of the sets comprising at least two axially spaced fingers, and that upon rotation of the slider one finger of the other set a space between the two fingers of the one sentence happens. Pieces of ice between the two sets of fingers are crushed between the fingers and thus come in the form of small fragments to the discharge opening. In order to improve the comminution effect, the fingers are expediently designed as a knife, with sharp cutting edges.

In order to reliably exclude the dispensing of ice pieces during stirring with the clutch open, the second set of fingers can be fixed in a position bridging the dispensing opening, in particular in the above-mentioned first embodiment without a partition between the reservoir and the dispensing chamber.

To prevent the issue of ice pieces, it is not necessary for the second set of fingers to completely close the dispensing opening; it is sufficient that he reduces their free cross section so far that no hot piece of ice longer passes through.

If the second set of fingers in the dispensing opening bridging position closes them only partially, it can be used in this position to crush the pieces of ice, since the resulting fragments can continue to pass the dispensing opening.

In order to spend intact pieces of ice, the second set of fingers is suitably movable between the dispensing opening bridging position and the dispensing opening releasing position.

In order to enable a return of the second set of fingers to the bridging position without having to provide their own drive means, it is advantageous if the bridging position is a stable equilibrium position of the second set of fingers.

The second set of fingers is preferably locked at the option of a user in the output chamber or rotatable together with the slider about its axis of rotation.

Such a rotation can be easily driven when the second set of fingers is frictionally coupled to the slider.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying figures.

Show it:

Fig. 1

a schematic section through a household refrigerator, which is equipped with an ice dispenser according to the invention;

Fig. 2

an enlarged axial section through the discharge chamber of the ice dispenser according to a first embodiment;

Fig. 3

a schematic section through the output chamber of the ice dispenser of Fig. 2 perpendicular to the axis in a stirring mode or an operating mode for dispensing crushed ice; and

Fig. 4

one too Fig. 3 analogous section through the output chamber of the ice dispenser the Fig. 2 in an operating mode for dispensing pieces of ice;

Fig. 5

an enlarged axial section through the discharge chamber of the ice dispenser according to a second embodiment; and

Fig. 6

a schematic section through the output chamber of the ice dispenser of Fig. 5 perpendicular to the axis.

This in Fig. 1 shown in a schematic section refrigeration device has a heat-insulating body 1 and a door 2, which define an interior space 3. The interior 3 is maintained at a temperature below 0 ° C by an evaporator, which is housed in an upper part of the body 1 divided evaporator chamber 4. An automatic ice maker 5 is arranged in the immediate vicinity of the evaporator chamber 4 in the interior 3, so that it can preferably be acted upon by cold air from the evaporator chamber 4. The ice maker 5 comprises in a known manner, not shown in detail in the figure, a plurality of mold containers, means for automatically dosing water into the mold containers, and means for automatically ejecting the finished ice cubes from the mold containers.

Under the ice maker 5, a collecting container 6 of an ice dispenser is arranged, which receives the ejected pieces of ice. The collecting container 6 extends over a large part of the depth of the inner space 3. In a rear niche 7 of the collecting container 6, an electric motor for driving a stirring rod 8 extending in the longitudinal direction of the collecting container 6 is housed. Rotary blades 9 of a grinder are coupled to an end 7 of the stirring rod 8 facing away from the niche in a manner which will be described in more detail below. The knives 9 are housed in a cylindrical dispensing chamber 10 which is open to the collecting container 6 and extends it along the axis of rotation of the stirring rod 8. At one of the door 2 facing end wall of the discharge chamber 10, an electromagnet 11 is arranged, whose function will also be explained later.

The stirring rod 8 is a metal rod zigzag-shaped in a plane parallel to the axis. Due to its planar shape, unlike a helix or a worm, it exerts no conveying force in the axial direction on pieces of ice contained in the collecting container 6, but moves them in random directions and thus prevents them from freezing over a large area. Therefore, the stirring rod 8 can be rotated from time to time by the motor, without thereby ice pieces are pressed into the discharge chamber 10 and can clog them.

As in particular in the FIGS. 3, 4 To recognize the output chamber 10 has substantially the shape of a horizontal cylinder, on whose lateral surface a downwardly open discharge opening 12 is formed. This discharge opening 12 is located in Fig. 1 shown passage 13 which extends through an insulating material layer of the door 2 and opens into an open towards the outside of the door 2 niche 14. A flap 15 keeps the passage 13 closed unless the dispenser is in operation to deliver ice through the dispensing opening 12 and the passage 13 to a container placed in the recess 14.

A water tank 16 is embedded on the rear wall of the niche 14 in the insulating material of the door 2. The water tank 16 is on the one hand as the icemaker 5 via a supply line 17 and a check valve 18 connected to the drinking water network and on the other hand to a tap 19 in the niche 14.

Structure and function of the grinder according to a first embodiment will now be described with reference to the FIGS. 2 to 4 described. As in Fig. 2 can be seen, the rake 8 goes at its end facing away from the niche 7 in one piece into a cylindrical shaft 20, the extends through the discharge chamber 10. A distal end portion 21 of the shaft 20 has a non-circular, for example, square cross-sectional shape. A sleeve 22, which is mounted so as to be easily rotatable on the shaft 20, carries a plurality of cutting discs 23, each of which, as in FIG Fig. 3 to recognize four of a core portion 24 radially projecting knife 9 carries and act as a slide for located in the discharge chamber 10 pieces of ice. In the spaces between each two of the cutter discs 23 engage sharp-edged plates 26 of about a quarter-circle shape. Mutually facing edges of the knives 9 and the plates 26 are serrated to selectively produce a high pressure to break up the pieces of ice can.

The plates 26 are rigidly connected at their outer periphery by two transverse struts 25, 27. In the in Fig. 3 In the configuration shown, the two transverse struts 25, 27 bear against the wall of the dispensing chamber 10 on either side of the dispensing opening 12, while the plates 26 bridge the dispensing opening 12. The distance between the parallel plates 26 is smaller than the dimensions of the ice pieces, so that pieces of ice that are in the dispensing chamber 10 can not readily pass between the plates 26 through the dispensing opening 12.

The shaft 20 adjacent edge portions of the plates 26 are each clamped by elastic buffer rings 29 between two cutter discs 23, so that the plates 26 tend to follow a rotation of the blades 9 in the counterclockwise direction, if not, as in Fig. 3 are prevented by a voltage applied to one of the transverse struts 25, 27 latch 28 therefrom.

Again referring to Fig. 2 It can be seen that the sleeve 22 is rotatably mounted in a bearing opening 30 formed in the end wall of the discharge chamber 10 facing the door 2. A coupling body 31 is attached to the non-circular end portion 21 of the shaft 20 and with the help of (in Fig. 2 not shown) electromagnet 11 between the in Fig. 2 shown position in which the knife 9 carrying sleeve 22 and the shaft 20 are freely rotatable against each other, displaceable in a coupling position, in which coupling claws 32 of the sleeve 22 in recesses 33 of the coupling body 31 engage, creating a positive and frictional connection between the shaft 20 and the sleeve 22 is produced.

The operation of the ice dispenser is as follows: As long as in Fig. 2 shown, the shaft 20 and the sleeve 22 are not coupled to each other, the motor is operated in the niche 7 at predetermined intervals for a short time to break free in the sump collapsing ice pieces and keep moving. In the perspective of Fig. 3 The motor rotates preferably in a counterclockwise direction. A frictional torque transmitted via the bearing from the shaft 20 to the sleeve 22 does not cause the blades 9 to rotate since they are braked by the plates 26 clamped to the buffer rings 29 and blocked by the latch 28. Ice pieces located in the dispensing chamber 10 do not reach the dispensing opening 12 because they can not pass through the plates 26.

When the coupling body 31 is displaced to make positive engagement between the shaft 20 and sleeve 22, the blades 9 rotate together with the stirring rod 8 in the counterclockwise direction. Pieces of ice entering the discharge chamber 10 are pushed by the rotating blades 9 against the plates 26 and crushed between the rotating blades 9 and the plates 26 blocked by the bar 28. The resulting fragments pass through the spaces between the plates 26 and reach the discharge opening 12. Thus, crushed ice is dispensed.

To dispense ice in pieces, it is sufficient to briefly retract the bar 28 while rotating the stirring bar 28 in a counterclockwise direction. Due to the clamping between the buffer rings 29, the plates 26 rotate together with the knives 9 and release the dispensing opening 12, so that the knives 9 push intact ice pieces to dispensing opening 12 and these are dispensed.

In principle, it is possible to allow the bar 28 to be withdrawn during the dispensing of ice pieces, so that the plates 26 make the same rotation as the knives 9. In this case, however, it is difficult to meter the ice pieces, since the Stückis dispensing mode can be stopped again when the plates 26, the in Fig. 3 have reached shown position again and locked in this by the bolt 28. According to a preferred variant, therefore, the bar 28 is retracted only as long as necessary so that the leading in the direction of rotation of the two transverse struts 27 can pass through the bolt 28 in the transition to the Stückis output mode. Then, when the bolt 28 engages again in the discharge chamber 10, it blocks, as in Fig. 4 shown in the direction of rotation trailing cross member 25 in a position in which the discharge port 12 is completely exposed. In order to finish the Stückis output mode, it is sufficient to move the coupling body 31 back from the sleeve 22, so that the engagement between the coupling claws 32 and the recesses 33 is lost. The now again freely rotatable against the shaft 20 arrangement of sleeve 22, knives 9, plates 26 and struts 25, 27 returns, driven by the weight of the plates 26 and the struts 25, 27, automatically in a stable equilibrium position corresponding, in Fig. 3 shown position in which it is blocked again by the bolt 28.

The Figures 5 and 6 show the output chamber of an ice dispenser according to a second embodiment of the invention in an axial section, or a section perpendicular to the axis. Elements of this ice dispenser, already with reference to the first embodiment of the Fig. 2 to 4 correspond to explained elements are provided with the same reference numerals and will not be explained again.

In this embodiment, the shaft 20 extends through an intermediate wall 34, which separates the collecting container 6 and the discharge chamber 10 from each other. A through hole 35 (see Fig. 6 ) in the intermediate wall 34 allows the passage of ice pieces from the collecting container 6 in the discharge chamber 10 when the stirring rod 8 rotates. The stirring rod 8 sweeps next to the intermediate wall 34 closely over the sloping to the intermediate wall 34 bottom of the collecting container 6, so that 6 pieces of ice reliably detected at low level of the collecting container and raised to the through hole 35 so that they through this into the discharge chamber 10 can fall.

The in the output chamber 10 by means of the electromagnet 11 to the rotation of the stirring rod 8 can be coupled knife 9 have the same shape as in FIGS. 3 and 4 shown. On the other hand, the wide plates 26 are replaced by knives 36 whose width is not substantially different from that of the rotating knives 9. They each start from one of the two transverse struts 27 and are slidably clamped with their tips between elastic rings 29 rotating with the knives 9. To stabilize the knife 36 in its in Fig. 6 shown position, the two transverse struts 27 are connected by the intermediate wall 34 and a front wall of the discharge chamber 10 adjacent sheets 37.

In the in Fig. 6 In the configuration shown, the knives 36 are locked by the latch 28, and pieces of ice passing through the through-hole 35 are crushed between the knives 9, 36 before reaching the discharge opening 12.

If intact pieces of ice are to be dispensed, it is sufficient to retract the latch 28, so that due to the clamping of the blades 36 between the buffer rings 29, the blades 36 are taken along by the rotation of the blades 9. It can be provided that the bolt 28 is retracted exactly when a group of knives 9 passes the blades 36. In this way, a uniform discharge of the ice cubes can be achieved because the blades 36 do not hinder the entry of ice pieces through the through-hole 35 into one of the interspaces between the four groups of knives 9.

When the coupling body 31 is disengaged to allow rotation of the agitating rod 8 without simultaneous rotation of the sleeve 22 and the blades 9, this is conveniently done when the blades 9 are in an orientation as in FIG Fig. 6 are shown, in which a group of knives 9, the through hole 35 crosses. Thus, the knives 9 prevent an uncontrolled transfer of pieces of ice into the dispensing chamber 10, which, depending on the position of the knives 36, could otherwise cause pieces of ice to be dispensed uncontrollably via the dispensing opening 12 or to collect in front of the knives 36.

Claims (13)

1. Ice dispenser with a storage container (6) for pieces of ice, a stirring tool (8) rotatable about an axis extending through the storage container (6), a delivery chamber (10) adjoining the storage container (6) and a slide (23) coupled to the stirring tool (8) to be rotatable in the delivery chamber (10), wherein a delivery opening (12) for ice conveyed by the slide is formed in a wall of the delivery chamber along which the slide (23) moves during its rotation, characterised in that a coupling (31) is arranged between stirring tool (8) and slide (23) in order to selectably transfer or not transfer to the slide (23) a drive torque exerted on the stirring tool (8).
2. Ice dispenser according to claim 1, characterised in that the stirring tool (8) and the slide (23) have the same axis of rotation.
3. Ice dispenser according to claim 1 to 2, characterised in that the delivery chamber (10) has the form of a cylinder concentric with the axis of rotation of the slide (23) and that the delivery opening (12) is formed at a circumferential surface of the cylinder.
4. Ice dispenser according to claim 3, characterised in that an end face of the cylindrical delivery chamber (10) is open towards the storage container (6).
5. Ice dispenser according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that a partition wall (24) with a passage opening (35) is arranged between the storage container and the delivery chamber.
6. Ice dispenser according to claim 5, characterised in that the slide (23) is fixable in a setting blocking the passage opening (35).
7. Ice dispenser according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the storage container (6) has a base inclined towards the delivery chamber (10).
8. Ice dispenser according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the slide (23) comprises a first set of fingers (9), that a second set of fingers (26; 36) is provided in the delivery chamber (10), wherein at least one of the sets (9, 26; 36) comprises at least two axially spaced fingers, and that on rotation of the slide (23) a finger of the other set passes an intermediate space between the two fingers of the one set.
9. Ice dispenser according to claim 8, characterised in that the second set of fingers (26) is fixable in a setting bridging over the delivery opening (12).
10. Ice dispenser according to claim 9, characterised in that the second set of fingers (26) is movable between the setting bridging over the delivery opening (12) and a setting freeing the delivery opening (12).
11. Ice dispenser according to claim 9 or 10, characterised in that the setting bridging over the delivery opening (12) is a stable equilibrium setting of the second set (26).
12. Ice dispenser according to any one of claims 8 to 11, characterised in that the second set of fingers (26; 36) is selectably locked in the delivery chamber (10) or rotatable together with the slide (23) about the axis of rotation thereof.
13. Ice dispenser according to claim 12, characterised in that the second set of fingers (26; 36) is frictionally coupled to the slide (23) in order to be entrained by a rotation of the slide (23).

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