JP2005164141A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a compact transparent ice maker provided in a refrigerator for making transparent ice by freezing from the lower side of an ice tray. <P>SOLUTION: The refrigerator 10 comprises a refrigerating temperature zone chamber 16 and a freezing chamber 12 provided at the upper part and at the lower part, respectively, and partitioned in upper and lower parts with a heat insulating partition wall 17 and an ice making unit 19 for separating ice with the rotating drive of the ice tray 18. A housing 20 having a space layer 20a inside is installed at the upper part of the ice making unit 19 for storing the ice tray 18. Part of the heat insulating partition wall 17 is formed by the housing 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an ice making unit incorporated in a refrigerator.

  As a conventional ice making unit, there is one that makes transparent ice by freezing from below by insulating the upper part of the ice making tray (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  The conventional transparent ice making unit will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional transparent ice making unit. As shown in FIG. 3, the conventional ice making unit for transparent ice making is composed of a lid 2 that covers the upper surface of the ice tray 1, heating means 3 provided in the ice tray 1, and an ice making block 4 to which water is supplied. Yes.

  The operation of the transparent ice making unit configured as follows will be described below.

First, the top surface of the ice tray 1 is covered with the lid 2 during ice making, and the water surface supplied to the ice making block 4 is heated by the heating means 3 provided in the ice tray 1 to heat the bottom of the ice making block 4 and the like. Water is solidified from the portion not heated by the means 3, and the expected components in the water are forcedly released from the surface of the heated portion by the convection of water generated by this heating, and finally the water in the heated portion is solidified. Get clear ice. Then, the lid 2 is moved up and down to release ice.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-79718

  However, since the above conventional configuration has a heat insulating wall at the top, it is necessary to move the heat insulating wall upward to perform the deicing operation. Then, after deicing, ice making is performed by moving the heat insulating wall downward, and it is necessary to secure a space that is necessary only during the ice making operation, which has the disadvantage of poor volumetric efficiency. Furthermore, since the heating means 3 is provided in the water supply area of the ice tray 1 arranged in the freezer compartment, there is a drawback that the input of the heater becomes large.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the conventional problems and to provide a transparent ice making unit that eliminates the invalid space and reduces the heater input.

  In order to solve the above problems, a refrigerator according to the present invention includes a refrigeration temperature zone chamber at an upper portion and a freezer compartment at a lower portion, and the refrigeration temperature zone chamber and the freezer compartment are partitioned vertically by a heat insulating partition wall, In a refrigerator in which an ice making unit that performs ice detachment by rotating an ice tray is installed on the partition wall, a space layer housing is installed above the ice making unit, and the ice making unit of the ice making unit is placed in the housing. A tray is housed, and a part of the heat insulating partition wall is formed by the housing, and the temperature of the refrigeration temperature chamber (2 to 5 ° C.) is raised through the housing to raise the temperature of the ice tray in the freezer compartment. Let warm.

  According to the refrigerator of the present invention, the refrigeration temperature zone chamber is provided at the upper portion, the freezer compartment is provided at the lower portion, and the refrigeration temperature zone chamber and the freezer compartment are partitioned vertically by a heat insulating partition wall, and the ice making partition wall In a refrigerator in which an ice making unit that performs ice removal by rotating a plate is installed, a space layer housing is installed in the upper portion of the ice making unit, and the ice making tray of the ice making unit is stored in the housing. In addition, a part of the heat insulating partition wall is formed by the housing, and the heater input can be reduced by effectively utilizing the temperature of the upper chamber.

  The invention according to claim 1 is provided with a refrigeration temperature zone chamber in the upper portion and a freezer compartment in the lower portion, and the refrigeration temperature zone chamber and the freezer compartment are partitioned vertically by a heat insulating partition wall, In a refrigerator in which an ice making unit that performs ice detachment by rotating the ice making tray is installed, a housing having a space layer inside is installed above the ice making unit, and the ice making tray of the ice making unit is stored in the housing. A part of the heat insulating partition wall is formed by the housing, and the temperature of the refrigerated temperature zone (2 to 5 ° C.) is raised through the housing to the temperature of the upper part of the ice tray in the freezer compartment.

  The invention according to claim 2 is the invention according to claim 1, wherein the bottom plate forming the housing is formed in a substantially arc shape, and the distance between the ice tray and the space layer of the housing is set. It can be made smaller, and ice making and de-icing can be performed with the housing fixed even when the ice tray rotates.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the first aspect of the present invention, the lower surface plate forming the housing is formed of a heat conductive material, and a heater is disposed inside the lower surface plate. Yes, the temperature of the housing can be transferred to the space temperature above the ice tray.

  The invention according to claim 4 is the invention according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the end surface of the lower surface plate of the housing is disposed below the upper surface of the ice tray, and the ice tray and the lower plate are arranged. Between the face plates, there is an air convection restricting means that regulates air convection, so that the air in the upper part of the ice tray and the air around the ice making unit are not actively convected, and the air temperature in the upper part of the ice tray is adjusted. It can be maintained higher than the temperature in the freezer compartment.

  The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to claim 4, wherein the air convection regulating means is formed by a frame body formed around the ice tray, and is formed with a throat with the bottom plate, While regulating air convection, it is possible to secure a gap due to the rotational drive of the ice tray.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, about the same structure as the past, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected and detailed description is abbreviate | omitted. Further, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a refrigerator according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the refrigerator main body 10 includes a refrigeration room 11 in the upper part and a freezing room 12 in the lower part, and forms a vegetable room 13 between the refrigeration room 11 and the freezing room 12. The refrigerator compartment 11 and the vegetable compartment 13 are cooled by a refrigerator compartment cooler 14 disposed behind the refrigerator compartment 11, and the refrigerator compartment 11 is cooled to about 2 ° C and the vegetable compartment 13 is cooled to about 5 ° C.

  And the freezer compartment cooler 15 is arrange | positioned behind the freezer compartment 12, and the inside of the freezer compartment 12 is cooled to about -18 degreeC. The refrigerated temperature zone 16 and the freezer compartment 12 formed by the refrigerator compartment 11 and the vegetable compartment 13 are partitioned vertically by a heat insulating partition wall 17, and the cooling air passages are formed independently from each other.

  An ice making unit 19 is provided in the freezer compartment 12 to rotate the ice tray 18 for ice removal. A housing 20 is formed on the ice making unit 19, and an ice making device 21 is formed by the ice making unit 19 and the housing 20.

  The housing 20 is attached to an opening 17 a formed in the heat insulating partition wall 17. There is no heat insulating member in the opening 17 a, and the vegetable compartment 13 and the freezer compartment 12 are partitioned by the housing 20 at the attachment position of the ice making device 21.

  The ice making unit 19 has an ice tray 18 at the top, a cooling unit 22 that directly cools the ice tray 18 at the bottom, and a drive unit (not shown) that rotates the ice tray 18 at the back.

  Further, the housing 20 is configured by a space layer 20a, the lower surface portion 20b of the housing 20 is formed in a substantially semicircular arc shape, and the ice tray 18 is accommodated and disposed in the lower surface portion 20b. The entire surface of the housing 20 may be formed of a heat conductive member, and at least the lower surface portion 20b is formed of a heat conductive member (for example, aluminum, stainless steel, etc.). A surface heater 23 is affixed inside the lower surface portion 20b.

  The positional relationship between the ice making unit 19 and the housing 20 will be described in detail. The end surface of the lower surface portion 20 b formed in a substantially semicircular shape is formed to be lower than the upper surface of the ice tray 18. A frame body 24 having a height lower than that of the ice tray 18 is formed around the ice tray 18, and a throat 25 having a width of about 3 mm is formed by the frame body 24 and the lower surface portion 20 b.

  Since the frame body 24 rotates together with the rotation of the ice tray 18 by the drive unit, the cross-sectional shape of the frame body 24 rotates while maintaining the throat 25 corresponding to the substantially semicircular lower surface portion 20b. As a result, the housing 20 and the ice making unit 19 can be arranged close to each other, and the ice making device can be designed compactly, and the lower surface portion 20b and the upper surface of the ice making tray 18 are close to each other, so that the temperature in the upper surface space portion 18a can be easily maintained.

  The operation of the ice making device for a refrigerator configured as described above will be described below.

  First, water is supplied from the water supply tank 26 provided in the refrigerator compartment 11 to the ice tray 18. In the ice tray 18, the upper space 18 a of the ice tray 18 is heated by the air temperature (about 5 ° C.) of the vegetable compartment 13 and the surface heater 23 inside the housing 20.

  The ice making unit 19 is a cooling source and cools the lower surface of the ice tray 18. During ice making, air in the freezer compartment 12 is restricted by the frame body 24 from the upper space 18a of the ice tray 18 and air convection, so that the upper space 18a can be kept in the freezer compartment while the ice making device 21 is in the region of the freezer compartment 12. Since it can be maintained in a temperature zone (for example, around 0 ° C.) higher than the temperature of about 12 (about −18 ° C.), it can be frozen from the bottom of the ice tray, and clean transparent ice can be made.

  As described above, the refrigerator according to the present invention can efficiently make ice with high transparency by maintaining the temperature of the upper space of the ice making device at a higher temperature than that of the lower space of the ice tray. The present invention is useful in the field of ice making equipment for making ice with high transparency and the field of applied products.

Sectional drawing of the refrigerator of Embodiment 1 of this invention AA sectional view of FIG. 1 of the same embodiment Sectional view of a conventional transparent ice making unit

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Refrigerator main body 11 Refrigeration room 12 Freezing room 17 Heat insulation partition wall 18 Ice tray 19 Ice making unit 20 Housing 20b Lower surface part 21 Ice making apparatus 23 Heater 24 Frame 25 Throat

Claims (5)

A refrigerated temperature zone chamber is provided in the upper part and a freezer compartment is provided in the lower part. The refrigerated temperature zone chamber and the freezer compartment are divided into upper and lower parts by a heat insulating partition wall. In a refrigerator provided with an ice making unit that performs ice, a space layer housing is installed above the ice making unit, and an ice tray of the ice making unit is stored in the housing. The refrigerator is characterized in that the portion is formed by the housing. 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the bottom plate forming the housing is formed in a substantially arc shape. 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the lower surface plate forming the housing is made of a heat conductive material, and a heater is disposed inside the lower surface plate. The end face of the lower surface plate of the housing is disposed so as to be lower than the upper surface of the ice tray, and air convection regulating means for regulating air convection is provided between the ice tray and the lower surface plate. 4. The refrigerator according to any one of 3. 5. The refrigerator according to claim 4, wherein the air convection regulating means is formed by a frame body formed around the ice tray, and is throat-formed with the bottom plate.

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