JPH03158671A - Ice plant - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently form a transparent ice by forming a chilled gas guide passage for guiding chilled gas to flow along the lower surface of an ice making tray, and providing an opening/closing member for forming an ice dropping passage for dropping ice separated from the tray at the time of separating the ice in an ice storage chamber. CONSTITUTION:When water in a water receiving tray 18 is pumped in a predetermined quantity by a pump 20, supplied into an ice making tray 14 and the water supply is completed, a heater 11 is energized, and the water surface of the tray 14 is heated. On the other hand, chilled gas diffused from a chilled gas diffuser 24 is guided by a chilled gas guide 25, fed along the lower surface of the tray 14 to cool the water in the tray 14 from its lower surface. Thus, the tray 14 is strongly cooled at the lower surface. As a result, the water in the tray 14 is frozen from the lower side, the bubbles are extracted from the upper surface not yet frozen, thereby forming a transparent ice. When ice making is completed, an opening/closing member 22 is opened to form the passage 25. Accordingly, the ice is dropped and stored in an ice storage chamber 9 by inverting upside down the tray 14.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an ice making device that can efficiently make transparent ice.

(Prior art) The ice making device installed in the conventional refrigerator with ice making device is
An ice-making tray is installed in the ice-making chamber so as to be able to be turned upside down, and when water is supplied to the ice-making tray, the water is cooled by cold air supplied into the ice-making chamber and becomes ice. When ice making is completed, the ice making tray is turned upside down to remove the ice and the ice falls and is stored in the water storage container.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional ice making device described above, the water in the ice tray freezes almost evenly from the top and the bottom.
The problem was that only opaque ice with bubbles inside was produced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an ice making device that can efficiently make transparent ice.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The ice-making apparatus of the present invention includes an ice-making chamber and an ice storage chamber communicating with the lower part of the ice-making chamber. An ice tray for releasing ice is provided, a cold air outlet is provided in the ice making chamber and opens below the ice tray, and the cold air outlet is closed between the ice making chamber and the water storage chamber so as to partition both chambers during ice making. A cold air guide path is formed between the ice tray and the cold air outlet to guide the cold air blown from the cold air outlet to flow along the bottom surface of the ice tray. The invention is characterized in that an opening/closing member is provided to form a passage through which ice falls.

(Function) Since the opening/closing member is closed during ice making, the cold air blown out from the cold air outlet flows through the cold air guide path formed between the opening/closing member and the ice tray. Therefore, the lower surface of the ice tray is strongly cooled. As a result, the water in the ice cube tray will freeze from the bottom side, and the air bubbles will come out from the unfrozen top side, producing transparent ice.

When ice making is completed, the opening/closing member is opened and an ice falling passage is formed, so that ice falls and is stored in the water storage chamber by turning the ice making ll1N upside down.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example in which the present invention is applied to a refrigerator with an ice-making device will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.

First, in FIGS. 1 to 3, the refrigerator main body 1 includes:
A freezer compartment 2, a refrigerator compartment 3, a temperature-switchable specification switching compartment 4, and an ice-making device compartment 5 are formed, and cold air cooled by a cooler 6 is supplied to each compartment 2 to 5 by a fan device 7. It has become.

The interior of the ice making apparatus chamber 5 is comprised of an ice making chamber 8 in the upper part and a water storage chamber 9 in the lower part, and both chambers 8 and 9 are communicated with each other. Both left and right sides and the upper surface of the lower half of the ice making chamber 8 are covered with a cover 10, and a heater 11 is provided on the back side of the cover 10. In addition, a motor,
A case 12 housing a tooth width mechanism, a switch, etc. is provided, and the front of the ice making chamber 8 is closed by this case 12. An abbreviated support frame 13 is attached to the rear of this case 12, and these cases 1
2 and the support frame 13, a plastic ice tray 14 is placed between
is located in the lower half of the ice making compartment 8. Shaft portions 14 are provided on both front and rear sides of the center portion of the ice tray 14.
a is provided protrudingly, and this shaft portion 14a connects the case 12 and the support frame 1.
3 and is rotatably supported. And ice tray 14
The front shaft portion 14a is connected to a motor 15 (see FIG. 5) in the case 12 via a gear mechanism (not shown), and the motor 15 rotates the ice tray 14 to turn it upside down. There is. The ice tray 14 includes a water supply device 1.
6, the water supply device 16 includes a water supply tank 17 disposed inside the refrigerator compartment 3,
It is comprised of a water tray 18 that receives water from the water tank 17, and a pump 20 that supplies the water in the water tray 18 into the ice tray 14 via a water supply vibrator 19. In order to detect that the water supplied to the ice making tray 14 has turned into ice, a temperature sensor 21 for detecting the temperature at which ice making is completed is attached to the ice making tray 14.

A pair of opening/closing plates 22 as opening/closing members are disposed at the boundary between the ice making chamber 8 and the water storage chamber 9. Shaft portions 22a are protruded from both front and back sides of the outer ends of these opening/closing plates 22, and these shaft portions 22a are rotatably supported by the case 12 and the rear wall of the ice making chamber 8. And the front shaft part 22a
is connected to a motor 15 inside the case 12 via a gear mechanism (not shown), and the opening/closing plate 22 is rotated to open and close by the motor 15. On the other hand, a cold air passage 23 is provided in the rear wall of the ice making compartment 8 to guide the cold air sent by the fan unit F17 into the ice making compartment 8. 8 is opened between the ice tray 12 and the opening/closing plate 22.

When the opening/closing plate 22 is in a horizontal position and closed to partition the ice making chamber 8 and the water storage chamber 9, a cold air guide path 25 is formed between the opening/closing plate 22 and the water production [14]. be done. Therefore, the cold air blown out from the cold air outlet 24 is guided by the guide path 25, flows forward along the lower surface of the ice tray 14, and enters the water storage chamber 9 through the communication path 26 formed at the bottom of the case 12. will begin to flow into the country. Also,
When the opening/closing plate 22 is in the vertical position and open (see Fig. 3), an ice falling passage 26 communicating between the ice making chamber 8 and the water storage chamber 9 is formed, and the ice is turned upside down as described below. The ice separated from the ice tray 14 falls and is stored in the ice box 27 of the water storage chamber 9 through the ice falling passage 26.

The ice making apparatus configured in this way is controlled by a control circuit 28 shown in FIG. This control circuit 28 includes a microcomputer, and the temperature sensor 2
The temperature detection signal from 1 and the co-movement angle of the shaft portion 14a of the ice tray 14 provided in the case 12 are detected to produce water [1111
Switch 2 that detects the water 1' position and reverse position of 4
The heater 11, the motor 15, and the pump 20 are controlled to be energized or disconnected via the drive circuit 31 based on the detection signals from the heaters 1 and 30 and the stored program.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained.

Now, the ice making 11n 14 and opening/closing plate 22 are installed as shown in Fig. 1 and 2.
It shall be in the horizontal position as shown in the figure. Ice making is performed by supplying water into the ice making Ill 14 in this horizontal position, that is, by energizing the pump 20 for a certain period of time. Then, a predetermined amount of water in the water tray 18 is pumped up by the pump 20 and supplied into the ice tray 14. When this water supply is completed, the heater 11 is energized, thereby heating the water surface side of the ice tray 14. On the other hand, the cold air blown out from the cold air outlet 24 is guided by the cold air guide path 25 to the ice making 111.
The water flows along the lower surface of the ice tray 14 and cools the water in the ice cube tray 14 from the lower surface side. In this way, in addition to being cooled from the bottom, the water in the ice tray 14 is heated from the top by the heater 11 in this embodiment. The surface of the water finally freezes. Therefore, air bubbles contained in the water can freely escape from the unfrozen water surface, resulting in transparent ice. In addition, since the cold air flows along the bottom surface of the ice tray 14, the opening/closing plate 22
Cooling efficiency is better than that in which the cold air blown out from the cold air outlet 24 is diffused into the water storage chamber 9, and ice can be generated in a relatively short time.

Now, when the water in the ice-making tray 14 is completely frozen, the temperature of the ice-making tray 14 rapidly decreases, and when the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 21 falls below the ice-making completion temperature (for example, -12°C), the heater 11
is de-energized, and the motor 15 is energized. Then, the ice tray 14 is rotated by the motor 15 to be turned upside down, and the opening/closing plate 22 is rotated downward to be opened. Even after the rear end of the ice-making tray 14 comes into contact with the rear part of the support frame 13, only the front side of the ice-making tray 14 continues to rotate by a certain amount until the reversal position detection switch 30 outputs a detection signal. The ice tray 14 is twisted, and this twist causes the ice to separate from the ice tray 14 and fall through the ice fall passage 26 into the ice box 27 of the water storage chamber 9 and be stored therein.

Then, when the ice tray 14 rotates to a predetermined inversion position,
Since the reversal position detection switch 30 outputs a detection signal,
The motor 15 reverses, thereby moving the ice tray 14 toward the horizontal position and rotating the opening/closing plate 22 toward the horizontal position. Then, when the ice tray 14 rotates to the horizontal position (the opening/closing plate 22 also rotates to the horizontal position), the horizontal position detection switch 29 outputs a detection signal, so the motor 15 is cut off, and after that, as described above, the horizontal position detection switch 29 outputs a detection signal. Water is supplied into the ice tray 14 in the same manner, and automatic ice making is repeatedly performed. Note that when the ice box 27 is filled with ice, a detection mechanism (not shown) detects this, and subsequent ice making is stopped.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and shown in the drawings. For example, a U-shaped support frame is provided on the rear side of the case 12, and the cover 1 with the heater 11 is attached to this support frame.
0 may be attached, and the ice making tray 14 and the pair of opening/closing plates 22 may be rotatably supported between the support frame and the case 12 to unitize the ice making apparatus.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, the pair of opening/closing plates 22 can be opened and closed by connecting both ends of the string 32 to the shaft 14a of the ice tray 14 and the opening/closing plates 22, so that the ice tray 14 is in a horizontal position. In the returned state, the string 32 is attached to the shaft portion 14a of the ice tray 14.
The opening/closing plate 22 may be held in a horizontal position by being wound up, and when the ice tray 14 is reversed, the string 32 is loosened and the opening/closing plate 22 is rotated to a vertical position by its own weight.

In addition, various shapes are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention, for example, the heater 11 may be omitted.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the ice making device of the present invention, when making ice, the opening/closing member is in a closed state and the cold air is guided to flow along the surface of the ice making tray. The cooling efficiency of the tray is good, and ice making can be completed in a relatively short time, and the water surface freezes last, making it possible to make clear ice well.Furthermore, when taking off from the water, the opening/closing member opens to create a path for the ice to fall. This provides an excellent effect in that there is no fear that the ice removed from the ice tray will be prevented from falling into the water storage chamber.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a longitudinal side view showing the ice-making state, FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional front view of the main parts in the same state, and FIG. 4 is a view corresponding to FIG. 2 showing the state at the time of ice removal, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the control configuration. Moreover, FIG. 6 is a schematic front view showing another embodiment of the opening/closing drive structure of the opening/closing plate. In the figure, 6 is a cooler, 8 is an ice making compartment, 9 is an ice storage compartment, 11 is a heater, 12 is a case, 14 is an ice tray, 15 is a motor, 1
6 is a water supply device, 21 is a temperature sensor, 22 is an opening/closing plate (opening/closing member), 23 is a cold air passage, 24 is a cold air outlet, 25 is a cold air guide path, 26 is an ice falling passage, and 28 is a control circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ice-making compartment; an ice-storage compartment provided in communication with the lower part of the ice-making compartment; an ice-making tray disposed within the ice-making compartment and released by being turned upside down after ice-making is completed; a cold air outlet that opens below the ice tray;
A device is provided between the ice making compartment and the ice storage compartment and is closed to partition both compartments during ice making to guide the cold air blown from the cold air outlet between the ice making tray and the ice tray so that it flows along the lower surface of the ice tray. An ice making device comprising an opening/closing member that forms a cold air guide path and an ice falling path that opens during ice removal and causes ice removed from an ice tray to fall into an ice storage chamber.