JPH0416132Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] (Field of industrial application) This invention attaches a temperature sensor for detecting ice making to the appropriate position of an ice tray, connects a rotational drive device for ice removal to this ice tray, and supplies cold air. This invention relates to an automatic ice maker that is equipped with an outlet for continuous ice making and ice removal.

(Prior Art) Japanese Patent Publication No. 10212/1983 is known as an automatic ice maker that automatically performs water supply, ice making, and ice removal continuously. As shown in FIG. 7, this automatic ice maker is equipped with an ice tray 2 made of flexible material such as soft plastic in an ice maker chamber 1 into which cold air is fed through a duct (not shown). A temperature sensor 3 for detecting ice making is provided. When the liquid W such as water freezes inside the ice tray 2, the temperature sensor 3 detects the freezing and rotates the motor 4a constituting the rotary drive device to transfer the ice I inside the ice tray 2 to the ice tray 2. It is designed to fall and be discharged into an ice storage 5 provided below.

The temperature sensor 3 is connected to a control device 6, and the motor 4a receives a drive input from the control device 6, transmits its rotational force to a rotation drive device 4 such as a gear mechanism, and a rotation shaft 7. Twisting motion is applied to the ice tray 2 through the ice tray 2. The ice tray 2 is provided with a water level detector 8. If the water level in the ice tray 2 is below a specified value, for example, the water level detector 8 detects the condition and supplies water W from the water tank 9 to the ice tray 2. Water can be supplied by a pump 10. In addition, 6a is an ice storage amount detection switch, 6b is an ice tray rotation position detector, 9a is a water amount detector, and 10a is a motor that drives the pump 10.

In addition, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 56-20773 discloses that an ice-making tray provided in an ice-making chamber having a cold air outlet is provided with an ice-making tray extending approximately horizontally above the end on the side of the outlet that blows cold air toward the front. A shielding plate is installed above the rearmost part of the ice tray to prevent the cold air from the outlet from directly hitting the mounting area of the heat-sensitive part, so that ice formation progresses uniformly throughout and improves the quality of the ice. An ice making device has also been proposed.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) By the way, in the automatic ice maker, when cold air is supplied from the evaporator (not shown) through the duct to the ice tray 2 by the fan, the cold air from the duct is uniformly used to make ice. It is difficult to supply the entire dish 2. For this reason, ice is not always made at the location where the temperature sensor 3 is attached, and there is a risk that the temperature sensor 3 may detect the ice being made and the ice may be removed before ice is made completely at other locations. Also, Jikko 56-
The shielding plate disclosed in Publication No. 20773 is installed on the outlet side of the refrigerator body, so if the ice maker itself is to be used in many different types of refrigerators, it is necessary to use a refrigerator that does not have a shielding plate to block cold air. Also, since this shielding plate consists only of the horizontal part, the attachment part of the ice tray with the sensing part (the two recesses at the rear) is installed directly under the cold air outlet and the shielding plate. Case (see Figure 1 of the same bulletin)
Although they can block cold air to some extent, when they are installed far from the air outlet, they cannot be expected to have much of a shielding effect, and they also have the problem that ice formation does not progress uniformly.

This invention was made in consideration of the above circumstances,
In an automatic ice maker that can detect ice making after the entire ice tray has been made, it is versatile and can be installed in many types of refrigerators, and the temperature sensor 3 is installed in a way that prevents cold air from directly hitting the installation part of the temperature sensor 3. To provide an automatic ice maker in which ice formation occurs at the installation site at the latest time, the completion of ice production can be accurately detected, and ice formation can progress uniformly throughout.

(Means for Solving the Problems) A shield is provided on the ice making tray, which includes a horizontal part for covering the upper part of the ice making compartment in which the temperature sensor is installed and a vertical part for covering the outlet side.

(Function) The cold air supplied from the outlet hits the vertical and horizontal parts of the shield, bypasses the ice-making compartment where the temperature sensor is installed, and makes ice from the water in the other ice-making compartments of the ice-making tray. At this time, the water in the ice-making chamber, where the temperature sensor is attached, is made into ice last, so that the temperature sensor can accurately detect the ice-making state, and ice formation can proceed uniformly throughout.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the example shown in the drawings.

1 to 4 show a first embodiment of the present invention, and detailed explanations of parts having the same functions as those described in the prior art will be omitted.

The ice making tray 12 has a plurality of ice making chambers 16 arranged in parallel,
This ice tray 12 is connected to a rotation drive device 15 via a rotation shaft 17. A temperature sensor 13 for detecting ice making is attached to the back surface of the ice tray 12. This temperature sensor 13 is installed in the ice making compartment 1.
A mounting boss 18 is provided vertically below each of the intersecting partition walls 6, and two arbitrary locations 18 of the mounting boss 18 are provided.
The temperature sensor 13 is attached by fixing the presser plate 19 to a and 18b with screws 20.

Further, above the surface of the ice-making chamber 16a where the temperature sensor 13 is attached to the side of the back surface, cold air c is sent by a fan (not shown) from an evaporator (not shown) through a duct 11 as an outlet. A plate-shaped shield 14 is provided to cover the ice making compartment 16a. This plate-shaped shielding plate 14 has a first vertical portion 14B formed on the duct 11 side and a horizontal portion 14A formed on the upper surface.
and a second portion formed on one side of this horizontal portion 14A.
The vertical portion 14C of the ice-making compartment 16
A is provided so as to cover the cold air from the duct 11 from three sides: front, upper and side. However, the second vertical portion 14C on the side is not essential, and shielding by two surfaces, the first vertical portion 14B and the horizontal portion 14A, is sufficient. 15a is an ice storage amount detection piece.

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

Water is supplied to the ice making tray 12 until the water is stopped by a water level detector (not shown), and cold air c is sent from the evaporator (not shown) through the duct 11 to make ice from the water in the ice making chambers 16, 16a. .

At this time, the cold air c is blocked by the horizontal portion 14A and the first vertical portion 14B of the shield 14, and the ice making chamber 16a to which the temperature sensor 13 is attached is the last to make ice. When the temperature sensor 13 detects ice making, that is, when ice making is completed in all the ice making chambers 16, 16a, the rotation drive device 15 is driven to rotate and twist the ice making tray 12 to release ice.

As described above, by providing the shield 14, the ice making compartment 16a in which the temperature sensor 13 is attached
Since the ice can be made last by allowing the water in the ice tray 12 to freeze at the slowest stage, the ice can be released after the entire ice tray 12 has been completely ice-frozen, and the ice-making progresses uniformly throughout, improving ice quality. can.

Further, a plurality of mounting bosses 18 are provided below the intersecting partition wall of the ice-making compartment 16a of the ice-making tray 12, and any two locations 18 of the plurality of mounting bosses 18 are provided.
Since the temperature sensor 13 can be attached using the parts a and 18b, it can be used in the ice tray 12 of various automatic ice makers. In other words, there is no need to design and manufacture ice trays for each type of automatic ice maker. Furthermore, it is also possible to attach a plurality of temperature sensors 13 at the same time, allowing more accurate ice-making detection.

5 and 6 show a second embodiment of the present invention, in which an ice tray 21 and a rotary drive device 22 are connected by a rotary shaft 23 in the form of a hollow pipe.
This rotating shaft 23 has a base end attached to a gear 24 driven by a motor (not shown), and rotates together with the ice tray 21 . At the center of this rotating shaft 23 is an adsorption type pressure thermostat 25 which is a temperature sensor.
Insert the temperature sensing part 25a. This pressure-type thermostat 25 is connected to the temperature sensing section 25a via a capillary reach tube 25b, and increases or decreases the internal pressure using a sealed fluid that expands and contracts in response to temperature changes detected by the temperature sensing section 25a, thereby increasing or decreasing the internal pressure of the thermostat main body 25c. The power element 25d provided in the main body expands and contracts, and this expansion and contraction opens and closes a switch (not shown) set at a predetermined temperature.

Further, a plate-shaped shield 27 is provided above the temperature sensing portion 25a of the ice tray 21 in order to block the cold air c sent through the duct 26 as a blow-off port. This plate-shaped shield 27 has a first vertical part 27B formed on the duct 26 side, a horizontal part 27A formed on the upper surface, and a second vertical part formed on one side of this horizontal part 27A. Consisting of 27C,
Ice-making compartment 28 with the temperature-sensing section 25a installed nearby
It is installed to cover the area from three sides. However, the second vertical part 27C on the side is not essential, and the effect can be achieved just by shielding the two sides with the first vertical part 27B and the horizontal part 27A.

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

When water is supplied to the ice tray 21, ice is made by the cold air c sent through the duct 26. At this time, since the cold air c is provided with a plate-shaped shield 27, ice is made in the ice-making chamber 28 to which the temperature-sensing section 25a is attached last, and the fluid sealed in the temperature-sensing section 25a contracts and becomes depressurized. This reduced pressure is transmitted to the power element 25d by the capillary reach tube 25b to operate a switch (not shown) to rotate the rotary drive device 22 and twist the ice tray 21 to release ice.

As described above, the temperature sensing portion 25a is inserted into the hollow pipe-shaped rotating shaft 23, and the temperature sensing portion 25a is
By providing a shield 27 on the ice making tray 21 at the position, the ice making chamber 28 near the temperature sensing part 25a can be made last, allowing accurate ice making detection. Furthermore, since the adsorption type pressure thermostat 25 detects ice making, the detection accuracy can be improved. Moreover, since the temperature-sensing section 25a and the capillary reach tube 25b are provided inside the rotating shaft 23, they do not get in the way when rotating the ice-making tray 21 to remove ice, and when the ice-making tray 21 is removed and replaced, the temperature-sensing section There is no need to remove the ice tray 25a.
can be easily replaced.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and various modifications can be made, for example, the shield may be formed by extending from the rotary drive device.

(Effects of the invention) The present invention provides an ice tray with a shield consisting of a horizontal part to cover the upper part of the ice-making chamber where the temperature sensor is installed and a vertical part to cover the outlet side. Compared to the conventional method, it is possible to accurately detect the ice making of the entire ice tray, and the ice quality can be improved by ensuring that ice formation progresses uniformly throughout the ice tray. Furthermore, the shielding body can be provided at the center of the ice tray, and the mounting position of the temperature sensor for detecting ice making can be freely designed. Furthermore, since it can be attached to many types of refrigerator bodies, it is versatile as an ice maker.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 4 show a first embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a front view, FIG. 2 is a plan view, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the - line in FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 and 6 show a second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway front view,
FIG. 6 is a partially cutaway plan view, and FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional example. 11, 26...Duct (air outlet), 12, 21
...Ice tray, 13...Temperature sensor, 14,27
...Plate-shaped shield, 14A, 24A...Horizontal part of the shield, 14B, 27B...Vertical part (first vertical part) of the shield, 15, 22... Rotation drive device, 2
5...Pressure thermostat (temperature sensor).

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] An automatic ice tray comprising an ice tray, a rotary drive device that rotates the ice tray to remove ice, an outlet for supplying cold air to the ice tray, and a temperature sensor installed at a suitable location on the ice tray to detect ice making. An automatic ice maker characterized in that the ice tray is provided with a shielding body comprising a horizontal part for covering the upper part of the ice making compartment in which the temperature sensor is installed and a vertical part for covering the outlet side. .