JPH06273015A - Automatic ice making apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce adhesion between ice and an ice making tray in the separation of ice by a method wherein a lower lid is made to abut the bottom part of the ice making tray after the completion of the making of ice and a lover lid heater provided in the lover lid is energized to heat the bottom part of the ice making tray causing ice to melt as contacting the ice making tray. CONSTITUTION:It is judged whether the making of ice is completed or not based on the temperature detected with a temperature sensor 34. A drive motor 31 is energized through a motor drive circuit 46 to rotate a lover lid 26. A block 28 of the lower lid 26 abuts a block 9 formed on the bottom part of a ice making tray 8 to disturb the rotation of a support shaft 27. When this happens, increase in current flowing through a drive motor 31 is detected with a motor current detection circuit 48 and a microcomputer 41 works to stop the energization of the drive motor 35. Thereafter, when the lower lid heater 29 is energized through a transistor 52. the heat from the lover lid heater 29 is conducted to the entire bottom part of the ice making tray 8 with the lover lid 26 thereby causing the ice to melt at the part contacting the lower lid 26 and the ice making tray 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention mainly relates to an automatic ice making device provided in a freezer compartment of a domestic refrigerator, and more particularly to an automatic ice making device having improved ice releasing property after completion of ice making.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an automatic ice making device mainly provided in a freezer compartment of a domestic refrigerator is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-623.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 68, etc., water supplied from a water supply device is stored in an ice making tray to make ice, and after the ice making, the ice making tray is turned upside down by a drive mechanism, so that the ice in the ice making tray is iced. The ice is removed by dropping it in a box or the like. Further, this automatic ice making device has a vibration applying mechanism for giving a horizontal vibration and an upper lid provided with an upper lid heater for heating the upper surface of the ice making tray, and the ice making tray is vibrated during the ice making process. Bubbles contained in the water in the dish are deaerated, and the upper lid heater is heated in the closed state to successively make ice from the lower side of the ice making tray to obtain transparent ice.

[0003]

In the structure of the prior art described above, by vibrating the ice tray by the vibration imparting mechanism, bubbles in the water in the ice tray are removed, and the ice is heated from the lower side by the upper lid heater. Since it is made to grow in one direction, the adhesion between the ice tray and the ice is high, and it is difficult for the ice to separate from the ice tray at the time of ice removal. For this reason, when the ice tray is twisted to release the ice, a part of the ice is broken and remains attached to the inside of the ice tray, and it is not possible to obtain ice in a desired shape.

Therefore, the present invention solves the above problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic ice making device which is excellent in the ability to release ice from an ice tray and which can obtain ice in a desired shape.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a vibration applying mechanism for applying horizontal vibration to an ice tray and an upper lid provided with an upper lid heater for heating the upper surface of the ice tray. In an automatic ice making device in which air bubbles contained in water are deaerated and ice is successively made from the lower side of the ice making tray to obtain transparent ice, a rotatable lower lid that abuts on the bottom of the ice making tray, and The lower lid heater is provided inside the lower lid to heat the bottom of the ice tray after the ice making is completed.

[0006]

With the above structure, after the ice making is completed, the lower lid is brought into contact with the bottom of the ice making tray, and the lower lid heater provided in the lower lid is energized to heat the bottom of the ice making tray. The ice that comes into contact melts out, and the adhesion between the ice and the ice tray during ice removal weakens.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the figure, 1 is an ice making chamber provided in the refrigerator, and this ice making chamber 1 is cooled by a cooler (not shown). Reference numeral 2 denotes a rectangular box-shaped machine body disposed in an upper portion of the ice making chamber 1, and provided with an outer frame 3 protruding rearward. A drive mechanism 7 including a drive motor 4, a gear mechanism 5 and an output shaft 6 is provided inside the machine body 2. The drive mechanism 7 is provided in the motor 4
Is rotated by the gear mechanism 5 and transmitted to the drive gear 5A formed integrally with the output shaft 6. Further, 8 is, for example, a plastic deformable ice tray, which is in the form of a thin rectangular container, and the inside of which is divided and formed by a plurality of blocks 9. The output shaft 6 is connected to the center of the front side of the ice tray 8 and the support shaft 10 is connected to the center of the rear side of the ice tray 8 so that the output shaft 6 and the support shaft 10 can move horizontally in the axial direction. In this state, the ice tray 8 is supported rotatably around the output shaft 6 and the support shaft 10.
A compression coil spring 11 is provided between the ice tray 8 and the outer frame 3.
Is wound.

Reference numeral 12 denotes an upper lid for covering the upper surface of the ice tray 8 at the ice making position, which is a container-like bottom plate 13 having an open upper surface.
And a cover 14 that covers the upper surface of the bottom plate 13, and a heat insulating material 15 such as styrofoam disposed between them. A hinge piece 16 is formed on one side of the upper lid 12, and the hinge piece 16 is inserted into the shaft portion 17 of the ice tray 8 to support the upper lid 12 on the one side of the ice tray 8 so as to be openable and closable. .
A projecting piece 18 is formed on the rear side of the machine body 2 on the outer side of the other side of the ice tray 8, and when the ice tray 8 is rotated in the direction of arrow A, it abuts on the lower portion of the upper lid 12. The upper surface of the ice tray 8 is opened. An upper lid heater 19 as a heating means is attached to the upper surface of the bottom plate 13 with an aluminum foil tape 20.

Reference numeral 21 is a vibration applying mechanism for applying vibration to the ice tray 8 in the axial direction. This vibration imparting mechanism 21
The pulse motor 22 provided inside and the pulse motor 22
Mounted on the rotary shaft of the cam 23
And a shaft-shaped vibration transmission member 24 that rotatably penetrates the shaft center of the drive gear 5A of the gear mechanism 5. The vibration transmitting member 24 is provided such that one end thereof abuts on the cam 23 and the other end thereof abuts on the recess 25 formed in the front portion of the ice tray 8, and one end of the vibration transmitting member 24 is not shown. A ball such as a steel ball is rotatably provided by caulking or the like.
Then, when the pulse motor 22 is in operation, the contact position between one end of the vibration transmission member 24 and the cam 23 and the compression coil spring 11
Depending on the spring force of the ice tray 8, the ice tray 8 moves back and forth, and by repeatedly moving the ice tray 8 in the front-back direction,
The ice tray 8 vibrates in the axial direction. The frequency of the ice tray 8 is set to, for example, 5 to 15 hertz, the amplitude is set to 1 to 4 mm, and the average moving speed obtained by multiplying the amplitude by twice the amplitude is set to 20 to 80 mm / sec.

At the upper portion of the ice tray 8, 26 is a support shaft 27.
Is a lower lid rotatably supported between the machine body 2 and the outer frame 3. The lower lid 26 is made of a material having thermal conductivity such as aluminum, and a block 28 is formed on one side of the lower lid 26 so as to come into contact with the bottom of the ice tray 8 when the lower lid 26 is rotated. The inside of the ice tray 8
A cord-shaped lower lid heater 29 for heating the bottom portion of the is provided. Further, a reduction gear mechanism 30 and a drive motor 31 are connected to a support shaft 27 provided inside the machine body 2 and on the front side of the lower lid 26, and the rotation of the drive motor 31 is transmitted via the reduction gear mechanism 30. It is adapted to be transmitted to the support shaft 27. Lower lid 26 is spindle 27
The lower lid stopper 32 formed on the rear portion of the machine body 2 comes into contact with the lower lid 26, but its movement is restricted.

The machine body 2 has a circuit board (not shown) therein, and a horizontal position detection switch 33 for detecting the horizontal position of the ice tray 8 and an ice tray near the output shaft 6. An upright position detection switch 34 for detecting that the 8 is rotated by approximately 90 ° from the horizontal state, and an inversion position detection switch 35 for detecting the inversion position of the ice tray 8 are provided. Further, 36 is an ice box that is stored under the ice tray 8 so that it can be taken in and out of the ice making chamber 1, 37 is an ice storage detection arm that is rotatably supported by the machine body 2, and the ice tray 8 has a water supply not shown. Water is supplied through the water supply pipe of the device. Also, ice making room 1
A cold air supply port 38 for supplying cold air into the inside is adapted to flow the cool air to the lower side of the ice tray 8. Reference numeral 39 is a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the bottom of the ice tray 8.

FIG. 4 shows an electric circuit diagram. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 41 is a microcomputer for controlling a series of steps involved in ice making, which will be described later. There are provided an energization control means and an ice tray rotating means for rotating the ice tray 8 by 90 ° from the horizontal position when the lower lid heater 29 is energized. The microcomputer 41 includes a reference voltage generation circuit corresponding to the voltage signal based on the temperature detected by the ice tray 8 by the temperature sensor 39 and the water supply completion temperature (for example, -9.5 ° C.) of the ice tray 8.
A reference voltage from 42 and a reference voltage generating circuit 43 corresponding to the ice making completion temperature (for example, -13.5 ° C.) of the ice tray 8
The reference voltage from each is given. Further, the microcomputer 41 is supplied with detection signals from the horizontal position detection switch 33, the upright position detection switch 34, the reverse position detection switch 35, and the ice storage detection switch 44 which responds to the ice storage detection lever 37. The drive motor 4 of the drive mechanism 7 is a microcomputer via a motor drive circuit 45.
A drive motor that is connected to 41 and rotates the lower lid 26
31 is a microcomputer via the motor drive circuit 46
Connected to 41. In addition, the pulse motor of the vibration applying mechanism 21
22 is connected to the microcomputer 41 via the pulse motor drive circuit 47. Motor drive circuit 45 and drive motor
A motor current detection circuit 48 that detects the current of the drive motor 31 is provided between the motor 31 and the drive motor 31, and a detection signal from the motor current detection circuit 48 is supplied to the microcomputer 41. Furthermore, the water supply pump 49 that constitutes the water supply device is a transistor.
The upper lid heater 19 and the lower lid heater 29 are also connected to the microcomputer 41 via 50, and similarly the microcomputer 41 via the transistors 52 and 53, respectively.
Connected to. Then, the motor 4, the drive motor 31, the pulse motor 22, the upper lid heater 19, the lower lid heater 29, and the water supply pump 49 are controlled by the microcomputer 41 according to a predetermined procedure described later.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described based on the flow charts of FIGS. 5 to 7 showing the control of the microcomputer 41 and the operation explanatory diagrams of FIGS. 8 to 11. First, in the water supply process in the flowchart shown in FIG. 5, the water supply pump 49 is driven for a certain period of time in step S1, and water is supplied to the ice tray 8 via the water supply pipe. Then, in step S2, it is determined based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 39 whether or not the water supply is completed. At this time, when the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 39 is lower than the water supply completion temperature, it is determined that the water supply is not performed, the water supply abnormality is notified, and the operation is stopped (steps S3 and S4).
If the water temperature is high, it is judged that the water supply has been completed and the ice making process is started.

In the ice making process, first, in step S5, a drive signal is output from the microcomputer 41 to the pulse motor 22 via the pulse motor drive circuit 47, and the vibration imparting mechanism 21 is operated.
Thereby, the ice tray 8 is vibrated in the axial direction. Further, in step S6, the upper lid heater 19 is energized via the transistor 51. At this time, the cold air from the cold air supply port 38 is mainly supplied toward the lower side of the ice tray 8, and the ice tray 8 is also cooled.
The upper surface of is heated by the upper lid heater 19 while being covered by the upper lid 12, and the water vibrates as the ice tray 8 vibrates. Therefore, the bubbles contained in the water escape and the ice on the water surface side is formed. As a result, the ice gradually grows in one direction from the bottom of the ice tray 8 while adhering to the ice tray 8 to form transparent ice.

Next, in step S7, it is determined based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 34 whether or not ice making is completed. The temperature detected by the temperature sensor 34 is -13.
When the temperature becomes 5 ° C. or lower, it is determined that the ice making is completed, the pulse motor 22 is cut off, the vibration of the ice tray 8 is stopped (step S8), and the upper lid heater 19 is cut off (step S9). The plate bottom heating step shown in the flowchart of FIG.

In this plate bottom heating step, first, step S
At 10, the motor 4 is energized and rotated by the ice tray rotating means of the microcomputer 41 via the motor drive circuit 45, and the ice tray 8 is normally rotated by the drive mechanism 7 in the arrow A direction. Then, as shown in FIG. 8, as the ice tray 8 rotates, the protrusion 18 comes into contact with the lower portion of the upper lid 12 to open the upper surface of the ice tray 8. When it is detected by the upright position detection switch 34 that the ice tray 8 has rotated by approximately 90 ° and is in the upright state, the drive signal from the microcomputer 41 to the motor drive circuit 45 is once stopped ( Step S11). Then, in step S12, the drive motor 31 is energized via the motor drive circuit 46 to rotate the lower lid 26 from the horizontal state in the arrow B direction. Then, as shown in FIG. 9, when the block 28 of the lower lid 26 comes into contact with the block 9 formed at the bottom of the ice tray 8 and the rotation of the support shaft 27 is prevented, the motor current detection circuit 48 causes the motor current detection circuit 48 to rotate. When the increase in the current flowing through the drive motor 31 is detected, the microcomputer 41 stops energizing the drive motor 31. Then, in step S13, when the lower lid heater 29 is energized through the transistor 52, the lower lid heater 29 is energized.
The heat from is conducted to the entire bottom of the ice tray 8 by the lower lid 26, and the ice in the portion in contact with the lower lid 26 and the ice tray 8 melts.
Then, when the ice leaves each block 9 of the ice tray 8, a part of the ice does not break and remains in the block 9 and naturally falls into the ice box 36. The microcomputer 41 determines the ice tray 8 based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 39.
It is determined whether or not the bottom portion of the lower lid heater 29 has reached a predetermined heating temperature by the lower lid heater 29 (step S14), and if it has reached the predetermined heating temperature, the lower lid heater 29 is cut off in step S15. Thereafter, in step S16, the drive motor 31 is energized via the motor drive circuit 46 to rotate the lower lid 26 from the upright state in the arrow B'direction. When the lower lid 26 is in the horizontal state, it abuts on the lower lid stopper 32 and its movement is restricted. Further, the rotation of the support shaft 27 is hindered by the contact between the lower lid 26 and the lower lid stopper 32, so that the lower lid 26
Is detected as an increase in the current flowing through the drive motor 31, and the energization of the drive motor 31 is stopped (step S
17). In this way, when the series of plate bottom heating process is completed,
Move to the next ice-free stroke.

In the ice removal process, first, in step S18, the motor 4 is energized to rotate the ice tray 8 from the upright state in FIG. 9 in the direction of arrow A in FIG. At this time, the ice tray 8 comes into contact with the outer frame 3 and the ice tray 8 is twisted, and all the ice remaining in the block 9 of the ice tray 8 falls into the ice box 36. Then, in step S19, when the reverse position of the ice tray 8 is detected by the reverse position detection switch 35, the process proceeds to step S20, and the microcomputer 41 rotates the motor 4 in the reverse direction via the motor drive circuit 45. Then, the ice tray 8 is rotated in the direction opposite to the arrow A. When the horizontal position detection switch 33 detects the horizontal state of the ice tray 8 shown in FIG. 11 in step S21, the motor 4 is de-energized, and the rotation operation of the ice tray 8 is stopped (step S22). . Next, in step S23, the ice storage detection switch 44 determines whether or not the ice in the ice box 36 is full, and when it is determined that the ice is not full, the process returns to step S1 and when it is determined that it is full. Just wait.

As described above, in the above embodiment, the lower lid 26 is brought into contact with the bottom portion of the ice tray 8 in a state in which the ice tray 8 is rotated by about 90 ° after the completion of ice making, and the lower lid 26 is provided in the lower lid 26. By energizing the lower lid heater 29 to heat the bottom of the ice tray 8 substantially evenly, the ice that comes into contact with the ice tray 8 is melted and the adhesion between the ice and the ice tray 8 is weakened, and the ice releasing property is remarkably increased. It is possible to improve. Therefore, as in the conventional case, it is possible to eliminate problems such as a part of the ice breaking and adhering to the inside of the ice tray 8 when the ice is released, or the ice having a desired shape cannot be obtained.

Further, when the transparent ice is made, since the lower lid 26 is rotated and held at a position separated from the ice tray 8, the ice making can be performed without being affected by the lower lid 26. It becomes possible, and the problem that the ice making time becomes longer due to the heat from the lower lid 26 does not occur.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention. For example, although the cord heater is used as the lower lid heater in the embodiments, other types of heaters can of course be used. Further, the ice tray and the output shaft may be connected like a spline shaft.

[0021]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is included in water in the ice tray by a vibration applying mechanism for applying horizontal vibration to the ice tray and an upper lid provided with an upper lid heater for heating the upper surface of the ice tray. In an automatic ice making device in which air bubbles are degassed and transparent ice is obtained by sequentially making ice from the lower side of this ice making tray,
A rotatable lower lid that comes into contact with the bottom of the ice tray, and a lower lid heater that is provided inside the lower lid and heats the bottom portion of the ice tray after completion of ice making are provided. It is possible to provide an automatic ice making device which is excellent in ice releasing property and which can obtain ice in a desired shape.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway plan view of the same.

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway side view of the same.

FIG. 4 is a circuit configuration diagram of the same as above.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the water supply process and the ice making process of the same.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart in the heating process of the plate bottom portion of the above.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of the above ice removal process.

FIG. 8 is an operation explanatory view of the plate bottom heating step in the above.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view of the operation in the above-mentioned plate bottom heating step.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory view of the action in the above ice-breaking stroke.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory view of an operation in the ice removing stroke.

[Explanation of symbols]

 8 Ice tray 12 Upper lid 19 Upper lid heater 21 Vibration imparting mechanism 26 Lower lid 29 Lower lid heater

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An air bubble contained in water in the ice tray is degassed by a vibration applying mechanism for applying horizontal vibration to the ice tray and an upper lid having an upper lid heater for heating the upper surface of the ice tray. In an automatic ice making device in which ice is sequentially made from the lower side of the ice making tray to obtain transparent ice, a rotatable lower lid that abuts the bottom of the ice making tray and ice making provided inside the lower lid. An automatic ice making device, comprising: a lower lid heater that heats the bottom of the ice tray after completion.