JPH07109334B2 - Ice maker for refrigerator - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a refrigerating ice making device.

[Prior Art] As a conventional ice-making device for a refrigerator of this type, a real public-use sho-60-
The items listed in the 32850 publication can be mentioned.

FIG. 11 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional ice making device for a refrigerator,
FIG. 12 is an electric circuit diagram of the ice making device for the refrigerator shown in FIG.

In FIG. 11, reference numeral 50 is a refrigerating compartment, 51 is a water bottle installed in the refrigerating compartment 50, and 49 is a water tank for storing water from the water bottle 51. 52 is a freezing room, 53 is an ice making unit equipped in the freezing room 52, 54 is an ice making tray rotatably attached to the ice making unit 53, and 55 is an ice storage unit provided under the ice making unit 53 so as to be freely drawn out. The box 56 is a water supply pump for supplying the water in the water storage tank 49 to the ice tray 54.

In FIG. 12, 57 is a motor for rotating the ice tray 54, and 58 is a motor.
Is a freeze detection switch that turns on when the water in the ice tray 54 freezes, 59 a holding switch that turns on when the ice tray 54 rotates a prescribed amount, 60 turns on when the ice tray 54 is horizontal, and the ice tray 54
Water switch, which turns off when a predetermined amount of water is supplied to the
Is a weight detection switch that is turned off when the weight of ice in the ice storage box 55 becomes constant, and 62 is a position switch that switches the operation mode of the ice making device for the refrigerator. Reference numeral 56 is the water supply pump.

Next, the operation of the conventional ice-making device for a refrigerator configured as described above will be described.

When the ice making mode is selected by the switching operation of the position switch 62 and the ice detecting switch 58 is turned on, the motor 57 is energized and the ice tray 54 is rotated. When the ice tray 54 rotates a predetermined amount, the holding switch 59 is turned on, the motor 57 continuously rotates, and the ice tray 54 is twisted by a twisting mechanism (not shown) during the rotation, and the ice in the ice tray 54 stores ice. Taken out in box 55.

Hold the ice holding tray 59 when the ice tray 54
The motor 57 is stopped when the water is turned off, and the water supply pump 56 is driven when the water supply switch 60 is turned on, so that a predetermined amount of the next water is supplied from the water storage tank 49 to the ice tray 54. Then, this ice making cycle is repeated until the weight detection switch 61 is turned off.

Therefore, according to the conventional refrigerator ice making device,
The steps of freezing and removing can be automatically and continuously performed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

By the way, when tap water is put into an ordinary ice tray used in a home refrigerator and frozen, the resulting ice looks like white with air bubbles finely dispersed in it, and it has a bad taste and melts at a low speed. early. Further, the ice made from tap water contains various soluble salts or soluble gases.

These impurities have the following effects on ice. That is, calcium carbonate or calcium bicarbonate causes sandy precipitates in ice and causes cracks in the ice. Magnesium carbonate or magnesium bicarbonate also causes cracks as described above. Magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride not only turn ice into a dull green or gray color, but also extend the freezing time. Sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate causes cracks in the ice even in trace amounts. The same applies to sodium sulfate and sodium chloride. Ferric oxide produces yellow or brown precipitates. Aluminum oxide also produces precipitates.

In general, an ice tray is divided into a plurality of small rooms by partitioning the inside, and water is put into these small rooms and stored in the freezing room. It freezes and all the water in the small room becomes ice. Therefore, a transparent portion is formed on the outer peripheral portion of the resulting ice, but the impurities are contained in the central portion of the ice to form an opaque cloudy portion.

Even in the conventional refrigerator ice making device, this type of ice tray,
That is, since the whole ice is frozen by using the above-mentioned ice tray 54, there is a problem that opaque and unattractive ice can be formed in which the central object is clouded by impurities or the like.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ice making device for a refrigerator capable of continuously producing highly transparent ice.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

(1) The ice-making device for a refrigerator provided by the present invention rotates about a shaft to be inverted or reverted, and is flexibly deformed by being twisted at the time of inversion, and the ice-making device can be opened and closed on the ice-making plate. A lid having a heater on the side of the ice tray and a cooling plate arranged to be able to move forward and backward under the ice tray, and in which rotation of the ice tray and opening / closing of the lid are synchronized. is there.

(2) The above ice making device is provided with a water supply pipe for supplying water to the ice tray, a heater for heating the ice making tray, and a control means for holding the heater in the ON state when the temperature in the water supply pipe is below the freezing temperature. be able to.

[Action]

(1) In the ice making device of the present invention, the ice tray is warmed from the upper portion by the heater and cooled from the lower portion by the cooling plate, so that the water in the ice tray gradually freezes from the bottom to the top, and the freezing time is long. And the freezing will be performed more uniformly than before. For this reason, impurities such as various soluble salts and soluble gases in the tap water that cloud the ice and dissolved bubbles are uniformly deposited. As a result, the water in the ice tray becomes highly transparent ice as a whole.

(2) When a heater is provided in the water supply pipe, the heater is kept in the ON state when the temperature of the water in the water supply pipe becomes equal to or lower than the temperature at which the water freezes, so that the water in the water supply pipe does not freeze.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an installation state of the ice making device of the embodiment in a refrigerator, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the ice making device of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a cross section of an ice tray part of the ice making device of FIG. It is a figure.

In the figure, 1 is a refrigerator, 2 is its freezer, and 3 is its refrigerating room. Reference numeral 4 is a water bottle installed in the refrigerating chamber 3, and 5 is a water tank for storing water from the water bottle 4. Reference numeral 6 denotes a water supply pump for supplying water from the water storage tank 5 to an ice tray 11 described later via a water supply pipe 7. Water supply pipe 7 above
Is piped from the refrigerator compartment 3 to the freezer compartment 2.

8 is an ice making device. As shown in FIG. 2, this device 8 comprises a drive box 9, an ice storage box 10, an ice tray 11, a lid 12 and a frame 13. The frame 13 is integrated with the drive box 9. The lid 12 can be opened and closed in the arrow direction around a shaft 15 attached to a frame 13. The ice tray 11 has a structure in which the shaft 14 attached to the frame 13 can be turned upside down, and the ice tray 11 can be flexibly deformed by a twisting operation to easily separate the generated ice. Both ends of the shafts 14 and 15 are contained in the drive box 9 and are driven by a motor and a drive gear (not shown) therein.

Therefore, when ice is made on the ice tray 11,
15 rotates first to open the lid 12, and then the shaft 14 rotates half a turn to invert the ice tray 11. At this time, ice tray 11
Hits a stopper (not shown) and is twisted, and the ice contained therein is dropped into the ice storage box 10. When the removal of ice is completed in this way, the shaft 14 and the shaft 15 rotate in the reverse direction, and the ice tray 11 and the lid 12 return to their original positions.

When the both 11 and 12 return to their original positions, the water supply pump 6 is driven and the next water is supplied from the water storage tank 5 to the ice tray 11 by a predetermined amount. Then, when this water supply is completed, the ice making process starts. The steps of water supply, freezing and ice removal are automatically and continuously performed.

The lid 12 is composed of an upper plate 17 on the upper side and a heating plate 20 on the lower side,
A space is formed between both 17 and 20. The space 19 is provided with a heater 19 and is filled with a heat insulating material 18. The heater 19 is attached (attached) along the heating plate 20.
It is arranged. The heating plate 20 has a shape that contacts the ice tray 11 when the lid 12 is closed, and does not contact the rotating ice tray 11 when the lid 12 is open.

Reference numeral 16 denotes a cooling plate arranged below the ice tray 11. The cooling plate 16 is constantly urged by a spring (not shown) so that the ice tray 11 is constantly operated.
It is attached to the bottom of the. However, when the ice tray 11 is twisted or deformed, the ice tray 11 is separated from the ice tray 11 so as not to be destroyed or deformed.

Next, the operation will be described.

The water (tap water) in the water supply bottle 4 passes through the water tank 5 and the water supply pump 6 and enters the ice tray 11 through the water supply pipe 7. The ice tray 11 is warmed from the upper portion by the lid 12 having the heater 19, and is cooled from the lower portion by the lower cooling plate 16. As a result, water freezes from the bottom to the top, but since it is warmed from the top, the freeze time is longer than before.

Even in this freezing process, impurities such as various soluble salts and soluble gases in tap water that cause the cloud of ice and dissolved bubbles,
Although it concentrates and precipitates at the end of freezing, as described above, since the freezing time is long, freezing is more uniformly performed than before, and gas, bubbles, etc. are also uniformly precipitated. Therefore, ice with high transparency is formed as a whole.

When ice is generated, the lid 12 is opened by the motor and the drive gear in the drive box 9, and then the ice tray 11 is inverted. At this time, the ice tray 11 is twisted by the stopper to drop the ice into the ice storage box 10. When the removal of ice is completed, the ice tray 11 and the lid 12 are returned to their original positions, and the ice tray 11 is supplied with water. In this way, the steps of water supply, freezing and ice removal are automatically and continuously performed.

In addition, in the above embodiment, the lid 12 is configured to rotate about the shaft 15, but as shown in FIG.
By moving 15 along the guide groove 21,
The configuration may be such that 12 is moved up and down in parallel to open and close.

In the above embodiment, the lid 12 is first opened and then the ice tray is opened.
I tried to invert 11, but opening and closing the lid 12 and the ice tray 11
You may make it synchronize the rotation of.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing an installation state of the ice making device according to the embodiment in a refrigerator, which corresponds to FIG. 1, FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the ice making device in FIG. 5, which corresponds to FIG. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the ice tray portion of the ice making device and corresponds to FIG.

5 to 7, reference numerals 1 to 20 indicate the same parts as in FIGS. 1 to 3. 34 is a refrigerating room 3 to a freezing room 2
This is a pipe heater that covers the periphery of the water supply pipe 7 that is laid over the pipe to prevent the water in the water supply pipe 7 from freezing. The pipe heater 34 is turned on when the temperature of the water passing through the water supply pipe 7 is a predetermined temperature (0 ° C. or lower in this embodiment).
However, after that, it turns off.

Further, there are two modes for ice making by this ice making device. One is the normal opaque ice making mode (hereinafter, the first
The other is a mode for making transparent ice (hereinafter, referred to as a second ice making mode).

In the first ice making mode, the lid body 12 is held in the open state and the heater 19 is kept in the OFF state by the control unit 30 described later, as shown by the chain line in FIG. 7.

On the other hand, in the second ice making mode, the lid 12 is the same as the control unit.
The heater 30 keeps the water in the ice tray 11 in the closed state from when the ice tray 11 begins to freeze until before the ice tray 11 is inverted, and the heater
19 is kept in the ON state from the time when the water in the ice tray 11 starts freezing until the freezing is completed.

That is, in the second ice making mode, the heater 19 is
When the first thermistor 35 (described later) mounted on the bottom surface of the ice tray 11 detects a temperature of 0 ° C, it turns ON, and the temperature drops from this to 2 ° C.
The control unit 30 controls to turn off when the temperature is detected. In any of the first and second ice making modes, the pipe heater 34 is turned on when a second thermistor 36 (described later) attached to the water supply pipe 7 detects a temperature of 0 ° C. or less, the control unit 30. Controlled by.

FIG. 8 shows an electric circuit diagram of the ice making device. In the figure, 30 is a control board (section), which is a display board.
31, transformer 32, heater 19, piping heater 34, drive box 9
Motor 33, water supply pump 6, first thermistor 35 for detecting the temperature of water in the ice tray 11, second thermistor 36 for detecting the temperature of water passing through the water supply pipe 7, switches (not shown) Etc. are connected.

Among the above switches, there is a changeover switch for changing the first ice making mode to the second ice making mode and vice versa.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

(1) In the case of the first ice making mode (FIG. 9) FIG. 9 shows an ice production process when making ordinary opaque ice.

Now, when switching to the first ice making mode with the changeover switch, the lid 12 is opened and the heater 19 is turned off. The water in the water supply bottle 4 is stored in the water tank 5, the water supply pump 6
Through the water supply pipe 7 to the ice tray. Ice tray 11
Is cooled by the lower cooling plate 16 and also from above, and the water therein becomes opaque ice with its central portion clouded with impurities.

When the ice is generated, the ice tray 11 is inverted and twisted by the stopper to drop the ice into the ice storage box 10. When the removal of ice (clearing) is completed, the ice tray 11 returns to its original position, and water supply to this begins.

At this time, the pipe heater 34 is in the OFF state when supplying water, but when the second thermistor 36 detects a temperature of 0 ° C. or lower, it is in the ON state, and when it detects that the temperature has exceeded 0 ° C. again after supplying water, it is in the OFF state. become. For this reason, the water in the water supply pipe 7 does not freeze and is always kept in a water-supplyable state.

In this way, water supply, freezing and ice removal (de-icing)
One step is automatically and continuously performed. One step (one cycle) at this time is shorter than that in the second ice-making mode, which will be described next.

(2) In the case of the second ice making mode (Fig. 10) Fig. 10 shows the ice production process when making transparent ice.

Now, when the second switch is switched to the second ice making mode, the lid 12 is open and the heater 19 is also off. In this state, water is supplied to the ice tray 11 through the water supply pipe 7.

When the ice tray 11 is cooled by the lower cooling plate 16 and is cooled from above, and the water in it is 0 ° C., this is detected by the first thermistor 35, and the lid 12 is closed and the heater 19 is turned on at the same time. It becomes a state. Then, when freezing progresses and the water in the ice tray 11 reaches 2 ° C., this is detected by the first thermistor 35, and the heater 19 is turned off.

In the freezing process of water, the ice tray 11 is heated by the heater 19.
It is warmed from the top and cooled from the bottom. As a result, water freezes from the bottom to the top, but since it is warmed from the top, the freeze time is longer than before. Therefore, freezing is uniformly performed, and gas, bubbles and the like are uniformly deposited, and ice with high transparency is obtained.

When ice is generated, the lid 12 opens, the ice tray 11 is inverted,
Ice removal (clearing) is complete. Then, the ice tray 11 returns to its original position, and water is supplied to it. At this time, the pipe heater 34 is turned on and off at the same time as in the first ice making mode.

In this way, water supply, freezing and ice removal (de-icing)
The above process is automatically and continuously performed.

In the above embodiment, the temperature of the water that the heater 19 turns on is 0.
Although the temperature of the water to be turned off is 2 ° C., the temperature of the water to be turned off is not limited to this, and may be set to 3 ° C. and 5 ° C. in consideration of the variation of the temperature detection element such as the thermistor.

Further, the temperature of the water in which the heater 19 and the pipe heater 34 are turned on is controlled at the same temperature, but both 19 and 34 may be controlled at different temperatures.

Further, the opening / closing structure of the lid 12 may be configured as shown in FIG. 4 as in the case of the first ice making device of the embodiment.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the ice-making device for a refrigerator of the present invention, the ice tray is warmed from the upper portion and cooled from the lower portion so that the water in the ice tray is frozen from the bottom to the top over time, so that the ice with high transparency is formed. It can be made continuously.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an installation state of an ice making device according to an embodiment of the present invention in a refrigerator, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the ice making device of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view of an ice making plate portion of FIG. FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing another mounting structure of an ice tray, FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing an installation state of an ice making device according to another embodiment of the present invention in a refrigerator, and FIG. 6 is FIG. FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the ice making device, FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the ice making plate portion of FIG. 5, FIG. 8 is an electric circuit diagram of the ice making device, and FIGS. 9 and 10 are characteristic diagrams when ice is produced. FIG. 11 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional refrigerator ice making device, and FIG. 12 is an electric circuit diagram of the refrigerator ice making device of FIG. 11 is an ice tray, 12 is a lid, 16 is a cooling plate, 19 is a heater, 20 is a heating plate, and 34 is a pipe heater. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An ice tray that rotates about an axis to be reversed or reverted, and is flexibly deformed by being twisted at the time of reversal, and an ice tray that is openably and closably arranged on the ice tray and has a heater on the ice tray side. An ice making device for a refrigerator, comprising: a lid; and a cooling plate arranged under the ice tray so as to be able to move forward and backward, and the rotation of the ice tray and the opening and closing of the lid are synchronized. 2. A water supply pipe for supplying water to an ice tray, a heater for heating the water supply pipe, and a control means for holding the heater in an ON state when the temperature of the water in the water supply pipe becomes below the freezing temperature. Item 1. An ice making device for a refrigerator according to Item 1.