JPS5915780A - Refrigerator with ice making device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a refrigerator that forcibly circulates cold air from a cooler to a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment using a blower and is equipped with an ice-making tray, so that transparent ice can be obtained with a simple configuration. .

Generally, in forced convection refrigerators, the ice making section in the freezer compartment is
The ice produced was white and cloudy. The reason for the decrease in the transparency of this ice is that when water crystallizes to form ice, air molecules dissolved in the water separate and remain in the water as minute bubbles. The reason why air bubbles remain in the water is that freezing begins at the surface of the water before the center of the ice making process, forming a film of ice on the upper layer of the water surface, and this film traps the air bubbles. To address this issue, rotate the ice cube tray.

It has been proposed to generate transparent ice by applying vibrations or running water, but these methods have problems such as increasing the size of the ice-making device and generating noise and vibration, making them difficult to implement.

In addition, if ice is made very slowly, the bubbles in the water will become large and relatively transparent ice will be obtained.Therefore, various methods have been proposed to suppress the ice making speed; This contradicted the demands of customers, and it did not provide completely transparent ice because large air bubbles remained.

Furthermore, a heater is installed on the F-opening 1-1 side of the ice-making tray to raise the temperature to a higher temperature than the freezing temperature on the lower side of the ice-making [1+1], thereby controlling the progress of ice formation. This arrangement was made so that air bubbles would not be trapped in the ice cubes. However, this arrangement required a heater of 3' and added heat load to the freezing compartment, which was not preferable.

The present invention takes the above points into consideration and provides transparent ice by using cold air from the freezer and refrigerator compartments in the air flowing through the passages on the upper and lower surfaces of the ice tray to provide a temperature difference.

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

In FIGS. 1 to 4, 1 is a heat insulating box body, and a freezer compartment 2. The refrigerator compartment 3 is partitioned by a vertical partition wall 4 in the middle. Reference numeral 5 denotes a cooler disposed approximately in the center of the back wall of the freezer compartment 2, and a partition plate 6 is installed in front of the cooler to form the freezer compartment 2 and the cooling compartment F. And the cooler 5 in the cooling room F
A blower 7 for circulating cold air is installed on one side of the refrigerator compartment 2, and a cold air outlet 8 to the freezer compartment 2 is provided in the fan cover 9. It is composed of the front upper end of the frost water receiver llT111. On the other hand, a cold air discharge port 12 to the refrigerator compartment 3 is provided in the upper part of the partition wall 4, and a cold air suction port 13 from the refrigerator compartment 3 is provided in the lower part. At the bottom of the freezer compartment 2 and slightly above the cold air inlet 13 from the refrigerator compartment 3, a shelf board 14 is installed on the partition wall 4. The inner box 15 of the heat insulating box 1 is installed in close contact with the partition plate 6, and an ice making compartment C is configured. An ice making device is installed in this ice making room C. That is, ice trays 16, 17, . Storage rail A18 rail B19 provided in the inner box 16. Rail C20 is installed.

The heat insulating cover 21 installed on the back side of the shelf board 14 thermally isolates the cold air from the freezer compartment and the cold air returning from the refrigerator compartment, prevents condensation on the back face of the shelf board 14, and prevents the cold air from returning from the refrigerator compartment from condensing. , to enhance the heating effect on the water surface. rail 19
0 through holes 22, 23, 24 to ice making 11117,
This is for supplying cold air returned from the refrigerator compartment 3. 2
6 is a compressor. With this configuration, the ice tray 16
, 17 are stored, the ice trays 16 , 17 and the shelf board 14
．． Rail A18, Rail B19. By rail C20,
A passage 25 is formed above the ice trays 16 and 17 for the cold air returning to the refrigerator, and the water surface of the ice trays 16 and 17 is at 0° C. or higher.

In the above embodiment, the cold air that has undergone heat exchange in the cooler 5 is discharged from the cold air outlet 8 to the freezer compartment 2 by the blower 7 as indicated by the arrow in the drawing, and after freezing the food, the returned cold air is sent to the ice trays 16, 17. The cold air enters a passage 27 formed below, cools the bottoms of the ice trays 16 and 170 again, and circulates back to the cooling chamber F through the cold air suction port 10. On the other hand, the cold air discharged from the cold air discharge port 12 to the refrigerator compartment 12 exchanges heat with the food, and then passes through the cold air suction port 13 to the passage 26 above the ice making [116, 17].
The air then returns to the cooling room F through the cold air suction port 1o. Therefore, the water surface of the ice trays 16 and 17 is heated by the cold air returned from the high-temperature refrigerator compartment, and the water surface temperature is always higher than the internal temperature. Freezing occurs from the bottom of the ice tray, and the water surface freezes the slowest. Therefore, air bubbles generated during freezing gradually escape from the water surface, making it possible to produce transparent ice.

Page 6 As described above, the present invention forms a ventilation passage on the bottom of the ice cube tray installed in the refrigerator, and allows the return cold air from the freezer compartment to flow through the lower passage, and the cold return air from the refrigerator compartment to flow through the upper passage. Therefore, the structure is extremely simple and highly transparent ice can be reliably produced by utilizing cold air from the refrigerator compartment without using any special heater means as in the past. Furthermore, since the return cold air from the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment is used, the configuration for guiding the cold air to the passage under the ice tray 1 can be made extremely simple by utilizing the cold air passage configuration of an existing refrigerator.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the freezer compartment thereof. Figure 3 shows
FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part taken along line AA' in FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a main part taken along line B-B' in FIG. 2... Freezer room, 3... Refrigerator room, 7...
...Blower, 16.17 ...Ice tray, 26
．． 27...Aisle. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person No. 1
Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] It is equipped with a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment, a blower that circulates cold air to these compartments, and an ice tray with an open top surface that stores water. A refrigerator with an ice-making device that allows the return cold air from the room to flow through the upper passage.