KR0174210B1 - Icing control method for keeping water supplying tower from blocking - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention proposes an ice-making control technique for preventing clogging of a water supply tip for preventing freezing of a water supply tip provided at the tip of a water supply hose of an automatic ice maker for a refrigerator.

The present invention is characterized in that a water supply motor (15) and a water supply hose (16) for supplying water in a water reservoir (13) provided in a refrigerating chamber to an ice making bowl (11) A water supply tip 18 mounted on the freezing chamber side tip of the water supply tip 16 and a heater 19 installed at the tip of the water supply tip to prevent water ice formation on the opening of the water supply tip 18, (20) for controlling energization of the microcomputer (19), comprising the steps of: determining whether an ice-making start time has reached an ice-making stop time (2.4 hours) (12.5 ° C) of the ice making container (11) by the ice-making sensor (24) when the ice-making sensor (24) reaches the limit time,

If the detected temperature value by the ice-making sensor 24 is less than the reference temperature value, it is determined that the current ice-making mode has failed and the process ends. If the detected temperature value is equal to or higher than the reference temperature value, And supplying the operating current to the heater (19) for a predetermined period of time, and performing a water supply mode and a water supply confirmation mode when the ice-making and heater energization mode is completed, In the ice making process.

Description

Deicing control method to prevent clogging of feed water tip

The present invention relates to a control method of an automatic ice maker installed in a freezer compartment of a refrigerator. In particular, in order to prevent clogging of a water supply hose tip that may occur in a water supply system of an ice maker, And more particularly, to a deicing control method for preventing clogging of a feed tip having a program for effectively controlling energization.

In recent large-sized refrigerator products, an automatic ice maker is installed in accordance with the popularity and demand of the consumer.

The automatic ice maker includes an ice-making controller including a water supply tank, an ice-making motor, and an ice-making vessel, and an ice storage container for storing each ice made in the ice-making vessel.

In the ice making system, a predetermined amount of water is supplied from the water supply tank to the ice making vessel through the water supply pump every time, and then the ice from the ice making vessel is placed on the ice storage vessel.

Such an ice-making system includes a sensor or a timer for determining the water supply operation time of the water supply pump, a temperature sensor for detecting completion of the ice-making process, and an ice-making motor for rotating the ice- .

Accordingly, when the ice maker detects that the ice making is completed by the temperature sensor, the ice tray is driven to rotate by the reduction gear connected to the ice making motor. When the ice tray reaches a certain angle, the ice tray is caught by the bracket and decomposed.

After that, the ice-making vessel is rotated in one direction and then rotated in the opposite direction again for a predetermined time to return to the home position and continue to perform the next ice-making operation.

The structure of the icemaker is roughly divided into a front and rear case, an idle motor, a gear cam and a gear plate, and a horizontal and full-width switch, an auxiliary plate, and an ice-making bowl provided on the gear plate.

Let's take a look at the ice making process in this ice maker.

First, when power is supplied to the ice maker, an initial control operation for keeping the ice maker horizontally is executed.

This initial control is performed by a horizontal switch that rotates or rotates the freezing motor.

In addition, immediately after the power is turned on, the watering step is executed after performing an operation of firstly discharging the ice on the current ice-making vessel by the previous ice-making without watering the ice-making vessel.

This is to prevent a water supply failure which may be caused by water supply to the ice making state.

After the initial control, the ice-making completion control operation is performed.

When the temperature is lower than the reference temperature (-12.5 ° C) by the I (ice-making) sensor installed at the lower end of the ice-making vessel after a predetermined time (2.4 hours: 144 minutes) after completion of water supply, it is judged that the ice-making is completed.

Thus, the ice-making control operation is performed.

In the ice-making control, after the ice-making is completed, the ice-making motor is rotated to rotate the ice-making vessel by the gear cam to induce twisting of the case by the auxiliary plate so that the ice separated from the ice-making vessel is stored in the ice- .

After the ice-making is completed, the ice-making motor is reversely rotated to align the horizontal state of the ice-making vessel with the horizontal switch, and it is determined whether or not the ice-cube is full.

In this case, whether or not the ice cubes are fully sensed is detected by the ice-cube switch. If an ice-contact signal is generated in the ice-cube ice switch, it is determined that the ice-

If the ice-making switch is in the OFF state, it is determined that the ice-making condition is satisfied.

If the amount of accumulated water after the completion of the freezing is insufficient, the operation power is supplied to the water supply motor for a predetermined time to execute the water supply control step as described above.

At this time, when water is continuously detected by the water sensor during water supply, refeeding is performed after about 30 minutes.

If the current condition is the water sensing condition by the water sensor, the icing system is stopped. After the abnormal condition factor is canceled, the test switch is turned on to check whether the water is supplied.

When supplying water to the ice making bowl during the ice making process, the water supply hose located inside the freezing chamber is easily frozen by a very low internal temperature.

Therefore, a heater for preventing freezing is provided on the water supply hose.

1 shows a water supply system structure in an automatic ice maker for a refrigerator.

As shown in this figure, in the refrigerator compartment 12 of the refrigerator, there are provided a water container 13 to store ice making water, a water supply tray 14 that receives water supplied from the water container and maintains a predetermined water level, A water supply motor 15 for pushing water in the freezing chamber 14 toward the freezing chamber side is provided.

A water supply hose 16 for supplying water to the ice making bowl 11 and the ice making bowl 11 is provided in the freezing chamber 10 and the water supply hose 16 is connected to the water supply motor 15 side Respectively.

The water supply hose 16 is equipped with a heater 17 for preventing freezing of the hose.

Accordingly, when the operation of the automatic ice maker is started, the water supply motor 15 is driven and water on the water supply tray 14 is supplied to the ice making bowl 11 through the water supply hose 16 to perform the ice making.

In this deicing process, the heater 17 is continuously supplied with current, and thus the freezing of the water supply hose 16 is prevented by the heat generated here.

However, the conventional method of preventing the water supply hose from being frozen by the continuous power supply method of the heater is unnecessary and causes an excessive power loss and a rise in the internal temperature.

As a countermeasure therefor, a method for controlling power supply hose heater energization control of an icemaker, which solves the problem of unnecessary power consumption in the automatic ice-maker operation mode and minimizes the problem of raising the internal temperature of the icemaker, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Hose energization control method.

The present invention is characterized in that a water supply hose freezing prevention system of an automatic ice maker for supplying a current to a hose freezing heater mounted on a water supply hose for transferring water in a refrigerating chamber upwardly fed by a water feed motor to an ice making vessel, Detecting a temperature of a freezer compartment of a refrigerator sensed by a sensor; comparing a temperature change cycle of the refrigerating compartment detected in the step with a reference value, which is a set temperature; Closing the current supplied to the heater until the temperature cycle of the refrigerating compartment is lowered beyond the reference value by the operation of the refrigerating fan from the point of time when the temperature change cycle is lowered past the reference value, When the fan is turned off, And supplying the current to the heater in the form of a pulse train until the point of time when the heater is lifted up.

Accordingly, in order to prevent freezing of the water supply hose that may occur in the water supply system of the automatic ice maker installed in the freezer of the large refrigerator, when controlling the energization of the heater mounted on the hose of the freezer compartment, By controlling the heater for freezing the water supply hose in the form of a pulse train in conjunction with the graph, unnecessary power consumption due to the continuous driving of the heater based on the conventional system and the problem of rising in the temperature can be solved.

However, even if automatic deicing is performed according to this method, it is impossible to avoid water supply clogging at the tip of the water supply hose.

The reason for this is that although the water supply hose is made of a plastic material having a low thermal conductivity, a tip of a metal material having high thermal conductivity such as aluminum is installed at the freezing chamber side end of the water supply hose to prevent deformation of the hose outlet. The water supply hole clogging phenomenon occurs.

An object of the present invention is to provide an ice-making control method for preventing clogging of a water supply tip for preventing freezing of a water-supply tip, which is caused by making water ice in the outlet of a tip of a water-supplying hose of an automatic ice- .

The present invention is characterized in that a water supply motor and a water supply hose for supplying water in a water tank installed in a refrigerating chamber to an ice making bowl in a freezing room equipped with an ice-making sensor, a water supply tip mounted on a freezing chamber side end of the water supply hose, A method for controlling a system using a micom in an automatic ice-making system including a heater installed at a tip of a water-feeding tip to prevent formation of ice film on the opening, and a microcomputer for controlling energization to the heater, Determining whether a time limit (2.4 hours) has been reached;

Determining whether a current temperature value of the ice making container by the ice-making sensor reaches a reference temperature value (-12.5 DEG C), if the limit time is reached in the step,

If the detected temperature value by the ice-making sensor is less than the reference temperature value, it is determined that the current ice-making mode has failed. If the detected temperature value is equal to or higher than the reference temperature value, Supplying an operating current to the heater,

And a step of executing a water supply mode and a water supply confirmation mode and ending a current icing when the execution of the idling and heater energization mode is completed.

1 is an explanatory view of a structure of a water supply system of an automatic ice maker for a refrigerator.

2 is a structural view of an apparatus for preventing clogging of a water supply tip for the present invention.

3 is a circuit block diagram of an ice-making control system for implementing the present invention;

4 is a flow chart for explaining the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

10: Freezer room 11:

12: Refrigerator room 13: Bucket

14: Water tray 15: Water supply motor

16: Water supply hose 17: Heater

18: Watering tip 19: Heater

20: Microcomputer 21: Ebing motor

22: Ice-maker driving unit 24: Ice-

31: Feedwater motor drive unit 32,35: Relay

34:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig.

Fig. 2 shows the installation structure of the heater 19 for preventing the feed tip, which is the controlled device according to the present invention.

As shown here, the water supply tip 18 provided at the tip of the water supply hose 16 is typically made of aluminum. A heater 19 is wound on the metal water supply tip 18.

3 is a system control circuit configuration diagram of an automatic ice maker for executing the present invention.

A change in the temperature proportional resistance value sensed by the ice-making sensor 24 is converted into a voltage component by the reference resistor 26 and the Vcc voltage to the input limit IN of the microcomputer 20, Lt; / RTI >

The ice-making sensor 24 is a sensor installed on the ice making bowl 11 of the freezer compartment of the refrigerator.

The ice-making sensor 24 is a sensor installed on the ice-making vessel of the freezer compartment of the refrigerator.

The control output signals generated at the first and second output terminals OUT1 and OUT2 of the microcomputer 20 are connected to the feeder motor driving unit 31 and the heater driving unit 34, respectively.

The water supply motor driving unit 31 includes an inverter and a relay 32 to be driven by the B + voltage. An AC voltage to be supplied to the water supply motor 15 is switched by the contact of the relay 32,

The heater driving unit 34 includes an inverter and a relay 35 to be driven by the B + voltage. An AC voltage to be supplied to the heater 19 is switched and connected by the contact of the relay 35.

The ice-making control signal output from the third output terminal OUT3 of the microcomputer 20 is connected to the ice-maker driving unit 22 so that the ice-making motor 21 is rotated by the ice-maker driving unit 22 .

The automatic ice-making apparatus and the ice-making control method of the present invention based on the hardware structure for controlling the system will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.

The water in the water tank 13 provided in the refrigerating chamber 12 is supplied to the ice making bowl 11 in the freezing chamber 10 to which the ice making sensor 24 is attached by the water supply motor 15 and the water supply hose 16, The ice-making mode is started.

Thereafter, the microcomputer 20 starts the timing and checks whether or not the ice-making time limit (2.4 hours) set in advance has been reached.

If it is determined that the time has reached the limit time, the microcomputer 20 performs the ice-making mode execution step. If the ice-making time limit has not been reached yet, the ice- Read current temperature value.

In this case, when the ice-making sensor 24 detects the temperature sensing process of the ice making bowl 11 of the freezing chamber 10, the ice-making sensor is installed under the ice making container, The Vcc voltage-dividing circuit is formed together with the reference resistor 26 connected in series, so that the temperature-converted voltage value obtained here is transmitted to the microcomputer through the current-limiting resistor 25 so as to know the temperature in the current solid.

Through this process, it is determined whether the current ice tray temperature has reached the reference temperature (-12.5 ° C).

If the detected temperature value of the ice-making sensor 24 is lower than the reference temperature value in the above step, it is determined that the current ice-making mode has failed and the process ends.

Conversely, if the detected temperature value is equal to or higher than the reference temperature value, the ice-making mode is executed and at the same time the operation of supplying the operating current to the heater 19 during the execution period of the ice-making mode proceeds.

That is, when the detected temperature value of the ice-making sensor 24 is the freezing temperature, the microcomputer 20 controls the ice-maker driving unit 22 to operate in the forward mode , The warp mode, the reverse mode, the forward mode, and the stop.

At the same time, the microcomputer 20 outputs the heater control signal through the second output terminal OUT2 during the idle period so as to apply the driving current to the heater 19 provided on the water supply tip 18. [

Accordingly, the relay 35 of the heater driving unit 34 is driven and its contact point is turned on, so that the driving current is supplied to the heater 19.

Therefore, in the automatic ice-making mode, since the ice film that can be formed on the water supply tip 18 is melted just before the water supply mode is executed after the ice-making operation, the water supply tip is clogged by residual water droplets or the like, It will be possible.

On the other hand, when the icing mode is completed, the microcomputer stops operating the heater 19 and outputs a control signal for executing the water supply mode through the first output OUT1 thereof.

Thereby, the relay 32 in the water supply motor drive unit 31 is activated and its contact point is turned on so that the water supply motor 15 is driven.

After completion of water supply and confirmation, ice making of the next turn is performed through the same process as described above.

As described above, according to the present invention, in the automatic ice maker installed in the refrigerator, a heater is attached to the water supply tip portion of the metal material, and the heater is energized during the ice-making period immediately before the next water- The tip of the water supply hose of the water supply hose can be prevented from freezing of the water supply tip caused by water ice remaining in the water due to water droplets remaining after the water supply.

Claims (1)

A water supply motor 15 and a water supply hose 16 for supplying water in the water bottle 13 provided in the refrigerating chamber to the ice making bowl 11 in the freezing room to which the ice making sensor 24 is attached, A heater 19 installed at the tip of the water supply tip to prevent formation of ice ice on the opening of the water supply tip 18, The method of controlling an automatic ice-making system according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of: determining whether an ice-making start time has reached an ice-making time limit (2.4 hours); If the current temperature value of the ice making container 11 by the ice-making sensor 24 reaches a reference temperature value (-12.5 ° C), and if the detected temperature value by the ice- If the temperature is below the reference temperature value, Supplying the operating current to the heater (19) during the execution period of the ice-making mode simultaneously with the execution of the ice-making mode if the detected temperature value is equal to or higher than the reference temperature value, And performing a water supply mode and a water supply confirmation mode when the mode execution is completed, and terminating the icing of the session.