KR100700540B1 - Quick icemaker for refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a rapid deicing device for a refrigerator, the ice making mold upwardly opened to receive water and freeze it; A blower provided at one side of the ice making mold; A first cold air guide provided with a damper to adjust a flow rate of cold air therein, and guiding cold air from an outlet side of the blower to an upper side of the ice making mold so as to force convection of cold air above the ice making mold; And a second cold guide for guiding the cold air from the outlet side of the blower to the lower side of the ice making mold so as to force convection of the cold air near the lower side of the ice making mold.

Accordingly, by supplying cold air to both the upper side and the lower side of the ice making mold, it is possible to improve the cooling rate of the ice making mold by forced convection, and also by controlling the cold air supplied to the first cold guide and the second cold guide. It is effective to prevent the deterioration of the ice.

Refrigerator, ice maker, rapid

Description

Quick ice maker in refrigerators {QUICK ICEMAKER FOR REFRIGERATOR}

1 is a perspective view showing that an ice maker according to the related art is installed in a refrigerator,

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a part of the ice making apparatus of FIG. 1;

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A of FIG.

4 is a perspective view showing that the rapid ice making device according to an embodiment of the present invention is installed in a refrigerator,

5 is a front view of the rapid deicing device of FIG.

6 is a cross-sectional view of a blower part of the rapid ice making device of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a control block diagram of the rapid deicing device of FIG. 4.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

117: Cold Exit 130: Ice Bank

140: dispenser 200: ice maker

210: ice making mold 220: blower

222: fan blade 230: the first cold air guide

240: second cold guide 250: upper damper

260: lower damper 300: control unit

310: timer

The present invention relates to a rapid deicing device of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a rapid deicing device of a refrigerator to forcibly convection cold air in a freezer compartment to improve an ice making speed of the ice making mold.

In general, a refrigerator is provided with a cooling chamber to keep food and the like at a low temperature. The refrigerator may be used by dividing a low temperature range into a freezing chamber for keeping the cooling chamber at a low temperature below zero and a refrigerating chamber for keeping the image at a low temperature. In addition, as the demand for ice in recent years has increased, there is an increasing number of cases in which an ice making device capable of providing only ice is provided in the refrigerator.

The refrigerator of the refrigerator is described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3 attached to a double door refrigerator mounted on a freezer door.

As shown in FIG. 1, the refrigerator 1 includes a refrigerator main body 10 in which a freezing compartment 14 and a refrigerating compartment are partitioned by partition walls in up and down directions, and are provided at both sides of the refrigerator main body 10, respectively. Doors 11 and 12 are rotatably opened and closed to open the refrigerator compartment and the refrigerator compartment independently.

The freezing chamber 14 includes a shelf formed horizontally so that the freezing space can be divided into multiple layers, and an ice making device 20 and an ice making device 20 are provided on an inner wall of the freezing door 11 to automatically receive water. Ice bank 30 for storing the ice discharged from the ice making device 20 is provided below.

The dispenser 40 is formed at the lower side of the ice bank 30 to be in communication with the ice bank 30 so as to be recessed from the outer surface of the freezer door 11 so that the user can take out the ice from the outside of the freezer door 11. Prepared.

As shown in Fig. 2 and 3, the ice making apparatus 20, the ice making mold 22, the bottom surface is semi-cylindrical so as to freeze the water to form a plurality of ice making chamber 21 partitioned, and ice making The water supply part 23 for supplying water to the ice making mold 22 on one side of the mold 22 and the ice frozen in each ice making chamber 21 in the upper part of the ice making chamber 21 are lifted to the outside to the lower part. It includes an ejector pin (25b) formed for each of the ice-making chamber 21 from the rotating shaft (25a) having a rotating shaft (25a) in the column direction of each ice-making chamber 21 to be discharged to the ice bank 30 of the A control box 26 including an ejector 25, an ejector motor (not shown) for driving the rotating shaft 25a, and periodically stored in the ice bank 30 by an instruction to the control box 26. It includes an ice detection lever 27 for detecting the level of ice.

A heater 28 for heating the bottom of the ice making mold 22 for a short time so that the ice firmly fixed to the bottom of the ice making mold 22 can be easily separated from the ice making mold 22 at the bottom of the ice making mold 22. Is provided.

And, between each ejector pin (25b) by the rotation of the ejector pin (25b) is lifted by the rotating shaft so that the inverted ice falls down to the ice bank 30 without falling back to the ice making chamber 21 ( A stripper 24 is provided which is inclined downward from near 25a).

As a result, when the function of the refrigerator 1 is set to perform the ice making mode, the ice making device 20 makes ice by cold air flowing from the cold air outlet 17 provided on the inner wall of the freezer compartment 14 and then makes the ice bank. The process of discharging to 30 is repeated until the ice bank 30 becomes full ice.

However, according to the conventional ice maker 20, the ice making performance is dependent on the amount of cold air flowing from the cold air outlet 17 or the relative position of the ice maker 20 with respect to the flow of cold air to improve the ice making speed. There is a limit to. That is, when the flow of cold air in the ice making device 20 is not smooth, there is a problem that the heat exchange rate between the ice making mold 22 which freezes the ice and the cold is also inferior to meet the urgent need of the ice.

In order to solve this problem, a method of increasing the cooling speed of the ice making mold 22 by forcing convection by blowing cold air to the lower side of the ice making mold 22 has been proposed, but it causes heat exchange only at the lower side of the ice making mold 22. There is a problem that the overall de-icing speed is not improved compared to the power consumption of the blower.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to forcibly circulate cold air around an ice making machine, thereby improving the vertical cooling rate of the ice making mold and preventing the deterioration of the quality of the rapidly iced ice. It is to provide a rapid deicing device of the refrigerator.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ice making mold that is upwardly open to receive water and freeze it; A blower having a damper configured to adjust a flow rate of cold air therein and provided at one side of the ice making mold; A first cold guide guiding the cold air from the outlet side of the blower to the upper side of the ice making mold so as to force convection of the cold air above the ice making mold; And a second cold guide guiding the cold air from the outlet side of the blower to the lower side of the ice making mold so as to force convection of cold air near the lower side of the ice making mold. Provides a rapid deicing device for a refrigerator that is supplied to produce ice without breaking the ice.

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It is efficient to further include a timer for checking the operation time of the blower, and a control unit for controlling the opening degree of the damper according to the time information obtained by the timer.

And controlling the opening degree of the damper according to the temperature information obtained by the lower temperature sensor installed below the ice making mold, the upper temperature sensor installed above the ice making mold, and the lower temperature sensor and the upper temperature sensor. The control unit may be further included.

Hereinafter, a rapid deicing device of a refrigerator according to the present invention will be described in detail according to an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, and detailed descriptions of related known functions or components will be omitted.

4 is a perspective view illustrating a rapid ice maker according to an embodiment of the present invention installed in a refrigerator, FIG. 5 is a front view of the rapid ice maker of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a blower part of the rapid ice maker of FIG. 4. FIG. 7 is a control block diagram of the rapid deicing device of FIG. 4.

As shown in FIG. 4, the two-door refrigerator 100 includes a refrigerator main body 110 in which a freezing compartment 114 and a refrigerating compartment are partitioned by partition walls in an up and down direction, and are provided at both sides of the refrigerator main body 110. 114) and the doors 111 and 112 coupled to each other so as to be able to open and close the refrigerating chamber independently, and an ice making apparatus 120 which automatically receives water from the inner wall of the freezer door 111 and freezes it. An ice bank 130 for storing ice discharged from the ice maker 200 is provided below the ice maker 200.

The dispenser 140 is formed at the lower side of the ice bank 130 so as to be in communication with the ice bank 130 to be recessed from the outer surface of the freezing chamber door 111 so that the user can take out the ice from the outside of the freezing chamber door 111. Prepared.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the ice making apparatus 200 includes an upwardly open ice making mold 210 and an ice making mold 210 that form an ice making chamber in which a plurality of bottom surfaces are formed so as to freeze water. The first cold guide 230 and the lower side of the ice making mold 210 are provided with a suction port 221 so as to suck the cold air in the freezing chamber 114 to guide the cold air to the upper side of the ice making mold 210. And a blower 220 for connecting the second cold air guide 240 provided to guide the cold air to the outlet side, respectively.

In addition, an upper part of the ice making mold 210 is provided with an ejector 225 for discharging the ice frozen in each ice making chamber to the lower ice bank 130, and the ejector 225 is provided at one end of the ejector 225. It is driven by the ejector motor 270 in the provided control box 226.

As shown in FIG. 6, an upper damper 250 is provided inside the first cold guide 230 to adjust an amount of the cold air flow generated by the fan blade 222 and the second cold guide 240. The lower damper 260 is also provided to adjust the flow rate of the cold air in the interior.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the ice making apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment includes a controller 300, and a timer 310 for checking an operation time of the blower 220 is coupled to the controller 300. The opening degree of the upper damper 250 or the lower damper 260 is controlled according to the time information obtained by the timer 310.

In particular, when supplying the cold air to the first cold guide 230, it can be expected to improve the ice making performance along with the second cold guide 240, the formation process of the ice tissue is diffused from the water surface of the ice making mold 210 In this case, bubbles dissolved in the water may be held by the ice, which may lead to breakage when the ice is discharged.

Therefore, in order to prevent such a phenomenon, the control unit 300 starts the operation of the blower 220 and supplies cold air to the second cold guide 240, and then, at a predetermined time interval, cool air to the first cold guide 230. It can contribute to the improvement of the amount of ice making while preventing the breakage of ice.

Meanwhile, the upper temperature sensor 320 and the lower temperature sensor 330 are connected to the control unit 300 by connecting the upper temperature sensor 320 and the lower temperature sensor 330 respectively installed on the upper and lower portions of the ice making mold 210. By controlling the opening degree of the upper damper 250 according to the temperature information obtained by, for example, the difference between the upper temperature and the lower temperature or whether the upper temperature is less than the set temperature to the first cold guide 230 It is also possible to adjust the cold air supplied.

By such a configuration, when the ice making apparatus 200 performs the operation in the rapid ice making mode, water is supplied to the ice making mold 210, and the blower 220 is freezing chamber 114 coming out of the cold air outlet 117. By sucking back the cold air inside and supplying the first cold guide 230 and the second cold guide 240 to improve the cooling rate of the ice making mold 210 as a whole, or first supply the cold air to the second cold guide 240. By improving the cooling speed of the bottom of the ice making mold 210 and the ice tissue begins to grow from the bottom of the ice making mold 210, by supplying cold air to the first cold guide 230, the upper and lower sides of the ice making mold 210 By cooling all the sides intensively, ice can be produced in a short time without ice breakage, and the ice bank 130 drives the ejector motor 270 to discharge the generated ice to the ice bank 130. Up to full ice To proceed to the repetition rate.

As described above, according to the rapid deicing device of the refrigerator of the present invention, the air blower 220 provided at one side of the ice making mold 210 and the cold air is guided from the outlet side of the blower 220 to the upper side of the ice making mold 210. Both the upper side and the lower side of the ice making mold 210 are provided with a first cold air guide 230 and a second cold air guide 240 for guiding the cold air from the outlet side of the blower 220 to the lower side of the ice making mold 210. By supplying the cold air to the cooling rate of the ice making mold 210 by forced convection can be improved, and also by adjusting the cold air supplied to the first cold guide 230 and the second cold guide 240, such as the phenomenon of cracking It has the effect of preventing the deterioration of ice quality.

As described above with reference to the drawings illustrating a rapid deicing device of a refrigerator according to the present invention, the present invention is not limited by the embodiments and drawings disclosed herein, but within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention Various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art.

Claims (4)

An ice making mold upwardly open to receive water and freeze it; A blower provided at one side of the ice making mold; A damper is provided to adjust the flow rate of the cold air therein, and the first cold guide guides the cold air from the outlet side of the blower to the upper side of the ice making mold so as to force convection of the cold air near the upper side of the ice making mold. ; And a second cold air guide guiding the cold air from the outlet side of the blower to the lower side of the ice making mold so as to force convection of cold air near the lower side of the ice making mold. A rapid deicing device of a refrigerator in which cold air is preferentially supplied to the second cold guide to produce ice without breaking the ice. delete The method of claim 1, And a controller for checking an operation time of the blower and a control unit for controlling the opening degree of the damper according to the time information obtained by the timer. The method of claim 1, A control unit for controlling the opening degree of the damper in accordance with the temperature information obtained by the lower temperature sensor installed on the lower part of the ice making mold, the upper temperature sensor installed on the upper part of the ice making mold, the lower temperature sensor and the upper temperature sensor. Rapid deicing device of the refrigerator, characterized in that it further comprises.

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