KR100783235B1 - Ice maker and ice making method using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

An ice maker and an ice making method thereof are provided to overcool a liquid by energy such as electric or magnetic fields and convert the overcooled liquid to a solid state by shock, thereby producing slush or ice in a short time. An ice maker includes a water tank(21) storing water and having an electrode(21a) serving as an energy generator for applying energy such as electric fields to the water for converting the water to overcooled water. A tray(22) receives the overcooled water from the water tank via a path(21b), wherein the tray is made of conductive materials such as aluminium and rotating by a motor(22a). A shock generator(22c) is mounted at a side of the tray for applying shock to the overcooled liquid received in the tray.

Description

ICE MAKER AND ICE MAKING METHOD USING THE SAME

1 is a view showing a transparent ice manufacturing apparatus disclosed in Korea Patent Publication No. 2006-0013721,

2 conceptually illustrates a slush manufacturing according to the present invention;

3 is a view showing one of the experimental results according to the present invention,

4 is a view showing an example of an ice making apparatus according to the present invention,

5 is a block diagram illustrating a method of operating an ice making apparatus according to the present invention;

6 shows another example of experimental results performed in accordance with the present invention.

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an ice making device and an ice making method, and more particularly, to an ice making device and an ice making method, in which rapid slush manufacturing or ice making is performed using a supercooled liquid made through supply of energy such as an electric field.

Here, subcooling means that a liquid such as water does not transition even below a phase transition temperature to a solid and maintains a high temperature phase, that is, a liquid state. In the natural state, for example, the supercooling water drop (supercooling water drop) is an example, even in the conventional refrigerator, the water or the drink may not be frozen by chance to the supercooled state. Meanwhile, as the principle of subcooling is applied to a refrigerator, there are a freezing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. S59-151834 and a freezing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-086967 and a refrigerator. A technique of applying a magnetic field to maintain a food in a supercooled state below a phase transition temperature is disclosed. In addition, the electrostatic field treatment method disclosed in WO / 98/41115 discloses various types of electrode structures that can be used for supercooling and thawing food.

1 is a view illustrating a transparent ice manufacturing apparatus disclosed in Korean Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-0013721, wherein the transparent ice manufacturing apparatus 100 includes a subcooling means 120 using a blade 122, and a subcooling means 120. Method of manufacturing the transparent ice by laminating the super-cooled water made in the small amount to the ice tray 111, the ice making chamber 112, the ice making means 110 equipped with the ejector 113, laminating thin plate ice Is disclosed.

However, such an ice making device is made of a supercooled water by using a mechanical method called a blade, and even in ice making, a small amount of ice is supplied by supplying a small amount of the supercooled water, and thus it is not able to rapidly produce slush or make ice. .

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ice making apparatus and an ice making method capable of producing or ice making slush.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ice making apparatus and an ice making method which are capable of producing or making ice rapidly.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ice making device and an ice making method, which are capable of producing or ice making slush when necessary.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ice making device and an ice making method in which a supercooled liquid is made using energy such as an electric field or a magnetic field, and a slush can be manufactured or iced using the supercooled liquid.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ice making device and an ice making method in which a supercooled liquid is made into a solid phase by applying an external force, and the slush can be manufactured or iced using the same.

To this end, the present invention provides an ice making apparatus including a reservoir containing a supercooled liquid, a tray positioned to receive the supercooled liquid of the reservoir, and an impact generator for impacting the supercooled liquid contained in the tray. Through such a configuration, ice making can be performed more quickly than when slush production or ice making is carried out using water having a temperature above freezing point. In addition, since ice is generally frozen from the outside in the tray, when the ice making time is insufficient, the inside of the ice may be maintained in a liquid state, but according to the present invention, after the supercooled liquid is slushed by the impact generator, Since ice making is performed, this problem can be solved. Here, the supercooled liquid does not necessarily need to be water, and the final result may not necessarily be ice (the final result may be slush).

The present invention also provides an ice making apparatus comprising an energy generator for providing energy to the supercooled liquid to maintain the supercooled state.

In another aspect, the present invention provides an ice making apparatus, characterized in that the impact generator is an electric shock machine.

In another aspect, the present invention provides an ice making apparatus, characterized in that the tray is at least partly made of a conductive material. Such a configuration facilitates heat transfer, while more reliably delivering the impact of the impact generator.

The present invention also provides an ice making apparatus, characterized in that the supercooled liquid containing the tray is configured to communicate with each other. This configuration makes it possible to transmit the impact of the impact generator applied at a specific point over the entire subcooled liquid (or the entire liquid subcooled to the solid phase by the freeze nucleus generated by the impact of the shock generator applied at a specific point). Can get up from).

The present invention also provides an ice making apparatus comprising a bank positioned to contain a solid supercooled liquid falling from a tray. Such a configuration can be particularly applied to the structure of a general refrigerator provided with an ice maker.

In another aspect, the present invention provides an ice making apparatus comprising a heater attached to the tray.

In another aspect, the present invention is a reservoir containing a super-cooled liquid, the reservoir having an energy generator for providing energy by using at least one of an electric field and a magnetic field to maintain the supercooled state, a tray positioned to receive the supercooled liquid of the reservoir And a bank positioned to contain the solid supercooled liquid falling from the tray. With this arrangement, it is possible to make a supercooled liquid in an apparatus using an energy generator, and then to rapidly manufacture or defrost the ice using this supercooled liquid.

The present invention also provides an ice making apparatus, characterized in that the supercooled liquid containing the tray is configured to communicate with each other.

The present invention also provides an ice making method comprising a first step of supplying a supercooled liquid to a tray and a second step of impacting the supercooled liquid supplied to the tray. The tray does not necessarily have to be divided into a plurality of compartments, and the tray may be one compartment. This arrangement is particularly suitable when slush is the final result of the device.

The present invention also provides a deicing method comprising a third step of discharging the impacted solid supercooled liquid from the tray.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a deicing method comprising the step of freezing the supercooled liquid of the impacted solid phase prior to the third step.

The present invention also provides an ice making method comprising applying heat to the tray prior to the third step.

The present invention also provides an ice making method comprising providing energy to the supercooled liquid to maintain the supercooled state prior to the first step.

The present invention also includes a first step of providing energy to the supercooled liquid to maintain the subcooled state, a second step of supplying the supercooled liquid to the tray, and a third step of freezing the supplied supercooled liquid. An ice making method is provided.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a deicing method comprising a; a fourth step of discharging the frozen supercooled liquid to the bank.

Here, slush means that the supercooled liquid is converted into the solid phase by external force. The liquid does not necessarily need to be water, but may be any subcooled state, as long as it can be slushed by external force.

Energy may be provided to liquids or supercooled liquids in the form of electric or magnetic fields, but may be provided in any form (e.g., using ultrasonic or magnetron) as long as the energy is such that the liquid remains liquid below the phase transition temperature of the liquid. It is to be understood that the invention includes this form of energy.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 conceptually illustrates slush production according to the present invention. According to the present invention, first, a liquid 41 to be subjected to subcooling is placed between the electrodes 40. Next, in the state where the cold air 42 is supplied, the electric field is applied to the liquid 41 using the alternating current power supply 43. As a result, the liquid 41 does not freeze below its phase transition temperature (for example, 0 ° C. in the case of water under 1 atm) and maintains a supercooled state. It is known that the freezing of water composed of oxygen and hydrogen is disturbed because the hydrogen bond of water is interrupted by supplying energy such as an electric field. When an external force is applied to the supercooled liquid thus produced through the phase converter 44, for example, an electric force is applied using an igniter, or the energy applied to the supercooled liquid by this force or The supercooled state maintained by the applied energy (which means that depending on the condition may be maintained after the energy is applied for a certain period of time) can be disturbed, forming a freeze nucleus, and the supercooled liquid rapidly forms a solid phase. A slush is formed as it transitions. At this time, the temperature of the supercooled liquid is changed from the temperature of the supercooled state to the phase transition temperature.

The experimental results actually performed according to the present invention are as follows.

1.Installation of electrode and container

Two electrodes 100 mm in length and width were installed at a distance of 200 mm. Then, a container containing 1 L of water was placed at a distance between the two electrodes.

2. Supercooling way

The device was placed in a refrigerator at a temperature of -6.8 ° C and an electric field was applied at 40 kHz, 2 kV. The electric field was applied at the same time as the device was placed in the refrigerator, and when it was judged that the subcooling was sufficiently performed, the supercooled liquid was converted into the solid phase by using a 1500 V electric lighter. The results are shown in FIG.

3 is a view showing one of the experimental results according to the present invention, showing a correlation between the applied power and the temperature of the supercooled liquid. This result shows that both are in a nearly linear proportional relationship, which means that under a given ambient temperature, by controlling the power given by the energy generator, the set temperature of the supercooled liquid can be controlled.

4 is a view showing an example of an ice making apparatus according to the present invention, wherein the freezer compartment 20 is provided with a bucket 21, a tray 22, and a bank 23 from above. The bucket 21 is for making supercooled water, and is provided with an electrode 21a for applying energy in the form of an electric field as an energy generator, and a flow path 21b is connected to supply water, and water to the bucket 21 is provided. A valve 21c for controlling the supply and a valve 21d for controlling the supercooled water supply to the tray 22 are provided. One side of the bucket 21 is provided with a temperature sensor 21e for measuring the temperature of the supercooled water. The tray 22 is rotatably installed, and the rotation is controlled by the motor 22a. The tray 22 is preferably made of a conductive material such as aluminum, and is provided with a heater 22b at the bottom thereof for icing. On the other hand, one side of the tray 22 is provided with an electric shock (22c) as a shock generator, the electric shock (22c) is positioned to apply an electric shock to the tray 22 or the supercooled water contained in the tray 22, The supercooled water is converted to a solid phase to slush. The tray 22 is divided into a plurality of compartments by the partition 22d, and grooves are formed in the connecting portion 22e to allow the supercooled liquid to communicate so that the electric shock delivered to a specific point is transmitted to the entire supercooled water. . Under the tray 22 is provided a bank 23, containing slush or ice from the rotated tray 22.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a method of operating an ice making apparatus according to the present invention. When the valve 21c is opened, water is supplied to the bucket 21, and the supplied water is supplied to the cold and the electrodes 21a of the freezer compartment. The water is supercooled by the energy in the form of the electric field provided by the operation and is maintained at a temperature below the phase transition temperature without phase change. By the user's instruction or the temperature measurement of the temperature sensor 21e, the valve 21d is opened and the supercooled water is supplied to the tray 22. The supercooled water freezes without operation of the taser 22c, or is converted to slush by operation of the taser 22c and then frozen, or is converted to slush by operation of the taser 22c, the motor 22a By the operation of the tray 22 is rotated, slush or ice is put in the bank (23). Alternatively, the ejector (not shown) as shown in FIG. 1 may be configured to rotate the motor, and ice may be provided to the bank 23 by operation of the ejector without rotating the tray 22. At this time, when ice is provided to the bank 23, the heater 22d is operated to separate the ice from the tray 22.

According to the ice making apparatus and the ice making method which concern on this invention, manufacture of a slush or ice making is possible.

In addition, according to the ice making apparatus and the ice making method according to the present invention, it is possible to manufacture or make ice rapidly.

Moreover, according to the ice making apparatus and ice making method which concern on this invention, manufacture or ice making of slush is possible when needed.

Furthermore, according to the ice making apparatus and the ice making method according to the present invention, the supercooled liquid is made by using energy such as an electric field or a magnetic field, and the slush can be manufactured or iced by using the supercooled liquid.

In addition, according to the ice making apparatus and the ice making method according to the present invention, the supercooled liquid is made into a solid phase by applying an external force, and the slush can be manufactured or iced by using the same.

Claims (16)

A reservoir containing a supercooled liquid; A tray positioned to receive the supercooled liquid of the reservoir; And, And an impact generator for impacting the supercooled liquid contained in the tray. The method of claim 1, And an energy generator for providing energy to the supercooled liquid to maintain the supercooled state. The method of claim 1, The ice making device, characterized in that the impact generator is a stun gun. The method of claim 1, At least a portion of the tray ice making apparatus, characterized in that made of a conductive material. The method of claim 1, And the tray is configured to allow the contained subcooled liquids to communicate with each other. The method of claim 1, And a bank positioned to contain the solid supercooled liquid falling from the tray. The method of claim 1, Heater attached to the tray; Ice making apparatus comprising a. A reservoir containing a supercooled liquid, the reservoir comprising an energy generator for providing energy using at least one of an electric field and a magnetic field to maintain the supercooled state; A tray positioned to receive the supercooled liquid of the reservoir; And, And a bank positioned to contain the solid supercooled liquid falling from the tray. The method of claim 8, And the tray is configured to allow the contained subcooled liquids to communicate with each other. Supplying the supercooled liquid to the tray; And, And a second step of impacting the supercooled liquid supplied to the tray. The method of claim 10, And a third step of discharging the impacted solid supercooled liquid from the tray. The method of claim 11, Prior to the third step, the ice-making method comprising the step of freezing the supercooled liquid on the impacted solid phase. The method of claim 11, Prior to the third step, the step of applying heat to the tray; ice making method comprising a. The method of claim 10, Prior to the first step, providing energy to the supercooled liquid to maintain the supercooled state. Providing energy to maintain the subcooled state in the subcooled liquid; Supplying the supercooled liquid to the tray; And, And a third step of freezing the supplied supercooled liquid. The method of claim 15, And a fourth step of discharging the frozen supercooled liquid into the bank.

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