KR101231043B1 - Water furifier with ice maker - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A water purifier with an ice maker is provided to increase energy efficiency by selecting a proper cooling method according to conditions because a cold water tank and an ice making tray are independently cooled by two evaporators. CONSTITUTION: A water purifier(10) with an ice maker comprises a filter part, a purified water tank, a first insulation space, a second insulation space, a refrigerant compression cycle device, and a three-way valve. An ice making tray, an ice bank, and a residual water storage tank are arranged in the first insulation space. At least a cold water tank is arranged in the second insulation space. The refrigerant compression cycle device comprises first and second evaporators arranged in the first and second insulation spaces, respectively. The three-way valve controls the flow of refrigerant to the first and second evaporators.

Description

Water purifier with ice-making means {WATER FURIFIER WITH ICE MAKER}

The present invention relates to a water purifier having an ice making means, and more particularly, to a water purifier capable of providing not only water but also ice.

Water purifier is a device that filters harmful elements such as foreign substances and heavy metals in water by physical and chemical methods. To this end, a general water purifier has a filter unit for filtering contaminants from raw water containing pollutants, a water tank unit for storing purified water past the filter unit, and a water extraction unit for extracting purified water stored in the water tank unit. It will include wealth. When power is supplied to the water purifier, raw water is supplied to the filter unit, purified, and stored in the water tank unit.

In addition, in addition to simply purifying the raw water, it also provides a cold and hot water function to provide cold water and hot water by cooling or heating the purified water. In addition, water purifiers have been developed, including ice making means, to provide ice in addition to cold and hot water. The cold water function and the ice making function require cooling means for cooling the water stored in the tank.

Cooling means used in the water purifier may include a refrigerant compression cycle apparatus used in a thermoelectric element or a general refrigerator, a refrigerant compression cycle apparatus is widely used due to problems such as power consumption and cooling capacity.

1 is an internal structural view schematically showing the internal structure of a water purifier having ice making means using such a refrigerant compression cycle apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, the water purifier 10 includes a water purification tank 12 in which purified water is filtered through a filter (not shown). In addition, an ice making tray 14 for temporarily storing water used for preparing ice separately from the water purification tank 12 and a cold water tank 16 for storing cold water cooled by the ice making tray 14 are provided. .

In addition, an evaporator 20 is provided adjacent to the ice making tray 14, and a compressor 22, a condenser 24, and a capillary tube 26 are formed together with the evaporator 20 to form a refrigerant compression cycle device. Are each provided. In addition, an ice bank 30 in which iced ice is stored below the ice making tray 14 is provided. The ice bank 30 is disposed together with the ice tray 14 in one insulation space.

The water purifier having the conventional ice making means having the structure described above stores the ice produced in the ice making tray 14 in the ice bank 30, and the water remaining in the ice making tray 14 is stored in the cold water tank 16. To provide cold water to the user. That is, both ice making and water cooling are performed using one evaporator.

In general, since the temperature of the refrigerant required for ice making is lower than the temperature of the refrigerant required for cooling the purified water, in the conventional water purifier as described above, even if only cold water is required, the refrigerant having an unnecessarily low temperature needs to be utilized, which is not energy efficient. there is a problem. In addition, since the ice making tray, the ice bank and the cold water tank are to be disposed in the same heat insulating space, the heat load is increased and the heat loss is large.

The present invention has been made to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art as described above, the technical problem is to provide a water purifier having an ice making means that can increase the energy efficiency compared to the water purifier having a conventional ice making means.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a water purifier having an ice making means capable of improving ice storage performance.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, the filter unit for removing foreign substances by receiving raw water; A water tank for storing the purified water generated by the filter unit; A first heat insulating space in which an ice making tray, an ice bank, and a residual water storage tank are disposed; A second heat insulating space having at least a cold water tank disposed therein; A refrigerant compression cycle device including first and second evaporators disposed in the first and second thermal insulation spaces, respectively; And a three-way valve for controlling the flow of the refrigerant to the first and second evaporators, wherein the first evaporator is operated even when no water is supplied to the ice making tray. A water purifier having ice making means having a storage mode keeping in a range is provided.

In the above aspect of the present invention, the ice making means and the cold water tank are respectively disposed in two heat insulating spaces, and each heat insulating space is independently cooled using two evaporators to improve energy efficiency. Therefore, when deicing is required in an appropriate range of the cold water stored in the cold water tank or when the cold water of the cold water tank needs to be additionally cooled in the full ice state, two spaces can be selectively cooled to reduce unnecessary energy consumption. Doing.

In addition, a storage mode for maintaining the temperature of the first heat insulating space in a predetermined range so that ice does not melt is to improve the storage performance.

Here, a part of the first evaporator may be arranged to be in direct contact with water supplied to the ice making tray during ice making, so that ice may be generated on the outer circumferential surface of the first evaporator, and as another example, a plurality of spaces of the ice making tray may be partitioned. You can also create ice in each space.

The ice tray may be rotatably mounted, and the ice bank may include an opening through which ice and residual water discharged from the ice tray are introduced. Through this, the discharge of ice and residual water can be easily and quickly performed.

The bottom surface of the ice bank is configured to allow water to pass therethrough, and the residual water storage tank may be disposed under the ice bank so that water drained from the ice bank is introduced. Through this, the residual water is collected in the residual water storage tank by gravity even if no separate mechanism is provided, and the collected residual water can be reused during ice making. To this end, it may further include a pump for supplying the water in the remaining water reservoir to the ice tray.

When the amount of residual water is insufficient or the degree of pollution is high, ice making may be performed by using the water of the purified water tank, and for this purpose, water supply means for supplying the water of the purified water tank to the ice making tray may be further included.

The second evaporator may be wound around an outer wall of the cold water tank. Of course, the second evaporator may not be in contact with the cold water tank or may be disposed inside the cold water tank.

On the other hand, the residual water storage tank is provided with a drain pipe for draining the stored water to the outside to discharge it to the outside when the contamination of the residual water is high.

The refrigerant compression cycle apparatus may include a compressor connected to the first and second evaporators, respectively; A condenser into which the refrigerant discharged from the compressor flows; A three-way valve connected to the discharge side of the condenser; And first and second capillaries connected to two outlets of the three-way valve, respectively. Herein, the dryer may further include a dryer for allowing only the liquid refrigerant of the refrigerant discharged from the condenser to be transferred to the first and second capillaries, in which case the dryer may be disposed between the three-way valve and the condenser. .

The apparatus may further include an accumulator separating the liquid refrigerant from the refrigerant discharged from the first and second evaporators so that only the gaseous refrigerant is supplied to the compressor.

The apparatus may further include a high temperature refrigerant pipe for directly supplying the refrigerant discharged from the compressor to the first evaporator side. Through this, the ice attached to the surface of the first evaporator or the ice stuck in the tray can be easily iced. Of course, it may be provided with a separate heater to perform the ice through this.

According to the aspects of the present invention having the configuration as described above, since the cold water tank and the ice tray can be independently cooled through the two evaporators, it is possible to select an appropriate cooling method according to the situation, thereby increasing energy efficiency.

In addition, the temperature of the space where the ice is stored can be controlled independently of the cold water tank to improve the ice storage performance, and thus the ice can be stored for a long time.

1 is an internal structural view schematically showing an example of a water purifier having a conventional general ice making means.
2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a water purifier having an ice making means according to the present invention.
3 is an internal structural diagram schematically showing the internal structure of the embodiment shown in FIG.
4 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a control system of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail an embodiment of a water purifier having an ice making means according to the present invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a water purifier having an ice making means according to the invention, Figure 3 is an internal structure diagram schematically showing the internal structure of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 and 3, the embodiment 100 includes a cabinet 110 having a substantially cuboid shape.

The outlet 112 is formed on the front surface of the cabinet 110, the cold water lever 114 and the hot water lever 116 is provided inside the outlet 112, respectively. Here, the cold water and hot water levers are not necessarily provided, and the function of each lever may be set differently according to the function provided in the water purifier. For example, one of the two levers may be set as an ice takeout lever for taking out ice.

The operation means 120 is provided above the outlet 112. The operation means 120 is provided to control or operate various functions of the water purifier, and includes a display device 122 and an operation button 124 for displaying the state and various information of the water purifier.

The cabinet 110 includes a filter unit (not shown) for receiving purified water such as tap water, and the purified water generated by the filter unit is provided inside the cabinet 110. Are stored in. In addition, a cold water tank 132 for storing cold water cooled by the water supplied from the purified water tank 130 is provided separately. The outside of the cold water tank 132 is surrounded by a heat insulating material 132a to thermally block the cold water tank 132 from the surroundings. If the embodiment includes a hot water function, it further includes a hot water tank surrounded by a heat insulating material and a heater for heating the inside of the hot water tank.

On the other hand, an ice making room 140 is provided between the cold water tank and the water purification tank. The ice making room 140 may be provided with a separate case or may be a heat insulating space partitioned inside the cabinet 110 by a heat insulating material. An ice making tray 142 is installed inside the ice making chamber 140 to temporarily store water for ice making. Specifically, the ice making tray 142 is mounted to the driving motor 143 and the rotating shaft 144 provided in the ice making chamber 140 or the cabinet 110, with the rotation shaft 144 as the center. It is rotatably mounted.

Therefore, when the ice tray 142 is rotated, contents such as water and ice contained in the ice tray 142 may fall to the lower side of the ice tray 142. The ice bank 150 is provided so that the falling ice and water can be introduced. The ice bank 150 has an opening formed at an upper portion thereof, through which water and ice falling from the ice making tray 142 may enter the inside of the ice bank 150.

An inside of the ice bank 150 is provided with an auger 152 that pushes the ice outward while rotating in one direction, and an ice outlet 154 is located at an outlet side of the auger 152. The ice outlet 154 is in communication with the interior of the outlet 112 described above, so that the ice discharged by the auger can be delivered to the user at the outlet 112.

The bottom surface of the ice bank 150 is made of a material through which water is permeated, or a plurality of permeation holes are formed so that the supplied water flows out through the bottom surface of the ice bank 150. The outflowed water is accommodated in the residual water storage tank 160 disposed on the bottom surface of the ice bank 150. The residual water storage tank 160 is connected to the ice making tray 142 through a residual water supply pipe 162, and the residual water supply pipe 162 is connected to a water supply pipe 146 extending between the water purification tank and the ice making tray. The residual water supply pipe 162 is provided with a pump 164, the ice tray 142 may be selectively supplied to the residual water stored in the residual water storage tank 160 or purified water stored in the water purification tank. Here, the purified water tank is disposed above the ice tray so that the purified water supplied from the purified water tank 130 to the ice making tray 142 may be supplied by gravity. At this time, the purified water valve 134 is additionally provided for controlling the supply of purified water.

Since the residual water is generally lower than the purified water, the residual water is supplied to the ice making tray to reduce the energy and time required for ice making, but when the quantity of the residual water is insufficient, the purified water may be supplied from the water purification tank. Here, the purified water tank may not supply water directly to the ice making tray, but may also allow purified water to be supplied to the remaining water storage tank. In addition, as the water in the residual water storage tank 160 is repeatedly used, foreign matter may accumulate in the residual water, which may cause the residual water to be contaminated above an allowable reference value. When the residual water is contaminated, the drain pipe 166 is provided in the residual water storage tank 160 to discharge the contaminated residual water to the outside. Here, the drain pipe may be provided with a pump for drainage, or may be drained by connecting an external pump to the drain pipe.

Meanwhile, a refrigerant compression cycle device is provided as a cooling device for freezing water supplied to the ice making tray or cooling water in the cold water tank. Specifically, the refrigerant compression cycle device includes a compressor 170, a condenser 172, A dryer 173, first and second capillaries 174, 175, first and second evaporators 176. 177 and accumulator 178. Since the operation principle of each component is known in the art, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Meanwhile, the first and second evaporators 176 and 177 are provided in the ice making chamber 140 and the cold water tank 132, respectively. Specifically, the first evaporator 176 has a plurality of pipes 176a whose one end is submerged in the water supplied to the ice making tray 140. Therefore, when cold refrigerant flows inside the first evaporator 176, ice gradually grows while water that has been in contact with the surroundings is frozen. The bypass pipe 171 for allowing the high temperature refrigerant passing through the compressor 170 to be bypassed and directly supplied to the first evaporator 176 in order to ice the ice grown around the first evaporator 176 as described above. It is provided.

That is, the high temperature refrigerant is supplied to the first evaporator to melt and ice the ice stuck to the first evaporator. The bypass valve 135 for controlling the supply of the high temperature refrigerant is provided in the bypass pipe 171. In addition, an example in which a separate electric heater or the like is provided as a moving unit can also be considered.

If sufficient ice is supplied to the inside of the ice bank and there is no need for deicing, heat transfer is performed between the refrigerant passing through the first evaporator and the air in the ice making chamber. Temperature, preferably at a temperature at which the ice will not melt.

The second evaporator 177 is disposed to surround the outer surface of the cold water tank 132 to cool the water inside the cold water tank. The cold water thus cooled and stored may be supplied to the user through the cold water cock 133 provided in the outlet 112.

Here, the temperature of the refrigerant passing through the first evaporator and the second evaporator is set differently, which can be determined by adjusting the degree of expansion of the first and second capillaries. A three-way valve 179 for controlling the amount of refrigerant supplied to the first and second evaporators is installed at the outlet side of the condenser 172. By controlling the three-way valve 179, it is possible to determine whether the ice-making chamber and the cold water tank are cooled.

4 is a block diagram schematically showing the control system of the embodiment. Referring to FIG. 4, the controller 180 provided in the embodiment includes a plurality of detection means for detecting various states required for the operation of the water purifier, and for detecting the amount of ice in the ice bank 150. And a second temperature sensor 183 for detecting the cold water temperature in the cold water tank. In addition, the command input through the operation button 124 is also transmitted to the controller 180.

The controller 180 controls the compressor 170, the three-way valve 179, the water purification valve 131, and the high temperature refrigerant valve 132 based on the various types of inputted information. In addition, the driving motor 143 for rotating the ice tray is also controlled by the controller 180.

The operation of the above embodiment will now be described.

If it is determined that the amount of ice in the ice bank 150 is insufficient through the ice-covering means 181 provided in the ice bank 150, the controller 180 operates the pump 164 to store the residual water storage tank. The remaining water stored in the 160 is supplied to the ice making tray 142. Then, the three-way valve 179 and the compressor 170 are operated to supply the refrigerant to the first evaporator 176.

As a result, the ice grows starting from the portion in contact with the first evaporator 176. When the ice grows to a sufficient degree, the controller 180 operates the bypass valve 135 to operate the first evaporator ( 176) a high temperature refrigerant. The high-temperature refrigerant supplied in this way separates the ice stuck to the surface of the first evaporator 176. When the ice is separated, the controller 180 rotates the driving motor 143 to the ice making tray 142. Ice and water present in the ice bank 150 is moved.

The ice supplied to the ice bank 150 remains in the ice bank, but the water introduced together passes through the bottom surface of the ice bank 150 and is supplied to the residual water storage tank 160. The water supplied to the residual water storage tank 160 has a temperature lower than the ambient temperature, thereby helping to lower the internal temperature of the ice making chamber 140.

On the other hand, if it is sensed that there is enough ice in the ice bank 150, and it is determined by the first temperature sensor 182 that the temperature in the ice making chamber is in an appropriate range, the controller 180 may determine the value of 3. The room valve 179 is controlled to block the refrigerant from being supplied to the first evaporator 176.

However, if it is determined by the first temperature sensor 182 that the temperature in the ice making chamber is out of an appropriate range, the controller 180 supplies the refrigerant to the first evaporator 176 through the three-way valve 179. do. However, in this case, since water is not supplied to the ice making tray 142, the first evaporator 176 lowers the temperature of the ice making chamber 140 to maintain a proper range. This state of operation is referred to as 'storage mode' for convenience. The storage mode may be performed by a user's selection or may be automatically performed according to a temperature condition in the ice making room.

On the other hand, if it is determined by the second temperature sensor 183 that the cold water temperature in the cold water tank 132 is out of an appropriate range, the controller 180 controls the three-way valve 179 to the second evaporator The coolant is supplied to 177 to cool the cold water stored in the cold water tank.

If the temperature of the ice making chamber is an appropriate range, the amount of ice is sufficient, and the temperature of the cold water tank is an appropriate range, the control unit closes all the three-way valves and stops the operation of the compressor.

Claims (10)

Filter unit for receiving the raw water to remove foreign matter;
A water tank for storing the purified water generated by the filter unit;
A first heat insulating space in which an ice making tray, an ice bank, and a residual water storage tank are disposed;
A second heat insulating space having at least a cold water tank disposed therein;
A refrigerant compression cycle device including first and second evaporators disposed in the first and second thermal insulation spaces, respectively; And
Includes; three-way valve for controlling the flow of the refrigerant to the first and second evaporator,
And the first evaporator is operated even when no water is supplied to the ice tray, and has a storage mode for maintaining the first heat insulating space in a predetermined temperature range. The method of claim 1,
And a portion of the first evaporator is arranged to be in direct contact with the water supplied to the ice making tray during ice making. The method of claim 2,
And the ice tray is rotatably mounted, and the ice bank has an opening through which ice and residual water discharged from the ice tray are introduced. The method of claim 3,
The bottom surface of the ice bank is configured to permeate water, and the residual water reservoir is disposed under the ice bank so that water drained from the ice bank is introduced. The method of claim 1,
And a water supply means for supplying the water of the purified water tank to the ice making tray. The method of claim 1,
And said second evaporator is wound around an outer wall of said cold water tank. The method of claim 1,
The remaining water reservoir is a water purifier having an ice making means, characterized in that the drain pipe is provided to drain the stored water to the outside. The method of claim 1,
The refrigerant compression cycle device,
A compressor connected to the first and second evaporators, respectively;
A condenser into which the refrigerant discharged from the compressor flows;
A three-way valve connected to the discharge side of the condenser; And
And a first and second capillaries connected to two outlets of the three-way valve, respectively. 9. The method of claim 8,
And a high temperature refrigerant pipe for directly supplying the refrigerant discharged from the compressor to the first evaporator side. The method of claim 1,
And a pump for supplying water from the remaining water reservoir to the ice tray.

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