KR20060004546A - Ice dispenser with a integrated discharging duct - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention reduces the volume occupied by the discharge tube by allowing each ice and powder ice to be discharged through one discharge tube and the discharge port, and in particular, the ice of the refrigerator having a composite discharge tube to facilitate the discharge of the powder ice. Relates to a dispenser.

Ice dispenser (1) of the present invention is an ice maker (5) for making ice (3), an ice bucket (7) for storing and automatically supplying the ice (3) iced, to selectively produce each ice or powder ice Ice discharge pipe connecting the outlets 13 and 15 of the ice container 7 and the discharge port 11 to discharge the crusher 25 and the crusher 27 and the respective ice or powder ice from the discharge port 11. (9) and an ice dispenser (1) comprising an opening / closing door portion (17) for controlling the opening and closing of the discharge port (11), wherein the ice discharge pipe (9) is the ice outlet (13) and the It is characterized in that it is integrated into one so as to be connected to all the powder ice outlet (15).

Therefore, according to the ice dispenser of the present invention, since the powder ice outlet of the crusher is located on the vertical line of the ice discharge port, even the powder ice falling from the crusher can be smoothly supplied to the ice discharge port without sticking to the inner wall surface of the ice discharge tube. .

Ice dispenser, compound discharge tube, right triangle, angle ice, powder ice

Description

Ice dispenser with a integrated discharging duct

1 is a front view of a two door refrigerator with a conventional water dispenser.

2 is a partial cross-sectional view schematically showing a conventional ice dispenser.

3 is a perspective view of main parts of the ice dispenser according to the present invention;

4 is a rear view of the ice dispenser viewed from inside the freezer compartment.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

1: ice dispenser 2: ice dispenser pocket

3: ice 4: cup

5: ice maker 7: ice bucket

9 ice discharge pipe 11 ice discharge port

13: each ice outlet 15: powder ice outlet

17: opening and closing door portion 21: inclined surface

23: vertical plane 25: crusher

27: grinding machine 31,32: feed wing

33: torsion spring 35: opening and closing door

39: solenoid actuator

The present invention relates to an ice dispenser of a refrigerator, and more particularly, by allowing each ice and powder ice to be discharged through one discharge tube and the discharge port, the volume occupied by the discharge tube is reduced and in particular, the discharge of the powder ice is made smoothly. The present invention relates to an ice dispenser having a composite discharge tube.

Generally, a refrigerator refers to a device that maintains a temperature of a receiving part at a low temperature in order to store food, and according to a cooling method, an ice box using ice cold air, a refrigerant refrigerator using liquid evaporative heat, and an electronic refrigerator using Peltier effect. Among them, the refrigerant refrigerator which is most widely used can be divided into one door type and two door type according to the number of doors.

In particular, in recent years, as the capacity of the refrigerator increases, a two-door type that divides the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment into the left and right sides has been in the spotlight. As shown in FIG. 1, the two-door refrigerator is opened and closed by two left and right doors 103 and 105, and generally the left door 103 opens and closes the freezer compartment and the right door 105 opens and closes the refrigerator compartment. (Reversely prepared). Moreover, as the refrigerator 101 is gradually advanced, various additional functions are additionally installed, for example, the water dispenser 107 and the home bar 109 function. Here, the water dispenser 107 is a portion for supplying drinking water, so that the water dispenser 107 can be easily supplied without opening the refrigerator doors 103 and 105 only by pressing the water supply or icing lever 111. In addition to the improved convenience of use, the frequent opening and closing of the door 103 can reduce the power loss due to the escape of the cold air.

In addition, as a more advanced form, the refrigerator is provided with an ice dispenser as disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-1997-0056284. The ice dispenser is a device that is stored in an ice reservoir made by an automatic ice maker in a freezer compartment so that ice can be easily supplied when needed without opening the freezer door. As shown in FIG. 2, a large operation switch is shown. 203, ice tray 205, ice feeder 207, and solenoid 209. In FIG. Here, the operation switch unit 203 and the control unit (not shown) is a portion for operating the ice dispenser, the user operates the solenoid 209 through the control unit by pressing the operation switch 203 to open and close the door 211 The ice of the ice tray 205 to be discharged to the ice pocket 215 through the ice discharge pipe 213, and the ice contained in the ice tray 205 on the upper surface of the ice tray 205. The ice sensor 217, which consists of a temperature sensor for detecting the amount of light, is attached.

Therefore, according to the conventional ice dispenser 201 shown in FIG. 2, ice making is started in the ice feeder 207 according to the user's selection of the ice making mode. After a predetermined time has elapsed, ice iced from the ice supply 207 to the ice tray 205 falls and is received. Ice dropped on the ice tray 205 is filled in the ice discharge pipe 213 until ice is detected by the ice sensor 217 and ice storage is continued. At this time, when the user presses the operation switch 203, the control unit operates the solenoid 209 to open and close the door 211 to discharge the ice received from the ice discharge tube 213 to the ice pocket 215. When the desired amount of ice is discharged and the user presses the operation switch 203, the control unit stops the operation of the solenoid 209 to close the opening / closing door 211, and the ice discharge from the ice discharge pipe 213 is stopped.

However, recently, in addition to the ice feeder for manufacturing each ice to the powder ice feeder for grinding and supplying the ice in the powder state while being mounted in the refrigerator, the conventional ice discharge tube 213 can smoothly discharge each ice or powdered ice There was no problem. That is, since the inclined bottom surface of the ice discharge tube 213 extends toward the discharge port, the contact area between the powder ice dropped from the ice feeder 207 and the bottom surface of the ice discharge tube 213 is increased, so that a large amount of powder ice Smooth adhesion of the powdered ice is prevented by being attached to the powdered ice, and the powdered ice remaining on the bottom without being discharged later melts and is discharged to the discharge port.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the problems of the conventional ice dispenser as described above, and the discharge opening through the ice discharge tube through one ice discharge tube, optionally each large chunk of ice or iced ice or powder ice by the crusher and the crusher In discharging through the ice, each ice having a large particle is positioned on the inclined surface side of the ice discharge tube and the powder ice is located on the straight side, so that the ice powder can be discharged smoothly along the discharge tube like the respective ice.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ice maker for making ice, a crusher and a crusher for selectively producing each ice or powder ice with ice, and an outlet of the crusher or crusher to discharge each ice or powder ice from the discharge port. In the ice dispenser comprising an ice discharge tube for connecting the discharge port and the discharge opening, and the opening and closing door portion for controlling the opening and closing of the discharge opening, the ice discharge tube is integrated into one to be connected to each ice outlet and the powder ice outlet, the ice discharge tube The silver ice outlet facing side is provided with the inclined surface, and the powder ice outlet facing side provides the ice dispenser of the refrigerator provided with the composite discharge tube which has the right triangle shape funnel structure which is a vertical plane to the discharge opening.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of an ice dispenser of a refrigerator provided with a composite discharge tube according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown by reference numeral 1 in FIG. 3, the ice dispenser of the present invention is largely the same as a general ice dispenser, such as an ice maker 5, an ice bucket 7, a crusher 25 and a crusher 27, and an ice discharge tube ( 9), and the ice discharge opening and closing door unit 17, wherein the ice maker 5 is installed in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator to serve to make ice (3), and its configuration and operation are well known. It abbreviate | omits and shows also schematic in FIG.

The ice container 7 stores the ice produced by the ice maker 5 and automatically supplies the ice, and at this time, each of the relatively large ice 3 supplied is used as it is, or broken into small pieces. 25) and the crusher 27 to finely crush the powder is mounted on the front of the ice container (7). In the ice container 7, a pair of transfer blades 31 and 32 for selectively transferring toward the crusher 25 or the crusher 27 is mounted, and the transfer wall 31 and 32 are mounted on the partition wall 29. An opening (not shown) connected to the shredder 25 or the shredder 27 is formed at the

3 and 4, the ice discharge tube 9 provided on the inner wall of the freezer compartment door so as to be positioned below the ice compartment 7 when the freezer compartment door is closed, the respective ice outlets of the ice bin 7 It is connected to the 13 and the powder ice outlet 15 at the same time to form a funnel so as to discharge each ice supplied from the outlet 13 or powder ice supplied from the outlet 15 through the ice discharge port (11).

In particular, the ice discharge tube 9 of the ice dispenser 1 according to the present invention is a right triangle in which the inclined surface 21 comes to the opposite side of each ice outlet 13, and the vertical surface 23 comes to the opposite side to the powder ice outlet 15. Since it has a longitudinal cross-sectional shape of the powder ice outlet 15 is located immediately at the vertical top of the discharge port (11).

And the opening / closing door part 17 which opens and closes and controls the discharge opening 11 of the ice discharge pipe 9 is blocking the discharge opening 11 by the elastic force of the torsion spring 33 in a stationary state, as shown in FIG. The opening / closing door 35 and the opening / closing door 35 are rotated about the hinge shaft 37, and the solenoid actuator 39 which opens the discharge port 11 is comprised.

Hereinafter, the operation of the ice dispenser 1 according to the present invention configured as described above are as follows.

The person who wants to use the ice dispenser 1 of the present invention, first, decides whether the ice of the type desired is large ice cubes, small ice cubes, or finely crushed ice. Press the type ice supply button. Subsequently, the transport vanes 31 and 32 in the ice container 7 are driven according to the type of ice selected. If the selected ice is each ice, the transport vanes 31 are driven to supply the ice bins supplied from the ice maker 5. The ice 3 in 7) is passed through the partition plate 29 to the crusher 25. The conveyed ice (3) is simply passed through the operation of the crusher (25) in the stopped state, or the frozen large chunks of ice or the crushing blades (25) to cut into each small chunks of ice discharge pipe through the outlet (13) Falling to (9), and if the powder ice is selected, the conveying blades 32 are driven to transfer the ice (3) to the crusher 27, crush it, and then fall into the discharge pipe (9) through the outlet (15) Let's do it. At this time, since each ice is large in mass, it is easily rolled down along the inclined surface 21 of the discharge pipe 9 and accumulated on the opening / closing door 35 of the discharge port 11, and the powder ice is also dropped vertically at the outlet 15. It is piled up on the opening / closing door 35 hardly attached to the inner surface of the discharge tube 9. In addition, each ice rolled down the inclined surface 21 of the discharge tube (9) receives the force of moving downwards by the inclined surface, so that it is spread evenly when stacked in the cup (4) receiving the ice in the pocket (2). .

Then, when an operation switch (not shown) installed in the pocket 2 of the ice dispenser is operated by the user, the solenoid actuator 39 is operated to press open and close the door 35 by the pusher 41, As a result, each ice or powder ice accumulated in the discharge port 11 is supplied onto the cup 4.

Then, when the operation switch is turned off, the solenoid actuator 39 is stopped and the pusher 41 is gradually retracted. Accordingly, when the opening / closing door 35 returns to its original position by the restoring force of the spring 33, a series of The ice supply process is terminated.

As described above, according to the ice dispenser of the refrigerator provided with the composite discharge tube according to the present invention, one type of ice discharge tube includes three large pieces of ice, one small piece of ice, and three pieces of powdered ice produced by one crusher. Not only can be supplied through a single ice discharge port, but also the ice discharge pipe is manufactured so that an inclined surface does not occur toward the powder ice outlet of the crusher that is supplied with the powder ice that adheres well to the inner wall of the ice discharge pipe. Not only the ice cubes but also powder ice with high adhesion to the inner wall of the discharge tube can be smoothly transferred to the discharge port through the discharge tube, and each ice is vortexed by the inclined surface to be evenly contained in the cup.

Therefore, it is possible to receive ice conveniently and cleanly without any inconvenience in using a delay in conveying the powder ice in the discharge tube or in a sanitary problem in which the powder ice remaining on the inner wall of the discharge melts.

While the invention has been shown and described with respect to particular embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as indicated by the appended claims. Anyone can easily know.

Claims (2)

Ice makers for making ice, crushers and crushers for selectively producing each ice or powder ice with the iced ice, and ice connecting the outlet and the outlet of the crushers or crushers to discharge the respective ice or powder ice from the discharge port An ice dispenser comprising a discharge tube and an opening / closing door part for controlling opening and closing of the discharge port, The ice discharge tube of the refrigerator, characterized in that integrated in one to be connected to each of the ice outlet and the powder ice outlet. The method of claim 1, The ice discharge tube of the refrigerator has an ice cube dispenser, characterized in that each ice outlet facing side has an inclined surface, and the powder ice outlet facing side has a right-angled triangle funnel structure is a vertical plane to the discharge port.

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