US3623338A - Automatic ice maker with cube guard - Google Patents

Abstract

AN AUTOMATIC ICE MAKER OF THE TYPE HAVING A SERIES OF INDIVIDUAL, DISTORTABLE ICE POCKETS MOVABLE IN A PATH INCLUDING A FLEX STATION IN WHICH THE POCKETS ARE DISTORTED TO LOOSEN THE ICE CUBES IN THE POCKETS PRIOR TO BEING DUMPED, HAS A CUBE GUARD PROVIDED IN THE FLEX STATION AREA AND LOCATED AND DISPOSED TO LIMIT THE DEGREE TO WHICH THE CUBES CAN MOVE AWAY FROM THE POCKETS WHILE IN THE FLEX STATION, AND PRIOR TO DUMPING OF THE CUBES.

Description

Nov. 30, 1971 T. B. WINTERS 3,623,338

AUTOMATIC ICE MAKER WITH CUBE GUARD Filed Nov. 18, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR Thomas B. Winters BY 1 W ATTORNEY Nov. 30, 1971 w 5 3,623,338

AUTOMATIC ICE MAKER WITH CUBE GUARD Filed Nov. 18, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent Ofice Patented Nov. 30, 1971 U.S. Cl. 62--345 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An automatic ice maker of the type having a series of individual, distortable ice pockets movable in a path including a flex station in which the pockets are distorted to loosen the ice cubes in the pockets prior to being dumped, has a cube guard provided in the flex station area and located and disposed to limit the degree to which the cubes can move away from the pockets while in the flex station, and prior to dumping of the cubes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention The invention pertains to the art of domestic automatic ice cube makers.

Description of the prior art Fisher U.S. Pat. 3,488,977 discloses an automatic ice cube maker for a domestic refrigerator-freezer in which individual, flexible ice cube pockets are hingedly connected to a rotatable member which carries them in a circular path through a fill station where each pocket receives water, a flex station where means are provided to flex the pockets to loosen the ice cubes after the pockets have traveled sufficiently far to permit the water to be frozen, a dump station in which the ice cube is dropped from the pocket, and a restoring station in which each pocket is swung up into a position to receive water at the subsequent fill station.

This invention constitutes an improvement upon the structure shown in the above identified patent, and which is considered to be the best prior art of which applicant has knowledge.

One problem encountered with the particular structure shown in that patent application is that with some of the devices, some of the ice cubes in being loosened in the pockets during the flexing operation move sufliciently away from the pockets as to jam part of the mechanism. This invention is accordingly intended to remedy this problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The gist of the invention is the provision of an automatic ice maker of the character noted in which guard means is provided in a location and disposed to face the open side of the pockets as they pass through flex station to limit the movement of the cubes away from the pockets. In the currently preferred form the cube guard means is structured to adapt it for attachment to the open-work floor of the machine shell overlying the path of travel of the ice cube pockets, and is contoured to promote satisfactory operation of the ice maker in other respects as well.

DRAWING DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a domestic refrigerator-freezer with an ice maker of the general character with which the invention is concerned installed in the freezer compartment;

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of one form of cube guard structure according to the invention before it is installed in the ice maker, this view being directed generally toward the upper surface of the cube guard;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary plan view of the machine shell with the cube guard installed; and

FIG. 4 is a series of sequential edge views of the relation between portions of the cube guard and a single pocket passing into and through the flex station, and to the dump station.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An automatic ice cube maker 10 according to the invention is shown in FIG. 1 as installed in the freezer compartment 12 of a refrigerator-freezer of the domestic type. The ice maker is fastened to the top wall 14 of the freezer compartment in a location adjacent a side wall so that it is in the path of the low temperature air discharge from air outlet 16. An ice cube receiving bin 18 is located below the ice maker. Water is supplied to the ice maker through a supply fitting (not shown) installed in the top insulated wall of the refrigerator-freezer cabinet. Water is discharged into each pocket individually as each pocket achieves a given position in the fill station The main parts of the ice maker assembly as viewed in FIG. 1 include a machine shell 20 in the general form of a relatively shallow, circular pan having a partly open floor and a partly-apertured circumferential side wall 22; an underlying open-work enclosure generally designated :24 and which includes an open-work bottom wall 26 and a circular open-work side wall 28; and a rotatable ice pocket carrier 30 which essentially includes a rotatable hub (not seen) with a series of radially disposed arms or spokes 32 to which the individual ice pockets 34 are hingedly connected.

Reference should be had to the noted Fisher patent for details of the structure and mode of operation of the ice maker as a Whole since the subsequent description will be concerned mainly with the functioning of the ice maker in the area of the flex and dump station.

Referring to FIG. 2, which shows a cube guard structure generally designated 36 apart from the ice maker assembly, the contours and general planes in which various parts of the cube guard lie will be described. In that connection, the circle 38 indicates the center of the assembly and coincides with the opening in the machine shell floor (not shown) through which the hub shaft of the ice pocket carrier extends. The cube guard is a molded flexible plastic part which extends through an arc of approximately as measured by the angle formed between the opposite radially-extending edges on the right and left. The right edge carries two upwardly-offset, projecting tabs 40 which engage with an edge of the opening 42 (FIG. 3) of the machine shell floor 44. The right end portion 46 of the cube guard slopes downwardly from right to left with the cube g-uard installed.

The break line 48 (FIG. 2) indicates the general boundary between the left edge of the downwardly sloped portion 46, and the right edge of an intermediate substantially horizontal portion 50, which has a left boundary indicated by the break line 52. The intermediate portion 50 lies substantially horizontally with the cube guard installed and carries on its upper surface a spacer and mount block 54. At one end of the mount 54 a bore 56 is provided to receive a screw 58 (FIG. 3) turned down through a hole in the machine shell floor 44. The other end of the spacer and mount includes a seat 59 of upwardly-open channel form which cooperates with a land 60 of the machine shell floor.

The left end portion 62 (FIG. 2) has its circumferentially-extending outer edge inclined upwardly for a distance from the break line 52 to about the area where the ends of the slots 64 are. The circumferentially-extending inner edge of the left end portion 62 is substantially horizontal and generally in the same plane as the plane of the intermediate portion 50. The spaced apart arcual slots 64 extend from about the middle of the right end portion 46 to about the middle of the left end portion 62.

The left hand edge of the left end portion 62 (FIG. 2) carries a depending, triangular shape flange 66 which serves two functions to be noted later. A hole 68 is provided in the left hand portion 62 to provide access for mounting the machine shell from underneath to the top Wall of the freezer compartment. A raised portion 70 adjacent the circumferentially-extending inner edge of the left end portion 62 provides space for the pivotal movement of a protuberance 72 (FIG. 4) provided on the inner upper edge of each pocket 34.

The cube guard 36 is mounted to the underside of the machine shell floor as shown in FIG. 3 by first slipping the tabs 40 into engagement with the edge of the hole 42 in the floor, centering the land 60 in the seat 59 of the spacer and mount block 54, and then turning the screw 58 down into the bore 56 of the cube guard. Thus the right end portion 46 and a part of the center portion 50 of the cube guard are relatively rigidly secured to the floor of the machine shell, while the remainder of the cube guard to the left of the mount is capable of flexing upwardly. The Wire spring 74 overlies the floor and cube guard except for its free end 76 which underlies a part of the left end portion 62 for engagement with the pockets as described in the noted Fisher patent.

Referring now to FIG. 4 the functions performed by the cube guard relative to the other parts of the ice maker assembly will now be noted. The right hand view thereof shows an ice cube pocket 38 riding in its path of travel toward the flex station so indicated by the legend. The downwardly sloping right end portion 46 of the cube guard is intended to insure that if the ice cube pocket is held in an upwardly pivoted position due to frost on the hinges, the pocket will be guided back down to its intended substantially level position. The ramps in the flex station for accomplishing the flexing or twisting of the pockets are indicated by the numerals 78, 80 and 82. The ears 84 and 86 at the outer ends of the pockets engage the ramps to effect the flexing. Reference should be had to the noted Fisher patent for a detailed description of precisely how the flexing may be accomplished in one way. As the flexing occurs, and depending upon the particular forces exerted upon any given cube in any given ocket, and the environmental conditions, there exists the possibility that a cube will be loosened from its ice pocket with sufficient force that it would tend to flip upwardly or in some other direction from the open face of the pocket and jam between the pocket and the fixed structure of the ice maker assembly. If this should occur while the pocket is passing through the flex station as shown in the two intermediate views of FIG. 4, the cube guard 36 limits the movement of the cube away from the pocket so that jamming cannot occur. Then as the pocket with the loosened ice cube therein approaches the triangular flange 66 at the left edge of the left end portion of the cube guard, the end of the spring wire engages the radially inner end of the pocket to insure that the pocket is pivoted downwardly. The triangular flange 66 guards against a cube being flipped to the left as the pocket is being dropped to a depending position. Also the flange provides a barrier between a rising pocket on the left side and a dropping pocket on its right side. Finally, the slant edge on the flange will ride upwardly and flex the left half of the cube guard upwardly if a pocket is reluctant to drop to its depending position as shown in the dump station view of FIG. 4, so that jamming of a cube between a reluctant pocket and the guard itself is minimized.

The provision of the slots 64, coupled with the upward tilt of the slotted portion of the left end portion 62 (which somewhat resembles an air foil) results in that air flow circulating about the freezer and ice maker assembly providing a wiping effect upon the lower surface of the cube guard.

I claim:

1. In an automatic ice maker of the character in which a series of individual, distortable ice pockets are moved in a ath including a flex station in which said pockets are subject to a twisting force to loosen the ice cubes in said pockets prior to being dumped in a dump station, the improvement comprising:

guard means facing the open side of said pockets as they pass through said flex station to limit the movement of cubes away from said pockets while in said flex station, said guard means being contoured to include an area to direct said pockets into'said flex station, and an area in the terminal portion of said flex station to direct said pockets into a dump station;

a machine shell having an open-work floor in a plane overlying the path of said pockets;

means for securing said guard means to said floor to accommodate flexing of a portion thereof away from said pockets in the dumping portion of said path; and

said guard means includes slot means therein to accommodate air flow therethrough.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1966 Kesling 62-344 1/1970 Fisher 62345

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