WO2008077751A1

WO2008077751A1 - Refrigerator and ice reservoir container for it

Info

Publication number: WO2008077751A1
Application number: PCT/EP2007/063609
Authority: WO
Inventors: Martin Buchstab; Irene Dumkow; Adolf Feinauer; Klaus Flinner; Bernd Heger; Peter Nalbach; Kasim Yazan; Helen Lewis; Craig Duncan Webster; Nathan Wrench
Original assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH
Priority date: 2006-12-22
Filing date: 2007-12-10
Publication date: 2008-07-03
Also published as: DE102006061093A1; US20100011797A1; CN101573573A; EP2104817A1

Abstract

An ice reservoir container for a refrigerator comprises a reservoir chamber (6) which has a base (27) which slopes along a first vertical section plane towards an outlet opening (28). The gradient of the base (27) decreases along the section plane as the distance from the outlet opening (28) increases.

Description

Refrigerating appliance and ice storage container for it

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, in particular a household freezer or fridge-freezer combination device, with an ice dispenser and an ice storage container for such an ice dispenser.

From US 5,273,219 an ice dispenser for a refrigerator is known, which is divided into a pantry and a crushing chamber, between the pantry and the crushing chamber, a conveying and metering drum is arranged, which is intended to controlled by their rotation pieces of ice out of the To transport storage chamber in the crushing chamber. The pantry has a bottom sloping down to the feed and metering drum so that the ice cubes tend to collect at the end of the pantry adjacent the feed and metering drum. Such an inclination is desirable if the amount of pieces of ice in the storage chamber is small, to ensure that ice pieces can always be picked up by the drum and taken along. However, when the fill level in the pantry is high, the slope of the bottom increases the pressure of the ice cubes against the feed and metering drum, causing the ice cubes in the vicinity of the feed and metering drum to increasingly tend to become wedged and contiguous freeze solid. Although the pieces of ice can be broken up again with the aid of a stirring tool mounted in the storage chamber, in the long run this will cause the pieces of ice to fragment in the storage container and eventually freeze into irregularly shaped chunks.

The aim of the present invention is to provide a storage container in which pieces of ice can be stored intact for a long time and from which they can be conveyed out at any time without difficulty.

The object is achieved in that in the case of an ice storage container having a storage chamber which has a bottom sloping down to a starting opening along a first vertical cutting plane, the gradient of the bottom along the cutting plane decreases with increasing distance from the outlet opening. Thus, the weight of ice pieces that are stored in the pantry far from the exit port are removed, not or at most little to the pressure at which the ice pieces are exposed at high level at the exit port. This reduces the tendency of the pieces of ice to freeze together, and accordingly, the likelihood that they will fragment when it is necessary to break them down is also low.

The slope can decrease continuously along the first cutting plane; but it is also a cross-sectional shape with gradually decreasing slope into consideration.

In order to be able to break pieces of ice if necessary, a stirring tool is preferably provided in the storage chamber. This stirring tool is preferably rotatable about an axis extending in the cutting plane.

The stirring tool preferably has radially projecting slides from the axis, wherein the length of the slide decreases in the radial direction with increasing distance from the outlet opening, so that over the entire length of the stirring tool away an approximately constant gap width between the radial ends of the slide and the Bottom of the pantry is feasible.

The stirring tool may be a rod with a curved course in one plane.

The object is further achieved by a refrigeration device having an ice storage container as defined above.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying figures. Show it:

1 shows a schematic section through a household refrigerator with an ice storage container according to the invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of two shells forming the reservoir;

3 shows a schematic cross section of the storage container; and Fig. 4 is a schematic longitudinal section of a reservoir according to a modified embodiment.

The refrigerating appliance shown in a schematic section in FIG. 1 has a heat-insulating body 1 and a door 2 which delimit an interior space 3. The interior space 3 is maintained at a temperature below 0 ^° C. by an evaporator which is accommodated in an evaporator chamber 4 divided off in the upper region of the body 1. An automatic ice maker 5 is arranged in the immediate vicinity of the evaporator chamber 4 in the interior 3, so that it can preferably be acted upon by cold air from the evaporator chamber 4. The ice maker 5 comprises in a known manner, not shown in detail in the figure, a plurality of mold containers, means for automatically dosing water into the mold containers and means for automatically ejecting the finished ice cubes from the mold containers. Below the ice maker 5, an upwardly open storage chamber 6 of an ice dispenser assembly 7 is arranged, which receives the ejected pieces of ice. The Eisspenderbaugruppe 7 extends over a majority of the depth of the inner space 3 and may for example be injection molded in one piece of plastic or assembled from a plurality of injection molded elements. In a rear niche 8 of the ice dispenser assembly 7, an electric motor for driving a stirring rod 9 is accommodated. The electric motor may be permanently mounted in the refrigeration device, or it may be integrated into the ice dispenser assembly and removable therewith. The stirring rod 9 extends in the depth direction of the inner space 3 or in the longitudinal direction of the storage chamber 6 through the latter and through a comminution chamber 10 adjoining the storage chamber 6 and adjacent to the door 2.

The stirring rod 9 is a metal rod, which is bent in a zigzag shape in its section extending through the storage chamber 6 in a plane parallel to its axis of rotation. At the engaging in the crushing chamber 10 portion of the stirring rod 9 knives 1 1 a grinder are attached so that they rotate with the rotation of the stirring rod 9. Further mounted in the crushing chamber 10 knives 12 are between a state in which they rotate together with the knives 1 1 and how they act only as a slide on ice crushed into the crushing chamber 10, and a stationary state in which the pieces of ice between them and the knives 11 are switchable, for example by means of a bolt (not shown) which is slidable through the wall of the crushing chamber 10 to release or block the rotation of the knives 12 as required.

Through an opening at the bottom of the crushing chamber 10, the ice, depending on the operating state of the knife 12 crushed or in pieces, in a passage 13 which extends through an insulating material layer of the door 2 and in an open towards the outside of the door 2 niche 14th empties. A flap 15 keeps the passage 13 normally closed to prevent the ingress of hot air into the interior 3; the flap 15 is opened only as long as the stirring rod 9 rotates to deliver ice through the passage 13 into a container placed in the recess 14.

A water tank 16 is embedded on the rear wall of the niche 14 in the insulating material of the door 2. The water tank 16 is on the one hand as the icemaker 5 via a supply line 17 and a check valve 18 connected to the drinking water network and on the other hand to a tap 19 in the niche 14.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a shell 20 of the ice dispenser assembly 7, which, together with an essentially mirror-symmetrical counterpart, not shown, delimits the storage chamber 6. On a rear side of the shell 20, the niche 8 receiving the motor, not shown, can be seen. A recess on one of the niche 8 facing the rear wall 25 of the shell 20 forms together with its counterpart a circular window 21 which is provided to receive a substantially cylindrical coupling piece 22 rotatably. The coupling piece 22 has on its front side facing the observer in FIG. 2 a slot 23 into which an angled end portion of the stirring rod 9 (not shown in FIG. 2) can be inserted. Not shown recesses on the back of this coupling piece 22 allow a positive engagement of the motor.

The storage chamber 6 has a longitudinally sloping from the rear wall 25 to a side adjacent to the crushing chamber 10 end wall 26 26, which causes that with a rotation of the stirring rod 9 entrained pieces of ice the crushing chamber 10 and finally through an opening 28 of the end wall 26 in the (not shown in Figure 2) crushing chamber 10 arrive. The slope of the Bodens 27 increases continuously from the rear wall 25 to the end wall 26, so that the closer they are to the inclination of the pieces of ice which move towards the crushing chamber 10, the greater. Ice pieces which are close to the rear wall 25 therefore contribute little to the pressure acting on the ice pieces located in the vicinity of the end wall 26 and acting in the direction of the crushing chamber 10. As a result, the tendency of these pieces of ice to zusammenrte or wed, even with a high level of ice in the pantry 6 low.

Fig. 3 shows a section through the Eisspenderbaugruppe 7 transverse to the axis of rotation of the stirring rod. The bottom 27 has a semicircular cross-sectional shape, wherein the axis of rotation of the stirring rod 9 passes through the center of the rounding of the bottom 27. That is, there are no corners in the storage chamber 6, in which pieces of ice can wedge and block the rotation of the stirring rod 9.

In order to effectively prevent freezing of the pieces of ice in the storage chamber 6, it is desirable to be able to rotate the stirring rod 9 from time to time, even if no ice is to be dispensed. In order to avoid an undesirable output of ice during rotation of the stirring rod 9, various solutions come into consideration. One solution is based on the fact already mentioned that the knives 12 are rotatable in the crushing chamber together with the knives 11. It is therefore sufficient to provide at the output of the crushing chamber 10 a closable flap which is closed when an output of ice is undesirable, and to rotate the knives 12 together with the stirring rod 9. In this case, the pieces of ice are moved in both the storage chamber 6 and in the crushing chamber 10, but not crushed.

A second solution is to provide a closable flap between the storage chamber 6 and the crushing chamber 10. When this is closed, the rake 9 and the knives 1 1 can rotate without the condition - stationary or rotatable - the knife 12 arrives.

A third solution is to provide a coupling between the knives 1 1 and the stirring rod 9, which allows the stirring rod 9 to rotate while the knives 1 1 at rest so as to block the entry of ice into the crushing chamber 10 or the release of ice from it.

FIG. 4 shows a longitudinal section through a second embodiment of the storage container 6. While this is shown in the illustration of FIG. 2 with a longitudinally curved profile of the bottom 27 with the end face 26 towards continuously increasing gradient, in the embodiment of FIG. 4 of the reservoir in the longitudinal direction into a plurality of sections 29, 30, 31, wherein the slope of the bottom 27 in each section is constant and increases gradually from the rear wall 25 to the end wall 26 at the boundaries of sections 29, 30, 31, respectively. The shape of the stirring rod 9 is adapted to the course of the bottom 27; the amplitude of the individual shafts 32 formed in the stirring rod 9 increases towards the end 26, so that the peaks of all the shafts 32 move over the bottom 27 at a substantially equal distance.

The section of Fig. 4 also shows the already mentioned with reference to FIG. 1, designated here by 24 end piece of the stirring rod, which is inserted into the slot 23 of the coupling piece 22, such as two recesses 33 at the rear of the coupling, the one allow positive and non-positive attack of the engine.

Claims

claims

1. Ice storage container for a refrigeration device, with a storage chamber (6) having along a first vertical sectional plane to an exit opening (28) down sloping bottom (27), characterized in that the slope of the bottom (27) along the cutting plane with increasing distance from the exit opening (28) decreases.

2. Ice storage container according to claim 1, characterized in that the gradient decreases continuously along the first cutting plane.

3. Ice storage container according to claim 1, characterized in that the gradient decreases gradually along the first cutting plane.

4. Ice storage container according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a stirring tool (9) is rotatable about an axis extending in the cutting plane.

5. Ice storage container according to claim 4, characterized in that the stirring tool (9) from the axis radially projecting slide (32), wherein the length of the slide (32) decreases in the radial direction with increasing distance from the outlet opening (28).

6. Ice storage container according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the stirring tool (9) is a rod with curved in a plane course.

7. Refrigerating appliance with an ice storage container according to one of the preceding claims.