WO2011051142A2

WO2011051142A2 - Ice maker

Info

Publication number: WO2011051142A2
Application number: PCT/EP2010/065743
Authority: WO
Inventors: Boris Angele; Christoph Becke; Max Eicher; Ralph Staud; Thomas Tischer
Original assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH
Priority date: 2009-10-27
Filing date: 2010-10-19
Publication date: 2011-05-05
Also published as: PL2494289T3; RU2012120302A; RU2536928C2; WO2011051142A3; EP2494289A2; DE102009046021A1; ES2532890T3; EP2494289B1; CN102597663A; CN102597663B

Abstract

An ice maker for a refrigeration device comprises at least one tray which can be swiveled about an axis and is subdivided into compartments to produce one chunk of ice each and a frame which is open towards the top and towards the bottom in which frame the tray is mounted. A cover is arranged on top of the frame and a collection container covers the bottom of the frame.

Description

Ice makers

The present invention relates to an ice maker for installation in a refrigeration appliance, in particular a household refrigerator. From DE 41 13 767 A1 an ice maker with a pivotable about an axis, in

Compartments for producing each piece of ice divided tray and a frame known in which the tray is held.

The tray of this conventional ice maker is pivotable between a horizontal position in which water in the compartments can freeze and one

Entformstellung, in which the subjects are turned down and it contained pieces of ice by twisting the tray are driven out. The frame is largely open and does not prevent the spread of water vapor from the trays of the tray. If this is reflected in other parts of the refrigerator, refrigerated goods or evaporators, this may require a premature defrosting. The well-known ice maker is therefore housed in a separate chamber of a refrigerator, separated from other refrigerated goods, which he occupies even when it is not needed. Even if the icemaker could be completely removed from this chamber, that is

Usability of such a chamber for other refrigerated goods due to their small

Dimensions restricted.

Object of the present invention is to provide an ice maker with a pivoting tray, which can be housed together with other refrigerated goods in a compartment of a refrigerator, without leading to increased stress on the compartment by frost formation.

The object is achieved by providing in an ice maker for a refrigerator with a pivotable about an axis, divided into compartments for the production of each piece of ice tray and at least on an upper side and a lower side open frame in which the tray is added to the Top of the frame, a lid is attached and a receptacle covers the bottom of the frame. Preferably, the frame has closed walls surrounding the generally rectangular tray on four sides.

A bearing for a pivot axis of the tray may conveniently be attached to the lid. Thus, if necessary, from the side of the tablet can be accessed conveniently by the lid lifted from the frame and thereby the tray is removed.

In order to facilitate the filling of the tray, the lid preferably comprises a basin draining into the compartments of the tray. While direct free-handed pouring of water from above into a tray may not prevent water from being splashed outside the tray or being poured near the tray, the position of a sink of the bowl can be determined to safely exclude this hazard can be. In freehand pouring, not only the direction of the water jet, but also its strength is sometimes difficult to control. If pouring too quickly, a tray may overflow and overflow water across an edge of the tray. On the other hand, by properly setting the cross-section of the drain, the rate at which the water flows into the trays of the tray can be limited so that overflow of the tray can be safely avoided.

Nevertheless, in order to ensure a rapid drainage of the water poured into the pool, the outflow of the pool can expediently run parallel into several compartments of the tray.

Also helpful for a quick and convenient filling is a removable from the icemaker measuring container whose volume corresponds to the capacity of the tray or an integral fraction of the capacity of the tablet. By such a measuring container once or one of the said fraction corresponding number of times directly or on the detour via the basin in the tray emptied, the required amount of water can be dosed quickly and accurately. In order to facilitate the lifting of the lid, on one end side of the frame, a recess covered on the top by the lid may be formed.

An edge region of the cover which covers the recess is preferably hollow underneath; this provides a user with the opportunity to extract the icemaker from a refrigerator in which it is placed by engaging in the cavity of the lid.

A recess which receives the measuring container, can directly adjoin said end face of the housing. So the icemaker needs only a little to be pulled forward, so that the measuring container is accessible and can be removed.

In order to ensure a secure placement of the ice maker in a refrigerator, the frame is preferably provided on two longitudinal sides with first holding contours for anchoring in the refrigerator. Preferably, the holding contours allow a horizontal displacement of the ice maker in the direction of the long sides.

In particular, the holding contours can be formed as horizontal webs projecting laterally from the longitudinal sides, which engage in mutually facing grooves of the refrigeration device. Second holding contours for slidably receiving the collecting container are expediently arranged on the underside of the frame. When the ice maker is fixed in the refrigeration appliance with the aid of the first holding contours, the second holding contours allow the collecting container to be pulled out while the frame remains in place. Since the collecting container is arranged on the underside of the frame, the space requirement of the ice maker in the refrigerator can be reduced by removing the collecting container.

According to a preferred development, the first and second holding contours are shaped complementary to one another. This complementarity manifests itself in that the first holding contours of an identical second frame could be hung on the second holding contours of a first frame, or, which is of practical significance, that is attached to the first holding contours of the frame

Complementary holding contours of a refrigerator instead of the frame and the Collection container can be attached. Thus, if the icemaker is not used to make ice cream again, the frame together with the tray from the

Refrigerating device are removed and attached to its place the collection container to store finished pieces of ice when needed space saving and easy to find. In order to exert a required for demolding finished pieces of ice torque on the tray, a lever is preferably provided which is rotationally coupled for pivoting and twisting of the tray to the latter.

This lever is preferably accessible at the top of the ice maker.

On the one hand the tray quickly from a horizontal freezing position into one

To pivot Entformstellung with downwardly open compartments and to be able to exert sufficient in the demolding position for twisting the tray torque, the lever and the tray preferably via a mechanism with variable

Translation coupled.

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

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an ice maker according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is an exploded view of the ice maker of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a view of a refrigerator with ice maker mounted therein; and

Fig. 4 is a cross section of the ice maker.

The ice maker shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 has a substantially parallelepiped, plastic injection-molded frame 1 open at the top and bottom. A lid 2, which closes the open top of the frame 1, has two engaging from above into the frame 1 Walls 3, 4, in which bearings for an extending between the walls 3, 4, extending about a longitudinal axis of the ice maker axis pivoting tray 5 is held. The molded of an elastic plastic tray 5 is divided in a conventional manner into a plurality of compartments 6, which are provided to receive freezing water. Partitions between the compartments 6 are also provided in known and not shown manner at their upper edges with notches to allow an overflow from a compartment 6 in an adjacent, as soon as in one compartment 6, the water level rises above the lowest point of such a notch , A target filling amount of the tray 5 is set so that all compartments 6 communicate with each other via notches.

Above the tray 5 a basin 7 is recessed in the lid 2. A drain 8 of the basin ends above the compartments 6 of the tray 5, so that water poured into the basin 7 safely enters the compartments 6. The drain 6 can several

Have openings over different compartments 6, to ensure a rapid flow of water. The cross-section of each such opening is smaller than that of the compartments 6 interconnecting notches, so that via one of these openings water can not flow into a compartment 6 faster than it can escape to neighboring compartments via the notches. This ensures that the tray 5 can not overflow as long as the filled amount of water does not exceed its capacity. Instead of discrete, each opening into a single compartment 6 openings, the drain can also be designed as a slot extending over several compartments 6. This has the advantage of reducing the likelihood of blockage by frozen water in the outflow. Adjacent to the basin 7, a recess 9 is provided at the top of the lid 2, in which a slider 10 is housed. The slider is used for pivoting and twisting of the tray 5, as will be explained in more detail later. In its rest position shown in Fig. 1 and 2, the slider is not on the top of the lid over.

Between the recess 9 and a front edge 1 1 of the lid 2 is a

Recess 12 is formed, which is provided to receive a measuring cup 13. The shape of the recess 12 is largely complementary to that of the measuring cup 13 to to receive it substantially form-fitting when not in use, except for a finger recess 14 which is recessed from the front edge 1 1 to facilitate a user gripping a side wall 15 of the measuring cup 13 when it is placed in the recess 12. The capacity of the measuring cup 13 corresponds to that of the tray 5. Therefore, it is sufficient to fill the tray 5 with water, the measuring cup 13 once to fill exactly and to empty it into the basin 7.

In order to save space, it would also be conceivable to set the volume of the measuring cup 13 as one n-th of the volume of the tray 5, where n is a small natural number. It would then be filled n times to fill the tray 5 of the measuring cup 13 and emptied into the basin 7.

The frame 1 comprises two longitudinal walls 16, a rear wall 17 and an end wall 18 which, when the ice maker is mounted in a refrigeration appliance, faces the door thereof. At an upper edge of the longitudinal walls 16 outwardly projecting horizontal webs 19 form a support surface for the cover 2. One upwardly and forwardly open

Concave 20 of the end wall 18 is supplemented with the downwardly open, hollow front edge 1 1 of the lid 2 to an undercut recess at which a user pack for a complete ice maker and from the refrigerator

can pull out or lift the lid 2 from the withdrawn icemaker by attacking from below, over the cavity 20, at the edge 1 1.

At a lower edge of each longitudinal wall 16, a cross-sectionally C-shaped profile 21 is formed. The profiles 21 limit facing grooves. These C-profiles 21 and their grooves are dimensioned to slidably receive webs 22, which at upper edges of side walls 23 of a substantially box-shaped collecting container

24 are formed. Fig. 3 shows a perspective view of a refrigeration device such as a

Household freezer equipped with the ice maker described above. A storage chamber of the freezer is in a conventional manner in several subjects

25 divided, of which the upper are each closed by a flap 26, while 25 extract boxes 27 can be accommodated in the lower compartments. One of the flaps 26 is shown in the open position, and in the rear compartment 25 of the icemaker 28 is housed. Attached to a ceiling 29 of the compartment 25 are two L-profiles 30 extending in the depth direction, one of which is hidden by the ice maker 28 in the view of FIG. Horizontal legs of the two L-profiles 30 form bearing surfaces on which the webs 19 of the frame 1 slidably rest in the depth direction. By engaging the handle shell 31 formed by the concavity 20 and the front edge 11 of the lid 2, a user may prefer the ice maker 28 latched in an inserted stop position to overcome a low resistance, depending on how far the icemaker is

is pulled out, remove the measuring cup 13, actuate the slide 10 or pour water into the basin 7 can.

The collecting container 24 is provided on its underside with a handle recess 32. It is easier to move in the C-profiles 21 of the frame 1 than the entire ice maker 28 on the L-profiles 30, so that when pulling on the collecting container 24, the frame 1 remains at rest.

The ice maker 28 can be withdrawn as a whole from the L-profiles 30, so that it stows when not in use outside the freezer and thus freed up space can be used elsewhere. Due to the same dimensions of the webs 19 and 22, it is also possible to suspend the collecting container 24 to the L-profiles 30 directly and by itself. Thus, by removing only the frame 1 and the lid 2, much of the space occupied by the icemaker 28 in the compartment 25 can be freed, but finished pieces of ice continue therein

Collecting container 24 a fixed place.

4 shows a schematic section through the ice maker 28 along a plane that runs transversely to the pivot axis of the tray 5 through the depression 9. It can be seen here that the slide 10 is part of a one-armed lever 33, which is pivotable about an axis 35 which is displaced parallel to the pivot axis 34 of the tray 35 and extends through a slot 36 at the bottom of the recess 9. Both axes 34, 35 are fixed to the between the tray 5 and the lever 33 extending wall 4. A wing 37 of the tray 5 extends in the axial direction, transverse to Sectional plane, from one of the wall 4 facing end side of the tray 5 over the wall 4 of time and is held pressed by a spring, not shown, acting on the tray 5 against a shoulder 38 of the lever 33. When the tray 5 is in its freezing position, horizontal with upwardly open compartments 6, the lever 33 is held by contact with the wing 37 in its rest position at one end of the slot 36. The shoulder 38 and the wing 37 touch each other near the pivot axis 34th

When a user pivots the lever 33 in a counterclockwise direction, the shoulder 38 presses against the blade 37 and the tray 5 pivots counter to the force of the spring counterclockwise. In this case, the shoulder 38 moves on a path drawn as a dot-dashed sheet. On a first piece of this web, the distance of the shoulder 38 from the pivot axis 34 decreases even further, so that only a small deflection of the lever 33 is required to pivot the tray 5 so far that the openings of the compartments 6 point downwards ,

In a second position of the lever 33 shown in Fig. 4, the tray 5 is pivoted about the freezing position by about 150 ° counterclockwise, and facing away from the lever 33 front side of the tray 5 abuts against a stop 39, of the rear wall 3 of the lid 2 forth projects forward. If the lever 33 is pulled beyond the position shown in the counterclockwise direction, the lever 33 facing the end face of the tray 5, and the shoulder 38 slides on the wing 37 to the outside. Since the side facing away from the lever 33 front side of the tray 5 can no longer follow the rotation, this is subject to an increasing distortion, through which the finished pieces of ice are forced out of the compartments 6. The further the lever 33 is pulled, the greater the distance of his shoulder 38 from the

Pivot axis 34, and the greater is the torque that can exert the user on the tray 5. As a result, it requires little effort to twist the tray 5 so far that all finished pieces of ice are reliably ejected. By either the lever 33 abuts the left end of the slot 36 or the blade 37 meets an upper edge 40 of the wall 4, the achievable twisting of the tray 5 is limited to an extent that excludes a plastic deformation safe.

Claims

1. Ice maker for a refrigerator with at least one about an axis (34)

pivotable tray (5) subdivided into compartments (6) for the production of each piece of ice and having a frame (1) open at least on an upper side and a lower side, in which the tray (5) is accommodated, characterized in that on the upper side a lid (2) is attached to the frame (1) and a collecting container (24) at least largely conceals the underside of the frame (1).

2. Ice maker according to claim 1, characterized in that a bearing for the

Swivel axis (34) of the tray (5) on the lid (2) is mounted.

3. Ice maker according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the lid (2) in the compartments (6) of the tray (5) dewatering basin (7).

4. Ice maker according to claim 3, characterized in that an outflow (8) of the

Basin (9) opens parallel into several compartments (6) of the tray (5).

5. Ice maker according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by a removable measuring container (13) whose volume is at least approximately the capacity of the tray (5) or an integer fraction of the

Capacity of the tray (5) corresponds.

6. Ice maker according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that on one end face (18) of the frame (1) from above by the cover (2) covered recess (20) is formed.

7. ice maker according to claim 6, characterized in that the recess (20) overlapping edge region (1 1) of the lid (2) is hollow on the underside.

8. Ice maker according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the frame (1) is provided on two longitudinal sides (16) with first holding contours (19) for anchoring in a refrigeration device.

9. ice maker according to claim 8, characterized in that the first holding contours (19) as laterally from the longitudinal sides (16) projecting horizontal webs (19) are formed.

10. Ice maker according to claim 9, characterized in that second holding contours (21) for slidably receiving the collecting container (24) on the underside of the frame (1) are arranged.

1 1. Ice maker according to claim 8 and claim 10, characterized in that first and second retaining contours (19; 21) are formed complementary to each other.

12. Ice maker according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by a lever (33) which is rotationally coupled for pivoting and twisting of the tray (5) to the latter.

13. Ice maker according to claim 12, characterized in that the lever (33) at the top of the ice maker (28) is accessible.

14. Ice maker according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that the lever (33) and the tray (5) via a mechanism (35, 38) are coupled with variable ratio.

15. Refrigerating appliance, in particular household refrigerating appliance with an ice maker according to one of claims 1 to 14.