JP2505899B2 - Automatic ice machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an automatic ice making device for automatically producing transparent ice.

(Prior Art) For example, in an automatic ice making device provided in a home refrigerator, the water supplied from the water supply device is stored in an ice making tray to make ice, and after the ice making, the driving mechanism causes the ice making tray to rotate upside down and There is provided a device in which the operation of repeating ice-making by making the ice to be stored by storing the ice by twisting and deforming it, and then supplying water again to the ice-making tray to make the ice is repeated.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such an automatic ice making device, since the ice tray is cooled from the lower side and the upper side by cold air, the water stored in the ice tray is almost evenly distributed over the entire surface. It freezes.
For this reason, there is no place for the air to escape from the water column, and only opaque ice containing air bubbles is available.

To make clear ice, cold air may be blown onto the bottom of the ice tray so that the top side of the ice stored in the ice tray freezes last, but even with this, the cold air will still be produced. Since it will be sprayed on the side of the plate, the water will also freeze from the bottom and side. Therefore, it cannot be guaranteed that the upper surface side of the water will be frozen at the end, which may result in ice with bubbles remaining in the center.

In order to deal with this, for example, a cover member made of a heat insulating material may be attached to the back side of the ice tray by adhesion or the like so as to cover the side surface of the ice tray so that the side surface portion of the ice tray is less cooled than the bottom surface portion. Conceivable. However, in such an automatic ice making device, since it is necessary to twist and deform the ice making tray at the time of ice making as described above, damage may occur at the joint between the ice making tray and the cover member when twisting the ice making tray, or ice making. There is a risk that the plate will not be sufficiently deformed and reliable ice removal may not be performed.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to ensure that the water stored in the ice tray freezes from the bottom surface side, so that transparent ice can be satisfactorily made, and there is no risk of damage such as breakage during ice removal. An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic ice making device capable of performing clear ice removal.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) An automatic ice-making device of the present invention cools an ice-making tray that stores water from the lower side to make ice, and after the ice-making, the ice-making tray is turned upside down by a drive mechanism and The ice-making tray is twisted and deformed to remove ice, and a cover member made of a heat insulating material is provided so as to cover the side surface of the ice-making tray with its bottom surface exposed and to move with respect to the ice-making tray. The feature is that the ice tray is provided with a plurality of holding claws for holding the covering member at a plurality of locations.

(Function) Since the back side surface of the ice tray is covered with the cover member made of a heat insulating material, the side surface portion is hard to be cooled, and the water in the ice tray gradually freezes from the bottom surface side. For this reason,
The bubbles contained in the water will be able to escape from the upper surface side freely, and transparent ice can be made well.

In this case, since the cover member is only intermittently held by the plurality of holding claws on the ice tray and is not joined to the ice tray by adhesion or the like, the cover member is twisted when the ice tray is twisted during ice removal. Can move against the ice tray. Therefore, there is no risk of damage to the ice tray and the cover member, and the ice tray can be sufficiently deformed, so that reliable ice release can be performed.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7.

First, in FIG. 2, a freezer compartment 2, a refrigerating compartment 3, an ice making compartment 4 and the like are formed inside the refrigerator body 1, and the cool air cooled by the cooler 5 is blown by the fan 6 into these compartments 2, 2. It will be supplied to 3,4. Ice making room 4 above
An automatic ice making device 7 according to the present invention is provided therein, which will be described in detail below.

That is, a rectangular box-shaped body 8 is disposed at the upper front side in the ice making chamber 4, and one end of the rear surface of the body 8 protrudes rearward as shown in FIG. An L-shaped support member 9 is provided. A drive mechanism 13 including a motor 10, a gear mechanism 11, and an output shaft 12 is provided inside the body 8, and the drive mechanism 13 reduces the rotation of the motor 10 by the gear mechanism 11, and It is configured to be transmitted to. Inside the support member 9, the ice tray 14
Are arranged. The ice tray 14 has a front center portion connected to the output shaft 12 and a rear center portion rotatably supported by the support member 9 via a support shaft 15, and is rotated by the output shaft 12. It is like this. A convex portion 16 is projectingly provided on one end of the rear portion of the ice tray 14, and when the ice tray 14 is rotated in the inversion direction, the convex portion 16 comes into contact with the support member 9 to rotate the ice tray 14. Are regulated.

Thus, the ice tray 14 is made of plastic and has a thin rectangular container shape with an open upper surface, and the inside is divided into a plurality of recesses 14a for making ice cubes. Around the periphery of the ice tray 14, an enclosure wall portion 14b projecting downward is integrally formed in a frame-like shape as shown in FIGS. 1, 4, and 5, and at the lower end portion of the enclosure wall portion 14b. A plurality of elastically deformable holding claws 17 whose tips are curved inward are integrally formed. A cover member 18 made of a heat insulating material, for example, foamed polyethylene is arranged on the back side of the ice tray 14. The cover member 18 is arranged so that it can move to the back side of the ice tray 14 with the rectangular holes 19 formed corresponding to the recesses 14a of the ice tray 14 fitted to the side surfaces of the recess 14a. It is held at a plurality of locations by the plurality of holding claws 17. Therefore, on the back side of the ice tray 14, the side surface of each recess 14a is covered with the cover member 18, and the bottom surface of each recess 14a is exposed.

Water is supplied to the ice tray 14 by a water supply device 20, and the water supply device 20 includes a water supply tank 21 arranged in the refrigerating compartment 3 and water for receiving water from the water supply tank 21. It is composed of a tray 22 and a pump 24 for supplying the water in the water tray 22 into the ice tray 14 via a water supply pipe 23. Then, in order to detect that the water supplied to the ice tray 14 has turned into ice, a temperature sensor 25 (see FIG. 3) for detecting the ice making completion temperature is attached to the back side of the ice tray 14. There is.

On the other hand, a cool air passage 26 for guiding the cool air sent by the fan 6 into the ice making room 4 is formed in the rear wall of the ice making room 4, and an outlet 26 a of the cool air passage 26 is connected to the ice tray 14. The cool air that is located near the lower surface and blows out from the outlet 26a flows along the bottom of the ice tray 14. In this case, in order to prevent cold air from wrapping around the upper surface side of the ice tray 14, a cover 27 made of a heat insulating material is provided on the ice making chamber 4 side so as to cover the upper surface of the ice tray 14. This cover
A heater 28 is provided inside 27. An ice box 29 is accommodated at the bottom of the ice making chamber 4, and an ice storage detection lever 30 for detecting the amount of ice stored in the ice box 29 is rotatably attached to the body 8. ing.

The ice making device 7 thus configured is controlled by the control circuit 31 shown in FIG. The control circuit 31 includes a microcomputer, and a switch 32 for detecting a horizontal position and a reversing position of the ice tray 14 based on a temperature detection signal from the temperature sensor 25 and a rotation angle of the output shaft 12 provided in the body 8. Based on the detection signal from the switch 33 for detecting the amount of ice stored in the ice box 29 based on the rotation angle of the ice storage detection lever 30, and the program stored in advance, the motor 10, the pump 24, and the heater. 28 drive circuit
It is designed to control the disconnection via 35.

 Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.

Now, it is assumed that the ice tray 14 is in the horizontal position as shown in FIGS. The ice making is performed by supplying water into the ice tray 14 in the horizontal position, that is, the pump 24 is energized for a certain period of time. Then, the water in the water pan 22 is pumped by the pump 24.
Then, a predetermined amount is pumped up and supplied into the ice tray 14, and when the water supply is completed, the heater 28 is energized, whereby the water surface side of the ice tray 14 is heated.

On the other hand, the cool air blown out from the outlet 26a of the cool air passage 26 flows along the bottom surface of the ice tray 14, and cools the water in the ice tray 14 from the lower surface side. In this case, the side surface of the ice tray 14 is covered with the cover member 18
While the bottom surface is exposed while being covered by, the water is strongly cooled from the bottom surface portion of the ice tray 14. Therefore, the water in the ice tray 14 is mainly cooled from the bottom surface side, and in particular, in the present embodiment, the upper side is heated by the heater 28. The water gradually freezes, and the water surface freezes last. Therefore, the bubbles contained in the water can freely escape from the unfrozen water surface and become transparent ice.

Now, when the water in the ice tray 14 is completely frozen, the temperature of the ice tray 14 rapidly decreases, and when the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 25 falls below the ice making completion temperature (for example, -12 ° C), the heater 28 is cut off. At the same time, the motor 10 is energized. Then, the ice tray 14 is rotated by the motor 10 in the direction of arrow A in FIGS. 1 and 3 and turned upside down. Then, even after the convex portion 16 at the rear end of the ice tray 14 contacts the support member 9, only a small amount of the front side of the ice tray 14 continues to rotate in reverse until the reverse position detection switch 33 outputs a detection signal. As a result, the ice tray 14 is twisted and deformed, and due to this twist deformation, the ice is separated from the ice tray 14 and dropped and stored in the ice box 29. At this time,
The cover member 18 attached to the back side of the ice tray 14 is a holding claw 17
Since the cover member 18 can be moved relative to the ice tray 14 with the elastic deformation of the holding claws 17 as shown in FIG.
The ice tray (14) and the cover member (18) are not damaged when twisted. Further, since the ice tray 14 can be sufficiently twisted and deformed, reliable ice separation can be performed.

Then, when the ice tray 14 is rotated to a predetermined inverted position,
Since the reverse position detection switch 33 outputs a detection signal, the motor 10 is rotated in the reverse direction, whereby the ice tray 14 is rotated toward the horizontal position. At this time, as the twisting force on the ice tray 14 is released, the ice tray 14 returns to its original state, and the holding claws 17 and the covering member 18 also return to their original state. When the ice tray 14 rotates to the horizontal position, the horizontal position detection switch 32 outputs a detection signal, so that the motor 10 is turned off, and thereafter water is supplied into the ice tray 14 in the same manner as described above. Automatic ice making is performed repeatedly. When the ice box 29 is filled with ice, the ice storage detection lever 30 outputs a detection signal to the ice storage detection switch 34, so that subsequent ice making is stopped.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the present invention. The holding pawl 36 of this embodiment has a distal end side which projects largely inward and is formed into a corrugated shape, which is more than the holding pawl 17 of the above embodiment. It is easily elastically deformed.

FIG. 9 shows still another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the holding claw 37 is formed so as to have a convex portion 37a protruding upward at the tip and having a curved upper surface, while the cover member 18 is fitted to the convex portion 37a on the bottom surface. The curved concave portion 38 is formed, and the corners are curved. In this case, the cover member 18 easily moves when the ice tray 14 is twisted, and the cover member 18 and the holding claw 37 easily return to the original state when the twisting force is released.

Although the holding claws are provided on the side portions of the ice tray 14 in each of the above-described embodiments, the holding claws may be provided, for example, on the central portion on the back side of the ice tray 14 (between the adjacent recesses 14a), Alternatively, a separate member may be attached to the ice tray 14.

As described above, according to the automatic ice making device of the present invention,
By covering the side surface with a cover member made of a heat insulating material in a state where the bottom surface is exposed on the back side of the ice tray, the water stored in the ice tray is surely frozen from the bottom surface side,
It is possible to satisfactorily make clear ice without bubbles, and the cover member is provided so that it can move with respect to the ice tray and it is held by a plurality of holding claws, so damage during ice removal The present invention has an excellent effect that there is no possibility of the above-mentioned problems, the ice can be reliably removed, and the cover member can be easily assembled to the ice tray.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 7 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an enlarged vertical front view of an ice tray portion, FIG. 2 is a vertical side view of a refrigerator, and FIG. The plan view
FIG. 4 is a side view of the ice tray part, FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the same, and FIG.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a control circuit configuration, and FIG. 7 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of a main part. 8 and 9 are views corresponding to FIG. 7 showing different embodiments of the present invention. In the figure, 4 is an ice making chamber, 7 is an automatic ice making device, 10 is a motor, 13
Is a drive mechanism, 14 is an ice tray, 16 is a convex portion, 17 is a holding claw, 18 is a cover member, 20 is a water supply device, 25 is a temperature sensor, 26 is a cold air passage, 27 is a cover, 28 is a heater, 36, 37 Is a holding claw.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ice making tray in which water is stored is cooled from below to make ice, and the ice making tray is turned upside down and twisted and deformed by a drive mechanism after the ice making to make ice making. On the back side of the dish, a cover member made of a heat insulating material is provided so as to cover the side surface with the bottom surface exposed and to move with respect to the ice tray, and the ice tray has a plurality of holding members at a plurality of positions. An automatic ice making device, which is provided with a holding claw.