KR20040085596A - Ice-making device having monolithic ice storage - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an ice maker, the case forming an appearance; An ice making unit built in the case and making ice by freezing ice making water; And an ice storage unit having an integral heat insulation structure for receiving the ice made in the ice making unit. According to this, the loss of cold air can be prevented as much as possible, and the ice manufacturing efficiency can be improved and power consumption can be reduced. Here, the ice storage can be simply configured integrally with the inner casing and the heat insulating material, on the other hand, if the air insulation interval between the case is built in can be more effectively prevent the loss of cold air.

Description

ICE-MAKING DEVICE HAVING MONOLITHIC ICE STORAGE}

The present invention relates to an ice maker, and more particularly, to an ice maker having an integrated heat storage ice reservoir for releasably receiving ice frozen in the ice making unit.

In general, ice makers which make conventional ice are built in and attached to a refrigerator. However, as the demand for ice gradually increases recently, separately manufactured home and commercial ice makers have been proposed.

1 is a longitudinal sectional view of such a conventional ice maker. As can be seen in the figure, the conventional ice maker 100, the ice storage unit 111 and the component chamber 121, the upper and lower compartments 101, the ice making unit 120 is built in the ice storage chamber 111 And a cooling system 130 embedded in the component chamber 121. Here, a water supply pipe 141 for supplying ice making water to the ice making unit 120 and a drain pipe 143 for draining the ice making water remaining in the ice making unit 120 and the ice storage chamber 111 are connected.

The main body case 101 is composed of an outer casing 103 for forming an outer appearance, and an upper and lower inner casings 105 and 106 for forming an ice storage chamber 111 and a component chamber 121. Here, the upper inner casing 105 is disposed at regular intervals from the outer casing 103, for example, the foam is filled therebetween. The cured foam liquid forms a heat insulating layer 108, whereby cold air in the ice storage chamber 111 is prevented from leaking to the outside.

The main body case 101 is provided with a door 113 to draw out the ice in the ice storage chamber (111). Likewise, the door 113 has a heat insulating structure for protecting the cold air of the ice storage chamber 111, but the outflow of cold air is inevitable when the door 113 is opened.

On the other hand, the ice making unit 120 installed in the upper portion of the ice storage chamber 111, the ice making container 121 is filled with ice making water, the cooling plate 125 for freezing the ice making water filled in the ice making container 121, and the cooling plate And an evaporation tube 127 for cooling the temperature 125 below the freezing point temperature. The evaporation tube 127 is coupled to the upper portion of the cooling plate 125 and is connected to the cooling system 130 embedded in the component chamber 111. The cooling plate 125 protrudes downward from the plurality of cooling protrusions (see 27 in FIG. 4) in contact with the ice making water filled in the ice making container 121. Here, the ice making container 121 is coupled to a rotating structure including a motor, and can be vertically rotated.

In the conventional ice maker 100 having such a configuration, the low temperature refrigerant flowing in the evaporation tube 127 by the operation of the cooling system 130 maintains the cooling plate 125 and the cooling projection at a temperature below freezing point. In this state, when the ice making water is filled in the ice making container 121 through the water supply pipe 141, the cooling protrusions of the cooling plate 125 are immersed in the filled ice making water. Then, as time passes, ice may freeze on the cooling projection of the cooling plate 125.

Thereafter, when ice freezing is completed, the ice making container 121 rotates downward, while a high temperature refrigerant is bypassed directly from the compressor 131 of the cooling system 130 to the evaporation tube 127. At this time, the cooling plate 125 and the cooling projections are formed at a high temperature, whereby ice frozen ice is separated from the cooling projection. The separated ice drops and accumulates in the ice storage chamber 111, and the user can pull out the ice by opening the door.

By the way, in the conventional ice maker 100, the outer atmosphere and the inside of the ice storage chamber 111 are directly opposed with the heat insulation layer 108 interposed, even if the gap between the door 113 is airtightly shielded. Even if there is a loss of cold between them. The rise in temperature in the ice storage chamber 11 is inevitably inevitable due to the structure of opening and closing the door 113. In the conventional ice maker, therefore, it is difficult to store the ice in a good state, and in particular, the production efficiency of the ice. This low power consumption is a high problem.

Therefore, an object of the present invention, in consideration of these problems in the prior art, to prevent the loss of cold as possible to increase the ice manufacturing efficiency, while reducing the power consumption, and also to store the ice produced in good condition It is to provide an ice maker having.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ice maker having an ice storage container having an integral thermal insulation structure that can be easily manufactured with a simple configuration.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide an ice maker having an ice storage, which is disposed at intervals of air insulation inside the case forming the exterior, and can more effectively prevent the loss of cold air.

1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a conventional ice maker;

2 is a perspective view of an ice maker having an ice storage unit of an integrated heat insulating structure according to the present invention;

3 is a partial exploded perspective view of the case of FIG.

4 is an assembled cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 2;

5 is an assembled cross-sectional view taken along the line VV of FIG. 2, and

Figure 6 is an enlarged perspective view of the main portion of Figure 3, showing the ice reservoir of the present invention in more detail.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

1: ice maker 3: cooling system

10: ice making body 12: case

21: ice making unit 31: swinging unit

41: ice storage 42: ice input

43: inner casing 44: exhaust port

45: heat insulating material 46: ice extraction unit

48: rotating screw 50: lower cabinet

The object is a case for forming an appearance; An ice making unit built in the case and making ice by freezing ice making water; It is achieved by an ice maker configured to include; and an ice storage of an integral heat-insulating structure for receiving the ice made in the ice making unit.

Here, the ice storage, the inner casing; And foamed heat insulating material on the outer surface of the inner casing. And, the ice reservoir, the ice input unit opened toward the ice making unit; An ice extraction unit which is opened downward at a predetermined inclination angle and is capable of extracting the ice contained therein; And a drain port for draining the ice making water melted therein.

A lower portion of the ice reservoir may, on the other hand, have a V-shaped cross section; If the drain port is formed at the lowest position of the lower portion, a good drainage structure can be formed.

The ice reservoir is also preferably disposed at intervals of air insulation in the case, so that loss of cold air can be minimized as much as possible.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a perspective view of an ice maker according to the present invention. As can be seen in the figure, the ice maker 1 can be largely divided into an ice maker main body 10 and a lower cabinet 50 that supports the ice maker main body 10 thereon. Inside the lower cabinet 50, a replaceable ice tray (not shown), a water supply pump (not shown) capable of supplying the ice-making water in the ice-making tank, and a purification unit for purifying the ice-making water being provided are installed. The lower cabinet 50 also has a built-in drain box for collecting the ice making water drained from the ice making body 10. Detailed description of the lower cabinet 50 will be omitted.

As can be seen in more detail in FIG. 3, which is a rear exploded perspective view, the ice making body 10 includes a frame 11 having a rectangular frame shape, a case 12 covering an outer surface of the frame 11, and the case ( 12, a cooling system 3, an ice reservoir 41, and an ice making unit 21 are provided. The case 12 is composed of a rear plate 15, a lower plate 14, and both side plates, and a rectangular cylindrical front cover 17 and an upper cover 16 are coupled to the front and upper surfaces thereof, respectively.

The front cover 17 is provided with a lever (8 in FIG. 2) capable of extracting the ice in the ice reservoir 41, and a display 7 at the upper portion thereof. The upper cover 16 accommodates an ice making unit 21 to be described later in detail, and has an insulating structure. And, the lower plate 14 is coupled to the water supply pipe (2 of FIG. 4) and the drain pipe (9 of FIG. 4) respectively connected to the water supply pump and the drain box of the lower cabinet 50.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV of FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line V-V of FIG. 3, showing the structure of the ice reservoir in more detail. As can be seen in these figures, the ice maker unit 21 and the cooling system 3 are respectively installed in the upper and lower portions of the case 12 with respect to the ice storage 41. The cooling system 3 includes an evaporator tube 6 described later in connection with the compressor 4, the condenser 5 and the ice making unit 21, similar to a general refrigeration system. Description of the configuration and operation principle of such a general cooling system is omitted.

The ice reservoir 41 is gradually reduced toward the lower part and has a substantially V-shaped cross-sectional shape. The ice reservoir 41 includes an upwardly open ice input portion 42, an ice extracting portion 46 opened in a gradually reduced diameter portion, and a drain port 44 formed on the bottom surface. An ice making unit 21 is installed in an upward opening area of the ice input part 42.

The opening of the ice extraction section 46 forms a predetermined downward inclination angle, and an ice extraction lever 8 is provided on the entire surface thereof. Inside the opening of the ice extracting section 46, there is provided a rotating screw 48 arranged along the inclined bottom surface and an ice stirrer 49 that cooperates with the rotating screw 48. These rotating screws 48 and the ice stirrer 49 are rotated by pressing the lever 8 and are discharged through the ice extraction unit 46 while stirring the ice in the ice reservoir 41.

And the drain port 44 is provided in the lowest position of the lower part which has a V shape. The drainage port 44 is connected to the drainage pipe 9, whereby the drainage in the ice reservoir 41 flows easily along the inclined surface.

The ice reservoir 41 is composed of an inner casing 43 and a heat insulating material 43 surrounding the outer surface of the inner casing 43. The inner casing 43 can be easily manufactured by appropriately sheet metal processing or plastic injection icing water. The heat insulating material 43 can be simply configured by injection molding a urethane foam on the outer surface of the inner casing 43, for example. On the other hand, although not shown in the present embodiment, of course, the outer casing can be provided on the outer surface of the heat insulating material (43).

The ice storage 41 is supported by the frame 11, it is preferable to arrange the inner surface of the case 12 at a predetermined interval (P). The space P between the case 12 and the ice storage 41 is filled with air at a constant temperature, thereby preventing cold air in the ice storage 41 from directly contacting the outside atmosphere. Thereby, cold air loss can be reduced as much as possible.

On the other hand, the ice making unit 21 installed in the upper portion of the ice reservoir 41, the cooling plate 25 having a rotatable ice making container 23, a plurality of cooling projections 27 protruding downward toward the ice making container 23. ), A swinging unit 31 for supporting the ice making container 23 so as to swing, and a rotating motor 33 for rotating the ice making container 23 up and down integrally with the swinging unit 31. The evaporating tube 6 of the cooling system 3 is provided in the zigzag shape in the cooling plate 25, and a low temperature refrigerant | coolant flows along the plate surface. Thereby, the cooling plate 25 and its cooling protrusions 27 can be kept below freezing point.

In addition, reference numeral 35, which is not described in the drawings, is a swinging motor of the swinging unit 31 which swings the ice making container 23.

In the present ice maker 1 having such a configuration, the ice produced by the ice making unit 21 is maintained in a double insulated state by the ice storage 12 and the outer case 12. In particular, the ice storage 41 has a structure in which the inner casing 43 and the insulating material 45 foamed on the outer surface thereof are integrally formed, and can be easily manufactured, and the heat insulating effect is excellent.

In this ice maker 1, the ice storage 41 which has an integral heat insulation structure is arrange | positioned with the constant air insulation space P inside the case 12. As shown in FIG. In this structure, the air existing between the ice reservoir 41 and the case 12 performs an excellent heat insulating function between the cold inside the ice reservoir 41 and the high temperature atmosphere outside. Thereby, since the loss of cold air is prevented more effectively, the ice stored in the ice storage 41 can be kept in good state.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the loss of cold as much as possible to improve the ice manufacturing efficiency, as well as to reduce the power consumption, and also to create an ice storage that can store the produced ice in a good state Eggplant ice makers are provided. The ice storage of the integrated heat insulation structure of this ice machine can be manufactured simply and easily.

In the ice making machine having the ice storage according to the present invention, since the ice storage is also built at intervals of air insulation inside the case forming the exterior, it is possible to more effectively prevent the loss of cold air.

Claims (5)

A case forming an appearance; An ice making unit built in the case and making ice by freezing ice making water; And And an ice storage device having an integral heat insulation structure for receiving the ice made by the ice making unit. The method of claim 1, wherein the ice storage, Inner casing; And Ice making machine, characterized in that integrally provided; foamed insulating material on the outer surface of the inner casing. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the ice storage, An ice input unit opened toward the ice making unit; An ice extraction unit which is opened downward at a predetermined inclination angle and is capable of extracting the ice contained therein; And And a drainage port for draining the melted iced water therein. The method of claim 3, wherein A lower portion of the ice reservoir has a V-shaped cross section; The ice maker characterized in that the drain port is formed in the lowest position of the lower portion. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the ice storage, Ice maker, characterized in that arranged in the interior of the case at an interval of air insulation.