KR20060125302A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, comprising: an ice making tray, an ice storage unit for receiving and storing ice iced in the ice making tray, and a dispenser unit for receiving and using the ice in the ice storage unit from the outside. The ice storage unit, the ice storage container for storing the ice iced from the ice tray; A discharge part formed in the ice storage container to discharge the stored ice to the outside; A conveying member for conveying ice toward the discharge portion; It is characterized in that it comprises a powder ice device coupled to the discharge portion to receive the ice cubes discharged to the discharge portion made of powdered ice. As a result, since the powder ice device is provided together with the ice ice storage container, the design and manufacturing of the freezer compartment are easy, and the space utilization is improved.

Description

Refrigerator {REFRIGERATOR}

1 is a front view of an open state of a door of a refrigerator according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a freezer compartment side cross-sectional view of the refrigerator of Figure 1,

3 is a perspective view of an ice storage unit according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a perspective view of an ice storage unit according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a view showing a process of making powdered ice in the powder ice apparatus of the present invention.

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

1: body 10: refrigerator

20: freezing chamber 40: ice making chamber

50: dispenser 100: ice storage

110: ice storage container 111: transfer member

113: partition plate 120: discharge part

121: first discharge portion 123: second discharge portion

130: powder ice device

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to refrigerators and, more particularly, to refrigeration having a powder ice apparatus capable of supplying powdered ice.

In general, a refrigerator is a device for maintaining a variety of foods fresh for a long time by using the heat exchanged air from the evaporator of the refrigeration cycle, a freezer compartment for storing frozen foods below the freezing temperature, such as meat, fish, fruits, vegetables As described above, a refrigerating compartment for storing the refrigerated food above the freezing temperature is provided in a compartment.

The freezer is provided with an ice maker for making ice of a predetermined size by receiving water from an external water supply device, and an ice storage unit for storing ice iced from the ice maker is provided in the lower part of the ice maker. The ice stored in the ice storage unit is crushed into ice cubes or flake ice according to the use and discharged to the outside. For the ice discharge structure of the ice storage unit, Korean Utility Application No. 1997-003500 and Korean Patent Application No. 1998-0049615 And the like.

Recently, a refrigerator having a powder ice device has been developed for making and using food such as red bean shaved ice at home. The powder ice device is a device that receives ice cubes from the ice storage unit and grinds them into powder ice using a blade or the like.

However, the conventional conventional refrigerator has a problem that it is not easy to obtain powdered ice at home because the powdered ice device is not provided. In addition, even when the powder ice apparatus is provided, the manufacturing process is complicated because it must be provided in the freezer compartment door, and the inner phase of the freezer compartment door protrudes toward the freezer compartment by the volume of the powder ice apparatus, thereby reducing the space utilization in the freezer compartment.

In addition, the conventional ice storage unit has a problem that the amount of ice discharged is not constant, which is not suitable for the powder ice apparatus requiring a quantitative supply.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator having a powder ice apparatus which is easy to design and manufacture on the freezer compartment side and has improved space utilization.

In addition, another object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator capable of supplying a fixed amount of ice to the powder ice apparatus.

According to the present invention, in the refrigerator having an ice making tray, an ice storage unit for receiving and storing the ice iced in the ice making tray, and a dispenser unit for receiving and using the ice in the ice storage unit from the outside, The ice storage unit, the ice storage container for storing the ice iced from the ice tray; A discharge part formed in the ice storage container to discharge the stored ice to the outside; A conveying member for conveying ice toward the discharge portion; It is achieved by a refrigerator including a powder ice device coupled to the discharge portion for receiving the ice cubes discharged into the discharge portion to make the powder ice discharged.

The powder ice device may be coupled to the lower side of the discharge portion.

The bottom surface and the conveying member of the ice storage container may be provided to be inclined upward from the opposite side of the discharge portion toward the discharge portion.

The transfer member includes a drive motor provided in the ice storage container, a transfer shaft having one side coupled to the drive motor and the other side extending toward the discharge portion, and coupled to the transfer shaft to rotate ice in the ice storage container. It may be to include a spiral wing for conveying toward the discharge portion.

The feed shaft may be increased in diameter from the one side toward the other side.

It may further include a guide for guiding the powder ice discharged from the powder ice apparatus to the dispenser.

On the other hand, the object is, according to the present invention, in the refrigerator having an ice tray, an ice storage unit for receiving and storing the ice iced in the ice tray, and a dispenser unit for receiving and using the ice in the ice storage unit from the outside The ice storage unit may include an ice storage container configured to store ice iced from the ice making tray; A plurality of discharge parts formed in the ice storage container to discharge the stored ice to the outside; A plurality of conveying members for conveying ice toward the discharge portion; It is also achieved by a refrigerator including a powder ice device coupled to any one of the plurality of discharge units to receive the ice discharged to the discharge unit to form and discharge powder ice.

The discharge portion has a first discharge portion for discharging ice cubes with the powder ice device, and a second discharge portion for discharging ice cubes with the dispenser portion as it is or by crushing ice cubes into pieces of ice. May be coupled to the lower side of the first discharge part.

The ice storage container is divided into a first supply part for supplying ice cubes to the powder ice device and a second supply part for supplying ice to the dispenser part, and the bottom surface of the first supply part is opposite to the first discharge part of the fryer. It can be provided to be inclined upward toward the first discharge portion from.

A partition plate may be provided between the first supply part and the second supply part.

The transfer member includes a drive motor provided in the ice storage container, a transfer shaft having one side coupled to the drive motor and the other side extending toward the discharge portion, and coupled to the transfer shaft to rotate ice in the ice storage container. It may be to include a spiral wing for conveying toward the discharge portion.

The feed shaft may be increased in diameter from the one side toward the other side.

A driving unit for driving the powder ice apparatus may be further provided, and the driving unit may be provided below the bottom surface of the first supply unit.

The apparatus may further include a guide unit configured to guide the powder ice discharged from the powder ice apparatus and the ice discharged from the second discharge unit to the dispenser unit.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to the description, in describing a specific embodiment of the present invention, a side-by-side refrigerator is described as an example, but the application of the present invention is not limited thereto.

1 is a front view showing an open state of a door of a refrigerator according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a freezer compartment side cross-sectional view showing the ice storage unit of the present invention equipped with the refrigerator of Figure 1, Figure 3 is the ice of Figure 2 An exploded perspective view showing the structure of the storage unit.

Referring to the drawings, in the refrigerator of the present invention, the refrigerating chamber 10 and the freezing chamber 20 are divided left and right by an intermediate partition. The front openings of each of the refrigerating compartments 10 and the freezing compartment 20 are provided with a refrigerating compartment door 11 and a freezing compartment door 21 for opening and closing the opening, and inside the doors 11 and 21 to accommodate parallel flow and the like. The door guide 23 which can be arranged is arranged up and down. Here, in the refrigerator compartment 10 formed in the right side of the refrigerator main body 1, the some shelf 13 which partitions the inside of the refrigerator compartment 10 is arrange | positioned up and down, and the several drawer is provided in the lower part.

In the freezing chamber 20, an ice making chamber 40 in which an ice making device for ice making is installed is partitioned at an upper portion thereof, and a plurality of shelves 13 and a storage drawer are disposed in the lower portion of the freezing chamber 20, like the refrigerator compartment. . In addition, a dispenser unit 50 may be provided at a front surface of the freezing chamber door 21 to receive ice iced in the ice making chamber 40 and drinking water stored in a water tank (not shown). The dispenser unit 50 includes a water dispenser 51 for supplying drinking water and an ice dispenser 53 for supplying ice, and an operation panel having a plurality of button keys on the dispenser unit 50. 55) is attached so that the user can select crushed ice, uncrushed ice cube or ice ice powder.

An ice making tray 41 is provided in the ice making chamber 40 to receive water from an external water supply device, and an ice storage unit for storing ice iced by the ice making tray 41 in the lower part of the ice making tray 41 ( 100) is provided. Here, an ice motor 45 is provided at one side of the ice tray 41 in the longitudinal direction to separate the iced ice from the ice tray 41, and the ice storage unit 30 is disposed at the lower portion of the ice tray 41. The ice detection lever 43 for measuring the amount of stored ice is attached.

As shown in FIG. 3, the ice storage unit 100 includes an ice storage container 110 for storing ice cubes, a discharge unit 120 formed in the ice storage container 110 to discharge the stored ice cubes to the outside; In addition, the conveying members 111 and 112 which transfer the ice toward the discharge part 120 and the powder ice device 130 coupled to the discharge part 120 to receive the ice discharged from the discharge part 120 to make the powder ice It includes.

The ice storage container 110 stores the ice frozen in the ice tray 41. The ice storage container 110 is provided with a discharge unit 120 for discharging the stored ice cubes to the outside. On the other hand, the ice storage container 110 may further include a transfer member (111, 112) for transferring the ice cube in the container to the discharge unit (120).

The discharge unit 120 may be provided in plurality so as to discharge to different positions according to the use of the stored ice. For example, the first discharge part 121 for discharging to the powder ice apparatus 130 and the second discharge part 122 for discharging the stored ice cubes as they are, without being crushed or crushed and crushed into pieces of ice. It can be provided in two. Of course, three or more may be provided for another use.

When the discharge unit 120 is provided in plural, the ice storage container 110 may be provided with a partition plate 113 for partitioning the inside of the container corresponding to each of the discharge units 121 and 122. For example, the ice storage container 110 includes a first supply part 115 including a first discharge part 121 and partitioned by a partition plate 113, a second discharge part 123, and a partition plate. It may have a second supply 117 partitioned by 113. In this case, the first supply unit 115 and the second supply unit 117 may be provided with a transfer member (111, 112) for transferring toward the discharge parts 121, 122 included in each supply unit, respectively. Here, the partition plate 113 may have various heights as needed. On the other hand, the partition plate 113 may not be provided.

The discharge part 120 may be made in various shapes as needed. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the first discharge part 121 may be provided in a substantially circular shape, and the second discharge part 123 may be provided in a substantially semicircular shape. In addition, the discharge unit 120 may be provided at various locations. For example, since the powder ice device 130 is provided at the lower portion of the first discharge part 121, the first discharge part 121 may be provided at an upper side by the height of the powder ice device 130 from the bottom of the container (see FIG. 3). Here, when the powder ice device 130 is provided below the bottom of the container of the ice storage container 110, the powder ice device 130 protrudes to the lower side of the ice storage unit 100 to the inner image of the freezer compartment door 21. Since it may cause interference with the powder ice device 130, it is preferable to install the powder ice device 130 to be equal to or slightly higher than the bottom of the container as shown in FIG. 2 so that the powder ice device 130 does not protrude below the ice storage unit 100. Do.

Here, when the first discharge part 121 is provided above the powder ice apparatus 130, the bottom surface of the first supply part 115 may be provided to have an upward inclination toward the first discharge part 121. (See Figure 2). When the bottom surface of the first supply unit 115 is inclined upward toward the first discharge unit 121, the powder ice in the ice storage container 110 is stopped when the transfer member 111 is stopped or by vibration such as an external shock. Since the ice cubes can be prevented from flowing down unnecessarily with the device 130, it is possible to prevent a breakdown caused by accumulation of ice cubes in the powder ice device 130.

Powdered ice device 130 is provided in the ice storage container 110 receives the ice cube in the container to make and supply powdered ice. The powder ice apparatus 130 includes, but is not limited to, a case provided with a powder ice discharge part and a pulverization part, a rotating body rotatably provided in the case to transfer ice toward the pulverization part, and a driving part 137 for rotating the rotating body. You can do that.

When the powder ice apparatus 130 is provided below the 1st discharge part 121, and the bottom surface of the 1st supply part 115 is inclined upward toward the 1st discharge part 121, the 1st supply part 115 may be carried out. Since a space is generated at the bottom of the bottom surface due to the upward inclination of the bottom surface, as shown in FIG. 2, the driving unit 137 of the powder ice apparatus 130 may be provided in the space. In this case, the driving unit 137 is provided close to the powder ice device 130, the driving efficiency is improved, there is no need to provide a space for the driving unit 137 separately behind the ice storage container 110, the ice The space behind the storage container 110 may be utilized as a space for mounting another lamp, for example, a freezer compartment 20 lamp.

The transfer members 111 and 112 are coupled to the driving motors 111c and 112c provided in the ice storage container 110, one side of which is coupled to the driving motors 111c and 112c, and the other side thereof extends toward the discharge parts 121 and 122. The spiral blades 111b and 112b, which are coupled to the formed feed shafts 111a and 112a and the feed shafts 111a and 112a and rotate, move the ice in the ice storage container 110 toward the discharge parts 121 and 122. It may include. Here, as shown in FIG. 4, the feed shaft 111a provided in the first supply unit 115 may have a larger diameter from the driving motor 111c side toward the discharge unit 121 side. When the diameter of the feed shaft 111a is gradually increased, the area occupied by the spiral blades 111b is gradually reduced, so that the amount of ice to be transported decreases as it approaches the discharge part 121. Therefore, a predetermined amount of ice may be discharged to the powder ice apparatus 130.

On the other hand, the second discharge unit 122 side may be provided with a crushing unit 119 for crushing the ice cubes in the ice storage container 110 into pieces of ice.

A process of making powdered ice in the refrigerator having the above-described structure will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

First, ice iced from the ice tray 41 is stored in the ice storage container 110 provided in the freezing chamber 20. When the user selects the powder ice using the operation panel 55 provided in the dispenser unit 50 and presses the ice dispenser 53 using a container such as a cup, the first supply unit 115 of the ice storage container 110 is pressed. The conveying member 111 is driven to discharge the ice in the first supply part 115 toward the first discharge part 121. The driving unit 137 of the powder ice apparatus 130 is driven simultaneously with the rotation of the transfer member 111a or at predetermined time intervals, and receives the ice cubes discharged from the first discharge unit 121 to make powdered ice. It is discharged to the part 50.

In the case of discharging ice cubes and ice cubes, when the user selects ice cubes or ice cubes through the operation panel 55, the conveying member 112 of the second supply unit 117 is driven to the second supply unit 117. ) Ice is discharged to the second discharge unit 123. In this case, when ice cubes are selected, the ice cubes are discharged as they are, and when pieces ice is selected, the pieces are crushed and discharged into pieces of ice using a blade (not shown) provided in the second discharge unit 123.

Therefore, in the refrigerator having the above-described structure, the powder ice device is not provided at the freezer door side, but is provided in the ice storage unit, so that the design of the freezer compartment door is easy, and there is no need to install the powder ice device before foaming. Simplified, it is possible to prevent the freezing chamber door-side inner image from protruding to the freezing chamber side due to the volume of the powder ice device, thereby improving the space efficiency of the freezing chamber.

In addition, when the diameter of the conveying shaft 111b is provided to increase toward the first discharge part 121 side, a predetermined amount of ice may be discharged by adjusting the amount of ice discharged.

As described above, in the refrigerator according to the present invention, since the powder ice device is provided together with the ice ice storage container, the freezer compartment is easy to design and manufacture, and the space utilization is improved. In addition, a certain amount of ice can be supplied to the powder ice apparatus, thereby preventing overload and failure of the powder ice apparatus.

Claims (14)

A refrigerator having an ice making tray, an ice storage unit for receiving and storing ice iced in the ice making tray, and a dispenser unit for receiving and using the ice in the ice storage unit from the outside, The ice storage unit, An ice storage container for storing the ice iced from the ice tray; A discharge part formed in the ice storage container to discharge the stored ice to the outside; A conveying member for conveying ice toward the discharge portion; And a powder ice device coupled to the discharge part to receive the ice cubes discharged into the discharge part to form powder ice and discharge the powder ice. The method of claim 1, The powder ice device is a refrigerator, characterized in that coupled to the lower side of the discharge portion. The method of claim 2, A bottom surface of the ice container and the conveying member is provided with an inclined upward from the opposite side of the discharge portion toward the discharge portion. The method of claim 1, The transfer member includes a drive motor provided in the ice storage container, a transfer shaft having one side coupled to the drive motor and the other side extending toward the discharge portion, and coupled to the transfer shaft to rotate ice in the ice storage container. Refrigerator comprising a spiral blade for conveying toward the discharge portion. The method of claim 4, wherein The conveying shaft is a refrigerator, characterized in that the diameter increases from the one side toward the other side. The method of claim 1, And a guide unit for guiding the powder ice discharged from the powder ice apparatus to the dispenser unit. A refrigerator having an ice making tray, an ice storage unit for receiving and storing ice iced in the ice making tray, and a dispenser unit for receiving and using the ice in the ice storage unit from the outside, The ice storage unit, An ice storage container for storing the ice iced from the ice tray; A plurality of discharge parts formed in the ice storage container to discharge the stored ice to the outside; A plurality of conveying members for conveying ice toward the discharge portion; And a powder ice device coupled to any one of the plurality of discharge parts to receive and discharge the ice discharged to the discharge parts to form and discharge powder ice. The method of claim 7, wherein The discharge portion has a first discharge portion for discharging ice cubes with the powder ice device, and a second discharge portion for discharging ice cubes with the dispenser portion as it is or by crushing ice cubes into pieces of ice. The refrigerator characterized in that coupled to the lower side of the first discharge portion. The method of claim 8, The ice storage container is divided into a first supply part for supplying ice cubes to the powder ice device and a second supply part for supplying ice to the dispenser part, and the bottom surface of the first supply part is opposite to the first discharge part of the fryer. The refrigerator characterized in that the inclined upward toward the first discharge portion from the. The method of claim 9, And a partition plate having a predetermined height is provided between the first supply part and the second supply part. The method of claim 7, wherein The transfer member includes a drive motor provided in the ice storage container, a transfer shaft having one side coupled to the drive motor and the other side extending toward the discharge portion, and coupled to the transfer shaft to rotate ice in the ice storage container. Refrigerator comprising a spiral blade for conveying toward the discharge portion. The method of claim 11, The conveying shaft is a refrigerator, characterized in that the diameter increases from the one side toward the other side. The method of claim 10, And a driving unit for driving the powder ice apparatus, wherein the driving unit is provided under the bottom surface of the first supply unit. The method of claim 8, And a guide unit for guiding the powder ice discharged from the powder ice apparatus and the ice discharged from the second discharge unit to the dispenser unit.

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