Rotatable Clear Ice Mold for Top-Down Freezing and Easy Release
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Solution Overview
Problem
Standard ice cubes are opaque and melt quickly, leading to a warm drink with a watered-down taste, as they fail to maintain clarity and stability in beverages.
Innovation Solution
A device and method for producing clear ice shapes using an insulated vessel and a rotatable ice mold with two parts that engage to form a mold cavity, allowing clear liquid to freeze from the top down, thereby excluding gases and impurities, and facilitating easy extraction of clear ice spheres while leaving cloudy ice in a lower void.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If standard ice cubes are used, then they are easy to make, but they are opaque and melt quickly resulting in warm drinks with watered down taste
Solution Approach 1:
The ice mold is divided into two separate parts (first mold part and second mold part) that can be detached from each other. This segmentation allows the clear liquid to be filled from the top, freeze from top to bottom, and enables easy removal of the clear ice while leaving the cloudy ice in the void space.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces a vertical dimension to the freezing process by filling from the top and freezing from top to bottom, rather than the conventional horizontal or bottom-up approach. This vertical freezing direction allows clear ice to form at the top while cloudy ice forms below, enabling separation by depth.
2Reliability
If clear liquid is frozen from top to bottom, then clear ice spheres are produced that maintain clarity, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The first mold part and second mold part are nested together to form the complete ice mold, which is then placed within the insulated vessel. The mold parts can be easily nested and detached, providing a simple yet effective way to achieve top-down freezing and clear ice formation without complex machinery.
Solution Approach 2:
The device uses the natural freezing process of water from top to bottom in the insulated vessel, leveraging the environment's own cooling capability. The mold design itself facilitates the process by allowing top filling and automatic separation of clear and cloudy ice portions, requiring minimal external intervention.
3Ease of operation
If a rotatable mold is used, then easy extraction of clear ice is achieved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ice mold is designed to be rotatable within the insulated vessel, converting a static mold into a dynamic one. This rotation capability allows the user to easily extract the clear ice portion by spinning the mold, causing the clear ice to separate from the cloudy ice in the void, providing simple operation without complex extraction mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The mold is designed with a specific geometry where the clear liquid is filled to a predetermined level before freezing. This preliminary positioning ensures that when the mold rotates after freezing, the clear ice naturally separates from the cloudy ice portion, preparing the system for easy extraction without requiring additional forces or mechanisms.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution results in clear ice spheres that maintain clarity and melt more slowly, enhancing the taste and aesthetic of beverages by preventing the introduction of impurities and maintaining clarity throughout the melting process.
Implementation Method 1
an entirety of the clear liquid in the mold cavity freezes
Implementation Method 2
clear liquid to freeze from the top down, thereby excluding gases and impurities
Implementation Method 3
an insulated vessel that includes insulated sides, an insulated bottom
Implementation Method 4
causing rotational movement between the ice mold and the insulated vessel to break a connection between ice in the mold cavity and ice in the void
Data Source
AI summary
A clear-ice-making device that includes an insulated vessel and an ice mold that is engageable with a cavity of the insulated vessel in a manner that allows a user to rotate the ice mold about a central rotational axis to aid in removing the ice mold from the insulated vessel. In one embodiment, the ice mold includes one or more mold cavities that, when the ice mold is engaged with the insulated vessel, each fluidly communicate with a void beneath the ice mold and with an overfill region above that mold cavity. A method of making clear-ice shapes using a device having an ice mold rotatable within an insulated vessel is also disclosed, as is a method of instructing a user on how to perform the method of making clear-ice shapes.