Glass Refrigerator Door Light Guide for Low-LED Status Indication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional refrigerators require a large number of light emitting diodes installed on the front surface to emit light, leading to high power consumption and a cluttered appearance, while also failing to provide an intuitive indication of door states to the user.
Innovation Solution
A refrigerator design featuring a light guide member on the rear surface of the tempered glass door, with a small number of light emitting diodes and scattering members made of cubic zirconia, which emit light through transmitting parts on the glass to indicate door and home bar door states, reducing part count and power usage while enhancing aesthetic appeal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If a large number of light emitting diodes are installed on the front surface to emit light, then the illumination intensity is improved, but the device complexity and power consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
A light guide member is introduced as an intermediary component between the light emitting diode and the front glass surface. The light guide member receives light from a single LED and distributes it across multiple transmitting parts on the front glass, achieving widespread illumination with minimal LED count. This mediator structure resolves the contradiction by decoupling the number of light sources from the number of illumination points.
Solution Approach 2:
The front glass surface is segmented into multiple transmitting parts that can independently display light. Each transmitting part corresponds to a specific scattering member position, allowing the light guide member to distribute light to multiple discrete locations. This segmentation enables a single LED to illuminate multiple separated points on the door surface without requiring multiple LEDs.
2Illumination intensity
If a large number of light emitting diodes are installed on the front surface, then the illumination intensity is improved, but the power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The light guide member acts as an energy distribution intermediary, taking the optical energy from a single low-power LED and distributing it to multiple transmitting parts. This eliminates the need for multiple high-power LEDs, significantly reducing total power consumption while maintaining adequate illumination intensity across all transmitting parts through efficient light guidance and scattering.
3Loss of information
If light emitting diodes are installed directly on the front surface, then the indication function is improved, but the aesthetic appearance deteriorates due to cluttered appearance
Solution Approach 1:
The light guide member and scattering members serve as aesthetic intermediaries that hide the actual LED components from view. Instead of exposing multiple LEDs on the front surface, the system uses a clean tempered glass surface with embedded transmitting parts that only illuminate when needed. The scattering members made of cubic zirconia add aesthetic value while enabling light distribution, thus maintaining appearance quality while achieving clear door state indication.
4Loss of information
If multiple light emitting diodes are used to provide color-coded door state indication, then the information transmission is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a single multi-wavelength LED that can emit different colors (red, green, yellow) by changing its operational parameters rather than using multiple single-color LEDs. This parameter-based color switching capability allows the system to convey different door state information (open, closed, timeout) through color changes, significantly reducing device complexity while maintaining full information transmission capability.
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 provides a visually appealing and energy-efficient method to inform users of door and home bar door states, reducing power consumption and part count while enhancing the refrigerator's aesthetic appeal and user experience.
Implementation Method 1
a light guide member disposed on a rear surface of the front glass, a light emitting device disposed at the outside of the light guide member to generate light toward the light guide member
Implementation Method 2
scattering members provided within the light guide member to scatter the light of the light emitting device transmitted through the light guide member
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a refrigerator which performs a light emitting operation in connection with opening and closing of doors and a home bar door. The refrigerator includes a front glass, a light guide member disposed on a rear surface of the front glass, a light emitting device disposed at the outside of the light guide member to generate light toward the light guide member, scattering members provided within the light guide member to scatter the light of the light emitting device transmitted through the light guide member, and transmitting parts provided on the front glass corresponding to the scattering members to transmit the light of the scattering members toward the front surface of each door, and the light emitting device emits light in connection with opened and closed states of the doors.