Refrigerator Ice Bank Guide Structure for Uniform Ice Heaping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ice banks in refrigerators experience ice piece overflow due to non-uniform heaping, leading to unsanitary conditions and potential damage when ice pieces fall onto the bottom of the freezing chamber.
Innovation Solution
An ice bank design featuring a guide unit within the casing that directs falling ice pieces to be uniformly distributed, either through an inclined or curved surface, preventing concentration at a single spot and facilitating even storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If ice pieces are allowed to fall freely into the ice bank, then the ice maker can operate continuously, but the ice pieces become concentratedly heaped up at the falling spot causing overflow
Solution Approach 1:
A guide unit is introduced as an intermediary component between the ice maker and the ice bank storage space. This guide unit intercepts falling ice pieces and redirects them along a controlled path, preventing direct accumulation at the falling spot while maintaining continuous operation. The guide unit acts as a mediator that transforms the uncontrolled free-fall into a directed flow, resolving the contradiction between continuous production and uniform distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide unit extends in a direction perpendicular to the simple vertical falling path, creating a new spatial dimension for ice piece movement. By adding this lateral guidance dimension, ice pieces are distributed across a wider area of the ice bank rather than concentrating at a single point, preventing overflow while maintaining continuous ice making.
2Ease of manufacture
If the ice bank has a simple open structure, then the ice maker can easily deposit ice pieces, but the ice pieces are non-uniformly heaped up creating empty portions and over-heaped spots
Solution Approach 1:
The guide unit serves as a minimal intermediary structure that maintains the overall simplicity of the ice bank while introducing the necessary guidance function. Rather than redesigning the entire ice bank structure, a relatively simple guide component is added to achieve uniform distribution, preserving ease of manufacture while improving distribution stability.
3Ease of operation
If ice pieces are concentratedly heaped up at one spot, then they are easily deposited from the ice maker, but they may fall down onto the bottom of the freezing chamber when the door is opened/closed
Solution Approach 1:
The guide unit acts as a protective intermediary that prevents ice pieces from being deposited in vulnerable positions near the door opening path. By redirecting ice pieces through the guide unit, they are deposited in controlled locations within the ice bank, eliminating the risk of falling to the bottom when the door operates, thus improving reliability while maintaining ease of deposition.
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
Prevents ice piece overflow and ensures uniform heaping, maintaining cleanliness and preventing damage by directing fallen ice pieces to be uniformly distributed within the ice bank.
Implementation Method 1
a guide unit formed at one side of the casing so as to guide the introduced ice pieces to be stored in the casing with being uniformly distributed therein
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is an ice bank of a refrigerator comprising: a casing for storing ice pieces introduced through one side of an upper surface thereof, and a guide unit formed at one side of the casing so as to guide the introduced ice pieces to be stored in the casing with being uniformly distributed therein. According to the ice bank of the refrigerator the present invention, the ice pieces can be uniformly heaped in the ice bank. Accordingly, it is capable of preventing the ice pieces from overflowing resulting from that the ice pieces are heaped up around a spot where the ice pieces fall down in the ice bank and of facilitatingly containing the ice pieces in the ice bank.