Refrigerator
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ice makers struggle to produce transparent ice due to incomplete bubble removal and uneven solidification rates, leading to opaque ice and inefficient ice making processes.
Innovation Solution
A refrigerator system with a controller that adjusts cold, water, mechanical energy, and electrical energy supply to the ice making cell to maintain a consistent ice making speed and reduce supercooling, utilizing a heater to move bubbles from the ice-generating portion to liquid water and varying heating and cooling power based on heat transfer amounts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If water is cooled simultaneously in upper and lower cells to make ice, then ice making speed is improved, but bubbles are not completely discharged resulting in opaque ice
Solution Approach 1:
The ice making process is divided into two distinct phases: first cooling only the upper cell to allow complete bubble discharge and form transparent ice, then cooling both upper and lower cells simultaneously to increase ice making speed. This segmentation of the cooling process resolves the contradiction between speed and transparency.
Solution Approach 2:
The upper cell is cooled first before the lower cell to preliminarily establish a transparent ice structure. This preliminary action ensures bubble-free transparent ice formation before the speed-optimizing simultaneous cooling phase begins.
2Manufacturing precision
If heating amount is increased to suppress solidification rate increase, then transparent ice can be made, but ice making rate decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The heater operates periodically rather than continuously - it is activated during specific phases when supercooling occurs and deactivated when the desired temperature is reached. This periodic heating maintains transparency while minimizing the impact on ice making rate.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses temperature sensors to monitor the ice making process and provides feedback to the controller, which adjusts heater operation accordingly. This feedback mechanism ensures heating is applied only when necessary to maintain transparency without unnecessarily reducing the ice making rate.
3Productivity
If solidification rate is increased, then ice making speed is improved, but convection becomes insufficient resulting in opaque ice
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the heating parameter based on the solidification rate. When the solidification rate increases and convection becomes insufficient, the heater is activated to maintain the temperature gradient necessary for convection, thus maintaining transparency despite faster solidification.
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 system effectively produces transparent ice by controlling energy inputs to manage bubble distribution and solidification rates, ensuring uniform transparency and efficient ice making.
Implementation Method 1
a heater adjacent to at least one of the first tray and the second tray, and a controller to control the heater, wherein the controller controls the heater to be operated in at least some section while the cooler supplies cold so that bubbles in the water inside the ice making cell move toward liquid water from a portion where ice is made
Implementation Method 2
a space (ice making cell) in which water is phase-changed into ice by cold supplied from the cooler
Implementation Method 3
varying heating and cooling power based on heat transfer amounts
Data Source
AI summary
A refrigerator according to the present disclosure includes a storage chamber configured to store food, a cooler configured to supply cold to the storage chamber, a first temperature sensor configured to sense the temperature in the storage chamber, a first tray configured to form a portion of an ice making cell that is a space in which water is phase-changed into ice by the cold, a second tray configured to form another portion of the ice making cell, a water supply part configured to supply water to the ice making cell, a second temperature sensor configured to sense the temperature of water or ice in the ice making cell, a heater configured to be positioned adjacent to at least one of the first tray and the second tray, and a controller configured to control the heater, in which the controller controls the degree of supercooling of water to be reduced in at least one or more of a first section from the completion of a preparation step for water supply until the start of the water supply, a second section from the start of the water supply until the completion of the water supply, and a third sections from the start of the ice making process before the ice making process is completed.