Ice Maker with Manual Lever and Gearbox for Simplified Ice Ejection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ice cream makers require complex mechanisms and electrical drives, making them difficult for users to operate manually and efficiently produce ice pieces within household cold devices.
Innovation Solution
A manual ice cream maker with a lever-operated gearbox that transfers movement to a swiveling ice cream panel, allowing for easy manual operation without electrical drives, utilizing the cold environment of a freezer to freeze water into ice pieces, and incorporating a gearbox with gear translation members to facilitate ergonomic and efficient ice piece ejection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If complex mechanisms and electrical drives are used in ice makers, then ice pieces can be produced efficiently, but the device becomes difficult to operate manually and more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex electrical drive mechanisms with a simple manual lever-operated gearbox system. The lever connects to a drive wheel that engages with driven gears, which in turn rotate the ice cream conveyor tanks. This mechanical substitution eliminates the need for motors and electrical controls while maintaining the ability to produce ice pieces efficiently through manual operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a gearbox as an intermediary mechanism between the user's manual lever operation and the ice cream conveyor tanks. The gearbox includes a drive wheel and driven gears that transmit and amplify the user's manual input force, making it easier to rotate the heavy ice cream panels while maintaining productive ice piece production.
2Ease of operation
If manual operation is simplified, then ease of operation improves, but the ability to effectively move ice cream panels may be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a dynamic gear transmission system where the gearbox adapts to the user's input. The drive wheel and driven gears create a mechanical advantage that multiplies the user's manual lever force, allowing simple hand movements to generate sufficient power to rotate the ice cream conveyor tanks and effectively move the ice cream panels.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses circular/rotational geometry in the gearbox design, with a drive wheel and driven gears that rotate to transmit force. This circular mechanism allows the user to apply force through a lever in a comfortable arc motion while the gear teeth convert this rotational input into the torque needed to move the ice cream panels, maintaining both ease of operation and sufficient power transmission.
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
Enables easy and reliable manual operation, allowing users to produce ice pieces with minimal effort, leveraging the freezer's cold environment for ice formation and using a gearbox to simplify the movement of the ice cream panel for efficient ice piece ejection.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing the cold environment of a freezer to freeze water into ice pieces
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2a~2b
Figure 3
AI summary
The ice maker (11) has a device (25) for producing ice cubes, and an ice cube mold shell (29) with an ice cube mold recess (35), which is pivotably mounted in the ice cube producing device between a filling position and an ejection position. A water tank (39) is provided for filling the ice cube mold recess with water. A storage unit (37) is provided for storing the ice cubes ejected from the ice cube mold shell. A gear is provided for coupling a manually operable lever (41) with the pivotally mounted ice cube mold shell, which transfers the movement of lever to the ice cube mold shell.