refrigerator
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing ice-making evaporators in refrigerators are limited in size due to space constraints, leading to inefficient heat load matching, reduced ice-making speed, poor frost-reducing capacity, frequent defrosting, and increased energy consumption, which affects the quality of ice cubes.
Innovation Solution
The ice-making evaporator is positioned outside the ice-making chamber within the refrigerating compartment, connected via an ice-making air duct and fan, allowing for a larger effective area and improved heat load matching, reducing defrosting frequency, and enhancing ice quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If the ice-making evaporator is located inside the ice-making chamber, then the structure is compact, but the effective area is limited and heat load matching is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The ice-making evaporator is extracted from the ice-making chamber and relocated to the refrigerating compartment. This allows the evaporator to be positioned in a space with greater available volume, enabling an increased effective area while maintaining overall structural compactness through separate functional zones connected by air ducts.
Solution Approach 2:
The evaporator is moved from the constrained three-dimensional space of the ice-making chamber to the larger volumetric space of the refrigerating compartment. This dimensional relocation provides greater freedom for evaporator configuration and surface area expansion without compromising the compact ice-making chamber design.
2Device complexity
If the ice-making evaporator has a small effective area, then the structure is compact, but the frost-reducing capacity is poor
Solution Approach 1:
By extracting the evaporator from the ice-making chamber and installing it in the refrigerating compartment, the design decouples the evaporator size constraint from the chamber volume constraint. This enables a larger effective area that improves frost-reducing capacity while the overall system remains compact through efficient spatial arrangement.
Solution Approach 2:
The air duct system acts as an intermediary, transferring cold air from the larger evaporator in the refrigerating compartment to the ice-making chamber. This mediator enables the evaporator to be sized for optimal frost-reducing performance while delivering the required cooling capacity to the ice-making chamber.
3Device complexity
If the evaporator effective area is small, then the structure is compact, but defrosting frequency increases and energy consumption rises
Solution Approach 1:
Relocating the evaporator to the refrigerating compartment removes the spatial constraint that limited its effective area. The larger evaporator surface area improves heat exchange efficiency, reducing the frequency of defrosting cycles and lowering the energy consumption associated with frequent heating and defrosting operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The effective area parameter of the evaporator is increased by changing its location from the ice-making chamber to the refrigerating compartment. This parameter change improves the heat transfer coefficient and reduces the frequency of defrosting cycles, thereby decreasing overall energy consumption.
4Ease of operation
If the evaporator is located inside the ice-making chamber, then the cooling is direct, but the ice-making speed is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The air duct system serves as an efficient intermediary, transporting large volumes of cold air generated by the larger evaporator in the refrigerating compartment directly to the ice-making chamber. This intermediary system maintains direct cooling effectiveness while enabling higher ice-making speed through increased cold air supply capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The design utilizes pneumatic principles through the air duct system to efficiently transport cold air from the evaporator to the ice-making chamber. This pneumatic delivery system enables high-volume air flow that increases ice-making speed while maintaining the benefits of direct cooling.
5Reliability
If frequent defrosting is performed, then the evaporator capacity is restored, but ice cube quality deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
By increasing the evaporator effective area through relocation, the heat transfer efficiency is improved, allowing defrosting cycles to be performed less frequently. This reduction in defrosting frequency prevents excessive heat transfer to the ice storage bucket, thereby maintaining ice cube quality and surface smoothness.
Solution Approach 2:
The defrosting operation is transformed from a frequent periodic action to a less frequent periodic action due to the improved evaporator performance. This reduced frequency of periodic defrosting cycles minimizes thermal disturbances to the ice storage bucket, preserving ice cube quality.
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
This configuration increases ice-making speed, improves frost-reducing capacity, decreases energy consumption, and maintains better ice cube quality by reducing heat transfer to the storage bucket during defrosting.
Implementation Method 1
an ice-making evaporator disposed outside the ice-making chamber and located in the refrigerating compartment; an ice-making air duct; and an ice-making fan disposed in the ice-making air duct; the ice-making evaporator is communicated with the ice maker through the ice-making air duct to form a refrigerating cycle
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to the field of household appliances technologies, and discloses a refrigerator with an ice maker, at least comprising: a refrigerating compartment and an ice-making chamber disposed inside the refrigerating compartment, wherein an ice maker is provided inside of the ice-making chamber, the ice-making chamber is refrigerated by an ice-making refrigeration system including an ice-making evaporator, an ice-making air duct, and an ice-making fan, the ice-making evaporator is communicated with the ice maker through the ice-making air duct to form a refrigerating circulation loop, the ice-making fan is arranged in the ice-making air duct, and the ice-making evaporator is disposed outside the ice-making chamber and located inside the refrigerating compartment. According to the present disclosure, it is possible to increase the effective area of the ice-making evaporator, raise the ice-making speed of the ice maker, improve the frost-reducing capacity of the ice-making evaporator, lower the heating defrosting frequency of the ice-making evaporator, reduce the energy consumption, and improve the surface quality of the ice cubes.