Ice Making Machine with Compact Cold Air Duct for Reduced Footprint
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ice making machines with large upper cold air ducts are difficult to fit in refrigerators due to their size, and the current designs often require a larger duct to cover the entire ice tray, leading to inefficiencies in ice making time.
Innovation Solution
A compact ice making machine design with a smaller cold air outlet port that faces the center of the ice tray, utilizing guide faces to increase airflow efficiency and reduce the size of the cold air duct, while maintaining effective ice making performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the duct portion of the cold air duct is enlarged to cover the entire ice tray from the upper side, then each ice making recessed part can be faced by a cold air outlet port, but the ice making machine becomes difficult to be disposed in a refrigerator due to its large size
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the essential function of cold air delivery from a large distributed duct system and concentrates it into a single compact duct portion with one cold air outlet port. By taking out only the necessary cold air supply function and eliminating the need to cover the entire ice tray with multiple outlet ports, the duct size is significantly reduced while maintaining effective ice making operation
Solution Approach 2:
The invention merges multiple cold air outlet ports into a single cold air outlet port. Instead of having separate outlet ports for each ice making recessed part, the design combines all cold air delivery functions into one centralized outlet, which simplifies the duct structure and reduces its overall size
2Reliability
If a large duct portion is used to cover the entire ice tray, then cold air can be supplied to all ice making recessed parts, but the ice making machine occupies excessive space in the refrigerator
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the parameters of the cold air duct system by reducing the number of outlet ports from multiple to one, and by optimizing the position and size of the single outlet port. This parameter change allows the duct portion to be significantly smaller in area while still providing adequate cold air supply coverage to all ice making recessed parts through efficient airflow distribution
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 compact design shortens ice making time by ensuring efficient airflow along the ice tray, allowing for earlier freezing of water into ice pieces, and reduces the overall size of the ice making machine, making it more suitable for refrigerator installation.
Implementation Method 1
a cold air duct having a cold air inflow port connected with the cold air supply port and one cold air outlet port which faces the ice tray on an upper side with respect to the ice tray
Implementation Method 2
The water stored in the ice making recessed parts is frozen by cold air supplied through the cold air supply port to become ice pieces
Data Source
AI summary
An ice making machine may include an ice tray having a plurality of recessed parts and a cold air duct having a cold air inflow port connected with a cold air supply port and one cold air outlet port facing the ice tray on an upper side. A size of the cold air outlet port is smaller than a size of an ice making face of the ice tray having a contour which includes the plurality of the ice making recessed parts along edges of openings of the plurality of the ice making recessed parts, and the cold air outlet port faces a center portion of the ice making face. It is preferable that an opening area of the cold air outlet port is 50% or less of an area of the ice making face and/or is smaller than an opening area of the cold air inflow port.