Refrigerator Ice-Making Tray Airflow for Faster Ice Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ice makers in refrigerators are inefficient in producing a large quantity of ice quickly due to reliance on chilled air from the freezer compartment, leading to slowed ice-making speed and inadequate capacity, and require a large space for ice-fullness sensors, limiting the size of the ice-making tray and overall ice production.
Innovation Solution
An improved ice-making system with a fan and cooling fins on the ice-making tray to enhance air flow and heat exchange, allowing for continuous chilled air supply and increased heat exchange capacity, along with a rotating ice-making tray that reduces energy consumption and prevents excessive melting, and a method to detect ice bank fullness without a large sensor radius.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If chilled air from the freezer compartment is used to make ice, then the ice-making process is simple, but the ice-making speed slows down when freezer temperature descends and chilled air supply stops
Solution Approach 1:
A fan is introduced as an intermediary device to actively circulate chilled air from the freezer compartment to the ice-making tray. This mediator ensures continuous air supply even when the freezer temperature fluctuates or chilled air supply naturally stops, thereby maintaining high ice-making speed without complicating the overall system design.
Solution Approach 2:
The fan pre-cools the air in the freezer compartment before it reaches the ice-making tray by continuously circulating it. This preliminary action ensures that the air is already chilled and ready to efficiently freeze water in the tray, preventing delays in the ice-making process when temperature conditions change.
2Measurement precision
If a large space is allocated for the ice-fullness sensor rotation, then the sensor can detect ice bank fullness accurately, but the ice-making tray size must be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The ice-fullness sensor is repositioned from a lateral rotation arrangement to a vertical arrangement above the ice bank. By utilizing the vertical dimension, the sensor can detect ice bank fullness without requiring horizontal space for rotation, thereby allowing the ice-making tray to maintain its full size and capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor arrangement is designed to serve multiple functions: detecting ice bank fullness, monitoring ice-making progress, and potentially detecting tray position. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for additional sensors or larger sensor rotation spaces, preserving ice-making tray volume.
3Quantity of substance
If the ice-making tray is made large to produce more ice, then the ice production capacity increases, but the space required for sensor rotation increases
Solution Approach 1:
By moving the sensor detection mechanism to the vertical dimension above the ice bank, the system allows the ice-making tray to expand horizontally to maximize ice production capacity without encroaching on sensor rotation space. The vertical sensor arrangement and horizontal tray expansion operate in separate spatial dimensions, resolving the conflict between these two requirements.
4Productivity
If the fan continuously blows chilled air to the ice-making tray, then the ice-making speed increases, but the energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The fan operates continuously to maintain a steady flow of chilled air to the ice-making tray, ensuring uninterrupted ice-making process. This continuous action prevents temperature fluctuations in the tray and maintains optimal freezing conditions, achieving high ice-making speed while the system learns to manage energy consumption through efficient airflow patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adjusts fan rotation speed as a controllable parameter to optimize the balance between ice-making speed and energy consumption. By varying the fan speed according to ice-making demand and environmental conditions, the system achieves high productivity when needed while reducing energy consumption during normal operation.
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 significantly increases ice-making speed and capacity, allowing for rapid production of a large quantity of ice in response to demand while reducing energy consumption and preventing water loss during ice separation.
Implementation Method 1
a fan installed on the ice-making tray to make ambient air flow along the surface of the ice-making tray
Implementation Method 2
The ice maker makes ice in an ice-making tray by repeating the above-mentioned processes
Data Source
AI summary
An ice maker and method for making ice are disclosed. The ice maker includes a compartment, an ice-making tray disposed in the compartment to receive and make ice, and a fan installed on the ice-making tray to make ambient air pass along the surface of the ice-making tray. The method includes selectively supplying chilled air to a compartment according to conditions of the compartment, continuously blowing chilled air in the compartment to an ice-making tray disposed in the compartment regardless of the conditions of the compartment, and distributing blown air on a surface of the ice-making tray uniformly.