Ice Tray Groove Geometry for Uniform Water Distribution
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ice trays in bottom-freeze refrigerators suffer from uneven water distribution due to their inclined installation, leading to non-uniform ice production and inaccurate temperature sensing.
Innovation Solution
The ice tray design features a tray body with partition walls and water supply grooves that gradually increase in depth and decrease in width along the longitudinal direction, ensuring uniform water distribution and accurate temperature sensing by maintaining a consistent cross-sectional area, even when the refrigerator is installed at an angle.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the ice tray is installed at an angle in a bottom-freeze refrigerator, then the refrigerator can provide convenient access to the refrigerating compartment, but the water distribution to ice-making spaces becomes uneven
Solution Approach 1:
The water supply grooves are designed with varying cross-sectional areas at different locations to compensate for the inclined installation angle. The groove cross-sectional area increases from the upper end toward the lower end of the ice tray, ensuring that water flows at a substantially constant rate to each ice-making space despite the gravitational effect of the incline.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies the geometric parameters of the water supply grooves by changing their cross-sectional area along the longitudinal direction. This parameter adjustment compensates for the inclined installation conditions, maintaining uniform water distribution to all ice-making spaces regardless of the refrigerator's installation angle.
2Device complexity
If conventional water supply grooves with uniform cross-section are used, then the structure is simple, but water cannot be uniformly supplied to ice-making spaces when installed at an angle
Solution Approach 1:
The water supply grooves are designed with varying cross-sectional areas at different locations to compensate for the inclined installation angle. The groove cross-sectional area increases from the upper end toward the lower end of the ice tray, ensuring that water flows at a substantially constant rate to each ice-making space despite the gravitational effect of the incline.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the refrigerator is installed at an angle, then it can adapt to different installation environments, but temperature sensing accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent positions the temperature sensor at the lower end of the ice tray where water accumulates due to the inclined installation. This positioning ensures that the sensor is always in contact with water or ice, maintaining accurate temperature detection regardless of the refrigerator's installation angle, effectively creating an equipotential sensing position.
4Ease of manufacture
If water supply grooves have constant depth and width, then manufacturing is simple, but ice piece size becomes non-uniform
Solution Approach 1:
The water supply grooves are designed with varying cross-sectional areas at different locations to compensate for the inclined installation angle. The groove cross-sectional area increases from the upper end toward the lower end of the ice tray, ensuring that water flows at a substantially constant rate to each ice-making space despite the gravitational effect of the incline.
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 design ensures uniform water distribution to all ice-making spaces, resulting in consistent ice piece size and improved temperature sensing accuracy, enhancing the efficiency of ice production and user convenience.
Implementation Method 1
Since the main body of the conventional refrigerator is often inclined at an angle with respect to the floor surface, traditional ice trays in the refrigerator are also typically inclined at a similar angle. Thus, water in the ice-making spaces of the ice tray cannot smoothly move through the water supply grooves of the ice tray.
Implementation Method 2
The depth of the water supply grooves becomes gradually larger from one end portion of the tray body toward the other end portion of the tray body. The width of the water supply grooves becomes gradually smaller from one end portion of the tray body toward the other end portion of the tray body. The water supply grooves are disposed along a longitudinal direction of the tray body so as to have a substantially equal cross-sectional area.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure describes ice tray devices and methods. In one embodiment, ice tray is included in an ice-making device of a refrigerator. The ice tray can be configured to uniformly distribute water to a plurality of ice-making spaces included in the ice tray. The ice tray can include water supply grooves that provide paths through which water is allowed to flow in the tray body. The dimensions of the water supply grooves can vary enabling control of water and ice formation depth of the water supply grooves can become gradually larger from one end portion of the tray body toward the other end portion of the tray body.