Icemaker and refrigerator
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ice makers struggle to control supercooling, leading to opaque ice, as they focus on speed rather than ice quality, and the use of nucleation agents is restrictive and not suitable for food and beverage ice, posing consumer rejection risks.
Innovation Solution
An ice maker design featuring a first and second tray with communication holes, allowing water to be supplied and then rotated to the ice making position, facilitating the release of supercooling without the need for additional devices, ensuring transparent ice production without additives.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If nucleation agents are added to reduce supercooling, then the transparency of ice is improved, but the safety and cleanliness of ice for food and beverage is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and removes the harmful nucleation agents from the ice making process. Instead of adding chemical additives, the patent uses a physical method where a protrusion on the tray surface initiates nucleation naturally, allowing water to freeze into transparent ice without any harmful substances.
Solution Approach 2:
The protrusion structure on the tray surface acts as an intermediary element that facilitates nucleation. This physical mediator replaces the need for chemical nucleation agents, providing a safe and effective way to control the freezing process and achieve transparent ice.
2Manufacturing precision
If nucleation agents are used to prevent supercooling, then the ice making quality is improved, but the device complexity increases due to storage and injection systems
Solution Approach 1:
The invention completely removes the complex storage and injection systems for nucleation agents. By using a simple protrusion structure on the tray, the patent eliminates all associated machinery while maintaining effective control over the freezing process.
Solution Approach 2:
The protrusion structure on the tray provides self-service nucleation functionality. The geometry of the protrusion itself generates the necessary nucleation effect without requiring external injection systems, storage tanks, or control mechanisms for adding agents.
3Manufacturing precision
If the second tray is rotated to the ice making position, then supercooling is released and transparent ice is produced, but the operation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses dynamic rotation of the second tray to control the ice making process. By rotating the tray between water supply position and ice making position, the system dynamically adjusts the freezing conditions to release supercooling and produce transparent ice.
Solution Approach 2:
The rotation of the second tray creates periodic action in the ice making process. The tray alternates between water supply position and ice making position, creating cyclical freezing conditions that facilitate the release of supercooling and formation of transparent ice.
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
Effectively releases supercooling, producing transparent ice by rotating the trays, eliminating the need for nucleation agents and ensuring safety and cleanliness for food and beverage use, while maintaining operational efficiency without noise or vibration.
Implementation Method 1
a space in which water is phase-changed into ice by the cold air
Implementation Method 2
communicating the plurality of ice making cells
Implementation Method 3
a cooler configured to supply cold air to the storage chamber
Implementation Method 4
supply cold air to the storage chamber
Data Source
AI summary
A refrigerator according to the present disclosure includes a first tray configured to form a portion of each of a plurality of ice making cells, and a second tray configured to be rotatable with respect to the first tray and to form the other portion of each of the plurality of ice making cells, in which water supply is performed at the water supply position of the second tray, when water supply is completed, the second tray is moved to the ice making position, and one or more of the first tray and the second tray is provided with a communication hole for communicating the plurality of ice making cells at the ice making position of the second tray.