Refrigerator Ice Maker Cool Air Guide Duct Design for Uniform Cooling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Refrigerators with door-in-door structures face challenges in maintaining optimal temperatures for a chiller room, ensuring efficient cool air supply, and preventing ice clogging, while also requiring a slim dispenser design and uniform insulation to minimize energy consumption and production time.
Innovation Solution
The design includes a cool air guide duct on the ice maker's bottom surface, an ice tray with protruding ribs, and a damper-adjusted communication hole between the ice making and chiller rooms, along with a slim dispenser and optimized insulation material injection positions to enhance air pressure and ice production efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a chiller room is added to the door-in-door structure, then the storage functionality is improved, but the door structure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The chiller room is nested within the door structure by utilizing the space between the inner door and outer door assemblies. The chiller room forms an intermediate storage compartment that is integrated into the existing door-in-door configuration, adding functionality without requiring a completely separate structural system.
Solution Approach 2:
The door structure is segmented into multiple functional zones: the chiller room compartment, the ice making room compartment, and the existing storage compartments. This segmentation allows each zone to be optimized for its specific function while maintaining overall structural integrity through shared door assemblies.
2Temperature
If cool air supply passage is added for the chiller room, then the temperature control is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cool air supply system serves multiple functions simultaneously: it cools the chiller room, provides cooling for the ice making room, and maintains the refrigerating compartment temperature. This multi-functionality is achieved through a coordinated air circulation system that utilizes existing cooling components to serve multiple zones.
Solution Approach 2:
Cool air acts as an intermediary medium that transfers thermal energy from the cooling system to multiple compartments. The air circulation system distributes cooled air through designated passages to the chiller room and ice making room, enabling temperature control without direct mechanical connection to each compartment.
3Quantity of substance
If ice maker and ice bin are installed in the ice making room, then the ice storage capacity is improved, but the components act as flow resistors
Solution Approach 1:
The ice making room is designed with localized functional zones: the ice maker unit for ice production, the ice bin for storage, and dedicated cool air supply and return passages. This local quality differentiation ensures that each component has optimal access to cool air flow, with supply passages positioned to direct air toward the ice maker and return passages positioned to efficiently collect cooled air.
4Volume of stationary object
If the ice making room vertical width is reduced, then the chiller room space is improved, but the ice making capacity may be affected
Solution Approach 1:
The ice making room is optimized by utilizing horizontal space rather than vertical space. The ice bin and ice maker are arranged to maximize front-to-back depth and left-to-right width, allowing the vertical dimension to be allocated to the chiller room while maintaining adequate ice making capacity through efficient horizontal layout.
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 allows for stable temperature maintenance in the chiller room, improved ice making efficiency, reduced energy consumption, and efficient insulation to prevent dew formation and production delays.
Implementation Method 1
a cool air supply duct connecting the evaporation chamber and the cool air inflow hole of the ice making room such that cool air of the evaporation chamber is supplied to the ice making room
Implementation Method 2
a cool air guide duct mounted on a bottom surface of the ice maker to guide cool air supplied from the cool air inflow hole toward the bottom surface of the ice maker
Implementation Method 3
optimized insulation material injection positions to enhance air pressure and ice production efficiency
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A refrigerator according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: a cabinet provided with a refrigerating compartment and an evaporation chamber; a door rotatably connected to the cabinet to open and close the refrigerating compartment; an ice making room provided in the door and having a cool air inflow hole formed at one side thereof: a cool air supply duct connecting the evaporation chamber and the cool air inflow hole of the ice making room such that cool air of the evaporation chamber is supplied to the ice making room; an ice maker provided inside the ice making room; a cool air guide duct mounted on a bottom surface of the ice maker to guide cool air supplied from the cool air inflow hole toward the bottom surface of the ice maker; and an ice bin provided below the ice maker to store ice made in the ice maker, wherein the ice maker comprises: an ice tray comprising a plurality of cool air guide ribs protruding from a bottom surface thereof; and an ice separating guide covering a front surface of the ice tray and a portion of a top surface thereof, the cool air guide rib extends from one side of the ice tray in a direction of the other side and spaced apart from a front surface of a tray body toward a rear surface, and bottom parts of the plurality of cool air guide ribs are spaced apart from a bottom part of the cool air guide duct.