Rotating Ice Mold Control for Complete Cube Ejection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing ice makers face difficulties in efficiently removing ice cubes from the mold body, with methods like using heaters being energy-intensive and twisting mechanisms not always effective in releasing all ice cubes, leading to potential overfilling and performance issues.
Innovation Solution
An ice maker with a rotatable mold body and sensors to monitor rotational positions, allowing for precise control of the mold's rotation to assist in ice cube removal, including a motor for rotating the mold and an ejector for harvesting ice cubes, ensuring complete removal before subsequent water filling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If heaters are used to heat the mold body for ice cube removal, then ice cube removal reliability is improved, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the thermal field (heaters) with a mechanical field (rotation mechanism). The mold body is rotated to change the position of ice cubes relative to the mold cavity walls, utilizing mechanical motion instead of thermal energy to achieve ice cube release and removal.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic rotation of the mold body to assist ice cube removal. The mold body rotates between 0-90 degrees to change the orientation of cavities, creating dynamic mechanical advantage for releasing stuck ice cubes without requiring continuous thermal energy input.
2Use of energy by moving object
If the mold body is twisted to release ice cubes, then energy consumption is reduced, but ice cube removal completeness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a rotational dimension to the ice cube removal process. Instead of only twisting the mold body in one direction, the entire mold body rotates to multiple angular positions (0-90 degrees), utilizing spatial dimensionality to ensure complete ice cube release from all cavity orientations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates sensors to detect the rotational position of the mold body and provides feedback control. The system monitors whether the mold has reached the required rotational position and can determine if ice cubes have been successfully removed, enabling closed-loop control to ensure complete removal.
3Device complexity
If ice cubes remain stuck in the mold body, then device complexity is reduced, but ice maker performance deteriorates due to overfilling
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the mold body to perform self-service ice cube removal through automatic rotation. The rotation mechanism allows the mold to autonomously release and eject ice cubes without requiring complex external intervention systems, maintaining simplicity while improving performance.
Data Source
AI summary
An ice maker for a refrigerator appliance and a method for operating the same are provided. The ice maker includes a mold body that is rotatable relative to an ejector. The ejector is configured for selective receipt within the mold body to assist with removal of ice from the mold body. The ice maker also includes at least two sensors for monitoring rotational motion of the mold body. Utilizing the at least two sensors, the ice maker can monitor ice removal from the mold body.