Slim Refrigerator Door Ice Bin With Rotating Blade Discharge
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional refrigerators have a bulky ice bin design that increases the thickness of the refrigerator door, limiting space and efficiency in ice cube generation and storage.
Innovation Solution
A slim refrigerator door design with an ice bin that utilizes a rotating blade mechanism to discharge ice cubes efficiently, reducing the overall thickness of the door and enhancing ice cube handling without additional transfer units.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a conventional ice bin design is used, then ice cube storage capacity is sufficient, but the refrigerator door thickness increases and becomes bulky
Solution Approach 1:
The ice bin is repositioned from a horizontal arrangement (increasing door thickness) to a vertical arrangement within the refrigerator compartment (utilizing depth dimension). This dimensional change allows the ice bin to occupy vertical space rather than horizontal space, thereby reducing the refrigerator door thickness while maintaining adequate ice storage capacity
Solution Approach 2:
The ice bin is extracted from the refrigerator door structure and relocated to the refrigerator compartment. This separation removes the bulky ice bin from the door assembly, directly reducing door thickness while the ice bin remains accessible through the refrigerator compartment door
2Length of stationary object
If the ice bin thickness is reduced for a slim door design, then refrigerator door thickness decreases, but ice cube handling and discharge efficiency may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
A rotating blade mechanism is introduced as a dynamic discharge system. The rotation blade can rotate to push ice cubes from the ice bin toward the discharge opening, providing active ice cube handling that maintains high discharge efficiency despite the reduced ice bin thickness in the slim door design
Solution Approach 2:
The rotation blade acts as an intermediary mechanism between the ice bin and the discharge opening. It facilitates efficient ice cube transfer and discharge by mechanically pushing ice cubes toward the opening, compensating for the reduced space available in the slim door configuration
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided is a refrigerator including a slim refrigerator door (12). The refrigerator includes a storage compartment; a refrigerator door opening and closing the storage compartment; an ice maker (200) configured to generate ice cubes; an ice bin (300) provided at the refrigerator door to receive the ice cubes generated in the ice maker and having a discharge opening (510) through which the ice cubes are discharged; a motor (280) provided at the refrigerator door; and at least one blade (410) within the ice bin, the at least one blade being operably connected to the motor, wherein at least one ice cube generated in the ice maker directly drop onto the at least one blade, and the at least one blade moves at least one ice cube stored in the ice bin to the discharge opening to discharge the at least one ice cube from the ice bin by an operation of the motor.