Spherical Ice Tray Mechanism for Low-Heat Ice Release
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ice makers face challenges in efficiently producing and separating spherical or globular ice pieces without causing them to crack or become misshapen, and in optimizing the ice making cycle while maintaining a cost-effective design.
Innovation Solution
The ice maker employs a tray system with a driving unit that linearly moves and rotates the trays to form and separate ice pieces, utilizing a water supply unit and an ejecting unit with heaters to facilitate the separation of ice pieces, ensuring they are made in a globular or spherical shape and stored efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional ice makers use linear trays to produce ice, then the ice pieces have flat surfaces and simple shapes, but the contact area between ice pieces is large leading to poor storage efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies spheroidality by forming ice pieces in a spherical shape using a ball-shaped cavity formed by upper and lower hemispherical trays. This spherical shape minimizes the contact area between ice pieces during storage, improving storage efficiency while maintaining the desired ice form
2Ease of operation
If heaters are used to separate ice from the tray, then ice separation is achieved, but excessive heat generation occurs reducing cooling performance and power efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the thermal parameter by using a heating element that generates minimal heat, specifically designed to provide just enough thermal energy to facilitate ice separation without causing excessive heat generation that would impact cooling performance or power efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The heating element operates periodically only during the ice separation phase rather than continuously, applying heat briefly to enable separation then stopping to allow the system to return to cooling mode, thus minimizing overall heat generation and energy loss
3Device complexity
If the ice maker uses a simple tray structure, then the device complexity is low and cost-effective, but the ice separation function is insufficient causing ice to crack or become misshapen
Solution Approach 1:
The tray structure is segmented into upper and lower hemispherical trays that can move relative to each other, with the lower tray capable of linear movement and rotation. This segmentation allows the trays to work independently to form and separate ice pieces, improving separation quality while maintaining relative structural simplicity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces dynamic functionality by enabling the lower tray to perform linear movement and rotation in addition to the upper tray's movement. This dynamic capability allows the ice maker to adjust the tray positions and orientations to achieve proper ice separation without cracking or misshaping, enhancing reliability while keeping the structure relatively simple
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 enables the production of spherical ice pieces with minimized contact area, improving storage and convenience, while reducing heat generation for separation and enhancing cooling performance and power efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
an ejecting unit that is disposed on a side of the tray member and that is configured to facilitate separation of an ice piece made in the spherical shell from at least one of the upper tray and the lower tray
Implementation Method 2
since such a refrigerator cools the inside of the storage space using cool air generated by heat-exchanging with a refrigerant circulating a refrigeration cycle
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided is an ice maker. The ice maker includes a tray member comprising an upper tray having an upper shell and a lower tray having a lower shell. The ice maker also includes a driving unit disposed on a side of the tray member and configured to linearly move, in a vertical direction, at least one of the upper tray and the lower tray to change between an attached orientation in which the upper shell is attached to the lower shell to define a spherical shell and a separated orientation in which the upper shell is separated from the lower shell. The ice maker further includes an ejecting unit that is disposed on a side of the tray member and that is configured to facilitate separation of an ice piece made in the spherical shell from at least one of the upper tray and the lower tray.