EP-4095462-B1 - HOUSEHOLD ICE MAKER AND METHOD OF MAKING ICE BY USING THE SAME

EP4095462B1EP 4095462 B1EP4095462 B1EP 4095462B1EP-4095462-B1

Inventors

JOO, SUNG BOK
RYU, CHANG HOON
KANG, SUNG CHEOL

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20210909

Claims (6)

A home ice maker (1) comprising: a casing (2); a compressor (4) and a condenser (3) installed inside the casing (2) and through which refrigerant circulates; an ice making module (10) having an ice making tray (11) in which ice-making water is received, the ice making module (10) being configured to freeze ice-making water by refrigerant supplied from the condenser (3); an ice storage tank (6) which stores ice formed in the ice making module (10); a guide plate (7) being connected to the ice making tray (11), the guide plate (7) being configured to guide formed ice to the ice storage tank (6) during rotation of the ice making tray(11); and a fluctuation module (20) which fluctuates ice-making water, an ice-making water supply tube (30) which injects ice-making water supplied from an ice-making water supply source into the ice making tray (11), and a first ice-making water temperature sensor (31) which is installed on one side of the ice-making water supply tube (30) and measures a temperature of ice-making water supplied thereto, a second ice-making water temperature sensor (41) which detects a temperature of ice-making water received inside the ice making tray (11), wherein the fluctuation module further comprises: a fluctuation shaft (221) connected to a fluctuation part (22) and to a rotation shaft (13) of the ice making tray (11); a fluctuation-part driving part (25) which rotates the fluctuation shaft (221); a fluctuation head (24) installed on an end of one side of the fluctuation shaft (221); and a limit switch (23) installed to be adjacent to the fluctuation head (24), the limit switch (23) being configured to detect contact of the fluctuation head (24) with the limit switch (23) so as to limit rotation of the fluctuation head (24), wherein the ice making module (10) is provided with an evaporation tube (12) connected to the condenser (3) and arranged to have a U shape inside the ice making tray (11); cooling protrusions installed by protruding toward a bottom of the ice making tray (11) from the evaporation tube (12); and a tray driving part (14) which rotates the ice making tray (11), and the fluctuation module (20) is provided with the fluctuation part (22) which is inserted into the ice making tray (11) and fluctuates ice-making water toward the cooling protrusions of the ice making module(10), wherein the fluctuation module (20) controls a rotation speed of the fluctuation part (22) according to a value measured by the second ice-making water temperature sensor (41) , and the ice making module (10) controls a period of ice making time according to a value measured by the first ice-making water temperature sensor (31), wherein the fluctuation part (22) is inserted and arranged in a center of the evaporation tube (12) arranged in a U shape, and has a plurality of coolant passage holes (223) formed in the fluctuation part (22).
The home ice maker of claim 1, wherein one side of the ice-making water supply tube (30) is extended and arranged by being spirally wound on an outer peripheral surface of the compressor (4).
The home ice maker of claim 1, further comprising: a support bracket (50) being connected to the evaporation tube (12) at a first side thereof and connected to an inner casing (2) of the ice maker at a second side thereof so as to support the evaporation tube (12), wherein the support bracket (50) is connected to an upper part of a center of the evaporation tube (12) in a height direction thereof.
The home ice maker of claim 3, wherein the support bracket (50) is connected to a curved arc part of the evaporation tube (12) having a U shape.
A method for making ice using an ice maker according to anyone of claims 1 to 4, the ice making method comprising: a transparent ice formation step at which ice-making water around the cooling protrusions is cooled while the fluctuation part (22) is rotating so as to form transparent ice around the cooling protrusions; a translucent ice formation step at which ice-making water around the cooling protrusions is cooled without the rotation of the fluctuation part (22) so as to form translucent ice around the cooling protrusions; and a step of alternately repeating the transparent ice formation step and the translucent ice formation step, wherein at the transparent ice formation step, a temperature of ice-making water of the ice making module (10) is measured and according to the measured temperature, a rotation speed of the fluctuation part (22) is adjusted, wherein the fluctuation part (22) is controlled to be rotated at a low speed when the temperature of the ice-making water is high and is controlled to be rotated at a high speed when the temperature of the ice-making water is low.
The method of claim 5, wherein at the transparent ice formation step, a temperature of ice-making water supplied to the ice making module (10) is adjusted to be increased so as to increase transparency of the transparent ice.

Description

Technical Field The present disclosure relates, in general, to a home ice maker and, more particularly, to a transparent ice maker and a method for making funny-shaped ice using the same in which ice-making water present in the ice maker is fluctuated so as to efficiently make compact and transparent ice, the corrosion of an evaporation tube is prevented so as to easily maintain the evaporation tube, and the temperature of supplied ice-making water is increased even without using a separate heat source so as to improve the transparency of transparent ice. Background Art In general, an ice maker is a device that makes ice by cooling supplied ice-making water. A conventional ice maker includes an ice maker body, and an ice making unit, wherein the ice maker body includes an ice storage which stores ice made in the ice making unit, and the ice making unit consists of an ice making plate, a cooling plate, and an evaporation tube. Ice-making water is filled in the ice making plate, and multiple cooling protrusions immersed in ice-making water are installed on the lower surface of the cooling plate. The evaporation tube is installed on the upper surface of the cooling plate, and is connected to a refrigeration system. Refrigerant flows in the evaporation tube and the cooling plate and the cooling protrusions are cooled by heat exchange of the refrigerant therewith. Recently, proposed is an ice maker in which cloudy ice formed by bubbles frozen in ice-making water can be prevented so as to make transparent ice. Cloudiness that occurs in ice during an ice making process is caused by a non-uniform ice making speed during the ice making process. As water surrounded by partially pre-formed ice becomes ice and increases in volume, the tissue of the pre-formed ice is destroyed, and gaps generated in the ice tissue cause cloudiness of the ice. In order to remove this cloudiness, gaps or bubbles occurring in ice made in the ice making process are required to be removed by fluctuating ice-making water in the ice making plate. In order to fluctuate ice-making water, proposed is a conventional ice maker in which a fluctuation part having an L shaped structure is installed under the ice making plate, but according to the conventional technology, vibration is applied to an end part of the fluctuation part from the outside of a water plate and a bent portion of the fluctuation part is a shaft, so an installation structure for embodying this in the water plate is complicated, and a detection structure for detecting ice in contact with the fluctuation part is embodied in the water plate, which causes more complicated structure. In addition, proposed is a conventional ice maker in which the ice making plate is extended at one side thereof and has a biased axial point to increase the rotation range of the ice making plate such that the fluctuation of ice-making water is generated. However, according to the conventional technology, one side of the ice maker is extended and thus the size of the ice making plate is increased, and space for rotating the ice making plate so as to remove ice is required, but due to the ice making plate having increased size, the size of the ice maker is increased as a whole, and accordingly, the amount of ice-making water received in the ice making plate is increased, thereby lowering ice making efficiency. Furthermore, as for a conventional transparent ice maker, when a spraying method is used to make transparent ice, it is difficult to arbitrarily adjust transparency of ice, and thus only transparent ice having uniform transparency is unavoidably made, so it is difficult to make transparent ice having various shapes. In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 11, in the conventional ice maker, in order to fix the evaporation tube arranged in a U shape, a bracket is welded to and supports the evaporation tube. However, in the conventional ice maker, the bracket is required to be connected to the evaporation tube while supporting the same, and thus is welded to the lower part of the evaporation tube so as to fix the evaporation tube. Accordingly, ice-making water or electrolytes easily permeates or accumulates in a connection portion between the bracket and the evaporation tube, so corrosion easily occurs in the connection portion and this causes the corrosion of the evaporation tube. EP0580951A1 illustrates for example a mechanism for detecting completion of ice formation and for preventing such opacification of ice pieces in an ice making machine, in which a multiplicity of freezing fingers formed on the lower surface of a freezing base plate are dipped in the water supplied to a freezing chamber defined in a water tray to carry out a freezing operation and form inverted dome-shaped ice pieces gradually around the freezing fingers ; characterized in that said mechanism consists of a rocking plate which is rocked with respect to said freezing fingers by a rocking means ; and a position detector which is actuat