Patent Application
20200049395
This application claims priority to Chinese patent application No. 201710076968.6 filed on Feb. 13, 2017, entitled “Ice Discharging Device and Refrigerator Containing Said Ice Discharging Device,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates to the field of refrigerator technologies, and in particular, to an ice discharger used for an ice discharging system and a refrigerator comprising the ice discharger.
With the continuous improvement of people's living standards, a refrigerator with automatic ice making function is gaining in popularity among more and more consumers. Generally, such refrigerator comprises an automatic ice cube maker including ice making system, ice storage system, ice discharging system and the like, wherein the ice making system stores the made ice cube in the ice storage system, and when the ice cube is used by the consumers, it is discharged from the ice storage system by the ice discharging system.
The existing ice discharging system usually consists of an ice crushing device disposed in an ice storage box. Although the ice cube is pushed by a stirring knife and discharged from the ice outlet under the action of gravity, the amount of discharged ice cubes is uneven, that is, more ice cubes are discharged sometimes and less ice cubes are discharged sometimes so that the user has poor ice cube-taking experience.
The present disclosure describes an ice discharger capable of improving the uniformity of the ice discharge amount.
The present disclosure describes a refrigerator comprising the ice discharger.
In order to solve the technical problem above, the present disclosure provides an ice discharger used for an ice discharging system, comprising an ice storage box as well as an ice stirring unit and an ice pushing unit located within the ice storage box. An ice outlet is disposed at a position of the bottom wall of the ice storage box near the side wall thereof, and an ice inlet is disposed at the top of the ice storage box. The ice stirring unit comprises an ice stirring section disposed in a central area at the lower portion of the ice storage box and a stirrer disposed rotatably within the ice stirring section. An ice cube inlet allowing the ice cube to be stirred to fall is disposed at the top of the ice stirring section and an ice cube outlet is disposed on the side wall of the ice stirring section. The ice pushing unit comprises a circular ice discharging passage and an ice pushing assembly. The circular ice discharging passage is a space between the ice stirring section and the inner wall of the ice storage box. The circular ice discharging passage communicates with the ice outlet and the ice cube outlet of the ice stirring section, respectively. The ice pushing assembly is disposed rotatably within the circular ice discharging passage and is configured to push an ice cube coming out of the ice cube outlet of the ice stirring section to the ice outlet of the ice storage box.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ice stirring section is enclosed by an ice cube guiding wall located on the bottom wall of the ice storage box, the ice cube guiding wall comprises a circular arc segment located at the center of the ice storage box and a connecting segment having two ends connecting the circular arc segment and the side wall of the ice storage box, respectively.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the connecting segment is an arc-shaped structure, and the circular arc segment is in smooth transition connection with the connecting segment.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ice pushing assembly comprises a circular-ring ice cube pushing plate disposed above the circular ice discharging passage, which is enclosed by the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate, the side wall and the bottom wall of the ice storage box, and the circular arc segment of the ice cube guiding wall, a plurality of ice cube pushing blades radially arranged are disposed on the lower surface of the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate, and bottoms of the ice cube pushing blades are higher than the top of the straight-line segment of the ice cube guiding wall.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ice pushing assembly comprises a circular-ring ice cube pushing plate and a cylindrical ice cube pushing plate. The circular-ring ice cube pushing plate is disposed above the circular ice discharging passage, the cylindrical ice cube pushing plate is connected with the outer circumference of the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate. The circular ice discharging passage is enclosed by the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate, the side wall and the bottom wall of the ice storage box. The circular arc segment of the ice cube guiding wall and a plurality of ice cube pushing blades radially arranged are disposed on the inner side wall of the cylindrical ice cube pushing plate. Bottoms of the ice cube pushing blades are higher than the top of the straight-line segment of the ice cube guiding wall.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ice stirring section comprises a circular top plate and an ice cube guiding wall disposed on a lower surface of the circular top plate. The ice cube guiding wall comprises a circular arc segment located at the center of the ice storage box and a connecting segment having two ends connecting the circular arc segment and the side wall of the ice storage box, respectively. The circular ice discharging passage is enclosed by the circular top plate, the side wall and the bottom wall of the ice storage box, and the circular arc segment of the ice cube guiding wall.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the connecting segment is an arc-shaped structure, and the circular arc segment is in smooth transition connection with the connecting segment.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the ice pushing assembly comprises a circular-ring ice cube pushing plate disposed below the circular ice discharging passage. A plurality of ice cube pushing blades radially arranged are disposed on the upper surface of the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate. An ice falling port is disposed between adjacent ice cube pushing blades on the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate. The lower surface of the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate is in fit with the bottom of the ice storage box. The bottom of the straight-line segment of the ice cube guiding wall should be higher than the tops of the ice cube pushing blades.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the plurality of ice cube pushing blades are uniformly disposed along the circumferential direction of the ice cube pushing plate.
The present disclosure also discloses a refrigerator comprising an ice cube maker, further comprising an ice discharger as described above, wherein the ice inlet of the ice discharger communicates with an outlet of the ice cube maker.
According to the ice discharger provided by the present disclosure, by disposing, in the ice storage box, the ice pushing unit comprising the ice pushing assembly which can be rotatably disposed in the circular ice discharging passage between the ice storage box and the ice stirring unit, so as to push ice cubes coming out of the ice stirring unit to the ice outlet, it is more convenient for the ice cubes to move inside the circular ice discharging passage due to the ice pushing unit and not get stuck, thereby improving the uniformity of the ice discharge amount.
The specific implementations of the present disclosure are further described in detail below with reference to the drawings and embodiments. The following embodiments are intended to illustrate the disclosure, but are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure.
In the description of the present disclosure, it is to be understood that the orientation or positional relations specified by terms such as “center,” “longitudinal,” “transverse,” “length,” “width,” “thickness,” “upper,” “lower,” “front,” “rear,” “left,” “right,” “vertical,” “horizontal,” “top,” “bottom,” “inside,” “outside,” “clockwise,” “counterclockwise,” “axial,” “radial,” “circumferential” and the like are based on the orientation or positional relations shown in the drawings, which is merely for convenience of description of the present disclosure and simplified description, and does not indicate or imply that the stated device or element must have the particular orientation and constructs and operates in a particular orientation, and thus it is not to be construed as limiting the disclosure.
Furthermore, the terms “first” and “second” are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, features defining “first” or “second” may include at least one of the features, either explicitly or implicitly. In the description of the present disclosure, the meaning of “a plurality” is at least two, such as two, three, etc., unless specifically defined otherwise.
In the present disclosure, unless explicitly stated and defined otherwise, the terms “installed,” “connected with,” “connected,” “fixed” and the like shall be understood broadly, for example, it may be either fixedly connected or detachably connected, or can be integrated; it may be mechanically connected, or electrically connected or communicated with each other; it may be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, or may be an internal connection of two elements or an interaction relation between two elements, unless specifically defined otherwise. The specific meanings of the terms above in the present disclosure can be understood by a person skilled in the art in accordance with specific conditions.
The ice cube 4 enters the ice storage box 1 from the ice inlet 12 at the top of the ice storage box 1. When it is required to be discharged, the ice cube 4 enters the ice stirring section 22 from the ice cube inlet 25 above the ice stirring section 22 due to gravity, the stirrer stirs and pushes a part of the ice cubes 4 to move toward the ice cube outlet, and the ice cube 4 is pushed from the ice cube outlet of the ice stirring section 22 to the circular ice discharging passage 31 and then to the ice outlet 11 under the pushing effect of the ice pushing assembly to be discharged from the ice outlet 11 uniformly. Due to the presence of the ice pushing unit, it is more convenient for the ice cube to move inside the circular ice discharging passage 31 and not get stuck, thereby improving the uniformity of the ice discharge amount.
In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the ice stirring section 22 is enclosed by an ice cube guiding wall 21 located on the bottom wall of the ice storage box 1. The ice cube guiding wall 21 comprises a circular arc segment located at the center of the ice storage box 1 and a connecting segment having two ends respectively connecting the circular arc segment and the side wall of the ice storage box 1, so as to ensure the ice cube 4 to smoothly enter the circular ice discharging passage 31. Further, the connecting segment is an arc-shaped structure and the circular arc segment is in smooth transition connection with the connecting segment such that it is more convenient for the ice cube to move and not get stuck. In some other embodiments of the present disclosure, the connecting segment may also adopt a linear structure.
The stirrer comprises a stirring shaft 23 and three ice stirring blades 24 distributed uniformly along the circumference of the stirring shaft 23, wherein the lower end of the stirring shaft 23 is connected with a driving device (not shown), for example, a motor, after passing through the bottom wall of the ice storage box 1. The stirring shaft 23 is driven to rotate by the driving device, so as to further drive the ice stirring blades 24 to rotate together. During the rotation, the separation of the ice cubes 4 is achieved, and the ice cube 4 can be pushed to move to the ice cube outlet of the ice stirring section 22 and enter the ice discharging passage 31 through the ice cube outlet. In some other embodiments of the present disclosure, the number of the ice stirring blades 24 can also be 4, 5, 6 and the like. However, in order to ensure the stirring capability of the stirrer, the number of the ice stirring blades 24 is at least two.
As shown in
In order to realize the rotation of the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate 32, teeth (not shown) are disposed on the periphery of the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate 32. A window is disposed at the position of the ice storage box 1 corresponding to the teeth of the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate 32 which is engaged with an external gear (not shown) at the window to be driven to rotate through the external gear.
The present embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment 1. For the sake of brevity of description, the same technical features as those of the embodiment 1 will not be described in the description of the present embodiment, and only the difference between this embodiment and embodiment 1 will be described.
As shown in
The present embodiment is substantially the same as the embodiment 1. For the sake of brevity of description, the same technical features as those of the embodiment 1 will not be described in the description of the present embodiment, and only the difference between this embodiment and embodiment 1 will be described.
As shown in
The ice cubes 4 enter the ice storage box 1 from the ice inlet above the ice storage box 1. When it is required to be discharged, the ice cubes 4 enter the ice stirring section 22 from the ice cube inlet of the ice storage box 1 due to gravity, the stirring shaft 23 rotates under the driving of an external force and drives the ice stirring blades 24 to rotate, and the ice cubes 4 are pushed to the circular ice discharging passage 31 after being stirred by the ice stirring blades 24 and guided by the ice cube guiding wall 21 and then pushed to move to the ice outlet 11 under the rotation of the ice cube pushing blades 33 driven by the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate 32 and finally discharged from the ice outlet 11 uniformly. Due to the presence of the circular-ring ice cube pushing plate 32, it is more convenient for the ice cubes 4 to move and not get stuck, thereby improving the uniformity of the ice discharge amount.
The present disclosure also discloses a refrigerator comprising an ice cube maker and an ice discharger as described above, wherein the ice inlet of the ice discharger communicates with an outlet of the ice cube maker.
Since the refrigerator provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure is provided with the above-mentioned ice discharger, it also has all the advantages of the above-mentioned ice discharge, which thus will not be described herein.
The embodiments above are only the example embodiments of the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., which are included in the spirit and scope of the present disclosure, should fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.
The various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments. All of the U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety. Aspects of the embodiments can be modified, if necessary to employ concepts of the various patents, applications and publications to provide yet further embodiments.
These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of the above-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. Accordingly, the claims are not limited by the disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201710076968.6 | Feb 2017 | CN | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/CN2017/085754 | 5/24/2017 | WO | 00 |
