The present invention relates to an automatic ice maker comprising a tray, which has at least one automatically emptiable compartment for moulding a piece of ice, a storage chamber for receiving pieces of ice produced in the compartment and a sensor for detecting the presence of pieces of ice in the storage chamber.
Such an ice maker is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,571,567 B2.
In the case of this known ice maker the sensor is formed by a motor-driven pivotable lever which enters from above into the storage chamber until further movement thereof is obstructed by pieces of ice disposed in the chamber. In order to make a decision whether pieces of ice shall be produced automatically the setting in which the pivotable lever comes into contact with the pieces of ice present in the storage container has to be detected and evaluated.
The use of movable parts makes this known ice maker susceptible to disturbance. Failure of the motor can lead to false detection of the filling state in the storage chamber so that no ice is produced although the quantity contained in the storage chamber is not sufficient or so that the automatic ice producing is continued even when the storage chamber is already full. The known sensor is also not in a position of detecting if a collecting container for the pieces of ice should happen to be absent. If this is the case the pieces of ice can pass to locations of the refrigerating appliance, which receives the ice maker, at which they are not desired.
The object of the present invention is to create an ice maker enabling detection, which can be realised in simple, reliable and economic manner, of pieces of ice in a storage chamber.
The object is fulfilled in that the sensor of the ice maker comprises a transmitter and a receiver for a detection beam which can come into interaction with the pieces of ice in the storage chamber.
The transmitter and the receiver are preferably arranged at opposite sides of the storage chamber. This allows recognition of the presence of ice on the basis of attenuation of the detection beam, which is attributable to absorption and/or diffusion of the beam at the pieces of ice. It would, in fact, also be possible to arrange transmitter and receiver adjacent to one another at a side of the storage chamber and a reflector for the detection beam at an opposite side of the storage chamber, but here the possibility of falsification of the detection result due to radiation scatter exists to increased extent.
The sensor is preferably an optical sensor. This can be realised economically. If the sensor uses light in the visible spectral range, the functional capability of a sensor is recognisable by a user without assistance.
Preferably moreover a sensor is provided which serves for detection of the presence of a removable storage container in the storage chamber. With the help of such a sensor it is possible to suppress automatic operation of the ice maker even if no ice is detected in the storage chamber, but if the storage container is absent and accordingly risk exists that finished pieces of ice removed from the tray pass to locations where they are not desired.
The storage container should advantageously be permeable to the detection beam so that transmitter and/or receiver can be arranged below an upper edge of the storage container placed in the storage chamber and thus be in a position of detecting pieces of ice before the filling state of the storage container exceeds the upper edge thereof.
The permeability can be achieved by use of a material for the storage container which is transparent to the detection beam, but it is also conceivable to form a window for passage of the detection beam in the storage container, wherein this window can easily be made so small that pieces of ice cannot fall through.
It is also advantageous if the detection beam runs in the ice maker at an inclination, because it is thereby possible to detect that the pieces of ice in the storage container exceed an envisaged maximum filling state which lies below the upper edge of the container even if, of transmitter and receiver, only one is arranged below the upper edge of the storage container. The detection beam therefore crosses the wall of the storage container only once and is only slightly attenuated thereat.
The sensor for detecting the presence of the storage container preferably comprises a detection body which is displaced from an equilibrium position to a deflected position by the storage container present in the storage chamber. Since the detection body adopts the equilibrium position insofar as it is not obstructed thereat by the storage container, the presence of the storage container is recognisable from the setting of the detection body.
In order to reliably bring the detection body into the equilibrium position in the case of presence of the storage container, it is preferably loaded by a spring in the latter position.
With particular preference the detection body interacts with the detection beam in respectively different manner in its equilibrium position and in the deflected position. This makes it possible, on the basis of the intensity of the detection radiator received by the transmitter, to recognise in which position the detection body is disposed and consequently whether the storage container is present or not.
Advantageously the interaction is so designed that the detection body in the equilibrium position attenuates the detection beam more strongly than in the equilibrium [sic] position. Since also ice present in the radiation path attenuates the detection beam, if the intensity of the detection beam received by the receiver is greater than a predetermined limit value it can be concluded therefrom that the storage container is present and that it is not filled up to the envisaged maximum, so that ice may be produced. If, conversely, the intensity detected by the receiver is smaller than the limit value, this can be due to non-presence of the storage container or due to presence of ice; both are a cause for interrupting ice production.
A particularly space saving and robust construction results if the detection body is hollow and at least in the displaced setting of the transmitter or the receiver engages in the detection body.
Further features and advantages of the invention are evident from the following description of examples of embodiment with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:
The tray 1 is shown in a tilted setting in which the upper edges of the segments 7 extend substantially horizontally, whilst those of the partition walls 3 are inclined towards the longitudinal wall 6.
The tray 1 can be a plastics material moulded part, but preferably, due to the good capability of thermal conductance, it is constructed as a cast part of aluminium.
A hollow cylinder 11 is mounted at one of the transverse walls 2 of the tray 1; it serves for protected accommodation of a coiled power supply cable 12 serving for supply of current to a heating device 13, which is not visible in the figure, accommodated at the underside of the tray 1 (see
A frame moulded from plastics material is denoted by 15. It has an upwardly and downwardly open cavity 16 which is provided for mounting of the tray 1 therein. Bearing bushes 19, 20 for the pivotable mounting of the tray 1 are formed at the end walls 17, 18 of the cavity 16. A longitudinal wall of the cavity 16 is formed by a box 21, which is provided for reception of a drive motor 22 as well as various electronic components for control of operation of the ice maker. Mounted on the shaft of the drive motor 22 is a pinion 23 which can be seen better in each of
The gearwheel 25 carries a pin 26 which protrudes in axial direction and which is provided for engaging in a vertical slot 27 of an oscillatory body 28. The oscillatory body 28 is guided to be horizontally displaceable with the help of pins 29 which protrude from the end wall 17 into the cavity 24 and which engage in a horizontal slot 30 of the oscillatory body. A toothing 31 formed at a lower edge of the oscillatory body 28 meshes with a gearwheel 32, which is provided for the purpose of being plugged onto the axial spigot 14 of the tray 1 to be secure against rotation relative thereto.
A cover plate 33 screw-connected to the open side of the end wall 17 closes the cavity 24. A fastening flange 34 with straps 35 protruding laterally beyond the end wall 17 serves for mounting the ice maker in a refrigerating appliance. A base plate 36 closes the box 21 at the bottom.
Markings 39, 40, which are aligned with one another, at a flange 41 of the gearwheel 32 protruding beyond the tooth rim and at the end wall 17 indicate a correct orientation of the gearwheel 32 and as a consequence thereof also of the tray 1 engaging by its axial spigot 14 in a cut-out, which is T-shaped in cross-section, of the gearwheel 32. A pair, which is redundant per se, of markings 42, 43 at the toothing 31 of the pivot body 28 and at the gearwheel 32 shows the correct positioning of gearwheel 32 and oscillatory body 31 with respect to one another.
A sensor 44 for detecting the rotational setting of the gearwheel 32 is mounted near this. It co-operates with a rib 45, which protrudes in axial direction from the edge of the flange 41 on a part of the circumference thereof so that it can enter into a slot at the rear side of the sensor housing. In the tilted setting of
After a predetermined water quantity has been admetered to the tray 1 under the control of the control circuit the drive motor 22 is set in operation by the control unit in order to bring the tray 1 into the upright setting in which the water quantities in the compartments 4 of the tray 1 are cleanly separated from one another. This setting is shown in
The tray 1 remains in the upright setting for such a length of time until the water in the compartments 4 is frozen. The dwell time in the upright setting can be fixedly predetermined; alternatively, the control circuit can also be connected with a temperature sensor in order to be able to establish, on the basis of a measured temperature in the environment of the tray 1 and a characteristic curve stored in the control circuit, a respective time period sufficient in the case of the measured temperature for freezing the water.
After expiry of this time period the drive motor 22 is set back into operation in order to rotate the gearwheel 25 into the setting shown in
In this setting the compartments 4 of the tray 1 are open downwardly so that the pieces of ice contained therein can fall into a storage chamber disposed underneath the frame 15.
The storage chamber can be bounded by a housing part, which is not illustrated in the figures, of the ice maker; in the simplest and preferred case, the storage chamber is merely a free space below the installation position of the frame 15 in a refrigerating appliance. Such a free space can, if the ice maker is not in operation, also be used for storage of stock, which is to be cooled, different from pieces of ice.
In order to facilitate release of the pieces of ice from the compartments 4, the already mentioned electric heating device 13 is provided. As can be recognised in
The pieces of ice in the compartments 4 are thawed at the surface by brief heating of the tray 1 with the help of the heating device 13. The water layer thus produced between the tray 1 and the pieces of ice acts as a slide film on which the pieces of ice are movable with very low friction. By virtue of the cross-sectional shape of the compartments 4 as a segment of a cylinder the pieces of ice easily slide out of the compartments 4 and drop into a collecting container 5 arranged in the storage chamber below the frame 15.
After emptying of the compartments 4 the drive motor is set back into operation and the gearwheel 25 further rotated in clockwise sense until it again reaches the setting shown in
The collecting container 50 formed from glass-clear plastics material has, as shown in
The detection body 52 is part of a multi-purpose sensor, the construction and function of which is clearer on the basis of
The motor 22 and parts of the transmission for driving the pivot movement of the tray 1 can be seen in the section of
The detection body 52 is pressed by the side wall, which bears thereagainst, of the storage container 50 against the force of the spring 56 into a deflected position in which it enters for the major part into the hollow side wall 17. In this position, as can be seen more clearly in the detail enlargement—which is partly sectioned along the plane T-T of FIG. 11—in
The ice maker operates only when the light intensity received by the photodiode 59 exceeds a predetermined threshold. If a piece of ice is disposed on the beam path 61 between the light-emitting diode 57 and the photodiode 59 in the storage container 50 the light is scattered to such an extent that the threshold is fallen below at the diode 59. Further production of ice is thus inhibited when the filling state in the storage container 50 reaches up to the beam path 61. Since this beam path 61 runs, on a part of its length, under the upper edge of the storage container 50 the ice making is reliably stopped before the storage container 50 can overflow.
In this equilibrium setting the window 58 no longer lies in the beam path 61, so that the detection body 52 blocks the light beam. Therefore, if the storage container 50 is not present, an insufficient light intensity arrives at the photodiode 59 and the ice making is similarly stopped.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2005 003 239.7 | Jan 2005 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP05/56280 | 11/28/2005 | WO | 00 | 5/20/2008 |