Patent Application
20240328696
Residential refrigerators generally include both fresh food compartments and freezer compartments, with the former maintained at a temperature above freezing to store fresh foods and liquids, and the latter maintained at a temperature below freezing for longer-term storage of frozen foods. Various refrigerator designs have been used, including, for example, top mount refrigerators, which include a freezer compartment near the top of the refrigerator, either accessible via a separate external door from the external door for the fresh food compartment, or accessible via an internal door within the fresh food compartment; side-by-side refrigerators, which orient the freezer and fresh food compartments next to one another and extending generally along most of the height of the refrigerator; and bottom mount refrigerators, which orient the freezer compartment below the fresh food compartment and including sliding and/or hinged doors to provide access to the freezer and fresh food compartments.
Irrespective of the refrigerator design employed, many refrigerator designs also include an ice maker for producing ice and depositing the produced ice into a storage bin for later on-demand dispensing by a consumer. An ice maker may be disposed within the freezer compartment, and in some instances, may be disposed on an inwardly-facing side of an external door of the refrigerator. Further, in some instances, a refrigerator may also include an externally-accessible dispenser that is disposed at a convenient height on the front of the refrigerator to enable consumers to dispense ice, and in some instances, chilled water, without having to open any of the external doors of the refrigerator.
Many ice makers rely in part on a shut off arm to determine when a storage bin below the ice maker is full, and thus, when the ice maker should discontinue producing more ice. The shut off arm is generally coupled to a position switch such as a hall effect sensor or microswitch that changes state based upon the amount of ice in the storage bin when ice is dropped into the storage bin by the ice maker. However, it has been found that ice makers can sometimes produce “false” full or empty indications, e.g., due to ice clumping, mounding or melting, so a need exists in the art for a more reliable manner of sensing the volume of ice in an ice storage bin.
The herein-described embodiments address these and other problems associated with the art by providing a refrigerator that utilizes an ice maker incorporating a shut off arm position sensor capable of sensing a plurality of positions of a shut off arm. Doing so may enable, for example, false full or empty indications to be detected, and in some instances, enable detection of potentially fused ice in a storage bin.
Therefore, consistent with one aspect of the invention, a refrigerator may include a cabinet including one or more food compartments and one or more doors closing the one or more food compartments, an ice maker disposed in the cabinet to produce ice, a storage bin configured to store ice produced by the ice maker, a shut off arm positioned to sense an amount of ice stored in the storage bin, and a shut off arm position sensor operably coupled to the shut off arm and configured to sense a plurality of positions of the shut off arm.
In addition, in some embodiments, the shut off arm position sensor is configured to sense a range of positions of the shut off arm. Further, in some embodiments, the shut off arm position sensor is configured to sense three or more positions of the shut off arm. Moreover, in some embodiments, the shut off arm position sensor includes an encoder.
Further, in some embodiments, at least a portion of the shut off arm rotates about an axis between a full position and an empty position, and the encoder is a rotary encoder configured to sense a rotational position of the portion of the shut off arm about the axis. In some embodiments, at least a portion of the shut off arm moves linearly between a full position and an empty position, and the encoder is a linear encoder configured to sense a linear position of the portion of the shut off arm.
Moreover, in some embodiments, the shut off arm position sensor includes a potentiometer. Further, in some embodiments, the shut off arm is operably coupled to a first gear and the shut off arm position sensor is operably coupled to a second gear, and the first and second gears are operably coupled to one another and have a first gear to second gear ratio greater than one. In addition, some embodiments may also include an ice drop mechanism, and the shut off arm is operably coupled to the ice drop mechanism to move through a range of positions during an ice drop operation performed with the ice drop mechanism.
Some embodiments may also include a controller coupled to the ice maker and the shut off arm position sensor, and the controller is configured to detect potentially fused ice in the storage bin using the shut off arm position sensor. Moreover, in some embodiments, the controller is configured to detect potentially fused ice in the storage bin by detecting a drop in ice level in the storage bin using the shut off arm position sensor. In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to detect a door open event when a door to a freezer compartment has been opened, and to detect potentially fused ice in the storage bin by detecting the drop in ice level in the storage bin using the shut off arm position sensor after no door open events.
Further, in some embodiments, the controller is further configured to detect an ice dispense event when ice is dispensed from an ice dispenser, and to detect potentially fused ice in the storage bin by detecting the drop in ice level in the storage bin using the shut off arm position sensor after no ice dispense events. Also, in some embodiments, the controller is further configured to detect a defrost event when a defrost cycle is run in a freezer compartment, and to detect potentially fused ice in the storage bin by detecting the drop in ice level in the storage bin using the shut off arm position sensor after one or more defrost events.
Further, in some embodiments, the controller is further configured to detect an above freezing event when an above freezing temperature is detected in a freezer compartment, and to detect potentially fused ice in the storage bin by detecting the drop in ice level in the storage bin using the shut off arm position sensor after one or more above freezing events.
Also, in some embodiments, the controller is configured to alert a user of the potentially fused ice in response to detecting potentially fused ice in the storage bin. In addition, in some embodiments, the controller is configured to alert the user of the potentially fused ice while temporarily disabling an ice dispenser in response to a user attempting to dispense ice from the ice dispenser after the controller detects the potentially fused ice in the storage bin.
In addition, some embodiments may further include a controller coupled to the ice maker and the shut off arm position sensor, and the controller is configured to determine a storage bin ice level in connection with performing an ice drop operation with the ice maker, and to detect a false full event based upon the determined storage bin ice level. In some embodiments, the controller is configured to detect the false full event in response to a change in shut off arm position as a result of the ice drop operation that differs from an expected change in shut off arm position. Further, in some embodiments, the controller is configured to alert a user to agitate the storage bin in response to detecting the false full event. Some embodiments may also include an ice mover disposed in the storage bin, and the controller is configured to activate the ice mover in response to detecting the false full event. Some embodiments may further include an ice agitator disposed in the storage bin, and the controller is configured to activate the ice agitator in response to detecting the false full event.
Consistent with another aspect of the invention, an ice maker may include an ice mold configured to produce ice, an ice drop mechanism configured to drop ice produced by the ice mold into a storage bin, a shut off arm positioned to sense an amount of ice stored in the storage bin, and a shut off arm position sensor operably coupled to the shut off arm and configured to sense a plurality of positions of the shut off arm.
Consistent with another aspect of the invention, a refrigerator may include a cabinet including one or more food compartments and one or more doors closing the one or more food compartments, an ice maker disposed in the cabinet to produce ice, a storage bin configured to store ice produced by the ice maker, an ice mover disposed in the storage bin and configured to move ice stored in the storage bin to a dispenser output in response to user input to dispense ice, a shut off arm positioned to sense an amount of ice stored in the storage bin, a shut off arm position sensor operably coupled to the shut off arm and configured to sense a plurality of positions of the shut off arm, and a controller coupled to the ice maker, the ice mover and the shut off arm position sensor, the controller configured to detect potentially fused ice in the storage bin using the shut off arm position sensor, receive user input to dispense ice, and in response to the receiving the user input to dispense ice after detecting potentially fused ice in the storage bin using the shut off arm position sensor, temporarily disable the ice mover and alert a user of potentially fused ice in the storage bin.
Other embodiments may include various methods for making and/or using any of the aforementioned constructions.
These and other advantages and features, which characterize the invention, are set forth in the claims annexed hereto and forming a further part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, and of the advantages and objectives attained through its use, reference should be made to the Drawings, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is described example embodiments of the invention. This summary is merely provided to introduce a selection of concepts that are further described below in the detailed description, and is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Embodiments of the invention are directed in part to the use of a shut off arm position sensor to capable of sensing multiple positions of an ice maker shut off arm. As opposed to a shut off arm switch that is binary in nature, and that is only capable of detecting whether or not a shut off arm is at a predetermined position, a shut off arm position sensor may be capable of sensing various conditions, such as ice clumping, mounding or melting (which can lead to potentially fused ice in the storage bin), or false full or empty indications, which can then be rectified in an automatic or manual manner, potentially leading to improved ice maker performance and reliability.
Turning now to the drawings, wherein like numbers denote like parts throughout the several views,
Fresh food compartment 14 is generally maintained at a temperature above freezing for storing fresh food such as produce, drinks, eggs, condiments, lunchmeat, cheese, etc. Various shelves, drawers, and/or sub-compartments may be provided within fresh food compartment 14 for organizing foods, and it will be appreciated that some refrigerator designs may incorporate multiple fresh food compartments and/or zones that are maintained at different temperatures and/or at different humidity levels to optimize environmental conditions for different types of foods. Freezer compartment 16 is generally maintained at a temperature below freezing for longer-term storage of frozen foods, and may also include various shelves, drawers, and/or sub-compartments for organizing foods therein.
Refrigerator 10 as illustrated in
With additional reference to
While not illustrated in
A refrigerator consistent with the invention also generally includes one or more controllers configured to control a refrigeration system as well as manage interaction with a user.
As shown in
Controller 40 may also, in some embodiments, be coupled to an ice agitator 52 capable of agitating ice in storage bin 28 to break up any clumps of ice that may be forming in the storage bin. In addition, as noted above, controller 40 may also be coupled to an ice and/or water dispenser 54 to dispense ice, water or other fluids on-demand to a consumer.
In some embodiments, controller 40 may also be coupled to one or more network interfaces 56, e.g., for interfacing with external devices via wired and/or wireless networks such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, cellular and other suitable networks, collectively represented in
In some embodiments, refrigerator 10 may be interfaced with one or more user devices 60 over network 58, e.g., computers, tablets, smart phones, wearable devices, etc., and through which refrigerator 10 may be controlled and/or refrigerator 10 may provide user feedback.
In some embodiments, controller 40 may operate under the control of an operating system and may execute or otherwise rely upon various computer software applications, components, programs, objects, modules, data structures, etc. In addition, controller 40 may also incorporate hardware logic to implement some or all of the functionality disclosed herein. Further, in some embodiments, the sequences of operations performed by controller 40 to implement the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented using program code including one or more instructions that are resident at various times in various memory and storage devices, and that, when read and executed by one or more hardware-based processors, perform the operations embodying desired functionality. Moreover, in some embodiments, such program code may be distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of computer readable media used to actually carry out the distribution, including, for example, non-transitory computer readable storage media. In addition, it will be appreciated that the various operations described herein may be combined, split, reordered, reversed, varied, omitted, parallelized and/or supplemented with other techniques known in the art, and therefore, the invention is not limited to the particular sequences of operations described herein.
Numerous variations and modifications to the refrigerator illustrated in
A shut off arm is generally used on an ice maker to detect when a storage bin or ice bucket within which ice produced by an ice maker is full or empty, and will generally be used to trigger another ice production operation by the ice maker whenever the storage bin is determined to not be full, such that the storage bin may be kept full as often as possible should a consumer ever desire to use a large quantity of ice. Generally, whether or not a storage bin is full is determined by dropping the shut off arm down into the storage bin in connection with dropping ice produced by the ice maker into the storage bin, e.g., by twisting and/or inverting the ice mold within which the ice is produced, or by rotating a rake through the mold to dislodge the ice into the storage bin. If the level of ice in the storage bin is below a preset level, then the shut off arm is allowed to drop to a position that triggers a switch, e.g., a microswitch, button, or hall effect sensor, such that an absence of the switch being triggered during an ice drop operation indicates that the storage bin is full.
However, the binary nature of a shut off arm position switch can lead to several issues in a refrigerator. For example, because the level of ice in a storage bin is generally measured at one point, should ice mound near that point, a “false” full indication may be made. In addition, ice in a storage bin may clump, mound or melt when allowed to sit undisturbed for a prolonged period of time while being subjected to temperature variations, e.g., as may occur during a defrost cycle or as a result of a consumer opening a freezer door. The ice level may drop as a result of such clumping, mounding or melting, and may potentially result in a “false” empty indication. Also importantly, should ice clump, mound or melt within a storage bin that is used by an ice dispenser, the individual ice cubes may fuse together and the ice mover of the ice dispenser, e.g., an auger disposed in the storage bin, may become frozen in place, such that if a consumer attempts to dispense ice, the ice mover will not dispense ice, or potentially may fail as a result of the increased forces to which it is subjected by the fused ice when activated.
Embodiments consistent with invention, on the other hand, may utilize a shut off arm position sensor that is capable of sensing a plurality of positions of a shut off arm, i.e., including one or more intermediate positions beyond positions corresponding to “full” and “empty” levels of ice within a storage bin. In some embodiments, a shut off arm position sensor may sense three or more positions, e.g., a full position, an empty position, and one or more intermediate positions, and in some embodiments, a shut off arm position sensor may sense a range of positions, including a substantially continuous range of positions. For example, it may be desirable in some embodiments to utilize an encoder, e.g., a rotary encoder capable of measuring rotation of the shut off arm, or a linear encoder capable of measuring linear movement of the shut off arm. In some embodiments, a rotary encoder may have a resolution of one degree or a fraction of a degree, while a linear encoder may have a resolution of one or a few millimeters. Alternatively, a potentiometer or other analog sensor may be used to sense a continuous range of rotational or linear positions. Other position sensor implementations capable of sensing more than a binary “full” or “empty” indication may be used in other embodiments.
In this embodiment, rather than having an shut off arm position sensor that is coaxial with rotation of shut off arm 110, shut off arm 110 is operably coupled to a first gear 120 and a shut off arm position sensor 122, e.g., implemented as a rotary encoder, is operably coupled to a second gear 124 that engages with first gear 120. Gears 122, 124 are configured such that a gear ration between gears 122, 124 is greater than one, i.e., so that rotation of shut off arm 110 and first gear 120 about axis A causes a relatively greater rotation of second gear 124, thereby increasing the effective resolution of shut off arm position sensor 122.
In addition, while in this embodiment a linkage 118 is used to enable motor 116 to drive both the ice drop mechanism and shut off arm 110, in other embodiments, and as illustrated by motor 126, shut off arm 110 may be driven independently of an ice drop mechanism.
Now turning to
Control then passes to block 168 to wait for a next polling interval. In addition, during this time a last ice dispense event is tracked, since it will be appreciated that any dispensing of ice will lower the level of ice in the storage bin, thereby affecting the detection of any potentially fused ice in block 164. In addition, returning to block 164, if no potentially fused ice is detected in block 164, block 166 is bypassed, and control passes to block 168 to wait for the next polling interval. At the next polling interval, control returns to block 162.
In the illustrated embodiment, block 182 first determines whether the storage bin is full, i.e., after a last ice production and ice drop operation, a full storage bin was detected based on the sensed position of the shut off arm. If not, control returns to block 182 until the storage bin is determined to be full. If so, however, control passes to block 184 to register the home position of the shut off arm when in the “bin full” position. Block 186 then causes the shut off arm to move down to contact the ice and return to the home position. If the shut off arm cannot move downwards, that means the bucket is full. If it can move all the way down (e.g., about 40 degrees in some embodiments), the storage bin may be determined to be empty. If it moves some amount between these extremes, then the percentage that the storage bin is full may be determined (e.g., about 10 degrees would correspond to about ¾ full).
Block 188 then determines whether there have been any door open or ice dispense events, and if so, control returns to block 182. If not, however, control passes to block 190 to determine whether any defrost events have occurred. If not, control returns to block 188, but if so, control passes to block 192 to determine if any above freezing temperatures have been detected proximate the storage bin (also referred to herein as an above freezing event). If not, control returns to block 188, and if so, control passes to block 194 to determine if there has been any drop in the bin full shut off arm position, e.g., based upon independent actuation of the shut off arm, or activation of the ice drop mechanism and the shut off arm (in the event those components are linked). If no drop is detected, control returns to block 188, and but a drop is detected, fused ice potentially is present in the storage bin, so control passes to block 196 to notify the consumer of the fused ice potential, e.g., via a refrigerator display, a mobile device app, an email, a message, etc.
In addition, as illustrated in blocks 198 and 200, it may also be desirable to, after determining that a risk of fused ice exists, temporarily disable an ice dispenser and notify a consumer in response to an attempt to dispense ice using the ice dispenser. For example, if a consumer attempts to dispense ice after such a determination has been made, a risk may exist that activating the ice dispenser could lead to a breakage in the ice mover mechanism should it be frozen in fused ice. Thus, it may be desirable to, rather than activate the ice mover mechanism, issue an alert and suggest to the consumer to check the storage bin for any fused ice, and to break up or otherwise remove the fused ice prior to attempting to dispense ice a second time. In some instances, a consumer may be required to confirm that he or she has checked the storage bin prior to re-enabling the ice dispenser. As such, the risk of damage to the ice mover as a result of fused ice may be decreased.
It will be appreciated that in sequence 180, potentially fused ice is detected based upon the presence of, from the last time that the storage bin was detected as full, no door open or ice dispense events (each of which is associated with the potential for either manual removal of ice from the storage bin when the door is opened or automated removal of ice from the storage bin from the ice dispense event), coupled with the presence of one or more defrost events and one or more above freezing events, as well as a detected dropped ice level in the storage bin. In other embodiments, other criteria may be used to detect potentially fused ice, including a subset of door open, ice dispense, defrost, and above freezing events, as well as the use of time-based criteria, e.g., when a predetermined duration (e.g., 48 hours) has passed since any doors were opened or ice was dispensed.
It will be appreciated that, while certain features may be discussed herein in connection with certain embodiments and/or in connection with certain figures, unless expressly stated to the contrary, such features generally may be incorporated into any of the embodiments discussed and illustrated herein. Moreover, features that are disclosed as being combined in some embodiments may generally be implemented separately in other embodiments, and features that are disclosed as being implemented separately in some embodiments may be combined in other embodiments, so the fact that a particular feature is discussed in the context of one embodiment but not another should not be construed as an admission that those two embodiments are mutually exclusive of one another. Various additional modifications may be made to the illustrated embodiments consistent with the invention. Therefore, the invention lies in the claims hereinafter appended.
