Patent Application
20220099349
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 making and dispensing system. Ice makers typically include an aluminum mold body with ice trays, where water may be shaped and frozen. Once the water is frozen in the trays, a heater may be used to melt the surfaces of the ice in contact with the trays to facilitate release of the ice from the trays, e.g., using a rake or by inverting the mold body. Generally, ice makers include a metallic calrod heater disposed within the aluminum mold body to melt the surfaces of the ice. A calrod heater is generally not in direct contact with the ice trays, but rather the calrod heater may be positioned in a lower portion of the mold body. The heat generated by the calrod heater then travels through the mold body to warm the ice trays in order to release the ice.
These ice making systems may also contain excess material not directly related to making ice, but rather for the retention of heat and thermal conductivity; this excess material may take valuable storage space away from the compartments of the refrigerator. Additionally, these calrod heaters are on anytime they are energized, and as such, they cannot be precisely controlled. They may also require a lengthy warm up and/or cool down period. As such, there exists a need in the art for ice makers that may be able to more precisely control the heating and harvesting of ice.
The herein-described embodiments address these and other problems associated with the art by providing a refrigerator that utilizes an ice maker with multiple zones for generating and harvesting of ice. Doing so may enable, for example, the harvest of ice from individual zones of the ice maker, rather than the entire tray of ice.
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 located in the cabinet for producing ice, the ice maker including: a mold body for forming ice, the mold body including a plurality of cups, each cup having an opening for receiving water to be frozen within the cup, where the mold body is divided into at least a first zone and a second zone; at least a first heater and a second heater to provide heat to the first and second zones of the mold body and facilitate a release of ice from the first and second zones of the mold body, respectively; a controller coupled to the ice maker and to harvest ice from the first zone independently of the second zone by actuating the first heater to provide heat to the first zone of the mold body to facilitate a release of ice from the first zone and thereafter harvesting ice from the second zone once the ice in the first zone is released from the first zone.
In some embodiments, each cup of the plurality of cups is constructed of metal and the mold body is constructed of plastic. In other embodiments, each cup of the plurality of cups is constructed of a plastic material with a metallic coating. In still other embodiments, each cup of the plurality of cups is individually removable from the mold body.
In some embodiments, the first and second zones are among a plurality of zones and the first and second heaters are among a plurality of heaters, and where each cup of the plurality of cups defines a zone among the plurality of zones and has an associated heater among the plurality of heaters. In some such embodiments, the controller is further configured to independently control each heater among the plurality of heaters. In some embodiments, each cup of the plurality of cups has a non-uniform thickness. In such embodiments, each cup of the plurality of cups is thickest at a portion proximate the corresponding heater among the plurality of heaters.
In some embodiments, the first and second zones of the mold body further include a first temperature senor and a second temperature sensor, respectively. In some such embodiments, the controller is further configured to: receive a first and second signal from the first and second temperature sensors, respectively; determine, based on the first signal and second signal, if the first or second zone is within a predefined temperature range; and actuate the first heater or the second heater to begin heating each cup of the plurality of cups within the first or second mold body.
In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to stagger the harvest of ice, where only the first zone of the mold body or the second zone of the mold body is harvested, while the other of the first zone of the mold body or the second zone of the mold body remains unharvested. In some such embodiments, the ice maker further includes: a reversible motor to harvest ice; a plurality of rake fingers, wherein a first portion of the plurality of rake fingers rotate in a clockwise direction and a second portion of the plurality of rake fingers rotate in a counter-clockwise direction; and where the reversible motor drives the clockwise rotation of the first portion of the plurality of rake fingers to harvest the first zone of the mold body; and where the reversible motor drives the counter-clockwise rotation of the second portion of the plurality of rake fingers to harvest the second zone of the mold body.
In some embodiments, the ice maker further includes: motor to harvest ice; a plurality of rake fingers, including: a first portion of the plurality of rake fingers located in the first zone and in a first position; and a second portion of the plurality of rake fingers located in the second zone and in a second, differing position. In some embodiments, the first position and the second position are directly opposed to each other. In other embodiments, the ice maker further includes: a motor to harvest ice; plurality of rake fingers, where each rake finger of the plurality of rake fingers is in a different position to allow for a staggered rake of a single piece of ice at a time.
In some embodiments, each cup among the plurality of cups located in the first zone of the mold body is a first shape, and each cup among the plurality of cups located in the second zone of the mold body is a second, different shape.
In some embodiments, the first heater and the second heater are ceramic heaters.
In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to: determine if the ice in a first or second zone is at a predefined level of solidity; actuate the first heater or the second heater to begin heating each cup of the plurality of cups within the first or second mold body zone prior to the ice being completely solid.
In another aspect, an ice maker includes: a mold body for forming ice, the mold body including a plurality of cups, each cup having an opening for receiving water to be frozen within the cup, where the mold body is divided into at least a first zone and a second zone; at least a first heater and a second heater to provide heat to the first and second zones of the mold body and thereby facilitate a release of ice from the first and second zones of the mold body, respectively; a controller coupled to the ice maker and to harvest ice from the first zone independently of the second zone by actuating the first heater to provide heat to the first zone of the mold body to facilitate a release of ice from the first zone and thereafter harvesting ice from the second zone once the ice in the first zone is released from the first zone.
In yet another embodiment, a refrigerator, includes: a cabinet including one or more food compartments and one or more doors closing the one or more food compartments; an ice maker located in the cabinet to produce ice, the ice maker including: a mold body divided into at least a first zone and a second zone; a plurality of cups located within the mold body, where each cup of the plurality of cups further includes: a heater located proximate the cup and thereby facilitate a release of ice from the cup; and an opening for receiving water to be frozen within the cup; at least a first temperature sensor located in the first zone of the mold body and a second temperature sensor located in the second zone of the mold body; and a controller coupled to the ice maker and configured to: independently control, based on a signal from the first or second temperature sensor, the heater of each cup of the plurality of cups; determine, based on the signal from the first or second temperature signal, if ice is ready to be harvested from the first or second zone of the mold body; and harvest ice from the first or the second zone of the mold body.
In some embodiments, each cup of the plurality of cups is removable from the mold body and constructed of metal, and wherein the mold body is constructed of plastic. In other embodiments, each cup of the plurality of cups is constructed on a plastic material with a metallic coating. In still other embodiments, each cup of the plurality of cups has a non-uniform thickness and the thickest portion of the cup is proximate the heater.
In some embodiments, the controller is further configured to stagger the harvest of ice, where only the first zone of the mold body or the second zone of the mold body is harvested, while the other of the first zone of the mold body or the second zone of the mold body remains unharvested. In some such embodiments, the ice maker further comprises: a reversible motor to harvest ice; a plurality of rake fingers, where a first portion of the plurality of rake fingers rotate in a clockwise direction and a second portion of the plurality of rake fingers rotate in a counter-clockwise direction; and where the reversible motor drives the clockwise rotation of the first portion of the plurality of rake fingers to harvest the first zone of the mold body; and where the reversible motor drives the counter-clockwise rotation of the second portion of the plurality of rake fingers to harvest the second zone of the mold body.
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.
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
Refrigerator 10 also includes a door-mounted dispenser 24 for dispensing ice and/or a fluid such as water. In the illustrated embodiments, dispenser 24 is an ice and water dispenser capable of dispensing both ice (cubed and/or crushed) and chilled water, while in other embodiments, dispenser 24 may be an ice only dispenser for dispensing only cubed and/or crushed ice. In still other embodiments, dispenser 24 may dispense hot water, coffee, beverages, or other fluids, and may have variable and/or fast dispense capabilities, as well as an ability to dispense predetermined or measured quantities of fluids. In some instances, ice and water may be dispensed from the same location, while in other instances separate locations may be provided in the dispenser for dispensing ice and water.
Refrigerator 10 also includes a control panel 26, which in the illustrated embodiment is integrated with dispenser 24 on door 18, and which includes various input/output controls such as buttons, indicator lights, alphanumeric displays, dot matrix displays, touch-sensitive displays, etc. for interacting with a user. In other embodiments, control panel 26 may be separate from dispenser 24 (e.g., on a different door), and in other embodiments, multiple control panels may be provided. Further, in some embodiments audio feedback may be provided to a user via one or more speakers, and in some embodiments, user input may be received via a spoken or gesture-based interface. Additional user controls may also be provided elsewhere on refrigerator 10, e.g., within fresh food and/or freezer compartments 14, 16. In addition, refrigerator 10 may be controllable remotely, e.g., via a smartphone, tablet, personal digital assistant or other networked computing device, e.g., using a web interface or a dedicated app.
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 be interfaced with various sensors 56 located to sense environmental conditions inside of and/or external to refrigerator 10, e.g., one or more temperature sensors, humidity sensors, etc. Such sensors may be internal or external to refrigerator 10, and may be coupled wirelessly to controller 40 in some embodiments. For example, sensors may include temperature sensors within an icemaker, as well as temperature sensors within the fresh food and/or freezer compartments 14, 16. Sensors 56 may also include additional types of sensors such as door switches, switches that sense when a portion of an ice dispenser has been removed, and other status sensors. Controller 40 may also be interfaced with one or more heaters 64 of an ice making system as described herein.
In some embodiments, controller 40 may also be coupled to one or more network interfaces 58, 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 62 over network 60, 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
In the embodiments discussed hereinafter, a refrigerator may include an ice maker with multiple zones, where the heating pattern and release of ice from each zone may be independently controlled. For example, such an ice maker, as will be described and illustrated herein, may include a mold body with multiple cups for forming ice. Each of these cups incudes an opening to receive water to be frozen. The mold body may be divided into multiple zones, where each zone may contain a heater to heat the cups for removal of the ice. In some embodiments, the ice maker may also be in communication with a controller to harvest ice from each zone independently. For example, the first heater may provide heat to the first zone of the mold body to facilitate a release of ice from only the first zone, and thereafter harvesting ice from the second zone once the ice in the first zone is released from the first zone Release of the ice may occur when the surface of the ice in contact with the cup, tray, or other body begins melting such that the ice is movable relative to the cup, tray or other body to facilitate removal of the ice.
Now turning to
The ice maker 300 also includes a motor 306 that is configured to drive a rake 318. The rake 318 may further include a plurality of rake fingers 3201-n that are configured to make contact with the ice and provide rotational force to harvest the ice from the cups 308. In some instances, such as in the embodiment illustrated in
In other instances, the motor may be reversible. In such instances, the motor may be configured to turn both clockwise and counterclockwise. An example of a reversible motor may be found in U.S. application Ser. No. 16/711,094, incorporated by reference. Turning the motor clockwise may engage a portion of the rake fingers, while turning the motor counterclockwise would engage another portion of the rake fingers. Such an embodiment may further include an internal shaft connected to the motor, and a ratchet-like system for each rake finger to ensure that each rake finger is only engageable in a single rotational direction. This may also allow pieces of ice in each of the zones of a mold body to be harvested individually based upon the direction of rotation of the motor.
Now turning to
As mentioned, near each cup 508 may be a heater 510, which may be utilized in order to melt a surface of the ice in contact with the cup 508 in preparation for harvesting the ice. In some instances, these heaters 508 may be flat printed circuit board (PCB) mounter heaters. In some instances, the heater itself may be a ceramic heater, but is not so limited. These heaters 508 may be disposed adjacent to the cups 508. In some instances, the heaters 510 may be disposed underneath the cups 508 or the heaters 510 may be in direct contact with the cups 508. In other instances, the heaters 510 may be disposed between the cups 508, for example as illustrated in
Also adjacent one or more of the cups 508 may be an associated temperature sensor 516, which may also be interfaced with a controller (for example controller 40 of
Now turning to
Also illustrated in
In some instances, it may be desirable to improve the evenness of the heating of the cups. Therefore, in some instances, such as illustrated in
As mentioned, the heaters discussed herein are not limited to being disposed underneath the cups, in some instances, such as illustrated in
Turning now to
After the activation of the heater, in block 960, the temperature sensor takes another temperature reading, and the controller determines, in block 970, if the temperature is indicative of the ice being partially melted and ready for harvesting. For example, in some instances, this may be determined by examining if this second temperature reading is within a predefined temperature range. An exemplary temperature range indicating the ice may be partially melted and ready to harvest may be above about 0 degrees Celsius. If the controller determines, based on this second signal from the temperature sensor, the temperature at the cup or in the zone is not within the predefined range the heater may remain on and continue to heat the ice, block 980. After a predetermined amount of time has passed, the temperature sensor again obtains a temperature reading from a cup or a zone of the mold body, block 960. The controller again determines if the temperature is indicative of the ice being partially melted and ready for harvesting, block 970. When the controller determines, based on the second signal from the temperature sensor, the temperature at the cup or the zone of the mold body is within the predefined range the ice is harvested, block 990, utilizing the rake and rake fingers described herein. The process is then repeated with the next zone of the ice maker.
Turning now to
After the activation of the heater, a temperature sensor may take a temperature reading, block 1050, and the controller determines if the temperature is indicative of the ice being partially melted and ready for harvesting, block 1060. For example, in some instances, this may be determined by examining if this second temperature reading is within a predefined temperature range. An exemplary temperature range indicating the ice may be partially melted and ready to harvest may be between about 0 to about 5 degrees Celsius. If the controller determines, based on the signal from the temperature sensor, the temperature at the cup or in the zone is not within the predefined range the heater may remain on and continue to heat the ice, block 1070. After a predetermined amount of time has passed, the temperature sensor again obtains a temperature reading from a cup or a zone of the mold body, block 1050. The controller again determines if the temperature is indicative of the ice being partially melted and ready for harvesting, block 1060. When the controller determines, based on the signal from the temperature sensor, the temperature at the cup or the zone of the mold body is within the predefined range the ice is harvested, block 1080, utilizing the rake and rake fingers described herein. The process then repeated with the next zone of the ice maker, returning to block 1010.
Use of slow heating, such as described with reference to
Other variations will be apparent by those of ordinary skill having the benefit of the instant disclosure. It will be appreciated that various additional modifications may be made to the embodiments discussed herein, and that a number of the concepts disclosed herein may be used in combination with one another or may be used separately. Therefore, the invention lies in the claims hereinafter appended.
