Ice maker for a domestic refrigeration device

Abstract

An ice maker for a domestic refrigeration device includes an ice-making tray having a plurality of freezing cavities which are divided between multiple cavity rows arranged one behind the other in a first tray extension direction. Freezing cavities arranged adjacent to one another in pairs in the first tray extension direction are separated on a tray underside of the ice-making tray by an indentation. The ice maker also includes a wall element for delimiting, in a freezing operating position of the wall element relative to the ice-making tray, a cold air channel between the underside of the ice-making tray and the wall element, which cold air channel extends substantially over the entire length of the ice-making tray in the first tray extension direction. The wall element is designed with at least one air-deflecting formation which projects locally into the cold air channel.

Claims

1. An ice maker for a domestic refrigeration device, comprising: an ice-making tray having a plurality of freezing cavities which are divided between a plurality of cavity rows arranged one behind the other in a first tray extension direction, wherein freezing cavities that are arranged adjacent to one another in pairs in the first tray extension direction are separated on a tray underside of the ice-making tray by an indentation; a wall element for delimiting a cold air channel which, in a freezing operating position of the wall element relative to the ice-making tray, extends between the underside of the ice-making tray and the wall element substantially over the entire length of the ice-making tray in the first tray extension direction thereof, wherein the wall element is designed with at least one air-deflecting formation which projects locally into the cold air channel and which, in the freezing operating position of the wall element and when seen in a normal projection onto the ice-making tray, is situated in a region of the ice-making tray that contains the freezing cavities and which has an extension transverse to the first tray extension direction.

2. The ice maker as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one air-deflecting formation comprises multiple air-deflecting formations which are arranged spaced apart from one another and one behind the other in the first tray extension direction.

3. The ice maker as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the at least one air-deflecting formations is situated, in the freezing operating position and when seen in the normal projection onto the ice-making tray, at least in part in a region between two adjacent cavity rows in the first tray extension direction, in particular between two adjacent freezing cavities in the first tray extension direction.

4. The ice maker as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one air-deflecting formation comprises an air-deflecting formation in association with each of multiple cavity pairs of the ice-making tray that are adjacent in the first tray extension direction.

5. The ice maker as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one air-deflecting formation comprises an air-deflecting formation only in association with a partial number of all the cavity pairs of the ice-making tray that are adjacent in the first tray extension direction.

6. The ice maker as claimed in claim 5, wherein the at least one air-deflecting formation comprises an air-deflecting formation only in association with such a cavity pair whose freezing cavities are arranged downstream of a first cavity row located proximate to an inflow side of the cold air channel.

7. The ice maker as claimed in claim 5, wherein the at least one air-deflecting formation comprises an air-deflecting formation only in association with such a cavity pair whose freezing cavities are arranged upstream of a last cavity row located proximate to an outflow side of the cold air channel.

8. The ice maker as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one air-deflecting formation forms at least one shovel- or ramp-shaped air-deflecting surface which projects locally into the cold air channel, in order to deflect inflowing cold air in the direction towards the indentation between one of the cavity pairs.

9. The ice maker as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wall element is designed downstream of at least one and in particular of each air-deflecting formation with a local, in particular completely surrounded, wall aperture.

10. The ice maker as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one air-deflecting formation comprises an air-deflecting formation which in the freezing operating position of the wall element—when seen in the normal projection onto the ice-making tray—extends perpendicular to the first tray extension direction over a length that corresponds at least to half of the extension, measured in that direction, of the ice-making tray.

11. The ice maker as claimed in claim 1, comprising a support structure, which rotatably mounts the ice-making tray, in particular encloses the ice-making tray in the manner of a frame, for installation in the refrigeration device, wherein the wall element is mounted on the support structure so as to be movable relative thereto.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The invention will be explained hereinbelow with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0018] FIG. 1 shows, schematically, an ice maker according to one exemplary embodiment,

[0019] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an ice maker according to a further exemplary embodiment,

[0020] FIG. 3 is vertical longitudinal section through parts of the ice maker of FIG. 2,

[0021] FIG. 4 shows, in perspective, a wall element of the ice maker of FIG. 2 provided for forming an air channel, and

[0022] FIG. 5 is a vertical longitudinal section through the wall element of FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] Reference will first be made to FIG. 1. The ice maker shown therein is generally designated 10. It is installed, for example, in a domestic refrigerator or in a domestic freezer and has an ice-making tray 12, for example made of plastics material, in which pieces of ice (often referred to colloquially as ice cubes irrespective of their concrete shape) can be produced. To that end, the ice-making tray 12 has a plurality of freezing cavities 14 which each serve to produce one piece of ice. In the example shown, the freezing cavities 14 are formed by cavity-like depressions in the base of the ice-making tray 12. The freezing cavities 14 are arranged, for example, in a regular n×m matrix, wherein n>m. For example, in some embodiments n=6, while m=2. It will be appreciated that these are only numerical examples and are not intended to be limiting at all. In any case, in the example shown of FIG. 1, the ice-making tray 12 is shown with a total of six cavity rows, wherein one freezing cavity 14 or multiple (e.g. two) freezing cavities 14 can be arranged side by side, that is to say in the representation of FIG. 1 into the plane of the drawing, in each cavity row. The ice-making tray 12 is longer than it is wide. In FIG. 1, the ice-making tray 12 is shown in a vertical longitudinal section; the extension of the ice-making tray 12 from right to left in the representation of FIG. 1 therefore corresponds to its longitudinal extension. This is a first tray extension direction within the meaning of the present disclosure.

[0024] By means of a water supply device 16, fresh water can be filled into the freezing cavities 14 of the ice-making tray 12. In the example shown, the water supply device 16 comprises a water storage container 18 and a feed 20, by way of which water from the water storage container 18 can be guided in a quantitatively controlled manner into the ice-making tray 12. The water supply device 16 can be connected to a conventional permanent connection which is part of a domestic water system. In such a case, the water storage container 18 can be dispensed with and water can instead be filled directly from the permanent connection into the ice-making tray 12 by way of the feed 20.

[0025] Beneath the ice-making tray 12 there is a collecting container 22 in which finished pieces of ice—indicated at 23—can be collected.

[0026] From a cold air source (not shown in detail), cold air (for example at a temperature of less than −15° Celsius) is guided by means of a cold-air-guiding system 24 into the region of the ice-making tray 12, where it is discharged by way of a nozzle 26 into a cold air channel 28 which runs beneath the ice-making tray 12 in the tray longitudinal direction, that is to say in the first tray extension direction. The discharged cold air flows through the cold air channel 28 from right to left in the representation of FIG. 1 and emerges from the cold air channel 28 at the channel end on the outflow side, that is to say at the left-hand end. In the cold air channel 28, the cold air flows along the tray underside in direct contact with the tray material of the ice-making tray 12. The cold air extracts heat energy from the water introduced into the freezing cavities 14 and thereby accelerates freezing of the water.

[0027] In the example shown, the ice-making tray 12 is arranged so as to be rotatable by means of a drive unit 30, for example a motor drive unit, about a horizontal axis of rotation (not shown in detail). After a batch of pieces of ice has been frozen in the freezing cavities 14 of the ice-making tray 12, the ice-making tray can be rotated, by activation of the drive unit 30, through at least 90 degrees and optionally even further about the mentioned axis of rotation from an ice-producing position shown in FIG. 1 into an ice-ejecting position, in which the frozen pieces of ice are able to fall from the ice-making tray 12 into the collecting container 22. In the course of this rotation of the ice-making tray 12, the ice-making tray can at the same time be twisted on itself in order thus to break the frozen pieces of ice away from the walls of the freezing cavities 14 so that, after the ice-making tray 12 has been rotated sufficiently, they are able to fall from the ice-making tray 12 solely by gravity.

[0028] It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to ice makers with an ice-making tray that operates by the “twisted tray” principle. Instead, it is equally conceivable to produce the ice-making tray 12 from a rigid, non-twistable material, for example aluminum or another material with good thermal conductivity. For releasing the frozen pieces of ice from the tray material, the ice-making tray in such embodiments can be heatable. The pieces of ice can then be pushed out of the freezing cavities 14 by means of an ejecting mechanism (not shown in detail) and can fall into the collecting container 22. Rotatability of the ice-making tray 12 is not required in such embodiments.

[0029] By means of a sensor system, which is indicated schematically in FIG. 1 by a sensor 32, it is possible to detect the state of freezing of the water in at least one of the freezing cavities 14 by means of sensors. At least in some embodiments, the sensor 32 is mounted on the ice-making tray 12, for example it is embedded in a wall section of the ice-making tray 12 or adhesively bonded thereto or fastened thereto in another way. For example, the sensor system can comprise one or more infrared sensors or/and thermistors. The sensor system delivers its sensor signal or sensor signals to an electrical, for example microprocessor-based, control unit 34, which controls the rotary drive 30 in dependence on the detected state of freezing of the water in the ice-making tray 12 and, after the ice-making tray 12 has been emptied and returned to the ice-producing position, controls refilling of the freezing cavities 14 with water from the water supply device 16.

[0030] In the ice-producing position of the ice-making tray 12, the cold air channel 28 is delimited at the top by the ice-making tray 12 and at the bottom by a wall element 36 which, in a section normal to the tray longitudinal direction, has the form of, for example, a groove or trough with laterally raised sidewalls. The sidewalls can project as far as the longitudinal sides of the ice-making tray 12, in order to define the cold air channel 28 also in the tray transverse direction, that is to say in the representation of FIG. 1 into the plane of the drawing and out of the plane of the drawing.

[0031] The ice-making tray 12 forms on its tray underside a plurality of indentations 38, which are each arranged between a pair of adjacent freezing cavities 14 in the tray longitudinal direction. Because the freezing cavities 14 are configured to taper towards the bottom in the example shown, the indentations 38 are wider at the bottom and become narrower towards the top. It will be appreciated that this design of the freezing cavities 14 and of the indentations 38 that is shown is only by way of example and is not intended to be limiting. It is important that, owing to the indentations 38, the ice-making tray 12 does not have a continuous flat underside but, on the underside of the ice-making tray 12, with respect to a notional tray enveloping surface 40 on the underside that connects the cavity bases of the freezing cavities 14, the indentations 38 provide local depressions, extending comparatively deeply, of the surface profile on the underside of the ice-making tray 12 relative to the tray enveloping surface 40.

[0032] In order, despite the mentioned unevenness on the underside of the ice-making tray 12, to ensure a good flow to all surface regions of the freezing cavities 14, that is to say also into the indentations 38, the wall element 36 is designed with at least one air-guiding fin 42 which projects into the cold air channel 28 and performs a deflecting function for cold air flowing in the cold air channel. In the example shown, the wall element 36 has three such air-guiding fins 42, which are arranged spaced apart from one another and one behind the other in the channel longitudinal direction (corresponding to the tray longitudinal direction). The air-guiding fins 20 form air-deflecting surfaces within the meaning of the invention; they can form, for example, a linearly ascending air-deflecting ramp or an arcuately curved air-deflecting shovel. In the freezing operating position of the wall element 36 shown in FIG. 1, in a normal projection onto the ice-making tray 12 (i.e. when seen perpendicular to the tray plane of the ice-making tray 12), they are situated in the region of the ice-making tray 12 in which the freezing cavities 14 are located, and they extend in the tray transverse direction (i.e. into the plane of the drawing when looking at FIG. 1) over, for example, at least half or two thirds or three quarters of the width of the ice-making tray 12. In the example shown, the air-guiding fins 42—when seen in the tray longitudinal direction—are each arranged in spatial association with one of the indentations 38, namely such that cold air which strikes one of the air-guiding fins 42 is deflected by the air-guiding fin in the direction into the associated indentation 38. This ensures that sufficient cold air flows around the freezing cavities 14 even in the region of the indentations 38.

[0033] Each of the air-guiding fins 42 forms a local flow obstruction for the cold air flowing in the cold air channel. Behind each air-guiding fin 42, the channel cross section of the cold air channel 38 increases again (measured in relation to the enveloping surface 40); the flow obstruction is therefore a point at which the cold air flow is locally obstructed. Regardless of this, in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1 shown, the cold air channel 28 narrows—again measured in relation to the enveloping surface 40—continuously from the channel end on the inflow side (right-hand end in FIG. 1) to the channel end on the outflow side (left-hand end in FIG. 1). By means of this general reduction in cross section of the cold air channel 28, it is possible to achieve a flow speed of the cold air that increases towards the channel end on the outflow side and thus a heat-absorbing capacity of the flowing cold air that is sufficiently high as far as the channel end on the outflow side. The general tapering of the cold air channel 28 can be achieved by a suitable form of the wall element 36; however, this is not a local air-deflecting formation within the meaning of the present disclosure, even if the wall element 36—when seen in a vertical longitudinal section of the ice-making tray 12—has for this purpose a profile oriented generally obliquely to the longitudinal direction of the ice-making tray 12 from the channel end on the inflow side to the channel end on the outflow side, as shown in the example of FIG. 1.

[0034] The size, shape and orientation of the air-guiding fins 42 can be substantially the same for all the air-guiding fins 42. However, it may be advantageous to vary the air-guiding fins 42, for example in respect of the height by which they project into the cold air channel 28. Thus, it can be provided in some embodiments that an air-guiding fin 42 located relatively downstream has a greater height than an air-guiding fin 42 located relatively upstream.

[0035] In the example shown, in which six indentations 38 are formed one behind the other on the tray underside in the tray longitudinal direction, the first indentation 38 in the tray longitudinal direction (between the first cavity row and the second cavity row) and the last indentation 38 in the tray longitudinal direction (between the penultimate cavity row and the last cavity row) do not have an associated air-guiding fin 42 on the wall element 36. Instead, an air-guiding fin 42 is associated only with each of the three middle indentations 38 (between the second and third cavity rows, between the third and fourth cavity rows and between the fourth and fifth cavity rows). However, it is of course possible to provide an air-guiding fin 42 on the wall element 36 in association with the first indentation 38 and/or the last indentation 38. Measurements of the freezing times of the pieces of ice in the freezing cavities 14 can indicate which of the indentations 38 require an increased flow of cold air, on the one hand in order to optimally match the freezing times for the freezing cavities 14 to one another and on the other hand in order to shorten the longest freezing time of the freezing cavities 14.

[0036] In order that the wall element 36 does not get in the way of the frozen pieces of ice 23 when the pieces of ice 23 are ejected from the ice-making tray 12, the wall element 36 can be arranged for joint rotation with the ice-making tray 12. It will be appreciated that the wall element 36 can alternatively also be moved in another way out of the fall path of the pieces of ice 23 falling out of the ice-making tray 12, for example by means of a linear transverse movement transverse to the ice-making tray 12. The position shown in FIG. 1 of the wall element 36 corresponds to a freezing operating position, from which the wall element 36 can be moved, either together with the ice-making tray 12 or relative to the ice-making tray 12, into a non-operative position (not shown in detail) for the purpose of emptying the ice-making tray 12.

[0037] Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 2 to 5. In those figures, components which are the same or have the same effect are provided with the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1, but with the addition of a lowercase letter. Unless indicated otherwise hereinbelow, reference is made to the preceding comments for the explanation of such components which are the same or have the same effect.

[0038] The ice maker 10a of the exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 2 to 5 comprises a support structure 44a on which the ice-making tray 12a is mounted so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation 46a running in the tray longitudinal direction. The wall element 36a is also mounted on the support structure 44a so as to be movable relative thereto. For example, the wall element 36a is coupled with the ice-making tray 12a for joint rotation about the axis of rotation 46a. The support structure 44a additionally provides a receiving space (not shown in detail) for an electric drive motor and optionally a reducing gear. The drive motor and the reducing gear (where present) form a drive unit for the ice-making tray 12a (see the drive unit 30 of FIG. 1). Together with the components mounted thereon or arranged thereon, such as the ice-making tray 12a, the wall element 36a, the drive motor and optionally the reducing gear, the support structure 44a forms an ice-making module, which constitutes a mechanically fully functional structural unit. This ice-making module can be installed as such in a domestic refrigerator or freezer. It will be seen that the support structure 44a forms a rectangular frame into which the ice-making tray 12a is inserted.

[0039] As in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1, in the exemplary embodiments of FIGS. 2 to 5 the wall element 36a is also designed with multiple (here three) air-guiding fins 42a arranged one behind the other, which serve to deflect in a targeted manner cold air which flows in the cold air channel 28a into the indentations 38a between at least some of the adjacent pairs of cavity rows (here between the second and third cavity rows, between the third and fourth cavity rows and between the fourth and fifth cavity rows, counted in the direction from upstream to downstream). Behind each of the air-guiding fins 42a, a local wall aperture 48a which is surrounded on all sides is formed in the wall element 36a. These wall apertures 48a allow cold air from beneath the wall element 36a to flow into the cold air channel 28a owing to the suction effect of the cold air flowing in the cold air channel 28a. The inflowing cold air prevents accumulations of relatively warm air from forming in the lee of the air-guiding fins 42a. In the example shown, the wall apertures 48a have a width (measured in the tray transverse direction) which corresponds substantially to the width of the air-guiding fins 42. In the example shown, the air-guiding fins 42a and the wall apertures 48a are so configured that, under the notional assumption that the air-guiding fins 42a are flexible, the wall apertures 48a could be substantially completely closed by pushing the air-guiding fins 42a down into the opening region of the wall apertures 48a. It will be appreciated that such flexibility of the air-guiding fins 48a serves only as a notional aid for explaining the form of the air-guiding fins 42a and of the wall apertures 48a in the example shown. In a practical embodiment, the air-guiding fins 42a can of course be rigid.

[0040] It is additionally apparent, in particular from FIGS. 3 and 5, that not all the air-guiding fins 42a have the same height, that is to say they do not all project equally deep into the air-guiding channel 28a. Instead, in the example shown, the first air-guiding fin 42a in the upstream direction (situated between the second and third cavity rows) is designed with a smaller height than the following two air-guiding fins 42a in the downstream direction.

[0041] Moreover, in the example shown, the first air-guiding fin 42a in the upstream direction is designed with a slightly smaller width than the following two air-guiding fins 42a in the downstream direction. The air-guiding fins 42a can accordingly be designed to be of a different height and/or of a different width according to the requirement of the freezing cavities 14a for assistance with water freezing.

[0042] In the example of FIGS. 2 to 5, the air-guiding fins 42a are curved in the manner of a shovel, wherein they are concavely curved in the direction from the foot of the fin to the free end of the fin and are likewise concavely curved in the direction of the width of the fin. It will be appreciated that this curved form of the air-guiding fins 42a is also only by way of example and can be suitably adapted in dependence on the cooling requirements.