Ice maker and refrigerator
AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.
InventorsYonghyun Kim, Jinil Hong, Hyunji Park
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Provided is a refrigerator including a cabinet having a refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment defined therein, and an ice maker disposed in the freezing compartment, wherein the ice maker includes an upper tray made of an elastic material, and having a plurality of hemispherical upper chambers defined therein, a lower tray made of an elastic material, wherein the lower tray comes into contact with the upper tray by pivoting to define a plurality of spherical ice chambers therebetween, a driver for pivoting the lower tray to open and close the upper tray and the lower tray, and each rib formed along a circumference of each upper chamber or each lower chamber in contact with each other.
Claims23
A refrigerator comprising:
- a cabinet;
- and
- an ice maker disposed in the cabinet and configured to make ice,
- wherein the ice maker comprises:
- a first tray made of an elastic material and defining a plurality of first chambers, and
- a second tray made of an elastic material and defining a plurality of second chambers, wherein the first tray and the second tray are configured to contact each other to make ice in a closed position and to be spaced apart from each other to separate ice in an open position, the first chamber and the second chamber being configured to define a plurality of ice chambers in the closed position,
- wherein the first tray comprises a first rib disposed at edge portions of the first chambers, and
- wherein the second tray comprises a second rib disposed at edge portions of the second chambers in a shape corresponding to the first rib, the second rib including Ian inner rib disposed adjacent to the second chambers and (ii) an outer rib positioned outward of the inner rib, and
- wherein the first rib is configured to be inserted between the inner rib and the outer rib when the second tray is in contact with the first tray, and at least one of the first rib or the second rib is configured to be bent based on the first and second trays being in the closed position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.