US 12,135,157 B2Granted

Refrigerator

AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.

InventorsDonghoon Lee, Wookyong Lee, Sunggyun Son, Donghoon Lee, Seungseob Yeom, Yongjun Bae, Chongyoung Park

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Abstract

A refrigerator according to the present invention comprises: a storage space in which food is stored; a cooler for supplying cold to the storage space; a first tray assembly constituting a part of an icing cell which is the space in which water is phase-changed to ice by the cold; a second tray assembly constituting another part of the icing cell; a heater located to be adjacent to the first tray assembly and/or the second tray assembly; and a control unit for controlling the heater, wherein the control unit performs controls so that the heater is turned on in at least a partial period while the cooler supplies the cold, and thus air bubbles disintegrating in the water inside the icing cell move to liquid-phase water from a part where ice is generated, thereby enabling transparent ice to be generated, and the degree of cold transfer, which is the amount of cold of the cooler is to be transferred, is different in the first tray assembly and the second tray assembly.

A refrigerator comprising:

a storage chamber configured to store food;
a cooler configured to supply cold into the storage chamber;
and
an ice maker comprising:
a first tray having a first portion of a cell;
a first tray case having a portion in contact with the first tray, formed as a separate component to the first tray, and coupled to the first tray;
a second tray having a second portion of the cell, the first portion and the second portion being configured to define a space formed by the cell in which liquid is phased-changed to form ice;
a second tray case having a portion in contact with the second tray formed as a separate component to the second tray, and coupled to the second tray;
a liquid supply part configured to supply the liquid into the space of the cell;
a heater provided to supply heat to the cell;
and
a controller configured to:
operate the heater while the ice is being formed so that gas bubbles dissolved in the liquid within the cell move from a portion of the space where the liquid that has phase-changed into the ice to another portion of the space where the liquid is in a fluid state,
wherein the first tray and the second tray have respective different degrees of cold transfer for transferring the cold of the cooler into the space of the cell,
wherein the first tray and the first tray case have respective different degrees of cold transfer for transferring the cold of the cooler into the space of the cell,
wherein the second tray and the first tray case have respective different degrees of cold transfer for transferring the cold of the cooler into the space of the cell,
wherein the first tray and the second tray case have respective different degrees of cold transfer for transferring the cold of the cooler into the space of the cell, and
wherein the second tray and the second tray case have respective different degrees of cold transfer for transferring the cold of the cooler into the space of the cell.

15 more elements

Facts

Application

17/282,070Filed 1 Oct 2019

Priority

KR 10-2018-01177852 Oct 2018

Published

US 2021/0341204 A14 Nov 2021

Granted

5 Nov 2024

Term ends

Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification14 codes

F25C 1/18
Producing ice: of a particular transparency or translucency, e.g. by injecting air
F25C 1/24
Construction of moulds; Filling devices for moulds: for refrigerators, e.g. freezing trays
F25C 1/10
Producing ice: by using rotating or otherwise moving moulds
F25C 1/25
Construction of moulds; Filling devices for moulds: filling devices for moulds

Abstract

Claims20