Ice maker
AssigneeTrue Manufacturing Co., Inc.
InventorKevin Knatt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ice maker includes an evaporator configured to freeze water into ice as it flows vertically down a freeze plate. A distributor distributes the water along the top of the freeze plate to form ice across the width of the freeze plate as the water flows downward along the freeze plate. The distributor can be integrated into the evaporator. For example, the distributor and evaporator can have a part in common. The distributor can be formed from two pieces that come together to form the freeze plate. The distributor can have various features that aid in providing a desirable distribution of water along the width of the freeze plate. The freeze plate can be mounted in an ice maker enclosure in thermal communication with the evaporator and to slant forward.
Claims13
An ice maker comprising:
- a freeze plate defining a plurality of molds in which the ice maker is configured to form ice, the freeze plate having a top portion and a bottom portion spaced apart along a height and a first side portion and a second side portion spaced apart along a width;
- and
- a distributor extending along the width of the freeze plate adjacent the top portion of the freeze plate, the distributor being configured to direct water imparted through the distributor to flow from the top portion of the freeze plate to the bottom portion generally uniformly along the width of the freeze plate;
- wherein the distributor comprises a first distributor piece and a second distributor piece, the second distributor piece configured to be releasably and operatively coupled to the first distributor piece to form the distributor by moving the second distributor piece toward the first distributor piece in a direction generally perpendicular to the width of the freeze plate and without installing any other fasteners in the distributor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.