Automatic ice maker and household refrigerator equipped therewith
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsHiroshi Oike, Akira Kawamoto
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automatic ice maker includes an ice tray supplied with water, which water is made into ice. The ice tray is inverted after the ice making so that ice cubes are removed from the ice tray. An outlet is directed to the underside of the ice tray so that the chilled air from the outlet flows along the underside of the ice tray. As a result, the water at the bottom side of the ice tray is first made into ice, thereby providing opaque ice cubes. A thermistor for determining completion of the ice making senses the temperature of the upper portion of the ice tray where the water is last made into ice.
Claims6
An ice maker comprising:
- a) an ice making compartment;
- b) an ice tray having an underside and an upper side, the ice tray being provided in the ice making compartment so as to be capable of being inverted;
- c) a drive mechanism for inverting the ice tray, thereby removing the ice from the ice tray;
- d) a cover provided on the upper side of the ice tray;
- e) a heater embedded in the cover for heating the upper side of the ice tray during an ice making stage;
- f) water supply means for supplying the ice tray with water from a bottom surface of the ice tray to a water surface;
- g) chilled air supply means, having an outlet directed to the underside of the ice tray in the ice making compartment, for supplying chilled air into the ice making compartment through the outlet so that the chilled air flows along the underside of the ice tray, the water in the ice tray being frozen first from the bottom side surface of the ice tray such that air bubbles contained in the water are caused to escape therefrom through the water surface, thereby making a transparent ice;
- h) a temperature sensor including a thermistor molded in an insulating resin so that the thermistor is embedded in an upper portion of the insulating resin, the temperature sensor being disposed at an intermediate position of the height of the ice tray;
- and
- i) control means for controlling the drive mechanism to invert the ice tray when the temperature sensed by the temperature sensor reaches an ice making completion temperature, the ice being removed from the inverted ice tray.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.