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US 8,572,999 B2Granted
Refrigerator
AssigneeLG Electronics Inc.
InventorsJu-Hyun Kim, Jong-Min Shin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ice maker is installed at a refrigerating chamber, and an ice bank is installed at a door of the refrigerating chamber. A cooling air duct extends along a wall surface of the refrigerating chamber and is positioned on an upper side of the ice bank so that ice stored in the inside of an ice bank is prevented from sticking to each other due to the melting of ice.
Claims12
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a main body having a freezing chamber, an evaporator provided at a rear of the freezing chamber, and a refrigerating chamber provided on an upper side of the freezing chamber;
- a door opening and closing the refrigerating chamber;
- an ice maker provided within the refrigerating chamber, the ice maker including:
- a refrigerant pipe allowing a refrigerant to flow for making ice;
- a tray to which water is supplied and in which the refrigerant pipe is immersed below a water level of the tray;
- and
- a pump provided at an outside of the tray to supply water to an inside of the tray;
- an ice container disposed below the ice maker, the ice container having a front surface mounted on a rear surface of the door, a rearmost surface exposed to an interior of the refrigerating chamber and an opening to receive the ice from the ice maker;
- a cooling air duct configured to extend from the freezing chamber to the refrigerating chamber;
- and
- a guide member positioned at a space between a lower end of the ice maker and an upper end of the ice container to guide ice dropped from the ice maker to the inside of the ice container,
- wherein the cooling air duct is mounted on a ceiling of the refrigerating chamber, a first end of the cooling air duct being disposed adjacent to the ice container,
- wherein the first end of the cooling air duct comprises at least one hole, the at least one hole is the only hole that directs cold air into the refrigerating chamber, the cooling air duct is separated from being in communication with an interior of the refrigerating chamber continuously from a first point to a second point, the first point corresponds to a second end at which the cooling air duct receives the cold air from the evaporator and the second point corresponds to the first end where the at least one hole is located, and the cooling air duct includes no air intake ports in the refrigerating chamber between the first point and the second point, such that all of the cold air discharged from the end of the cooling air duct that is supplied to the ice container reaches the ice container without contacting the ice maker such that ice stored in the container is prevented from melting, and
- wherein the cold air is supplied to the refrigerating chamber via the space.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.