Applicant: ELECTROLUX HOME PRODUCTS CORPORATION N.V. Belgicastraat 17, BE-1930 Zavemtem, Belgium

Case P-11547

FREEZER ICE DISPENSER SYSTEM

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to an ice dispensing system for a refrigerated cabinet comprising an ice bin for holding pieces of ice, a delivery member for feeding said pieces to a ice bin outlet and activating means for activating said feeding.

BACKGROUND

Ice dispensing apparatus used in freezers have been available for a long time. For some apparatus the ice is dispensed into a removable ice bin located inside the door or at a shelf. For others, the ice is dispensed from a fixed ice bin through the door and into a vessel pushed against a paddle at the front dispensing panel on the cabinet door panel.

US 4,084,725 disclose such an ice dispenser with a front dispensing panel. The dispenser comprises an icemaker providing pieces of ice into an ice bin located below. The ice bin further comprises a helical wired auger, which when activated urges ice pieces forward towards a delivery member. This member rotates together with the auger. The member comprises a tubular drum with helical vanes which, when the auger is activated, feeds the pieces evenly out though a lower outlet opening in the ice bin. The pieces then fall down into a delivery passage, which connects the inside of the cabinet with the front dispensing panel.

The vessel is part of a lid mechanism, so when the vessel pushes the paddle towards the front panel, a lid enclosing the delivery passage is also opened. This enables for ice pieces inside the passage to pass out into the vessel. The Hd movement back to closing position is slowed by the mechanism in order to avoid that ice pieces get stuck in the delivery passage. When the vessel is pushed, a switch or an optical sensor detects paddle movement and the auger is activated and starts urging ice pieces through the tubular drum. The disclosed embodiment also comprises a metering

device at the tubular drum to be able to dispend any one of a plurality of different size and shape ice pieces.

US 4,084,725 shows a common ice dispensing system comprises an ice maker, an ice bin, an ice feeding auger and drum and a passage and paddle. An obvious problem with these systems is that there is a high risk that ice pieces get stuck either in the tubular drum or in the delivery passage. Reasons for this is the narrow passage through the drum and the fact that all ice pieces may not make the delivery passage before the lid is closed. Pieces that get stuck may clog the ice delivery system, which forces the user to remove the ice bin in order to remove the pieces. Moreover, the clog could damage the auger and lid mechanisms, which results in high service costs.

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide an ice dispensing system which solves the above mentioned clog problems.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTIONS

The invention relates to an ice dispensing system for a refrigerated cabinet comprising an ice bin for holding pieces of ice, a delivery member for feeding said pieces to a ice bin outlet and activating means for activating said feeding. Further, an ice bin gate is positioned at the ice bin outlet so as to control the pass of ice pieces through said outlet.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described further with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a front perspective view of a refrigerated cabinet, which comprises an ice dispensing system.

Fig. 2 shows a front perspective view of the door mounted front dispenser panel with the user interface and the delivery passage mechanism.

Fig. 3 shows a side view of the door mounted front dispenser panel, the delivery passage mechanism and the ice bin with the ice bin gate with the passage gate closed.

Fig. 4 shows a side view of the door mounted front dispenser panel, the delivery passage mechanism and the ice bin with the ice bin gate with the passage gate opened.

Fig. 5 shows a bottom perspective view of the ice bin with the ice bin gate mechanism.

Fig. 6 shows a close view of the ice bin gate.

Fig. 7 shows top perspective view of the ice bin.

Fig. 8 shows a close view of the tubular drum and the ice gate.

DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT The figures show a first illustrative embodiment of a handle unit in accordance with the invention. The illustrative embodiments shall not be interpreted as a limitation of the invention. Their purpose is to illustrate how the invention can be applied and to further illustrate the scope of the invention. The embodiment will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanied drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a front perspective view of a refrigerated cabinet 10, which comprises an ice dispensing system. The illustrative embodiment is focused on the following consumer benefits: external ice dispensing, one hand operation, automatic ice making, anti-clumping of ice, minimal loss of internal space and a night mode for silent operation. A front dispenser panel 11 is positioned on a convenient height on the cabinet door 12.

With reference to fig. 2 the panel 11 comprises a user interface 13, a lever/actuator 14 which by pushing activates ice feeding through a front outlet 15. The user interface comprises means to switch on and off the dispenser. The icemaker is of conventional type that make and dispense ice into an ice bin, which will be described later. The icemaker will not be described any further in this specification. The user interface also comprises indication LED's and the option to switch on and of a night mode, which will be described later.

With reference to fig. 2 - 4 the lever 14 is part of the activating means for the feeding of ice. It is coupled to a delivery passage mechanism 16. When the lever is pushed towards the cabinet the mechanism will transfer this motion and a passage gate 17 will open a delivery passage 18, which connects the inside of the cabinet with the front outlet 15. In fig. 3 the passage gate is closed while in fig. 4 it is open. When the lever moves, an optical sensor (not shown but also part of the activating means) positioned on the front dispenser panel 11 will detect that. The control system of the ice dispenser will then activate the feeding of ice.

The ice will flow from an ice bin 19 holding the ice pieces formed by the icemaker through an ice bin outlet 20 into the delivery passage via its inlet 21 closest to the ice bin outlet. An ice bin gate 22 is positioned to allow passage and guide the ice pieces to the inlet. As shown in fig. 3 the ice gate, when open, is substantially in parallel with the delivery passage and almost in contact with the inlet 21. Since the ice bin is positioned inside the cabinet and the delivery passage inlet is positioned on the door, the cooperation using the ice gate is essential to avoid that ice pieces falls out. It should be understood by a person skilled in the art that an electromechanical switch could replace the optical sensor. Moreover, an alternative to the detection of the lever movement is to provide a button on the user interface 13 for the user to manually activate the feeding of ice.

The main advantages of the present will now be described in relation to fig. 3 - 8. The main problem to be solved is to avoid clog of ice in the dispensing system. By shortening the delivery passage 18, introducing a new ice bin gate 22 and moving the passage gate 17 this is enabled.

When the optical sensor detects the lever 14 movements, the ice dispenser control system will activate the ice bin gate 22 by means of an ice bin gate motor 23 and a pushing rod 24. The ice bin gate motor is attached to the cabinet and connected to the rod via a coupling to provide the option of easily removing the ice bin from the cabinet inside. The gate is held to the ice bin gate by a hinge so as to rotate between open and closed position. The gate is spring-coupled which means that when the motor withdraws the rod the spring will quickly close the ice bin outlet 20. Fig. 5

shows a real time picture where the rod is withdrawn but the ice bin gate 22 has not yet closed.

The fast closing of the ice gate is important to prevent that a few pieces of ice slips through when the feeding is deactivated. The delivery passage mechanism 16 comprises slowing means, which delays the closing of the passage gate 17 in relation to the closing of the ice bin gate. This means that all ice pieces that accidentally slips though the ice bin outlet will pass the delivery passage inlet 21 and out through the front outlet 15. Moreover, the fact that the passage gate 16 is positioned at the delivery passage inlet means that no ice pieces will (as in known ice dispenser systems) get stuck in the delivery passage. In known systems said passage gate is instead positioned close to the front outlet.

Fig. 7 - 8 shows a top perspective view of the ice bin 19. A helical wire auger 24 is positioned inside the bin and connected to an auger motor 25 in order to rotate. When it rotates the auger feeds ice pieces held by the bin towards a tubular drum 26 having helical vanes. A wall 28 makes sure that all the ice pieces are fed through the drum. The drum and the auger are connected to the same axis 27 that is connected at both ends to the ice bin. Thereby they rotate together. The motor is held by a back wall (not shown) inside the cabinet and connected to the axis via a coupling (not shown). This means that the ice bin can be lifted out of the cabinet for cleaning purpose.

The ice pieces are further fed through the drum and into a feeding space 27 which can hold a number of pieces. The ice bin outlet 20 is connected to said space and when the ice bin gate 21 is open the ice pieces are fed out through said outlet. The space has the role of a sluice and will hold the ice pieces that have passed the drum 26 when the ice bin gate 21 is closed.

When the auger starts it feeds the content of the ice bin towards and through the tubular drum 26. Simultaneously the ice gate motor 23 actuates the ice bin gate 22 and ice cubes subsequently fall down through the ice bin outlet 20 and into the delivery passage 18 in the door 12. During ice dispensing the auger moves CW for 10 seconds and then idle motion is performed before CW motion is regained. Idle motion means that the motor CCW before the coupling grips the auger. This is done to prevent

jamming during dispensing. When removing the ice collecting vessel from the lever 14, the idle motion once again is performed. Hereafter the auger stops. The ice bin gate begins however to close immediately. Ice can only be dispensed from the icemaker once the ice bin gate has been closed.

In order to avoid large lumps of ice due to the fact that the icemaker has not been in use for a longer while, the ice dispenser system has an automatic anti clumping function. In order to achieve this, the idle motion plus an extra 80° CW turn is performed for instance every four (4) hours. If ice is dispensed when this motion is due to occur the anti clumping function is temporarily overridden. This function creates a great advantage since the user does not have to open the cabinet door and try to remove the clogged ice. Moreover, there is a lower risk that the clogged ice will damage parts of the dispensing system.

The icemaker and the anti-clumping feature create some noise. In order to reduce the disturbance in the night the ice dispenser system has a night mode function. The function is facilitated by the use of a photoelectric sensor located in the right hand corner of the front dispenser panel Hat the door. When this is activated (button on the user inteface 13) the photoelectric sensor will inform the control system if it is dark (threshold value) in the room where the cabinet is placed. If so, the control system will deactivate the icemaker and anti-clumping until the room is light again.