Ice maker for refrigerator

Details Ice maker for refrigerator Ice maker for refrigerator

2006-12-12

2006-12-12

Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)

Refrigeration

Automatic control

By congealed removable product condition

C062S353000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07146820

ABSTRACT:
An ice maker for a refrigerator/freezer having a control module for more reliably driving a rotatable ice ejector for removing ice bodies from a mold of the ice maker and for refilling mold cavities with water. The control module has an ice ejector drive with a drive coupling that includes a gear wheel and an ejector shaft section, both made of hard plastic material, preferably a polymide resin, for transmitting higher torque to the rotary ice ejector without failure of the plastic drive components. In one embodiment, a drive sleeve on the gear wheel and a drive shaft section have a spline coupling for more effectively distributing driving forces in the drive coupling. In another embodiment, a metallic collar is tightly positioned over the gear wheel sleeve for enhancing torque transmission in the drive coupling. The control module further is operable for refilling the ice maker mold cavities to a predetermined level during each cycle of operation notwithstanding slight alterations in positioning of water fill switching contact due to manufacturing tolerances or forces to which the ice maker is subjected during shipping, handling or installation.

REFERENCES:
patent: 3712076 (1973-01-01), Fox
patent: 3727427 (1973-04-01), Eyman et al.
patent: 4142378 (1979-03-01), Bright et al.
patent: 5261248 (1993-11-01), Willis et al.
patent: 5657666 (1997-08-01), Tsuda et al.
patent: 6112540 (2000-09-01), Serrels et al.
patent: 6637217 (2003-10-01), Kim et al.
patent: 6743868 (2004-06-01), Fournier et al.
patent: 2004/0242334 (2004-12-01), Hamakita et al.

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