Ice maker for refrigerator

Details Ice maker for refrigerator Ice maker for refrigerator

2008-04-01

2008-04-01

Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)

Refrigeration

Time or program actuator

Congelation product maker

C062S347000

Reexamination Certificate

active

11636834

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: 3864933 (1975-02-01), Bright
patent: 4142378 (1979-03-01), Bright et al.
patent: 4866948 (1989-09-01), Cole
patent: 5261248 (1993-11-01), Willis et al.
patent: 5596182 (1997-01-01), Edwards et al.
patent: 5657666 (1997-08-01), Tsuda et al.
patent: 6058720 (2000-05-01), Ryu
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: 6938428 (2005-09-01), Onishi et al.
patent: 2004/0242334 (2004-12-01), Hamakita et al.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Ice maker for refrigerator does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Ice maker for refrigerator, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Ice maker for refrigerator will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3937878