Refrigeration – Means producing shaped or modified congealed product – With raw material projector – e.g. – spray
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-18
2004-05-18
Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Means producing shaped or modified congealed product
With raw material projector, e.g., spray
C062S353000, C062S072000, C239S518000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06735974
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2002-42622, filed Jul. 19, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a water distributing pipe for ice making devices of refrigerators, and more particularly, to a water distributing pipe for ice making devices of refrigerators, which is capable of preventing water from being splashed when the water is fed to an ice cube tray.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known to those skilled in the art, an automatic ice making device is provided in a freezer compartment of a refrigerator, and freezes water fed from an external water supply source to make ice cubes. After the ice cubes are made in the automatic ice making device, the ice cubes are stacked and stored in an ice container which is installed in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator, through an ice feeding action.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, an ice making device includes an ice cube tray
103
, a drive unit
104
, and a sensing lever
106
. The ice cube tray
103
is rotatably mounted to a support member
102
which is interiorly fixed to an upper wall of a freezer compartment
101
. The drive unit
104
rotates the ice cube tray
103
. The sensing lever
106
is connected to the drive unit
104
and senses an amount of ice cubes stored in an ice container
105
. A water supply pipe
108
is mounted to a body
107
of the refrigerator, and extends from a water source provided at an outside of the body
107
to an inside of the freezer compartment
101
to supply water to the ice making device. The water supply pipe
108
passes through the external surface of a rear wall of the body
107
, and an insulating material provided between outer and inner surfaces of a top wall of the body
107
, and extends to the inside of the freezer compartment
101
. The end of the water supply pipe
108
in the freezer compartment
101
is connected to a water discharging pipe
109
which extends toward the ice cube tray
103
.
In the conventional ice making device, the end of the water discharging pipe
109
is spaced from a top of the ice cube tray
103
. As shown in
FIG. 2
, the water supplied from the water supply pipe
108
flows through a connecting part
201
while strongly and vertically falling along the inner surface of a water discharging part
202
. Further, the water is excessively supplied to a specified area of the ice cube tray
103
, so the water that strongly falls to the ice cube tray
103
may be splashed or may overflow. The problem becomes more serious due to air existing in the water supply pipe
108
or water discharging pipe
109
or irregular water pressure when the water supply pipe
108
is directly connected to an external water tap. The conventional water discharging pipe
109
for the ice making devices has another problem that splashed water drops are frozen as the splashed water drops contact an area around the ice making device, so the area around the ice making devices become dirty. The conventional water discharging pipe
109
for the ice making devices has a further problem that the water filled in the ice cube tray may overflow, so an amount of the water which is practically frozen is undesirably small, thus an amount of the ice cubes is reduced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, a water distributing pipe for ice making devices of refrigerators is provided, which has an improved construction capable of preventing water supplied to an ice cube tray from splashing or overflowing.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
To accomplish the above and other objects, a water distributing pipe for an ice making device of a refrigerator which comprises an ice cube tray designed such that a top portion is open to receive water into the ice cube tray and opposite ends thereof respectively, are rotatably supported by an inside of a freezer compartment and a water supply pipe supplying water to the ice cube tray, and the water distributing pipe connected to an end of the water supply pipe, distributing water to the ice cube tray, wherein the water distributing pipe comprises a connecting part connected to the water supply pipe, a water discharging part extending from the connecting part and discharging water to the ice cube tray, and a projecting part provided in the water discharging part distributing the supplied water.
Another object is to provide the water distributing pipe, which is cut at an end thereof to have a plurality of cutouts having a predetermined shape, with a plurality of thin protrusions defined by the cutouts and extending from the end of the distributing pipe.
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English Translation of Abstract of Korean Patent Publication 2001-19693.
English Translation of Abstract of Korean Patent Publication 2001-37548.
Ali Mohammad M.
Staas & Halsey , LLP
Tapolcai William E.
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