Refrigeration – Cooled enclosure – Plural cooled compartments
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-25
2002-11-05
Esquivel, Denise L. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Cooled enclosure
Plural cooled compartments
C062S312000, C062S443000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06474094
ABSTRACT:
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. §119 from my application entitled REFRIGERATOR HAVING FREEZING COMPARTMENT filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on Dec. 29, 2000 and there duly assigned Ser. No. 2000-86189.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to refrigerators and, more particularly, to a refrigerator having a freezer compartment with an automatic ice-making system improved in its structure to accomplish efficient utilization of the storage space of the freezer compartment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, refrigerators are appliances that feed cool air generated from an evaporator into both a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment to maintain freshness of various foodstuffs stored in the two compartments. The freezer compartment typically stores foodstuffs to be maintained at a temperature of not higher than the freezing point, for example frozen meat, frozen fishes or the like, while the refrigerator compartment typically stores foodstuffs to be freshly maintained at a temperature of not lower than the freezing point, for example vegetables, fruits, beverages or the like.
The freezer compartment of a conventional large-sized refrigerator is typically provided with an automatic ice-making system comprising an automatic ice-maker for freezing fresh water to form ice cubes, an ice cube container for storing the ice cubes formed by the ice-maker, and an ice cube dispensing unit for dispensing the ice cubes from the container to the outside of the refrigerator. Therefore, when it is desired to use ice cubes, a user easily discharges ice cubes from the container through an ice cube discharge opening of a freezer compartment door without opening the door of the freezer compartment.
FIG. 1
shows a conventional freezer compartment equipped with such an automatic ice-making system.
The freezer compartment
11
is defined by a housing
10
having a top wall, a bottom wall and sidewalls. A front access opening of the freezer compartment
11
is provided with a freezer compartment door
12
for closing or opening the compartment
11
. The above freezer compartment
11
is also provided at its rear wall with an evaporator
13
for generating cool air, and at its bottom wall with a compressor
14
.
An automatic ice-making system
20
is installed inside the upper portion of the freezer compartment
11
. This ice-making system
20
comprises an automatic ice-maker
21
, an ice cube container
22
and an ice cube dispensing unit
23
. The ice-maker
21
receives water from an external water supply (not shown) through a water supply hose
19
and forms ice cubes. The ice cube container
22
is provided at a position under the ice-maker
21
to store the ice cubes formed by the ice-maker
21
, and the ice cube dispensing unit
23
is provided within the ice cube container
22
and discharges ice cubes from the container
22
to the outside of the refrigerator when a user operates the dispensing unit
23
.
The freezer compartment
11
is also provided with a plurality of shelves
15
and storage boxes
16
at predetermined positions under the ice-making system
20
for holding frozen foodstuffs in the compartment
11
.
The automatic ice-making system
20
, provided at the upper portion inside the freezer compartment
11
, must be designed to dispense ice cubes from the ice cube container
22
to the outside of the freezer compartment
11
without forcing a user to open the freezer compartment door
12
. To this end, the freezer compartment door
12
is provided with an ice cube discharge conduit
24
for allowing ice cubes from the container
22
to pass therethrough, and is provided at its outer surface with a recessed station
25
for receiving the ice cubes discharged from the conduit
24
. The recessed station
25
is provided with a switch lever
26
for activating the ice cube dispensing unit
23
. Therefore, when a user pushes backward the switch lever
26
with a cup
100
, the ice cube dispensing unit
23
is activated to dispense ice cubes from the container
22
into the cup
100
. That is, water supplied from the outside is frozen by the ice-maker
21
to form ice cubes, and then the ice cubes are automatically fed into the ice cube container
22
. When the ice cube dispensing unit
23
is activated by a user, the ice cubes in the container
22
are discharged from the container
22
to the recessed station
25
through the discharge conduit
24
.
However, as shown in
FIGS. 2 and 3
, since the conventional ice cube container
22
set in the upper portion of the freezer compartment
11
has a width approximately equal to the width of the freezer compartment
11
, the storage space of the freezer compartment
11
is not efficiently utilized. That is, the automatic ice-maker
21
has a relatively small width, and so it only occupies a portion of the freezer compartment
11
at a position around a sidewall of the compartment
11
. However, the ice cube container
22
installed under the automatic ice-maker
21
occupies approximately the whole width of the storage chamber of the freezer compartment
11
. An dead space D
1
is thus left between the ice-maker
21
and the opposite sidewall of the compartment
11
at a position above the ice cube container
22
. It is impossible for ice cubes from the ice-maker
21
to be stored in that space D
1
, and SO the space D
1
is a useless space.
In the conventional ice-making system
20
, the width W
1
of the ice cube container
22
is designed to be larger than the width W
2
of the ice-maker
21
so as to store a sufficient amount of ice cubes in the container
22
. However, such a difference between the two widths W
1
and W
2
undesirably leaves dead spaces (D
2
) outside the opposite sides of the container's bottom wall. That is, since the ice cube dispensing unit
23
is longitudinally and centrally arranged inside the ice cube container
22
, the ice cubes stored inside the opposite sides of the container's bottom wall cannot be effectively or smoothly fed to the dispensing unit
23
if the container
22
has a flat bottom wall meeting the sidewall at a right angle. Therefore, it is necessary to bulge the container's bottom wall to naturally guide the ice cubes by gravity from the opposite sides of the bottom wall to the ice cube dispensing unit
23
. However, the bulged shape of the container's bottom wall undesirably leaves the dead spaces D
2
outside the opposite sides of the container's bottom wall as best seen in FIG.
2
. In addition, since the automatic ice-maker
21
is arranged above the ice cube container
22
at a position eccentric from the central axis of the container
22
as shown in
FIG. 2
, the ice cubes from the automatic ice-maker
21
are accumulated to their maximum height at a position inside the container
22
just under the ice-maker
21
. However, the height of the accumulated ice cubes is gradually lowered in a direction from the maximum height toward the side of the container
22
remote from the ice-maker
21
while leaving another dead space D
3
within the container
22
.
Furthermore, a water supply hose
19
for supplying water to the automatic ice-maker
21
extends through the sidewall of the freezer compartment
11
to reach the interior of the compartment
11
at its inside end. The inside end of the hose
19
also penetrates the sidewall of the automatic ice-maker
21
and is terminated at a position above an ice-making tray
27
, and so the ice-maker
21
must be inevitably increased in its height due to the position of the water supply hose
19
relative to the ice-maker
21
. With the configuration of the automatic ice-maker
21
, the effective storage space of the conventional freezer compartment
11
is further reduced.
Therefore, the storage space inside the freezer compartment
11
is not efficiently utilized due to the structural defect of both the ice cube container
22
ha
Bushnell , Esq. Robert E.
Esquivel Denise L.
Jones Melvin
Samsung Electronics Co,. Ltd.
LandOfFree
Refrigerator having freezer compartment does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Refrigerator having freezer compartment, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Refrigerator having freezer compartment will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2946799