US3041125A - Refrigerator and ice maker - Google Patents

Description

June 26, 1962 G. MUFFLY REFRIGERATOR AND ICE MAKER Original Filed July 20, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June ze, 1962 G. MUFFLY 3,041,125

REFRIGERATOR AND ICE MAKER Original Filed July 20, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheel'I 2 J l Z0 @-7- 0 202 a Q y 202 V200 NVENTOR 4@ @Zelf/1 Milf/f4? United States 3,041,125 REFRIGERATOR AND ICE MAKER Glenn Mailly, 1541 Crestview Drive, Springfield, Ohio Original application July 20, 1954, Ser. No. 444,422, now Patent No. 2,866,322, dated Dec. 30, 1958. Divided and this application Apr. 28, 1958, Ser. No. 731,300

1 Claim. (Cl. S12- 296) This is a division of my copending application Serial No. 444,422, led July 20, 1954, now Patent No. 2,866,- 322, issued December 30, 1958, and the invention relates to a new type of refrigerator and to controls of refrigerators having both freezers and ice makers.

References are made in this specification directly or indirectly to some of my U.S. patents and pending applications listed below:

2,709,343 issued May 31, 1955, appl. S.N. 74,528 2,765,633 issued Oct. 9, 1956, appl. S.N. 178,498 2,894,374 issued July 14, 1959, appl. S.N. 464,041 2,942,432 issued June 28, 1960, appl. S.N. 552,530

The present application discloses a number of improvements over the inventions of these earlier patents and applications and is directed mainly to a new type of household refrigerator having a separately insulated, automatically defrosted freezer combined with a nonfreezing food storage space in which there is an automatic ice-maker, with co-related control of all three. Some of the objects of this invention are:

To provide improved automatic means for defrosting the evaporator of the freezer of such a refrigerator with-t out wetting the frozen foods stored therein.

To provide for dissipating defrost water from the evaporator of the ice maker and defrost water from the freezer evaporator while preventing such water from contaminating the water to be frozen in making ice.

To provide a drawer-type freezer with a new form of gasket and mechanical means for freeing the gasket from contacting surfaces to which it may be frozen.

To provide a safety device which illuminates the freezer drawer when opened for defrosting of its evaporator.

To provide an improved automatic defrosting system for the freezer of a two-zone refrigerator.

With this and other objects in view, I now describe the drawings as follows:

FIG. l is a vertical sectional view of a refrigeratorfreezer cabinet showing a system installed therein and including the wiring diagram.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view of FIG. l taken on the line 2--2 thereof.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the gasket which seals the freezer drawer, taken on the line 3 3 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an enlargement of a portion of FIG. l, showing the gasket with drawer closed,

FIG. 5 shows the same gasket after the drawer has started its opening movement.

FIG. 6 shows the same gasket as it is contacted and bent by the opposite (rear) wall of the drawer while the drawer is held in its fully open position.

FIG. 7 shows the roller slide mechanism supporting the drawer 162 and mainly hidden back of it in FIG. l.

FIG. 8 is an end view, partly in section, of the roller slide mechanism of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a broken view of the same roller slide mechanism, but extended as when the drawer is fully open.

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a household refrigerator of the two-zone type, showing-location of the ice maker with diagram of the wiring system. The type of cabinet shown is that of my copending U.S. application Serial Number 235,920, led July 10, 1951 of which continuation S.N. 705,157 was iled December 26, 1957 3,041,125 Patented June 26, 1962 and issued August 30, 1960 as Patent No. 2,950,911, and is assumed to be equipped with similar operating mechanism for the two main doors. The lower portion of the cabinet, including the freezer drawer, is similar to my patent U.S. 2,709,343, issued May 3l, 1955- and patent U.S. 2,765,633, issued October 9, 1956, but shows an improved form of freezer drawer and its gasket.

The freezer drawer 162 is mounted on a roller slide mechanism usually comprising three channel members of which one is Xed to the cabinet, one lixed to the drawer and one floating between on rollers. The usual hump which lifts and retains the drawer in closed position is here duplicated at the full open position. It will be seen that when switch 138 is closed it also completes the circiut through switch 166 and motor 164, which is preferably back-geared to the shaft 190 carrying the sprocket wheel 192 in such a rnanner as to be reversible. Upon energizing of motor 164 the shaft 190 is rotated clockwise, moving the inclined belt or chain 194 to carry the lug 196 against the bracket 198 mounted upon the rear of the drawer 162 and extending to the far (left) side of the drawer into the path of the lug 196. This pushes the drawer in the opening direction on the roller slide mechanism of which outer channel 200, xed to the outer shell of the cabinet, provides the track for the floating member 202 which carries rollers supporting the track 203 attached to drawer 162. This action first pushes the drawer off of the humps of 203 which lift the drawer as it closes, letting it drop to the position 162. Further chain travel pushes the drawer to the nearly full open position 162, where the drawer is slightly elevated above its closed position by virtue of the inclined track 200 on which it is guided and supported. At this point 162, the second lug 204 strikes the stop 206, which is welded to the far (left) side of the outer shell of the cabinet and thereby causes `the motor 164 to stall, the motor being designed to stand such a lockedrotor condition for the required length of time. The motor remains stalled, holding the drawer open at position 162", during the few minutes required to defrost the freezer evaporator. Defrost water thus falls into the heavy metal pan which forms the main base of the cabinet instead of falling onto the frozen foods in the drawer. determined length the switch 138 reopens, stopping the heating of coil 156 and deenergizing the motor 164, whereupon cooling of evaporator 144 resumes and the drawer recio-ses under the influence of gravity due to the inclination of the track upon which it is carried by rollers. This inclination is sufficient to cause the inertia of drawer reclosure to lift the drawer 4from the position 162 vto the fully-closed position 162 in which it is shown by solid lines.

When the cam 142 makes one revolution per twentyfour hours the switch 138 closes once a day, preferably at two or three oclock in the morning, when it will not interfere with normal operations in the kitchen, but as a safety precaution in the event that someone cornes into the kitchen in the dark and might fall over the open drawer, I have provided the switch 160, which is located on the far side of the drawer in hidden position, to be closed when the drawer is part way open and remain closed until the drawer is nearly closed, thus causing the lamp 158 to be lighted whenever the drawer is opened, either automatically or by hand.

Since it is not normally necessary to defrost the freezer evaporator at such short intervals as one day, the wiring is so arranged that the defrosting occurs only when the control 124 is in position to allow the freezer to operate. Thus the defrosting will be more frequent when the freezer is being cooled more frequently, thereby increasing the probability of a defrost. If during the night Upon completion of the defrost period of pre-.

the freezer control is on one-eighth of the time the freezer evaporator will be defrosted about once in eight days. On other nights the drawer will not be mechanically openend nor the defrost heater energized. Since it should not normally be required to defrost the freezer oftener than once a month, this provision is ample. At the end of each freezer defrost the bulb 172 will be warmer than usual, which means that the cooling of the freezer will always continue after the defrost until the air rising from the drawer through the flue 182 is` again down to the cut-out temperature. In case a seven-day or a thirty-day shaft is used to drive the cam 142 the wiring can be changed to cause a defrost each time the switch 138 is closed.

For normal access the drawer 162 may be pulled open by hand to the position 162'" shown by dotted lines, at which full-open position it is retained by a hump in the track similar to that which keeps the drawer in its closed position. This opening of the drawer does not cause defrosting, but it does light the lamp 158 to aid in seeing the drawer contents. A slight push moves the open drawer off of the hump to the position 162, from which it is reclosed by gravity. The chain 194 and its lugs do not move when the drawer is opened by hand.

An optional feature, which may be added if desired, is

the switch 166, by means of which the user may energize the motor 164 at any time, causing the drawer to be opened by power and held open until the switch is snapped back to the solid line position to allow the drawer to reclose under the inuence of gravity, all without energizing the heater coil 156 and regardless of what controls may be on or off. This is a refinement to accompany the power opening and closing of the two upper doors of the cabinet, as described in copending applications of mine listed above The switch 166 is preferably located beside the lamp S or in the face of the cabinet at a higher level, out of reach of small children, and is arranged to snap from one position to the other. It will not interfere with defrosting nor with any other functions which are time or temperature controlled, except that the freezer drawer can not be cooled while open. To provide against carelessness of the user in forgetting to reclose the drawer, the switch 166 may be of the timing variety, such as those used on electric toasters, so that the drawer will be closed automatically at the end of a pre-selected time limit. The same provision can be made for the mechanical reclosing of the two main upper doors in combination with the mechanical self-opening feature disclosed in my earlier patent applications above listed.

'I'he mounting of the drawer 162 on rollers with an inclined telescoping track and the humps, which slightly lift it at the fully closed and fully open positions, is shown in FIGURES 7, 8 and 9, and will be understood by reference to the similar telescoping tracks, usually of channel form, which are commonly used on letter le drawers. In the case of letter files the tracks are horizontal and normally have the humps at the closed position only. The difference here is that I propose to mount these tracks on 1a slight incline to lift the drawer as it is opened, and to locate the humps at both ends of the travel, so that the drawer is slightly lifted and retained in position by the humps in both its closed and its fully open positions. The nearly-open position 162 of FIG. 1 is just prior to the lifting `of the drawer which occurs as it is moved to the fully open position 162' in which it is retained.

Use is made of gravity and of the power of motor 164 in breaking the drawer free from any ice or frost which has formed on the top edge of the drawer and on the gasket. The new type of gasket shown at 210 is provided to facilitate this breaking free as the drawer is opened either by hand or under power. The thin flexible ribs 212 of the `gasket are bent to the positions shown kby the closing of thedrawer, hence are so curved as to tear away readily from any frost bond between them and the drawer. The initial movement of the drawer from the FIG. 4 position in the opening direction will flex these ribs and then the dropping of the drawer off of the hump to the position 162' (FIG. 5) will further aid in tearing the gasket free. Since the cabinet width is commonly about twice the inside front-to-back depth of the freezer drawer this takes care of most of the gasket. A similar effect is obtained where the gasket is in contact with the near and far ends of the drawer as seen in FIG. l by forming the gasket with zig-zag ribs at any angle of say 45, as seen in FIG. 3. This, in conjunction with the inclined tops of the end walls of the drawer, makes it relatively easy to break the drawer free from any freezing shut that may occur. The use of a plurality of ribs also aids in this by preventing kitchen air from reaching the coldest of the ribs.

The freezer drawer is preferably made with its side walls and bottom thicker or better insulated than other walls of the cabinet, there being no insulation in the cabinet side walls at the level of the drawer. This insures that the frozen foods in the drawer will not be started to thaw during any normal periods during which the drawer is open. The bottom of the main food space, directly above the freezer evaporator, need not lbe heavily insulated because leakage of heat from the main food space into the freezer only aids in cooling the lower portion of the food space. It is only necessary to see that foods in the bottom of the main food space do not freeze.

Switch 248 is a service provision for emergency defrosting. It is manually closed and self-opening by means of a clock or thermal release. When closed it starts a defrost period of the freezer evaporator, including the opening of drawer 162 if it is not already open. At the end of the timed defrost period the switch 248 snaps back to its normal position. This swi-tch is seldom used and may be omitted, as service men can produce an artificial defrost period by other means when required.

FIGURE 3 shows the freezer drawer gasket 210 as seen from the bottom of FIG. l with the drawer 162 removed. The only part of the cabinet shown in section is the right-hand side of the outer shell, which is continuous to the base pan y of FIG. l. Looking upward into the recess-174, which houses the freezer evaporator, we see the gasket 210 and its flexible ribs 212, portions of which are made in zig-zag form 212' where extending from `front to back. The reason for this is to retain in these front-to-back portions of the gasket as much of the ilexibility of the crosswise ribs 212 as is possible. Due to the height, thinness and flexibility of these ribs and the fact that they bend sidewise as the drawer is closed, they are easily torn free from the top of the drawer as the drawer is opened, rst dropping and 4then moving forward. At the right, rear corner (front in FIG. 3) the gasket is cut at 252 and the ends secured by means of screws or other fasteners 254. This allows a portion of the gasket to be released and bent back for removal of the tubes and wires associated with the evaporator 144, the bulb :172, and the heater coil 156, which connections are located in a notch covered by the gasket. The zig-zag portion 212 of the gasket is located directly above the side walls of the freezer drawer, leaving a plain portion of the gasket 210 4exposed above the side spaces between the drawer and the side walls of the outer shell of the cabinet, the gasket also serving as a thermal breaker between the outer shell and the pan-shaped lining of the recess 174.

It will be noted that in FIG. l I have shown the motorcompressor unit 86 located at the top rear of the cabinet instead of at the rear of the freezer drawer as in patents U.S. 2,709,343 and U.S. 2,765,633. The main reason for this is to increase the front-to-back inside dimension of the drawer and thus provide more storage space for frozen foods. I further propose to make the outside front-toback dimension of the drawer greater than the corresponding dimension of the upper portion ofthe cabinet and to indent the rear outer wall of the drawer to provide room for the motor v164, which generates very little heat as compared with the unit 86, thus providing still more freezer capacity in a given height. lIt is also proposed that instead of making the freezer Walls thicker they be insulated with a better insulating material, even though this is more expensive than the insulation used in the balance of the cabinet.

I claim:

In a refrigerator cabinet, a drawer having insulated side and bottom walls, means supporting said drawer and guiding drawer movement downwardly at the start of its opening movement, and a gasket for sealing the space between the insulated vertical walls of the drawer and the cabinet structure above the drawer, said gasket being provided with relatively thin and flexible ribs which are flexed sidewise by the closing of the drawer and which when frozen fast to a surface contacted thereby will be torn `free by a peeling action as the drawer starts its opening movement in the downward and outward directions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Taylor Dec. 4, Koser Aug. 30, Shanklin Aug. 18, Feldkircher Nov. 20, Eckart June 11, Hart Mar. 28, Bundy Oct. 8, Cochran May 28, Rosendahl May 2, Passmore Aug. 18, Holderle Aug. 2, Gould May 6, Cooper July 8, Kalischer May 15, Wilson Mar. 23, Shreve Sept. 12, Nussbaum Nov. 211, Christie Nov. 1-1, Mutlly May 31, Yonkers June 26, Falck Sept. 18,

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