• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.65-72
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• 2020

A refrigerator equipped with an ice dispenser has ice cubes in its ice bucket to discharge the required amount of ice. On the other hand, the ice cubes in the bucket may clump together if the refrigerator is filled with ice and is not used for a long time or during normal operation. Although a mechanism for separating the ice mass is provided, the ice mass cannot be removed completely if the ice blocking is severe. To solve this problem, after investigating the existing research on the process of ice entanglement and the separation force, this study tested ice extraction under a range of conditions of artificially entangled ices. In this process, new mechanisms are proposed to resolve the problem of existing ice storage features that prevent the extraction of ice and to expand the working radius of the icebreaking mechanism for full extraction. The prototype of the proposed mechanism was also fabricated in an actual refrigerator. As a result, the proposed shape and mechanism could extract the ice cubes in the bucket completely, while the existing ice dispenser could extract only 65%.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.105-111
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• 2013

The present study has been carried out to reduce the heat loss from a built in refrigerator by using reverse heat loss method to discern the region with larger heat loss. To perform this purpose, an infrared thermographic camera has been used to measure the surface temperature of the refrigerator and tried to improve the heat loss near the ice dispenser. The numerical heat transfer analysis also has been accomplished to clarify the heat transfer mechanism near the ice dispenser. The possible applicable method to reduce heat loss was increasing the curvature radius at the ice dispenser corner. The curvature radius has been changed from 0mm to 40mm to see the effect of the curvature at the corner. From the present research, the optimal curvature radius for the reduction of heat loss at the ice dispenser could be 30mm.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.139.1-139.1
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.37-46
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• 2018

Present research is to evaluate and improve the sealing performance of the duct cap assembly for the ice dispensers through structural analysis. The nonlinear contact problems to check the sealing performance were analyzed using ANSYS software. The results of the analyses related to the sealing performance: the displacement distribution, the contact condition between the cap-silicon and the case, and the pressure distribution on the contact surface, were examined and discussed. Based on the results of the existing design of the duct cap assembly, two cases of the design modifications to improve the sealing performance were introduced. By examining the results of the two cases, a final design improvement plan was proposed and analyzed. It is shown that the sealing performance of the proposed final design is much more favorable than the existing design. The method of structural analysis and design improvement of the duct cap assembly presented in this paper will help improve the sealing performance of the ice dispenser duct caps.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.672-680
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• 2018

The opening angle of the duct cap assembly during the operation of a refrigerator ice dispenser was evaluated by transient structural analysis, and an improved design to maximize the opening angle was obtained. The opening angle of the existing design was found to be 78% of the upper limit. Several design modifications were proposed and analyzed to examine the effects of the design factors on the opening angle. As a result of the design modifications, the opening angle was improved by changing the lever material to a material with a high elastic modulus, moving the position of the support to the motor side, or increasing the lever shaft diameter. Considering the manufacturing cost of the new design, the design modification changing only the lever material was found to be the best because it does not require a change in the structure of the ice dispenser case. In conclusion, the opening angle can be improved by up to 95% of the upper limit value if the lever material is changed to an aluminum alloy. The methods and results presented in this study were found to be of great help in designing the duct cap assembly structure to facilitate the discharge of ice.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.76-83
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• 2018

A cabinet-door integrated finite element model was constructed for a built-in side-by-side refrigerator with an ice dispenser, and its deformation was analyzed using the ANSYS finite element software. As loads, the food load needed to fill in the cabinet and doors and the thermal load occurring during normal operation conditions were taken into consideration. The door height difference (DHD) and door flatness difference (DFD) between the two doors of the freezing and refrigerating compartments were derived. The DHD and DFD under the assembled condition without applied loads satisfied the acceptance criteria specified by the refrigerator manufacturer. It appeared that the food load increases the DFD slightly. The thermal load tends to increase the differences because of the thermal deformation, especially the DFD, of the cabinet and doors.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.465-473
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• 2018

A cabinet-door integrated finite element model for a built-in side-by-side refrigerator with an ice dispenser and home bar was constructed, and its deformation was analyzed by ANSYS. As loads, the food load in the shelf and baskets, and thermal load occurring during the normal operation condition were considered. From results of the analyses, the door height difference (DHD) and door flatness difference (DFD) between the two doors, and the increase in the gap of the door gasket, which affects the sealing of cool air in the cabinet, were derived. As results of an evaluation of the differences, the DHD and DFD under the assembled condition satisfied the acceptance criteria of the manufacturer. The food and thermal loads increased the DHD and DFD due to thermal deformation, and the DFD increased significantly. In addition, the increase in the gap of door gasket located between the cabinet and doors was derived from the results of displacements under the food and thermal loads. The evaluation showed that the maximum increase in gap appeared at the left edge of the freezing compartment gasket, which satisfied the acceptance criteria of the manufacturer.