Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society (한국산학기술학회논문지)

The Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society (한국산학기술학회)
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Design of Ice Dispenser Mechanism of Household Refrigerator for Full Discharging

가정용 냉장고의 얼음 완전 취출 메커니즘의 설계

  • Woo, Minsu (School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University) ;
  • Jung, Yoongho (School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University)
  • Received : 2020.01.13
  • Accepted : 2020.03.06
  • Published : 2020.03.31
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Abstract

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%.

얼음을 제공하는 기능이 구비된 냉장고는 대부분 냉장고 내부의 얼음 저장소에 미리 얼음을 채워 두고 사용자가 필요할 때 많은 양의 얼음을 취출할 수 있도록 하고 있다. 그러나 냉장고의 얼음 저장소에 얼음이 채워진 상태로 냉장고가 장기간 사용되지 않거나 정상적인 동작 중에도 시간이 경과하면 얼음이 서로 엉기는 현상이 발생한다. 이렇게 엉긴 얼음 덩어리를 분리시키는 메커니즘이 구비되어 있으나 얼음 엉김 현상이 심할 경우 얼음이 완전히 취출되지 못하는 문제가 있다. 본 연구에서는 이러한 문제를 해결하기 위해 얼음이 엉기는 과정과 얼음의 분리력에 관한 기존의 연구를 조사하였고, 인위적으로 얼음을 엉기게 하여 다양한 조건에서 얼음의 취출 정도를 실험하였다. 이 과정에서 얼음의 취출을 방해하는 기존 얼음 저장소 형상의 문제점에 착안하여 이를 개선하기 위한 형상과, 완전 취출을 위해 얼음 분쇄 메커니즘의 작동 반경을 넓히는 새로운 메커니즘을 제안하였다. 제안된 메커니즘의 시제품을 제작하고 실제 냉장고에 적용하여 얼음이 완전 취출됨을 검증하였다. 그 결과 기존 얼음 저장소의 형상과 분쇄 메커니즘에서 얼음 취출률이 65%정도이었으나, 제안된 형상과 메커니즘에서는 완전히 추출되었다.

Keywords

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