Ice generator
Most modern refrigerators have automatic ice generator. The working cycle is the following
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Pour water into aluminum ice tray
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Wait 40 min (until the water undergo phase transition)
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Tray bottom Heater ON for 1..2 min (to melt up the ice cubes)
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Rotate the Ejector blades to move the ice cube to the Ice Bank
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Repeat (until the Ice Bank is Full)
The design seems “to be complicated”. Any idea to make it simpler?
Solution
A beautiful idea lives as US5425248 patent (see the Fig). The tray is symmetric, both sides can be used to generate ice cubes. The cycle is the following. Water fills the slots of one side and turns into the ice. Then the tray rotates upside down and new portion of water pours. The water is warm (room temperature), so it melts up the ice cubes and they fall down because of gravity. At the same time the melting of ice would symmetrically cool down the new portion of water. Simple minimalistic design plus energy recuperation.
