Whirlpool Corporation

Other

Andrew Michael Tenbarge

Douglas David Leclear

Paul B Allard

John J Vonderhaar

Karen J Querfurth

Michele Wilcox

James William Kendall

Guolian Wu

Alan Stevenson Lucas

Nihat O Cur

Steven John Kuehl

Yen-Hsi Lin

Jeffery J Anselmino

Jim J Pastryk

Douglas D LeClear

Robert Bradley

Ronald L Voglewede

Anderson Bortoletto

Frank Weston Maglinger

Cristian A Soto

Arivazhagan Chandrashekaran

Richard A McCoy

Marcus Roland Fischer

Gregory Gene Hortin

Tushar Kulkarni

Kevin J Cox

Xi Shan

Ruben E Rothermel

Clayton A Maas

Kelly M Hanson

Alberto Regio Gomes

Andrea Olivani

Claudio Civanelli

Mohamed Alshourbagy

Carolina Biotti

Vijaykumar Sathyamurthi

Chad Lange

Kylie M McCollum

Nicholas L Pohl

Ronald Wayne Guess

Timothy Janda

Ryan Michael Post

Michael S Richards

Jon D Tromblee

Ralph Tate, Jr

John Joseph Vonderhaar

Lori A Cook

Patrick S Streeter

Yen Hsi Lin

Kelly I Johnson

Utility routing for door-mounted operations are disclosed. An appliance may include a cabinet and one or more doors connected to the cabinet. An apparatus may have a mounted position on the door. An operation apparatus may be enabled, supported, or otherwise made operable in part by closed-looped conveyance of one or more operating mediums. The apparatus has an unmounted position wherein the apparatus is separated from the door while maintaining the closed-loop conveyance of the one or more operating mediums.

Utility routing for a door-mounted icemaker

A method of making clear ice including filling an ice piece forming tray having an axis of rotation, a distal end, a motor engaging end, and plurality of ice piece making compartments with water. Freezing the water into ice by providing heat sinks disposed on and thermally connected to a bottom side of the ice piece forming tray. Removing heat from the plurality of heat sinks. Removing defrost water from the heat sinks by providing at least one defrost water channel along the axis of rotation, providing at least one defrost water channel along one of the distal end and the motor engaging end and connected to the defrost water channel along the axis of rotation. And delivering defrost water to a drain or defrost water catch tray positioned at one of the distal end and the motor engaging end.

Ice making assembly with twist ice tray and directional cooling

An aspect of the present disclosure is generally directed to an ice making appliance that includes: an ice making compartment and an ice maker including an ice mold having a total water capacity. The ice mold includes a plurality of ice wells and is configured to release the ice cubes without the use of a heater and by twisting the ice mold. The ice wells are typically no more than about 12.2 mm in depth from a top surface of the ice mold and have a volume of about 20 mL or less. The ice maker is capable of producing at least about 3.5 lbs. of ice or more in a 24 hour span.

Clear ice making appliance and method of same

An ice piece making assembly and a refrigeration appliance containing the ice piece making assembly is disclosed. The ice making assembly produces ice pieces by directional freezing and includes: an ice piece forming tray having a motor engaging end, a distal end, a first side, a second side and a bottom surface, a plurality of ice piece making compartments divided by divider walls, and a plurality of heat sinks engaged to the bottom surface of the ice making compartments and deliver defrost water to a drain or defrost water catch tray positioned at at least one of the distal end and the motor engaging end; and an ice piece forming tray canopy spaced a distance above the ice piece forming tray wherein the ice piece forming tray canopy comprises a heater and a temperature sensor.

A door ajar detection system is provided. The door ajar detection system may be incorporated in a refrigerator to provide a warning when a door is left in an open position, or to prevent a false door-closed detection. The system utilizes like magnetic poles of magnets positioned opposite to each other to push one or more doors in a refrigerator into a full open position such that a door ajar detection assembly may provide an accurate reading. A latch assembly may be provided to hold the one or more doors in a closed position against the force of the like magnetic poles.

Door ajar detection system

An ice maker is provided that includes a tray having recesses that can include ice-phobic surfaces. The ice-phobic surfaces may include ice-phobic coatings, textured metal surfaces, hydrophobic coatings or other surfaces configured to repel water and ice. The tray can be formed from metal material and may exhibit a fatigue limit greater than about 150 Megapascals (MPa) at 10cycles. The ice maker further includes a frame body coupled to the tray, and a driving body that is rotatably coupled to the tray. The driving body is further adapted to rotate the tray in a clockwise and/or counter-clockwise cycle such that the tray presses against the frame body in a manner that flexes the tray to dislodge ice pieces formed in the recesses of the tray.

Heater-less ice maker assembly with a twistable tray

A connection system includes a feature module that supplies various functionalities, a portable countertop stand having an upright section that selectively receives the feature module and an umbilical connecting the portable stand to an external appliance to deliver utilities to the portable countertop stand. A utility port selectively delivers at least one utility to the feature module when engaged with the upright section. A utility receiver removably engages the utility port by hand without the use of tools and selectively receives a predetermined set of utilities when the feature module engages the upright surface. A connection interface detects when the feature module is engaged with the upright section and the predetermined utility set required by the engaged feature module. After the feature module is engaged, the connection interface prompts the utility port to release the predetermined utility set to the feature module.

Refrigerator module utilities enabled via connection

A domestic appliance such as a refrigerator, washing machine, and dryer is disclosed. The appliance may include a piezoelectric device. The piezoelectric device may be configured to supply electrical power to various electrically-powered elements in the appliance, such as a light source, a drive status sensor, and active balancing components.

Domestic appliance including piezoelectric components

An ice maker includes, among other things, an ice cube mold, an ice cube remover and a force sensor comprising a piezo dielectric elastomer (PDE). The ice cube mold has at least one cavity for receiving liquid. The ice cube remover is configured to apply a removal force to either the mold or an ice cube. The force sensor is provided on either the mold or the remover and provides an output indicative of the removal force. Upon the removal of an ice cube from the cavity, the ice cube remover applies a removal force to the mold or the ice cube to effect the removal of the ice cube from the cavity and the force sensor outputs a signal indicative of the removal force.

Ice maker with piezo dielectric elastomer sensor

An ice making assembly and method utilizes a housing having an upper fluid chamber, a plurality of distinct, substantially vertical fluid channels, and at least one drain aperture in fluid communication with a fluid reservoir. Ice forming members extend from an ice forming evaporator into respective fluid channels. During an ice making event, fluid continuously supplied to the upper fluid chamber flows into each of the fluid channels and out through at least one drain aperture into a fluid reservoir below. The ice forming members are cooled such that fluid flowing across the fluid channels freezes on the ice forming members over time, forming clear ice pieces. The ice pieces are subsequently released from the ice forming members and transferred for storage and/or dispensing.

Vertical ice maker producing clear ice pieces

An ice maker assembly is provided that includes a tray having a plurality of ice-phobic recesses. The recesses may possess a total water volume of 70 cc or greater. The tray comprises metal material and can be formed with a substantially uniform strain distribution. The ice maker further includes a frame body coupled to the tray, a driving body that is rotatably coupled to the ice-forming tray, and a processor that is operatively coupled to the driving body. The processor controls the driving body to rotate the tray in a manner that flexes the tray to dislodge ice pieces formed in the recesses.

An ice maker of a domestic refrigerator that includes an ice mold having an electrically-conductive polymeric body and a plurality of cavities defined in the polymeric body. Each cavity is sized to receive a quantity of fluid corresponding to a single ice cube. A pair of electrodes is engaged with a bottom surface of the polymeric body. The polymeric body has a first electrical conductivity at a first operating temperature and a second electrical conductivity that is less than the first electrical conductivity at a second operating temperature. The second operating temperature is greater than the first operating temperature.

Ice maker with self-regulating ice mold and method of operating same

Growing community of inventors

St. Joseph, MI, United States of America

Andrew Michael Tenbarge