Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Refrigeration Company

Ichiro Onishi

Masatoshi Shoukyuu

Toshiki Maeda

Hiroshi Tatsui

Mitoko Ishita

Tadashi Adachi

Yoshihide Nakajima

Kazuyoshi Takeuchi

Akinori Tsujimoto

Akira Yokoe

Masatoshi Shokyu

Naotake Kokubu

Yukio Morikawa

A defrosting heater in a refrigerator with a flammable refrigerant sealed therein, including a first glass tube () having a heater wire () inside thereof, a plug () covering both end opening parts of the first glass tube () and a second glass tube (), a lead wire () piercing the plug () and connected to an end of the heater wire (), and a positioning plate () disposed on a connection part of the lead wire () with the heater wire (). Flame propagation can be prevented by setting the size of a space () formed by the plug () and the positioning plate () according to the sealing quantity of the flammable refrigerant and the surface temperature of the heater wire (), and an unstable state in a defrosting mode is prevented even when the flammable refrigerant leaks.

Defrosting heater, and refrigerator having the defrosting heater

A defrost heater, in which the strength of an insertion force needed for inserting a second glass tube in a plug is specified to be smaller than that needed for inserting a first glass tube in a plug. Thereby, dispersion in the insertion force needed for attaching the plug with a double glass tube can be reduced, and the assembling efficiency is improved.

Defrosting heater with concentric glass tubes separated by end plugs

The automatic ice making device includes ice sensor for detecting ice-making in ice chill tray, heater for heating ice to separate the ice from ice chill tray, motor rotating discharging member for discharging ice from ice chill tray, position detecting switch for detecting rotating position of discharging member, ice storage amount detecting switch for detecting overs and shorts of discharged and stored ice, water supply valve for supplying water to ice chill tray, and controller for controlling electric conduction to heater and motor. When power supply to controller is once interrupted and re-started, ice storage amount detecting switch detects shortage of ice so as to hold motor not to drive until ice sensor detects temperature below a predetermined temperature.

Automatic ice making device

An ice tray includes a tray section and a heater. The tray section has a first face and a second face opposite to the first face. The first face temporarily retains water and the water is cooled to make ice. The heater is unitarily molded with the tray section at the second face, and warms the tray section for the ice to come off the tray section.

Ice tray and ice making machine, refrigerator both using the ice tray

A drive device of an automatic ice machine turns over an ice tray in which ice has been made. This is done to separate the ice. The drive device includes a motor, a first output shaft and a second output shaft having positional relation of mutually crossing, and a reduction gear for reducing rotation of the motor and transmitting respectively different driving forces to the first output shaft and the second output shaft. The second output shaft crushes ice, and the first output shaft separates ice from the ice tray. In this manner the ice is made rocky without roundness.

Drive device of automatic ice machine

An ice tray driving device has a mesh start section. The mesh start section includes a raised tooth formed by projecting at least one tooth of each of two output gears in the tooth width direction, a column section axially adjacent to the driving gear, a recessed tooth disposed in the column section and formed so as to mesh with the raised tooth, and a slide member for blocking the recessed tooth of the column section at a predetermined position. When the driving gear rotates one of the two output gears, the slide member keeps the blockage of the recessed tooth with respect to the raised tooth of the output gear that is not rotated to prevent the meshing. Thus, the meshing is started only by facing the raised tooth to the recessed tooth, the driving gear and the entire ice tray driving device can be downsized.

Ice tray driving device, and automatic ice making machine using the same

A thermostat includes a wall plate unitarily molded of thermoplastic resin, a first metal plate holding a temperature sensing section, and a second metal plate holding a cam shaft. A fulcrum of a lever and a fulcrum of adjusting plate are protected by the wall plate and they are not exposed to the outside. Since both the fulcrums are not exposed to the outside, the fulcrums are free from being touched with foreign matters. This thermostat thus prevents a temperature set therein from changing.

Growing community of inventors

Shiga, Japan

Ichiro Onishi