Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Masatoshi Shoukyuu

Ichiro Onishi

Hiroshi Tatsui

Mitoko Ishita

Tadashi Adachi

Akinori Tsujimoto

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.

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Kusatsu, Japan

Masatoshi Shoukyuu