Patent ID: 8776544
Filing Date: 2014-07-15
Classification: F25B,F25C,F25D,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A refrigeration appliance comprising: a fresh food compartment for storing food items in a refrigerated environment having a target temperature above zero degrees Centigrade; one or more doors pivotally coupled to a cabinet of said refrigeration appliance for movement between a closed and an open condition to at least partially restrict and grant access to said fresh food compartment; a freezer compartment disposed at an elevation vertically below said fresh food compartment for storing food items in a sub-freezing environment having a target temperature below zero degrees Centigrade; a system evaporator that removes thermal energy from the freezer compartment to maintain the temperature therein at a temperature of 0° C. or less; an ice chamber; an ice maker disposed within the ice chamber, comprising an ice bucket, secured within said fresh food compartment at a location spaced apart from said one or more doors for freezing water into ice pieces, said ice bucket configured for storing said ice pieces produced by said ice maker; and a refrigeration system provided to said refrigeration appliance comprising: an ice maker evaporator provided within the ice chamber for controlling a storage temperature to which ice pieces are exposed when stored in the ice bucket, said ice maker evaporator being separate from said system evaporator; a cooling air duct disposed within the ice chamber, wherein at least a portion of said cooling air duct is adjacent to a lateral side of said ice bucket and extends from a rear of the ice maker towards a front of the ice maker along a longitudinal length of said ice bucket for delivering air cooled by said ice maker evaporator provided within the ice chamber to a temperature below zero degrees Centigrade to a region adjacent to said ice bucket, and an air mover provided within the ice chamber for blowing said air cooled by said dedicated ice maker evaporator through said cooling air duct to provide said cooling effect to said air provided to said ice maker; wherein said cooling air duct is located on one side of the ice maker and is defined between an outer plenum panel and a lateral side panel of the ice chamber that defines an interior boundary of the ice chamber and said cooling air duct is in communication with a plurality of vents formed in the lateral side panel that extend along said longitudinal length of said ice bucket and through which said cooled air from the ice maker evaporator and provided by the air mover is exhausted in a direction normal to said plurality of vents into said region adjacent to said ice bucket, and wherein at least one of said plurality of vents has a cross-sectional area that is different than a cross-sectional area of another of said plurality of vents, wherein the lateral side panel of the ice chamber further comprises an inward extending flange forming a surface on which the ice bucket can rest within the ice chamber, and the ice bucket comprises a compatible flange that rests on top of the inward extending flange of the lateral side panel.