Patent ID: 8650900

Claim:
An ice bin comprising: a casing that includes an ice storage and an outlet through which ice cubes stored in the ice storage are dispensed; a motor assembly configured to generate a rotational force; an auger that is positioned in a cavity defined by the casing, that is configured to rotate about a rotational axis in response to the rotational force generated by the motor assembly, and that has a shaft portion coupled to a rotation shaft so as to be transferred a rotation force, a plurality of transfer wings each spirally protruding from an outer circumferential surface of the shaft portion in a circumferential direction, two adjacent of the transfer wings being separated by a distance and shaped to cooperatively define a space there between that is sufficiently sized to accommodate an ice cube from within the ice storage, the transfer wings being configured to rotate with the shaft portion and to impart force against the ice cube accommodated by the two adjacent transfer wings to transfer the ice to a through hole of the casing, and a disk-shaped reinforcing portion connected to one side end of each transfer wing; a shutter configured to move between a closed position at which the shutter closes the through hole and prevents passage of an ice cube through the through hole and an opened position at which the shutter opens the through hole and enables passage of an ice cube through the through hole, the shutter being configured to move from the closed position to the opened position in response to force imparted against the shutter by an ice cube whose movement toward the through hole is being promoted based on rotation of the auger about the rotational axis and being configured to move from the opened position to the closed position in response to a reduction in force imparted against the shutter by an ice cube whose movement toward the through hole is being promoted based on rotation of the auger about the rotational axis, wherein a transfer space in which the auger is installed is located at a lower side of the ice storage, and a dispensing space having the outlet through which ice is dispensed is located at a lower side of the transfer space and is separated from the transfer space by the shutter; and a guide that is positioned between the dispensing space and the auger and that is configured to, when the ice bin is in an ordinary operating orientation, guide ice cubes toward the shutter based on gravitational force, wherein the guide defines the through hole that allows ice cubes to pass through the guide when the shutter is in the opened position, and the through hole is located within a dimension of the rotational axis of the auger, and wherein the auger is configured to receive one or two ice cubes between the transfer wings and the auger, including the transfer wings, is made of a flexible material that reduces a likelihood of ice cubes being broken during transfer by the auger.