Refrigerator

Abstract

A refrigerator including a shaved ice dispensing unit, and an ice cube dispensing unit positioned within an ice cube container such that ice cubes, crushed ice, and shaved ice are selectively dispensed to a user. The shaved ice dispensing unit includes a driving motor, a guide barrel having a shaved ice outlet, a plurality of blades disposed at the outlet, a rotational shaft disposed axially within the guide barrel and connected with the driving motor, a compressing wing connected with the rotational shaft above the outlet and extending in a radial direction, and a spiral wing coupled with the rotational shaft at the front of the compressing wing. When the driving motor is driven, the rotational shaft, the spiral wing, and the compressing wing rotate and compress the ice cubes in the ice cube container to produce the shaved ice. The ice cube dispensing unit comprises an ice cube crusher, and an outlet adjusting device to allow the ice cubes to be dispensed or to dispense the crushed ice after producing the crushed ice through the ice cube crusher.

1 . A refrigerator, comprising: 
 a freezing compartment;    a freezing compartment door to open and close the freezing compartment;    an icemaker equipped to the freezing compartment to produce ice cubes;    an ice cube container including first and second ends to contain the ice cubes;    a shaved ice dispensing unit positioned within the ice cube container;    an ice cube dispensing unit positioned in parallel to the shaved ice dispensing unit within the ice cube container; and    a dispensing passage to guide the shaved ice and the ice cubes respectively produced from the shaved ice dispensing unit and the ice cube dispensing unit to an outside of the freezing compartment door.    
   
   
       2 . The refrigerator according to  claim 1 , wherein the shaved ice dispensing unit comprises at least one compressing wing rotatably disposed on the second end of the ice cube container, and at least one blade fixedly disposed on the second end of the ice cube container to crush the ice cubes contained within the ice cube container into crushed ice.  
   
   
       3 . The refrigerator according to  claim 2 , wherein the shaved ice dispensing unit further comprises a driving motor disposed on the first end of the ice cube container, a guide barrel disposed on the second end of the ice cube container, a rotational shaft disposed axially within the guide barrel to be rotated by the driving motor, and a shaved ice outlet provided at a lower portion of the guide barrel, the compressing wing being connected with the rotational shaft while radially extending towards an inner peripheral surface of the guide barrel, and the blade being fixed to the shaved ice outlet of the guide barrel.  
   
   
       4 . The refrigerator according to  claim 3 , wherein the shaved ice dispensing unit further comprises a spiral guide connected between the driving motor and the rotational shaft to guide the ice cubes contained within the ice cube container to the guide barrel.  
   
   
       5 . The refrigerator according to  claim 3 , wherein the compressing wing is of an arc-shape curved towards the blade in a rotational direction of the rotational shaft.  
   
   
       6 . The refrigerator according to  claim 3 , wherein the shaved ice dispensing unit further comprises at least one spiral wing rotatably connected with the rotational shaft at the front of the compressing wing within the guide barrel to push the ice cubes towards the compressing wing.  
   
   
       7 . The refrigerator according to  claim 3 , wherein the shaved ice dispensing unit further comprises a case surrounding the guide barrel and having an opening formed at a lower portion of the case to guide the shaved ice discharged from the crushed ice outlet below the case.  
   
   
       8 . The refrigerator according to  claim 1 , wherein the ice cube dispensing unit comprises an ice cube crusher to selectively crush the ice cubes contained within the ice cube container into crushed ice.  
   
   
       9 . The refrigerator according to  claim 1 , wherein the ice cube dispensing unit further comprises an ice cube/crushed ice outlet provided on the second end of the ice cube container, and the ice cube crusher comprises a rotational cutter and a stationary cutter positioned corresponding to the ice cube/crushed ice outlet to crush the ice cubes, having been conveyed to the ice cube/crushed ice outlet, into the crushed ice.  
   
   
       10 . The refrigerator according to  claim 1 , wherein the ice dispensing unit further comprises an outlet adjusting device to adjust a size of the ice cube/crushed ice outlet according to whether the ice cube crusher is operated or not.  
   
   
       11 . The refrigerator according to  claim 1 , wherein the dispensing passage comprises a shaved ice discharge port formed at a location corresponding to the shaved ice dispensing unit, and an ice cube/crushed ice discharge port formed at a location corresponding to the ice cube dispensing unit in the freezing compartment door.  
   
   
       12 . A refrigerator, comprising: 
 a freezing compartment;    an ice cube container equipped within the freezing compartment to contain ice cubes;    a shaved ice dispensing unit positioned within the ice cube container to dispense shaved ice after shaving the ice cubes contained in the ice cube into the shaved ice; and    an ice cube dispensing unit positioned in parallel to the shaved ice dispensing unit within the ice cube container to allow the ice cubes contained in the ice cube container to be discharged or to discharge crushed ice after crushing the ice cubes contained in the ice cube.    
   
   
       13 . The refrigerator according to  claim 12 , wherein the ice cube container comprises a partition plate between the shaved ice dispensing unit and the ice cube dispensing unit to allow the ice cubes contained in the ice cube container to be smoothly conveyed into the shaved ice dispensing unit and the ice cube dispensing unit.  
   
   
       14 . The refrigerator according to  claim 12 , wherein the shaved ice dispensing unit comprises a driving motor disposed on a first end of the ice cube container, a guide barrel disposed on a second end facing the first end of the ice cube container and having a crushed ice outlet formed through the guide barrel, at least one blade equipped to the crushed ice outlet, a rotational shaft axially disposed within the guide barrel and rotated by the driving motor, and at least one compressing wing connected with the rotational shaft and radially extending towards an inner peripheral surface of the guide barrel to compress the ice cubes conveyed to the guide barrel against the blade to produce the crushed ice.  
   
   
       15 . The refrigerator according to  claim 14 , wherein the shaved ice dispensing unit further comprises a spiral guide connected between the driving motor and the rotational shaft to guide the ice cubes contained within the ice cube container to the guide barrel.  
   
   
       16 . The refrigerator according to  claim 14 , wherein the shaved ice dispensing unit further comprises at least one spiral wing rotatably connected with the rotational shaft at the front of the compressing wing within the guide barrel to push the ice cubes to the compressing wing.  
   
   
       17 . The refrigerator according to  claim 12 , further comprising: a freezing compartment door to open and close the freezing compartment, the freezing compartment door including a shaved ice discharge port formed at a location corresponding to the shaved ice dispensing unit, and an ice cube/crushed ice discharge port formed at a location corresponding to the ice cube dispensing unit in the freezing compartment door.