Ice storage tray for ice spheres

Abstract

An ice support and storage tray includes one or more cavities having upwardly facing spherical surface portions that support spherical pieces of ice. The tray is preferably made of a material having a low thermal conductivity to reduce melting of the spherical pieces of ice. The spherical support surfaces minimize melting points that could otherwise cause the spherical pieces of ice to melt and develop irregular surface shapes. The ice tray may be used in a freezer having an ice maker that transports spheres of ice to the ice support cavities. The ice storage tray may be configured to permit removal of spheres of ice without tipping the tray upside down and/or twisting/deforming the tray.

The invention claimed is: 
     
         1 . An ice storage tray comprising:
 a tray body having an upper side and a lower side, the upper side including a plurality of ice-receiving cavities, each cavity having an upwardly-facing spherical concave surface portion defining a cavity radius, the tray body including at least one drain opening at a bottom of each ice-receiving cavity to drain liquid water from melting ice spheres positioned in the ice-receiving cavities.   
     
     
         2 . The ice storage tray of  claim 1 , wherein:
 each ice-receiving cavity includes an upper edge surface having a horizontal dimension that is less than the cavity radius such that side portions of spherical pieces of ice having radiuses that are equal to the cavity radius project sidewardly from the upper edge surface to enable a user to pull individual spherical pieces of ice out of the ice-receiving cavities.   
     
     
         3 . The ice storage tray of  claim 2 , wherein:
 the upper edge surface includes a plurality of concave portions.   
     
     
         4 . The ice storage tray of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the ice-receiving cavities form at least one row.   
     
     
         5 . The ice storage tray of  claim 4 , wherein:
 the tray body includes a plurality of rows of ice-receiving cavities.   
     
     
         6 . The ice storage tray of  claim 3 , wherein:
 the ice-receiving cavities are substantially identical in size to one another.   
     
     
         7 . The ice storage tray of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the ice-receiving cavities of the tray define a plurality of concave upper edge surfaces between adjacent ice-receiving cavities, each concave upper edge surface defining a lowermost portion, the ice-receiving cavities having coplanar center points that are vertically spaced above the lowermost portions of the concave upper edge surfaces by a vertical distance.   
     
     
         8 . The ice storage tray of  claim 7 , wherein:
 the vertical distance is at least one third the cavity radius.   
     
     
         9 . The ice storage tray of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the tray body comprises a polymer material having a thermal conductivity of about 2 W/° cm.