KR101441924B1 - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a main body including a storage chamber and a door for selectively shielding the storage chamber, a duct having a cool air discharge portion for supplying cool air to the storage chamber, a freezing portion installed in the door, And a guide portion formed in the cold air discharge portion and capable of adjusting a direction of inflow of cold air supplied to the storage chamber and cold air supplied to the ice making portion.

A refrigerator, a freezing portion, a cold discharge portion,

Description

Refrigerator {REFRIGERATOR}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a refrigerator in which cool air is supplied to a storage compartment and a freezing compartment of a refrigerator.

In general, the refrigerator is divided into a refrigerating chamber and a freezing chamber. The refrigerating chamber is maintained at a temperature of about 3 to 4 ° C. so that food and vegetables can be stored for a long time, and the freezing chamber is provided with a freezing chamber Lt; / RTI >

Cooling air is supplied to the freezing chamber through a duct to maintain the freezing chamber at a subzero temperature.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a refrigerator has been equipped with an ice maker for automatically performing a series of ice-making processes without any user's operation, and a dispenser for allowing ice or water to be used outside the refrigerator. Various functions are added for convenient use.

The ice maker is roughly divided into a ice-making unit into which cold air flows, a ice-making unit where ice is generated by receiving water, and an ice bank in which ice produced in the ice-making unit is taken out and stored.

The ice-making unit includes an ice-making tray for generating ice and a water-supplying unit for supplying water to the ice-making tray.

The cool air supplied to the freezing chamber flows into the ice-making tray. The water introduced into the ice-making tray by the cool air is changed into ice.

However, the above-mentioned conventional ice maker for refrigerator has the following problems.

A part of the cool air supplied to the freezing chamber flows into the freezing chamber to perform ice making, and the remainder of the cool air maintains the freezing chamber at a temperature of minus zero. Therefore, there is a problem that it becomes difficult to maintain the freezing chamber at a desired temperature as the inflow amount of the cool air flowing into the ice-making portion against the same power consumption increases. In addition, there is a problem that the distribution of the freezing chamber becomes uneven according to the flow direction of the cold air flowing into the ice-making portion.

An object of the present invention is to solve the problem of maintaining the temperature of the freezer compartment generated in the conventional refrigerator and to provide a refrigerator to which cool air is supplied in a different manner from the conventional refrigerator.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator having a guide portion capable of adjusting a direction of inflow of cool air to be supplied.

The above-described object of the present invention can be achieved by a refrigerator comprising: a main body including a storage chamber and a door for selectively shielding the storage chamber; A duct having a cool air discharge portion for supplying cool air to the storage chamber; A ice maker installed in the door, through which cool air flows to form ice; And a guide portion formed in the cold air discharge portion and capable of adjusting a direction of inflow of cold air supplied to the storage chamber and cool air supplied to the ice making portion.

According to an aspect of the present invention, at least a portion of the duct may be disposed on the upper surface of the storage chamber, and the cold air discharge portion may be formed on a portion of the duct disposed on the upper surface of the storage chamber.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the cool air discharge unit may be formed at one side of the duct disposed on the upper surface of the storage chamber, and the cool air is inclined with respect to the gravity direction in the guide unit, A surface inclined with respect to the direction from the upper surface to the lower surface of the storage chamber may be formed.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the cold air discharge unit may include first and second cold air discharge units that can supply cold air to the ice making unit and the storage room, respectively, And a distributor for distributing the amount of the cool air discharged from the second cool air discharge portion.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the distributing unit includes a plate-like body formed to cross the flow direction of cool air inside the duct, and a plate-shaped body connected to at least one side of the plate- And a driving unit for rotating the plate-shaped body.

And a storage room cold air discharge unit provided on the other side of the duct disposed on the upper surface of the storage room to supply cool air to the storage room.

The refrigerator according to the present invention configured as described above can maintain the temperature distribution of the storage chamber more uniformly by including the guide portion.

Further, the distributor may further include a distributor to distribute the amount of cold air supplied to the freezing compartment and the storage compartment, thereby reducing excessive supply of cold air. This also reduces the power consumption of the refrigerator.

Hereinafter, a refrigerator related to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the present specification, the same or similar reference numerals are given to different embodiments in the same or similar configurations.

1 is a front perspective view showing a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

1, the refrigerator main body 10 is formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a cooling chamber or a storage chamber (hereinafter referred to as "storage chamber") is formed in the main body 10. The refrigerator body 10 may include at least one of the freezer compartment and the freezer compartment. The refrigerator body 10 is provided with a refrigeration cycle for providing cold air to the storage compartment. Hereinafter, the case where the refrigerator body 10 is divided into a refrigerating chamber 20 and a freezing chamber 30 and the refrigerating chamber 20 and the freezing chamber 30 are provided on both sides of the refrigerator body 10 will be described. .

The refrigerator compartment 20 is formed on the right side of the main body 10 and the front surface of the refrigerating compartment 20 is opened so that the front surface of the opened refrigerator compartment 20 is opened by the refrigerator compartment door 21 Optionally shielded.

One end of the refrigerator compartment door 21 may be hinged to one side of the main body 10. Accordingly, the refrigerator compartment door 21 is pivoted about one end of the hinged refrigerator compartment door 21, and the open front of the refrigerator compartment 20 is selectively shielded by the rotation of the refrigerator compartment door 21, do.

In addition, various types of baskets, shelves, and drawers for efficiently storing various kinds of foods are installed in the refrigerating compartment 20 to partition the space of the refrigerating compartment 20.

On the other hand, a freezing chamber 30 is formed on the left side of the main body 10 on the left side of the refrigerating chamber 20, that is, a separate space partitioned from the refrigerating chamber 20. The freezing compartment 30 is for storing fish or meat or foods requiring long-term storage. The freezing compartment 30 is provided with a drawer or a basket for separating and storing food to be frozen and stored according to size or condition Respectively.

A freezing chamber door 31 is formed on the front surface of the freezing chamber 30 to shield the inside of the freezing chamber 30. One end of the freezing chamber door 31 is hinged to the other side of the main body 10. The other side of the main body 10 means the opposite side to the one side of the main body 10 to which the refrigerator compartment door 21 is hinged. Accordingly, the freezing chamber door 31 is pivoted about one end of the hinged freezing chamber door 31. The opened front face of the freezing chamber 30 is selectively shielded by the rotation of the freezing chamber door 31, do.

The freezing chamber door (31) is provided with a freezing portion (40). The freezing chamber 40 may protrude into the freezing chamber 30 when the freezing chamber door 31 is closed.

Further, a separate evaporator (not shown) is provided at the rear of the freezing chamber 30. The evaporator absorbs external heat by heat exchange and generates cold air. The cool air generated in the evaporator flows into the freezing chamber (30) through the cool air duct (50) to lower the temperature of the freezing chamber (30). A part of the cool air flowing into the freezing chamber (30) flows into the freezing chamber (40) through the cool air inflow hole (41). The upper edge of the ice-making part 40 may be formed to have a slant surface 42a and a horizontal surface 42b. The cool air inflow hole 41 may be formed in the inclined surface 42a.

The wall surface of the freezing chamber 30 is filled with a heat insulating material to prevent the temperature inside the freezing chamber 30 from being changed by the cool air transferred through the cooler duct 50.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a duct of the freezer compartment of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. Hereinafter, the structure of the cool air duct 50 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 3. FIG.

The cool air duct 50 is disposed on the upper surface 32 of the freezing chamber 30. The cold air duct (50) is provided with a cold air discharge part (51) for supplying cold air to the freezing room (30). The bottom surface of the cool air duct 50 may have an inclined surface 50a and a horizontal surface 50b. The cold air discharge unit 51 may be formed on the inclined surface 50a.

The cool air discharge unit 51 may be formed at one side of the cool air duct 50. Preferably, the flow resistance of the cool air discharged from the end of the duct is further reduced.

The cold air discharge portion 51 may be provided with a guide portion 52. The guide portion 52 is formed so as to control the direction in which cool air supplied to the freezing chamber 30 and cool air supplied to the ice-making portion 40 flows.

1) from the upper surface 32 of the freezing chamber 30 so that the cool air is inclined with respect to the direction of gravity to be supplied to the freezing chamber 30 and the freezing portion 40. [ The inclined surface 52a is formed with respect to the direction in which the light beam is directed.

The direction of flow into the freezing chamber 30 is indicated by the arrows. Since the cool air flowing into the freezing chamber 30 is guided by the inclined surface 52a, it can flow in a direction parallel to the inclined surface 52a. However, the cool air flowing into the freezing chamber (30) is more biased in the X axis direction than in the direction parallel to the guided surface, due to the inertia of the cool air in the direction of the X axis in the cool air duct (50). Accordingly, the cool air flowing toward the ice making unit 40 has a greater flow rate than the cool air flowing toward the inside of the freezing chamber 30. Therefore, more cool air flows into the ice-making unit 40. The cooling air flowing toward the inside of the freezing chamber 30 keeps the inside of the freezing chamber 30 at a zero temperature.

The amount of cool air in the freezing chamber 40 and the freezing chamber 30 and the flow direction of the cool air can be adjusted by the angle of the inclined surface from the X axis direction. The appropriate angle may be obtained experimentally, for example, from 60 to 70 degrees from the X-axis direction.

A cooler discharge unit 53 for supplying cool air to the freezer compartment 30 may be formed on the other side of the cool air duct 50. The other side of the cool air duct 50 is opposite to the one side of the cool air duct 50 in which the cool air discharge part 51 is formed. The freezer compartment cooler discharge unit 53 may be installed to supply cold air to the freezer compartment 30 to keep the freezer compartment 30 at a subzero temperature. In addition, as the cool air flows into the freezing chamber (30) from the opposite side of the cool air discharge unit (51), the cool air spreads evenly in the freezing chamber (30). The temperature distribution of the freezing chamber 30 can be more uniform.

Fig. 4 is an exploded view showing the ice-making part 40 in Fig. Hereinafter, the ice making unit 40 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

The ice making chamber 40 may be provided with an ice making chamber 40a which is recessed toward the inside of the rear surface of the freezing chamber door 31. [

 As shown in FIG. 4, the ice making chamber 40 may have a substantially rectangular cross section. The ice making chamber 40a is a space in which the ice making operation is performed. The ice making chamber 40a has a space separate from the freezing chamber 30. The edge of the ice making chamber 40a protrudes to the inside of the freezing chamber 30 to a sufficient height to secure a sufficient space for mounting the ice maker 100 inside the ice making chamber 40a. When the freezing chamber door 31 is closed, a cool air inflow hole 41 is formed at one side of the ice making chamber 40a adjacent to the cold air discharging portion 51 (see FIGS. 2 to 3). A cool air discharge hole may be formed in the ice making chamber 40a so that the cool air introduced through the cool air inflow hole 41 is discharged.

An outlet 42 or an ice duct 42 (hereinafter referred to as "ice duct 42 ") which is a passage through which the ice stored in the ice making apparatus 100 and taken out of the refrigerator is taken out, ) ") Is formed.

The ice duct 42 has a predetermined size and communicates with the outside of the refrigerator through an inner bottom surface of the ice making chamber 40a.

On the other hand, a support plate 43 is provided on the inner bottom surface of the ice making chamber 40a. The support plate 43 supports the mounting of the ice maker 100 mounted on the inner side of the ice making chamber 40a and is installed so as to be completely in contact with the inner bottom surface of the ice making chamber 40a.

The support plate 43 is bent so as to be in surface contact with an inner bottom surface and a side surface of the ice making chamber 40a and when the support plate 43 is mounted, 40a are of course brought into close contact with the lower surface and one side surface.

A lower end portion of the support plate 50 is vertically bent to form a coupling portion 44 which is in contact with the lower portion of the front surface of the ice making chamber 40a, The support plate 43 is fixed by a fixing member such as a screw to prevent the support plate 43 from flowing.

An ice maker 110 is installed on the upper portion of the support plate 43 to store ice and ice-maker ice by cool air. Below the ice-making chamber 40a, that is, below the bottom of the support plate 50, The ice bank 120 is mounted.

An ice maker 100 is provided inside the ice making chamber 40a for making and storing ice using cool air supplied from the cool air duct 50 and for taking out the required amount to the outside.

The ice bank 120 includes a storage case 121 for storing ice produced by the ice maker 110 and an ice making device for guiding the ice stored in the storage case 121 to the ice duct 42 122).

The storage case 121 is formed below the ice maker 110 so as to store the ice stored in the ice maker and has the same width as the width of the inside of the ice making chamber 40a so as to be fitted inside the ice making chamber 40a And is formed in a cylindrical shape having a width.

The storage case 121 includes a case body 121a forming an outer shape excluding the front surface so that the interior of the storage case 121 can be completely exposed for cleaning or service and a case cover 121b for selectively shielding the opened front face of the case .

An ice-making device (122) is provided below the storage case (121). The icemaker 122 is provided at an inner lower end of the storage case 121 and is connected to the storage case 121 so that ice stored in the storage case 121 can be easily guided to the ice duct 42. [ And is provided substantially at the center.

The ice making device 122 generally uses a rotation driving device such as a step motor to guide the ice stored in the storage case 121 to a predetermined number of ice ducts.

The ice-making device 122 may be integrally formed with the storage case 121, and may be separately formed and mounted on the support plate 43 if necessary.

The ice maker 110 is mounted on the support plate 43 to form one module and is mounted on the support plate 43 so as to be installed inside the ice making chamber 40a do.

Although not shown, a connector may be formed on the inner bottom surface of the ice making chamber 40a so that the support plate 43 integrally formed with the ice maker 110 can be connected without any wiring work.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are cross-sectional views showing a cool air discharge unit of a refrigerator according to another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a distribution unit of FIGS. 5A to 5B.

The bottom of the cool air duct 250 may be provided with a slope 250a and a horizontal plane 250. [ The cold air discharge unit 251 may be provided on the inclined surface 250a of the cool air duct 250. [ The cool air discharge unit 251 may include a first cool air discharge port 251a and a second cool air discharge port 251b. The first cool air discharge port 251a may be configured to supply cool air to the freezing chamber 240 and the second cool air discharge port 251b may be configured to supply cool air to the freezing chamber 230. [ The first cold air discharge port 251a may be disposed in contact with the cold air inflow hole 241 of the ice making unit 240. [ The upper edge of the ice-making part 240 has an inclined surface 242a and a horizontal surface 242b and the cool air inflow hole 241 may be provided on the inclined surface 242a.

The cool air duct 250 may be provided with a distributor 270 for distributing the amount of cool air discharged from the first cool air discharge port 251a and the second cool air discharge port 251b.

The distribution unit 270 may include a plate-like body 271 and a driving unit 272.

The plate-like body 271 may be formed so as to intersect with the flow direction of the cold air in the cool air duct 250. A driving unit 272 for rotating the plate-shaped body 271 may be connected to at least one side of the plate-shaped body 271 according to the amount of ice generated in the freezing unit 240.

The driving unit 272 may include a driving shaft 272a connected to the plate body 271 and serving as a rotation center and a driving motor 272b for rotating the driving shaft 272a.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a control system in which the flow rate is distributed by the distributor 270 will be described.

A control unit (not shown) is installed to distribute the flow rate. The control unit measures the amount of ice stored in the storage case 121 (see FIG. 4) of the ice making unit 240. For this, a sensing sensor may be installed in the ice-making part 240. If ice is taken out through the ice duct 42 but the ice is not yet iced in the ice maker 110, quick ice-making is necessary. At this time, the plate-shaped body 271 is rotated so as to be parallel to the flow direction of the cool air in the cool air duct 250, as shown in FIG. 5A, so that more cool air is discharged from the first cool air discharge port 251a.

Most of the cold air is discharged from the first cool air discharge port 251a and flows into the ice-making unit 240 due to the inertia of the cool air flowing in the cool-air duct 250. The ice can be quickly deaerated by more cold air.

The controller measures the storage capacity of the ice. If the stored amount of ice is sufficient, the amount of cool air flowing into the ice-making unit 240 is less than that required for ice-making since the amount of water required to maintain the frozen state is required. Therefore, the plate-like body 271 is rotated so as to be inclined with respect to the flow direction of the cold air in the cool air duct 250, as shown in FIG. 5B, so that cool air is less discharged from the first cool air discharge port 251a. As shown in the figure, the plate-like body 271 may be rotated so that one end of the plate-shaped body 271 contacts one side of the second cold air discharge port 251b. Accordingly, the plate-like body 271 divides the cool air duct 250 into two ducts, and the cool air in the cool air duct 250 is distributed.

As the cool air is distributed in the cool air duct 250, a larger amount of flow is discharged from the second cool air discharge port 251b. Therefore, the ice of the ice making part 240 is maintained and the freezing temperature of the freezing room 230 can be maintained at least as much as the amount of the entire cold air supplied to the cool air duct 250. Also, the power consumption of the refrigerator can be reduced.

The foregoing has been shown and described with respect to specific embodiments of the invention. However, the present invention may be embodied in various forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof, so that the above-described embodiments should not be limited by the details of the detailed description, It is to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. It is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

1 is a front perspective view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention;

2 is a perspective view showing the duct of the freezer compartment of FIG.

3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line III-III in Fig. 1;

4 is an exploded view of the ice making part of Fig.

FIG. 5A is a sectional view showing a state of a cold discharge unit of a refrigerator according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

FIG. 5B is a sectional view showing another state of a cold discharge portion of a refrigerator according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG.

Figure 6 is a perspective view of the dispensing portion of Figures 5a-5b.

Claims (6)

A main body having at least one storage chamber; One or more doors opening / closing a storage room formed in the main body; A ice making part installed on the door inner wall to generate and supply ice; A cold air duct provided in the storage room opened and closed by the door on which the ice making part is formed and having a cold discharge part for supplying cold air to the ice making part; And an ice duct formed to communicate with the ice making part such that ice produced from the ice making part is taken out to the outside of the door, The ice- An ice making chamber formed inside the door to be partitioned from the storage chamber, A support plate mounted on the ice making chamber, an ice maker provided on the support plate to make ice, And an ice bank mounted on the support plate at a lower side of the ice maker for storing ice made by the ice maker, An upper edge of the ice making chamber is provided with an inclined surface inclined at a predetermined angle, A cool air inflow hole penetrating the cold air duct to allow the cool air supplied from the cool air duct to flow therethrough is provided on an inclined surface of the ice making chamber, Wherein at least a part of the cool air duct is disposed on the upper surface of the storage chamber, Wherein the cool air duct has an inclined surface corresponding to an inclined surface formed on an upper edge of the ice making chamber and a horizontal surface parallel to an upper surface of the storage chamber, A first cool air discharge port for supplying cool air to the ice making chamber is formed on an inclined surface of the cool air duct, Wherein a cool air discharge port is formed in a horizontal plane of the cool air duct so as to be adjacent to the first cool air discharge port and to supply cool air to the storage compartment. The method according to claim 1, Further comprising a distribution unit installed in the cool air duct and capable of controlling the amount of cool air supplied to the ice making unit and the amount of cool air supplied to the storage chamber. 3. The method of claim 2, Wherein the distributor comprises a plate-shaped body installed between the first and second cold air discharge openings to change the traveling direction of the cold air. The method of claim 3, Wherein the distributor further comprises a driving unit for changing a position of the plate-shaped main body. 3. The method of claim 2, Further comprising a control unit for controlling the dispensing unit to adjust the cool air supplied by the cool air duct according to the ice storage amount of the ice bank of the ice making unit. delete

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