CN103575052A

CN103575052A - Refrigerator

Info

Publication number: CN103575052A
Application number: CN201210289527.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李平安; 鲁松涛; 窦本和; 刁文涛
Original assignee: BSH Electrical Appliances Jiangsu Co Ltd
Current assignee: BSH Electrical Appliances Jiangsu Co Ltd
Priority date: 2012-08-07
Filing date: 2012-08-07
Publication date: 2014-02-12
Anticipated expiration: 2032-08-07
Also published as: WO2014023606A1; CN103575052B

Abstract

The invention relates to a refrigerator, which comprises a storage chamber (11), a door (13) which is used for closing or opening the storage chamber (11), and at least one light emitting diode (21) which is installed at the front part of the top wall (12) of the storage chamber (11). According to the refrigerator, the optical axis (X) of the light emitting diode (21) tilts towards the direction of the door (13) and is intersected with the door (13).

Description

Refrigerator with a door

[ technical field ]

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator having light emitting diodes for illuminating storage compartments.

[ background art ]

In order to place items to be cooled, the storage compartment of a refrigerator is typically at least partially pulled out of a storage device, such as a drawer, outside the storage compartment. A conventional lighting apparatus for a refrigerator illuminates a storage room, and illumination of a drawer is mainly dependent on ambient brightness when the drawer is pulled out of the storage room. When the ambient brightness is low, the brightness in the pulled-out drawer is not good, and the user is not favorable to see the articles in the drawer clearly.

JP10-300338a discloses a lighting mechanism provided at a lower portion of a rotatable door located uppermost in a refrigerator to illuminate an extractable storage section located below the rotatable door. The lighting mechanism located on the door obviously adds significant complexity to the wiring on the door.

[ summary of the invention ]

An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator advantageous for improving a lighting condition.

The above object is achieved by the features of the independent claims. Preferred embodiments of the invention are the subject of the figures, the description and the dependent claims.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is directed to a refrigerator. A refrigerator including a storage compartment, a door to selectively close or open the storage compartment, and at least one light emitting diode mounted at a front portion of a top wall of the storage compartment, wherein an optical axis of the light emitting diode is inclined toward the door and intersects the door in a direction from top to bottom.

Thus, when the door is opened, the main beam of the light emitting diode, particularly, the beam of the central region can be irradiated to the outside of the storage compartment, and when a user pulls out a drawer located in the storage compartment, at least a portion of the pulled-out drawer can be illuminated by the main beam of the light emitting diode, thereby improving the lighting condition of the refrigerator. This solution is more cost effective than the solution where the illumination lamps are arranged at the bottom of the upper door.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the optical axis of the light emitting diode and the door intersect at a lower half of the door. When the lower half of the storage compartment is provided with a drawer, the drawer in this position can also be illuminated when pulled out.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a refrigerator includes a drawer installed in the storage compartment to be withdrawable, the drawer having a light-tight portion at a front end thereof near the top wall, the optical axis and the light-tight portion not intersecting. This is advantageous in preventing the light emitted from the light emitting diode from being blocked by the opaque portion when the drawer is in the storage compartment, thereby affecting the illumination in the storage compartment. When the opaque portion and the light emitting diode are not overlapped in the vertical direction, the light emitting diode and the opaque portion are more favorably not intersected, and the lighting effect is better.

According to a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the angle between the optical axis of the light emitting diode and the front opening is between 20 and 30 degrees.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the refrigerator includes a circuit board in the top wall, the light emitting diodes are fixed to the circuit board, and the circuit board is inclined upward in a rear-to-front direction. The light beam of the light-emitting diode can thus be irradiated particularly effectively in the direction of the door.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the lighting device comprises a lighting shell, wherein the lighting shell comprises a mounting part and a containing groove, the mounting part is used for being mounted on an inner container of the storage chamber, the containing groove is used for containing the circuit board, and an included angle is formed between the mounting part and the containing groove. This facilitates the circuit board to be mounted on the inner container at a predetermined angle with respect to the door such that the optical axis of the light emitting diode intersects the door, and the main beam can be irradiated to the outside of the storage compartment.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, in the region of the top wall near the front opening, the inner container of the storage compartment comprises a downwardly sloping inclined wall section on which the light emitting diodes are mounted, and a horizontal section connected to the front end of the inclined wall section. When the front end of the storage device in the storage chamber is provided with the opaque part, the scheme is particularly beneficial to increasing the distance between the light-emitting diode and the opaque part and reducing the influence of the opaque part on the illumination of the light-emitting diode in the storage chamber.

The construction of the present invention and other objects and advantages thereof will be more apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[ description of the drawings ]

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. Wherein,

fig. 1 is a schematic partial sectional view of a refrigerator according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a partially enlarged view of a refrigerator before foaming according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

[ detailed description of the invention ]

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, a refrigerator 1 includes an insulated storage compartment 11 having a front opening 10. The front opening 10 of the storage compartment 11 may be selectively closed or opened by an insulated door 13.

The storage chamber 11 may be defined by a box-shaped inner container 14, and an insulation layer 15 is provided outside the inner container 14.

An upper drawer 3 which can be pulled out and a lower drawer 4 which is positioned below the upper drawer 3 are arranged in the storage chamber 11. The front portions of the upper drawer 3 and the lower drawer 4 have opaque portions 31, 41. The opaque portion 31 of the upper drawer 3 is adjacent the top wall 12 of the storage compartment 11. In this embodiment, the opaque parts 31, 41 are located at the upper ends of the front walls of the upper drawer 3 and the lower drawer 4, respectively, such as the handle and/or the decorative area.

The refrigerator 1 comprises a lighting assembly 2 mounted on a top wall 12. The lighting assembly 2 comprises at least one light emitting diode 21 and a circuit board 22. The light emitting diode 21 may be of a surface mount type, having a limited light emitting angle, i.e., a light intensity substantially distributed within a limited range. In this embodiment, the light emitting angle of the light emitting diode 21 is 40 degrees, and the light emitting range is 80 degrees. Typically, the intensity is greatest in the region near the optical axis X, for example, at an angle of 15 degrees to the optical axis X.

It should be understood that the light emitting diodes 21 may have different light emitting angles, such as 45 degrees, 60 degrees, 30 degrees, etc., as desired.

The light emitting diodes 21 are fixed on the circuit board 22. In the rear-to-front direction, the circuit board 22 is inclined upward. The optical axis X of the light emitting diode 21 is perpendicular to the circuit board 22, so that the optical axis X of the light emitting diode 21 is inclined in a direction toward the door 3 (outward) in a direction from above to below, and the main beam of the light emitting diode 21 is irradiated toward the door 13.

As shown in fig. 1, the optical axis X of the light emitting diode 21 intersects the door 13 and the front opening 10. In this embodiment, the angle a between the optical axis X and the door 13 is between 20 and 30 degrees, for example 27 to 28 degrees. The angle between the circuit board 22 and the door 13 is 90-a. Preferably, the optical axis X of the light emitting diode 21 and the door 13 intersect at the lower half of the door 13.

The light emitting diode 21 and the upper drawer 3 overlap in the longitudinal direction, but, as shown in fig. 1, the optical axis X and the opaque portion 31 do not intersect. As shown in fig. 2, the area between the broken lines N1 and N2 is the range covered by the opaque parts 31 in the vertical direction, but the light emitting diode 21 is located outside the area between the broken lines N1 and N2, that is, the light emitting diode 21 and the opaque parts 31 do not overlap in the vertical direction.

The inner container 14 includes a first horizontal section 142 and a second horizontal section 143 in parallel at a portion corresponding to the top wall 12, wherein the first horizontal section 142 covers most of the storage chamber 11, and the second horizontal section 143 is located at a front end of the storage chamber 11. The first horizontal section 142 is higher than the second horizontal section 143. The first horizontal section 142 and the second horizontal section 143 are connected by an inclined wall section 141 near the front opening 10. The inclined wall section 141 is inclined downward in the backward-forward direction.

The lighting assembly 2 is mounted on the slanted wall section 141. The slanted wall section 141 has a mounting opening 1411 for mounting the lighting assembly 2. The lighting assembly 2 has a light-transmissive lamp housing 24 to close the mounting opening 1411.

The lighting assembly 2 includes a lighting housing 23 to secure the circuit board 22. Prior to the frothing procedure of the refrigerator 1, the lighting housing 23 is fixed on the slanted wall section 141 (as shown in fig. 2), and the lighting housing 23 and the insulating layer 15 are tightly combined (as shown in fig. 1) outside the completion of the frothing procedure.

The lighting housing 23 includes a mounting portion 231 fixed to the inclined wall portion 141 and a receiving groove 232 to receive the circuit board 22. The mounting portion 231 is substantially parallel to the inclined wall section 141, and the angle between the receiving groove 232 and the mounting portion 231 is substantially equal to the angle (90-a) between the circuit board 22 and the inclined wall section 141. Therefore, an included angle is formed between the mounting portion 231 and the receiving groove 232.

The various embodiments of the individual components described in connection with fig. 1-2 may be combined with each other in any given manner to achieve the advantages of the invention. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiments, and other means than those shown may be generally used as long as the same effects are obtained.

Claims

1. A refrigerator (1) comprising a storage compartment (11), a door (13) to close or open the storage compartment (11), and at least one light emitting diode (21) mounted at the front of a top wall (12) of the storage compartment (11), characterized in that the optical axis (X) of the light emitting diode (21) is inclined towards the door (13) and intersects the door (13).

2. A refrigerator (1) as in claim 1, characterized by the light axis (X) of the light emitting diode (21) and the door (13) intersecting at the lower half of the door (13).

3. A refrigerator (1) as in claim 1, characterized by comprising a drawer (3) mounted withdrawably in the storage compartment (11), the drawer (3) having at its front end a light-opaque portion (31) close to the top wall (12), the optical axis (X) and the light-opaque portion (31) not intersecting.

4. A refrigerator (1) as in claim 3, characterized by the opaque portion (31) and the light emitting diode (21) not overlapping in the vertical direction.

5. A refrigerator (1) as in claim 1, characterized by the angle (a) between the optical axis (X) of the light emitting diode (21) and the door (13) being between 20 and 30 degrees.

6. A refrigerator (1) as in any one of the above claims, characterized by a circuit board (22) in the top wall (12), the LEDs (21) being fixed to the circuit board (22), the circuit board (22) being inclined upwards in the rear-to-front direction.

7. A refrigerator (1) as in claim 6 comprising a lighting housing (23), the lighting housing (23) comprising a mounting portion (231) for mounting on the inner container (14) of the storage compartment (11) and a receiving slot (232) for receiving the circuit board (22), the mounting portion (231) and the receiving slot (232) forming an included angle therebetween.

8. A refrigerator (1) as in claim 1, characterized by the top wall (12) in the area near the front opening (10), the inner container (14) of the storage compartment (11) comprising a slanted wall section (141) sloping downward and a horizontal section (143) connected to the front end of the slanted wall section (141), the light emitting diodes (21) being mounted on the slanted wall section (141).