CN107883650B

CN107883650B - Refrigerator with a door

Info

Publication number: CN107883650B
Application number: CN201711186905.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 真下拓也
Original assignee: Toshiba Lifestyle Products and Services Corp
Current assignee: Toshiba Lifestyle Products and Services Corp
Priority date: 2013-06-28
Filing date: 2014-06-24
Publication date: 2021-09-28
Anticipated expiration: 2034-06-24
Also published as: JP2015010780A; CN104251585A; KR101708096B1; JP6230299B2; CN107906830A; CN107883648A; CN107883650A; CN107883651A; CN107883649B; CN104251585B; KR20150002484A; CN107883649A; CN107883648B; CN107883651B

Abstract

The present invention provides a refrigerator, comprising: a heat-insulating door body installed at the front surface opening of the refrigerator body; a colored transparent and non-conductive front surface plate disposed on the front surface of the door body; and a capacitive operation input unit that is provided on the back side of the front panel of the door body and that receives an operation input based on a touch operation from the front panel side. Thus, a refrigerator which is easy for a user to see various information and achieves low power consumption is realized.

Description

Refrigerator with a door

The application is a divisional application of a patent with an application date of 2014, 06, 24 and an application number of 201410286119.X and a name of refrigerator.

This application claims and is based on the priority of japanese patent application No. 2013-136856, filed 2013-28, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a refrigerator having a front panel on a front surface of a door.

Background

In recent years, there has been a refrigerator including a front panel of a glass (glass) plate or a transparent plastic (plastic) plate colored for decoration on a front surface of a door.

Further, there is a refrigerator provided with a capacitance type operation input portion for selecting a cooling function or inputting a setting operation.

Such a refrigerator has the following problems: if the front surface plate is a conductive member, the capacitance is absorbed by the conductive member, and the capacitance cannot be generated, so that the operation input cannot be performed.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above-described problems of the related art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator including a door having an operation input unit provided on a rear surface side of a front panel, in which a capacitive operation input can be reliably performed.

The refrigerator of the embodiment includes: a door body installed at a front surface opening portion of the refrigerator body; a non-conductive front surface plate disposed at a front surface of the door body; and an operation input unit that is provided on the back side of the front panel in the door body, receives an operation input based on a touch operation from the front panel front side, and is provided with no conductive member on the back side of the front panel on which the operation input unit is provided.

Further, a refrigerator of another embodiment includes: a heat-insulating door body installed at the front surface opening of the refrigerator body; a colored transparent and non-conductive front surface plate disposed on the front surface of the door body; a capacitive operation input unit provided on the back side of the front panel in the door body and configured to receive an operation input based on a touch operation from the front panel; and a grounding unit grounding the floating charge of the operation input part to a metal portion of the refrigerator body.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator of an embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a door-opened state of the refrigerator of the embodiment.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a refrigerating compartment portion of the refrigerator of the embodiment.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of the right front surface plate viewed from the rear in the refrigerator of the embodiment.

[ description of symbols ]

1: refrigerator with a door

11: cabinet body

12: refrigerating chamber

13: vegetable room

14: switching room

15: freezing chamber

16: ice making chamber

21: left door

21A: inner plate

21B: front surface board

22: right door

22A: inner plate

22B: front surface board

23-26: door with a door panel

31: left hinge part

32: right hinge part

31 a: opening part

32 a: opening part

33. 34: cover

41. 42, 44, 46, 71: conducting wire

43. 47: grounding wire

45. 48: connector with a locking member

51: operation input unit

52: infrared light receiving part

53: return button

54: LED display lamp

54-1: corresponding part of the front surface plate corresponding to the front of the LED display lamp

54-2: the peripheral part

55: 7-segment LED display device

55-1: corresponding part of the front surface plate corresponding to the front of the installation position of the 7-segment LED display device

56: display window

61: rotating partition body

62: anti-dewing heater

63: conductor sheet

70: wireless communication unit

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described based on the drawings.

The refrigerator 1 of the embodiment shown in fig. 1 includes a cabinet (cabinet)11 as a refrigerator main body. As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the cabinet 11 includes, from the top, a refrigerating compartment 12, a vegetable compartment 13, a switching compartment 14 capable of switching a temperature set in the refrigerator, and a freezing compartment 15. On the left side of the switching chamber 14, an ice making chamber 16 is provided.

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, a pair of left and

right doors

21 and 22 are attached to the upper and lower left and right ends of the refrigerating compartment 12 so as to be opened and closed in a split manner by hinge (hinge)

portions

31 and 32, respectively, to cover the front opening. In addition,

drawer type doors

23, 24, 25, and 26 are provided in the vegetable compartment 13, the switching compartment 14, the freezing compartment 15, and the ice making compartment 16, respectively. On the back surface of vegetable compartment 13, although not shown, a refrigerating evaporator for cooling refrigerating room 12 and vegetable compartment 13 is disposed, and on the back surfaces of switching compartment 14 and freezing compartment 15, similarly not shown, a freezing evaporator for cooling switching compartment 14, freezing compartment 15, and ice making compartment 16 is disposed. Further, a control unit including a microcomputer (microcomputer) for controlling the refrigerator 1 is disposed on the rear surface of the vegetable room 13.

The pair of left and

right doors

21 and 22 are split, and the left door (hereinafter, left door) 21 has a hinge portion (hereinafter, left hinge portion) 31 at a left side portion when facing the doors, and the right door (hereinafter, right door) 22 has a hinge portion (hereinafter, right hinge portion) 32 at a right side portion when facing the doors. In fig. 1, covers (caps) 33 and 34 are fitted over the left and

right hinge portions

31 and 32, respectively.

As shown in fig. 3, the left hinge portion 31 of the left door 21 includes a hinge shaft and a hinge support portion, and shaft holes are formed in the upper surface and the lower surface of the left end portion of the left door 21. A pair of upper and lower plate-like hinge support portions are provided at the left front end portion of the top surface of the cabinet 11 and the left end portion of the lower end of the refrigerating compartment 12, respectively, and hinge shafts protrude from the pair of upper and lower hinge support portions, respectively. The shaft hole of the left door 21 is engaged with the pair of upper and lower hinge shafts, so that the left door 21 is rotatable. The hinge shaft engaged with the shaft hole located at the upper portion of the left end portion of the left door 21 is cylindrical, and a lead wire 41 described later is inserted through the shaft hole and the inside of the hinge shaft and is led out from the opening portion 31a located at the upper portion of the hinge support portion. The right hinge portion 32 of the right door 22 has the same configuration, and the lead wire 42 and the ground (earth) wire 43 are drawn out from the opening portion 32 a. These

wires

41 and 42 are connected to wires 44 and 46 on the cabinet 11 side at the left and

right hinge portions

31 and 32, respectively. The wires 44 and 46 on the cabinet 11 side are connected to the control unit along the inside of the cabinet 11. On the other hand, the ground line 43 is connected to a ground line 47 of the cabinet 11, an end of the ground line 47 is connected to a conductor portion 50 of the cabinet 11, and floating charges of an operation input portion 51 described later are grounded to the cabinet 11 side.

The left door 21 and the right door 22 are both configured as follows: front face plates 21B and 22B made of colored transparent glass are attached to openings of the

inner plates

21A and 22A having the front faces opened, and a nonconductive heat insulating material such as urethane (urethane) is filled in the

inner plates

21A and 22A. The concentration of the coloring degree of the front surface sheets 21B, 22B is: when the front panels 21B and 22B are exposed to external light, the filler such as a heat insulator on the back side is not visible from the outside. The concentration of the coloring degree of the front surface plates 21B and 22B is also: in a lighting state of each of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) indicator lamp for displaying a name of a transmissive display operation button (button), a name of a cooling function, a cooling intensity, and the like, and a 7-segment (segment) LED display device for displaying a variation value such as a temperature value in a transmissive manner, which will be described later, Light can be transmitted and display can be viewed from the front side. The rear surfaces of the inner plates 21A, 21B may be either opaque or colored transparent.

A rotary partition body 61 is provided at the right end portion of the left door 21, that is, at a portion facing the left end portion of the right door 22 in the closed state, and the rotary partition body 61 is configured to maintain a sealed (seal) state with the right door 22 in the closed state. A dew condensation prevention heater (heater)62 for preventing dew condensation is incorporated in the rotating separator 61. The lead wire 41 for supplying power to the dew condensation preventing heater 62 is led out upward from the opening 31A of the left hinge portion 31 through the back side of the front panel 21A of the left door 21, and is connected to the main body side lead wire 44 provided on the cabinet 11 side by a connector (connector) 45. The rotary partition body 61 rotates in accordance with the opening and closing of the left door 21. (center position is shown in FIGS. 1 and 3.)

A conductor sheet (sheet)63 is attached to a part or all of the rear surface side of the front panel 21B of the left door 21. This is because the front plate 21B is made of glass and therefore is non-conductive, and therefore cannot attract a magnet sheet (magnet sheet) from the front side. By attaching the conductor sheet 63, the magnet sheet can be attracted to the front surface of the front plate 22B. This enables a pad or the like to be attached to the front surface of the front sheet 21B.

The left door 21 is configured such that a conductive heat insulating material (a heat insulating material in which a vacuum heat insulating material is covered with a conductive metal film such as aluminum and has conductivity at least on the surface) is filled in the inner panel 21A, and the front surface is covered with the front panel 21B so that the magnet can be attracted thereto, thereby replacing the conductive sheet 63.

On the back side of front panel 22B of right door 22, a capacitance-type operation input unit 51 is mounted, and this capacitance-type operation input unit 51 is used to operate the refrigerator by a touch operation from the front surface of front panel 22B. The operation input unit 51 is provided with: an infrared light receiving unit 52 for detecting an environmental state around the refrigerator; a return button (home button) 53; an LED display lamp 54 for detecting a touch (touch) to the return button 53 and for displaying a name of an operation button, a name of a cooling function, a cooling intensity, and the like in a transmissive manner; and a 7-segment LED display device 55 for transmitting and displaying the variation values such as temperature value. The operation input unit 51 is connected to the lead wire 42 and the ground wire 43, and the lead wire 42 and the ground wire 43 are used for supplying power to the infrared light receiving unit 52, the LED display lamp 54, the 7-segment LED display device 55, and the like of the operation input unit 51, and for deriving a detection signal of a touch position, a signal of light receiving intensity of the infrared light receiving unit 52, and the like. These lead wires 42 and ground wires 43 are connected to lead wires 46 and ground wires 47 on the cabinet 11 side by connectors 48 at the right hinge portion 32. 56 is an LED display or other based display window.

A wireless communication unit 70 for performing wireless transmission and reception of information is provided at an appropriate position of the right door 22, i.e., at the lower right portion of the right door 22 in the present embodiment, and at a position on the back side of the front panel 22B. The lead wire 71 of the wireless communication unit 70 is led out together with the lead wire 42 for controlling the operation unit (operation input unit) 51.

In this way, by adopting the configuration in which the lead wire 41 for the dew condensation preventing heater 62 and the lead wire 42 for the operation input unit 51 are passed through the

hinge units

31 and 32 which are different from each other on the left and right, it is possible to prevent the adverse effect of noise (noise) generated in the lead wire 42 connected to the operation input unit 51 due to electromagnetic waves generated when the dew condensation preventing heater 62 is energized through the lead wire 41, and to improve the reliability of the control operation.

Since the LED indicator 54 has light distribution characteristics such that light is emitted straight ahead, the light transmitted for display is strong in the central portion and weak in the periphery, resulting in uneven brightness. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, in order to make the intensity of transmitted light uniform, the coloring degree of the corresponding portion 54-1 of the front surface plate 22B corresponding to the front of the installation position of the LED display lamp 54 is made stronger (darker) than that of the surrounding portion 54-2.

On the other hand, since the light emission amount of the LED of each segment is small, the transmitted light of the 7-segment LED display device 55 becomes weak. Therefore, in order to avoid this, a bright display can be seen from the front side, and the coloring degree of the corresponding portion 55-1 of the front surface plate 22B corresponding to the front of the installation position of the 7-stage LED display device 55 is made lower (thinner) than the other portions.

Further, the display window 56 for displaying various information and characters on the front panel 22B, for example, operation button names such as "cold storage", "freezing", "ice making", "quick freezing", or control operation names, is also made less colored than other portions of the display window 56, so that the characters are clearly displayed on the front side of the front panel 22B.

The control unit used for the cooling control of the refrigerator according to the present embodiment is a general control unit, and is not particularly limited, and for example, a compressor, an operation panel (panel), a dew condensation prevention heater, an ice making device inside an ice making chamber, a refrigerating chamber fan (fan), a freezing chamber fan, and a defrosting heater are connected to and controlled by the control unit.

(modification example)

In the above embodiment, the dew condensation preventing heater is provided on the left door 21 and the operation input unit is provided on the right door 22, but the combination may be reversed. Further, the LED display lamp and the 7-segment LED display device are not necessarily assembled, and may be selectively assembled.

Further, as the simplest (simple) door structure, a single-opening 1-leaf door that opens left or right may be disposed in front of the refrigerating compartment, and as the door structure, a colored transparent non-conductive front panel may be attached to the front surface of the heat-insulating door body, and a capacitive operation input portion that receives an operation input by a touch operation of the front panel may be provided in the door body.

In this refrigerator, a ground line for grounding the floating charge of the operation input portion is led out from the operation input portion, and the ground line is connected to the conductive member on the refrigerator main body side, whereby the capacitive touch operation can be stably performed.

As another modification, a door body is constituted by a left door body and a right door body, which are opened and closed in a split manner by a left and a right 2 pieces of hinge portions at respective end portions, one of the left and right door bodies is provided with a colored transparent and non-conductive front surface plate and a capacitance-type operation input portion that receives an operation input based on a touch operation from a front side of the front surface plate, and the other of the left and right door bodies is provided with a colored transparent front surface plate having a conductive portion and is not provided with an operation input portion on a back side of the front surface plate, so that a configuration simpler than the above-described embodiment can be adopted. This makes it possible to attract the magnet sheet to the front surface plate having the conductive portion and to attach the pad to the surface of the front surface plate, thereby improving convenience.

Further, the wireless communication unit 70 may be provided not in the door body but in an appropriate place in the storage space in the cabinet 11, so that information can be wirelessly communicated through the door body. In this case, the following structure may be adopted: at least at a position of the door body facing the wireless communication unit 70, a conductive heat insulating material that absorbs communication radio waves is not provided, and a conductive heat insulating material is provided at a position that does not obstruct wireless communication performed through the front panel of the door body. In addition, the wireless communication unit 70 may be provided in the door body or the storage room on the side where the operation input unit 51 is not provided, for the split left and

right door bodies

21 and 22, and in this case, the following configuration may be adopted: at least at a position of the door body facing the wireless communication unit 70, a conductive heat insulating material that absorbs communication radio waves is not provided, and a conductive heat insulating material is provided at a position that does not obstruct wireless communication performed through the front panel of the door body.

Several embodiments have been described, but these embodiments are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. It is to be understood that these novel embodiments can be implemented in various other embodiments, and various omissions, substitutions, and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. These embodiments and modifications thereof are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalent scope thereof.

Claims

1. A refrigerator, characterized by comprising:

a door body mounted on the front surface opening of the refrigerator body and filled with a vacuum heat insulation material using a conductive metal film;

a non-conductive front surface plate provided at the door body; and

a wireless communication unit provided on a back side of the front panel in the door body for wireless communication of information;

an operation input unit provided on a back side of the front panel of the door body and configured to receive an operation input by a touch operation;

a conductive metal film for the vacuum heat insulating material that absorbs communication radio waves is not disposed at a position on the back side of the front panel of the door body that faces the wireless communication unit,

and no conductive member is disposed on the back side of the front panel on which the operation input unit is provided,

and the wire of the wireless communication part is far away from the wire of the operation input part.

2. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the door body comprises split left and right doors.