CN114183975A

CN114183975A - Refrigerator with a door

Info

Publication number: CN114183975A
Application number: CN202010970294.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 崔展鹏; 刘建如; 李佳明; 姬立胜; 吕鹏; 牟森
Original assignee: Haier Smart Home Co Ltd; Chongqing Haier Refrigeration Electric Appliance Co Ltd
Current assignee: Haier Smart Home Co Ltd; Chongqing Haier Refrigeration Electric Appliance Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-09-15
Filing date: 2020-09-15
Publication date: 2022-03-15
Anticipated expiration: 2040-09-15
Also published as: AU2021343996A1; US20230314058A1; EP4206580A4; EP4206580A1; WO2022057589A1; CN114183975B

Abstract

The invention provides a refrigerator, which comprises a refrigerator body and a door body, wherein the front side of the refrigerator body is opened to limit a first chamber, the door body comprises a main door and an auxiliary door, the main door is used for opening and closing the first chamber and limits a second chamber, the auxiliary door is used for opening and closing the second chamber, the rear wall of the main door is provided with an air supply outlet and an air return inlet, and the air supply outlet and the air return inlet are communicated with the first chamber and the second chamber; the rear wall is hollow, a dew removing air channel communicated with the first chamber is defined in the rear wall, and a plurality of dew removing holes communicated with the second chamber and the dew removing air channel are formed in the front surface of the rear wall backwards; the refrigerator is configured to: the air in the first chamber enters the second chamber through the air supply outlet and returns to the first chamber through the air return inlet in a cooling circulation mode; or in a dew removing mode that air in the first compartment enters the dew removing air duct so that part of air flow flows to the front surface of the rear wall through the dew removing holes to remove surface dew. The refrigerator provided by the invention can effectively remove condensation on the inner wall of the door compartment.

Description

Refrigerator with a door

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of refrigeration and freezing, in particular to a refrigerator.

Background

With the technical progress and the improvement of the living standard of people, the requirement of users on the refrigerator is higher and higher. The conventional refrigerator provided with only a refrigerating chamber, a freezing chamber and a temperature-changing chamber has not been able to satisfy the user's demand for diversification of storage space.

In recent years, a composite door body technology appears in the field of refrigerators. As is well known, a conventional refrigerator door is used to open and close a refrigerating compartment of a refrigerator body, and a bottle holder is disposed at a liner of the refrigerator door at most for holding a bottle. The refrigerator with the composite door body improves the structure and the function of the door body, so that the door body comprises a main door and an auxiliary door, and the main door is used for opening and closing a refrigerating chamber. The main door defines a door compartment whose front side is open, and the sub door opens and closes the door compartment. And in the rotation process of the main door, the auxiliary door keeps a closed state. The door body chamber can be used for placing storage objects, and only the auxiliary door needs to be opened when the storage objects are taken and placed, and the main door is not opened. Not only the operation is more convenient and faster, but also the excessive loss of cold energy caused by frequently opening the main door is avoided.

However, in the operation process of the composite door refrigerator, the inner wall of the door chamber often has a condensation phenomenon, which affects the user experience and hinders the further development of the composite door technology. Therefore, how to reduce or avoid the condensation on the inner wall of the door chamber also becomes a technical problem to be solved in the field.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to solve at least one of the defects in the prior art and provide a refrigerator capable of effectively removing condensation on the inner wall of a door chamber.

It is a further object of the present invention to reduce the effects of dewing on the proper refrigeration of the door compartment.

In particular, the present invention provides a refrigerator including a cabinet having a front side opened to define a first compartment, and a door body including a main door for opening and closing the first compartment and defining a second compartment, and a sub door for opening and closing the second compartment, and

the rear wall of the main door is provided with an air supply outlet and an air return inlet which are communicated with the first chamber and the second chamber; the rear wall is hollow, a dew removing air channel communicated with the first chamber is defined in the rear wall, and a plurality of dew removing holes communicated with the second chamber and the dew removing air channel are formed in the front surface of the rear wall backwards; the refrigerator is configured to:

the air in the first chamber enters the second chamber through the air supply outlet and returns to the first chamber through the air return inlet in a cooling circulation mode; or

And the dew removing mode is that air in the first compartment enters the dew removing air duct so that part of air flow flows to the front surface of the rear wall through the dew removing holes to remove surface dew.

Optionally, the dew-removing air duct has an inlet and an outlet communicating with the first compartment; and the refrigerator is configured to make the inlet and the outlet in a closed state and an open state, respectively, when in a cooling circulation mode; when in dew removing mode, the inlet and the outlet are both in an open state.

Optionally, the inlet penetrates a sidewall of the supply air outlet to communicate with the supply air outlet.

Optionally, the outlet penetrates a sidewall of the return air opening to communicate with the return air opening.

Optionally, the supply and return air inlets are located at the top and bottom of the rear wall respectively.

Optionally, the refrigerator further comprises: and the air door is arranged at the air supply opening and is configured to be controlled to move to a cooling state for closing the inlet and conducting the air supply opening or to a dew removing state for opening the inlet and closing the air supply opening.

Optionally, one end of the damper is rotatably mounted at the front edge of the inlet to rotate to a cooling state or a dew condensation removing state.

Optionally, the refrigerator further comprises: and the fan is arranged at the air supply opening and used for promoting the air in the first chamber to flow to the air supply opening.

Alternatively, the arrangement density of the dew-removing holes is gradually decreased in a direction from the supply port to the return port.

Optionally, the dew removing holes are long-strip-shaped holes with the length direction parallel to the airflow direction of the dew removing duct.

The refrigerator is a composite door refrigerator, and the door body comprises a main door and an auxiliary door, wherein the main door is used for opening and closing a first chamber defined by a refrigerator body, and the auxiliary door is used for opening and closing a second chamber defined by the main door. The invention can effectively remove condensation on the inner wall of the second chamber by specially designing the main door. Specifically, the rear wall of the main door is hollow, a defrosting air channel is defined, and a plurality of dew removing holes are formed in the front surface of the rear wall backwards. When the second space needs normal refrigeration, the refrigerator operates a cooling circulation mode, so that air in the first chamber normally enters the second chamber through the air supply outlet, and the second chamber is refrigerated. When condensation is generated on the rear wall surface of the second compartment (namely the front surface of the rear wall of the main door) and dew needs to be removed, the refrigerator operates a dew removing mode, air in the first compartment enters a dew removing air duct in the rear wall of the main door, and partial air flow flows to the front surface of the rear wall through the dew removing holes. The relative humidity of the air in the dew-removing air duct is necessarily lower than the original air flow at the front surface of the rear wall of the main door (the relative humidity of the air near the dew is necessarily high), so the low-humidity air introduced into the dew-removing air duct can promote the evaporation of the dew.

In addition, when the refrigerator operates in the dew-removing mode, the traditional modes of electrically heating the rear wall or introducing hot air and the like are not adopted, the dew is removed by utilizing the cold air of the first chamber, the dew-removing process basically does not influence the normal refrigeration of the second chamber, and the structural design is very ingenious.

Furthermore, the refrigerator of the invention enables the dew removing air duct inlet and outlet to form air path circulation between the dew removing air duct and the first chamber, thereby avoiding the dew removing effect being influenced by the fact that air flow for dew removing is deposited near the dew removing air duct and the dew removing hole and cannot circulate.

Furthermore, the refrigerator of the invention enables the inlet of the dew-removing air channel to be communicated with the air supply outlet and the outlet to be communicated with the air return inlet, thereby simplifying the air inlet and outlet control, utilizing one air door to control the opening and closing of the air supply outlet and the inlet and having a skillful structure; on the other hand, the opening structure of the rear wall of the main door is simplified, and only the air supply outlet and the air return inlet are directly arranged on the rear surface of the rear wall of the main door.

Further, since it is recognized that the closer to the supply opening, the more condensation is generated on the rear wall of the main door, and the closer to the return opening, the less condensation. Therefore, the invention designs the arrangement density of the dew-removing holes, and the arrangement density of the dew-removing holes is gradually reduced in the direction from the air supply outlet to the air return inlet so as to match the variation trend of the condensation degree of different positions of the rear wall of the main door and avoid forming too many meaningless holes.

The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

Some specific embodiments of the invention will be described in detail hereinafter, by way of illustration and not limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in the drawings identify the same or similar elements or components. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a refrigerator in a cooling cycle mode according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view at A of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 in a dew removal mode;

fig. 4 is an enlarged view of fig. 3 at B.

Detailed Description

A refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 1 to 4. Where the orientations or positional relationships indicated by the terms "front," "back," "upper," "lower," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "lateral," and the like are based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings, the description is for convenience only and to simplify the description, and no indication or suggestion is made that the device or element so indicated must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and is therefore not to be construed as limiting the invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a refrigerator in a cooling cycle mode according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is an enlarged view at A of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 in a dew removal mode; fig. 4 is an enlarged view at B of fig. 3, in which the wind direction is indicated by arrows.

As shown in fig. 1 to 4, a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention may generally include a cabinet 100 and a door 200. Wherein, a front side of the cabinet 100 (the side of the present invention where the door body 200 is located is a front side of the refrigerator, and the front-back direction has been shown in the drawings) is opened to define the first compartment 101. The door body 200 includes a main door 210 for opening and closing the first compartment 101 and defining the second compartment 201, and a sub door 220 for opening and closing the second compartment 201.

The main door 210 may be rotatably mounted to the cabinet 100 at the front side of the cabinet 100, the front side of the main door 210 is opened to define the aforementioned second compartment 201, and the sub door 220 may be rotatably mounted to the main door 210 at the front side of the main door 210. When the main door 210 is opened, the user accesses the items from the first compartment 101. With the main door 210 closed and the sub-door 220 open, a user may access items from the second compartment 201.

The refrigerator may be refrigerated by a vapor compression refrigeration cycle, a semiconductor refrigeration system, or other means. Each compartment inside the refrigerator may be divided into a refrigerating compartment, a freezing compartment, and a temperature-changing compartment according to a refrigerating temperature. For example, the temperature in the refrigerated compartment is generally controlled between 2 ℃ and 10 ℃, preferably between 4 ℃ and 7 ℃. The temperature range in the freezer compartment is typically controlled between-22 ℃ and-14 ℃. The temperature-changing chamber can be adjusted between-18 ℃ and 8 ℃ to realize the temperature-changing effect. The optimal storage temperatures of different kinds of articles are different, and the storage compartments suitable for storage are also different. For example, fruit and vegetable foods are suitably stored in the refrigerating compartment, while meat foods are suitably stored in the freezing compartment. The first compartment 101 of the present embodiment is preferably a refrigerator compartment.

The refrigerator in the embodiment of the invention is a composite door refrigerator, and the existing composite door refrigerator often has the problem of condensation on the inner wall of a door chamber (the second chamber 201 in the invention). The inventor has recognized that since the rear wall 211 of the main door 210 is adjacent to the first compartment 101 and can transfer heat to the air in the first compartment 101 by heat conduction, the temperature of the front surface of the rear wall 211 is lower than that of the other wall surfaces of the second compartment 201, and condensation is more likely to occur.

Based on the above recognition, the embodiment of the present invention purposely dewdrops the front surface of the rear wall 211 of the second compartment 201 by specially designing the main door 210. Specifically, the rear wall 211 of the main door 210 opens a supply air outlet 212 and a return air outlet 214, both of which communicate the first compartment 101 and the second compartment 201. The rear wall 211 of the main door 210 is hollow, and a dew condensation removing duct 215 communicating with the first compartment 101 is defined therein. That is, the hollow space of the rear wall 211 constitutes the dew-removing duct 215. The front surface of the rear wall 211 is rearwardly opened with a plurality of dew-removing holes 2154 communicating the second compartment 201 and the dew-removing duct 215. The refrigerator is configured to: the cooling cycle mode may be set such that air in the first compartment 101 enters the second compartment 201 through the supply air outlet 212 and returns to the first compartment 101 through the return air outlet 214, so as to cool the second compartment 201 by using the cool air in the first compartment 101, as shown in fig. 1 and 2. Alternatively, the refrigerator is in a dewing mode in which air of the first compartment 101 enters the dewing duct 215 to allow a part of the air flow to the front surface of the rear wall 211 through the dewing holes 2154 to remove surface dews thereof, as shown in fig. 3 and 4.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the refrigerator is in the aforementioned cooling circulation mode in a normal state. However, when more condensation occurs on the front surface of the rear wall 211 of the main door 210 after humid air is introduced or a humid storage is placed due to a door opening and closing operation, the refrigerator may be controlled to operate in the above-described dewing mode such that air in the first compartment 101 enters the dewing duct 215 inside the rear wall 211 of the main door 210, and a part of the air flows to the front surface of the rear wall 211 through the dewing holes 2154. Since the relative humidity of the air in the dew-removing air duct 215 is necessarily lower than the relative humidity of the original air flow at the front surface of the rear wall 211 of the main door 210 (the relative humidity of the air near the dew is necessarily high), the low-humidity air introduced into the dew-removing air duct 215 can promote the evaporation of the dew, and the dew-removing process is completed. When dew removal is completed, the refrigerator can be controlled to switch to a cooling circulation mode.

The timing of switching between the cooling circulation mode and the dew condensation removing mode may be automatically controlled by the refrigerator, for example, by switching at regular time or automatically switching the operation mode of the refrigerator according to the detection result of the humidity sensor. The control can also be manual, for example, the user can manually switch the refrigerator operation mode when finding that dew removal is needed or stopping dew removal.

When the refrigerator provided by the embodiment of the invention operates in the dew-removing mode, the traditional modes of electrically heating the rear wall 211 or introducing hot air and the like are not adopted, the dew is removed by utilizing cold air of the first compartment 101, the dew-removing process basically does not influence the normal refrigeration of the second compartment 201, and the structural design is very ingenious.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 1 and 3, the dew-removing air duct 215 may have an inlet 2151 and an outlet 2152 communicating with the first compartment 101, so as to form an air path circulation between the dew-removing air duct 215 and the first compartment 101, and prevent the air flow for dew removal from accumulating near the dew-removing air duct 215 and the dew-removing hole 2154 and affecting the dew-removing effect. Further, the refrigerator is configured to have the inlet 2151 and the outlet 2152 in a closed state and an open state, respectively, when in a cooling circulation mode; when in dewing mode, both the inlet 2151 and the outlet 2152 are left open. That is, only the inlet 2151 of the dew-removing duct 215 needs to be closed in the cooling circulation mode. When in dew removal mode, the inlet 2151 of the dew removal duct 215 is opened. Since the opening and closing of the dew-removing air duct 215 are already controlled by controlling the opening and closing of the inlet 2151 and the outlet 2152 of the dew-removing air duct 215, the outlet 2152 of the dew-removing air duct 215 does not need to be controlled. In the two modes, the outlet 2152 of the dew-removing air duct 215 is in a normally open state and does not need to be controlled, so that the structure and control of the refrigerator are simplified.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 1 and 3, the inlet 2151 of the dew-removal duct 215 may penetrate the sidewall of the air outlet 212 to communicate with the air outlet 212. That is, the dew condensation removing duct 215 communicates with the first compartment 101 through the air blowing port 212, and does not need to be opened in the rear wall 211. The outlet 2152 of the dew-removing duct 215 may also penetrate the side wall of the return air inlet 214 to communicate with the return air inlet 214. That is, the dew condensation removing duct 215 communicates with the first compartment 101 through the return air opening 214, and does not need to be opened in the rear wall 211. The design structure is very ingenious, the opening structure of the rear wall 211 of the main door 210 is simplified, and the rear surface of the rear wall 211 of the main door 210 is only required to be directly provided with the air supply outlet 212 and the air return inlet 214.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 1 and 3, the supply and return

air ports

212 and 214 are located at the top and bottom of the rear wall 211, respectively. When the refrigerator is in the cooling circulation mode, after the cold air flows into the second compartment 201 from the air supply outlet 212, the cold air flows downward due to the sinking action of the relatively high density, and cools each height area of the second compartment 201 in turn, and after the air temperature is gradually increased, the cold air flows back to the first compartment 101 from the air return outlet 214 at the bottom of the second compartment 201. Thus, a more smooth air path circulation is formed, and the cooling effect of the second compartment 201 is improved. When the refrigerator is in the dew removing mode, the cold air enters the dew removing air duct 215 from the top of the dew removing air duct 215, and the cold air is more favorable for flowing downwards, so that the dew removing air duct 215 has better circulation and is favorable for accelerating the dew removing process.

As shown in fig. 2 and 4, the refrigerator may further include a damper 216 installed at the blast opening 212 and configured to be controllably moved to a cooling state (fig. 2) closing the inlet 2151 and opening the blast opening 212, or to a dewing state (fig. 4) opening the inlet 2151 and closing the blast opening 212. The embodiment effectively utilizes the advantage that the inlet 2151 is communicated with the air supply outlet 212, and utilizes one air door 216 to simultaneously control the air supply outlet 212 and the inlet 2151, thereby simplifying the air inlet and outlet control and having skillful design.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 2 and 4, one end of the damper 216 may be rotatably mounted at the front edge of the inlet 2151 to rotate to a cooling state (fig. 2) or a dew-removing state (fig. 4). In the embodiment of the invention, the switching of the running modes of the refrigerator can be completed by controlling the rotation of one air door 216 without arranging a complex moving mechanism and control logic, and the structure and the control are greatly simplified.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 1 to 4, the refrigerator further includes a blower fan 230, and the blower fan 230 is located at the air supply outlet 212 to promote air in the first compartment 101 to flow to the air supply outlet 212 to accelerate a cooling cycle speed. Of course, for the case where the inlet 2151 communicates with the supply outlet 212, the fan 230 is also used to force the air in the first compartment 101 to flow to the dew-removing air duct 215.

The inventors have recognized that the closer to the supply outlet 212, the more condensation is generated by the rear wall 211 of the main door 210, and the closer to the return outlet 214, the less condensation. To this end, the embodiment of the present invention is designed to particularly reduce the arrangement density of the dewing holes 2154 in the direction from the air supply opening 212 to the air return opening 214, so as to match the variation tendency of the degree of dewing at different positions of the rear wall 211 of the main door 210, thereby reducing the excessive meaningless openings. The opening area of the rear wall 211 of the main door 210 may be spread over the entire front surface of the rear wall 211 to achieve sufficient dew removal, or may be spread over a portion of the front surface of the rear wall 211. The opening rate of the exposed hole 2154 can be 30-80%. The dewing holes 2154 may be arranged in a matrix or other arrangement. The dewdrop holes 2154 may be circular, oval, square, or other shapes. Preferably, the dew-removing hole 2154 is an elongated hole with the length direction parallel to the airflow direction of the dew-removing duct 215, and this structure is favorable for destroying the integrity of dew and accelerating the dispersion and evaporation of dew.

Thus, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that while a number of exemplary embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described in detail herein, many other variations or modifications consistent with the principles of the invention may be directly determined or derived from the disclosure of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be understood and interpreted to cover all such other variations or modifications.

Claims

1. A refrigerator including a cabinet having a front side opened to define a first compartment, and a door body including a main door for opening and closing the first compartment and defining a second compartment, and a sub door for opening and closing the second compartment, wherein the door body includes a door body having a door opening and closing the door body,

the air in the first compartment enters the second compartment through the air supply outlet and returns to the first compartment through the air return inlet in a cooling circulation mode; or

And in a dew removing mode, the first compartment air enters the dew removing air duct, so that part of air flow flows to the front surface of the rear wall through the dew removing holes to remove surface dew.

2. The refrigerator according to claim 1,

the dew-removing air duct is provided with an inlet and an outlet which are communicated with the first chamber; and is

The refrigerator is configured to have the inlet and the outlet in a closed state and an open state, respectively, when in the cooling circulation mode; when in the dew-removing mode, the inlet and the outlet are both in an open state.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 2,

the inlet penetrates through the side wall of the air supply opening to be communicated with the air supply opening.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 3,

the outlet penetrates through the side wall of the air return opening to be communicated with the air return opening.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 4,

the air supply outlet and the air return outlet are respectively positioned at the top and the bottom of the rear wall.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 5, characterized by further comprising:

and the air door is arranged at the air supply opening and is configured to be controlled to move to a cooling state for closing the inlet and conducting the air supply opening or to a dew removing state for opening the inlet and closing the air supply opening.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 6,

one end of the damper is rotatably mounted at the front edge of the inlet so as to rotate to the cooling state or the dew condensation removal state.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising:

and the fan is arranged at the air supply opening and used for promoting the air in the first chamber to flow to the air supply opening.

9. The refrigerator according to claim 1,

the arrangement density of the dew-removing holes is gradually reduced in the direction from the air supply outlet to the air return inlet.

10. The refrigerator according to claim 1,

the dew removing holes are long-strip-shaped holes with the length direction parallel to the airflow direction of the dew removing air duct.