CN115143718A - Refrigerator and ultrasonic auxiliary processing device thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a refrigerator and an ultrasonic auxiliary processing device thereof, which are used for being arranged in a low-temperature space to cool food materials in the low-temperature space. The ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device provided by the invention absorbs the heat of the food material by using the temperature buffer device, the cooling rate of the food material is buffered, the texture of the food material is prevented from being damaged, the practicability is strong, and the ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device is easy to popularize.

Description

Refrigerator and ultrasonic auxiliary processing device thereof

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of refrigerating and freezing devices, in particular to a refrigerator and an ultrasonic auxiliary processing device thereof.

Background

In order to meet the requirement of quick freezing of users, a refrigerator capable of quick freezing appears in the prior art, and the refrigerator is generally realized by greatly reducing the temperature of a freezing chamber, for example, for an air-cooled refrigerator, the air volume to the freezing chamber is increased, and the like. In order to further increase the freezing rate, the prior art has also introduced an ultrasonic-assisted technique to optimize the heat exchange to meet the requirement of rapid freezing.

However, the above technical solutions only solve the technical problem of how to freeze quickly, and the internal structure of the food may be broken due to the excessively fast freezing rate, resulting in the loss of food nutrition.

Therefore, how to rapidly freeze and ensure that the freezing rate is in a reasonable range becomes a technical problem to be solved urgently by those skilled in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present invention is to overcome at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a refrigerator and an ultrasonic auxiliary processing apparatus thereof.

One object of the present invention is to ensure that the internal texture of the frozen product is not damaged, and to improve the quality of the food material.

It is another further object of the invention to stabilize the rate of temperature change of the food material upon an abnormality or interruption of the freezing program.

In particular, the present invention provides an ultrasonic auxiliary processing apparatus for being disposed in a low-temperature space to accelerate a freezing rate and/or a curing rate of a food material stored in the low-temperature space, the ultrasonic auxiliary processing apparatus comprising:

a tray assembly disposed in the low temperature space and configured to carry food material; and

the temperature buffering device is arranged on the tray assembly and is configured to absorb heat of the food material so as to buffer the cooling rate of the food material, and further the temperature change rate of the food material under the preset refrigeration power is maintained within a preset range.

Further, the tray assembly includes:

a tray having a plurality of depressions depressed downward for placing food materials.

Furthermore, the temperature buffer device comprises at least one annular liquid storage bag, interlayer media are filled in each annular liquid storage bag, and the annular liquid storage bags are sleeved on the periphery of the outer side of the concave part in a one-to-one correspondence mode.

Further, the peripheral wall of the recess part is tapered from top to bottom; and is

The ratio of the width of the annular liquid storage bag to the height of the peripheral wall of the concave part is between 0.5 and 1.

Further, the tray assembly further includes:

the base is positioned below the tray, is hermetically buckled or covered on the tray, forms an interlayer cavity between the tray and the base, and is filled with interlayer medium.

Further, the ratio of the volume of the interlayer medium to the volume of the interlayer cavity is between 1/5 and 4/5; and the recess is configured to be at least partially immersed into the interlayer medium so as to increase the contact area of the recess and the interlayer medium.

Further, the solidification temperature of the interlayer medium is set to be between-40 and 0 ℃; and is

The specific heat capacity of the interlayer medium is set to be 1 to 5 KJ/(kg K).

Particularly, the invention further provides a refrigerator, wherein a storage chamber is defined in the refrigerator, and any one of the ultrasonic auxiliary treatment devices is arranged in the storage chamber.

Further, the refrigerator further includes:

an ultrasonic generator disposed within the low temperature space or on the tray assembly configured to controllably generate ultrasonic waves such that at least a portion of the ultrasonic waves are applied to the food material to cause the food material to freeze.

Further, the refrigerator further includes:

a drawer type container configured to be operatively drawn out of or retracted into a low temperature space, wherein

The ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device is arranged so that its tray assembly serves as the floor of the drawer-type container.

In the ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device, the temperature buffer device is arranged on the tray assembly, and the specific heat capacity of the temperature buffer device is configured to be larger than that of the food material. That is, when the same unit of heat (or cold) is absorbed, the change rate of the temperature buffer device is smaller than the change rate of the temperature of the food material, so that the temperature buffer device can absorb the heat of the food material, the change of the temperature field of the food material tends to be stable, the food material is guaranteed to be uniformly cooled, the change rate of the temperature is stable, the phenomenon that the internal texture of the food material is damaged due to too fast temperature drop or instability is avoided, and the quality of the food material is improved.

Furthermore, in the ultrasonic auxiliary processing device, when the freezing process of the refrigerator is abnormal or interrupted, the temperature of the food material rises along with the temperature of the low-temperature space, and the specific heat capacity of the temperature buffering device is larger, so that the temperature buffering device can buffer the cooling rate of the food material no matter the temperature of the food material rises or falls, the internal texture of a frozen object is ensured not to be damaged, and the quality of the food material is improved.

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

Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Also, like reference numerals are used to refer to like parts throughout the drawings. In the drawings:

fig. 1 is an exploded view of a refrigerator according to one embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic view of a tray in a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a sectional view of a tray assembly in a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of portion A of FIG. 3;

fig. 5 is an exploded view of a tray assembly in a refrigerator according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 6 is a sectional view of a tray assembly in a refrigerator according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 7 is an exploded view of a refrigerator according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is an exploded view of a refrigerator 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The invention provides a refrigerator 1, which generally comprises a refrigerator body 10, wherein the refrigerator body 10 comprises an outer shell and a storage liner. The shell wraps the storage liner, and a space between the shell and the storage liner is filled with a heat-insulating material (forming a foaming layer) so as to reduce the outward heat dissipation of the storage liner.

The number of the storage inner containers can be multiple, each storage inner container can define a storage space 110, the multiple storage spaces 110 can be configured into a refrigerating chamber, a freezing chamber, a temperature changing chamber and the like, and the number and the functions of the specific storage spaces 110 can be configured according to the preset requirements.

In some embodiments, one of the storage spaces 110 may be further specifically configured as a low temperature space 114, and the low temperature space 114 may serve as a quick-freezing compartment of the refrigerator 1 to meet the requirement of a user for quick-freezing food.

Referring to fig. 1 to 4, fig. 2 is a schematic view of a tray 202 in a refrigerator 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention, fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a tray assembly 200 in the refrigerator 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 4 is an enlarged view of a portion a in fig. 3. In some embodiments, the refrigerator 1 may further include an ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device 20, and the ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device 20 may be disposed in the low-temperature space 114 to cool the food material of the low-temperature space 114.

Specifically, the ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device 20 may include a tray assembly 200 and a temperature buffering device 210. The tray assembly 200 can be disposed in the low temperature space 114 for carrying the food material, and the temperature buffering device 210 is disposed on the tray assembly 200 for absorbing heat of the food material to buffer the cooling rate of the food material, so as to maintain the temperature variation rate of the food material within a predetermined range under a predetermined refrigeration power.

The tray assembly 200 is disposed in the low temperature space 114, and a user can place a food material (e.g., meat, etc.) on the tray assembly 200 and then automatically or manually start a freezing process of the refrigerator 1 to start freezing the food material. For example, in the air-cooled refrigerator 1, after a user starts a freezing program, the power of a compressor, a fan, and the like of the refrigerator 1 is increased, and the air volume is increased, so that the food material is rapidly cooled. Of course, as known to those skilled in the art, there are other solutions to the freezing technique of the refrigerator 1, and no further description is provided herein in order to avoid obscuring and obscuring the inventive points of the present application.

As mentioned in the background section, prior art freezing solutions only solve the problem of how to freeze quickly, and too fast a freezing rate may break the internal structure of the food, leading to loss of food nutrition.

In order to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, the ultrasonic auxiliary processing device 20 of the present embodiment employs a temperature buffering device 210 disposed on the tray assembly 200 to achieve a cooling rate for buffering the food material.

In particular, the specific heat capacity of the temperature buffering device 210 can also be configured to be larger than the specific heat capacity of the food material. That is, when the same unit of heat (or cold) is absorbed, the rate of change of the temperature buffering means 210 is smaller than the rate of change of the temperature of the food material. Like this, after the user starts to freeze the procedure, temperature buffer 210's temperature variation is relatively slow, and its temperature is higher than the temperature of eating the material, therefore temperature buffer 210 can heat for eating the material for the temperature field change of eating the material tends to be stable, and then has guaranteed to eat the material and has been cold evenly, and the temperature variation rate is stable, thereby has avoided eating the material to lead to its inside texture to be destroyed because of the temperature drops at the excessive speed or unstability, has improved the quality of eating the material.

Furthermore, the temperature buffering means 210 may also stabilize the rate of change of the temperature of the food material when the freezing procedure is abnormal or interrupted. For example, during defrosting of the evaporator of the refrigerator 1, the cooling power generally needs to be reduced, at this time, if the user starts the freezing process and the temperature buffering device 210 is not provided, the temperature of the food material rises with the temperature of the low-temperature space 114, the cooling power returns to normal after defrosting is finished, and the temperature of the food material decreases again with the return of the cooling power, so that the texture damage degree of the food material is higher during the repeated rising and falling of the temperature, the nutrition loss is accelerated, and the period of storing the food material in the low-temperature space 114 is generally longer, so that the probability of the above situation is higher. The specific heat capacity of the temperature buffering device 210 of the embodiment is large, so that no matter the temperature of the food material is rising or falling, the temperature buffering device 210 can buffer the cooling rate of the food material, the internal texture of the frozen object is ensured not to be damaged, and the quality of the food material is improved.

Referring to fig. 1 to 4, in some embodiments, the tray assembly 200 may further include a tray 202, and the tray 202 has a plurality of recesses 202a recessed downward for holding food materials, so as to facilitate a user to hold some smooth food, such as fish. The number, size and shape of the plurality of concave portions 202a can be set according to practical situations, for example, as shown in fig. 2, the concave portions 202a can be set to be circular, long-strip-shaped, etc. to satisfy the requirement of users for placing different kinds and sizes of food materials. In addition, the heat exchange area between the food material and the tray 202 can be increased due to the formation of the concave part 202a, and the heat exchange efficiency is improved.

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, the temperature buffer device 210 may further include at least one annular liquid storage bag 212, each annular liquid storage bag 212 is filled with an interlayer medium 214, the annular liquid storage bags 212 are sleeved around the outer side of the recess 202a in a one-to-one correspondence, and at least a portion of the peripheral wall of the annular liquid storage bag 212 may be attached to the recess 202a, that is, the annular liquid storage bag 212 is wrapped around the outer side of the recess 202a, which is more favorable for heat exchange between the interlayer medium 214 and the food material.

In this embodiment, the interlayer medium 214 in the annular liquid storage bag 212 may be a substance with a large specific heat capacity, such as a heat-storage gel, and preferably is a solution or semi-solidified medium, so as to heat the food material with the interlayer medium 214.

In some embodiments, the spacer medium 214 may also be selected to have a freezing temperature of between-40 ℃ and 0 ℃, such as-40 ℃, -20 ℃, or 0 ℃, and the spacer medium 214 may be selected to have a specific heat capacity of between 1 KJ/(kg · K) and 5 KJ/(kg · K), such as 1 KJ/(kg · K), 3 KJ/(kg · K), or 5 KJ/(kg · K). In addition, the barrier medium 214 should be selected in consideration of its hazardous, flammable, non-toxic properties, etc. to satisfy the environment of the refrigerator 1.

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, in some embodiments, the peripheral wall of the recess 202a may also be tapered from top to bottom, that is, the recess 202a may have a shape with a larger top and a smaller bottom, so as to facilitate punching the tray 202 by using a punching mold during the production process, which is beneficial for mass production.

Referring to fig. 4, H in fig. 4 represents the height of the peripheral wall of the recess 202a, and H represents the width of the annular liquid storage bag 212. Further, the ratio of the width H of the annular liquid storage bag 212 to the height H of the peripheral wall of the recess 202a can be set to be 0.5 to 1, for example, 0.5, 0.8 or 1, so as to ensure that the wrapping area of the annular liquid storage bag 212 is larger, and further ensure that the temperature change rate of the food material is maintained within a preset range.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, fig. 5 is an exploded view of a tray assembly 200 in a refrigerator 1 according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and fig. 6 is a sectional view of the tray assembly 200 in the refrigerator 1 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

In other embodiments, the tray assembly 200 may further include a base 204, the base 204 is located below the tray 202, and the base 204 may be sealed to the tray 202, forming a compartment 206 between the tray 202 and the base 204, and the compartment 206 is filled with a compartment medium 214. That is, the interlayer medium 214 may also be directly disposed under the tray 202 in this embodiment, and the above technical effects can also be achieved.

Specifically, the base 204 may be recessed inwardly to form a reservoir, and the base 204 may be snapped under the tray 202 to form a compartment 206 with the tray 202. In order to facilitate filling of the interlayer medium 214 by a user or a maintenance worker, a fluid infusion port (not shown in the figure) may be formed in the base 204, and after fluid infusion is completed, the fluid infusion port may be sealed by a plug.

In order to ensure the sealing performance between the base 204 and the tray 202, a direct sealing process may be performed between the base 204 and the tray 202, such as adding a sealing strip, performing a sealing process, and the like.

Referring to FIG. 6, in some embodiments, at least a portion of the recess 202a is immersed within the barrier medium 214 to increase the contact area of the recess 202a with the barrier medium 214 to optimize heat transfer.

Further, the ratio of the volume of the barrier medium 214 to the volume of the barrier cavity 206 may also be set to be between 1/5 and 4/5, such as 1/5, 2/5, or 4/5, etc. By the above definition, not only can the interlayer medium 214 be ensured not to overflow due to overfilling, but also the concave part 202a can be immersed into the interlayer medium 214, and the stability of heat transfer can be ensured.

Referring to fig. 1, 4 and 5, in some other embodiments, the refrigerator 1 may further include an ultrasonic generator 30, the ultrasonic generator 30 being disposed in the storage compartment or on the tray assembly 200 and configured to controllably generate ultrasonic waves such that at least a portion of the ultrasonic waves are applied to the food material to promote freezing of the food material.

That is, the refrigerator 1 of this embodiment introduces the ultrasonic wave auxiliary freezing technology, and the ultrasonic wave technology can freeze the food material fast, can be in the freezing in-process intensive heat transfer of food material. The formation of crystal nucleus is not only promoted at edible material freezing in-process to the physical effect (cavitation effect) of ultrasonic wave, moreover because the microbubble that cavitation effect produced can regard as new crystal nucleus, changes the nucleation temperature of eating the inside moisture of material, reduces and eats the material super-cooled rate, promotes the quick nucleation of ice crystal, consequently, the ultrasonic wave can accelerate the inside heat transfer of eating the material, makes edible material cooling rate accelerate. Meanwhile, the ultrasonic waves have a crushing effect on larger ice crystals to form small and uniform ice crystals, so that damage to cells is reduced, and freshness of food materials is guaranteed.

For example, the temperature range of the low-temperature space can be adjusted to be-40 to 0 ℃ (the specific temperature range can be adjusted as required), the ultrasonic auxiliary processing device is arranged in the low-temperature space, food materials are crystallized under the action of ultrasonic waves, the cavitation effect of the ultrasonic waves can promote the formation of crystal nuclei, accelerate the internal heat transfer, improve the cooling speed, and can also break larger ice crystals to form small and uniform ice crystals, so that the damage to cells is reduced, and the freezing storage quality of food is greatly improved. Namely, the ultrasonic auxiliary processing device is used as an auxiliary ultrasonic auxiliary processing device to accelerate the freezing rate of the food material.

For another example, the temperature range of the low-temperature space may be adjusted to 0 ℃ or higher, and the low-temperature space is used for storing fresh fruits and vegetables or food materials stored for a short time. The inventors have further realized that: when the temperature of the low-temperature space is set to be above 0 ℃, the ultrasonic generator 30 can also accelerate the curing rate of the food material to be cured (the food material with the curing material already coated on the surface or immersed in the curing material), that is, the ultrasonic waves generated by the ultrasonic generator 30 have a promoting effect on the curing rate of the food material to be cured. Namely, the ultrasonic auxiliary processing device is used as an auxiliary curing device to accelerate the curing speed of the food material.

It should be noted that the above example is only for clearly describing the working principle of the ultrasonic generator 30 in the present embodiment, and the freezing process and the curing process are not cut apart according to the temperature environment of the ultrasonic auxiliary processing device, and a person skilled in the art should clearly understand that the curing process is performed while the food material is frozen.

In the present embodiment, the ultrasonic generator 30 may be disposed not only in the storage space 110 but also on the tray assembly 200 (shown in fig. 1 and 4) to release ultrasonic waves to the food material to induce freezing thereof.

In some specific embodiments, the number of the ultrasonic generators 30 may be plural, and the plural ultrasonic generators 30 may be one of ultrasonic vibrators or ultrasonic wafers. The plurality of ultrasonic generators 30 may be uniformly arranged on a side of the tray assembly 200 facing away from the food materialThe specific specification and number can be set according to actual conditions. The sound intensity of the ultrasonic signal generated by the ultrasonic generator 30 may be set at 0.05W/cm ² To 2W/cm ² E.g. 0.05W/cm ² 、1W/cm ² Or 2W/cm ² Etc. to meet refrigeration needs.

Referring to fig. 7, fig. 7 is an exploded view of a refrigerator 1 according to a third embodiment of the present invention. Further, the refrigerator 1 may further include a drawer type container 40, the drawer type container 40 may be operatively drawn out of or retracted into the low temperature space 114, and the ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device 20 may be disposed such that the tray assembly 200 thereof serves as a bottom plate of the drawer type container 40.

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 (10)

1. An ultrasonic assisted processing apparatus for arranging in a low temperature space to accelerate the freezing rate and/or curing rate of food materials stored in the low temperature space, the ultrasonic assisted processing apparatus comprising:

the tray assembly is arranged in the low-temperature space and is configured to bear food materials; and

the temperature buffering device is arranged on the tray assembly and is configured to absorb heat of the food material so as to buffer the cooling rate of the food material, and further the temperature change rate of the food material is maintained within a preset range under preset refrigeration power.

2. The ultrasonically assisted treatment device of claim 1, wherein the tray assembly comprises:

a tray having a plurality of depressions downwardly recessed for placing the food material.

3. The ultrasonic-assisted treatment device of claim 2, wherein

The temperature buffer device comprises at least one annular liquid storage bag, interlayer media are filled in each annular liquid storage bag, and the annular liquid storage bags are sleeved on the periphery of the outer side of the concave part in a one-to-one correspondence mode.

4. An ultrasound assisted treatment device according to claim 3 in which

The peripheral wall of the concave part is tapered from top to bottom; and is

The ratio of the width of the annular liquid storage bag to the height of the peripheral wall of the concave part is 0.5-1.

5. The ultrasonically assisted treatment device of claim 2, wherein the tray assembly further comprises:

the base is positioned below the tray, is in sealed buckling or covering fit on the tray, forms an interlayer cavity between the tray and the base, and is filled with interlayer medium.

6. The ultrasound assisted treatment device of claim 5, wherein

The ratio of the volume of the interlayer medium to the volume of the interlayer cavity is between 1/5 and 4/5; and is

The recess is configured to be at least partially immersed into the barrier medium to increase a contact area of the recess with the barrier medium.

7. Ultrasound-assisted treatment apparatus according to claim 3 or 5, wherein

The solidification temperature of the interlayer medium is set to be between-40 and 0 ℃; and is provided with

The specific heat capacity of the interlayer medium is set to be 1 to 5 KJ/(kg K).

8. A refrigerator having a low-temperature space defined therein, the low-temperature space being provided therein with an ultrasonic auxiliary processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

9. The refrigerator of claim 8, further comprising:

an ultrasonic generator disposed within the cryogen space or on the tray assembly configured to controllably generate ultrasonic waves such that at least a portion of the ultrasonic waves are applied to the food material to cause the food material to freeze.

10. The refrigerator of claim 8, further comprising:

a drawer-type container configured to be operatively drawn out of or retracted into the low-temperature space, wherein

The ultrasonic auxiliary treatment device is arranged so that the tray assembly thereof serves as a bottom plate of the drawer-type container.

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