EP1442259B1 - Sliding rail for wire tubular evaporator - Google Patents

Abstract

A sliding rail for a wire-tube evaporator has an elongated rail body to be mounted on the evaporator and to protect the latter against abrasion caused by a frozen product container that slides above or on the evaporator. The sliding rail includes at least a tubular clamp for fixing the rail body on a refrigerating pipe of the evaporator. The tubular clamp is mounted on an arm projecting laterally relative to the rail body.

Description

The present invention relates to an arrangement of a slide rail and a wire tube evaporator and a refrigeration device equipped therewith.

A wire tube evaporator is conventionally constructed of an in-plane meandering tube for a refrigerant and a plurality of wires connected to the tube above or below it at a plurality of points, on the one hand, to provide a mechanically stable, rigid assembly on the other hand, to increase the effective heat exchange surface area of the evaporator.

Such wire tube evaporators are used in particular in freezers, where they are each arranged in planes between two Gefriergutbehältern to effectively cool their contents.

In order to make the best possible use of the available internal volume of the refrigeration device, these frozen food containers are mounted in the smallest possible vertical distance from the wire tube evaporator. When fully loaded, there is a possibility that the frozen food containers will bend slightly, which may result in the bottom of a frozen food container touching the underlying wire tube evaporator. When the frozen food container is pulled out, it dribbles over the evaporator, which can lead to abrasion and premature wear.

In order to avoid such abrasion, it is known to mount on the refrigerant pipe of the evaporator a slide rail which extends between the evaporator and an overlying frozen food container. It prevents direct contact between the frozen food container and the evaporator and thus prevents damage to the evaporator by friction; In addition, it has a low friction on the frozen goods container facing surface, so that also largely avoided at this abrasion.

Such slide rails are conventionally clamped directly onto the tubes of a wire tube evaporator. However, this solution is not fully satisfactory. In fact, in order to be able to mount the evaporators simply, it is necessary for their inlet and outlet for refrigerants to be located at the same edge of the substantially plate-shaped evaporator. Preferably, this is the rear, facing away from the door of the refrigerator edge. The number of parallel pipe sections within the evaporator extending between it and the opposite edge is necessarily straight. When the tube sections of the evaporator are evenly distributed over the width thereof, there is either no tube section extending along a center line of the evaporator from the rear wall to the door of the refrigeration device, or the distribution of the tube sections in the width direction of the evaporator is asymmetrical. In the former case, two slides must be arranged symmetrically, because if only one slide is located away from the center, this causes a sideways twist when pulling out and pushing in the frozen goods and thus the risk that it gets stuck. In the case of an asymmetrical arrangement of the refrigerant line, it is possible to guide a pipe section of it exactly along the center line and to secure a slide rail on this pipe section. However, this solution is unfavorable because of their asymmetry under manufacturing aspects and in terms of the distribution of cooling capacity within the refrigerator.

The object of the present invention is to provide a slide rail for a wire tube evaporator, which can be placed exactly along a center line of the evaporator, even if no section of the refrigerant tube of the evaporator extends along this center line.

The object is achieved by a wire tube evaporator with the features of claim 1.

The laterally projecting arm allows the attachment of the slide with a basically any, the arm length corresponding lateral offset with respect to the pipe section to which the pipe clamp is attached. Such a slide rail may, in principle, be suitably provided for any arrangement of the refrigerant tube in the wire tube evaporator so as to extend along the center line of the evaporator.

In order to avoid pivoting of the slide rail about the pipe clamp engaging the pipe under tensile loading by a frozen goods container grinding thereon, preferably at least two arms with pipe clamps attached thereto are provided.

These arms are preferably mounted on a same longitudinal side of the rail body. This allows the use of a same slide for wire tube evaporator, in which the distances between parallel pipe sections differ slightly, or if the distance between parallel pipe sections due to production, this does not result in such an arrangement of the arms to a skew orientation of the slide with respect to the midline.

In order to prevent that a frictional force acting on the slide rail when pulling out or pushing in a frozen goods container can lead to a displacement thereof, a hook is preferably arranged on the rail body with an insertion gap open in the longitudinal direction of the rail body, which accommodates a wire of the evaporator and the rail body so can be supported on this wire in the direction of the tensile or shear force. For the same purpose, a wire clip may be arranged with an insertion gap open transversely to the longitudinal direction of the rail body for insertion of a wire of the evaporator on the rail body.

Preferably, both the hook and the wire clip are provided on opposite longitudinal ends of the rail body, respectively, so that the slide rail can be conveniently mounted by first placing the hook on a wire of the evaporator and then folding the rail body against the evaporator and clamping the wire clamp onto a wire second wire is attached.

The rail body and the at least one arm are preferably molded in one piece from a plastic.

The invention is also a freezer with a wire tube evaporator and at least one slide rail.

Fig. 1

eine perspektivische Ansicht einer erfindungsgemäßen Gleitschiene von oben;

Fig. 2

eine perspektivische Ansicht der Gleitschiene von unten; und

Fig. 3

einen schematischen Schnitt durch ein Kältegerät, in dem ein mit erfindungsge- mäßen Gleitschienen ausgestatteter Drahtrohrverdampfer von oben zu sehen ist.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of an embodiment with reference to the accompanying figures. Show it:

Fig. 1

a perspective view of a slide rail according to the invention from above;

Fig. 2

a perspective view of the slide rail from below; and

Fig. 3

a schematic section through a refrigeration device in which a wire tube equipped with inventive slides wire tube is seen from above.

The structure of the slide is first with reference to the Figs. 1 and 2 described. One recognizes an elongated, plate-like rail body 1 with a smooth top. From a longitudinal edge of the rail body 1 extending at right angles two arms 2, each carrying two downwardly projecting, forming a pipe clamp 3 tongues on its underside. The free cross-section of the pipe clip 3 is suitably sized to a refrigerant pipe of a wire tube evaporator, in conjunction with Fig. 3 is discussed in more detail, to encompass form fit. An opening 4 formed on the upper side of each arm 2 between the tongues of the pipe clamp 3, on the one hand, in which it mechanically weakens the arm 2, facilitates spreading the tongues apart and thus putting the pipe clamp 3 on the refrigerant pipe and, on the other hand, molding the whole Slide rail including mutually facing projections 16 of the tongues by means of only two molds, which need not have any moving parts.

In the Fig. 1 visible upper side of the arms 2 is slightly lower than the top of the rail body 1, so that there is no danger of the frozen food container getting stuck on the edges of the arms 2 extending transversely to the longitudinal direction of the rail body 1 when a frozen goods container slides over the top of the rail body 1.

As in Fig. 2 can be seen, the arms 2 are each stiffened by downwardly projecting webs 5, which give the arms 2 in its central region, between the rail body 1 and the pipe clamp 3, a T-shaped cross-section. The thickness of the crossbar of the T, which also corresponds to the thickness of the arm 2 in the region of the opening 4, is equalized to the diameter of the wires of the wire tube evaporator, so that the arm 2 does not protrude above it between two wires of the evaporator between which it extends in the assembled state; the height of the stiffening web 5 can be significantly greater, since this engages after installation in a free space of the wire tube evaporator.

At the longitudinal ends of the rail body 1 each means for fixing the rail body to the wires of the wire tube evaporator are arranged.

These means consist on the one hand of a wire clamp 6 with two pairs of opposing tongues 7, which correspond in structure and function to the tongues of the pipe clamp 3, and which are adapted only in their dimensions to the plugging onto a wire of the evaporator.

On the second, in Figs. 1 and 2 facing away from the viewer end of the rail body 1, a hook 8 is integrally formed as a means for fixing the rail body. The hook 8 has a rail body 1 parallel to the free end portion 9, which limits an open towards the end of the rail body 1 receiving gap for a wire of the wire tube evaporator. The gap 10 is here open towards the end of the rail body 1; However, it could also be opposite, with the center of the rail body 1 facing opening to be oriented. A hole opposite the free end portion 9 in the rail body 1 allows molding of the rail body 1 and the hook 8 with only two rigid molds.

Of course, the attachment means could also include more than one hook or clip at each end of the rail body; it could also be provided only wire clips at both ends of the rail body.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic horizontal section through a refrigerator with a wire tube evaporator 11, which is equipped with three slide rails 12 according to the invention. The wire tube evaporator 11 has a refrigerant pipe 13 with a total of six parallel to a center line M of the refrigerator from a rear wall of the refrigerator to the door opening extending pipe sections 14. The pipe sections 14 are interconnected by a plurality of transverse to the center line M oriented wires 15 and stiffened.

The arrangement of the refrigerant piping 13 is symmetrical with respect to the center line M, so that along the center line M none of the parallel pipe sections 14 extends. Instead, one of the three slide rails 12 is arranged along this center line M. It is held by means of her wire clamp 6 and the hook 8 to the wires 15 in the forward-backward direction and anchored by the pipe clamps 3 also in the transverse direction.

Claims (8)

1. Wire tube evaporator (11) with a slide rail (12), which has an elongate rail body (1) and at least one tube clip (3) for fastening the rail body (1) to a tube (14) of the evaporator (11), characterised in that the tube clip (3) is mounted on an arm (2) laterally protruding from the rail body (1).
2. Wire tube evaporator (11) according to claim 1, characterised in that the slide rail (12) has at least two arms (2) with tube clips (3) mounted thereon.
3. Wire tube evaporator (11) according to claim 2, characterised in that the arms (2) are mounted at the same longitudinal side of the rail body (1).
4. Wire tube evaporator (11) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that a hook (8) with an introduction gap (10), which is open in longitudinal direction of the rail body (1), for a wire (15) of the evaporator (11) is arranged at the rail body (1).
5. Wire tube evaporator (11) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that a wire clip (6) with an introduction gap (10), which is open transversely to the longitudinal direction of the rail body (1), for a wire (15) of the evaporator (11) is arranged at the rail body (1).
6. Wire tube evaporator (11) according to claim 4 and claim 5, characterised in that the hook (8) and the wire clip (6) are arranged at opposite longitudinal sides of the rail body (1).
7. Wire tube evaporator (11) according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the rail body (1) and the at least one arm (2) are integrally formed from a plastics material.
8. Freezing appliance with a wire tube evaporator according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

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