EP1712857A2 - Refrigerating and/or freezing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The cooling and/or freezing device has an inner container (5) with an essentially cubical freezing compartment pan (6) and an evaporator (9) sits on the freezer compartment pan on five sides. The evaporator is at least partly provided with a tube evaporator with cooling coils made of bent pipe.

Description

The present invention relates to a refrigerator and / or freezer with an inner container having a substantially cubic freezer compartment trough and an evaporator sitting on five sides of the freezer compartment trough.

In refrigerators and freezers, which have a freezer compartment and a Kühlgutwanne, it is advantageous to form the inner container throughout, so that the freezer compartment tray and the Kühlgutwanne are rigidly connected together in one piece with no parting line and bending edge. Since no separation of the freezer compartment is provided, there is no dirt edge between the freezer compartment and the refrigerated goods container. Compared to refrigerators and freezers with a split inner container or separate freezer tray, a much better look can be achieved. In addition, in such refrigerators and freezers with a continuous inner container no costly sealing measures during assembly of the evaporator must be made.

As far as in such devices, the continuous inner container is formed rigid in the transition region between the freezer compartment tray and the refrigerated goods tray, However, the assembly of the evaporator is difficult due to limited space. Often, only a narrow gap remains between the freezer compartment tub and the refrigerated goods pan. It has therefore been used in such devices with a continuous inner container regularly a U-shaped plate evaporator, which was pushed in the manner of a clip from the back over the freezer compartment, so that the evaporator rests on the rear wall and two opposite side walls of the freezer compartment tub at this. The cooling capacity of such an arrangement is limited.

Therefore, in order to achieve more efficient freezer cooling, the one-piece, continuous construction of the inner container has sometimes been sacrificed in order to use more efficient evaporators. In particular, it has already been proposed to provide a separate sheet metal box as the evaporator pan, around which the evaporator tubes were wound, which were then covered with an aluminum foil. This pre-assembled box can be mounted on the previously separated from the refrigerated goods freezer, although then for mounting and sealing the freezer compartment a spray frame is needed and mounting edges remain visible in the inner container. In this respect, this solution is unsatisfactory.

In the EP 0 795 726 B1 It has already been proposed to use an evaporator for the freezer, which sits on five sides of the freezer compartment, so extending on the two side walls, the bottom, the ceiling and the rear wall of the freezer compartment. As a result, excellent cooling performance can be achieved because all five surfaces of the freezer compartment are cooled. However, this cooling performance is paid for by using a circuit board evaporator on Rollbond or Z-Bondbasis. The evaporator plate consists of a double-layered metal plate, in which between the interconnected metal plates by curvature of at least one metal plate of the coolant channel is formed. In order to place the evaporator on five sides of the freezer compartment, an H-shaped Blechplatinenzuschnitt is used, which can be brought by folding in the desired five-sided shape. However, the resulting waste in the production of such H-shaped blanks is relatively large, so that in view of expensive production of such double-layered sheet metal blanks with coolant channels high costs arise.

The present invention is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved refrigerator and / or freezer of the type mentioned above, which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art and the latter further develops in an advantageous manner. Preferably, the cooling performance of the freezer compartment tub on five sides surrounding evaporator to be achieved without buying this by excessive costs or complex assembly process with visual impairments.

This object is achieved by a cooling device according to claim 1. Advantageous embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

In contrast to the prior art, an evaporator is used which does not consist of double-layered Rollbond or Z-Bond based sheet metal blanks which are mounted on different sides of the freezer well, but nevertheless formed in a simple manner as a five-surface evaporator and five-sided mounted on the freezer compartment can be. According to the invention, a tube evaporator with curved tube cooling coils, which sits on at least four sides of the freezer compartment tub, is at least partially provided as the evaporator. Such a tube evaporator is much cheaper than an evaporator made of Rollbond or Z-Bondplatinen. In addition, he can better on various freezer trough forms, such. B. slightly convex freezer trays to be adjusted. On the fifth side of the freezer compartment, the evaporator may well have an evaporator plate on a roll or Z-bond basis. By applying the evaporator on five sides of the freezer compartment tub, a high cooling capacity can be achieved.

In order to optimize the heat transfer from the freezer compartment trough to the cooling coils, the invention provides that the cooling coils are not directly seated on the freezer compartment trough but are arranged on metal plates and heat-conductively connected to them, which are flat on the side surfaces the freezer tray sit. As a result, a large heat transfer surface is created between the freezer compartment and the evaporator respectively the metal plates. The cooling coils may optionally be soldered to the metal plates, but in particular be connected by means of a thermal paste in order to ensure a sufficient heat transfer here.

In a further development of the invention, a plurality of metal plates are provided, of which preferably none is bent on more than three sides of the freezer compartment tub. However, two or three freezer compartment sides can be completely covered by a correspondingly bent metal plate. For example, two metal plates may be provided, one of which is bent on three sides and the other on the remaining two sides of the freezer compartment. Advantageously, however, none of the metal plates is bent on more than three sides of the freezer compartment tub. The side surfaces of the freezer tray are regularly inclined slightly inclined for manufacturing reasons, so that a metal plate that would extend to more than three sides, according to oblique blank pieces needed so that the Metallplattenummantelung the freezer compartment tray is advantageously divided, so to speak on several metal plates. As a result, greater waste can be avoided in the blanks of the metal plates. Optionally, a separate metal plate may be provided for each side surface of the freezer compartment tub. In a further development of the invention, however, curved metal plates are provided, which may extend on two or three sides of the freezer compartment. This still allows a better fit and less waste to be achieved than with a one-piece metal plate that is bent on five surfaces.

The course of the cooling coils around the freezer compartment tub around can basically be designed differently. According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the tube forming the cooling coils is meandering in the region of a freezer compartment side to form cooling coils, then led to an adjacent, adjacent freezer compartment side and there again meandering Cooling coils bent. In this way, the tube forming the cooling coils can be guided from side to side of the freezer compartment.

Advantageously, the tube-bent cooling coils are serially guided around all surfaces of the freezing compartment tub except for the rear side thereof, namely around its bottom, left side, ceiling and right side. Alternatively, it is also possible to provide a parallel-connected cooling coil course in which the individual meander sections on the various freezer compartment sides are connected in parallel so that the coolant flows in the manner of a star wiring from a branch point through the meander sections connected in parallel and is brought together again at a node connected downstream becomes. However, the previously described embodiment with a serially running around the sides of the freezer compartment trough course of the cooling coils has advantages in terms of a simple coil guide.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the pipe coils of the pipe evaporator which are bent from the pipe can enclose all five sides of the freezer compartment. According to an alternative embodiment of the invention, however, can be provided that extend the pipe bent cooling coils only on four sides of the freezer compartment, while on the fifth side of the freezer compartment, in particular the back, a Verdampferplatine on Rollbond- or Z-Bond basis is provided, whose cooling coils are connected between the double-layered sheet metal blanks with the tube-bent cooling coils of the evaporator. In this embodiment, the Rollbond or Z-Bond board can be made of a rectangular blank, so that no waste is obtained.

In a further development of the invention, the cooling device is designed as a combined refrigerator and freezer, which has a Kühlgutwanne and the aforementioned freezer compartment. Advantageously, the five-chamber surrounding the freezer compartment tub tube evaporator is continued on the refrigerated pan. In particular, the cooling coils bent from the tube can first be guided around the freezer compartment trough and then guided to the rear wall of the refrigerated goods trough, where the Tube is bent in turn to meandering cooling coils. In this embodiment, therefore, a combined evaporator for the freezer and the refrigerator compartment of the device is provided. It is understood that the section of the evaporator on the refrigerated goods possibly also in the manner described above may comprise a metal plate on which the corresponding tube bent cooling coils are heat-conducting, in particular by means of a thermal paste, attached.

In particular, a continuous inner container may be provided, in which the refrigerated goods tray and the freezer compartment tray are integrally connected to one another without bending joints and buckling edge. Forming dirt edges or visually disturbing joint edges in the area of the freezer tray are thereby eliminated. The device can be designed as a one-door device in which the appliance door extends over both the refrigerated goods container and the freezer compartment. The freezer can here with its opening cross-section with respect to the refrigerated goods to the rear, i. towards the back of the device, be set back. The gap between the freezer compartment trough and the refrigerated goods trough may extend over less than 4/5 of the inner container depth in such a device type.

Fig. 1:

eine schematische perspektivische Gesamtansicht eines Kühl- und Gefriergeräts nach einem Ausführungsbeispiel der Erfindung,

Fig. 2:

eine perspektivische Seiten-/Rückansicht des Innenbehälters des Kühlgeräts aus Fig. 1, die dessen Verdampfer mit einem Rollbond- bzw. Z-Bondabschnitt sowie Kühlschlangen aus gebogenem Rohr zeigt, der auf fünf Seiten der Gefrierfachwanne des Innenbehälters sitzt, und

Fig. 3:

eine Frontansicht des Innenbehälters des Kühl- und Gefriergeräts aus den vorhergehenden Figuren.

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to an embodiment and associated drawings. In the drawings show:

Fig. 1:

a schematic overall perspective view of a refrigerator and freezer according to an embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 2:

1 is a perspective side / rear view of the inner container of the refrigerating appliance of FIG. 1, showing its evaporator with a roll bonding or Z-bonding section and curved tube cooling coils sitting on five sides of the freezer compartment trough of the inner container, and

3:

a front view of the inner container of the refrigerator and freezer from the preceding figures.

Figure 1 shows a one-door refrigerator and freezer 1, in which a door 2 extends over the entire front and covers both a refrigerated goods 3 and a freezer 4. As FIG. 1 shows, the freezer compartment 4 is substantially smaller than the refrigerated goods container 3 in a manner known per se and is arranged lying above the latter.

As Figures 2 and 3 show, the refrigerator and freezer 1 has a continuous inner container 5, which is made in a suitable method of plastic. The inner container 5 is integrally formed in one piece and includes both the freezer compartment 4 defining freezer compartment 6 and the refrigerated goods 3 limiting Kühlgutwanne 7. As Figure 2 shows, the freezer compartment 6 is separated from the Kühlgutwanne 7 by an approximately hand-thick gap 8, wherein the Freezer tray 6 is arranged with its opening cross-section of the open front side of the inner container 5 set back to the rear. Said gap 8 between the freezer compartment trough 6 and the refrigerated goods trough 7 extends only about 2/3 to% of the depth of the inner container 5.

As FIG. 2 shows, a five-area evaporator 9, which is formed on four sides as a tube evaporator with cooling tubes 10 of bent tube, is located on the freezer compartment trough 6 and consists of a rolling or Z-bonding section on the fifth side. FIG. 2 shows the ceiling of the freezer compartment tub 6, on which the tube forming the cooling coils 10 is bent into meandering cooling coils. From the ceiling of the freezer compartment tub 6, the tube forming the cooling coils is then guided to the next, adjacent side of the freezer compartment tub 6, where the tube forming the coolant channel is in turn bent into meandering cooling coils. In a corresponding manner, the tube forming the cooling coils is then guided serially onto the bottom surface and then the second side surface of the freezer compartment trough 6.

In the illustrated embodiment, an evaporator plate 11 is on the basis of Rollbond on the back of the freezer compartment tray 6 instead of bent tube cooling coils or Z-bond base arranged, the cooling coils 12 is connected in series with the bent pipe from cooling coils on the remaining sides of the freezer compartment tray 6.

As FIG. 2 further shows, the evaporator 9 furthermore comprises a section on the rear side of the refrigerated goods trough 7. The tube forming the cooling coils is guided from the freezer compartment trough 6 to the rear side of the refrigerated goods trough 7 and in turn bent into meandering cooling coils 10, so that a combined one Freezer and refrigerator compartment evaporator is formed. The coolant channels of the section on the Kühlgutwanne 7 are of course connected to the coolant channels on the freezer compartment tray 6.

In order to improve the heat transfer between the freezer compartment trough 6 and the cooling coils 10 or between the refrigerated goods trough 7 and the cooling coils 10 arranged thereon, said cooling coils 10 are arranged on metal plates which rest flat on the respective side surface of the freezer compartment trough 6 or the refrigerated goods trough 7 , The cooling coils 10 may be heat-conductively applied, for example by means of a thermal paste on said metal plates.

In the illustrated embodiment, the evaporator 9 is applied by means of adhesive tape or adhesive film on the freezer compartment tray 6 and the Kühlgutwanne 7 and attached thereto. Expediently, the evaporator 9 in the state shown in FIG. 2 applied to the freezer compartment trough 6 and the refrigerated goods trough 7 can then be foamed.

The evaporator 9 shown in FIG. 2 can be, in particular, a so-called four-pass evaporator which cools the freezer compartment trough on five surfaces, which enables a significant improvement in energy efficiency and the climate class without additional costs or reduction of costs compared to rolling or Z-bond evaporators. Advantageously, a separation of the freezer compartment from the inner container is avoided by the arrangement. The continuous container has none Parting line between the freezer compartment tray 6 and the refrigerated tray 7, so that no dirt edge can occur and a better appearance is achieved. In addition, the advantage is achieved that no costly sealing measures must be made during assembly of the evaporator on the inner container 5. In addition, the evaporator 9 is not visible from the interior of the device. In summary, it can therefore be said that cost-effective components create a highly efficient evaporator without disadvantages for the user.

Claims (11)

Refrigerator and / or freezer with an inner container (5) having a substantially cubic freezer compartment trough (6), and an evaporator (9) sitting on five sides on the freezer compartment trough (6), characterized in that at least as an evaporator partially a tube evaporator (9) with cooling coils (10) is provided from bent tube. Refrigerator and / or freezer according to the preceding claim, wherein the evaporator on four sides of the freezer compartment tub (6), in particular on the bottom, the two side walls and the ceiling, from the tube evaporator (9) with cooling coils (10) of bent tube and on the fifth side of the freezer compartment tub, in particular its rear wall, consists of an evaporator plate (11) on a roll or Z-bond basis. Refrigerating and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the cooling coils (10) arranged on metal plates and with these heat-conducting are connected, which sit on at least one surface of the freezer compartment tub (6). The refrigerator and / or freezer according to the preceding claim, wherein a plurality of metal plates, each sitting on at least one side surface of the freezer compartment trough (6) are provided, wherein preferably each metal plate extends on a maximum of three side surfaces of the freezer compartment trough (6). Cooling and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the tube forming the coolant channels bent in the region of a freezer compartment side to meander-shaped cooling coils (10), then passed to an adjacent freezer compartment side and bent there again to meander-shaped cooling coils (10). Refrigerator and / or freezer according to the preceding claim, wherein the cooling coils (10) are serially guided around all sides of the freezer compartment trough (6) with the exception of the rear of the freezer compartment trough (6). Cooling and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the tube evaporator (9) is designed as a combined freezer and refrigerated compartment evaporator and further comprising cooling tubes (10) made of bent tube, which is located on the back of a Kühlgutwanne (7) of the inner container ( 5) extend. Refrigerating and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein a continuous inner container is provided, which forms a freezer compartment trough (6) and a refrigerated goods trough (7), which are integrally connected to one another without parting line and bending edge. Refrigerator and / or freezer according to the preceding claim, wherein between the freezer compartment trough (6) and the refrigerated goods trough (7), a gap (8) is provided is, whose thickness is only slightly larger than the thickness of the cooling coils (10) of the evaporator (9). Refrigerator and / or freezer according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein the freezer compartment tub (6) is set back with its opening cross-section with respect to the Kühlgutwanne (7) to the back of the device. Refrigerator and / or freezer according to one of the preceding claims, wherein it is designed as a one-door device.

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