EP1800076B1

EP1800076B1 - Refrigerator

Info

Publication number: EP1800076B1
Application number: EP05789808A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Jong Min Samsung APT. 110-1003 SIN; Chul Gi Daedong APT. 123-2204 ROH; Hyeon Daewoo APT. 201-303 KIM; Sung Hee Gaenaeri 2-Cha APT. 201-408 KANG; Jun Hyun LG Electronics Inc. HWANG; Jong Kwon Daedong Digital Hwangtoe APT. KIM
Original assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Current assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Priority date: 2004-10-14
Filing date: 2005-04-01
Publication date: 2012-02-22
Anticipated expiration: 2025-04-01
Also published as: CN101040157A; ATE546700T1; WO2006041246A1; ES2378773T3; KR100606847B1; KR20060033186A; EP1800076A1; CN100538231C; PL1800076T3

Abstract

Refrigerator (100) including a body (110) forming an exterior, the body having a food holding portion (112, 113) therein, an edge condenser (210) provided along an edge of the body, for condensing refrigerant, and an evaporator for absorbing heat from the food holding portion, thereby improving heat dissipation performance from refrigerant, to improve cooling performance of the refrigerator.

Description

[Technical Field]

The present invention relates to refrigerators, and more particularly, to a refrigerator having a condenser with improved heat transfer efficiency.

[Background Art]

In general, the refrigerator has an inside space maintained below a predetermined temperature by circulation of refrigerant in a refrigerating cycle, for fresh storage of food, i.e., in a state no decomposition occurs.
That is, the refrigerator is provided with a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber formed therein for holding things to store, such as food, in predetermined states respectively, and the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber freshly store things to store, such as food, for certain time periods by refrigerant circulating through a refrigerating cycle of compression, condensing, expansion, and evaporation.
A related art refrigerator having above function is provided with a body forming an exterior, a food holding portion formed in the body, a machinery room under the food holding portion, i.e., at a bottom of the body, a condenser for condensing the refrigerant, and an evaporator for evaporating the refrigerant to cool down the food holding portion.
The food holding portion has a refrigerating chamber for cold storage of food, and a freezing chamber under the refrigerating chamber for frozen storage of food. There is a compressor in the machinery room, for compression of refrigerant to a high pressure.
The condenser is on an inner side surface of an outer plate that forms side surfaces and a rear surface of the body. Particularly, the condenser is mounted concentrated on rear of the refrigerating chamber, for minimizing influence of heat from the condenser to the freezing chamber.
FIG. 1 illustrates a tubular condenser 20 on the inner side surface of the outer plate 10.
Referring to FIG. 1, the tubular condenser 20 is secured as polyurethane foam 12 is injected for thermal insulation in state the tubular condenser 20 is attached to the inner side surface of the outer plate 10 with an aluminum tape 11. That is, the condenser 20 is secured buried in the polyurethane foam 12 as the polyurethane foam 12 is set.
However, because the condenser 20 of the related art refrigerator is mounted concentrated on the rear of the refrigerating chamber for preventing the heat from the condenser 20 from affecting the freezing chamber, a space for mounting the condenser is limited, to limit heat dissipation from the condenser accordingly, leading the related art refrigerator to have a low cooling efficiency.
US 4,114,065 discloses the features of the preamble of claims 1. It describes a refrigerator cabinet and a method of constructing the same. Herein, a refrigerator cabinet includes an outer wall and an inner wall which forms a refrigerated food compartment of the refrigerator. At a surface framing a door opening, a recess is provided, which extends completely around the face. The recess is provided for receiving a section of condenser tubing. The condenser tubing assembled in the arcuate recess is simply a section of the condenser tubing normally employed in a refrigerator system to dissipate heat developed during the compressing and liquefaction of the refrigerant as part of the normal refrigerating operation. The remainder of the condenser tubing is positioned in a machinery compartment. The section of the condenser tubing is formed in a loop framing the door opening and is aligned with the arcuate recess, which also frames the door opening. The ends of the loop extend through one or more of perforations at the middle of the face framing the door opening.
WO 03/052333 A1 describes a condenser for refrigeration systems. Herein, a condenser of a refrigerator comprises at least one condensation coil, which is formed by a plurality of tube extensions, for conducting refrigerant gas, which are arranged in series relative to each other and to the refrigeration system to which the condenser is applied. Each tube extension is seated and retained inside a respective groove, formed by bending a metallic plate of a respective external wall of a cabinet of the refrigerator. The grooves are generally rectilinear and mutually coplanar. The grooves are opened to the outside of the respective external wall of the cabinet. Aiming at maximizing the contact area between each tube extension and the respective groove, the latter presents a cross section that is configured and dimensioned to tightly embrace the tube extension, by preferably contacting more than half the external perimeter of the latter. The tube extension is embedded in a groove being located within an external wall being spaced apart from the corner of the external wall to a side wall.

[Disclosure]

[Technical Problem]

The object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator in which a heat transfer rate of a condenser is enhanced for improving cooling efficiency.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator for improving rigidity of a body of the refrigerator, which forms an exterior of the refrigerator.

[Technical Solution]

This object is solved by the refrigerator according to claim 1. Further advantages, refinements and embodiments of the invention are described in the respective subclaims.
There is provided a refrigerator including a body forming an exterior, the body having a food holding portion therein, an edge condenser provided along an edge of the body, for condensing refrigerant, and an evaporator for absorbing heat from the food holding portion.
The edge condenser is provided along a rear edge of the body.
The edge condenser is provided in an up/down direction along one of rear opposite edges of the body for condensing refrigerant compressed to a predetermined state at a compressor on a bottom of the body.
The refrigerator further includes a supplementary edge condenser provided in an up/down direction along one of rear opposite edges of the body, for condensing refrigerant.
The supplementary edge condenser condenses refrigerant compressed in a predetermined state at, and discharged from the compressor provided on the bottom of the body.
The body includes a bent portion provided to the edge of the body for improving rigidity of the body.
Preferably, the bent portion is formed along at least one of the rear opposite edges of the body.
The bent portion is projected outwardly from the body so as to be in contact with external air at an outside surface thereof.
The edge condenser is in the bent portion for condensing refrigerant compressed to a predetermined state at, and discharged from, the compressor on the bottom of the body.
The edge condenser is in contact with an inside surface of the bent portion, or has an outside surface in close contact with an inside surface of the bent portion.
The evaporator cools down the food holding portion, directly.
In another aspect of the present invention, the refrigerator includes bent portions formed at opposite rear edges of the body in an up/down direction, for receiving edge condensers respectively, a side surface condenser in one side wall of the body for condensing refrigerant from the edge condenser, wherein the body has a food holding portion with a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber, and a machinery room under the food holding portion for holding a compressor, wherein the edge condenser in one of bent portions condenses refrigerant compressed to a predetermined state at the compressor.
The refrigerator further includes a supplementary edge condenser in the other one of the bent portions for condensing refrigerant.
The side surface condenser is provided to a rear wall of the body, and condenses refrigerant passed through the edge condenser, and the supplementary edge condenser.
The body further includes bent portions extended in an up/down direction along opposite rear edges of the body, for receiving the edge condenser and the supplementary edge condenser.
The edge condenser has an outside surface in contact with, or in close contact with, an inside surface of the bent portion.
It is preferable that the bent portion is projected outwardly from the body such that an outside surface of the bent portion is in contact with external air.
The evaporator cools down the food holding portion, directly.

[Advantageous Effects]

First, the edge condenser along an edge of the refrigerator, particularly, along the bent portion having a large contact area with external air permits fast dissipation of a large quantity of heat to an outside of the refrigerator.
Second, the large quantity of heat dissipation through the edge condenser permits to reduce a production cost of the refrigerator of the present invention lower than a refrigerator having other condenser which can dissipate the same quantity of heat.
Third, the refrigerator of the present invention has a better energy efficiency and reduced power consumption owing to the edge condenser.

[Description of Drawings]

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings;

FIG. 1 illustrates a section of a condenser in a related art refrigerator;
FIG 2 illustrates a perspective view of a refrigerator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of an outer plate portion of a body having an edge condenser of the refrigerator of the present invention provided thereto;
FIG 4 illustrates a section of a variation of a bent portion across I-I line in FIG 2;
FIG 5 illustrates a section of another variation of a bent portion;
FIG 6 illustrates a diagram showing an air flow on an outside of the refrigerator of the present invention, schematically; and
FIG 7 illustrates a P-h chart comparing refrigerating cycles of refrigerators of the related art and the present invention.

[Best Mode]

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
A refrigerator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG 2 illustrates a perspective view of a refrigerator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
Referring to FIG. 2, the refrigerator 100 includes a body 110 forming an exterior of the refrigerator 100, a condenser in the body 110 for condensing refrigerator, an expanding device (not shown) for expanding refrigerant condensed at the condenser, an evaporator (not shown) for evaporating refrigerant expanded at the expanding device, and a compressor 120 for compressing refrigerant to a predetermined pressure.
Inside of the body 110, there are a food holding portion for holding thing to store, such as food, and a machinery room 111 under the food holding portion, i.e., on the bottom of the body 110, for holding the compressor 120.
In more detail, the food holding portion in the body includes a refrigerating chamber 112 for cold storage of food at a predetermined temperature, and a freezing chamber 113 on one side, particularly, under the refrigerating chamber 112 for frozen storage of food.
On a front of the body 110, there are an upper door 110a, and a lower door 110b for opening/closing the refrigerating chamber 112 and the freezing chamber 113, respectively.
The evaporator, evaporating refrigerant for cooling the food holding portion, is mounted on a wall of the food holding portion, for absorbing heat from the food holding portion.
The refrigerator 100 described in the embodiment is a direct cooling type refrigerator which has an evaporator exposed to an inner side of the food holding portion, or in contact with an inside wall of the food holding portion for cooling an inside space of the food holding portion, directly.
Of course, the refrigerator may be an indirect cooling type refrigerator which has an evaporator mounted in a circulating duct in communication with the food holding portion for cooling air circulated by a fan (not shown) to cool down the inside space of the food holding portion.
The condenser of the refrigerator of the present invention will be described, with reference to FIGS. 3 and 6.
FIG 3 illustrates a perspective view of an outer plate portion of a body having an edge condenser of the refrigerator of the present invention provided thereto, FIG. 4 illustrates a section of a variation of a bent portion across I-I line in FIG. 2, FIG. 5 illustrates a section of another variation of a bent portion, and FIG. 6 illustrates a diagram showing an air flow on an outside of the refrigerator of the present invention, schematically.
The condenser includes an edge condenser 210 provided along an edge of the body 110 for condensing the refrigerant, and a side surface condenser 220 on one side wall of the body 110 for condensing refrigerant from the edge condenser 210.
The edge condenser 210 is provided along a rear edge of the body, and the side surface condenser 220 is provided to the rear wall of the body 110, for condensing refrigerant compressed to a predetermined state.
The edge condenser 210 is mounted along the edge of the body 110, because the edge of the body 110 have a large area of contact with external air, to enable good heat dissipation.
Of course, the refrigerator 100 may further include a supplementary edge condenser 230 provided opposite to the edge condenser 210, i.e., along the other rear edge of the body in an up/down direction, for condensing the refrigerant.
The supplementary edge condenser 230 is configured such that the supplementary edge condenser 230 condenses refrigerant passed through the edge condenser 210 and the side surface condenser 220.
Of course, the supplementary edge condenser 230 may be configured such that the refrigerant from the compressor 120 may pass through the side surface condenser 220 after the refrigerant is passed through the supplementary edge condenser 230.
In this case, the compressor 120 is provided with a refrigerant pipe (not shown) to an outlet of the compressor 120 for guiding the refrigerant both to the edge condenser 210 and the supplementary edge condenser 230.
In the meantime, the body 110 further includes an outer plate portion 114 which forms opposite side surfaces and a top surface.
In this case, the outer plate portion 114 includes left, right side plates 114a, and 114b forming the opposite side surfaces of the body 110, and the top plate 114c forming the top surface of the body 110.
There is a bent portion 115 at an edge of the body 110, particularly, at the rear edge of the outer plate 114 for improving rigidity of the body 110.
In more detail, it is preferable that the bent portion 115 is formed along at least any one side edge of the rear opposite edges of the body, i.e., the rear side edges of the outer plate portion 114.
That is, for improving strength of the body 110, the bent portions 115 are formed in an up/down direction along rear edges of the left, and right side surface plates 114a and 114b, respectively.
The edge condenser 210 is placed in, and held by the bent portion 115.
Variations of the bent portion 115 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.
Referring to FIG. 4, a variation of the bent portion 115a has an inside surface in contact with an outside surface of the edge condenser 210.
Next, referring to FIG. 5, another variation of the bent portion 115b has an inside surface in close contact with an outside surface of the edge condenser 210.
It is preferable that a section of the bent portion 115 perpendicular to a length direction of the bent portion 115 has a " ⊂ " or "⊂ " shape.
That is, it is preferable that a contact area of the bent portion 115 with external air is increased for better dissipation of heat from the edge condenser 210.
If the outside surface of the edge condenser 210 is in close contact with the inside surface of the bent portion 115, to make the edge condenser 210 in surface to surface contact with the bent portion 115, the heat transfer performance becomes better.
The edge condenser 210 is secured to the inside surface of the bent portion 115 with fastening means, such as an aluminum tape (not shown), or compression by the inside surface of the bent portion 115.
On the other hand, the side surface condenser 220 connected to the edge condenser 210 is secured to the rear wall of the body 110 with various fastening means, such as aluminum tape (not shown).
Thus, since the edge condenser 210 provided to the refrigerator of the present invention dissipates a large quantity of heat, generated as the refrigerant compressed to a high pressure at, and discharged from, the compressor 120 is condensed in a saturation state, to an outside of the refrigerator quickly, a quantity of heat discharged from the side surface condenser 220 is reduced compared to the related art, relatively.
According to this, the drop of heat transfer efficiency of the side surface condenser 220 caused by interaction of heat discharged from tube lines of the side surface condenser 220 is prevented.
According to this, spaces of the tube lines of the side surface condenser 220 can be made smaller, and a mounting range of the side surface condenser 220 can be expanded to all region of the rear wall, to make heat dissipation from the side surface condenser 220 greater.
A refrigerating cycle of the refrigerator 100 of the present invention will be described.
The compressor 120 compresses refrigerant to high temperature, and high pressure. The refrigerant of a super heated state discharged from an outlet of the compressor 120 is introduced into the edge condenser 210 in the bent portion 115. Then, the edge condenser 210 having the super heated refrigerant flowing therethrough dissipates a large quantity of heat to an outside of the refrigerator through the bent portion 115.
The large quantity of heat transfer owing to the large contact area between the edge condenser 210 and the bent portion 115 and the outside surface of the bent portion 115 and external air makes the refrigerant in the edge condenser 210 to reach to a saturation state of a predetermined dryness, quickly.
The refrigerant reached to the saturation state thus is introduced into the evaporator through the expansion device, involved in an evaporation step at the evaporator as the refrigerant absorbs heat from the food holding portion, and drawn to the compressor 120, again.
FIG 6 illustrates a diagram of an air flow on an outside of the refrigerator of the present invention indicated with arrows.
A lower portion of the edge condenser 210 into which the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 120 in a super heated state is introduced has a relatively high temperature, with a highest rate of heat dissipation, and gives almost no influence to the freezing chamber 113 even if a large quantity of heat is dissipated as the edge condenser 210 is mounted along the edge of the body 110.
The external air having heat absorbed from the lower portion of the edge condenser 210, and the external air heated by the side surface condenser 220 rise upward, and air over the refrigerator 100 falls down drawing an arc.
According to this, a portion of the air at each side of the refrigerator 100 flows toward the edge condenser 210 from the sides of the edge condenser 210 under the influence of the rising air heated by the edge condenser 210, and the air falling down from an upper portion of the refrigerator 100.
A portion of cold external air flows to rear of the body 110, and heated by the side surface condenser 220.
In the meantime, no condenser may be mounted on the top of the refrigerator 100, because the top of the refrigerator 100 is in contact with high temperature air heated by the side surface condenser 220 and rising, the top of the refrigerator 100 has a poor heat dissipation effect.
FIG. 7 illustrates a P-h chart comparing refrigerating cycles of refrigerators of the related art and the present invention.
Referring to FIG. 7, even if a saturation temperature of the refrigerant in a condensing step of the related art refrigerator which only has the rear condenser is 38.2° C, a saturation temperature of the refrigerant in a condensing step of the refrigerator of the present invention which has the edge condenser 210 is 36.7°C, enabling to increase heat dissipation from the condenser by 1.5°C compared to a case only the rear condenser is used. It can also be noted in the experiment that the saturation temperature at the evaporator also drops from -33.8°C to 34.7°C.
As a result of the experiment, in a case the edge condenser is provided additionally, the heat transfer rate rises by about 20% than a case only the rear condenser is provided at a rear of the refrigerator like the related art.
Moreover, if the supplementary edge condenser 230 is provided additionally for passing the refrigerant passed through the side surface condenser 220 together with the edge condenser 210, it can be noted that, even if it is small, the saturation temperatures both in the condensing step and the evaporation step of the refrigerating cycle having the edge condenser 210 become further low.
However, in view of saving material cost of the condenser, an adequate heat dissipation effect can be expected even if the supplementary edge condenser 230 is not provided.
Although the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, it is evident that many alternatives and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description. Accordingly, the invention is intended to embrace all of the alternatives and variations that fall within the scope of the appended claims.

[Industrial Applicability]

As has been described, the refrigerator of the present invention has the following advantages.
The edge condenser along an edge of the refrigerator, particularly, along the bent portion having a large contact area with external air permits fast dissipation of a large quantity of heat to an outside of the refrigerator.
The large quantity of heat dissipation through the edge condenser permits to reduce a production cost of the refrigerator of the present invention lower than a refrigerator having other condenser which can dissipate the same quantity of heat.
The refrigerator of the present invention has a better energy efficiency and reduced power consumption owing to the edge condenser.

Claims

A refrigerator (100) comprising:
- a body (110) forming an exterior, the body (110) having a food holding portion therein;

- an edge condenser (210) provided along an edge of the body (110), for condensing refrigerant; and

- an evaporator for absorbing heat from the food holding portion,
characterized in that the edge condenser (210) is provided at a corner along a rear edge of the body (110).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the edge condenser (210) is provided in an up/down direction along one of rear opposite edges of the body (110) for condensing refrigerant compressed to a predetermined state at a compressor (120) on a bottom of the body (110).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a supplementary edge condenser (230) provided in an up/down direction along one of rear opposite edges of the body (110), for condensing refrigerant.
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 3, wherein the supplementary edge condenser (230) condenses refrigerant compressed in a predetermined state at, and discharged from the compressor (120) provided on the bottom of the body (110).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the body (110) includes a bent portion (115) provided to the edge of the body (110) for improving rigidity of the body (110).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the bent portion (115) is formed along at least one of the rear opposite edges of the body (110).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the bent portion (115) is formed along a rear edge of one of opposite side plates which form opposite sides of the body (110).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the edge condenser (210) is in the bent portion (115) for condensing refrigerant compressed to a predetermined state at, and discharged from, the compressor (120) on the bottom of the body (110).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 8, wherein the edge condenser (210) is in contact with an inside surface of the bent portion (115).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 8, wherein the edge condenser (210) has an outside surface in close contact with an inside surface of the bent portion.
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 8, wherein the bent portion (115) has a "⊂" or "⊂" shaped section perpendicular to a length direction of the bent portion (115).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the evaporator cools down the food holding portion, directly.
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 1, further comprising bent portions (115) formed at opposite rear edges of the body (110) in an up/down direction, for receiving edge condensers (210), respectively; and
a side surface condenser (220) in one side wall of the body (110) for condensing refrigerant from the edge condenser (210),
wherein the body (110) has a food holding portion with a freezing chamber (113) and a refrigerating chamber (112), and a machinery room under the food holding portion for holding a compressor,
wherein the edge condenser (210) in one of bent portions (115) condenses refrigerant compressed to a predetermined state at the compressor.
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a supplementary edge condenser (230) in the other one of the bent portions (115) for condensing refrigerant.
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 13, wherein the side surface condenser (220) is provided to a rear wall of the body (110).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 15, wherein the side surface condenser (220) condenses refrigerant passed through the edge condenser (210), and the supplementary edge condenser (230).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 13, wherein the edge condenser (210) has an outside surface in contact with, or in close contact with, an inside surface of the bent portion (115).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 13, wherein the bent portion (115) has a " ⊂" or "⊂" shaped section perpendicular to a length direction of the bent portion (115).
The refrigerator (100) as claimed in claim 13, wherein the evaporator cools down the food holding portion, directly.