EP2317264A1 - Cooling device with internal lighting - Google Patents

Abstract

The apparatus has a LED, and a housing provided with a body (1) and door (2, 3) that surround an inner area for storage of cooling goods. A light illuminates the cooling goods, and lighting surfaces (4, 5) are attached to the housing at an outer side. The light illuminates the cooling goods when the doors are opened and illuminates the lighting surfaces when the doors are closed. A carrier is pulled out from the inner area in a position illuminated by the light. A light conductor extends between the light and the lighting surfaces, where the door has a projection.

Description

The present invention relates to a refrigeration appliance, in particular a household refrigeration appliance with a housing which comprises a body and a door which surrounds an interior space for storing refrigerated goods, and a luminaire for illuminating the refrigerated goods and a luminous surface mounted outside the housing.

Conventionally, such a refrigerator has a door operated switch to turn the light on with the door open and off with the door closed.

Refrigeration appliances are also known which have a luminous surface which is mounted on the outside of the housing and whose luminous status provides information about the instantaneous operating state of a refrigerating machine of the appliance.

Object of the present invention is to provide a refrigeration device in which the light is supplied for illuminating the refrigerated goods a second useful use.

The object is achieved by the light is arranged in a refrigeration device of the type specified above, to illuminate the refrigerated goods with the door open and the illuminated area when the door is closed. Thus, with the door closed, the light can also be used to indicate the operating status.

Since the interior lighting is generally considerably brighter than a conventional operating state display mounted on the outside of a refrigeration device, the refrigeration device according to the invention can provide an optical warning signal which is easily perceivable even in a bright environment in order to draw attention to a possible malfunction.

The beam of the lamp may be directed into the interior with the door open in order to illuminate the refrigerated goods therein. If the goods to be cooled are conveniently movable, for example by being housed in a box which can be pulled out of the interior, the beam of the lamp can also be aligned with an area in front of the interior in order to illuminate the contents of the box pulled out. While the lamp to be able to effectively illuminate the item to be refrigerated, will usually be attached to the body, the luminous surface is to be well visible, preferably on the door.

In order to guide the light of the luminaire to the luminous surface, an optical waveguide is preferably arranged between the two. Conveniently, the light guide is arranged on the door and movable with this.

While the light guide with the door open must release a beam path from the lamp to the refrigerated goods, so that it can be illuminated, he can expediently engage in the closed position of the door in this beam path to intercept the light and supply the light area.

According to a preferred embodiment, the luminaire is movable between a position for illuminating the item to be cooled and a position for illuminating the luminous area. This is particularly useful when the refrigerated goods to be illuminated in the interior.

Conveniently, the lamp is fixed in the position for illuminating the luminous surface by contact with a contour of the door. As soon as the door is opened, contact with the contour is lost and the luminaire can switch to the position for illuminating the item to be cooled.

It is known per se to provide a door with a projection which engages over a sealing plane into the body and, by creating a narrow gap between the seal and the interior, improves the thermal insulation between the interior and the seal. Conveniently, the lamp is arranged so that it is covered with the door closed by such a projection, and thus waste heat of the lamp reaches at most a small part in the interior.

Alternatively, the body may have a projecting over a sealing plane projection on which the lamp is mounted. In such a structure, waste heat of the lamp can freely escape into the environment without heating the interior.

Since the extent of the luminous area is very small compared to the interior, a light signal on the luminous area is still well visible even when the luminosity of the lamp is lower with the door closed than with the door open. Corresponding to the luminous intensity, the waste heat output of the luminaire is also reduced, with the result that any additional heat input into the interior resulting from the operation of the luminaire is negligible.

In particular, when the lamp uses one or more LEDs as the lighting means, the luminance can be reduced without reducing the efficiency by reducing the number of LEDs operated or the duty cycle of a pulse current applied to the LEDs.

In order to be able to indicate to a user in which of several possible operating states a refrigerator of the refrigerator is located at a given time, the luminosity of the luminaire may vary at least when the door is closed according to a predetermined pattern, which is determined as a function of the respective operating state of the refrigerator ,

It is also conceivable to vary the luminous color of the luminaire at least when the door is closed, depending on the respective operating state of the refrigerating machine. For this purpose, the lamp may in particular comprise a plurality of LEDs in different colors.

According to a preferred embodiment, an outer surface of the door is formed by a transparent disk, and the luminous surface is provided on an inner surface of the disk. Thus, when the luminous area is not illuminated, a completely homogeneous visual impression can be achieved, in which the luminous area can not be distinguished from adjacent areas of the door outer surface.

Fig. 1

eine schematische Ansicht eines erfindungsgemäßen Kältegeräts mit geschlossenen Türen;

Fig. 2

ein Detail des Kältegeräts aus Fig. 1 im Schnitt;

Fig. 3

das Kältegerät der Fig. 1 mit einer geöffneten Tür;

Fig. 4

das Detail der Fig. 2 bei geöffneter Tür;

Fig. 5

ein Detail eines Kältegerätegehäuses gemäß einer zweiten Ausgestaltung im Schnitt;

Fig. 6

einen zu Fig. 5 analogen Schnitt gemäß einer dritten Ausgestaltung;

Fig. 7

ein Detail gemäß einer vierten Ausgestaltung bei geschlossener Tür; und

Fig. 8

das Detail der Fig. 7 bei offener Tür.

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

Fig. 1

a schematic view of a refrigerator according to the invention with closed doors;

Fig. 2

a detail of the refrigerator Fig. 1 on average;

Fig. 3

the refrigerator of the Fig. 1 with an open door;

Fig. 4

the detail of Fig. 2 with the door open;

Fig. 5

a detail of a refrigerator housing according to a second embodiment in section;

Fig. 6

one too Fig. 5 analog section according to a third embodiment;

Fig. 7

a detail according to a fourth embodiment with the door closed; and

Fig. 8

the detail of Fig. 7 with the door open.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a combination refrigerator with a body 1 and doors 2, 3, the separate storage compartments such as a normal refrigeration compartment and a fresh refrigerator compartment close. Both doors 2, 3 have in their upper region in each case a luminous surface 4, 5, which may be formed as an abstract geometric shape, for example, a narrow, upright rectangle in the case of the luminous surface 4, or a lettering in the case of the luminous surface 5 , The outer surfaces of the doors 2, 3 are each formed in one piece from a glass pane, preferably made of hardened mineral glass, behind which the luminous surface 4 or 5 can only be distinguished from the remaining surface of the door when it is illuminated from behind.

Fig. 2 shows an enlarged cross section through the facing edges of the doors 2, 3 and a horizontal partition 6, which extends between the two compartments, here denoted by 7 and 8, the body 1 extends. The doors 2, 3 are provided in a conventional manner on its inner side facing the body 1 each with a peripheral magnetic seal 9, which in the closed position of the door 2 and 3 at a Front of the body 1 rests and the compartments 7, 8 is substantially airtight from the environment.

Adjacent to a front edge 10 of the partition 7, against which the magnetic seals 9 abut, on the underside of the partition wall 6, a lamp 11 is arranged, which comprises a plurality of powerful white light LEDs. The lamp 11 radiates obliquely downward and forward, and their light falls on a light guide 12, which extends transversely through the door 3 to the inside of the aforementioned glass plate, here denoted by 13. The light guide 12 may be a homogeneous block of a clear material such as PMMA, in which the light of the lamp 11 is rectilinear or possibly by total reflection at the interfaces led to the light emitting surface 5 on the inside of the glass plate 13 propagates. Alternatively, serve as a light guide and a block with embedded glass fibers, which allows a largely arbitrary guidance of the light between the light 11 and 5 luminous surface.

The fresh cooling compartment 8 below the partition wall 6 contains a plurality of extractable pull-out boxes 14. Fig. 3 shows the refrigerator with the door open 3 and an extracted drawer 14. On the inside of the door, an inlet window 15 of the light guide 12 can be seen. However, the light of the lamp 11 no longer reaches the inlet window 15, but illuminates the contents of the extracted drawer 14. Fig. 4 illustrates this fact by means of one Fig. 2 analog section.

Unlike a conventional interior lighting, the light 11 is constantly in operation, either to illuminate the light area 4, or to illuminate an extracted drawer 14. Since the extent of the luminous area 4 is substantially smaller than the surface of the pull-out box 14 to be illuminated, in normal operation with the door 3 closed a considerably lower power is sufficient than with the door 3 open in order to make the luminous area 5 clearly visible. Such a lower power can be generated with good efficiency by a plurality of LEDs of the lamp 11 is a first group regardless of the position of the door 3 is powered, while the LEDs of a second group are powered only when the door 3 is open.

However, since this approach leads to a different aging of the different groups of light-emitting diodes, a second approach is preferred, according to which all the LEDs of the lamp 11 are supplied uniformly with a pulsed direct current whose frequency is high enough so that the emitted light from the light 11 of is perceived as continuous by a user and whose duty cycle is lower when the door is closed than when it is open.

According to this simple embodiment, a user can read off the light area 4 bright or dark in the state whether the refrigeration appliance is properly supplied with power or not. According to a further developed embodiment, the luminous area can be used to provide further information. Many refrigerators have an intensive cooling mode that can be activated by a user for a limited time to quickly cool down large quantities of newly stored refrigerated goods. The fact that such an intensive cooling mode is active can be clearly indicated by operating the lamp 11 with the door closed at a higher power than in the normal cooling mode. An energy-saving mode of operation that can be selected by a user, for example, for periods of absence, in which there is no perishable refrigerated goods in the device, and for example, allows a slightly higher storage temperature than in normal cooling mode, or by allows greater temperature fluctuations, allows longer compressor run times can be displayed by a slow change of the lamp 11 between the brightness level of the normal operating state and dark. To indicate a fault, a quick change between dark and high light power, for example the power level used with the door open, can be used. Alternatively or additionally, the light 11 for indicating a fault also LEDs of a different color, preferably red, have, which are energized only in case of failure.

A luminaire that supplies light for the luminous surface 4 may, similar to the luminaire 11 on the intermediate wall, be mounted on a ceiling of the body 1 and how the luminaire 11 may be energized in different ways depending on the operating state of a refrigerating machine.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic section through an upper edge of a door 2 or 3 and the partition wall 6 or a ceiling of a storage compartment according to a first Development of the invention. In the following, for the sake of simplicity, only the intermediate wall 6 and the door 3, the speech, but it is understood that the information on the ceiling and the door 2 are readily transferable. The door 3 has, in a manner known per se, a flat projection 16, which engages in the compartment 7 via a plane defined by the circumferential magnetic seal 9. The projection 16, together with the partition wall 6, defines a narrow gap 17 which severely restricts the exchange of air between the compartment 7 and a cold inside of the magnetic seal 9. The lamp 11 is arranged so close to the front edge 10 of the partition 6, that it is opposite to an upper edge 18 of the projection 16 with the door closed. So the lamp 11 is thermally insulated against the subject.

Another training shows Fig. 6 , Here, the partition wall 6 is extended above the door 3 by a projection 20 forward, and the lamp 11 is arranged in front of a plane defined by the magnetic seal 9, outside the refrigerated compartment 8, and radiates to a formed in an upper flank of the door 3 Inlet window 15 of the light guide 12. Waste heat of the lamp 11 passes unhindered into the open, without burdening the tray 8.

Fig. 7 shows a cross section through mutually facing edges of the doors 2, 3 and a front portion of the partition wall 6 according to a fourth embodiment of the invention. The lamp 11 is here received in a recess directly on the front edge 10 of the partition 6 pivotally about a horizontal axis. A projection 19 of the door 3 engages in a complementary receiving notch of the lamp 11 and holds it against gravity or against a return spring, not shown here in a position in which they obliquely downward and forward, on an inlet window 15 of a through the Door 3 extending light guide 12 radiates.

When the door 3 is opened, the projection 19 protrudes from the notch, and the lamp 11 pivots into an in Fig. 8 shown orientation in which it radiates obliquely downwards and backwards into the compartment 8. Such a lamp 11 is particularly suitable for a compartment in which refrigerated goods are not stored in pull-out boxes, as described above, but also stationary, plate-shaped refrigerated goods stands.

The possibilities of indicating different operating states of the refrigeration appliance by modulating the light intensity or by changing the light color of the light 11 are the same as described above with reference to FIG Fig. 1 to 4 described.

Claims (14)

Refrigerating appliance, in particular household refrigerating appliance, with a housing (1, 2, 3) which comprises a body (1) and a door (2, 3) which surround an interior space (7, 8) for storing refrigerated goods, a lamp (11 ) for illuminating the item to be cooled and an outside of the housing (1, 2, 3) mounted luminous surface (5), characterized in that the lamp (11) is arranged to open door (3) the refrigerated goods and with the door closed (3 ) to illuminate the illuminated area. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that the lamp (11) is arranged to illuminate with the door open (3) in the interior (8) inside. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that a carrier (14) for refrigerated goods from the interior (8) in one of the lamp (11) illuminated position can be pulled out. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the lamp (11) on the body (1) and the luminous surface (5) on the door (3) is provided. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a light guide (12) extends between the lamp (11) and the luminous surface (5). Refrigerating appliance according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the light guide (12) with the door open (3) releases a beam path from the lamp (11) to the interior and engages in the closed position of the door (3) in the beam path. Refrigerating appliance according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the lamp (11) between a position for illuminating the item to be cooled and a position for illuminating the luminous surface (5) is movable. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 7, characterized in that a contour (19) of the door (3) in the closed position fixes the luminaire (11) in the position for illuminating the luminous surface (5). Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the door (3) has a projection (16) engages in the closed position over a sealing plane (10) of time in the body (1) and the lamp (11) covers. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the body (1) via a sealing plane (10) projecting projection (20) on which the lamp (11) is mounted. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the luminous intensity of the lamp (11) is lower when the door (3) is closed than when the door (3) is open. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the luminous intensity of the lamp (11) varies at least when the door (3) is closed according to a predetermined pattern, wherein the pattern is determined in dependence on an operating state of a refrigerator of the refrigerator. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the luminous color of the lamp (11) is fixed at least when the door (3) is closed in dependence on an operating state of the refrigerating machine. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that an outer surface of the door (3) by a transparent disc (13) is formed and that the luminous surface (5) on an inner surface of the disc (13) is provided.

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