EP2438376A2

EP2438376A2 - Refrigeration appliance

Info

Publication number: EP2438376A2
Application number: EP10722034A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Peter Eckartsberg; Christoph Fauser; Karl-Friedrich Laible; Berthold Pflomm
Original assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeraete GmbH
Current assignee: BSH Hausgeraete GmbH
Priority date: 2009-06-03
Filing date: 2010-05-11
Publication date: 2012-04-11
Also published as: WO2010139533A2; CN102460045A; EA201171447A1; WO2010139533A3; DE102009026666A1

Abstract

A refrigeration appliance comprises a carcass (1) which surrounds a storage compartment (3) that is open on one side, and a door (5) which, in the closed position, rests against a front of the carcass (1), covering the storage compartment (3). A seal (10) is arranged between the front of the carcass (1) and the door (5). An internal face of the seal (10) is connected to the storage compartment (3) via an air gap (9). A top section of the air gap (9), which extends between the storage compartment (3) and a section of the seal (10) resting against the top portion of the carcass (1), is longer than a bottom section, which extends between the storage compartment (3) and a section of the seal (10) resting against the bottom portion of the carcass (1).

Description

The refrigerator

The present invention relates to a refrigeration device, in particular a household refrigerating appliance, with a body which surrounds at least one storage compartment open on one side, and a door which closes the storage compartment and, for this purpose, overlaps the storage compartment on a front side of the body. Conventionally, refrigerators of this type have on the inside of their door a flat, engaging in the storage compartment projection which increases the effective thickness of the insulating layer of the door, without increasing their externally visible thickness. Nevertheless, the area where the door and body touch, the weakest point in the insulation of a refrigerator, because an air gap between the door and body connects the inside of the storage compartment directly to the inside of a arranged between the door and carcase seal. Therefore, if no appropriate countermeasures are taken, the front, near-door portion of the storage compartment is always warmer than the rear, and the warmest point of the storage compartment is in its front upper corner.

In order to ensure a minimum shelf life of refrigerated goods in the storage compartment, it must be guaranteed that the temperature in the storage compartment nowhere exceeds a specified limit. An inhomogeneous temperature distribution means that if the limit at the warm front upper corner of the storage compartment is to be maintained, the remaining areas of the storage compartment must be cooled to even lower temperatures. The energy consumption of a refrigerator increases more than linearly with the temperature difference between its storage compartment and the environment. An unnecessarily low temperature in the storage compartment therefore has a major impact on the economic efficiency of the device. Although it is known in particular from no-frost refrigerators to provide a fan on the storage compartment, which ensures an air flow in the storage compartment and thus for improved temperature compensation between different well insulated areas of the storage compartment. The blower, however, in turn requires drive energy that pollutes the energy balance of the device, and since this drive energy is ultimately released as heat in the storage compartment, it must be removed by appropriate additional work of the chiller again, which further affects the efficiency of the device. The object of the invention is therefore to provide a refrigeration device, which improved

Homogeneity of the temperature distribution in its at least one storage compartment achieved without the continued use of drive energy.

The object is achieved by, in a refrigerator with a body surrounding a one-sided open storage compartment, a door which rests in a closed position on a front of the body overlapping the storage compartment, and arranged between the front and the door seal, of the an inner side communicating with the storage compartment via an air gap, a ceiling-side portion of the air gap extending between the storage compartment and a portion of the gasket adjacent the ceiling of the carcass is longer than a bottom-side portion extending between the storage compartment and a storage compartment extends at the bottom of the body adjacent portion of the seal. Since the air gap is the most important way in which heat enters the storage compartment, the heat flow along the upper edge of the door can be reduced by extending the gap and thus achieving a more uniform temperature distribution.

Change of direction of the air gap on the way between seal and storage compartment significantly hinder the heat transfer by flowing air. Therefore, at least two changes of direction are preferably provided at the ceiling-side portion of the air gap. The number of turns should be generally higher at the ceiling side than at the bottom.

Preferably, the door has a projection which engages in the storage compartment and faces a substantially vertical flank on the ceiling of the carcass. Thus, a change of direction results between a gap portion extending between a horizontal area of the ceiling and an upper side of the protrusion engaging in the storage compartment, and a gap portion between the vertical flank and a back side of the protrusion.

The vertical flank is preferably part of a rib projecting downwards from the ceiling. Thus, at least part of the space between the vertical flank and a rear wall of the carcass can still be used as part of the storage compartment. At a back of the rib is preferably a rearwardly rising

Sloping surface formed. Such an inclined surface is easier to realize with the conventional techniques for deep drawing an inner container of the storage compartment than a vertical rear side.

An undercut portion of the storage compartment located between the rib and a rear wall of the apparatus may, according to a first aspect of the invention, be used to house an evaporator therein. This may also be a no-frost evaporator, since even with refrigerators of this type, the improved insulation achieved with the invention in the front region of the storage compartment advantageously leads to a reduction in energy consumption.

The inclined surface may extend over at least half of the depth, preferably even over the entire depth of the storage compartment. This is particularly useful in the case of a second embodiment of the invention, in which an evaporator is mounted between an inner container of the storage compartment and an insulating material layer surrounding the inner container.

Such an evaporator can be distributed over the ceiling, side walls and bottom of the storage compartment and in this way considerably favor a homogeneous temperature distribution in the storage compartment.

Pipe sections of such an evaporator should run in the rib to allow efficient cooling of the front upper corner of the storage compartment. In addition, piping sections of the evaporator should also be mounted on the inclined surface, with an inclined surface extending continuously from the rib to the rear wall allowing uniform distribution of the pipe sections.

In order to take into account the relatively high incidence of heat in the contact area between the body and the door, the tube sections of the evaporator can be arranged closer to the door than in the vicinity of a rear wall of the storage compartment.

A heating tube that may be conventionally embedded at the front of the body to allow moisture from the ambient air to be deposited on exposed ones To prevent surfaces of the body, can advantageously be arranged according to the invention in a refrigerant circuit downstream of a condenser, as a result of reduced by the above-described housing structure heat input, the outer surfaces of the body in the vicinity of the door will not be as cold as in a conventional refrigerator.

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

1 shows a schematic section through a household refrigerator, here a combination device, according to a first embodiment of the invention.

2 shows a section through the lower region of a refrigerator according to a further developed, second embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 3 is a section through the lower portion of a refrigerator according to a third

design;

Fig. 4 is a similar to Fig. 2 section through an inventive refrigeration device in no-frost construction

FIG. 5 shows a section analogous to FIG. 2 according to a fifth embodiment of the invention; FIG. and.

6 shows a section analogous to FIG. 2 according to a sixth embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 1 shows a section through a combination household refrigeration appliance with a body 1, a normal refrigerated compartment 2, a freezer compartment 3 and doors 4, 5 for closing the two compartments. The doors 4, 5 each have a flat cuboid, inwardly directed projection 6 and 7, which engages in the closed position of the door 4 and 5 in the associated compartment 2 and 3, while a narrow circumferential air gap 8, 9 between Narrow sides of the projection 6 and 7 and these opposite Ceiling, bottom and side wall surfaces of the compartment 2 and 3 forms. Through this air gap 8 or 9 inevitably takes place air exchange and heat transfer between the interior of the compartment 2 and 3 and the inside of a seal 10, which is mounted on an inner side of the door 4 and 5 around the projection 6 and 7 respectively is and rests against a front side 1 1 of the body 1.

Both at the top and at the bottom of the door 5, the air gap 9 each have a change of direction between a directly adjacent to the seal 10 vertical portion and extending between the ceiling or bottom of the tray 3 and the narrow sides of the projection 7 horizontal portion. The vertical portion, indicated at 27, at the upper edge of the door 5 is significantly wider than corresponding portions 28 at the lower edge of the door 4 and the door 5, i. the door 5 covers a large part of the front edge of an intermediate wall 21 between the compartments 2, 3. The resulting large length of the air gap at the upper edge of the door 5 affects the air exchange between the interior of the freezer compartment 3 and the inside of the seal 10 and thus reduces the temperature difference between the upper front corner of the freezer compartment 3 and other parts thereof.

An evaporator 15, which cools the freezer compartment 3, is implemented here in wrap-around construction, i. H. a pipeline for refrigerant extends helically over the ceiling, side walls and bottom of the freezer compartment 3 between an inner container 16 and a surrounding Dämmmaterialschicht 17. The inner container 16 may be thermoformed in a conventional manner of plastic, in which case the pipe of the evaporator 15 directly on the inner container 16 glued or may be attached to the inner container 16 outside surrounding, good heat conducting metallic plates. It is also conceivable to assemble the inner container 16 directly from metallic plates, on whose outer sides then the pipeline of the evaporator 15 can be attached.

Since the heat input through the air gap 9 is still stronger than by the Dämmmaterialschicht 17, it is expedient to cool the front of the freezer compartment 3 more than the rear. For this purpose, in the illustrated embodiment, loops 18 of the refrigerant pipe are laid in a front area of the freezer compartment 3 at a smaller distance from one another than in a rear area. Due to the reduced heat conduction in the region of the air gap 9, the heating power that is required to keep the front side 11 outside the seals 10 so warm that condenses there no moisture from the ambient air. A heating line 19, which is fed with compressed warm refrigerant in a familiar manner to those skilled in the art and extends around the opening of the freezer compartment 3 at the front side 1 1, can therefore be installed in a refrigerant circuit comprising a (not shown)

Compressor, a condenser 20, is discharged through the waste heat of the compressor compressed and heated refrigerant to the environment, a throttle point and the evaporator 15 includes, be disposed between the condenser 20 and the throttle point, so that the circulating in the heating line 19 refrigerant already in the condenser 20 is pre-cooled. This further reduces the heat input into the freezer compartment 3 via the air gap 9.

Fig. 2 shows a partial section of a refrigerator according to a preferred development of the invention. It differs from the embodiment of FIG. 1 by the course of the air gap 9 at the upper edge of the door 5. The vertical portion 28 of

Air gap of the embodiment of Figure 1 is hereby effectively transferred to the interior of the housing. a vertical section 12 extends here between the back 13 of the projection 7 and a vertical flank 14 formed on the ceiling of the freezer compartment 3. The air exchange between the interior of the freezer compartment 3 and the inside of the seal 10 is therefore along the front upper edge of the freezer compartment 3 difficult not only by the relatively large length of the air gap, but in addition by the change of direction from horizontal to vertical section 12, which further reduces the heat input in this area of the freezer compartment 3 and thus the temperature difference between this area and other parts of the freezer compartment 3.

The improved insulating effect is paid in the embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 2 by an increased volume of the intermediate wall 21 between the compartments 2, 3 and a corresponding loss of usable volume in the compartments 2, 3. The embodiment of Fig. 3 avoids this disadvantage in that the vertical flank 14 on the ceiling of the freezer compartment 3 is formed as a door near edge of a rib 22 extending over the entire width of the ceiling of the freezer compartment 3 and the freezer compartment 3 is undercut behind an oblique rear side 23 of the rib 22. The thickness of the intermediate wall 21 may be even lower behind the rib 22 than in front of it, since between the two cooled compartments 2, 3 only a relatively small thickness of the insulating material layer 17 is required compared to the outer walls of the body 1, whereas at least a sufficient amount of space must be present at a front edge of the intermediate wall 21 in order to receive the seals 10 thereat the doors 4, 5 and between the seals 10, the heating cable 19 accommodate.

The back 23 of the rib 22 in this embodiment is as steep as the thermoforming technique used to make the inner container 16. The back 23 is free of piping of the evaporator 15; in compensation, the distance between two pipe loops 18 in the rib 22 is still somewhat lower than at the bottom of the freezer compartment 3.

A freezer compartment with an inner container 16 formed as shown in FIG. 3 can be advantageously used to provide, as shown in FIG. 4, a no-frost evaporator 24 and a fan 25 in the undercut area of the freezer compartment 3 behind the rib 22 accommodate. The wrap-around evaporator shown in FIG. 3 can then be dispensed with. While this fan 25 gives off heat to the freezer compartment 3 during operation, the reduced heat flow in the upper front corner of the freezer compartment 3 makes it possible to choose the drive power of the fan 25 and thus also the heating power delivered by it to the compartment 3 low.

Fig. 5 shows a preferred embodiment of the refrigerator according to the invention, in which the oblique rear side 23 of the rib 22 is widened to practically the entire depth of the freezer compartment 3. Although the ceiling of the freezer compartment 3 is sloping downwards, it is flat on practically its entire surface, which simplifies the attachment of the wrap-around evaporator 15. In contrast to the embodiment of FIG. 3, while a small part of the volume of the freezer compartment 3 is always lost, however, just this directly behind the steep back 23 in the embodiment of FIG. 3 area is only with difficulty to accommodate frozen food available.

The embodiment of FIG. 5, however, allows a substantially complete use of the freezer compartment volume by arranging objects which do not extend over the entire depth of the compartment 3 in a plurality of stacked stacks in the depth direction. Since no drawer can be used in this type of storage of refrigerated goods, it is convenient for the user when the freezer compartment 3 is located approximately at eye level. Ie. It is expedient to arrange the freezer compartment 3 above the normal refrigeration compartment 2, as shown in the sectional view of FIG. 6. This figure also shows the above-mentioned housing of refrigerated goods in the form of stacked in the depth direction, different height stacks of containers 26. In a rear portion of the freezer compartment, these stacks may be higher than the lower edge of the flank 14th

Of course, the attachment of the freezer compartment 3 above the normal refrigeration compartment 2 is also considered in the other embodiments described above, as well as the combination of other than the above types of storage compartments in a same body. Furthermore, the vertical flank 14 may also be provided on the ceiling of another type of storage compartment than the freezer compartment described above or on a plurality of storage bins of a same body.

Claims

1. Refrigerating appliance, in particular household refrigerating appliance, with a body (1) which surrounds a storage compartment (3) which is open on one side, a door (5) which in the closed position bears against the storage compartment (3) on a front side of the body (1), and a gasket (10) disposed between the front of the body (1) and the door (3), an inside of the gasket (10) communicating with the storage compartment (3) via an air gap (9), characterized in that a ceiling-side portion of the air gap (9) extending between the storage compartment (3) and a portion of the seal (10) adjacent to the ceiling of the body (1) is longer than a bottom-side portion located between the storage compartment (3 ) and a at the bottom of the body (1) adjacent portion of the seal (10).

2. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that the cover-side section (9) has at least two changes of direction.

3. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the cover-side portion (9) has more changes of direction than the bottom-side portion.

4. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that on the ceiling of the body, a substantially vertical edge (14) is formed opposite to a engaging in the storage compartment projection (7) of the door (3).

5. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 4, characterized in that the vertical edge (14) is part of a projecting from the ceiling down rib (22).

6. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 5, characterized in that on the ceiling behind the rib (22) is formed a rearwardly sloping inclined surface (23).

7. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 6, characterized in that the inclined surface (23) extends over at least half of the depth, preferably over the entire depth of the storage compartment (3).

8. Refrigerating appliance according to one of claims 4 to 7, characterized in that in

Storage compartment (3) behind the vertical edge (14) an evaporator (24) is housed.

9. Refrigerating appliance according to one of claims 4 to 7, characterized in that an evaporator (15) between an inner container (16) of the storage compartment (3) and an inner container (16) surrounding the insulating material layer (17) is mounted.

10. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 9, characterized in that the evaporator (15) over the ceiling, side walls and bottom of the storage compartment (3) is distributed.

11. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 9 or 10, as far as dependent on claim 5, characterized in that pipe sections (18) of the evaporator (15) extend in the rib (22).

12. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 9 or 10, as far as dependent on claim 6, characterized in that the pipe sections (18) of the evaporator (15) on the

Beveled surface (23) are mounted.

13. Refrigerating appliance according to one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that pipe sections (18) of the evaporator (15) in the vicinity of the door (5) are arranged closer than in the vicinity of a rear wall of the storage compartment (3).

14. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that on the front side (10) of the body (1) arranged heating tube (19) in a refrigerant circuit downstream of a condenser (20) is arranged.