EP2894424B1

EP2894424B1 - Refrigerator

Info

Publication number: EP2894424B1
Application number: EP13836161.3A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Yang Liu; Tokimi ABE
Original assignee: Toshiba Lifestyle Products and Services Corp
Current assignee: Toshiba Lifestyle Products and Services Corp
Priority date: 2012-09-06
Filing date: 2013-08-23
Publication date: 2018-10-24
Anticipated expiration: 2033-08-23
Also published as: EP2894424A4; JP2014052111A; JP6081108B2; CN104903666B; TWI551839B; EP2894424A1; TW201411075A; CN104903666A; WO2014038150A1

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

An embodiment described herein generally relates to a refrigerator.

BACKGROUND ART

A refrigerator is configured to interpose a heat insulating material in a space between an outer case and an inner case constituting a heat insulating case body as a main body of the refrigerator, in order to enhance heat insulating performance and energy saving. In addition, a door which seals an opening part of the heat insulating case body of the refrigerator is also configured to interpose a heat insulating material between an outer plate and an inner plate. A liquid foam heat insulating material is used as a heat insulating material in a refrigerator in many cases, but a vacuum heat insulating material has been considered to be used instead of the liquid foam heat insulating material in recent years. A technique of using both urethane foam and a vacuum heat insulating material for a door of a refrigerator is proposed in JP2006-90649A , for example.
The vacuum heat insulating material is configured to vacuum-packing a core material with a thin outer wrapping film. This vacuum heat insulating material is better in heat insulating performance than the urethane foam, but the outer wrapping film is easily cracked, and the urethane foam, but the outer wrapping film is easily cracked, and the vacuum heat insulating material loses heat insulating performance significantly in a case that the outer wrapping film is cracked and damaged. In a case that a vacuum heat insulating material is used for a door etc. of a refrigerator, the outer wrapping film may be damaged when the vacuum heat insulating material is arranged at a position where the vacuum heat insulating material contacts a screw located at an attaching part of a knob. Under such circumstances, in a case that a vacuum heat insulating material is reduced in size to prevent the vacuum heat insulating material from interfering with the screw etc., a space where any heat insulating material is not provided increases in an inside of the door. Thus, a heat insulating effect needs to be increased by using an urethane form etc. together as mentioned in the above patent document.
DE 19931170 A1 discloses a refrigerator with a housing and a door. A vacuum heat-insulating material is interposed between an outer plate and an inner plate forming the door and the insulating material fills the entire space between these plates. The document states that a handle can be attached to the outer plate of the door.
JP 2003-106760 A relates to a refrigerating apparatus and shows that a door of a refrigerating apparatus is attached to an outer box by a hinge. It also shows that an insulation material such as a polyurethane resin insulation material, a vacuum insulation material etc. is arranged in the interior of the door.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in taking such problems of the prior art into consideration, and is to provide a refrigerator which is good in heat insulating effect and which prevents a vacuum heat insulating material from being damaged.

MEANS TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM

A refrigerator according to the invention is a refrigerator including the features of claim 1.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an external view of a refrigerator according to a first or second embodiment.
Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the refrigerator in a state in which doors are removed.
Fig. 3 is a front view of a second freezing chamber door in the refrigerator according to the first embodiment.
Fig. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the second freezing chamber door.
Fig. 5 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the second freezing chamber door.
Fig. 6 is a front view of the second freezing chamber door in the refrigerator according to the second embodiment.
Fig. 7 is a partially enlarged perspective view of a part of the second freezing chamber door in the refrigerator according to the second embodiment.
Fig. 8 is a partially enlarged vertical cross-sectional view of a part of the second freezing chamber door in the refrigerator according to the second embodiment.
Fig. 9 is a partially enlarged vertical cross-sectional view of the second freezing chamber door in the refrigerator according to a modification example of the second embodiment, which is not part of the claimed invention.

EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments will be described hereinbelow with reference to the drawings. In the figures, similar or identical components are shown with the same reference numerals. A first embodiment will be described below.
As illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, a refrigerator 1 according to the present embodiment includes a heat insulating case body 3 having an inner case and an outer case and doors 21 to 26. A front side of the heat insulating case body 3 is opened, and an inside of the heat insulating case body 3 is partitioned into chambers.
A vacuum heat insulating material 35 referred to as a VIP (vacuum insulation panel) illustrated by a dashed line in Fig. 2 is interposed as a heat insulating material in an approximately entire opposed space between the inner case and the outer case of the heat insulating case body 3. Although only the vacuum heat insulating material 35 of a right side surface plate of the refrigerator 1 is illustrated in a perspective manner for illustrative purposes in Fig. 2, an upper surface plate, a bottom surface plate, a left side surface plate, and a back surface plate are respectively provided with vacuum heat insulating materials as well.
This heat insulating case body 3 is partitioned into five chambers consisting of a cold storage chamber 11, a vegetable chamber 12, an ice making chamber 13 and a first freezing chamber 14 provided in parallel horizontally, and a second freezing chamber 15 in this order from the upper side. The opening on the front side of the cold storage chamber 11 is provided with French type first cold storage chamber door 21 and second cold storage chamber door 22. Also, the openings on the front sides of the vegetable chamber 12, the ice making chamber 13, the first freezing chamber 14, and the second freezing chamber 15 are respectively provided with drawing type vegetable chamber door 23, ice making chamber door 24, first freezing chamber door 25, and second freezing chamber door 26.
The second freezing chamber door 26 will be described as an example to describe a structure of the drawing type door. The second freezing chamber door 26 includes an outer plate 31, an inner plate 32, an inner frame 33, the vacuum heat insulating material 35, a gasket 37, and a knob 39 as illustrated in Figs. 3 to 5. In the following description, a direction in which the outer plate 31 in the second freezing chamber door 26 is located is referred to as a front side while an inside direction of the refrigerator 1 in which the inner plate 32 is located is referred to as a back side.
The second freezing chamber door 26 has the vacuum heat insulating material 35 interposed between the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32. The inner frame 33 is fitted in the outer plate 31 to press the inner plate 32 to the outer plate 31 from a back side of the inner plate 32. The inner frame 33 is provided with a throat portion 33b projecting to a back surface side of the inner frame 33 (a surface located in an inner side in the second freezing chamber door 26) and has the gasket 37 fitted in the inner frame 33 in the vicinity of an outer circumference on the back surface side of the inner frame 33. The front side of the outer plate 31 is provided with the knob 39.
The outer plate 31 is an approximately box-shaped plate including a flat plate portion 31a which is an approximately rectangular flat-surface plate and a side wall 31b extending backward from an outer circumferential edge of the flat plate portion 31a. Openings 31c to which the knob 39 is attached are formed near an upper end of the flat plate portion 31a and near right and left ends of the flat plate portion 31a.
The knob 39 is a grip handle made of a tubular hollow or solid and approximately U-shaped member and includes a grip 39a extending in parallel with the flat plate portion 31a of the outer plate 31 and legs 39b extending backward from both the ends of the grip 39a. A back end portion of each leg 39b is provided with a recess 39c, and a screw hole 39d in which a screw 41 is screwed is formed at a surface (a front side) located at the bottom of the recess 39c.
This knob 39 is fixed to the outer plate 31 by a boss 40 and the screw 41 as attaching members. The boss 40 includes a ring portion 40a, a cylindrical portion 40b standing forward from an inner rim of the ring portion 40a, a circular-plate-shaped contacting portion 40c closing a front end surface of the cylindrical portion 40b, and a screw hole 40d formed in the bordering portion 40c. This boss 40 is bonded and fixed to the outer plate 31 in a state in which an adhesive member such as a double-sided tape is attached to a front surface (a surface on a side on which the cylindrical portion 40b is formed) of the ring portion 40a and in which the cylindrical portion 40b passes through the opening 31c of the outer plate 31. The knob 39 is fixed by the screw 41 in a state in which the cylindrical portion 40b of the boss 40 is covered with the recess 39c of the knob 39. Since the screw 41 is in a state of staying inside the cylindrical portion 40b of the boss 40, a head of the screw 41 does not project further backward than the flat plate portion 31a of the outer plate 31.
The vacuum heat insulating material 35 is arranged over an approximately entire area on a back surface side of the outer plate 31, and the inner plate 32 is arranged on a back surface side of this vacuum heat insulating material 35. The vacuum heat insulating material 35 is bonded to the outer plate 31 and is similarly bonded to the boss 40. The vacuum heat insulating material 35 is structured by vacuum-packing a core material with an outer wrapping film, and the outer wrapping film may be cracked when a projection, a screw etc. contacts the outer wrapping film. Since the head of the screw 41 and a front surface of the vacuum heat insulating material 35 are spaced apart from each other in the door of the refrigerator 1 according to the present embodiment, it is possible to prevent the outer wrapping film of the vacuum heat insulating material 35 from being damaged by the screw 41. A soft tape 36 such as a sponge tape is wound on a side surface of the vacuum heat insulating material 35. Winding the soft tape 36 on the side surface in this manner can protect the outer wrapping film of the vacuum heat insulating material 35 from a connecting part of the outer plate 31 with the inner plate 32 and another member. The vacuum heat insulating material 35 is bonded not only to the outer plate 31 but also to the inner plate 32 as well if necessary.
The inner frame 33 is a rectangular frame body, has a groove as a gasket fitting portion 33a on a back side near an outer circumferential edge of the inner frame 33, and includes the throat portion 33b on an inner side of the gasket fitting portion 33a. The inner frame 33 has a foam heat insulating material 33c filled inside the throat portion 33b. This inner frame 33 is arranged to press the inner plate 32 bonded to the vacuum heat insulating material 35 to the back surface of the outer plate 31 and is fitted with the side wall 31b of the outer plate 31.
The gasket 37 is a frame body having a hollow and sealed air cushion portion 37a and has an arrowheaded inserting portion 37b. The gasket 37 also includes a magnet 37c adapted to attach to a circumferential surface of the opening of the heat insulating case body 3 on a back surface of the air cushion portion 37a. This gasket 37 is a flexible material and is attached to the inner frame 33 by pushing the inserting portion 37b into the gasket fitting portion 33a of the inner frame 33 with use of the flexibility.
Since the flat plate portion 31a of the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32 are arranged in parallel in the door according to the present embodiment in this manner, the vacuum heat insulating material 35 can be arranged in a wide range in the second freezing chamber door 26. A door of a conventional refrigerator has a structure in which a knob is formed to be connected to an upper end surface. In the door formed in this manner, a part (an upper end vicinity part) of an outer plate in the vicinity of the knob is formed to be set backward (in an inner side of the door) to facilitate gripping of the knob in some cases. In this case, since a distance between the outer plate and an inner plate i.e. a thickness of the door, is not constant, a large space in which any vacuum heat insulating material is not provided exists even when the flat-plate-shaped vacuum heat insulating material is arranged inside the door. However, in the present embodiment, since a front end surface (the flat plate portion 31a) of the outer plate 31 is formed in a flat plate shape, the flat-plate-shaped vacuum heat insulating material 35 can be arranged in a wide range in the door, i.e., in an approximately entire area, when the flat plate portion 31a of the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32 are arranged in parallel. An edge of the vacuum heat insulating material 35 extends to a position closer to an edge of the outer plate 31 than a position of the grip 39a of the knob 39.
Although the second freezing chamber door 26 is formed in a box shape by the outer plate 31, the vacuum heat insulating material 35, the inner plate 32 etc. in the above embodiment, the second freezing chamber door 26 may be configured to connect the outer plate 31 formed in a flat plate with the inner frame 33 by means of a side surface plate etc. The door according to the present embodiment has only to include the outer plate 31 having at least a flat plate part and the inner plate 32, and the flat plate part of the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32 have only to be arranged in parallel to interpose the flat-plate-shaped vacuum heat insulating material 35 between the flat plate part and the inner plate 32.
In the door according to the present embodiment, the knob 39 is a grip handle. Specifically, the knob 39 is not formed to project forward from the upper end surface of the door but is formed to have the grip 39a (grip portion) spaced apart from the outer plate 31. Accordingly, the outer plate 31 does not need to be provided with a recess or a groove which helps a user to put his/her fingers easily and can be formed in a flat plate shape.
Also, since the head of the screw 41 and the vacuum heat insulating material 35 are in a state of being spaced apart from each other in a state that the knob 39 is attached to the outer plate 31, the vacuum heat insulating material 35 can be prevented from being cracked by the head of the screw 41 etc.
Although the second freezing chamber door 26 has been described as an example of the drawing type door, a similar configuration to that in the above embodiment can be applied to a knob for a French type door or a rotary type door.
A second embodiment will be described. As described in Figs. 6 to 8, the first cold storage chamber door 21 in the present embodiment described in Fig. 1 has the vacuum heat insulating material 35 interposed between the outer plate 31 and the inner plate 32 and has the knob 39 attached to the outer plate 31 in a similar manner to the first embodiment. Positions (corner portions adjacent to attaching portions of the knob 39 on an upper side in the present embodiment) in the vacuum heat insulating material 35 corresponding to the attaching portions of the knob 39 are formed to be cut out in triangular shapes. Any vacuum heat insulating material 35 is not arranged directly below the attaching portions of the knob 39, and instead a foam heat insulating material 45 such as urethane foam or another heat insulating material is filled.
In this manner, the vacuum heat insulating material 35 is formed to cut out both the upper ends of the vacuum heat insulating material 35 in triangular shapes, and spaces in which no vacuum heat insulating material 35 is arranged are formed directly below the attaching portions of the knob 39. Consequently, the attaching members and the vacuum heat insulating material 35 can be spaced apart from each other, which can prevent the attaching members (the boss 40 and the screw 41) of the knob 39 from contacting the vacuum heat insulating material 35 to cause the film of the vacuum heat insulating material 35 to be damaged. The knob 39, the attaching members of the knob 39, and the others have common configurations to those in the first embodiment. However, since any vacuum heat insulating material is not arranged near the attaching portions of the knob 39, the head of the screw 41 may project in the door as illustrated in Fig. 9. In Fig. 9, which shows an example that is not part of the claimed invention, the boss 40 as the attaching member is not used, and the screw 41 is directly attached to the leg 39b of the solid knob 39.
For example, not only the urethane foam but also polystyrene foam, polypropylene foam etc. can be adopted for the foam heat insulating material. Also, an adhesive technique with use of hot-melt adhesive, a double-sided tape, a film-shaped adhesive etc. can be adopted for bonding of the vacuum heat insulating material to the outer plate and the inner plate.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE SIGNS

1: Refrigerator
3: Heat insulating case body
11: Cold storage chamber
12: Vegetable chamber
13: Ice making chamber
14: First freezing chamber
15: Second freezing chamber
21: First cold storage chamber door
22: Second cold storage chamber door
23: Vegetable chamber door
24: Ice making chamber door
25: First freezing chamber door
26: Second freezing chamber door
31: Outer plate
31a: Flat plate portion
31b: Side wall
31c: Opening
32: Inner plate
33: Inner frame
33a: Gasket fitting portion
33b: Throat portion
33c: Foam heat insulating material
35: Vacuum heat insulating material
36: Soft tape
37: Gasket
37a: Air cushion portion
37b: Inserting portion
37c: Magnet
39: Knob
39a: Grip
39b: Leg
39c: Recess
39d: Screw hole
40: Boss
40a: Ring portion
40b: Cylindrical portion
40c: Contacting portion
40d: Screw hole
41: Screw
45: Foam heat insulating material

Claims

A refrigerator (1) comprising:
a heat insulating case body (3) and a door (26), the heat insulating case body (3) including an inner case, an outer case and a heat insulating material (35) filled between the inner case and the outer case, the heat insulating case body (3) being opened on a front side, the door (26) being capable of closing an opening of the heat insulating case body (3),

wherein the door (26) includes a flat-plate-shaped outer plate (31), a flat-plate-shaped inner plate (32) arranged in parallel with the outer plate (31), a vacuum heat insulating material (35) arranged to be interposed between the outer plate (31) and the inner plate (32), and a knob (39) attached to the outer plate (31),

wherein an edge of the vacuum heat insulating material (35) extends to a position closer to an edge of the outer plate (31) than a position of a grip (39a) of the knob (39), characterized in that the knob (39) is attached to the outer plate (31) by an attaching member (40,41) penetrating a flat plate portion (31a) of the outer plate (31),

wherein the attaching member includes a boss (40) and a screw (41),

wherein the boss (40) includes a ring portion (40a), a cylindrical portion (40b) standing forward from an inner rim of the ring portion (40a), a circular-plate-shaped bordering portion (40c) for closing an end portion of the cylindrical portion (40b), and a screw hole (40d) provided at a center of the bordering portion (40c),

wherein an opening (31c), in which the cylindrical portion (40b) of the boss (40) is inserted, is formed at a position in the outer plate (31), which a leg (39b) of the knob (39) borders,

wherein the knob (39) has a groove (39c) in which the cylindrical portion (40b) of the boss (40) is inserted and which is formed at an end portion of the leg (39b), the knob (39) is fixed by the screw (41) via the boss (40), and a head of the screw (41) is positioned inside the cylindrical portion (40b) of the boss (40) in a state that the knob (39) is attached to the outer plate (31), and

wherein the head of the screw (41) and the vacuum heat insulating material (35) are spaced apart from each other in a state that the knob (39) is attached to the outer plate (31) by the attaching member (40,41).
The refrigerator (1) according to claim 1, wherein
the grip (39a) extends in parallel with the flat plate portion (31a) of the outer plate (31),
the knob (39) includes legs (39b) which extend from both ends of the grip (39a) in the inward direction of the refrigerator (1) and are fixed to the outer plate (31), and
the grip (39a) is a grip handle which is spaced apart from the outer plate (31).
The refrigerator (1) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein
the vacuum heat insulating material (35) is bonded to the outer plate (31).
The refrigerator (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
wherein the vacuum heat insulating material (35) is formed to cut out a corner part located near the attaching member (40,41) to avoid contacting the attaching member (40,41).
The refrigerator (1) according to claim 3, wherein the vacuum heat insulating material (35) is bonded to the outer plate (31) by an adhesive.