ES2282977T3 - COOLING DEVICE WITH TUBULAR ELEMENT. - Google Patents

Abstract

A refrigeration apparatus (1) is described, which comprises a cabinet (2), at least one door (3) and a tubular element (4) being inserted into the cabinet (2) on the one side and into the door (3) on the other side; the door (3) is connected to the cabinet through hinges (5), which allow it to rotate about an axis (50), and is fitted with an inner tubular seat (31) allowing to insert the tubular element (4) through a suitable mouth of said seat; said seat (31) is substantially coaxial to the hinges (5); according to the invention, the mouth (311) of said seat (31) is located on the door (3) in a position being distant from the hinges (5).

Description

Refrigeration device with element tubular.

The present invention relates to an apparatus of cooling according to the preamble of claim 1.

A refrigeration device of this type is known from US Patent No. 4,912,942 or EP 0 597680.

The refrigeration appliances comprise a cabin that is suitable to contain one or more cells of refrigeration. There is at least one door to close the cooling cells; very often there is a door for each cell. The door is attached to the cabin by means of hinges.

Refrigeration appliances include refrigerators for domestic use; the following description is shall refer to said apparatus, without the invention being strictly limited to them.

As regards the refrigerators of domestic use, the cells are suitable for containing food; to there is often a cell for fresh food and a cell for frozen food.

Refrigerators for home use, and more on general refrigeration appliances, often require a tubular element that is inserted into the cabin on one side and Inside the door on the other side.

Said tubular element, for example, can be the sheath of an electric cable; said electrical cable can be used, for example, to supply power to a light source which is mounted on the door and is facing inwards, it is say directed towards the refrigeration cell.

Alternatively, said tubular element can be, for example, a pipe that carries a liquid; bliss pipe can be used, for example, to supply water refrigerated to a distributor that is mounted on the door and faced out.

It should be noted that the refrigerators provided of distributors have spread in Europe only recently, while they have been used for decades in the United States from America. Actually, the European market demands products that are quite different from those required in the American market, that is, products that are much less bulky (60 or 70 cm of width) and that offer refrigerated water distribution only, and not, also, of ice; In addition, these products must have a low cost and therefore must use technical solutions Simple but effective.

Of course, if there is a tubular element inserted between the cabin and the door, the door being joined by hinges to the cabin and being rotating, it is necessary adopt a solution that allows the door to rotate without being seen hindered by the tubular element and without damaging the element tubular.

A solution dating from the 30s, which is suitable for electrical cables, it consisted of joining the cable to the door on one side and the cabin on the other side in positions next to a hinge, where the relative movement between the Door and cabin is limited; of course, this solution required a cable long and flexible enough to follow the door movement. However, frequent use of the door caused wear of the cable and especially of its sheath, thus leading to a very dangerous exposure of electric cables; This solution is hardly applicable to pipes that carry liquid due to its rigidity.

US Patent No. 2,148,787, issued in 1937, describes a refrigerator that uses said solution.

In the 50s, it was thought to insert the element tubular through the hinge; therefore there will be no substantial movement of the tubular element.

Since then, this idea has been the basis of a series of old and new solutions.

As far as electrical cables are concerned, for example, US Pat. Nos. 2,700,139 of 1955, No. 3,076,163 of 1963, No. 3,089,202 of 1963 and No. 3,156,019 of 1964, whose solutions are based on this idea.

As regards pipes that carry liquids, US Patent No. 3,429,140 of 1969 is indicated, whose solutions are based on that idea.

There are also more recent solutions that are based on this idea, which are described, for example, in the US Patent No. 4,036,620 of 1977, No. 4,543,800 of 1985 and No. 4,609,234 of 1986.

New solutions based on this idea have been proposals even very recently, for example in US Pat. No. 5,941,619 of 1999 and in European Patent No. 1139043 of 2001.

It seems that this idea has become a rule.

The objective of the present invention is provide a new and improved solution compared to the state of technique

This objective is achieved by means of refrigeration having the characteristics described in the claim 1; Advantageous aspects of the present invention are detailed in the subordinate claims.

The idea on which the present is based invention is to keep the tubular element separate from the hinges

This solution provides more flexibility in the placement and design of both hinges and structure to insert the tubular element.

The present invention will become more clearly manifest from the following description and from the attached drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a sectional view schematic of a refrigeration apparatus according to the present invention,

Figure 2 shows a sectional view schematic of a detail of a first example of how to realization of a refrigeration apparatus according to the present invention,

Figure 3 shows a sectional view schematic of a detail of a second example of how to realization of a refrigeration apparatus according to the present invention,

Figure 4 shows a schematic view of a detail of a third exemplary embodiment of an apparatus refrigeration according to the present invention (in this figure, the door is completely open and the cabin is in section), Y

Figure 5 shows a sectional view schematic of the mouth area of a pipe seat according to the present invention

Both said description and said drawings are they will consider as non-limiting examples.

Figure 1 shows a sectional view schematic of a refrigerator for domestic use according to the present invention, indicated globally with reference number 1.

Said refrigerator comprises a cabin 2 that it is placed on a base 11; In the illustration, the walls of the cabin are too thick to indicate the presence of a layer thick thermal insulation material; in general, the thickness of insulating material depends on the type of cell (in practice, on the operating temperatures of the cells) and, of course, the type of insulating material used; this is a common feature which is well known by those skilled in the art.

Said refrigerator comprises two cells of refrigeration, which are indicated globally with the number of reference 10; a cell 10A is used for fresh food and it is placed on top of cabin 2 and a cell 10B It is used for frozen food and is placed in the part lower cabin 2.

Two doors are provided, indicated globally with reference number 3, to close the cells of  cooling 10; in particular, there is an upper door 3A for cell 10A and a lower door 3B for cell 10B.

The refrigerator 1 is provided with a chilled water distributor, being indicated globally with reference number 6, which is mounted on a door of the fridge; in the illustrated example of the embodiment, the distributor is mounted on the upper door 3A.

The chilled water distributor of the refrigerator according to the exemplary embodiment of the figure 1 is linked to the public drinking water supply. The water reaches the refrigerator 1 from the supply through a pipe; the figure shows only a short length of said pipe; the supply pipe is connected to the admission of a first solenoid valve 12; solenoid valve output 12 is connected to a pipe that is indicated by the number of reference 4. In the illustration, the connection of distributor 6 to the supply is represented as a single tubular element (which is both simple and effective and therefore preferable); other forms of embodiment of the present invention however they can comprise a series of interconnected tubular elements.

Pipe 4 starts from a cavity obtained in the lower part of cabin 2 (also housing the solenoid valve 12) and then enters the rear wall of cabin 2, runs inside the insulating material to the upper part of cabin 2, enters the upper wall of the cabin 2, run inside the insulating material, leave the cabin 2 and enters door 3A; the pipe 4 then runs through inside the insulating material of the door 3A and reaches the distributor 6.

The aforementioned cavity is also used, for example, for the compressor housing of the fridge.

The distributor 6 comprises a reservoir 61, which receives water through the pipe 4; the tank 61 is placed inside the cooling cell of 10A, so that the water that is present in said tank is
refrigerates

The distributor 6 also comprises a conduit 62, which is connected to the tank 61 through a second solenoid valve 63, which is used to distribute water Refrigerated to the user.

A filter for chilled water may be inserted downstream of reservoir 61 and upstream of the valve 63. Of course, it is necessary to use means to control the water supply to reservoir 61 and means to control the water distribution through conduit 62; these means comprise solenoid valves 12 and 63 and a system of electronic control (not illustrated) and are usually known for Those experts in the field.

The upper door 3A of the refrigerator according to the example of the embodiment of figure 1 has a slot 7 through which the duct 62 exits; slot 7 is open towards outside and used to receive, for example, a glass 8 (without the possibility that it can be effectively supported), to be filled with the water coming out of the duct 62.

In the example of Figure 1, said slot is not deep and therefore does not extend inside the cells of refrigeration; therefore slot 7 does not subtract volume at cooling cells and door 3A maintains a layer (more thin) of heat insulating material even in the groove area 7.

The refrigerator doors 3A and 3B are attached to the cabin through hinges that allow the doors to be opened and closed by the user with a rotating movement around a vertical axis. The hinges are not shown in Figure 1 for simplicity; in the field of refrigeration appliances, various types of hinges are commonly used, which are generally known to those skilled in the
matter.

In general, according to the present invention, the refrigeration apparatus comprises a cabin, at least one door and a tubular element that is inserted inside the cabin on one side and inside the door on the other side; the door is attached to the cabin through hinges, which allow to rotate around an axis and is provided with a seat tubular interior that allows the tubular element to be inserted through of a suitable mouth of said seat; said seat is substantially coaxial with hinges; additionally the mouth of the seat is placed on the door in a position that is distant from the hinges.

In Figure 2 the same numbers are used reference than in figure 1 to designate elements corresponding; in particular, the cabin is designated with the reference number 2, the door with reference number 3 and the tubular element with the reference number 4; also one of the hinges is designated globally with the reference number 5, the hinge shaft with the reference number 50, the seat tubular (inside door 3) with the reference number 31 and its mouth with reference number 311.

Thanks to the solution specified above, in particular to the substantial coaxiality achieved, the door can rotate without being hindered by the tubular element and without damaging to the tubular element.

Additionally, the passage of the element being tubular independent of the structure of the hinges, the passage of tubular element and hinges can be placed as well as designed more freely, therefore getting an optimization appropriate of them.

The solution specified above is used by all examples of embodiments of figure 2, figure 3 and figure 4; these figures use the same numbers of reference to indicate the corresponding elements.

The tubular seat inside the door can have, for example, a circular cross section; alternatively, the shape of the cross section can also be, for example: triangular, square, hexagonal,
octagonal, etc.

The tubular element can be a pipe for transport a liquid, as in all embodiments illustrated in the drawings; in this case, the present invention It turns out to be quite useful, because such a pipe is quite rigid and therefore on the one hand is more subject to damaged due to the rotating movement of the door and on the other hand is more able to hinder the rotating movement of the door.

Such a case finds an application typical in refrigerators that are provided with distributors of chilled water, in which a damaged pipe can cause, in first, water leaks from the pipe itself and then a distributor failure.

The tubular element may alternatively be a sheath of an electric cable; in this case, this invention is at least useful because the case is subject to wear even though it is not extremely rigid.

This case finds many applications practices in refrigerators in which a damaged case can cause  short circuits or, even worse, electric shocks to users

Often in refrigerators that are provided from a refrigerated water distributor it is necessary to supply water as well as electricity to the distributor, such as in the refrigerator in figure 1, which requires electric power to activate solenoid valve 63.

In this case, still according to the present invention, two or more tubular elements may be provided; typically, said tubular elements are adjacent to each other and They are inserted in the same seats.

Alternatively, there may be a single item. tubular consisting of a sheath that is suitable to contain a pipe that carries liquids and one or more electrical cables.

Typically the axis of rotation of the door, which corresponds to the axis of the hinges, is substantially vertical; therefore the door can be opened with an effort limited.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the mouth of the tubular seat is placed in a door edge, preferably at the top edge of the door - the examples in figure 2 and figure 3 adopt this solution; the door does not therefore have cavities for the insertion of the tubular element and the tubular element turns out to be Well protected and not easily accessible by the user.

In the example in Figure 4, the element tubular leaves the cabin wall in the area that corresponds to a insertion cavity 33 obtained in the door; the mouth of the seat Tubular is placed on the surface of said cavity. Of this mode, for example, the tubular element is not required to reach The top of the refrigerator.

The hinges of the refrigerator can be different from each other depending on their position; a hinge can comprise a first hinge element that is fixed to the cabin and a second hinge element that is fixed to the door, mounted on the first hinge and swivel element around an axis, that is the axis of the hinge; in the examples in the figure 2 and figure 3, the hinge element fixed to the cabin 2 is indicated with 51 and the hinge element fixed to the door 3 is indicated with 52.

In the examples in Figure 2 and Figure 3, the two hinge elements are articulated with each other through a pin 53; in the example of figure 4, a hinge element, which is indicated with 51, is fixed externally to the cabin and It is provided with a pin (not shown in the illustration) and the another hinge element (not shown) is fixed inside the door and is mounted on said pin.

According to the preferred examples of ways of embodiment of the present invention (figure 2 and figure 3) the Hinge elements consist of squares.

The hinge element fixed to the cabin can be for example an "L" shaped square. This solution is used in the example of Figure 2, which refers to the upper hinge that is placed in the area of the upper part of the refrigerator; in this way, the hinge does not protrude above the top of the refrigerator.
dor.

The hinge element fixed to the door can be, for example, a square in the form of "Z". This solution it is used in the example of figure 2, which refers to the upper hinge that is placed in the area before the part refrigerator top; in this way, the hinge does not protrude from The refrigerator door. The squads that are conformed As described they are very easy to assemble.

Figure 3 shows an example of how to realization of the upper hinge, which is an alternative to that  of figure 2.

In general, one of the hinge elements may be advantageously fixed to an edge of the door, in order to facilitate assembly; for the purpose of the present invention, that is when it is necessary to arrange a tubular element between the cabin and the door, the hinge element is preferably fixed to the upper edge of the
door.

The cabin may be advantageously provided with an inner tubular seat in order to insert the tubular element to through a mouth of said seat in the cabin. All the examples of embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings use this solution - in figure 2 and figure 3, said tubular seat (inside the cabin 2) is indicated with 21 and his mouth with 211; in particular, in the example in the figure 2 said seat is placed in the middle of the heat insulating material of the cabin, while in the example of figure 3 said seat It is placed on the outer surface of the cabin.

In order to limit the space occupied by the tubular element in the cabin, the tubular seat inside of the cabin can advantageously be substantially perpendicular to the hinge shaft; if the axis of the hinges is substantially vertical (as in most cases), the tubular seat It will be substantially horizontal. This solution is represented in the Figure 2 and Figure 3; in the example of figure 4, the element tubular runs inside a side wall of the cabin and by therefore the tubular seat can be both horizontal and inclined (as represented).

In order for the tubular element to be at a distance from one of the refrigerator hinges (the one closest to it), it is advantageous to provide that said hinge element that is fixed to the door defines a distance between said hinge element that is fixed to the cabin and the edge of the door. This solution is used in the examples of Figure 2 and Figure 3, in which the edge of the door 3 is kept distant from the element 51 thanks to the shape of the element 52; in the example of figure 4, the distance (between the hinge element that is fixed to the cabin 2 and the mouth of the tubular element in the door 3) is achieved thanks to the structure of the door 3, in particular the
cavity 33.

When the described solution is used previously, it can also be advantageous to place the mouth of the tubular seat of the cabin on the cabin between the element of hinge and the edge of the door. This solution is used in examples of figure 2 and figure 3, in which the mouth 211 is placed between the edge of the door 3 and the element 51.

An important feature of this invention is the insertion of the tubular element inside the tubular seats through suitable mouths in the last ones, in particular, as far as the door is concerned, let it be mobile.

On this matter, it can be advantageous provide a bushing that is inserted inside the mouth of the tubular door seat and have a drill for the insertion of the tubular element; this solution is represented in Figure 5, in which the bushing is indicated with 32, the seat with 31 and the tubular element with 4; the cap can protect from damage to the tubular element.

If the bushing is allowed to rotate in the inside the tubular door seat, will tend to a slippage occurs between the bushing and the seat and does not enter the tubular element and the bushing. In this case, the seat preferably it has a circular inner cross section and the bushing preferably has an outer cross section circular; also, these two diameters are practically same.

According to the present invention, the seat axis The tubular door is substantially coaxial with the hinges

However it may be advantageous that the hole of the bushing is not perfectly coaxial with the bushing shaft (and therefore with the axis of the tubular seat); in fact in this case the rigidity of the tubular element will prevent the bushing from move, so that any slippage can occur only between the bushing and the tubular seat.

In the example of Figure 5, the bushing 32 is fully inserted inside the tubular seat 31 of door 3. The bushing can also be provided with a guide protruding from the mouth of the tubular door seat.

Of course, they may be provided advantageously also additional elements to protect the tubular element against user access to the area in the one that is not inserted in the door or in the cabin.

As already mentioned, the solutions described above clearly can be applied advantageously to refrigeration appliances, in particular appliances refrigeration that are provided with a beverage distributor refrigerated mounted on the door and supplied through a tubular element

In this regard, Figure 1 shows schematically the section of a household refrigerator that has a refrigerated water distributor connected to the supply Public drinking water.

The chilled beverage distributor advantageously it is provided with a refrigerated beverage tank; In this case, an uncooled beverage flows into the pipe.

If the refrigeration device has a cell for fresh food placed on top of the cabin and which has its own door and a cell for frozen food placed at the bottom of the cabin and that has its own door, it is appropriate for the distributor of refrigerated drinks be mounted on the cell door for food fresh.

Claims (19)

1. Refrigeration apparatus (1) comprising a cabin (2), at least one door (3) and a tubular element (4) that is inserted inside the cabin (2) on one side and inside from the door (3) on the other side; the door (3) being attached to the cabin through hinges (5), which allow it to rotate around an axis (50), and being provided with an inner tubular seat (31) that allows the tubular element to be inserted ( 4) through a mouth (311) of said seat, the mouth (311) of said seat (31) being placed in the door (3) in a position that is distant from the hinges (5), characterized in that said seat (31) is substantially coaxial to the axis (50) of the hinges. 2. Refrigeration device (1) according to claim 1, wherein said axis (50) is substantially vertical. 3. Refrigeration device (1) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mouth (311) of the seat (31) is placed on one edge of the door (3), preferably on the edge top of the door (3). 4. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to claim 1 or 2 or 3, wherein at least one (5) of said hinges comprises a first hinge element (51) that is fixed to the cabin (2) and a second hinge element (52) that is fixed to the door (3) mounted on the first hinge element (51) and rotating around said
shaft (50). 5. Refrigeration device (1) according to claim 4, wherein said first hinge element (51) It is a squad. 6. Refrigeration device (1) according to claim 4 or 5, wherein said second hinge element (52) is a squad. 7. Refrigeration device (1) according to claim 4 or 5 or 6 wherein said second element of hinge (52) is fixed to a door edge (5), preferably to the upper edge of the door. 8. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the cabin (2) is provided with an inner tubular seat (21) for the insertion of the tubular element (4) through a mouth (211) of said seat in the cabin (2), said seat (21) being preferably substantially perpendicular to said axis (50). 9. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to one of the preceding claims 4 to 8, wherein said second hinge element (52) defines a distance between said first hinge element (51) and said door edge (3). 10. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to claims 8 and 9, wherein the mouth (211) of the tubular seat (21) of the cabin (2) is placed on the cabin (2) between said first hinge element ( 51) and said edge of the
door (3). 11. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to one of the preceding claims, comprising with bushing (32) which is inserted inside the mouth (311) of the seat tubular (31) of the door (3) and presenting a hole for the insertion of the tubular element (4). 12. Refrigeration device (1) according to claim 11, wherein the bushing (32) can rotate in the inside the tubular seat (31). 13. Refrigeration device (1) according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the bore of the bushing (32) does not It is coaxial with respect to the axis of the bushing (32). 14. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the tubular element (4) It is a pipe that carries a liquid. 15. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the tubular element (4) It is a sheath of an electric cable. 16. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the tubular element (4) It is a cover that is suitable to contain a pipe that It carries a liquid and one or more electrical cables. 17. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to one of the preceding claims, comprising a distributor of chilled beverages (6), preferably chilled water, which is mounted on the door (3A) and supplied through said pipe (4). 18. Refrigeration apparatus (1) according to claim 17, wherein the chilled beverage distributor  (6) it is provided with a deposit of refrigerated drinks (61).

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19. Refrigeration device (1) according to claim 17 or 18, comprising:

-

       a cell for fresh food (10A) that is placed in the part upper cabin and it has its own door (3A), and

-

       a frozen food cell (10B) that is placed in the bottom of the cabin and that has its own door (3B);

in which the distributor of chilled drinks (6) is mounted on the door (3A) of the cell for fresh food (10A).