JP2000105049A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator having a food-cooling chamber capable of putting a food kept at its warm state as it is. SOLUTION: There is provided a refrigerator 10 in which a cold air circulating passage 14 to be cooled by a freezer 12 has a freezing chamber 16 and a refrigerator chamber 18. The cold air circulating passage 14 is provided with a sub-circulating passage 28 having a food-cooling chamber 26 arranged in side-by-side relation with the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber through opening or closing solenoid valves 22, 24. The food-cooling chamber 26 is provided with an atmosphere feeding device 36 having an atmosphere pipe passage 29, opening or closing solenoid valves 30, 32 and an air suction fan 34. Either atmosphere or cold air cools the food-cooling chamber 26 under their combination. With such an arrangement as above, since the food kept at warm state is cooled by the food cooling chamber 26, a bad thermal influence is not exerted on the food stored in either the freezing chamber or the refrigerating chamber.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a novel refrigerator having a food cooling chamber in which, for example, a food in a warm state can be stored as it is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, if a food in a warm state is not stored in a refrigerator after the temperature is once lowered to room temperature, if the food is placed in the refrigerator at the same temperature state, the temperature in the refrigerator rises sharply and other foods are stored. This will adversely affect stored food and consume more electricity than necessary. Therefore, for example, when placing a cooked and warm food in a refrigerator, wait for the food temperature to cool down to room temperature by natural cooling, or forcibly cool the food by using a fan, blower, or cooling water. The temperature must be reduced quickly.

[0003]

However, in each case, there is a troublesome problem that time and labor are required and troublesome work must be performed. Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator having a food cooling chamber in which food in a warm state can be stored as it is.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a freezing room and a refrigerating room cooled by a refrigerating machine constituting a refrigerating cycle, wherein the refrigerating room and the refrigerating room are formed independently in terms of temperature. A refrigerator comprising: a food cooling chamber; an outside air introducing means for introducing outside air into the food cooling chamber; and a cooling means for cooling the food cooling chamber.

[0005]

The food in the warm state is cooled by the outside air introducing means or the cooling means or a combination of the two means in the food cooling chamber provided separately from the freezing room and the refrigerator room.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the food in a warm state does not increase the temperature of other foods stored in the freezer and the refrigerator. Therefore, it does not adversely affect other stored foods in terms of temperature, and does not increase maintenance costs such as electricity costs, which is almost the same as the conventional one.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A refrigerator 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 is configured to circulate a refrigerant circulating through a refrigerator 12, for example, a medium cooled by freon 12 (R12), for example, a cool air sent by cooling air. A freezing / refrigerating space 20 including a freezing room 16 and a refrigerating room 18 having a heat insulating structure is arranged on the path 14. The refrigerator 12 forms a refrigeration cycle by connecting, for example, a refrigerant compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator, and the air that is cooled by evaporating the refrigerant and exchanging heat with the evaporator is turned into cool air by a blower as a circulation path. 14 to the freezer 1
6 and the refrigerator compartment 18 are individually cooled and maintained at a predetermined temperature.

The circulation path 14 has an on-off solenoid valve 22
Cold air sub-circulation path 28 having a food cooling chamber 26 having an insulated structure in parallel with the freezing / refrigerating space 20 via
Are connected. The food cooling chamber 26 includes an outside air duct 29 for introducing outside air, open / close solenoid valves 30 and 32 for opening and closing the duct 29, and an outside air introduction device 36 having an intake fan 34.

In the above-described configuration, when the cooked warm food is put into the food cooling chamber 26 and the room temperature becomes higher than the outside air temperature, the electromagnetic valve 2 for opening and closing the auxiliary circulation path 28 is opened.
2 and 24 are closed to block cold air, and the outside air introducing device 36 is closed.
Opening and closing solenoid valves 30 and 32 of
4 is operated to forcibly cool the food to the outside air temperature by introducing outside air. Thereafter, the outside air introduction device 36 is shut off, the sub-circulation path 28 as a cool air introduction means is opened, and the refrigerator 12
The food is rapidly cooled by the cold air cooled in the above step and stored.

On the other hand, when the food is put into the food cooling chamber 26 and the room temperature is lower than the outside air temperature, the outside air introducing device 36 is shut off, the auxiliary circulation path 28 is opened, and the food cooling chamber 26 is
Force the food in the container to cool. The refrigerator 10 according to the modified example shown in FIG.
The other components are the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG. In this case, the refrigerator 10 can be made compact.

A refrigerator 10 according to another modification shown in FIG. 3 is different from the embodiment shown in FIG.
The medium flowing through 8 is, for example, brine using salt or other salt-dissolved water, and heat exchangers 38 and 40 that exchange heat with the brine are arranged in the freezing room 16 and the food cooling room 26, respectively. When using a refrigerant, for example, Freon 12 (R12), instead of brine, each of the heat exchangers 38 and 40 may be used as an evaporator of the refrigerator 12 and may circulate a secondary refrigerant.

A refrigerator 10 according to another embodiment shown in FIG. 4 is provided with a heat exchanger 38 in the circulation path 14 of the refrigerant or the brine.
The freezing / refrigerating space 20 cooled by the heat exchanger 38
The food cooling chamber 26 is arranged in the refrigerator compartment 18 inside, and the outside air introducing device 36 and the cold air introducing device 42 are attached to the food cooling room 26. The cool air introducing device 42 includes a cool air duct 43 communicating the freezing room 16 and the food cooling room 26, a blower fan 44, and open / close solenoid valves 46 and 48.
Reference numeral 6 denotes an outside air passage 29 for communicating the outside air with the food cooling chamber 26 in the same manner as in the embodiment shown in FIGS.
Opening and closing solenoid valves 30 and 32 for opening and closing the air intake fan 34
including.

Therefore, when the warm food is put into the food cooling chamber 26 and the room temperature becomes higher than the outside air temperature, the cold air introducing device 42 is shut off and the outside air introducing device 36 is opened to introduce the food into the outside air. Is once cooled to the outside air temperature. Thereafter, by shutting off the outside air introduction device 36 and opening the cool air introduction device 42, the cool air in the freezing room 16 is introduced into the food cooling room 26 from the cold air duct 43 to forcibly cool the food. When the room temperature is lower than the outside air temperature, the outside air introduction device 36 is shut off, the cool air introduction device 42 is opened, and the food in the food cooling chamber 26 is forcibly and rapidly cooled by introducing the cool air.

Further, a refrigerator 1 according to another modification shown in FIG.
0, the cold air introducing device 4 provided in the food cooling chamber 26
The only difference is that the refrigerator 2 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 is different from the refrigerator 10 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 in that the refrigerator 2 has a cold air pipeline 43 and open / close solenoid valves 46 and 48 for opening and closing the pipeline 43. In this case, when the cool air introducing device 42 is opened, the cool air in the freezing room 16 is introduced into the food cooling room 26 from the cool air line 43 by natural flow, and the food put in the food cooling room 26 is cooled. When the room temperature is higher than the outside air temperature, the cool air introduction device 42 is shut off, the outside air introduction device 36 is opened, and the temperature of the food is forcibly reduced to the outside air temperature by introducing the outside air. Thereafter, the outside air introduction device 36 is shut off, the cool air introduction device 42 is opened, and the food is forcibly and rapidly cooled by introducing the cool air. In addition, from the refrigerator compartment 18 to the food cooling compartment 26
Although it is possible to introduce cool air into the refrigerator, it is desirable to introduce cool air from the freezing room 16 having a low temperature as in the embodiment in terms of the cooling rate.

In the multi-stage refrigerator shown in FIG. 6, which is an application example of the present invention, one of the rooms can be used as a food cooling room. For example, in each of the rooms (A, B, C, and D), the temperature is set from the upper stage to the lower stage in the vicinity of the freezer room at around -20 ° C, the ice room at around 0 ° C, the refrigerator room at around 0 ° C to 7 ° C, and the vegetable room around 7 ° C. Where possible, one of them can be used as a food cooling room. In this case, since each room is separately formed in terms of temperature, even if, for example, the ice room B or the refrigerator room C is temporarily used as a food cooling room, the other rooms have different temperatures. There is no adverse effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an illustrative view of a refrigerator showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an illustrative view showing a partially modified example of the embodiment in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an illustrative view showing a partially modified example of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an illustrative view of a refrigerator showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an illustrative view showing a partially modified example of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a multi-stage refrigerator showing an application example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Refrigerator 12 ... Refrigerator 14 ... Circulation path 16 ... Freezing room 18 ... Refrigerator room 20 ... Refrigeration / refrigeration space 22,24,30,32 ... Opening / closing solenoid valve 26 ... Food cooling room 28 ... Sub circulation circuit (cold air line) 29) Outside air pipeline 34… Intake fan (blower) 36… Outside air introduction device 38, 40… Heat exchanger 42… Cold air introduction device 43… Cold air pipeline

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A refrigerator having a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment cooled by a refrigerator constituting a refrigerating cycle, wherein the food compartment is formed independently of the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment in temperature. A refrigerator, comprising: outside air introduction means for introducing outside air into a cooling chamber; and cooling means for cooling the food cooling chamber. 2. The outside air introduction means includes: an outside air passage connecting the food cooling chamber to outside air; and a first opening and closing the outside air passage.
The refrigerator of claim 1, including valve means. 3. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein said outside air introducing means includes a blower provided in said outside air duct. 4. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein said cooling means includes a cool air introducing means for introducing cool air generated by said refrigerator. 5. The refrigerator according to claim 4, wherein said cool air introducing means includes a cool air pipe connecting said refrigerator and said food cooling chamber and a second valve means for opening and closing said cool air pipe. 6. The refrigerator according to claim 5, wherein said cool air introducing means further includes a blower provided in said cool air pipeline. 7. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein said cooling means includes a heat exchanger connected to said refrigerator via a conduit and disposed in said food cooling chamber. 8. The refrigerator according to claim 7, wherein said cooling means further includes third valve means for opening and closing said conduit. 9. The refrigerator according to claim 7, wherein said heat exchanger is a refrigerant evaporator. 10. The cooling means according to claim 1, wherein said cooling means includes a cold air pipe connecting said freezing chamber or said refrigerator chamber to said food cooling chamber, and a fourth valve means for opening and closing said cold air pipe. The refrigerator described in the crab. 11. The refrigerator according to claim 10, wherein said cooling means further includes a blower provided in said cold air duct.