JP2000356458A - Cold insulation box - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cold insulation box enabling defrosting of a cooler by a blower even when an external power supply can not be used. SOLUTION: A blower 3 in a defrosting operation is driven by an external power supply when a power supply plug 4 is connected to the external power supply, while the blower 3 in this operation is driven by a battery 5 when the plug 4 is not connected to the external power supply. Therefore defrosting of a cooler using the blower 3 is enabled even when the external power supply can not be used at a place of keeping a cold insulation box, or in any other place.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cool box used as a container for transporting fresh food.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this kind of cool box, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-73360, for example, a heat-insulating cool box body having an opening / closing door on the front side and a bottom side inside the box. Is known which comprises a regenerative cooler disposed in a refrigerator, a refrigerating device for refrigerating the cooler, and a blower for circulating air in the refrigerator. In this cool box, the cooler is cooled by an external power supply, and then a blower is driven by an internal power supply to circulate air in the cooler, thereby performing a cool-keeping operation during transportation.

[0003]

In the cool box, frost adheres to the cooler due to the invasion of outside air due to the opening and closing of the door. In order to remove the frost, there is a type in which a blower is driven by an external power supply separately from the cold-holding operation to perform a defrosting operation in which air is circulated to a cooler. In this case, for example, by opening the door of the cool box main body and taking in outside air into the box, it is possible to promote defrosting of the cooler. However, in the storage area of the cool box, the external power supply is preferentially used for the cold storage of the cool box,
Or, in many cases, it is difficult to use an external power supply for defrosting the cool box, for example, because there is no power supply facility, and therefore, it is not possible to quickly eliminate a decrease in cooling capacity due to frost formation of the cooler. There was a problem.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cool box that can perform defrosting of a cooler by a blower even when an external power supply cannot be used. It is in.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a cold storage body having an opening / closing door, a regenerative cooler disposed at a predetermined position in the cold storage body, and a cooling air cooler. A blower that circulates through the cooler, an energizing means connectable to an external power supply, and an internal power supply that stores power, after performing cool storage of the cooler with the external power supply, driving the blower with the internal power supply And a defrosting operation for arbitrarily selecting a cooling operation for circulating air in the refrigerator and a defrosting operation for circulating air to the cooler by driving a blower with an external power supply. And a control means for driving the blower in the defrosting operation by an external power supply when the power supply means is connected to the external power supply, and driving the blower in the defrosting operation by the internal power supply when the power supply means is not connected to the external power supply. This allows the blower in the defrosting operation to be driven by the internal power supply when the power supply means is not connected to the external power supply. Frost is possible.

[0006]

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a cool box, FIG. 2 is a side sectional view thereof, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system. FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are flowcharts showing the operation of the control unit.

This cool box has an insulated cool box body 1 having an open front, a cooler 2 for cooling the inside of the cooler, a blower 3 for circulating the air inside the cooler, and an energizing means connectable to an external power supply. Power plug 4 and battery 5 as internal power supply
Power supply switching circuit 6 for switching the power supply used for blower 3;
An operation unit 7 for performing a switch operation and the like, and a control unit 8 for controlling the operation of the blower 3 are provided.

The cool box body 1 has a heat-insulating door 1a for opening and closing a front opening, and a caster 1b for movement is attached to a lower portion of the cool box body 1. A machine room 1c is provided at an upper portion of the cool box main body 1, and refrigeration equipment such as a compressor and a condenser is housed in the machine room 1c. Further, on the bottom side and the back side in the cold storage main body 1, there is provided a ventilation passage 9 partitioned from the inside of the refrigerator by a partition plate 1d, and one end side of the ventilation passage 9 opens to a lower front end side in the refrigerator. The end side opens to the upper part on the back side in the storage.

The cooler 2 is provided with a ventilation passage 9 on the bottom side of the cool box body 1.
And its upper part is covered by a partition plate 1d. The cooler 2 includes a refrigerant pipe 2a connected to refrigeration equipment in the machine room 1c, and a cold storage material (not shown) that is in thermal contact with the refrigerant pipe 2a, and cools by a low-temperature refrigerant flowing through the refrigerant pipe 2a. The material is stored cold, and the inside of the refrigerator is cooled by the cold storage material.

The blower 3 is disposed at the other end of the ventilation passage 9,
The air taken in from one end of the ventilation path 9 is discharged into the storage from the other end of the ventilation path 9.

The power supply plug 4 can be connected to an external power supply provided in a storage place of a cool box, such as a single-phase 200 volt commercial power supply (not shown), and supplies power to the refrigeration equipment and the blower 3 in the machine room 1c. Is supplied.

The battery 5 can be charged by power supplied from a power plug 4 and supplies power to the blower 3 and the like.

The power supply switching circuit 6 includes the blower 3 and the power plug 4
The power supply of the electric power supplied to the blower 3 is connected to the external power supply from the power supply plug 4 or the power supply of the battery 5.

The operation unit 7 is disposed on the front surface of the cool box main body 1, and includes a refrigerator switch 7a for switching between a cold storage operation and a refrigerator operation in an external power supply state and a defrost switch 7b for starting a defrost operation. An operation display lamp and the like (not shown) are provided.

The control unit 8 is constituted by a microcomputer, and includes a blower 3, a power supply switching circuit 6, and a cool switch 7
a and the defrost switch 7b. Further, a timer 8a is connected to the control unit 8.

In the cold storage constructed as described above, the refrigerating apparatus operates by connecting to an external power supply, and cooler 2 is cooled. At this time, when the refrigerator switch 7a of the operation unit 7 is turned on, the blower 3 is operated to cool the inside of the refrigerator, and functions as a refrigerator before transporting articles.

Here, the operation of the control unit 8 will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. First, when the cool storage of the cooler 2 is completed, and the power plug 4 is disconnected from the external power supply when transporting the article (S1), the cold-holding operation is automatically started. That is, the power of the battery 5 is supplied to the blower 3 (S2), and the timer 9a is operated (S3).
The blower 3 is operated (S4). Next, a detected temperature Ts of a not-shown internal temperature sensor is compared with a set temperature T1 (S
5) If the detected temperature Ts is higher than the set temperature T1 and the set time t of the timer 8a has not elapsed (S6), the process returns to step S4. If the detected temperature Ts has become equal to or lower than the set temperature T1 in step S5, the blower 3 is stopped (S7), and if the set time t of the timer 8a has not elapsed (S8), the process returns to step S5. Then, if the set time of the timer 8a has elapsed in step S6 or step S8, the blower 3 is stopped (S9), and the program ends.

Next, when defrosting the cooler 2, when the defrost switch 7b is turned on (S10), the power plug 4
Is connected to an external power supply (S1).
1) When connected to an external power supply, power of the external power supply is supplied to the blower 3 by the power supply switching circuit 6 (S1).
2) The blower 3 is operated (S13). Thereafter, when the defrosting is completed and the detected temperature Th of a defrosting temperature sensor (not shown) arranged near the cooler 2 becomes equal to or higher than the set temperature T2 (S14), the operation of the blower 3 is stopped (S15). If the power plug 4 is not connected to an external power source in step S11, the power of the battery 5 is supplied to the blower 3 by the power source switching circuit 6 (S16), and the process proceeds to step S13.

As described above, according to the cool box of this embodiment, when the power plug 4 is connected to the external power source, the blower 3 in the defrosting operation is driven by the external power source, and the power plug 4 is connected to the external power source. Since the blower 3 in the defrosting operation is driven by the battery 5 when not connected, even when an external power supply cannot be used in a storage place of a cool box, etc., the defrosting of the cooler 2 using the blower 3 can be performed. This can be always performed as needed, and a decrease in cooling capacity due to frost formation of the cooler 2 can be quickly eliminated.

[0020]

As described above, according to the cool box of the present invention, even when an external power supply cannot be used in a storage place of the cool box or the like, the defrost of the cooler using the blower is always performed as necessary. Since it can be performed, it is possible to quickly eliminate a decrease in cooling capacity due to frost formation of the cooler.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a cool box showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of a cool box;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of a control unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Cold storage main body, 1a ... Door, 2 ... Cooler, 3 ... Blower,
4 power plug, 5 battery, 6 power switching circuit, 8
... Control unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cold storage main body having an opening / closing door, a regenerative cooler arranged at a predetermined position in the cold storage main body, a blower for circulating air in the cold storage through the cooler, and connected to an external power supply Equipped with a possible energizing means and an internal power supply storing electric power,
After cooling the cooler with an external power supply, the cooler operation that drives the blower with the internal power supply and circulates the air inside the refrigerator, and the defrosting operation that drives the blower with the external power supply and circulates the air through the cooler In the cool box that is arbitrarily selected, the blower in the defrosting operation is driven by an external power supply when the energizing means is connected to an external power supply, and when the energizing means is not connected to the external power supply. A cool box comprising control means for driving a blower in an internal power supply in a defrosting operation.