JP2001108340A - Heat exchanger and refrigerator incorporating heat exchanger - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a heat exchanger which can exchange heat efficiently at a part close to the inflow side of chill to be cooled and a refrigerator incorporating that heat exchanger. SOLUTION: A heat exchanger body 3 comprises fins 1 juxtaposed at a constant interval, and refrigerant tubes 2 arranged at a constant interval while penetrating these fins 1, wherein the number of refrigerant tubes is increased by widening the lower half section. A vent 4d is provided in the compartment of a refrigerator body 4 through a barrier wall 4b and an air outlet 5 and a return opening 6 are formed. The heat exchanger body 3 is disposed at an important point of the vent 4d and chill is ejected from a fan 7 disposed above the vent 4d. Chill convecting in a freezing compartment A flows from the return opening 6 into the intermediate section of the heat exchanger body 3 and the chill passed through a cold insulation compartment B flows from an inlet 8 to the lower section of the heat exchanger body 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a heat exchanger and a refrigerator incorporating the heat exchanger.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a heat exchanger used for an electric refrigerator or the like, a heat exchanger in which fins and refrigerant tubes are combined vertically and horizontally is known. That is, this heat exchanger has a structure in which thin plate fins are juxtaposed at regular intervals, and refrigerant tubes are lined up at regular intervals through these fins to form a rectangular shape. It is. The heat exchanger formed in this way is used, for example, by incorporating it into a cool air circulation path formed in an electric refrigerator, and cool air ejected by a fan arranged in an upper part of the refrigerator convects inside the refrigerator, and is used as a heat exchanger. After absorbing and cooling the heat inside, the returned cool air is passed from the lower part to the upper part of the heat exchanger and heat is exchanged between them, so that the cool air cooled to a predetermined temperature is supplied to the refrigerator and circulated. I have.

[0003]

In the case of the above-mentioned conventional heat exchanger, in order to improve the efficiency of heat exchange, for example, the dimension in the direction (up-down direction) along the flow of the cool air is formed long so as to make contact with the cool air. Means such as increasing the time or increasing the number of fins and cooling tubes to enhance the cooling performance are conceivable. However, these means have problems such as an increase in the size of the heat exchanger main body, a reduction in the effective space in the refrigerator, and an increase in the number of parts and an increase in manufacturing costs.

The present invention has been made to solve such a conventional problem. In the heat exchanger of the type described above, heat is exchanged very efficiently in the lower half of the inlet side of the return air to be cooled. It is an object of the present invention to provide a heat exchanger capable of intensively exchanging heat in this portion, and a refrigerator incorporating the heat exchanger.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As a technical means for achieving this object, the present invention provides plate-like fins arranged at regular intervals and a fixed In a heat exchanger having refrigerant tubes arranged vertically and horizontally at an interval, a substantially lower half fin into which a gas to be cooled flows is formed in a wide width, and the refrigerant tube in the wide portion is formed. The gist of the present invention is to increase the number of the heat exchangers so that the lower half of the heat exchanger is formed thicker.
2. A heat exchanger according to claim 1, further comprising a blow-off port for blowing cool air from a fan at an upper portion of the inside of the refrigerator, a return port at a substantially intermediate portion, and the heat exchanger according to claim 1 provided at an important point. A part of the cool air ejected from the heat exchanger is returned to the substantially middle part of the heat exchanger from the return port and exchanges heat, and the cool air reaching the lower part of the refrigerator flows in from the lower part of the heat exchanger and exchanges heat. The gist is a refrigerator configured as described above.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of a heat exchanger according to the present invention and a refrigerator incorporating the heat exchanger will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a heat exchanger. Numerals 1 denote thin plate-shaped fins which are arranged side by side at fixed intervals, and whose lower half is formed to have a wide width W.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a refrigerant tube, and the fin 1
, And a suitable number of rows are provided at predetermined intervals in the vertical and horizontal directions. The refrigerant tube 2 and the fins 1 are preferably formed of a metal having a high thermal conductivity.

[0008] The heat exchanger body 3 configured as above is
Heat exchange is performed by passing the gas to be cooled between the fins 1 and passing the refrigerant through the respective tubes 2 for the refrigerant. A general heat exchanger body has a square (rectangular) shape as a whole, but the heat exchanger body 3 according to the present invention has a substantially lower half with a wide width W and a large thickness as described above. It has an L-shape. This is because when the gas to be cooled passes from the lower part to the upper part of the heat exchanger body 3, the heat is exchanged with high efficiency almost in the lower half part, particularly in the second to third stages from the bottom of the refrigerant tube 2. This is because it has been found by experiments that the region is the region of (1).

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing an embodiment of a refrigerator in which the heat exchanger body 3 is incorporated. A partition wall 4b is provided at the rear of the refrigerator interior 4a of the refrigerator body 4, and the partition wall 4a and the rear wall are provided. An air passage 4d is formed between the air passage 4d and the wall 4c.
In addition, an outlet 5 for cool air is formed at the upper part of the partition 4b, a return port 6 is formed at an important part of the middle part, and a step part 4e of the partition is formed at the lower part of the return port 6 so as to protrude forward. ing.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a fan for circulating cool air, which is disposed above the ventilation path 4d so as to face the outlet 5.
The cool air in the ventilation path 4d is blown out from the outlet 5 into the interior 4a. Below the fan 7, the heat exchanger main body 3 is disposed so as to be fitted to the partition wall step 4e, and the lower end of the ventilation path 4d is a cold air intake 8.

The interior 4a of the refrigerator body 4 is partitioned by a partition plate 9 so that, for example, the upper region is a freezer room A and the lower region is a cool room B with a partition step 4e as a boundary. Further, shelves (not shown) and the like are attached to the freezing room A and the cool room B to be subdivided. Reference numerals 10 and 11 denote opening and closing doors respectively attached to the front surface of the refrigerator main body 4.

In the refrigerator main body 4 configured as described above, the fan 7 is rotated by the driving device (not shown), and the refrigerant circulates and flows through the refrigerant tube 2 of the heat exchanger main body 3. The cool air blown out from the outlet 5 by the fan 7 first enters the freezing room A and convects. After cooling the freezing room A, it flows into the heat exchanger body 3 from the return opening 6.

The returned cool air flows in from almost the middle part of the heat exchanger main body 3 and rises, exchanges heat when passing between the refrigerant tubes 2 and is cooled, and is cooled at the upper end of the heat exchanger main body 3. Flows into the ventilation path 4d from above, and is ejected again into the freezing room A by the fan 7. That is, circulation is performed between the freezing room A and the ventilation path 4d.

On the other hand, a part (generally about 20 to 30%) of the cool air blown out from the blowout port 5 is provided in a gap at the front end of the partition plate 9 or a small hole (shown in FIG. ), Flows into the cool room B, convectively cools the cool room B, and then flows into the lower end portion of the ventilation path 4d, that is, the intake port 8.

The returned cool air flowing into the intake port 8 rises and flows into the inside from the lower end of the heat exchanger body 3, and exchanges heat when passing between the refrigerant tubes 2 to be cooled. The cooled return cold air flows from the upper end of the heat exchanger main body 3 into the upper part of the ventilation path 4d, and is discharged again into the freezer compartment A by the fan 7 together with the cooled cool air returned from the return port 6 and cooled. You. That is, the cooling room B and the ventilation path 4d
Small circulation between and. At this time, the returned cold air from the intake port 8 is exchanged with heat in the entire area of the heat exchanger body 3.
In particular, since it passes through a substantially lower half part formed in a wide width, it is efficiently cooled by the refrigerant tubes 2 of the second to third stages from the bottom. In this case, since the inflow area of the lower half is large, the cycle of defrosting can be lengthened and energy can be saved.

Although not shown, the refrigerant that has passed through the refrigerant tube 2 and returned to the condenser is returned to the condenser, radiates heat and liquefies, is vaporized again by the evaporator, and is supplied into the refrigerant tube 2. Has been used cyclically. A known refrigerant such as ammonia can be appropriately selected as the refrigerant.

Conventionally, this type of refrigerator has a refrigerator A
Although two heat exchanger main bodies for the cold storage room B were required, in the case of the present invention, one heat exchanger main body 3 in which the lower half portion was formed to have a wide width as described above was sufficient. Manufacturing costs can be reduced.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The lower half (inflow side) of the heat exchanger is formed wide and thick,
Since the configuration is such that the refrigerant tube 2 is added to the wide portion, heat can be extremely efficiently exchanged particularly by the second to third stage refrigerant tubes, thereby increasing the size of the entire heat exchanger. It has the effect of improving the performance without the need. In addition, the heat exchanger according to the present invention is incorporated into a cool air circulation type refrigerator, and cool air circulating through a freezing room flows from an intermediate portion of the heat exchanger and passes through almost only the upper half region, and passes through the cold storage room. The cold air circulated through the heat exchanger flows in from the lower part of the heat exchanger and passes through the entire area, so that the heat exchangers for the freezing compartment and the refrigerator compartment can be handled by one heat exchanger, and necessary and sufficient. Heat exchange is enabled, and therefore, there is an effect that the manufacturing cost of the refrigerator can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cutaway perspective view showing an embodiment of a heat exchanger according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view showing an embodiment of a refrigerator incorporating the heat exchanger.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Fin 2 ... Refrigerant tube 3 ... Heat exchanger body 4 ... Refrigerator body 5 ... Outlet 6 ... Return port 7 ... Fan 8 ... Inlet 9 ... Partition plate 10, 11 ... Opening / closing door

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Kenji Nojima 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Ken Yamada 2-chome, Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka No. 5 F term in Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (reference) 3L045 AA06 BA01 CA02 DA02 EA01 GA04 HA01 PA04

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A heat source comprising: plate-like fins arranged side by side at fixed intervals; and refrigerant tubes penetrating these fins and arranged at regular intervals in the vertical and horizontal directions. In the exchanger, the lower half of the heat exchanger was formed thicker by forming the lower half fin into which the gas to be cooled flows in into a wider width and increasing the number of refrigerant tubes in the wider portion. A heat exchanger. 2. A refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein said refrigerator has a blow-out port at a top portion thereof for blowing cool air from said fan, and a return port at a substantially middle portion thereof. A part of the cool air blown out from the outlet is returned from the return to almost the middle part of the heat exchanger and exchanged heat, and the cool air reaching the lower part of the refrigerator flows in from the lower part of the heat exchanger. Refrigerator that is configured to exchange heat.