JP2001133098A - Cold insulation box - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a cold insulation box wherein even if the cold insulation box has a provision wherein temperatures of a cooler is sensed both in a cold storage operation and defrosting operation, number of components and costs can be reduced. SOLUTION: Since sensing of thermal energy storing completion temperature of a cooler 2 and sensing of defrosting completion temperature of the cooler 2 are effected by a common cooler temperature sensor 10, there is no need to separately provide a temperature sensor for thermal energy storage and a temperature sensor for defrosting. In this case, the sensor 10 is disposed on a side of the cooler 2 where air flows out, whereby the sensor 10 is not directly influenced by the heat of a heater 4 disposed on a side of the cooler 2 where air flows in.

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 storage, after the cool storage of the cooler is performed, the blower is driven to circulate the air in the cooler through the cooler, thereby performing a cool keeping operation during transportation. Further, in the cool box, when frost is formed on the cooler, a defrosting operation is performed in which the blower is driven to flow air through the cooler.

[0003]

In the cold storage, the refrigerating apparatus is stopped when the temperature of the cooler reaches a predetermined cold storage completion temperature (for example, -35 ° C.) during cold storage, and the cooler is turned off during defrosting. When the temperature reaches a predetermined defrost completion temperature (for example, 10 ° C.), the blower is stopped. However, if a temperature detector for cold storage and a temperature detector for defrost are separately provided, the number of parts and The cost has increased, and it has been disadvantageous for practical use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the number of parts and cost even in a configuration in which the temperature of a cooler is detected during cold storage and defrosting, respectively. An object of the present invention is to provide a cool box that can be designed.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a heat-insulating cold storage body capable of storing an arbitrary article, and a heat-insulating cold storage body disposed at a predetermined position in the cold storage main body. A regenerative cooler, and a blower that circulates air in the refrigerator through the cooler, cools the cooler, and then drives the blower to cool the refrigerator and drives the blower. And a defrosting operation for arbitrarily selecting a defrosting operation for allowing air to flow through the cooler, a temperature detector for detecting a temperature of the cooler, a cold storage completion temperature and a defrost completion for the cooler. A temperature is set, and a determination unit is provided for determining completion of cold storage and completion of defrosting of the cooler based on the temperature detected by the temperature detector. Thereby, since the detection of the cool storage completion temperature of the cooler and the detection of the defrost completion temperature of the cooler are performed by the common temperature detector, the temperature detector for the cool storage and the temperature detector for the defrost are used. Need not be provided individually.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the cold storage according to the first aspect, the temperature detector is arranged on an air outflow side of the cooler. Thus, in addition to the operation of the first aspect, even when, for example, a heater as a defrosting unit is arranged on the air inflow side of the cooler, the temperature detector is not directly affected by the heat of the heater.

[0007]

1 to 9 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. Front view,
4 is a front view of an operation panel, FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a blower, FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of a heater, FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a control system,
8 and 9 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 air in the cooler, and heating the cooler 2 during defrosting. The air conditioner includes a heater 4 for performing operations, an operation panel 5 for performing button operations, lamp display, and the like, and a control unit 6 for controlling operations of the blower 3.

The refrigerator compartment body 1 has a heat insulating door 1a for opening and closing the front opening, and a caster 1b for movement is attached to a lower portion of the refrigerator compartment body 1. A machine room 1c is provided in an upper part of the cool box main body 1, and refrigeration equipment such as a compressor and a condenser is housed in the machine room 1c. That is,
A refrigerating device 1d is constituted by the refrigerating device and the cooler 2, and the refrigerating device 1d is driven by an external power supply connected via a power plug (not shown). Further, on the bottom side and the back side in the cool box main body 1, there are provided ventilation passages 7 separated from the inside of the refrigerator by a partition plate 1e, and one end side of the ventilation passage 7 is open to a lower front end side in the refrigerator. The end side opens to the upper part on the back side in the storage. Further, a door switch 8 for detecting the opening and closing of the door 1a is provided in the cold storage main body 1, and the door switch 8 is provided.
A well-known contact-type switch is used in which the closed door 1a is turned on upon contact with the closed door 1a, and the opened door 1a is separated off. Further, a refrigerator temperature sensor 9 is provided in the refrigerator main body 1.

The cooler 2 is provided with a ventilation path 7 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. A cooler temperature sensor 10 that detects the temperature of the cooler 2 is attached to the air outlet side (near the rear end) of the cooler 2.

The blower 3 is disposed at the other end of the ventilation path 7,
The air taken in from one end of the ventilation path 7 is discharged into the storage from the other end of the ventilation path 7. In the drive circuit of the blower 3, one end of the blower 3 is connected to one end of the door switch 8 via the battery 3a, and the other end is connected to the other end of the door switch 8 via the first relay 3b, as shown in FIG. It is connected to the. A second relay 3c is connected to this drive circuit in parallel with the door switch 8.

The heater 4 is arranged on the air inflow side of the cooler 2, and is composed of a heating wire bent in a U-shape as shown in FIG. In this case, a pair of L-shaped support plates 4a for supporting the heater 4 is attached to the lower surface of the partition plate 1e, and an overheat prevention switch 11 made of a heat-sensitive element such as a bimetal is attached to one of the support plates 4a. I have. In the driving circuit of the heater 4, one end of the heater 4 is connected to one end of a third relay 4c via a power supply 4b, and the other end is connected to a third relay 4c via an overheat prevention switch 11, as shown in FIG. Is connected to the other end.

An operation panel 5 is arranged on the front of the cool box main body 1 and, as shown in FIG. 4, a refrigerator button 5a for switching between a cold storage operation and a cold storage operation when the power is turned on, and a cold button when the power is not turned on. A refrigeration button 5b for setting the temperature in the refrigerator for operation for refrigeration, a refrigeration button 5c for setting the temperature in the refrigerator for refrigeration in the cooling operation, a temperature display section 5d for displaying the temperature in the refrigerator, the blower 3 and the heater A first defrost button 5e for performing defrosting by the control unit 4 and a second defrost button 5f for performing defrosting only by the blower 3 (displayed as "off cycle defrosting" on the operation panel 5). The operation panel 5 has an indicator light L1 for "freezing" indicating that the cooler 2 is storing cold, an indicator light L2 for indicating "freezing complete" for indicating that cooling of the cooler 2 is completed, The indicator light L3 indicating "cooling in the refrigerator" to be displayed, the indicator light L4 indicating the selection of the refrigeration button 5b, the indicator light L5 indicating the selection of the refrigerating button 5c, and the amount of frost formed on the cooler 2 are increased. The indicator light L6 indicating "over-frost", the indicator light L7 indicating the selection of the first defrost button 5e, and the indicator light L8 indicating the selection of the second defrost button 5f, respectively. Is provided.

The control unit 6 is constituted by a microcomputer, and includes a refrigerating device 1d, a first defrost button 5e, a second
Defrost button 5f, door switch 8, internal temperature sensor 9,
It is connected to the cooler temperature sensor 10 and each of the relays 3b, 3c, 4c. Further, a timer 6 a is connected to the control unit 6. In this control unit 6, the first defrost button 5e
The first defrosting mode in which the blower 3 and the heater 4 are operated by the selection of the first defrosting mode, and the second defrosting mode in which only the blower 3 is operated by the selection of the second defrosting button 5f are respectively performed according to programs described later. It has become. In this case, selection of each defrost mode can be easily performed by operating the first defrost button 5e and the second defrost button 5f of the operation panel 5. In addition, the control unit 6 controls the cooler 2
, And the completion of cold storage and the completion of defrosting are determined based on the temperature detected by the cooler temperature sensor 10.

Here, the operation of the control unit 6 in the cold-holding operation and the defrosting operation will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. First, when connected to an external power supply (S1), the refrigerating apparatus 1d is operated (S2), and the cooler 2 is cooled. At this time, when the refrigerator button 5a of the operation panel 5 is turned on, the blower 3 is operated to cool the inside of the refrigerator, and functions as a refrigerator before transporting articles. Next, when the temperature Ta detected by the cooler temperature sensor 10 becomes equal to or lower than the predetermined cold storage completion temperature T1 (for example, -35 ° C.) (S3), the refrigerating apparatus 1d is stopped (S4). Thereafter, when the external power supply is de-energized during the transportation of the article (S5), the timer 6a is activated (S6) to turn on the first relay 3b (S5).
7). Thereby, the drive circuit of the blower 3 is closed, and the blower 3 operates. Next, the detected temperature Tb of the internal temperature sensor 9
Is compared with the set temperature T2 (S8). If the detected temperature Tb is higher than the set temperature T2 and the set time t1 of the timer 6a has not elapsed (S9), the process returns to step S4. In this case, the set temperature T2 is set to the refrigeration button 5b and the freezer button 5b.
For example, the temperature is set to 3 ° C. for refrigeration and to −22 ° for freezing, depending on the selection of c. When the detected temperature Tb becomes equal to or lower than the set temperature T2 in step S8, the first relay 3b is turned off (S10). Thereby, the drive circuit of the blower 3 opens, and the blower 3 stops. Next, the detected temperature Tb of the inside temperature sensor 9 is compared with the set temperature T2 (S11), and the detected temperature Tb is set to the set temperature T2.
If the set time t1 of the timer 6a has not elapsed (S12), the process returns to step S11. When the detected temperature Tb becomes higher than the set temperature T2 in step S11, the process returns to step S7, and the first relay 3b is turned on. In other words, by repeating the operations of steps S7 to S12, the cool keeping operation is performed so that the temperature in the refrigerator reaches the set temperature T2. In addition, in the cold-holding operation, when the door 1a is opened, for example, for taking in / out an article, the door switch 8 is turned off, the drive circuit of the blower 3 is opened, and the blower 3 is stopped. Thereby, invasion of outside air due to opening of the door 1a is reduced. When the door 1a is closed, the door switch 8 is turned on, the drive circuit of the blower 3 is closed, and the blower 3 is operated again. Then, if the set time t1 of the timer 6a has elapsed in step S12, the program ends.

Next, when the cool box is connected to an external power supply in the standby state (S20), the amount of frost of the cooler 2 detected by a frost sensor (not shown) exceeds a predetermined amount, and "over frost formation" is performed. Is turned on (S21).
Defrosting operation becomes possible. That is, when the defrost of the cooler 2 is performed in the first defrost mode, when the first defrost button 5e is turned on (S22), the first, second, and third relays 3b, 3c, 4c are turned on (S23, S
24, S25). Thereby, the drive circuit of the blower 3 is closed and the blower 3 is operated, and the drive circuit of the heater 4 is closed and the heater 4 is operated. Next, the detected temperature Ta of the cooler temperature sensor 10 is compared with a predetermined defrost completion temperature T3 (for example, 10 ° C.) (S26), and the blower 3 and the heater 3 are heated until the detected temperature Ta becomes equal to or higher than the defrost completion temperature T3. 4 is performed. At this time, when the door 1a is opened, the door switch 8 is turned off, but since the second relay 3c is on, the circuit of the blower 3 is not opened, and the blower 3 does not stop. Thereby, the door 1a can be opened to promote defrosting. Further, since the cooler temperature sensor 10 is arranged on the air outflow side of the cooler 2, it is not directly affected by the heat of the heater 4 arranged on the air inflow side of the cooler 2. Then, step S2
6, when the detected temperature Ta becomes equal to or higher than the defrosting completion temperature T3, the first, second, and third relays 3b, 3c, and 4c are turned off to stop the blower 3 and the heater 4 (S2).
7, S28, S29), and ends the program. Also,
During the defrosting operation, for example, when the cooler 2 is clogged due to excessive frost and the air circulation is obstructed, the temperature near the heater 4 rises abnormally and the overheat prevention switch 1
When the temperature exceeds the allowable temperature of 1 (for example, 70 ° C.), the overheat prevention switch 11 is shut off, the drive circuit of the heater 4 is opened, and the heater 4 is stopped.

When the defrosting of the cooler 2 is performed in the second defrosting mode, when the second defrosting button 5f is turned on (S30), the timer 6a is operated (S31), and The first and second relays 3b and 3c are turned on (S32, S33). Thereby, the drive circuit of the blower 3 is closed, and the blower 3 operates. Next, it is determined whether or not the set time t2 of the timer 6a has elapsed (S34), and the defrosting operation using only the blower 3 is performed until the set time t2 of the timer 6a has elapsed. At this time, when the door 1a is opened, the door switch 8 is turned off, but since the second relay 3c is on, the circuit of the blower 3 is not opened, and the blower 3 does not stop. Thus, similarly to the first defrost mode, the door 1a can be opened to promote defrost. Then, in step S34, the timer 6a
When the set time t2 has elapsed, the first and second relays 3
b, 3c are turned off to stop the blower 3 (S2
8, S29), and ends the program.

As described above, according to the cool box of the present embodiment, the detection of the cold storage completion temperature of the cooler 2 and the detection of the defrost completion temperature of the cooler 2 are performed by the common cooler temperature sensor 2. Therefore, it is not necessary to separately provide a temperature sensor for cold storage and a temperature sensor for defrost, and the number of parts and cost can be reduced. Further, since the cooler temperature sensor 10 is disposed on the air outflow side of the cooler 2, the temperature is not directly affected by the heater 4 disposed on the air inflow side of the cooler 2, and the temperature is detected during defrosting. Can always be done accurately. Further, the door 1 is used in both the first defrosting mode in which the blower 3 and the heater 4 are operated and the second defrosting mode in which only the blower 3 is operated.
Since the blower 3 is not stopped by opening the door a, by opening the door 1a during the defrosting operation,
It can take in outside air and promote defrosting,
The defrosting using can be performed very efficiently. In addition, by operating the first defrost button 5e and the second defrost button 5f of the operation panel 5, the first defrost mode and the second defrost button are operated.
Can be selected as needed. For example, when priority is given to shortening the defrosting time, the first defrosting mode using the blower 3 and the heater 4 is selected to reduce power consumption. Can perform the defrost according to the situation, such as selecting the second defrost mode using only the blower 3.

[0019]

As described above, according to the cold storage of claim 1, since it is not necessary to separately provide a temperature sensor for cold storage and a temperature sensor for defrosting, the number of parts and cost are reduced. This is extremely advantageous in practical use.

According to the cold storage of the second aspect, in addition to the effect of the first aspect, even when a heater as a defrosting means is arranged on the air inflow side of the cooler, for example, the temperature detector has the heat of the heater. Since there is no direct influence, the temperature detection at the time of defrosting can always be performed accurately.

[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 front view showing a heater mounting structure.

FIG. 4 is a front view of an operation panel.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of a blower.

FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram of a heater.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a control system.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control unit.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Cold storage main body, 2 ... Cooler, 3 ... Blower, 6 ... Control part.

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 3L045 AA02 BA02 CA02 DA02 EA01 HA01 KA16 LA05 LA09 LA14 LA16 LA18 MA04 MA12 MA13 MA14 NA03 NA14 NA15 NA16 NA19 NA22 PA02 PA03 PA04 PA06 3L046 AA02 BA01 CA06 CA12 FB00 GA05 GB01 JA05 JA04 JA17 JA17 LA22 LA23 MA02 MA03 MA04 MA06

Claims (2)

[Claims] An insulated cold storage main body capable of storing an arbitrary article, a cold storage cooler disposed at a predetermined position in the cold storage main body, and a blower for circulating air in the cold storage through the cooler. After performing cold storage of the cooler, the cooling operation for driving the blower to cool the interior of the refrigerator and the defrosting operation for driving the blower and flowing air through the cooler are arbitrarily selected and performed. In the cold storage box as described above, a temperature detector for detecting the temperature of the cooler, a cold storage completion temperature and a defrost completion temperature of the cooler are respectively set, and the cooler is detected based on the detected temperature of the temperature detector. A cool box characterized by comprising determination means for determining completion of cold storage and completion of defrost. 2. The cold storage according to claim 1, wherein the temperature detector is arranged on an air outflow side of the cooler.