JP2001280817A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator which can enhance the freshness preservation capable of conserving frozen food for a long period in a low-oxygen chamber. SOLUTION: This refrigerator is provided with a bag container consisting of synthetic resin in an isolating chamber 12, and a first exhaust pipe 16 is inserted into the hole (b) of this bag container 14, and a small-sized suction pump 18 is connected to one side of this first exhaust pipe 16. Then, this is provided with a flow detector 19 which detects the flow of air within the bag container 14 exhausted from the small-sized suction pump 18, and is further provided with a first controller 21 which controls the action of the small-sized suction pump 18, based on the output of this flow detector 19.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator having an air reducing device for creating an atmosphere having a low oxygen concentration in a freezer compartment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG.
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a refrigerator provided with a conventional oxygen-reducing chamber disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication. In FIG. 6, 1 is a refrigerator room maintained at a temperature of about 5 ° C., 2 is a refrigerating room opening / closing door disposed on the front part of the refrigerator room 1, and 3 is located above the refrigerator room 1 at −18 ° C. A freezing room which is maintained at a temperature of about 4; a freezing room opening / closing door disposed on the front side of the freezing room 3; a cooler provided on the rear side of the freezing room 3; Cool air in the freezer 3
A ventilation fan that diffuses into the inside, 7 is an oxygen-reducing chamber disposed in one section of the freezing chamber 3, 8 is an oxygen-permeable membrane provided on one side of the oxygen-reducing chamber 7, and 9 is disposed in front of the oxygen-reducing chamber 7. 10 is a large suction pump for sucking oxygen in the oxygen-reducing chamber 7 through the oxygen permeable membrane 8, and 11 is a drive for a large suction pump provided on the front surface of the freezing room door 4. Switch.

Next, the oxygen reducing operation of the refrigerator having such a configuration will be described with reference to FIG. After opening and closing the oxygen-absorbing chamber opening / closing door 9 to store, for example, the frozen food a in the oxygen-absorbing chamber 7, the oxygen-absorbing chamber opening / closing door 9 is closed. Then, by turning on the large suction pump drive switch 11 and operating the large suction pump 10 for a predetermined time, the oxygen in the oxygen-depleted chamber 7 is discharged to the outside through the oxygen permeable membrane 8. Therefore, the oxygen concentration in the oxygen-reducing chamber 7 is gradually reduced to a reduced oxygen state.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional refrigerator, the suction pump is operated to use the oxygen permeable membrane to maintain the oxygen-depleted chamber in an oxygen-depleted state, thereby controlling the freshness of the frozen food. I have. However, in order to reduce the oxygen concentration in the deoxygenation chamber to, for example, around 0%, it is necessary to select a large suction pump having a high suction capacity, that is, a high degree of vacuum. Therefore, it is necessary to secure a large space for disposing a large suction pump in the main body of the refrigerator, which causes a problem that the effective volumes of the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment are reduced.

[0005] Further, the elapsed time until the oxygen concentration in the oxygen-depleted chamber reaches around 0% is very long, which is several hours or more. Therefore, there is a problem that when the frozen food is taken in and out of the oxygen-depleted chamber within this elapsed time, air enters the room from the outside, and it is difficult to set the oxygen concentration to around 0%. Further, there is a problem that the cost of an apparatus for reducing the oxygen concentration is increased by using a large suction pump.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and a refrigeration system for reducing the oxygen concentration to around 0% in a short time using a small suction pump having a relatively small suction capacity. An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator that is provided indoors and improves the freshness of frozen food.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a refrigerator having a freezer compartment and a refrigerating compartment in a main body, wherein a bag container with a fastener made of synthetic resin is provided in the freezer compartment. A control unit for providing a suction pump for sucking air in the container, providing a detector for detecting a flow rate of air sucked from the suction pump or a load current thereof, and controlling an operation of the suction pump based on an output of the detector; And an air reducing device provided with a discharge path for discharging the air passing through the suction pump to the outside of the main body.

Further, the air reducing device is provided with an operating means for intermittently operating the suction pump, and the temperature of the air is reduced during a period in which the operating means operates the suction pump to discharge a predetermined amount of air in the bag container. A temperature detector for detection is provided, and when the output of the temperature detector reaches a certain threshold, the suction pump is continuously operated, and thereafter, when the output of the detector reaches a predetermined value, the suction pump is stopped. It was made.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 is a front view of an air reduction device according to a first embodiment of the refrigerator of the present invention, and FIGS. 2A and 2B are side views of the air reduction device. 1 and 2, reference numeral 12 denotes an isolation room arranged in a part of a freezing room maintained at about −18 ° C., and 13 denotes an isolation room.
2 is an opening / closing door for the isolation room, which is disposed on the front part of 2;
2, a bag container made of a synthetic resin having a volume of about 20 L, for example, 15 is an opening / closing tool such as a fastener provided in a horizontal direction on a front portion of the bag container 14, and 16 is a bag container 1
4 is a first exhaust pipe that is inserted into a hole b formed on one side of the first exhaust pipe 4, and one of the first exhaust pipes 16 is disposed outside through a housing 17 that forms the isolation chamber 12. Small suction pump 18
To the IN side. 19 is the OU of the small suction pump 18
A flow detector provided on the second exhaust pipe 20 connected to the T side and detecting a flow rate of air passing through the second exhaust pipe 20;
Reference numeral 21 denotes a first control unit that controls the operation of the small suction pump 18 based on the output of the flow rate detector 19, and reference numeral 22 denotes a small suction pump drive switch provided on the front surface of the isolation chamber opening / closing door 13.

Next, the operation of the air reducing apparatus according to the refrigerator of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
After opening the isolation room opening / closing door 13, the fastener 15 of the bag container 14 is opened, and the cooked or frozen food c is stored therein as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 (a). And
After the fastener 15 of the bag container 14 is closed, the door 13 for the isolation chamber is closed, and then the small suction pump drive switch 22 is turned ON. As a result, the small suction pump 18 is operated, and the air in the bag container 14 is discharged from the first exhaust pipe 16 to the second exhaust pipe 16.
Flows through the exhaust pipe 20 of the refrigerator to the flow detector 19 and is discharged to the outside of the main body of the refrigerator. When the output of the flow rate detector 19 reaches zero flow rate, a stop command is issued from the first control unit 21 and the small suction pump 18 stops. In addition, besides detecting the flow rate using the flow rate detector 19, for example, using a current detector for detecting the load current of the small suction pump 18, when the output of the current detector reaches a predetermined value, the small suction pump 18 is used. The pump 18 may be stopped. This is the same for the second embodiment.

When the volume of the bag container 14 is 10 L and the suction volume of the small suction pump 18 is 1 L / min,
After the suction time is about 10 minutes, the amount of air therein becomes zero, that is, the oxygen concentration becomes zero%. The shape of the bag container 14 is shown in FIG.
As shown in the figure, the shape changes from a bag shape to a flat shape. As described above, since the volume of the bag container 14 decreases with the air suction time, the negative pressure is hardly applied to the small suction pump 18, and it is determined that the pressure load is small.

Further, according to the present invention, for example, the oxygen reducing system using a bag container 14 having a volume of 10 L, the surface area described in the conventional example is 4
FIG. 3 shows an oxygen concentration characteristic diagram of the oxygen-reducing system when the oxygen permeable membrane 8 of 00 cm 2 is arranged in a plastic container having a volume of 10 L. The suction flow rate of the suction pump 18 is 500 cc / min, and the suction pressure is -500 m.
mHg. In FIG. 3, in the case of the oxygen reduction method of the bag container 14, as shown by the characteristic A in the figure, the elapsed time of the suction pump is 20 minutes from the time when the oxygen concentration reaches 21% to 0%, whereas the reduction time of the conventional example is reduced. In the case of the oxygen system, the elapsed time is 400 minutes as shown by the B characteristic in the figure. Thus, it can be seen that the oxygen reduction system of the present invention has a remarkably high oxygen reduction capability.

As described above, in the refrigerator having such a configuration, the Tedlar bag 14, whose volume becomes smaller as the amount of air decreases, is provided in the isolation room 12 which is disposed in a part of the freezing room. The amount of air in the Tedlar bag 14, that is, the oxygen concentration can be reduced to 0% over time. Therefore, the space for installing the small suction pump 18 in the main body of the refrigerator is made as small as possible to increase the effective volume of the freezing room and the like, and the freshness of the frozen food can be maintained for a long time. In addition, by using the small suction pump 18, the cost of the air reduction device can be reduced and the electricity bill can be saved.

Embodiment 2 FIG. FIG. 4 (a) and FIG. 4 (b)
5 is a side view of the air reduction device according to Embodiment 2 of the refrigerator of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an operation timing chart of the small suction pump 18 constituting the air reduction device. 4, the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment denote the same or corresponding parts. A temperature detector 23 is provided inside the first exhaust pipe 16 connected to the IN side of the small suction pump 18 disposed outside the isolation chamber 12 and detects the temperature of the air flowing through the first exhaust pipe 16. , 24 are second control units for controlling the operation of the small suction pump 18 based on the outputs from the flow detector 19 and the temperature detector 23.

Next, the operation of the air reduction device will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. 4A and FIG. After opening the isolation room opening / closing door 13, the zipper 15 of the bag container 14 is opened, and as shown in FIG. Then, after closing the fastener 15 of the bag container 14, the door 13 for the isolation chamber is closed, and then the drive switch 22 for the small suction pump is turned on. This allows
By operating the small suction pump 18 for only 5 seconds, for example, the air in the bag container 14 flows from the first exhaust pipe 16 to the flow detector 19 through the second exhaust pipe 20 by a predetermined amount,
Discharge to the outside of the refrigerator body. At this time, the temperature detector 23 detects the temperature of the air in the bag container 14 passing through the first exhaust pipe 16. Here, the reason why the operation time of the small suction pump 18 is set to 5 seconds is that the relatively soft food d such as croquettes or dumplings stored in the bag container 14 is accompanied by the contraction force of the bag container 14. This is to prevent deformation. Thereafter, the small-sized suction pump 18 stops for, for example, 10 minutes, and then repeats the intermittent operation to operate again. Then, the second control unit 24 causes the small suction pump 18 to perform the intermittent operation until the output from the temperature detector 23 reaches -18 ° C. Next, when the output from the temperature detector 23 reaches −18 ° C. or equivalent when the small suction pump 18 is operated, the second control unit 24 estimates that the food in the bag container 14 is in a frozen state, The small suction pump 18 is operated continuously.

Next, the flow rate of the air sent from the small suction pump 18 is detected by the flow rate detector 19. Thereafter, when the output of the flow rate detector 19 reaches zero flow rate, the shape of the bag container 14 shrinks from the bag shape and changes to a flat shape as shown in FIG. Then, the second control unit 24 determines that the amount of air in the bag container 14, that is, the oxygen concentration is 0%, and stops the small suction pump 18. In this process, the frozen food inside the bag container 14 hardly deforms due to the contraction force of the bag container 14.

Here, the intermittent operation of the small suction pump 18 will be described with reference to an operation timing chart shown in FIG. In FIG. 5, the drive switch 22 for the small suction pump is
Is turned on (point A in the figure), the air temperature inside the bag container 14 is maintained at a temperature higher than -18 ° C. immediately after storing the tailored food in the bag container 14. to decide. As a result, the small suction pump 18 operates for the time T1 and then stops for the time T2, and repeats such an intermittent state. Then, when the air temperature in the bag container 14 reaches about −18 ° C. during the period of time T1, the small suction pump 18 is continuously operated (point B in the drawing), and thereafter, the small suction pump 18 is placed in the bag container 14. When almost no air is present, the small suction pump 18 is stopped.

As described above, in the refrigerator having such a configuration, when the food in the bag container 14 provided in the isolation room 12 is frozen, the small suction pump 18 is continuously operated to quickly operate the inside of the refrigerator. The amount of air, that is, the oxygen concentration can be reduced to 0%. Therefore, freshness can be maintained for a long time without deforming the softly prepared food d.

As described in the first and second embodiments, in addition to controlling the operation of the small suction pump 18 based on the output of the flow rate detector 19, the volume of the small bag pump 14 and the small suction pump The operating time of the small suction pump 18 may be set in advance so that the amount of air in the inside of the small suction pump 18, that is, the oxygen concentration, becomes 0% based on the discharge amount of the small suction pump 18.

Further, the above-described air reducing device may be provided in a part of the freezing room, or may be provided by utilizing the entire space of the freezing room.

[0021]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects.

A refrigerator according to the present invention comprises a refrigerator having a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment in a main body, wherein a bag container with a fastener made of synthetic resin is provided in the freezer compartment.
A control unit for providing a suction pump for sucking air in the bag container, providing a detector for detecting a flow rate of air sucked from the suction pump or a load current thereof, and controlling an operation of the suction pump based on an output of the detector And an air reduction device provided with a discharge path for discharging the air passing through the suction pump to the outside of the main body, so that the air amount, that is, the oxygen concentration in the bag container can be reduced to zero by a small suction pump in a short time. % Can be reduced. Therefore, the contact time between the frozen food and the oxygen in the air can be set very short and stored, whereby oxidation and discoloration can be prevented beforehand. Further, the space for installing the small suction pump in the main body of the refrigerator can be made as small as possible, and the effective volume of the freezing room or the like can be expanded. Further, since the size of the suction pump can be reduced, it is possible to reduce the cost of the air reducing device and save electricity costs. Furthermore, since the bag container provided in the isolation room is usually in a small volume, the space for storing frozen food which does not need to be stored for a long time in a low oxygen atmosphere is expanded.

Further, the air reducing device is provided with operating means for intermittently operating the suction pump, and the temperature of the air is reduced during a period in which the operating means operates the suction pump to discharge a predetermined amount of air in the bag container. A temperature detector for detection is provided, and when the output of the temperature detector reaches a certain threshold, the suction pump is continuously operated, and thereafter, when the output of the detector reaches a predetermined value, the suction pump is stopped. Therefore, when the food in the bag container disposed in the isolated room kept at the freezing temperature is frozen, the amount of air in the inside, that is, the oxygen concentration can be reduced to 0% by the small suction pump. Therefore, freshness can be maintained for a long time without deforming the softly prepared food.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an air reduction device provided in a part of a freezer compartment according to a refrigerator of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the air reduction device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an oxygen concentration characteristic diagram showing an attenuated state of the oxygen concentration of the air reduction device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a side view of an air reduction device according to Embodiment 2.

FIG. 5 is an operation timing chart illustrating an intermittent operation of a suction pump that is a component of the air reduction device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a conventional refrigerator.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerator room, 2 Refrigerator compartment door, 3 Freezer compartment, 4 Refrigerator compartment door, 5 Cooler, 6 Blower fan, 7 Oxygen reduced room, 8 Oxygen permeable membrane, 9 Oxygen reduced room door, 10
Large suction pump, 11 Large suction pump drive switch, 12 Isolation room, 13 Isolation room opening / closing door, 14 Bag container, 15 Fastener, 16 First exhaust pipe, 17 Housing, 18 Small suction pump, 19 Flow rate detector , 20
2nd exhaust pipe, 21 1st control part, 22 drive switch for small suction pumps, 23 temperature detector, 24 2nd control part.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A refrigerator having a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment in a main body thereof, a bag container with a fastener made of synthetic resin disposed in the freezer compartment, and a suction pump for sucking air in the bag container. A detector for detecting the flow rate of air sucked from the suction pump or a load current thereof, a control unit for controlling the operation of the suction pump based on the output of the detector, and A refrigerator comprising an air reduction device including a discharge path for discharging to the outside. 2. The air reducing device comprises an operating means for intermittently operating the suction pump, and the operating means for operating the suction pump to discharge a predetermined amount of air in the bag container. A temperature detector for detecting the temperature of the suction pump when the output of the temperature detector reaches a certain threshold, and then continuously operates the suction pump when the output of the detector reaches a predetermined value. 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the refrigerator is stopped.