JP2003106727A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator with little penetration of the outside air into the inside to solve a problem of an existing refrigerator forming a cold air curtain on the front opening of a refrigerator compartment that the quantity of cold air of the cold air curtain will not be in a prescribed massive cold air supply condition unless a door of the refrigerator compartment is opened to a certain extent and the outside air penetrates into the refrigerator compartment to rise the temperature inside the refrigerator compartment before the quantity of cold air is in that condition after the door begins to open. SOLUTION: In the refrigerator, a cold air curtain is formed on the front opening of the refrigerator compartment with air cooled by a cooler circulating through a cold air duct with a fan. When the door is closed, the presence of a person on the front side of the refrigerator is detected by a sensor. Based on the detection, the quantity of cold air flowing in the cold air curtain is made to be in the same cold air supply condition as when the door is opened before the door for open/close the front opening of the refrigerator compartment is opened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cooling storage in which a cool air cooled by a cooler is circulated by a blower to form a cool air curtain in a front opening of a refrigerating compartment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a refrigerator in which a cool air curtain cooled by a cooler is circulated by a blower to form a vertical cool air curtain at a front opening of a refrigerating compartment. In this case, the cold air curtain may be formed while the refrigerating compartment door is opened, or may be formed while the cool air circulation blower is in operation regardless of the open / close state of the refrigerating compartment door. In the former method, the cold air for the cold air curtain does not flow from the cold air duct while the door of the refrigerating compartment is closed, and when the door of the refrigerating compartment is opened, the cool air of the blower is made to flow to the cool air duct to form the cool air curtain. This is achieved by providing the cool air supply control device A on the upstream side of the cool air duct. In the latter method, the cold air supply control device A reduces the amount of cold air flowing to the cold air duct while the refrigerating compartment door is closed, and increases the amount of cold air flowing to the cold air duct when the refrigerating compartment door is opened. This can be achieved by controlling the supply state.

[0003]

In any of the above methods, when the door is opened, the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air duct increases, and a large amount of cold air is supplied. In this case, because of the operation of the door open / close detection switch, if the door is not opened to some extent, the open state of the door cannot be accurately detected.
In addition, the cool air supply control device A after this switch detects
It takes a long time for the motor to rotate and open the damper plate. Therefore, it takes about 1 to 2 seconds after the opening of the door is started until the motor of the cool air supply control device A is detected by the switch and the damper plate is opened to bring the cool air curtain into the regular large quantity cool air supply state. During this time, the cold air in the refrigerating compartment leaks from the lower part of the refrigerating compartment, and accordingly, the outside air enters the refrigerating compartment and the temperature of the refrigerating compartment rises. For this reason, the cooling operation time from when the door is closed to when the refrigerating chamber is cooled to a predetermined low temperature becomes long. Especially when the ambient temperature of the refrigerator is high, the cooling time of the refrigerator compartment is prolonged.

In view of the above problems, the present invention suppresses the temperature rise in the refrigerating compartment by setting the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain to the same cold air supply state as when the door was opened, before the door was opened. It is intended to provide a cold storage that can be performed.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a cooling storehouse in which cool air cooled by a cooler is circulated by a blower through a cool air duct to form a cool air curtain at a front opening of a refrigerating compartment. Provided with a sensor for detecting the presence of a person, based on the detection of the sensor, prior to the opening operation of the door for opening and closing the front opening of the refrigerating compartment, the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain is the amount of cold air when the door is opened. Supply. As a result, based on the detection of the sensor, the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain can be set to a larger supply amount at an earlier stage than the conventional one before the opening operation of the refrigerating compartment door. Can be sufficiently suppressed, which contributes to economical operation of the cooling storage.

According to the present invention, the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain is set to zero or a small amount of cold air when the door is closed by the damper device provided in the cold air duct, and a large amount is detected by the sensor. The control is performed to bring the cold air supply state into. This can be easily achieved by controlling the damper device conventionally provided based on the signal from the sensor that detects the presence of a person in front of the cooling storage.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described. Each drawing shows an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a damper device part of a cooling storage of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a damper device of the cooling storage of the present invention in a closed state, FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the damper device of the cooling storage cabinet of the present invention in a closed state, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the damper device of the cooling storage cabinet of the present invention in an open state, and FIG. 5 is a damper device of the cooling storage cabinet of the present invention. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the opened state, FIG. 6 is a front view of the cooling storage of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a schematic vertical sectional view of the cooling storage of FIG.

In these figures, reference numeral 1 denotes a freezer-refrigerator, which is one of cooling storages, and defines a plurality of storage chambers by partitioning a main body 2 having a full-face opening, and the front surface of each of these storage chambers is opened and closed by a door. This is a possible configuration. The refrigerator-freezer main body 2 has a heat insulating structure in which a foam heat insulating material is filled between an outer box (outer wall plate) and an inner box (inner wall plate). A refrigerator compartment 3, a vegetable compartment 4, an upper refrigerator compartment 5 and a lower refrigerator compartment 6 are provided in the freezer / refrigerator main body 2 from above, and the refrigerator compartment 3 above the refrigerator compartment 3 is provided at the bottom of the refrigerator compartment 3.
A specific low temperature chamber 9 partitioned by a partition plate (partition wall) 8 is provided. The upper freezer compartment 5 can also be referred to as a switching compartment because it can be used as a refrigerating compartment by manually operating the cool air amount adjusting device.

The front opening of the refrigerating compartment 3 is the freezer / refrigerator body 2.
It is closed by a rotary refrigerating compartment door 10 which is opened and closed by being pivoted laterally by a hinge device on one side. The front opening of the vegetable compartment 4 is closed by a pull-out door 11 that is pulled out forward together with a vegetable container 15 supported by left and right rails or roller devices provided in the vegetable compartment 6 so as to be able to be pulled out in the front-rear direction. Similar to the vegetable compartment 4, the upper freezer compartment 5 and the lower freezer compartment 6 respectively support the left and right rails provided in the freezer compartment so that the container 1 can be pulled out in the front-rear direction.
Pull-out door 12, which is pulled out forward together with 6, 17
It is closed at 13.

Reference numeral 24 denotes a refrigerant compressor of the refrigeration system, and 25
Is the condenser of the refrigerant of the refrigeration system. 26 is a condenser 2
It is an evaporating dish for evaporating defrost water, which will be described later, by the heat of 5, and is placed on the condenser 25 and can be drawn out from the lower part of the front surface of the refrigerator-freezer main body 2. Compressor 24, condenser 2
5. The evaporation tray 26 is installed in the machine room 28 provided in the lower part of the refrigerator-freezer body 2. 29 and 30 are evaporators (coolers) of the refrigerant of the refrigeration system. Reference numeral 31 is a first blower for circulating the cool air cooled by the first evaporator (cooler) 29 to the upper freezer compartment 5 and the lower freezer compartment 6, and 32 is the refrigerating room for the cool air cooled by the second evaporator (cooler) 30. 3 is a second blower that circulates to the vegetable compartment 4 and the specific low temperature compartment 9. Reference numeral 33 is a defrosting glass tube heater for the first evaporator (cooler) 29, and 34 is a defrosting glass tube heater for the second evaporator (cooler) 30. The defrosted water of the first evaporator (cooler) 29 and the second evaporator (cooler) 30 is led to the evaporation tray 26 through the drain pipe and evaporated there.

Reference numeral 35 denotes a cold air duct through which the cool air cooled by the second evaporator (cooler) 30 is guided from the second blower 32. The cool air duct is widely arranged on the upper wall of the refrigerating compartment 3 and its front end is the front surface of the refrigerating compartment 3. It communicates with a cold air outlet 36 formed on the upper surface of the opening. The cold air outlet 36 has a large number of cold air outlet covers on the upper surface of the front opening of the refrigerating chamber 3 and having a length that extends over substantially the width of the front opening and covers the front end opening of the cold air duct 35. The cold air blowing small holes are formed. The cold air blown out from the cold air outlet 36 forms a cold air curtain 37 that flows through the front opening of the refrigerating chamber 3 from the top to the bottom as shown by the arrow. First
The cool air cooled by the evaporator (cooler) 29 and the cool air cooled by the second evaporator (cooler) 30 are circulated by the first blower 31 and the second blower 32 as indicated by arrows, and each chamber is heated to a predetermined temperature. Cool to.

In such a structure, the temperature of each chamber is
The refrigerator compartment 3 is kept at about 3-4 ° C, the vegetable compartment 4 is kept at about 4-6 ° C, and the upper freezer compartment 8 and the lower freezer compartment 9 are about -18 ° C to -20 ° C. The temperature on the storage shelf 38 provided inside the refrigerating compartment door 10 is 5 to 8 ° C. The specific low temperature chamber 9 is a chilled chamber at about 1 ° C. higher than 0 ° C., an ice greenhouse at about 0 to −1 ° C. lower than 0 ° C. and higher than the freezing temperature of food, and About -4 to form a thin ice layer on the surface
It may be a partial freezing room at ℃. As described above, the specific low temperature chamber 9 is for cooling and storing food in a specific temperature range, and requires strict temperature control as compared with other chambers.

Reference numeral 40 denotes a damper device for controlling the amount of cold air forming the cold air curtain 37, which is a cold air duct 35.
Is arranged in the upstream part of the air conditioner and controls the amount of the cold airflow flowing from the blower 32 through the cool air duct 35. Damper device 40
Causes the damper plate 42 to move to the shaft 4 by the electric motor (motor) 41.
It is a mechanism that rotates about 3 as a fulcrum, and is an electric motor.
41 and the damper plate 42 are attached to the support structure 44. The electric motor (motor) 41 is called a stepping motor that performs step-up rotation by a pulse signal, and finely rotates the damper plate 42 in the forward rotation direction and the reverse rotation direction by the pulse signal provided to the electric motor 41 from the control device. .

The cold air duct 35 includes a duct member 45 attached to the upper wall of the refrigerator / freezer body 2 and the refrigerator / freezer body 2.
The damper device 40 is formed between the upper wall and the upper wall, and the damper device 40 is housed in the duct member 45. The damper plate 42 is formed with a cold air circulation port 46 of a predetermined size in the lower center part thereof.

Reference numeral 47 denotes a sensor provided on the front surface of the refrigerating compartment door 10, which is composed of an infrared sensor or the like, and a predetermined electric circuit operates by detecting the presence of a person on the front side of the refrigerator-freezer 1. This is a mechanism in which a drive signal is issued to the motor 41 of the damper device 40.

In this configuration, when the refrigerator compartment door 10 closes the front opening of the refrigerator compartment 3, the damper plate 42 is
In the closed state as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the cool air supplied from the blower 32 is a small amount of cool air supplied to the cool air duct 35 through the cool air circulation port 46 formed in the lower center part thereof. A small amount of cold air flows through the cold air curtain 37 formed at the front opening of the refrigerating chamber 3 through 36. The refrigerating chamber 3 is cooled by a sufficient amount of cold air supplied from the cold air outlet 39 formed on the rear wall thereof.

When the user of the refrigerator / freezer 1 stands on the front side of the refrigerator / freezer 1 to open the refrigerator compartment door 10, the sensor 47 detects the presence of the person and a predetermined electric circuit operates. A drive signal is issued to the motor 41 of the damper device 40 to open the damper plate 42. As a result, the motor 41 operates and the damper plate 42 opens in the fully open state as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. As a result, a large amount of cold air is supplied from the blower 32, and the cold airflow flowing through the cold air curtain 37 formed at the front opening of the refrigerating chamber 3 through the cold air outlet 36 becomes a large amount of cold air. Subsequently, when the refrigerating compartment door 10 is opened, the cold air curtain 37 having a regular amount of cold air is formed, and the sensor 47
Based on the detection of, the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain 37 is set to the cold air supply state when the cold storage chamber door 10 is opened, prior to the opening operation of the cold storage chamber door 10. Therefore, the refrigerator compartment door 1
The amount of cool air flowing through the cool air curtain 37 is sufficiently large from the time when the opening of 0 is started, and therefore, there is an effect that the invasion of outside air can be suppressed at an earlier stage than in the conventional case.

Further, the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain 37 is controlled by the damper device 40 provided in the cold air duct 35 based on the detection of the sensor 47 so that the cold air supply state is zero when the refrigerating compartment door 10 is closed. A large amount of cold air may be supplied when the refrigerator compartment door 10 is open. In this case, the cold air flow port 4 of the damper plate 42
6 is not formed, and when the damper plate 42 is closed, the cold air supply from the blower 32 is cut off so that the cold air curtain 37 is not formed, and the damper plate 42 is fully opened based on the detection of the sensor 47 to cool the cold air curtain. A system in which a large amount of cold air flows through the cold airflow flowing through 37 may be used.

The operation of the second blower 32 is stopped when it is cooled to a predetermined lower limit temperature based on the temperature detection by the temperature detection sensor of the refrigerating compartment 3, and is operated when it is raised to a predetermined upper limit temperature. However, when the sensor 47 detects the temperature control, the blower 32 enters the operating state and blows a large amount of cold air from the cold air outlet 36 as described above. And operates to form the desired cold air curtain 37 in the open state.

When the refrigerating compartment door 10 that has been opened is closed,
Based on the operation of the door switch that operates by opening and closing the refrigerating compartment door 10, the timer operates by the closing operation of the refrigerating compartment door 10, and the damper plate 42 can be closed after a certain period of time has elapsed. Alternatively, the damper plate 42 may be closed when the temperature of the refrigerating compartment 3 is cooled to a predetermined lower limit temperature by controlling the temperature of the refrigerating compartment 3 with a temperature sensor.

Usually, the user of the freezer-refrigerator 1 has a refrigerator compartment door 1
When standing on the front side of the refrigerator-freezer 1 with the intention of opening 0, the refrigerator compartment door 10 should be opened within about several seconds (for example, about 1 to several seconds). However, when the user stands on the front side of the freezer-refrigerator 1 but does not open the refrigerator compartment door 10, the damper plate 42 opens when the user stands on the front side of the refrigerator-freezer 1, but the refrigerator compartment Since the door 10 was not opened, it is not necessary to maintain the cold air curtain 37 in the state in which the refrigerator compartment door 10 is open. Therefore, it is desirable to close the damper plate 42 once opened. Therefore, the sensor 47
However, when the human detection state continues for a predetermined time (for example, about 10 seconds or several tens of seconds), the refrigerator-freezer 1
If there is no intention of the user to open the refrigerator compartment door 10, the electric circuit to which the sensor 47 is connected judges and the motor 41 operates and the damper plate 42 is fully closed as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. Configure to return to. As a result, it is not necessary to form the extra cold air curtain 37 for a long time, and it is possible to prevent the refrigerating room from being overcooled.

When the user is standing on the front side of the refrigerator-freezer 1, the sensor 47 detects when the user stands on the front side of the refrigerator-freezer 1 and opens the damper plate 42. If the refrigerating compartment door 10 does not open even after a predetermined time (for example, about 10 seconds or several tens of seconds) has passed, the door switch operated by opening and closing the refrigerating compartment door 10 detects the presence of the user by the sensor 47. Since the operation of opening the refrigerating compartment door 10 does not occur even after the elapse of this predetermined time, the signal from the door switch is not input to the electric circuit, and the electric circuit judges that the refrigerating compartment door 10 has not been opened. Can be operated to return the damper plate 42 to the fully closed state as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3.

The sensor 47 is provided on the front surface of the refrigerating compartment door 10. In this case, as shown in FIG.
The handle 48 is arranged in the vertical direction, and the sensor 47 is provided on the upper portion of the handle 48 so that the handle 48 is not covered with a towel or the like. In addition, the sensor 47 allows the refrigerator / freezer 1
The configuration may be such that it is arranged at an appropriate position on the front surface of the refrigerator compartment door 10 so as to detect that the user's body is approaching. However, when the user's hand of the refrigerator-freezer 1 touches or approaches the handle 48, The sensor 47 may be arranged at a position where 41 operates and the damper plate 42 operates.

In the above-mentioned structure, the control device for controlling the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain 37 is in the state of supplying zero or a small amount of cold air when the refrigerator door 10 is closed by the damper device 40 provided in the cold air duct 35. This is a control in which a large amount of cold air is supplied based on the detection of the sensor 47. As another method in place of the damper device 40, a dedicated blower for the cool air curtain 37 is provided in the cool air duct 35, and the cool air supplied from the blower 32 is not supplied to the cool air duct 35 and is kept in the refrigeration chamber 3
When the refrigerator door 10 is closed, the dedicated blower for the cold air curtain 37 is rotated at a low speed or stopped by supplying the cold air from the cold air outlet 39 formed on the rear wall, and based on the detection by the sensor 47. Cold air curtain 3
It is also possible to set the dedicated blower for 7 to the full rotation state so that a sufficient amount of cool air flows to the cool air curtain 37.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be applied to various forms of the cooling storage, and various modifications can be considered without departing from the technical scope of the present invention, and include various embodiments related thereto. To do.

[0026]

In the prior art, if the door is not opened to a certain extent, the cold air curtain is not in the normal cold air supply state and the outside air often enters, but according to the invention of claim 1, the refrigerating room is detected based on the detection by the sensor. Prior to the opening operation of the door, the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain can be increased to a desired amount at an earlier stage than the conventional one, so that the invasion of outside air can be sufficiently suppressed and the cooling storage can be economically operated. Contribute to.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it can be easily achieved by controlling the damper device provided conventionally based on the signal from the sensor for detecting the presence of a person on the front side of the cooling storage.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a damper device portion of a cooling storage according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which the damper device of the cooling storage according to the present invention is closed.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state in which the damper device of the cooling storage according to the present invention is closed.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the damper device of the cooling storage according to the present invention is opened.

FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state in which the damper device of the cooling storage according to the present invention is opened.

FIG. 6 is a front view of the cooling storage according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic vertical sectional view of the cooling storage of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Refrigerator 2 ... Refrigerator body 3 ... Refrigerator 10 ... Refrigerator door 30 ... Coolers 32 .. Blower 35 ... Cold air duct 36 ... Cold air outlet 37 ... Cold curtain 40..Damper device 41 .. Electric motor 42..Damper plate 43..Structure 44 ... Wind direction plate 46 ··· Cold air flow port 47..Detection sensor 48 ...

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cooling storage in which cold air cooled by a cooler is circulated by a blower through a cool air duct to form a cool air curtain at a front opening of a refrigerating compartment, and a sensor for detecting the presence of a person on the front side of the cooling storage is provided. Provided, based on the detection of the sensor, prior to the opening operation of the door for opening and closing the front opening of the refrigerating compartment, the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain is set to the cold air supply state when the door is opened. Cool storage to do. 2. The control of the amount of cold air flowing through the cold air curtain according to claim 1, based on the detection of the sensor, by a damper device provided in the cold air duct, zero or a small amount when the door is closed. A cold storage that is in a cold air supply state and is in a large amount of cold air supply state by the detection of the sensor.