JP2005069602A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator, in which constitution of cold air flow is simplified to indirectly heat a vegetable chamber, in which drying in the vegetable chamber is prevented to enable long storage of vegetables and fruit, and in which quantity of heat leak is reduced to save energy. <P>SOLUTION: This refrigerator comprises a refrigeration chamber 6 installed at an upper part of a main body, having a container 15 at a lower part, a bottom plate 8 to form a bottom surface of the refrigeration chamber to part the refrigeration chamber and the vegetable chamber 9 disposed below the refrigeration chamber, and a cold air passage 16 formed in a gap between the bottom plate and the container for flow of cold air for indirectly cooling the vegetable chamber below. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator in which a vegetable room is disposed below a refrigerator compartment, and more particularly to an indirect cooling configuration of a vegetable room.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the refrigerator compartment (56) in the refrigerator is conventionally provided at the top of the main body as a storage chamber having the largest storage capacity. A chilled chamber (63) that is controlled to about 0 to −3 ° C., which is slightly lower than the temperature of the refrigerator compartment, is arranged below the refrigerator compartment by partitioning with a bottom plate (58) that is a partition. A container (65) is housed in the chilled chamber (63) so that it can be pulled out. A water supply tank that supplies ice-making water to the automatic ice making device is installed on the side of the container (65). Has been.

A vegetable room (59) is provided below the refrigerating room (56) via a bottom plate (58), and the vegetable room (59) is cooled by using the cold air circulated in the refrigerating room from behind. The upper surface of the upper surface container (70) whose upper surface opening is covered with the lid cover (60) and the bottom plate (58) are blown forward. The cold air that reaches the front opening of the vegetable compartment (59) descends between the front and left and right peripheral sides of the vegetable container (69) and the wall of the vegetable compartment as shown by the arrow, and passes through the outer bottom surface of the container (69). Then, the vegetables are circulated back to the cooler chamber, and the stored vegetables are cooled indirectly from the surroundings of the vegetable container (69) so that the humidity is kept high. (For example, see Patent Document 1)
JP 2002-277152 A (paragraphs [0018] [0023])

  However, in the above configuration, since cold air flows around the vegetable container (69), the wall surface of the container (69) is cooled and the vegetables in contact with the container wall surface and the vegetables in the vicinity of the wall surface are liable to be deteriorated due to a low temperature failure. In addition to the disadvantages that cannot be stored for a long period of time, the amount of heat leakage from the heat insulating wall (53) to the outside increases due to the flow of cold air around the vegetable room (59). Leaked a large amount of heat from the seal packing part (64) around the vegetable room door, making it difficult to reduce power consumption.

  In addition, as described above, since the upper surface of the vegetable compartment is closed with the lid cover (60), ethylene gas generated from vegetables and fruits will stay, and this ethylene gas is an aging hormone. There is a problem that the effect of deteriorating the freshness of the fruits and vegetables becomes large.

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, indirect cooling of the vegetable room by simplifying the cold air flow configuration, preventing the drying of the vegetable room and enabling long-term storage of stored vegetables and fruits, An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator that contributes to power saving by reducing the amount of heat leakage.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a refrigerator according to the present invention includes a refrigeration room that is installed in an upper part of a main body and that has a storage container provided in a lower part of the room, and a refrigeration room that partitions the refrigeration room and a vegetable room disposed in the lower part of the refrigeration room And a cold air passage that is formed in a gap between the bottom plate and the storage container and indirectly cools the lower vegetable compartment by passing cold air.

  With this configuration, the inside of the vegetable container can be indirectly cooled without flowing cool air to the peripheral wall of the vegetable room, preventing drying of stored vegetables and low-temperature obstacles and enabling long-term storage, and the vegetable room door In addition, there is an effect that the power leakage can be reduced by reducing heat leakage from the surrounding heat insulating wall.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the upper part of the refrigerator (1), and a storage space is formed by an inner box (4) provided on the inner surface of the outer box (2) via a heat insulating material (3), and a partition wall Divided into multiple storage rooms according to (5).

  (6) is a refrigerating room disposed at the uppermost part of the main body. A refrigerating room door is pivotally supported on one side of the main body by a hinge, and the front opening is closed by this door.

  In the lower part of the refrigerator compartment (6), a vegetable compartment (9) for accommodating vegetables and plastic bottles is formed via a bottom plate (8). Since this vegetable room (9) is basically in the temperature range almost the same as that of the refrigerator room (6), the bottom plate (8) does not require a heat insulation structure and is formed of a plate body that performs a simple partitioning action. .

  Below the vegetable compartment (9), although not shown in the drawing, an ice-making storage compartment and a temperature switching compartment are placed in a relatively small volume via a heat-insulating partition wall (5), and a frozen portion containing frozen food at the bottom. These storage rooms other than the refrigerator compartment (6) are provided with a support frame on the inner side of the door that closes the front opening, and the storage containers held by the support frame are attached to the side walls of the respective storage rooms. The drawer system is slidable back and forth with the arranged rails.

  Thus, at the bottom of the refrigerator compartment (6), the bottom surface is constituted by the bottom plate (8) of the refrigerator compartment, and a partition plate is arranged on the top plate (11) and one side wall to form a partition. A chilled chamber (13) controlled to about ° C. is formed, and a water supply tank for supplying ice-making water to the ice-making storage chamber is installed outside the partition plate.

  (15) is a container that can be pulled out into the chilled chamber (13), has a box shape with a peripheral side with an open top, has a low front wall and a large front opening, as described above. Stores low-temperature food.

  Although not shown in detail, the chilled container (15) is placed on a slide rail formed integrally on both sides of the bottom plate (8) of the refrigerator compartment (6), and in the depth direction on both sides below the bottom. By engaging the guide protrusion provided on the sliding rail with the sliding rail, the weight of the container (15) and the stored food is supported and slidable in the front-rear direction, and the container (15) and the bottom plate ( 8) The suction duct (16) that leads the space between the cooler chamber (6) to the cooler cooler chamber that circulates in the refrigerator compartment (6), and the vegetable chamber (below it) by the cooling power of the cool air that passes through the duct (16) 9) is indirectly cooled.

  (17) is a chilled door that holds the chilled chamber (13) in a substantially sealed state together with the top plate (11) and the partition plate, and is pivotally supported at the front end of the top plate (11). The upper opening of the container is covered so as to be openable and closable, and is configured to open and close in conjunction with the drawing and pushing operation of the container (15).

Below the refrigerator compartment (6) is provided a vegetable compartment (9) in which the peripheral wall and the bottom wall are thermally insulated through a bottom plate (8). In the vegetable compartment (9), a drawer-type vegetable container (19) is placed as described above, and a shallow, small-capacity upper container (20) is provided above the vegetable container (19). So that the items can be sorted.
The air temperature in the said vegetable container (19) is set to 4-6 degreeC. The inside of the upper container (20) is cooled to 1 to 3 ° C. to store low temperature vegetables and the like, and the upper surface of the container is not provided with a lid cover as in the prior art, and is open.

  Cooling of the vegetable compartment (19) is formed between the chilled container (15) and the bottom plate (8) from the front lower part of the chilled compartment (13) as indicated by the arrow in the refrigerated compartment (6). The bottom plate (8) is cooled by introducing it into the suction duct (16), which is a cool air passage, and flowing down inside the duct, and indirectly through the lowering of the cold air from above by the cooled bottom plate (9) It cools the space.

  The cold air flowing on the bottom plate (8) reaches the back of the chilled container (15), is deodorized and sterilized by the deodorizing device (21) installed on the back wall of the chilled chamber (13), and returns to the cooler (22). It forms a circulation cycle that is cooled again.

  As shown in FIG. 2, which is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the partition between the refrigerator compartment (6) and the vegetable compartment (9), the bottom plate (8) communicates with the refrigerator compartment (6) and the vegetable compartment (9) at the rear. A plurality of through holes (8a) are formed.

  This through-hole (8a) allows the ethylene gas generated from the vegetables and fruits stored in the vegetable compartment (9) to permeate the suction duct (16). Ethylene gas is an aging hormone that develops as fruits and vegetables age, and it also has an adverse effect on aging on other fruits and vegetables. Due to the presence of the hole (8a), it does not stay and passes through the bottom plate (8) and is sucked into the suction duct (16). The permeated ethylene gas is decomposed and removed by the deodorizing device (21).

  The deodorizing device (21) has an air discharge mechanism (24), a discharge electrode (25) constituting the air discharge mechanism and a counter electrode (26) in a case (23) installed in the path of the suction duct (16). ), A photocatalytic filter (27) coated with a photocatalytic material such as titanium oxide on the surface of a porous substrate made of ceramic such as alumina or silica, and dried and fixed downstream of the duct (16). The ozonization catalyst (28) provided is integrated and stored.

  When the deodorizing device (21) is operated, a high voltage discharge is generated between the discharge electrode (25) and the counter electrode (26) to generate ultraviolet rays and ozone, which are irradiated to the photocatalytic filter (27). Then, titanium oxide is activated and decomposes odor components and ethylene gas in the cold air by photocatalytic action. In addition, ozone generated by high voltage discharge is decomposed to an ozone decomposition catalyst (28) formed by fixing a catalyst material on the surface of a honeycomb substrate based on manganese oxide, for example, and the active oxygen generated by decomposition of ozone is decomposed. Oxidizing power decomposes and removes odorous components such as amines and ammonia contained in cold air.

  In the above embodiment, the step plate (8b) is provided in the portion of the bottom plate (8) where the plurality of through holes (8a) are formed, and is slightly higher than the other bottom plate surface. Even if spilled soup or the like is spilled in (13) or other refrigerator compartment (6), it is possible to reduce the risk of contaminating the fruits and vegetables by flowing into the vegetable compartment (9) from the through-hole (8a).

  Moreover, (29) shown in FIG. 2 introduces a part of the cool air blown from the cooler (22) installed at the back of the refrigerator compartment (6), and forms a closed loop in the vegetable compartment (9) below the bottom plate (8). ) And a cooling duct arranged above the bottom plate (8), when the cooling capacity in the vegetable compartment (9) is insufficient only by cooling from the surface of the bottom plate (8), or the vegetable container (19) is made up of two stages. The upper container (20) is provided as an auxiliary when used as a low temperature container.

  Thus, by making the cooling duct (29) into a closed loop shape, it is possible to achieve low temperature in the vegetable container (19) while maintaining high humidity.

  With the above configuration, stored items such as vegetables and fruits in the vegetable container (19) are cooled by maintaining high humidity without drying the room by indirect cooling from the bottom plate (8) above the vegetable room (9). Since ethylene gas, which is an aging hormone, is also sucked and removed from the through-hole (8a) into the suction duct (16) as needed, the freshness is maintained and long-term storage is possible.

  In addition, since the cold air that cools the vegetable compartment (9) does not flow into the vegetable compartment, it naturally circulates around the peripheral wall of the vegetable container (19) and leaks heat from the heat insulating wall (3), or the periphery of the vegetable compartment door. Since it does not increase the amount of heat leakage by blowing on the seal packing (30) and cooling it, it is not necessary to perform a cooling operation to compensate for the amount of heat leakage, and power consumption can be reduced. By using the bottom plate (8) of the refrigerator compartment as a lid cover for the vegetable container (19) without causing cold air to flow into the vegetable compartment (9), the number of parts can be reduced and the cost can be reduced. .

  Further, by making a through hole (8a) communicating the refrigerator compartment (6) and the vegetable compartment (9) on the bottom plate (8) surface forming the suction duct (16), the inside of the vegetable container (19) The ethylene gas generated in the container can be sucked out to the cold air passage side to reduce the ethylene gas in the vegetable container. Further, in the back space of the chilled container (13) in the vicinity of the through hole (8a), a deodorizing device (21 ) Can efficiently decompose and remove ethylene gas and other odorous substances sucked out from the vegetable compartment (9).

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, it can utilize for the refrigerator provided with the vegetable compartment which can reduce the power consumption while preventing the drying of storage fruits and vegetables and maintaining high humidity.

1 is a partially cutaway longitudinal sectional view of a refrigerator showing an embodiment of the present invention. It is an expanded longitudinal cross-sectional view of the partition part of the chilled room and vegetable room in FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the refrigerator which shows the conventional cold air circulation structure.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerator 3 Heat insulating material 6 Refrigeration room 8 Bottom plate 8a Through-hole 8b Step part 9 Vegetable room
11 Top plate
13 Chilled room
15 containers
16 Suction duct
17 Chilled door
19 Vegetable container
20 Upper container
21 Deodorizer
22 Cooler
23 cases
24 Air discharge mechanism
27 Photocatalytic filter
28 Ozone decomposition catalyst
29 Loop duct
30 Seal packing

Claims (3)

  A refrigerating room installed at the upper part of the main body and provided with a storage container at the lower part of the room; a bottom plate that forms the bottom of the refrigerating room separating the refrigerating room and the vegetable room disposed at the bottom of the refrigerating room; and the bottom plate and the storage container And a cold air passage for indirectly cooling the vegetable compartment below by passing cold air.   2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the cold air passage is a suction duct for returning the indoor circulating cold air to the cooler, and a through-hole communicating with the refrigerator compartment and the vegetable compartment is formed on the bottom plate surface. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein an ethylene gas decomposition apparatus using a photocatalyst is installed on the back of the storage container in the vicinity of the through hole provided in the bottom plate.

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