JP2006226635A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator retaining a proper temperature state by effectively suppressing a cold air flow to be introduced into an ice making chamber, suppressing sublimation of stored ice, providing long term preservation, and eliminating a temperature rise in the ice making chamber. <P>SOLUTION: The refrigerator wherein a refrigeration chamber 2, a vegetable chamber 3, a freezing chamber 4, and the ice making chamber 5 provided with an automatic ice making device 12 are independently arranged, is characterized by that it is provided with a fan 7 introducing cold air into the ice making chamber, and a damper 15 adjusting an amount of the cold air to be introduced, and the damper is opened and closed during stoppage of an ice making function. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator provided with an automatic ice making device and intended for long-term storage of ice.

  Recent refrigerators are equipped with an automatic ice making device that automatically supplies water from a water supply tank installed in a refrigeration room to an ice making tray provided in an ice making room, which is an independent freezing temperature space, and then ices off and stores the ice. This automatic ice making device is automatically used unless there is a predetermined amount of water in the water supply tank, the amount of stored ice is not over a predetermined level, and it is forcibly stopped by the user's will. The ice making operation is continued.

  And the ice making room is a freezing temperature space that is cooled by introducing cold air generated by a freezing cooler with a fan, like the freezing room, and is arranged independently of other storage rooms. There are many. Therefore, it communicates with the freezer compartment through the cold air duct, and cools and makes ice by circulating the cold air from the freezer compartment.

  If the ice making operation is continued due to the above, the ice making water in the water supply tank will eventually disappear or the ice storage box will be filled with ice and the ice making operation will be stopped. It is also conceivable that the ice making function is forcibly stopped by the user without requiring ice making when there is little time.

Even when the ice making function is stopped, the cold air flows into the ice making room through the duct. Therefore, in order to eliminate the waste of cooling the unnecessary space, a damper is installed in the duct to the ice making room, and the ice making is completed. When it is not necessary to send cold air to the vessel, a device has been proposed in which the damper is closed to increase the amount of cold air introduced into other storage rooms such as a freezer room, a refrigerator room, and a vegetable room (for example, patent document) 1 or 2).
JP 2000-292046 A JP 2001-221555 A

  However, even when the ice making function is stopped, as in Patent Document 1, when the damper is closed and the cold air flow into the ice making room is blocked, the ice making room temperature that should be a freezing space is several hours. In the meantime, the temperature rises to around 0 ° C., and the stored ice melts. Also, simply opening and closing the damper reduces the volume of ice due to the sublimation phenomenon caused by the inflow of cold air when the damper is open.Furthermore, the inflowing cold air is in a dry state, so the sublimation phenomenon proceeds more and lasts for a long time. If this is the case, the amount of ice will be significantly reduced.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and by effectively controlling the cold air flow introduced into the ice making chamber, it is possible to prevent ice storage sublimation and enable long-term storage and the temperature in the ice making chamber. An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator that maintains an appropriate temperature state by eliminating the rise.

  In order to solve the above problems, a refrigerator according to the present invention is a refrigerator in which an ice making chamber provided with an automatic ice making device is provided independently of a freezing chamber, a fan for introducing cold air into the ice making chamber, and a damper for adjusting the amount of introduced cold air The damper is opened and closed when the ice making function is stopped.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, even when the ice making mechanism is stopped, such as when the ice storage amount is full, the water supply tank is out of water, or the operation is forcibly stopped by the user's intention, The temperature can be kept at a necessary cooling temperature state, and the ice storage ice can be prevented from sublimation and can be stored for a long time.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the refrigerator, with the inside of the refrigerator main body (1) formed of a heat insulating box as a storage space at the top, the refrigerator compartment (2), below it the vegetable compartment (3), the bottom The freezing room (4) is arranged independently, and an ice making room (5) and a multi-temperature switching room (not shown) are provided between the refrigerating room (2) and the vegetable room (3) through a heat insulating partition wall. Are arranged side by side, and a dedicated door is provided at the front opening of each storage chamber so as to be freely opened and closed.

  In the rear part of the vegetable room (3), a cooler (6) for a frozen storage space such as a freezer room or an ice making room, and a fan that circulates cold air generated in the cooler (6) into the storage room through a duct ( 7) is arranged, and a cooler (8) and a fan (9) for refrigerated storage space for cooling the refrigerator compartment (2) and the vegetable compartment (3) are provided on the back of the refrigerator compartment (2). By driving the refrigerant compressor (10) installed in the machine room, the refrigerant flows alternately to the coolers (6) and (8), and the cooled cold air is refrigerated and refrigerated by the rotation of the fans (7) and (9). The air is blown to each storage chamber on the side, and the cooling of each is controlled to a predetermined temperature.

  The automatic ice making device (12) disposed in the ice making chamber (5) is usually made by the ice making operation shown in the control flowchart of FIG. That is, ice is made by supplying water from the water supply tank (13) installed in the refrigerator compartment (2) to the ice tray (12a) in the ice making chamber (5), and the sensor provided in the ice tray (12a) is- When it is detected that ice making is completed by detecting a temperature of 12 ° C. or lower (step 1), first, the ice storage amount is detected (step 2), and then the ice is removed by rotating and twisting the ice tray (12a) (step 2). In step 4), the deiced ice falls into an ice storage box (12b) disposed in the lower part of the ice tray (12a) and is stored in ice.

  The ice storage amount detection (step 2), which is performed prior to the rotating ice removal operation, is performed by moving the detection lever up and down with respect to the ice in the ice storage box (12b). For example, if the ice storage box (12b) is full of ice, the detection lever contacts the top surface of the ice to detect this. In this case, the ice removal operation is stopped and 90 minutes have passed. At that time, the operation of detecting the ice storage amount is repeated again (step 3). Note that the re-detection operation of the ice storage amount is performed even when the door of the ice making chamber (5) is opened, assuming that this is an operation of taking out ice.

  When a predetermined amount of ice is taken out from the ice storage box (12b) during the above ice storage amount detection, when it is detected that the ice is not full, the deicing operation (step 4) is continued for the next ice making. If water supply operation (step 5) is performed, but no water remains in the water supply tank (13) and a predetermined amount of water is not supplied to the ice tray (12a), the temperature of the ice tray rises to a predetermined value. First, since the temperature sensor mounted on the ice tray (12a) does not detect a temperature rise, for example, a rise to -9 ° C. or higher (step 6), it is determined that water has run out (step 7), and the subsequent ice making operation is interrupted. The presence or absence of water supply is detected again at a time point (step 8) after minutes. Also in this case, similarly to the ice storage amount re-detection operation, when the refrigerator compartment (2) is opened, this is regarded as a water supply operation to the water supply tank (13) and the water supply operation is tried again. I am doing so.

  In other words, this ice making operation is automatically and continuously repeated as long as the ice storage amount in the ice storage box (12b) is not detected to be full or more than the predetermined level and the water supply tank (13) has a predetermined amount of ice making water. To do. Conversely, if the water for ice making in the water supply tank (13) runs out and the ice storage box (12b) becomes full, the subsequent ice making operation will be stopped, and users who do not need ice in the winter season etc. The ice making operation stops even when the forcible stop operation is performed or during the defrosting operation of the cooler.

  When the ice making function is stopped as described above, the cause of the stop is canceled, that is, until the water supply tank (13) is refilled with water, ice is taken out from the ice storage box (12b), or the user performs a return operation. Although the ice making function is interrupted, if the ice making is stopped for a long time, the ice particles become smaller due to sublimation as described above, so in the present invention, when the ice making function is stopped, By closing the damper (15) installed in the cold air duct to the ice making chamber (5), the blowing of cold air from the outlet of the ice making chamber (5) is blocked.

  However, the return time of the ice making function by replenishing water to the water supply tank (13) is not determined because it depends on the execution of the user's return operation, and as described above, the damper (15 ) To prevent the ice from melting due to the temperature rise in the ice making chamber (5), or the flow of dry cold air by simply opening and closing the damper (15) to reduce the ice volume due to sublimation. Therefore, the present invention further adopts the following configuration.

  An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a control flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 1 shows only the control related to the present invention.

  First, it is confirmed whether or not ice making is in progress through the normal ice making process (step 11). If ice making is in progress, the damper (15) is opened (step 12), and the stop of ice making operation is detected. Control (step 13) to close the damper (15) to the ice making chamber. By this operation, since cold air does not circulate in the ice making chamber (5), sublimation of ice can be reduced, but the temperature in the ice making chamber rises.

  Therefore, when water is replenished to the water supply tank (13) while the damper (15) is closed or ice is taken out from the ice storage box (12b) and the ice making operation is restored (step 14), This is continued and the damper (15) is opened (step 12), and when a certain time, for example, 20 minutes elapses (step 15) after the ice making operation is stopped, the damper is similarly applied. (15) is opened (step 16) and control is performed to blow cool air into the ice making chamber (5), thereby preventing an increase in the room temperature.

  When the ice making operation is resumed after opening the damper (15) (step 17), the ice making operation and the damper (15) opened in step 12 are continued as described above, and the stop of the ice making operation is performed in the above step. If the damper (15) is opened for a predetermined time, such as 30 minutes, at step 16, this is counted (step 18), the process returns to step 13 again, the damper (15) is closed, and the flow is repeated thereafter. is there. The closing time and opening time of the damper (15) in the flow are not limited to the above numerical values.

  With the above control, the ice making mechanism is stopped, for example, the ice storage amount in the ice storage box (12b) is full, the water supply tank (13) is out of water, or the ice making operation is forcibly stopped by the user's intention. Even in the case where it is, the damper (15) is opened and closed every predetermined time to suppress the temperature rise in the ice making chamber (5) and maintain the required cooling temperature state, and to suppress the sublimation of ice storage ice due to the cold air flow. Long-term storage.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a control flowchart shown in FIG. The present embodiment is characterized in that the opening and closing of the damper (15) is controlled in accordance with the refrigeration cycle configuration.

  The refrigeration cycle in recent refrigerators includes a type that cools a low-temperature refrigerated storage space and a high-temperature refrigerated storage space with a single cooler, and a type in which a dedicated cooler is provided in each of the refrigeration and refrigerated storage spaces. Broadly divided.

  The single cooler type is equipped with a cooler based on the refrigeration cooling temperature, and the refrigeration space on the high temperature side is controlled by adjusting the amount of cold air by opening and closing the damper, etc. The refrigerant is individually cooled by switching the coolant for each cooler using a switching valve or the like, but the ice making chamber (5) is in the same temperature zone as the freezing chamber (4) and is -10 ° C or lower. The low-temperature atmosphere is required, and in either case, the refrigeration space is controlled.

  However, the ice making chamber (5) does not need to maintain a normal temperature atmosphere of −18 ° C. or lower as in the freezing chamber, and is only required to maintain a slightly higher temperature of −12 ° C., and the freezing chamber (4) It is not necessary to control the opening and closing of the ice chamber damper (15) according to the control temperature of the ice. By adding the opening and closing conditions of the damper (15) by the ice chamber temperature sensor, the ice sublimation can be suppressed more effectively. And control as follows.

  First, as in the previous embodiment, it is confirmed whether or not ice making is in progress (step 21). If the ice making operation is stopped under some conditions, the state of the refrigeration cycle is confirmed (step 22). That is, in the case of the single cooler system, the refrigeration cycle is stopped, and in the case of the dedicated cooler system, at least the timing when the refrigeration cooler is not cooled, for example, whether it is lower than −12 ° C. (Step 23), and if the ice chamber sensor temperature is -12 ° C or lower, which is sufficient for storing ice, close the ice chamber damper (15) (step 24) and sublimate the ice by a cold air flow. Suppress.

  Conversely, when the temperature is higher than −12 ° C. and higher than −10 ° C. where the ice may melt (step 25), the damper (15) is opened to cool the ice making chamber (5). Perform (step 25). In both step 25 and step 24, the flow returns to step 21 to repeat the same flow.

  If the temperature is lower than −10 ° C., the damper (15) returns to step 21 in the same manner as the above step while maintaining the open or closed state (step 26).

  As described above, when the temperature of the ice making chamber (5) rises by closing the damper (15), this temperature rise is detected and the damper (15) is opened again. By repeatedly controlling the opening and closing of 15), the atmosphere of the ice making room (5), which is higher than the freezing room (4) but sufficient for ice storage, can be maintained, and ice storage and sublimation The effect can be exhibited with respect to both of the suppression, and the system can be simplified in terms of control and a stable system can be obtained. Moreover, since it is not necessary to cool an extra space as needed as a frozen storage space called the ice making chamber (5), power consumption can be reduced by suppressing the cooling capacity.

  And since time passes and the temperature of freezing space rises, a refrigerating cycle stops or it transfers to the freezing space cooling mode from the state of refrigeration space cooling. At this time, since the room temperature of the ice making chamber (5), which is a freezing space, is also rising, the damper (15) is opened to cool the ice making chamber (5).

  Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. To suppress ice sublimation and reduce power consumption, opening and closing the damper (15) to the ice making room only during the cooling operation of the freezing space will result in the ice making room (from the cooling operation of the freezing space to the refrigerating space operation ( 5) There is an effect that the time lag of the temperature rise can be taken into account, but at this time the ice making chamber (5) is cooled by the rotation of the freezing cooling fan (7). When the operation is performed at the same speed, the sublimation of the ice stored in the ice making chamber (5) is promoted, so that the damper (15) is opened with the ice making operation stopped as in the above embodiment. In addition, sublimation can be further suppressed by lowering the rotational speed of the freezing fan (7) than during the ice making operation.

  As shown in the control flowchart of FIG. 3, it is confirmed whether or not the ice making operation is in progress (step 31). If the ice making operation is stopped, the open / close state of the damper (15) to the ice making chamber (5) is determined. Confirm (step 32). When the damper (15) is opened by the same control as in the second embodiment, the number of rotations of the refrigeration cooling fan (7) is decreased by one step from the normal level (step 33). The amount can be reduced and ice sublimation in the ice storage box (12b) can be reduced.

  Further, when the rotational speed of the fan (7) is reduced, the refrigeration capacity to the refrigeration space is also reduced. Thus, when the rotational speed of the refrigeration fan (7) is reduced, the compressor (10) This can be compensated for by increasing the rotation speed of the engine (step 34), and the refrigeration capacity can be maintained with a simple configuration.

  When the ice making operation is stopped and the damper (15) to the ice making chamber is closed, it is not necessary to consider the cooling control to the ice making chamber (5), so the freezing fan (7) is a refrigerator. The normal rotation control is performed (step 35), and the refrigeration capacity can reduce the cooling power for the space of the ice making room, so the compressor (10) can be rotated at that low speed (step 36). Well, power consumption can be reduced.

  The present invention can be used in a refrigerator equipped with an automatic ice making device.

It is an ice-making operation control flowchart of the refrigerator which shows 1st Example of this invention. It is an ice making operation control flowchart which shows the 2nd Example of this invention. It is an ice making operation control flowchart which shows the 3rd Example of this invention. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view which shows schematic structure of the refrigerator of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the control system of a normal automatic ice making apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerator body 2 Refrigerating room 3 Vegetable room 4 Freezing room 5 Ice making room 6 Refrigerating cooler 7, 9 Cooling fan 8 Refrigerating cooler 10 Compressor
12 Automatic ice making equipment 12a Ice tray 12b Ice storage box
13 Water tank 15 Ice chamber damper

Claims (6)

  A refrigerator that has an ice making room that is equipped with an automatic ice making device together with a freezing room, is equipped with a fan that introduces cold air into the ice making room and a damper that adjusts the amount of cold air introduced, and opens and closes the damper when the ice making function is stopped A refrigerator characterized by letting   2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the opening and closing of the damper when the ice making function is stopped is alternately operated every predetermined time.   2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the opening and closing of the damper when the ice making function is stopped is opened during the cooling operation of the refrigeration side cooler of the refrigeration cycle and closed when the refrigeration side cooler is not cooled. .   A sensor that detects the temperature of the ice making chamber was provided, and the damper was opened and closed when the ice making function was stopped when the temperature detected by the sensor was above the ice storage temperature, and closed when the temperature was below the ice storage temperature. The refrigerator according to claim 1.   2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein when the damper is opened when the ice making function is stopped, the rotational speed of the fan for introducing cool air into the ice making chamber is set to be lower than usual. 6. The refrigerator according to claim 5, wherein the compressor is driven at a higher speed than usual while the fan is rotating at a low speed.

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