JP2007333261A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem of the progress of dryness of food caused by the increase of the quantity of circulated cold air required for reducing the malodor in a conventional refrigerator by only a deodorization device set in a cold air circulation channel because there is no air flow among foods and the malodorous component heavier than air is retained although it is conventionally considered that the malodor can be reduced by removing malodor in circulating cold air by disposing the deodorization device in the cold air channels as a countermeasure against the malodor in the conventional freezing refrigerator. <P>SOLUTION: The deodorization function is given to a resin component to be brought into contact with foods in the refrigerator in which cold air cooled by a cooler is circulated by force to a freezer compartment by using a blower means such as a cold-air circulation fan. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a refrigerator that prevents filling of odors generated from stored foods.

  Commercial refrigerator-freezers are equipped with a deodorizing device in the cool air passage to prevent the odor generated from the stored food from being filled.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-50079

  The conventional refrigerator-freezer considered that the odor can be reduced by removing the malodor in the cold air circulating by arranging the deodorizing device in the cold air passage as a countermeasure against the bad odor in the cabinet. This is because the conventional refrigerator-freezer can cool the food stored in every corner with this circulating cold air, so that it is considered that the air in the refrigerator circulates in every corner.

  However, many foods are stored in the refrigerator. Therefore, the main flow of the cooling air flows through the empty space above the food, and the flow of the air between the foods is extremely small. Still, the food stored in the refrigerator can be cooled evenly because warm air is heavier than cold air, so when the cooled air passes through the empty space above the food, the cold air naturally falls, and the food and food The warm air in between rises naturally and is cooled down to every corner. On the other hand, since most of the malodorous components in the refrigerator are heavier than air, the conventional cool air circulation system keeps the odor components between foods even if the warm air rises.

  In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to increase the circulation rate of the cold air so that even if there are many foods, the wind can pass through all the corners. However, when this is done, moisture is taken away by the cold air that passes through the vicinity of the food, and drying of the food is promoted. Most foods are wrapped, but since the wraps are permeable to moisture, drying is accelerated even if they are wrapped.

  Further, in a storage room using a deep container such as a vegetable room, the food is uniformly cooled by circulating cold air outside the container. For this reason, since cool air does not circulate in the container, a bad odor is trapped.

  Therefore, as an ideal preservation method, it is necessary to be able to deodorize the odor between foods in a convection state with the minimum amount of cold air that cools uniformly.

  An object of this invention is to provide the refrigerator which can suppress the drying of food with the minimum amount of cold air circulation, and can prevent the bad smell in a refrigerator.

  The first feature of the present invention to achieve the above object is to deodorize resin parts in contact with food in a refrigerator that forcibly circulates the cold air cooled by a cooler to a freezing room using a blowing means such as a cold air circulation fan. It is in processing.

  More preferably, at least the inside of the container for storing food as a resin part is deodorized.

  More preferably, the deodorizer contains at least zinc, silver and silica.

  More preferably, a component that generates zinc oxide ions and silanol ions is kneaded into a resin component that can be removed and washed.

  More preferably, at least a transparent resin part of the resin parts has a deodorizing film of 1 to 100 μm.

  Since the present invention has the above-described configuration, it can remove malodors without promoting drying of food stored in the refrigerator-freezer.

  Embodiments of a humidity maintaining refrigerator-freezer in a freezer compartment according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  First, the refrigerator of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a front view of the refrigerator of the present embodiment with the door removed, FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the main part of the back of the freezer compartment, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a bundle of partition members in FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the back side of the partition member bundle of FIG.

  First, in FIG. 1, 1 is the main body of a refrigerator-freezer. The refrigerator-freezer main body 1 has a refrigerator compartment 2, a freezer compartment 3, and a vegetable compartment 4 from the inside. Although not shown in the figure, the front opening of the chamber has a door. In particular, the door that closes the entire opening of the freezer compartment 3 and the vegetable compartment 4 is formed in a drawer type, and is formed in a structure that pulls out a container to be described later together with the door.

  Inside the refrigerator compartment 2, shelf parts 2a on which foods are placed, a back panel 2b constituting the back of the refrigerator compartment, and internal components such as a food container are attached. Although not shown in FIG. 1, a door storage container that mainly stores beverages, seasonings, and the like is attached to a door that covers the front opening of the refrigerator compartment 2. The interior parts including these door storage containers are subjected to deodorization processing as will be described later.

  The region shown as the freezer compartment 3 is divided into an ice making room 3a, a quick freezer room 3b, and a freezer room 3c, and each of these rooms is maintained at a temperature in the freezing temperature zone. The ice making chamber 3a is provided with an automatic ice making device and an ice storage container, and the ice storage container is pulled out together with the door by pulling out the drawer-type door. The quick freezing chamber 3b and the freezing chamber 3c are also configured such that the entire opening is closed by a drawer-type door, and the internal container is pulled out by pulling out the door of the warehouse.

In particular, in the freezer compartment 3c, three upper and lower containers are accommodated as shown in the figure, and a lower freezer compartment container 5, an intermediate freezer compartment container 6, and an upper freezer compartment container 7 are arranged from the lower stage. Although not shown in the drawing, the lower freezer compartment container 5 and the middle freezer compartment container 6 are fixed to the drawer frame of the freezer compartment door, and move in and out of the freezer compartment 3c in conjunction with opening and closing of the freezer compartment door. The upper freezer compartment container 7 is configured such that it can be pulled out from the freezer compartment 3c using rails provided on the side surface of the inner box constituting the side wall of the freezer compartment 3c. Furthermore, the containers 5, 6, and 7 are containers having different depth dimensions, and are suitable for storing various foods having different sizes.

  Next, the point that the inside of the freezer compartment 3 is cooled by the cold air generated in the cooler compartment 8 formed in the back portion of the freezer compartment 3 in FIG. 2 will be described.

  Reference numeral 8 denotes a cooler chamber formed on the back of the freezer compartment 3. The cooler chamber 8 includes a cooler 9 constituting the refrigerating cycle and the cool air produced by the cooler 9, as well as the freezer compartment 3 and the damper 11. A cold air circulation fan 10 for forced circulation to the refrigerator compartment 2 and the vegetable compartment 4 is provided.

  Reference numeral 12 denotes a bundle of partition members that partitions the freezer compartment 3 and the cooler compartment 8. As shown in FIG. 3, the partition member package 12 is provided with discharge ports for sending cool air through the cooler 9 to each container portion as shown in the figure. That is, the cold air sent by the cold air circulation fan 10 is sent to the ice making chamber 3a, the quick freezing room 3b, and the freezing room 3c through the discharge port, and in particular, the freezing room 3c having three upper and lower freezing room containers. In this case, the discharge port is arranged so as to supply cold air to each of the freezer compartment containers.

  Further, the back side of the partition member package 12 is configured such that the cold air circulation fan 10, the damper 11, and the like are pre-assembled and attached to the back of the freezer compartment 3 so as to cover the cooler 9 from the front side of the refrigerator body. .

  Since these containers have a structure in which cold air enters from the upper part of the container through the cold air discharge port on the back as shown in FIG. 2, the flow of air generated in the gap between the foods packed in the container is extremely small. Yes.

  In the present embodiment, the above-described internal components and the container itself are subjected to a deodorizing process so as to have a deodorizing action. The cool air sent to the refrigerator compartment 2 has a smaller amount of cool air than the cool air sent to the freezer compartment 3, and the wind flow is gentle overall. However, since the deodorizing process is performed on the internal parts and the container, a deodorizing action in the refrigerator compartment 2 can be expected. In the container, it is effective to perform deodorization processing at least on the inner side where food is stored.

  Also, in the storage containers of the freezer compartment 3 and the vegetable compartment 4 where foods are stacked and stored, the flow of cold air is less likely to occur between the foods in the storage container, but the container is subjected to deodorization processing. Therefore, the deodorizing action in the freezer compartment 3 and the vegetable compartment 4 can be expected.

  The deodorizer contains at least zinc, silver, and silica, and components that generate zinc oxide ions and silanol ions are kneaded into the resin parts that can be removed and cleaned. At least the transparent resin component is coated with titanium oxide particles having an average particle diameter of 1 to 100 nanometers.

  The deodorizing result of the deodorizer used for the container of this invention is shown below.

  Figure 5 shows the addition of a deodorizing agent that generates zinc oxide ions and silanol ions to polypropylene resin, and a lid is attached to the molded container, which is sealed and filled with methyl mercaptan, which is a bad odor, to attenuate the methyl mercaptan concentration in the container. The measurement results are shown. Reference numeral 13 denotes a deodorant-free container, 14 denotes a deodorant-added container, 15 denotes a deodorant-free container after washing, and 16 denotes a deodorant-added container after washing.

  From the measurement results, it can be seen that the odor concentration in the deodorant-added container 14 is reduced, and that it has a deodorizing effect by kneading into the resin. Further, as a result of measuring the recovery of the deodorizing ability after washing the container after the deodorization test, it can be seen that the odor concentration in the deodorant addition container 16 after the washing is reduced, and the deodorizing ability is recovered by the washing.

  Further, it can be seen that the container without the deodorant does not immediately attenuate the methyl mercaptan concentration even after washing, and the effect of adding the deodorant is high.

  In FIG. 6, a 10 cm square test piece is cut out from a container formed of a transparent polystyrene resin and coated with titanium oxide particles having an average particle diameter of 1 to 100 nanometers. The result of having measured the density | concentration of the dimethyl disulfide produced | generated by attenuation | damping of the methyl mercaptan density | concentration in a bag and photocatalytic reaction after filling methyl mercaptan for 24 hours is shown. 17 shows the residual ratio of methyl mercaptan in the tedra bag, and 18 shows the generation ratio with respect to the theoretical value of dimethyl disulfide generated when methyl mercaptan is decomposed by photocatalytic reaction.

  As a result of the test, it can be seen that deodorization is observed because the residual ratio of methyl mercaptan is low after 24 hours from the initial stage. This is because it adsorbs to the deodorizing film and further decomposes by a photocatalytic reaction. And it can be seen that the photocatalytic reaction can be exhibited even without light because dimethyl disulfide, which is a decomposition product, is generated even in the absence of light. It can also be seen that increasing the temperature decreases the residual ratio of methyl mercaptan and increases the generation ratio of dimethyl disulfide. This is because the amount of adsorption increases as the amount of decomposition due to photocatalytic reaction increases. Therefore, it can be seen that the photocatalytic reaction further proceeds by heating. Therefore, washing the refrigerator parts with hot water when washing decomposes the malodorous component adsorbed on the deodorizing film, and is more effective in recovering the deodorizing ability.

  The above embodiment has the following effects. That is, in the refrigerator that forcibly circulates the cold air cooled by the cooler to the freezer compartment using air blowing means such as a cold air circulation fan, the deodorizing process is performed on the resin parts that come into contact with the food, so that it accumulates between the food and the food. The odor can be deodorized and the odor is not felt when the food is stored in the refrigerator. In addition, since it is not necessary to increase the amount of cool air circulation so that odors do not accumulate between foods, it is possible to maintain an odor-free refrigerator space without promoting food drying.

  In addition, the resin parts that can be removed and cleaned are kneaded with components that generate zinc oxide ions and silanol ions, so that the deodorizing ability is maintained because they are regenerated by washing with water. By covering the transparent resin parts with titanium oxide particles having an average particle size of 1 to 100 nanometers, a deodorizing function can be added without impairing the transparency, and the deodorizing ability is maintained by a photocatalytic reaction.

  In particular, odor components tend to accumulate in refrigeration rooms and vegetable rooms where the amount of cold air circulation is relatively small, or in freezer rooms and vegetable rooms where deep storage containers are installed. , Can effectively deodorize.

It is a front view of the state which removed the door of the refrigerator of a present Example. It is a principal part expanded sectional view of a freezer compartment back part. It is a perspective view of a partition member collective article. It is a perspective view which shows the back side of a partition member package. It is a figure which shows the result of having measured the attenuation | damping of the methyl mercaptan density | concentration by adding a deodorizing agent to a polypropylene resin. It is a figure which shows the result of having measured the density | concentration of the attenuation | damping of the methyl mercaptan density | concentration of the container which coat | covered the titanium oxide particle on transparent polystyrene resin, and the density | concentration of the dimethyl disulfide produced | generated by a photocatalytic reaction.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Refrigerator main body, 2 ... Cold storage room, 2a ... Shelf, 2b ... Back panel, 3, 3c ... Freezing room, 3a ... Ice making room, 3b ... Quick freezing room, 4 ... Vegetable room, 5 ... Lower freezing room container, 6 ... middle stage freezer container, 7 ... upper freezer container, 8 ... cooler room, 9 ... cooler, 10 ... cool air circulation fan, 11 ... damper, 12 ... partition member bundle, 13 ... container without deodorant, 14 ... Container with deodorant added,
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 15 ... Container without deodorant after washing | cleaning, 16 ... Container with deodorizer addition after washing | cleaning, 17 ... Residual rate of methyl mercaptan, 18 ... Production rate of dimethyl sulfide.

Claims (5)

  A refrigerator that forcibly circulates cold air cooled by a cooler to a freezer compartment using a blowing means such as a cold air circulation fan, wherein the resin parts that are in contact with food are deodorized.   A refrigerator-freezer characterized in that the resin component according to claim 1 is deodorized at least inside a container for storing food.   2. The refrigerator-freezer according to claim 1, wherein the deodorizer contains at least zinc, silver, and silica.   The refrigerator part characterized by kneading the component which produces | generates a zinc oxide ion and a silanol ion in the resin component which can be removed and wash | cleaned among the resin components of Claim 1. 2. A refrigerator-freezer, wherein at least a transparent resin component among the resin components according to claim 1 is coated with titanium oxide particles having an average particle diameter of 1 to 100 nanometers.

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