JP2013079789A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator capable of preventing dew condensation by supplying sufficient heat without directly disposing a heat source such as a high temperature refrigerant tube at a place where the dew condensation frequently occurs at an external wall, while vacuum insulation material or the like need not to be molded into a special shape so as to dispose a dew condensation preventing structure even if a refrigerator housing is thinned and thereby the vacuum insulation material or the like is disposed in an inner space.SOLUTION: The refrigerator includes: the refrigerator housing 1 having the external wall 11 contacting external air, and an internal wall 12 defining an internal space 14; and a thermally-conductive seat 3 which is disposed inside a housing internal space 13 formed between the external wall 11 and the internal wall 12, at least one end of which is attached to be adjacent to the heat source 2 or contact therewith, and the other end of which extends to the vicinity of a dew condensation prevention region of the external wall 11.

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a dew condensation prevention structure for preventing dew condensation from occurring on an outer wall of a refrigerator housing.

  In recent years, it has been required to increase the volume ratio of the refrigerator so that more refrigerators of the same volume can be accommodated. In order to improve such a volume ratio, it is necessary to reduce the thickness of the refrigerator casing composed of an outer wall in contact with the outside air and an inner wall that forms the interior space. And when reducing the thickness of the refrigerator casing, in order to make it difficult for the cold air from the interior space to escape to the outside through the casing, vacuum insulation is provided in the casing inner space between the outer wall and the inner wall. Materials are provided.

  By the way, even if the inside space of the refrigerator case is filled with a heat insulating member such as urethane, the outer wall is completely prevented from being cooled by escape of the cold air in the internal space, and is in contact with the outside air. It is difficult to prevent condensation on the outer wall surface. Therefore, conventionally, a high-temperature refrigerant pipe through which high-temperature refrigerant flows is embedded in the heat insulating member, for example, the high-temperature refrigerant pipe is spread over the entire side surface of the refrigerator, and heat is dissipated in the vicinity of the outer wall. Condensation is prevented (see Patent Document 1).

  However, it is difficult to form a dew condensation prevention structure by reducing the thickness of the refrigerator case and using the vacuum heat insulating material to spread the high-temperature refrigerant pipe along the entire outer wall as in the past. More specifically, although it is easy to embed the high-temperature refrigerant pipe in the heat insulating member if only a heat insulating member such as urethane is used without using a vacuum heat insulating material as in the past, the above-mentioned In the case of such a vacuum heat insulating material, a groove or the like for passing a high-temperature refrigerant pipe needs to be formed on the surface in advance. Then, since the vacuum heat insulating material must be formed in a complicated shape having a groove for passing a high-temperature refrigerant pipe instead of a simple shape such as a rectangular parallelepiped shape, the manufacturing cost increases.

  Furthermore, when the groove | channel for letting a high-temperature refrigerant pipe pass is formed in a vacuum heat insulating material, the problem that heat insulation deteriorates and productivity will fall correspondingly. In addition, there is a constraint that the thickness of the vacuum heat insulating material must be equal to or greater than the diameter of the high-temperature refrigerant pipe, which contradicts the demand for thinning the refrigerator housing in order to improve the volume ratio. However, even if the high-temperature refrigerant pipe is spread only where the vacuum insulation material is not inserted, sufficient heat is not supplied to the place away from the high-temperature refrigerant pipe, and condensation on the outer wall surface can be prevented. It becomes impossible.

JP 2000-018796 A

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems. Even if a heat source such as a high-temperature refrigerant pipe is not directly provided in a place where condensation on the outer wall is likely to occur, sufficient heat is supplied to cause condensation. Even if the refrigerator casing is thinned and vacuum insulation is provided in the interior space, it is not necessary to mold the vacuum insulation into a special shape in order to provide a dew condensation prevention structure. The purpose is to provide a good refrigerator.

  That is, the refrigerator of the present invention is provided in a refrigerator housing having an outer wall that comes into contact with external air, an inner wall that forms an interior space, and an inner space of the housing that is formed between the outer wall and the inner wall. And a heat conductive sheet attached at least one end close to or in contact with a heat source and the other end extending to the vicinity of the dew condensation prevention region of the outer wall.

  In such a case, even if the heat source can be provided only at a location away from the dew condensation prevention region of the outer wall, the heat conductive sheet prevents condensation from the heat source to the dew condensation prevention region. A sufficient amount of heat can be supplied. Moreover, since the heat conductive sheet is in the form of a sheet, it hardly requires a space for installation in the internal space of the housing. For example, even when a vacuum heat insulating material is provided in the internal space of the housing, the surface of the vacuum heat insulating material There is no need to form a groove or the like for installation.

  In other words, since a heat conductive sheet is used, it is not necessary to directly provide the heat source in the vicinity of the dew condensation prevention region of the outer wall, so it is necessary to form a groove or the like for passing the heat source on the surface of the vacuum heat insulating material. No. Therefore, the vacuum heat insulating material can be formed, for example, in a simple rectangular parallelepiped shape, and problems such as an increase in manufacturing cost, a heat insulating property, and a decrease in productivity can be prevented.

  From these facts, according to the refrigerator of the present invention, even if the dew condensation prevention structure is formed while thinning the refrigerator housing to improve the volume ratio, the shape of the vacuum heat insulating material or the like may be complicated. Therefore, it is possible to make the product excellent in productivity.

  In order to prevent an increase in manufacturing cost due to the provision of a separate heat source such as a heater and to improve the heat dissipation efficiency of the refrigerator condenser, the heat source has a high temperature through which the high-temperature refrigerant discharged from the compressor flows. Any refrigerant pipe may be used as long as one end of the thermally conductive sheet is wound around the high-temperature refrigerant pipe. If it is such, while being able to use effectively the heat | fever of the high-temperature refrigerant | coolant which can only dissipate heat | fever by prevention of dew condensation, the efficiency as a refrigerating cycle can also be improved.

  In order to make it easier to prevent dew condensation on the outer wall and to prevent the cool air in the storage space from escaping to the outside through the refrigerator casing, a vacuum heat insulating material is provided in the casing inner space. The thermal conductive sheet may be provided between the outer wall and the vacuum heat insulating material. With such an arrangement, heat from the heat conductive sheet can be transferred to the outer wall without being blocked by the vacuum heat insulating material, and condensation can be efficiently prevented.

  In order to distribute heat uniformly from the vicinity of the heat source to a place away from the heat source and prevent condensation over a wide area of the outer wall, the thermal conductivity of the heat conductive sheet to the outer wall surface is one end. It is sufficient that the other end side is set higher than the other side.

  In order to reduce the heat conduction amount from the heat conductive sheet to the outer wall in the vicinity of the heat source and increase the heat conduction amount from the other end side, the outer wall is located on the other end side rather than the one end side of the heat conductive sheet. As long as it is provided close to.

  In the vicinity of the heat source, most of the heat from the heat conductive sheet is conducted to the outer wall, preventing a situation where a sufficient amount of heat is not supplied to the other end, and condensation is also prevented in the dew condensation prevention area away from the heat source. In order to make it hard to generate | occur | produce on the outer wall surface, the heat insulating member should just be further provided in the vicinity of the said heat source at least between the said outer wall and the said heat conductive sheet.

  As an example of a specific configuration for uniformly conducting heat from one end side to the other end side of the thermally conductive sheet, the thermally conductive sheet is formed of a plurality of layers and is close to the outer wall. The number of layers is arranged so that the other end side is larger than the one end side.

  Thus, according to the refrigerator of this invention, it becomes possible to supply also to the dew condensation prevention area | region in the place away from the heat source with the heat conductive sheet. Furthermore, it is not necessary to directly provide a heat source in the vicinity of the heat condensation prevention region, and since a heat conductive sheet is used, it can be easily provided even in a narrow space. For this reason, for example, it is not necessary to form a vacuum heat insulating material or the like provided in the internal space of the refrigerator housing in a special shape in order to arrange a heat source or a heat conductive sheet. Therefore, even if a dew condensation prevention structure is provided on the outer wall while improving the volume ratio by reducing the thickness of the refrigerator casing, a significant increase in manufacturing cost, heat insulation, and productivity are not caused.

The typical perspective view showing the refrigerator concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention. The typical cross-sectional view of the refrigerator of 1st Embodiment. The typical cross-sectional view of the refrigerator which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention. The typical comparison figure of the dew condensation prevention structure of 1st Embodiment and 2nd Embodiment. The comparison graph of the heat conduction amount by the dew condensation prevention structure of 1st Embodiment and 2nd Embodiment. The typical cross-sectional view of the refrigerator which concerns on 3rd Embodiment of this invention. The typical cross-sectional view of the refrigerator which concerns on 4th Embodiment of this invention. The typical cross-sectional view of the refrigerator which concerns on 5th Embodiment of this invention.

  A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  The refrigerator 200 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 which is a horizontal cross-sectional view has a refrigerator housing 1 having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and prevents condensation on the outer wall 11 thereof. The dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 is provided. The refrigerator 200 is provided with a refrigeration room in the upper stage, a freezing room in the middle stage, and a vegetable room in the lower stage.

  The refrigerator housing 1 is composed of a take-out portion 1B composed of a door or a drawer opening constituting the front surface, and a main body portion 1A constituting a top surface, a bottom surface and side surfaces. Each part includes an outer wall 11 that comes into contact with external air and an inner wall 12 that forms an internal space 14 and comes into contact with the air in the internal space 14. The refrigerator housing 1 has a housing internal space 13 formed between the outer wall 11 and the inner wall 12, and the housing internal space 13 has a high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 through which high-temperature refrigerant flows, A vacuum insulating material 4 and a filler made of urethane or the like for preventing cold air from escaping from the space 14 to the outside are accommodated. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, the vacuum heat insulating material 4 is a substantially flat thing, and is provided in the lower side part of the refrigerator compartment, and the side surface of the freezer compartment.

  In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 which is a cross-sectional view in the horizontal direction, a dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 is provided in the housing internal space 13 on the side surface of the refrigerator housing 1. The dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 has one end in contact with the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 and the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 disposed in the housing internal space 13 so as to form a substantially U shape in the side view. It is comprised from the heat conductive sheet 3 attached. Note that FIG. 2 shows the actual thickness of the refrigerator housing 1 in a deformed form for the sake of easy understanding, and is different from the scale of FIG.

  The high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 is a pipe through which a high-temperature refrigerant discharged from a compressor (not shown) provided on the back surface of the refrigerator 200. As shown in FIG. After extending in the horizontal direction to the side, it extends in the vertical direction on the front side of the side surface, and then extends in the horizontal direction from the front side to the back side. That is, the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 is provided so as to pass through a substantially outer edge portion on one surface of the refrigerator housing 1. In other words, the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 as a heat source is a place away from the dew condensation prevention region on the side surface, and the face plate so as not to interfere with other members provided in the housing internal space 13 such as the vacuum heat insulating material 4 or the like. It is provided so as to pass through a position separated by a predetermined distance with respect to the direction. Further, as shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, the portion extending in the vertical direction of the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 is a portion adjacent to the take-out portion 1B in the main body portion 1A, and the main body portion 1A and the take-out portion 1B Is provided in the vicinity of the gasket G for sealing.

  The heat conductive sheet 3 is, for example, a graphite sheet, and is attached with one end wound around a portion extending in the vertical direction on the front surface side in the high temperature refrigerant tube 2, and the other end side is a dew condensation prevention region of the outer wall 11. It is provided so as to extend to the vicinity. In other words, the heat conductive sheet 3 is arranged such that the other end extends toward the anti-high temperature refrigerant tube 3 side with respect to the high temperature refrigerant tube 2 to which one end is attached. In this 1st Embodiment, the dew condensation prevention area | region is objected to the area | region from the side surface center part of the said refrigerator housing | casing 1 to the back side. And as shown in sectional drawing of FIG. 2, the said heat conductive sheet 3 is the said vacuum heat insulating material 4 so that it may become the order of the inner wall 12, the vacuum heat insulating material 4, the heat conductive sheet 3, and the outer wall 11 in a cross sectional view. It is provided between the outer wall 11 and along the inner surface of the outer wall 11 substantially parallel to the outer wall 11. Each member has its installation location fixed by a filler such as urethane. In addition, the heat conductive sheet 3 is a sheet having flexibility, and is formed thinner than the vacuum heat insulating material 4.

  According to the refrigerator 200 of the first embodiment configured as described above, the heat from the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 that is a heat source is also conducted to the dew condensation prevention region in a place separated from the heat source by the heat conductive sheet 3. Can do. More specifically, as shown by the length of the arrow in FIG. 2, heat can be supplied most to the outer wall 11 in the vicinity of the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2, and the amount of heat given to the outer wall 11 decreases as it goes to the other end side. Heat can be delivered to the area on the back side. Since heat is distributed to the outer wall 11 in this way, for example, condensation prevention is focused on the front side of the side where condensation easily occurs, and the other side as a whole has a condensation prevention effect. Can do.

  Furthermore, since sufficient heat can be supplied to the dew condensation prevention region located away from the heat source using the heat conductive sheet 3, the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 as the heat source is connected to the central portion of the side surface as in the prior art. There is no need to provide it directly in the condensation prevention area. That is, since the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 can be passed only through the outer edge portion on the side surface and can be disposed around the place where the vacuum heat insulating material 4 is disposed, such as the center portion of the side surface, the refrigerator casing 1 Even when the vacuum heat insulating material 4 is provided in the housing internal space 13, the high temperature refrigerant pipe 2 and the vacuum heat insulating material 4 do not have to be stacked in the thickness direction. Therefore, it is not necessary to separately form a groove or the like for passing the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 in the vacuum heat insulating material 4, and it is not necessary to form the vacuum heat insulating material 4 in a complicated shape. That is, when the refrigerator casing 1 is thinned and the volume ratio is improved, the vacuum heat insulating material 4 is molded in a simple shape such as a rectangular parallelepiped shape as illustrated even if the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 is employed. It can be used and does not cause an increase in manufacturing cost. In addition, since the vacuum heat insulating material 4 has a simple shape, productivity and heat insulating properties are not impaired.

  In addition, the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 does not provide a separate heater, but can prevent dew condensation by using the heat of the high temperature refrigerant pipe 2 provided in the refrigerator 200, and the refrigeration cycle is achieved by the heat radiation of the refrigerant in the high temperature refrigerant pipe 2. Efficiency can also be improved. In other words, it is possible to realize a reduction in energy consumption as well as prevention of condensation.

  Next, the refrigerator 200 of 2nd Embodiment is demonstrated. In the following embodiments, members corresponding to the refrigerator 200 of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  In the refrigerator 200 of the second embodiment, as shown in the sectional view of FIG. 3, the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 of the first embodiment further includes a heat insulating member 5 between the outer wall 11 and the heat conductive sheet 3. . The heat insulating member 5 is a substantially flat plate formed of urethane or the like, has a lower heat insulating property than the vacuum heat insulating material 4, and conducts a predetermined amount of heat to the outer wall 11. And as shown in FIG. 3, it is set so that it may extend to the other end side of the heat conductive sheet 3 from the vicinity of the high temperature refrigerant | coolant pipe | tube 2 which is a heat source, and may become the length dimension to the middle. Further, a portion longer than the heat insulating member 5 on the other end side of the heat conductive sheet 3 is in contact with the outer wall 11.

  The effect of the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 of the second embodiment configured as described above will be described while comparing with the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 of the first embodiment. FIG. 4 shows an enlarged view of a portion surrounded by an imaginary line in FIGS. 2 and 3 and an arrow schematically showing the amount of heat conduction. In the case of the first embodiment, since a large amount of heat is conducted to the outer wall 11 in the vicinity of the high-temperature refrigerant tube 2 that is a heat source, the amount of heat conducted from the other end side of the heat conductive sheet 3 is small. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, since the heat insulating member 5 is located between the outer wall 11 and the heat conductive sheet 3, the amount of heat conducted in the vicinity of the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 is set in the first embodiment. It can be made smaller than the form. Therefore, since the amount of heat that moves to the back side can be increased, the amount of heat that can be finally conducted to the other end of the heat conductive sheet 3 can be made larger than that in the first embodiment.

  What percentage of the amount of heat can reach each point of the heat conductive sheet 3 based on the heat generated in the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 in the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 of the first embodiment and the second embodiment. As a result of the simulation, when the heat insulating member 5 is provided as shown in FIG. 5, the amount of heat that can be transferred to the outer wall 11 at the other end of the heat conductive sheet 3 is increased by 3.3 times. be able to. Therefore, the whole can be warmed more uniformly toward the back side from the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 provided on the door side, and the effect of preventing condensation can be easily obtained in a wide range.

  Next, the refrigerator 200 of 3rd Embodiment is demonstrated.

  In the second embodiment, the shape of the heat insulating member 5 is a rectangular parallelepiped shape, whereas in the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 of the third embodiment, the heat insulating member 5 is formed in a substantially triangular prism shape having an inclined surface. is there. More specifically, as shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 6, the heat insulating member 5 is formed so that the thickness of the heat insulating member 5 is maximized in the vicinity of the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 and minimized on the other end side of the heat transfer sheet. The heat transfer sheet is also provided along the inclined surface of the heat insulating member 5. That is, the heat transfer sheet is provided such that one end is farthest from the surface of the outer wall 11 and the distance from the outer wall 11 becomes smaller as it goes to the other end.

  With this configuration, the amount of heat conduction from the heat conductive sheet 3 to the surface of the outer wall 11 due to the separation distance from the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 can be made more uniform, and the effect of preventing condensation on the entire side surface can be further obtained. It becomes easy.

  Next, the refrigerator 200 of 4th Embodiment is demonstrated.

  In the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 of the fourth embodiment, as shown in the sectional view of FIG. 7, the heat conductive sheet 3 is formed of a plurality of layers, and the number of layers adjacent to the outer wall 11 is one end side. It arrange | positions so that the other end side may increase rather than.

  More specifically, the heat insulating member 5 is divided into three parts, arranged from the front side to the back side and provided in the space in the housing, and the heat conductive member is passed through each gap one by one. Thus, the number of layers of the heat conductive sheet 3 is increased toward the other end side.

  Even if it comprises in this way, while suppressing the heat conduction amount to the outer wall 11 in the high temperature refrigerant pipe 2 vicinity with few layers, the heat conduction amount to the other end side can be enlarged. Therefore, heat can be uniformly supplied to the entire side surface, and the effect of preventing condensation on the entire side surface can be easily obtained.

  Next, the refrigerator 200 of 5th Embodiment is demonstrated.

  As shown in the cross-sectional view of FIG. 8, the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 of the fifth embodiment includes a heat insulating member 5 between the heat conductive sheet 3 and the vacuum heat insulating material 4 in the dew condensation prevention mechanism 100 of the second embodiment. Is provided.

  By comprising in this way, it can prevent that the heat | fever from the high temperature refrigerant | coolant pipe | tube 2 is transmitted to the interior space 14 around the surface of the vacuum heat insulating material 4 along the surface film of the vacuum heat insulating material 4. . That is, the heat supplied by the heat conductive sheet 3 can be substantially supplied only to the outer wall 11 and can be hardly transferred to the internal space 14. Therefore, the internal space 14 is not warmed by the heat of the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 while effectively using the heat from the high-temperature refrigerant pipe 2 only for preventing condensation, and the energy consumption of the entire refrigerator 200 is reduced. Can do.

  Other embodiments will be described.

  In each of the above embodiments, the high-temperature refrigerant pipe is used as the heat source. However, for example, other heaters or the like may be used as the heat source. Furthermore, the dew condensation prevention structure may be provided not only on the side surface of the refrigerator but also at various locations such as the top surface, the bottom surface, the back surface, or the door portion. Further, instead of winding only one end of the heat conductive sheet around the high temperature refrigerant pipe, a high temperature refrigerant pipe may be provided at the other end. By doing in this way, heat can be more uniformly supplied to an outer wall from a heat conductive sheet. In addition, one end of the heat conductive sheet is not necessarily in contact with the high temperature refrigerant pipe, and may be provided in the vicinity of the high temperature refrigerant pipe. The material of the heat conductive sheet is not limited to graphite, but may be any other material as long as it has good heat conductivity. Furthermore, the heat conductive sheet is not only used in a substantially flat state as in each embodiment, but may be used by being bent so as to turn from the side surface to the back side, for example.

  In addition, various combinations and modifications of the embodiments may be performed without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

200 ... Refrigerator 1 ... Refrigerator housing 11 ... Outer wall 12 ... Inner wall 13 ... Housing inner space 14 ... Inside chamber 2 ... High temperature refrigerant pipe (heat source)
3 ... Thermally conductive sheet 4 ... Vacuum heat insulating material 5 ... Heat insulating member

Claims (7)

A refrigerator housing comprising an outer wall in contact with external air, and an inner wall forming an interior space;
It is provided in a housing internal space formed between the outer wall and the inner wall, and is attached with at least one end close to or in contact with a heat source, and the other end extends to the vicinity of the condensation prevention region of the outer wall. A refrigerator comprising a heat conductive sheet.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the heat source is a high-temperature refrigerant tube through which a high-temperature refrigerant discharged from a compressor flows, and one end of the heat conductive sheet is wound around the high-temperature refrigerant tube. A vacuum heat insulating material is provided in the internal space of the housing,
The refrigerator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the thermally conductive sheet is provided between the outer wall and the vacuum heat insulating material.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the thermal conductivity of the thermal conductive sheet to the outer wall surface is set to be higher on the other end side than on the one end side.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, 2, 3, or 4, wherein the other end side of the thermal conductive sheet is provided closer to the outer wall than the one end side.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, further comprising a heat insulating member provided at least in the vicinity of the heat source between the outer wall and the heat conductive sheet. The heat conductive sheet is formed of a plurality of layers, and is arranged so that the number of layers adjacent to the outer wall is larger on the other end side than on the one end side. The refrigerator according to 4, 5, or 6.