JP2018028416A - refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator in which a capacity of a machine room can be reduced.SOLUTION: A refrigerator 1 includes: a condenser 12 constituting a refrigeration cycle; and a cooling fan 20 for cooling the condenser 12. The refrigerator uses a centrifugal fan as a cooling fan 20.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  Embodiments of the present invention relate to a refrigerator.

  The refrigerator includes a refrigeration cycle composed of a compressor and a condenser. These compressors and condensers are generally installed in a machine room, and are cooled by a cooling fan because they generate heat during operation. For example, Patent Document 1 proposes to efficiently cool the compressor, the condenser, and the like in the machine room by devising the arrangement of the exhaust ports.

JP 2014-238219 A

By the way, in recent years, it is desired to increase the volume of a storage room such as a refrigerator room. In order to increase the volume without increasing the size of the main body, it is required to reduce the volume of the machine room as compared with the conventional case.
Accordingly, a refrigerator capable of reducing the volume of the machine room is provided.

  The refrigerator according to the embodiment includes a condenser that constitutes a refrigeration cycle and a cooling fan that cools the condenser, and a centrifugal fan is employed as the cooling fan.

The figure which shows the refrigerator of embodiment typically Figure 1 schematically showing an example of arrangement in the machine room Fig. 2 schematically showing an example of arrangement in the machine room Figure 1 schematically showing another example of the arrangement of capacitors Fig. 2 schematically showing another example of arrangement of capacitors

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.
As shown in FIG. 1, the refrigerator 1 has a main body 2 that is generally rectangular. The main body 2 includes a back plate 3, a left side plate 4, a right side plate 5, a top plate 6 and a bottom plate 7 (see FIG. 2), and a plurality of storage chambers 10 (see FIG. 2) are provided therein. The front opening of each storage chamber 10 is opened and closed by a door.

  The back plate 3, the left side plate 4, the right side plate 5, the top plate 6 and the bottom plate 7 are not shown in the figure, but have, for example, a vacuum heat insulating panel, foamed polyurethane, or a structure using them together. Insulate between the outside of the. Hereinafter, in the present specification, as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 1, in the state where the refrigerator 1 is installed, the direction along the gravity is the vertical direction, the direction from the left side plate 4 to the right side plate 5 is the horizontal direction, The direction from the front to the back plate 3 will be described as the front-rear direction.

  The refrigerator 1 is provided with a machine room 8 in the lower part of the main body 2. Further, the back plate 3, the left side plate 4, and the right side plate 5 are provided with openings 9 that communicate with the machine room 8 at positions corresponding to the machine room 8. As shown in FIG. 2, the bottom plate 7 is also provided with an opening 9. Each opening 9 functions as an intake port for sucking air from the outside into the machine room 8 or an exhaust port for discharging air from the machine room 8 to the outside when the cooling fan 20 is operated. At this time, whether each opening 9 functions as an intake port or an exhaust port is determined by the position of the cooling fan 20 in the machine room 8. Each opening 9 may be a simple slit, may be processed into a louver shape, or may be provided with a dustproof filter or the like.

  A storage room 10 such as a vegetable room is provided in front of the machine room 8. Moreover, although illustration is abbreviate | omitted, the storage chamber 10, such as a freezer compartment, is also provided above the machine room 8, for example. And between the machine room 8 and each store room 10 is partitioned off by the heat insulation partition wall 10b. The machine room 8 is provided with a compressor 11, a condenser 12, a cooling fan 20, and the like. The compressor 11 and the condenser 12 together with an evaporator (not shown) constitute a known refrigeration cycle, and operations of the compressor 11 and the cooling fan 20 are controlled by a control unit (not shown).

  In the present embodiment, a so-called multiflow type capacitor is adopted as the capacitor 12. The multi-flow type capacitor 12 has a structure in which two headers serving as refrigerant inlets and outlets are connected by a flat tube, and a plurality of flow paths are provided in parallel in the flat tube. Further, the flat tube is provided with a heat radiating fin for increasing the contact area with air. In this embodiment, a parallel type capacitor that connects the headers with a plurality of flat tubes is adopted as the capacitor 12, but a meandering type that folds one flat tube and connects the headers is also adopted. Good.

  In the present embodiment, the cooling fan 20 employs a so-called centrifugal fan. Therefore, the air blowing from the cooling fan 20 is performed in the direction from the center toward the radially outer side and in the entire circumferential direction. In addition, although illustration is abbreviate | omitted, in the machine room 8, in addition to the compressor 11, the capacitor | condenser 12, the cooling fan 20, etc., other apparatus parts, such as piping and electric wiring which connect them, are provided.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.
In order to reduce the volume of the machine room 8, it is first possible to downsize machine parts such as the compressor 11, the condenser 12, or the cooling fan 20. However, the compressor 11 and the condenser 12 are not simply reduced in size, and must be sized to some extent in order to ensure the necessary cooling capacity.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the capacitor 12 is a multiflow type. The multi-flow capacitor 12 exhibits high heat dissipation performance because heat radiation from the refrigerant is promoted by the flat tube and the surface area is increased by the heat radiation fins. Therefore, compared with what is called a fin tube type, if it is the same size, heat dissipation performance will become higher, and if the required heat dissipation performance is the same, it can reduce in size.

Thereby, the machine part provided in the machine room 8 can be reduced in size, and the machine part can be reduced in size, so that the volume of the machine room 8 can be reduced.
By adopting the multi-flow type capacitor 12, the machine room 8 can be made smaller than the conventional one, but by devising the layout of the machine room 8, that is, the arrangement of the machine parts in the machine room 8, It is considered that the volume can be further reduced.

  However, since the compressor 11 and the condenser 12 generate heat during operation, they are generally cooled by blowing air from an axial fan. In this case, since the ventilation path is determined by the direction of the axial fan, the layout of the compressor 11 and the condenser 12 is limited by the direction of the fan. Therefore, when an axial fan is used, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, it is necessary to arrange the compressor 11 and the condenser 12 on a straight line and set the direction of the axial fan toward the compressor 11 and the condenser 12. In other words, the degree of freedom in installing the compressor 11, the condenser 12, and the axial fan was low.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, a centrifugal fan is employed as the cooling fan 20. As described above, the centrifugal fan can blow air from the center toward the outside in the radial direction and over the entire area in the circumferential direction. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, it is not necessary to arrange the compressor 11 and the condenser 12 on a straight line, and the degree of freedom in installing the compressor 11, the condenser 12 and the axial fan can be increased.

And if the freedom degree of installation becomes high, the space in the machine room 8 can be utilized effectively, reduction of the space required etc., ie, the volume reduction of the machine room 8 can be aimed at.
In the case of FIG. 3, the air that has cooled the condenser 12 flows toward the wall surface of the back plate 3 and the like of the refrigerator 1. For this reason, the back plate 3 is warmed by the exhaust heat from the capacitor 12, and the occurrence of condensation on the surface of the back plate 3 can be suppressed.

  In the case of the cooling fan 20, since air can be blown over the entire circumferential direction, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the plurality of capacitors 12 can be cooled by one cooling fan 20. For this reason, for example, in the case where it is difficult to arrange one large capacitor 12 but two relatively small capacitors 12 can be disposed, the number of cooling fans 20 is not increased. The capacitor 12 can be arranged without reducing the degree of freedom of arrangement.

  In the case of FIG. 4, by placing one capacitor 12 on the back plate 3 side and the other capacitor 12 on the right plate 5 side, the back plate 3 and the right plate 5 can be warmed by exhaust heat from the capacitor 12. And the occurrence of condensation can be further suppressed.

  By the way, when the heat dissipation performance required for the capacitor 12 is high, the capacitor 12 inevitably becomes large. In that case, if a substantially rectangular parallelepiped is arranged around the cooling fan 20 in a plan view, mechanical parts that prevent air flow cannot be arranged between the cooling fan 20 and the condenser 12. A large dead space is formed between the capacitor 12 and the capacitor 12.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the capacitor 12 can be formed in an arch shape along the outer edge of the cooling fan 20. Thereby, the capacitor | condenser 12 can be arrange | positioned in the vicinity of the cooling fan 20, and it can prevent that an above-described dead space is made. Further, unlike the case where a large rectangular parallelepiped is arranged, the distance from the cooling fan 20 to the capacitor 12 is constant, so that it is possible to suppress unevenness in cooling in the capacitor 12.

  Further, by forming the capacitor 12 in an arch shape, the length in the circumferential direction can be increased. For this reason, if the same heat dissipation performance is obtained, since the length in the circumferential direction of the capacitor 12 is increased, the height dimension can be reduced. Thereby, although the height of the compressor 11 is required, it can prevent that the height dimension of the machine room 8 is restrict | limited by the magnitude | size of the capacitor | condenser 12. FIG.

According to the embodiment described above, the following effects can be obtained.
The refrigerator 1 includes a condenser 12 constituting a refrigeration cycle and a cooling fan 20 that cools the condenser 12, and a centrifugal fan is employed as the cooling fan 20. Thereby, as described above, the degree of freedom of installation of machine parts in the machine room 8 can be increased, and the machine room 8 can be reduced in volume.

  In the refrigerator 1, the condenser 12 is formed in an arch shape along the outer edge of the cooling fan 20. Thereby, it can suppress that a dead space is made between the capacitor | condenser 12 and the cooling fan 20 as mentioned above.

  In the refrigerator 1, the condenser 12 and the cooling fan 20 are arranged so that the air that has cooled the condenser 12 flows toward the wall surface of the refrigerator 1. Thereby, the exhaust heat of the capacitor | condenser 12 is supplied to wall parts, such as the back board 3, the left side board 4, the right side board 5, etc., a wall part can be warmed, and it can suppress that dew condensation arises on the surface of the refrigerator 1. . In addition, it is possible to reduce the number of heat-dissipating pipes conventionally used to warm the surface of the refrigerator 1.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention is not limited to those exemplified in the above-described embodiment, and can be arbitrarily modified or expanded as follows, for example, without departing from the scope thereof.
In the embodiment, the multiflow type capacitor 12 is illustrated, but a fin tube type may be used.

  In the embodiment, the capacitor 12 and the cooling fan 20 are disposed in the machine room 8 on the lower back side in the refrigerator 1. However, the condenser 12 and the cooling fan 20 are disposed on the upper back side in the refrigerator 1. It can also be applied to. In this case, the top plate 6 can be regarded as a wall portion and disposed so that the exhaust heat from the condenser 12 is directed to the top plate 6.

  Each embodiment is presented as an example and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. These novel embodiments can be implemented in various other forms, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. This embodiment and its modifications are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the invention described in the claims and the equivalents thereof.

  In the drawings, 1 is a refrigerator, 3 is a back plate (wall portion), 4 is a left side plate (wall portion), 5 is a right side plate (wall portion), 6 is a top plate (wall portion), and 7 is a bottom plate (wall portion). , 8 is a machine room, 12 is a condenser, and 20 is a cooling fan.

Claims (3)

A capacitor constituting the refrigeration cycle;
A cooling fan for cooling the condenser,
A refrigerator using a centrifugal fan as the cooling fan.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the condenser is formed in an arch shape along an outer edge of the cooling fan.   The refrigerator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the condenser and the cooling fan are arranged such that air that has cooled the condenser flows toward a wall surface of the refrigerator.

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