JP2020034168A - refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

To suppress deterioration in thermal insulation property while maintaining visibility of a character expression part having a character cut-out part.SOLUTION: A refrigerator includes: a substrate; a character expression part arranged on a substrate front side; and a reflection part arranged on a substrate back side. The substrate includes: a substrate window and a marginal part that is a periphery of the substrate window; a projected marginal part extending toward a lateral direction from a longitudinal center side of the marginal part; and a light-emitting source of which end side is positioned in the projected marginal part. The character expression part includes a character cut-out part that has light transmissivity and a character shape.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator.

2. Description of the Related Art Refrigerators provided with a character display device for displaying characters by irradiating light from behind a translucent character-cut portion to enhance the visibility of the character-cut portion are known. Since the character display device generally has a lower heat insulating property than the heat insulating material, it is desired to reduce the thickness of the character display device and secure an amount of the heat insulating material in order to suppress a decrease in cooling performance. . On the other hand, it is desired to ensure the visibility of characters.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a touch switch that gives a fantastic visual effect by configuring the light of the LED 46 to be indirectly lit and displayed externally through a plurality of transparent windows 62.

JP 2009-257627 A

  In the configuration as disclosed in Patent Literature 1 aiming at a specific visual effect, the amount of light that can be extracted from the transparent window 62 tends to be small. For this reason, it is preferable that a character display device that takes out light through the character cutout portion employs a configuration that further enhances the visibility of characters.

The present invention made in view of the above circumstances,
Board and
A character expression portion arranged in front of the substrate;
A reflecting portion disposed behind the substrate,
The substrate is
A substrate window, an edge around the substrate window,
A convex edge extending from the center in the longitudinal direction of the edge toward the lateral direction,
A light emitting source having an end side at the convex edge,
The character expression part is a refrigerator including a character-shaped character cutout part having a light-transmitting property.

1 is a front view of a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the character display device 30 according to the first embodiment when viewed from the front side. (A) Front view and (b) Back view near the light emitting source of Example 1. FIG. 2A is a sectional perspective view of a part A, and FIG. FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating an optical path of a light emitting source in a character cutout portion according to the first exemplary embodiment, and FIG. (A) Front view, (b) back view, (c) view showing another example of the back face, (d) view showing still another example of the back face of the light reducing portion of the first embodiment. Example of Directional Characteristics of Light Emitting Source of First Embodiment (A) Front view and (b) Back view around the light emitting source of the substrate showing the electrical connection relationship of the light emitting source of Example 1.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Various components of the present invention do not necessarily need to be individually independent. For example, one component may be composed of a plurality of members, a plurality of components may be composed of a single member, or a certain component. Is allowed to overlap with a part of other components.

[Refrigerator 1]
FIG. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator 1 including the character display device 30 of the present embodiment.

  The refrigerator 1 has a refrigerator room 2, an ice making room 3 and an upper freezing room 4 arranged side by side, a lower freezing room 5, and a vegetable room 6 as storage rooms from above. As an example, the refrigeration room 2 and the vegetable room 6 are storage rooms in a refrigeration temperature zone of about 3 to 5 ° C. Between the refrigerating compartment 2 and the vegetable compartment 6, a freezing compartment of a freezing temperature range of 0 ° C. or lower (for example, a temperature range of about −20 ° C. to −18 ° C.) is adiabatically partitioned from both compartments. An ice making room 3, an upper freezing room 4, and a lower freezing room 5 are partitioned and arranged by a foamed heat insulating material or the like. A temperature detection unit (not shown) is provided in each storage room.

  A left-side refrigerator compartment door 2a and a right-side refrigerator compartment door 2b are provided at the front opening of the refrigerator compartment 2, and constitute a French door that opens and closes the refrigerator compartment 2 by rotating via respective upper and lower hinges. An upper freezing compartment door 4a, an ice making compartment door 3a, a lower freezing compartment door 5a, and a vegetable compartment door 6a are provided at the front opening of each of the upper freezing compartment 4, the ice making compartment 3, the lower freezing compartment 5, and the vegetable compartment 6. I have. The upper freezing compartment door 4a, the ice making compartment door 4a, the lower freezing compartment door 5a, and the vegetable compartment door 6a are configured as drawer-type doors that move back and forth.

  In addition, a character display device 30 is provided on the door 2b. The character display device 30 is located on the back side of a translucent plate member (for example, a glass plate) provided as the forefront of the door 2b. The character display device 30 may be provided on the doors 2a, 3a, 4a, 5a, 6a. A heat insulating material is arranged in the doors 2a, 2b, 3a, 4a, 5a, 6a. The heat insulating material is arranged behind the character display device 30 (on the substrate case 60 side).

[Character display device 30]
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view when the character display device 30 is viewed from the front side.
The character display device 30 includes, in order from the front, a character expression unit 90, a dielectric plate 50 and a light shielding plate 80, a substrate 40 provided with a light emitting source 43 and a detection unit 42, and a substrate case 60 having a reflection unit. It is configured. The character display device 30 of the present embodiment employs a capacitance type switch. However, if the switch can be pressed by exposing the character display device 30 from the plate member of the door 2b, a mechanical switch can be used. May be substituted.

  The character expression section 90 has a character removal section 92 in which a character-like light-transmitting portion is provided on an opaque base. Each of the character cutout portions 92 is so-called character cutout so that one or more characters are collectively translucent (hereinafter, one or more characters that are close to each other are referred to as a character group). Behind the character elimination portion 92, respective light emitting sources 43 described later are provided. One light source 43 is arranged behind one character group. It is desirable that the approximate center of the character group of the corresponding character cutout portion 92 be arranged on the optical axis of each light emitting source 43. In FIG. 2, a region surrounded by a white dashed line includes a plurality of character cutout portions 92 with the light emitting sources 43 arranged behind.

The dielectric plate 50 is a dielectric plate-shaped member arranged in front of the detection unit 42.
The light-shielding plate 80 has a window 81 as a gap or a light-transmitting portion, and a light-transmitting light-shielding portion 82. The window 81 includes the entire area of each of the character blank portions 92 in a front view.

The substrate 40 is formed of a glass epoxy substrate or the like, and is formed, for example, in a horizontally long rectangular shape. The detection unit 42 is provided behind the dielectric plate 50 to detect a change in capacitance, and one or more detection units 42 are provided. The light emitting source 43 is disposed immediately behind the character cutout portion 92 and the window 81, and emits light toward the character cutout portion 92 (has an optical axis toward the character cutout portion 92). When the user touches the vicinity of the detection unit 42, the change is detected by a change in the capacitance of the detection unit 42. The corresponding light emitting source 43 is turned on / off and turned on / off according to the detecting unit 42 that has detected the change. When the light emitting source 43 is turned on, the light reaches the character cutout portion 92 on the front through the window 81.
As the light source 43, for example, a light emitting diode (Light Emitting Diode, LED) can be used.

[Structure around the light emitting source 43]
FIG. 3A is a front view and FIG. The structure of the substrate 40 around the light emitting source 43 includes a substrate window 403 as a light-transmitting portion or a gap, a rectangular edge 402 surrounding the substrate window 403, and a convex portion of the edge 402 toward the light emitting source 43. It has a protruding edge 401 extending in a shape.
Most of the light amount of the light emitting source 43 goes to the front, which is the direction of the optical axis, but a part thereof leaks to the rear of the substrate 40 and is reflected by the substrate case 60. The substrate window 403 allows a large amount of reflected light to pass therethrough.

  The size of the substrate window 403 when viewed from the front is 90% or more of the size of the character group in front of the substrate window 403, and preferably overlaps the entirety. In this way, the light that has passed through the substrate window 403 toward the front can be supplied to the entire area of the character group to be irradiated, so that the visibility of the entire character group can be improved.

  The substrate window 403 is surrounded by an edge 402 having a longitudinal direction and a lateral direction. The light-emitting source 43 is disposed substantially at the center of the substrate window 403 by attaching both ends to a protruding edge 401 extending in the lateral direction from the longitudinal direction of the edge 402. As a result, the substrate window 403 can be secured as large as possible, so that light returning to the front can be effectively transmitted. In addition, the light emitting source 43 can be arranged at the center side of the character group.

  In addition, it is desired that the separation distance (the distance in the front-rear direction) from the light emitting source 43 to the character elimination portion 92 is approximately equal to or larger than the length of the corresponding character group (the direction orthogonal to the front-rear direction). Normally, the size of the character display device 30 in the front-rear direction is very limited. The light emitting source 43 of the present embodiment is provided on the back side of each of the protruding edge portions 401, and is provided so that the light axis is directed to the front by arranging the light emitting element from there toward the front side. ing. That is, since the light emitting source 43 is bridged over the rear surface of the substrate 40 and the light emitting source 43 is arranged facing the front, a part of the thickness (the front-rear dimension) of the substrate 40 of the light emitting source 43 and the front-rear dimension of the light emitting element or You can stack everything. Therefore, it is possible to secure a longer dimension from the light emitting element to the character blank 92 and to supply a large amount of light to the character blank 92.

  Further, since the light emitting source 43 is accommodated within the thickness of the substrate window 403 of the substrate 40, the protection of the light emitting source 43 is enhanced. Further, since the thickness of the character display device 30 is reduced, a large amount of heat insulating material can be disposed at the rear.

[Shape of board case 60]
4A is a perspective view of a section A of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 4B is a perspective view of a section B of FIG.
The substrate case 60 disposed behind the light emitting source 43 of the substrate 40 has a reflecting portion that reflects light leaking backward toward the front. As described above, when it is desired to reflect light to the entire area of each of the character groups of the character cutout portion 92, the preferred shape of the substrate case (the shape of the reflection portion) differs depending on the size.

  The board case 60 according to the present embodiment includes a reflecting portion that reflects light on the portion A corresponding to the character cutout portion 92 having a relatively small character group size, and a light reflecting portion on the portion B corresponding to the relatively large character cutout portion 92. A reflecting portion for reflecting light. Observing in the longitudinal direction of the character group, the shape of the reflecting portion that reflects light to the portion B is convex toward the light emitting source 43 behind the light emitting source 43 located at the center in the longitudinal direction. The shape of the reflecting portion that reflects light to the portion A is a flat plate shape in the longitudinal direction. By making the shape of the reflecting portion corresponding to the B portion that becomes a wide character into a mountain shape, the light of the light emitting source 43 is diffused in the longitudinal direction for each reflection, and can be guided to the left and right end portions of the character group.

  In the case of the flat plate shape shown in FIG. 4A, when the A dimension from the bottom of the reflecting portion to the back of the substrate 40 is small, the front of the light emitting source 43 becomes brighter than the surroundings, and one of the character groups of the Some characters are clearly displayed as brighter dots than other characters. On the other hand, when the dimension A is large, the light amount of the characters in the character blanking portion 92 can be made uniform, but the entire image becomes dark. The dimension A is preferably about 1 mm to 5 mm. In addition, it is more effective that the reflection part has a color tone with a high reflectance, for example, white.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the optical path of the light emitting source 43 in the character blanking section 92 according to the present embodiment for each of the (a) section A and the (b) section B. The light output from the light emitting source 43 repeatedly spreads straight and reflected. By forming the board case 60 into a mountain shape, more light can be guided to the left and right ends of the character / character removal portion.

FIG. 6 is a front view (a) and a back view (b)-(d) of the dimming unit 95 in the present embodiment. The dimming unit 95 is a part that can attenuate light more than at least the substrate window 403 and the character cutout part. For example, a grain of opaque paint can be adopted. The dimming unit 95 is located between the character elimination unit 92 and the light emitting source 43 at the front-back direction position, and is provided including the front optical axis of the light emitting source 43 at the horizontal position. This makes it possible to attenuate the amount of light in front of the light emitting source 43 where the light intensity is likely to increase as needed. The dimming unit 95 may have substantially the same degree of dimming over the entire area as shown in FIG. 6B, or may decrease as the distance from the optical axis of the light emitting source 43 increases as shown in FIGS. 6C and 6D. The light intensity may be discretely or continuously reduced.
FIG. 7 is an example of the directional characteristics of the light emitting source 43 of the present embodiment. In FIG. 7, the radial direction (the horizontal direction in FIG. 7) and the angular direction (the direction in which the upper direction is 0 in FIG. 7 and the clockwise direction is positive and the counterclockwise direction is negative) are represented as reference directions. . The origin is set at the position of the light emitting source 43. In addition, the direction in which the light intensity of the light emitting source 43 is maximum is set to 0 in the angular direction (that is, the optical axis). The degree of decrease is represented by a numerical value in the radial direction (0% to 100%). As shown in FIG. 7, the LED as the light emitting source 43 of the present embodiment has a light intensity of 50% or more in a range of approximately [−20 °, 20 °] (40 ° in total). This angle range of 40 ° is called a directivity angle, and is indicated by 2θ1 / 2 in the figure.

In the present embodiment, the range of the dimming section 95 in FIG. 6 is taken into consideration in consideration of the B dimension from the light emitting source 43 to the character cutout section 92 shown in FIG. 5A and the directional characteristics of the light emitting source 43 shown in FIG. Were determined. For example, when the B dimension is 4 mm and the directional angle 2θ1 / 2 of the light emitting source is 40 degrees, the C dimension of the dimming unit can be calculated from Expression (1) as follows.
C dimension = 4 mm × tan (40 ° / 2) × 2 ≒ 2.9 mm Formula (1)
This indicates that it is preferable to provide the dimming portion 95 including a circle having a diameter of 2.9 mm or more with the optical axis as the centroid. In the present embodiment, a rectangular dimming portion 95 circumscribing such a circle is provided. It is preferable that the dimming rate of the dimming unit 95 decreases as the distance from the position overlapping the optical axis increases.

[Other configurations]
When the light intensity of the light emitting source 43 is sufficiently high, the optical axis may be directed backward. In this case, it is preferable that the light emitting source 43 be stretched over the front side of the substrate 40. Further, since almost all of the light reaching the character cutout portion 92 passes through the substrate window 403, the light is more than necessary depending on the thickness of the substrate window 403. To the surroundings (leakage to adjacent character groups) is suppressed. Further, since the substrate window 403 can fulfill at least a part of the function of the light shielding plate 80, the light shielding plate 80 can be eliminated or made thin. The thickness of the light guide plate 50 can be reduced according to the thickness of the light shielding plate 80.

  FIGS. 8A and 8B are (a) front view and (b) rear view of the periphery of the light emitting source 43 of the substrate 40 showing the electrical connection relationship of the light emitting source 43 of the present embodiment. The light emitting sources 43 each have a polarity on the same side. Specifically, the figure has a negative electrode on the upper side and a positive electrode on the lower side, and are arranged in the polarity direction (the direction connecting the positive electrode and the negative electrode). As for the current to the light emitting source 43, a constant voltage power supply (for example, a 5V power supply) of the refrigerator 1 is guided from a conducting wire 70 drawn on the upper surface side of the surface of the substrate 40, for example, and drawn through a through hole 71 on the back surface. The through hole 71 is electrically connected to the resistance element 72, and the resistance element 72 is electrically connected to the anode of the light emitting source 43 in the same vertical direction as the resistance element 72 via a conducting wire 73 passing through the edge 402. Connected to. A current flows from the negative electrode of the light emitting source 43 through the conducting wire 74 passing through the edge portion 402 located above the window portion 403 on the opposite side to the resistance element 72.

  By adopting such a wiring layout, the orientation of the polarities of the light emitting sources 43 is aligned, so that the mounting can be relatively easily performed, and the crossing of the conductive wires is suppressed. The conductor to the light source 43 can be effectively arranged.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerator 2 Refrigerating room 2a, 2b Refrigerating room door 3 Ice making room 3a Ice making room door 4 Upper freezing room 4a Upper freezing room door 5 Lower freezing room 5a Lower freezing room door 6 Vegetable room 6a Vegetable room door 40 Substrate 43 Light source (LED )
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 50 Light guide plate 60 Substrate case 80 Shield plate 90 Character expression part 92 Character extraction part

Claims (6)

Board and
A character expression portion arranged in front of the substrate;
A reflecting portion disposed behind the substrate,
The substrate is
A substrate window, an edge around the substrate window,
A convex edge extending from the center in the longitudinal direction of the edge toward the lateral direction,
A light emitting source having an end side at the convex edge,
The refrigerator, wherein the character expression unit includes a character-shaped character cutout unit having a light-transmitting property. The light emitting source emits light forward,
Having a dimming unit disposed between the light emitting source and the character expression unit,
2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein, when viewed from an optical axis direction of the light emitting source, the dimming unit has a dimming rate that decreases as the distance from the optical axis increases.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the reflecting portion has a slope that has a convex shape that is directed forward as approaching the light emitting source. It has a plurality of the character blank portions having different dimensions,
Of the character blank portions, the reflective portion located behind the larger size has a slope that becomes the convex shape,
4. The refrigerator according to claim 3, wherein, among the character blank portions, the reflection portion located behind the smaller size portion has a flat plate shape. Having a plurality of the light emitting sources,
The plurality of light-emitting sources are arranged such that the anode is located on the same side, and in the polarity direction,
A power supply to the light emitting source is electrically connected to the light emitting source via a conducting wire passing through one end of the substrate in the polarity direction, a through hole, a resistance element, and a conducting wire passing through the edge. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: A heat insulating material is arranged behind the substrate,
The light emitting source emits light forward,
The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a part or all of the light-emitting source is accommodated in the thickness of the substrate.

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