JP2023120117A - Heat conductive member and cooling tool - Google Patents

Abstract

To quickly cool a beverage and a food product in the containers.SOLUTION: A cooling tool comprises: a cylindrical heat conductive member made of a fibrous heat conductive material; and an air flow generation mechanism for securing an air flow in the periphery of the heat conductive member to keep the heat conductive member at a low temperature. The cooling tool cools beverages and food products.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can quickly cool a liquid such as a beverage.

Beverages can be quickly cooled by placing a container filled with the beverage on a cooling table made of a material with high thermal conductivity, such as aluminum, installed in cooling equipment such as refrigerators and freezers. According to this method, due to the high thermal conductivity of aluminum or the like, the heat exchange between the cooling table and the container is rapidly performed, so that the beverage can be rapidly cooled (Patent Document 1).

In addition to the above method, there is also a method of cooling by rotating a container filled with a beverage in contact with an ice block or the like. According to this method, the convection of the beverage in the container continues to supply the beverage with a relatively high temperature to the vicinity of the portion in contact with the ice block or the like. Therefore, since the temperature difference between the ice block and the beverage is increased, the efficiency of heat transfer from the beverage to the ice block is increased, and the beverage can be rapidly cooled. (Patent document 2).

JP-A-2002-168553 JP 2019-143839 A

However, in the rapid cooling method described in Patent Document 1, the surface shape of the cooling table and the shape of the container are generally different (the surface shape of the cooling table is planar, and the beverage container is cylindrical. large), it is difficult to increase the contact surface between the container and the cooling table. On the other hand, the heat exchange efficiency between bodies is highest where they are in contact. Therefore, in some cases, it is difficult to obtain a remarkable quenching effect by the conventional method of placing a cylindrical beverage container on a flat cooling table.

The method described in Patent Literature 2 has the problem that the device is relatively large-scaled and ice blocks are required, which may make it difficult to use in general households.

Accordingly, the heat-conducting member of the present invention is characterized by bending a flexible sheet-like member comprising at least a fibrous or granular member into a cylindrical shape. The heat-conducting member has a large specific surface area by being made of a member containing fibrous or granular members. Therefore, by placing this in a low-temperature atmosphere such as in a refrigerator, the heat-conducting member is rapidly cooled.

Furthermore, the flexibility of the heat-conducting member allows the heat-conducting member to follow the shape of the container and increase the contact area, so that the beverage can be rapidly cooled.

Further, the cooling device of the present invention comprises a container holding portion in which at least part of the periphery of the heat conducting member is covered with a cylindrical member, and an airflow generating mechanism in the longitudinal direction of the container holding portion. It is characterized. When the cooling device is placed in a low-temperature atmosphere, the airflow generating mechanism continues to supply low-temperature gas to the heat-conducting member made of a member including fibrous or granular members. As a result, the heat-conducting member is kept cool and the beverage in the container in contact with the heat-conducting member can be quenched.

The heat-conducting member and cooling device of the present invention can rapidly cool beverages and the like as follows. First, since the heat-conducting member is made of a member containing fibrous or granular members, it has a large specific surface area. Therefore, when installed in a low-temperature atmosphere, it is cooled by rapidly exchanging heat with the atmosphere. Furthermore, since the heat-conducting member is flexible, it can follow the shape of the container filled with the beverage and increase the contact area. Therefore, the beverage can be quenched.

Furthermore, by supplying gas in a low-temperature atmosphere to the heat-conducting member by the airflow generating mechanism, it is possible to suppress temperature rise of the heat-conducting member due to heat transfer from the beverage. As a result, the heat-conducting member is kept cool and can quench the liquid in the container in contact therewith.

1 is a perspective view of a heat-conducting member according to Embodiment 1. FIG. Schematic cross-sectional view of the heat-conducting member according to Embodiment 1 A perspective view of a cooling device according to Embodiment 2 Schematic cross-sectional view of a cooling device according to Embodiment 2 Schematic cross-sectional view of a cooling device and a beverage container according to Embodiment 2 Schematic cross-sectional view of a cooling device and a beverage container in use according to Embodiment 2

The heat-conducting member according to claim 1 is formed by bending a flexible sheet-like member, which is at least an assembly of fibrous or granular members, into a cylindrical shape, and the inner side of the curved surface It is characterized in that the container can be brought into close contact with the container.

In general, a container filled with a beverage to be cooled is in contact with a solid at the same temperature as the atmosphere, rather than in a cold atmosphere (no contact between the container and the solid). Since heat is rapidly transferred from the surface of the container to the outside, the beverage can be rapidly cooled.

Since the heat-conducting member has flexibility, by placing the container on the inside of the curved surface, the heat-conducting member can adhere to the container and increase the contact area. Furthermore, since the heat-conducting member includes a fibrous or granular member, it has a large specific surface area, and heat can be quickly transferred to a low-temperature atmosphere. As described above, the heat transferred from the beverage container to the heat-conducting member is quickly released into the low-temperature atmosphere, and the heat-conducting member is kept at a low temperature. Therefore, the beverage in the container in contact with the thermally conductive member kept at a low temperature can be quenched.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a heat-conducting member, wherein the fibrous member is made of at least a gauze-like metal.

Since metal has high thermal conductivity, the heat transferred from the beverage container is rapidly conducted to the interface with the low temperature atmosphere. In addition, since the gauze has a large specific surface area, the heat transferred from the beverage container to the heat conducting member is quickly released into the low temperature atmosphere. Therefore, the heat-conducting member, which is a gauze-like member placed in a low-temperature atmosphere, is kept at a low temperature, so that the beverage in the container in contact with it can be rapidly cooled.

According to a third aspect of the heat-conducting member, the gauze-like member is made of fibers containing at least copper.

Copper has a particularly high thermal conductivity among metals, so that the heat transferred from the container can be rapidly conducted to the vicinity of the low-temperature atmosphere and released into the low-temperature atmosphere. Furthermore, since the gauze-like member made of copper has excellent flexibility, it is possible to obtain a heat-conducting member having superior flexibility. As described above, the beverage can be cooled more quickly.

The cooling device according to claim 4 comprises a container holding portion in which at least a part of the periphery of the heat conducting member is covered with a tubular member, and an airflow generating mechanism in the longitudinal direction of the container holding portion. It is characterized by

In order to cool the beverage particularly quickly with the heat-conducting member, the following three conditions are required. As the first condition, in order to quickly transfer heat from the container to the heat-conducting member, it is necessary for the heat-conducting member to be flexible enough to be deformed so as to be in close contact with the shape of the container. Become. As a second condition, it is necessary to have a high thermal conductivity in order to quickly conduct heat from the high-temperature portion to the low-temperature portion of the heat-conducting member. The third condition is that the gas in the low-temperature atmosphere whose temperature has risen due to the heat transferred from the heat-conducting member must not stagnate in the gaps of the members that make up the heat-conducting member (such as between the fibers of gauze-like members). become.

The first condition and the second condition are satisfied due to the properties of the heat conducting member. Furthermore, the third condition can be satisfied by the airflow generating mechanism provided in the cooling device. That is, when heat is released from the heat conducting member into the low-temperature atmosphere, the temperature of the atmosphere rises and the temperature difference with the heat conducting member decreases. Here, the gas whose temperature has been raised by the airflow generating mechanism is discharged from the gaps of the members constituting the heat-conducting member, and the gas present therein (between the fibers of the gauze-like member, etc.) can be kept at a low temperature. . As a result, heat can be released from the heat-conducting member to the low-temperature atmosphere with high efficiency, and particularly excellent quenching characteristics can be obtained.

Hereinafter, although the details of the present invention will be described by way of embodiments, the present invention is not limited.
(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a heat conducting member according to Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the heat-conducting member according to Embodiment 1. FIG. The left figure in FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along the dashed line in FIG. 1, and the right figure in FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a part of the cross section. As shown in the right diagram of FIG. 2, the fibrous member 2 of the heat conducting member 1 is a gauze-like member made by gathering fibrous materials made of copper.

Here, a mechanism capable of rapidly cooling a beverage by using the heat conducting member of Embodiment 1 will be described. Generally, when cooling a certain member, the larger the specific surface area, the more advantageous it is. A technique using this principle is called a heat sink, and is widely used for cooling electronic devices such as integrated circuits. The heat sink has a shape (that can be in close contact with the cooling target) along the cooling target, and has many microscopic projections made of metal with high thermal conductivity such as aluminum arranged to increase the specific surface area. It is often something. Therefore, by bringing the heat sink into close contact with the member to be cooled, heat is rapidly transferred from the member to be cooled to the heat sink, and the heat sink quickly releases heat to the air due to its large specific surface area. Similarly, rapid cooling is possible by placing a heat sink in close contact with a container filled with beverage and placing it in a low temperature environment.

However, there are generally many shapes of beverage containers, and many of them have curved surfaces, making it difficult to prepare heat sinks that conform to these shapes. Furthermore, it is impractical to take time and effort such as attaching a heat sink to cool the beverage.

Therefore, by using the heat-conducting member of the first embodiment, an effect that is difficult to achieve with a heat sink can be obtained. That is, since the heat-conducting member is cylindrical and has flexibility, it can be easily attached so as to cover the beverage container. can be ensured.

Therefore, heat is quickly transferred from the beverage container to the fibrous copper forming the heat conducting member, and heat is also quickly transferred from the heat conducting member to the atmosphere, resulting in rapid cooling of the beverage.
(Embodiment 2)

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a cooling device according to Embodiment 2. FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a cooling device according to Embodiment 2. FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the cooling device 3 consists of a heat conducting member 1 and an airflow generating mechanism 4, and the airflow generating mechanism 4 consists of a fan 5 and a shell 6. As shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a cooling device and a beverage container according to Embodiment 2. FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the cooling device and beverage container in use according to Embodiment 2. FIG.

Here, a mechanism capable of rapidly cooling a beverage by using the cooling device of Embodiment 2 will be described. As in the first embodiment, since a heat conducting member is used, the beverage can be rapidly cooled by placing the cooling device 3 in a low-temperature atmosphere. In addition, since the cooling device 3 of Embodiment 2 is provided with the airflow generating mechanism 4 and the outer container 7, the rapid cooling effect can be further enhanced.
That is, although it is necessary to keep the atmosphere of the heat conducting member 1 at a low temperature, the low temperature gas is taken in by the airflow generating mechanism 4 and passed through the space between the outer container 7 and the beverage container 8 to the opposite side. By discharging, the atmosphere of the heat-conducting member 1 can be maintained at a temperature close to that of the cooling device.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 6, when the beverage container 8 is installed so that the longitudinal direction is the horizontal direction, a better quenching effect can be obtained. This is because heat transfer in the beverage container 8 is not due to heat conduction of the beverage, but heat transfer due to convection contributes more.
This phenomenon occurs when a liquid is heated from below by a water heater such as a kettle. This phenomenon is similar to that convection occurs in the liquid and the heating efficiency of the liquid increases.

However, when heating a liquid, convection occurs by heating a kettle or the like from below, but when cooling, convection is less likely to occur even if the container is cooled from below, which is a significant difference from heating.
That is, even if the bottom of the container is cooled, the liquid does not expand, but rather shrinks and maintains a state of high density, so convection does not occur. Therefore, in order to induce convection in the beverage container 8 by cooling, it is necessary to cool the top of the container.

Here, as shown in FIG. 6, by cooling the periphery of the beverage container 8 with the heat conducting member 1, the beverage in the upper portion of the beverage container 8 is cooled, and as shown in the right diagram of FIG. At the same time, convection occurs in the container. Furthermore, in FIG. 6, since the entire circumference of the container is cooled, the cooling efficiency can be further enhanced.

Since the beverage can be rapidly cooled, it can be brought to the desired temperature in a short period of time. Furthermore, by enclosing food in the heat-conducting member, rapid freezing is possible, and freezing while maintaining the freshness of the food is also possible.

Reference Signs List 1 heat conducting member 2 fibrous member 3 cooling device 4 airflow generating mechanism 5 fan 6 outer shell 7 outer container 8 beverage container

Claims (4)

A thermally conductive member formed by bending a flexible sheet-like member, which is at least an assembly of fibrous or granular members, into a cylindrical shape. 2. The heat-conducting member according to claim 1, wherein the fibrous member is at least made of gauze-like metal. 3. The heat-conducting member according to claim 2, wherein the gauze-like member is made of fibers containing at least copper. A cooling device comprising: a container holding portion in which at least a portion of the circumference of the heat conducting member according to claim 2 or 3 is covered with a cylindrical member; and an airflow generating mechanism in the longitudinal direction of the container holding portion. instrument.

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