JP2577223Y2 - refrigerator - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator configured to indirectly cool a storage.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Refrigerators of this kind are suitable for storage of vegetables and the like because they can cool the stored items while keeping the storage in the storage at a high humidity. It is also used for decompression and storage of etc. In this type of refrigerator, a storage box having a cool air flow path formed around it is provided in a heat-insulating main body box, and cool air cooled by a cooler is circulated in the cool air flow path by a cool air circulation fan. , Is configured to indirectly cool the inside of the storage, provided with an internal fan in the storage, by circulating the air in the storage by the fan in the storage, to cool the storage in the storage or It promotes the thawing of frozen foods.

[0003] In this type of refrigerator, the suitability of the air circulation in the refrigerator greatly affects the refrigeration performance of the stored product and the thawing performance of the frozen food. In particular, for example, when a large amount of frozen food is stored and thawed, the air blown out from the outlet of the internal fan hits the frozen food near the outlet and is immediately sucked into the intake of the internal fan. A so-called short circuit is likely to occur, and sufficient air circulation may not be performed. When such a situation occurs, there occurs a problem that uneven thawing occurs between the frozen food stored near the fan in the refrigerator and the frozen food stored far away.

In view of the above, conventionally, measures for properly circulating air in the refrigerator have been considered. Like a general refrigerator, an intake port of a fan in the refrigerator is provided at a lower portion of the refrigerator. In general, a configuration is adopted in which a discharge duct connected to a discharge portion of an in-compartment fan is provided on a ceiling portion of a storage, and air from the in-compartment fan is discharged from a position away from an intake port.

[0005]

However, this type of refrigerator, in which the storage can be indirectly cooled to maintain the inside at a high humidity, has a problem peculiar to this refrigerator even with the above configuration. It is not preferable. That is, in this type of refrigerator, since the humidity inside the storage is high, the above configuration causes dew condensation on the outer peripheral surface of the discharge duct. If such condensed water drops on the food stored in the storage, the storage state of the food is significantly impaired.

In order to prevent this, it is necessary to dispose a device for capturing dew condensation water composed of, for example, a perforated plate or the like on the entire lower surface of the discharge duct. Causes the problem of becoming The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and therefore, its purpose is to allow sufficient circulation of air in the storage, and also to cause dripping of dew condensation water and reduction of the effective volume in the storage. There is no refrigerator available.

[0007]

In the refrigerator of the present invention, a storage is provided in a heat-insulating main body box, and the inside of the storage is indirectly cooled by flowing cool air through the outer wall surface of the storage. In a device provided with an internal fan that circulates air in the storage, an outlet of the internal fan is opened at an upper portion of the storage, and an intake duct of the internal fan is provided at a bottom of the storage, and the air intake is provided. It is characterized in that the intake port of the duct is opened at a position apart from the discharge port on the bottom of the storage.

[0008]

The interior of the storage is cooled indirectly by flowing cool air to the outer wall surface of the storage, so that the storage can be cooled while maintaining the inside at an appropriate humidity. In addition, the air inside the refrigerator is circulated up and down by the fan inside the refrigerator, and the discharge port of the fan inside the refrigerator is located at the top, and the intake port is opened at a position apart from the discharge port at the bottom of the storage case. Therefore, a short circuit in which the air discharged from the fan in the refrigerator is immediately sucked into the intake port is unlikely to occur, and sufficient air circulation can be performed even when a large amount of stored goods or frozen food is stored in the refrigerator. it can. Furthermore, since the intake duct for opening the intake port at a position away from the discharge port is provided at the bottom of the storage, even if dew condensation occurs here, the condensed water drops on the food. The problem does not occur. Moreover, since the dripping of dew condensation water is not a problem, there is no need for a space for dew condensation countermeasures such as a dew condensation water trapping device, and since foods and the like are generally stored floating from the bottom of the storage, The intake duct can be arranged by utilizing the dead space generated at the bottom portion, and eventually, the effective volume in the refrigerator is not reduced.

[0009]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the refrigerator of the present invention, even when a large amount of food is stored, the air in the storage can be circulated throughout, so that the food is refrigerated and the frozen food is thawed. Can be performed evenly. In addition, the dew condensation water does not drop and deteriorates the storage state of the food,
And yet, it has many practically excellent effects that a large effective volume in the refrigerator can be secured.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. This storage is configured with a horizontally long heat-insulating main body box 11 as an outer shell, and two doors 12 are provided on the front surface thereof so as to be openable and closable. Body box 1
Each of the door 1 and the door 12 has a hollow outer shell filled with a heat insulating material such as urethane foam.

A machine room 13 is provided on the left side of the main body box 11, and although not shown, various components constituting a well-known compression type refrigerating cycle such as a compressor and a condenser and a control device for the refrigerating cycle are housed therein. Have been. The evaporator 14 of the refrigeration cycle is arranged together with the guide plate 15 toward the left side portion in the main body box 11, and a cool air circulation fan 16 is arranged above the evaporator 14. The refrigeration cycle is controlled based on a temperature signal from a temperature sensor 33 provided in the storage 17 described later. On the other hand, the main body box 1
Inside 1, a housing 17 formed of a metal plate having good thermal conductivity such as a stainless steel plate is arranged. The storage 17 has a horizontally long box shape with an open front, and is assembled so that its front opening matches the opening of the main body box 11, as shown in FIG. Then, the door 12 can be closed by closing the door 12. The storage 17 is sized so as to occupy most of the internal space of the main body box 11, and is arranged so as to leave a ventilation gap G between the outer peripheral surface and the inner surface of the main body box 11. . Therefore, when the cool air circulation fan 16 is operated, the cool air generated by the evaporator 14 flows through the ventilation gap G while contacting the outer wall surface of the main body box 11, and its flow direction is the same as that of the main body box 11. A loop is drawn that flows from the left to the right through the ceiling of the, goes round down, flows from the right to the left, and returns to the cooler 14. As a result of this cool air circulation, the inside of the storage 17 is indirectly cooled. As shown in FIG. 4, the ceiling and the bottom of the storage 17 have a shape in which the back is slightly inclined downward, and the innermost part of the bottom is penetrated to the outside through the main body box 11. Drain pipe 18 is provided.

In the storage 17, a net shelf 1 is provided in two upper and lower tiers.
9 are provided, on which storage items can be placed. On the left side of the storage 17, a fan chamber 21 whose lower part is open is defined by a partition wall 22 and extends vertically, and two upper and lower discharge ports 23 are formed in the upper half of the partition wall 22. The outlets 23 are provided side by side.
Is provided. Each of the in-compartment fans 24 corresponds to each of the net shelves 19 provided in the upper and lower tiers.
Numeral 4 discharges air toward the upper side of the upper net shelf 19, and the lower internal fan 24 discharges air toward the upper side of the lower net shelf 19.

On the lower surface of the ceiling of the storage 17, a dew condensation capturing plate 25 is provided in a suspended state with a predetermined gap from the ceiling via a mounting bracket 26. As shown in FIG. 4, the dew condensation water capturing plate 25 has a configuration in which a perforated plate 27 provided with an infinite number of fine through holes 27 a is superposed on a thin base plate 28 and integrated therewith. The condensed water can be captured in the holes 27a and the minute gaps between the porous plate 27 and the base plate 28, and the captured condensed water is condensed on the condensed water capturing plate 25.
Along the inclination of the container 17 and reaches the innermost part of the storage 17.
On the other hand, at the bottom of the storage 17, as shown in FIG. 5, an intake duct 29 which is manufactured by bending a steel plate into a flat groove shape extends in the left-right direction of FIG. The depth of the intake duct 29 is substantially equal to the depth of the storage 17, and the height of the leg 29a is
The air duct A formed between the intake duct 29 and the bottom surface of the storage 17 is a lower opening B of the fan chamber 21.
The dimensions are set so as to be continuous. The dimensions of the intake duct 29 in the left-right direction in FIG.
7 is set to approximately な い し to の of the left-right dimension of the storage box 7, and is arranged to the left of the storage 17. Therefore, the front end of the intake duct 29 is approximately 1
At a position of ２ to ／, an opening is provided far from the discharge port 23, and approximately １ ／ to 1 of the bottom area of the storage 17.
The area of ３ can be made to function as the intake port 30 of the intake duct 29. In addition, a hand hole 31 for hanging a finger is formed substantially at the center of the upper surface of the intake duct 29.

A bottom net shelf 32 shown in FIG. 6 is removably disposed in the remaining portion of the bottom of the storage 17 which is left from the arrangement of the intake duct 29 and functions as the intake port 30. This bottom net shelf 32 is a top grid portion 32
a and the leg 32b are integrally provided.
The height dimension of b is set equal to that of the leg 29a of the intake duct 29, and when installed at the bottom of the storage 17, the upper surface of the intake duct 29 and the upper surface lattice portion 32a of the bottom net shelf 32 are flush with each other. The food can be stably placed even on the boundary between the intake duct 29 and the bottom net shelf 32.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When the temperature in the storage 17 rises above the set temperature, this is detected by the temperature sensor 33, so that the compressor of the refrigeration cycle is operated and the cooling air circulation fan 16 is operated.
Is driven. With the operation of the compressor, a cooling effect is exhibited by the evaporator 14, and the cool air generated here is circulated around the outer periphery of the storage 17 by the cool air circulation fan 16, and in the process, the wall surface of the storage 17 Is cooled, the inside of the storage 17 is also indirectly cooled. In this configuration, since the air in the storage 17 is indirectly cooled without directly contacting the evaporator 14, the inside of the storage 17 is cooled while maintaining a sufficient humidity, and agricultural products such as vegetables are excessively dried. It can be refrigerated and stored without letting it go.

If such high-humidity refrigeration is performed, water condensed especially on the ceiling of the storage 17 may drop onto the stored foods, impairing their storage state. However, in the present embodiment, since the dew condensation water trapping plate 25 is arranged almost over the entire ceiling, even if dew condensation occurs on the ceiling and drops, the dew condensation water remains on the dew condensation water trap plate 25. And dripping on food is reliably prevented. When thawing frozen foods using this refrigerator, the following is performed. First, the frozen food to be thawed is placed on the net shelves 19 and 32 in the storage 17, and the like.
The door 12 is closed. Then, when a predetermined operation is performed, the internal fan 24 is operated, so that air in the storage 17 is sucked from the intake port 30 of the intake duct 29, and
Through the fan chamber 21 and is discharged from the outlet 23 of the fan chamber 21 into the storage 17. Since the discharge port 23 is provided in the upper half of the partition 22 of the fan chamber 21 in two upper and lower stages, the air discharged from the discharge port 23 flows on each of the upper and lower two-stage net shelves 19 as shown by arrows in FIG. Then, it flows linearly from left to right, changes its flow downward to the right end of the storage 17, and flows into the intake port 30 of the intake duct 29. In the process of air circulation, air with relatively high humidity collides with frozen food at an extremely low temperature of about -30 ° C, where water vapor in the air condenses and freezes, and a large amount of heat energy is generated due to a phase change. It is given to frozen food, which is gradually heated to promote thawing.

In this case, in the present embodiment, the intake port 30 is opened at a position distant from the discharge port 23 with a large area reaching about 1/2 to 1/3 of the bottom area of the storage 17. Therefore, the amount of air circulated by the in-compartment fan 24 also increases, so that a large amount of heat can be given to the frozen food, and the thawing speed increases. Also, when thawing frozen food as described above,
A large amount of frozen food is placed on the net shelf 19 and the
If the frozen food is located near the discharge port 23, the air discharged from the discharge port 23 collides with the frozen food and attempts to change the flow direction. Here, if the intake port of the fan in the refrigerator is arranged near the discharge port, as in a conventional refrigerator, the air flow that has collided with frozen food and changed its flow direction is immediately sucked into the intake port. As a result, a so-called short circuit may be caused, and the frozen food placed at other positions may not be sufficiently contacted.

On the other hand, in the refrigerator of the present embodiment, the intake port 30 of the internal fan 24 is located at the bottom right side of the storage 17 far away from the discharge port 23 located at the upper left of the storage 17. For this reason, since the airflow flowing toward the intake port 30 always occurs in the storage 17, the discharge port 23
The air colliding with frozen food in the vicinity to change the flow direction also flows by multiplying the airflow flowing toward the intake port 30, and eventually reaches the right bottom of the storage 17 without largely changing the flow direction. Circulates greatly in the storage 17 and flows to every corner. As a result, the inside air comes into contact with most of the other frozen foods stored in the storage 17 evenly, and uneven thawing can be prevented from occurring.

Further, in the refrigerator of this embodiment, the dew condensation water does not drop on the food stored in the storage 17 as described above, and the air is completely circulated using the intake duct 29. However, there is still an advantage that a large effective volume in the refrigerator can be ensured.
That is, if a configuration is adopted in which, for example, a discharge duct is arranged on the ceiling to discharge air from a position distant from the intake port,
In this type of high-humidity storage type refrigerator, dew condensation easily occurs on the outer peripheral surface of the discharge duct due to the high humidity inside the storage. It is necessary to arrange a water trap. Then, the effective volume in the storage becomes small.

On the other hand, in this embodiment, the intake duct 2
9 is provided at the bottom of the storage 17 so that even if dew forms here, the problem that the condensed water drops on the food does not occur. Does not require a lot of space. Also, originally, foods and the like are generally provided with a net shelf at the bottom of the storage box and stored floating from the bottom, so that a dead space originally occurs at the bottom of the storage box. On the other hand, in the configuration of the present embodiment, the intake duct 29 is arranged by using the dead space generated at the bottom thereof.
It is possible to secure a large effective volume in the refrigerator.

Further, in the configuration in which the duct is provided on the ceiling portion, it is inevitable that the duct is fixed. However, when the configuration in which the intake duct 29 is provided on the bottom portion as in this embodiment, the duct is simply bent into a groove shape. It is sufficient that the steel plate is placed on the bottom of the storage 17, and attachment and detachment becomes extremely easy. Therefore, maintenance such as cleaning becomes easy, and the device can be used cleanly.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
For example, instead of the bottom net shelf 32 arranged next to the intake duct 29, a ventilation shelf manufactured by bending a steel plate into a flat groove shape like the intake duct 29 and forming a large number of air holes therein is arranged. Various changes can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional front view of a refrigerator showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the same.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the same.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal side view of the same.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an intake duct.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a net shelf;

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... body box 16 ... cool air circulation fan 17 ... storage
Reference Signs List 23 discharge outlet 24 internal fan 25 dew condensation water trap plate 29 intake duct 30 intake port 32 bottom net shelf

Claims (1)

(57) [Scope of request for utility model registration] 1. A storage in a heat-insulating main body box, in which the inside of the storage is indirectly cooled by flowing cool air through the outer wall surface of the storage, and the air in the storage is circulated. In the provision of the internal fan, the outlet of the internal fan is opened at the top of the storage, and an intake duct of the internal fan is provided at the bottom of the storage,
A refrigerator, wherein an intake port of the intake duct is opened at a position apart from the discharge port on a bottom portion of the storage.