JP6850091B2 - refrigerator - Google Patents

Description

Embodiments of the present invention relate to refrigerators.

Refrigerators are equipped with a refrigeration cycle consisting of a compressor and a condenser. These compressors and capacitors are generally installed in the machine room and generate heat during operation, so they are cooled by a cooling fan. Then, for example, Patent Document 1 proposes to efficiently cool a compressor, a condenser, or the like in a machine room by devising the arrangement of exhaust ports.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-238219

By the way, in recent years, it has been desired to increase the volume of a storage chamber such as a refrigerator compartment. Then, in order to increase the volume without inviting the increase in size of the main body, it is required to make the volume of the machine room smaller than before.
Therefore, a refrigerator capable of reducing the volume of the machine room is provided.

The refrigerator of the embodiment includes a condenser constituting a refrigeration cycle and a cooling fan for cooling the condenser, and is characterized in that a centrifugal fan is adopted as the cooling fan.

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

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5.
As shown in FIG. 1, the main body 2 of the refrigerator 1 is formed to be substantially rectangular. The main body 2 has 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 is provided with a plurality of storage chambers 10 (see FIG. 2) inside. , The front opening of each storage chamber 10 is opened and closed by a door.

Although not shown, the back plate 3, the left side plate 4, the right side plate 5, the top plate 6 and the bottom plate 7 have a structure of, for example, a vacuum heat insulating panel, polyurethane foam, or a combination thereof, and the storage chamber 10 and the refrigerator 1 Insulate between the outside and the outside. Hereinafter, in the present specification, as shown by arrows in FIG. 1, the direction along gravity is the vertical direction, the direction from the left side plate 4 to the right side plate 5 is the left-right direction, and the refrigerator 1 is installed. The direction from the front to the back plate 3 side will be described as the front-rear direction.

The refrigerator 1 is provided with a machine room 8 at 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 an opening 9 communicating with the machine room 8 at a position corresponding to the machine room 8. Further, 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 into the machine room 8 from the outside 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. Further, each opening 9 may be a simple slit, may be processed into a louver shape or the like, 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. Further, although not shown, a storage room 10 such as a freezing room is provided above the machine room 8. The machine room 8 and each storage room 10 are partitioned by a heat insulating 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 well-known refrigeration cycle, and the operation of the compressor 11 and the cooling fan 20 is controlled by a control unit (not shown).

In the present embodiment, the capacitor 12 adopts a so-called multi-flow type capacitor 12. The multi-flow type capacitor 12 has a structure in which two headers serving as an inlet and an outlet of a refrigerant are connected by a flat pipe, and a plurality of flow paths are provided in parallel in the flat pipe. Further, the flat tube is provided with heat radiation fins for increasing the contact area with air. In the present embodiment, the capacitor 12 is of a parallel type in which the headers are connected by a plurality of flat tubes, but a meandering type in which one flat tube is folded back to connect the headers is also adopted. Good.

The cooling fan 20 employs a so-called centrifugal fan in this embodiment. Therefore, the air blown from the cooling fan 20 is performed in the radial direction outward from the center and in the entire circumferential direction. Although not shown, the machine room 8 is provided with other equipment parts such as piping and electrical wiring for connecting the compressor 11, the condenser 12, the cooling fan 20, and the like.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described.
In order to reduce the volume of the machine room 8, first of all, it is necessary to reduce the size of mechanical parts such as the compressor 11, the condenser 12, and the cooling fan 20. However, the compressor 11 and the capacitor 12 are not simply miniaturized, and must be made to a certain size in order to secure the required cooling capacity.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a multi-flow type capacitor 12 is adopted. The multi-flow type capacitor 12 exhibits high heat dissipation performance because the flat tube promotes heat dissipation from the refrigerant and the heat radiation fins increase the surface area. Therefore, as compared with the so-called fin tube type, if the size is the same, the heat dissipation performance is higher, and if the required heat dissipation performance is the same, the size can be further reduced.

As a result, the machine parts provided in the machine room 8 can be miniaturized, and the machine parts can be miniaturized, so that the volume of the machine room 8 can be reduced.
By the way, although the volume of the machine room 8 can be made smaller than before by adopting the multi-flow type capacitor 12, the layout of the machine room 8, that is, the arrangement of the machine parts of the machine room 8 can be devised. 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 using an axial fan, 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. In other words, the degree of freedom in installing the compressor 11, the condenser 12, and the axial fan was low.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, a centrifugal fan is adopted 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 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 centrifugal fan can be increased.

If the degree of freedom of installation is increased, the space in the machine room 8 can be effectively utilized, and the required space can be reduced, that is, the volume of the machine room 8 can be reduced.
Further, in the case of FIG. 3, the air that cools the condenser 12 flows toward the wall surface of the back plate 3 or the like of the refrigerator 1. Therefore, the back plate 3 is warmed by the exhaust heat from the condenser 12, and the occurrence of dew condensation on the surface of the back plate 3 can be suppressed.

Further, in the case of the cooling fan 20, since air can be blown over the entire area in the circumferential direction, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, one cooling fan 20 can cool a plurality of capacitors 12. Therefore, for example, when it is difficult to arrange one large capacitor 12, but two relatively small capacitors 12 can be arranged, the number of cooling fans 20 is not increased, and the number of cooling fans 20 is not increased. , The capacitor 12 can be arranged without lowering the degree of freedom of arrangement.

Further, in the case of FIG. 4, by arranging one capacitor 12 on the back plate 3 side and the other capacitor 12 on the right side plate 5, the back plate 3 and the right side plate 5 can be heated by the exhaust heat from the capacitor 12. It is possible to further suppress the occurrence of dew condensation.

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 object is arranged around the cooling fan 20 in a plan view, mechanical parts that hinder ventilation cannot be arranged between the cooling fan 20 and the condenser 12, so that the cooling fan 20 is used. A large dead space is created between the capacitor 12 and the capacitor 12.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, the condenser 12 can be formed in an arch shape along the outer edge of the cooling fan 20. As a result, the condenser 12 can be arranged in the vicinity of the cooling fan 20, and the dead space described above can be prevented from being formed. Further, unlike the case where a large rectangular parallelepiped is arranged, the distance from the cooling fan 20 to the condenser 12 is constant, so that it is possible to suppress uneven cooling in the condenser 12.

Further, by forming the capacitor 12 in an arch shape, the length in the circumferential direction can be increased. Therefore, if the same heat dissipation performance is obtained, the length of the capacitor 12 in the circumferential direction becomes long, so that the height dimension can be reduced. As a result, although the height of the compressor 11 is required, it is possible to prevent the height dimension of the machine room 8 from being limited by the size of the capacitor 12.

According to the embodiment described above, the following effects can be obtained.
The refrigerator 1 includes a condenser 12 constituting a refrigerating cycle and a cooling fan 20 for cooling the condenser 12, and employs a centrifugal fan as the cooling fan 20. As a result, as described above, the degree of freedom in installing the machine parts in the machine room 8 can be increased, and the volume of the machine room 8 can be reduced.

Further, in the refrigerator 1, the condenser 12 is formed in an arch shape along the outer edge of the cooling fan 20. As a result, it is possible to suppress the formation of a dead space between the condenser 12 and the cooling fan 20 as described above.

In the refrigerator 1, the condenser 12 and the cooling fan 20 are arranged so that the air that cools the condenser 12 flows toward the wall surface of the refrigerator 1. As a result, the exhaust heat of the condenser 12 is supplied to the wall portion of the back plate 3, the left side plate 4, the right side plate 5, etc., and the wall portion can be warmed, thereby suppressing the occurrence of dew condensation on the surface of the refrigerator 1. .. Further, it is possible to reduce the number of heat radiation pipes conventionally used for warming the surface of the refrigerator 1.

(Other embodiments)
The present invention is not limited to those exemplified in the above-described embodiments, and can be arbitrarily modified or extended as follows, for example, within a range that does not deviate from the range.
In the embodiment, the multi-flow type capacitor 12 is illustrated, but it may be a fin tube type.

In the embodiment, an example in which the condenser 12 and the cooling fan 20 are arranged in the machine room 8 on the lower back side in the refrigerator 1 is shown, but the condenser 12 and the cooling fan 20 are arranged 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 can be arranged so that the exhaust heat from the capacitor 12 faces 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 embodiments, and various omissions, replacements, and changes can be made without departing from the gist of the invention. The present embodiment and its modifications are included in the scope and gist of the invention, and are included in the scope of the invention described in the claims and the equivalent scope thereof.

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

Claims (5)

The capacitors and compressors that make up the refrigeration cycle,
The condenser and the cooling fan for cooling the compressor are provided.
A centrifugal fan is used as the cooling fan.
The condenser and the compressor are arranged in different directions in the radial outward direction of the cooling fan .
A refrigerator in which a machine room in which the condenser, the compressor, and the cooling fan are arranged is provided on the back side of the storage room. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein an opening communicating with the outside of the refrigerator is provided on an extension in the direction connecting the cooling fan and the condenser. The refrigerator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein openings communicating with the outside of the refrigerator are provided on at least two of the side surface, the right side surface and the left side surface of the refrigerator. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the condenser is formed in an arch shape along the outer edge of the cooling fan. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the condenser and the cooling fan are arranged so that the air that cools the condenser flows toward the wall surface of the refrigerator.

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