JPH01225469A - Thawing box - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the size of a water-storing tank and surely recover sprayed water into the water-storing tank, by spraying the water from the spray nozzle of a sprinkler on the air inlet surface of an evaporator, collecting excess water, etc., dropping from the evaporator into a water collector and subsequently recovering the collected water into the water-storing tank. CONSTITUTION:Water sprayed from the spray nozzle 13A of a sprinkler 13 at a wide angle is evenly sprayed on the air inlet surface 11A of an evaporator 11 to provide a highly humid cool air. Water dropped from the evaporator 11, an eliminator 12 and a fan 14 is collected into a water collector 16 and the sprayed water splashed from the space between the evaporator 11 and the eliminator 12 to the inner wall surface of the thawing box is stopped by a splash-preventing plate 33 and allowed to drop into the water collector 16. The water dropped into the water collector 16 is recovered into the water- storing tank 17 through a returning pipe 19 to recycle the water.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a thawing chamber for thawing frozen foods using forcedly circulated humid cold air.

(b) Conventional technology Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-205763 discloses that a partition plate is disposed inside the refrigerator defined by a heat insulating box to partition the inside of the refrigerator into upper and lower parts.
It is divided into an upper section and a lower section, and the upper section includes a plate fin type evaporator, two eliminators arranged at appropriate intervals on both sides of the evaporator, and a rear section of the evaporator. The lower part is equipped with a blower fan, a water storage tank with an open top located directly below the evaporator and both eliminators, and a water sprinkling pipe that sprinkles water from the water storage tank toward the air inlet surface of the evaporator. In this area, there is a thawing warehouse that is equipped with a plurality of mesh shelves to form a storage section for placing frozen foods.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the defrosting chamber of the prior art, the water storage tank directly collects water dripping from the evaporator and eliminator, so the water storage tank becomes extremely large. If the space between the evaporator and eliminator is designed to be narrow in order to achieve A problem occurred in that some of the sprayed water was scattered on the internal walls of the refrigerator, and this water could not be collected into the water storage tank.

In view of this, the present invention not only reduces the size of the water storage tank, but also
To provide a thawing warehouse that more reliably recovers jet water to a water storage tank.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention forms a storage chamber for frozen foods in a refrigerator defined by a heat-insulating box, and an upper part of the storage chamber above the storage chamber. , an evaporator of the refrigeration system, an eliminator facing the air inlet surface of the evaporator, a cold air circulation blower facing the air outlet surface of the evaporator, and an air inlet surface of the evaporator between the evaporator and the eliminator. A water sprinkler having a wide-angle spray nozzle for spraying is disposed, a water collector is disposed opposite to the lower part of the evaporator, the eliminator, the blower, and the water sprinkler, and a water collector is disposed opposite to the lower part of the storage chamber, and a pump A water storage tank is provided which communicates with the water sprinkler through a water pipe that interposes the device, and which collects water that has fallen into the water collector through a return pipe after watering, and the water sprinkler is equipped with an eliminator and an evaporator. This is a thawing warehouse with a scattering prevention plate fixed to it to prevent spray water from scattering to the internal wall located on the side of the container.

(*) Function According to the present invention, the evaporator (11), eliminator (12)
) and the blower (14), the water dripping from the water collector (16)
The water that is sprayed at a wide angle from the spray nozzle (13A) of the water sprinkler (13) is sprayed onto the air inlet surface of the evaporator (11) (
11A), humid cold air can be obtained. Moreover, from the space between the evaporator (11) and the eliminator (12) to the internal wall (2A),
Spray water is prevented from scattering to A> by the anti-scattering plate (33) and falls into the water collector (16>). 17)
will be collected.

(f) Examples Examples of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings. (1)
This is a thawing chamber whose main body is constituted by an insulating box (2) with an open front, and a storage chamber (3) for frozen food is formed within the chamber defined by the insulating box (2). In the storage chamber (3), trays (6) on which frozen foods are placed are supported by slide rails (5) attached to shelf supports (4) and can be arranged in multiple stages in the vertical direction. The front opening has an insulated door that can be opened and closed (
7) is closed.

In addition, there is a humid cold air generation chamber (
8). The cold air generation chamber (8) includes a plate fin type evaporator (11) equipped with a warming heater (9) and a defrosting heater (10), and an air inlet surface (IIA) of the evaporator (11) and an interval. The eliminator (1
2), and a water sprinkler (1) disposed between the evaporator (11) and the eliminator (12) and having an injection nozzle (13A>) that sprays toward the air inlet face (IIA>) of the evaporator (11>).
3) and two blowers (14) facing the air outlet surface (IIB) of the evaporator (11) are installed, and the generation chamber (8)
The front of the room is closed by a service door (15) that can be opened and closed.

The evaporator (1) installed in the humid cold air generation chamber (8)
1) A water collector (16) is placed oppositely below the eliminator (12), water sprinkler (13), and blower (14). Further, a water storage tank (17) is disposed in the lower part of the storage chamber below the storage chamber (3), and the upper opening is closed by a removable lid (17A), leaving a part of the opening.

The other end of a water supply pipe (18) whose one end is connected to an external water supply system and the other end of a return pipe (19) whose one end is connected to the water collector (16) face the opening of this water storage tank (17). As a result, the water storage tank (17) collects the water supplied from the water supply pipe (18) by opening the water supply solenoid valve (21>) controlled by the water level detection device (20) installed inside. The water that can be recovered from the container (16) through the return pipe (19) is stored.

Furthermore, the bottom of the water storage tank (17) and the water sprinkler (13)
are connected by a water pipe (23) with a pump device (22) interposed therebetween. This pump device (22) is a heat insulating box (
2) is arranged in a machine room (24) defined below, and a drain pipe (25) is branched from the water pipe (23) at the outlet side of the pump device (22). This drain pipe (25) is normally closed by a pipe opening/closing mechanism (26), and the other end passes through the machine room (24) from the drain port (27) formed in the bottom wall of the insulation box (2). It is connected to a drainage vibrator (28) that passes through the bottom wall of (24).

By the way, the wide-angle spray nozzle (13) of the water sprinkler (13)
A) Atomized water is transferred to the air inlet surface (IIA) of the evaporator (11).
> An appropriate number of sprays (two in the example) to spray evenly.
The spray nozzle (13A) is provided with scattering prevention plates (33) surrounding the nozzle (13A) on both sides, rear and upper sides of the spray nozzle (13A).
It is detachably attached to the sprinkler (13) via a plate (34).

The electric compressor (29), condenser 30), and condenser cooling blower (31), which together with the evaporator (11) constitute the refrigeration system, are arranged in the machine room (24).

Next, the defrosting operation by the defrosting cabinet will be explained. First, the water supply solenoid valve (21) opens to supply water from the water supply pipe (18) to the water storage tank (17), and when a predetermined amount of water has been supplied, the water supply solenoid valve (21) closes to stop water supply. At the same time, the pump device (22) is activated, and the water in the water storage tank (17) is pumped through the water pipe (23) to the sprinkler (13), and from the injection nozzle (13A) to the air inlet face of the evaporator (11). (IIA
> is sprayed towards. On the other hand, the operation of the refrigeration equipment is controlled so that the internal temperature is maintained at, for example, 5°C, and the temperature of the warming heater (9) and the defrosting heater (10) decreases due to the influence of frozen food at the beginning of the thawing operation. In order to quickly raise the temperature inside the refrigerator to the set temperature, it is turned on and off at a temperature slightly lower than the set temperature inside the refrigerator. The cold air heat-exchanged in the evaporator (11) is then sent to the injection nozzle (13A).
The constant-temperature, humid, cold air that contains fine particles of water sprayed into the evaporator (11) and becomes humid, and that passes through the evaporator (11) in high-speed airflow due to the operation of the blower (14), is shown by the white arrow in Figure 1. As shown in (A), the frozen food (32) is circulated to the storage chamber (3) and thawed 2.

By the way, the water sprayed into the evaporator (11) during the thawing operation is not entirely contained in the cold air and circulated, but falls from the evaporator (11) to the water collector (16) as surplus water. Furthermore, the water that has bounced back from the evaporator (11) is prevented from further scattering backward by the eliminator (12).
The water falling from the eliminator (12) is collected in the water collector (16).
The water that is collected and falls from the blower (14) is also collected in the water collector (
16), and from the wide-angle injection nozzle (13A), a mist of water evenly hits the evaporator (11), resulting in humid cold air for good thawing. However, at this time, since it is a wide-angle spray, the evaporator (1
1) and the eliminator (12) from the space between the eliminator (12) and the spray water that is about to scatter in the direction of the eliminator (12) in the form of fine particles due to collisions between the spray water and the eliminator (12). 33) prevents the spray water from scattering in this direction, and as a result, the spray water does not scatter onto the internal walls of the refrigerator, that is, the inner wall (2A) of the insulation box (2) and the inner wall (15A) of the service door (15). water collector (1
It falls on 6〉.

In this way, the water that has fallen into the water collector (16) is transferred to the return pipe (16).
9) and is returned to the water storage tank (17) for recirculation. The thawing time varies depending on the type and amount of frozen food (32), but it is based on a preset time based on empirical data, and the freezing equipment, blower (14), and pump device (22) are stopped. At the same time, the drain pipe (25) is opened and all the water in the water storage tank (17) is drained to complete the thawing operation.

(g) Effects of the Invention As described above, the present invention prevents the scattering of excess water that falls from the evaporator after being sprayed from the spray nozzle of the sprinkler onto the air inlet surface of the evaporator, and water that rebounds from the evaporator. The water collector collects the water that falls from the eliminator and the water that falls from the blower, and the scattering prevention plate prevents the spray water from scattering from the space between the evaporator and the eliminator toward the internal wall of the refrigerator and collects the water. The water collected in these water collectors can be reliably returned to the water storage tank through the return pipe and recirculated, reducing water consumption and providing excellent economic effects. play.

In addition, the wide-angle injection nozzle can spray mist water almost uniformly onto the evaporator, so that humid cold air for good thawing can be reliably obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional front view of the thawing warehouse of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view of the same, Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along line A-A in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the
5 is a sectional view taken along line C-C in FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a plan view of the sprinkler portion, and FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line DD in FIG. 6. (2)...Insulation box, (2A), (15A)...
・Inner wall, (3)...Storage chamber, (11)...Evaporator, (IIA)...Air inlet surface, (IIB>・
... Air outlet surface, (12) ... Eliminator, (
(1)...Water sprinkler, (13A)...Wide angle injection nozzle, (14)...Blower, (16)...Water collector,
(17)... Water storage tank, (18)... Water supply pipe, (19)... Return pipe, (22)... Pump device, (23)... Water supply pipe, (32)...・Frozen food, (33)...Scatter prevention plate.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A storage chamber for frozen food is formed in a refrigerator defined by a heat insulating box, and a freezing system evaporator is installed in the upper part of the storage chamber above the storage chamber.
an eliminator facing the air inlet face of the evaporator; a cold air circulation blower facing the air outlet face of the evaporator; and a water sprinkler having a wide-angle spray nozzle between the evaporator and the eliminator to spray the air inlet face of the evaporator. the evaporator;
A water collector is disposed facing below the eliminator, the blower, and the water sprinkler, and communicates with the water sprinkler through a water pipe with a pump device interposed in the lower part of the storage chamber, and sprays water. A water storage tank is installed to collect water that later falls into the water collector via a return pipe, and the water sprinkler is equipped with an eliminator and a scattering prevention device that prevents sprayed water from scattering on the internal wall of the refrigerator located on the side of the evaporator. A thawing chamber characterized by a fixed board.