JPH05280854A - Humidistat for keeping freshness - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To keep the freshness of vegetables and fruits by controlling relative humidity to be unchanged without dispersing water produced from the vegetables and fruits. CONSTITUTION:A flat container 4 includes a plurality of openings 4a for absorbing/discharging moisture in one side thereof, and an opening for mounting a heat radiating plate 3 therein in the opposite surface thereof. A moisture absorbing/discharging material 2 is contained in the container 4. Further, heat radiating fins 3a are mounted on the wall of a vegetable casing 8 of a refrigerator so as to be located outside the vegetable casing 8. When the ambient temperature of the vegetable casing 8 is lowered, condensation is formed on the material 2 and water is absorbed, while when the ambient temperature is raised, water absorbed in the material 2 is evaporated to keep relative humidity unchanged at all times.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a humidity control device for keeping freshness, and more specifically, a humidity control device for keeping freshness of vegetables and fruits for a long time by controlling the humidity of a storage or a vegetable case. The purpose is to obtain a constant humidity device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Vegetables and fruits carry on vital activities even after harvesting, and carry out activities opposite to the pattern of taking in water and carbon dioxide gas and releasing oxygen before harvesting. Therefore, if left unattended, the water content will gradually decrease and the freshness will be lost. In order to prevent this decrease in freshness, it is effective to suppress the above life activity. Therefore, it is easy to put it in a refrigerator to lower the temperature in a refrigerator. However, due to the low humidity inside the refrigerator, if you put it in that way, water will be lost rapidly, so it is stored in a vegetable case that can be sealed.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional humidity controller for a refrigerator. In FIG. 4, 17 is a vegetable compartment, 18 is a drawer-type vegetable case housed in the vegetable compartment 17, and 19 is the vegetable case 1.
When 8 is stored in the vegetable compartment 17, a vegetable case lid that covers the upper opening of the vegetable case 18 in a substantially airtight state, 20 is a heat insulating wall, 21 is a door, 22 is a cold air inlet, 23 is a cold air outlet, 24
Is a humidity control filter attached to the vegetable case lid 19. The fruits and vegetables in the vegetable case 18 are the cold air inlet 22 described above.
It is designed to be indirectly cooled from the surroundings by the cold air entering from the outside and exiting from the cool air outlet 23. Therefore, the inside of the vegetable case 18 is kept at a high humidity by the moisture emitted from the fruits and vegetables. Then, excess water is discharged from the humidity control filter 24 to the outside of the vegetable case 18.

[0004]

However, since both sides of the humidity control filter 24 are in an open state, excess moisture radiated from fruits and vegetables and absorbed by the humidity control filter 24 is low humidity flowing outside the vegetable case 18. Since the cold air of the plant easily evaporates, there was a problem that the amount of water emitted from the fruits and vegetables was large and the freshness of the fruits and vegetables declined significantly. Also, vegetable room 1
When the door 21 of 7 is opened and the humidity in the vegetable case 18 decreases once, the water content of the fruits and vegetables is spent to restore the original humidity. Therefore, when the door 21 is opened and closed frequently, the weight of the fruits and vegetables is reduced. There was a problem that became large. Further, the humidity control filter 24 has a problem in that carbon dioxide gas effective for CA storage is also discharged, because all gas components are permeated. The present invention has been made in order to solve such problems, and prevents the dissipation of water and carbon dioxide gas generated from fruits and vegetables, and can be used for keeping freshness of fruits and vegetables for a long period of time. It is intended to provide a constant humidity device.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a freshness-retaining constant material comprising a material having a moisture absorbing / releasing property for controlling the humidity inside a storage case, a vegetable case of a refrigerator or the like. In the humidity device, a heat-conducting heat-dissipating plate having a heat-dissipating / releasing opening is provided on one side surface, and a heat-dissipating fin having an heat-dissipating fin is attached to the opening provided on the opposite side surface. A flat storage container for storing the material having the above is attached to a wall of the storage, the vegetable case, or the like that can be sealed so that the heat radiation fins are located outside the storage, the vegetable case, or the like.

[0006]

In the above structure, the inside of the storage and the vegetable case is humidified to a high humidity by the evaporated water from the stored material, and a part of the water vapor is absorbed by the moisture absorbing / releasing material. At this time, if the outside temperature of the storage case and vegetable case becomes lower than the inside temperature,
Since the temperature of the heat radiation plate with the heat radiation fins drops first, the temperature of the moisture absorbing and desorbing material decreases in conjunction with it to condense the excess water vapor inside and to prevent condensation on the surface of the storage and vegetable cases. To prevent. On the contrary, when the outside temperature of the storage case and the vegetable case becomes higher than the inside temperature, the temperature of the moisture absorptive and desorptive material rises quickly in conjunction with the heat dissipation plate to release the absorbed steam, so the storage case and the vegetable case. The relative humidity inside is kept constant. In addition, even if the internal humidity is lowered by opening the doors of the storage compartment and the vegetable compartment, the moisture absorbed by the moisture absorptive and desorptive material is immediately evaporated, so that the reduction of the moisture content of the stored material is prevented. ..

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments thereof. FIG. 1 (a) is a cross-sectional view of an essential part showing an embodiment of a humidity controller for keeping freshness according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 (b) is a front view of a humidity plate of the humidity controller. In FIG. 1 above,
The humidity controller 1 includes a moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2 and a plurality of heat dissipation fins 3.
a heat dissipation plate 3 provided with a and the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2 described above, and a plurality of openings 4a for moisture absorptive and desorptive on one surface,
An opening 4 for attaching the heat sink 3 is provided on the opposite surface.
It consists of a flat storage container 4 having b and a flange 5. Reference numeral 6 is a packing for attaching the constant humidity apparatus 1 to the vegetable case 8 in an airtight state.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the constant humidity device for keeping freshness of the present invention is attached to a vegetable case of a refrigerator.
In FIG. 2, 1 is the above-mentioned humidity chamber, 7 is a vegetable compartment, 9 is a vegetable case lid, 10 is a heat insulating wall, 11 is a door, 12 is a cold air inlet, and 13 is a cold air outlet. The vegetable case 8 is substantially sealed by the vegetable case lid 9, and the constant humidity device 1 is attached to the lower part of the side wall of the vegetable case 8 in an airtight state by using a packing 6 (not shown). ing. Then, the cold air that has entered from the cold air inlet 12 travels around the vegetable case 8 to cool the vegetable case 8 from the surroundings and to exit from the cold air outlet 13. At this time, vegetable case 8
When the temperature of the outside of the vegetable compartment 7, that is, the temperature of the vegetable compartment 7 becomes lower than the inside of the vegetable case 8, the temperature of the radiator plate 3 provided with the heat radiation fins 3a and made of a material having good heat conductivity is first lowered. next,
The temperature of the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2 in contact with the heat dissipation plate 3 decreases. Therefore, when the temperature in the vegetable case 8 starts to decrease and the water vapor becomes excessive, the excess water vapor condenses on the surface of the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2 having a low temperature, and the condensed water absorbs and desorbs the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2.
Absorbed by. On the contrary, when the temperature of the outside of the vegetable case 8 becomes higher than that of the inside, the temperature of the radiator plate 3 rises first,
Since the temperature of the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2 rises in conjunction with it, the absorbed moisture is released, and the insufficient steam due to the temperature rise in the vegetable case 8 is replenished. Therefore, the relative humidity is kept constant at 90 to 92% in the vegetable case 8 due to the water vaporized from the stored fruits 11 and the like and the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2. Further, when the vegetable case lid 9 is opened to take out the stored fruits and the like, the humidity inside the vegetable case 8 once drops to the humidity level outside the refrigerator, but when the lid 9 is closed, the moisture is immediately released. Since the moisture absorbed by the wet material 2 evaporates and recovers to high humidity, the decrease in moisture of fruits and the like can be suppressed to a low level. Further, since the vegetable case 8 has a substantially closed structure, the carbon dioxide gas generated and released by the breathing action of fruits and the like is confined in the vegetable case 8 and
The oxygen concentration in the inside can be reduced, and low oxygen storage generally called CA storage can be performed, and freshness during storage can be maintained. When storing fruits in the vegetable case 8, a micro hole (not shown) provided in the vegetable case lid 9 is opened to set the humidity in the vegetable case 8 to 80 to 90% which is optimum for fruits. In addition to the adjustment, ethylene gas, which is a aging-promoting hormone of fruits that is generated from fruits and stays near the ceiling of the vegetable case 8, can be discharged to the outside of the vegetable case 8.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a storage unit with an ethylene gas decomposing unit according to another embodiment of the humidity controller for keeping freshness of the present invention. 14 is a storage with an ethylene gas decomposing device, 1
Reference numeral 1'denotes a door, 15 an ethylene gas decomposing device comprising an ethylene gas decomposing catalyst, and 10 'a heat insulating wall. Constant humidity device 1 '
Is attached to the lower part of the back wall of the storage 14 in an airtight state. Therefore, in this embodiment, it is not necessary to discharge ethylene gas unlike the embodiment used in the refrigerator. Then, as in the embodiment used for the refrigerator, the humidity controller 1 '
When the temperature outside the refrigerator is lower than that inside the refrigerator, the temperature of the heat dissipation plate 3'decreases first, and the temperature of the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2'in contact with the heat dissipation plate 3'decreases. Therefore, the heat insulation wall 1
The temperature inside the storage 14 decreases through 0'and the door 11 ',
Even if the water vapor becomes excessive, the water vapor condenses on the surface of the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2 ′ whose temperature is lower than that in the refrigerator, and is absorbed, so that the dew condensation on the surface of the inner box in the refrigerator is prevented. On the contrary, when the temperature outside the refrigerator rises, the temperature of the heat radiating plate 3 ′ rises first, and the temperature of the moisture absorptive and desorptive material 2 ′ accordingly rises to release the absorbed moisture. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the relative humidity in the refrigerator from decreasing. Although a refrigeration cycle is not provided in this embodiment, it is possible to incorporate a refrigeration cycle into a refrigerated storage with an ethylene gas decomposing device.

[0010]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION Since the fruit and vegetable preserving device of the present invention is constructed as described above, it prevents the fruits and vegetables from drying and also prevents the fruits and vegetables from being painful due to the dew condensation of excess water, thereby improving the freshness of the fruits and vegetables. Can be held for a long time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 (a) is a cross-sectional view of an essential part showing an embodiment of a humidity controller for keeping freshness of the present invention, and FIG. 1 (b) is a front view of a heat sink side of the humidity controller.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the constant humidity device for maintaining freshness of the present invention is attached to a vegetable case of a refrigerator.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a storage unit with an ethylene gas decomposing device according to another embodiment of the humidity controller for maintaining freshness of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional humidity controller for a refrigerator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,1 'Humidity device 2,2' Moisture absorbent material 3,3 'Heat sink 7,17 Vegetable case

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A moisture-releasing device for keeping freshness, comprising a material having moisture-absorbing / releasing properties for controlling humidity inside a storage case, a vegetable case of a refrigerator, etc., wherein a moisture-absorbing / releasing opening is provided on one side surface. A heat-conducting heat-dissipating plate with a heat-dissipating fin is attached to the opening provided on the opposite side face, and a flat accommodating container accommodating the material having the moisture absorption and desorption characteristics can be sealed. A constant humidity device for maintaining freshness, characterized in that the heat radiation fin is attached to a wall of the storage, the vegetable case or the like so as to be located outside the storage, the vegetable case or the like.