JPH06174353A - Freezing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a large amount of items to be freezed and stored by a method wherein cold heat accumulating agent filling case capable of performing a heat exchanging operation with cooling medium liquid of a freezing device for freezing and keeping the freezed items is arranged within a liquid tank. CONSTITUTION:A propeller 16 is rotated by a motor 17 of an agitating device 15 so as to agitate brine 13. During this operation, an evaporator formed by heat exchanging tubes 14 is operated to cool the brine 13. A temperature in which the brine 13 is cooled is set to be a value in which a cold heat accumulating agent 41 is freezed through a heat exchanging operation with the cold heat accumulative agent 41 in a case 40. In addition, when a temperature of the brine reaches the set temperature, operation of the heat exchanging tubes 14 or the agitating device 15 is turned off. As the temperature of the brine 13 is increased to reach a freezing temperature of the cold heat accumulative agent 41, the heat exchanging tubes 14 and the agitating device 15 are turned on again. Through this repetition, a heat exchanging operation between the brine 13 and the cold heat accumulative agent 41 is activated and even if a large amount of freezed items are fed, they can be cooled.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a freezing device for cryopreserving frozen articles such as collected blood in a brine as a cooling medium in an immersed state.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, as a device for cryopreserving a specific liquid by immersing it in a liquid of a cooling medium, for example, a portable box type is used. Freezing devices that are permanently installed in medical and emergency vehicles are well known. An outline of this type of freezing device has a liquid tank containing brine used as a cooling medium liquid, and this liquid tank is a box-shaped heat insulating structure in which an upper opening is sealed with a lid. A heat exchange pipe, which is an evaporator, is wound along the inner wall surface of the liquid tank and is arranged so as to cool the brine in the tank. Further, in the liquid tank, a propeller that is submerged in the brine and stirred is arranged, and a stirring device including a motor for rotating the propeller is provided. A machine room is provided in the lower part of the liquid tank, and an electric system of a refrigeration circuit including a motor and other necessary equipment are built in.

By the way, in the case of such a general freezing device, particularly in the portable box type blood collecting and freezing device as described above, when a large amount of blood samples to be frozen are put at once and stored. For this purpose, the maximum cooling load is set to determine the device specifications, that is, the compressor and heat exchanger specifications, and the capacity of the cooling medium to be stored.

[0004]

In a general freezing device including a blood collecting storage device, frozen articles in a liquid tank are transferred to equipment in, for example, a hospital or a medical center at night for use. Is common. The brine in the liquid tank is kept refrigerated to some extent even at night in preparation for use the next day. However, since the cooling load can be smaller than that during the daytime, it is inconvenient to set the specification of the device by setting it at the maximum cooling load, which leads to an increase in the size of the entire device. Increasing the size of the device is a problem to be solved especially in an emergency vehicle installed in a limited space.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a freezing device which has the ability to cope with a large amount of articles to be frozen and can be downsized, and is particularly suitable for a portable box-type blood collection and freezing device. It is provided.

[0006]

In order to achieve this object, a freezing device according to the present invention has a heat-insulating liquid tank with a hermetically-sealing lid for containing a liquid of a cooling medium according to claim 1, A freezing device for immersing an article to be frozen in a liquid for freezing storage, in which a cold storage agent filling case capable of heat exchange with a cooling medium liquid is arranged in a liquid tank.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the structure of the first aspect is provided with a stirrer for stirring the cooling medium liquid, and the stirring medium is used to generate a flow of the cooling medium liquid in the vicinity of the cold storage agent filling case. ing.

In the third aspect, the partition plate is provided in the vicinity of the cool storage agent filling case.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the stirring device has a rotating member for stirring which is provided so as to be submerged in the cooling medium, and a part of the rotating member serves as a cold storage agent filling case.

According to the present invention, a pump device for circulating the cooling medium liquid through the pipe is provided, and the pipe is inserted into the cool storage agent.

Further, according to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the upper open end of the container for accommodating the article to be frozen and immersing it in the cooling medium liquid is closed by the cold storage agent filling case.

[0012]

In the first aspect of the present invention, the regenerator filling case capable of exchanging heat with the cooling medium liquid is arranged in the liquid tank, whereby the latent heat of the cooling medium liquid can be stored and the cooling load is reduced. It According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the structure of the first aspect, the stirring device is stirred to generate a flow of the cooling medium liquid in the vicinity of the cold storage agent filling case to activate heat exchange with the cold storage agent. .

In the third aspect, the partition plate is further provided in the vicinity of the cold storage agent filling case, so that the flow of the cooling medium liquid is rectified and the heat exchange with the cold storage agent is further activated.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a part of the rotating member for stirring is used as the cold storage agent charging case, so that heat exchange with the cold storage agent is activated by rotational vibration or the like. Also, the number of parts can be reduced.

According to the present invention, the pump device for circulating the cooling medium liquid through the pipe is provided, and the pipe is inserted through the cold storage agent. Therefore, heat exchange is activated between the cooling medium liquid flowing through the pipe and the cold storage agent. To do.

Further, according to the present invention, since the upper open end of the container for accommodating the article to be frozen and immersed in the cooling medium liquid is closed by the regenerator-filled case, heat dissipation from the container is prevented.

[0017]

Embodiments of the freezing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below by taking a portable box-type blood collecting and freezing apparatus as an example.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a portable box-type blood collection / freezing device of the first embodiment, in which the liquid tank 10 as the main body of the device has a heat insulating structure with a heat insulating wall 11, and the upper open end has the same heat insulating structure. It is sealed with the opening / closing lid 12. The liquid tank 10 has a brine 13 as a cooling medium such as ethylene glycol.
Is stored. A heat exchange tube 14 as an evaporator is wound along the inner wall surface of the liquid tank 10, and the brine 1
3 is to be cooled.

A stirring device 15 is arranged in the liquid tank 10 so that the propeller 16 as a rotating member can stir the brine 13 while the brine 13 is being cooled by the heat exchange tube 14. The propeller 16 is attached to the tip of a vertical shaft 18 connected to the output shaft of the motor 17, and can rotate at a required number of rotations when it receives rotational drive from the motor 17.

The lower part of the liquid tank 10 is a machine room 20, in which a compressor 21 for forming a refrigerant circuit together with the heat exchange tube 14, equipment related to the condenser 22, and electric equipment for controlling the device. System circuits are built in. The machine room 20 is also provided with a control device such as a microcomputer, and the control device sets the brine 13 based on a detection signal from a temperature sensor or a thermostat (not shown) that detects the liquid temperature of the brine 13. The cooling can be controlled up to the temperature.

Near the liquid surface of the brine 13, the collected blood, which is the article to be frozen according to the present invention, is housed and held in a dedicated container 30. Most of the dedicated container 30 is immersed in the brine 13, and the upper portion is carried on the holding frame 31 in a form of being exposed to the outside from the liquid surface of the brine 13. As is clear from the figure, the gantry 31 has a structure capable of holding a plurality of blood collection containers 30 side by side.

On the other hand, in the vicinity of the bottom of the liquid tank 10, a cold storage agent filling case (hereinafter referred to as a case) 40 which is the gist of the present invention is provided.
Are submerged in the brine 13 and arranged. Although not shown, the case 40 is adapted to be set in place using suitable brackets. As the cool storage agent 41 filled in the case 40, a known mixture of ammonium chloride and cellulose or the like can be used.

Next, the mode of use and operation of the first embodiment having the above construction will be described.

When the apparatus is started up for use, each device constituting the refrigerant circuit operates in the machine room 20. When the stirrer 15 is activated by the activation signal, the motor 1
The propeller 16 is rotated by 7 to stir the brine 13. During stirring, the evaporator using the heat exchange tube 14 operates to cool the brine 13 while stirring. The brine 13 is cooled to a very low set temperature such as -30 ° C. The temperature at which the brine 13 is cooled is changed by heat exchange with the cool storage agent 41 in the case 40.
1 is set to a temperature at which it freezes, for example, -25 ° C. Therefore, the brine 13 has a set temperature of -30.
When the temperature reaches ℃, the heat exchange tube 14
A signal is sent to turn off the stirring device 15. When the temperature of the brine 13 rises and reaches the freezing temperature of the regenerator agent 41 (for example, -25 ° C as described above), the heat exchange tube 14 and the stirring device 15 are activated again, and the above procedure is repeated. When the propeller 16 of the stirrer 15 stirs, convection occurs in the brine 13, and heat exchange between the brine 13 and the cold storage agent 41 is activated.

During this time, one or a plurality of blood collection containers 30 carried on the gantry 31 are held in a state of being immersed relatively near the surface of the brine 13, cooled by using the brine 13 as a cooling medium, and frozen and held. To be done.

On the other hand, at night, the blood collecting container 30 is the liquid tank 10.
May be removed from the store and transferred to a storage location, for example in a hospital. In such a case, since the brine 13 does not have an article to be frozen to be cooled, the cooling load should be reduced. However, in preparation for emergency and large-scale use on the next day, and for emergency use even at night, the brine 13
Is cooled to a predetermined temperature. At least the heat exchange tube 14 of the evaporator can be deactivated because the cooling load is low due to the absence of frozen articles. That is,
At night, the brine 13 is heat-exchanged with the cold storage agent 41 to store latent heat, in preparation for daytime use.

Even if one or a large number of blood samples to be frozen are put in at one time, the brine 13 as a cooling medium for freezing the frozen blood can be dealt with because of the latent heat storage by the action of the cold storage agent 41. The specifications of the devices that make up the circuit can also be set low, and the overall size of the device can be reduced.

2 to 6 show the second embodiment of the present invention.
An example to the 5th example are shown.

In the case of the second embodiment of FIG. 2, based on the apparatus shown in the first embodiment, a second stirring device 15 is used.
The agitator 50 is provided in the liquid tank 10 at symmetrical positions on both sides. This aims to further activate the convection due to the stirring of the brine 13 as compared with the case of FIG. In addition, in the second embodiment, a partition plate 54 is provided in parallel with and in parallel with the cold storage agent filling case 40, and the flow of the convection-generated brine 13 is squeezed into a turbulent flow near the case 40 to cool the brine 13 and the cold storage. The heat exchange with the agent 41 is enhanced.

In the third embodiment of FIG. 3, the stirring device 15 of FIG. 1 shown in the first embodiment has a shaft 18 partially integrated as a cold storage agent filling case 55 having a triangular cross section. Is. This activates the cold storage agent 56 due to vibrations and fluctuations associated with the rotation of the shaft 18.

The fourth embodiment of FIG. 4 is based on the same idea as the third embodiment of FIG. 3, and in this case, the first embodiment of FIG.
The modified propeller 57 also serves as a cold storage agent filling case by modifying the shape of the propeller 16 of the embodiment. Although not shown, the propeller-like case is filled with the cold storage agent.

5 and 6 show the fifth embodiment. As is clear from the figure, this embodiment does not use the stirring device as in the previous embodiments. As shown in FIG. 6, the cool storage agent filling case 60 is composed of a pair of male-side case 61 and female-side case 62 that are superposed on each other, and the cool storage agent 63 is filled inside the cases 61 and 62.
A pipe 65 of a circulation pump 64 is sandwiched between the male and female cases 61, 62. As shown in FIG. 5, several cold storage agent filling cases 60 are set side by side inside a housing 66 to form a cool storage agent unit. The circulation pump 64 sucks up the brine 13 with the suction pipe 67,
The brine 1 from the discharge port end 68 seen from the cool storage agent unit
3 is a device for discharging 3 to generate circulation. That is, the pipe 65 is inserted through the plurality of side-by-side cool storage agent filling cases 60 at the same level, and one end thereof is used as the discharge port end 68, so that the brine 13 flowing through the pipe 65 is cooled by the cool storage agent 63.
To make the heat exchange efficient.

On the other hand, FIGS. 7 and 8 show two embodiments in which the shape of the container 30 for collecting blood is improved. The container 30 is made of a metal having a good thermal conductivity and is formed into a cylindrical shape having an upper opening, and the packaged blood 70, which is an article to be frozen, is stored inside. Several cold storage agent filled cases 71 and 72 are housed in the container 30 so as to sandwich the collected blood 70. With this structure, heat dissipation from the upper opening of the container 30 is prevented. Figure 8
A small cold storage agent filling case 7 for the upper opening of the container 30
It is a structure in which heat dissipation is prevented by sealing 4, 5 and 7 as a lid substitute.

[0034]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the freezing device of the present invention, even if one or a large number of blood-collected articles to be frozen are put in at one time, the freezing device is cooled. Since the medium liquid (brine) is latently cold-stored at night by the action of the cold storage agent, it can be dealt with, and the specifications of the devices constituting the refrigerant circuit can be set to be low, and the entire device can be downsized.

According to the second aspect, the heat exchange between the brine and the regenerator is activated by the stirring by the agitator, and the partition plate further provided near the regenerator as in the third aspect. The flow of the cooling medium liquid is made turbulent, and heat exchange with the regenerator is enhanced. According to the present invention, a part of the rotating member (propeller) for stirring is filled with the cold storage agent, so that heat exchange with the cold storage agent is activated by rotational vibration and the like, and the number of parts is also increased. Can be reduced. According to the fifth aspect, since the pipe of the pump device for circulating the cooling medium liquid is inserted through the cool storage agent, heat exchange is activated between the cooling medium liquid flowing through the pipe and the cool storage agent.

According to the sixth aspect, it is possible to prevent heat radiation from the container in which the article to be frozen is housed and immersed in the cooling medium liquid.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a device sectional view of a first embodiment of an example in which a freezing device according to the present invention is applied to a blood sampling freezing device.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of an apparatus according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a device according to a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a device sectional view of a fifth embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an essential part of the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of an example in which the blood collection container is improved.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment in which the container for collecting blood is also improved.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Adiabatic liquid tank, 13 ... Brine (cooling medium liquid), 14
... Heat exchange tube, 15 ... Stirring device, 16 ... Propeller (rotating member), 20 ... Machine room, 30 ... Blood collection container, 4
0 ... Regenerator filling case, 41 ... Regenerator, 64 ... Circulation pump, 65 ... Pipe.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A freezing device which has a heat-insulating liquid tank with a closed lid for containing a liquid of a cooling medium, and which freezes and preserves an article to be frozen in the liquid of the cooling medium, comprising: A freezing device characterized in that a regenerator filling case capable of exchanging heat between them is arranged in a liquid tank. 2. The freezing device according to claim 1, further comprising a stirrer for stirring the cooling medium liquid to generate a flow of the cooling medium liquid in the vicinity of the cold storage agent filling case by stirring. 3. The freezing device according to claim 2, wherein a partition plate is provided in the vicinity of the cold storage agent filled case. 4. The freezing device according to claim 2, wherein the stirring device has a rotating member for stirring which is provided so as to be submerged in the cooling medium, and a part of the rotating member is a regenerator-filled case. 5. The freezing device according to claim 1, further comprising a pump device for circulating the cooling medium liquid through the pipe, the pipe being inserted through the cold storage agent. 6. The freezing device according to claim 1, wherein an upper open end of the container for accommodating the article to be frozen and dipped in the cooling medium liquid is closed by a regenerator-filled case.