JPH06201247A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the ice making capability without changing the constitution of a chilled air supply system by interrupting the supply of chilled air to a storage room and maintaining the interruption of the supply until the completion of ice making operation on the assumption that at the start of a forced cooling operation, the temperature detected has fallen below the temperature of ice making. CONSTITUTION:A control circuit device 16 works to switch a motor damper 15 to a closing position and interrupt the supply of chilled air to a storage chamber 2 on the assumption that the temperature of an ice making tray 22 in an ice making corner 3 has fallen below the temperature of ice making (-8 deg.C) preset when a forced operation of a cooler 8 starts prior to the defrosting operation of the cooler 8 and the interruption of the supply is maintained until the making of ice with the ice making tray 22 ends. The chilled air from the cooler 8 is supplied mainly to an upper stage refrigerating chamber 4 and a lower stage refrigerating chamber 5 provided with the ice making corner 3 thereby achieving a higher ice making function with an automatic ice making machine 20 set on the ice making corner 3. In this case, such an effect can be obtained simply by altering the contents of control of the control circuit device 16.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention supplies cold air from the same cooler to a refrigerator equipped with an automatic ice making machine, particularly to an ice making room provided with the automatic ice making machine and other storage rooms. The refrigerator configured as described above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an automatic ice machine provided in a refrigerator of this type, an ice tray is placed in an exclusive ice making room which is cooled in the same manner as a freezing room, or an ice making room which also serves as a freezing room. For example, the water is supplied from a water supply tank installed in the refrigerating chamber into the plate, and in such a water supply state, the temperature of the ice making plate is the ice making end temperature (for example, -1).
When the temperature drops to about 3.5 ° C), the ice tray is twisted and rotated, and the ice generated in the ice tray is dropped into the ice storage box below. There is.

By the way, in an actual product, there is a case where the temperature of the ice tray does not fall to the above-mentioned ice making end temperature even though the ice making is finished. There is a risk that the operation will not be performed. Therefore,
Conventionally, when the temperature of the ice tray is lower than the set temperature (for example, about −8 ° C.) for, for example, about 3 hours, it is considered that the ice making is finished even if the temperature of the ice tray is not lowered to the ice making end temperature. The structure is considered to perform the ice removal operation.

[0004]

In the refrigerator, the cold air from one cooler provided in the refrigerator is supplied to the ice making room and other storage rooms (refrigerating room, freezing room, vegetable room, etc.). It is configured to circulate. Therefore, the ability to cool the ice tray is naturally limited, and during times such as summer when there is a great demand for ice, the temperature of the ice tray often does not drop to the ice making end temperature. In such a case, the ice making operation will not be performed for at least 3 hours after the temperature of the ice making tray is lowered to −8 ° C. or lower, and as a result, the ice making capacity may be significantly reduced. There is a need to solve this point.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a refrigerator capable of increasing the ice making capacity of an automatic ice making machine without changing the configuration of the cold air supply system.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is configured to supply cold air from a cooler to an ice making chamber provided with an automatic ice making machine and other storage chambers. Prior to the defrosting operation of the cooler, in the refrigerator configured to perform the forced cooling operation of the inside of the refrigerator by the cooler only for a predetermined time, the opening / closing means for opening and closing the cold air supply path leading to the storage chamber, and the automatic ice machine are A temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the ice tray is provided, and when the forced cooling operation prior to the defrosting operation is started, the temperature detected by the temperature sensor drops below the preset ice making progress temperature. The opening and closing means is switched to the closed state on the premise that the above operation is performed, and the control means is provided to hold the switched state only until the detected temperature falls to the ice making end temperature.

[0007]

When the defrosting operation of the cooler is performed, the cooling operation of the inside of the refrigerator by the cooler is forcibly performed for a predetermined time prior to the defrosting operation of the cooler. When the temperature of the ice tray detected by the temperature sensor is lowered to the preset ice making progress temperature or less when the forced cooling operation of the inside of the refrigerator is started in this way, the control means controls the temperature sensor. Until the temperature detected by the temperature drops to the ice making end temperature,
In other words, only until the ice making by the automatic ice making machine is completed,
By switching the opening / closing means to the closed state, the supply of cold air to the storage chamber is cut off, and in response to this, the cool air from the cooler is mainly supplied only to the ice making chamber, and the ice making by the automatic ice making machine is performed. The ability will be enhanced.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Referring to FIG. 2 showing a vertical cross-sectional shape of a refrigerator, a refrigerator main body 1 includes a refrigerating compartment 2 (corresponding to a storage compartment in the present invention), and an upper freezing compartment 4 having an ice making corner 3 as shown in FIG. (Corresponding to the ice making room), the lower freezing room 5 and the vegetable room 6 are provided above and below.

The freezer compartments 4 and 5 in the refrigerator body 1
A cooler chamber 7 is formed on the back surface of the cooler chamber 7, and a cooler 8 is disposed in the cooler chamber 7. The cool air from the cooler 8 is supplied from the cooler chamber 7 into the compartment in response to the driving of the fan motor 9. Specifically, the refrigerator compartment 2
On the other hand, the cool air from the cooler 8 was supplied to the partition wall 11 between the refrigerating compartment 2 and the upper freezing compartment 4 after being supplied through the duct 10 formed on the back surface of the refrigerating compartment 2. It is returned to the cooler chamber 7 via the duct 12. In addition, after the cool air from the cooler 8 is supplied to the upper stage freezing chamber 4 and the lower stage freezing chamber 5 through a blower port (not shown), the partition wall 13 between the lower stage freezing chamber 5 and the vegetable chamber 6 is provided. It is returned to the cooler chamber 7 via the formed duct 14. Furthermore, vegetable room 6
On the other hand, the cool air from the cooler 8 is supplied to the cooler chamber 7 through the duct 14 after being supplied through a communication hole (not shown).

At the base of the duct 10, a motor damper 15 is installed as an opening / closing means for opening / closing a cold air supply path from the cooler chamber 7 to the refrigerating chamber 2. The motor damper 15 is provided to control the temperature inside the refrigerating compartment 2, and is a control circuit device 16 (corresponding to the control means in the present invention) provided on the upper rear surface of the refrigerator body 1.
The operation is controlled by.

A compressor 17 and a condenser 18 which form a refrigerating cycle together with the cooler 8 are provided in the lower part of the refrigerator body 1, and a lower part of the cooler 8 in the cooler chamber 7 is provided. A defrost heater 19 composed of a glass tube heater is provided.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic structure of an automatic ice making machine 20 provided at the ice making corner 3, which will be described below. That is, the ice making corner 3 is provided with an ice making tray 22 to which water is supplied from a water supplying tank (not shown) arranged in the refrigerating compartment 2 through a water supplying pipe 21.
This ice tray 22 is made of an elastically deformable plastic material, and is rotated by an ice making machine body 23 having a built-in motor and the like when the ice making is finished, and a twist is given at the final stage of the rotation. The ice making operation is performed, and the ice making tray 22 is operated by this ice removing operation.
The ice dropped from is stored in the lower ice storage box 24.

In the ice storage box 24, there is provided an ice storage amount detection lever 25 which is rotated upward as the ice storage amount increases, and the rotation amount of the lever 25 reaches a set value. At this time, that is, when a predetermined amount of ice or more is stored in the ice storage box 24, a limit switch (not shown) in the ice making machine main body 23 is turned on to restrain the start of the ice removing operation.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, a thermistor 26 as a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature Ti is provided on the back surface of the ice tray 12, and based on the temperature Ti detected by the thermistor 26. It is designed to control when the ice making ends.

The control circuit device 16 is configured to include a microcomputer, and controls the operation of the refrigerating cycle based on the temperatures in the freezer compartments 4 and 5 and the temperature in the refrigerating compartment 2. In addition to the control of the motor damper 15, the defrosting operation of the cooler 8 and the operation control of the automatic ice maker 20 are performed.

In particular, the control circuit device 16 is configured to perform the defrosting operation of the cooler 8 each time the integrated operation time of the cooler 8 reaches the preset upper limit value, for example.
At the start of such defrosting operation, prior to this, the cooler 8
The so-called pre-cooling operation of forcibly operating for a predetermined time (for example, about 1.5 hours) is performed, and the defrost heater 19 is energized for a predetermined time (for example, about 45 minutes) after the completion of the pre-cooling operation. Has become.

However, FIG. 1 shows only the portion related to the gist of the present invention in the control contents by the control circuit device 16. This will be described below together with the operation of the related portion.

That is, FIG. 1 shows the contents of the ice making operation control by the control circuit device 16. At the beginning of this control operation, a water supply pump (not shown) is driven to supply a certain amount of water to the ice making tray 22. (Step S1), and after this water supply, waits for a fixed time t (for example, 2.3 hours) (Step S2). After waiting for this time t, the thermistor 2
Wait until the detection temperature Ti detected by No. 6 falls below −8 ° C. set as the ice making progress temperature (step S3), and in the state where the detection temperature Ti falls below −8 ° C., whether or not the precooling operation is started. Is determined (step S
4).

In the steady state where the precool operation is not started, it is judged whether or not the temperature Ti detected by the thermistor 26 has dropped below -13.5 ° C as the ice making end temperature (step S5), and the detected temperature Ti is-. When the temperature is higher than 13.5 ° C, the control after step S3 is repeated. On the other hand, the detected temperature Ti of the thermistor 26 is −
When the pre-cooling operation is started in the state where the temperature drops to 8 ° C. or lower (“YES” in step S4), the motor damper 15 is switched to the closed state to close the cold air supply path from the cooler chamber 7 to the refrigerating chamber 2. (Step S6), and then the step S5 is executed.

When the temperature Ti detected by the thermistor 26 falls below -13.5 ° C ("Y" in step S5).
ES "), that is, when the ice making in the ice tray 22 is completed, the motor damper 15 is returned to the open state, and the ice making machine body 23 performs the ice removing operation (steps S7, S).
8) Then, the process returns to step S1.

In summary, when the control circuit device 16 starts the forced operation (pre-cool operation) of the cooler 8 prior to the defrosting operation of the cooler 8, the temperature of the ice tray 22 in the ice making corner 3 is set in advance. Set ice making temperature (-
Motor damper 1 provided that the temperature has dropped below 8 ° C)
5 is closed to shut off the supply of cold air to the cooler 2 and keep this shut-off state until the ice making in the ice tray 22 is completed. In response to this, the cool air from the cooler 8 is shut off. Is mainly supplied to the upper freezing chamber 4 and the lower freezing chamber 5 provided with the ice making corner 3, and the ice making capacity of the automatic ice making machine 20 installed at the ice making corner 3 is enhanced. In this case, it is only necessary to change the control contents of the control circuit device 16 in order to obtain the above effects, and it is not necessary to make any changes to the configuration of the cool air supply system from the cooler 8. The advantage is that there is no complication.

[0022]

According to the present invention, as is apparent from the above description, when the forced cooling operation in the refrigerator is started prior to the defrosting operation, the temperature of the ice making tray is equal to or lower than the preset ice making progress temperature. Assuming that the cool air from the cooler is mainly supplied to the ice making chamber, the switch state is held only until the detected temperature drops to the ice making end temperature. Therefore, it has an excellent effect that the ice making capacity of the automatic ice making machine can be enhanced without changing the configuration of the cold air supply system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the control contents of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Fig. 2] Overall vertical side view

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional side view of a main part.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional front view of the ice tray.

[Explanation of symbols]

In the figure, 1 is a refrigerator main body, 2 is a refrigerating room (storage room), 3 is an ice making corner, 4 is an upper freezing room (ice making room), 5 is a lower freezing room, 6 is a vegetable room, 8 is a cooler, and 15 is Motor damper (opening / closing means), 16 is a control circuit device (control means), 17 is a compressor, 19 is a defrost heater, 20 is an automatic ice maker, 2
2 is an ice tray, and 26 is a thermistor (temperature sensor).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ice-making chamber provided with an automatic ice-making machine and other storage chambers are configured to supply cold air from a cooler, and the inside of the refrigerator is cooled by the cooler prior to defrosting operation. In a refrigerator configured to perform the forced cooling operation of only for a predetermined time, an opening / closing unit that opens and closes a cold air supply path to the storage chamber, a temperature sensor that detects a temperature of an ice tray of the automatic ice making machine, and the defrosting When the forced cooling operation prior to the operation is started, the opening / closing means is switched to the closed state on the premise that the temperature detected by the temperature sensor is lower than the preset ice making progress temperature, and this switching state is also set. And a control means for holding the detection temperature only until the detection temperature drops to the ice making end temperature.