JPH06221739A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a refrigerator which can reduce unevenness in a food freezing or cooling without making a large reformation by a method wherein a special chamber is provided which improves defreezing or rapid cooling performance better than that of a conventional method. CONSTITUTION:A defreezing and rapid-cooling chamber 3 is provided with a damper 4 arranged at an opening of a cool air introduction passage 2, a circulation fan 11 at a rear part, a number of jetting holes 13 and 13A on a ceiling side and a lower surface side respectively, a slit 24 in a back board 15 and a small door 23 in a front surface. During defreezing, the damper 4 is closed so as to introduce air in the chamber 3 or air heated by a heater into a special chamber. On the contrary, during rapid cooling, cool air is introduced from an evaporator 6, through the damper 4 now opened, into the special chamber. Then the heated or cool air is jetted at a high speed by the circulation fan 11 through the number of jetting holes 13 and 13A to collide at food. After that, most of it is returned to the slit 24 in the rear part, while a small part of it is discharged out of a gap in an upper half of the small door 23. A defreezing heater is placed in an L-shaped attitude, so that temperature of the jetting air may be higher on the ceiling side than on the bottom side during the defreezing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly,
The present invention relates to a refrigerator suitable for thawing or quenching a quenching chamber or a quenching chamber provided in a refrigerating chamber or a dedicated chamber constituting the quenching chamber or improving the quenching performance.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, refrigerators have become multifunctional, and some refrigerators are commercially available with a dedicated chamber such as a thawing / quenching chamber or a thawing chamber and a quenching chamber.

As the most common one, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-207975, air (cool air or warm air by a heater) is discharged from an opening on the back surface to form a unidirectional flow in the room. However, it is known that the food is thawed or cooled only by convective heat exchange with the air flow along the surface of the food to be thawed or the food to be cooled.

However, in the above technique, the flow velocity of the air that is effective for heat exchange along the surface of the object is medium as well as the average flow velocity in the room, and such a flow velocity is due to diffusion or separation. It is difficult to improve the heat exchange performance further or make it uniform without major modification such as increasing the capacity of the circulation fan and changing the indoor structure. Even if it is attempted to suppress thawing and uneven cooling, there is a limit in practical use.

Further, as a method of adopting another convection heat exchange system, for example, a small flow rate as a jet stream group on the surface of an object described in JP-A-58-62474 or JP-A-2-89979. However, it is known that high speed air is collided to perform rapid cooling or quick freezing.

In the former case, a rapid cooling device is installed in the refrigerating chamber without partitioning a dedicated chamber, and the device uses a rapid cooling blower to pressurize low-temperature air from the refrigerating chamber evaporator to introduce air into the cooling chamber. To collide with the surface of the item to be cooled as a group of high-speed jets from the group of ejection holes provided on the lower surface of the introduction air passage (set the cooling time by the size, weight, etc. of the item to be cooled), and the air after collision is Part of the heat diffuses into the refrigerating compartment and the rest returns to the refrigerating compartment evaporator to perform rapid and uniform cooling.

However, since this evaporator is only for cooling the refrigerating chamber, the temperature control (falling) of the jetted air is not so fast, and the heat transfer coefficient on the surface becomes large due to the high-speed jet collision. Has not considered that it is difficult to improve heat exchange performance, that is, rapid cooling performance.

In the latter case, the inside of the freezing room or a dedicated room adjacent to the freezing room (the temperature condition is similar to that of the freezing room) is partitioned, and low-temperature air from the evaporator is blown by a quick-freezing fan by a structure similar to that of the former. , It collides with the frozen product as a high-speed jet, and the low-temperature air after collision collides with that of the freezing chamber and returns directly to the evaporator, or returns to the evaporator and returns to the quick-freezing blower. It is disclosed that it is divided into those that are internally circulated. The heat transfer coefficient due to the collision of the jets at a higher speed than that of the conventional method, which flows along the surface of the product to be frozen, is large, and the heat exchange performance, that is, the quick freezing performance is high.

However, the object of this example is a freezing operation of freezing a frozen product with low-temperature air whose freezing point is lower than the freezing point in advance. It was also different in that it did not include components and operating items related to temperature control, and could not be applied to the improvement of rapid cooling performance as it is.

[0010]

As described above, in the thawing or rapid cooling system adopted in the conventional refrigerator, the thawing or rapid cooling performance is improved without significant modification, that is, the thawing or rapid cooling speed is improved. There is a problem that it is difficult to make an improvement that is compatible with both improvement and suppression of food thawing and cooling unevenness.

Further, in the conventional refrigerator, since the air heated by the heater is discharged from the slit on the back surface, especially when thawing, temperature unevenness occurs on the front side and the back side of the food and on the inside and at the time of thawing. When the time becomes long, the temperature of the discharged air becomes considerably high, and the heat load on the wall surface around the heater and the inside of the refrigerator also increases, and therefore the amount of power consumption also increases.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and to improve the thawing or quenching performance as compared with the conventional method without drastic modification. An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator having a dedicated room such as a room and capable of suppressing uneven thawing and uneven cooling of food.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator which can improve the thawing speed and the cooling speed, and at the same time can suppress the thawing unevenness and the cooling unevenness of foods.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above object, the constitution of the first invention relating to the refrigerator of the present invention is such that a defrosting chamber / quick cooling chamber or a defrosting chamber, In a refrigerator having a dedicated room that constitutes a cooling room and having a large number of ejection holes on the wall surface of the dedicated room, when thawing, air at a temperature equal to or higher than the temperature of the ice greenhouse or the refrigerating room,
At the time of rapid cooling, air at a temperature equal to or lower than the temperature of the ice greenhouse or the refrigerating room is sprayed from a large number of ejection holes provided on the wall surface of the dedicated room to thaw or rapidly cool foods, etc. The temperature in the dedicated room is kept at the temperature of the ice greenhouse or the refrigerator room.

More specifically, the defrosting chamber and the quenching chamber or the dedicated chambers constituting the defrosting chamber and the quenching chamber are provided at the rear of the dedicated chamber and the damper provided at the opening of the cool air introducing air passage. A circulation fan, a large number of ejection holes provided on the ceiling side and the lower surface side of the special room, slits provided on the back plate of the special room, and a small door provided on the front surface of the special room. , When defrosting, the damper is shut off and air in the same room or air heated by a heater or the like is introduced, and during rapid cooling, low temperature air is introduced from the evaporator through the damper into the dedicated room, and the circulation fan is used. After spraying at high speed from a large number of ejection holes provided on the ceiling side and the lower surface side of the dedicated room to collide with food, most of it is returned to the slit on the back side and part of it is discharged from the gap in the upper half of the small door. It is something that is done.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned other objects, the configuration of the second invention relating to the refrigerator of the present invention is such that a defrosting chamber / quick cooling chamber or a defrosting chamber, a rapid cooling chamber is provided inside or adjacent to the refrigerator. In a refrigerator that has a dedicated room to configure and has a large number of ejection holes on the wall surface of the room, air with a temperature equal to or higher than the temperature of the ice greenhouse or the refrigerating room at the time of thawing, Air is sprayed from a large number of ejection holes provided on the wall surface of the dedicated room to thaw or rapidly cool foods, etc., and after completion of the thaw or rapid cooling, the temperature in the dedicated room is set to the ice greenhouse or the refrigerating room temperature. In addition to holding it, a thawing heater is provided in the space on the back side of the dedicated room and the space on the ceiling air passage, so that the air temperature from the ejection holes during thawing is lower on the bottom side than on the ceiling side. In which was to so that.

More specifically, as the thawing heater, a cord heater is provided on an L-shaped aluminum thin plate, and the cord heater is covered with aluminum foil to form a plate heater. An organic PCT, which has a plurality of slits in a portion located in front of a circulation fan and has a characteristic that the resistance value increases as the temperature of the heater itself increases as a cord heater.
It is characterized by using a heater.

[0018]

The function of the above technical means is as follows.

According to the first invention, the circulating air collides with a wide range of the surface of the object to be thawed or the object to be cooled as a high-speed jet group, and large and uniform heat transfer can be achieved. Therefore, the convection heat exchange by the circulating air can be made high and uniform, and it is possible to suppress the thawing unevenness and the cooling unevenness together with the improvement of the thawing or the rapid cooling performance of the food which exceeds the conventional method.
In addition, the difference from the conventional convective heat exchange method by unidirectional flow is that the inner wall of one or more surfaces of the dedicated chamber such as the thawing / quenching chamber or the thawing chamber, the quenching chamber is doubled and the ejection hole group is provided inside. It can achieve the purpose without major modification.

According to the second invention, at the time of thawing, a large amount of a heater is inserted in the ceiling air passage to make the temperature of the jet air on the ceiling side higher than the temperature of the jet air on the bottom side. By doing so, it is possible to eliminate uneven thawing. The thawing heater is an organic PTC heater (heater using a positive temperature coefficient thermistor).
The heater input is increased at the initial stage of defrosting (for example, 100 W) and the heater input is reduced as defrosting progresses (for example, 30 W) to increase the jet air temperature in a short time. Not only can it be seen and the thawing speed can be improved, but also when the food volume is large and the thawing time is long, the heater surface temperature and the jet air temperature can be lowered, which is advantageous in safety and power saving. Therefore, the above-mentioned other objects can be achieved.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.
Will be described with reference to.

[Embodiment 1] First, an embodiment of the first invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 9.

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a thawing / quenching chamber provided in a refrigerating room of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
1 is a front view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a plan view of the top plate of FIG. 1 from below, FIG. 4 is a top view of the tray of FIG. 1, and FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the top plate and sealing material of FIG. Figure, Figure 6
FIG. 7 is a schematic explanatory view showing a general cold air circulation air passage of a conventional refrigerator, and FIG. 7 is a schematic explanatory view showing a cold air circulation air passage of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of the refrigerator of this embodiment will be described with reference to these drawings.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is a freezing chamber, 2 is a cool air introducing air passage, 3 is a defrosting / quenching chamber related to a dedicated chamber, and 4 is a damper. The cold air introduction air passage 2 for introducing cold air from the freezing chamber 1 is opened at the back of the thawing and quenching chamber 3 and is provided with a damper-4. 5 (shown in FIG. 6) is a freezer cooling fan,
This freezer compartment cooling fan 5 is a refrigeration cycle (not shown).
The cool air of the evaporator (cooler) 6 cooled by the above is circulated to the freezing compartment 1, the refrigerating compartment 7 having the chilled compartment, the vegetable compartment and the like, and the thawing / quenching compartment 3 and each of the compartments is controlled by a temperature sensor. Manages the temperature of. 8 is a freezer compartment door, 9 is a refrigerating compartment door, 10 is a partition for partitioning the freezer compartment 1 and the refrigerating compartment 7, and this partition 10 has a freezer compartment cool air return air passage 10a and a refrigerating compartment cold air return air passage 10b. Have

The thawing / quick cooling chamber 3 is provided at the upper part of the refrigerating chamber 7 which is easy to operate, and the cold air circulation fan 11 is provided on the back surface. Reference numeral 12 denotes a ceiling air passage, which is formed by the lower surface of the partition 10 and a top plate 14 having a large number of ejection holes 13. The top plate 14 is configured so that only the plate thickness of the ejection holes 13 is thickened to improve the straightness of the cooling air jetting and to bend the cooling air so that the cooling air jets toward the center of the thawing / quenching chamber 3. ing. The top plate 14
Are fitted in the U-shaped groove 15a of the rear plate 15 and the U-shaped groove 16a of the front plate 16. Reference numeral 17 denotes a seal material, which is inserted into both sides of the top plate 14 using soft vinyl chloride or the like, and is fitted and fixed to several protrusions 14a (shown in FIG. 5) of the top plate 14.

Reference numeral 18 is a bottom air passage, and this bottom air passage 18 is
It is formed by a bottom plate 19 of the thawing and quenching chamber 3 and a drawer type tray 20. A large number of ejection holes 13A are provided near the center of the tray 20, and a cage 21 is attached to the protrusion 20a (see FIG. 4) on the bottom surface of the tray 20.
Is located in the space of the cage 21. Numeral 22 is a tray pressing protrusion which is provided on both sides of the thawing / quick cooling chamber 3 so that the drawer type tray 20 can be pressed so that the tray 20 can be smoothly drawn out and cold air leaks from the bottom surface of the tray 20. Is reduced as much as possible.

Reference numeral 23 is a small door, and the small door 23 is opened when the tray 20 is pulled out by utilizing the upper surfaces of both sides of the tray 20. In addition, the small door 23 in front of the thawing and quenching chamber 3
The gap is formed so that the lower half is as small as possible and the upper half is slightly open. A suction slit 24 is provided on the back surface of the thawing / quenching chamber 3, and the suction slit 24 is formed so as to project to the inside of the room so that the food is not blocked.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the top plate 14 having the ejection holes 13 on the ceiling side of the thawing and quenching chamber 3. Also,
FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the tray 20 having the ejection holes 13A on the bottom surface side of the thawing and quenching chamber 3. Furthermore, FIG.
It is an enlarged view of the ceiling plate 14 and the seal member 17 attached to both sides.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 6, the general cold air circulating air passage of the conventional refrigerator is that the chilled compartment, the vegetable compartment, etc. are first provided after coming from the cold air introducing air passage 2'to the inside of the partition 10. The air passage 2'a leading to the refrigerating chamber 7 and the air passage 2'b leading to the thawing / quenching chamber 3'are arranged in series. In this case, the circulating air volume of the cool air to the thawing / quick cooling chamber 3'is extremely small because it is divided from the refrigerating chamber 7. Therefore, the jet cold air temperature can be secured only at about -2 ° C, and the cooling rate is significantly improved I couldn't.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 7, the cold air circulation air passage in the refrigerator of the present embodiment is provided to the thawing and quenching chamber 3 separately from the cold air introduction air passage 2 to the refrigerating compartment 7. The air passage 25, which is the cold air introduction air passage, is independently provided. As a result, the amount of air circulated to the thawing and quenching chamber 3 can be made relatively large, and the jet cold air temperature can be set to -2 ° C or less, and the cooling rate can be greatly improved.

The operation of the refrigerator having such a structure will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9 in addition to the drawings.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the cold air ejection velocity with respect to the distance from the ejection hole, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the performance during rapid cooling.

In the refrigerator configured as described above, the thawing / quick cooling chamber 3 normally maintains the ice greenhouse temperature by opening and closing the damper 4 by the ice greenhouse temperature sensor (not shown). At this time, since the lower half of the gap between the front portion of the thawing / quick cooling chamber 3 and the small door 23 is small, the amount of cold air leaking to the refrigerating chamber 7 is extremely small and the opening time of the damper-4 is long. It prevents you from becoming.

During the rapid cooling operation, the compressor (not shown) is forcibly and continuously operated to maintain the cold air temperature introduced at a low level, the damper 4 is forcibly opened, and the cold air circulating fan 11 is used to bring the top plate 14 and Many ejection holes 13, 1 of the tray 20
High-speed cold air is ejected from 3A to cool the food. At this time, if the rapid cooling chamber (thaw / quick cooling chamber 3) is hermetically closed, it is difficult for cold air to enter from the damper-4.
Cold air is exhausted through the gap in the upper half of No. 3.

The food to be cooled has various shapes such as a flat shape and a round shape.
Cooling only with this causes the injection distance of the cool air to become long, the jet velocity becomes extremely slow as shown in FIG. 8, and the cooling efficiency also decreases. Therefore, the ejection hole 13A is always provided in the tray 20 where the ejection distance to food is short, and the tray 21 is placed on the tray 20.
And place food on the cage 21
The ejection holes 13A are not blocked by food. When the rapid cooling progresses, the temperature of the end detection temperature sensor (not shown) decreases, and when it reaches a preset temperature, the cold air circulation fan 11 is stopped and the damper-4 is closed to maintain the normal ice greenhouse temperature. Then, the refrigerator also returns to normal operation.

During the thawing operation, the damper 4 is forcibly closed and the cold air circulation fan 11 blows high-speed cold air from the jet holes 13 and 13A of the top plate 14 and the tray 20 to thaw the food, as in the case of rapid cooling. . At this time, the cold air circulating in the thaw chamber (thaw / quick cooling chamber 3) partially leaks through the gap in the upper half of the small door 23, but conversely enters the thaw chamber by the same leak amount. Since the air that enters the thawing chamber is the cool air around 6 to 7 ° C., which is higher than the refrigerating chamber temperature of 3 ° C., it is possible to efficiently perform the thawing together with the cold air circulation fan motor input. As the thawing proceeds, the temperature of the end detection temperature sensor rises, and when it reaches a preset temperature, the cold air circulation fan 11 is stopped and the damper-4 is opened to maintain the normal ice greenhouse temperature, and the refrigerator also operates normally. Return to.

Next, the defrosting and rapid cooling performance by the above jet cooling system will be described.

In FIG. 9, the horizontal axis represents the jet cold air temperature (° C.), and the vertical axis represents the cooling rate of a 350 ml (liter) can beer (25 ° C.).
From the time until the temperature reaches 10 ° C. to 10 ° C., the present invention and the prior art are compared and shown.

As shown in FIG. 9, the cooling rate of 350 ml can beer (time from 25 ° C. to 10 ° C.) is
In contrast to the conventional method of 20 minutes, in the jet cooling method of the present invention, when the cold air introduction air passage is kept as it is, the bypass air passage having a separate cold air introduction air passage is provided for about 13 minutes at a jet cold air temperature of about −2 ° C. When modified, the jet cold air temperature will be about 1 at around -7 ° C.
It will be 0 minutes and can be shortened to half of the conventional one.

Although the defrosting performance is not shown,
The thawing time (time to reach -18 ° C to -3 ° C) when circulating air (average temperature of 30 ° C, maximum temperature of 40 ° C) heated by a conventional heater of about 80 W is
30 minutes in the case of 300 g of sashimi (3 at around 3 ° C in the refrigerator)
On the other hand, in the jet cooling method of the present invention, in the case of circulating air at around 2 ° C. without a heating heater, the jet load cooling method of the present invention is 4 times with the same load.
It takes about 5 minutes and can be used as a simple thaw chamber without a heating heater.

Although not shown, for example, if a heater is installed between the cool air circulation fan and the back plate and the heater is heated to raise the air temperature, the defrosting performance can be further improved with less input than in the past. You can

Further, although the thaw / quick cooling chamber is described as a dedicated chamber in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that it can be commonly applied to a single thaw chamber or a rapid cooling chamber.

[Embodiment 2] Next, an embodiment of the second invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 10 is a side sectional view of a thawing and quenching chamber provided in a refrigerating chamber of a refrigerator according to another embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
1 is a front view of FIG. 10, FIG. 12 is a plan view of a top plate in FIG. 10, and FIG. 13 is a plan view of a tray in FIG. 10, and FIG. 14 is an enlarged view of the thawing heater in FIG. FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing the organic P used for the thawing heater.
The characteristic diagram of the CT heater, Fig. 16 shows the organic PTC heater.
It is a diagram showing the relationship between the thawing elapsed time and the discharge air temperature during use. In FIGS. 10 and 11, the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 are parts having the same functions as those of the previous embodiment, and therefore the description thereof will be omitted.

The thawing / quick cooling chamber 3 shown in FIG. 10 is provided in the upper part of the refrigerating chamber 7 which is easy to operate, and the cold air circulation fan 11 is installed on the rear face. Reference numeral 12 denotes a ceiling air passage, which is formed by the lower surface of the partition 10 and a top plate 14A having a large number of ejection holes 13. This top plate 14A
Is different from the top plate 14 shown in FIG. 2 and is not curved. 18 is a bottom air passage, and this bottom air passage 18
Is the bottom plate 29 of the thawing and quenching chamber 3 and the drawer type tray 2
6 and 6.

A jetting hole 13A is provided near the center of the tray 26, and a slat board 27 is attached to a protrusion 26a on the surface.
As shown in FIG. 13, the ejection holes 13A are arranged in the space of the drainboard 27.

Numeral 28 is a protrusion for pressing the drawer type tray provided on both side surfaces of the thawing / quenching chamber 3 so as to allow the drawer type tray 26 to be pushed in and out in a smooth manner while being pressed. The cold air leak on the bottom of the is minimized. Reference numeral 29a denotes a bottom heat insulating material of the bottom plate 29, and 30 denotes a side heat insulating material for preventing heat leakage to the refrigerating compartment 7. Reference numeral 23 is a small door, and the small door 23 is opened when the tray 26 is pulled out by utilizing the upper surfaces of both sides of the tray 26. The state of the gap between the front of the thawing and quenching chamber 3 and the small door 23 is formed so that the lower half of the outer circumference is as small as possible and the upper half has a slight gap. A suction slit 24 is arranged on the back surface of the thawing / quenching chamber 3, and the suction slit 24 is formed so as to project to the inside of the room so that the suction port is not blocked by food.

Reference numeral 31 is a thawing heater, which is an L-shaped plate-shaped aluminum thin plate 31a as shown in the detailed view of FIG.
Between the aluminum foil 31b and the cord-shaped organic PTC heat
A heater (a heater using a positive temperature coefficient thermistor) 31c or a normal cord heater is provided, and a slit 31d is provided in the plate portion corresponding to the front surface of the cold air circulation fan 11. The thawing heater 31 includes a space portion on the back side of the thawing and quenching chamber 3 and the ceiling air passage 12.
It is attached via a porcelain seat 32 over the rear space.

FIG. 15 shows the relationship between temperature and resistance value of an organic PTC heater showing an example of the thawing heater 31 at a diameter of 4.2 mm and a length of 2 m.
C heater 31c has 100 Ω (100
W), 200Ω (50W) at 40 ° C, 4 at 60 ° C
The resistance is such that the resistance value increases as the temperature rises, such as 00 Ω (25 W), and therefore the input decreases on the contrary.

FIG. 16 shows the relationship between the thawing elapsed time and the discharge air temperature of the conventional convection heat exchange type thawing heater and the jet type thawing heater of the present invention. Regarding the thawing and quick cooling by the jet method of the present invention, if a cool air circulation fan with good performance is used, the quick cooling performance,
Needless to say, the thawing performance is further improved.

Since the operation of the thaw / quick cooling chamber 3 of the refrigerator constructed as described above during the normal operation and the rapid cooling operation is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. .

Here, it is considered that the ratio of the number of ejection holes provided on the ceiling and the bottom is preferably about 1: 1 considering the type and shape of food. In this case, the cooling of the lower part of the food than the upper part is promoted, which may cause uneven cooling.
Liquid foods such as lees and cans do not have uneven cooling due to convection. In addition, since solid foods such as salads and fruits are placed on plates and containers, uneven cooling is not a serious problem.

During the thawing operation, the damper 4 is forcibly closed and the air warmed by the thawing heater 31 is cooled rapidly by the cold air circulation fan 11, similarly to the case of the ceiling side and the bottom side. The food is thawed by high-speed injection from the ejection holes 13 and 13A. After thawing, return to normal operation to maintain the ice greenhouse temperature. At this time, as in the case of the rapid cooling operation, the thawing of the upper half and the lower half of the food is promoted and there is concern about uneven thawing. In the present embodiment, the thawing heater 31 is used as the thawing / quick cooling chamber. 3 Not only the space behind the back side, but also the ceiling air passage 12
By arranging the air in the rear space as well, the temperature of the air ejected from the ceiling side is higher than that of the air ejected from the bottom side, so that the thawing unevenness can be eliminated.

The input of the thawing heater 31 can be significantly reduced (for example, about 35 W from the conventional 80 W) by adopting the jet method, and the conventional ceiling suction air can be obtained. A pipe heater installed in the space of the road
There is no need to worry about covering the surroundings with an aluminum plate because the heater temperature rises as in the case of a motor. Therefore, it suffices to attach the plate heater in which the code heater is covered with the aluminum foil 31b to the back wall surface of the rear surface of the thawing / quenching chamber 3 and the back wall surface of the ceiling.

However, in this method, the heat of the thawing heater 31 is radiated only on one side and the heat radiating efficiency is not so good. Therefore, the thawing heater 31 is provided with a thin aluminum plate (for example, about 0.5 mm) only on one side. Pre-use that does not lose its shape
The heater is attached to the space through the insulator seat 32, and the slits 31d provided in the plate heater located in front of the cool air circulation fan 11 dissipate heat from both sides to further improve heat dissipation efficiency. did.

Furthermore, an organic PTC is added to the thawing heater 31.
By using a heater, as shown in FIG.
The thawing speed can be improved by reducing the heater resistance value at the start of thawing (for example, 100Ω, about 100 W at the input) and raising the temperature of jet air in a short time.
Moreover, as the heater temperature rises, the heater resistance value also gradually increases (for example, 400Ω, about 25 W at the input), and the jet air temperature is raised above a certain temperature (for example, about 15 ° C). It can be prevented. As a result, when the thawing time is long like the thawing of a large food product, the discharge air is high as in the conventional case, and the small door 23 of the thawing and quenching chamber 3 is used.
It is possible to prevent heat from leaking to the refrigerating chamber 7 through the gap in the upper half and increasing the power consumption. Therefore, it is not necessary to forcibly operate the refrigerator during the thawing unlike the conventional convection heat exchange system thawing, and the thawing may be performed in the normal operation.

As another method for eliminating the thawing and cooling unevenness of food by the jet method of the present invention, for example, a method of making the amount of jet air on the bottom smaller than the amount of jet air on the ceiling, and making the diameter of jet holes on the bottom of the ceiling smaller. Methods, such as roughening the pitch of the ejection holes on the bottom surface than the ceiling, or reducing the number of ejection holes, etc., but either method is thawed,
The rapid cooling performance, that is, the thawing and cooling rates tend to be poor, and cannot be said to be an effective method.

Further, although the thaw / quick cooling chamber is described as a dedicated chamber in the above embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be commonly applied to a single thaw chamber or a rapid cooling chamber.

[0059]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the thaw / quick cooling chamber or the thaw chamber, and the rapid cooling which can improve the thawing or quenching performance more than the conventional method can be achieved without a major modification. It is possible to provide a refrigerator having a dedicated room such as a room and capable of suppressing uneven thawing and uneven cooling of food.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a refrigerator capable of improving both the thawing speed and the cooling speed and simultaneously suppressing the thawing unevenness and the cooling unevenness of the food.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a thawing and quenching chamber provided in a refrigerating compartment of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view with respect to FIG.

3 is a plan view from below of the top plate in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the tray in FIG.

5 is an enlarged perspective view of a top plate and a sealing material in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic explanatory view showing a general cold air circulation air passage of a conventional refrigerator.

FIG. 7 is a schematic explanatory view showing a cold air circulation air passage of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a cold air ejection speed with respect to a distance from an ejection hole.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing performance during rapid cooling.

FIG. 10 is a side sectional view of a thawing / quenching chamber provided in a refrigerator compartment of a refrigerator according to another embodiment of the present invention.

11 is a front view of FIG.

FIG. 12 is a plan view of the top plate in FIG. 10 as viewed from below.

13 is a top plan view of the tray in FIG.

14 is an enlarged perspective view of the thawing heater of FIG.

FIG. 15 is a characteristic diagram of an organic PCT heater used as a thawing heater.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the relationship between the thawing elapsed time and the discharge air temperature when using an organic PTC heater.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Freezing room 2 Cold air introduction air path 3 Thawing and rapid cooling room 4 Damper 6 Evaporator 7 Refrigerating room 11 Cold air circulation fan 12 Ceiling air path 13, 13A Jet hole 14, 14A Top plate 15 Back plate 15a, 16a Groove 17 shi -Le material 18 Bottom air passage 19,29 Bottom plate 20,26 Tray 21,27 Tray 21 Child small door 24 Suction slit 25 Air passage 31 Defrosting heater 31a Aluminum thin plate 31b Aluminum foil 31c Organic PTC heater 31d Slit

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Kenji Usui Kenji Usui 800, Tomita, Ohira-cho, Shimotsuga-gun, Tochigi Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd. Living Equipment Division, Cooling & Heat Headquarters (72) Tomoaki Takeda, Ohira-cho, Shimotsuga-gun, Tochigi Prefecture 800 Tomita, Daiji Inside the cooling and heating division, Living Equipment Division, Hitachi, Ltd.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A position inside or adjacent to a refrigerator,
In a refrigerator that has a thawing / quenching room or a dedicated room that composes a thawing / quenching room and has a large number of ejection holes on the wall surface of the room, when thawing, use air at a temperature equal to or higher than the ice greenhouse or cold room temperature. At the time of rapid cooling, air at a temperature below the ice greenhouse or cold room temperature is jetted from a large number of ejection holes provided on the wall surface of the dedicated room to thaw or rapidly cool foods, etc. A refrigerator characterized in that the temperature in the dedicated room is maintained at an ice greenhouse or a refrigerating room temperature. 2. The thawing chamber / quenching chamber or the dedicated chamber constituting the thawing chamber and the quenching chamber is provided with a damper provided at the cold air introduction air passage opening on the back of the dedicated chamber and a circulation provided at the rear of the dedicated chamber. A fan, a large number of ejection holes provided on the ceiling side and the lower surface side of the dedicated room, a slit portion provided on the back plate of the dedicated room, and a small door provided on the front surface of the dedicated room are thawed. Occasionally, the damper is shut off and the air in the same room or the air heated by a heater is used.
Low-temperature air was introduced from the evaporator into the special room via the, and the circulation fan was used to jet the high-speed air from a large number of ejection holes provided on the ceiling side and the lower surface side of the special room to collide with the food. The refrigerator according to claim 1, characterized in that after that, most of it is returned to the slit on the back surface, and part of it is discharged from the gap in the upper half of the small door. 3. A top plate having a large number of ejection holes is formed such that the ejection hole portion has a large thickness and the other portions are thinly formed, and the front and rear of the top plate are fitted into the grooves of the back plate and the front plate, and The refrigerator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein seal members are fitted and fixed on both sides of the plate. 4. A drawer type tray is provided on the upper surface of a bottom plate having a cool air circulation air passage, which interlocks with the opening and closing of a small door, and a cage is placed on the tray to correspond to the clearance between the cage and the tray. The refrigerator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a large number of ejection holes are located in the portion. 5. The second cool air introducing air passage from the evaporator to the special chamber is provided separately from the cool air introducing air passage from the evaporator to the refrigerating compartment. Either refrigerator. 6. A position inside or adjacent to a refrigerator,
In a refrigerator that has a thawing / quenching room or a dedicated room that composes a thawing / quenching room and has a large number of ejection holes on the wall surface of the room, when thawing, use air at a temperature equal to or higher than the ice greenhouse or cold room temperature. At the time of rapid cooling, air at a temperature below the ice greenhouse or cold room temperature is jetted from a large number of ejection holes provided on the wall surface of the dedicated room to thaw or rapidly cool foods, etc. , While keeping the temperature in the dedicated room to the temperature of an ice greenhouse or a refrigerating room, a thawing heater is provided in the space on the back side of the dedicated room and the space in the ceiling air passage, and from the jet holes at the time of thawing. A refrigerator characterized in that the air temperature is lower on the bottom side than on the ceiling side. 7. The thaw heater comprises a cord heater provided on an L-shaped thin aluminum plate, and a plate heater formed by coating the cord heater with an aluminum foil. A cold air circulation fan for the plate heater. The refrigerator according to claim 6, wherein a plurality of slits are provided in a portion located in front of the refrigerator. 8. The refrigerator according to claim 7, wherein an organic PCT heater having a characteristic that the resistance value increases as the temperature of the heater itself increases is used as a cord heater of the thawing heater. 9. A plate-shaped heater in which both sides of a cord heater are covered with aluminum foil is bent into an L-shape and attached to the back side wall surface of the rear part of the thawing chamber / quenching chamber and the back side wall surface behind the ceiling part. The refrigerator according to claim 6, wherein the refrigerator is a refrigerator.