JPH0875338A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent a food from being point freezed and further to prevent a temperature disturbance by a method wherein the upper-most part in a refrigerator chamber is efficiently cooled within a refrigerator for feeding cold air from a lower cooling device to the refrigerator chamber through an air feeding duct. CONSTITUTION: An air feeding duct 22 is provided with vertical partition members. An inside area in the air feeding duct is divided into a plurality of flow passages 56, 58, 60 and 62. At least one of the flow passages is provided with cold air blowing ports 28, 30 only at the upper part of the refrigerator chamber and the remaining flow passages are provided with cold air blowing ports 38, 40, 42 and 44.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to refrigerators, and in particular,
The present invention relates to a refrigerator in which a cooler is provided below a refrigerating compartment, a blower duct for cooling air from the cooler is provided on the back of the refrigerating compartment, and the blower duct is provided with a plurality of cool air outlets communicating with the refrigerating compartment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a refrigerator as described above, for example, there is a so-called mid-freezer type refrigerator in which a freezing compartment is arranged between an upper refrigerating compartment and a lower vegetable compartment. This is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

In the figure, a refrigerator compartment 12 is arranged above the refrigerator body 10, and a freezer compartment 14 is arranged below it. Below the freezer compartment 14 is a vegetable compartment (not shown).

A cooler 16 is provided on the back surface of the freezer compartment 14, that is, below the refrigerating compartment 12. The cool air from the cooler 16 is blown by the fan 18 from the cold air outlet 19 to the freezer compartment 14 and is sent to the blower duct 22 via the damper 20.

The blower duct 22 is provided on the rear surface 13 of the refrigerator compartment 12.
Is formed so as to bulge inward. In the vicinity of the upper end of the front wall 24 of the air duct 22, four cool air outlets 26, 28, 30, 32, which are horizontal holes, are arranged in a straight line in the horizontal direction. On both sides below these cold air outlets, similar cold air outlets 34, 36; 3 are provided.
8, 40; 42, 44 are paired on the left and right and arranged in three stages. In the case of the illustrated refrigerator, the interior of the refrigerating chamber 12 is composed of four upper and lower shelves 46a, 46b, 46c and 46d, and upper and lower five chambers 48a, 48b, 48c, 48d and 48e.
However, the cold air outlets 26, 28, 30, 32 near the upper end of the air duct 22 are the uppermost chamber 48.
a, and the other three stages of cold air outlets 34, 3
6; 38, 40; 42, 44 are the lower three chambers 48b, 48
c and 48d respectively. In this way, the cool air is blown to each room in the refrigerating room 12 through each cold air outlet.

[0006]

In the above case, when the cool air passes through the blower duct 22, first, the cool air outlets 42 and 44 in the lowermost stage and then the cool air outlet 3 in the upper stage thereof.
Since the cold air flows out into the refrigerating chamber 12 in sequence, such as 8, 40, the cold air does not reach the cold air outlets 26, 28, 30, 32 at the uppermost stage where it is most difficult to cool.

In order to solve this point, it has been conventionally required to use the configuration shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the lower cool air outlet is made smaller than the upper one, and extremely large cool air outlets 25, 25 are arranged near the upper end of the refrigerating chamber so that a large amount of cool air is discharged from there. However, in this case, since the cold air is intensively discharged from the smallest cold air outlets 31, 31 at the bottom, so-called point cooling occurs, which easily freezes the food. Further, since the sizes of the cold air outlets vary, there are places where the cold air is sufficiently supplied and places where the cold air is not sufficiently supplied, resulting in uneven temperature.

[0008] It is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator in which the freezing of food due to point cooling is prevented while maintaining the cooling capacity in the vicinity of the upper end of the refrigerating compartment and the temperature in the refrigerating compartment is eliminated.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigerator according to the first aspect, in which a partition member extending in a vertical direction is provided in the blower duct to branch the blower duct into a plurality of flow paths, and at least one One of the flow paths is provided with a cool air outlet only in the upper part of the refrigerating chamber, and the other flow path is provided with a cool air outlet in the lower part of the refrigerating chamber.

In the refrigerator according to the second aspect of the present invention, there are four longitudinal flow passages, the two central flow passages have the cool air outlet only in the upper part of the refrigerating compartment, and the two left and right flow passages are the refrigerating compartment. It has a cold air outlet at the bottom.

In the first and second aspects of the invention, as described above, the other channels are provided with the cold air outlet at the lower part of the refrigerating chamber, but this channel is additionally provided at the upper part of the refrigerator. It is also within the scope of the present invention to provide such a cool air outlet.

In the refrigerator of the third aspect, the at least one flow passage is formed wider than the other flow passages.

In the refrigerator of the fourth aspect, at the branch portion of the plurality of flow passages, the inflow diameter of the at least one flow passage is larger than the inflow diameter of the other flow passages.

In the refrigerator of the fifth aspect, the refrigerating chamber is divided into a plurality of chambers by a shelf plate, and the cool air is directly introduced into each chamber by the flow path.

[0015]

In the refrigerator according to the first aspect, since a large amount of cold air can be directly guided to the upper part of the refrigerating compartment by the flow path having the cool air outlet only in the upper part of the refrigerating compartment,
It is possible to easily cool a place that is hard to cool in the upper part of the refrigerating compartment.

Further, since a large amount of cold air is supplied to the upper part of the refrigerating chamber through the flow passage, there is no problem even if the cool air outlet is formed sufficiently large in the other flow passages. Therefore, the food is not frozen by the point cooling, and the temperature unevenness in the refrigerating room does not occur.

In the refrigerator of the second aspect, a large amount of cool air can be efficiently supplied to the upper part of the refrigerating chamber in the central part of the blower duct, and the cool air can be supplied evenly to the lower part of the refrigerating chamber.

In the refrigerators according to claims 3 and 4, the flow passage for directly supplying the cool air to the upper part of the refrigerating compartment is supplied with more cool air than the other flow passages. The effect is exerted more remarkably.

In the refrigerator of the fifth aspect, since the cool air is directly introduced into the plurality of chambers, the inside of the refrigerating chamber is uniformly cooled.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Portions corresponding to those in FIGS. 5 to 7 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

This embodiment has the following points in common with those shown in FIGS. That is, there is a cooler below the refrigerating compartment 12 of the refrigerator body 10, and its cool air is guided from the blower duct 22 on the back of the refrigerating compartment into the refrigerating compartment through the cool air outlet. The interior of the refrigerating room 12 is a plurality of shelf boards 46a-
A plurality of chambers 48a to 48e are vertically divided by 46d. The uppermost chamber 48a is provided with four cold air outlets 26, 28, 30, 32, and the three chambers 48b, 48c, 48d below it are provided with two left and right cold air outlets 34, respectively. 36; 38,40; 42,4
4 are provided.

In this embodiment, a first partition plate 50 extending in the vertical direction is provided at the center of the rear surface of the front plate 24 of the air duct 22. The partition plate 50 extends from the upper end of the duct to slightly below the third shelf plate 46c. In addition, on the left and right sides of the partition plate 50, a pair of second
Partition plates 52 and 54 are provided. The partition plates 52 and 54 extend from directly below the uppermost shelf plate 46a to slightly above the lowermost shelf plate 46d.

In this way, the air duct 22 has four passages 56, 58, 6 in the lower portion 23 (FIG. 1).
It branches into 0 and 62, and each flow path extends upward. Of these channels, the two channels 58 and 60 in the center and the two channels on the left and right
The two flow paths 56 and 62 are both symmetrical. Each flow path is open at the position of the uppermost chamber 48a, and is closed at a position from the second uppermost chamber 48b to the middle of the lowermost chamber 48d. In the two central channels 58, 60, the cold air outlet 2
8 and 30 are arranged only in the uppermost chamber 48a, and in the two flow passages 56 and 62 on both the left and right sides, the four chambers 48a and 4 are provided.
One cold air outlet is provided in each of 8b, 48c, and 48d.

In the present invention, the term "flow path" includes not only a space defined by two adjacent partition plates, but also an extension of the space to the upper end of the blower duct 22. For example, the flow path 58 does not end at the position of the upper end of the partition plate 52, but ends at the upper end of the blower duct 22 provided with the cool air outlet 28. Therefore, the cold air outlet 28 is located in the flow path 58. This also applies to the other flow paths 56, 60, and 62, and all of them continue to the upper end of the blower duct 22.

As shown in FIG. 2, a heat insulating material 1 such as urethane foam is provided between the rear surface of the refrigerator compartment 12 and the outer case 15 of the refrigerator.
7 are arranged, but the three partition plates 50, 5 described above are provided.
The protruding ends of 2, 54 are in contact with this heat insulating material 17. The partition plate may be formed integrally with the back surface 13 of the refrigerating compartment, or may be separately formed and adhered.
Further, instead of the plate-shaped member, it may be a rib-shaped member or any other shape, and any shape may be used as long as it has the function of a partition member.

In the refrigerator 10, cold air flows as follows.

The cool air flowing into the pair of central flow paths 58 and 60 rises along these flow paths, all of which are
It is discharged from the cool air outlets 28, 30 near the upper end of the duct into the uppermost chamber 48a, and efficiently cools the uppermost stage that is the most difficult to cool.

The cold air flowing into the flow passages 56, 62 on both the left and right sides, first, a part of the cool air blows out the cool air outlet 42,
It is discharged from 44 to the fourth chamber 48d, and other cold air rises and is sequentially discharged from the cold air outlets 38 and 40 and the cold air outlets 34 and 36 to the third chamber and the second chamber. The remaining cool air is discharged from the cool air outlet 26 near the upper end of the duct.
It is discharged from 32 to the uppermost chamber 48a.

As described above, in the above-mentioned refrigerator, the flow paths 58 and 60 for blowing the cool air directly to the upper end of the refrigerating chamber 12 are provided.
By providing the above, it becomes possible to blow cool air directly to the upper end portion of the refrigerating chamber 12 which is the most difficult to cool, and this portion can be efficiently cooled.

In addition, since sufficient cold air can be easily supplied to the upper end portion of the refrigerating chamber 12 in this manner, the cool air outlets 34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 4 below the upper end portion can be easily supplied.
There is no need to limit the supply of cold air from 4. That is,
Since these cold air outlets can be formed large, it is possible to prevent the freezing of food and the occurrence of temperature unevenness due to the discharge of cold air from the small cold air outlets.

In the illustrated embodiment, the central flow passages 58 and 60 in the blower duct 22 are formed wider than the left and right flow passages 56 and 62. By doing so, a larger amount of cool air can be supplied to the upper end portion of the refrigerating chamber via the central flow paths 58 and 60, and the flow rate passing through the flow paths 56 and 62 on both sides can be further improved. Can be reduced. By doing so, the effect of improving the cooling efficiency in the upper part of the refrigerating chamber, the point cooling, and the prevention of temperature unevenness become greater. Further, the amount of cold air discharged from each cold air outlet can be adjusted more efficiently. The same applies to the central flow paths 58, 6 as shown in FIG.
An inflow diameter 59 of 0 (corresponding to the distance between the partition plate 50 and the partition plates 52, 54) is set to an inflow diameter 57 of the left and right flow paths 56, 62 (lower ends 53, 55 of the partition plates 52, 54 and the air duct). It is possible to achieve this by setting it larger than the distance between the bottom portions 27, 27 on both sides of 22).

In the illustrated embodiment, four shelves 46a to 46d are provided, but the number of shelves is not limited to this. In addition, no shelf plate may be provided and the inside of the refrigerating compartment 12 may form one compartment. In these cases, the cold air outlets 28, 30 in the two central channels 58, 60 do not necessarily have to be provided at the upper end of the refrigerating compartment 12, but at an appropriate position in the upper part or upper half of the refrigerating compartment 12. Should be provided in. Cold air outlet 28,
When 30 is provided in such a position, the cold air outlets of the other two flow paths 56 and 62 may be provided only in the lower portion of the refrigerating chamber 12, that is, the lower half.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. Parts corresponding to those of the first embodiment are indicated by reference numerals of the first embodiment plus 100.

This embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that seven cold air passages are provided. That is, in the blower duct 122, three pairs of partition plates 17 are symmetrically arranged.
0, 170; 172, 172; 174, 174 are arranged. The longest partition plates 170, 170 in the center extend from the middle of the uppermost chamber 148a to the middle of the fifth chamber 148e, and the pair of relatively short partition plates 172, 172 on the left and right sides of the partition plates 170, 170 have three stages. The pair of shortest partition plates 174, 174 extend from the vicinity of the top of the eye chamber 148c to the middle of the fifth-stage chamber 148e, and are on the left and right sides of the chamber.
Is the fifth-stage chamber 14 from the vicinity of the upper end of the fourth-stage chamber 148d.
It extends to the middle of 8e. And the central channel 176
Is closed to the middle of the uppermost chamber 148a and has a cool air outlet 184 near the upper end of the duct 122. A pair of flow paths 1 on both the left and right sides of this flow path 176.
78 and 178 are closed to the vicinity of the upper end of the third-stage chamber 148c, and have similar cold air outlets 186 and 186 near the upper end of the chamber 148c. Further, the pair of flow paths 180, 180 on both sides thereof are closed to the vicinity of the upper end of the chamber 148d, and have another pair of cold air outlets 188, 188 at this location, and above that, Other cold air outlets 190, 190 are provided in the second-stage chamber 148b. Further, the other pair of outermost flow paths 182 and 182 are also connected to the flow path 1
It is closed over the same length as 80, and in the vicinity of the lower end of the flow path, another pair of cold air outlets 192, 19
2, the uppermost chamber 148a has a cold air outlet 196 and the third chamber 148c has another cold air outlet 194. The flow channels 178, 1
The cold air passing through 80, 182 is the outlet 190, 194, 1
Since 96 also enters the refrigeration room, each room is cooled uniformly.

With this structure, each flow path has a refrigerating chamber 1.
It is possible to directly bring the cold air to each of the chambers that make up 12. That is, in the uppermost chamber 148a,
The central flow passage 176, the flow passages 178 and 178 on the left and right sides of the third-stage chamber 148c, and the flow passages 180 and 180 on the left and right sides of the fourth-stage chamber 148d are the fifth flow passage. The outermost flow passages 182 on the left and right sides directly supply cool air to the chamber 148e. Therefore, it is possible to supply the cool air in each chamber almost uniformly.

[0036]

In the refrigerator according to the first aspect of the present invention, at least a part of the cool air passing through the blower duct is directly supplied to the upper end portion of the refrigerating chamber, so that the uppermost stage, which is the most difficult to cool, can be efficiently cooled.

Further, as a result of at least a part of the cool air being directly supplied to the upper end portion of the refrigerating compartment in this way, there is no problem even if the cool air outlets at other parts of the refrigerating compartment are formed large, and therefore point cooling is performed. Freezing due to food does not occur, and temperature unevenness does not occur.

In the refrigerator according to the second aspect, a large amount of cool air can be efficiently supplied to the upper part of the refrigerating chamber in the central part of the blower duct, and the cool air can be uniformly supplied to the lower part of the refrigerating chamber.

In the refrigerators according to claims 3 and 4, since a larger amount of cool air is supplied to the flow path for directly supplying the cool air to the upper part of the refrigerating chamber than for the other flow paths, the above-mentioned claim 1 is applied. The effect achieved is more significantly achieved.

In the refrigerator according to the fifth aspect, since the inside of the refrigerating chamber is cooled uniformly, there is no temperature unevenness, which is preferable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a rear side of a refrigerating compartment in a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the air duct in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view of a conventional refrigerator.

6 is a perspective view from the front side of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a ventilation duct in another conventional refrigerator.

[Explanation of symbols]

12,112 Refrigerator 16 Cooler 22,122 Blower duct 26,28,30,32,34,36,38,40,4
2,44,184,186,188,190,192,
194,196 Cold air outlet 56,58,60,62,176,178,180,1
82 flow path 50, 52, 54, 170, 172, 174 partition member

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A cooler is provided below the refrigerating compartment, and a blower duct for cooling air from the cooler is provided on the back side of the refrigerating compartment. This blower duct is provided with a plurality of cool air outlets leading to the refrigerating compartment. In such a refrigerator, a partition member that extends in the vertical direction is provided in the blower duct to branch the inside of the blower duct into a plurality of vertical flow passages, and at least one flow passage has a cool air outlet only in the upper part of the refrigerating chamber. A refrigerator characterized in that a cold air outlet is provided in the lower part of the refrigerating chamber in the other flow paths. 2. There are four longitudinal flow passages, and the two central flow passages have a cold air outlet only in the upper part of the refrigerating compartment,
The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the two left and right flow paths have a cool air outlet in the lower part of the refrigerating compartment. 3. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the at least one flow passage is formed wider than the other flow passages. 4. The branch diameter of the plurality of flow passages, wherein the inflow diameter of the at least one flow passage is larger than the inflow diameter of the other flow passages. Three
The refrigerator according to any one of 1. 5. The refrigerating chamber is divided into a plurality of chambers by a shelf plate, and the cool air is directly introduced into each chamber by the flow path. Refrigerator described.