JPH11118316A - Fan device and refrigerator using it - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To assuredly supply lubricating oil to a metal bearing under the environment of low temperature in a refrigerator and attain a smooth rotation by forming a doughnut type felt member impregnated with the lubricating oil on the outer periphery of the metal bearing for supporting a rotation shaft. SOLUTION: Doughnut type front felt member 28 and rear felt member 29 are respectively fixed to the front surface and the rear surface of a cylindrical stator 14 by doughnut type metallic plate support parts 34 and 35. The felt members 28 and 29 are respectively formed in a two-layer structure having a first felt member 30 impregnated with lubricating oil and a second felt member 32 formed outside the first felt member to transfer the lubricating oil outside. A metallic front bracket 52 and a bracket 54 are formed in the front side of the front felt member 28 and in the rear side of the rear felt member 29. The lubricating oil is constantly supplied to a metal bearing 44 by the front felt member 28 and the rear felt member 29 so that a rotation is not prevented even at a low temperature.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fan device and a refrigerator using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Refrigerators include a fan device (hereinafter referred to as an E fan) for sending cool air cooled by a cooler to a freezing room or a refrigerator room, and a fan (hereinafter referred to as an E fan) for cooling a compressor or the like in a machine room. C fan).

FIG. 5 shows a conventional E fan 104 provided inside an evaporator cover 102 provided with a cooler 100. The E fan 104 has a rotating blade 110 at the tip of a rotating shaft 108 of an inner rotor type motor 106.
Is provided. Then, the rotating blade 110 is connected to the motor 1
06, the cool air cooled by the cooler 100 is blown to the freezing room 112.

[0004]

However, the above-described E fan 104 has a structure in which the rotating blades 110 are provided outside the motor 106, so that the size of the entire fan device becomes large, and the size of the fan device is increased as shown in FIG. There is a problem that the depth of the evaporator cover 102 becomes large.

Further, since the motor 106 needs to be provided inside the evaporator cover 102, there is a problem in that the motor 106 becomes an obstacle and it is difficult to secure a cool air path.

[0006] Further, the rotating blade 110 is provided with a rotating shaft 108.
However, there is a problem that the balance is poor and the vibration is liable to be made, since it is necessary to mount the device at the tip of the device.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a fan device which is small, easily secures a cool air passage, and easily supports a rotating blade, and a refrigerator having the same. is there.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a fan apparatus in which a rotor of an outer rotor type fan motor is provided with rotating blades, wherein a rotating shaft of the fan motor is rotatably supported by a metal bearing. A donut-shaped felt member impregnated with lubricating oil is provided on the outer periphery of the metal bearing.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the stator of the fan motor is formed of a molding resin.

[0010] The refrigerator of claim 3 uses the fan device of claim 1 as a fan device for blowing cool air from a cooler in the refrigerator to a freezing room or the like.

A refrigerator according to a fourth aspect uses the fan device according to the first aspect as a fan device provided inside a machine room of the refrigerator.

The fan device according to the first aspect of the present invention is provided with a donut-shaped felt impregnated with lubricating oil on the outer peripheral portion of the metal bearing that supports the rotating shaft, so that the fan device can be used in a low-temperature environment such as inside a refrigerator. As a result, the lubricating oil is reliably supplied to the metal bearing.

In the fan device according to the second aspect of the present invention, by forming the stator with a mold resin, the overall configuration of the motor can be reduced, and a waterproof effect can be obtained.

[0014] In the refrigerator of the third and fourth aspects, the fan device of the first aspect may be replaced by an E fan for blowing cool air from a cooler to a freezing room or a C fan provided in a machine room. Used. This makes it possible to increase the effective volume of the cooling space in which the cooler is arranged or the inside of the machine room.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

(First Embodiment) Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an axial fan device 10 of the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the axial fan device 10, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a state where the fan is installed inside the refrigerator 12.

First, the structure of the axial fan device 10 will be described with reference to FIGS.

The fan motor used in the axial fan device 10 is a DC brushless motor, and is an outer rotor type motor 18 provided with a rotor 16 outside the stator 14.

The stator 14 is formed by winding a stator winding 22 around an iron core 20 in which a plurality of ring-shaped steel plates are stacked. A donut-shaped substrate 24 is provided at the rear of the iron core 20. Then, the iron core 20, the stator windings 22, and the substrate 24 are molded into a cylindrical shape with a molding resin to form the stator 14. At the center of the cylindrical stator 14, there is a through hole 26 through which the rotating shaft 36 of the rotor 16 passes in the front-rear direction. The substrate 24 is provided with a position sensor composed of a Hall IC, and an electric element 27 such as a transistor or a resistor constituting a motor drive circuit such as a driver IC.

Further, donut-shaped front felt members 28 and rear felt members 29 are provided on the front and rear surfaces of the cylindrical stator 14, respectively.
4, 35 fixed. These two felt members 28 and 29 are provided with a first felt member 30 impregnated with a lubricating oil necessary for the life required of the refrigerator 12 and a lubricating oil impregnated in the first felt member 30 provided outside the first felt member 30. It has a two-layer structure with the second felt member for transmission.

A front bracket 52 and a rear bracket 54 made of metal are provided on the front side of the front felt member 28 and the rear side of the rear felt member 29, respectively. Fixed leaf springs 56 and 58 are provided between the front bracket 52 and the support portion 34 and between the rear bracket 54 and the support portion 35, respectively.

The rotor 16 has a rotating shaft 36 which is a shaft.
And a cylindrical rotary cylinder 38 provided at the front end thereof and covering the stator 14. A rotor magnet 40 is provided inside the rotary cylinder 38, and a rotary blade 42 is provided outside.

At the front and rear of the rotating shaft 36, metal bearings 44 and 45 are provided, respectively. The metal bearings 44 and 45 are supported by the support portions 34 and 3 described above.
5 and the metal bearings 44 and 45 are also in contact with the second felt member 32. Metal bearing 44
Between the metal bearing 45 and the support 35.
Is provided with a lubricating oil return groove 50. Rotary axis 3
A washer 48 for cutting off the lubricating oil is attached to the rear end of 6, and a washer 70 for preventing oil scattering is provided at the front. As the metal bearings 44 and 45, for example, spherical copper-based sintered alloy metal bearings are used, and the rotating shaft 3 is used.
For 6, a stainless steel shaft is used.

A casing 60, which is a bell mouth of the axial flow fan device 10, is provided outside the rotary blades 42. The casing 60 is connected to the stator 14 on the rear side.

A state in which the axial fan device 10 having the above configuration is mounted inside the refrigerator 12 as an E fan will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, a cooling space formed by a pair of front and rear evaporator covers 62 and 64 is provided in the middle stage of the refrigerator 12, and a cooler 68 is disposed inside the cooling space. The axial fan device 10 described above
Are attached to the opening 63 in the front cover 62 on the front side.

In the axial fan device 10, since the rotating shaft 36 is supported by the pair of metal bearings 44 and 45, the shaft does not run out, so that the rotating blades 42 do not vibrate.

The lubricating oil accumulates on the inner surface of the rear part of the rotating shaft 36, but returns to the second felt member 32 through the return groove 50.

Since the outer rotor type motor 18 is used, the operating length (moment) from the center of the rotating shaft 36
Therefore, torque can be easily obtained, which is advantageous in starting the motor.

When used in a low temperature environment such as inside the refrigerator 12, the rear end of the rotating cylinder 38 of the rotor 14 and the stator 14
May freeze between. But in this case,
This has the effect that the rotation of the motor 18 is locked and the freezing is melted by the heat generated thereby. Further, since the lubricating oil is always supplied to the metal bearing 44 by the two felt members 28 and 29, the rotation is not hindered even at a low temperature.

Since the stator 14 is molded with a molding resin, the stator 14 can be made compact and resources can be saved. Further, since the substrate 24 is also covered with the mold resin, a waterproof structure can be easily obtained.

Further, a casing 60 which is a bell mouth is provided.
Is fixed to the stator 14, so that the casing 6
The axis of the inner peripheral surface does not deviate from the axis of the rotating shaft 36. Therefore, the gap between the inner diameter of the circular opening 72 of the casing 60 and the rotary blade 42 can be reduced.

By using the axial fan device 10, the depth B of the cooling space can be reduced.

(Second Embodiment) Next, based on FIG.
A description will be given of an axial fan 80 according to a second embodiment.

There are two differences between the present embodiment and the axial fan of the first embodiment.

The first point is that the number of the metal bearings 82 is reduced to one. Therefore, since there is a possibility of shaft runout, the metal bearing 82 is fixed by the rear bracket 54 and the front bracket 56.

The second point is that a draining flange 58 is provided at the rear end of the rotary cylinder 38 of the rotor 16.
As a result, the defrost water does not adhere to the gap between the stator 14 and the rotor 16 after defrosting and does not freeze.

(Modification) In the above embodiment, a DC brushless motor was used in which the substrate 24 containing the motor drive circuit was integrally formed of a mold resin. Instead, the motor drive circuit was replaced with the axial fan device 10. A separate DC brushless motor provided on the outside of the motor may be used. Also, A
A C motor may be used.

In the above embodiment, the axial fan device 10
Was used for the E fan, but may be used for the C fan provided in the machine room of the refrigerator 12 instead. Also in this case, by using the axial fan device 10, the size of the C fan can be reduced, so that the volume of the machine room can be effectively used.

[0040]

As described above, according to the fan device of the first aspect, a donut-shaped felt member impregnated with lubricating oil is provided on the outer periphery of the metal bearing that supports the rotating shaft, so that a low-temperature environment such as the inside of a refrigerator is provided. Lubricating oil is also supplied below, and rotation is performed smoothly.

According to the fan device of the second aspect, since the stator of the axial fan is molded by the mold resin,
The size of the stator can be reduced, and
It can also be waterproof.

In the refrigerator according to the third and fourth aspects, the fan device according to the first aspect may be replaced by an E-fan for blowing cool air from a cooler to a freezing room or a C-fan provided inside a machine room. Used. This makes it possible to increase the effective volume of the cooling space in which the cooler is arranged or the inside of the machine room.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of an axial fan device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the axial fan device.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of a refrigerator using the axial fan device of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of an axial fan device according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view of a refrigerator using a conventional fan device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 axial flow fan 14 stator 16 rotor 18 motor 28 felt member 36 rotating shaft 38 cover 42 rotating blade 44 metal bearing

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A fan device in which a rotor of an outer rotor type fan motor is provided with rotating blades, wherein a rotating shaft of the fan motor is rotatably supported by a metal bearing, and an outer periphery of the metal bearing is impregnated with lubricating oil. A fan device provided with a donut-shaped felt member. 2. The fan device according to claim 1, wherein the stator of the fan motor is formed of a mold resin. 3. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the fan device according to claim 1 is used as a fan device for blowing cool air from a cooler in a refrigerator to a freezing room or the like. 4. A refrigerator, wherein the fan device according to claim 1 is used as a fan device provided inside a machine room of a refrigerator.