JPS60111873A - Refrigerator with rapid cooling thawing chamber - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a refrigerator 1n equipped with a rapid cooling chamber for rapidly cooling refrigerated foods and a thawing chamber for thawing frozen foods uniformly and in a short time.
This is related to f.

[Background of the invention]

With the improvement of dietary habits in recent years, the use of frozen foods and the use of home freezing have become popular.

However, even if you try to use these frozen foods for cooking, they cannot be processed because they are frozen. Therefore, a method of defrosting is required. The general method for unpacking is
Defrosting in natural air by leaving the food at room temperature or in a refrigerator, thawing with running water such as tap water, and thawing in the microwave using microwave ovens, etc. However, with natural air thawing, the heat transfer rate between the food and the air is small, so it takes a long time to finish defrosting. It takes time and high air temperature makes it impossible to thaw the food uniformly, resulting in a significant loss of quality. Thawing with running water absorbs moisture inside the food and causes food particles to flow out with the running water, impairing the taste.

Microwave thawing has the drawback of causing localized heating in the case of deformed foods.

In addition, there may be cases where cold sheaths, beer, sweets, etc. are needed in a hurry due to unexpected guests. However, with current refrigerators, there is only a way to rapidly cool the product by placing it in the freezer compartment, and in such cases, you can take the time to take it out, but often you forget to put it in and the beer, etc., explodes. This was wasteful and dangerous, as it made it impossible to drink at all.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, and includes a room in which rapid cooling and thawing can be performed in a part of the refrigerator compartment.
And it can be done in a short time.

[Summary of the invention]

That is, it forcibly circulates cold air from an evaporator installed in a part of the refrigerator through a cold air circulation passage, and has a turner in the cold air circulation passage leading to the refrigerator compartment that turns on and off the flow of cold air. In a refrigerator-freezer equipped with a damper control device that controls the damper by a motor or the like, the circulation passage is branched into two passages from the middle of the cold air circulation passage from the freezer compartment to the refrigerator compartment, and the damper is rotated. Both passages are configured so that one passage can be selected from each, and a quenching/defrosting fan and a quenching/defrosting chamber are provided in front of the cold air outlet to one of the refrigerator compartments, and the damper and the quenching/defrosting fan control the cooling and thawing temperature. It is designed to operate using a sensor that detects it.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6. Here, the arrows represent the flow of cold air.

2 is the refrigerator body, and 2 is an inner box made of synthetic resin plate by vacuum forming or the like. 3 is an outer box formed by bending a metal plate or the like. Among these, the space of the outer picture box 2.3 is filled with a foam heat insulating material 4 to form a heat insulating box body. Reference numeral 5 is a freezer compartment for making ice or storing frozen foods, and reference numeral 6 is a refrigerator compartment for cooling and preserving general foods, vegetables, and the like. The freezer compartment 5 and the refrigerator compartment 6 are thermally divided by a partition 7. Reference numeral 8 denotes a freezer compartment door, which closes the front opening 5a of the freezer compartment 5. Reference numeral 9 denotes a refrigerator compartment door, which closes the front opening 6a of the refrigerator compartment 6. Reference numeral 10 denotes an evaporator, which is installed at the back of the freezer compartment 5. This evaporator 10 forms part of a series of refrigeration cycles and serves as a cold air supply source to the freezer compartment 5 and the refrigerator compartment 6. ] 1 is a fan located above the evaporator 10, which sends cold air generated in the evaporator 10 to the freezer compartment 5,
This is to forcefully circulate cold air to the refrigerator compartment 6. 11a
is a drive motor for rotating this fan 11.

12 is a cold air circulation path to the refrigerator compartment 6, and a cold air inlet 12a
near the evaporator 10 in the freezer compartment 5, a cold air outlet 12b,
], 2C are branched into two directions from the middle so that they are located at the back of the refrigerator compartment 6, respectively. 13 is the mouse ring 14
It is a decorative board provided with a hood and covers the front part of the evaporator 10, and a fan 11 is located in the mouth ring 14. 15
is a plate on which a cold air discharge grill is arranged, and the decorative plate 1
It is provided on the front of 3. Reference numeral 16 denotes a damper made of synthetic resin or the like having an angle of 135°, and is located at a branch point where cold air can be divided into two directions in the cold air circulation passage 12. Reference numeral 17 denotes a motor for rotationally driving this damper 16, and is installed in a gap 18 formed by recessing the heat insulating wall of the partition 7 into an angular shape.

A motor case 19 covers the motor 17.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a refrigerator compartment duct, which is connected to a cold air inlet 12a and a cold air outlet of the cold air circulation passage 12 by a cold air intake 20a.
It communicates with the freezer compartment 5 and the refrigerator compartment 6 via b and 12C. 20b and 20c are cold air outlets, the cold air passing through the outlet 20b goes into the refrigerator compartment 6, and the cold air passing through the outlet 20C is mainly sent to the meat case 21 from the freezer compartment 5 to the damper 16.
blown out through. Reference numeral 22 denotes a rapid cooling/defrosting fan located below the cold air outlet 12C of the cold air circulation passage 12.

23 is a mouth ring 24 for the quenching/defrosting fan 22;
It is a decorative board equipped with the following functions and is located in the quenching/defrosting chamber 25, which is an independent room within the refrigerator compartment 6. This rapid cooling, thawing chamber 25
The rear plate 25a facing the quenching/defrosting fan 22 also serves as a cold air discharge grill. 25b is the quenching and thawing chamber 2
This is a front door that is opened and closed when food is put into the container. 26
is a quenching and thawing end sensor provided in the quenching and thawing chamber 25, and there is no problem even if the quenching and thawing are separate.
It only needs to correspond in time to the representative temperature of the input food, and existing contact or non-contact temperature sensors, dielectric constant sensors that detect the dielectric constant of the food, etc. can be used.

In a refrigerator constructed in this way, if the temperature of the refrigerator compartment 6 measured by the refrigerator compartment temperature sensor is higher than the set value, normally,
The damper is located as shown in FIG.
6, the cold air is divided into two cold air outlets 12b and 12C. Furthermore, the cold air that has passed through the cold air outlet 12b passes through the refrigerator compartment duct 20, and a part of it is in the refrigerator compartment 6 and a part of it is in the meat case 21, and the cold air that has passed through the cold air outlet 12c is sent to the quenching and defrosting chambers. It will be leaked on 25th. On the other hand, if the temperature of the refrigerator compartment 6 is lower than the set value, the damper 16 is in the position shown in FIG. 4, cutting off the supply of cold air to the refrigerator compartment 6. By repeating this operation, the temperature in the refrigerator compartment 6 is maintained at an arbitrarily set temperature, and the temperature in the meat case 21 and the quenching/defrosting compartment 25 is 2 to 3 degrees lower than the temperature in the refrigerator compartment 6. is maintained.

Next, the operation during rapid cooling and thawing will be explained.

During rapid cooling, the damper 16 is in the position shown in FIG. 5, the rapid cooling/defrosting fan 22 rotates, and the cold air from the freezer compartment 5 flows concentratedly into the rapid cooling/defrosting compartment 25. At this time, it is more effective to shorten the cooling time if the series of refrigeration cycles and fan 1 are configured to operate continuously. This operation continues until the set value of the rapid cooling/defrosting end sensor 26 is reached regardless of the temperature sensor of the refrigerator compartment. When the set value is reached, the rapid cooling/defrosting fan 22 is stopped and the damper 16 is moved to the position shown in FIG. (when the temperature of the refrigerator compartment is high) and the position shown in FIG. 4 (when the temperature of the refrigerator compartment is low) are repeated to maintain the refrigerator compartment 6 at the set temperature. After the rapid cooling is completed, if the temperature of the refrigerator compartment 6 is higher than the set temperature, the position of the damper 16 is different from the position in the normal state, and cold air is not allowed to flow into the rapid cooling/defrosting compartment 25. Therefore, the food in the quenching and thawing chamber 25 can be cooled in a short time, and there is no fear that the beer, juice, etc. will explode even if you forget to take it out after the quenching is finished.

Further, during defrosting, the damper 16 is repeatedly moved between the position shown in FIG. 4 and the position shown in FIG. 6 by the refrigerator temperature sensor, and the quenching/defrosting fan 22 rotates. That is, when the damper 16 is at the 1st position in FIG. 6, the temperature distribution within the refrigerator compartment 6 is such that high-temperature upper cold air flows into the quenching and thawing chamber from below the quenching and defrosting fan 22. Damper 16 is the fourth
When it is in the position shown in the figure, there is also a refrigerator compartment duct)20. The cold air is introduced through the cold air circulation passage 12 . If you want to shorten the time it takes to defrost food, you can
The temperature controller may be configured to raise the set temperature by several degrees (within a range that allows for uniform thawing). In this way, since the food is thawed at approximately the temperature of the air in the refrigerator compartment 6, uniformly thawed food can be provided. When the set value of the rapid cooling/defrosting end sensor 26 is reached, the rapid cooling/defrosting fan 22 is stopped and the damper 16 repeatedly moves between the position shown in FIG. 3 and the position shown in FIG. 4 as in the normal state. , the refrigerator compartment 6, the meat case 21, and the quenching/defrosting compartment 25 are maintained at predetermined temperatures. Therefore, quenching, thawing chamber 2
The food inside 5 can be thawed in a short time, and even if you forget to take it out after thawing, it can be stored at a low temperature, so there is very little quality deterioration due to drips, etc.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention provides a fan located between the quenching and thawing compartments in the refrigerator compartment, and cools and defrosts food in a short period of time by distributing or concentrating cold air from the freezing compartment to the refrigerator compartment. It can be done in a short amount of time, making it easier to plan things like cooking. Furthermore, even after food is cooled or thawed, there are no problems such as bottles bursting or food quality deterioration, and both functions can be easily achieved with just a home appliance called a refrigerator.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a refrigerator equipped with the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the refrigerator equipped with the present invention, and FIGS. 3 to 6 are damper elements showing the damper operation of the refrigerator equipped with the present invention. FIG. ■... Refrigerator body, 2... Inner box, 3... Outer box, 4
... Insulation material, 5 ... Freezer room, 5a ... Front opening, 6 ... Refrigerator room, 6a ... Front opening, 7 ... Middle partition, 8 ... Freezer room door , 9... Refrigerator door, 10...
- Evaporator, 11... Fan, 11a... Drive motor, 12... Cold air circulation passage, 12a... Cold air inlet,
12b...Cold air outlet, 12C...Cold air outlet, 1
3... Decorative board, 14... Mouse ring, 15...
plate, ]6...damper, 17...motor, 18
...Gap, 19...Motor case, 20...Refrigerating room duct, 20a...Cold air intake, 20b...
Cold air outlet, 20C... Cold air outlet, 21... Meat case, 22... Rapid cooling, thawing fan, 23... Decorative board, 24... Mouth ring, 25... Rapid cooling, thawing chamber, 25a... Rear plate, 25b... Front door, 26...
・Rapid cooling/thawing completion sensor. Agent Patent Attorney Akira Takahashi C) Kaya 2 Kodai 3 Kodai 42

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Cold air from an evaporator (10) provided in a part of the refrigerator is forcedly circulated by a fan (11) into a cold air circulation passageway (12) toward the refrigerator compartment (6). In a refrigerator-freezer equipped with a damper (16) that turns on and off the flow of cold air, and an air volume control device that controls the damper (16) with a motor (17) or the like, the cold air circulation passage (12) It is configured such that it branches into two passages from the middle of the passageway, and by rotating the l'i1 construction damper (16), it can be selected as both of the two passages or one passage of each, and one of the passages is connected to the refrigerator compartment (6). A rapid cooling and defrosting fan (2) is installed in front of the outlet of the cold air circulation passage (12).
2) and a quenching and thawing chamber (25) are arranged, and the damper (
16) and a rapid cooling/defrosting fan (22) are controlled by a sensor (26) that detects the completion of cooling and defrosting. 2 During quenching operation, thawing operation, normal operation after quenching, and normal operation after thawing, the damper (16)
2. A refrigerator with a rapid freezing/thawing chamber according to claim 1, wherein the cold air flow paths can be changed respectively.