JPS61122473A - Cold-air path for freezing refrigerator - 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-freezer, and more specifically, to a refrigerator-freezer. This relates to improvements to the cold air passages of refrigerator-freezers.

[Background of the invention]

As one of the cold air passage structures of so-called bottom-freezer refrigerators, which have a refrigerator compartment above and a freezer compartment below, it is possible to effectively use the internal space of both the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment. A cooler chamber is provided with a cooler partitioned by a cooler cover, and a cold air discharge duct is provided on one side of the cooler chamber to discharge cold air from the cooler chamber side to the refrigerator compartment. After that, a cold air return passage is arranged in which one end of the side part of the cooler chamber communicates with the refrigerator compartment, and the other end communicates with the cooler compartment, so that the cold air is circulated to the refrigerator compartment. As mentioned above, this structure has the advantage of having a large amount of usable space on the red opening side of the freezer and refrigerator compartments (because the cooler room and cold air passage can be placed at the back of the refrigerator). On the other hand, on the peripheral wall of the cold air return chamber placed on the side of the cryogenic cooler chamber, circulating cold air containing food stored in the refrigerator compartment and moisture in the outside air from opening and closing the refrigerator compartment door is circulated. Therefore, since frost formation occurs during cooling operation, it is necessary to defrost the frost that adheres to the cold air return chamber. To show a conventional example of the cold air passage of this type of refrigerator-freezer, Figure 1 is a front view of the refrigerator-freezer showing the conventional example, and Figure 2 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A in Figure 1. The insulating box body 1 is made by filling a space formed by an outer box 2 and an inner box 3 with a molded central partition section whose opening side is approximately at the same height as the opening surface, filled with rigid polyurethane foam or the like. A refrigerator compartment n4 and a freezer compartment n5 are rotatably disposed in the front opening of the heat insulating box 1.
A refrigerator compartment 6 and a freezer compartment 7 are configured. A cooler chamber 9 in which a cooler 8 is disposed at the back of the freezer compartment 7 is partitioned from the interior space of the freezer chamber 7 by a cooler cover 10. In addition, the wound in the cooler chamber 9 can be removed from the freezer compartment 7 and the cooler chamber 9 by using the cooler cover 10.
On the other hand, a cold air return chamber 11 communicating with the cooler chamber 9 on the other side is provided at the negative end of the refrigerator chamber 6 . On the other hand, a blower fan 12 is disposed above the cooler 8 to send cold air from the cooler chamber 9 to both the refrigerator compartment 6 and the freezer compartment 7, and a fan 2 and an unguard 13 are disposed in front of the blower fan 12. ing. A discharge duct 14 that communicates from the inner space of the fan guard 13 to the inside of the refrigerator compartment 6 or a partition wall 15 that partitions the refrigerator compartment 6 and the freezer compartment 7 is provided, and is provided on the opposite side of the discharge duct 14. A suction duct 16 communicating from the refrigerator compartment 6 to the cold air return chamber 11 described above is provided. In the cold air passage of a refrigerator-freezer configured in this way,
The cold air circulating into the refrigerator compartment 6, the stored food in the refrigerator compartment 6, or the moisture caused by the opening and closing of the refrigerator compartment door 4 are carried to the cold air return chamber 11 through the suction duct 16, and the cold air return chamber 11
Since the inside is extremely low temperature, frost will form on the peripheral wall of the cold air return chamber 11, so a cover-side defrosting heater 17,
The inner box 3 (I
A defrosting heater 18 on the inner box side is installed on the inner box side for defrosting, but in these conventional examples, separate defrosting heaters are connected and attached to the cooler cover side and the inner box side, respectively. Many (
needed work. Furthermore, the amount of frosting in the cold air return chamber 11, which varies depending on the amount of stored food, the frequency of opening/closing the door, the temperature and humidity of the outside air, etc., is determined at each defrosting interval using a separate defrosting circuit (not shown). In order to be able to defrost reliably (in order to do so, the above-mentioned defrost heaters, which are separately assembled, generate heat separately and can only defrost the frost that adheres to each part. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to defrost reliably even when the amount of frosting changes as mentioned above.
Each defrosting heater must generate enough heat, which has the drawback of consuming a large amount of power during defrosting.

Regarding this type of refrigerator, for example,
There is a publication No. 9-1190.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a cold air passage for a refrigerator-freezer that overcomes these drawbacks, consumes less power during defrosting of a cold air return chamber, and is easy to install.

[Summary of the invention]

Therefore, in the present invention, a metal duct equipped with a number of defrosting heaters on its peripheral surface is arranged in the cold air return chamber so that its outer peripheral surface is in contact with the four peripheral walls of the cold air return chamber. The heat generated by the defrosting heater is uniformly conductively heated to the four peripheral walls of the cold air return chamber to reduce excess power consumption during defrosting, and it is also easy to install.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, and 5. Fig. 3 is a front view of the refrigerator-freezer, Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B in Fig. 3, and Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B in Fig. 3, showing another implementation. be. In the figure, a cold air return chamber 11 located on the side of the cooler chamber 9 at the back of the freezer compartment 7 is equipped with a metal such as aluminum duct having a single duct defrosting heater 22 that covers that area. A duct 23 made of a solid body is provided with its outer peripheral surface in contact with or in close proximity to the four peripheral walls of the cold air return chamber 11.

For this reason, in this embodiment, in order to defrost the frost that adheres to the cold air return chamber 11, when the duct section defrosting heater 22 generates heat, the duct 23 is made of metal. The electricity is transmitted uniformly to the surrounding wall surface, which eliminates disadvantages such as localized overheating caused by the defrosting heater during defrosting, and the power consumption of the defrosting heater can be used effectively. This makes it possible to reduce power consumption during frost.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 5, the plate thickness of the duct 33 made of metal such as aluminum is increased (by increasing the thickness of the duct 33, which is made of metal such as aluminum), it is possible to increase the thickness of the duct 33, which is made of aluminum or other metal. A duct section defrosting heater 22' is provided only on the side with a large heat capacity, such as the section facing the freezer compartment where food is normally stored, and the heat of the defrosting heater 22' is passed through the thick plate metal duct wall. Even though the structure allows heat to be transferred all around the cold air return chamber, the back and sides of the inner box are insulated boxes made of hard polyurethane foam with good insulation properties, making it possible to defrost the cold air return chamber. .On the other hand, the shape of the duct in the cold air return chamber should be such that the opening area on the refrigerator compartment side is larger than the opening area of the outlet to the cooler compartment (if you do this, the duct for circulating cold air from the refrigerator compartment will flow to the surrounding surface). frosting or population side (
Even if frost forms, it is possible to maintain a substantially constant amount of cold air circulation during cooling operation.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, by employing a metal duct with a defrost heater built into the circumference in the cold air return chamber, the amount of heat generated by the defrost heater during defrosting can be reduced by using a metal duct with good thermal conductivity. By using a metal duct to uniformly transfer heat around the four circumferences of the cold air return chamber, there is no uneven heating in various parts during defrosting, and it is effective in reducing power consumption during defrosting. That's what you get. In addition, the installation work can be easily achieved by simply disposing one or more defrosting heaters in the duct.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator-freezer showing an embodiment of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B in Fig. 3, Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B in Fig. 3 showing another embodiment, and Fig. 4 is a front view of a refrigerator-freezer showing a conventional example. , FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line A--A in FIG. 1. 6... Refrigerator room, 7... Freezer room, 8... Cooler, 9
...Cooler chamber, 10...Cooler cover, 11...
Cold air return chamber, 14...Discharge duct, 16...Suction duct, 17...Cover side defrosting heater, 18...Inner box removal box heater, 22...Duct part defrosting heater, 23・
··duct.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a refrigerator-freezer equipped with a freezer compartment and a refrigerator compartment,
The back of the freezer compartment is partitioned with a cooler cover to provide a cooler compartment, and one end is placed in the refrigerator compartment on the side of this cooler compartment.
A cold air passage for a refrigerator-freezer, characterized in that a cold air return chamber is provided whose other end communicates with a cooler chamber, and a duct provided in the cold air return chamber is provided with a defrosting heater on its circumferential surface.