JPS61205766A - 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 [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a refrigerator provided with a dual-purpose chamber serving as a defrosting chamber and a rapid cooling chamber in the refrigerator.

[Technical defamation of the invention] Recent refrigerators are equipped with a dual-purpose chamber that doubles as a thawing chamber and a rapid cooling chamber, and are also equipped with a heater that heats this dual-purpose chamber and a fan that blows air into the dual-purpose chamber. A system is available in which thawing and rapid cooling can be performed selectively. In this case, when thawing is to be performed, the thawing start switch is turned on, and the heater and fan are driven based on this to perform the required thawing, and when rapid cooling is to be performed, A rapid cooling start switch is turned on, and based on this, only the fan is driven to perform the required rapid cooling.

[Problems with the background art] However, in the above-mentioned system, the user selects thawing or rapid cooling for the stored items, and when thawing is to be carried out, the thawing start switch must be operated prior to the rapid cooling. Before starting cooling, a rapid cooling start switch must be operated, which is a burden on the user, considering the recent trend of refrigerators becoming multi-functional and the frequency of operations required by the user increasing. There was a problem that the size of the

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above two circumstances, and its object is to provide a refrigerator that can automatically select and execute defrosting and rapid cooling.

[Summary of the invention] The present invention focuses on the fact that the stored material to be thawed is at a low temperature and that the stored material to be rapidly cooled is at a relatively high temperature. A thawing system that has a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the stored items, and when the temperature sensor detects a temperature below the lower limit setting, drives the heater and fan, and only drives the fan when the temperature exceeds the upper limit setting.・By installing a rapid cooling selection control device,
It is possible to automatically select between thawing and rapid cooling based on the temperature state of the stored items.

[Embodiments of the invention] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, in FIG. 1 showing the main parts of a refrigerator, 1 is a freezing compartment, 2 is a refrigerator compartment, 3 is a cooler disposed in a partition 4 that partitions these two compartments, and 5 is also the partition. A main fan for circulating cold air inside the refrigerator is disposed in the section 4, 6 is a duct for supplying cold air to the freezing compartment 1 and the refrigerator compartment 2, respectively, and 7 is disposed at the discharge port 6a of the duct 6 to the refrigerator compartment 2. A damper 8 is a storage case disposed at the upper part of the inside of the refrigerator compartment 2, and the inside of the storage case 8 is used as a dual-purpose room 9 that serves both as a thawing room and a rapid cooling room.

This dual-purpose room 9 is in a mixed cold air atmosphere, such as low-temperature cold air supplied from the duct 6 into the refrigerator compartment 2 and cold air circulating inside the refrigerator compartment 2. Therefore, the dual-purpose room 9 is usually in a so-called freezing temperature state. hold Inside this dual-purpose chamber 9, there is provided a tray 10 for placing items to be stored.
As shown in FIG. 2, a heater 11 is attached to the outer bottom of the 0, and a thawing/rapid cooling selection control device 1, which will be described later.
A temperature sensor 12 constituting a part of the storage container 7 is biased upward by a spring 13 and is disposed so as to directly contact the stored items. Further, openings are formed in the front and rear walls of the storage case 8, and a fan 16 consisting of a quarter blade and a fan motor 15 is disposed in the rear opening. Next, in FIG. 3, 17 is a thawing/rapid cooling selection control device;
This will be explained below. 18 is the temperature sensor 12
This is a temperature detection circuit consisting of a voltage dividing circuit with It is applied to each non-inverting input terminal (+) of the first comparator 19 and the second comparator 20. 21 is a lower limit temperature setting circuit consisting of a voltage dividing circuit;
This means that the divided voltage is, for example, lower limit set temperature value TI of -3°C.
-, and this drop in the lower limit set temperature value is applied to the inverting input terminal (-) of the first comparator 19. 22 is an upper limit temperature setting circuit consisting of a voltage dividing circuit;
This means that the divided voltage can be changed to, for example, the upper limit set temperature value Th of +7°C.
This upper limit set temperature value Th is supplied to the inverting input terminal (-) of the second comparator 20. There are five first comparators 19, each of which provides an output signal from its output terminal via a NOT circuit 23 to one input terminal of a heater drive circuit 24 and an OR circuit 25, respectively. Further, the second comparator 20 is configured to give an output signal from its output terminal to the other input terminal of an OR circuit 25, and this OR circuit 25 gives its output signal to a fan drive circuit 26. It looks like this. The heater drive circuit 24 includes a relay and a transistor as a switching element thereof, and is driven to energize and drive the heater 11 when the output signals from the NOT circuit 24h1 and the like are at a high level.

The fan drive circuit 26 includes a relay and a transistor as a switching element thereof, and is driven when the output signal from the AND circuit 25 is at a high level to energize and drive the fan motor 15 and therefore the fan 16. It looks like this.

Now, to describe the operation of the above configuration with reference to FIG.
2 detects the ice temperature, and the temperature detection circuit 18
The detected temperature value Tk output from the lower limit temperature setting circuit 2
It is higher than the upper limit set temperature value TI outputted from 6-1, and lower than the upper limit set temperature value Th outputted from the upper limit temperature setting circuit 22.

Therefore, the signal output from the first comparator 19 is at high level, and the signal output from the second comparator 20 is at low level. As a result, the NOT circuit 23 inverts the high level signal from the comparator 19 to a low level and supplies it to the heater drive circuit 24 and also supplies it to one input terminal of the OR circuit 25; Since the input terminal of is given a low level signal from the second comparator 20, a low level signal is given to the fan drive circuit 26, and thus both the heater drive circuit 24 and the fan drive circuit 26 are activated. , the drive is stopped.

Here, when a stored item to be thawed, for example, a stored item that has been frozen and preserved in the freezer compartment 1, is stored in the dual-purpose room 9 on a tray 10, the stored item is directly The temperature of the stored object is detected by the contacting temperature sensor 12, and when the temperature of this stored object is, for example, -18°C, a corresponding detected temperature value Tk is outputted from the temperature detection circuit 18, and the temperature of the stored object is detected. It is applied to each non-inverting input terminal (+) of the inverter 19 and the second comparator 20. As a result, since the input level of the non-inverting input terminal (+) of the first comparator 19 is lower than the input level of the inverting input terminal (-), the signal output from the first comparator 19 falls to a low level, and , is inverted to high level by the NOT circuit 23, and the heater drive circuit 24 and the OR circuit 2
5 is therefore applied to the fan drive circuit 26, whereby the heater 11 and fan 16 are energized and driven, that is, the defrosting mode is automatically selected and executed. Note that the output level of the second comparator 20 remains at low level. When the thawing of the stored items progresses and the temperature of the stored items exceeds 13°C, the detected temperature value Tk is below the lower limit set temperature value! As a result, the signal output from the first comparator 19 rises to a high level, so that the signal applied to one input terminal of the heater drive circuit 24 and the OR circuit 25 becomes a low level that is inverted by the NOT circuit 23. In this case, the other input terminal of the OR circuit 25 remains in the low level state, and the fan drive circuit 26 receives a low level signal from the OR circuit 25, so that the driving of the heater 11 and the fan 16 is automatically stopped. decompression is completed.

Next, when a stored item to be rapidly cooled, for example, a stored item at a temperature of +30°C, is placed on a tray 10 in the dual-purpose chamber 9, the temperature of the stored item is determined by the temperature sensor 12. detected temperature value Tk corresponding to +30°C in this case
is output from the detection temperature circuit 18 to each non-inverting input terminal (
+) is given. As a result, since the input level of the non-inverting input terminal (10) of the second comparator 20 exceeds the input level of the inverting input terminal (-), the signal output from the comparator 20 rises to a high level, and as a result, The signal given to the fan drive circuit 26 via the OR circuit 25 becomes high level, and only the fan drive circuit 26 is driven, and thus only the fan 16 is energized and driven, that is, the rapid cooling mode is automatically selected. and executed.

When the rapid cooling progresses and the temperature of the stored material falls below +7°C, the detected temperature value Tk falls below the upper limit set temperature value Th, and as a result, the signal output from the second] comparator 20 becomes low level. As a result, the signal applied to the fan drive circuit 26 via the OR circuit 25 falls to a low level of 1, and the drive of the fan 16 is thereby stopped.

For example, stored items refrigerated in the refrigerator compartment 2 may be stored in the shared compartment 9.
Since the temperature of the stored object is around +5°C, the signal output from the first comparator 19 remains at a high level, and the signal output from the second comparator 20 remains at a high level. It remains at a low level, and therefore, in this case, the stored items are kept cooled to an icy temperature.

According to this embodiment, the thawing/defrosting system has the temperature sensor 12 that detects the altitude of the stored items stored in the dual-purpose chamber 9.
A rapid cooling selection control device 17 is provided to control the temperature sensor 12.
When detects a temperature below the lower limit set temperature (in this case = 3°C), it drives the heater 11 and fan 16, and when it detects a temperature above the upper limit set temperature (in this case, 30°C) only drives the fan 16. As a result, thawing and rapid cooling can be automatically selected and executed depending on the temperature state of the stored items, and it is possible to operate the thawing start switch before thawing and the quick cooling start switch before rapid cooling. The operation can be eliminated, the burden of operation on the user can be eliminated, and it can be made extremely convenient in practice. Furthermore, thawing can be automatically terminated and rapid cooling can be automatically terminated based on the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 12.
Problems such as over- or under-thawing or insufficient cooling of stored items can also be eliminated. By the way, in conventional refrigerators, the end time of defrosting and rapid cooling is determined by time settings using a timer based on the weight of the stored items, etc., resulting in over- or under-thawing or insufficient cooling. Although there was a problem, this embodiment can solve such a problem.

Furthermore, according to this embodiment, the stored items can be kept refrigerated at an ice temperature after thawing, making it extremely convenient.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, the present invention can automatically select and execute thawing or rapid cooling, thereby eliminating the operational burden on the user. This makes it extremely convenient in practice, and has excellent effects such as being able to eliminate problems such as over- or under-thawing or insufficient cooling.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal side view of the main parts of the refrigerator, Fig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal side view of the tray portion, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the defrosting/rapid cooling selection control device. Figure, 4th
The figure is a state diagram of each part related to detected temperature. Applicant Toshiba Corporation Figure 1 Figure 3■

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A dual-purpose chamber provided in the warehouse that doubles as a thawing chamber and a rapid cooling chamber, a heater that heats this dual-purpose chamber, a fan that blows air into the dual-purpose chamber, and objects to be stored in the dual-purpose chamber. The defrosting/defrosting system has a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of A refrigerator comprising a rapid cooling selection control device.