JPS621195B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a refrigerator equipped with a freezer compartment, and more particularly to a refrigerator in which frost formation in the freezer compartment is concentrated in one place.

Recently, refrigerators equipped with a freezer compartment have become popular.
Among such refrigerators, in particular, so-called direct cooling type refrigerators, in which the cooler is formed into a substantially rectangular box shape and the inside thereof is used as a freezing chamber, generally The interior surface of the room is cooled almost uniformly over almost the entire area.

However, in the case configured as described above, frost forms on almost the entire inner surface of the freezer compartment during operation, and not only does the refrigeration efficiency decrease due to the adiabatic effect of this frost, but also the There were also problems such as frost formation on the surface.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem, we have recently developed a partition wall that divides the freezer compartment into a frozen storage area and a non-accommodation area, an air flow path that communicates the frozen storage area and the non-accommodation area, and a A refrigerator includes a first cooler that directly cools frozen items stored in a storage section, and a second cooler that is provided in a non-accommodation section and is maintained at a lower temperature than the first cooler. It is appearing. In other words, this refrigerator makes the temperature of the second cooler sufficiently lower than that of the first cooler, thereby sublimating the frost adhering to the surface of the first cooler or the surface of the frozen object, and converting it into steam. This vapor is guided to the surface of the second cooler disposed in the non-accommodating part, and is deposited as frost on this surface. Therefore, in the refrigerator configured in this manner, it is possible to prevent thick frost from adhering to the wall surface of the frozen object storage section or the surface of the frozen object, and therefore it is possible to prevent a decrease in refrigeration efficiency.

However, even with the refrigerator configured as described above, there are the following problems. That is,
When the surface of the second cooler is heated with a heater to remove frost adhering to the surface of the second cooler, the frost on the surface of the second cooler melts and the temperature inside the non-accommodating part increases, Humidity also increases. At this time, since the inside of the frozen object storage section is still at a low temperature, convection occurs through the air flow path described above due to the temperature difference between the frozen object storage section and the non-accommodated section. The air flowing from the non-accommodating section into the frozen material accommodating section has high humidity as described above. When humid air flows into the low-temperature frozen storage area, ice builds up on the boundary between the non-accommodating area and the frozen storage area and on the walls of the frozen storage area, eventually resulting in complete ice formation. There were problems in that defrosting could not be performed and cooling performance was inhibited by the ice layer.

The present invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to be able to concentrate frost formation in one place in the freezer compartment, and to remove the above-mentioned conditions while the stored items are still stored. To provide a refrigerator equipped with a freezing compartment that can automatically defrost stored items without raising the temperature of the stored items and without causing ice to form inside the frozen storage compartment, thereby improving refrigeration efficiency and eliminating the effects of defrosting. It is about providing.

Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be explained with reference to illustrated embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinally cut view of the refrigerator according to the present invention.

In the figure, 1 in the figure is the refrigerator main body,
This refrigerator main body 1 includes a casing 2 with one side open and a vertically long insulation function, and a casing 2 that has a heat insulation function.
and a heat insulating door body 3 that can be opened and closed to selectively close the open surface of the door body. A partition wall 4 having a heat insulating function is provided inside the refrigerator main body 1 to partition the inside into two vertically. 5
In addition, the room formed on the upper side is used as a freezing chamber 6. The door body 3 includes a lower door 7 that selectively closes one side of the refrigerator compartment 5 and an upper door 8 that selectively closes one side of the freezer compartment 6.

In the refrigerator compartment 5, there are a plurality of shelves 9 on which stored items such as food are placed, and a cooler (=evaporator) 10 is arranged in an inclined state near the inner surface of the upper wall thereof. It is provided. A condensation tray 11 is provided on the lower side of the cooler 10 to cover this lower portion, and the water droplets collected on this tray 11 are transferred to a pipe 12 provided through the wall of the housing 2. The liquid is guided into a pipe 13 provided along the outer surface of the casing 2 through the pipe 13, and flows down the pipe 13. Note that the water droplets flowing down inside the pipe 13 are guided into an evaporation tray 14 provided below the housing 2, and evaporate from this tray 14 into the atmosphere.

On the other hand, a first cooler (first evaporator) 15 is attached to the upper, lower, and side walls of the wall forming the freezer compartment 6 so as to be in close contact with these walls.
In addition, a partition wall 16 is provided in the freezer compartment 6 to divide the interior of the freezer compartment 6 into front and back sections when viewed from the door side, and the space on the door side divided by the partition wall 16 is used for food storage. The space on the opposite side is defined as a non-accommodating area 18. Note that the volume of the non-accommodating part 18 is several tenths of that of the accommodating part 17.
is set to . Inside the non-accommodating portion 18, there is a second wall spaced apart from the wall forming the non-accommodating portion 18.
A cooler (second evaporator) 19 is provided in an inclined state. The second cooler 19 is formed by meandering a pipe, and a sheathed heater 21 is attached along the pipe 20, as shown in FIG. Further, on the lower side of the second cooler 19, a dew pan 22 is provided to wrap around this lower position.
The water droplets collected on the dew pan 22 are guided to the pipe 13 through a pipe 23 provided through the wall of the housing 2.

The upper and lower parts of the partition wall 16 are provided with storage portions 1.
7 and the non-accommodating part 18, an air flow path 24,
25, and a damper device 26 for selectively closing the flow path 24 is provided near the flow path 24. The damper device 26 is specifically constructed as shown in FIG. That is, freezer compartment 1
A damper plate 28 made of a magnetic material is suspended from the inner surface of the upper wall of 7 via a flexible member 27 to a position reaching below the lower end of the flow path 24, and an iron core 29 is placed opposite the damper plate 28. A coil 30 is attached to this iron core. In addition,
In the figure, 31 indicates a condenser attached to the back surface of the housing 2, and 32 indicates a compressor.

Therefore, the compressor 32, the condenser 31, the first and second coolers 15, 19, and the cooler 10
are connected as shown in FIG. 3 to form a refrigeration circuit. That is, Freon is used as a refrigerant, this Freon is compressed by a compressor 32, and the compressed Freon is passed through a condenser 31 to a first capillary reach tube 33 to a cooler 10 to a first cooler 15.
It flows into the route from the second capillary reach tube 34 to the second cooler 19, and is compressed again by the compressor 32. The operation of the compressor 32 is stopped, the sheathed heater 21 is energized, and the coil 30 of the damper device 26 is energized by the following control circuit. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, a temperature detector 41 such as a thermistor is provided in the refrigerator compartment 5 cooled by the cooler 10, and the temperature in the refrigerator compartment 5 is determined based on the output of this temperature detector 41. When the temperature is above a predetermined value, the motor control circuit 42 is activated to operate the compressor 32. Further, a frost amount detector 43 such as a thermistor is provided near the second cooler 19, and a switch circuit 44 is activated based on the output of this detector 43 when the amount of frost exceeds a predetermined value. Then, the sheathed heater 21 and coil 30 are energized for a certain period of time.

Next, the operation of the refrigerator of the present invention constructed as described above will be explained.

First, when the power is turned on, the temperature inside the refrigerator compartment 5 is high at this point, so the motor control circuit 4 immediately
2 operates, and as a result, the compressor 32 starts operating. When the compressor 32 is in operation, the refrigerant Freon, for example Freon R-12, is pressurized to about 10 kg/cm ² by the compressor 32 and then flows into the condenser 31. is liquefied. The liquefied Freon R-12 is transferred to the first capillary tube 33 at a rate of, for example, 1.2 kg/
The pressure is reduced to about cm ² and the air flows into the cooler 10 and the first cooler 15, and through these coolers 10 and 15, it absorbs the heat in the refrigerator compartment 5 and the freezing compartment 6 and evaporates. Note that the surface temperature of each cooler 10, 15 at this time is, for example, about -25°C. Also,
The cooling area of each of the coolers 10 and 15 is set in advance so that the temperature in the refrigerator compartment 5 becomes about +3°C and the temperature in the freezer compartment 6 becomes about -20°C by this cooling.

The remaining liquefied Freon R-12 that has passed through the first cooler 15 is further reduced in pressure to about 1.0 kg/cm ² in the second capillary tube 34 and flows into the second cooler 19. do. Freon has the characteristic that the lower the pressure, the lower the temperature it evaporates.
Liquefied Freon R-12 flowing into the cooler 19 of
is also evaporated here, and as a result, the second cooler 1
The surface temperature of the cooling device 9 is lower than that of the first cooler 15, for example, about -30°C. The refrigerant that has passed through the second cooler 19 is then returned to the compressor 32 and repeats the above-described series of cycles.

By the way, when operated in the above-described cycle, the inside of the refrigerator compartment 5 and the inside of the freezer compartment 6 are gradually cooled. In this case, when the temperature inside the freezer compartment 6 becomes 0° C. or lower, frost will adhere to the inner walls and the surfaces of the stored items. However, as mentioned above, since the surface temperature of the second cooler 19 is set to be lower than the surface temperature of the first cooler 15, frost that adheres to the inner wall or the surface of the housing part gradually sublimates and vaporizes, and this vapor moves from the flow path 24 to the non-accommodating area 18 by riding on convection due to the difference in temperature between the accommodating area 17 and the non-accommodating area 18, and enters the second cooler 19. It forms frost on the surface. Therefore, the only part of the freezer compartment 6 where frost is formed is the surface of the second cooler 19.

When the amount of frost on the surface of the second cooler 19 gradually increases and exceeds a predetermined value, the switch circuit 44 is activated by the output of the frost amount detector 43.
The sheathed heater 21 and coil 30 are energized for a certain period of time. When the sheathed heater 21 is energized, the second cooler 19 is heated, and this heating melts the frost adhering to the surface, which becomes water droplets and falls onto the dew pan 22. In other words, defrosting is performed. The water collected in the dew pan 22 is discharged to the outside via the pipe 23. On the other hand, when the coil 30 is energized, the damper plate 28 moves toward the core 2 as shown in FIG. 4b.
9, and this suction closes the flow path 24 as shown in the figure. Therefore, due to the temperature increase due to the energization of the sheathed heater 21, the non-accommodating portion 18
Even if the humidity inside rises, this high-humidity air can be prevented from flowing into the housing section 17 by convection, and as a result, defrosting can be achieved without ice forming on the walls of the housing section 17. Then, after a certain period of time has elapsed, the energization of the sheathed heater 21 and the coil 30 is released, and the second cooler 19 becomes the first cooler 1 again.
Cooled to a temperature lower than 5. Note that the compressor 32 is
It is operated when the temperature inside the refrigerator compartment 5 is higher than a predetermined value.

In this way, the inside of the freezer compartment 6 is partitioned into the storage section 17 that stores food, etc., and the non-accommodation section 18 that communicates with this, and the second cooling section that is cooled to a lower temperature than the other sections is inside the non-accommodation section 18. When arranging the container 19 to concentrate frost formation on the second cooler 19 and further heating the second cooler 19 to defrost, the air flow between the accommodation section 17 and the non-accommodation section 18 is The passage 24 is closed by a damper device 26 to prevent the highly humid air generated in the non-accommodating part 18 from flowing into the accommodating part 17.

Therefore, not only is the effect of concentrating frost formation in one place, but also the temperature inside the housing section 17 is disturbed by the action of the damper device 26 especially during defrosting.
It is possible to prevent the surface inside the storage section 17 from being disturbed by ice formation, and as a result, the stored items can be kept stored without any negative impact on the stored items, and the refrigeration efficiency when restarting after defrosting can be improved. It is possible to defrost without the risk of deteriorating the temperature, and it is very easy to use.

In addition, in the embodiment described above, only the flow path 24 is closed during defrosting, but the flow path 25 may also be closed. Further, the damper device is not limited to that of the above-described embodiment, but may be configured as shown in FIG. 5a, for example. That is, the damper plate 28
A bimetal 51 and a heater 5 are used behind the damper plate 28.
It is configured by arranging and 2. Then, the heater 52 is energized during defrosting. In this way, the bimetal 51 is curved, and due to this curve, the damper plate 28 is displaced by the pressing force as shown in FIG. 5b.
This displacement closes the flow path 24. When the energization of the heater 52 is released, the bimetal 51 returns to its original state, thereby opening the flow path 24 again. Therefore, it can function in the same way as the previous embodiment. In this embodiment, the heat generated by the heater 52 can also be used for defrosting, so there is an advantage that the capacity of the attached sheathed heater can be reduced.

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a refrigerator that can simultaneously improve refrigeration efficiency and prevent damage to the refrigerator that is likely to occur during defrosting.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a part of the second cooler in the same embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a refrigeration circuit in the same embodiment. FIG. 4a is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the damper device in the same embodiment, FIG. 4b is a diagram showing the operating state of the damper device, and FIG. FIG. 1B is an explanatory diagram of the structure of the damper device, and FIG. 1B is a diagram showing the operating state of the damper device. 1 ... Refrigerator body, 5... Refrigerator compartment, 6... Freezer compartment, 10... Cooler, 16... Partition wall, 17...
Accommodating part, 18... Non-accommodating part, 15... First cooler, 19... Second cooler, 24, 25... Air flow path, 26, 26a... Damper device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A refrigerator main body, an air flow path that communicates a frozen object storage section and a non-storage section formed in the refrigerator main body, and a damper device that selectively closes this air flow path; a first cooler that directly cools the frozen object stored in the frozen object storage section; a second cooler provided in the non-accommodated section; this second cooler and the first cooling device; a refrigeration circuit that allows a refrigerant to flow through the second cooler and maintains the temperature of the second cooler at a lower temperature than the first cooler; and a means for heating and removing frost attached to the second cooler. and means for closing the damper device when the means is in operation. 2. A refrigerator main body, an air flow path that communicates a frozen product accommodating section and a non-accommodating section formed in the refrigerator main body, a damper device that selectively closes this air flow path, and a damper device that is housed in the frozen product accommodating section. A first cooler that directly cools the frozen object, a second cooler provided in the non-accommodating part, and a refrigerant flowing between the second cooler and the first cooler. a refrigeration circuit that causes the flow to flow and maintains the temperature of the second cooler at a lower temperature than the temperature of the first cooler; a frost amount detector that detects the amount of frost on the second cooler; A means for defrosting the second cooler by heating the second cooler when the frost amount detector detects a certain amount of frost, and a means for closing the damper device when the means is in operation. A refrigerator characterized by: