KR100614314B1 - Refrigerating system of refrigerator and operating method of the same - Google Patents

Abstract

Refrigeration system of the refrigerator according to the present invention comprises an ice making device installed in the refrigerator compartment door; A condenser in which the refrigerant is condensed; An expander for expanding the refrigerant condensed in the condenser; An evaporator configured to evaporate the refrigerant expanded in the expander to provide cold air; An ice-making side flow path for supplying the cool air generated by the evaporator to the ice maker; A high inner flow path for supplying cold air generated in the evaporator to a food storage chamber; And two compressors into which the refrigerant evaporated from the evaporator flows and which is selectively operated according to the open state of the ice making side flow passage and the high inner flow passage.

According to the present invention, there is an advantage that the amount of cold air supplied to the ice making device and the amount of cold air supplied to the food storage compartment in the refrigerator provided with the door-mounted ice making device can be appropriately supplied according to the operating situation. By allowing the compression amount of the refrigerant to be appropriately set, the compressor can be operated in a stable state, and there is an advantage that the supply amount of cold air can always be adjusted to an appropriate level.

Refrigerator, Ice Maker, Compressor

Description

Refrigerating system of refrigerator and operating method of the same}

1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator according to the present invention;

2 is a view showing an ice making device on one side door of a refrigerator according to the present invention;

3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a refrigeration system of a refrigerator according to the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a refrigeration system of a refrigerator according to the present invention.

Figure 5 is a perspective view showing the structure of the side-by-side type refrigerator and ice-making cold air flow path is installed in the refrigerator compartment door according to the prior art.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

7 ice making device 8 cold air supply path 10 condenser

11 Inflator 12 Evaporator 13 Bypass valve

14: first compressor 15: second compressor

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigeration system and a method of operating the refrigeration system applied to the refrigerator. More specifically, when the ice making device is installed in the door of the refrigerating chamber, the cold air is properly supplied so that the problem of oversupply of cold air and undersupply of cold air and the supply of liquid refrigerant to the compressor are improved. It relates to a refrigeration system and a method of operating the refrigeration system.

Refrigerators are home appliances that keep food at low temperatures so that food is kept fresh for longer periods of time.

In recent years, refrigerators have been introduced that have an ice making device capable of manufacturing ice inside the refrigerator to supply an appropriate size and amount of ice. As described above, in a refrigerator in which an ice maker is built, there may be a case in which a separate ice maker is placed inside the freezer compartment to manufacture ice, and an ice maker is installed in a door of the refrigerator compartment to manufacture ice.

Hereinafter, a refrigerator provided with an ice maker in a refrigerating compartment door will be described with reference to 10-2004-05380 filed by the applicant of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a side-by-side type refrigerator having ice makers installed in a refrigerating compartment door and a cold air passage for ice making; FIG.

The freezer compartment 201 and the refrigerating compartment 202 of the side-by-side type refrigerator 200 are divided into the left and right sides by the barrier 205 and the doors 203 and 204 for opening and closing the freezer compartment 201 and the refrigerating compartment 202. ) Are combined. An ice maker (not shown) is installed at a predetermined height inside the refrigerating compartment door 204.

The ice maker is installed in the heat insulating case 230 using an ice maker (not shown) and an ice bank (not shown) as essential components. The ice maker is installed in the heat insulating space formed by the heat insulating case 230 installed inside the refrigerating compartment door 204, the heat insulating space is the temperature of the ice making ice is kept constant and the outside of the refrigerating compartment 202 It is a space insulated from cold air. On the other hand, the heat insulation case 230 is installed inside the refrigerating compartment door 204 and is provided including an heat insulation cover 231 that can be opened and closed the ice making space.

On the other hand, for the ice making operation of the ice making device installed in the refrigerating compartment door 204, a circulation flow path of ice making cold air passing through the ice making device is formed, and the ice making cold air is circulated along the cold air circulation flow path.

Looking at the circulation of the ice-making cold air, the cold air of the freezer compartment flows into the heat insulating space in which the ice maker is located through the barrier 205 and the heat insulation case 230, the cold air used for ice making by the ice making device the heat insulation case The cold air circulation flow path discharged to the freezing chamber 201 through the 230 and the barrier 205 is formed.

Specifically, the first cold air outlet 212 which is an end of the cold air supply duct 210 formed in the barrier 205 partitioning the freezer compartment 201 and the cold compartment 202 to the left and right for the cold air circulation passage as described above. ), A third cold air inlet 213 which is an end of the cold air discharge duct 215, and a second cold air inlet 232 opposite to the first cold air outlet 212 on one side of the heat insulation case 230. And a second cold air outlet 233 facing the third cold air inlet 213.

At this time, freezer cold air flows into the cold air supply duct 210 and flows along the inner duct and is discharged through the first cold air outlet 212. In addition, the freezing chamber cold air flows into the second cold air inlet 232 of the heat insulation case 230 tightly coupled with the first cold air outlet 212 to be used as the ice making device in the ice making device. Thereafter, the cold air used for ice making is discharged through the second cold air outlet 233 of the heat insulation case 230 and discharged into the freezing chamber through the cold air discharge duct 215 formed in the barrier 205.

In the case of the door-mounted ice maker, since the ice maker is installed in the door of the refrigerating chamber, heat transfer is performed between the inside of the refrigerating chamber having a relatively high temperature and the ice maker having a relatively low temperature, whereby heat insulation is not maintained and the cold air loss is increased. There is a problem. Furthermore, since the thickness of the heat insulation wall of the door is thin because the ice maker is installed in the door, there is a problem that the loss of cold air is further increased.

In addition, since there is a large amount of adiabatic loss of the ice making device, since a relatively large amount of cold air must be applied to the ice making device, there is a problem that a larger amount of cold air is supplied to the ice making device than usual. Therefore, there arises a problem that the supply amount of cold air is excessively different when the ice maker is operated and when the ice maker is not operated.

Due to such a difference in the amount of cold air supply, when the cold air is excessively supplied, there may be a problem in that the liquid refrigerant is introduced into the compressor due to the insufficient amount of evaporation. On the contrary, when the cold air is excessively supplied, there is a problem that the ice making device cannot be operated as desired.

This is especially true when constant speed compressors are applied to refrigeration systems. Because the constant speed compressor always compresses the refrigerant with a constant amount of compression, if a compressor having a capacity capable of satisfying the first amount of cold air supplied to the food storage chamber and the second amount of cold air supplied to the ice maker is installed, When only one of the above-mentioned required amount of cold air is required, the constant speed type compressor is repeatedly turned on and off. In the on-section, the cold air is excessively supplied and liquid refrigerant flows into the compressor, increasing the risk of damage to the compressor. In the off section, there is a problem in that the cold air is excessively supplied and the cold air amount is not properly supplied.

However, an inverter compressor may be used in which the compression amount of the refrigerant by the compressor is variable according to the amount of cool air required instead of the constant speed type compressor. However, since the inverter compressor is expensive and difficult to control, it is difficult to be generally applied.

The present invention is proposed to improve the above problems, the amount of cold air supplied to the ice making device in the refrigerator equipped with a door-mounted ice making device and the amount of cold air supplied to the food storage compartment, the refrigerator so that the appropriate supply according to the operating conditions An object of the present invention is to propose a method of operating a system and a refrigeration system.

In addition, an object of the present invention is to propose a method of operating a refrigeration system and a refrigerating system of a refrigerator in which the compressor can be operated in a stable state by allowing the compression amount of the refrigerant to be set appropriately, so that the supply of cold air can always be adjusted to an appropriate level. do.

Refrigerator system of the refrigerator according to the present invention for achieving the above object is an ice making apparatus installed in the refrigerator compartment door; A condenser in which the refrigerant is condensed; An expander for expanding the refrigerant condensed in the condenser; An evaporator configured to evaporate the refrigerant expanded in the expander to provide cold air; An ice-making side flow path for supplying the cool air generated by the evaporator to the ice maker; A high inner flow path for supplying cold air generated in the evaporator to a food storage chamber; And two compressors into which the refrigerant evaporated from the evaporator flows and which is selectively operated according to the open state of the ice making side flow passage and the high inner flow passage.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method for operating a refrigeration system includes an ice making apparatus installed in a refrigerating compartment door; A condenser in which the refrigerant is condensed; An expander for expanding the refrigerant condensed in the condenser; An evaporator configured to evaporate the refrigerant expanded in the expander to provide cold air; An ice-making side flow path for supplying the cool air generated by the evaporator to the ice maker; A high inner flow path for supplying cold air generated in the evaporator to a food storage chamber; And a refrigerator in which the refrigerant evaporated from the evaporator is introduced and includes two compressors that are selectively operated according to the open state of the ice making channel and the high inner channel. And additionally operating a compressor corresponding to the amount of compression of the refrigerant to generate an amount of cold air suitable for the ice making apparatus.

The breakdown of the compressor is prevented by the refrigerating system and the operation method of the refrigerating system as proposed, it is possible to obtain the advantage that the amount of cool air is always supplied to the refrigerating system.

Hereinafter, with reference to the drawings will be described a specific embodiment of the present invention. However, the spirit of the present invention is not limited to the accompanying embodiments, and those skilled in the art who understand the spirit of the present invention can easily add, change, delete, and add other embodiments included in the scope of the same idea. Will be able to offer. In addition, the description of the present invention will be described by taking a bottom freezer type refrigerator in which a freezer compartment is located at the lower side of the freezer compartment, but the spirit of the present invention is not limited to such a refrigerator.

1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the refrigerator 1 according to the present invention includes a main body 2 in which a food storage space is formed, and the food storage space is a refrigerator compartment provided in an upper space of the main body 2, and a main body. It is divided into a freezer compartment provided in the lower space of (2).

In addition, a refrigerating compartment door 3 for opening or closing the refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment door 4 for opening or closing the refrigerating compartment are formed.

In addition, the refrigerator compartment door 3 may be further provided with an ice dispenser 5 and a water dispenser 6. Of course, an ice making device for supplying ice to the ice dispenser 5 is further installed in the refrigerating compartment door 3.

In the refrigerator according to the present invention, since the ice maker is installed in the refrigerating chamber door, the thickness of the heat insulating material decreases, so that the heat insulation efficiency decreases, so that a large amount of cold air must be supplied to the ice maker. In addition, since the ice making apparatus is installed inside the refrigerating chamber, the cold air loss is increased due to the outflow of cold air into the refrigerating chamber.

Referring to FIG. 2, an ice maker 7 is placed on an inner surface of the refrigerating compartment door 3, and a cold air supply passage 8 for supplying cold air to the ice maker 7 is provided in the main body 2. It is formed on the side, so that the cold air generated in the evaporator is supplied to the ice maker (7).

In addition, although not shown, it is obvious that one side of the refrigerator, such as the lower side of the refrigerator, is equipped with a machine room so that a compressor, a condenser, an expander, and an evaporator are installed. Of course. Furthermore, it is also natural that cold air is supplied to the food storage compartment so that the stored food is stored at a low temperature.

In the present invention, the main feature is that the cool air supplied to the ice maker 7 is always supplied in an appropriate amount, so that excessive generation of cold air or under generation of cold air is suppressed. Hereinafter, the configuration of the refrigeration system of such a refrigerator will be described in detail.

3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a refrigeration system of a refrigerator according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the refrigeration system according to the present invention includes a compression part, a condensation part, an expansion part, and an evaporation part, wherein the condensation part includes a condenser 10 and a condensation fan 17, and the expansion part includes an expander ( 11), and the evaporator includes an evaporator 12, an evaporation fan 18, an ice making side flow passage 19, and a high inner flow passage 20.

The compression unit 13 includes a bypass valve 13 indicating a compression path, a first compressor 14 and a second compressor 15 in which respective refrigerants branched by the bypass valve 13 are compressed, A first check valve 21 and a second check valve 16 are included to prevent backflow of the refrigerant compressed by the compressors 14 and 15, respectively.

The operation of the refrigeration system taking the above structure will be described in detail.

The refrigerant compressed by the compression unit is condensed in the condenser 10 by the air blown from the condensation fan 17. The condensed refrigerant is then expanded in the expander 11 and then evaporated in the evaporator 12. The refrigerant passing through the evaporator 12 is evaporated by the air blown from the evaporator fan 18, and the cold cool air generated by the evaporated refrigerant is the ice making side passage 19 and / or the high inner passage 20 It is supplied to the ice maker 7 and / or the food storage chamber through. An end portion of the ice making side passage 19 communicates with the cold air supply passage 8 so that cold air is supplied to the ice making apparatus 7.

In addition, the refrigerant evaporated in the evaporator 12 is circulated to the compression unit.

When the configuration of the compression unit is described in detail, the compression unit is characterized in that the operation state is changed according to the amount of the refrigerant to be compressed.

In detail, when cold air is to be supplied to the ice making side flow path 19 and the high inner flow path 20 at the same time, a large amount of refrigerant must be compressed, so that the first compressor 14 and the second compressor 15 are Are all operated. In addition, when cold air is to be supplied through any one of the ice-making side flow passage and the high inner flow passage, only one compressor selected from the first compressor 14 or the second compressor 15 is operated. . Of course, when cold air does not flow in any of the flow paths 19 and 20, one of the compressors 14 and 15 may not be operated.

In addition, the operation of turning on / off the compressors 14 and 15 is repeatedly performed according to the specific cold air supply state, so that the supply amount of cold air may be adjusted. However, the compressor used in the present invention is more preferably applied to an inexpensive constant speed compressor, not an inverter compressor having a variable amount of refrigerant.

In addition, the flow of the refrigerant flowing to the compressors 14 and 15 may be controlled by the bypass valve 13 provided at the front end of the compressors 14 and 15. The bypass valve 13 is to change the open state of the valve so that the refrigerant flows toward the compressor to be operated.

In addition, the check valves 21 and 16 are blocked by the outlet end of each compressor side which is not in operation, whereby the refrigerant compressed and discharged from the compressors 14 and 15 being operated is not in operation. To prevent backflow into the compressor (14) (15). For example, when only the first compressor 14 is operating, the first check valve 21 provided at the outlet end of the first compressor 14 is opened and the outlet end of the second compressor 15 which is not operated is opened. The second check valve 16 provided to the plug is blocked so that the refrigerant compressed in the first compressor 14 is not flowed back to the second compressor 15.

On the other hand, the compressor 14, 15 is a constant speed compressor is applied as described above, the compression capacity of the constant speed compressor can be applied differently according to the change of each refrigeration load. For example, the first compressor 14 may be set to a compression amount of a refrigerant suitable for the amount of cold air to be supplied to the food storage chamber through the high inner flow path 20, and the second compressor 15 may be ice-making. It is possible to set the compression amount of the refrigerant suitable for the amount of cold air to be supplied to the ice maker 7 through the side flow passage 19.

In this state, only the first compressor 14 is operated under general conditions in which cold air is supplied to the food storage chamber, and the second compressor 15 is additionally operated under additional conditions in which the ice maker is operated to supply cold air to the ice maker. You can do it.

At this time, it will be apparent that the operation states of the check valves 21 and 16 are changed from one another in accordance with the operation states of the compressors 14 and 15, and the compressor side on which the bypass valve 13 is operated is assumed. Of course, it would be assumed that the flow of oil would be open.

Hereinafter, a detailed operation method of the refrigeration system as described will be described in detail.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a refrigeration system of a refrigerator according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, in the method for operating a refrigeration system of a refrigerator according to the present invention, when cold air is supplied through the high inner channel 20 at a point in time where no cold air is supplied through any flow path (S1), The operation of the first compressor 14 is started (S2). In order to supply the cool air to the inner channel, it is easy to estimate that the evaporation fan 18 is operated and the refrigerant is circulated along the refrigeration system. It has already been described that the first compressor 14 is set to a compression amount of a refrigerant suitable for the amount of cold air to be supplied to the high inner flow path 20. In this case, the first check valve 21 is opened and the second check valve 16 is easily closed to prevent the backflow of the compressed refrigerant.

In this state, when the ice maker 7 is operated to supply the cold air through the ice making side flow path 19 (S3), the bypass valve 13 is operated to cool the refrigerant to the first compressor 14 and the second compressor. All flow to (15), the operation of the second compressor 15 is started (S4). It has already been described that the second compressor 15 is set to the amount of compression of the refrigerant suitable for the amount of cold air to be supplied to the ice making side flow path 19. The second check valve 16 is opened to allow the compressed refrigerant to flow.

In this state, when the supply of cold air to the ice making side flow path 19 is stopped (S7), the second compressor 15 is stopped and the bypass valve 13 is operated to coolant flowing out of the second compressor 15. Is blocked (S8).

Similarly, when the supply of cold air to the high inner flow path 20 is stopped (S5), the first compressor 15 is stopped and the bypass valve 13 is operated so that the refrigerant flowing out of the first compressor 14 is It is blocked (S6).

In this way, a plurality of constant speed compressors are installed, and the compressor is additionally installed with a compression capacity sufficient to cover the amount of cold air supplied to the ice making device, whereby the refrigerant is supercooled and liquid refrigerant flows into the compressor. You can prevent it.

In addition, it is possible to prevent the phenomenon that the adequate amount of cool air is not supplied due to insufficient compression amount of the refrigerant.

According to the present invention, there is an advantage that the amount of cold air supplied to the ice making device and the amount of cold air supplied to the food storage compartment in the refrigerator provided with the door-mounted ice making device can be appropriately supplied according to the operating situation.

In addition, during operation of the refrigeration system, by allowing the compression amount of the refrigerant to be appropriately set, the compressor can be operated in a stable state, there is an advantage that the supply amount of cold air can always be adjusted to an appropriate level.

Claims (6)

An ice maker installed in the refrigerator compartment door; A condenser in which the refrigerant is condensed; An expander for expanding the refrigerant condensed in the condenser; An evaporator configured to evaporate the refrigerant expanded in the expander to provide cold air; An ice-making side flow path for supplying the cool air generated by the evaporator to the ice maker; A high inner flow path for supplying cold air generated in the evaporator to a food storage chamber; And The refrigerant evaporated from the evaporator is introduced, the refrigeration system of the refrigerator including two compressors that are selectively operated according to the open state of the ice making side flow path and the high inner flow path. The method of claim 1, Any one of the compressors corresponds to a compression load of a refrigerant forming an amount of cool air supplied to the ice-making side flow path. The method of claim 1, Any one of the compressors corresponding to the compression load of the refrigerant to form the amount of cold air supplied to the high inner flow path. The method of claim 1, Refrigerator system of the refrigerator includes a bypass valve for determining the flow direction of the refrigerant at the inlet side of the compressor. The method of claim 1, Refrigerator system of the refrigerator including a check valve for preventing the back flow of the refrigerant at the outlet side of the compressor. An ice maker installed in the refrigerator compartment door; A condenser in which the refrigerant is condensed; An expander for expanding the refrigerant condensed in the condenser; An evaporator configured to evaporate the refrigerant expanded in the expander to provide cold air; An ice-making side flow path for supplying the cool air generated by the evaporator to the ice maker; A high inner flow path for supplying cold air generated in the evaporator to a food storage chamber; And A refrigerator in which a refrigerant evaporated from the evaporator is introduced and includes two compressors that are selectively operated according to an open state of the ice making side passage and the high inner passage. Operating an ice making device; And A method of operating a refrigeration system of a refrigerator in which a compressor corresponding to a compression amount of a refrigerant that generates a cool air amount suitable for the ice making device is additionally operated.

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