KR100761668B1 - Refrigerator having a thawing chamber - Google Patents

Abstract

A refrigerator having a thawing chamber is provided to perform thawing without using additional heating system while using refrigerating function based on the conditions set by the user, and to prevent decomposition of foods by freezing thawed foods again. A refrigerator comprises a thawing chamber(140), a thawing function control unit, and a fan(160). The thawing chamber is provided in a refrigerator body unit, having a refrigerating air inlet path(150a,150b) as an air inflow path from a refrigerator compartment(110), and a freezing air inlet path(155a,155b) as an air inflow path from a freezer compartment(120) for the thawing of foods. The thawing function control unit receives conditions for performing the thawing function from the user and controls the thawing function. The fan allows the inflow of the air from the refrigerator or freezer compartment selectively by the control of the thawing function control unit.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a thawing chamber,

1 is a view showing an exemplary configuration of a refrigerator having a thawing chamber according to the present invention;

2 is a block diagram showing an exemplary configuration of a thawing function control unit of a refrigerator having a thawing chamber according to the present invention;

Description of the Related Art

110: refrigerator compartment 120: freezer compartment

130: ice making room 140: thawing room

150: Refrigerated air inflow passage 155: Refrigerated air inflow passage

160: fan 210: defrost condition input unit

220: fan control unit 230: air inflow path opening /

240: Re-freezing condition judging unit

The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a thawing chamber. More specifically, the present invention relates to a refrigerator having a thawing chamber, and more specifically, a thawing of food is performed in accordance with a user's setting according to a cooking time and thawing of the food is performed using a refrigeration function The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a thawing chamber for reducing the risk of food deterioration by re-freezing the thawed food when there is no need for cooking.

A general refrigerator is provided with a refrigerating chamber for allowing food to be stored at a low temperature of the image and a freezing chamber for allowing the food to be frozen at a low temperature below zero. In addition, meat, instant food, and long-term stored food are generally stored in the freezer room, and the food stored in the freezer room is taken out after the user is thawed.

However, if the food is kept in the freezer for a long time, the moisture of the food is evaporated and the flavor of the food is reduced. When the food is cooked, the surface is first ripe and the inside is not ripe.

As such, frozen food is extremely poor in flavor of food after being cooked due to its own factor of being stored frozen. Because of this problem, frozen food is generally thawed before cooking.

It is important that the thawing process of the food is such that the inside and outside of the food are all thawed and defrosted quickly so that the user can eat quickly. In view of these factors, the conventional thawing method has been applied such that the food is gradually heated by the outside air at room temperature, or put into the microwave oven to apply a high-frequency high-frequency power.

However, during the process in which the frozen food is slowly thawed at room temperature, since the food is exposed to the outside, it often becomes easily corrupted and becomes impossible to eat. In addition, while the food is cooked by the high frequency in the microwave oven, the surface of the food is cooked by the high frequency and the flavor of the food is lowered. In addition, the food must be taken out from the freezing room and moved to a thawing place The inconvenience of the user is further increased.

At present, thawing using a microwave oven, which is one of the simple thawing methods, often occurs when the food is not ripe and the thawing does not occur during the thawing process.

 In addition, many thawing techniques can reduce the quality of food to be defrosted by directly applying high temperature heat to the food, and the complicated technology is a cause of high production cost and high price of the product.

In order to improve the disadvantages of the conventional defrosting system, a technique has been developed for providing a defrosting function in the refrigerator for easy defrosting.

For example, Patent Registration No. 10-425731 entitled " Refrigerator equipped with a thawing chamber " filed on November 21, 2001 and registered on March 22, 2004 by LG Electronics Co., Ltd. or by LG Electronics Co., No. 10-2006-00697578 entitled " Device for Thawing a Refrigerator " filed on December 17, 2006 and published on June 21, 2006 or filed on December 20, 2004 by LG Electronics Co., No. 10-2006-0070253 entitled " Refrigerator Thawing Apparatus ", published Jun. 23, 2006, discloses a configuration in which a thawing function is added to a refrigerator.

However, the refrigerator having the defrosting function according to the related art mainly discloses a configuration for defrosting itself, and has a configuration including a separate heating function for defrosting. Therefore, an increase in manufacturing cost for implementing the heating function can not be avoided.

It does not disclose any further management of defrosted food, since it focuses only on defrosting of food. For example, there is a disadvantage that there is a possibility that the defrosted food may be altered if the user does not cook the food after forgetting thawing, because the user does not manage the defrosted food after defrosting the frozen food at all.

The present invention is intended to improve the disadvantages of such a conventional refrigerator having a thawing function.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for defrosting a food in accordance with a user's setting and utilizing a refrigeration function without any heating configuration to perform defrosting of food, And to provide a refrigerator having a thawing chamber for reducing the risk of food deterioration.

In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a thawing chamber provided in a main body of a refrigerator and having a refrigerating air inflow passage for introducing air from a refrigerating chamber and a freezing air inflow passage for introducing air from a freezing chamber, A thawing function control unit for receiving a thawing function execution condition of the thawing chamber from a user and controlling the thawing function, and a fan for selectively introducing air from the fridge chamber or the freezing chamber into the thawing chamber under the control of the thawing function control unit The present invention provides a refrigerator having a thawing chamber.

In the refrigerator having the defrosting chamber according to the present invention, the defrosting function control unit includes a defrost condition input unit for receiving the defrost condition setting from the user and a fan control unit for controlling the operation of the fan based on the defrost condition setting can do.

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing condition setting may include information on the thawing time of the food or the kind of the food.

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing condition setting may include information on a waiting time for re-freezing the thawed food after the thawing of the food.

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, a plurality of the refrigerated air inflow passages or the freezing air inflow passages may be provided in the defrost chamber.

In the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing function control unit may include an air inflow passage opening / closing unit for controlling opening and closing of the refrigerating air inflow passage or the refrigerating air inflow passage according to the thawing function .

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing function control unit opens the refrigerating air inflow passage for closing the refrigerating air inflow passage for the thawing function, and controls the fan to flow air from the refrigerator compartment can do.

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing function control unit checks whether a predetermined time has elapsed corresponding to the re-freezing after the thawing function is completed, and judges whether the thawed food is to be re-frozen And a re-freezing condition determining unit.

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing function control unit, when it is judged in the re-freezing condition judging unit that the predetermined time has elapsed, for re-freezing the thawed food, Closing the inflow passage, opening the freezing air inflow passage, and controlling the fan to introduce air from the freezer compartment.

In the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the re-freezing condition determining unit may determine that the re-freezing of the food is performed when the door of the thawing chamber is not opened for the predetermined time.

In the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the re-freezing condition determining unit may determine that the re-freezing of the food is performed when the food exists in the thawing chamber after the predetermined time have.

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the freezing chamber may further include an ice making chamber for an ice making function, and the thawing chamber may be configured to introduce air from the freezing chamber through the freezing- can do.

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing chamber may be disposed at the upper or lower end of the refrigerating chamber.

In the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing chamber may be disposed at the upper end or the lower end of the freezing chamber.

Further, in the refrigerator having the thawing chamber according to the present invention, the thawing chamber may be disposed adjacent to the ice making chamber.

Hereinafter, a refrigerator having a thawing chamber of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a view showing an exemplary configuration of a refrigerator having a thawing chamber according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, a refrigerator having a defrosting chamber according to the present invention includes a defrosting chamber 140, a defrosting control unit (not shown), a fan (not shown) 160). Meanwhile, the defrosting chamber 140 may include refrigerating air inflow passages (150a, 150b) for introducing air from the refrigerating compartment as shown in the figure and freezing air inflow passages (150a, 150b) for introducing air from the freezing compartment And air inlet passages 155a and 155b.

As shown in the figure, the defrosting chamber 140 is provided in the body of the refrigerator and includes cold air inflow passages 150a and 150b and cold air inflow passages 155a and 155b to perform the defrosting function of the food.

The thawing chamber 140 may be disposed at the upper end of the freezing chamber 120 but may be disposed at the lower end of the freezing chamber 120 or at the upper or lower end of the refrigerating chamber 110. [ Or may be disposed adjacent to the ice making chamber 130 when the ice making chamber 130 is provided.

The defrosting chamber 140 may preferably include a defrosting door (not shown) so that the user can insert and remove food separately from the freezing compartment 110 or the freezing compartment 120.

In the present invention, the defrosting chamber (140) stores frozen food normally and performs defrosting according to the user's setting.

Refrigerated air inflow passages (150a, 150b) and freezing air inflow passages (155a, 155b) are provided to perform refrigeration or thawing of food.

A plurality of cold air inflow passages 150a and 150b and a plurality of cold air inflow passages 155a and 155b are preferably provided in the defrost chamber 140 to be introduced into the defrost chamber 140 from the refrigerating chamber 110 or the freezing chamber 120 It is possible to keep the air temperature in the defrosting chamber 140 equal to the air temperature in the freezing compartment 110 or the freezing compartment 120 after the inflow air circulates again to the freezing compartment 110 or the freezing compartment 120 .

The thawing function control unit (not shown) receives the thawing function execution condition of the thawing chamber 140 from the user and controls the thawing function.

The fan 160 is configured to selectively introduce the air from the freezer compartment 110 or the freezer compartment 120 into the defroster chamber 140 under the control of the defrost function controller.

For example, when the fan 160 rotates in a forward direction, air can be introduced into the defrosting chamber 140 from the defrosting chamber 110 through the refrigerated air inflow passages 150a and 150b. In contrast, The air can be introduced into the defrosting chamber 140 from the freezing chamber 120 through the freezing air inflow passages 155a and 155b.

In the present invention, the thawing function control unit will be described in more detail as follows.

2 is a block diagram showing an exemplary configuration of a thawing function control unit of a refrigerator having a thawing chamber according to the present invention.

The thawing function control unit of the present invention may further include a thawing condition input unit 210 and a fan control unit 220 and may further include an air inflow path opening and closing control unit 230 or a re- have.

The defrosting condition inputting unit 210 receives the defrosting condition setting from the user.

The thawing condition setting may include information on the thawing time of the food or the kind of the food. That is, the user can input a condition that the frozen food such as meat or seafood or vegetables is to be thawed after a predetermined time, for example, after 2 hours.

Or the thawing condition setting may include information on the waiting time for re-freezing the thawed food after thawing of the food. That is, if a certain period of time has elapsed even after the defrosting has been performed, the defrosting is again performed to prevent deterioration of the defrosted food. Such re-freezing reduces the possibility of food degeneration occurring when a user misplaced defrosted food.

The thawing condition input unit 210 may be implemented on the surface of a front door of a refrigerator having a thawing chamber according to the present invention, for example, in the form of an operation panel. That is, it can be implemented using a button switch or a touch switch, and the thawing function is controlled by inputting the condition of the user.

The fan control unit 220 controls the operation of the fan 160 based on the defrost condition setting of the defrost condition input unit 210.

The air inlet opening / closing control unit 230 controls the opening and closing of the refrigerated air inflow passages 150a and 150b and the freezing air inflow passages 155a and 155b according to the defrosting function.

The operation of the thawing function control unit will be described below based on the fan control unit 220 and the air inflow path opening / closing control unit 230.

First, if the user inserts food into the defrosting chamber 140, if there is no condition setting, the defrosting function control unit may control the fan 160 using the fan control unit 220 to perform a frozen function for storage of food . For example, when the fan 160 rotates in the reverse direction, if the air flows from the freezer compartment 120, the fan controller 220 rotates the fan 160 in the reverse direction.

In this case, the air inlet opening / closing control unit 230 closes the refrigerated air inflow passages 150a and 150b to block inflow of air from the refrigerating compartment 110 and opens the freezing air inflow passages 155a and 155b to open the freezing compartment 120, As shown in FIG.

If the user intends to defrost the food in the defrosting chamber 140 by setting the defrosting condition, the defrosting control unit may control the fan 160 using the fan control unit 220 to perform the defrosting function. For example, when the fan 160 is rotated in a forward direction, if the air flows from the refrigerating chamber 110, the fan control unit 220 rotates the fan 160 in the normal direction.

In this case, the air inlet opening / closing control unit 230 opens the refrigerated air inflow passages 150a and 150b to allow the inflow of air from the refrigerating compartment 110, closes the freezing air inflow passages 155a and 155b, As shown in FIG.

In this thawing, the temperature of the air inside the defrosting chamber 140 is maintained at about 5 degrees, which is the same as the temperature of the defrosting chamber 110, and the temperature is maintained at about 5 degrees for refrigeration after defrosting .

Meanwhile, the thawing function control unit in the present invention may further include a re-freezing condition determiner 240.

The re-freezing condition determiner 240 determines whether a predetermined time has elapsed in response to re-freezing after the thawing function is completed according to the thawing condition setting, and determines whether the thawed food is to be re-frozen.

In other words, even if the food is once defrosted, it is preferable to perform freezing again to prevent deterioration of the defrosted food if a predetermined time has elapsed due to the user's mistake or the like. The re-freezing condition determiner 240 determines whether the re- .

The judgment of re-freezing can be performed by confirming the following conditions.

A separate defrosting door is provided in the defrosting chamber 140 so that the user can open the defrosting door to insert or take out the food.

In this case, when the door of the defrosting chamber 140 is not opened for a predetermined time for re-freezing, it can be determined that the frozen food is re-frozen.

However, since there may be a case where only the defrosting door is opened and the defrosted food is not taken out, it is determined that the defrosting is performed when the defrosted food exists in the defrosting chamber 140 after the predetermined time. In order to determine whether such a food exists, a sensor may be disposed on the bottom surface of the defrosting chamber 140, and the re-freezing condition determiner 240 determines whether the food is re-frozen by checking whether or not the food is present.

When it is determined that the re-freezing condition determiner 240 performs re-freezing, the thawing function controller may control the fan 160 using the fan controller 220 to perform the re-refrigeration function again. For example, when the fan 160 rotates in the reverse direction, if the air flows from the freezer compartment 120, the fan controller 220 rotates the fan 160 in the reverse direction.

In this case, the air inlet opening / closing control unit 230 closes the refrigerated air inflow passages 150a and 150b to block inflow of air from the refrigerating compartment 110 and opens the freezing air inflow passages 155a and 155b to open the freezing compartment 120, As shown in FIG.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto but the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims.

As described above, according to the present invention, the defrosting of the food is performed according to the setting of the user according to the setting of the user, the defrosting of the food is performed using the refrigeration function without any heating configuration, Can be re-frozen to reduce the risk of food degeneration.

Claims (15)

A defrosting chamber provided in the main body of the refrigerator and having a refrigerating air inflow passage for introducing air from the refrigerating chamber and a freezing air inflow passage for introducing air from the freezing chamber, A thawing function control unit for receiving a thawing function execution condition of the thawing chamber from a user and controlling the thawing function, A fan for selectively introducing air from the freezing compartment or the freezing compartment into the defrosting chamber under the control of the defrosting control unit; And a thawing chamber for containing the thawing chamber. The apparatus according to claim 1, A defrost condition input unit for receiving a defrost condition setting from a user, A fan control unit for controlling the operation of the fan based on the setting of the defrost condition, And a thawing chamber which is connected to the thawing chamber. 3. The method of claim 2, Wherein the thawing condition setting includes information on a thawing time of the food or a kind of the food. 3. The method of claim 2, Wherein the thawing condition setting includes information on a waiting time for re-freezing the defrosted food after the food is defrosted. The method according to claim 1, Wherein a plurality of the refrigerating air inflow passages or the freezing air inflow passages are provided in the defrosting chamber. The apparatus according to claim 1, An air inlet passage opening / closing section for controlling opening and closing of the cold air inflow passage or the freezing air inflow passage according to the thawing function; And a thawing chamber which is connected to the thawing chamber. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the thawing function control unit controls the thawing function to open the refrigerated air inflow passage and close the refrigerated air inflow passage for the thawing function so that the fan flows air from the refrigerating chamber. The apparatus according to claim 1, A re-freezing condition judging unit for judging whether the defrosted food is re-frozen by checking whether a predetermined time has elapsed corresponding to re-freezing after the thawing function is completed, Further comprising a thawing chamber, wherein the thawing chamber further comprises a thawing chamber. The apparatus according to claim 8, Wherein the re-freezing condition determining unit determines that the predetermined time has elapsed, closes the refrigerated air inflow passage for re-freezing the defrosted food, opens the freezing air inflow passage, and the fan draws air from the freezing compartment And the thawing chamber. 9. The refrigeration system according to claim 8, wherein the re- Freezing of the food is performed when the door of the defrosting chamber is not opened for the predetermined time. 9. The refrigeration system according to claim 8, wherein the re- Freezing of the food when the food is present in the defrost chamber after the predetermined time has elapsed. The method of claim 1, Wherein the freezing chamber is provided with an ice making chamber for an ice making function, And the thawing chamber introduces air from the freezing chamber through the freezing-air inflow passage into the ice making chamber. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the thawing chamber is disposed at an upper end or a lower end of the refrigerating chamber. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the thawing chamber is disposed at an upper end or a lower end of the freezing chamber. 13. The refrigerator as set forth in claim 12, wherein the thawing chamber is disposed adjacent to the ice making chamber.

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