KR101443638B1 - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a refrigerator. The present invention relates to a storage room having a plate for storing foods and mounted on an inner bottom surface thereof; A plurality of temperature sensors provided in the storage room; A cold supply device for cooling food; A heating device for heating the inside of the storage room; And a controller for searching for a supercooled release temperature by the temperature change measured by the temperature sensor and controlling the storage of the food at a temperature higher than the supercooled release temperature and a temperature lower than 0 degree, And the refrigerator is installed to be in contact with the refrigerator.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the temperature of the food can be accurately measured, and the food can be kept fresh for a long period of time.

Supercooling, supercooling temperature, storage room, refrigerator, temperature sensor

Description

Refrigerator {Refrigerator}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator which can store foods for a long period without being frozen.

The supercooling means that a liquid such as water maintains a high temperature phase, that is, a liquid state without transition even under the phase transition temperature to a solid.

An example of the supercooling is a supercooling water drop in a natural state, and in a conventional refrigerator, water or a beverage does not freeze accidentally and may become a supercooled state. Such supercooling occurs not only in the liquid itself such as water, but also in the moisture contained in meat, fish, vegetables and the like.

On the other hand, when the supercooled state of the supercooled water is released, the water is converted into ice. For example, if an external shock is applied to the supercooled water at -10 ° C or the equilibrium of the temperature is broken, the freezing nuclei are formed, whereby the water rapidly changes from a liquid phase to a solid phase.

That is, when the supercooling degree is released, the supercooled water becomes ice in a slush state at 0 ° C, and when the cool air is continuously supplied, it is converted into hard ice. In the case of meat, when the supercooled state is released, the moisture in the meat is converted to a solid state, and when the cold air is continuously supplied, the transition from the surface of the meat to the solid solid phase proceeds, and eventually the whole meat becomes frozen hard.

In other words, it is obvious that the quality of food is changed when the food is frozen in the freezer. This is because when the water contained in the food is frozen, the ice becomes bulky as compared with the volume of water at 0 degrees Celsius, which may destroy the nucleus or tissue of the food and change the original shape or color of the food. This phenomenon can be clearly seen in the case of frozen meat stored in the freezer for a long time.

On the other hand, if the food is stored in the fridge, the food can be frozen without being frozen. However, since the storage temperature in the refrigerating chamber is a temperature of 0 DEG C or more, there is a problem that the food may be corrupted if the food is stored for a long time.

Therefore, there is a need to find a way to store food for a long period of time without freezing it.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator which can accurately measure the temperature of the food and the supercooling-off temperature.

Further, the present invention can provide a refrigerator which can store foods for a long period of time without being frozen.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a food processing apparatus comprising: a storage chamber having a plate for storing foods and mounted on an inner bottom surface; A plurality of temperature sensors provided in the storage room; A cold supply device for cooling food; A heating device for heating the inside of the storage room; And a control unit for searching for a supercooled release temperature by the temperature change measured by the temperature sensor and controlling the storage of the food at the supercooled release temperature or higher, wherein a part of the plurality of temperature sensors is installed in contact with the plate And a refrigerator.

On the other hand, the food can be placed on the plate.

In addition, the plate may be made of a metal material.

The side surface of the storage chamber may be formed of a mesh having a plurality of openings, and the heating device may be installed in the mesh.

In particular, when the temperature rise value measured by the temperature sensor is greater than a predetermined value while the food is being cooled, the controller can determine that the supercooling is canceled.

Further, the controller may determine the maximum value among a plurality of temperature rise values measured by the plurality of temperature sensors.

The controller can defrost the food for a predetermined period of time after the supercooling is terminated, and store the food at the supercooling termination temperature or higher.

At this time, the controller can store the food at a temperature 0.5 degrees higher than the supercooling temperature.

Of course, it is possible for the food to include meat.

According to the present invention described above, it is possible to more accurately find the individual supercooling termination temperature of the food.

Further, according to the present invention, the food can be stored for a long period of time while keeping the freshness without being frozen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a view showing a refrigerator according to the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a state where both the refrigerator compartment door and the freezer compartment door of the refrigerator are opened. This will be described below with reference to Fig.

The refrigerator 100 according to the present invention includes a top mount type in which a freezing compartment 120 and a refrigerating compartment 130 are divided upwardly and downwardly and a refrigerating compartment 130 in which a refrigerating compartment 130 and a freezing compartment 120 are partitioned upward / It is also applicable to the bottom freezer-type.

However, in the present embodiment, a side-by-side type refrigerator in which the freezing compartment 120 and the refrigerating compartment 130 are divided into left and right sides will be mainly described for convenience of explanation.

In the refrigerator 100, a freezing chamber 120 is formed on the left side, and a refrigerating chamber 130 is formed on the right side. Generally, the freezer compartment 120 maintains the temperature of the freezing compartment 130, and the refrigerating compartment 130 stores the food while maintaining the image temperature relatively higher than the freezing compartment 120.

The refrigerator (100) forms an outer appearance of the refrigerator by the main body, and closes and protects the mechanical device housed therein from the outside.

The refrigerator 100 generally maintains the inside of the refrigerator at a low temperature by using a refrigerant cycle device accommodated in a machine room (not shown) formed at a lower portion of the main body, thereby maintaining the freshness of the stored food. The cold air generated by the refrigerant cycle device may be supplied to the storage room 200 through the cold air supply device 40 to be described later.

The refrigerant cycle device is supplied with cool air that has fallen to a low temperature using an evaporator (not shown) that converts the liquid refrigerant into a gaseous state and performs heat exchange with the outside. The cold air keeps the freezer compartment 120 in a freezing state.

The refrigerator 100 is provided with a refrigerator compartment door 132 for opening and closing the freezer compartment door 122 and the refrigerating compartment 130 so that the freezing compartment 120 can be opened and closed. The refrigerator compartment door 122 and the refrigerator compartment door 132 are rotatably installed in the main body of the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, a storage room 200 is provided in the freezer compartment door 122 so that a user can separately store food. Of course, the storage chamber 200 may be provided in the freezing chamber 120 rather than the inner wall of the freezing chamber door 122.

At this time, it is preferable that the storage room 200 is sealed from another area in the freezing compartment 120. That is, it is preferable that the inside of the storage room 200 can be cooled or heated without affecting the outside of the storage room 200. This is to store the food stored in the storage room 200 in a different environment from the food stored in the freezer room 120.

In other words, if the storage chamber 200 can be sealed, temperature measurement and temperature control in the storage chamber 200 can be facilitated.

Meanwhile, the storage room 200 may have a lid 204 (to be described later with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3) so that the user can easily store the food in the storage room 200. The storage chamber 200 may have a rectangular parallelepiped shape, but is not limited thereto.

1, the storage room 200 is located below the freezer compartment door 122, but may be located above the freezer compartment door 122.

Fig. 2 is a front sectional view of the storage room of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the storage room of Fig. Figures 2 and 3 show only the storage room of Figure 1. This will be described below with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG.

The storage room 200 includes a case 202 forming an outer appearance and a lid 204 opening and closing the opening of the case 202. The cap 204 is provided on the upper surface of the case 202, but may be provided on the side of the case 202 for the convenience of the user.

The lid 204 is rotatably coupled to the case 202 to store or retrieve food in the storage room 200.

The case 202 and the lid 204 may be formed of a heat insulating material having a low heat transfer rate. This is to prevent interference between the inside of the storage room 200 and the outside of the storage room 200.

Meanwhile, the case 202 and the lid 204 may be made of EPS (EXPANDED POLY-STYRENE). EPIS is used as a raw material for expanded polystyrene which is widely used for various purposes such as packaging cushioning material, insulation material, and cup container.

Meanwhile, the case 202 and the lid 204 may have a thickness of about 10 mm.

A mesh 210 having a plurality of openings is mounted on the inner wall of the storage room 200. At this time, the mesh 210 may be installed so as to surround the side wall of the storage room 200.

A heating device 50 including a heater 52 is mounted between the mesh 210 and the case 202. The heater 52 may raise the temperature of the storage room 200 to heat the food stored in the storage room 200.

The reason why the heater 52 is installed between the mesh 210 and the case 202 is to prevent food from contacting the heater 52 and being heated.

In addition, since the mesh 210 has a plurality of openings, the heat generated by the heater 52 can be uniformly heated inside the storage chamber 200 through the plurality of openings.

Meanwhile, the heater 52 may be provided along the inner wall of the storage chamber 200. This is for the reason that the inside of the storage room 200 can be heated evenly by the heater 52.

If the heater 52 is installed only at one side of the storage room 200, only one side can be heated by the heater 52, so that the temperature in the storage room 200 is not uniform, There is a problem.

The storage room 200 stores the food to be stored therein, and the plate 220 is mounted on the lower surface of the storage room 200. That is, it is preferable that the food is placed on the plate 220.

In particular, the plate 220 may be made of a metal material. Materials with metallic materials are generally of high thermal conductivity. At this time, the thermal conductivity means the ability to transfer heat.

A high thermal conductivity means that a portion of the metal material has a low time to reach that temperature when the high temperature or low temperature is reached.

In other words, when a food is placed on a metal plate, the temperature of the food is transferred to the metal plate, and the metal plate has a high thermal conductivity, so that the temperature of the food can be accurately measured.

The storage room 200 is provided with a cold air supply device 40 for cooling the food. 2 and 3, the temperature of the storage chamber 200 can be lowered by the cool air supply device 40 although the location of the cool air supply device is not shown.

In addition, the cold air supply device 40 may cool food stored in the storage room 200.

Also, a plurality of temperature sensors 20 are provided in the storage room 200. At this time, the temperature sensor 20 may include a first temperature sensor 22 and a second temperature sensor 24 provided in the lid of the storage room.

The first temperature sensor 22 may be installed in the lid 204. The first temperature sensor 22 may have a main purpose in measuring the temperature in the storage room 200.

The second temperature sensor 24 may be installed on the plate 220. In particular, the second temperature sensor 24 may be mounted in direct contact with the lower portion of the plate 220. The second temperature sensor 24 may have a main purpose in measuring the temperature of food placed on the plate 220.

Since the second temperature sensor 24 is installed in contact with the plate 220, the temperature of the plate 220 can be accurately measured. In addition, since the food is mounted on the plate 220, the second temperature sensor 24 can more accurately measure the temperature of the food.

In particular, the second temperature sensor 24 can accurately measure the temperature of food when the food is thawed by the heater 52.

Furthermore, a plurality of the second temperature sensors 24 may be installed. This is to allow a more accurate measurement of the temperature of the food.

Meanwhile, a sensor insulator 206 may be installed on one side of the first temperature sensor 22 and the second temperature sensor 24. The sensor insulator 206 allows the temperature sensor to be more easily fixed. In addition, the temperature of the portion of the case 202, which is not desired to be measured, is prevented from affecting the temperature sensor, thereby helping to measure the accurate temperature.

The sensor insulator 206 may be provided in the same manner as the number of the temperature sensors 20.

4 is a block diagram according to the present invention. This will be described below with reference to Fig.

The present invention includes a temperature sensor 20 for measuring the temperature and a timer 30 for measuring the elapsed time. The temperature sensor 20 may measure the temperature in the storage room 200 or the temperature of the food stored in the storage room 200.

In the present invention, the temperature sensor 20 includes the first temperature sensor 22 and the second temperature sensor 24 as described above. Therefore, one of the values measured by the first temperature sensor 22 and the second temperature sensor 24 may be selected.

Preferably, the controller 10 determines the maximum value among a plurality of temperature rise values measured by the first temperature sensor 22 and the second temperature sensor 24. This is because there may be differences in measured values depending on the position where the temperature sensor is installed.

For example, when the temperature rise value measured by the first temperature sensor 22 is 0.5 degrees and the temperature rise value measured by the second temperature sensor 24 is 1 degree, It is determined that the temperature change of the food has been increased by 1 degree measured by the second temperature sensor 24. [

The timer 30 can measure the time interval during which the temperature change measured by the temperature sensor 20 is performed.

Further, the present invention includes a cold air supply device (40) capable of supplying cold air to the storage room (200). The cold air supply device 40 can supply cool air generated by the refrigerant cycle devices such as a compressor, a condenser, and an expansion valve provided in the refrigerator to the storage room 200.

The cool air supply device 40 may include a duct forming a cool air passage, a fan capable of sucking or discharging cool air through the duct, and the like. Further, it may include a damper capable of adjusting the amount of cool air to be sucked or discharged.

Furthermore, the present invention may include a heating device 50 capable of heating the food stored in the storage room 200. Of course, the heating device 50 may include a heater capable of producing heat, a fan capable of supplying the produced heat into the storage room 200, and the like.

The control unit 10 may receive a temperature value measured by the temperature sensor 20 and a value of an elapsed time measured by the timer 30. In addition, the controller 10 controls the cool air supply device 40 and the heating device 50 according to a temperature value or an elapsed time value.

In other words, the controller 10 can control the temperature in the storage room 200 by controlling the cold air supply device 40 and the heating device 50. That is, the controller 10 can selectively drive the cold air supply device 40 and the heating device 50 according to the elapsed time.

5 is a control flowchart according to the present invention. This will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, the food is stored in the storage room 200. When the storage room 200 is installed in the freezing compartment 120 of the refrigerator 100, the freezing compartment door 122 is opened and the storage compartment 200 is opened to store food and seal the storage compartment 200 will be.

(S10) At this time, the control unit 10 drives the cold air supply device 40 to cool the temperature in the storage room 200. In this case,

(S12) Even if the temperature in the storage room 200 becomes lower than 0 degree Celsius, the moisture contained in the food is immediately ice-cured even if the temperature in the storage room 200 is lower than 0 degrees Celsius. It is not phase-transformed into a solid state. This is because the water contained in the food is kept in a supercooled state for a certain period of time.

In order to maintain the supercooled state, a magnetic field or an electric field may be applied to the storage chamber 200. This is a method of inducing a supercooling degree by increasing the amount of energy taken up by the cold air supply device 40, rather than the amount of energy supplied by a magnetic field or the like, in the storage room 200. With this method, the food can be subcooled to a lower temperature compared to otherwise.

However, the present invention will be described on the basis of a method in which a supercooling state occurs in a natural state. In other words, the supercooled state is maintained within a predetermined temperature range without a separate device such as a magnetic field or an electric field.

Subsequently, the temperature in the storage room 200 is measured by the temperature sensor 20. When the temperature in the storage room 200 or the temperature of the food reaches the supercooling-off temperature, the temperature is raised by a predetermined range. This is because the supercooled state of the water contained in the food is canceled and converted into ice, and the energy is discharged.

It is determined whether the temperature rise value of the food is equal to or greater than the first set value. (S14) In particular, the measured temperature rise value is a value measured by the first temperature sensor 22 and the second temperature sensor 24 The largest value is selected and judged.

At this time, the first set value may be set by a producer who produced the present invention, or may be set by a user using the present invention. For example, the first set value may have a value of about 1 degree.

The first set value is not limited to the above-described example because it may vary depending on the accuracy of the temperature measurement of the temperature sensor 20 and the food. However, when the first set value is set too small in consideration of the error of the temperature sensor 20, it can be erroneously determined as the supercooled-release temperature even though it is not the supercooled-temperature termination temperature.

If the first setting value is set to a too large value, there is a risk that the supercooling termination temperature is reached, but it is erroneously determined that the supercooling termination temperature is not. Therefore, it is preferable that the first set value is set by the experiment several times and is set to an optimized value.

On the other hand, if the temperature rise value of the food is smaller than the first set value, it is determined that the supercooling termination temperature has not yet been reached, and the food is continuously cooled.

On the other hand, if the temperature rise value of the food is higher than the first set value, the temperature is determined as the supercooling-off temperature, and it is determined that the supercooling degree of the food is canceled.

Then, the supercooled release temperature is stored as the supercooled release temperature of the food stored in the storage room 200. (S16)

Then, the food is thawed (S20). In other words, the food is frozen as a part of steps S12 to S16. If this state is maintained, the food will be stored in a frozen state, which will increase the degree of tissue destruction and color change of the food. However, in the present invention, since the food is thawed immediately upon termination of the supercooling, the quality of the food will not significantly change.

At this time, the thawing of the food is preferably carried out at the supercooling-off temperature or higher. In step S20, the controller 10 drives the heating device 50 to raise the temperature in the storage room 200. [

Of course, the control unit 10 may increase the temperature of the storage room 200 by stopping the operation of the cold supply device 40, even if the heating device 50 is not driven.

If the food has not been completely thawed, the heating device 50 is driven continuously (S22). At this time, whether or not the food has been completely thawed can be judged by whether or not the temperature of the food has reached approximately 3 to 4 degrees will be. Whether or not the food is thawed can be judged based on whether or not the time when the thawing of the food has started exceeds a predetermined time.

If the food is completely defrosted, the food is cooled again (S30). At this time, the controller 10 can drive the cold air supply device 40. [

At this time, the food is stored at a temperature higher than the supercooling termination temperature by a second set value (S32). The second set value may be set by the producer who produced the present invention, Or the like. For example, the second set value may have a value of about 0.5 degrees.

Of course, the second set value is 0 degree, and the storage of the food at the supercooling termination temperature will be the most ideal temperature at which the food can be stored at the lowest temperature without freezing. However, considering the difficulties of temperature control in the storage room 200 due to the error that may occur in the temperature value measured by the temperature sensor 20 and the difficulty of the control of the cold supply device 40, It is not desirable to set it to 0 degree.

This is because the food may be cooled below the supercooling termination temperature and freeze. On the other hand, if such errors are not generated, the second set value is preferably set to zero.

In the step of storing the food, since the food is kept at the temperature above the supercooling termination temperature, the moisture contained in the food freezes and is not converted into ice. Therefore, since the tissue of the food is not destroyed, the quality of the food can be maintained.

In addition, the food can be stored at a temperature lower than the temperature of about 3 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature of the refrigerating chamber 130 of the refrigerator 100, so that the food can be stored for a longer period of time than that stored in the refrigerating chamber 130 .

This is because the storage temperature of the storage room 200 has a minus value, so that the microorganisms are not activated and the food is not corrupted.

Then, the consumer can take out the food stored in the storage room 200 and cook it. On the other hand, since the food is not frozen when the food is taken out for cooking, the time required to defrost the food can be reduced. That is, energy and time for defrosting food can be reduced when cooking food, which is convenient for consumers.

The food stored in the storage room 200 may include meat.

Figure 6 is an embodiment for storing food according to the present invention. In Fig. 6, meat was experimented on food. This is because meat is a typical food stored at subzero temperatures in the freezer of a refrigerator. This will be described below with reference to Fig.

As shown in Fig. 6, the detached food is continuously cooled.

만큼 상승된다. 이때, A점에서의 식품의 온도를 상기 보관실(200)에 보관된 식품의 과냉각 해지 온도라고 판단해서 저장한다. 이때, 도 6의 예에서는 A점의 온도가 대략 섭씨 영하 3도에 해당된다.Then, when the temperature reaches the point A shown in Fig. 6,

. At this time, the temperature of the food at the point A is determined as the supercooled-release temperature of the food stored in the storage room 200 and stored. At this time, in the example of Fig. 6, the temperature of the point A corresponds to about minus 3 degrees Celsius.

In the present invention, the reason why the supercooled release temperature is measured for the food stored in the storage room 200 is that the supercooled release temperature differs depending on the type of the food.

Furthermore, even if the type of food is the same, the supercooled release temperature differs depending on the amount of water and the amount of food contained in the food. Therefore, setting the supercooling termination temperature according to the food and applying it in a batch may cause a problem that the food can be frozen.

Then, a defrosting step is performed. This is because some of the food may freeze as the food passes through the supercooling temperature, and if the temperature is kept above the supercooling temperature, the food may freeze as if stored in a frozen state.

In the example of Fig. 6, the food is thawed until the point B is reached. At this time, the temperature of the food at point B corresponds to about 4 degrees Celsius image. This thawing temperature can be similar to the temperature of the refrigerating chamber 130.

After the food is thawed, a storage step is again carried out to cool the food. However, in the storing step, the food is stored at the temperature above the supercooling termination temperature. In other words, the food is stored at a temperature higher than the subcooling temperature by a second set value.

In the example of FIG. 6, the second set value is set to 0.5 degrees, and the food is stored at minus 2.5 degrees Celsius, which is 0.5 degrees Celsius below minus 3 degrees Celsius. At this time, the food is not frozen and is stored while maintaining the supercooled state.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

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

2 is a front sectional view of the storage room of Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of the storage room of Figure 2;

4 is a block diagram according to the present invention;

5 is a control flow diagram according to the present invention;

Figure 6 is an implementation implemented in accordance with the present invention.

Description of the Related Art [0002]

10: control unit 20: temperature sensor

22: first temperature sensor 24: second temperature sensor

30: timer 40: cold air supply device

50: Heating device 52: Heater

100: Refrigerator 120: Freezer

130: Refrigerator room 200: Storage room

202: Case 204: Lid

210: mesh 220: plate

Claims (10)

A storage room for storing food and having a plate mounted on an inner bottom surface thereof; A plurality of temperature sensors provided in the storage room; A cold supply device for cooling food; A heating device for heating the inside of the storage room; And And a control unit for searching for a supercooled release temperature by the temperature change measured by the temperature sensor and controlling the storage of the food at a temperature higher than the supercooled release temperature and a temperature lower than 0 degree, Wherein some of the plurality of temperature sensors are installed in contact with the plate, The controller measures the temperature of the food by the temperature sensor while cooling the food with the cool air supply device and determines that the supercooling degree is canceled when the temperature rise value of the measured food temperature is lower than the predetermined value The temperature is set to the supercooled release temperature, Wherein the food is heated and defrosted by the heating device for a predetermined period of time after the supercooling is terminated, and the food is stored again at a temperature higher than the supercooling termination temperature and lower than 0 degree by cooling the food with the cold air supply device. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the food is mounted on the plate. The method according to claim 1, Wherein the plate is made of a metal material. The method according to claim 1, Wherein a side surface of the storage room is formed of a mesh having a plurality of openings. 5. The method of claim 4, Wherein the heating device is installed in the mesh. delete The method according to claim 1, Wherein the controller determines based on a largest value among a plurality of temperature rise values measured by the plurality of temperature sensors. delete The method according to claim 1, Wherein the controller stores the food at a temperature higher by 0.5 degrees than the supercooling-off temperature. The method according to claim 1, Characterized in that the food comprises meat.

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