KR102217117B1 - Personal refrigerators having peltier element - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention suggests a small refrigerator which has an efficient cold air flow channel and is conveniently used. The small refrigerator of the present invention comprises: a refrigerator body (10) having a storage space (12); a front surface door (20) for opening or closing the front open surface of the refrigerator body; and an upper part door (30) for opening or closing the open upper surface of the refrigerator body. In addition, a partition shelf (14) is detachably installed on the refrigerator body, wherein the partition shelf compartmentalizes the storage space of the refrigerator body into two parts to correspond to the front surface door and the upper part door and has a ventilation hole formed therethrough to allow cold air to pass therethrough. A thermoelectric element (50) having a heat absorption part (52) exposed toward the storage space is installed on the middle portion of the side surface of the refrigerator body. In the present invention, a duct cover is vertically installed to divide cool air generated through contact with a thermoelectric element into an upward flow of air and a downward flow of air and supply the air into the storage space (12). The air, which has undergone thermal exchange with a stored item while circulating in the storage space, comes into contact with the thermoelectric element through a return part (66) formed on the middle portion.

Description

Small refrigerators using thermoelectric elements{Personal refrigerators having peltier element}

The present invention relates to a small refrigerator, and more particularly, a thermoelectric element (Peltier) is used as a heat exchange element, and can be opened and closed in various directions, such as convenient storage of storage, and to a small refrigerator that can easily shape a character. About.

Refrigerators for storing foods and other stored objects at low temperatures have been developed in various forms since long ago. In recent years when the number of single people is increasing, it can be said that a lot of personal home appliances are developed and marketed in consideration of the living environment of such single people.

And it can be said that the current small refrigerator has a relatively small storage space and is used as an auxiliary refrigerator. In addition, small refrigerators for various purposes, such as a small refrigerator for cosmetics or a wine refrigerator having a small storage space, have been developed and marketed.

However, current small refrigerators only have a fixed form, that is, a hexahedral refrigerator, and moreover, because of their small capacity, they have only a certain form of use that allows storage to enter and exit through a single door installed in the front. There is a disadvantage of presenting only boring designs. And for small refrigerators, compressors that constitute a refrigeration cycle. The application of mechanical components such as a condenser, evaporator, etc. inevitably increases the overall size.

Considering these points, a relatively compact element should be used as a component for generating cold air in the refrigerator, and furthermore, the circulation and efficiency of the airflow from the small-sized heat exchanger to the storage space inside the refrigerator are active. It can be said that it should be considered.

The present invention in consideration of this point is to propose a small refrigerator configured to efficiently supply and return heat-exchanged cool air to the storage space of the refrigerator while using a small heat exchange element.

In addition, the present invention has a new aesthetic design and is to propose a small refrigerator that can be used for various purposes.

An object of the present invention is to propose a small refrigerator that can relatively easily apply character works, which are in the trend of the recent trend.

In addition, the present invention is to propose a small refrigerator that can sufficiently and practically cope with the surrounding environment by having various opening and closing directions, and that can conveniently put and take out storage.

The compact refrigerator of the present invention for achieving this purpose includes a refrigerator body having a storage space for storage, a front door for opening and closing the open front of the refrigerator body, and an upper door for opening and closing the open upper surface of the refrigerator body. Is composed. The storage space of the refrigerator main body is divided into two to correspond to the front door and the upper door, and a split shelf having a ventilation hole through which cool air can pass is installed detachably from the refrigerator main body. A thermoelectric element having a heat absorbing part exposed toward the storage space is installed in the middle part of the side of the refrigerator body. The duct cover of the present invention includes a return portion molded in the middle portion corresponding to the thermoelectric element, and the cold air generated by flowing in through the return portion and contacting the heat absorbing portion of the thermoelectric element to be discharged to the upper and lower portions of the storage space, respectively. It has an outlet portion formed at the upper and lower portions of the storage space, respectively, and has a shape extending in the vertical direction.

Further, according to the present invention, since the heat exchange fins of the heat absorbing portion of the thermoelectric element are extended and molded in the vertical direction, air cooled through contact with the heat exchange fins can be efficiently divided in the vertical direction.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a thermoelectric element casing installed on an outer surface of a refrigerator body in which a thermoelectric element is installed, a cooling fan installed inside the thermoelectric element casing to cool the thermoelectric element, and a cooling fan It is configured to further include a filtering member that is detachably installed in the portion where the outside air is introduced.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the heat absorbing part of the thermoelectric element is installed in a heat exchange chamber concavely formed at the rear surface of the storage space outside the duct cover.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the upper outlet portion of the duct cover discharges cold air into a storage space corresponding to the upper portion of the split shelf.

According to the present invention having the above configuration, it can be said that the cooling air flow path is optimized by configuring so that the cold air generated while contacting the thermoelectric element is divided up and down and supplied into the storage space. In particular, it can be seen that the heat exchange fins formed in the heat absorbing part of the thermoelectric element in the vertical direction naturally divide the air in contact with the thermoelectric element in the vertical direction, thereby making the supply flow path of the cold air more efficient.

In addition, the dividing shelf of the present invention has a function of dividing the internal space of the refrigerator, and circulating air in the storage space by means of a plurality of molded ventilation holes.

In addition, it can be seen that the refrigerator of the present invention is basically configured to open and close the storage space of the refrigerator body using an upper door or a front door. Therefore, convenience in use is expected that it is possible to open the refrigerator in a free direction according to the use environment.

In addition, according to the present invention, it can be seen that the storage space of the refrigerator main body is divided into an upper door side and a front door side by a split shelf. Therefore, it can be seen that the user can efficiently use the storage space of the refrigerator by attaching and detaching the split shelf.

1 is an exemplary perspective view of a refrigerator according to the present invention.
Figure 2 is an exemplary perspective view of the present invention refrigerator door in an open state.
3 is an exploded perspective view of the refrigerator according to the present invention.
Figure 4 is a partial cut-away perspective view of the refrigerator of the present invention.
5 is a rear perspective view of the refrigerator according to the present invention.
6 is an enlarged perspective view of a heat absorbing part of the thermoelectric device of the present invention.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail based on the embodiment shown in the drawings.

1 and 2, the refrigerator of the present invention includes a refrigerator main body 10 having a predetermined storage space 12 therein, and a front door opening and closing the front of the refrigerator main body 10 ( 20), and an upper door 30 for opening and closing the upper surface of the refrigerator main body 10. In the refrigerator main body 10 of the present invention, it means that the front surface on which the front door 20 is installed can be opened, and the upper surface on which the upper door 30 is installed can be opened.

In this way, if the front door 20 and the upper door 30 are installed together for one storage space 12, there may be convenience in that the storage material inside can be taken out through any door. In addition, in the present invention, in order to efficiently divide the storage space 12 of the refrigerator main body 10, a dividing shelf 14 is installed.

By dividing the storage space 12 in the vertical direction, the split shelf 14 has an upper storage space in which the upper door 30 can be opened to put or take out storage, and the front door 20 is opened to put the storage It has a function of dividing it into a storage space underneath that can be taken out. In the illustrated embodiment, the dividing shelf 14 has a flange portion 14a extending radially outward. The flange portion (14a) of the divided sulban (14) is supported in a state that is caught by the locking jaw (16) inside the open upper end or the open upper end of the main body (10).

The split shelf 14 of the present invention is provided with a plurality of vent holes 14c, so that cold air can circulate throughout the storage space 12, which is It means that a smooth circulation of is possible. The ventilation holes 14c made in the dividing shelf 14 are formed at the rear of the dividing shelf 14, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and the generated cold air is supplied to the upper part of the dividing shelf 14. It includes a cold air inlet hole (14m) that is formed in front of the division shelf and a cold air outlet hole (14n) formed in front of the division shelf and through which cold air circulated above the division shelf 14 goes out to the lower portion of the division shelf 14. In addition, the ventilation hole 14c also includes a plurality of ventilation holes formed in the middle portion.

Further, the division shelf 14 is provided with a handle 14b extending upward, for example, by providing a pair of handles 14b, it is possible to provide convenience of attachment and detachment. In the illustrated embodiment, the split shelf 14 is supported detachably while the flange portion 14a is caught by the locking protrusion 16 inside the open upper end or the open upper end of the main body 10. However, it is natural that the dividing shelf 14 can have various detachable forms within the range dividing the storage space 12, for example, the dividing shelf 14 is installed detachably in the middle of the storage space 12. It is also possible to carry out with a shelf.

As described above, it can be seen that the present invention includes a detachable partition shelf 14 that divides the storage space 12 into two so as to correspond to the front door 20 and the upper door 30, respectively. Next, a structure for supplying cold air to the upper storage space and the lower storage space divided by the division shelf 14 will be described.

As described above, since the refrigerator of the present invention is designed to be compact to be used as a multipurpose personal refrigerator, it is not practically desirable to configure a refrigeration cycle including a compressor and a heat exchanger. Therefore, in the present invention, the basic idea is to use a thermoelectric element (Peltier) for heat exchange.

As shown in FIG. 3, a thermoelectric element 50 is installed as a component for heat exchange in an intermediate portion of the refrigerator body 10. The thermoelectric element 50 is installed so that the heat absorbing portion 52 is exposed to the storage space 12 of the refrigerator body 10, and the heat generating portion faces the outside of the refrigerator. As can be seen with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, a duct cover 62 is installed on the inner portion of the thermoelectric element 50.

In addition, a return portion 66 through which air can enter the thermoelectric element 50 is formed in the middle portion of the duct cover 62 having a shape extending in the vertical direction, and the air sucked through the return portion 66 Is cooled by heat exchange with the heat absorbing portion 53 of the thermoelectric element 50. The generated cold air is discharged from the upper and lower portions of the storage space 12 through a pair of outlet portions 62 and 64 respectively formed at the upper and lower ends of the duct cover 62. And such a flow of air is formed by a circulation fan (not shown) installed outside the duct cover 60. Here, each of the outlet portions 62 and 64 has a plurality of ventilation holes.

Here, the upper outlet portion 62 is formed to correspond to the above-described cold air inlet hole (14m), so that the cold air supplied to the outlet portion 62 is the upper portion of the split shelf 14 through the cold air inlet hole (14m). Is supplied as In addition, the lower outlet portion 64 supplies cool air to the lower portion of the storage space 12. As described above, according to the present invention, the cold air circulating through the storage space 12 is sucked into the heat absorbing portion 52 of the thermoelectric element 50 through the return portion 66 formed in the middle.

In addition, it can be seen that the cold air generated by heat exchange with the thermoelectric element 50 is supplied to the upper and lower ends of the storage space 12 and circulates throughout the storage space 12. That is, at an intermediate position corresponding to the thermoelectric element 50, a return portion 66 in which the heated air is sucked is formed, and the air introduced through the return portion 66 is formed in the upper and lower portions, respectively, after heat exchange. It can be seen that it is discharged into the storage space 12 through the outlet portions 62 and 64.

In this way, it can be seen that the duct cover 60 having the return portion 66 and the pair of outlet portions 62, 64 has a shape extending in the vertical direction so as to form an air flow in the vertical direction. . In addition, it is preferable that air sucked into the heat absorbing portion 52 of the thermoelectric element 50 in the storage space through the return portion 66 can also efficiently flow in the vertical direction.

4 and 6, it can be seen that a heat exchange chamber C formed concave while having a shape corresponding to the above-described duct cover 60 is provided on the rear surface of the storage space 12. . That is, the heat absorbing portion 52 of the thermoelectric element 50 installed inside the heat exchange chamber C cools the air entering through the return portion 66, and the upper and lower outlet portions 62 and 64 of the duct cover 60 ), the heat exchange chamber (C) is concave in the vertical direction.

Further, according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 6, a plurality of heat exchange fins 53 are formed in the heat absorbing portion 53 of the thermoelectric element 50, and these heat exchange fins 53 are arranged in the vertical direction. When the heat exchange fins 53 are arranged in the vertical direction as described above, the air introduced through the return portion 53 contacts the heat exchange fins 53 and naturally divides and flows upward and downward. For example, if the heat exchange fins 53 are molded in the left and right directions, it will be easily understood that air that must be divided and flowed in the vertical direction will have considerable resistance.

A thermoelectric element casing 58 is installed on the outer surface of the refrigerator body 10 in which the thermoelectric element 50 is installed. In addition, a cooling fan 56 for cooling the heating portion of the thermoelectric element 50 is installed inside the thermoelectric element casing 58. The operation of the cooling fan 56 is to cool the heating part of the thermoelectric element 50, and a plurality of ventilation holes are formed in the thermoelectric element casing 58 to form an air flow for such cooling.

That is, by the operation of the cooling fan 56, the air introduced through the rear inlet hole 58a cools the heating part of the thermoelectric element and then exits through the outlet holes 58b formed on both sides. In the present invention, in order to filter the outside air introduced in this way, a filtering member 59 is installed on the inlet hole 58a side of the thermoelectric element casing 58. Therefore, since the air flowing into the thermoelectric element casing 58 is filtered by the filtering member 59, it is expected that the periphery of the cooling fan 56 can be kept in a clean state.

And, as described above, the outlet 64 of the upper part of the duct cover 62 is installed on the upper part of the split shelf 14, and the lower part of the duct cover 62 is installed under the storage space 12. Therefore, looking at the overall circulation of air, the air that has been relatively hot due to heat exchange with the storage material inside the storage space 12 due to the operation of the circulation fan is a return part 66 formed in the middle of the duct cover 60 ) Through the thermoelectric element 50 side.

The air sucked into the thermoelectric element 50 through the return portion 66 is generated as cold air by heat exchange with the heat absorbing portion 52, and thereafter, outlet portions 62 respectively installed on the top and bottom of the duct cover 62, It is discharged into the storage space 12 through 64). In addition, the cold air discharged in this way is heat-exchanged with the stored material in the storage space 12, thereby increasing the temperature by itself while maintaining the stored material in a low temperature state, and the above-described process of re-entering the return portion 66 is repeated.

Next, the opening and closing structure of each of the doors 20 and 30 for opening and closing the storage space 12 of the refrigerator main body 10 will be briefly described. As shown in FIG. 1, the front door 20 is supported in a hinged manner so that one side of the front (left side of the door in the illustrated embodiment) is rotatable with respect to the refrigerator body 10. It can be said to be substantially the same principle as the support structure of the door.

In addition, it can be seen from FIG. 2 that the upper door 30 of the present invention is opened and closed upward based on the hinge shaft 32 in the horizontal direction. Looking specifically at the configuration for opening and closing the upper door 30 in the vertical direction as described above, referring to FIGS. 3 and 5, the hinge shaft 32 arranged in the horizontal direction is the upper door 30 and the refrigerator body 10 ) Are installed between.

In the illustrated embodiment, the hinge shaft 32 includes an upper door extension portion 34 extending downward from a portion of the upper door 30, and a concave portion of the main body 10 so that the upper door extension portion 34 is accommodated. It is installed between parts. And in the illustrated embodiment, for convenience of assembly, the hinge shaft 32 provided on the side of the upper door 30 is provided by a pair of hinge shaft support blocks 16a and 16b that are assembled to the refrigerator body 10. You can see that it is supported.

Accordingly, it can be seen that the upper door 30 can be opened and closed in the vertical direction with respect to the refrigerator body 10 with the hinge axis 32 in the horizontal direction. In addition, a pair of torsion springs 38 are interposed on the left and right sides of the hinge shaft 32. One end of the torsion spring 38 is supported by the main body 10 and the other end is supported by the upper door 30, so that the upper door 30 is always elastically supported in the open direction.

Here, it is preferable that the elastic restoring force of the torsion spring 38 is set to such an extent that food stored in the inner space 12 can be taken out by opening the upper door 30. That is, when the latch installed in the front of the upper door 30 is released, the torsion spring opens so that the upper door 30 can be taken out of the storage space 12 even if the upper door 30 is not lifted separately. 38) is set to increase the usability.

In addition, a structure for locking the upper door 30 with respect to the refrigerator body 10 is installed on the front portion of the upper door 30. Looking at such a locking structure based on FIGS. 3 and 4, a locking lever 36 is installed in the front interior of the upper door 30 so as to be rotatable around an intermediate portion. The locking hook 36a formed on the lower end of the locking lever 36 can be caught by the locking protrusion 17 fixed to the inside of the refrigerator body 10.

The upper end of the locking lever 36 is elastically supported by a spring S so that the locking hook 36a is always fastened to the locking protrusion 17. Therefore, in the state where the locking hook 36a is caught on the locking protrusion 17, the spring S elastically pushes the locking lever 36 in a direction capable of maintaining such a fastened state, so if there is no external force, the upper door 30 ) Will not open.

In this fastened state, in order to open the upper door 30, the upper portion of the hinge shaft of the locking lever 36 must be pushed rearward. This is by pressing the corresponding part of the front cover of the upper door 30, the shaft or protrusion on the rear surface pushes the locking lever 36 backward to contract the spring, while the locking hook 36a at the lower end of the locking lever 36 By being released from the locking jaw, the upper door 30 is opened. Such a locking and unlocking structure itself can be said to be a widely used structure.

The design elements of the refrigerator main body 10 and the upper door 30 of the present invention will be described. It can be seen that the above-described upper door 30 has a hemispherical shape. In the present invention, the hemispherical shape is a shape obtained by cutting an exact spherical shape (spherical shape) in half and a similar spherical shape, for example, an ellipsoid whose shape cut by a plane passing through the center plane is an ellipse, or a similar hemispherical shape such as a half of an elliptical sphere. It is intended to be used as an inclusive meaning.

If the upper door 30 is molded in a hemispherical shape as described above, it is possible to have a considerably advantageous advantage in terms of design. That is, in traditional home appliances such as refrigerators, it can be said that the mechanical elements related to the refrigeration cycle that influence the function of the product have already reached the limit of development. Therefore, in the design of such a product, a design element that can evoke an aesthetic sense to the viewer can be said to be one of the most important design elements of a product.

And if the upper door 30 is designed in a hemispherical shape as in the present invention, it has a very convenient shape to apply a character that can be said to be in the general trend of all products recently. In recent years, in a wide range of industries, especially, various characters are applied to products purchased by end consumers, and these characters are known to be closely related to the desire to purchase products.

Since such a character is usually created mainly on the subject of an animal or human body part, it can be said that it is closest to the hemispherical shape described above when the character is implemented in three dimensions. For example, assuming that there is a character using the head of an animal, it can be said that a hemispherical shape is the most desirable for implementing such a character. Conversely, geometric shapes such as a rectangular parallelepiped or a triangular pyramid shape are inevitably very disadvantageous in realizing a character.

As described above, in the present invention, by designing the upper door 30 in a hemispherical shape, it can be said that it is the most desirable and can be easily implemented when applying a character. In addition, according to the present invention, it can be seen that the refrigerator body 10 has a cylindrical shape. This cylindrical body 10 can be said to be to match the upper door 30 and its appearance. That is, when the upper door 30 is designed in a hemispherical shape, the refrigerator body 10 is designed in a cylindrical shape to show a sense of unity in appearance with the upper door 30.

However, it is obvious that the refrigerator body 10 cannot be limited to such a cylindrical shape in the present invention. For example, by transforming the four corners of a hexahedron into a partial arc-shaped cross-section (cross-sectional view), it is possible to implement a cylindrical body in which all corners are designed in a circular or curved shape, and even in this case, it has an overall curved shape. As a result, it can be assumed that it is possible to provide a sense of unity in design with the hemispherical upper door 30.

Next, another incidental part of the refrigerator of the present invention described above will be described. A machine room casing 40 is installed under the refrigerator body 10, and the machine room casing 40 has the same shape as the refrigerator body 10. A controller required for driving and controlling the refrigerator is built into the machine room casing 40. In addition, a shelf 19 (refer to FIG. 3) may be installed in the storage space 12 of the refrigerator body 10 for efficient arrangement of storage materials. In addition, it is natural that the door basket 18 may be installed inside the front door 10.

As described above, the present invention can be seen that the subject of the present invention is a small refrigerator having a configuration that facilitates the smooth and natural flow of cold air and the most convenient character implementation, and a configuration that allows access to stored objects while using a thermoelectric element. . And it goes without saying that various other modifications are possible for those skilled in the art within the scope of the basic technical idea of the present invention.

Next, based on the above-described embodiment, another embodiment that can be modified will be described.

As described above, the structure of the refrigerator main body 10 may be formed to have a cylindrical shape with rounded corners in addition to the cylindrical shape as described above. And in the illustrated embodiment, the upper door 30 is configured to open and close the entire hemispherical shape, but it can be seen that it is sufficient to open and close at least a part of the upper door 30 made in the hemispherical shape. have.

In the illustrated embodiment, while the entire upper door 30 is opened and closed, the entire upper door 30 is formed in a hemispherical shape. However, although the entire upper door 30 is formed in a hemispherical shape, it will be possible to configure only a part of the upper door 30 to be opened and closed. And even in this case, it is natural that the entire upper door having a hemispherical shape will be suitable for implementing a character.

And in the illustrated embodiment, the dividing shelf 14 is designed in a detachable shape that is separated upwards, but if the storage space 12 of the refrigerator main body can be divided into two, it may be detachably installed at any location. Of course. In addition, the thermoelectric element for cooling the storage space of the refrigerator according to the present invention may be variously modified within a range in which it is installed to have a heat absorbing portion exposed toward the storage space of the refrigerator.

10 ..... refrigerator body
12 ..... storage space
14 ..... Split shelf
16 ..... stumbling
20 ..... Front door
30 ..... upper door
40 ..... Machine thread casing
50 ..... Thermoelectric device
52 ..... Heat absorbing part of thermoelectric element
56 ..... cooling fan
58 ..... Thermoelectric element casing
59 ..... Filtering member
60 ..... Duct Cover

Claims (5)

A refrigerator main body having a storage space for storage and having a heat exchange chamber concave in the longitudinal direction from the rear of the storage space;
A front door for opening and closing the opened front of the refrigerator body;
An upper door for opening and closing the opened upper surface of the refrigerator body;
The storage space of the refrigerator main body is divided into two to correspond to the front door and the upper door, and includes a cold air inlet hole formed at the rear and through which cold air flows in, and a cold air outlet hole formed at the front and circulated above the split shelf, A split shelf that is detachably installed with respect to the refrigerator body;
A thermoelectric element installed in the middle portion of the rear surface of the refrigerator body in the heat exchange chamber of the refrigerator body and exposed to the storage space by a heat exchange unit having heat exchange fins extending in a vertical direction; And
The return portion molded in the middle portion corresponding to the thermoelectric element and the cold air introduced through the return portion and contacted with the heat absorbing portion of the thermoelectric element can be discharged to the upper and lower portions of the storage space, respectively. A duct cover provided at an inner portion of the thermoelectric element installed in the heat exchange chamber, each having an outlet portion formed at the lower portion thereof;
The cold air coming out through the outlet at the upper end of the duct cover passes through the cold air inlet hole and the cold air outlet hole of the split shelf and returns to the return portion of the duct cover after circulating the storage space above the split shelf. A small refrigerator that returns to the return part of the duct cover through the storage space under the divider shelf.
The method of claim 1,
The thermoelectric element casing installed on the outer surface of the refrigerator body where the thermoelectric element is installed, the cooling fan installed inside the thermoelectric element casing to cool the thermoelectric element, and the part where the outside air is introduced by the cooling fan are detachable. A small refrigerator configured to further include a filtering member to be installed.


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