KR20010027236A - Cool air supplying device for vegitable room in refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A cooling air supply system for vegetable compartment of refrigerator is provided to maintain the temperature and humidity of vegetable tray optimum by controlling the volume of cooling air supply in accordance with the volume of load. CONSTITUTION: A vegetable tray(20) closed by a vegetable compartment cover(23), is equipped with a cooling air adjusting plate(22) arranged at the rear end of the vegetable tray. The cooling air adjusting plate formed of two metal sheets having different coefficient of thermal expansion, is automatically opened/closed in accordance with the indoor temperature of the vegetable tray, so as to supply/cut off the cooling air to/from the vegetable tray from a refrigerating compartment duct(14). Since the vegetable tray is spaced apart from an inner case of the refrigerator, an indirect cooling action is obtained through the cooling air flowing between the bottom of the vegetable tray and the inner case.

Description

Cool air supplying device for vegitable room in refrigerator

The present invention relates to a vegetable compartment tray of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a vegetable compartment tray of a refrigerator capable of maintaining optimal temperature and humidity of the vegetable compartment tray by supplying an appropriate amount of cold air when supplying cold air from the vegetable compartment tray. It is about.

First, a vegetable chamber of a refrigerator used in the related art will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. Generally, a refrigerator includes a freezing compartment 2 and a refrigerating compartment 4 as a space for storing food. The lower part of the refrigerating chamber 4 is provided with vegetable chamber trays 6a and 6b for storing vegetables, and the vegetable chamber trays 6a and 6b are kept closed by the vegetable chamber cover 8.

In the conventional structural example shown, the example of the vegetable compartment trays 6a and 6b is shown as a pair, and these are provided on the bottom surface 10 of the refrigerating compartment 4, respectively, and the vegetable compartment trays 6a, It is opened and closed by pulling or pushing 6b).

The supply of cold air to the inside of the vegetable compartment constituted by the vegetable compartment tray 6 and the vegetable compartment cover 8 as described above is generally accomplished by two methods. First, an indirect cooling method may be used, in which the cold air in the refrigerating chamber duct 5 that supplies cold air to the refrigerating chamber 4 is not directly supplied into the vegetable chamber tray 6, but is surrounded by the vegetable chamber tray 6. By supplying to the indirect way, the vegetable compartment tray 6 is indirectly cooled. This indirect cooling system has been pointed out that a disadvantage that it is not possible to supply sufficient cold air to the vegetable compartment tray 6 quickly at an appropriate time. That is, in the conventional vegetable compartment which takes such an indirect cooling system, since cold air is not directly supplied to a vegetable chamber tray, it cannot receive timely cooling air required for storage of vegetables. Therefore, it is difficult to store vegetables for a long time. In addition, according to the indirect cooling method, when the amount of vegetables to be stored is large, due to the heavy dewing phenomenon in the inside of the vegetable chamber tray, water droplets form on the cover of the vegetable chamber, and the droplets fall into the stored vegetables. Storage problems are also pointed out.

As another cooling method of the vegetable compartment, a method of directly supplying the cold air from the refrigerating chamber duct 5 to the vegetable chamber tray 6 may be employed. This direct cooling method is one side of the vegetable compartment of the cold storage duct 5. It is supplied to the inside of the vegetable chamber through the (usually the vegetable chamber tray cold air supply hole formed at the rear).

However, according to the direct cooling method, there is a fear of overcooling in the part of supplying cold air into the vegetable compartment, while the supply of cold air is insufficient in the part of the vegetable compartment that is separated from the part of supplying the cold air into the vegetable compartment. In addition, in such a direct cooling method, it is also pointed out that the vegetables are easily dried by cold air supplied directly, and the drying of such vegetables is particularly large when the amount of vegetables to be stored is small.

According to the conventional vegetable compartment cold air supply structure as described above, it can be seen that there is no device for substantially adjusting the amount of cold air supplied to the vegetable compartment. Therefore, due to the dewing phenomenon generated by the temperature difference between the water stored in the vegetable compartment and the refrigerator compartment, water droplets form on the bottom of the vegetable compartment cover, and the droplets grow and fall into the stored vegetables. When the water droplets come into contact with the vegetables, they have a lethal effect on the freshness of the vegetables. In addition, if cold air is continuously supplied to the vegetable compartment in order to prevent the encapsulation of the vegetables, a supercooling phenomenon occurs according to the operating state of the refrigerator, which is also pointed out that it is not suitable for storing vegetables.

It can be seen that the disadvantage of the structure of the conventional vegetable chamber occurs because there is no device capable of controlling the cold air supplied to the vegetable chamber.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a vegetable compartment tray capable of realizing optimal storage conditions when storing vegetables in the vegetable compartment by configuring the amount of cold air supplied to the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator to be automatically adjusted based on the internal temperature of the vegetable compartment. will be.

Therefore, the present invention focuses on controlling the supply of cold air to the vegetable compartment by supplying cold air directly when the supply of cold air is necessary in the vegetable compartment, or by indirectly cooling the vegetable compartment.

1 is a front view of a typical refrigerator with the door open.

2 is a perspective view of a general vegetable room.

3 is a cross-sectional view showing a cold air supply structure according to the present invention.

Figure 4 is a partial perspective view of the cold air control plate according to the present invention.

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view of the cold air control plate according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

10 ..... Fridge 12 ..... Vegetable Room Cover

14 ..... Refrigerating chamber duct 20 ..... Vegetable chamber tray

22 ..... Cold Control Board

According to the present invention for achieving the above object, on one side of the vegetable chamber tray to maintain the closed state by the vegetable chamber cover, a cold air control plate is formed by joining two metal plates having different coefficients of thermal expansion, cold air by the temperature difference inside and outside It is a basic technical idea to configure the throttle plate to open and close the vegetable chamber tray. And the cold air control plate is shown an embodiment installed in the adjacent portion with the refrigeration chamber duct for supplying cold air to the refrigerating chamber.

According to the present invention as described above, the vegetable compartment tray is automatically opened and closed by the temperature change generated according to the load amount inside the vegetable compartment tray. Therefore, according to the load stored in the vegetable chamber tray can be directly supplied to the inside of the vegetable chamber tray, or indirectly cooled, it is possible to expect the effect of taking advantage of the direct cooling and indirect cooling.

Next, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings.

3 is an explanatory view showing a basic concept of the cold air supply structure of the vegetable compartment according to the present invention. As shown, according to the present invention, it is a basic technical idea to attach the cold air control plate 22 to one side of the rear end of the vegetable chamber tray 20 which is kept closed by the vegetable chamber cover 12.

The cold air control plate is automatically opened and closed according to the internal temperature of the vegetable chamber tray 20, and has a function of supplying or blocking the cold air supplied from the refrigeration chamber duct 14 to the inside of the vegetable chamber tray 20. For example, when a large amount of vegetables is added and stored in the vegetable compartment tray 20, the cold air control plate 22 is opened so that cold air is directly supplied into the vegetable compartment tray 20. When the amount of vegetables stored in the tray 20 is small, the cold air control plate 22 is closed so that the vegetable chamber tray 20 can be indirectly cooled.

The lower portion of the vegetable compartment tray 20 is configured to allow the indirect cooling of the vegetable compartment tray 20 while cold air flows between the inner case 11 and the inner case 11 of the refrigerator.

Next, the configuration of the cold air control plate 22 according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 5. As illustrated, the cold air control plate 22 according to the present invention includes a first metal plate 22a having a large coefficient of thermal expansion and a second metal plate 22b having a relatively low coefficient of thermal expansion and bonded to the first metal plate 22a. It is configured. And the other side of the said 2nd metal plate 22b is provided with the heat insulation film 22c.

The first metal plate 22a and the second metal plate 22b have different thermal expansion coefficients, and accordingly, when the temperature rises, the amounts of expansion of the first metal plate 22a and the second metal plate 22b are different. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, in the state where one end 23 of the cold air control plate 22 is fixed to one side of the vegetable chamber tray 20, the other end of the cold air control plate 22 is applied to the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion. The vegetable thread tray 20 will be opened while being bent along.

Next, the operation of opening and closing the cold air control plate 22 according to the current temperature of the vegetable chamber will be described.

First, when there is a lot of load inside the vegetable compartment tray 20 of the refrigerating chamber, that is, since a lot of vegetables are contained in the inside of the vegetable compartment tray 20, the case where the temperature inside thereof is increased. Since the temperature inside the vegetable chamber tray 20 is relatively high compared to the temperature of the surroundings, the cold air control plate 22 is subjected to thermal expansion due to an increase in temperature. At this time, since the coefficient of thermal expansion of the first metal plate 22a is large and the coefficient of thermal expansion of the second metal plate 22b is low, it is bent based on one end 23 of the cold air control plate 22 as shown in FIG. 4. . In this state, as the cold air control plate 22 portion of the vegetable chamber tray 20 is substantially opened, the cold air can be directly supplied to the inside of the vegetable chamber tray 20.

Then, the supply of cold air is continued for a predetermined time in the state where the cold air control plate 22 is opened, and the internal temperature of the vegetable chamber tray 20 is lowered, so that the temperature difference between the inside and the outside is eliminated. As the temperature of the second metal plate 22b decreases, the second metal plate 22b returns to its original position. Therefore, the curved cold air control plate 22 is returned to the straight line again, the vegetable chamber tray 20 is in a closed state. This state is a state in which cold air is not directly supplied to the inside of the vegetable chamber tray 20, but is indirectly cooled by cold air supplied to the surroundings. In addition, even if the amount of vegetables stored in the inside of the vegetable chamber tray 20, in this way will be indirectly cooling the vegetable compartment tray in the closed state of the cold air control plate (22).

As described above, the amount of vegetables stored in the inside of the vegetable compartment tray 20 is large, so that if a lot of cold air is to be supplied, the cold air can be directly supplied to the inside of the vegetable compartment tray 20. , If the amount of vegetables stored in the vegetable compartment tray 20 is small, it can be seen that the configuration is configured to indirectly cool the inside of the vegetable compartment tray 20 as a basic technical idea.

Of course, within the basic technical scope to which the present invention pertains, many other modifications are possible to those skilled in the art.

For example, as for the configuration of the cold air control plate 22, many other variations are possible with respect to the position, size, number, and the like.

According to the present invention as described above, when a lot of load is put into the vegetable chamber tray and the supply of cold air is required, the cold air control plate 22 is opened by the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion, the inside of the vegetable chamber tray 20 The cold air is supplied directly to the furnace. When the inside of the vegetable chamber becomes cold, the cold air control plate 22 is automatically closed, and the vegetable chamber tray is cooled by the indirect cooling method. Therefore, according to the present invention, the optimum storage temperature can be maintained according to the amount of load stored therein, and the vegetables can be stored for a longer period of time.

Therefore, when the load on the vegetable chamber tray is high, supplying sufficient cold air directly to the vegetable chamber tray can prevent the dewing phenomenon due to moisture generated in the vegetable, and at the same time, when the load is low, the vegetable can be prevented from being overdried. It becomes possible. Due to such a configuration, according to the amount of vegetables stored in the vegetable compartment tray of the refrigerator substantially, the advantage of being able to store the vegetables for a long time in a high fresh state by adopting an appropriate cooling method is expected.

Claims (2)

On one side of the vegetable chamber tray which is kept closed by the vegetable chamber cover, a cold air control plate is formed by joining two metal plates having different thermal expansion coefficients so that the cold air control plate can be opened and closed by the temperature difference between inside and outside. Vegetable chamber cold air supply of the refrigerator characterized in that. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the cold air control plate is installed at a portion adjacent to the refrigerating chamber duct for supplying cold air to the refrigerating chamber.