KR20080088943A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

A refrigerator is provided to prevent freezing of a beverage in a supercooling container and to lower a supercooling temperature by transmitting vibration to supercooled water, which is thermodynamically unstable, using a solenoid cell. A refrigerator comprises a body, a supercooling chamber, plural supercooling containers(30), and a solenoid cell. The supercooling chamber is installed in the body to supercool a beverage. The supercooling containers are formed in the supercooling chamber and store the beverage. The solenoid cell transmits vibration to the supercooling containers and has a coil(32) and a power unit(35). The coil is wound in a wall of the supercooling container. The power unit supplies power to the coil.

Description

Refrigerator {Refrigerator}

1 is a view showing a refrigerator according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a subcooling chamber taken along line II-II of FIG. 1.

3 is a perspective view illustrating a subcooling part of a subcooling chamber according to the present invention.

4 is a view schematically showing a subcooling vessel of the subcooling unit according to the present invention.

* Description of symbols on the main parts of the drawings *

10. Body 11. Freezer

12.Door 13.Refrigerator

15. Supercooling chamber 16, 17. Bulkhead

20. Supercooling section 30. Supercooling vessel

31. Body 32. Coil

34. Fan 35. Power supply

40. Storage 50. Ice making

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator having a subcooling chamber capable of making a liquid beverage supercooled.

Liquid beverages generally change their phase to a solid phase when they reach a temperature below the freezing point under 1 atm. However, in some cases, the supercooled liquid is present in the supercooled liquid state without changing to a solid phase. In this way, the liquid does not freeze below the freezing point but is in the supercooled liquid state.

The subcooled liquid in the semi-stable state is not unstable, but it is not stable, so when a disturbance is applied to the surroundings, a phase change occurs to a solid state instantaneously. Therefore, when the liquid beverage preserved in the supercooled form is poured into a cold cup or subjected to a shock or vibration to the beverage in the subcooled liquid state, it is possible to provide the consumer with a beverage that is completely frozen or not dissolved. In this way, the beverage which is phase-changed into a solid phase by adding disturbance to the beverage in the subcooled liquid state is called slush.

In this regard, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-214753 discloses a structure in which an internal structure of a refrigerator main body is improved to provide a cooling device for subcooling. The disclosed prior art includes a cold air supply duct and a cold air intake duct respectively provided on both side walls of the storage compartment, and a connection duct installed on the upper wall of the storage compartment to connect the cold air supply duct and the cold air intake duct, By circulating cold air continuously, the temperature distribution for the supercooling of the storage compartment is kept uniform.

However, in order to supercool the liquid beverage as in the prior art, it is also important to uniformize the temperature distribution of the storage compartment. However, even if the temperature of the storage chamber is maintained at a constant temperature on average, the temperature in the storage chamber may vary with time. In this case, when the temperature of the storage compartment is the lowest, the beverage in the supercooled state is frozen and it is impossible to make a slush type beverage. Therefore, if the temperature required for supercooling the liquid beverage is -5 ° C, the temperature of the generated cold air is designed to have a temperature slightly lower than this to control the width of the temperature change is small.

However, as described above, since the supercooled state of the liquid is not thermodynamically stable, it is fundamentally limited to precisely control the temperature by only adjusting the temperature. That is, even if temperature control is precise, the liquid beverage may freeze without maintaining the supercooled state due to the state of the liquid beverage or other unspecified factors (for example, when the container is a can or a plastic).

The present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, an object of the present invention can not only stably maintain the supercooled state of the liquid beverage, but also to further reduce the subcooling temperature to produce a supercooled water with an improved degree of subcooling To provide a refrigerator.

The refrigerator according to the present invention for achieving the above object is a main body, a subcooling chamber provided inside the main body to supercool the liquid beverage, a plurality of subcooling vessels provided in the subcooling chamber and accommodate the liquid beverage, and a subcooling container It includes a magnetic field generating device for applying vibration.

In addition, the magnetic field generating device of the refrigerator according to the present invention is a solenoid cell including a coil embedded in a wall of a supercooling container and wound, and a power supply unit for supplying power to the coil.

In addition, a fan may be provided on the upper side of the subcooling container of the refrigerator according to the present invention.

In addition, the subcooling chamber of the refrigerator according to the present invention is partitioned into a plurality of space portions, at least one of which is provided with the subcooling container, and any other space portion is provided with a storage portion.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

1 is a front view showing a refrigerator according to the present invention. As shown, the refrigerator of the present invention includes a main body 10 having a plurality of storage compartments. The main body 10 has an open front face, and the open front of the storage compartment is opened and closed by the door 12, respectively.

The storage compartment is partitioned in the up and down direction, and the freezing chamber 11 is disposed at the uppermost side, the refrigerating chamber 13 is disposed at the lowermost side, and the subcooling chamber 15 is disposed therebetween.

The minimum temperature at which the liquid beverage can be supercooled (hereinafter referred to as 'limiting subcooling temperature') is determined by several variables such as the type of liquid beverage and the material or size of the container in which the liquid beverage is stored. However, if you limit only a few commonly used materials, such as the size and size of the container, and ignore other low-impact variables (eg cooling rates), you can statistically process the experimental data to determine the type of liquid beverage. The appropriate overcooling temperature can be determined. For example, after repeated experiments with water in a 200 ml glass container, assuming that the average limit subcooling temperature is -9 ° C, this temperature or slightly higher is set to the set temperature of the subcooling chamber 15 for water. Can be defined In this way, experiments with different types of liquid beverages show that the set temperature (T) of the subcooling chamber (15) is about -5˚C to -12˚C for a commonly used container. have. The refrigerator of the present invention sucks cold air from the freezing chamber 11 and the refrigerating chamber 13, respectively, and then mixes appropriately in a control unit (not shown) to supply cold air to the subcooling chamber 15, or has a separate evaporator to provide cold air. You can also supply. An evaporator (not shown) for generating cold air to be supplied to the storage compartment and a fan (not shown) for circulation of the cold air are installed at the rear of each of the storage compartments 11, 13, and 15.

2 and 3 are a plan view and a perspective view of the subcooling chamber of the refrigerator according to the present invention. Referring to the drawings, the subcooling chamber 15 is partitioned into a plurality of spaces by partitions 16 and 17, preferably each space is a subcooling 20, a storage 40, and an ice making unit 50. Is done.

The partition wall 16 between the subcooling part 20 and the storage part 40 is provided in a slider manner so that the subcooling part 20 can be pulled out when the door 12 is opened, and when the partition wall 16 is pulled out. The bottom surface 21 of the subcooling unit 20 is also simultaneously drawn out as shown in FIG. 3.

The subcooling unit 20 is for making the liquid beverage in a supercooled state and includes a plurality of subcooling vessels 30 in which the liquid beverage is accommodated. The subcooling container 30 may be provided in various sizes in accordance with the size of the beverage container.

As shown in FIG. 4, the supercooling container 30 has a cylindrical body 31 having an upper portion open to insert a normal liquid beverage, and a vibration member therein.

The vibrating member vibrates the liquid beverage (hereinafter, subcooled water) in the beverage container, so that the subcooled state is more stably maintained or the temperature is lowered to make the subcooled water with improved subcooling degree. As the vibrating member, a solenoid cell including a coil 32 embedded in a wall of the supercooling container body 31 and a winding, and a power supply unit 35 for supplying power to the coil 32 is preferable. When an alternating current or direct current is applied by the power supply unit 35, a strong magnetic field vibration is generated in the subcooled container body 31 to prevent freezing of the subcooled water. The power supply unit 35 is located behind the subcooling unit 20 and the storage unit 40, as shown in FIG.

In addition, an electric vibration generator having a frequency band of 1 MHz to 10 MHz with a power source within 200 V to 1 kV, for example, an additional vibration member 33 at the bottom of the sub-cooling unit 20, or inside the sub-cooling unit 20 (upper side of the sub-cooling container). In order to improve the cooling rate of the subcooling container 30, the fan 34 may be installed. This is because even if the cooling speed is increased by increasing the heat transfer coefficient by the fan 34, the supercooled water can be produced quickly in a relatively short time because the beverage is not frozen due to the vibration caused by the magnetic field.

On the other hand, the storage unit 40 is stored in the beverage container with the subcooled water in a supercooled state, the ice making unit 50 is provided with a dispenser including an auger 51 for discharging ice cubes or ice cubes.

Then, the operation of the refrigerator according to the present invention configured as described above will be described.

In order to make the liquid beverage in the subcooled state, first, the door 12 of the subcooling chamber 15 is opened, and the subcooling part 20 is withdrawn to the front. Then, the liquid beverage is put into the subcooling container 30, the subcooling part 15 is introduced into the main body 10, and the door 12 is closed.

Then, as the subcooling chamber 15 is cooled to a temperature suitable for the subcooling of the liquid beverage, the subcooling water starts to be generated. At this time, power is supplied to the solenoid cell power supply unit 35 of the subcooling vessel 30 to supply alternating current to the coil 32. When the direct current is applied, the beverage in the beverage container is suppressed from being frozen by the vibration generated by the magnetic field while generating the supercooled water.

As described in detail above, the refrigerator according to the present invention prevents the liquid beverage from being frozen by applying a magnetic field vibration to the thermodynamically unstable supercooled water using a solenoid cell, thereby obtaining a stable supercooled water, and further increasing the subcooling temperature. By lowering it is possible to produce subcooled water with further improved subcooling.

Claims (5)

With the body, A subcooling chamber provided inside the main body to supercool the liquid beverage; A plurality of subcooling vessels provided in the subcooling chamber and containing a liquid beverage; And a magnetic field generator for applying vibration to the supercooled container. The method of claim 1, The magnetic field generator is a refrigerator, characterized in that the solenoid cell. The method of claim 2, The solenoid cell is a coil embedded in the wall of the subcooling vessel and wound; And a power supply unit for supplying power to the coil. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, Refrigerator, characterized in that the fan is provided on the upper side of the subcooling vessel. The method of claim 1, The subcooling chamber is partitioned into a plurality of spaces, wherein at least one of the space is provided with the subcooling container, the other space is provided in the refrigerator.

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