KR20080088945A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

A refrigerator is provided to improve supercooling effect and to lower a supercooling temperature by installing a piezoelectric matrix on an inner wall of a supercooling container and applying power to the piezoelectric matrix using a power unit. A refrigerator comprises a supercooling chamber, plural supercooling containers(30), and a piezoelectric member. 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 piezoelectric member prevents freezing of supercooled water and has a piezoelectric matrix(40) and a power unit. The piezoelectric matrix is formed on an inner wall of the supercooling container. The power unit applies power to the piezoelectric matrix.

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 40. Piezo Matrix

41. Absorbing layer 45. Matching layer

46. Power supply 50. Storage

60. Ice maker

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 is greatly increased with time. At this point, when the temperature in the storage room drops to the lowest, the supercooled beverage will freeze, making it impossible to produce a slush-like 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 performed correctly, 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 plastic). The phenomenon begins at the wall of the vessel where the ice core first occurs.

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 by preventing the ice core formation of the liquid beverage, but also by further lowering the supercooling temperature to further improve the supercooling degree It is to provide a refrigerator capable of producing water.

A 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 containers provided in the subcooling chamber and filled with a liquid beverage, and a subcooling container. Piezoelectric member for preventing the formation of ice core in the subcooled water.

In addition, the piezoelectric member of the refrigerator according to the present invention includes a piezo matrix provided on the inner wall surface of the supercooling container, and a power supply unit for supplying power to the piezo matrix.

In addition, the piezo matrix of the refrigerator according to the present invention includes an absorption layer, a first electrode, a piezoelectric element, a second electrode, and a matching layer.

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 subcooling temperature accordingly 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 the partitions 16 and 17, preferably each space is a subcooling 20, a storage 50, and an ice making unit 60. Is done.

The partition wall 16 between the subcooling unit 20 and the storage unit 50 is provided in a slider manner so that the subcooling unit 20 can be pulled out when the door 12 is opened, and the partition wall 16 is withdrawn. 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 filled. The subcooling vessel 30 may be provided in various sizes in accordance with the amount of the liquid beverage.

As shown in FIG. 4, the supercooling container 30 has a cylindrical body 31 having an upper portion open to fill a normal liquid beverage, and the piezoelectric member is formed on the sidewall and the bottom surface thereof. Prepared.

The piezoelectric member continuously maintains the supercooled state of the liquid beverage since the liquid is filled in the body 31 and continuously moves like a wave as power is applied to prevent freezing by forming an ice core from a portion close to the wall. .

The piezoelectric member includes a piezoelectric matrix 40 and a power supply 46 for supplying power to the piezoelectric matrix 40. As shown in FIG. 4, the piezo matrix 40 has an absorption layer 41, a first electrode 42, a piezoelectric element 43, and a second electrode 44 sequentially from an inner wall surface of the body 31. ) And a matching layer 45. Absorption layer 41 absorbs the sound waves radiated to the rear to reduce the pulse length of the sound waves, the matching layer () allows the waves generated in the piezoelectric element () to be transmitted stably without being reflected to the liquid beverage. Therefore, when an alternating current or direct current is applied by the power supply unit 46, the piezoelectric member moves as a wave, thereby suppressing ice core growth that is to be formed on the inner wall of the supercooled container body 31, thereby preventing freezing of the supercooled water. The power supply 46 is located at the rear of the subcooling unit 20 and the storage unit 50, as shown in FIG. 2, and the first and second portions of the piezo matrix 40 through the predetermined grounding unit 47. It is in electrical contact with the electrodes 42 and 44.

On the other hand, the storage unit 50 is stored in the super-cooled beverage container is formed, the ice making unit 60 is provided with a dispenser including an auger 61 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 filled in 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 subcooling of the liquid beverage, subcooling water starts to be generated, and when the piezoelectric member of the subcooling vessel 30 is powered, the piezo matrix 40 is waved. Since the ice nucleus is prevented from being formed on the inner wall surface of the supercooled container body 31 while moving, the freezing of the supercooled water is effectively prevented.

As described in detail above, the refrigerator according to the present invention because the piezo matrix provided on the inner wall surface of the supercooling container is continuously wave-like as the power is applied to prevent the ice core is formed in the supercooled water, The freezing is prevented to obtain a stable subcooled water, and further, by lowering the subcooling temperature, a supercooled water with improved subcooling degree can be manufactured.

Claims (3)

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 filled with a liquid beverage; And a piezoelectric member for preventing ice cores from being formed in the subcooled water of the subcooled container. The method of claim 1, The piezoelectric member is a piezo matrix provided on the inner wall surface of the supercooled container, And a power supply unit for supplying power to the piezo matrix. The method of claim 2, The piezo matrix comprises a absorption layer, a first electrode, a piezoelectric element, a second electrode, a matching layer.

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