RU2326298C2 - Refrigerating unit - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: refrigeration industry.

SUBSTANCE: refrigerating unit with an inner space enveloped by a heat insulator housing and a door, incorporating an inner space air humidity sensor and an inner space heater to vary the temperature depending upon air humidity red by the sensor. Note here, that the inner space accommodates an appliance for hanging up clothes.

EFFECT: reduction in refrigerating unit power consumption in killing parasites in fabric products.

6 cl, 2 dwg

Description

Technical field

The invention relates to a refrigerating apparatus with an internal cavity bounded by a heat insulating body and a door.

State of the art

In refrigerators in accordance with the prior art, refrigerators are equipped with storage spaces, for example, glass shelves, wire gratings and baskets and other devices forming an ordered system for stored refrigerated products. Until now known refrigerators are mainly used for storing perishable food products and heat-sensitive products in various fields of medicine, industry and science.

Only recently have refrigerators been also used for short-term storage of textiles with the aim of eliminating parasites, in particular mites, dust mites and scabies and lice.

The house dust mite is the cause of the so-called allergy to house dust. Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of allergic diseases. At the same time, an allergy to house dust is one of the most common forms of allergies. It is expressed in a cold, asthma and neurodermatitis.

House dust mites are tiny arachnids that feed on particles of skin, hair and feathers. Allergies are caused by aggressive products of their life. House dust mites have a rather large and thin skin surface in relation to their volume, as a result of which they dry out quite quickly. Therefore, the tick purposefully searches for a wetter environment for its habitat. He finds ideal conditions at an air humidity of 65 to 80% and an ambient temperature of 20 to 30 ° C.

House dust mites live mainly in house dust, in bed, and in human clothing. Meanwhile, special vacuum cleaners have appeared on sale that remove dust from the floor, furniture, upholstery, etc. without a significant release of ticks and their waste products into the environment. There are also special mite-proof duvet covers that reduce tick infestation. Removing ticks from textiles, by contrast, is extremely time consuming. True, washing textiles at a temperature of at least 60 ° C kills ticks, but not all textiles can withstand such a high washing temperature. In addition, the extremely frequent washing required leads to increased wear and shortened textile life. Chemical methods of combating ticks are also undesirable, since they negatively affect the environment and not least also the owners of textiles processed in this way, and with sensitive textile materials can lead to undesirable fiber changes.

Therefore, cooling garments is a highly preferred method of combating house dust mites. Many hours of clothing in the refrigerator at temperatures below 0 ° C kills ticks, so that they can no longer produce an allergen. After that, temperature-sensitive textiles can be washed at a low temperature, after which they are mainly freed from mites and their secretions.

Also known head louse dies at a temperature of -10 ° C for 24 hours, and the placement of textiles, etc. in the refrigerator is one of the most important recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute for the fight against lice.

Storage of textiles in refrigerators is associated with great difficulties. To prevent ice crystals from precipitating on textiles during cooling, the textiles are packed in large, low-temperature bags or plastic bags. The packaging process takes a lot of time, especially if you want to sanitize as many textile products as possible at the same time. Particularly sensitive textiles, such as garments made of velvet, Angora wool, mohair and cashmere, crumple after freezing and the protruding wool fibers stick together.

Disclosure of invention

The objective of the invention is to create a refrigeration apparatus that provides the ability to easily, quickly and sparingly cool textiles.

The objective of the invention is partially solved by the fact that in the inner cavity of the refrigeration apparatus is placed a device for hanging clothes.

The preferred device for hanging clothes is a wardrobe bar. Then sanitized items of clothing can be hung on the shoulders in the refrigerator. At the same time, clothes do not wrinkle during cooling, wrinkles do not form, and the fibers do not stick together. In addition, items of clothing are better washed by cold air.

At the same time, it is desirable that the wardrobe bar is removable; then the refrigerator can be used for other purposes, for example, for cooling food.

In one embodiment of the invention, it is contemplated that the refrigeration apparatus is an air circulation refrigerator. In such refrigerators, the evaporator is located in a compartment isolated from the internal cavity of the refrigerator, and the heat exchange between the compartment and the internal cavity, in which the internal cavity is cooled, is carried out by the evaporator fan, which pumps the cooled and dried air into the internal cavity, and relatively warm and humid air It is sucked from the internal cavity into the compartment. At the same time, the internal cavity is not only cooled, but moisture is removed from it, which is especially favorable for sanitizing textiles, since lice and mites to be destroyed with low humidity die faster. Reduced humidity means, in addition, that textiles can be stored in the refrigerator and without a protective shell, since the formation of ice crystals on the fibers is unlikely. In a refrigerator with air circulation, textiles cool faster than in a refrigerator without forced air circulation, so textiles need to stay in the refrigerator for a short time to get rid of ticks and lice.

In one preferred embodiment of the invention, the refrigerating apparatus has a sensor for measuring air humidity in the internal cavity of the refrigerator and a heater for heating the internal cavity depending on the humidity measured by the sensor. This allows you to measure and adjust the humidity in the internal cavity of the refrigerator, maintaining optimal humidity for sanitation of textiles. This is especially important if the refrigerator is to be used both for cooling food products and for sanitizing textiles. Products, especially vegetables and fruits, require a certain air humidity so that they do not dry out and become inedible. This humidity is significantly higher than the humidity desired for sanitation of textiles.

It is desirable that the heater is turned on when the humidity measured by the sensor exceeds 45%. With an air humidity of less than 45%, house dust mites, the causative agents of scabies and lice die faster, and the likelihood of ice crystals forming decreases.

In conventional air circulation chillers, the fan power is selected so that the chilled products dry out as little as possible. But for sanitation of textile products, drying is just desirable, and therefore, in one preferred embodiment of the invention, a fan is provided having at least two switchable power levels, the lower of which is intended for storing food products, and the highest for drying textiles.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the refrigerating apparatus is a refrigerator with a thermostat for setting a predetermined adjustable temperature value in the internal cavity, the normal preset value of the cooling temperature being adjustable between 4 and 10 ° C, while the preset value for cooling textiles should be significantly below 0 ° C. In this way, the optimum temperature for killing parasites can be set in a refrigerator designed primarily for cooling, and not for freezing.

An alternative according to the invention can be a freezer with a thermostatic regulator to maintain a set temperature value in the internal cavity, which allows to set, instead of a set temperature normal for a freezer, between -25 and -10 ° C, a set value for cooling textiles between -5 and + 5 ° C . Increased temperature compared to the normal freezing mode, but still low enough to destroy parasites, allows you to reduce the power consumption of the refrigerator in the cooling mode of textile products.

Brief List of Drawings

Other features and advantages of the invention result from the following description of implementation examples with reference to the accompanying drawings:

figure 1 is a view of the invention of the refrigerator with an open door in perspective view and

figure 2 is a schematic section of the proposed invention, the refrigeration apparatus.

The implementation of the invention

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a refrigeration unit with a heat insulating casing 1 and a pivot door 2 attached to it. The open door 2 allows you to see the inner cavity 3 of the casing 1. The inner cavity 3 is limited to a single-section plastic container with an inner wall with a rear wall 4, behind which is located on the evaporator not visible in the drawing, and two side walls 5, on which there are a number of protrusions 6, 7, which serve as a support for the shelves for storage of refrigerated items. The first group of these protrusions consists of longitudinal horizontal ribs 6, on which flat glass or wire mesh for products can be installed, which are usually installed in refrigerators. With the exception of the plate 8, which covers the two drawers 9 installed in the lower part, in the refrigerator according to the invention, such shelves are absent, as can be seen from the drawing, but they, of course, can be supplied and installed by the user as required.

The second type of protrusion 7 has an approximately U-shaped section, and two such protrusions 7 are mounted in the middle opposite each other in the upper part of the side walls 5. The protrusions 7, as well as the ribs 6, can be formed integrally with the inner container of the refrigerator. True, this requires the use of a complex molding tool with mutually movable parts for deep drawing of the inner container. Therefore, it is preferable that the protrusions 7 are made in the form of independent parts, independent of the inner container, and attached to the side walls 5, for example, by gluing, inserting and, if necessary, fixing in the corresponding slots in the walls 5 or in another way. This solution has the additional advantage that the refrigerator proposed by the invention can be implemented on the basis of conventional refrigerators without changing the manufacturing technology, with the exception of a few simple additional technological operations, so that the apparatus can be economical even when manufactured in small batches.

Two U-shaped protrusions 7 on the side walls 5 are supported by a wardrobe bar 10, on which sanitized textiles can be freely hung on their shoulders so that they, unlike textiles laid on flat shelves, are washed with air and, thus, quickly and thoroughly cooled down. Thanks to the free suspension on the wardrobe bar 10, more intensive drying of textiles is provided than when stacking.

The wardrobe rod 10 can be pulled out of the protrusions 7 and removed from the refrigerator, which makes possible the normal use of the apparatus as a refrigerator for food.

The refrigerator of the refrigerator is controlled by a thermostat, the installation of which is set by the adjustment knob 11 mounted on the right side wall 5 near the illuminator 13 of the internal cavity. Using the adjustment knob, you can set the temperature in the range from about +10 to -5 ° C, but at the same time, in order to move the adjustment knob 11 to a position corresponding to temperatures below 0 ° C, you must first press the adjacent button 12, release the lock. This is done so that the user using the device as a refrigerator for food does not accidentally set the cooling temperature below 0 ° C, which could lead to spoilage of food or damage to food containers.

The refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 may be a so-called Coldwall type refrigerator, i.e. a refrigerator with an evaporator located behind the wall 4 in direct contact with it, or a refrigerator with air circulation, in which the evaporator is located in a compartment separated from the internal cavity 3. Figure 2 shows a schematic section through this design in the form of a refrigerator with air circulation.

The refrigerant refrigerant circuit consists of a compressor 14, a condenser 15, into which gaseous refrigerant under high pressure enters from the compressor 14, and the already mentioned evaporator, indicated at 16, into which condensed refrigerant enters from the condenser 15, expands and evaporates, thereby cooling the compartment 17 extending along the rear wall of the refrigerator, in which the evaporator 16 is located. The compartment 17 is connected with two passages to the internal cavity 3, moreover, in one of the passages, in this case, in the upper m is located the fan 18, provides forced ventilation between the compartment 17 and the internal cavity 3.

The operation of the compressor 14 and the fan 18 is controlled by the regulator 19. The regulator 19 is connected to a temperature sensor 20 and an air humidity sensor 21 installed in the internal cavity 3. It is also connected to the adjustment knob 11 and the lighting device 13 of the internal cavity.

When the adjustment knob 11 is set to a position corresponding to positive temperature values outside the range protected by the button 12, the controller 19 controls the compressor 14 and the fan 18 in a known manner, in accordance with the temperature measured by the temperature sensor 20. If the fan 18 is turned on, it works at such a power level, which creates in the inner cavity 3 perhaps only such slow air flows that, in extreme cases, slightly dry the products and other objects stored there. But if the adjustment knob 11 is set to a temperature in the protected range, which corresponds to the use of a refrigeration apparatus for killing ticks, due to the lower set temperature, the relative operating time of the compressor 14 and fan 18 in the total operating time of the apparatus also increases, but the fan power switches to a higher stage to create in the inner cavity 3 an intense air flow with enhanced drainage effect.

Moisture, which in this case evaporates from textiles suspended in the inner cavity 3 or otherwise stored, condenses on the evaporator 16, as a result of which the inner cavity 3 is drained.

When the refrigerator is operated at a low outside temperature, at which the relative operating time of the compressor in the total operating time of the apparatus is small and insufficient to reduce the air humidity in the inner cavity 3 below a limit value, for example 45%, then the regulator 19 turns on the lighting device 13 of the inner cavity, and then when door 2 is closed. In this way, additional heat is introduced into the internal cavity 3, which is measured by the temperature sensor 20 and causes the controller 19 to turn on the compressor 14 for a longer time. An increase in compressor operating time leads to increased drainage, so that ultimately air humidity in the desired range is set in the inner cavity 3.

Although the invention has been described above with an example of a refrigerator, it is obvious that a freezer can also be adapted in the sense of the invention for cooling textiles and destroying parasites in this way. While the temperature range in the refrigerator that is optimal for processing textiles is below the normal temperature range when using the refrigerator to store food, the opposite is the case in the freezer. Temperatures required for reliable storage of products in the range from -16 to -20 ° C for the destruction of house dust mites are not required. Therefore, if a freezer is used in accordance with the present invention, energy can be saved by choosing a higher set point for the temperature in the internal cavity than in the normal cooling mode for food. A temperature controller lock may also be provided here to prevent the temperature from being set accidentally above the desired temperature range for storing frozen food.

Many modern refrigerators do not use temperature knobs or other mechanical devices to set the temperature, the position of which determines the set temperature, but an electronic register, the content of which increases or decreases in steps by pressing the set buttons. A protective function similar to the one described above is easily realized with such a temperature controller, if it is envisaged that the controller 19 displays the contents of such a register in the direction of increase or decrease beyond the specified limits only if the user simultaneously with the set button presses a button similar to button 12 in Fig. 1 .

Claims (6)

1. A refrigerator with an internal cavity (3) bounded by an insulating body (1) and a door (2), characterized in that the device has a sensor (21) for measuring air humidity in the internal cavity and a heating device for heating the internal cavity (3 ) depending on the humidity measured by the sensor (21), and in the inner cavity (3) a device (10) is installed for hanging clothes. 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, characterized in that it is made in the form of a refrigerator with air circulation. 3. The refrigeration apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that it is designed so that the heating device is turned on when the air humidity measured by the sensor (21) exceeds 45%. 4. The refrigeration apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a fan (18) for circulating air in the internal cavity (3), the fan (18) having at least two switchable power levels. 5. The refrigeration apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a thermostatic regulator (11, 19, 20) for maintaining a predetermined temperature value in the internal cavity (3), moreover, the thermostatic regulator can be set as the normal cooling temperature in the range between 4 and 10 ° C, and the cooling temperature for textiles, set below 0 ° C. 6. A refrigerator with an internal cavity (3) bounded by a heat-insulating casing (1) and a door (2) and with a thermostatic regulator (11, 19, 20) to maintain the set temperature in the internal cavity (3), characterized in that the thermostatic regulator can be set as the normal freezing temperature in the range between -25 and -10 ° C, and the cooling temperature for textiles, adjustable between -5 and + 5 ° C.

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