WO2003021171A1

WO2003021171A1 - Refrigerating appliance comprising a cold wall evaporator

Info

Publication number: WO2003021171A1
Application number: PCT/EP2002/009784
Authority: WO
Inventors: Michael Neumann; Walter Lipp
Original assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH
Priority date: 2001-09-04
Filing date: 2002-09-02
Publication date: 2003-03-13
Also published as: RU2259519C2; CN1551969A; PL200155B1; RU2004105928A; CN1313785C; DE10143241A1; EP1430260A1; PL367790A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a refrigerating appliance comprising a heat-insulating housing and an inner chamber which is surrounded by said housing. The housing is provided with an inner container (1) and an outer wall which together define an intermediate chamber, and an evaporator (5) which is arranged in the intermediate chamber and is in thermal contact with a vertical wall (3) of the inner container. At least one plane oblique wall surface (6) is formed between the vertical wall (3) and a cover (2) of the inner container (1), the evaporator (5) extending on said surface.

Description

Refrigeration device with Coldwall evaporator

The present invention relates to a refrigeration device with a heat-insulating housing, an interior space surrounded by the housing, the housing comprising an inner container and an outer wall which jointly delimit a space, and with one arranged in the space in thermal contact with a vertical wall of the inner container Evaporator. Such evaporators, which are usually glued to the outside of the inner container, are also known as coldwall evaporators.

The inner containers of such refrigeration devices are usually manufactured from flat plastic material in a deep-drawing process. If an essentially cuboid body like the inner container of a refrigerator is to be drawn from flat material, the material is subjected to considerable stretching, particularly in the areas that form the edges of the inner container. In order to prevent tearing at the edges, it is customary to make the edges rounded, whereby the radius of curvature of the roundings can be 2 cm or more. In the area of the roundings, it is not possible to establish an intimate contact between the cold wall evaporator and the inner container, which would allow effective cooling of the interior. Therefore, in conventional refrigeration devices, the evaporator does not extend into the rounding area. The consequence of this is that the interior of the refrigerator is not effectively cooled at its upper end, at the level of the upper rounding, and an undesirable temperature stratification forms in the interior.

The object of the present invention is to provide a refrigeration device with a cold wall evaporator in which a temperature stratification in the interior is reduced.

The object is achieved by a refrigerator with the features of claim 1.

Due to the inclined surface between the vertical wall and the ceiling, the evaporator can be arranged at least very close to the transition area between the wall and the ceiling, which improves the cooling effect of the refrigerator in the vicinity of the ceiling and thus noticeably reduces the temperature stratification in its cooling space. Furthermore, the lower temperatures in the vicinity of the cold room ceiling create storage conditions for temperature-sensitive refrigerated goods.

The arrangement of the inclined wall surface is chosen particularly favorably because of the comparatively large transition radius of the vertical wall to the ceiling if the evaporator is provided on the vertical wall serving as the rear of the inner container.

This arrangement of the inclined surface thus results in the greatest introduction of cooling power into the cooling space.

With the flat, sloping wall surface, the evaporator can be brought into intimate contact without difficulty; and the sloping wall surface can be pulled up to a smaller vertical distance from the ceiling of the inner container without causing a risk of breakage when pulling the inner container than is possible with a vertical wall.

The evaporator preferably extends over the entire inclined wall surface.

The angle between the inclined wall surface and the vertical is preferably at least 15 and at most 75 °, particularly preferably between 20 and 45 °.

The angle of the inclined wall surface to the vertical should not be so large that there is a risk that drops of condensation water forming on the inclined wall surface can fall freely and hit stored goods to be refrigerated; rather, it should be ensured that such drops run down the sloping wall surface in order to finally reach the vertical wall, at the lower end of which they are discharged. How large this angle may be depends on the material of the inner wall and its surface condition; in individual cases it is easy to determine experimentally.

Further features and advantages of the invention result from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached figures. Show it: Figure 1 is a schematic partial section through the inner container of a refrigerator according to the prior art;

Figure 2 shows a partial section analogous to that of Figure 1 through an inner container of a refrigerator according to the invention;

Figure 3 shows a further partial section according to a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Figures 4 to 6 are perspective external views of the inner container of a refrigerator according to various embodiments of the invention; and

Figure 7 is a front view of an evaporator according to another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows a partial section through the inner container 1 'of a conventional refrigeration device. You can see a part of the ceiling 2 'and the rear wall 3' of the inner container, as well as a rounding 4 'connecting both. The radius of curvature of the rounding 4 'is selected such that, when the inner container 1' is formed, there is a reasonable certainty that there is no break between the ceiling 2 'and the rear wall 3'. A radius of curvature of the order of 2 cm is typically required for this. A cold wall evaporator 5 'arranged on the rear wall 3 extends to a dash-dotted line at which the vertical rear wall 3' merges into the rounded portion 4 '. The upper edge of the evaporator thus ends at a distance h 'of approximately 2 cm below the ceiling 2'.

FIG. 2 shows a section through the same corner of the inner container 1 of a refrigeration device according to the invention. In this device, a first rounding 4a, a flat wall surface 6 oriented obliquely to the vertical and a second rounding 4b are successively formed between the ceiling 2 and the rear wall 3. The radius of curvature of the roundings 4a, 4b in FIG. 2 is the same as for the rounding 4 'in FIG. 1. The inclined wall surface extends at an angle α = 30 ° to the vertical.

An evaporator 5 attached to the foam side of the rear wall 3 of the inner container 1 comprises a main section 7 which extends in a conventional manner along the vertical rear wall 3 and an additional section 8 which extends along a horizontal one Kink line, also inclined at an angle α to the vertical, adjoins the main section 7 at the top. If the radius of curvature on the inside of the evaporator 5 facing the rear wall 3 is not greater than that on the outside of the rounding 4a, it is possible to bring the evaporator 5 into intimate contact with the rear wall 3 as well as with the inclined wall surface 6 at the same time and so to effectively cool the wall surface 6. As the comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2 shows, this leads to a significant reduction in the non-cooled height h of the interior in comparison to FIG. 1, without the radius of curvature of the roundings 4a, 4b having to be reduced compared to 4 '. In the case shown here, h = 1/2 x h '; in general, h = (1-sinα) h '. It should be noted, however, that the radius of curvature of a rounding between two flat wall surfaces can be chosen to be smaller when the inner container 1 is deep-drawn, the more obtuse the angle at which the two wall surfaces meet without the risk of breaking. This enables a further reduction in the uncooled height h, as shown in FIG. 3, where the roundings 4a, 4b are practically reduced to lines and the additional section 8 of the evaporator 5 extends to the level of the ceiling 2.

FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of an inner container 1 of a refrigerator with an evaporator 5 mounted on its rear wall 3 according to a first exemplary embodiment. The evaporator 5 is essentially constructed from a good heat-conducting metal plate 10, which is glued to a surface on the rear wall 3 and the inclined wall surface 6, and on the opposite surface of which a cooling coil 9 is laid in a meandering manner in a conventional manner. The cooling coil 9 here extends only over the part of the metal plate 10 forming the main section 7, but not over the additional section 8. This is cooled solely by heat conduction from the main section 7. This configuration is useful if the additional section 8 is only a small height of a few cm and / or the angle α to the vertical is relatively large.

Figure 5 shows an embodiment which is suitable for an additional section 8 of greater height. In this embodiment, the cooling coil 9 extends to the additional section 8, and the forward and return flow of the cooling coil 9 each comprise a horizontal line section 1, which extends along an edge between the main section 7 and the additional section 8 of the evaporator 5. Such an evaporator can be manufactured in a simple manner by first attaching the entire cooling coil 9 to a flat metal plate and then bending it in order to form the main section 7 and additional to form section 8. With this kink, the line sections 11 are each only subjected to torsion, but there are no tensile forces which could lead to a narrowing of the line cross section of the cooling coil during the transition over the edge.

In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the evaporator 5 is composed of two separate metal plates, which each form the main section 7 and the additional section 8. The two sections 7, 8 are connected at a short distance by glued or soldered plates 12, which make the evaporator manageable before it is mounted on the rear wall 3 without risk of damage to the cooling coil 9 crossing the gap. When mounting on the rear wall 3, the additional section 8 can be easily bent by hand so that it comes to lie exactly on the inclined wall surface 6. Due to the distance provided between the main section 7 and the additional section 8, a sharp kinking of the cooling coil 9 during the transition between the two sections is avoided.

FIG. 7 shows a plan view of a further exemplary embodiment of an evaporator which is provided for mounting on an inner container 1 with an inclined wall surface. The metal plate 10 of the evaporator is divided into a main section 7 and an additional section 8 by a plurality of punched openings 13, 14. The openings 13, which are elongated along the horizontal bending edge between the main and additional sections, ensure that the two sections can be easily bent with respect to one another, by means of which the evaporator can be easily adapted to the orientation of the inclined wall surface during assembly. The openings 14 are each arranged where the cooling coil 9 crosses the edge between the main section 7 and the additional section 8, and they have a greater extent transversely to this edge than the elongated openings 13. When the evaporator 5 is bent, the sections of the cooling coil 9 crossing the edge can thus dip into the openings 14 and can thus be bent without tension and without the risk of kinking.

Claims

claims

1. Refrigerating appliance with a heat-insulating housing having an outer wall and an interior surrounded by the housing, the lining of which is formed by an inner container (1), the interior being cooled by an evaporator, characterized in that between the vertical wall (3) and at least one flat sloping wall surface (6) is formed on a ceiling (2) of the inner container, and that the evaporator (5) extends into the sloping wall surface (6).

2. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that the evaporator (5) is provided on the vertical wall (3) serving as the rear of the inner container (1).

3. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the evaporator (5) is arranged on the outside of the inner container (1) facing away from the interior, in heat-conducting contact therewith.

4. Refrigerating appliance according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the evaporator (5) covers the entire inclined wall surface (6).

5. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1 or 4, characterized in that the inclined wall surface (6) forms an angle to the vertical of at least 15 ° and at most 75 °, preferably between 20 ° and 45 °.

6. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, 4 or 5, characterized in that the inclined wall surface forms an angle to the vertical which is small enough to allow condensation drops forming on the inclined wall surface (6) to drain off onto the vertical wall guarantee.