WO2004015339A1

WO2004015339A1 - Refrigerator

Info

Publication number: WO2004015339A1
Application number: PCT/EP2003/008158
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hans-Kersten Hrubesch; Fritz Hägele; Manfred Strobel
Original assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH
Priority date: 2002-08-05
Filing date: 2003-07-24
Publication date: 2004-02-19
Also published as: DE10235781A1; RU2326298C2; AU2003260327A1; EP2102567A1; PL373323A1; RU2005101333A

Abstract

The invention relates to a refrigerator with an interior, enclosed by means of a thermally-insulating housing (1) and a door (2), whereby within the interior (3) a device for hanging clothes is arranged. A fan (18) may be switched between two discrete power levels.

Description

The refrigerator

The invention relates to a refrigerator with an interior enclosed by a heat-insulating housing and a door.

In the case of refrigeration appliances, it is state of the art to equip the cooling rooms with storage compartments, for example glass support plates, wire support grids or wire baskets or the like, in order to create an organization system for the refrigerated goods to be stored. The previously known refrigeration devices are mainly used to store perishable food and to store heat-sensitive products from a wide variety of areas in medicine, industry and research.

Refrigerators have only recently been used for the short-term storage of textiles in order to control vermin, especially house dust mites, scabies and lice.

The house dust mite is the cause of the so-called house dust allergy. There has been a significant increase in allergy diseases recently. House dust allergy is one of the most common forms of allergy. It is associated with chronic runny nose, asthma and neurodermatitis.

Dust mites are tiny arachnids that live on skin particles, hair and feathers. Their aggressive excretion products are allergy-triggering. The dust mites have a very large and thin skin surface compared to their volume, which means that they dry out relatively quickly. The mite therefore chooses a more humid environment for its stay. It finds ideal conditions at a humidity of 65 to 80% and an ambient temperature of 20 to 30 ° C.

House dust mites I preferably in house dust, in beds and clothing for humans. Special vacuum cleaners are now available that remove house dust from floors and furniture, upholstery, etc. without releasing the mite or its excretion products to the environment. The beds can also be provided with special mite-proof covers to reduce contamination with the mites. The control of mites in textiles, on the other hand, is very complex. Although it is due to see the textiles at temperatures of at least 60 ° C possible to kill mites in them, but not all textiles are suitable for such high washing temperatures. In addition, the stress associated with the required, extremely frequent washing leads to increased wear and a shorter service life of the textiles. Chemical control of the mites is also undesirable, since it pollutes the environment and, not least, the wearers of the textiles treated in this way and, in the case of sensitive textiles, can lead to an adverse change in the fibers.

Therefore, cooling clothes is a very beneficial method of combating dust mites. By storing the items of clothing at temperatures below 0 ° C in a refrigerator for several hours, the mites are killed so that they can no longer excrete an allergen. Temperature sensitive textiles can then be washed at low temperatures and are then essentially free of mites and their excretion products.

The well-known head lice also die at temperatures of -10 ° C within 24 hours, and placing textiles etc. in a refrigerator is one of the most important pieces of advice on combating lice from the Robert Koch Institute.

The storage of the textiles in the refrigeration devices is very time-consuming. In order to prevent ice crystals from settling on the textiles during the cooling process, the textiles are packed in large freezer bags or plastic bags. The packaging process takes a lot of time, especially when as many textiles need to be renovated at the same time. Particularly delicate textiles, such as clothing made of velvet, angora, mohair or cashmere wool, are crumpled after freezing and the wool hair emerging from the fibers is glued.

The object of the invention is to provide a refrigeration device which enables simple, quick and gentle cooling of textiles.

The object of the invention is achieved on the one hand in that a device for hanging clothes is attached in the interior of the refrigerator. The device for hanging clothes is preferably a clothes rail. Then the clothes to be renovated can be fitted with a hanger and hung in the refrigerator. The latter prevents clothing from becoming creased during the cooling process, wrinkles appearing or fibers sticking together. In addition, the clothes can be better washed by the cold air.

It is advantageous if the clothes rail is removably attached so that the refrigerator can also be used for other purposes, e.g. for cooling food.

One embodiment of the invention provides that the refrigeration device is a circulating air refrigeration device. In such refrigeration devices, an evaporator is arranged in a chamber separated from a storage compartment for refrigerated goods, and heat is exchanged between the chamber and the storage compartment, through which the storage compartment is cooled, by cooling and drying air into the evaporator using a fan on the evaporator The storage compartment is blown and relatively warm, moist air is drawn into the chamber from the storage compartment. The storage compartment is not only cooled, but also dehumidified, which is particularly advantageous for the renovation of textiles, since the lice and mites to be destroyed die faster when the humidity is low. A lower air humidity also means that the textiles can be stored in the refrigerator even without a protective cover, since hardly any more ice crystals can form on the fibers. There is also a faster cooling of the textiles in a circulating air refrigerator than in a refrigerator without forced air circulation, so that the textiles only have to remain in the refrigerator for a short time in order to be free of mites or lice.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the refrigeration device has a sensor for detecting the air humidity of the interior and a heating device for heating the interior as a function of the air humidity detected by the sensor. In this way, the humidity values in the interior can be recorded and controlled in order to optimize the humidity values for the renovation of the textiles. This is particularly important if the refrigeration device is to be used both for cooling food and for renovating textiles. Food, especially vegetables and fruits, need a certain level of humidity so that they do not dry out and become inedible. This air humidity is significantly higher than the air humidity that is desirable for the renovation of textiles. The heating device should preferably go into operation when the air humidity detected by the sensor is more than 45%. If the air humidity is below 45%, the house dust mites, scabies and lice are killed faster and ice crystal formation is reduced.

In conventional circulating air cooling units, the blower output is dimensioned so that the stored goods to be cooled are dried out as little as possible. For the refurbishment of textiles, drying out is desirable, so that, in an advantageous embodiment of the invention, a blower is provided which can be switched between at least two power levels with non-zero power, one of which is a low power level the storage of food and a high level is adapted to the drying out of textiles.

In a further advantageous embodiment of the invention, the refrigeration device is a cooling device with a thermostat device for regulating the temperature prevailing in the interior to an adjustable setpoint, with a normal cooling setpoint in the range between 4 ° C. and 10 ° C. as well as a on the thermostat control device Textile cooling setpoint can be set well below 0 ° C. In this way, the optimum temperature value for killing the vermin can be set in a refrigeration device mainly used for cooling and not for freezing.

Alternatively, according to the invention, a freezer can be equipped with a thermostat control device for regulating the temperature prevailing in the interior to an adjustable setpoint, in which instead of a normal freeze setpoint in the range between -25 ° C and -10 ° C, a textile cooling setpoint between -5 ° C and + 5 ° C is adjustable. Due to the increased storage temperature compared to normal freezing operation, but still low enough to kill the vermin, the cable consumption of the refrigerator in textile cooling operation can be reduced.

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 perspective view of a refrigerator according to the invention with the door open. and FIG. 2 shows a schematic section through a refrigeration device according to the invention.

1 shows a perspective view of a refrigerator with a heat-insulating housing 1 and a door 2 pivotally mounted thereon. The open door 2 shows a view into an interior 3 of the housing 1. The interior 3 is delimited by a one-piece plastic inner container, with a rear wall 4, behind which an evaporator (not visible in the figure) is arranged, and two side walls 5, on each of which a plurality of projections 6, 7 are arranged serve as a support for refrigerated goods carriers. A first group of these projections are elongated horizontal webs 6, which can serve as supports for plate-shaped refrigerated goods carriers such as glass or wire mesh plates, and which are conventionally used in refrigerators. With the exception of a plate 8, which covers two pull-out boxes 9 arranged in the lower region of the interior 3, such plates are missing in the refrigeration device according to the invention, as shown in the figure, but can of course be supplied as accessories and installed by a user as required.

A second type of projection 7 has an approximately U-shaped cross section, and two such projections 7 are arranged opposite one another and centrally in an upper region of the side walls 5. The projections 7, like the webs 6, can also be formed in one piece with the inner container of the refrigeration device. However, this necessitates the use of complicated shaping tools with mutually movable parts for deep-drawing the inner container. Therefore, the protrusions 7 are preferably formed as parts independent of the inner container and attached to the side walls 5, e.g. by gluing, plugging in and possibly latching in a pre-cut opening in the side wall 5 or the like. This solution has the additional advantage that the refrigeration device according to the invention, starting from conventional refrigeration devices without changing their manufacturing processes, can only be implemented by a few simple additional production steps, so that the device can also be economically produced in small series.

The two U-shaped projections 7 on the side walls 5 carry a clothes rail 10 between them, on which textiles to be renovated are freely suspended on hangers. can, so that, in contrast to textiles stacked on a plate-shaped carrier, they are flushed with air and can thus be cooled quickly and thoroughly. Due to the free suspension on the clothes rail 10, more drying out of the textiles is possible than with stacked storage.

The clothes rail 10 can be lifted out of the projections 7 and removed from the refrigerator, so that the device can be used in a conventional manner as a refrigerator for food.

The refrigerator's refrigerator is controlled by a thermostat, the target temperature of which can be set via a rotary control 11, which is arranged on the right side wall 5 in the vicinity of interior lighting 13. Set temperatures can be set on the rotary controller in a range of approx. + 10 to -5 ° C, however, in order to be able to turn the rotary controller 11 to a position corresponding to a set temperature below 0 ° C, it is necessary to operate an adjacent one beforehand Button 12 to release a lock. In this way, it is avoided that a user who uses the refrigerator as a refrigerator carelessly sets a storage temperature below 0 ° C., which could lead to damage to the refrigerated goods or refrigerated goods containers.

The refrigerator shown in Fig. 1 can be a cold wall refrigerator with beyond the rear wall 4 in direct contact with this attached evaporator or a convection refrigerator, in which the evaporator is housed in a chamber 3 separated from the interior u. 2 shows a schematic section through such an embodiment as a circulating air refrigerator.

A refrigerant circuit of the refrigerator comprises a compressor 14, a condenser 15, which receives gaseous refrigerant under high pressure from the compressor 14, and the already mentioned evaporator, designated 16, which receives condensed refrigerant from the condenser 15, expands and thereby evaporates, thereby cooling a chamber 17 that extends along the rear wall of the refrigerator and contains the evaporator 16. The chamber 17 is connected to the interior 3 via two passages, a fan 18 being attached to one of the passages, here the upper one, which ensures forced air exchange between the chamber 17 and the interior 3. The operation of the condenser 17 and the fan 18 is controlled by a control unit 19. The control unit 19 is connected to a temperature sensor 20 and an air humidity sensor 21, both of which are arranged in the interior 3. It is also connected to the rotary control 11 and the interior lighting 13.

As long as the rotary controller 11 is set to a positive target temperature outside the range secured by the button 12, the control unit 19 operates the compressor 14 and the fan 18 in a manner known per se in accordance with the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 20. If the blower 18 is switched on, it runs at a power level which at best produces slow air currents in the interior 3, which at most dries out the food or other objects stored therein only slightly. However, if the rotary controller 11 is set to a temperature in the secured range which corresponds to using the refrigerator to destroy mites, the proportion of the running time of the compressor 14 and blower 18 in the total operating time of the device increases not only as a result of the lower target temperature , but also the power of the fan 18 is increased in order to generate an intensive air flow in the interior 3 with an increased drying effect.

The moisture which evaporates from textiles suspended in the interior 3 or stored in some other way is deposited on the evaporator 16, as a result of which the interior 3 is dried out.

If the refrigerator is operated at a low outside temperature at which the portion of the compressor runtime in the operating time of the device is small and is not sufficient to reduce the air humidity in the interior 3 below a limit value of, for example, 45%, the control unit 19 switches the interior lighting 13, even if the door 2 is closed. In this way, additional heat is introduced into the interior 3, which is detected by the temperature sensor 20 and thus causes the control unit 19 to operate the compressor 14 longer. The extended compressor running time leads to increased drying out, so that a humidity in the desired area is finally reached in the interior 3. Although the invention has been described above with reference to a refrigerator, it is obvious that a freezer can also be adapted to the meaning of the present invention in order to cool textiles therein and in this way to destroy vermin. While in a refrigerator the optimal temperature range for treating textiles is below the normal target temperature range of a refrigerator used for food storage, the situation is reversed in a freezer. The temperatures in the range of - 16 to - 20 ° C required for the safe storage of food are not necessary for the destruction of the dust mites. If a freezer according to the present invention is therefore used, energy can be saved by selecting the setpoint temperature to be maintained in its interior higher than in normal cooling operation for food. A lock of the temperature controller can also be provided here, which prevents the set temperature from being set carelessly to a value which lies above the desirable temperature range for the freezing of food.

Many modern refrigeration devices do not use rotary controls or other mechanical controls whose position represents a target temperature, but an electronic register, the content of which can be incremented or decremented by pressing setting buttons. A protective function analogous to that described above can also be easily implemented in the case of such a temperature control, in which it is provided that the control unit 19 increments or decrements the content of such a register only beyond a predetermined limit value if the user simultaneously presses the setting buttons Holds the button analogous to button 12 of FIG. 1.

Claims

claims

1. Refrigerating appliance with an interior (3) enclosed by a heat-insulating housing (1) and a door (2), characterized in that a device (10) for hanging clothes is attached in the interior (3).

2. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that the device for hanging clothes is a clothes rail (10).

3. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 2, characterized in that the clothes rail

(10) is removably attached.

4. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is a circulating air refrigerating device.

Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it has a sensor (21) for detecting the air humidity of the interior and a heating device (13) for heating the interior (3) as a function of the air humidity detected by the sensor (21).

Refrigerating appliance according to claim 5, characterized in that it is designed to operate the heating device (13) when the air humidity detected by the sensor (21) is more than 45%.

7. Refrigerating appliance, in particular according to one of the preceding claims, with a heat-insulating housing (1) and a door (2) enclosed interior (3) and a blower (18) for circulating the air in the interior (3), characterized that the blower (18) can be switched between at least two power levels with non-zero power.

Refrigerating appliance, in particular according to one of the preceding claims, with an interior enclosed by a heat-insulating housing (1) and a door (2) nenraum (3) and a thermostat control device (11, 19, 20) for controlling the temperature in the interior (3) to an adjustable setpoint, characterized in that both a normal cooling setpoint in the range between 4 ° C and 10 ° C at the thermostat control device and a textile cooling setpoint below 0 ° C can be set.

9. Refrigeration device, in particular according to one of claims to 7, with an interior (3) enclosed by a heat-insulating housing (1) and a door (2) and a thermostat control device (11, 19, 20) for controlling the temperature prevailing in the interior to an adjustable setpoint, characterized in that both a

Normal freezing setpoint in the range between -25 ° C and -10 ° C and a textile cooling setpoint between -5 ° C and + 5 ° C can be set.