WO2017036724A1

WO2017036724A1 - Refrigerating device with heated outer surfaces

Info

Publication number: WO2017036724A1
Application number: PCT/EP2016/068609
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hans Ihle; Martin Kiefer; Peter Schundner; Manuel DANKERT; Ulrich Schlander; Markus KASTLER; Andreas Vogl; Stefan Holzer; Gerd Reith; Andreas Kemmer; Simon Schechinger; Daniel BERNDL; Marcel KIRSCHEN
Original assignee: BSH Hausgeräte GmbH
Priority date: 2015-09-03
Filing date: 2016-08-04
Publication date: 2017-03-09
Also published as: DE102015216934A1; CN107923691B; CN107923691A

Abstract

The invention relates to a refrigerating device, in particular a domestic refrigerating device, having a body, which has at least one storage chamber (1, 2) and a heat damping layer that surrounds the storage chamber (1, 2), and a refrigerant line, which is separated from the storage chamber (1, 2) by the heat damping layer. The body comprises a first and a second lateral wall and a first and a second horizontal wall which surround the at least one storage chamber (1, 2) for goods to be refrigerated. The refrigerant line comprises a first coiled tube (10) from which a vertical part (12) extends over the first lateral wall and from which a horizontal part (16) extends over the first horizontal wall.

Description

Refrigerating appliance with heated outer surfaces

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, in particular a household refrigeration appliance, which is suitable for use in an environment with high humidity, especially in tropical climates.

Refrigerators conventionally comprise a condenser, via which the heat drawn off from a storage chamber is released to the environment. Often, such a condenser is plate-shaped and mounted on the rear wall of the refrigerator, separated therefrom by a gap, so that heated air along the rear wall rises at the condenser and the resulting convection flow provides for efficient heat removal from the evaporator.

In such a refrigerator, the surfaces of the body are slightly colder than the environment, since of them heat flows through the thermal barrier coating in the storage chamber. If the temperature of the wall surfaces falls below the dew point, condensation forms there, which can damage the device or its surroundings. This is a problem with floor-standing appliances, where the wall surfaces are exposed and humid air can circulate freely over these wall surfaces and thereby precipitate water, but also with built-in appliances. There, the ambient air may circulate at best limited over the wall surfaces, but these are typically still colder than a standard unit, as surrounding furniture panels represent an additional thermal insulation layer to the ambient temperature; In addition, the furniture panels tend to absorb the final condensation and thereby damage.

There are refrigerators with so-called skin condenser known, ie refrigerators in which the condenser is embedded between an outer skin of the body and an underlying thermal barrier coating and emits waste heat through the outer skin to the environment. In such a refrigeration device, the temperature difference between outer skin and storage chamber is necessarily higher than in a refrigerator with spaced apart from the rear wall condenser, and a part of the heat released by the condenser flows through the thermal barrier coating back into the storage chamber. As a result, in such a refrigeration device with skin condenser, either the energy consumption is higher, or a higher-quality thermal barrier coating is required in order to achieve energy consumption values which are comparable to those of a refrigerator of the same size with a rear wall condenser. In addition, a refrigeration device with skin condenser can only successfully prevent the condensation of its outer surfaces, if all of them are heated with sufficient power. If, however, a skin condenser needs to be distributed on all outer surfaces of the body, including the ceiling and floor, this leads to a complicated and therefore expensive construction of the refrigerator.

An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator which, with a simple structure, is capable of effectively suppressing condensation on at least a majority of the outer surface of the body. The object is achieved by having a body, which has at least one storage chamber and a heat-insulating layer enclosing the storage chamber, and a refrigerant line, which is separated from the storage chamber by the thermal barrier coating, in a refrigerator, in particular a household refrigerator, the body a first and a second side wall and a first and a second horizontal wall surrounding the at least one storage chamber for refrigerated goods, and the refrigerant pipe comprises a first pipe loop, of which a vertical part in a vertical plane, namely on the first side wall and a horizontal part via a horizontal plane, namely the first horizontal wall extends. Thus, since a single pipe loop of the refrigerant pipe heats two outer surfaces of the body, the assembly of the refrigerator is simplified, and it is sufficient to connect a small number of pipe loops with each other to prevent condensation on the outer surface of the entire body.

In particular, a second pipe loop of the refrigerant pipe may also include a vertical part extending over the second side wall and a horizontal part extending over the second horizontal wall so that two pipe loops are sufficient to warm four out of five outer surfaces of the body hold. To prevent condensation on the back of the body, there may be provided a known per se back condenser.

At least the first pipe loop may include two ports that extend orthogonal to the vertical walls. This facilitates assembly of the refrigeration device by moving the tube loops, each coming from a direction orthogonal to the vertical walls on the storage chamber and fixed to the outer sides.

Between the connections, the pipe loop should be in one piece, free of solder joints or the like., To be.

A distributor block may be provided on a rear wall of the body, to which at least the first pipe loop, if present, also a second pipe loop, and the condenser are connected. Depending on the placement of the various connections to the manifold block, the order of the pipe loops and the condenser in the refrigerant circuit of the refrigerator can be determined and determined in this way the distribution of waste heat on the pipe loops and the condenser. If, for example, the tube loops are connected upstream of the condenser, more heat is released via the tube loops than in the case where the tube loops are connected downstream of the condenser. If the pipe loops are connected upstream, although the side walls are heated relatively strong and accordingly the heat flow into the storage chamber, but the higher the humidity, below which condensation on the outside of the wall can be prevented. By determining the order of the components can thus be determined in a late stage of assembly of the refrigerator even if this is to be suitable for extremely humid environment and for a higher energy consumption is accepted, or if in the interests of better efficiency compromises on fitness be tolerated for high ambient humidity. The vertical part of the tube loop may be adhesively secured to an outer skin of the first side wall. Preferably, the bonding is done with the aid of adhesive tape, since then no heat transfer obstructing adhesive layer between the pipe loop and the outer skin is required. If the bond is restricted to sections of the vertical part parallel to longitudinal edges of the sidewall, it can be done quickly and economically by moving the parts to be bonded under an adhesive source such as an adhesive tape dispenser.

The vertical part of at least the first pipe loop is preferably housed between the outer skin and the thermal barrier coating of the first wall, invisible from the outside. At least the first horizontal wall may have a groove open to the first vertical wall, into which the horizontal part of the first tube loop engages when the first tube loop is moved against the storage chamber during assembly from the lateral direction. To facilitate the engagement in the groove, an insertion be formed on the groove.

Conveniently, the groove may be formed by folding a sheet which bears against the outer skin of the first horizontal wall to distribute the heat given off by the horizontal part of the first tube loop over the outer skin.

The sheet can be arranged protected on one of the heat-insulating layer facing inside of the outer skin. When an electronics compartment is provided in one of the horizontal walls, particularly the ceiling, of the body to house therein electronic circuits for controlling the refrigerator, a portion of the plate may extend between the storage chamber and the electronics compartment to prevent excessive outflow of heat from the compartment Electronic compartment to prevent the storage chamber and ensure that even in the electronics compartment no condensation can take place. Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying figures. Show it:

Fig. 1 is an exploded view of a refrigerator according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the bottom of the refrigerator before

foaming; and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the ceiling of the refrigerator.

Fig. 1 shows in a perspective view of the body of a refrigeration device according to the invention, here a combination device with two storage chambers 1, 2, a normal refrigerated compartment and a freezer. Both storage chambers 1, 2 are each bounded by a thermoformed plastic inner container 3 and 4 respectively. The two inner containers 3, 4 are mounted one above the other in a rectangular frame 5, which forms the front of the body facing a door, not shown in the figure.

An outer skin of the refrigerator, which is provided for mounting around the inner container 3, 4 around, comprises a ceiling plate 6 and a bottom plate 7, each injection molded from plastic, two side wall panels 8, 9 made of plastic sheet material or painted metal sheet and a in Fig. 1, not shown rear wall board.

The side wall plates 8, 9 carry on their inner containers 3, 4 facing inner sides in each case a tube loop 10 and 1 1. The tube loops 10, 1 1 are part of a refrigerant line, which connects in known manner a compressor, a condenser mounted on the rear wall of the body spaced and at least one evaporator cooling the storage chambers. The tube loops 10, 11 each comprise a vertical part 12 or 13, which bears against the side wall plate 8, 9, two connections 14 which project at right angles at a rear edge of the side wall plate 8 or 9, and a horizontal part 16 or 17. The tube loop 10 of the left side wall panel 8 is angled at its upper edge, so that the horizontal part 16 extends over the ceiling plate 6, whereas the horizontal part 17 of the right Side wall plate 9 is angled at the lower edge to extend over the bottom plate 7.

The vertical parts 12, 13 of the tube loops 10, 1 1 are attached to the side wall panels 8, 9 each by means of adhesive tape strips 35. As shown by the example of the right sidewall panel 9, the adhesive tape tabs 35 are all aligned parallel to the longitudinal edges of the sidewall panel 9, they can be quickly and efficiently placed by moving the sidewall panel 9 with the tubing loop 11 under it under an array of adhesive tape dispensers and then the tube loop 1 1 is angled at the level of the lower edge of the side wall plate 9 to form the horizontal part 17.

At the back of the body is a manifold block 15, through which the ports 14 of the pipe loops 10, 11 are connected in series with each other, with the compressor housed in a machine room 18 and with the condenser 19 mounted on the rear wall of the body. There are various ways to connect the connections of the condenser 19, the compressor and the tube loops 10, 1 1 to the manifold block 15 with each other, so that optionally the tube loops 10, 1 1 can be connected between the compressor and the condenser 19, so that in Compressor heated refrigerant first releases its heat through the pipe loops 10, 1 1 and only then in the condenser 19, but the pipe loops 10, 1 1 can also be connected downstream of the condenser 19 in order to reduce the amount of heat discharged through them.

2 shows in a perspective view the bottom plate 7 and the horizontal part 17 of the tube loop 1 running on it. A central region of the bottom plate 7 is covered by a thin sheet 20. Along front and rear edges 21, 22, the sheet 20 is folded back on itself to form two mirror images opposing grooves 23, in which the horizontal part 17 of the tube loop 1 1 from the side, in the perspective of FIG. 2 from below on the right, pushed in. The folded front and rear edges of the sheet 20 are shown here transparent, so as to be able to show the underneath in the grooves 23 extending parts of the pipe loop 1 1. To insert the tube loop 1 1 in To facilitate the grooves 23, the grooves 23 are widened at the right edge of the sheet 20 respectively to insertion bevels 24.

Fig. 3 shows in a perspective view below the ceiling plate 6. The ceiling plate 6 is shown lying upside down, so that its underside faces the viewer. In a region adjacent to the rear wall, the ceiling plate 6 has a bulge 25 complementary to a bulge 36 (see Fig. 1) at the top of the inner container 3, in which the above-mentioned evaporator can be accommodated as a no-frost evaporator. At the (not shown here) thermal insulation layer facing bottom of the bulge 25, similarly to the plate 20 of the bottom plate 7, also a heat-distributing plate 26 is mounted, cut from the tongues at different locations and hooks 27, 28, 29 are formed. The hooks 27, 28, 29 respectively form sections of a groove 23 which, like the groove 23 of the bottom plate 7, receives the horizontal part 16 of the tube loop 10 in order to keep it pressed against the plate 26. The adjacent to the side wall 8 hooks 27 are in turn provided with chamfers 30, the most distant from the side wall 8 hook 29, which serves by its shape and arrangement as a stop for the horizontal part 16 of the tube loop 10 is provided here with two beads 31 that the horizontal part 16 must pass from the lateral direction during insertion and behind which it is positively locked in the configuration shown.

A front portion 32 of the panel 26 is spaced from the ceiling panel 6 by a space provided to allow the finished refrigerator to function as an electronics compartment 33, to house a control circuit, and to be accessible from the front of the cabinet through a window 34 of the frame 5 to serve. By extending the front portion of the sheet 32 between the electronics compartment 33 and the underlying normal cooling compartment 1, it is ensured that even inside the electronics compartment 33, the temperature can nowhere drop so low that there is a potential for the electronic components forming condensation can come.

After the outer skin elements 6, 7, 8, 9 and the rear wall board have been mounted around the inner container 3, 4, the spaces between the inner containers on the one hand and the outer wall elements and the attached thereto Tube loops 10, 1 1 on the other hand in a conventional manner filled with insulating foam to form the thermal barrier coating. In this case, the tube loops 10, 1 1 are embedded and fixed in a part of its circumference in the foam, but remain in contact with the environment by contact with the sheets 20, 26 and the side wall panels 8, 9 in close thermal contact.

reference numeral

1 storage chamber (normal refrigerated compartment)

2 storage room (freezer)

3 inner container

4 inner container

5 frames

6 ceiling plate

7 base plate

8 side wall plate

9 side wall plate

10 pipe loop

1 1 pipe loop

12 vertical part

13 vertical part

14 connection

15 distribution block

16 horizontal part

17 horizontal part

18 engine room

19 liquefier

20 sheet metal

21 front edge

22 rear edge

23 groove

24 insertion bevel

25 bulge

26 sheet metal

27 hooks

28 hooks

29 hooks

30 insertion bevel

31 beading

32 front area Electronics compartment window

Tape strip bulge

Claims

Refrigerating appliance, in particular household refrigerating appliance, with a body which has at least one storage chamber (1, 2) and a thermal insulation layer enclosing the storage chamber (1, 2), and a refrigerant line which is separated from the storage chamber (1, 2) by the thermal barrier coating, wherein the body comprises a first and a second side wall and a first and a second horizontal wall surrounding the at least one storage chamber (1, 2) for refrigerated goods, characterized in that the refrigerant line comprises a first tube loop (10), of which a vertical part (12) extends over the first side wall and a horizontal part (16) over the first horizontal wall.

Refrigeration appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that a second pipe loop (1 1) of the refrigerant pipe comprises a vertical part (13) which extends over the second side wall, and a horizontal part (17) which extends over the second horizontal wall ,

Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least the first pipe loop (10) comprises two terminals (14) which extend orthogonal to the vertical walls.

Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least the first pipe loop (10) is integrally formed.

Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that on a rear wall of the body, a distributor block (15) is provided, to which at least the first pipe loop (10) and a condenser (19) are connected.

6. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a arranged on a rear wall of the body condenser (19) with the pipe loops (10, 1 1) is connected in series.

Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the vertical part (12) of at least the first tube loop (10) on an outer skin (8) of the first side wall by gluing, in particular by adhesive tape (35) is attached.

Refrigerating appliance according to claim 6, characterized in that the adhesion is limited to parallel to longitudinal edges of the side wall portions of the vertical part (12).

Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the vertical part (12) extends at least the first tube loop (10) between an outer skin (8) and the thermal barrier coating of the first side wall.

Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least the first horizontal wall has a first vertical wall towards the open groove (23) into which engages the horizontal part (16) of the first tube loop (10).

Refrigerating appliance according to claim 10, characterized in that on the groove (23) an insertion bevel (30) is formed.

Refrigerating appliance according to claim 10 or 1 1, characterized in that the groove (23) by folding a sheet (26) is formed, that abuts the outer skin (6) of the first horizontal wall.

13. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 12, characterized in that the sheet (26) is arranged on one of the thermal barrier coating facing the inside of the outer skin (6). Refrigerating appliance according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that a portion (32) of the sheet (26) extends between the storage chamber (1, 2) and an electronics compartment (33).