Refrigeration – Processes – Circulating external gas
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-16
2001-07-17
Buiz, Michael Powell (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Processes
Circulating external gas
C062S186000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06260362
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling a temperature of a home bar of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to an apparatus operated in response to a load (i.e., beer, cans, etc.) in a home bar of a refrigerator by which a cooling speed is adjusted depending on the amount of a load inputted to the home bar insertedly installed in a door of a refrigerator, thereby cutting down on a time taken for cooling the home bar and maintaining a freshness of the inputted load.
2. Description of the Background Art
Generally, a refrigerator is provided with a cooling air circulator including such as a compressor, a condensor, capillary and evaporator, etc., of which the evaporator absorbs internal heat to maintain a freezing and refrigerating condition so that contents of the refrigerator is kept coolly and freshly.
In order to meet various desires of consumers and as related techniques are being developed, refrigerators are made in various forms, and recently, large-sized refrigerators are gaining much popularity.
FIG. 1
illustrates a refrigerator with its door closed in accordance with a conventional art, and
FIG. 2
illustrates a refrigerator with its door opened in accordance with the conventional art.
As shown in the drawings, the conventional refrigerator includes a refrigerator main body
10
consisting of a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber at its inner side; a left door
20
and a right door
30
each rotatably installed at both sides of the refrigerator main body
10
so as to open and close the main body; a home bar
31
insertedly intstalled at either side of the left and right doors to allow cooled contents inside itself to be taken outside the refrigerator without troubling in opening the right or left door of the refrigerator main body; and a dispenser
21
.
A cooling air circulator including a compressor for compressing a coolant, a fan motor for circulating the cooling air and a damper for controlling a temperature of the home bar is not shown in
FIG. 1
or FIG.
2
.
Referring to such a refrigerator of which doors are installed at both right side and left side of the refrigerator main body
10
(termed as ‘SXS refrigerator’, hereinafter), a user may store in and take out contents such as beer or cans from the home bar
31
provided thereto, without troubling in opening the doors
20
and
30
of the main body of the refrigerator.
However, as to the conventional SXS refrigerator having the home bar, in case that contents are loaded into the home bar by simply opening the door thereof without opening the left or right door
20
and
30
of the main body of the SXS refrigerator, since the refrigerator itself is not able to judge whether the contents were loaded in the home bar, time to be taken for cooling the contents would be lengthened and their freshness is not satisfying.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus operated in response to a load in a home bar of a refrigerator which is capable of judging the amount of a load inputted to a home bar by using both a temperature sensor of the home bar and that of the refrigerator so as to cut down on a time taken for cooling the load, thereby maintaining a freshness of the load and serving the convenience of users, and to its method.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purposed of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided an apparatus operated in response to a load in a home bar of a SXS refrigerator having the home bar at one side of its door and a cooling air circulator including: a refrigerating chamber temperature sensor for sensing a temperature change of a refrigerating chamber; a home bar temperature sensor for sensing a temperature change of the home bar; and a microprocessor for comparing a temperature change amount of the home bar sensed by the home bar temperature sensor and the temperature change amount of the refrigerating chamber sensed by the refrigerating chamber temperature sensor after a load is inputted to the home bar, and setting a temperature of the refrigerating chamber at a lower degree in accordance with the comparison result and accordingly driving a cooling air circulator.
To attain the above object, there is also provided an operating method in response to a load in a home bar of a SXS refrigerator, comprising the steps of: measuring temperatures of a home bar and a refrigerating chamber by sensing opening and closing of a door of the refrigerator; measuring again temperatures of the home bar and the refrigerating chamber after a predetermined time lapses and comparing them with the previously measured temperatures; and judging whether a load was inputted to the home bar and controlling the cooling air circulator according to the result of the judgement so as to cool the load in the home bar.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5791152 (1998-08-01), Choi
patent: 6055820 (2000-05-01), Jeong et al.
patent: 6055823 (2000-05-01), Baker et al.
Ali Mohammad M
Buiz Michael Powell
LG Electronics Inc.
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