Refrigeration – Automatic control – Of external fluid or means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-24
2003-09-23
Jones, Melvin (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Automatic control
Of external fluid or means
C062S441000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06622504
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to an apparatus for controlling cool air to concentrically cool a region in the refrigerator which is weakly cooled or stores a new load.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a-refrigerator is used for freezing foods or keeping the same in cold storage.
The refrigerator is an apparatus which deprives heat from the surroundings for cooling the same through a refrigerating cycle composed of air compressing, air condensing and evaporating steps in order to freeze or refrigerate foods which tend to rot in warm areas and fishes required for keeping freshness.
Due to its convenience that the refrigerator can store or store foods, fishes, fruits, drinks and the like as well as freeze the same into edible ices at any time based upon the above principle, the refrigerator becomes an essential electric instrument in the modem society.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view illustrating the structure of a typical refrigerator. Referring to
FIG. 1
, the refrigerator is divided into a freezing chamber
24
and a refrigerating chamber
26
about a compartment wall
18
of a body
14
. At least one door (not shown) is mounted to the front in order to separate the freezing and refrigerating chambers
24
and
26
from the external air.
In the meantime, the refrigerator comprises instruments for the refrigerating cycle which perform the compressing, condensing and evaporating steps to generate cool air necessary for cooling the freezing and refrigerating chambers
24
and
26
. Further, the refrigerator is provided at an upper rear region thereof with a blowing chamber
10
which has an air blowing fan
12
for forcibly blowing the cool air generated in the refrigerating cycle into the freezing and refrigerating chambers
24
and
26
.
Further, a plurality of cool air forward-discharge ports
20
a
for discharging the cool air forward are formed in certain positions of the compartment wall
18
between the freezing and refrigerating chambers
24
and
26
which mutually communicate with the blowing chamber
10
.
Further, a cool air suction port
22
may be provided in a certain position for sucking in the surrounding air.
In the refrigerator constituted as above, a compressor compresses a gaseous coolant low with temperature and pressure into a state high with temperature and pressure. The compressed gaseous coolant high with temperature and pressure is frozen and condensed into a liquid state high with pressure while passing through a condenser. The liquid coolant high with pressure is lowered with temperature and pressure while passing through a capillary tube (not shown). Then, in an evaporator, the liquid coolant is transformed into a gaseous state low with temperature and pressure while depriving heat from the surroundings to cool the air in the surroundings. In sequence, the air cooled through the evaporator is circulated through the freezing chamber
24
and then the refrigerating chamber
26
due to the operation of the blowing fan
12
so as to lower the internal temperature of the freezing and refrigerating chambers.
As described above, the refrigerator is provided with a cool air distributing system for uniformly distributing the cool air generated around the evaporator to storage spaces of the freezing and refrigerating chambers. Of course, the cool air distributing system is variously configured according to the kind of the refrigerator.
Describing the cool air distributing system in reference to
FIGS. 1 and 2
, the refrigerating chamber
26
is provided in the upper end with a damper
20
which communicates with the blowing chamber
10
.
On the side of the damper
20
are provided the cool air forward-discharge ports
20
a
and cool air downward-discharge ports
20
b
for discharging the cool air downward.
Therefore, in the cool air distributing system configured as above, the cool air generated around the evaporator and transferred into the blowing chamber
10
is distributed to the freezing chamber
24
and the damper
20
with the blowing fan
12
provided in the blowing chamber
10
.
In this case, the cool air introduced into the freezing chamber
24
circulates through the inside of the freezing chamber before moving into the evaporator again via the cool air suction port
22
at the bottom of the freezing chamber. Then, the cool air introduced into the damper
20
is discharged into the refrigerating chamber
26
via the cool air forward-discharge ports
20
a
at the side.
The cool air discharged into an upper region of the refrigerating chamber via the cool air forward-discharge ports
20
a
is distributed to storage spaces defined by storage shelves
16
while flowing downward via spaces between a door
15
and the storage shelves
16
. Then, the cool air is finally introduced into the cool air suction port
22
connected to the evaporator.
However, according to the related art as set forth above, the cool air discharged from the upper damper is not properly transferred into middle and lower regions of the refrigerating chamber far from the damper so that a refrigerating operation is not effectively carried out thereby resulting in a problem that the refrigerating chamber has a non-uniform temperature distribution.
Since the cool air is insufficiently transferred around the door
14
apart from the upper damper, foods stored in a door basket are not properly cooled as a problem.
In the meantime, the conventional refrigerator configured as above discharges or blocks the cool air into/from the refrigerating chamber
26
by detecting the weight of the shelves
16
in the refrigerating chamber
26
stored with new load (e.g. food) or the weight of the refrigerating chamber
26
itself. Alternatively, the refrigerator discharges or blocks the cool air into/from the entire refrigerating chamber
26
according to its temperature fluctuation by detecting and judging the temperature of the refrigerating chamber
26
itself with a temperature sensor (not shown) mounted on a specific region of the refrigerating chamber
26
.
However, according to this cool air controlling method, when the surrounding temperature and weight of the refrigerating chamber are elevated due to the new load as above, the cool air is discharged into the entire refrigerating chamber for a certain time period to lower the elevated surrounding temperature of the entire refrigerator thereby disadvantageously enlarging the amount of power consumption of the refrigerator.
Further, the controlling method of cooling the entire refrigerating chamber as above cools the newly stored load while lowering the temperature of the entire refrigerating chamber,
thereby degrading the cooling speed of the new load and the cooling ability of the refrigerator with the cool air by a large amount as drawbacks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly the present invention has been made to solve the above problems of the related art and it is an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for controlling cool air in a refrigerator.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus for concentrically cooling a region which stores a new load.
According to a preferred aspect of the invention to obtain the above objects, it is provided an apparatus for discharging cool air comprising: the first cool air duct provided along a compartment wall of a refrigerator with a certain length for allowing the cool air introduced from a blowing chamber to flow therethrough; the second cool air duct having a variable length provided downward from a front end of the first cool air duct; length adjusting means connected to the second cool air duct for adjusting the length of the second cool air duct; and rotation adjusting means attached to a lower end of the second cool air duct for carrying out rotation and injecting the cool air.
The apparatus of the invention may further comprise temperature-detecting means provided in the rotation adjusting means for detecting surrounding temperature.
In the apparatus of the
Cho Seong Ho
Choi Jay Ho
Lee In Seop
Lee In Won
Nam Young Sok
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Jones Melvin
LG Electronics Inc.
LandOfFree
Apparatus and method for controlling cool air in refrigerator does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus and method for controlling cool air in refrigerator, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus and method for controlling cool air in refrigerator will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3007665