Refrigeration – Gas compression – heat regeneration and expansion – e.g.,...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-10-25
2004-03-02
Doerrler, William C. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Gas compression, heat regeneration and expansion, e.g.,...
C062S457900
Reexamination Certificate
active
06698210
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a cooler box for storing food or the like, and more particularly to a cooler box that cools its interior by the use of a Stirling-cycle refrigerator.
BACKGROUND ART
Conventionally, various types of cooler box exist that use an electronic refrigerating device. One common type is cooler boxes that cool their interior by exploiting the properties of a Peltier device, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H6-307752.
FIG. 27
shows an example of this type of cooler box. This cooler box is provided with a box member
301
and a cooling device
302
. The box member
301
has substantially the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, has a cooling chamber
301
a
formed inside it for storing food, drink and the like, and insulates heat. The cooling device
302
cools the interior of the cooling chamber
301
a.
The box member
301
is composed of a body member
303
, which has the shape of a bottomed cylinder and has the cooling chamber
301
a
formed inside it, and a lid member
304
, which is fitted on the top face of the body member
303
so as to open and close the cooling chamber
301
a.
The body member
303
has a body casing
305
, an inner vessel
308
, which is composed of an inner casing
306
and a cooling wall
307
made of a metal such as aluminum, and a heat insulator
309
, which fills the space between the body casing
305
and the inner vessel
308
. The interior of the lid member
304
is filled with a heat insulator
310
.
The cooling device
302
has a Peltier device
311
, a spacer
312
, and a heat-rejecting fin
313
, and is composed of a cooling unit
314
, which is fixed to the inner vessel
308
with screws or the like, a cooling fan
315
, and a side cover
316
for covering the cooling unit
314
and the cooling fan
315
. Incidentally, this cooler box can be used also as a warmer box when the direction of the electric current supplied to the Peltier device
311
is reversed so that the interior is heated.
The conventional cooler box described above typically consumes around 48 W of electric power. Thus, when mounted on a car, the cooler box can be operated from the car's battery without any problem. However, quite inconveniently, when used outdoors, the cooler box requires a high-capacity portable power supply for outdoor use. For example, when operated from a 12 V power supply, the cooler box, which consumes around 48 W of electric power, requires a current of 4 A. Accordingly, to use the cooler box for 10 hours or more, it is necessary to use a portable power supply with a capacity of 40 Ah or higher.
It is difficult, however, for a general user to obtain a portable power supply with such a high capacity, and, even if one is available, it is extremely expensive. Therefore, the user has no choice but to depend on electric power commercially distributed to a household or on a battery of a car. It is to be noted that the units used above are as follows: W stands for watts, V stands for volts, A stands for amperes, and h stands for hours.
In the conventional cooler box described above, a Peltier device is used as the cooling device. However, the lowest temperature produced by a Peltier device is about 0° C., and therefore it does not offer cooling performance comparable with that of a freezer (with an interior temperature of about −18° C.). Moreover, in the conventional cooler box, the volume of the cooling chamber cannot be varied. This often leads to inefficient cooling, with the cooling performance of the cooler box used wastefully to cool an article that can be cooled with lower cooling performance. Furthermore, in the cooler box described above, the Peltier device cools part of the wall surface of the box member. Thus, the interior temperature tends to vary from place to place.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a cooler box that can be operated from a low-capacity, inexpensive power supply easily available to the user but that nevertheless offers cooling performance comparable with that of a freezer. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cooler box of which the cooling performance is variable according to what is to be cooled in it. Another object of the present invention is to provide a cooler box with more uniform interior temperature.
An object of the present invention is to provide a cooler box that can remove frost covering a cooling element so that stable cooling performance is obtained continuously from a cooling device.
An object of the present invention is to provide an energy-saving cooler box that can cool food, drink, and the like placed inside it or keep them cool while maintaining their freshness by storing cold produced by a cooling device.
To achieve the above objects, according to the present invention, a cooler box including a box member that has a hermetically closable cooling chamber formed therein and that insulates heat and a cooling device that cools the interior of the cooling chamber is characterized in that the cooling device is a Stirling-cycle refrigerator. With this construction, since the cooling device is a Stirling-cycle refrigerator, it is possible to realize a cooler box that can be operated from an easily available low-capacity, inexpensive power supply and that can cool a to-be-cooled article to a low temperature comparable with that produced by a freezer.
Here, the box member may be composed of a body member that has the cooling chamber formed therein and a lid member that is detachably fitted to the body member so as to open and close the cooling chamber, with the cooling device fitted to the lid member. This makes it possible to detach the lid member and wash it in its entirety, ensuring easy cleaning.
The box member may be composed of a floor wall and side walls that extend upward from the edges of the floor wall, with the cooling device fitted to the floor wall. This helps reduce the thickness of the side walls and thus the floor area occupied by the cooler box.
The cooling device may be fitted to the box member with its low-temperature head located below the high-temperature head. This prevents the air heated by the high-temperature head from making contact with the low-temperature head, and thus helps minimize the loss of cooling efficiency.
As the cooling device, a plurality of cooling devices may be provided that can be driven independently of one another. This makes it possible to cope with various set temperatures and various cooling patterns, and to obtain more uniform temperature.
The box member may have one or two pair of opposite side walls, with the cooling device fitted to each of the opposite side walls constituting each pair. This makes it possible to obtain more uniform temperature.
The cooling device may be detachable. This makes it possible to attach a cooling device most suitable to cool a given article and thereby achieve efficient cooling.
There may be additionally provided a liquid nitrogen container for instantaneously freezing a to-be-cooled article placed inside the cooling chamber. This makes it possible to cope with an article that needs to be cooled or frozen instantaneously.
The volume of the cooling chamber may be variable. This makes it possible to adjust the volume of the cooling chamber according to a to-be-cooled article so as to achieve efficient cooling.
There may be additionally provided a cooling element disposed at the low-temperature head of the cooling device and air circulating means for circulating the air inside the cooling chamber so as to bring the air into contact with the cooling element. This makes it possible to cool the air inside the cooling chamber by the cooling element and circulate the cooled air inside the cooling chamber so as to obtain more uniform temperature.
The cooling element may have a heat pipe. This makes it possible to conduct the low temperature produced by the Stirling-cycle refrigerator efficiently to the cooling element, and thus to cool the air inside the cooling chamber efficiently.
The Stirling-cycle
Ogura Yoshiaki
Sakai Atsuko
Sakamoto Jin
Doerrler William C.
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
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