Refrigeration – Gas controller or director – Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-30
2003-07-01
Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Gas controller or director
Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
C062S446000, C416S228000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06584799
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling air blowing apparatus of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a cooling air blowing apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of improving an efficiency of a refrigerator by increasing air flow and reducing a noise.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, a refrigerator includes a freezing chamber for keeping frozen items and a cooling chamber for keeping refrigerated food, and a freezing cycle is also provided therein to supply cooling air to the freezing chamber and the cooling chamber.
The refrigerator is increasingly having a large capacity and in order to keep foodstuffs in a fresh state for a long period, it is requisite to maintain an internal temperature to be uniform. For this purpose, a method is adopted that cooling air is discharged from several grill holes of the cooling chamber, for which cooling air passage tends to be lengthened and complicated to guide cooling air to each direction of the cooling chamber.
FIG. 1
is a side sectional view of a refrigerator in accordance with a conventional art, and
FIG. 2
is a partial sectional view showing that an axial flow fan is mounted in the refrigerator in accordance with the conventional art.
The conventional refrigerator includes: a main body
104
having a certain space for storing foodstuffs and a door mounted to be opened and closed at a front side; a freezing chamber
106
formed at an upper side of the main body
104
and storing a frozen food; a cooling chamber
110
separated from the freezing chamber by a barrier
108
and formed at a lower portion of the main body
104
and storing a refrigerated food; a heat exchanger
112
mounted at a rear side of the freezing chamber
106
and providing cooling air through heat exchange with a refrigerant, and a cooling air blowing unit supplying cooling air generated while passing the heat exchanger
112
to the freezing chamber
106
and the cooling chamber
110
.
The cooling air supply unit includes an axial flow fan
114
mounted at a rear side of the freezing chamber
106
and blowing cooling air in an axial direction of a direction that cooling air is introduced; a grill fan
118
having discharge holes
116
discharging cooling air blown by the axial flow fan
114
to the freezing chamber
106
; a supply passage connected to a lower side of the grill fan
118
and supplying cooling air blown by the axial flow fan
114
to the cooling chamber
110
; and a cooling air duct
132
connected to the supply passage
120
and formed at least one of at a rear side and at a side face of the cooling chamber
110
and having a plurality of cooling air discharge holes
122
discharging cooling air to the cooling chamber
110
.
The axial flow fan
114
is fixed at a rotational shaft
126
of a driving motor
124
, the driving motor
124
is fixed at a motor mount
128
formed inside the grill fan
118
, and a shroud
130
is formed at a circumferential direction of the front side of the motor mount
128
.
The supply passage
120
is formed between the shroud and the grill fan so as to be connected to a lower side of a branch passage
150
for distributing cooling air blown from the axial flow fan into the cooling chamber and the freezing chamber, and serves as a passage for supplying cooling air blown from the axial flow fan
114
to the cooling air duct
132
.
At the barrier
108
, a suction passage
134
is prepared through which cooling air which has completed a freezing operation of the freezing chamber
106
is sucked to the heat exchanger
112
, and a suction barrier
136
is also prepared through which cooling air which has completed a cooling operation of the cooling chamber
110
is sucked to the heat exchanger
112
.
FIG. 3
is a front view of the axial flow fan in accordance with the conventional art.
The conventional axial flow fan
114
includes a hub
152
connected to the rotational shaft
126
of the driving motor
124
and receiving a driving force of the driving motor
124
, and a plurality of blades
154
installed at regular intervals at an outer circumferential face of the hub
152
and generating a blowing force.
The blade
154
is extended in a curved form having a certain curvature from the outer circumferential face of the hub
152
. Typically, four blades are formed.
Typically, the axial flow fan
114
blows cooling air in a suction direction along the axial direction.
The operation of the refrigerator constructed as described above will now be explained.
When the axial flow fan
114
is rotated according to driving of the driving motor
124
, cooling air which has passed the heat exchanger
112
is blown to the branch passage, discharged from the branch passage to the freezing chamber
106
through the discharge hole
116
of the grill fan
118
and also supplied to the supply passage
120
.
The cooling air discharged to the freezing chamber
106
circulates in the freezing chamber
106
to perform a freezing operation and sucked to the heat exchanger
112
through the suction passage
134
.
Cooling air introduced into the supply passage is supplied to the cooling air duct
132
, discharged to the cooing chamber
110
through the plurality of discharge holes
122
formed at the cooling air duct
132
, circulates in the cooling chamber
110
to perform a cooling operation, and sucked into the heat exchanger
112
through the suction passage
136
.
However, the cooling air blowing apparatus of a refrigerator in accordance with the conventional art has the following problems.
That is, cooling air is blown in a suction direction along the axis direction from the axial flow fan. Thus, cooling air supplied to the freezing chamber is smoothly blown as the discharge hole of the grill fan is connected in the axial direction. But as for the cooling air supplied to the supply passage connected in the orthogonal direction in which cooling air flows through the axial flow fan, a flow resistance occurs, causing that the amount of cooling air supplied to the storage chamber is relatively small and thus a cooling operation is not smoothly performed.
Especially, as refrigerators are on the trend of becoming large, the supply passage for supplying cooling air is lengthened and complicated, so that a great amount of flow resistance occurs to flowing of the cooling air.
In order to circulate cooling air smoothly and quickly under the condition of the high flow resistance, the axial flow fan should have a large diameter or an RPM should be increased.
However, in case of enlarging the diameter of the axial flow fan, the size of the refrigerator is increased and a noise is accordingly generated. Meanwhile, in case of increasing the RPM, since the noise is increased, the quality of the refrigerator is degraded.
Especially, when the refrigerator is operated for a long period, when the heat exchanger is frosted, a noise becomes more loud while the air volume becomes small, resulting in that the freshness of the foodstuffs kept in the cooling chamber is degraded.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air blowing apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of circulating cooling air smoothly and quickly even in a cooling air passage structure which is long and complicated by blowing cooling air in a suction direction along the axis direction and blowing cooling air in a radial direction of the direction in which cooling air is sucked.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air blowing apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of reducing a noise by increasing an amount of cooling air supplied to a cooling chamber and a freezing chamber even without increasing a diameter of an axial flow fan or an RPM, and capable of increasing a blowing efficiency and improving a quality of a refrigerator.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, there is provided a cooling air blowing apparatus of a re
Baek Seung Jo
Jung Young Gyu
Kim Chang Joon
Fleshner & Kim LLP
LG Electronics Inc.
Tapolcai William E.
LandOfFree
Cooling air blowing apparatus of 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 Cooling air blowing apparatus of refrigerator, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Cooling air blowing apparatus of refrigerator will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3106449