Refrigeration – Gas controller or director – Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
Reexamination Certificate
2003-02-27
2004-01-13
Tapolcal, William E. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Gas controller or director
Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
C062S413000, C062S414000, C062S419000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06675604
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a cooling air passage apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of uniformly and quickly supplying cooling air into a storage space of a refrigerator.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, in order to keep foodstuffs in a fresh state for a long period in a refrigerator, it is requisite to uniformly maintain the internal temperature of a freezing chamber and a cooling chamber. For this purpose, a cooling air discharge hole is formed at a door side of the refrigerator, thereby changing a cooling air passage.
FIG. 1
is a front view showing a state that a door of the refrigerator is opened in accordance with a conventional art,
FIG. 2
is a sectional view taken along line ‘A—A’ of
FIG. 1
, and
FIG. 3
is a vertical-sectional view showing a cooling air passage of the refrigerator in accordance with the conventional art.
The conventional refrigerator includes an outer case
102
forming an outward appearance of a refrigerator, an inner case
104
forming a storage chamber (S) for storing foodstuffs, a door
106
disposed to be opened and closed at the opened front side of the inner case
104
, a freezing system (not shown) disposed at one side of the inner case
104
, for cooling air inside the storage chamber (S), and a cooling air passage for supplying cooling air generated by the freezing system to the storage chamber (S).
The inner case
104
forms the storage chamber (S) for storing foodstuffs, in which the storage space is partitioned in the horizontal direction to install shelves
108
for receiving foodstuffs, and an enlarged portion
112
is formed enlarged slantingly in the circumferential direction of the opened portion of the inner case
104
.
The door
106
is made of an insulating material to prevent heat exchange with outside, forms the storage chamber (S) together with the inner case
104
.
At the inner marginal circumference, a gasket
114
made of rubber is installed to prevent cooling air leakage by covering the storage chamber (S) when the door
106
is closed.
A door liner
116
to be inserted into the enlarged portion
11
is protruded at the inner circumference of the gasket
114
. A door basket
118
is inserted in the door liner
116
, and is utilized as a space for receiving foodstuffs.
When the door
106
is closed, the door liner
116
is inserted into the enlarged portion
112
, and at this time, an interval ‘A’ is formed between the door liner
116
and the enlarged portion
11
.
The freezing system includes a compressor, a condenser, a capillary tube, an evaporator
120
and a ventilating fan
122
, and so forth, so that while passing the compressor, the condenser and the capillary tube, a coolant becomes a two-phase state in a mixture of a liquid and a gas and sucked into the evaporator
120
. And then, as the coolant passes the evaporator, it is completely evaporated, taking heat around it.
Thanks to the evaporation action of the coolant, the air around the evaporator is cooled and supplied through the cooling air passage to the storage chamber by the ventilating fan
122
.
The cooling air passage includes a cooling air discharge duct
124
installed in the vertical direction at the rear side of the inner case
112
, for supplying cooling air; a plurality of cooling air discharge holes
126
formed in the longitudinal direction of the cooling air discharge duct
124
, for supplying cooling air to every storage space partitioned by the shelves
108
; and a suction duct
128
installed at the upper side of the storage chamber (S), through which air circulated the storage chamber and completed a cooling action flows toward the evaporator
120
.
As stated above, in the conventional refrigerator, when the freezing system is driven, the air inside the storage chamber (S) is cooled while passing the evaporator according to rotation of the ventilating fan
122
, and the cooled air flows to the discharge duct
124
and is discharged through each cooling discharge hole
126
into the storage chamber.
At this time, speaking of the cooling air flow, a cooled air flows from the upper portion of the storage space where the cooling air discharge hole
126
is installed to the lower portion and warm air at the lower portion goes up to the empty space where the cooled air has existed, thereby forming a convection current.
That is, the cooling air discharged through the cooling air discharge hole
126
maintains foodstuff at a lower temperature in the storage chamber by the convection current within the storage space, and flows into the evaporator
120
through the suction duct
128
.
However, as for the cooling air passage of the refrigerator of the conventional art, since the cooling air discharge hole is formed at the rear side of the cooling chamber, cooling air is concentrated to the rear side and the central portion of the cooling chamber in the vicinity of the cooling air discharge hole. Thus, foodstuffs near the cooling air discharge hole receives much cooling air and over-cooled, while foodstuffs kept near the door, far from the cooling air discharge hole less affected by the cooling air relatively and weakly cooled.
Namely, the internal temperature of the storage chamber has a big deviation according to the distance from the cooling air discharge hole, causing a problem that the temperature distribution of the storage chamber is not uniform.
In addition, in the summer season where the refrigerator is frequently opened, it is difficult to quickly cope with a rise in temperature as the refrigerator door is opened and closed.
Besides, the cooling air directing toward the door is partly introduced into a space between the door liner and the enlarged portion, contacting around the gasket. At this time, since the gasket is made of rubber, a thermal insulation efficiency is not good between the inner side and the outer side of the storage chamber. Then, air around the gasket is changed to a high-temperature air, having a bad influence to the cooling inside the storage chamber.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air passage apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of uniformly maintaining a temperature distribution of a storage chamber by improving a cooling air passage in such a manner that cooling air can be evenly and quickly supplied to every part of the storage chamber, and capable of quickly cooling a load when the load is inputted into the storage chamber.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air passage apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of increasing a heat efficiency by preventing a cooling air loss occurring near a refrigerator door and capable of preventing a weak cooling of foodstuffs stored near the refrigerator door.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air passage apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of widely obtaining a storage space in a storage chamber.
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 passage apparatus of a refrigerator including: a left cooling air duct installed having a plurality of cooling air discharge holes in the vertical direction at the left side of the opened marginal portion of an inner case forming a storage chamber, and discharging cooling air from the left side of the storage chamber toward a refrigerator door; a right cooling air duct installed having a plurality of cooling air discharge holes in the vertical direction at the right side of the opened marginal portion of the inner case, and discharging cooling air from the right side of the storage chamber toward the refrigerator door; a ventilating unit for ventilating cooling air generated from a freezing system to the storage chamber; and a diverging unit for diverging and guiding cooling air ventilated by the ventilating unit to the left cooling air duct and t
Choi Young Seok
Kang Byung Gyu
Lee Jae Hee
Ali Mohammad M.
Fleshner & Kim LLP
LG Electronics Inc.
Tapolcal William E.
LandOfFree
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