Refrigeration – Gas controller or director – Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-03
2003-10-21
Tapolcai, William E. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Gas controller or director
Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
C062S408000, C062S411000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06634181
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cooling air supply of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of uniformly maintaining a cooling air distribution of a cooling chamber and capable of performing a concentrated cooling at a portion where a load is generated according to the load generated in the cooling chamber.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, a refrigerator includes a freezing chamber for storing an ice tray for making ice and a frozen food and a cooling chamber for storing refrigerated items. The refrigerator also includes a cooling cycle for supplying cooling air to the freezing chamber and the cooling chamber.
In order to keep items in a fresh state for a long period of time, the internal temperature of the freezing chamber and the cooling chamber is necessarily maintained evenly. For this purpose, a method that a cooling air discharging hole is formed at a side wall and a rear face of the refrigerator, from which cooling air is discharged is mostly adopted.
FIG. 1
is a front view of a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator 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 sectional view taken along line B—B of FIG.
2
.
The conventional refrigerator includes a main body
102
having a certain space for storing items and a door
103
formed at an opened front side thereof so as to be opened and shut; a freezing chamber
104
formed at an upper side of the main body
102
and storing a frozen food; a cooling chamber
106
divided from the freezing chamber
104
by a barrier
108
and formed at a lower portion of the main body
102
for storing refrigerated items; a door
106
disposed at an opened front face of the main body
102
so as to be opened and shut; a freezing system (not shown) mounted inside the main body
102
and cooling air; and a cooling air supply apparatus supplying cooling air generated while passing the freezing cycle to the cooling chamber
106
.
The cooling chamber
106
is formed at a lower portion of the main body
102
and a plurality of shelves
110
for receiving items are mounted in a horizontal direction therein. The cooling chamber includes a vegetable box
112
at its lower side.
The cooling air supply apparatus includes a blowing fan
116
disposed at a rear side of the cooling chamber
104
and circulating cooling air passing a evaporator
114
of the cooling cycle to the freezing chamber
104
and the cooling chamber
106
; a shroud
118
having a discharge hole
120
for discharging the cooling air ventilated from the blowing fan
116
to the freezing chamber
104
; a supply passage
122
formed at the barrier
108
and supplying the cooling air ventilated from the blowing fan
116
to the cooling chamber
106
; a rear guide passage
124
branched from the supply passage
122
and guiding the cooling air backwardly of the cooling chamber
106
; a right guide passage
126
branched from the supply passage
122
and guiding cooling air rightwardly of the cooling chamber
106
; a left guide passage
128
branched from the rear guide passage
122
and guiding cooling air leftwardly of the cooling chamber
106
; a rear discharge duct
130
communicating with the rear guide passage
124
and formed at a rear face of the cooling chamber
106
for discharging cooling air backwardly of the cooling chamber
106
; a right discharge duct
132
communicating with the right guide passage and formed at a left face of the cooling chamber
106
for discharging cooling air rightwardly of the cooling chamber
106
; and a left discharge duct
134
communicating with the left guide passage
128
and discharging cooling air leftwardly of the cooling chamber
105
.
The cooling air supply passage
122
is formed at one rear side of the barrier
108
for receiving the cooling air from the blowing fan installed at the rear side of the freezing chamber
104
, and supplies each half cooling air to the right guide passage
126
and the rear guide passage
124
.
The left guide passage
128
is branched from the rear guide passage
124
and guide a portion of the cooling air supplied to the rear guide passage
124
to the left discharge duct
134
.
The rear discharge duct
130
, the right discharge duct
132
and the left discharge duct
134
respectively includes a plurality of discharge holes
140
,
142
and
144
for discharging cooling air.
Suction passages
150
and
152
are formed at one side of the barrier
108
to suck cooling air which has completed cooling operation of the freezing chamber
104
and the cooling chamber
106
and sucked into the evaporator
114
.
In the conventional cooling air supply apparatus, when the blowing fan
116
is driven, air cooled while passing the evaporator
114
of the freezing cycle is discharged to the freezing chamber
104
through the discharge hole
120
formed at the shroud
118
to perform a cooling operation of the freezing chamber, and then supplied to the cooling air supply passage
122
.
Half of the cooling air supplied to the cooling air supply passage
122
is introduced into the right discharge duct
132
through the right guide passage
126
and the remaining half of the cooling air is introduced into the rear discharge duct
130
through the rear guide passage
124
.
A portion of the cooling air introduced into the rear discharge duct
130
is supplied to the left discharge duct
134
through the left guide passage
128
.
The cooling air supplied to each discharge duct is discharged from the rear left and right side of the cooling chamber
106
through the discharge holes
140
,
142
and
144
formed at each discharge duct, thereby performing a cooling operation of the cooling chamber
106
.
After completing the cooling operation while circulating the cooling chamber
106
and the freezing chamber
104
, the cooling air is introduced into the evaporator
114
through the cooling air inflow passages
150
and
452
.
However, the conventional cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator has the following problems.
That is, since the cooling air supply passage and the rear and right guide passages are connected and the right guide passage is connected to the rear guide passage, the cooling air supplied from the cooling air supply passage is divided to be supplied to the right guide passage and the rear guide passage, and the cooling air supplied to the rear guide passage is again divided to be supplied to the left guide passage, resulting in that the amount of cooling air discharged from the right discharge duct and the amount of cooling air discharged from the rear and the left guide passages differ.
In other words, since the amount of cooling air discharged from the three sides of the cooling chamber differ each other, the temperature distribution of the cooling chamber is uneven according to the deviation of the amount of cooling air.
In addition, when a load is generated at a certain portion of the cooling chamber as a foodstuff is received therein, since a uniform cooling air is constantly discharged through each discharge hole, it takes long time to make the temperature distribution of the cooling chamber even.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air supply apparatus of a refrigerator that is capable of making the amount of cooling air discharged from three sides of a cooling chamber by evenly distributing cooling air through a plurality of guide passages guiding cooling air from a cooling air supply passage to three sides of a cooling chamber.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a cooling air supply apparatus that is capable of performing a rapid cooling operation and maintaining a temperature distribution of a cooling chamber to be even by concentratively discharging cooling air to a portion where a load occurs when the load partially occurs as a foodstuff is received into the cooling chamber.
Still another object
Choi Young Seok
Kang Byung Gyu
Kim Sang Bae
Ali Mohammad M.
Fleshner & Kim LLP
LG Electronics Inc.
Tapolcai William E.
LandOfFree
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