Direct cooling type refrigerator

Details Direct cooling type refrigerator Direct cooling type refrigerator

2002-06-20

2003-12-09

Maust, Timothy L. (Department: 3744)

Refrigeration

Automatic control

Refrigeration producer

C062S441000, C062S443000, C062S440000, C062S238600, C062S434000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06658879

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a direct cooling type refrigerator, and more particularly, to a direct cooling type refrigerator that is capable of improving a refrigerating performance of a refrigerating chamber and capable of minimizing a temperature change in the refrigerating chamber.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, a refrigerator is sectioned into a freezing chamber for keeping frozen food items and a refrigerating chamber for keeping refrigerated food items, and includes a freezing cycle to supply cooling air to the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber therein.
The refrigerator is classified into a direct cooling type refrigerator of natural convection in which air inside a refrigerator and an evaporator directly come in contact with to perform a cooling operation, and an indirect cooling type refrigerator in which a duct for flowing cooling air is formed inside a refrigerator and the cooling air is blown into the refrigerator by a blast fan to thereby perform a cooling operation.
The direct cooling type refrigerator is mainly used for a small-size refrigerator with a small capacity, while the indirect cooling type refrigerator is mainly used for a large scale refrigerator with a large capacity.
FIG. 1
is a sectional view of the direct cooling type refrigerator in accordance with the background art.
The direct cooling type refrigerator shown in
FIG. 1
includes a main body
104
having a certain space for storing food items and having a door
102
(not shown) mounted to be opened and closed at an opened front side of the main body
104
; a freezing chamber
106
formed at an upper side of the main body
104
and storing frozen food items; a refrigerating chamber
108
partitioned with the freezing chamber
106
by a barrier
110
and formed at a lower portion of the main body
104
to store refrigerated food items; and a freezing cycle containing an evaporator
112
buried in the side wall of the freezing chamber
106
and performing a cooling operation by directly contacting the air inside the freezing chamber
106
.
The freezing chamber
106
is formed at an upper portion of the main body
104
, and a refrigerating chamber door
114
is separately installed at an opened front side of the main body
104
.
The barrier
110
is installed between the refrigerating chamber
108
and the freezing chamber
106
, and a plurality of shelves
128
are mounted in the refrigerating chamber
108
at regular intervals to receive food items.
The barrier
110
is formed as a tray type detachably mounted at one side of the main body
104
, and has a plurality of cooling air supply passages
116
for supplying cooling air generated from the freezing chamber
106
to the refrigerating chamber
108
.
The evaporator
112
is buried inside at least one of the side walls, e.g., a side wall other than the opening side where the refrigerating chamber door
114
is mounted over the refrigerating chamber
106
, and in direct contact with air inside the freezing chamber
106
to perform a cooling operation.
A temperature sensor
118
is attached at one side of the evaporator
112
to detect a temperature of the freezing chamber
106
to turn on/off the freezing system.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, the freezing system of the background art includes a compressor
120
for raising a gas refrigerant in a low temperature and low pressure state to a gas coolant of high temperature and a high pressure; a condenser
122
for cooling and condensing the refrigerant in the high temperature and high pressure state introduced from the compressor
120
by an ambient air; an expansion valve
124
for decompressing the refrigerant introduced from the condenser
122
; and an evaporator
112
for evaporating the refrigerant decompressed in the expansion valve
124
at the low pressure and low temperature state and allowing the refrigerant to directly contact the air of the freezing chamber
106
to thereby perform a cooling operation.
In the above-described direct cooling type refrigerator, as the freezing system is driven, the air inside the freezing chamber
106
comes in contact with the evaporator
112
to cool the freezing chamber
106
, and after the cooling air completes the cooling operation while circulating the freezing chamber
106
, the cooling air is supplied to the refrigerating chamber
108
through the cooling air supply passage
116
of the barrier
110
to perform a cooling operation of the refrigerating chamber
108
.
However, the conventional direct cooling type refrigerator has the following problems.
That is, since the evaporator is installed only in the freezing chamber and the cooling air generated in the freezing chamber is supplied to the refrigerating chamber, the cooling performance of the refrigerating chamber is degraded, a cooling time for maintaining the temperature in the refrigerating chamber to a proper level increases, and the freshness of refrigerated food items kept in the refrigerating chamber is degraded.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a direct cooling type refrigerator that is capable of quickly dropping a temperature of a refrigerating chamber to a suitable level and thus improving freshness of refrigerated food items kept in the refrigerating chamber by installing an evaporator in the refrigerating chamber as well as in a freezing chamber to make a heat exchange with air inside the refrigerating chamber.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a direct cooling type refrigerator that is capable of improving an efficiency of a freezing cycle and reducing a power consumption by attaching a temperature sensor to an evaporator installed in a freezing chamber to control a system.
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 direct cooling type refrigerator including: a main body with a certain space for keeping food items; a freezing chamber formed at an upper portion of the main body and keeping frozen food items; a refrigerating chamber sectioned by a barrier with the freezing chamber, formed at a lower portion of the main body and keeping refrigerated food items; a freezing chamber evaporator buried in a side wall of the freezing chamber and directly heat-exchanged with air inside the freezing chamber; and a refrigerating chamber evaporator buried in a side wall of the refrigerating chamber and directly heat-exchanged with air inside the refrigerating chamber.
The direct cooling type refrigerator of the present invention further includes: a temperature sensor attached to the freezing chamber evaporator and detecting a temperature of the freezing chamber; and a control unit for turning off/off a freezing cycle of a refrigerator so that the temperature of the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber can be maintained at a suitable level according to an electric signal applied from the temperature sensor
In the direct cooling type refrigerator of the present invention, the refrigerating chamber evaporator is formed as a flat plate type buried in a rear wall of the refrigerating chamber.
In the direct cooling type refrigerator of the present invention, the refrigerating chamber evaporator is formed as a bent flat plate type integrally buried in a rear wall and left and right side walls of the refrigerating chamber.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4637222 (1987-01-01), Fujiwara et al.
patent: 5337579 (1994-08-01), Saia, III et al.
patent: 6327867 (2001-12-01), Hyodo et al.
patent: 6370908 (2002-04-01), James
patent: 6451364 (2002-09-01), Ito
patent: 6463755 (2002-10-01), Schulak et al.

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