Refrigeration – Gas controller or director – Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-19
2003-08-12
Doerrler, William C. (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Gas controller or director
Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
C062S444000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06604377
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to an electric refrigerator, and more particularly to a technique for eliminating temperature unevenness within a refrigerating compartment to improve a food preservation state.
BACKGROUND ART
In many cases, an electric refrigerator has several storing compartments such as a refrigerating compartment, a vegetable compartment and a freezer compartment, which are set at different temperature zones. One example will be described with reference to FIG.
40
. In recent years, the electric refrigerator is constructed such that are frigerating compartment
100
having the highest frequency of use from a human engineering point of view is placed at its uppermost stage, and at its lower stages, a switchable compartment
200
such as a chilled compartment, a vegetable compartment
300
and a freezer compartment
400
are placed. The temperature in the switchable compartment
200
is made selectively adjustable between a freezing temperature zone and a refrigerated temperature zone in accordance with a contained object such as a chilled food.
A chill, i.e. chilled air, is generated by a heat exchanger (evaporator)
1
connected to a compressor C, and the chill is supplied to each storing compartment
100
to
400
through a duct
3
by a blower
2
. A housing for the main body R of the electric refrigerator consists of an inner case
4
and an outer case
5
which have been assembled with thermal insulting material interposed therebetween, and on the back surface side within its compartment, between the back surface and the inner case
4
, there is provided a duct cover
9
forming the duct
3
, and the heat exchanger
1
and the blower
2
are disposed within the duct
3
.
Since the duct
3
is provided on a back surface side of the main body R of the refrigerator, the chill is supplied to the refrigerating compartment
100
and the switchable compartment (for example, chilled compartment)
200
and the like from their back surfaces, and is returned to a suction side of the heat exchanger
1
through a predetermined chill return duct.
In this respect, in this example, the chill supplied to the refrigerating compartment
100
is conducted into the vegetable compartment
300
through a by-pass pipe
6
, and thereafter, is to be returned to the suction side of the heat exchanger
1
. When the vegetable compartment
300
is placed under the refrigerating compartment
100
, however, on a partition wall between the refrigerating compartment
100
and the vegetable compartment
300
, the is provided a ventilation port in such a manner that the chill is supplied from the refrigerating compartment
100
to the vegetable compartment
300
.
Since it has adopted a back surface blow-off system in which the chill is supplied from the back surface side of the storing compartment, a conventional electric refrigerator has had the following problem. That is, as regards the storing compartment
100
, since its shelf plates are filled with foods in the majority of cases, they become an obstacle to supply of chill, thus making it difficult to cool the front surface side of the refrigerating compartment
100
.
Not only that, but also the refrigerating compartment
100
is kept in a substantially hermetically-sealed state by a door D, but heat always enters through its gasket portion. Since the door D of the refrigerating compartment
100
is frequently opened and closed, particularly on the front surface side of the refrigerating compartment
100
, heat is heavily moved in and out. From these reasons, between the back surface side and the front surface side of the refrigerating compartment
100
, there has been caused temperature unevenness.
Also, among each storing compartment, the refrigerating compartment
100
requires the largest amount of chill, but the heat exchanger
1
is arranged below the duct
3
because of relationship with the compressor C and a duct course until the chill reaches the refrigerating compartment
100
is long. Therefore, the chill becomes higher in temperature due to heat exchange with the outside in a process, in which the chill moves, and chill loss caused by this movement is also great.
Further, the above-described conventional chill circulation system has had the following problems. First, as regards the vegetable compartment
300
, since the chill is supplied from the refrigerating compartment
100
on the upstream side, its temperature depends upon a temperature of the refrigerating compartment
100
, and delicate temperature control cannot only be performed, but also an offensive smell unique to the refrigerating compartment is brought about to the vegetable compartment
300
together with the chill.
Also, in recent years, in order to properly store in accordance with kind of vegetable, it has been proposed to partition the vegetable compartment
300
into a high-temperature vegetable compartment and a low-temperature vegetable compartment, but in the above-described conventional chill circulation system, it is difficult to produce high temperature and low temperature, and in order to realize them, a considerably high technique is required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, it is possible to eliminate particularly temperature unevenness within the refrigerating compartment, and to effectively cool preserved foods with less chilled air loss.
Also, according to the present invention, a temperature within each storing compartment can be individually controlled independently of other storing compartment temperature. Particularly, in the case where the vegetable compartment is partitioned into a low-temperature vegetable compartment and a high-temperature vegetable compartment, it is possible to adjust temperature within each compartment individually and appropriately. For this reason, the present invention has several special features to be described hereinafter.
First, in the present invention, a storing compartment capable of being opened or closed by a door is included and a chill, i.e. chilled air, generated by a heat exchanger flows from a front surface side facing the door within the storing compartment toward the rear in the depth.
In this case, even if the storing compartment is arranged not at the upper stage, but at the intermediate stage of the main body of the refrigerator, the present invention is applicable. That is, when the storing compartment is arranged, for example, at the intermediate stage of the main body of the refrigerator, a duct can be drawn into its inside partition wall so as to blow out the chill from the front surface side of the storing compartment.
In the present invention, the storing compartment is preferably a refrigerating compartment, and when the refrigerating compartment is arranged at the upper stage of the main body of the refrigerator, between an inner case and an outer case, a duct is formed from the back surface side of the compartment over the top surface side; at one end of the duct on the top surface side, there is provided a chill blow-off port, which is opened in the upper portion of the front surface of the refrigerating compartment on the door side; and the back wall of the refrigerating compartment is formed with a first chill return port communicating to the duct, whereby the chill can be flowed from the front surface side within the refrigerating compartment toward the rear in the depth.
When the vegetable compartment is arranged in the lower part of the refrigerating compartment, it may be possible to form a second chill return port communicating to the duct on the back wall of the vegetable compartment so as to supply the chill into the vegetable compartment through the refrigerating compartment. Also, it may be possible to supply the chill into the vegetable compartment through the dedicated duct and to return the chill within the vegetable compartment from its first chill return port to the duct through the refrigerating compartment, and either of these aspects is also included in the present invention.
In this case, facing a chill passage to be f
Asakura Shinjiro
Eto Masataka
Haruyama Kenji
Higashionna Youichi
Kameda Yutaka
Fujitsu General Limited
Kanesaka & Takeuchi
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