Refrigerator

Details Refrigerator Refrigerator

1996-09-19

1998-04-07

Doerrler, William

Refrigeration

Cooled enclosure

With heat rejecting element enclosure or cooling feature

62419, F25D 1900, F25D 1706

Patent

active

057351384

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a cool-air circulating apparatus for a refrigerating compartment provided on the rear wall of a refrigerating compartment which uniformly cools the whole space of a refrigerating compartment.
A conventional refrigerator, as shown in FIG. 1, includes a refrigerator body 4, a freezing compartment 2, a refrigerating compartment 3, a freezing compartment door 5, and a refrigerating compartment door 6. The doors 5,6 are placed on the front of the refrigerator body 4 for opening/closing the freezing and refrigerating compartments 2 and 3, respectively.
The freezing and refrigerating compartments 2 and 3 are separated by means of a intermediate wall 1. Provided on the rear wall of the freezing compartment 2 are an evaporator 7 for generating cool air, and a fan 8 for discharging the generated cool air into the freezing and refrigerating compartments 2 and 3.
A duct 2a for the freezing compartment 2 is disposed on the rear side of the freezing compartment 2, and a duct 3a for the refrigerating compartment 3 is disposed on the rear side of the refrigerating compartment 3. A plurality of cool-air discharge holes 2b and 3b are formed in an up-and-down direction on the ducts 2a and 3a, respectively, so that the cool air from the evaporator 7 can be introduced into the freezing and refrigerating compartments 2 and 3.
A first passage 1a and a second passage 1b are formed longitudinally inside the intermediate wall 1 in order to guide the cool air, which has circulated in the freezing and refrigerating compartments 2 and 3, into the evaporator 7. 0n the upper portion of the duct 3a of the refrigerating compartment 3, a damper 3c is provided to control amount of cool air flowing into the refrigerating compartment 3.
A plurality of shelves 3d are arranged in the refrigerating compartment 3, each of which corresponds to each cool-air discharge hole 3b. The refrigerating compartment 3 is sectioned off into several areas by means of the shelves 3d. Numerals 3e and 9 indicate a vegetable box and compressor, respectively.
In the refrigerator, constructed as previously mentioned, a portion of the cool air generated by the evaporator 7 flows into the freezing compartment 2 through the cool-air discharge holes 2b and then circulates within the freezing compartment 2. The cool air then flows into the evaporator 7 again through the first passage 1a. On the other hand, the remnants of the cool air flow into the refrigerating compartment 3 through the cool-air discharge holes 3b and then circulate in the refrigerating compartment 3. The cool air then flows into the evaporator 7 again through the second passage 1b.
However, a conventional refrigerator is constructed such that cool air is generated and supplied to the freezing and refrigerating compartments 2 and 3 by means of an evaporator 7 and a fan 8, and that fan 8 is disposed adjacent to the duct 2a for the freezing compartment 2. Consequently, cool air is sufficiently supplied to the freezing compartment 2, but insufficiently supplied to the refrigerating compartment 3.
The above demerit is more problematic in large-sized refrigerators. That is, in the case of a refrigerator of large dimensions, it is more difficult to send cool air to the refrigerating compartment 3 abundantly because the volume of the refrigerating compartment 3 is relatively large. Accordingly, in order to supply sufficient cool air to each compartment of such a large-sized refrigerator, the capacity of the evaporator 7 and fan 8 must be larger, relative to the larger dimensions of the refrigerator, and consequently they occupy as much space in the refrigerator.
Further, the conventional refrigerator has another demerit in that cool air is not evenly distributed throughout the space of the refrigerating compartment 3. This is because the duct 3a for the refrigerating compartment 3 consists of only the cool-air discharge holes 3b formed in an up-and-down direction on the front of the duct 3a. That is, the cool-air d

REFERENCES:
patent: 2390630 (1945-12-01), Wheller
patent: 3623419 (1971-11-01), Taylor
patent: 4920765 (1990-05-01), McCauley et al.
patent: 5315846 (1994-05-01), Lee
patent: 5369963 (1994-12-01), Pickles et al.
patent: 5433661 (1995-07-01), Kim

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