Refrigeration – Cooled enclosure – With heat rejecting element enclosure or cooling feature
Reexamination Certificate
2002-07-02
2004-04-13
Jones, Melvin (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Cooled enclosure
With heat rejecting element enclosure or cooling feature
C062S440000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06718793
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, in particular, which incorporates a condenser functioning as a backcover of a machine room so as to enhance condensing effect.
2. Description of the Related Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, various types of refrigerators are used to freeze or refrigerate foods.
FIG. 1
is a longitudinal sectional view of a general refrigerator.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, the refrigerator comprises a housing
10
defined by an internal receiving space divided into a freezing chamber
101
and a refrigerator chamber
102
, freezing and refrigerating chamber doors
12
mounted to one side of the housing
10
for opening/closing the freezing chamber
101
and refrigerating chamber
102
and a number of devices including a compressor
20
, a condenser
30
, an expander (not shown) and an evaporator
40
for generating cold air in a cooling cycle.
Describing the operation of the refrigerator as set forth above, gaseous refrigerant in a low temperature and pressure is compressed into a high temperature and pressure by the compressor
20
. The compressed gaseous refrigerant in a high temperature and pressure is converted into a high pressure liquid as cooled and condensed while passing through the condenser
30
. The high pressure liquid refrigerant loses its temperature and pressure while passing through the expander (not shown). In succession, the refrigerant is transformed into a low temperature and pressure gas absorbing heat from surroundings to cool the same.
Then, air cooled by the evaporator
40
is circulated into the freezing chamber
101
and the refrigerating chamber
102
owing to operation of a blowing fan
50
installed in an evaporator room
103
to lower the temperature of the freezing chamber
101
and the refrigerating chamber
102
.
In the meantime, the condenser
30
is generally used as a fin tube-type condenser comprising a refrigerant pipe
32
and a number of heat-radiating fins
34
. The refrigerant pipe
32
is made of metal and continuously bent into a kind of multi-layered structure. The heat-radiating fins
34
are arranged in parallel with a certain interval, attached to the refrigerant pipe
32
via welding, and mounted in the shape of a thin panel apparently crossing said bent refrigerant pipe
32
.
Further, the refrigerator is generally provided in the vicinity of the condenser
30
with a cooling fan for assisting efficient heat exchange due to forced convection.
FIG. 2
is a perspective view illustrating the machine room in a lower portion of the refrigerator.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, those devices generating heat or operation noise of the devices executing the cooling cycle are installed in the machine room
104
, and they include the condenser
30
, the compressor
20
and the cooling fan
60
for the condenser
30
.
In the meantime, the machine room
104
is provided in a rear lower portion of the refrigerator separated from a refrigerator body so that the heat from the compressor
20
and the condenser does not transfer to the freezing and refrigerating chambers
101
and
102
or the noise may not spread.
A general small or medium-sized refrigerator generates a large amount of heat owing to the operation features of the compressor
20
and the condenser
30
so that the rear part of the machine room
104
has an opened structure to allow an effective heat-radiating operation.
In a large-sized refrigerator, however, the cooling fan
60
and the compressor
20
are adapted to have a large capacity thereby increasing the operation noise so that a backcover
70
is installed to block an opened side of the machine room
104
so as to enhance sound-proofing effect.
The backcover
70
is a kind of panel member provided with a number of ventilation louvers
701
, and detachably mounted to the rear lower end of the housing
10
via screwing and so on.
According to the related art as set forth above, the backcover
70
can promote the marketability of the refrigerator since it blocks and reduces the operation noise from the compressor
20
and the cooling fan
60
in use for the condenser.
In the refrigerator adopting the backcover
70
, however, the heat exchange efficiency of the condenser
30
is disadvantageously lower than in a refrigerator without the backcover
70
since air does not efficiently flow inside/outside the machine room
104
due to the backcover
70
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made to effectively solve the foregoing problems and it is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator comprising a housing having a freezing chamber and/or a refrigerating chamber, a door for opening/closing the freezing chamber and/or the refrigerating chamber, a compressor provided in a machine room in a lower portion of the housing, a cooling fan placed in the opposite of the compressor in the machine room, and a condenser with both ends respectively connected to the compressor and an evaporator for cooling refrigerant and having a refrigerant pipe portion and a heat-radiating fin portion configured as a panel for covering a portion of the outer periphery of the machine room to function as a backcover.
According to an aspect of the invention to obtain the above object, it is provided a refrigerator comprising: a housing having a freezing chamber and/or a refrigerating chamber; a door for opening/closing the freezing chamber and/or the refrigerating chamber; a compressor placed at one side of a machine room in a lower portion of the housing; a cooling fan provided in a central portion of the machine room for discharging air to a direction opposite to the position where the compressor is placed; and a condenser with both ends coupled to the compressor and an evaporator for cooling refrigerant and having a refrigerant pipe portion and a heat-radiating fin portion configured as a panel for covering a portion of the outer periphery of the machine room to function as a backcover.
In the refrigerator of the invention, the machine room is closed in the outer periphery except for the portion where the condenser is placed.
The condenser functioning as a backcover is made of plastic as set forth above to enhance condensing efficiency as an effect.
Further, a receiving space is enlarged in the refrigerator to increase the quantity of foods receivable in the refrigerator thereby enhancing the marketability of the refrigerator.
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patent: 4355521 (1982-10-01), Tsai
patent: 4527624 (1985-07-01), Nishida et al.
patent: 4637222 (1987-01-01), Fujiwara et al.
patent: 4891952 (1990-01-01), Yoshikawa et al.
patent: 4989252 (1991-01-01), Nakanishi et al.
patent: 5123258 (1992-06-01), Brown et al.
patent: 5374118 (1994-12-01), Kruck et al.
patent: 5666817 (1997-09-01), Schulak et al.
patent: 5782106 (1998-07-01), Park
patent: 5881567 (1999-03-01), Junge et al.
patent: 6058731 (2000-05-01), Byczynski et al.
Jones Melvin
LG Electronics Inc.
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