Refrigeration – Gas controller or director – Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
Reexamination Certificate
2003-04-01
2004-05-18
Jones, Melvin (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Gas controller or director
Cooled gas directed relative to cooled enclosure
C062S126000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06735975
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to an apparatus for controlling cool air of a refrigerator which can certify a location of a damper with a naked eye, the damper refreshes food in the refrigerator by controlling an amount of cool air on a cool air flow path of an inner wall of the refrigerator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator is a device to store food in low temperature, which is divided into a freezing chamber for freezing food and a chilling chamber for maintaining food fresh in a cold storage state.
FIG. 1
is a sectional view showing an entire structure of a refrigerator in accordance with the conventional art, and
FIG. 2
is a sectional view line taken along line A-A′ of FIG.
1
.
As shown, the conventional refrigerator is divided into a freezing chamber
2
for freezing food and a chilling chamber
4
for cooling food with a predetermined temperature and maintaining the temperature, and a barrier
5
formed of an insulation material is inserted therebetween.
A freezing chamber door
60
for opening and closing the freezing chamber
2
is formed at one side of the freezing chamber
2
, and a cooler chamber
1
and a cool air distribution chamber
15
which are divided from a shroud
12
are formed at the other side thereof.
The cooler chamber
1
of a left side of the shroud
12
is provided with a fan
8
for blowing cooling air at an upper portion thereof, and a heat exchanger
6
for cooling air by dehydrating the air at a lower portion thereof.
Also, a cool air flow path for supplying cool air to the chilling chamber
4
from the freezing chamber
2
is formed at an inner rear side or a lateral side of the refrigerator with a proper number at a proper position for a uniform cooling.
As shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
, a cool air supply path
31
for supplying cool air is formed in the barrier
5
at one side of the freezing chamber
2
, and the cool air supply path
31
is divided into a left flow path
32
and a right flow path
33
.
A rear surface flow path
30
is formed at a rear surface of the chilling chamber
4
towards a longitudinal direction between the cool air supply path
31
and the left flow path
32
, and a plurality of rear discharge openings
30
a
are formed below the rear surface flow path
30
.
In the meantime, a left discharge opening
32
a
for sending cool air to the chilling chamber
4
is formed at a lower side of the left flow path
32
by being connected thereto, and a right discharge opening
33
a
for sending cool air to the chilling chamber
4
is formed at a lower side of the right flow path
33
by being connected thereto.
Also, a freezing chamber feedback flow path
2
a
and a cooling chamber feedback flow path
4
a
for returning air of high temperature to the heat exchanger
6
are formed at the barrier
5
located between the freezing chamber
2
and the chilling chamber
4
.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, a damper
40
for controlling an amount of cool air sucked into the chilling chamber
4
from the freezing chamber
2
is mounted on the cool air flow path at an inner wall
10
of one side of the chilling chamber
4
, and a chilling chamber door
70
for opening and closing the chilling chamber
4
is formed at the other side of the chilling chamber
4
.
Also, a control unit for controlling the damper
40
is formed in the refrigerator. The control unit receives data about inner temperature from a temperature detecting sensor and compares the data with a predetermined temperature, thereby opening and closing the damper.
Meanwhile, a compressor
50
for compressing refrigerant is formed at one side of a lower portion of the refrigerator.
A flow of cool air in the refrigerator and operations of damper will be explained.
As shown in
FIGS. 1 and 2
, the cool air heat-exchanged by the heat exchanger
6
in the cooler chamber
1
formed at one side of the freezing chamber
2
flows into the freezing chamber
2
through the shroud
12
by the fan
8
, and a part of the rest flows into the chilling chamber
4
.
The cool air introduced into the chilling chamber
4
from the freezing chamber
2
is sucked to a suction opening formed at one side of a lower portion of the shroud
12
, and passes the cool air supply path
31
formed at a lower part of the suction opening.
The cool air supplied to the cool air supply path
31
is diverged into the left flow path
32
and the right flow path
33
.
A part of the cool air towards the left flow path
32
passes the rear surface flow path
30
arranged at a rear surface of the chilling chamber towards a longitudinal direction and is discharged through the plurality of rear discharge openings
30
a
, and another part of the cool air is discharged through the left discharge opening
32
a
formed at a left side of the chilling chamber
4
.
The cool air towards the right flow path
33
is all discharged through the right discharge opening
33
a
formed at a right side of the chilling chamber
4
.
At this time, the damper
40
arranged at an upper portion o the cool air flow path formed at one side wall of the chilling chamber
4
is operated, thereby controlling an amount of cool air introduced into the chilling chamber
4
from the freezing chamber
2
.
Also, the control unit receives information about inner temperature from the temperature detecting sensor installed at an inner wall of the chilling chamber
4
, and compares the information with a predetermined temperature, thereby selectively opening and closing the damper
40
.
The air of high temperature by being introduced into the freezing chamber and the chilling chamber passes the freezing chamber feedback flow path
2
a
and the chilling chamber feedback flow path
4
a
formed in the barrier
5
, and is introduced into the heat exchanger
6
, thereby being cooled.
The cooled air is supplied to the freezing chamber or the chilling chamber by the heat exchanger above the damper. At this time, in order to reduce a power consumption and maintain a proper temperature in the refrigerator, the compressor is temporarily stopped. In this case, humid air in the chilling chamber which is relatively high temperature is frozen at a lower surface of the damper, so that the damper is not smoothly opened and closed.
According to this, in order to solve the freeze of the damper
40
, heat is applied to a periphery of the damper.
However, the damper of the conventional refrigerator is installed on the cool air flow path of the inner wall of the chilling chamber, so that a user can not certify an operation state of the damper precisely at the time of opening a door of the chilling chamber and thus can not certify whether the cool air is normally supplied to the chilling chamber or not. According to this, food in the chilling chamber can be decomposed or spoiled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for controlling cool air of a refrigerator which can certify an operation state of a damper installed on a cool air flow path of the refrigerator with a naked eye, maintain a flow of the cool air, and thus store food fresh in the refrigerator.
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 an apparatus for controlling cool air of a refrigerator comprising: a damper arranged on a cool air flow path which supplies air cooled by passing through a freezing cycle to a chilling chamber, the damper for controlling an amount of cool air introduced into the chilling chamber; and a damper display means formed at one side of the cool air flow path for displaying a location of the damper.
The damper includes: a valve plate installed on the cool air flow path and operated up and down for controlling an amount of cool air; a hinge axis rotated by being attached to one side of the valve plate and being installed at one side wall on the cool air flow path; and a stepping motor connected to the hinge a
Fleshner & Kim LLP
Jones Melvin
LG Electronics Inc.
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