CN1252435C - Combined refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

A combination refrigerator comprising: a plurality of cooling cabinets with openings forming a storage room; a door for opening and closing the openings of the cooling cabinets; a cold air generating part generating cold air to cool the storage room; Cool air generated in the air generating part is supplied into the storage room, wherein a plurality of cooling cabinets are detachably connected to each other in any direction to form a shape corresponding to a space where the combined refrigerator is placed. Thus, the present invention provides a refrigerator capable of changing the size according to the area of the space where the refrigerator is placed, and facilitates utilization of the space where the combined refrigerator is placed.

Description

combination refrigerator

technical field

The invention relates to a combination refrigerator, in particular to a refrigerator whose size can be changed according to the area of the space where the refrigerator is placed.

Background technique

It is a current trend that refrigerators become larger, so a larger area is required to place conventional refrigerators.

However, if the user has only a small amount of space available, a large refrigerator can take up too much space and reduce its electrical utilization of that space.

Also, the size of refrigerators entering the market is invariable, and no measure is provided to change the size of the refrigerator according to the area of the space where the refrigerator is placed, so users experience great inconvenience when placing such refrigerators.

Although Korean Patent First Publication No. 1997-47538 discloses a separable refrigerator, only the freezer and refrigerating chambers can be separated, and the size of the refrigerator cannot be changed according to the area of the space where the refrigerator is placed. Thus, it does not contribute to solving the above-mentioned problems.

Contents of the invention

Accordingly, an aspect of the present invention is to provide a combined refrigerator capable of changing the size of the refrigerator according to the area of a space where the refrigerator is placed.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing a combination refrigerator comprising: a plurality of cooling cabinets with openings forming a storage room; a door for closing the openings of the cooling cabinets; An evaporator provided in a plurality of cooling cabinets, a compressor that compresses refrigerant to supply the refrigerant into the evaporator, a condenser that condenses the refrigerant compressed in the compressor, an electronic expansion valve, and a drive that controls the compressor wherein the compressor and the condenser are installed in the component room; and a cool air supply part for supplying the cool air generated in the cool air generating part into the storage room, wherein the plurality of cooling cabinets They are detachably connected to each other in any direction, forming a shape corresponding to the space where the combined refrigerator is placed.

According to one aspect of the invention, an assembly of cooling cabinets is formed in the shape of a hexahedron.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the plurality of cooling cabinets includes at least one first cooling cabinet having a predetermined size, and at least one second cooling cabinet having a size smaller than the first cooling cabinet, wherein the number of the second cooling cabinets is cooling cabinets The total minus the quantity of at least one first cooling cabinet.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the component room is provided separately from the cooling cabinet, the condenser and the evaporator are connected through a refrigerant delivery pipe, and the evaporator and the compressor are refrigerated by returning the refrigerant from each evaporator to the compressor. agent return tube to connect.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the component compartment is disposed within a cooling cabinet of the plurality of cooling cabinets.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the refrigerant delivery pipe is provided with an electronic expansion valve.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the cool air supply part includes a guide passage provided at a rear side of the storage compartment and guiding cool air generated in the evaporator into the storage compartment.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the combination refrigerator further includes at least one connector connecting the refrigerant delivery pipe and the refrigerant return pipe to the evaporator.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the compressor, the condenser, the electronic expansion valve and the evaporator form a refrigeration cycle, and the refrigeration cycle further includes an inverter circuit.

Additional aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

Description of drawings

The above and/or other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and easier to understand from the following description of the embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

1 to 3 are perspective views of combined refrigerators assembled by placing cooling cabinets in different ways according to the present invention;

Fig. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the combination refrigerator shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 shows the refrigerant cycle of the combination refrigerator according to the embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a side sectional view of a cooling cabinet according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 7 is a side sectional view of a cooling cabinet according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Figure 8 is a side sectional view of a cooling cabinet according to another embodiment.

Detailed ways

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.

1 to 4 are perspective views of combined refrigerators assembled by placing cooling cabinets in different ways according to the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 , the combined refrigerator 1 is composed of a plurality of cooling cabinets 10 connected to each other.

As shown in FIGS. 6-8 , each cooling cabinet 10 has a storage compartment 11 with an opening closed by a door 12 . Here, the door 12 may be rotatably or slidably provided with respect to the cooling cabinet 10 .

The rear side of each storage compartment 11 has an evaporator 13 as a cool air generating part that generates cool air to cool each storage compartment 11, and a cool air supply part for supplying the cool air generated in the evaporator 13. Enter storage room 11.

As shown in FIG. 6 , the cold air supply part includes a guide channel 20 arranged on the rear side of the storage room 11 for guiding the cold air from the evaporator 13 into the storage room 11 , and the air supply provided in the guide channel 20 . The fan 21 is used to send cold air from the evaporator 13 into the storage room 11 .

As shown in FIG. 5 , the component room 30 is provided separately from the cooling cabinet 10 to form a refrigeration cycle, and cool air is generated in each evaporator 13 provided at each storage room 11 . More than one component chamber 30 may be used.

Each component chamber 30 has a compressor 31 that compresses refrigerant to a high temperature and high pressure state, and a condenser 32 for condensing the refrigerant compressed in the compressor 31 . Here, the component chamber 30 is separated from the cooling cabinet 10 . However, one or more cooling cabinets 10 may be used as the component room 30 to house the compressor 31 and the condenser 32 .

The condenser 32 is connected to each evaporator 13 through a refrigerant delivery pipe 40 so that the refrigerant that has passed through the condenser 32 flows into each evaporator 13 . The refrigerant delivery pipe 40 has an electronic expansion valve 41 .

The electronic expansion valve 41 controls the discharge amount of the decompressed refrigerant by controlling the opening degree of the valve according to the load of the refrigeration cycle.

The compressor 31 is connected to each evaporator 13 through a refrigerant return pipe 42 so that the refrigerant that has passed through the evaporator 13 and completed heat exchange flows back to the compressor 31 .

As shown in FIG. 6 , the refrigerant delivery pipe 40 and the refrigerant return pipe 42 are detachably connected to the evaporator 13 using a connector 43 installed on the rear side of each cooling cabinet 10 . Here, the refrigerant delivery pipe 40 and the refrigerant return pipe 42 are connected to the evaporator 13 through a connector 43 . However, as shown in FIG. 8 , two connectors 43 may be used, one connecting the refrigerant pipe 40 with the evaporator 13 and the other connecting the refrigerant return pipe 42 with the evaporator 13 .

A process of generating cool air supplied to each storage compartment 11 through the refrigeration cycle shown in the refrigerant cycle of FIG. 5 is as follows. The refrigerating cycle includes compressor 31 driven by electric power 70 compressing the refrigerant to a high pressure and high temperature state and discharging the refrigerant, condenser 32 removing heat from the refrigerant discharged from compressor 31, and electronic expansion valve 41 transferring the high-pressure refrigerant to Reduced pressure to evaporating pressure. In addition, the refrigerating cycle further includes: the evaporator 13 evaporating the decompressed refrigerant, and the inverter circuit 71 providing the driving frequency to the compressor 31 .

The output frequency of the inverter circuit 71 is adjusted according to the electric power 70 to drive the compressor 31 with an appropriate capacity, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the compressor.

Through such a refrigeration cycle, the refrigerant flows through the compressor 31 and the condenser 32 in the component room 30, and reaches each evaporator 13 installed in each storage room 11, where heat exchange is completed, thereby generating cool air. And supply to each storage room 11. Then, the heat-exchanged refrigerant returns to the compressor 31 so that the temperature of each storage chamber 11 can be independently controlled.

In the above-described embodiments, cool air is generated through a refrigeration cycle. However, as shown in FIG. 7 , cool air may be generated and supplied to each storage room 11 by installing at least one thermoelectric semiconductor element 60 at the rear side of the storage room 11 .

When current flows into the contact surfaces of the semiconductor material and the metal material, the thermoelectric semiconductor element 60 generates and absorbs heat other than Joule heat along the direction of the current, using a pyroelectric phenomenon. In a thermoelectric semiconductor element, it is possible to adjust the amount of heat release and heat absorption according to the intensity of the current, and to change the direction of heat release and heat absorption according to the direction of the current. Furthermore, no mechanical parts are required in the thermoelectric semiconductor element, and the position and direction of installation have no effect on its operation.

Utilizing the structure of the combined refrigerator 1 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a plurality of cooling cabinets 10 can be detachably connected to each other in any orientation as required, such as vertical, horizontal, forward and backward directions, and left and right directions, A shape corresponding to the space where the combination refrigerator 1 is placed is formed.

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the combination refrigerator may be formed by combining cooling cabinets in a form desired by a user or in accordance with the area of a space where the refrigerator is placed. Since the method of assembling the combination refrigerator according to the embodiment of the present invention is similar, only the assembly of the combination refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 is described with reference to FIG. 4 . For ease of description, cooling cabinet 10 is considered to include lower, middle and upper cabinet sections 51, 52 and 53, although alternative arrangements are within the scope of the present invention.

Although the assembly method is described with the components shown in 1-4, other component combination methods can also be used; the following describes the assembly method of the refrigerator shown in Figures 1 and 4: the lower cabinet 51 is placed in the place where it is desired to place the refrigerator place and is placed at the bottom. Each of three middle cabinets 52 smaller than the size of the lower cabinet is stacked on the lower cabinet 51 . Thereafter the three middle cooling cabinets 52 are connected to each other, and an upper cabinet 53 having the same length as the lower cabinet 51 is stacked on top of the three connected cabinets 52 . A line formed by connecting the cabinets 51, 52, and 53 is a straight line, thereby forming the combined refrigerator 1 and exhibiting a rectangular appearance. That is, the assembly of cooling cabinets forms a hexahedron shape. The cabinets 51, 52 and 53 are connected to each other with connectors, for example, by sliding engagement or male and female engagement.

After combining the cooling cabinets 10 as described above to form a combination refrigerator, power is supplied to start the operation of the combination refrigerator.

The operation of the refrigerator is as follows: the compressor 31 compresses the refrigerant to a high pressure and high temperature state, then the refrigerant discharged from the compressor 31 is condensed in the condenser 32, and then flows into the evaporator 13 through the refrigerant delivery pipe 40 and Heat exchange is accomplished within the evaporator 13 . The cool air generated in the above manner is supplied into the storage compartment 11 . Here, since the evaporator 13 is provided in each cooling cabinet 10 , cool air is sent into each storage room 11 from each evaporator 13 corresponding to the rear side of each storage room 11 .

According to the present invention, by assembling and disassembling cooling cabinets 10 of different sizes, the combined refrigerator 1 can have different sizes according to user's requirements, in other words, the user can change the size of the refrigerator according to his/her requirements. In this way, the present invention solves the difficulty of choosing a space to place the refrigerator and the difficulty of moving the refrigerator. Furthermore, if the user needs an extra storage compartment 11 for storing extra items, this requirement can be easily met by combining the extra cooling cabinet 10 into the already assembled refrigerator.

In the embodiment described above, the component chamber 30 accommodating the compressor 31 and the condenser 32 is separated from the cooling cabinet 10, but the component chamber 30 including the compressor 31 and the condenser 32 may be placed in a plurality of cooling cabinets. One or be placed in the other cabinet that is detachably connected with cooling cabinet 10.

The combination of the refrigerator 1 is not limited to the ones shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 . According to the user's choice, different combined refrigerators can be formed by combining cooling cabinets of different sizes in different ways. In addition, combination refrigerators can be placed in a preset cabinet.

As described above, the present invention provides a refrigerator capable of changing in size according to the area of a space where the refrigerator is placed, thereby facilitating utilization of the space where the refrigerator is placed.

Although several embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described here, those skilled in the art will understand that changes can be made to the present invention without departing from the principle and essence of the present invention, and its scope is limited in the appended claims requirements and their equivalents.

Claims (8)

1. combined refrigerator comprises:

The a plurality of cooling cabinets that have opening with storeroom;

Be used to open and close a plurality of doors of cooling cabinet opening;

Cold air produces part, and it comprises: be separately positioned on the evaporimeter in a plurality of cooling cabinets; Compressed refrigerant is to be fed to cold-producing medium on the compressor in the evaporimeter; Be condensate in the condenser of compressed cold-producing medium in the compressor; Electric expansion valve; And the negative circuit of the driving of control compressor, wherein, compressor and condenser are installed in the component room; And

The cold air supply section, its cold air that will produce in cold air produces part infeeds in the storeroom,

Wherein a plurality of cooling cabinets are gone up and can removably connect each other in any direction, form the shape corresponding to the space of placing combined refrigerator.

2. combined refrigerator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the assembly of cooling cabinet forms hexahedral shape.

3. combined refrigerator as claimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of cooling cabinets comprise:

At least one has first cooling cabinet of preliminary dimension, and

At least one has second cooling cabinet less than the size of first cooling cabinet, and wherein the quantity of second cooling cabinet is the number that the cooling cabinet sum deducts the quantity gained of at least one first cooling cabinet.

4. combined refrigerator as claimed in claim 1, wherein component room is separated from cooling cabinet, and described combined refrigerator also comprises:

The conveying pipe of refrigerant that connects condenser and evaporimeter, and

Connect the cold-producing medium recurrent canal of evaporimeter and compressor, it turns back to compressor with cold-producing medium from each evaporimeter.

5. combined refrigerator as claimed in claim 1, wherein component room is arranged in a plurality of cooling cabinets one.

6. combined refrigerator as claimed in claim 4, wherein conveying pipe of refrigerant has electric expansion valve.

7. combined refrigerator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cold air supply section comprises the guiding channel that is arranged on the storeroom rear side, its guiding cool air that will produce in each evaporimeter is in each storeroom.

8. combined refrigerator as claimed in claim 7 also comprises the connector that at least one couples together conveying pipe of refrigerant and cold-producing medium recurrent canal and each evaporimeter.

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