KR100213623B1 - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a cooling chamber, comprising: a cold air duct provided on a side wall of the cooling chamber to guide the flow of cold air and having a cold air discharge port opened toward the cooling chamber; A shutter movable between an open position and a closed position of the cold air discharge port; Drive means fixedly installed at a predetermined distance from the shutter; And a transmission unit interposed to be stretchable between the driving means and the shutter to convert the rotational force of the driving means into opening and closing movement of the shutter. As a result, cold air can be selectively supplied by opening and closing the cold air discharge port, and if necessary, the cold air discharge port can be closed to block relative high temperature flowing into the evaporator, thereby preventing the concept of the evaporator. In addition, the aesthetics of the refrigerating chamber are improved.

Description

Refrigerator

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and particularly, to a refrigerator in which a shutter is provided to intermittently open and close a cold air outlet formed in the cooling chamber to adjust the amount of cold air supplied to the cooling chamber, and to improve aesthetics in the cooling chamber. It is about.

5 is a side cross-sectional view of a conventional general refrigerator. The refrigerator 101 opens and closes a main body 4 having a pair of cooling chambers divided into a freezer compartment 2 and a refrigerator compartment 3 partitioned by an intermediate partition 5, and respective cooling chambers 2, 3. Has a freezer compartment door 6 and a refrigerating compartment door 7. In the main body, a refrigeration system including a compressor 11, a condenser, a freezer evaporator 13b, and a refrigerator compartment evaporator 12b (not shown) is installed. The cold air generated in each of the evaporators 13b and 12b flows along the cold air duct 15 formed on the rear surfaces of the cooling chambers 2 and 3, and the cold air duct 15 is blown by the blowing fans 13a and 13b. It is supplied to each cooling chamber (2, 3) through the cold air discharge port 16 provided in the.

By the way, in the conventional refrigerator 101, there is a region where the cold air discharged through the cold air discharge port 16 is provided intensively and a region where a relatively small amount is supplied, thereby deepening the temperature deviation in the cooling chamber and thus uniformly cooling it. There is a problem that this can not be done. Therefore, a refrigerator that performs a so-called three-dimensional cooling method has been proposed that improves this problem. The three-dimensional cooling method of the refrigerator provides a plurality of cold air discharge outlets on the rear wall and both side walls of the cooling chamber, respectively, so as to achieve intensive cooling air supply in a specific direction as needed, so that the cooling chamber can be uniformly cooled. One is a fridge.

By the way, in such a three-dimensional cooling method refrigerator, too, since the cold air is discharged in a predetermined direction through the cold air discharge port, a four-segment section in which no cold air is supplied is formed in the corner region, and in particular, the side wall of each cooling chamber Since the cold air duct must be provided, there is a problem that the food accommodation space is reduced, and the manufacturing cost is increased due to the increase of parts and manufacturing process. Therefore, in recent years, a refrigerator having a cold air distribution device that solves these problems has been proposed.

6 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional cold air distribution device. The cold air distribution device 110 is installed in the cold air duct described with reference to FIG. 5, and is composed of a rotation shaft 121, a plurality of cold air distribution wings 111, and a driving motor 131 for rotating the rotation shaft 121. It is. The rotating shaft 121 is rotatably installed on the rear side of the refrigerating chamber 3, and the rotating shaft 121 of the driving motor 131 is coupled to the upper portion of the rotating shaft 121. The cold air distribution blades 111 are formed in a plate-shaped body curved in a wave shape with respect to the plane including the axis of the rotation shaft 121, and are spaced apart from each other to correspond to each of the cold air discharge ports 16 along the rotation shaft 121. It is. At the upper and lower ends of each cold air distributing wing 111, a pair of end plates 113 formed of an upper plate 113a and a lower plate 113b is formed, and an intermediate plate is formed between the upper plate 113a and the lower plate 113b. 115 is provided to divide the cold air distribution blade 111 into the first blade portion 117 and the second blade portion 119. Each wing portion 117, 119 is bent to form an S-shaped cross section, and each wing portion 117, 119 of each cold air distribution wing 111 is bent in the opposite direction to each other.

In the refrigerator 101 having the conventional cold air distribution device 110 having such a configuration, when the driving motor 131 rotates the rotary shaft 121 at a low speed, the cold air supplied along the cold air duct 15 is cold air distribution wing 111. The direction of the flow path is changed by the curved plate surface of the shells, and spreads in the refrigerating chamber from side to side and is discharged. On the other hand, when intensive cooling is necessary for a specific site, the rotating shaft 121 is stopped in accordance with the direction of the cold air distribution blade 111 so that cold air is concentrated discharged toward the site. By such a cold air distribution device 110, it becomes possible to realize uniform cooling and concentrated cooling in the refrigerating chamber 3.

By the way, in the refrigerator 101 having such a conventional cold air distribution device 110, although uniform cooling in the cooling chamber can be achieved to some extent by distributing the cold air supplied into the cooling chamber to the cold air distribution device 110, A plurality of cold air discharge ports opened in the lowering of the aesthetics in the cooling chamber, and the manufacturing cost of the device is increased due to the cold air distribution device 110 which is relatively difficult to manufacture. Then, a vortex is formed around the cold air discharge port 16 by the gentle curve of the cold air distribution wing 111, whereby the good operation of the cold air distribution device 110 is lowered, and in some cases, inside the cooling chamber. Excessive cold air supply can cause problems in keeping food safe.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a shutter that opens and closes a cold air discharge port formed in a cooling chamber in consideration of such a conventional problem, and intermittently opens and closes it, thereby controlling the amount of cold air supplied into the cooling chamber, It is to provide a refrigerator capable of uniformly distributing cold air in the cooling chamber.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator capable of distributing cold air having improved aesthetics in a cooling chamber.

1 is a front sectional view of a refrigerator according to the present invention;

2 is a side cross-sectional view of FIG.

3 and 4 is a rear view showing an operating state of the shutter device according to the invention,

5 is a side cross-sectional view of a conventional refrigerator,

6 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional cold air distribution device.

Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

2, 3: Cooling chamber 5: Intermediate bulkhead

6, 7: door 12a, 12b: evaporator

13a, 13b: blower fan 15: cold air duct

16a, 16b: cold air outlet 30: shutter device

33a, 33b: Shutter 37a, 37b: Slit

40: cold air grill member 43: projection

45: rotating shaft fixing portion 51: drive unit

53: drive motor 55: drive cam

57: cam groove 61: electric drive

63 link member 65 link pin

67: rotating body 71: the first working part

73, 75, 78, 79: distal end

77: second action part

According to the present invention, a refrigerator having a cooling chamber, comprising: a cold air duct provided on a side wall of the cooling chamber to guide the flow of cold air and having a cold air discharge opening opened toward the cooling chamber; A shutter movable between an open position and a closed position of the cold air discharge port; Drive means fixedly installed at a predetermined distance from the shutter; It is achieved by a refrigerator characterized in that it comprises an electric transmission portion interposed elastically between the drive means and the shutter to convert the rotational force of the drive means to the opening and closing movement of the shutter.

Here, the transmission portion is composed of a plurality of link members hinged to each other foldable; It is preferable to provide first and second action portions on both sides, which are mutually accessible when the link member is folded. At this time, the driving means includes a cylindrical cam body disposed in the horizontal direction of the sliding direction of the shutter; A cam groove having a continuous camp profile on the longitudinal cylindrical surface of the cam body; It can be simply configured to include a drive motor for rotating the cam body.

On the other hand, one end of the first action portion is engaged with the cam groove, the other end is rotatably fixed; When the cam body is rotated, the one end portion moves along the cam groove and is approached to the other end portion so that the plurality of link members can be folded, and the shutter is provided in the horizontal direction of the sliding direction. A pair of slits are formed; Each end of the second action portion is accommodated in each of the slits, it is preferable to configure the reciprocating movement in conjunction with the access half of the first action portion.

And an additional cold air discharge port disposed opposite the cold air discharge port with the driving means interposed therebetween; It may be configured to further include a transmission unit that is foldable driven by the shutter and the driving means attached to the additional cold air discharge port for opening and closing the shutter.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a front cross-sectional view of the refrigerator according to the present invention, Figure 2 is a side cross-sectional view of FIG. As can be seen from these figures, the refrigerator 1 has a freezer compartment 2 and a refrigerating compartment 3 by means of an intermediate partition 5 in a substantially rectangular body, as described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. A pair of cooling chambers divided by) is provided, and opening / closing doors 6 and 7 are provided on the front surfaces of the openings of the respective cooling chambers 2 and 3, respectively.

The refrigerator compartment 3 is provided with a plurality of shelves 8 for placing food, and partitioned into a plurality of food storage zones parallel to each other. The special refrigeration chamber 18 used for storing the food suitable for a specific temperature range is formed in the upper side of the refrigerating chamber 3, and the vegetable chamber 19 for storing vegetables is formed in the lower side of the refrigerating chamber 3. As shown in FIG.

In the main body 4, a compressor 11, a condenser, a freezer compartment evaporator 12a, and a refrigerator compartment evaporator 12b, which are not shown, are installed to perform a refrigeration cycle, and cold air is generated in each of the evaporators 12a and 12b. A freezer compartment fan 13a and a refrigerating compartment fan 13b are installed above the evaporators 12a and 12b to forcibly blow cold air generated in each of the evaporators 12a and 12b to the freezer compartment 2 or the refrigerator compartment 3.

On the rear wall surface of the refrigerating chamber 3, a duct housing 20 is provided which forms a cold air duct 15 that provides a flow path of cold air from the evaporator 12b. The duct housing 20 includes a duct member 21 for forming cold air ducts 15 to insulate cold air insulated, a front plate 23 attached to the front surface of the duct member 21, and a duct member 21. It consists of a seal plate (25) adhered to the back of the) and a partial cylindrical cold air grill member (40) installed in front of the front plate (23).

The cold air grill member 40 is provided with a pair of upper and lower cold air outlets 16 that are opened toward the refrigerating chamber 3. The front surface of the partial cylindrical cold air grill member 40 is slightly protruded from the rear wall of the refrigerating compartment 3 as a whole, so that the cold air flowing through the cold air duct is distributed in the refrigerating compartment 3 at a large discharge angle through the cold air outlet. . At the rear of the cold air duct 15, a circulation duct 17 connecting the refrigerating chamber 3 and the refrigerator compartment evaporator 12b is formed to be isolated from the cold air duct 15. The cold air blown into the cold air duct 15 by the refrigerating chamber fan 13b is supplied into the refrigerating chamber 3 through each cold air discharge outlet, and the cold air discharged as described above to cool the refrigerating chamber 3 is circulated through the circulation duct 17. Return to the refrigerator compartment evaporator 12b.

3 and 4 are rear views showing an operating state of the shutter device according to the present invention. As can be seen in the figure, the shutter device 30 includes shutters 33a and 33b for opening and closing a pair of upper and lower air discharge ports 16a and 16b formed in the cold air grill member 40, and a pair of upper and lower cold air. The drive part 51 provided in the middle region between the discharge ports 16a and 16b, and the transmission part 61 which transfers the driving force of the drive part 51 to the shutter 33a, 33b, and opens and closes the cold air discharge port 16a, 16b. It consists of).

The shutters 16a and 16b are composed of a plate-like body having a smooth curved surface so as to correspond to the plate surface of the cold air grill member 40 having a partial cylindrical shape. At both edges of the cold air discharge ports 16a and 16b, a pair of guide members 35 are fixedly attached along the longitudinal direction and opposed to each other. They are formed with sliding grooves in the longitudinal direction on the opposite surfaces, and both sliding edges of the shutters 33a and 33b are fitted into these sliding grooves. The shutters 33a and 33b are movable along the longitudinal direction of the sliding groove by the action of the driving unit 51 and the transmission unit 61 which will be described later.

The drive unit 51 has a drive motor 53 and a drive cam 55 which is coaxially coupled to the drive shaft 54 of the drive motor 53, and has a cold air discharge port at the rear central region of the cold air grill member 40. It is arrange | positioned in the horizontal direction parallel to 16a, 16b. In the central region of the rear surface of the cold air grill member 40, a pair of protrusions 43 protruding from the plate surface are provided to face in the horizontal direction, and the driving motor 53 is fixedly mounted between the pair of protrusions 43. do. The drive cam 55 coupled to the drive shaft 54 of the drive motor 53 has the rotation shaft 58 rotatably fixed to the rotation shaft fixing part 45 parallel to the protrusion 43. In the present embodiment, the drive motor 53 preferably uses a stepping motor capable of forward and reverse driving and stop angle position control.

The driving cam 55 is expanded in the cross-sectional radial direction of the rotary shaft 58 and has a cylindrical shape coaxial with the rotary shaft 58, and a longitudinal direction of the cam body 56 in the cylindrical surface of the cam main body 56. It has a cam groove 57 having a camping profile that continuously descends along.

On the other hand, the transmission unit 61 is interposed between the upper and lower cold air discharge port (16a, 16b) and the drive unit 51, a plurality of links having a seesaw shape as a whole is hinged to each other by a plurality of link pins 65 foldable. The member 63 is comprised. Both end portions 73, 75, 78, 79 of the link member 63 are mutually accessible when the link member 63 is folded, and these end portions 73, 75, 78, 79 have shutters 33a, respectively. , 33b) acts as the first acting portion 71 and the second acting portion 77 for opening and closing movement. The first action portion 71 has one end portion 73 engaged with the cam groove 57 of the drive cam 55, and the other end portion 75 is rotatably supported above the drive portion 51. In order to rotate the other end 75, a rotating body 67 is provided on the rear surface of the cold air grill member 40, and the other end 75 of the first working part 71 is provided on the rotating body 67. A fixing groove not shown is provided for receiving and fixing.

And, the second acting portion 77 is coupled to act on the shutters 33a and 33b. On the plate surfaces of the shutters 33a and 33b, a pair of slits 37a and 37b are formed so as to maintain a predetermined interval in a horizontal line in the sliding direction of the shutters 33a and 33b. In these slits, there are accommodated bent projections, which are not shown at the end portions 78 and 79 of the second action portion 77, respectively. The slits 33a and 33b extend in the longitudinal direction in conjunction with the folding of the transmission portion 61. Along the reciprocating movement.

By this configuration, the shutter device 30 is intermittently driven by a control signal of a controller (not shown), and rotates the drive cam 55 coupled to the drive motor 53 by 360 °. When the driving cam 55 is rotated, the first action portion 71 of the transmission unit 61 is provided with a rotational force, and thus the plurality of link members 63 are folded and stretched to each other to increase or decrease. Is transmitted to the shutters 33a and 33b through the second action part 77. At this time, the shutters 33a and 33b slide to open and close the corresponding cold air discharge ports 16a and 16b. In more detail, one end portion 73 of the first action portion 71 engaged with the cam groove 57 when the drive cam 55 is rotated is the longitudinal direction of the cam body 56, that is, the shutters 33a and 33b. In the sliding direction of the transverse direction, and by the relative approach of the one end 73, the other end 75 is rotated integrally with the rotating body (67). At this time, the plurality of link members 63 constituting the transmission unit 61 is folded to each other, for example, when the tension in the horizontal direction is reduced in the vertical direction, when tension in the vertical direction is reduced in the horizontal direction There will be a stretching movement.

By the stretching movement of the link members 63, the bent projections bent at the ends 78, 79 of the second acting portion 77 are accommodated in the slits of the shutters 33a, 33b, respectively, and reciprocated along the longitudinal direction thereof. While sliding, the shutters 33a and 33b are slid. As a result, each of the cold air discharge ports 16a and 16b is opened and closed, and the cold air from the cold air duct 15 is discharged into the refrigerating chamber through the opened cold air discharge ports 16a and 16b.

On the other hand, the drive motor 53 is driven to stop by the control signal of the control unit. At this time, the shutters 33a and 33b for opening and closing the cold air discharge ports 16a and 16b are stopped at a predetermined opening position. As such, the driving motor 53 is controlled to appropriately control the opening positions of the shutters 33a and 33b. By adjusting, it is possible to change the amount of cold air discharged into the refrigerating chamber.

As described above, according to the present invention, a shutter that can be opened and closed is installed at a cold air discharge port formed in the cooling chamber, and the shutter can be opened and closed intermittently by using a stamping motor. Accordingly, the amount of cold air supplied into the cooling chamber can be adjusted, and the cold air supplied can be uniformly distributed in the vertical direction, thereby providing a refrigerator having an excellent effect of maintaining the cooling state in the cooling chamber evenly. . Further, in the present refrigerator, by opening and closing the cooling chamber in the refrigerator compartment intermittently, the aesthetics in the conventional monotonous refrigerator compartment are improved.

Claims (6)

In the refrigerator having a cooling chamber, A cold air duct provided on a side wall of the cooling chamber to guide the flow of cold air and having a cold air discharge port opened toward the cooling chamber; A shutter movable between an open position and a closed position of the cold air discharge port; Drive means fixedly installed at a predetermined distance from the shutter; And a transmission unit interposed between the driving means and the shutter so as to be stretchable to convert the rotational force of the driving means into opening and closing movement of the shutter. The method of claim 1, The transmission part is composed of a plurality of link members hingedly foldable with each other; Refrigerator, characterized in that the first action portion and the second action portion is provided with the mutual access when the link member is folded on both sides. The method of claim 1, The drive means, A cylindrical cam body disposed in the horizontal direction of the sliding direction of the shutter; A cam groove having a continuous camp profile on the longitudinal cylindrical surface of the cam body; And a drive motor for rotating the cam body. The method of claim 3, One end of the first acting portion is engaged with the cam groove, and the other end is rotatably fixed; When the cam body is rotated, the one end portion is moved along the cam groove, and the other end portion is approached mutually, the refrigerator characterized in that the folding of the plurality of link members is possible. The method of claim 4, wherein The shutter is provided with a pair of slits provided in the horizontal direction of the sliding direction; Each end of the second action portion is accommodated in each slit, the refrigerator, characterized in that the reciprocating movement in conjunction with the access half of the first action portion. The method of claim 1, An additional cold air discharge port disposed opposite the cold air discharge port with the driving means interposed therebetween; And a transmission unit which is foldably driven by the shutter and the driving means attached to the additional cold air discharge port to open and move the shutter.

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