CN114651158A

CN114651158A - Small refrigerator with front door and upper door

Info

Publication number: CN114651158A
Application number: CN202080076284.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 郑渊澔; 尹日真
Original assignee: Komotai Precision Machinery Co ltd
Current assignee: Komotai Precision Machinery Co ltd
Priority date: 2019-11-01
Filing date: 2020-10-30
Publication date: 2022-06-21
Also published as: US20220381504A1; WO2021086092A1

Abstract

The invention provides a small-sized personal refrigerator using a thermoelectric element. The refrigerator of the present invention comprises: a refrigerator body having a storage space; a front door opening and closing the opened front of the refrigerator body; and an upper door supported by a hinge shaft provided in a horizontal direction to be openable and closable in a vertical direction so as to be openable and closable upward, and formed in a hemispherical shape as a whole. In addition, the partition shelf divides the storage space of the refrigerator body into an upper storage space and a lower storage space corresponding to the front door and the upper door, respectively, and is formed with a plurality of vent holes through which cool air can pass. The duct cap provided inside the thermoelectric element includes a return portion where air inside the storage space enters the center of the thermoelectric element side, and an upper end outlet portion and a lower end outlet portion where cold air generated by heat exchange with the thermoelectric element is discharged to the upper portion and the lower portion of the storage space, respectively.

Description

Small refrigerator with front door and upper door

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a small refrigerator which can be used for various purposes, and more particularly, to a small refrigerator for personal use which facilitates the entrance and exit of stored articles by using a thermoelectric element (Peltier) and having a front door and an upper door, respectively.

Background

Refrigerators for keeping various stored goods including foods in a low temperature state have been developed in various forms for a long time. It can be said that, in recent times when the number of individual residents is increasing, personal electric home appliances are in a tendency of being largely developed and sold in consideration of such a living environment that individual persons look at.

In addition, it can be said that, at present, a small-sized refrigerator is used as an auxiliary refrigerator while having a small storage space. In addition, currently, small-sized refrigerators for cosmetics or small-sized refrigerators for various purposes such as wine chests having a small storage space are also developed and sold.

However, the current small refrigerator has a disadvantage in that only a refrigerator of a fixed form, i.e., a hexahedral shape, is sold, and moreover, only a fixed use form of the stored goods is made through a door provided at the front due to a small capacity characteristic, so that only a design of a consumer is presented with a lot of trouble. In addition, in the case of a small refrigerator, if mechanical components such as a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator, and the like constituting a refrigeration cycle are applied, the size of the entire refrigerator is inevitably substantially increased.

Disclosure of Invention

Technical problem

In view of these aspects, it can be said that as a constituent element for generating cool air in the refrigerator, a relatively compact element should be utilized, and moreover, circulation and efficiency of air flow from the heat exchange device of a small size to the storage space inside the refrigerator should also be positively considered.

An object of the present invention is to provide a small-sized refrigerator for personal use configured to enable cooled air after heat exchange to be efficiently supplied and returned to a storage space of the refrigerator as a whole while using a small-sized heat exchange element.

The invention aims to provide a small refrigerator which has multiple opening and closing directions, can fully and practically deal with the surrounding environment and can facilitate the entrance and exit of stored objects.

The present invention is directed to a small-sized refrigerator capable of easily applying character works to an upper portion of the small-sized refrigerator.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS OF INVENTION

According to the present invention having the configuration as described above, by using the thermoelectric element as a heat exchange source, it is possible to provide a small-sized refrigerator for personal use that can be miniaturized as a whole. Such a small-sized personal refrigerator can conveniently store small articles such as canned beverages, cosmetics, and the like, which are required by individuals, and thus convenience of eliminating the restriction of places can be expected.

In addition, it can be seen that the small refrigerator of the present invention has the advantage of being very convenient to put in or take out stored articles by using the upper door and the front door. Here, it is apparent that the partition shelf of the present invention maximizes the use efficiency of the storage space of the refrigerator by dividing the inner space of the refrigerator into two parts. In addition, it can be seen that the present invention also has a function of smoothing the air flow in the storage space through the plurality of ventilation holes formed in the partition plate.

In addition, according to the present invention, the cool air heat-exchanged in the heat exchange chamber formed at the outer side of the duct cap is distributed to the upper storage space and the lower storage space through the cool air outlets formed at the upper and lower end portions thereof, and is returned to the inside of the heat exchange chamber through the return portion formed at the center thereof. This will function as an advantage of being able to store the stored materials sufficiently fresh by most efficiently circulating the cold air to the storage space divided into two parts up and down.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide indirect illumination to the upper and lower sides of the divided shelf by making the divided shelf divided into the upper and lower storage spaces made of light-diffusing synthetic resin (e.g., polycarbonate). Therefore, it is obvious that a sufficient amount of light can be supplied as a whole without separately providing illumination lamps at a plurality of places, and it is also expected that glare can be sufficiently prevented by indirect illumination.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is an exemplary perspective view of a refrigerator of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is an exemplary perspective view of a state where a door of the refrigerator of the present invention is opened.

Fig. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the refrigerator of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a partially cut-away perspective view of the refrigerator of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a rear perspective view of the refrigerator of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged perspective view of a heat absorbing portion of the thermoelectric element of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT (S) OF INVENTION

The invention will be described in more detail below on the basis of embodiments shown in the drawings.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the refrigerator of the present invention includes a refrigerator body 10 having a predetermined storage space 12 therein, a front door 20 opening and closing a front of the refrigerator body 10, and an upper door 30 opening and closing an upper surface of the refrigerator body 10. Therefore, it can be seen that the refrigerator body 10 of the present invention is configured such that the front side provided with the front door 20 can be opened, and the upper side provided with the upper door 30 can also be opened.

Thus, when the front door 20 and the upper door 30 are provided together with respect to one storage space 12, it may be convenient to put or take stored objects into or out of the internal storage space through either the front door 20 or the upper door 30. That is, it is expected to have an advantage in use that the door (20 or 30) can be selectively opened and closed according to the environment around the refrigerator. In addition, in the present invention, in order to effectively divide the storage space 12 of the refrigerator body 10, a division shelf 14 is provided inside the storage space 12.

The partition shelf 14 of the present invention divides the storage space 12 into two parts in the up-down direction, thereby being divided into an upper storage space in which the upper door 30 can be opened to put in or take out the stored goods, and a lower storage space in which the front door 20 can be opened to put in or take out the stored goods. In the illustrated embodiment, the partition shelf 14 includes a flange portion 14a extending radially outward. The flange portion 14a of the divided shelf 14 is supported in a state of being locked to the open upper end portion of the main body 10 or the locking base 16 inside the open upper end portion.

In addition, the divided shelf 14 of the present invention is provided with a plurality of ventilation holes 14c so that the whole of the cold air can be circulated to the upper portion of the divided shelf 14, which means that the whole temperature can be sufficiently lowered in the inside of one storage space 12 by the smooth circulation of the cold air. As shown in fig. 3 and 4, the ventilation holes 14c provided in the divided shelves 14 include a cold air inlet hole 14m formed in the rear of the divided shelf 14 and allowing the generated cold air to be supplied to the upper portions of the divided shelves 14, and a cold air outlet hole 14n formed in the front of the divided shelf and allowing the cold air circulating in the upper portions of the divided shelves 14 to flow out to the lower portions of the divided shelves 14. The vent hole 14c of the present invention further includes a plurality of vent holes formed at the middle portion of the partition shelf 14.

The split shelf 14 includes a handle 14b extending upward from the side surface 14d, and for example, a pair of handles 14b, so that it is possible to provide convenience in attachment and detachment. In the illustrated embodiment, the flange portion 14a formed at the upper end of the side surface 14d of the divided shelf 14 is detachably supported in a state of being locked to the open upper end of the main body 10 or the locking base 16 inside the open upper end. However, it is obvious that the partition shelf 14 may have various arrangement forms within a range of dividing the storage space 12 into two parts, for example, the partition shelf 14 may be implemented as a shelf detachably provided in the middle of the storage space 12.

It is preferable that the partition shelf 14 of the present invention is made of a light-diffusing synthetic resin material capable of diffusing light from illumination of the inside of the refrigerator. For example, as a synthetic resin material such as Polycarbonate (PC), a synthetic resin having a light diffusion function itself has been commercially available. If the divided shelf 14 is molded using such a light-diffusing synthetic resin, there may be a result that the inside of the storage space 12 is illuminated with indirect light as a whole by the divided shelf 14.

Here, a plurality of interior lights (not shown) are provided on the inner side surface of the storage space 12 of the refrigerator main body 10. Such interior illumination is provided at a position where the side surface 14d (refer to fig. 4) of the divided shelf is located, so that light from the interior illumination is diffused by the divided shelf 14 to illuminate the entire storage space 12. Therefore, the indirect light diffused by the light is provided to the upper and lower sides of the divided shelf 14, and thus it is expected that glare due to direct light can be prevented when the lamp is used at night. In the present invention, it is apparent that any form of light emitter may be used for interior illumination, as long as it is sufficient to be able to provide light directly or indirectly emitted from the portion to the segmented shelf 14. As described above, it can be seen that the present invention includes the detachable divided shelf 14 that divides the storage space 12 into two parts so as to correspond to the front door 20 and the upper door 30, respectively.

Next, a description will be given of a structure of supplying cool air to the upper and lower storage spaces thus divided into two by the shelf 14.

As described above, since the refrigerator of the present invention is designed to be small for use as a personal refrigerator having various purposes, it is not preferable to actually configure a refrigeration cycle including a compressor, a heat exchanger, and the like. Therefore, in the present invention, a thermoelectric element (Peltier) is utilized to perform heat exchange as a basic concept.

As shown in fig. 3, a thermoelectric element 50 is provided as a component for heat exchange in the middle portion of the refrigerator body 10. The heat absorbing portion 52 of such a thermoelectric element 50 is disposed to be exposed to the storage space 12 of the refrigerator body 10, and the heat generating portion of the thermoelectric element 50 is disposed to face the outside of the refrigerator. As can be seen from fig. 4, a duct cover 62 is provided in the vertical direction in the inner portion of the thermoelectric element 50.

In addition, a return portion 66 through which air can enter the thermoelectric element 50 side is formed at an intermediate portion of the duct cap 62 having a shape extending in the up-down direction, and the air sucked through such a return portion 66 is cooled and gasified by heat exchange with the heat absorbing portion 52 of the thermoelectric element 50. The cold air thus generated is discharged from the upper and lower portions of the interior of the storage space 12 through a pair of

outlet portions

62, 64 formed at the upper and lower end portions of the duct cover 62, respectively. Such air flow is formed by a circulation fan (not shown) provided outside the duct cover 60. Here, the

outlet portions

62, 64 are formed with a plurality of vent holes, respectively.

Here, the upper outlet portion 62 is formed to correspond to the cold air inlet hole 14m of the divided shelf 14, so that the cold air supplied to the outlet portion 62 is supplied to the upper portion of the divided shelf 14 through the cold air inlet hole 14 m. In addition, the lower outlet portion 64 supplies cold air to the lower portion of the storage space 12. Therefore, the cold air circulating in the storage space 12 is drawn into the heat absorbing portion 52 side of the thermoelectric element 50 through the return portion 66 formed in the middle of the storage space 12.

In addition, it can be seen that the cold air, which is drawn into the backflow portion 66 and is heat-exchanged with the thermoelectric element 50, is supplied to the upper end portion (upper portion of the divided shelf) and the lower end portion of the storage space 12, and circulates entirely inside the storage space 12. That is, it can be seen that a recirculation portion 66 for sucking air having a high temperature is formed at a position corresponding to the middle of the thermoelectric element 50, and the air flowing in through the recirculation portion 66 is discharged into the storage space 12 through

outlet portions

62 and 64 formed at the upper and lower portions, respectively, after heat exchange.

In this manner, it was confirmed that the duct cap 60 having the backflow portion 66 and the pair of

outlet portions

62 and 64 has a shape extending in the vertical direction so as to be able to form an air flow in the vertical direction. It is preferable that the air sucked from the inside of the storage space toward the heat absorbing portion 52 of the thermoelectric element 50 through the return portion 66 also flow efficiently in the vertical direction.

As shown in fig. 4 and 6, it can be seen that a heat exchange chamber C concavely formed rearward is provided behind the storage space 12 at a position corresponding to the duct cap 60 described above. That is, the heat exchange chamber C is concavely formed in the vertical direction, so that the heat absorbing portion 52 of the thermoelectric element 50 disposed inside the heat exchange chamber C can cool the air entering through the backflow portion 66 formed at the center and guide the air toward the

outlet portions

62, 64 at the upper and lower sides of the duct cap 60.

In addition, according to the present invention, as shown in fig. 6, a plurality of heat exchange fins 53 are formed at the heat absorbing portion 52 of the thermoelectric element 50, and such heat exchange fins 53 are arranged in the up-down direction. When the heat exchange fins 53 are thus arranged in the up-down direction, the air flowing in through the return portion 66 can naturally flow while being divided into two parts upward and downward when contacting the heat exchange fins 53. For example, when the heat exchange fins 53 are formed in the left-right direction, it can be easily understood that the resistance to the air that should be divided into two in the up-down direction is very large.

A thermoelectric element case 58 is provided on an outer surface of the refrigerator main body 10 on which the thermoelectric element 50 is provided. Further, a cooling fan 56 for cooling a heat generating portion of the thermoelectric element 50 is provided inside the thermoelectric element case 58. The operation of the cooling fan 56 cools the heat generating portion that cools the thermoelectric element 50, and a plurality of vent holes are formed in the thermoelectric element case 58 to form an air flow for such cooling.

That is, by the operation of the cooling fan 56, the air flowing in through the rear inlet hole 58a cools the heat generating portion of the thermoelectric element, and then is discharged to the outlet holes 58b formed on both side surfaces. In the present invention, in order to filter the outside air flowing in this way, a filter member 59 is provided on the inlet port 58a side of the thermoelectric element case 58. Accordingly, since the air flowing into the thermoelectric element case 58 is filtered by the filter member 59, it is expected that the periphery of the cooling fan 56 can be maintained in a clean state.

In addition, as described above, the outlet 64 of the upper portion of the duct cap 62 is provided at the upper portion of the above-described partition shelf 14, and the lower portion of the duct cap 62 is provided at the lower portion of the storage space 12. Therefore, in the overall circulation of air, the air having a relatively high temperature due to heat exchange with the stored material in the storage space 12 is sucked into the thermoelectric element 50 through the return portion 66 formed in the middle portion of the duct cover 60 by the operation of the circulation fan.

The air drawn into the thermoelectric element 50 side through the return portion 66 is generated as cold air by heat exchange with the heat absorbing portion 52, and then discharged into the interior of the storage space 12 through

outlet portions

62, 64 provided respectively above and below the duct cover 62. Then, the cold air thus discharged is self-warmed while maintaining the stored object in a low temperature state by heat exchange with the stored object stored in the inside of the storage space 12, thereby repeating the above-described process of re-entering the return portion 66.

Next, the opening and closing structure of each

door

20, 30 that opens and closes the storage space 12 of the refrigerator body 10 will be briefly described. As shown in fig. 1, the front door 20 is rotatably supported in a hinge form with respect to the refrigerator body 10 with respect to one side of the front (in the illustrated embodiment, the left side of the door), which can be said to be substantially the same principle as the support structure of the door of the general refrigerator.

As can be seen from fig. 2, the upper door 30 of the present invention is opened and closed upward with reference to the hinge shaft 32 in the horizontal direction. As a detailed description of such an arrangement for opening and closing the upper door 30 in the up-down direction is made with reference to fig. 3 and 5, the hinge shaft 32 arranged in the horizontal direction is provided between the upper door 30 and the refrigerator body 10.

In the illustrated embodiment, the hinge shaft 32 is disposed between an upper door extension 34 extending downward from a portion of the upper door 30 and a portion recessed in the body 10 in such a manner as to receive such an upper door extension 34. In addition, in the illustrated embodiment, it can be seen that the hinge shaft 32 provided at the upper door 30 side is assembled to the pair of hinge

shaft support blocks

16a, 16b of the refrigerator body 10 to support for the convenience of assembly.

Therefore, it can be seen that the upper door 30 can be opened and closed in the up and down direction with respect to the refrigerator body 10 centering on the hinge shaft 32 in the horizontal direction. In addition, a pair of torsion springs 38 are interposed on the left and right of the hinge shaft 32. Such a torsion spring 38 is supported at one end thereof by the body 10 and at the other end thereof by the upper door 30, and is elastically supported at all times in a direction in which the upper door 30 is opened.

Here, it is preferable that the elastic restoring force of the torsion spring 38 is set to a degree that the food stored in the internal space 12 can be taken out by opening the upper door 30. That is, the elastic restoring force of the torsion spring 38 is set to such an extent that the upper door is opened to the extent that the stored material in the storage space 12 can be taken out without separately lifting the upper door 30 when the latch provided at the front surface of the upper door 30 is released, thereby improving usability.

In addition, a structure for locking the upper door 30 with respect to the refrigerator body 10 is provided at a front portion of the upper door 30. As described with reference to fig. 4, the locking lever 36 is rotatably provided at the center portion inside the front face of the upper door 30. A hook 36a formed at the lower end of the lock lever 36 can be locked to a catch 17 formed in a state of being fixed to the inside of the refrigerator main body 10.

The upper end portion of the lock lever 36 is elastically supported by a spring S so that the hook 36a can be always fastened to the catch 17. Accordingly, in a state where the hook 36a is caught on the catch 17, the spring S elastically urges the lock lever 36 in a direction capable of maintaining such a fastened state, and therefore, the upper door 30 is not opened when there is no external force.

In such a fastened state, in order to open the upper door 30, it is necessary to push the upper portion of the hinge shaft of the locking lever 36 rearward. Thus, when the corresponding portion of the front cover of the upper door 30 is pressed, the shaft or the projection on the back surface pushes the lock lever 36 rearward to contract the spring, and the hook 36a at the lower end of the lock lever 36 is released from the catch, so that the upper door 30 is opened. Such locking and unlocking structures are by themselves a widely used structure.

The following describes design elements of the refrigerator body 10 and the upper door 30 of the present invention. It can be seen that the upper door 30 has a hemispherical shape. In the present invention, when a hemispherical shape is mentioned, the use as a shape also includes a shape obtained by cutting an exact spherical shape (true spherical shape) into halves and a spherical shape similar thereto, for example, a shape cut by a plane passing through a central plane is an ellipsoid of an ellipsoid, or a hemispherical meaning such as a half of an ellipsoid.

As such, when the upper door 30 is formed in a hemispherical shape, there may be a very advantageous advantage in design. That is, in conventional household electric appliances such as refrigerators, it can be said that mechanical elements related to a freezing cycle that determines functions of the products have reached the limit of development. Therefore, in designing such products, it can be said that a design element that can evoke the aesthetic sense of a viewer is one of the most important design elements of a commercial product.

In addition, when the upper door 30 is designed to have a hemispherical shape as in the present invention, it has a shape that is very convenient to adopt a character that can be regarded as a great trend in all of the recent commodities. Recently, not only in a wide range of industrial fields, but also in particular in commodities purchased by end consumers, various characters have been adopted, which, as is well known, are also closely related to the desire to purchase commodities.

Since such characters are mainly produced on the basis of a part of the body of an animal or a human, in the case of realizing the character three-dimensionally, it can be said that the shape is closest to the hemispherical shape described above. For example, assuming a character using the head of an animal, it can be said that a hemispherical shape is most preferable for realizing such a character. On the contrary, the geometrical shape such as a rectangular parallelepiped or a triangular pyramid is inevitably very disadvantageous for actually realizing a character.

As described above, in the present invention, it can be said that the upper door 30 is designed to have a hemispherical shape, which is advantageous in that it can be most preferably and easily realized when a character is adopted. In addition, according to the present invention, the refrigerator body 10 has a cylindrical shape. Such a cylindrical body 10 can be said to have an outer shape conforming to the upper door 30. That is, when the upper door 30 is designed in a hemispherical shape, the refrigerator body 10 is designed in a cylindrical shape to present a sense of unity with the external appearance of the upper door 30.

However, in the present invention, it is apparent that the refrigerator body 10 should not be limited to such a cylindrical shape. For example, it is also possible to realize a cylindrical body in which all corner portions are designed to be circular or curved by deforming four corner portions of the hexahedron into a partial circular arc-shaped cross section (cross-sectional view), and it is obvious that even in this case, it is possible to realize a sense of conformity in design with the hemispherical upper door 30 by having a curved shape as a whole.

According to the present invention, as shown in fig. 1, a machine room housing 40 is provided at a lower portion of a refrigerator body 10, and both are coupled with a plurality of screws, for example. In addition, the machine room case 40 of the present invention has the same shape as the refrigerator body 10, and thus has a uniform appearance as a whole. In addition, a controller and the like required to drive and control the refrigerator are built in the machine room casing 40.

As shown in fig. 3, a PCB cover 42 for protecting the built-in PCB substrate is provided inside the housing case 40. A printed circuit board for controlling the entire refrigerator is built in the PCB cover 42. The PCB cover 42 for protecting such a printed circuit board is preferably molded from a flame retardant material, and thus is configured to protect internal components from flames.

In addition, a control panel 44 is provided on the front surface of the machine room casing 40. Such a control panel 44 has a function of being able to inform a user of a current state of the refrigerator through a display while being able to receive an input signal for control of the refrigerator. Further, such a control panel 44 is designed to be able to receive a control signal for controlling a bluetooth speaker (not shown) built in the machine room casing 40.

Here, a speaker (not shown) having a bluetooth function is provided inside the housing case 40, and a plurality of sound holes 46 are formed in the front surface thereof so that sound from such a speaker can be transmitted to the outside. Further, a partition wall 48 is provided inside the casing 40 of the housing of the present invention, and the partition wall 48 is used to substantially prevent the damage of the electric components (PCB substrate, etc.) by water.

As described above, in the refrigerator of the present invention, the thermoelectric element 50(Peltier) is used for heat exchange. Such a thermoelectric element 50 has a heat generating portion and a heat absorbing portion, and water droplets may condense due to a temperature difference with the outside air. When there is such a concern that water droplets may be generated in the thermoelectric element 50 to fall downward, the electric components inside the machine room case 40 may be damaged. Therefore, the partition wall 48 is provided to isolate a part of the casing thermally corresponding to the lower part of the thermoelectric element 50 from the other part of the casing.

Next, other accessory parts of the refrigerator of the present invention described above will be described. A machine room housing 40 is provided at a lower portion of the refrigerator body 10, and such machine room housing 40 has the same shape as the refrigerator body 10. A controller and the like required for driving and controlling the refrigerator are built in the housing case 40. In addition, a plate 19 (refer to fig. 3) may be provided inside the storage space 12 of the refrigerator body 10 for efficient arrangement of stored objects. Further, obviously, a door basket 18 may also be provided at the inner side of the front door 10.

As described above, it can be seen that the present invention is directed to a small refrigerator which uses a thermoelectric element, and in which a flow of cold air is smooth and natural, a shape of a character is most easily implemented, and a structure for facilitating an entrance and an exit of stored objects is provided. In addition, it is apparent that other various modifications will be possible to those skilled in the art within the scope of the basic technical idea of the present invention.

Next, based on the above embodiments, other embodiments that are deformable will be described.

In addition to the cylindrical shape as described above, the structure of the refrigerator body 10 may be formed in a cylindrical shape having corner portions rounded, as described above. In addition, in the illustrated embodiment, the upper door 30 is configured to be opened and closed as a whole in a hemispherical shape, but it is understood that it is sufficient that at least a part of the upper door 30 configured to be made in a hemispherical shape is opened and closed.

In the illustrated embodiment, the entire upper door 30 is formed in a hemispherical shape when the entire upper door 30 is opened and closed. However, the entire upper door 30 may be formed in a hemispherical shape, and only a part of the upper door 30 may be arranged to be openable and closable. In addition, even in this case, it is apparent that the entire upper door having a hemispherical shape may be suitable for realizing a character.

In addition, in the illustrated embodiment, the partition shelf 14 is designed to be detachably separated upward, but it is apparent that it may be detachably provided at any position as long as the storage space 12 of the refrigerator main body can be divided into two parts. In addition, the thermoelectric element for cooling of the storage space of the refrigerator of the present invention may be variously deformed within a range substantially provided to have a heat absorbing portion exposed toward the storage space of the refrigerator.

Claims

1. A small-sized refrigerator, comprising:

a refrigerator body having a storage space;

a front door opening and closing the opened front of the refrigerator body;

an upper door supported by a hinge shaft provided in a horizontal direction to be openable and closable in a vertical direction so as to be openable and closable upward, the upper surface of the refrigerator body being opened, the upper door being formed in a hemispherical shape as a whole;

a partition shelf dividing a storage space of the refrigerator body into an upper storage space and a lower storage space corresponding to a front door and an upper door, respectively, and having a plurality of vent holes through which cool air can pass;

a thermoelectric element provided at a middle portion of the refrigerator body and having a heat absorbing portion exposed toward a storage space; and

a duct cap provided inside the thermoelectric element, the duct cap including a backflow portion formed at a central portion so that air inside the storage space can enter the thermoelectric element side, and upper and lower end outlet portions that discharge cold air that enters through the backflow portion and is generated by heat exchange with a heat absorption portion of the thermoelectric element to the storage space,

the cool air flowing out through the outlet portion of the upper end portion of the duct cap is supplied to the upper and lower storage spaces formed at the upper and lower portions of the divided shelf, respectively, through the plurality of vent holes of the divided shelf, and the cool air circulating in the upper and lower storage spaces is returned to the thermoelectric element side through the return portion of the duct cap.

2. The small-sized refrigerator according to claim 1,

the split shelf is supported by the flange portion in a state of being locked to the open upper end portion of the body or a locking table inside the open upper end portion so as to be attachable to and detachable from the body.

3. The small refrigerator according to claim 1, further comprising:

a thermoelectric element case provided on an outer side surface of the refrigerator body on which the thermoelectric element is provided;

a cooling fan provided inside the thermoelectric element case to cool the thermoelectric element; and

and a filter member detachably provided at a portion into which outside air flows by the cooling fan.

4. The small-sized refrigerator according to claim 1,

also comprises a machine room shell which is arranged at the lower part of the refrigerator body in the same shape with the refrigerator body,

a partition wall for partitioning the inside of the housing corresponding to the lower portion of the thermoelectric element is formed in the housing case.

5. The small-sized refrigerator according to claim 1,

the heat absorbing part of the thermoelectric element is provided with heat exchange fins extending in the vertical direction.

6. The small-sized refrigerator according to claim 1,

also comprises a plurality of internal illuminators which are arranged on the inner side surface of the refrigerator body corresponding to the side surface of the partition shelf,

the partition shelf is molded from a light-diffusing synthetic resin material that diffuses light from the interior illumination.