JPH10311649A - Food freezer and its operation control method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Problem] Demonstrates excellent cold-holding performance for frozen storage of food that prevents food from drying out and rapidly freezes the whole area of the refrigerator, and also allows the amount of frost on the evaporator to be significantly reduced. To provide a freezer for food and an operation control method thereof. An evaporator (4) having substantially the same size as the wall surface is installed along a rear wall in a refrigerator, with respect to a main body case (1) serving as a heat-insulating housing with a front door (2) having trays (3) lined up and down. In addition, an internal fan 6 disposed on the front of the evaporator to blow the internal air that has exchanged heat with cold air around the evaporator toward the food 8 on the tray, and a circulating air guide unit 9 disposed on the internal side wall are provided. When the food is kept cool, the refrigerator and the internal fan are operated to rapidly freeze the food until the internal temperature drops to the predetermined freezing temperature and the food is frozen. After the food is frozen, the internal fan is turned off. After stopping, the auxiliary fan 9b of the circulation air guide unit is operated to
Guide the cool air staying in the bottom area of the refrigerator through a to the ceiling area,
Keep the temperature inside the refrigerator uniform throughout the refrigerator.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a freezer for freezing and preserving various foods such as fresh foods such as meat and fish, and processed foods.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 shows a conventional general configuration of a food freezer described above. In the drawing, 1 is a main body case as a box-shaped heat-insulating housing, 2 is a front door thereof, 3 is a tray arranged vertically in the cabinet of the case 1, and 4 is a wind guide installed on the ceiling side of the cabinet. An evaporator (fin / tube type) of the refrigerator installed in the duct 5, a refrigerator fan 6 disposed on the outlet side of the air guide duct 5, and a cooling device 6 incorporating a condensing unit and a control unit of the refrigerator. This is the electrical room of the unit.

[0003] With such a configuration, during the cooling operation, the air in the refrigerator is forcedly circulated between the refrigerator and the refrigerator through the interior of the evaporator 4 as shown by an arrow in the drawing, and the cool air that has exchanged heat with the evaporator 4 in the circulation ventilation process. The foods 8 arranged on the tray 4 are sprayed and frozen, and the temperature in the refrigerator is kept at the frozen storage temperature of the foods.

[0004]

The food freezer of the cold air forced circulation type described above has the following problems with respect to the cold preservation performance and the frozen storage of food. That is, (1) a temperature difference occurs between an upper region in the refrigerator near the cool air outlet of the evaporator 4 and a lower region far away, and a region where the circulating cold air is blind, and the freezing speed of the food varies. In addition, when the food is stored in a full state in the refrigerator, the cool air does not smoothly circulate and the food that requires quick freezing takes a long time until freezing, and the quality deteriorates.

(2) During the cooling operation, the air dehumidified via the evaporator 4 becomes dry air and is circulated and blown into the refrigerator, so that the moisture contained in the food 8 is continuously taken away. The food dries and the quality is impaired. (3) On the other hand, the moisture evaporated from the food 8 changes to frost and forms frost on the evaporator. Therefore, defrosting is performed by heating the heater periodically to remove frost adhering to the surface of the evaporator, but during this defrosting, the freezing of the food temporarily slows down due to an increase in the temperature in the refrigerator. Degrades quality and flavor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to freeze quickly and uniformly the whole area of a refrigerator while preventing the food stored in the refrigerator from drying. In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a food freezer which can significantly reduce the amount of frost formed on an evaporator and exhibits excellent cold-retaining performance for frozen storage of food, and an operation control method thereof.

[0007]

According to the present invention, in order to attain the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a main body case which is a heat-insulated housing with a front door provided with vertically arranged trays inside the housing. An evaporator of a refrigerator having substantially the same outer size as the wall surface arranged along one side surface of the refrigerator, and air inside the refrigerator, which is arranged in front of the evaporator and exchanges heat with cold air around the evaporator, is arranged on a tray. It is configured to include a fan in the refrigerator that blows air toward the food, and a circulating air guide unit with an auxiliary fan that guides cool air remaining in the bottom region of the refrigerator to the ceiling region in the refrigerator. (Claim 1) In the above, the evaporator is arranged along the rear wall of the main body case, and the circulating air guide unit in which the auxiliary fan is incorporated in the vertical air guide duct is arranged along the side wall surface of the main body case. Deploy. (Claim 2) On the other hand, according to the present invention, as a method of controlling the operation of the freezer having the above-described configuration, when the food stored in the refrigerator of the main body case is kept cool, the temperature in the refrigerator is reduced to a predetermined freezing temperature and the food is cooled. Until it freezes, the refrigerator and the fan inside the refrigerator are operated to rapidly freeze the food. After the food is frozen, the fan inside the refrigerator is stopped and the auxiliary fan of the circulating air guide unit is operated. Keep the internal temperature uniform. (Claim 3) As described above, at the beginning of the cold-holding operation, the internal fan draws cool air from the peripheral area of the evaporator and sprays the cold air toward the foods arranged on the trays at each stage to freeze the foods instantly and clean the surface thereof. Cover with ice layer. Also, in the air blowing process by the internal fan, the internal air does not circulate so as to forcibly flow through the evaporator, and is cooled by heat exchange in a cold air boundary layer around the evaporator, and then sucked into the internal fan and re-cooled. Circulates like blowing toward food. Moreover, since the air in the refrigerator is circulated and blown without passing through the evaporator while maintaining the state of reaching the saturated vapor pressure at the temperature with the moisture evaporated from the food, the evaporation from the frozen food is continued. This effectively prevents the food from drying. Further, since the amount of frost formed on the evaporator is extremely small, the cooling operation can be continuously performed for a long time without defrosting.

On the other hand, after the food is frozen by rapid freezing, the fan in the refrigerator is stopped so as not to blow the cold air directly on the food, and the auxiliary fan of the circulating air guide unit is operated, and the air in the refrigerator is blown through the air duct. The cool air that has settled and stayed in the bottom area is guided to the ceiling area in the refrigerator so as to be discharged.
Therefore, the temperature of the whole area in the refrigerator is equalized in a state close to the natural convection, whereby the quality deterioration of the food can be suppressed and the frozen preservation can be performed for a long time.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 (a) and 1 (b) and the embodiment of FIG.
In the drawings of the embodiment, the same members corresponding to FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals. In the illustrated embodiment, an evaporator 4 of a refrigerator is installed along a back wall of the inside of a main body case 1 serving as a heat-insulating housing with a front door, and a fan 6 inside the refrigerator is vertically arranged in front of the refrigerator. Are disposed, and a circulation air guide unit 9 is provided on a side wall surface in the refrigerator. Here, the evaporator 4 is a finned tube-type heat exchanger, and its outer size is determined to cover substantially the entire rear wall of the main body case 1. Further, the inside fan 6 blows out the inside air toward the trays 3 arranged in front of the inside air. Further, the circulating air guide unit 9 has a vertical air guide duct 9a whose suction port and discharge port are opened toward the bottom area and the ceiling area, respectively, and an auxiliary fan incorporated in the discharge port of the air guide duct 9a. 9b.

With this configuration, when the foods 8 are arranged on the tray 3 in the refrigerator and frozen and stored, the refrigerator and the fan 6 in the refrigerator are operated at the beginning of the cooling operation and cooled to a low temperature by heat exchange with the evaporator 4. The in-compartment fan 6 draws in the cool air around the evaporator and blows out parallel to the upper and lower trays 3 located in front of the cooler, and directly blows the foods 8 arranged on the trays. Further, the cool air blown toward the inside of the refrigerator hits each part in the refrigerator, changes the direction of the flow, and causes the fan 6 in the refrigerator.
While repeating the collision with the blown cold airflow blown out from the inside, it becomes a turbulent state, flows into the suction side from the periphery of the inside fan, circulates again to blow out toward the inside of the inside,
In the circulation air blowing process, the air inside the refrigerator exchanges heat in the boundary layer with the cool air around the evaporator to be cooled to a low temperature, and by blowing the cool air, the foods 8 lined up on the trays at each stage in the whole warehouse are reduced. Is quickly frozen and frozen.

As described above, the cool air circulating in the refrigerator through the refrigerator fan 6 does not forcibly flow through the inside of the evaporator 4. Therefore, the water evaporated from the food 8 hardly moves to the evaporator 4 and becomes frost to form frost, thereby preventing the food 8 from drying due to evaporation of the water. The refrigerator is an evaporator 4
The cooling operation can be performed continuously for a long time without the need for defrosting.

On the other hand, when the temperature of the refrigerator falls to the initially set freezing temperature due to the above-described cooling operation and the food 8 is frozen, this state is detected by a sensor and the fan 6 in the refrigerator is detected.
To stop. Subsequently, the auxiliary fan 9 of the circulation air guide unit 9
b is started, and the cool air that has settled and stayed in the bottom area of the refrigerator is pumped upward through the air guide duct 9a and discharged toward the ceiling region of the refrigerator. In this circulating air flow, the cool airflow blown out from the air guide duct 9a does not blow directly onto the food 8,
Thereby, the temperature of the whole area in the refrigerator is equalized in a state close to natural convection, and the food 8 is kept in a frozen state. It is assumed that the refrigerator performs a thermocycle operation so as to keep the temperature in the refrigerator constant.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Compared to the conventional forced circulation freezer described with reference to FIG. 3, foods arranged in the upper and lower trays and stored in the freezer can be rapidly and uniformly frozen in the whole area of the freezer. In addition, the air in the refrigerator does not forcibly flow through the evaporator during the circulating air supply, and does not require frosting on the evaporator and periodic defrosting of the evaporator. As a result, drying of the food can be prevented, and the rise in the temperature of the food and the temperature of the food caused by the defrosting of the evaporator can be avoided, so that the deterioration of the quality of the food can be effectively prevented.

Further, after freezing the food, the whole area of the refrigerator can be kept at a freezing temperature in a state close to natural convection, thereby allowing the food to be frozen and stored for a long period of time while keeping the freshness. Demonstrates excellent effects.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a freezer according to an embodiment of the present invention, where (a) is a longitudinal side view and (b) is a front view.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a back portion inside the refrigerator in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a configuration sectional view of a conventional cool air forced circulation freezer;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body case 2 Front door 3 Tray 4 Evaporator 6 Inside fan 8 Foodstuff 9 Circulation air guide unit 9a Air guide duct 9b Auxiliary fan

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A main body case, which is a heat-insulated housing with a front door provided with trays arranged vertically in a refrigerator, has substantially the same outer size as a wall arranged along one side surface in the refrigerator. An evaporator for the refrigerator, an in-compartment fan arranged on the front of the evaporator to blow air to the foods arranged on the tray and exchanged heat with the cool air around the evaporator, and a bottom in the compartment A freezer for food, comprising a circulating air guide unit with an auxiliary fan for guiding cold air staying in a region to a ceiling region in the refrigerator. 2. The freezer according to claim 1, wherein the evaporator is disposed along the rear wall of the main body case, and a circulating air guide unit in which an auxiliary fan is incorporated in a vertical air duct is provided on a side wall surface of the main body case. A food freezer characterized by being arranged alongside. 3. When the food stored in the storage of the main body case is kept cool, the refrigerator and the internal fan are operated to rapidly freeze the food until the temperature in the storage decreases to a predetermined freezing temperature and the food is frozen. The method according to claim 1, wherein after the food is frozen, the internal fan is stopped, and then the auxiliary fan of the circulating air guide unit is operated to keep the internal temperature uniform throughout the entire area. Operation control method of food freezer.