U.S. patent application number 10/567960 was filed with the patent office on 2007-02-08 for two-part cooling device.
This patent application is currently assigned to BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgerate GmbH. Invention is credited to Peter Bauer, Gunter Gomoll, Siegfried Grasy.
Application Number | 20070028644 10/567960 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34177442 |
Filed Date | 2007-02-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070028644 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Bauer; Peter ; et
al. |
February 8, 2007 |
Two-part cooling device
Abstract
A two-part cooling device including a heat-insulating housing
and a cooling circuit including an evaporator, a compressor and a
liquefier. The cooling device is subdivided into a first component
including at least one housing and the evaporator and a second
component including at least the compressor. The first and second
components are separable and can be placed in a variable manner in
relation to each other.
Inventors: |
Bauer; Peter; (Munich,
DE) ; Gomoll; Gunter; (Elchingen, DE) ; Grasy;
Siegfried; (Domstadt, DE) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BSH HOME APPLIANCES CORPORATION;INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEPARTMENT
100 BOSCH BOULEVARD
NEW BERN
NC
28562
US
|
Assignee: |
BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgerate
GmbH
Carl-Wery-Strasse 34
Munich
DE
81739
|
Family ID: |
34177442 |
Appl. No.: |
10/567960 |
Filed: |
August 5, 2004 |
PCT Filed: |
August 5, 2004 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/EP04/08795 |
371 Date: |
September 11, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
62/448 ; 62/298;
62/441 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F25D 15/00 20130101;
F25D 2321/1411 20130101; F25D 21/14 20130101; F25D 23/003 20130101;
F25D 19/00 20130101; F25D 2400/16 20130101; F25D 23/10
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
062/448 ;
062/441; 062/298 |
International
Class: |
F25D 19/02 20060101
F25D019/02; F25D 19/00 20060101 F25D019/00; F25D 11/02 20060101
F25D011/02 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Aug 11, 2003 |
DE |
10336831.0 |
Claims
1-11. (canceled)
12. A refrigerating appliance, comprising: a heat-insulating
housing; a cooling circuit including an evaporator, a compressor
and a condenser; a first assembly including at least said housing
and said evaporator; and a second assembly including at least said
compressor, said first and said second assembly can be placed
variably in relation to one another.
13. The refrigerating appliance according to claim 12, including a
coupling disposed in a coolant pipe connecting said first assembly
and said second assembly.
14. The refrigerating appliance according to claim 13, including
said coupling including a first coupling portion attached to said
first assembly and a second coupling portion attached to said
second assembly, said two coupling portions are self-closing in the
uncoupled state allowing said first assembly and said second
assembly to be detachably separable from one another.
15. The refrigerating appliance according to claim 12, including
said second assembly provided with forced ventilation.
16. The refrigerating appliance according to claim 12, including
said condenser being part of said second assembly.
17. The refrigerating appliance according to claim 13, including
said coolant pipe together with a condensation water pipe is guided
in a line and including a coupling disposed in said condensation
water pipe.
18. The refrigerating appliance according to claim 12, including
the refrigerating appliance built into kitchen furniture having a
base zone and said second assembly accommodated in said base
zone.
19. The refrigerating appliance according to claim 18, including
said kitchen furniture having at least one compartment, said two
assemblies separated by at least one compartment of said kitchen
furniture.
20. An assembly for a refrigerating appliance, comprising: a
heat-insulating housing; an evaporator; and at least one coupling
portion from which at least one of an inlet or drain pipe for a
coolant extends to said evaporator.
21. An assembly for a refrigerating appliance, comprising a
compressor and at least one of a suction or pressure pipe for a
coolant, said suction pipe and said pressure pipe each extend
between said compressor and a coupling portion.
22. A method for installing a refrigerating appliance in furniture,
comprising the following steps: a. installing a first assembly of
the refrigerating appliance, including at least one heat-insulating
housing, an evaporator and a coolant pipe, in a first zone of the
furniture; b. installing a second assembly including at least one
compressor in a second zone of said furniture; and c. connecting
connections of said coolant pipe of said first assembly to
corresponding connections of said second assembly.
Description
[0001] The present invention relates to refrigerating appliance
which is especially provided for installation in a furniture
cavity. Presently two different designs are widely used for these
refrigerating appliances.
[0002] In a first design a machine compartment is recessed in a
substantially rectangular heat-insulating housing which contains at
least one compressor for the coolant circulating in the
refrigerating appliance. A condenser for the coolant is mounted
freely suspended on the rear wall of the insulating housing and is
cooled by the convection of ascending air which heats up at the
condenser.
[0003] In a second known design, with the exception of the
evaporator, substantially all the components of the cooling circuit
are accommodated in a base unit mounted fixedly below the housing.
A very favourable ratio of volume to surface area of housing can
thereby be achieved, resulting in a low requirement for cooling
capacity; however, convection can no longer be used for removing
the waste heat from such a base unit so that forced ventilation is
required for this purpose. In addition, space occupied by the base
unit in the fitting recess is lost to the users as storage space
for other purposes.
[0004] It is the object of the present invention to provide a
refrigerating appliance and assemblies for a refrigerating
appliance which can achieve a high energy efficiency and at the
same time allow available space in a fitting cavity to be utilised
very economically.
[0005] It is a further object to provide a method for installing
such a refrigerating appliance in furniture.
[0006] The objects are solved by a refrigerating appliance having
the features of claim 1, assemblies having the features of claims 9
and 10 and a method according to claim 11.
[0007] Since in the refrigerating appliance according to the
invention, the conventional fixed connection between the
heat-insulating housing on the one hand and the base unit on the
other hand is eliminated, it is possible to accommodate both these
units spatially separated from one another in largely arbitrary
positions in relation to one another in furniture such as a kitchen
cupboard. A readily accessible zone of the furniture can be
selected for accommodating the first structural unit comprising the
housing whereas the second structural unit comprising the
compressor can be placed in a poorly accessible zone which is not
very attractive for any other usage or in any case, would not be
usable at all. Such a zone is especially the base area present in
most kitchen furniture, immediately adjacent to. the floor. The
refrigerating appliance according to the invention has thus opened
up space which has hitherto been unused, as so-called machine
compartment whereby storage space is gained either for the
refrigerating appliance or the built-in cupboard holding the
refrigerating appliance.
[0008] In principle, it is possible to supply the two structural
units of the refrigerating appliance according to the invention
joined together ex works substantially only by a coolant pipe but
not by rigid mechanical connection elements. This has the advantage
that the coolant circuit of the refrigerating appliance can be
joined together in a sealed fashion in the factory and that
problems are avoided which can arise if the coolant circuit is only
filled with coolant after the refrigerating appliance has been
assembled at its installation site or if parts of the coolant
circuit filled with coolant at the factory need to be joined
together during assembly. Since such a connection makes it fairly
difficult to handle the two assemblies of the refrigerating
appliance during assembly, a coupling is preferably provided,
however, in a coolant pipe connecting the two assemblies which
makes it possible to mount the two assemblies separately from one
another in the furniture and only join them together after
assembly.
[0009] Such a coupling preferably consists of two portions, each
attached to the pipe section of the first assembly or the second
assembly and which are self-closing in the uncoupled state.
Couplings of this type which are designed to prevent any escape of
coolant in the uncoupled state are known from air conditioning. The
use of these couplings means that the two portions of the coolant
circuit of the refrigerating appliance according to the invention
allotted to the first or to the second assembly, can be filled with
coolant in the factory independently of one another and
nevertheless an uncontrolled escape of coolant into the atmosphere
can be prevented.
[0010] More appropriately the second assembly is fitted with forced
ventilation so that it can also be built into zones of furniture
which otherwise would only be inadequately cooled.
[0011] A condenser can in principle be provided as part of the
first or the second assembly as desired. In particular, if the
second assembly is forcibly ventilated, it is appropriate to
integrate the condenser in the second assembly.
[0012] A condensation water pipe for removing moisture deposited in
the interior of the housing is more appropriately guided in a line
together with the coolant pipe. In such a case, the condensation
water pipe is more appropriately provided with a coupling in the
same way as the coolant pipe.
[0013] An evaporator tray at which the condensation water pipe ends
is more appropriately integrated in the second assembly in order to
use the waste heat released from the compressor for vaporising the
water of condensation.
[0014] Further features and advantages of the invention are
obtained from the following description of an exemplary embodiment
with reference to the appended figures which show
[0015] FIG. 1 is a schematic section through a refrigerating
appliance according to the invention built into a kitchen
cupboard.
[0016] The built-in cupboard 1 shown in cross-section in FIG. 1 has
a cavity 2 in its upper area which accommodates a first assembly 3
of the refrigerating appliance according to the invention. The
first assembly 3 substantially comprises a heat-insulating housing
comprising a body 4 and a door 5 which enclose an interior
compartment 6 for the storage of chilled goods. In the figure the
interior compartment 6 is shown as an example without subdivision
and with a single evaporator 7 at its rear wall, naturally it could
also be subdivided by dividing walls into a plurality of different
temperature zones which can optionally each be fitted with their
own evaporator which can be supplied with coolant independently of
the evaporators of the other zones or it could be an appliance in a
no-frost design where the evaporator is accommodated in a chamber
which communicates from the interior via forced ventilation.
[0017] An intake pipe 8 and a drain pipe 9 for the coolant supply
of the evaporator 7 are guided out at the back of the body 4 and
end jointly at the coupling portion 10.
[0018] A collecting channel 11 for water of condensation draining
from the evaporator 7 is formed at the back wall of the interior
compartment 6 below the evaporator 7. A drain pipe 12 is guided out
at the back of the body 4 starting from the lowest point of the
collecting channel 11 and ends like the pipes 8, 9 at the coupling
portion 10. The coupling portion 10 thus has three connector
elements, one for each pipe 8, 9, 12, wherein at least the
connector elements allocated to the pipes 8, 9 are self-closing in
the unconnected state of the coupling portion 10 in order to
prevent coolant from escaping from the evaporator 7 and the pipes
8, 9 into the open.
[0019] A second cavity 13 of the built-in cupboard 1 below the
cavity 2 accommodating the first assembly 3 in this case contains
two drawers 14. The cavity 13 is not cooled. Its depth is somewhat
less than that of the cavity 2 so that between a rear wall 15 of
the cavity 13 and a wall 16 on which the built-in cupboard 1 is
mounted, a shaft 17 connecting the cavity 2 to a base cavity 18 of
the cupboard 1 remains free.
[0020] In the base cavity 18, a second assembly 19 of the
refrigerating appliance, for example, rests directly above the
floor. This second assembly 19 comprises a compressor 20, a suction
pipe 21 and a pressure pipe 22 which respectively connect the
compressor 20 to a second coupling portion 23, a condenser 24
inserted in the pressure pipe 22 and a fan 25 which serves as
forced ventilation for the compressor and the condenser 24.
[0021] The two coupling portions 10, 23 connect the drain pipe 9 to
the suction pipe 21, the inlet pipe 8 to the pressure pipe 22 and
the drain pipe 12 to a drain pipe 26 which discharges onto an
evaporation tray 27 mounted on the compressor 20.
[0022] In the case of the second coupling portion 23 the connector
elements allocated to the pipes 21, 22 carrying the coolant are
self-closing when not connected.
[0023] The refrigerating appliance according to the invention is
delivered from the manufacturer in the form of two assemblies 3 and
19 which are not connected to one another. Assembly is accomplished
by first placing the first assembly 3 in a cavity 2 in a usual
manner for a conventional refrigerator and then inserting the
assembly 19 into the base cavity, e.g. from the front after a front
plinth 28 of the base cavity has been temporarily removed. The two
coupling portions 10, 23 are joined together at a suitable time,
e.g., assuming that the pipes 8, 9, 12 are of sufficient length,
after placing the first assembly 3 and guiding the pipes 8, 9, 12
and the coupling portion 10 through the shaft 17, by pulling the
coupling portion 10 forward through the base cavity 17 and joining
to the coupling portion 23 before pushing the second assembly 19
into its position.
[0024] The separation of the two assemblies 3 and 19 according to
the invention allows the housing to be mounted at a height
conveniently accessible for a user and at the same time to use the
conventionally unused base cavity of the built-in cupboard 1 for
accommodating the second assembly 19. Compared to the conventional
designs of refrigerating appliances described initially, a volume
of about 20 litre is thereby released in the cavity. That is, the
building-in cavity can be reduced in height in accordance with this
20 litres whilst the volume of the interior compartment 6 remains
the same, whereby additional space is provided for other purposes
in the built-in cupboard 1 or the interior compartment 6 of the
refrigerating appliance can be correspondingly enlarged whilst the
dimensions of the cavity 2 remain unchanged.
[0025] Naturally, it is not necessary to mount the two assemblies
3, 19 of the refrigerating appliance according to the invention one
above the other in a built-in cupboard. A laterally offset
arrangement is also feasible depending on the available space. It
is also possible to arrange the second assembly 19 above the first
assembly 3, possibly in an area of the built-in cupboard near the
ceiling which is likewise poorly accessible for a user in general.
In such a case, it would be more appropriate to provide a pump in
the drain pipe 9 or 26 to raise the water of condensation draining
from the interior compartment 6 to the level of the evaporation
tray 27.
* * * * *