U.S. patent number 3,678,698 [Application Number 05/097,108] was granted by the patent office on 1972-07-25 for side-by-side refrigerator including low cost evaporator means.
This patent grant is currently assigned to General Electric Co.. Invention is credited to Gerald F. Dodge, III, Robert B. Gelbard, Howard D. F. True, Jr..
United States Patent |
3,678,698 |
Gelbard , et al. |
July 25, 1972 |
SIDE-BY-SIDE REFRIGERATOR INCLUDING LOW COST EVAPORATOR MEANS
Abstract
A side-by-side combination refrigerator containing a liner
defining a freezer compartment and a low cost vertically extending
evaporator mounted on the rear wall of the freezer compartment. The
evaporator is a single bank serpentine tube having horizontally
extending fins and is folded so that adjacent return bends contact
one another, these return bends being held in contact by a tie
wire. Low costs means are provided for supporting the evaporator, a
cover plate separating the evaporator from the storage portion of
the freezer compartment and a radiant heater defrost means on the
liner walls.
Inventors: |
Gelbard; Robert B. (Louisville,
KY), Dodge, III; Gerald F. (Louisville, KY), True, Jr.;
Howard D. F. (Fern Creek, KY) |
Assignee: |
General Electric Co.
(N/A)
|
Family
ID: |
22261138 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/097,108 |
Filed: |
December 11, 1970 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
62/276;
62/515 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F25B
39/02 (20130101); F25D 21/08 (20130101); F25D
2400/06 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
F25D
21/08 (20060101); F25B 39/02 (20060101); F25d
021/06 () |
Field of
Search: |
;62/275,276,515 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Wye; William J.
Claims
What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent
of the United States is:
1. A refrigerator comprising:
a liner including spaced side walls and a back wall;
a vertically extending evaporator adjacent said back wall;
an evaporator cover in front of said evaporator and defining with
back wall and side walls an evaporator chamber;
said evaporator comprising a serpentine tubular member including a
plurality of horizontally extending passes arranged in a vertical
plane and connected by return bends adjacent said side walls;
said evaporator having a refrigerator inlet connected to a lower
portion thereof and an outlet at the upper end thereof;
said tubular member having two diametrically opposed sets of
horizontally extending spaced fins aligned longitudinally of said
tubular member;
means for maintaining adjacent return bend portions of said tubular
member in contact with one another whereby adjacent passes slant in
opposite directions;
means for supporting said evaporator comprising a pair of pins
mounted on said back wall and adapted respectively to be received
in return bends on opposite sides of the upper portion of said
evaporator; said pins including means for positioning the upper end
of said evaporator relatively close to said evaporator cover;
retaining means for securing the lower portion of said evaporator
in engagement with said rear liner wall;
radiant heater defrost means extending substantially the full width
of said evaporator to defrost said evaporator, said defrost means
being positioned adjacent said retaining means and between adjacent
passes of said evaporator; said defrost means including heater
shield means between said heater and said evaporator cover; and
bracket means mounted on said liner for supporting said heater
means and said evaporator cover.
2. A refrigerator according to claim 1 in which said pins are
composed of a plastic material.
3. A refrigerator according to claim 1 in which said heater is
positioned at an elevation between adjacent passes.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Most household refrigerators having below and above freezing
storage compartments located in side-by-side relationship and
separated by an insulating wall commonly include a refrigerant
evaporator which is vertically arranged along the rear wall of the
below freezing compartment and an air circulating system for
circulating refrigerated air from the evaporator to the two
compartments. In the manufacture of a number of refrigerators of
this type, the refrigeration unit, completely assembled, charged
and tested, is mounted through the front of the cabinet after the
linear forming at least the outer walls of the storage spaces and
the shell have been preassembled and foam insulated. In this type
of construction, the evaporator component of the refrigeration
system is supported on that portion of the back liner wall forming
the rear wall of the freezing compartment and a cover plate is
thereafter applied over the evaporator. The cover plate forms the
rear wall of the freezing compartment storage area and the front
wall of the freezing compartment storage area and the front wall of
an evaporator chamber. The cabinet, of course, also includes a
suitable fan means and air passage or duct means for the
circulation of air from the two compartments over the evaporator
and the return of refrigerated air to the compartments.
The present invention is directed to a side-by-side refrigerator of
this type and is particularly concerned with the provision of
improved and low cost evaporator and evaporator chamber
structure.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the illustrated embodiment of the present
invention, there is provided a side-by-side refrigerator comprising
liner means including spaced side walls and a back wall defining a
freezer compartment, an evaporator mounted on the back wall and an
evaporator cover in front of the evaporator defining with the back
wall and adjacent side walls of the evaporator, a chamber having an
air inlet at the bottom and an air outlet at the top. The
evaporator comprises a serpentine tubular member including a
plurality of horizontally extending passes that are arranged in a
single vertical plane and are connected by return bends adjacent
the side walls of the liner. The serpentine tubular member is
vertically compressed so that the adjacent return bend portions are
in contact with one another and a longitudinally extending tie wire
is provided for maintaining the return bends in their compressed
position. The fin structure on the tubular member consists of two
diametrically opposed sets of horizontally extending spaced fins
aligned longitudinally of the tubular member. This evaporator
structure is supported on the rear wall by means of a pair of
plastic pins secured to the rear wall and adapted respectively to
be received in return bends on opposite sides of the upper portion
of the evaporator. These pins include means for spacing the upper
end of the evaporator away from the back wall and relatively close
to the evaporator cover plate. Retaining means are provided at the
lower portion of the evaporator for maintaining that portion in
engagement with the rear wall and radiant heater defrost means
extending substantially the full width of the evaporator are
positioned adjacent these retaining means. Brackets employed to
support the radiant heater means are also used to secure the
evaporator cover or plate in position.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
In the accompanying drawing:
FIG. 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section, illustrating
a side-by-side household refrigerator including the improved
evaporator construction of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a front view, partly in section, of the evaporator
structure of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG.
2; and
FIG. 4 is a detailed constructional view taken generally along line
4--4 of FIG. 3.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
In FIGS. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawing, there is shown a
portion of a side-by-side refrigerator comprising a liner means 1
including a rear wall 2 and opposed side walls 3 and 4; this liner
defining a freezer compartment 5 having an access at the front
thereof closed by a door 6. An evaporator 7 is mounted on the rear
wall 2, this evaporator 7 extending for a substantial vertical
distance along the rear wall 2. An evaporator cover or face plate 8
separates the evaporator 7 from the main storage volume of the
freezer compartment 5. The evaporator cover 8 and related structure
are designed to provide an air inlet 9 below the evaporator 7
through which air from the freezer compartment 5 is drawn by a fan
11 positioned in the upper portion of the evaporator chamber 12
defined by the liner walls and the cover plate 8. The air is
discharged through the air outlet 14 back into the freezer
compartment 5. It will be understood of course that additional air
passages are provided for circulating some of the cooled air
through a fresh food compartment (not shown) adjacent the freezing
compartment 5.
The evaporator 7, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 of the drawing,
includes a tubular portion 15 having two sets of diametrically
opposed fins 16 and 17 extending radially outwardly from the tubing
15 and twisted through an angle of about 90.degree.. This type of
tubular heat exchange stock is fully described in U.S. Pat. No.
3,457,756 Rohde issued July 29, 1969, and assigned to the same
assignee as the present invention.
In accordance with the present invention, the evaporator 7 is in
the form of a single bank of serpentine bent or folded finned
tubing, the tubing being bent to form a plurality of horizontally
extending passes 19 connected by return bends 20. The horizontal
dimensions of the evaporator are such that the evaporator extends
substantially the full width of the evaporator compartment 12 and
the fins 16 and 17 extend horizontally on the opposite faces of the
structure.
More specifically, in accordance with the present invention, the
serpentine convolutions of the evaporator are compressed, in a
vertical direction as illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawing, to the
point that the convolutions formed by the passes 19 and return
bends 20 make contact at both ends of the passes, and the
evaporator 7 is held in this shape by means of a tie wire 21
longitudinally encirculating the passes with the ends of the wire
twisted together as illustrated by the numeral 22.
By this evaporator construction, each of the horizontally extending
passes 19 are slightly inclined so that adjacent passes such as
passes 19a and 19b, which are series connected at one end by a
return bend 20 but are maintained in physical contact at their
other ends by the tie wire 21 slant in opposite directions.
By employing this evaporator configuration and introducing liquid
refrigerant from a condensing unit 24 positioned in the machinery
compartment 25 into the evaporator through a capillary inlet 26 at
the bottom pass of the refrigerator and returning vaporized
refrigerant through a suction conduit 27 connected to the upper
pass of the evaporator, liquid refrigerant flowing upwardly through
the tubing 15 is progressively vaporized as it approaches the upper
end of the evaporator. One advantage of the inclined pass
configuration of the evaporator is that as refrigerant flows
upwardly through the evaporator, the liquid and vapor phases are
separated in each of the pockets or traps such as indicated by the
numeral 29 at the junction of each inclined pass 19 and an adjacent
bend, the liquid tending to remain in these pockets so that only
vaporized refrigerant reaches the suction line.
The evaporator 7 forms part of an integrated refrigeration unit
adapted to be front mounted into the cabinet, after which the cover
plate 8 is put into position within the freezer compartment. The
evaporator 7 and the condensing unit 24 are connected by the
suction line 27 and capillary 26 and these components may simply be
positioned along a lower corner portion of the freezer compartment
5 and passed beneath the breaker strip 34 and downwardly through a
slot 35 in the lower face portion of the cabinet.
Also in this preassembled unit, the vertical portion of the suction
line 27 extending downwardly along one side of the serpentine may
be connected by means of hog rings 37 to spaced end turns or return
bends.
The evaporator is suspended on the rear liner wall 2 employing a
pair of spaced mounting pins 38 secured to the upper portion of the
back wall and adapted to be received in the openings defined by
return bends 20 on opposite sides of the evaporator structure.
These pins, preferably composed of a plastic material, each include
a base portion 40 adapted to space the upper end of the evaporator
forwardly from the rear wall 2.
Lower portions of the serpentine evaporator 7 are secured to the
rear wall 2 by means of brackets such as the bracket 41 illustrated
in FIG. 3 of the drawing. These brackets 41 include heat portions
42 engaging the front surface of the serpentine and are preferably
provided at those points at which radiant heater defrost means
generally indicated by the numeral 43 are also mounted. In the
illustrated embodiment of the invention, two such defrost heaters
43 are also mounted. In the illustrated embodiment of the
invention, two such defrost heaters 43 are also mounted. In the
illustrated embodiment of the invention, two such defrost heaters
43 are employed, one at about the vertical mid point of the
evaporator and the other adjacent the lower end of the
evaporator.
These radiant heaters are of the type described more fully in U.S.
Pat. No. 3,280,581 Turner. They comprise a quartz tube 45
containing a heater coil 46, the ends of the tube being closed by
mounting caps 47 supporting the radiant heater on a combination
support and baffle member 48, this baffle member 48 being
positioned on the opposite side of the radiant heater from the
evaporator, that is between the radiant heater and the evaporator
cover 8.
Also in accordance with the present invention, the means employed
for supporting the radiant heater portion is employed to secure the
evaporator cover 8 in place. As shown in FIG. 4 of the drawing this
means comprises brackets 50 suitably secured to the side walls of
the freezer compartment and formed to provide horizontally spaced
mounting sections 51 and 52. The rear mounting section 51 supports
the baffle and support member 48 of the radiant heater while the
front portion 52 is used to secure the evaporator cover 8 in
position. Thus the evaporator cover 8 is maintained in spaced
relationship with the baffle support member 48 which protects the
evaporator cover 8 from direct radiation from the radiant heater
43.
Preferably foamed insulation, triangular shaped pads 53 are
positioned on opposite sides of the evaporator adjacent the upper
end thereof to insure that all of the air passing through at least
the upper passes of the evaporator rather than through any
relatively narrow spaces which may exist on each side thereof.
From the above description, it will be seen that the subject
evaporator design provides improved economy and heat transfer by
virtue of its novel construction. The heat exchange surface is
generated by a single bank of shredded fin tubing, the convolutions
of which are compressed to the point of making contact at both ends
of the convolutions thereby increasing the amount of tubing which
can be provided within a given vertical dimension. By employing
binding wire as a low cost means to maintain the evaporator
structure in this compressed state, there is provided a rigid
structure which does not require the usual more expensive end
brackets for supporting the tube passes. Thus the entire evaporator
tubing including the end turn or return bend regions are available
for heat transfer.
In addition the liquid storage capacity of the trap portions of the
evaporator store liquid refrigerant so that there is no need for a
refrigerant accumulator. The mounting brackets 50 maintain the
evaporator cover 8 and the heater shield 48 thermally insulated
from one another.
While there has been shown and described a specific embodiment of
the invention, it will be understood that it is not limited thereto
and it is intended by the appended claims to cover all
modifications that fall within the true spirit and scope of the
invention.
* * * * *