U.S. patent number 3,702,544 [Application Number 05/075,334] was granted by the patent office on 1972-11-14 for refrigerator.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Unitec Industries, Inc.. Invention is credited to George Grinups.
United States Patent |
3,702,544 |
Grinups |
November 14, 1972 |
REFRIGERATOR
Abstract
Cooled air is circulated upwardly through an insulated liner
forming the food chamber by a top fan, evaporator coils at the
respective sides of the fan, and conduit means extending from the
coils and including ducts which extend exteriorly at the sides of
the liner from the top portion to the bottom portion of the same.
The cooled air streams from such ducts are discharged into the
liner at horizontal shielded openings in the respective sides at
relatively small spacing above the liner bottom. The liner and a
surrounding spaced outer shell are single molded plastic shapes,
with insulation therebetween foamed in place and about the
ducts.
Inventors: |
Grinups; George (Penndel,
PA) |
Assignee: |
Unitec Industries, Inc. (York,
PA)
|
Family
ID: |
22125027 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/075,334 |
Filed: |
September 25, 1970 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
62/414; 62/416;
62/418; 62/419 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F25D
17/06 (20130101); F25D 2317/0655 (20130101); F25D
2317/0664 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
F25D
17/06 (20060101); F25d 017/06 () |
Field of
Search: |
;62/413,414,415,416,426,419,441,255,185 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Wye; William J.
Claims
I, therefore, particularly point out and distinctly claim as my
invention:
1. A refrigerator comprising an inner liner forming a chamber for
storage of the articles to be refrigerated, a foraminous air
distribution shield in said chamber slightly below the liner top
wall, such shield being substantially coextensive with the width
and depth of said chamber, an outer shell enclosing said liner in
spaced relation, thermal insulation between the liner and shell,
conduit means consisting of two ducts positioned in said
insulation, said ducts extending from a common inlet opening
substantially in the center of the liner top wall to two outlet
openings in opposite side walls of the liner closely adjacent the
liner bottom wall, fan means in the common inlet opening to draw
air upwardly through the food chamber and air distribution shield
into the conduit means for circulation back to the duct outlet
openings, said air being divided into substantially equal air
streams in both of said ducts, and evaporating coils positioned
within each said duct to cool the air for reentry into the food
chamber.
2. A refrigerator as set forth in claim 1, wherein the opening in
the liner wall through which the cooled air is discharged from the
duct is horizontal and extends over more than half of the
corresponding dimension of said wall.
3. A refrigerator as set forth in claim 1, wherein said thermal
insulation is foamed in place between the liner and outer shell and
about said duct.
4. A refrigerator as set forth in claim 1, wherein said liner is
made of a heat insulating material.
5. A refrigerator as set forth in claim 1, wherein an openwork
spacer is applied to the interior of said liner wall at the opening
therein to preclude blockage of the latter by articles stored in
the chamber.
Description
The present invention relates to refrigerators of the type in which
cooled air is forcibly circulated through the storage chamber for
food or other articles to be refrigerated.
More particularly, the circulation is such that the cooled air
flows upwardly through the chamber, with cooling of the air at the
top for maximum convection assist. Improvement in this circulation
or distribution of the cooled air to maintain unrestricted uniform
flow throughout the chamber is a principal object of the
invention.
Another object is to provide such a refrigerator in which the flow
of cooled air from the refrigerating system is contained in its
delivery to the article storage chamber for discharge to the bottom
portion of the latter in a manner which makes it a more efficient
working fluid. The way in which the cooled air is discharged into
the chamber is also significant and contributes to the overall
improved circulation through the chamber.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a construction
for such a refrigerator which can readily be reproduced at cost
advantage, while giving the user a unit which is structurally
trouble-free and easy to clean and otherwise maintain.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become
apparent as the following description proceeds.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends the
invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described
and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following
description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail
certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being
indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the
principle of the invention may be employed.
Briefly, the new refrigerator utilizes an inner liner and an outer
shell each in the basic form of a single molded plastic shape.
Refrigerating elements and a motor-driven fan assembly are located
in the top portion of the inner liner and cooperate to establish
flows of cooled air to the respective sides which penetrate the
liner and enter closed vertical ducts in the side spaces between
the liner and the shell. The air returns to the chamber through
elongated discharge openings at the respective liner sides near the
bottom, through distributor or screen means, and there is an air
screen at the top which assists in establishing the vertical
movement of the flow through the storage chamber over substantially
the full depth and the full width of the same. The void in the
outer shell about the inner liner is filled with thermal insulating
foam.
Referring now to the drawings in detail:
FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a refrigerator in accordance with
the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a vertical section of the refrigerator at a plane
parallel to the front, with certain parts omitted for convenience
of illustration;
FIG. 3 is a transverse vertical section as viewed from the plane of
the line 3--3 in FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a horizontal section the plane of which is indicated by
the line 4--4 in FIG. 2;
FIG. 5 is an elevation, partly broken away, of one of the air ducts
used in the refrigerator;
FIG. 6 is a horizontal section as viewed from the plane of the line
6--6 in FIG. 5; and
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of one of the discharge screens used
in the assembly.
Referring now to the drawings in detail, the illustrated
refrigerator is a top mounted model, that is, the refrigerating
system, except for the refrigerant evaporating section, is enclosed
within a top housing 10 and, being fully conventional, need not be
illustrated and described in any detail. Moreover, it will be
apparent from the following that the improvements which form the
subject matter of the present invention can as well be employed
with bottom or any other mountings for the system.
These improvements as indicated at the outset concern primarily the
construction of the food chamber or compartment designated
generally by reference numeral 11 and basically defined by an outer
shell 12 and an inner liner 13. The shell and liner are preferably
each formed as a single molded piece of glass fiber reinforced
polyester resin open only at the front. All dimensions of the liner
are smaller than the corresponding dimensions of the shell to
define a void 14 fully about the former when placed within the
shell, as shown, with the respective fronts of the two in the same
plane.
The void is closed by a front wall 15 formed in any suitable
manner, for example, by flanging the front edges of one or both of
the shell and liner and bonding thereof, and preferably filled with
a polyurethane composition 16 foamed in place. This intervening
material has been used in the same manner in other refrigerating
structures and provides with the shell and liner a structurally
rigid, thermally insulated enclosure for the food or other articles
to be refrigerated.
However, in accordance with the present invention, the space
between the liner and shell is equipped with ducts 17 respectively
against the liner sides before the addition of the foamed
insulation. Each such duct in the illustrated embodiment comprises
a separately formed rectangular aluminum pan 18 applied against the
side to form therewith a substantially fully closed shallow conduit
of a length sufficient to extend from the top almost fully to the
bottom of the liner side. The pans can be formed with top flange
extensions 19 and bottom flanges 20 and may be held in place
adhesively during the insulation foaming operation. Flexible
reinforcing strips, not shown, are preferably temporarily suspended
within the ducts during foaming of the insulation to preclude
deformation or collapse of the same and are subsequently
withdrawn.
The liner side walls within the ducts are provided with horizontal
outlet and inlet slots 21 and 22 respectively adjacent the upper
and lower ends of the ducts, so that there is communication between
the top and bottom portions of the liner interior or the food
chamber exteriorly through the two side ducts 17 over substantially
the full height of the chamber.
The initial placement of the duct forming aluminum pans is assisted
by the flanges 19 and 20 as shown, with the latter engaged over the
bottom edges of the inlets 22 and the former over the liner top
wall 23.
The refrigerant evaporating section of the refrigerating system
comprises two finned coils 24 mounted against the inner top of the
liner 13 within a housing 25 at the respective sides of the center
and connected to the system by suitable fluid connections, not
shown. Between these coils, at the top center, there is a vertical
fan-motor assembly 26 having its impeller 27 positioned in an
opening in the bottom of the housing 25 and designed to draw air
upwardly through such opening and force it laterally through the
evaporator coils at both sides.
Such lateral flows of air proceed between the fins of the
evaporator coils 24 over the turns of the latter and enter small
horizontal chutes 28 which lead to the top liner side openings 21
and hence the upper ends of the exterior ducts 17.
The air flows are of course cooled by such heat exchange contact
with the coils and proceed downwardly through the ducts for return
to the liner interior at its bottom horizontal openings 22. A
spacer and distributor screen 29 is applied at each opening 22 with
sufficient openwork projection into the chamber to preclude
blockage of the opening by articles stored in the chamber. Screens
29 may be made of plated or plastic coated wire or the like and
their specific configuration is not critical, except to the extent
that the protection against obstruction of the flows laterally into
the liner must be assured.
A light indicated by phantom outline 30 is provided for
illuminating the interior of the chamber, and an air distributing
foraminous light shield 31 is removably suspended below the light
and the top housing 25 containing the evaporator coils and the fan
motor assembly.
A center mullion 32 is attached at the front of the unit, and two
doors 33 on outer edge vertical pivot hinges 34 are provided for
closing the front of the refrigerator, with suitable latching, not
shown, at the center mullion. A door operated light switch 35 is
illustrated in FIG. 1, and it will be understood that other
controls which have been conventional can be provided, for example,
a temperature control preferably with an alarm to indicate a
dangerously improper temperature condition.
The liner walls are shown in FIG. 1 as having rack supporting
strips 36 applied thereto, with a number of openwork racks 37
supported by the same.
The arrows in the drawings indicate the upflow of the cooled air
through the food chamber which has been established in the
disclosed structure, with substantial uniformity or evenness of the
same over the full width and depth of such chamber.
It is also significant to note that the cooled air conducted by the
ducts to the bottom portion of the chamber is separated and hence
insulated from the interior of the same by liner side walls of the
polyester resin. The formation of localized cold spots, for
example, at the upper corners of the liner, is avoided and the
transfer is very efficiently accomplished.
* * * * *