Refrigerator

Abstract

The invention provides a refrigerator which comprises a storage inner container and an evaporator, at least one storage chamber is defined in the storage inner container, an air duct cavity is defined in one transverse side wall of the storage chamber, the evaporator and an air feeder are both arranged in the air duct cavity, and the air feeder is located in front of the evaporator. And the air duct cavity is configured to promote at least part of the air flow cooled by the evaporator to flow into the at least one storage chamber through the air duct cavity. Therefore, the original invalid space is fully utilized, and the depth size of the storage chamber is increased.

Description

[0001] This application is a divisional application of Chinese patent application No. 201910142795.2, filed on February 26, 2019, entitled "Refrigerator with blower located in front of evaporator". Technical Field

[0002] This invention relates to the field of home appliance technology, and in particular to a refrigerator. Background Technology

[0003] In existing refrigerators, the evaporator is usually located at the back of the freezer compartment, which occupies a large volume. This reduces the depth of the drawers in the freezer compartment, making it inconvenient to place long items that are difficult to divide. Summary of the Invention

[0004] In view of the above problems, one object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator that overcomes or at least partially solves the above problems.

[0005] A further objective of this invention is to improve the uniformity of temperature within the storage room.

[0006] This invention provides a refrigerator, comprising: The storage liner has at least one storage compartment inside, and one lateral side wall of the storage compartment forms an air duct chamber. An evaporator, located within the air duct chamber, is configured to cool the airflow entering the air duct chamber; A blower, disposed within a duct chamber and located in front of the evaporator, is configured to cause at least a portion of the airflow cooled by the evaporator to flow through the duct chamber to at least one storage chamber.

[0007] Optionally, the storage liner is divided into two horizontally distributed storage compartments by a vertical partition. The vertical partition plate defines the air duct chamber.

[0008] Optionally, the vertical partition has at least one left air outlet on the side facing the left side, so that, driven by the blower, part of the airflow cooled by the evaporator is blown into the storage room located on the left side through at least one left air outlet. The vertical partition has at least one right air outlet on the side facing the right side, so that, driven by a blower, a portion of the airflow cooled by the evaporator is blown into the storage room located on the right side through the at least one right air outlet.

[0009] Optionally, at least one left air outlet is located near the front end of the vertical partition. At least one right-side air outlet is located near the front end of the vertical partition.

[0010] Optionally, each storage room is equipped with multiple storage containers arranged vertically in sequence; The number of left air outlets is the same as the number of storage containers in the storage room on the left, and each storage container has a left air outlet at the top front. The number of right air vents is the same as the number of storage containers in the storage room on the right, and each storage container has a right air vent at its front top.

[0011] Optionally, the side of the vertical partition plate facing the left side is formed with at least one left return air inlet communicating with the air duct chamber, and the at least one left return air inlet is adjacent to the rear end of the vertical partition plate; The vertical partition plate has at least one right return air inlet on the side facing the right side, which is connected to the air duct chamber. The at least one right return air inlet is located near the rear end of the vertical partition plate. Furthermore, at least one right return air inlet and at least one left return air inlet are located behind the evaporator.

[0012] Optionally, the refrigerator also includes: Two doors are positioned horizontally opposite each other on the front side of the storage liner to open and close the two storage compartments respectively.

[0013] Optionally, the storage liner is a freezer liner, and the two storage compartments are two freezer compartments.

[0014] Optionally, the refrigerator also includes: The refrigerated inner liner is located directly above the storage inner liner and contains a refrigerated compartment.

[0015] Optionally, the refrigerator also includes: The air supply duct of the refrigerator compartment is located on the inner side of the rear wall of the refrigerator liner. It is connected to the air duct chamber in a controlled manner through the air damper and has at least one air supply outlet of the refrigerator compartment that is connected to the refrigerator compartment to deliver part of the airflow cooled by the evaporator to the refrigerator compartment. The return air duct of the refrigerator compartment is located in the foam layer on the outer side of the rear wall of the refrigerator liner and the outer side of the rear wall of the storage liner. It has an inlet that communicates with the refrigerator compartment and an outlet that communicates with the air duct chamber.

[0016] The refrigerator of the present invention has a duct chamber defined by one lateral side wall of the storage compartment. The evaporator and the fan are both disposed in the duct chamber, which makes use of the originally ineffective volume and increases the depth of the storage compartment. In addition, the fan is located in front of the evaporator, which accelerates the airflow speed and improves the cooling speed, while facilitating the airflow to blow from the front to the storage compartment, thereby reducing the temperature difference between the front and back of the storage compartment.

[0017] Furthermore, in the refrigerator of the present invention, the aforementioned air duct chamber can be defined within the vertical partition, thereby making full use of the space of the vertical partition and facilitating the air supply to the two storage compartments on the horizontal sides using the air duct chamber of the vertical partition, and is more energy-efficient.

[0018] Furthermore, in the refrigerator of the present invention, the air outlet of the vertical partition is close to the door to achieve front air supply, which makes the temperature uniformity of the storage compartment better.

[0019] The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Attached Figure Description

[0020] The following sections will describe some specific embodiments of the invention in detail by way of example and not limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar parts or portions. Those skilled in the art should understand that these drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. In the drawings: Figure 1 This is a structural diagram of a refrigerator in the prior art; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of a refrigerator in a first direction according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of a refrigerator in a second direction according to an embodiment of the present invention; and Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of a refrigerator from a third-party perspective according to an embodiment of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0021] This embodiment provides a refrigerator 100, which will be described below with reference to... Figures 2 to 4 The refrigerator 100 of this embodiment of the invention will be described below. In the following description, the orientation or positional relationship indicated by "front", "rear", "up", "down", "left", "right", etc., is based on the orientation of the refrigerator 100 itself, and "front" and "rear" are as follows: Figure 2 , Figure 3 The indicated direction, such as Figure 4 As shown, "horizontal" refers to the left-right direction, which is parallel to the width of the refrigerator (100).

[0022] like Figures 1 to 4 As shown, the refrigerator 100 generally includes an outer shell 110 and a storage liner 130 disposed inside the outer shell 110. The space between the outer shell 110 and the storage liner 130 is filled with insulation material (forming a foam layer), and the storage liner 130 defines at least one storage compartment 131.

[0023] like Figure 1As shown, in the prior art, the evaporator 101 and the blower 103 of the refrigerator 100 are both located at the rear of the storage compartment 131, occupying the space behind the storage compartment 131. This reduces the depth of the storage compartment 131, resulting in a reduction in the depth of the storage container 133 placed in the storage compartment 131, making it inconvenient to place long and difficult-to-divide items.

[0024] In this embodiment, a lateral side wall of the storage compartment 131 defines an air duct chamber. An evaporator 101 is disposed within this air duct chamber and configured to cool the airflow entering the air duct chamber. A blower 103 is disposed within the air duct chamber and located in front of the evaporator 101, configured to cause at least a portion of the airflow cooled by the evaporator 101 to flow through the air duct chamber into at least one storage compartment 131. This avoids the problem of the evaporator 101 occupying the rear space of the storage compartment 131, thus reducing the depth of the storage compartment 131. Furthermore, it fully utilizes the space of the lateral side wall of the storage compartment 131, which would otherwise be ineffective volume, thereby improving the volume utilization rate of the refrigerator 100.

[0025] In one embodiment, the storage liner 130 is divided into two horizontally distributed storage compartments 131 by a vertical partition 134. That is, the storage liner 130 is divided into two storage compartments 131, left and right, by the vertical partition 134. Each storage compartment 131 may be equipped with multiple vertically distributed storage containers 133. The storage containers 133 are generally open storage drawers.

[0026] The vertical partition 134 forms a transverse side wall of the storage room 131. The aforementioned air duct chamber can be defined within the vertical partition 134, thereby making full use of the space of the vertical partition 134 and facilitating the supply of air to the two storage rooms 131 on the transverse sides through the air duct chamber of the vertical partition 134.

[0027] In an alternative embodiment, since the lateral sidewall of the storage liner 130 forms a lateral sidewall of the storage chamber 131, the aforementioned air duct chamber can be defined within the lateral sidewall of the storage liner 130.

[0028] like Figure 2 As shown, an evaporator chamber 1341 is defined within the vertical partition plate 134. The evaporator 101 is arranged vertically in the evaporator chamber 1341 in a plate shape. That is, the long surface of the evaporator 101 is perpendicular to the horizontal plane, and the wide and thick surfaces are parallel to the horizontal plane. Moreover, the long surface dimension of the evaporator 101 is significantly larger than its thickness dimension, so that it can be matched with the vertical partition plate 134 and the heat exchange area of ​​the evaporator 101 can be increased as much as possible.

[0029] The refrigerator 100 also includes two doors 132, which are arranged horizontally opposite each other on the front side of the storage liner 130 to form a double door, so as to open and close the two storage compartments 131 respectively.

[0030] The vertical partition 134 has at least one left air outlet 134a on its left-hand side, which communicates with the storage compartment 131 located on the left side. This allows the airflow cooled by the evaporator 101 to be blown through the duct chamber and the left air outlet 134a into the storage compartment 131 on the left. Correspondingly, the vertical partition 134 has at least one right air outlet 134b on its right-hand side, which communicates with the storage compartment 131 located on the right side. This allows the airflow cooled by the evaporator 101 to be blown through the duct chamber and the right air outlet 134b into the storage compartment 131 on the right.

[0031] The vertical partition plate facing the left side can have multiple left air outlets 134a arranged vertically at intervals, and correspondingly, the vertical partition plate facing the right side can have multiple right air outlets 134b arranged vertically at intervals. The number of left air outlets 134a and the number of right air outlets 134b can be the same or different. Here, "multiple" means two or more.

[0032] Each storage compartment 131 is equipped with multiple storage containers 133 arranged vertically. The number of left air vents 134a is the same as the number of storage containers 133 in the storage compartment 131 on the left, and each storage container 133 has a left air vent 134a above it. The number of right air vents 134b is the same as the number of storage containers 133 in the storage compartment 131 on the right, and each storage container 133 has a right air vent 134b above it. This allows airflow to enter the storage containers 133 from the open space above them, increasing the smoothness of airflow.

[0033] The sealing performance of the door 132 on the front side of the storage liner 130 and the opening and closing process of the door 132 will affect the temperature distribution in the storage compartment 131. Due to the large heat leakage of the door 132, the temperature on the front side of the storage compartment 131 is often higher than the temperature on the back side, resulting in uneven temperature in the entire space of the storage compartment 131, which has an adverse effect on food storage.

[0034] Prior to this invention, the design commonly used by those skilled in the art was to place the evaporator 101 behind the storage chamber 131 and blow air from back to front. Although this resulted in uneven temperature distribution in the storage chamber 131, the problem was overlooked by those skilled in the art due to the lack of a good solution.

[0035] To address this issue, the applicant of this invention first arranges an evaporator 101 within a vertical partition 134 between two horizontal storage compartments 131. The vertical partition 134 defines the air duct chamber. A small portion of the cold energy on both sides of the evaporator 101 (although the vertical partition 134 has an insulation design, it is still inevitable that a small portion of the cold energy of the evaporator 101 will be transferred outward through the vertical partition 134) can be transferred to the two storage compartments 131 through the vertical partition 134. Compared to existing refrigerators with the evaporator 101 positioned at the rear, where some of the cold energy of the evaporator 101 is transferred to the outside through the foam layer at the rear of the storage liner 130, resulting in cold energy loss, the refrigerator 100 of this embodiment is more energy-efficient.

[0036] Specifically, at least one left air outlet 134a is located near the front end of the vertical partition 134, and at least one right air outlet 134b is located near the front end of the vertical partition 134. Thus, both the left air outlet 134a and the right air outlet 134b are positioned close to the door 132. Cold air is first delivered from the front, where the temperature is higher, and then flows to the rear, thereby reducing the temperature difference between the front and back of each storage room and making the temperature uniformity of each storage room better.

[0037] Therefore, by specially designing the air outlet of the vertical partition 134, the temperature uniformity in the two storage compartments 131 on the left and right is improved.

[0038] Accordingly, the left air outlet 134a should be located at the upper front end of the corresponding storage container 133, and the right air outlet 134b should be located at the upper front end of the corresponding storage container 133. The blower 103 is located in front of the evaporator 101, closer to the left air outlet 134a and the right air outlet 134b, which can accelerate the entry of cold air into the storage compartment 131 and accelerate the cooling speed of the refrigerator 100.

[0039] The aforementioned left air outlet 134a and right air outlet 134b can each be an independent opening, or they can each be an opening composed of multiple small holes.

[0040] like Figure 4As shown, the vertical partition plate 134 has at least one left return air inlet (not shown) on its left-side side. This inlet is located near the rear end of the vertical partition plate 134, thus achieving front-side air supply and rear-side air return, ensuring that the airflow entering the storage compartment 131 from the left air supply inlet 134a flows from front to back through the entire space of the storage compartment 131. Correspondingly, the vertical partition plate 134 has at least one right return air inlet 134d on its right-side side. This inlet is located near the rear end of the vertical partition plate 134, also achieving front-side air supply and rear-side air return. Furthermore, both the left and right return air inlets 134d should be located behind the evaporator 101, so that the return airflow flows from the rear to the front of the evaporator 101, thus improving heat exchange efficiency.

[0041] like Figure 3 As shown, the vertical partition plate 134 has multiple left return air inlets on the side facing the left side, which are distributed vertically at intervals. The vertical partition plate 134 has multiple right return air inlets 134d on the side facing the right side, which are also distributed vertically at intervals. Here, "multiple" means two or more.

[0042] The aforementioned storage liner 130 may be a freezer liner, and the storage compartment 131 may be a freezer compartment.

[0043] like Figures 2 to 4 As shown, the refrigerator 100 of this embodiment may further include a refrigerator inner liner 120 and a refrigerator compartment air supply duct 124. The refrigerator inner liner 120 defines a refrigerator compartment 121. The refrigerator inner liner 120 is located directly above the aforementioned storage inner liner 130. The refrigerator compartment air supply duct 124 is disposed on the inner side of the rear wall of the refrigerator inner liner 120 and has a plurality of refrigerator compartment air outlets 124a communicating with the refrigerator compartment 121. The refrigerator compartment air supply duct 124 is connected to the air duct chamber through the air damper 125 so as to transport the airflow cooled by the evaporator 101 through the air duct chamber and the refrigerator compartment air supply duct 124 to the refrigerator compartment 121.

[0044] The refrigerator compartment 121 can be equipped with multiple horizontal partitions 123 arranged vertically to divide the refrigerator compartment 121 into multiple storage spaces for easy classification and storage of items. A refrigerator door 122 is provided on the front side of the refrigerator liner 120 to open and close the refrigerator compartment 121.

[0045] like Figure 3As shown, the refrigerator 100 also includes a refrigerator compartment return air duct 126, which is disposed in the foam layer on the outer side of the rear wall of the refrigerator liner 120 and the outer side of the rear wall of the storage liner 130. It has an inlet communicating with the refrigerator compartment 121 and an outlet communicating with the duct chamber, so as to transport the return airflow from the refrigerator compartment 121 to the duct chamber for cooling by the evaporator 101. Correspondingly, a refrigerator return air vent 120a is formed on the lower rear wall of the refrigerator liner 120, and the inlet of the refrigerator compartment return air duct 126 communicates with the refrigerator return air vent 120a.

[0046] Although not shown in the accompanying drawings, the refrigerator 100 of this embodiment may also include a variable temperature inner liner, which defines a variable temperature compartment. For example, the variable temperature inner liner may be located between the storage inner liner 130 and the refrigerator inner liner 120. Correspondingly, the refrigerator 100 may also include a variable temperature compartment air supply duct, which may be controllably connected to the air duct chamber through a variable temperature compartment damper to transport the cold airflow cooled by the evaporator 101 through the air duct chamber and the variable temperature compartment air supply duct to the variable temperature compartment.

[0047] Therefore, those skilled in the art should recognize that although numerous exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described in detail herein, many other variations or modifications conforming to the principles of the present invention can be directly determined or derived from the disclosure of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the scope of the present invention should be understood and construed as covering all such other variations or modifications.

Claims

1. A refrigerator, comprising: A storage liner, which defines at least one storage compartment, wherein a lateral side wall of the storage compartment forms an air duct chamber; An evaporator is disposed within the air duct chamber and configured to cool the airflow entering the air duct chamber; A blower is disposed in the air duct chamber and located in front of the evaporator, configured to cause at least a portion of the airflow cooled by the evaporator to flow through the air duct chamber to at least one of the storage chambers; At least one left air outlet is formed on the left side of the air duct chamber, so that, driven by the blower, part of the airflow cooled by the evaporator is blown into the storage room located on the left side through the at least one left air outlet. At least one right air outlet is formed on the right side of the air duct chamber, so that, driven by the blower, part of the airflow cooled by the evaporator is blown into the storage room located on the lateral right side through the at least one right air outlet. Both the left and right air inlets are located near the door, so that cold air is first delivered from the front where the temperature is higher, and then flows to the rear.

2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein The storage liner is divided into two horizontally distributed storage compartments by a vertical partition. The vertical partition plate defines the air duct chamber.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein The at least one left air outlet is located near the front end of the vertical partition plate; The at least one right air outlet is located near the front end of the vertical partition.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein Each of the aforementioned storage rooms is equipped with multiple storage containers arranged vertically in sequence; The number of left air outlets is the same as the number of storage containers in the storage room located on the left side, and each storage container has one left air outlet distributed at the front end of its upper part. The number of right air outlets is the same as the number of storage containers in the storage room located on the right side, and each storage container has one right air outlet distributed at its upper front end.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein The vertical partition plate has at least one left return air inlet on the side facing the left side, which communicates with the air duct chamber. The at least one left return air inlet is located near the rear end of the vertical partition plate. The vertical partition plate has at least one right return air inlet on its side facing the right side, which communicates with the air duct chamber. The at least one right return air inlet is located near the rear end of the vertical partition plate. Furthermore, both the at least one right return air inlet and the at least one left return air inlet are located behind the evaporator.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 2, further comprising: Two doors are positioned laterally opposite each other on the front side of the storage liner to open and close the two storage compartments respectively.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein The storage liner is a freezer liner, and the two storage compartments are two freezer compartments.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 1, further comprising: A refrigerated inner liner is located directly above the storage inner liner, and a refrigerated compartment is defined therein.

9. The refrigerator according to claim 8, further comprising: The air supply duct for the refrigerator compartment is located on the inner side of the rear wall of the refrigerator liner. It is connected to the air duct chamber in a controlled manner through a damper and has at least one air outlet for the refrigerator compartment that is connected to the refrigerator compartment, so as to deliver part of the airflow cooled by the evaporator to the refrigerator compartment. The return air duct of the refrigerator compartment is located in the foam layer on the outer side of the rear wall of the refrigerator liner and the outer side of the rear wall of the storage liner, and has an inlet communicating with the refrigerator compartment and an outlet communicating with the duct chamber.

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