JP2962888B2 - Cold storage - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cold storage which is transported to a destination by means of transportation while keeping a storage room at a low temperature.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Flowers are kept at low temperatures to suppress their respiratory action, prevent deterioration due to aging, and maintain high freshness. Therefore, the transportation of flowers from the production area to the fresh flower market or store has conventionally been performed by a refrigerator car, a styrofoam container provided with a regenerator, or a combination thereof.

[0003]

However, in the conventional transportation method, even if high freshness is maintained during transportation by low-temperature transportation, dew condensation may occur on the flowers when the flowers reach the destination and come into contact with the outside air. The flowers are damaged by the shock due to the rapid temperature change (rise), and discoloration, deformation, unflowering buds and the like occur. In order to prevent this, there was a problem that the flowers had to be acclimated as soon as they arrived and left the refrigerator car.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and a low-temperature storage capable of acclimating a flower stored during transportation toward an estimated time of arrival at a destination is provided. The purpose is to provide.

[0005]

The low-temperature storage R of the present invention comprises a storage room 2, cooling means (cooling agent 6, DC fan motor 14, etc.) for cooling the storage room 2 during transportation, and a storage room. 2
And has a control device (microcomputer 46) for controlling the cooling means based on the output of the sensor (inside the refrigerator temperature sensor 18), and is transported by a predetermined transport means. The control device (microcomputer 46) is provided with a timer (subtraction timer) capable of setting the estimated arrival time or the time until the estimated arrival time, and a predetermined ratio of the elapsed time until the estimated arrival time to the storage room 2. It has an acclimatization function to raise the temperature.

[0006]

According to the low temperature storage R of the present invention, by setting the estimated arrival time or the time until the expected arrival time,
The control device (microcomputer 46) raises the temperature of the storage room 2 at a predetermined rate with respect to the elapsed time from the low temperature state in which the respiration of the flowers is suppressed to the scheduled arrival time. Thus, when the vehicle arrives at the destination, the temperature difference between the storage room 2 and the outside air is reduced, and even if flowers are taken out of the storage room 2, damage to the flowers caused by the temperature difference is suppressed, and high freshness transportation of the flowers is realized. You.

[0007]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a block diagram of an electric circuit, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a low-temperature storage R, and FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the same.

In FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, a low-temperature storage R is a main body 1 composed of an insulated box, a storage room 2 for storing flowers such as fresh flowers formed in the main body 1, and a storage room 2 that is opened and closed. Door 3 and regenerator 4 communicating with storage 2 via duct 5
And a regenerator 6 stored in the regenerator 4, and a cooling device 7 for cooling the regenerator 6.

The cooling device 7 includes a compressor 8, an accumulator 9, a cooler 10 which is disposed in close contact with the regenerator 6 in the regenerator 4, a capillary tube 11,
It comprises a condenser 12 and a blower 13 for the condenser. The cool air cooled by the cool storage agent 6 is sent to the storage room 2 via the duct 5 by the DC fan motor 14 as a blowing means.

The air in the storage room 2 is supplied from the suction port 15 to the cold storage room 4.
The cool air from the cold storage room 4 is blown out to the storage room 2 from the outlet 16 of the duct 5. The regenerator 6 is provided with a regenerator temperature sensor 17 as temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature thereof. The outlet 16 has an in-compartment temperature sensor 1 for detecting the temperature of the cool air blown into the storage chamber 2.
8 are provided. Further, the temperature of the condenser 12 is detected by a condenser temperature sensor 19.

[0011] It is used for high freshness transport of low temperature storage R flowers,
It is transported from a flower production area to a flower market or a store by transportation means such as long-distance trucks and delivery vehicles. Therefore, casters 20 are attached to the bottom of the main body 1 and bumpers 21 are provided at the upper and lower ends of the outer peripheral surface of the main body 1. Is attached. A machine room 22 is formed in the lower rear corner of the main body 1 and houses the compressor 8 and a storage battery to be described later. still,
In the present embodiment, in order to obtain a sufficient cooling capacity, two cooling devices 7 and two DC fan motors 14 having the same size are mounted.

In FIG. 1, a rectifier circuit 31 as a power supply circuit is connected to a contact a of a switching relay 36, and an output of a storage battery 32 connected to a charging circuit 33 is a relay coil Ry.
The contact 6 is connected to the contact b of the switching relay 36 via the contact 6. The switching relay 36 functions as switching means for switching a power supply of a microcomputer (hereinafter, referred to as a microcomputer) 46 as a control device constituting the control unit between an AC power supply (200 V AC) and the storage battery 32. That is, the common contact c of the switching relay 36 is connected to the microcomputer 46. When the AC power is connected, the contact is closed to the contact a, and when the AC power is turned off, the contact is closed to the contact b. Thereby, the microcomputer 4
6 operates using the AC power supply when the AC power supply is connected and the storage battery 32 as the power supply when the AC power supply is cut off.

The storage battery 32 has a resistor 3 as a current sensor.
4 are connected in series and output a voltage proportional to the charging current. A voltage monitoring circuit 35 for monitoring the voltage of the storage battery 32 is connected to the common contact c of the switching relay 36.
The output is input to the microcomputer 46. The voltage generated by the regenerator temperature sensor 17, the in-compartment temperature sensor 18, the condenser temperature sensor 19, and the resistor 34 is controlled by amplifier circuits 37, 38, 3
The signals are respectively amplified by 9 and 40, and both are input to the microcomputer 46. Further, the output of the reverse phase detection circuit 41 for detecting the connection state of the connected three-phase AC power supply is also input to the microcomputer 46.

The compressor motors 4 of the two compressors 8
The relay coils 44 and 45 for switching the AC power supply to a normal connection state by switching contacts (not shown) based on the detection results of the negative phase detection circuits 2 and 43 and the negative phase detection circuit 41 are respectively relay coils Ry
2, Ry3, Ry4, and Ry5 are connected to the AC power supply through contacts. The DC fan motors 14 and 14 are connected to the common contact c of the switching relay 36 via the contact of the relay coil Ry1. These relay coils Ry1, Ry
2, Ry3, Ry4, Ry5 and Ry6 are the microcomputer 46
The microcomputer 46 performs these energization controls to open and close the respective contacts, and controls the operation and stop of the compressor 8 and the DC fan motor 14 as described later. Also,
Similarly, the microcomputer 46 controls the switching between the normal phase and the negative phase and the discharge control of the storage battery 32.

Here, similarly to the microcomputer 46, the DC fan motor 14 operates using the AC power supply via the rectifier circuit 31 and the switching relay 36 when the AC power supply is connected, and operates using the storage battery 32 as the power supply when the AC power supply is cut off. . That is, during the cold storage operation in which the cold storage agent 6 is frozen, the DC fan motor 14 uses the output of the rectifier circuit 31 as a power supply, and does not use the storage battery 32 and the charging circuit 33.

A switch input line from an operation panel 47 provided with input means for inputting signals to the microcomputer 46 and various display means and a display output line to the operation panel 47 are connected to the microcomputer 46. The operation panel 47 is provided on the front surface of the main body 1 of the low-temperature storage R. Further, the output of the rectifier circuit 31 is input to the microcomputer 46 via a power signal line 49, whereby the presence or absence of the AC power is determined by the microcomputer 46.

The operation panel 47 is provided with various setting switches (not shown) necessary for normal temperature control, an acclimatization setting switch 50 for instructing the acclimatization setting of flowers described later, and a microcomputer 46. An increase / decrease switch 51 for increasing / decreasing a timer time of a subtraction timer having the function;
52, acclimatization set display lamp 53 and 7 segment LE
A display unit 48 consisting of two D digits;
When 0 is operated, the acclimatization set display lamp 53 is turned on. In addition, the display unit 48 normally displays the temperature inside the storage room 2, but when acclimation is set, the timer time of the subtraction timer is displayed as described later.

Next, the operation of the low temperature storage R will be described. On a delivery basis, the low-temperature storage R is connected to an AC power source (AC200).
When connected to V), charging of the storage battery 32 is started. Power is supplied to the microcomputer 46 from the rectifier circuit 31 through the a contact of the switching relay 36, and based on the output of the coolant temperature sensor 17, it is determined whether or not the temperature of the coolant 6 is, for example, −35 ° C. or more, and the operation is started. Since the temperature is sometimes high, the compressor 8 is operated to start the cold storage operation. Next, it is determined whether or not the temperature of the regenerator 6 is, for example, −37 ° C. or less, and if it is below, the compressor 8 is stopped. The operation and stop of the compressor 8 are repeated under the above control, whereby the freezing of the regenerator 6 is completed.
In addition, the microcomputer 46 inputs the voltage generated by the resistor 34, detects the state of charge of the storage battery 32 from the value,
When the charging of the storage battery 32 is completed, the cold storage operation preparation is completed.

After the freezing of the cold storage agent 6 and the charging of the storage battery 32 are completed, the microcomputer 46 determines whether or not the temperature of the storage room 2 is, for example, + 6 ° C. or more based on the output of the internal temperature sensor 18. Since the temperature of 2 is high, the DC fan motor 14 is operated to end the cold storage operation and shift to the in-compartment cooling operation. By the operation of the DC fan motor 14, the latent heat of fusion of the regenerator 6 or the cool air cooled by the cooler 10 is circulated to the storage room 2, whereby the storage room 2 is cooled. When the temperature of the storage room 2 based on the inside temperature sensor 18 reaches + 4 ° C. by this cooling, the DC fan motor 14 is stopped. Thus, the DC fan motor 14 is repeatedly operated and stopped, and the storage room 2 is maintained at the set temperature of + 5 ° C. on average.

After or during the above-described cold storage operation and in-compartment cooling operation, flowers are stored in the low-temperature storage R and cut off from the AC power supply to transport long-distance transportation trucks or delivery vehicles. Loaded on the means. When the supply of the AC power supply is stopped, the low-temperature storage R then enters a cold-reserving operation in which the storage room 2 is cooled by the latent heat of melting of the cold storage agent 6. The changeover switch 3 is provided to the microcomputer 46 and the DC fan motor 14 during the cooling operation.
When the switch 6 is switched to the contact b, power is supplied by discharging the storage battery 32. Further, the DC fan motor 14 is controlled by the microcomputer 46, and is operated when the temperature of the storage room 2 by the internal temperature sensor 18 rises to + 6 ° C. and stopped when it falls to + 4 ° C. Thus, the temperature in the storage room 2 is maintained at + 5 ° C. even during the transportation of the low-temperature storage R. It is assumed that the contact of the relay switch Ry6 is closed.

Here, when acclimatizing the flowers in the low-temperature storage R, the acclimatization setting is performed by operating the acclimation setting switch 50 of the operation panel 47 at the start of transportation. With this operation, the microcomputer 46 turns on the acclimatization set lamp 53 as described above to indicate that the acclimation of the flowers has been set.

Next, a flowchart of a control program relating to acclimatization control of the microcomputer 46 shown in FIGS.
The following describes the flower acclimatization operation of the low-temperature storage R with reference to the time transition of the internal storage temperature. When the acclimatization setting switch 50 is operated as described above, the microcomputer 46 determines in step S1 of FIG. 4 whether or not the above-described subtraction timer of the microcomputer 46 is performing a subtraction operation. Displays the timer time of the subtraction timer on the display unit 48. Next, it is determined whether or not the increase switch 51 has been operated in step S3. If the increase switch 51 has been operated, the timer time of the subtraction timer is increased in step S4. If not, it is determined whether or not the decrease switch 52 has been operated in step S5. If so, the timer time of the subtraction timer is reduced in step S6. By operating the increase / decrease switches 51 and 52, the required time from the start of transportation to the scheduled arrival time at the destination is set.

This setting is 15 hours at the minimum and 9 at the maximum.
9 hours. Here, it is assumed that 36 hours are set, for example. This is because, for example, when transporting flowers from Hokkaido, it takes about one and a half days to transport the flowers even when using ferries. If the microcomputer 46 has a clock function, the configuration may be such that the expected arrival time itself is set. In any case, it is sufficient that the microcomputer 46 can determine the required time from the start of transportation to the estimated arrival time.

If neither switch is operated,
In step S7, the microcomputer 46 also counts a 10-second timer as a function. In step S8, it is determined whether or not 10 seconds have elapsed since none of the switches has been operated. To end. At this point, the display on the display unit 48 changes to the internal temperature. After that, when the increase / decrease switches 51 and 52 are operated, the microcomputer 46 displays the timer time again.
An operation is performed so that the timer time can be changed by the operations 1 and 52.

Next, the microcomputer 46 determines in step S1 of FIG.
At 0, it is determined whether or not the acclimatization setting has been completed, and when it has been completed, the subtraction of the subtraction timer is started at step S11. It is assumed that the transportation of the low temperature storage R is started from this point. Next, in step S12, it is determined whether the timer time of the subtraction timer has reached 15 hours (h). If not, the flow returns to step S11 to continue subtraction. During this period, the inside of the storage room 2 is maintained at an average of + 5 ° C. as described above, aging due to the respiration of the flowers is suppressed, and high freshness is maintained. When 21 hours have elapsed from the start of transportation and the timer time of the subtraction timer has decreased to 15 hours in step S12, the process proceeds to step S13 to start acclimation.

This acclimation is controlled by the microcomputer 46. That is, when the microcomputer 46 starts acclimation, the microcomputer 46 controls the DC fan motor 14 based on the output of the internal temperature sensor 18 to increase the internal temperature of the storage room 2 at a rate of, for example, 1 ° C. per hour (h). Control. As a result of the acclimatization control, the internal temperature rises at a rate of 1 ° C. per hour with respect to the elapsed time from the set temperature of + 5 ° C. at the start of acclimation to the scheduled arrival time as shown in FIG. Then, the microcomputer 46 ends the acclimation at the estimated arrival time after a lapse of 15 hours from the start of the acclimation. At this time, the internal temperature is + 20 ° C., and thereafter, the internal temperature is maintained. The outside air temperature at the destination is +2
If the temperature is 5 ° C., the difference between the outside air temperature and the inside temperature at the destination is very small. Flowering is unlikely to occur.

The microcomputer 46 blinks the acclimatization set lamp 53 when the timer time of the subtraction timer becomes zero,
Thereafter, when the acclimatization setting switch 50 is operated again, the acclimatization setting is released, and the acclimation set lamp 53 is turned off.

The acclimatization may be set arbitrarily because the respiration of some flowers is not suitable for raising the temperature. Further, in the embodiment, the present invention is applied to a low-temperature storage using a regenerator, but if the AC power can be secured even during transportation, the present invention is not limited to the case where the storage chamber is cooled by a cooling means including only a compressor and a blower. It is valid. In the embodiment, the rate of temperature rise due to acclimation is fixed at 1 ° C. per hour, and acclimation is performed over 15 hours. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The configuration may be such that the required time can be arbitrarily changed.

[0029]

According to the low temperature storage for transporting flowers according to the present invention, by setting the estimated arrival time or the time until the expected arrival time, the flowers are adapted from the low temperature storage state during the transportation to the destination. Therefore, it is possible to achieve both high freshness transport of flowers and labor saving during transportation and at the destination. In particular, since flowers can be subdivided into low-temperature warehouses by type or by destination at a production site, direct delivery to a store is possible, and a remarkable effect is exhibited in a flower transportation system.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an electric circuit.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a low-temperature storage.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of a low-temperature storage.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control program of a microcomputer.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control program of the microcomputer.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the time transition of the internal temperature for explaining the acclimation of flowers.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Storage room 6 Cool storage agent 7 Cooling device 8 Compressor 10 Cooler 14 DC fan motor 18 Internal temperature sensor 46 Microcomputer 50 Acclimation setting switch R Low temperature refrigerator

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) F25D 11/00-16/00 A01G 5/06 G05D 23/00 G05D 23/19

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A storage unit, a cooling unit for cooling the storage room during transportation, a sensor for detecting a temperature of the storage room, and a control device for controlling the cooling unit based on an output of the sensor. In a low-temperature warehouse transported by a predetermined transport means, the control device includes a timer capable of setting a scheduled arrival time or a time until the scheduled arrival time,
A low temperature storage, comprising a flower acclimatization function for increasing the temperature of the storage room at a predetermined rate with respect to the elapsed time until the scheduled arrival time.