JP7043234B2 - Refrigerator circuit condenser - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a condenser of a refrigerating circuit, and more specifically, when a condenser composed of a spiral structure in which a hollow tube through which a refrigerant passes is spirally wound a required number of times is air-cooled by a cooling fan. It relates to a condenser structure in which the air from the cooling fan is efficiently brought into contact with the spiral structure and the motor of the cooling fan can be reliably supported.

In order to forcibly cool a cooling unit (cooling target) such as a cooling chamber of a refrigerator or an ice making chamber of an ice machine, cooling equipment such as these refrigerators is provided with a refrigerating circuit. In this refrigerating circuit, a refrigerant as an operating fluid is circulated in a closed loop of a hollow tube body, and the cooling unit is forcibly cooled by a phase change of the refrigerant.

Since the present invention relates to the structure of the condenser in this refrigeration circuit, the outline of the refrigeration circuit will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 shows a refrigerating circuit 10 of an injection type ice maker having the cooling unit as an ice making chamber. The refrigeration circuit 10 includes a compressor CM that compresses the vaporized refrigerant, a condenser CD that condenses and liquefies the refrigerant coming from the compressor CM, and an expansion that decompresses and expands the liquefied refrigerant coming from the condenser CD. It is basically composed of a means EV and an evaporator EP which is arranged on the upper surface of the ice making chamber 12 which is the cooling unit and cools the ice making chamber 12 by passing a refrigerant expanded and vaporized by the expanding means EV. Each member of the above is connected to each other by a hollow tube body 14 to form a closed loop. Further, the outlet side of the compressor CM and the inlet side of the evaporator EP are connected by a bypass pipe 16 having a hot gas valve HV interposed therebetween. A cooling fan FA is arranged close to the condenser CD, and the cooling fan FA is rotated by a fan motor FM to air-cool the condenser CD. As the expansion means EV, an electromagnetic switching valve or a capillary tube is selectively used depending on the model. Further, inside the ice making chamber 12, a large number of ice making chambers 18 that open downward are defined, and the ice making water jetted and supplied to the ice making chamber 18 freezes on the inner wall to produce ice cubes.

The basic structure of the condenser CD has a plurality of types depending on the model of the refrigerator or the ice maker, and the type most suitable for the required cooling capacity is selected. For example, the condenser CD has a fin-and-tube type in which a hollow tube through which the refrigerant passes is spiraled in multiple layers, and the hollow tube is inserted into a large number of cooling fins for heat dissipation, and a refrigerant passes through the condenser CD. There is a hollow tube that is spirally wound into a spiral structure. As described above, the fin-and-tube type condenser and the condenser of the spiral structure are selected according to the specifications required for the refrigerator and the ice maker, and the present invention adopts the latter spiral structure. It's about the condenser.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-74549 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-326039

The condenser of the spiral structure is adopted in a device having a relatively small capacity cooling target (cooling unit or ice making chamber), and the amount of the refrigerant used can be reduced, which has a cost advantage. In order to reduce the amount of the refrigerant used, a hollow tube through which the refrigerant passes has a small inner diameter. However, if the inner diameter of the hollow tube is reduced, the pressure loss when the refrigerant passes through the hollow tube is inevitably increased, resulting in a decrease in cooling capacity and an increase in pressure when starting the compressor. It ends up. Further, if the inner diameter of the hollow tube is reduced, the pipe length of the hollow tube must be lengthened in order to bring out the required cooling capacity. Such lengthening of the hollow tube means that the volume of the spiral structure in the condenser becomes large, which is disadvantageous in terms of space and cost.

In order to improve the cooling efficiency of the condenser, it is generally practiced to forcibly bring the wind of a cooling fan driven by a fan motor into contact with the condenser to perform air cooling. In this case, in the fin-and-tube type condenser described above, since the hollow tube is in contact with the cooling fins laminated at a required interval, the air from the cooling fan is efficiently concentrated on the condenser. It is possible to hit the target. However, in the condenser of the spiral structure, even if the wind from the cooling fan is applied to the spiral structure, most of the wind passes between the hollow tubes, so that the cooling efficiency (condensation efficiency) is high. It wasn't very good. For this reason, the condenser of the spiral structure is often used for cooling / ice making equipment of a model that can be sufficiently naturally cooled without using a cooling fan.

The invention according to claim 1 is for solving the above-mentioned problems and achieving the intended purpose.
A compressor that compresses the vaporized refrigerant, a condenser that condenses and liquefies the refrigerant from the compressor, an expansion means that decompresses and expands the liquefied refrigerant from the condenser, and an expansion means that is arranged in the cooling unit and is used by the expansion means. In a refrigeration circuit including an evaporator that cools the cooling unit by passing an expanded vaporized refrigerant and a cooling fan that air-cools the condenser.
The condenser includes a spiral structure in which a hollow tube through which a refrigerant to be condensed flows is wound, and a casing surrounding the spiral structure, and the inside of the space surrounded by the casing (22). The spiral structure is configured to be located in
In the cooling fan , the motor of the cooling fan is attached to a motor support extending in the vertical direction, and the motor support is attached to the casing.
The motor support is provided with a side plate extending so as to bend with respect to a plate surface supporting the plurality of motors on the side edge, and the plurality of cooling fans are vertically separated from the motor support. It is installed in such a way that
The gist is that each cooling fan faces the opening opened in the casing corresponding to the plurality of cooling fans so that air can be blown to the spiral structure.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the wind taken into the casing by the rotation of the cooling fan circulates in the limited space of the casing and intensively contacts the entire spiral structure, so that the condenser can be used as a condenser. Cooling efficiency (condensation efficiency) can be improved. Further, the fan motor that rotates the cooling fan can be firmly supported by the casing.

By surrounding the condenser of the spiral structure with a casing, the air blown from the cooling fan can be intensively brought into contact with the spiral structure, and the forced cooling of the condenser is enabled and the condensation efficiency is improved. Further, the casing becomes a structure that supports the fan motor of the cooling fan, and the rigidity of the spiral structure can be improved as a whole.

It is an exploded perspective view of the condenser which has the spiral structure which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is an overall perspective view of the condenser unit which concerns on the spiral structure which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a side view of the condenser unit composed of the spiral structure shown in FIG. It is a schematic block diagram of a refrigerating circuit.

As described above, the condenser of the refrigerating circuit in which the present invention is carried out adopts a so-called spiral structure in which a hollow tube through which the refrigerant passes is wound as many times as necessary. In the spiral structure according to the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the hollow tube is oblong in a plan view, but it is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 of JP-A-2005-326039. As described above, it may have a circular drum shape in a plan view. Further, the hollow tube body may be provided with ring-shaped heat radiating fins in order to promote the heat radiating effect.

(Example)
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a state in which the condenser according to the embodiment of the present invention is disassembled into three mechanical elements, and FIG. 2 is an overall perspective view of a condenser unit in which the three elements shown in FIG. 1 are combined. be. In FIGS. 1 and 4, the condenser CD is composed of a spiral structure 20. That is, as described above, the spiral structure 20 is a hollow tube body 14 through which the refrigerant passes is spirally wound, and is oblong in a plan view in this embodiment. .. Further, in the spiral structure 20 according to the embodiment, two units formed by winding the hollow tube body 14 are erected in parallel in the front-rear direction, and the hollow tube bodies 14 of both units are mutually shown in FIG. It is communicated and connected via the nipple 38 of the above. Although not shown in FIG. 1, the inlet side of the spiral structure 20 is connected to the outlet side of the compressor CM via the refrigerant inflow nipple 34 of FIG. 2, and is connected to the outlet side of the spiral structure 20. The side is connected to the inlet side of the expansion means EV via the refrigerant outflow nipple 36 of FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 22 indicates a casing that encloses the upper, side, and front of the spiral structure 20 while holding a required space as a whole. That is, the casing 22 is a rectangular box body composed of a top plate 24, left and right side plates 26 (however, in FIG. 3, the right side plate 26 is not shown) and a front plate 28. Two circular openings 30 and 30 are opened at the top and bottom of the front plate 28, and the cooling fan FA described later faces the circular openings 30. As shown in FIG. 1, three notches 32 are formed above and below the right end edge of the front plate 28. This is because when the spiral structure 20 is surrounded by the casing 22 as shown in FIG. 2, the refrigerant inflow nipple 34, the refrigerant outflow nipple 36 and the two hollows of the hollow pipe body 14 in the spiral structure 20 are formed. The nipple 38 communicating with the tubular unit is intended to correspondably face each notch 32 in the casing 22 and extend to the front surface.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 40 indicates a support of a fan motor FM that rotates the cooling fan FA. The motor support 40 of the embodiment is composed of a vertically long plate body, and two fan motor FMs are fixed at predetermined intervals on the upper and lower sides, and rectangular ventilation is provided on the upper and lower sides of each fan motor FM. The mouth 42 is open. Further, the cooling fan FA pivotally supported by the fan motor FM fixed to the motor support 40 in a vertical relationship is such a casing as shown in FIG. 2 when the motor support 40 is attached to the casing 22. The size is set so that it can concentrically face the circular opening 30 opened in 22. As shown in FIG. 2, the motor support 40 has leg portions 46 extending to the left and right formed on the lower side while ensuring rigidity by bending both side edge 44s by 90 degrees. Further, above the motor support 40, an eaves portion 48 bent 90 degrees toward the side to which the fan motor FM is attached is formed. The eaves 48 is used to position and fix the motor support 40 on the top plate 24 of the casing 22 when the motor support 40 is attached to the casing 22.

As shown in FIG. 2, the three mechanical elements shown in the disassembled state in FIG. 1 include the motor support 40 in which the casing 22 surrounds the entire spiral structure 20 and the fan motor FM of the cooling fan FA is attached. Is arranged on the front surface of the casing 22 to form a condensed condenser unit. At this time, the cooling fan FA pivotally supported by each fan motor FM is adapted to face the circular opening 30 opened in the casing 22.
Therefore, as can be seen from the side surface of the condenser unit shown in FIG. 3, if the fan motor FM is driven to rotate the cooling fan FA, the outside air is inside the casing 22 through the circular opening 30. In contact with the spiral structure 20 located inside the casing 22. Moreover, since there is a limited space between the casing 22 and the spiral structure 20, the outside air taken in from the circular opening 30 circulates only inside the casing 22, so that the entire spiral structure 20 is used. Efficient heat exchange is performed by evenly contacting the casing.

In this way, the casing 22 surrounding the spiral structure 20 effectively brings the wind from the cooling fan FA into contact with the spiral structure 20, and can also serve as a support structure for the fan motor FM to ensure rigidity. Moreover, since the casing 22 functions as a kind of wind tunnel that regulates the passage of wind in a limited space, the shape of the casing 22 is changed according to the change in the appearance shape of the spiral structure 20. And the most appropriate wind tunnel effect can be obtained. As shown in FIG. 3, the cooling fan FA sucks air from the front (left side in the drawing) and blows cooling air to the spiral structure 20 inside the casing 22. On the contrary, the spiral structure 20 is blown. Air may be sucked in from the structure 20 side and discharged forward.

10 Refrigerating circuit, 12 Ice making chamber (cooling part), 14 Hollow tube, 20 Spiral structure,
22 Casing, 30 Circular opening (opening), CM compressor, CD condenser,
EV expansion means, EP evaporator, FA cooling fan, FM fan motor (motor)

Claims (1)

A compressor (CM) that compresses the vaporized refrigerant, a condenser (CD) that condenses and liquefies the refrigerant from the compressor (CM), and an expansion means that depressurizes and expands the liquefied refrigerant from the condenser (CD). (EV), an evaporator (EP) arranged in the cooling unit (12) and passing the refrigerant expanded and vaporized by the expansion means (EV) to cool the cooling unit (12), and the condenser ( In the refrigeration circuit (10) consisting of a cooling fan (FA) that cools the CD) in the air.
The condenser (CD) includes a spiral structure (20) wound around a hollow tube body (14) through which a refrigerant to be condensed flows, and a casing (22) surrounding the spiral structure (20). The spiral structure (20) is configured to be located inside the space surrounded by the casing (22) .
In the cooling fan (FA), the motor (FM) of the cooling fan (FA) is attached to the motor support (40) extending in the vertical direction, and the motor support (40) is the casing (22). As well as being attached to
The motor support (40) is provided with a side plate extending so as to bend with respect to a plate surface supporting the plurality of motors (FM) on the side edge thereof, with respect to the motor support (40). The plurality of cooling fans (FAs) are mounted so as to be separated from each other at the top and bottom.
Each cooling fan (FA) faces the opening (30) opened in the casing (22) corresponding to the plurality of cooling fans (FA), and air can be blown to the spiral structure (20). A condenser of a refrigeration circuit characterized by being.

Images