JPH0125994B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a refrigerated storage case that is equipped with a mirror and a humidifier outside the storage room and that humidifies and cools the storage room by containing mist from the humidifier in a cold air curtain.

(b) Prior art A particularly well-known technology is one in which mist generated by an ultrasonic vibrator is supplied into the cold air passage of a refrigerated case to prevent fresh food displayed and stored in the case from drying out and to maintain freshness. This was proposed in 1983-46383. By the way, in this conventional structure, a humidifying device equipped with an ultrasonic vibrator is installed at the front end of the upper part of a partition plate that forms a cold air passage inside the heat insulating wall, and a diffuser is used to disperse the mist generated by this humidifying device. The cold air is supplied to the cold air passage upstream of the cold air outlet through the cold air outlet. Therefore, this humidifying device having the conventional structure has the following drawbacks.

Since the humidifier is disposed within the food storage chamber of the refrigerated case, the humidifying water in the atomizing water tank and the water supply pipes that supply water to the atomizing water tank is cooled by cold air, reducing the humidifying capacity. (The higher the temperature of the humidifying water, the greater the amount of fog generated by the ultrasonic vibrator.) Since the humidifying water in the atomizing water tank and water supply pipes may freeze when the operation is stopped, It is necessary to provide an electric heater for humidification on the outer peripheral surface of the water supply pipe, which complicates the device.

Since the atomization water tank and water supply pipes are located inside the food storage room, they can be seen from the front, reducing the appearance.

Since the water supply pipe and the diffuser are installed in the cold air passage, some of the mist turns into water droplets due to viscous resistance from the diffuser and the walls of the cold air passage before reaching the outlet, reducing the humidifying ability.

(C) Purpose of the Invention The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and it is possible to easily perform maintenance and inspection of a humidifying device, and moreover, the humidifying device is hardly affected by cold air. To efficiently humidify a storage room by directly containing mist from a humidifier in an air curtain without passing it through a cold air passage.

(d) Structure of the Invention A storage chamber cooled by a cold air curtain that crosses the upper surface, a mirror that is removably disposed above the air curtain and inclined backward, and above the air curtain. It is equipped with a humidifying device placed behind the mirror, and a discharge port formed at the tip of an outlet pipe for conveying the mist from the humidifying device and placed in the storage chamber so as to be close to the upstream side of the air curtain inner flow. A refrigerated case.

(e) Examples Examples of the present invention will be described below. In the figure,
Reference numeral 1 denotes a refrigerated storage case whose main body is made up of a heat insulating wall 2 with an opening 2A for entering and exiting goods on the top surface, and 3 a storage chamber 4 equipped with a rack 4A that slopes downward from the front.
A partition plate 5 is formed between the inner wall surface of the heat insulating wall 2 and the partition plate 3, a plate fin type cooler 6 is provided in the back space 5b, and a shaft with a propeller fan 7A is provided in the lower space 5c. This is a cold air passage in which a flow type blower 7 is arranged. 5A is an air outlet formed along the rear edge of the opening 2A, and 5B is the opening 2A.
At the suction port, which is formed along the front edge of the air outlet 5A and faces the air outlet 5A, the cold air, which has been heat exchanged with the cooler 6, is forcedly circulated by the blower 7 as shown by the arrow in FIG. cold air curtain ac
is formed to cool the storage chamber 4. 8 is a drain pipe provided on the bottom wall 2b of the heat insulating wall 2, 9 is a base for mounting and supporting the heat insulating wall, and 10 is the inlet port 5B.
This is a humidity sensor that is installed in the space 5a of the nearby cold air passage 5 and controls a humidifier that will be described later.
11, 11... are a plurality of metal columns erected at intervals from each other on the back wall 2c of the heat insulating wall 2, and at the upper end of the column, there is a lamp for lighting the storage room 4 at the lower part of the front end. Metal inner ceiling wall 13A equipped with fluorescent light 12
and an outer ceiling wall 13B, also made of a metal plate, are fixed so as to project forward. Reference numeral 14 denotes a mirror disposed above the air curtain AC so as to be inclined backwardly.The upper end of this mirror is an upper edge support 14A fixed to the inner ceiling wall 13A, and the lower end is above the insulating wall 2. They are each supported by lower edge supports 14B fixed to the wall 2a. The lower edge support 14B
Guide paths 14C and 14C are formed in the mirror 14 to serve as a passage for a hand to slightly lift the mirror upward when the mirror 14 is removed, and as a passage for a communication pipe to be described later.

Reference numeral 15 denotes a humidifying device fixed above the upper wall 2a of the heat insulating wall 2, and the humidifying device 15 will be described in detail below. 16 is a peripheral side plate 17, a top plate 18, and a bottom plate 19
It is an exterior body formed in a horizontally elongated and hollow housing shape, and the right and left side wall portions 17a, 1 of the circumferential side plate 17 are
Fixing pieces 20, 20 for placing and fixing the exterior body 17 on the upper surface of the receiver 11A provided on the support column 11 are bent at the lower end of the fixing piece 7b, and the fixing pieces 20 have screw holes. 21, 21... are drilled.
22 connects the upper end flange portions 23, 23 to the top plate 18.
This atomizing water tank is made of stainless steel plate and is installed on one side of the exterior body 16 by spot welding the lower surface of the atomizing water tank 22. The bottom wall 22a has four through holes 25, 25, .
are bored in the longitudinal direction at predetermined intervals. 2
Reference numerals 4, 24, .
Ultrasonic oscillator 2 thermally mounted on the front wall of 2
6, 26..., and a water column 2 is formed on the water surface.
7, 27... to generate fine particle mist. Reference numeral 28 denotes a water supply pipe that supplies water from the water pipe 59 into the water tank 22, and an electromagnetic on-off valve 30 is interposed at a suitable position in the exterior body 16, and the water supply port 28' is connected to one side of the water tank 22. It is facing towards the upper part. 31 is a first float switch disposed on one side of the water tank 22;
This is to detect the lack of water inside the vibrator by the descent of the float and stop the power supply to the vibrator 24, thereby preventing damage to the vibrator 24 due to no-load vibration.
Reference numeral 32 designates a second float switch disposed on the other side of the water tank 22, which opens the electromagnetic on-off valve 30 when the water level in the water tank 22 drops below a predetermined position, and causes the water in the water tank 22 to flow through the water supply port 28'. This is for replenishing humidifying water. Reference numeral 33 denotes an overflow pipe whose upper end opening is located approximately in the center of the water tank 22, and when the water level rises above a predetermined level due to continued water supply when the electromagnetic on-off valve 30 fails, the water overflows through the overflow pipe 33. Therefore, it can be prevented.

34 is a lid plate that closes the upper opening of the water tank 22, and the float switches 31 and 3 are mounted on the bottom surface of the lid plate.
In order to prevent the influence of waves caused by the driving of the vibrator 24 on the vibrator 24, the partition plates 35 and 36 are fixed downwardly, and are located inside the divider plates 35 and 36 and correspond to each of the vibrator 24. circular hole 3
7, 37, . . . are bored, and the cover plate 34 is detachably attached to inward pieces 39, 39 formed on the short side of the upper end of the water tank 22 with screws 38, 38. 40, 40... are the circular holes 3 of the cover plate 34
The lower ends of the vibrators 24 and 2 are inserted into each of the vibrators 24 and 2.
4... is a hollow cylindrical lead-out pipe vertically installed in the water tank 22 so as to face . The outlet pipe 40 is bendable at the portion where the protrusions 41, 41, . . . There is. Reference numeral 43 denotes an elastic sealing packing such as an O-ring fitted to the outer periphery of the outlet pipe 40, and the sealing packing 43 is connected to the upper surface of the cover plate 34 at the periphery of the circular hole 37 and the annular protrusion at the bottom of the outlet pipe 40. 41 to prevent the mist in the water tank 22 from leaking directly through the circular hole 37. 44 is the rising piece 3 of the cover plate 34
4', 34' with screws 45, 45, etc., and the stop plate 44 has four engaging notches that engage with the grooves 46 between the annular protrusions 41 of the outlet pipe 40. 47, 47, . . . are formed to prevent each of the outlet pipes 40 passing through the lid body 34 from coming out. Each of the outlet tubes 40 is rotatable as shown by the arrow in FIG.

Reference numeral 48 denotes a cross-flow type blower disposed approximately at the center of the other side of the exterior body 16, which is composed of a fan case 48a, a cross-flow fan 48b, and a motor 48c for driving the fan 48b. Outside air is sucked through a filter 50 through a suction port 49 provided on the right peripheral side wall of the fan case 48a, and is sucked into the fan case 48a from the lower surface side of the fan case 48a, and is forced into the water tank 22 through an air blow port 48d. 51 is the suction port 49
A power transformer that can be placed between the and the blower 48,
The transformer 51 is cooled by the airflow drawn into the fan case 48a.

Reference numeral 52 denotes an air inlet that is opened in the upper part of the tank wall of the water tank 22 so as to correspond to the air outlet 48d of the air blower 48 and to be located above the lower end opening of the outlet pipe 40. 52 is formed in a horizontally elongated shape as shown in FIG. 8, and its left and right end portions are opened wider in the vertical direction than the center portion. 53 is a horizontal guide plate located slightly below the air inlet 52 and provided between the water tank 22 and the air outlet 48d of the blower 48;
Reference numeral 54 denotes a vertical guide plate that is erected and fixed on the horizontal guide plate 53. As shown in FIG. The vertical guide plates 54, 54 and the horizontal guide plate 52 form an air passage X between the blower 48 and the water tank 22. Further, 55 is a power plug, and 56 is a power switch.

As shown in FIG. 1, the humidifying device 15 configured as described above has a fixing piece 2 attached to a holder 11B located on the upper wall 3a of the heat insulating wall 3 of the refrigerated case 1.
0 and 20 are placed and fixed by screwing, etc., and then each of the outlet pipes 40, 40... is rotated to direct the connection port 42 in an arbitrary direction. Communication piping 5 made of flexible pipes
After connecting one end of each of the communication pipes 57, the other end of each of the communication pipes 57 is passed through the guide passages 14C, 14C of the lower edge support 14B to cross the outlet 5A, and the inner flow upstream of the air curtain AC is connected. The discharge port 58' faces the outlet port 5A, and is connected to four pipes 58, 58, . . . arranged in the storage chamber 4 near the outlet port 5A. Note that it is desirable for the pipes 58 to face the storage chamber 4 at approximately equal intervals in the lateral direction from the viewpoint of humidification. Furthermore, the installation work is completed by connecting the water supply pipe 59 to the water supply pipe 28 and the drain pipe 60 to the overflow pipe 33, respectively, and inserting the power plug 55 into an outlet (not shown) provided at an appropriate location in the refrigerator case 1. can be completed.

Next, the operation of the refrigerated case of the present invention will be explained. First, turn on the power switch 56 of the humidifier 15.
When the refrigerated case 1 is operated with the switch turned on, the blower 48 and the ultrasonic oscillator 26 of the humidifier 15 are started, and the outside air forced through the air outlet 48d enters the atomizing water tank 22 through the air inlet 52. A water column 27 is generated on the water surface by driving the ultrasonic transducer 24. The fog generated around the water column 27 is removed by the air blown by the blower 48 from the outlet pipe 40.
By flowing into the air curtain AC, the air is conveyed through the outlet pipe 40 and the communication pipe 57 to the inner flow upstream of the air curtain AC from the discharge port 58' of the pipe 58. on the other hand,
Air sucked into the cold air passage 7 from the suction port 12 by the drive of the blower 9 is accelerated and flows into the cooler 10.
Here, it becomes a cold air flow and is blown out from the outlet 5A to the opening 2A as an air curtain AC. The cold air flow forming the air curtain AC merges with the mist supplied from the humidifier 15, and the entrainment action of the inner flow provides a cooling and humidifying action within the storage chamber 6.

Therefore, by arranging the outlet 58' in the storage chamber 4 near the outlet 5A, the mist from the humidifier 15 is transferred to the inner flow upstream of the cool air stream blown out to the opening 2A and forming the air curtain AC. Since the mist can be ejected without going through the cold air passage 5, it is possible to prevent a part of the fog from condensing due to viscous resistance in the cold air passage 5, and the inside flow of the air curtain AC can be prevented from condensing. Due to the entrainment action that is constantly occurring, the mist is diffused into the cold air mass in the storage chamber 4, and the inside of the storage chamber 4 can be uniformly humidified. Furthermore, since the humidifier 15 is placed behind the detachable mirror 14 that is tilted backwards and above the air curtain AC, the space formed behind the mirror 14 can be used effectively. At the same time, by taking out the mirror 14, the operator can perform maintenance and inspection of the humidifying device 15 at a position where products in the storage room 4 can be purchased.

(f) Effects Since the refrigerating case of the present invention is constructed as described above, it exhibits the effects listed below.

a storage chamber cooled by a cold air curtain that crosses the upper surface; a mirror that is removably disposed above the air curtain so as to be inclined backward; and a mirror that is disposed above the air curtain and behind the mirror. and a discharge port formed at the tip of an outlet pipe for conveying the mist from the humidifier and disposed within the storage chamber so as to be close to the upstream side of the air curtain inner flow. Since the mist from the humidifier can be ejected directly toward the air curtain, there is no drop in humidifying capacity due to ejection of mist in the cold air passage and viscous resistance within the cold air passage due to this ejection. In addition to being able to efficiently supply mist, the mist ejected upstream of the air curtain traverses the opening from upstream to downstream due to the inner flow of the air curtain, and due to the entrainment action that constantly occurs in the inner flow itself. Since it is diffused into the cold air mass in the storage room, the storage room can be uniformly humidified, and good cooling and humidification effects can be achieved.

The humidifier is installed behind the removable mirror, and the mist generated by the humidifier is conveyed to the air curtain through a lead-out pipe, so the humidifier is hardly affected by cold air. In addition to preventing the deterioration of humidifying capacity and freezing of humidifying water, which are problems with conventional devices, it also allows workers to remove the mirror and perform maintenance and inspection of the humidifying device at a location where customers can normally purchase products in the storage room.
Maintenance and inspection of the humidifier becomes easier.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an upper perspective view of a refrigerated case according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of A in Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of B in Fig. 2. ―
B′ sectional view, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the humidifying device alone, FIG. 6 is a longitudinal section of FIG. 5, FIG. 7 is a plan sectional view of FIG. 5, and FIG. 8 explains the atomization water tank part. FIG. 3 is a cutaway sectional view of a main part. 1...Refrigerated case, 4...Storage room, 14
... Mirror, 15 ... Humidifier, 40 ... Outlet pipe, 5
8'...Discharge port, AC...Air curtain.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A storage room cooled by a cold air curtain that crosses the upper surface; a mirror that is removably arranged above the air curtain and tilted backwards;
A humidifying device disposed above the air curtain and behind the mirror, and a humidifying device formed at the tip of an outlet pipe for conveying the mist from the humidifying device, and disposed in the storage chamber so as to be close to the upstream side of the inner flow of the air curtain. A refrigerated case comprising a disposed outlet.