JPH0549915B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a temperature control device for a forced air-cooled refrigerator that circulates cold air cooled by a cooler into a refrigerator compartment through a cold air passage using a blower, and is particularly applicable to refrigerators of different sizes. The purpose of this is to standardize the characteristics of temperature regulators.

Generally, this type of refrigerator has a structure as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3. That is, reference numeral 1 denotes a refrigerator body with an open front, which is divided into a freezer compartment 3 and a refrigerator compartment 4 by a heat insulating partition wall 2. 5 is a cooler;
The cold air cooled by the cooler is blown into the chamber 8 by a fan 7 driven by a fan motor 6, and is blown into the freezer compartment 3 from the freezer compartment outlet 9 to cool the freezer compartment. The cold air that has cooled the freezer compartment returns to the cooler 5 from the freezer compartment suction port 10. On the other hand, a part of the cold air blown into the chamber 8 enters the cold air passage 12 from the cold air passage entrance 11,
The cold air is blown out from the cold air passage outlet 13 into a molded body 14 made of synthetic resin or the like provided on the back side of the refrigerator compartment.
is provided. The cold air blown into the molded body 14 is blown out into the refrigerator compartment 4 from the refrigerator compartment outlet 20, and after cooling the refrigerator compartment, returns to the cooler 5 through the refrigerator compartment suction port 21.

In a refrigerator that performs such a cold air cycle, the compressor (not shown) and fan motor are generally turned on and off depending on the temperature in the freezer compartment 3 to control the temperature in the freezer compartment 3, and the temperature in the refrigerator compartment 4 is controlled depending on the temperature in the freezer compartment 3. The temperature in the refrigerator compartment is sensed by the temperature sensor 17, the opening area of the cold air passage outlet 13 is controlled by the buffer 16, and the temperature is controlled by the damper thermostat 15 which controls the amount of cold air blown into the refrigerator compartment. ing.
That is, when the inside of the refrigerator compartment 4 becomes cold, the damper thermostat 15 closes the buffer 16 to reduce the area of the cold air passage outlet 13. Also, if the inside of the refrigerator compartment 4 becomes warm, the damper thermometer 15 will be turned on by the full 16
The cold air passage outlet 13 is opened to increase the area of the cold air passage outlet 13 to increase the amount of cold air blown into the refrigerator compartment 4, thereby controlling the refrigerator compartment 4 to be cooled.

On the other hand, when manufacturing refrigerators with different internal volumes, use common parts as much as possible for the cooler 5, fan 7, fan motor 6, etc., such as a compressor (not shown).
It would be more efficient in terms of production if it could be dealt with by increasing the power.

However, for example, when manufacturing a refrigerator with only a large internal volume of the refrigerator compartment 4, the amount of cold air in the refrigerator compartment 4 must be increased compared to before, otherwise the balance with the freezer compartment 3 will be poor. In order to increase the amount of cold air in the refrigerator compartment 4, the buffle 16 of the damper thermostat 15 is controlled so that the opening area of the cold air passage outlet 13 becomes larger. In other words, the operating knob 19 attached to the operating rod 18 of the damper thermostat is used with the operating knob 19 on the strong side, and it is necessary to be able to fine-tune the temperature between the weak and strong sides with that position set at "middle".

Conventionally, in such a case, a damper thermostat is required in which the temperature characteristics, that is, the opening area of the cold air passage outlet 13 at a predetermined temperature with respect to the rotation center position of the operating knob 19 in the "middle" position, differ depending on the size of the internal volume of the refrigerator compartment 4. Therefore, there was a drawback that the number of types of main functional parts increased depending on the number of refrigerator models of different sizes.

The present invention eliminates these drawbacks and makes it possible to use damper thermostats with exactly the same characteristics even in such cases.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 4 to 8. A molded body 14 made of synthetic resin or the like is provided with a through hole 14b at a position corresponding to the operating rod 18 of the damper thermostat 15, and the operating knob 19 is provided with a through hole 14b. The operating shafts 19b of the two play together. The operating rod 18 has a substantially D-shaped cross section, and is fitted into a D-shaped hole 19d of the operating shaft 19b to determine the angle between the operating rod 18 and the operating knob 19. In addition, the molded body 14 made of synthetic resin or the like has a slit 14 in a substantially semicircular shape centered on the through hole 14b.
A is drilled. Note that this slit 14a is provided inside the outer periphery 19c of the operating knob. On the other hand, the operation knob 19 has the slit 14a.
A protrusion 19a is provided at a position where it fits, and regulates the rotation angle range of the operating knob.

In addition, the damper thermostat 15 has a wide range of characteristics that can cover the characteristics that match the size of the refrigerator to be manufactured, that is, the operating rod 18 has a wide rotation angle range, and the cold air passage outlet 13 at a predetermined temperature has a wide range of rotation angles. A device with a wide adjustment range for the opening area is prepared, and the rotation angle range of the operating rod is set as α in FIG. In other words, a damper thermostat with a wide range of characteristics that can cover all characteristics at the angle α must be prepared.

On the other hand, the operating knob 19 is restricted by a protrusion 19a and a slit 14a of a molded body 14 made of synthetic resin or the like so that it only rotates within a rotation angle range β narrower than the rotation angle range α of the operating rod. The characteristics are determined so that adjustment of weak, medium, and strong rotation angles is possible within this rotation angle range β.

In the refrigerator configured as described above, the damper can be applied to different models with different internal volumes and have different characteristics, that is, different opening areas of the cold air passage outlet 13 at a predetermined temperature with respect to the center of rotation position of the operation knob 19 "middle". If the need for a thermostat arises, the basic characteristics of the damper thermostat 15 will not be changed, and the angular relationship between the D-shaped hole 19d of the operating shaft 19b of the operating knob 19 and the protrusion 19a will be changed, for example, as shown in FIGS. 6 to 7. Change the operation knob to another one, that is, change it to another operation knob. That is, in FIG. 6, the protrusion 19a corresponds to the slit 14 in FIG.
It is assumed that when the operating rod 18 is in the "middle" position shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, the straight part of the D-shaped cross section of the operating rod 18 is rotated clockwise by an angle δ to the "strong" side that opens the opening area of the cold air passage outlet 13 (in FIG. 7, the straight part has a D-shaped cross section). (rotated counterclockwise), the protrusion 19a of the operation knob 19
Change it so that it is in the “middle” position. By doing this, the relative angular position between the rotation angle range α of the operation rod 18 and the rotation angle range β of the operation knob 19 becomes the eighth position.
The figure changes to figure 9, and the operation knob 19 is set to “middle”.
When in this position, the opening area of the cold air passage outlet 13 becomes large, and the same effect as a damper thermostat with desired characteristics can be obtained.

Since this invention is configured as described above, it is possible to obtain a damper thermostat with different characteristics by simply changing the structure of the operating knob without changing the characteristics of the damper thermostat, which is a complex functional component. A damper thermostat with a single characteristic can be used commonly in refrigerators of different sizes. In addition, since there is no need to change the synthetic resin, etc., it is possible to manufacture refrigerators with excellent mass production at low cost, and even if there are variations in the characteristics of the damper thermostat, a refrigerator with stable quality can be achieved by simply changing the operating knob. can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a front view of the main parts of the refrigerator with the door removed, Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of Figure 1, and Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of the refrigerator according to the present invention. Front view of a molded body made of synthetic resin, etc., showing one embodiment, No. 5
The figure is a rear perspective view of the operating knob according to the present invention, FIGS. 6 and 7 are rear views of the respective operating knobs,
FIGS. 8 and 9 are explanatory diagrams showing the relationship between the rotation angle ranges of the respective operating rods and operating knobs. In the figure, the same reference numerals indicate the same or equivalent parts, 5 is a cooler, 7 is a fan, 12 is a cold air passage,
4 is a refrigerator compartment, 13 is a cold air passage outlet, 15 is a damper thermostat, 18 is an operating lever, and 19 is an operating knob.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 The cold air cooled by the cooler 5 is circulated through the cold air passage 12 to the refrigerator compartment 4 by the air inlet 7, and the outlet 13 of the cold air passage 12 is opened and closed by the operation of the damper thermostat 15 to control the amount of cold air circulation. In the controlled air-cooled refrigerator, the operation rod 1 of the damper thermostat 15
The rotation angle range of the operating knob 19 that engages with and drives the operating rod 18 is restricted to be smaller than the rotation angle range of the operating lever 18, and by changing the operating knob, the rotation angle range of the operating lever 18 can be reduced A temperature control device for a refrigerator, etc., characterized in that the rotational center position of the operating knob 19 in the device is different depending on the internal volume of the refrigerator, etc. to which the control knob 19 is installed.