[0001] The present patent application refers to an improved type of refrigeration apparatus
provided with two cold storage compartments arranged on top of each other and cooled
by a same fan-assisted evaporator battery.
[0002] Largely known in the art are refrigeration appliances provided with two storage compartments
that are cooled in an interdependent manner by a single and same evaporator arranged
in one of said storage compartments and exposed to a flow of forced air, in such a
manner as to enable the resulting cooled air to be forced into flowing, via appropriate
conduits, through both said compartments in a sequence, before being sent again back
towards the evaporator.
[0003] Known from the disclosure in GB 1485666 is a refrigeration apparatus comprising a
lower freezer compartment and an upper refrigerated, i.e. cold storage compartment,
in which said two compartments are separated from each other by a horizontal partition
wall.
[0004] The evaporator is of the "roll-bond" type and is provided in a corner-like arrangement
in the lower freezer compartment, from which there departs a vertical conduit connecting
this compartment with the upper zone of the compartment arranged thereupon. In order
to cause the cold air to circulate from the freezer compartment to the refrigerated
compartment, said vertical conduit is provided with an appropriate fan, and said horizontal
partition wall is in turn provided of an appropriate through-aperture for the return
flow of the air, i.e. the flow of air moving back to the evaporator. The control of
the temperatures in the two compartments is ensured by means of at least two thermostats
provided in the respective compartments and appropriately connected with the control
arrangement provided to switch the fan on and off.
[0005] Such a solution, however, has a major drawback in that the planar configuration of
the evaporator uses a lot of space and, furthermore, the control of the widely differing
temperatures in the two compartments cannot be always effectively ensured and maintained
to the required extent of accuracy by simply balancing the operation of the evaporator
based on the temperatures prevailing in the two compartments.
[0006] Known from the disclosure in the patent application EP 0793066 is a refrigeration
apparatus comprising a lower low-temperature, i.e. freezing compartment and an upper
refrigerated compartment that are again separated from each other by a horizontal
wall.
[0007] The evaporator is of the "roll-bond" type with a planar configuration and is arranged
inside a vertical conduit which connects the upper compartment to the lower compartment
and extends through said horizontal partition wall. The circulation of the air from
and to the two compartments is not only ensured by said conduit passing through the
partition wall, but also by a further aperture provided in the horizontal wall at
a short distance from the door of the appliance, as well as by a fan that is arranged
at the upper mouth of said vertical conduit.
[0008] The evaporator is located at the height of the upper compartment; however, the cooled
air first flows through the lower freezing compartment and then returns, at a lower
temperature, to the upper compartment.
[0009] Such a solution, albeit functioning quite well, has however a major drawback in that
said evaporator, and therefore the conduit in which it is housed, is as wide as the
rear wall of the appliance, hence taking up a lot of space. Furthermore, the outer
rear wall of the upper compartment must be adequately insulated in order to avoid
wasting the cold being transmitted by the adjacent conduit containing the evaporator.
[0010] Known from the disclosure in EP 0 532 870 is a refrigeration apparatus that is substantially
similar to the one described above, from which it differs due to the fact that its
planer evaporator is of the so-called "concealed" type, i.e. of the type embedded
in the rear wall of the upper compartment of the appliance. This solution, while improving
the way in which space is used, makes on the other hand it necessary for an increased
or additional insulation to be provided for said wall, in view of preventing too many
frigories, i.e. too much an amount of cold from leaking outside. In addition, the
apertures provided for taking in the air from the upper refrigerated compartment are
in the number of two and are arranged laterally with the related conduits. This practically
means that more space is used up inside the refrigerated storage compartment, so that
there is less space available to actual storage purposes.
[0011] It therefore would be desirable, and it is actually a main purpose of the present
invention to provide a refrigeration apparatus, preferably for residential use, i.e.
of the household type, that is provided with two distinct storage compartments arranged
on top of each other, i.e. an upper cold storage compartment and a lower compartment
for storing food at a lower temperature, preferably at approx. 0°C, which do away
with all of the afore described drawbacks, while at the same time enabling the availability
of space actually utilizable to storage purposes to be improved, through the use of
a single evaporator and by forcing the air to circulate throughout both compartments.
[0012] In addition, such an apparatus shall be capable of being easily implemented and manufactured
with the use of existing, readily available techniques, and shall be competitive in
both its construction and its use. In particular it shall be capable of using a single
and same refrigerating circuit as a source of cold.
[0013] According to the present invention, these aims are reached in a particular type of
refrigeration apparatus that is suitably provided with a battery-type evaporator and
a related channel for circulating the forced air flow, so as this is described below
by mere way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in
which:
- Figure 1 is a vertical cross-sectional side view of a schematically illustrated embodiment
of a refrigeration apparatus according to the present invention;
- Figure 2 is a view similar to the one appearing in Figure 1 of an improved embodiment
of the refrigeration apparatus of the invention;
- Figure 3 is a view similar to the one shown in Figures 1 and 2 of a further improved
embodiment of the refrigeration apparatus according to the present invention;
- Figure 4 is a front view of the inner rear wall of the upper storage compartment of
a refrigeration apparatus according to the present invention; and
- Figure 5 is a view along the horizontal F - F section of the upper storage compartment
of Figure 4.
[0014] A refrigeration apparatus according to the present invention comprises an upper storage
compartment 1, a lower storage compartment 2, an outer casing provided with an insulated
rear wall 3, at least a door 4 providing access to said compartments, which are separated
from each other by a partition wall 5, a vertical conduit 6 located in proximity of
the inner rear wall 7 of said upper compartment and connecting said two compartments
with each other, and a fan 8 arranged in correspondence of the intake mouth 9 of said
conduit, in which said mouth is provided on top of said conduit and lies in the upper
zone of said upper compartment 1.
[0015] According to the present invention, the lower outflow mouth 10 of said conduit is
directed towards an evaporator 11 of the finned-tube battery kind, and means are provided
that are adapted to ensure that all of the air leaving said evaporator after having
so been cooled down by it is actually let solely and only into said lower compartment
2.
[0016] Such means preferably, and most generally, include the fact that said evaporator
11 is located inside said lower compartment 2, i.e. below the level of said partition
wall 5, and said conduit 6 extends therefore downwards, at least to such an extent
as to enter said lower compartment.
[0017] It will anyway be appreciated that other embodiments and solutions can of course
be figured out in view of ensuring that the whole air circulation flow between the
two storage compartments is also used to ventilate the evaporator.
[0018] The finned-tube battery-type evaporator is largely known in the art, so that it shall
not be described here any further.
[0019] The utilization od such an evaporator in this particular case is justified by the
fact that, as all those skilled in the art are well aware of, it is capable of ensuring
the same heat-exchange capacity as a traditional evaporator, either of a coil-type
or a "roll-bond" type, while however taking up much less space.
[0020] This of course enables the space available to actual storage purposes to be significantly
increased. However, for it to prove really effective, a finned-tube battery-type evaporator
must notoriously be ventilated and this most obviously requires the provision of a
suitable, albeit small-sized fan, which anyway means additional costs and construction
complications.
[0021] A further advantage ensured by the present invention lies therefore in the fact that,
thanks to the invention, use is made to this purpose of the existing fan provided
to ensure the circulation of the cold air between the two storage compartments, so
that, with this solution, it is actually a single fan that is advantageously used
to perform two different and independent tasks, i.e.:
- circulating the cold air between the two distinct storage compartments,
- ventilating the finned-tube battery-type evaporator.
[0022] With reference to Figure 2, which illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present
invention, the evaporator 11 is housed in a receptacle 12 into which debouches the
lower outflow mouth 10 of said conduit 6; said receptacle is open downwards and is
so shaped as to quite tightly enclose said evaporator, so that substantially all air
flowing from said counduit is forced to pass through the battery-type evaporator 11,
thereby optimizing the heat-exchange efficiency thereof.
[0023] A useful improvement of the present invention is obtained if the portion of conduit
that acts as a connection between the upper conduit and said receptacle 12 is so shaped
as to show a tapered portion 13, so as this is illustrated in Figure 2. Such a conformation
of the conduit, in fact, enables the uniformity of the air flow, and therefore of
the air flow-rate through the entire thickness of the finned battery, to be facilitated,
thereby further improving the heat-exchange process.
[0024] A further improvement is obtained with the following configuration: since the lower
portion of the refrigeration apparatus is in fact usually occupied by the compressor
and other functional parts of the apparatus, the embodiments illustrated in Figures
1 and 2 would practically not prove very expedient, since the battery-type evaporator
would in these cases occupy the space normally intended to accommodate said component
parts. In view of being able to keep the compressor sited in its usual lower outer
receptacle 14, near the rear wall of the apparatus, it proves advantageous to have
said battery-type evaporator sited above said receptacle 14, as best illustrated in
Figure 3.
[0025] The need therefore arises for said finned-tube battery evaporator to be raised up
to a higher level than said partition wall 5 and be so positioned as to lie behind
the latter. However, such an adaptation can be easily obtained if a receptacle is
used to accommodate the battery-type evaporator, which is effective in preventing
the air flow from directly entering the upper compartment 1, while on the contrary
forcing said flow to anyway move through the entire evaporator battery and then enter
completely the lower compartment 2.
[0026] Referring again to Figure 3, a last improvement is obtained if the passage of the
air from the lower compartment 2 into the upper compartment 1, which must in all cases
be ensured so as to allow the air flow to cover the return path thereof and, therefore,
keep it duly circulating all the time, is not achieved through the provision of a
dedicated aperture in said partition wall 5, but rather by providing an appropriate
recess, that will be as wide as needed and, in this connection, may extend to even
cover the whole width of the compartments, along the front portion 15 of said partition
wall.
[0027] By suitably sizing the corresponding inner wall, i.e. the liner of the outer door
4, a passage 17 is actually obtained between said inner wall, or door liner, and said
partition wall 5, and this passage provides the required communication between the
storage compartments for the air flow to be able to follow its return path into the
upper compartment.
[0028] Such a solution has a twofold advantage in that it introduces a simplification from
a construction point of view, while at the same time ensuring a circulation of the
cold air in the lower compartment throughout the depth "L" thereof, unlike what would
most probably, if not even certainly occur in the case that such a passage of the
air between the two compartments is provided in the form of an aperture in a central
position of said partition wall 5.
[0029] Finally, given the compact size of the evaporator battery, it proves expedient if
the conduit 6 does not feature a large front surface, that would take up a lot of
space, but is rather provided as a simple channel or duct 16 with a rectangular or
markedly elongated cross-section, arranged in an approximately central position on
the rear wall, as this is best shown in Figures 4 and 5.
[0030] With such a conformation, said duct can be used to easily insert some possible air-handling
provisions 18, such as deodorizers, sterilizers, ionizers or the like, in the same
duct, while this is largely known to be by far more difficult in the case of a duct
sized to an extremely flattened shape, so as it is used in the prior art.
1. Two-temperature refrigeration apparatus, particularly for home use, comprising:
- at least an upper inner compartment (1) for storing food at refrigeration temperature,
- at least a lower inner compartment (2) for storing food at lower temperatures,
- a partition wall (5) separating said compartments from each other,
- at least an aperture between said two compartments,
- a vertical conduit (6) arranged on the back wall (7) and connecting said two compartments
with each other,
- a single evaporator unit arranged within said refrigeration apparatus,
- a fan (8) situated in the upper intake mouth (9) of said conduit,
characterized in that
- said evaporator unit is of the finned-tube battery type (11),
- said finned-tube battery is positioned in front of the lower outflow mouth (10)
of said conduit, so that said fan is capable to both generate a forced flow of air
through said evaporator unit and to circulate the air between said two compartments.
2. Refrigeration apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said finned-tube battery-type evaporator is accommodated in a receptacle (12) that
is open towards said lower compartment and arranged in correspondence of the lower
outflow mouth (10) of said vertical conduit.
3. Refrigeration apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that there is provided a connection piece between said conduit and said receptacle having,
and that said connection pice (13) has a downward flared shape and is preferably oriented
towards the upper portion of said finned-tube battery evaporator.
4. Refrigeration apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said receptacle (12) is arranged in a manner in which is substantially adheres against
the insulated rear wall (3) of said apparatus.
5. Refrigeration apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said two compartments are closed by a same door (4), and that said aperture between
said two compartments is implemented as a passage (17) for the return flow of air
from the lower compartment to the upper compartment, in the form of an appropriate
shape given to the front portion (15) of said partition wall and the corresponding
zone of the inner wall or liner of said door (4).
6. Refrigeration apparatus according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said vertical conduit (6) only adheres against a portion of the back wall of said
upper compartment, and that it has a parallelepiped-like or a markedly elongated shape.
7. Refrigeration apparatus according to any of the preceding claims 2 to 6, characterized in that at least a part of the internal volume of said receptacle (12) is situated in a higher
position than said partition wall (5) separating said two compartments from each other.