Patent Application
20140097735
The present utility model patent relates to a new construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator, which is intended to reduce noises caused by detachment of fixed parts of refrigerators.
More particularly, the construction arrangement now disclosed is intended to prevent the detachment between the inner housing and the thermal insulation material that is normally injected between said internal housing and the structural cabinet of refrigerators and similar appliances.
Generally, refrigerators and similar appliances are devices intended for refrigerating or freezing foodstuffs.
Conventionally and as is known to the skilled person, a refrigerator basically comprises a refrigerating system and an operational/structural body which defines at least one climate-controlled compartment, which can be a refrigerating compartment or a freezing compartment.
In this regard, said operational/structural body is known to be defined by the combination between at least one internal housing and at least one structural cabinet.
Usually, the internal housing, which delimits the arrangement and the volume of at least one climate-controlled compartment, is made of a polymeric alloy by means of already known thermalforming methods. The structural cabinet, in turn, comprises the outer structure of a refrigerator. In addition to having a structural function, the structural cabinet is commonly used to define aesthetic aspects of a refrigerator as well.
It is further noted that usually at least one internal housing (as discussed above) is fixedly disposed in the inner area of the structural cabinet. As is known to the skilled person, said fixation is made by applying a polyurethane foam between the internal housings and the structural cabinet. It is further noted that said polyurethane foam also provides thermal insulation characteristics.
However, due to different dilatation coefficients the interface defined between the (already hardened) polyurethane foam and internal housing surfaces tends to disappear along the shelf life of refrigerators. That is to say, contact surfaces between the polyurethane foam surface and the internal housing surfaces tend to detach from each other.
Said detachment may cause several consequences to the refrigerator, which are directly related with the specific area where it takes place.
When noted in corners, edges and non-flat surfaces, detachment of contact faces between the polyurethane foam surface and the internal housing surfaces tends to mechanically weaken the detached areas of the internal housing causing fractures, cleavages or in bigger circumstances, cracks. These fractures, cleavages and cracks are extremely detrimental to thermal efficiency of the refrigerator and further reduce its shelf life.
In this regard, it is worth noting that the current state of the art provides solutions that are potentially capable of mitigating the aforementioned drawbacks (especially associated with detachment of corners, edges and non-flat surfaces of internal housings). Among these solutions, those described in documents U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,739, U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,401, U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,174, U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,55, U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,631 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,950 are important.
Generally speaking, solutions described in said documents are intended to prevent cleavages, fractures and cracks from occurring in the corners, edges and non-flat surfaces of internal housings. Basically, each of these documents describe a technique for the localized application of an intermediate material between the interface specifically defined between the corners, edges and non-flat surfaces of internal housings and the respective polyurethane foam contact surfaces.
Moreover, some of these documents describe that the intermediate material used between the interface specifically defined between the corners, edges and non-flat surfaces of internal housings and the respective polyurethane foam contact surfaces further reduces chemical corrosion that can exist on these interfaces.
When observed on mostly flat faces, detachment of the contact faces between the polyurethane foam surface and surfaces of the internal housing tends to generate snapping sounds (noises that occur even if the refrigerator is off). Functionally speaking, these noises do not notably damage thermal efficiency of the refrigerator.
Nevertheless, these noises are extremely unfavourable with regard to the users' perception. This is because most of users who hear these noises think that there is a malfunction in the refrigerator or even that the refrigerator is damaged.
Solutions to attenuate, mitigate or remove noises caused by the detachment of the mostly flat contact faces between the polyurethane foam surface and the internal housing surfaces of refrigerators are not known. It is intuitively observed that the lack of technical solutions to this end is due to the fact that, as mentioned above, this feature (snapping sounds and their causes) does not represent a noticeable impairment to thermal efficiency of the refrigerator.
Based on this context, the present utility model patent is provided.
Therefore, one of the objects of the present utility model is to provide a construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator, which is essentially free of the aforementioned snapping sound.
Therefore, one of the objects of the instant invention is to provide a refrigerator where the mostly flat contact faces between the surface of the polyurethane foam and surfaces of the internal housing are originally free of physical contact, that is, originally detached from each other.
Lastly, one of the objects of the invention is that said construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator can be produced industrially.
These and further objects are achieved by means of the construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator disclosed herein.
Said construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator, according to the teachings of the present utility model patent, comprises at least one internal housing and at least one structural cabinet, wherein at least one thermal insulating layer is further disposed between at least one internal housing and at least one structural cabinet.
The construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator further comprises at least one film made of flexible material, which is specifically disposed between at least one contact interface defined between at least one substantially flat face of at least one internal housing and its respective area of at least one thermal insulating layer.
Preferably, the film that is specifically disposed between at least one contact interface defined between at least one substantially flat face of at least one internal housing and its respective area of at least one thermal insulating layer is made of flexible polymeric material, and can be optionally applied as an adhesive to at least one substantially flat face of at least one internal housing.
Therefore, the present construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator is different from the further prior-art refrigerators (refrigerators described in documents U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,739, U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,401, U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,174, U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,55, U.S. Pat. No. 3,960,631 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,196,950 being included therein) in that it provides at least one substantially flat face of at least one internal housing, which is originally free of physical contact with its respective area of at least one thermal insulating layer.
The present utility model patent will be explained in detail in the figures to follow, in which:
As previously mentioned, the main object of the instant invention is to attenuate, mitigate or remove snapping sounds caused by the detachment of the internal housing flat faces with their respective contact areas from the thermal insulator conventionally disposed between said internal housing and the structural cabinet.
In this regard, the idea is to provide a means to obtain a refrigerator where the substantially flat faces of its internal housings are originally free of physical contact with their respective contact area of the thermal insulating layer.
The means responsible for the lack of contact may be schematically viewed in
The internal housing 2 refers to a plastic part having recesses which define the climate-controlled compartments of the refrigerator 1. Said internal housing 2 comprises corners, edges and substantially flat faces 21. In general, the substantially flat faces 21 are found on the side walls, top wall, lower wall and the lower wall of the internal housing 2.
The structural cabinet 3 refers to the outer component of the refrigerator 1 and, as extensively reported by documents belonging to the current state of the art, comprises a fundamentally metallic body.
The thermal insulating layer 4, as also taught in the current state of the art, refers to expanded polyurethane.
In addition to providing thermal insulation, the thermal insulating layer 4 also has a structural function.
Since the main idea of the present construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator concerns the lack of contact between substantially flat faces 21 of the internal housing 2 with their respective areas 41 of the thermal insulating layer 4, there are provided films 5 specifically disposed between the contact interface defined between the substantially flat faces 21 of the internal housing 2 and their respective areas 41 of the thermal insulating layer 4.
Films 5 are preferably made of flexible polymeric material, however, they also can be made of several compliant materials, such as for example, polyethylene.
The introduction of films 5 between substantially flat faces 21 of the internal housing 2 and their respective areas 41 of the thermal insulating layer 4 causes these elements not to physically contact each other, therefore, when they are dilated or retracted (due to thermal changes of the refrigerator 1) they cannot be displaced, since they are originally detached. This aspect is essential for attenuation of snapping sounds.
With regard to the attachment of the film 5 to the substantially flat faces 21 of the internal housing 2, different known methods can be used.
Among the simplest methods, one notes that the film 5 can be applied as an adhesive (affixed using adhesives) on said substantially flat faces 21 of the internal housing 2. Nevertheless, this option is not limitative, as the film 5 could also be co-injected with the internal housing 2, for example.
After describing one example of a preferred embodiment of the present construction arrangement introduced in a refrigerator, it should be appreciated that the scope thereof contemplates other possible variations, which can be found in the content of the claims, including possible equivalent means.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 2012 025753 5 | Oct 2012 | BR | national |
