Patent Application
20120017632
This application claims the benefit of the Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0069805, filed on Jul. 20, 2010 which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator that is able to mount an evaporator more easily if a cool air generating chamber is provided above a main body.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A refrigerator is a home appliance that stores food at a freezing state and a refrigerating state by using a refrigerant cycle.
Specifically, the refrigerator comprises a main body provided with a storage chamber such as a freezing chamber or a refrigerating chamber, and a cool air generating chamber provided in the main body and connected with the storage chamber, wherein an evaporator is received in the cool air generating chamber.
The cool air generating chamber can be located at the rear of the storage chamber or above the storage chamber. In particular, if the cool air generating chamber is located above the storage chamber, a user had to fix the evaporator by using a fixing member such as a bolt after lifting the evaporator and locating it in the cool air generating chamber.
However, the refrigerator has problems in that it is inconvenient to mount and fix the evaporator due to a narrow inner space of the cool air generating chamber and, as a result, it takes much assembly time.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a refrigerator that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator that is able to mount an evaporator in a cool air generating chamber more easily for a short time.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a refrigerator according to the present invention comprises a main body provided with a storage chamber; a cool air generating chamber provided above the main body and connected with the storage chamber; an evaporator provided inside the cool air generating chamber; and a support portion provided in the ceiling inside the cool air generating chamber and variably provided in a mounting direction of the evaporator to support the evaporator.
As described above, the refrigerator according to the present invention has advantages as follows.
The evaporator can easily be mounted in a narrow space of the cool air generating chamber.
In other words, since a shape of the support portion is not fixed but deformed in a mounting direction of the evaporator, the mounting portion of the evaporator is arranged in the support portion and slid. Then, since the mounting portion of the evaporator and the support portion can be fixed simultaneously by a fixing member, their excellent fixing state can be maintained and the evaporator can be mounted more easily and quickly.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings:
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
As shown in
The cool air generating chamber 100 is provided to be projected towards an upward direction of the main body 10. However, the cool air generating chamber 100 may be provided towards the refrigerating chamber 12.
An evaporator 200 and a cool air fan unit 300 are provided inside the cool air generating chamber 100.
The evaporator 200 is caught in a support portion 250 arranged in the ceiling inside the cool air generating chamber 100. A detailed coupling structure of the support portion 250 and the evaporator 200 will be described later.
The cool air fan unit 300 provided at the front of the evaporator 200 includes a cool air fan 310 and a fan housing 311 surrounding the cool air fan 310.
An outlet 20 is provided at the front of the evaporator 200 and guides the cool air, which has passed through the evaporator 200 through a rotation action of the cool air fan 310, to move to the freezing chamber.
A structure of the evaporator 200 and the support portion 250 and a process of mounting the evaporator 200 in the support portion 250 will be described with reference to
First of all, the evaporator 200 includes a body portion 210, and a plate shaped mounting portion 220 provided at both sides of the body portion 210.
It is preferable that the mounting portion 220 is configured in a rectangular shaped plate of which vertical length is remarkably longer than a horizontal length.
Preferably, the body portion 210 includes a refrigerant drain pipe and a cooling fan, wherein a refrigerant flows in the refrigerant pipe, and the cooling fan is attached to the cooling fan.
The support portion 250 is fixedly arranged in the ceiling inside the cool air generating chamber 100.
The support portion 250 includes a first support portion 260 fixed to the ceiling inside the cool air generating chamber 100, and a second support portion 270 provided with one end and the other end, wherein the other end of the second support portion 270 can be moved up and down using the one end as a fixing end in a state that the first support portion 260 is connected with the one end of the second support portion 270.
In other words, the support portion 250 is provided variably in a bendable shape of a certain level. This is to easily mount the evaporator 200.
In other words, if the second support portion 270 is pulled downwardly, it is inclined downwardly.
In a state that the second support portion 270 is arranged obliquely, the mounting portion 220 provided in the evaporator 200 is inserted into the second support portion 270.
In other words, in order to mount the evaporator 200, an assembly worker moves the evaporator 200 in an oblique direction in a state that he/she holds the evaporator 200. This is easier than the assembly method according to the related art. In this way, the support portion 250 is bent towards the mounting direction of the evaporator 200 and the second support portion 270 is arranged downward obliquely. In this case, assembly efficiency can be increased.
The second support portion 270 into which the mounting portion 220 is inserted will be described.
The second support portion 270 has a “” shaped section, and includes loading portions 271 and 273 up and down spaced apart from each other to form a loading space 275 into which the mounting portion 220 is inserted, and a sidewall portion 272 provided at one side of the loading portions 271 and 273.
The loading portions 271 and 273 include the first loading portion 271, and the second loading portion 273 arranged below the first loading portion 271 and spaced apart from the first loading portion 271.
In the meantime, the sidewall portion 272 is provided to connect sidewalls of the first loading portion 271 and the second loading portion 273 with each other.
Accordingly, the loading space 275 is formed by the sidewall portion 272 and the first and second loading portions 271 and 273.
It is preferable that an opposite side of the sidewall portion 272 is provided with an opening portion to allow one side of the mounting portion 220 to pass through the opening portion.
This is because that the width of the second support portion 270 is narrower than that of the mounting portion 220.
The support portion 250 includes support portions in pairs, which are arranged in parallel in the ceiling of the cool air generating chamber in a state that they are spaced apart from each other. At this time, it is preferable that the opening portions of the support portions are arranged to face each other.
This is to allow the mounting portions 220 provided in pairs to be supported in the support portion 250 while passing through the opening portions of the respective support portions 250 and the loading space 275.
A first through hole 221 and a second through hole 274 are respectively provided in the mounting portion 220 and the first and second loading portions 271 and 273. A predetermined fixing member 280 (see
In this case, the support portion 250 includes support portions in pairs spaced apart from each other. This is to arrange the support portions to correspond to the arrangement state of the mounting portions 220 provided in the evaporator 200.
Accordingly, the support portion 250 arranged at the left side and the support portion 250 arranged at the right side are respectively coupled to their corresponding mounting portions 220 to support the evaporator 220.
In the mean time, the first support portion 260 is fixedly coupled to another fixing member 261 for fixing the first support portion 260 to the ceiling of the cool air generating chamber 100.
In other words, the first support portion 260 is fixed at a location different from that of the second support portion 270, and is connected with one end of the second support portion 270 to serve as a reference point of movement of the second support portion 270 if the second support portion 270 is arranged obliquely or horizontally.
In
The mounting portion 220 is moved towards the first support portion 260 fixed in the ceiling of the cool air generating chamber 100 by passing through the front end of the second support portion 270.
If the evaporator 200 is pushed upwardly, the state of
In other words, the second support portion 270 arranged obliquely with respect to the first support portion 260 in
In this state, if the fixing member 280 is fixedly inserted into the first and second through holes 221 and 274, the fixing member 280 passes through the first and second through holes 221 and 274 and is coupled to the ceiling of the cool air generating chamber 100 (see
In this way, the mounting portion 220 of the evaporator 200 and the second support portion 270 can be fixed to the ceiling of the cool air generating chamber 100 by the fixing force of the fixing member 280.
Since the first support portion 260 is fixed to the ceiling of the cool air generating chamber 100 as described above, the location of the evaporator 200 can be maintained in a state that the evaporator 200 is fixed to the lower portion of the ceiling of the cool air generating chamber 100 in accordance with the location fixation of the mounting portion 220 and the first and second support portions 260.
In the mean time, in order to detach the evaporator 200 from the cool air generating chamber 100 by removing the evaporator 200 from the support portion 250, the detachment action is performed in the reverse order of the aforementioned mounting order.
As shown in
The support portions 250 are arranged in parallel to be spaced apart from each other at both sides inside the cool air generating chamber 100, and the mounting portion 220 of the evaporator 200 is inserted into the support portion 250, whereby the body portion 210 of the evaporator 200 is maintained as it is.
The cool air fan unit 300 is provided at the front of the evaporator 200.
If the cool air fan unit 300 is driven, the air in the storage chamber is moved upwardly and passes through the inlet 30 provided at the rear of the evaporator 200. Then, the air again flows into the storage chamber by sequentially passing through the evaporator 2001, the cool air fan unit 300, and the outlet 20.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the invention. Thus, the above embodiments are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention should be determined by reasonable interpretation of the appended claims and all change which comes within the equivalent scope of the invention are included in the scope of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2010-0069805 | Jul 2010 | KR | national |
