US20120118000A1

US20120118000A1 - Refrigerator

Info

Publication number: US20120118000A1
Application number: US13/387,176
Authority: US
Inventors: Su Nam Chae; Jang Seok Lee; So Hee PARK; Youn Seok Lee; Min Kyu OH
Original assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Current assignee: LG Electronics Inc
Priority date: 2009-08-19
Filing date: 2010-08-05
Publication date: 2012-05-17
Also published as: WO2011021798A2; KR20110019074A; WO2011021798A3

Abstract

The present invention provides a refrigerator which enable to make effective arrangement elements in a machine room on a top of the refrigerator, and to absorb and cut off noise and vibration from the elements enabling quiet operation. To do this, the refrigerator includes a body formed to have a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber, a machine room formed on a top of the body to have a front region and a rear region, and a vibration isolating member for attenuating vibration in the machine room.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a machine room provided to a top side of a body thereof, and a refrigerator for reducing vibration and noise of the machine room.

BACKGROUND ART

In general, the refrigerator is a domestic appliance for supplying cold air from an evaporator to a storage chamber (a refrigerating chamber or a freezing chamber) for keeping freshness of various kinds of food for a long time. The refrigerator is provided with a body having the storage chamber formed therein for storage of food at a low temperature, and the body has a door for opening/closing a front thereof.
The refrigerator is provided with a refrigerating cycle for cooling the storage chamber by circulating refrigerant, and the body is provided with the machine room having a plurality of electric components required to form the refrigerating cycle.
As basic elements, the refrigerating cycle has a compressor for boosting up a temperature and a pressure of low temperature, low pressure gaseous refrigerant to high temperature, high pressure gaseous refrigerant, a condenser for condensing the refrigerant from the compressor by using external air, an expansion valve having a diameter smaller than other portion for subjecting the refrigerant from the condenser to pressure reduction and expansion, and an evaporator for evaporating the refrigerator from the expansion valve at a low temperature state to absorb heat from the storage chamber.
The machine room has a fan for cooling the compressor and the condenser, and an inlet and an outlet in one side and the other side of the machine room for introduction and discharge of external air thereto/therefrom.
When the fan rotates, the air is introduced into the machine room through the inlet. The air introduced thus passes through the compressor and is discharged to an outside of the machine room again, and the condenser and the compressor are cooled down during such a process.
In the refrigerators, there are a top mount type having the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber formed on up/down sides thereof respectively with a freezing chamber door and a refrigerating chamber door mounted to the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber respectively to allow open/close of the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber respectively, a bottom freezer type having the refrigerating chamber and the freezing chamber formed on up/down sides thereof respectively with the refrigerating chamber doors rotatably mounted on left/right sides of the refrigerating chamber and a drawer type freezing chamber door mounted slidable in front/rear directions in opening/closing the freezing chamber door, and a side by side type having the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber formed side by side on a left and a right sides of the refrigerator with the freezing chamber door and the refrigerating chamber mounted rotatable round opposite edges of the refrigerator as a size of the refrigerator becomes the bigger.
For user's convenience, the refrigerator door may have different kinds of convenient devices, such as a home bar or a dispenser which enables the user to take out food from a rear of the door to an outside of the door without opening the door. And, a quick cooling chamber may be provided to the freezing chamber or the refrigerating chamber for making quick cooling of the food.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

Technical Problem

In the meantime, a related art refrigerator having the machine room arranged on a bottom of the body of the refrigerator has problems in that an inside volume of the body can not be utilized fully, and cutting off of vibration and noise from the compressor and the fan in the machine room fails.
Particularly, a user sensitive to noise is liable to complain the noise, making reliability of the refrigerator poor, thereby requiring an earliest possible counter measure.

Solution to Problem

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a refrigerator.
An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator in which an arrangement of a machine room is changed for utilizing an inside volume of the refrigerator fully.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator which can minimize vibration and noise from a machine room.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the disclosure 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 includes a body formed to have a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber, a machine room provided on a top of the body to have a front region and a rear region, and a vibration isolating member for attenuating vibration in the machine room.
The vibration isolating member includes a fastening screw for fastening to a floor of the machine room through a fastening bracket at a cooling fan in the machine room, and an elastic body coupled to the fastening screw and positioned disposed between the floor and the fastening screw.
The vibration isolating member further includes a valve vibration isolating member mounted for attenuating vibration of a refrigerating three way valve adjacent to the cooling fan.
The refrigerating three way valve is positioned on an upper side of the valve vibration isolating member.
In another aspect of the present invention, a refrigerator includes a body formed to have a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber, a machine room provided on a top of the body to have a front region and a rear region, a vibration isolating member for attenuating vibration in the machine room, and a blocking member for attenuating noise in the machine room.
The blocking member includes a vibration attenuating portion for attenuating the vibration, and a noise attenuating portion for attenuating the noise generated in the machine room.
The noise attenuating portion has pass through holes for passing through of air.
The machine room has a cover member mounted on a top, and the cover member has holes for enabling an air flow to an inside of the machine room.
The blocking member includes a refractive plate for refracting the noise from a compressor, and a sound absorbing plate for absorbing and insulating the noise from the compressor.
The refractive plate cuts off and blocks low frequency noise from the compressor, and the sound absorbing plate cuts off and blocks high frequency noise from the compressor.
The blocking member is arranged between the front region and the rear region, or between the cooling fan and the compressor in the machine room.
The blocking member is arranged on a lower side of the compressor and is extended in a transverse direction.
The blocking member is mounted to surround on the lower side of the compressor.
The front region has the compressor mounted thereto, and the rear region has a condenser and the cooling fan mounted thereto.
The front region has a first guide member for guiding an air flow toward the compressor from the cooling fan, and the rear region has a second guide member for guiding an air flow toward the condenser.
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.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

As has been described, the refrigerator of the present invention has the following advantages.
The refrigerator of the present invention can minimize noise from the machine room arranged on the top of the body of the refrigerator.
The refrigerator of the present invention can minimize vibration and noise from the machine room.
The refrigerator of the present invention can attenuate a full frequency band of noise from the compressor in the machine room.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a refrigerator in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a plan view of a machine room in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view showing a state a vibration isolating member in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of the present invention is mounted.

FIG. 4 illustrates a perspective view showing a state a refrigerant three way valve is mounted to a valve vibration isolating member in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a plan view of a machine room in accordance with a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a plan view of a blocking member.

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate a plan view and a perspective view of blocking members in accordance with in accordance with other preferred embodiments of the present invention, respectively.

FIG. 9 illustrates a perspective view of a cover member to be mounted to a machine room in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate plan views showing operation states of machine rooms in accordance with first and second preferred embodiments of the present invention, respectively.

FIG. 12 illustrates a comparative graph showing noise levels versus frequency of refrigerators in the related art and the present invention, respectively.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the specific 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.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the refrigerator of the present invention includes a machine room 100 on a top side of a body 1, which is divided into a front region 110 and a rear region 120.
The front region 110 has a compressor 600 arranged thereto, and the rear region 120 has a condenser 400 and a cooling fan 500 arranged thereto.
The machine room 100 has a vibration isolating member 200 provided thereto for attenuating vibration from the cooling fan 500.
The vibration isolating member 200 is mounted to each of a plurality of fastening brackets 510 on a lower side of the cooling fan 500. Preferably, each of the vibration isolating members 200 is fastened with screw which is fastened to the fastening brackets 510. The vibration isolating member 200 includes an elastic body 220 disposed between a floor of the machine room 100 and the fastening screw 210. The elastic body 220 may be formed of rubber, but a material of the elastic body 220 is not limited to the rubber.
Referring to FIG. 4 attached hereto, the vibration isolating member 200 includes a valve vibration isolating member 200 a for attenuating vibration of a refrigerant three way valve adjacent to the cooling fan 500, additionally.
The valve vibration isolating member 200 a is fixedly secured to the floor of the machine room 100, and the refrigerant three way valve 30 is mounted to the valve vibration isolating member 200 a with a fixture provided to an upper side of an outside of the valve vibration isolating member 200 a.
The refrigerant three way valve 30 is mounted to the upper side of the outside of the valve vibration isolating member 200 a, for preventing the vibration from the refrigerant three way valve 30 transmitting, not to the floor of the machine room 100 directly, but through the valve vibration isolating member 200 a for attenuating the vibration to the maximum.
A refrigerator in accordance with a second preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Referring to FIG. 5 attached hereto, the machine room 100 is divided into a front region 110 and a rear region 120, wherein the compressor 600 is mounted to the front region 110 and the condenser 400 and the cooling fan 500 are mounted to the rear region 120.
The machine room 100 has a vibration isolating member 200 mounted thereto for attenuating vibration from the cooling fan 500 or the compressor 600. Since the vibration isolating member 200 is identical to one described in the first embodiment, detailed description of which will be omitted.
Referring to FIG. 6 attached hereto, the machine room 100 has a blocking member 300 for attenuating noise from the machine room 100. The blocking member 300 includes a vibration attenuation portion 310 for attenuating vibration from the machine room 100, and a noise attenuation portion 320 for attenuating noise from the machine room 100.
The vibration attenuation portion 310 is mounted to the machine room 100 in a state the vibration attenuation portion 310 is in close contact with the floor of the machine room 100 for attenuating vibration from the compressor 600 and the cooling fan 500 or vibration transmitting through the floor of the machine room 100.
The vibration attenuation portion 310 may be formed of rubber or mounted by changing a structure of the rubber.
For an example, the vibration attenuation portion 310 may have a solid shape or may be bent a plurality of times.
The noise attenuation portion 320 has a relatively large area compared to the vibration attenuation portion 310, for making stable movement of air from the cooling fan 500 to the blocking member 300 through the compressor 600 and effective attenuation of the noise from the machine room 100.
The noise attenuation portion 320 has a matrix of pass through holes 322, a sound absorbing material (not shown) stuffed therein for attenuation of noise, and is formed of a porous structure such as polyurethane foam, or similar thereto.
Though number and size of the pass through hole are not limited, and it is preferable that a shape thereof is as shown in the drawing, for making the stable flow of air, but the shape is not limited thereto.
The blocking member 300 is arranged between the front region 110 and the rear region 120, for attenuating the vibration from the cooling fan 500 in the rear region 120 with the vibration isolating member 200, vibration from the compressor 600 in the front region 110 with the vibration isolating member 200, and the vibration resonant with the floor, the noise from the machine room 100, and the noise caused by flow of the air.
In more detail, the blocking member 300 arranged in a transverse direction between the cooling fan 500 and the compressor 600 for attenuating the vibration and noise from the machine room 100.
Referring to FIG. 7 attached hereto, a blocking member 300 a in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention may be mounted to surround a lower side of the compressor 600.
If the blocking member 300 a is mounted thus, the blocking member 300 a arranged to a section around one half of an outside circumference of the compressor 600 attenuates the vibration and noise.
Referring to FIG. 8 attached hereto, a blocking member 300 b in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a refractive plate 310 b for refracting noise from the compressor 600 and a sound absorbing plate 320 b for absorbing and insulating the noise from the compressor 600.
The refractive plate 310 b cuts off and blocks low frequency noise from the compressor 600 and the sound absorbing plate 320 b cuts off and blocks and blocks high frequency noise from the compressor 600.
The refractive plate 310 b serves to refract the noise from the compressor 600 to an inside of the machine room 100 so that the noise does not transmit to an outside of the machine room 100 through a front cover grill 138.
The sound absorbing plate 320 b is formed of porous foam, such as polyurethane foam.
Referring to FIG. 9 attached hereto, the machine room 100 has a cover member 130 mounted to a top side thereof. The cover member 130 has front holes 132 a and side holes 132 b for enabling flow of outside air into the machine room 100.
The machine room 100 has a first guide 110 a for guiding movement of air toward the front region 110. The first guide 110 a is arranged on a left side, and a right side of the front region 110, respectively.
The first guide 110 a minimizes the noise liable to generate as the air discharged from the cooling fan 500 at a high pressure hits an inside wall of the machine room 100.
There is a second guide member 110 b provided to one side of the condenser 400 in the rear region 120. The second guide member 110 b limits external air being drawn into the condenser 400 from moving to regions other than the condenser 400, and serves to cut off generation of the noise caused by mixing of the external air with the air being discharged to an outside of the machine room 100.
The operations of the refrigerators in accordance with embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, respectively.
Referring to FIG. 3 or 10, upon putting the refrigerator into operation, the compressor 600 in the machine room 100 under the control of a controller (not shown) transfers high temperature and high pressure refrigerant to the condenser 400.
The high temperature and high pressure refrigerant dissipates thermal energy through heat dissipation pin on the condenser 400 to the machine room, and the controller puts the cooling fan 500 into operation for effective heat dissipation of the condenser 400.
Since the cooling fan 500 is arranged on the same line with condenser 400, the external air is introduced into the machine room 100 as shown in arrows through the front cover grill 138, and moves toward the condenser 400 while movement of the external air is limited extremely by the second guide member 110.
The external air has heat of the condenser 400 transferred thereto as the external air passes through the condenser 400, and moves to the cooling fan 500 and therefrom is pressurized and discharged to an outside of the machine room 100.
As shown, the air being discharged is deflected toward the compressor 600 by the first guide member 110 a in the machine room 100.
The air deflected thus cools the heat of the compressor 600 generated and discharged into the machine room 100 as the compressor 600 compresses the refrigerant, and discharged to an outside of the machine room 100 through the front cover grill 138.
In this instance, though the vibration transmits from the cooling fan 500 through the brackets 510, since the vibration is attenuated by the elastic body 220, the vibration transmitted to the floor of the machine room 100 is minimized.
Referring to FIG. 3 attached hereto, since there are a plurality of brackets 510 provided to the cooling fan 500, and mounted to the floor of the machine room 100, the noise generated at the machine room 100 caused by the vibration of the cooling fan 500 is minimized, thereby enabling quieter operation.
Referring to FIG. 2 or 4, the refrigerant moves through the refrigerant three way valve 30 for cooling the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber respectively.
The refrigerant has a pressure for moving through the refrigerant three way valve 30. The pressure applied to the refrigerant makes the refrigerant three way valve 30 to vibrate to generate vibration, the vibration of the refrigerant three way valve 30 fastened to the valve anti-vibrating member 200 a is attenuated by the valve anti-vibrating member 200 a, thereby minimizing transmission of the vibration to the floor of the machine room 100.
Preferably, by mounting the refrigerant three way valve 30 to the upper side of the valve anti-vibrating member 200 a, transmission of the vibration from the refrigerant three way valve 30 to the floor is minimized.
Another preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Referring to FIG. 12, upon putting the refrigerator into operation, the compressor 600 in the machine room 100 transfers high temperature, high pressure refrigerant to the condenser 400 under the control of the controller (not shown).
The high temperature and high pressure refrigerant dissipates thermal energy through heat dissipation pin on the condenser 400 to the machine room, and the controller puts the cooling fan 500 into operation for effective heat dissipation of the condenser 400.
Since the cooling fan 500 is arranged on the same line with condenser 400, the external air is introduced into the machine room 100 as shown in arrows through the front cover grill 138, and moves toward the condenser 400 while movement of the external air is limited extremely by the second guide member 110.
The external air has heat of the condenser 400 transferred thereto as the external air passes through the condenser 400, and moves to the cooling fan 500 and therefrom is pressurized and discharged to an outside of the machine room 100.
As shown, the air being discharged is deflected toward the compressor 600 by the first guide member 110 a in the machine room 100.
The air deflected thus cools the heat of the compressor 600 generated and discharged into the machine room 100 as the compressor 600 compresses the refrigerant, and discharged to an outside of the machine room 100 through the front cover grill 138. In this instance, since behavior of the vibration from the cooling fan 500 is identical to above description, description of which will be omitted. The noise from the compressor will be described in detail.
Referring to FIG. 5 attached hereto, the noise generated during operation of the compressor 600 can be sorted as operational noise from components of the compressor 600 and vibrational noise from the vibration.
Referring to FIG. 6, the operational noise transmitted to the blocking member 300 arranged between the compressor 600 and the cooling fan 500 is absorbed and attenuated by the polyurethane foam provided to the noise attenuation portion 310, and the vibrational noise has vibration thereof attenuated by the vibration attenuation portion 310, thereby minimizing generation of noise at the machine room 100 and transmission of the noise to an outside of machine room 100. Since the vibration attenuation portion 310 is formed of rubber, the vibration attenuation portion 310 can attenuate the vibration of the compressor 600, effectively.
The pass through holes 322 in the noise attenuation portion 320 is provided for making stable movement of the air from the cooling fan 500, a shape of the hole and arrangement of the holes may vary.
Another preferred embodiment of the blocking member of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Referring to FIG. 7, the blocking member 300 a can be mounted as shown in the drawing, surrounding one side of the compressor 600.
The blocking member 300 a is mounted thus for making more effective attenuation of the noise and vibration from the compressor 600 and making stable movement of the air from the cooling fan 500.
A blocking member in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
Referring to FIG. 9 attached hereto, the noise transmits the compressor 600 to the front region 110 and the rear region 120 which are an inside region of the machine room 100.
Since the body 1 of the refrigerator is built-in, because the noise transmitted to the front region 110 can transmit to an adjacent wall partially, which is difficult to sense by the user, the noise does not affect marketability of the refrigerator.
Since the noise transmitted to the rear region 120 is liable to transmit to the front of the body 1 of the refrigerator through the front cover grill 139, the noise is liable to make the user misunderstand that the noise is generated at the refrigerator.
Therefore, the blocking member 300 b is arranged between the compressor 600 and the front cover grill for cutting off transmission of the noise to the front of the refrigerator through the front cover grill 138.
In detail, as shown with arrows, the refractive plate 310 b refracts the noise from the compressor 600 toward the compressor 600 or the front region 110, to change a direction of the nose transmitting toward the front cover grill 138.
Moreover, the sound absorbing plate 320 b absorbs or insulates a portion of the noise from the compressor 600, thereby cutting off the transmission of the noise to the front cover grill 138.
The refractive plate 310 b cuts off and blocks low frequency noise from the compressor 600 and the sound absorbing plate 320 b cuts off and blocks high frequency noise from the compressor 600, leading to attenuate and drop both the low frequency and high frequency noise generated as the compressor 600 operates, enabling quiet operation of the refrigerator.
Referring to FIG. 12, a noise attenuation effect of the refrigerator of the present invention will be described, with reference to FIG. 12 attached hereto.
An X-axis denotes frequency Hz and a Y-axis denotes a noise level dB at respective frequencies.
As described, the noise generated as the compressor 600 is in operation has both the low frequency noise and the high frequency noise.
For an example, it can be known that, in a 400 Hz band, though the noise from a related art refrigerator is 16 dBA, the noise from the refrigerator of the present invention is dropped down to 14 dBA.
Moreover, it can be known that, besides above frequency band, the noise from the compressor is reduced significantly compared to the related art in an entire frequency band.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A refrigerator comprising:

a body formed to have a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber;

a machine room provided on a top of the body to have a front region and a rear region; and

a vibration isolating member for attenuating vibration in the machine room.

2. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vibration isolating member includes;

a fastening screw for fastening to a floor of the machine room through a fastening bracket at a cooling fan in the machine room, and

an elastic body coupled to the fastening screw and positioned disposed between the floor and the fastening screw.

3. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the vibration isolating member further includes;

a valve vibration isolating member mounted for attenuating vibration of a refrigerating three way valve adjacent to the cooling fan.

4. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 3, wherein the refrigerating three way valve is positioned on an upper side of the valve vibration isolating member.

5. A refrigerator comprising:

a body formed to have a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber;

a machine room provided on a top of the body to have a front region and a rear region;

a vibration isolating member for attenuating vibration in the machine room; and

a blocking member for attenuating noise in the machine room.

6. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the blocking member includes;

a vibration attenuating portion for attenuating the vibration, and

a noise attenuating portion for attenuating the noise.

7. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 6, wherein the vibration attenuating portion is positioned on a lower side of the blocking member in close contact with a floor of the machine room.

8. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 6, wherein the noise attenuating portion has pass through holes for passing through of air from a cooling fan.

9. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 6, wherein the blocking member includes;

a refractive plate for refracting the noise from a compressor, and

a sound absorbing plate for absorbing and insulating the noise from the compressor.

10. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 9, wherein the refractive plate blocks low frequency noise from the compressor.

11. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 9, wherein the sound absorbing plate blocks high frequency noise from the compressor.

12. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the blocking member is arranged between the front region and the rear region.

13. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the blocking member is arranged between the cooling fan and the compressor in the machine room.

14. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the blocking member is arranged on a lower side of the compressor ,and is extended in a transverse direction.

15. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the blocking member is mounted to surround on the lower side of the compressor.

16. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the vibration isolating member is mounted to the cooling fan and the compressor, respectively.

17. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the machine room has a cover member mounted on a top, and the cover member has holes for enabling an air flow to an inside of the machine room.

18. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the front region has the compressor mounted thereto.

19. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the rear region has a condenser and the cooling fan mounted thereto.

20. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the front region has a first guide member for guiding an air flow toward the compressor from the cooling fan.

21. The refrigerator as claimed in claim 5, wherein the rear region has a second guide member for guiding an air flow toward the condenser.