Refrigerator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11262121-B2
Application number	US-201916706420-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2019
Priority date	Jun 6, 2017
Publication date	Mar 1, 2022
Grant date	Mar 1, 2022

Abstract

A refrigerator has a thawing device. The thawing device includes a cylinder, having a thawing chamber with a forward opening; a device door; and a radio frequency generation module, upper and lower electrode plates electrically connected thereto generating radio frequency waves in the thawing chamber; and at least one temperature sensor is disposed on the inner wall of the thawing chamber and configured to sense the temperature of an object to be processed, thereby adjusting the power of the radio frequency generaton module to prevent the object to be processed from being excessively thawed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A refrigerator, comprising a refrigerator body defining at least one containing space, a compartment door for opening and closing the at least one containing space separately, and a thawing device disposed in one of the containing spaces, wherein the thawing device comprises:
a cavity, defining a thawing chamber having a forward opening therein, the thawing chamber being configured for placement of an object to be processed;
a device door, disposed at the forward opening of the thawing chamber and configured to open and close the thawing chamber;
a radio frequency generation module, configured to generate a radio frequency signal; and
an upper electrode plate and a lower electrode place, horizontally disposed on a top wall and a bottom wall of the thawing chamber respectively and electrically connected with the radio frequency generation module respectively to generate radio frequency waves of corresponding frequencies in the thawing chamber according to the radio frequency signal and thaw the object to be processed in the thawing chamber; and
at least one temperature sensor is disposed on an inner wall of the thawing chamber and configured to sense a temperature of the object to be processed and adjust a working power of the radio frequency generation module according to the temperature of the object to be processed to prevent the object to be processed from being excessively thawed;
wherein the radio frequency generation module is configured as follows:
when an absolute value of a difference between the temperature of the object to be processed and a preset temperature constant value is greater than or equal to a first temperature difference threshold, the working power is a rated power;
when the absolute value of the difference between the temperature of the object to be processed and the preset temperature constant value is less than the first temperature difference threshold and greater than or equal to a second temperature difference threshold, the working power is 50 to 60% of the rated power; and
when the absolute value of the difference between the temperature of the object to be processed and the preset temperature constant value is less than the second temperature difference threshold, the working power is 20 to 30% of the rated power,
wherein the first temperature difference threshold is greater than the second temperature difference threshold.

2. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the number of the at least one temperature sensor is three; the three temperature sensors are respectively disposed on two transverse side walls and a rear wall of the thawing chamber; and the temperature of the object to be processed is an average value of temperatures sensed by the three temperature sensors.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 2 , wherein the three sensors are disposed at intervals in a vertical direction of the thawing device.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the radio frequency generation module is configured as follows:
when a change rate of the temperature of the object to be processed is greater than or equal to a first temperature rate threshold, the working power is a rated power;
when the change rate of the temperature of the object to be processed is less than the first temperature rate threshold and greater than or equal to a second temperature rate threshold, the working power is 50 to 60% of the rated power; and
when the change rate of the temperature of the object to be processed is less than the second temperature rate threshold, the working power is 20 to 30% of the rated power, wherein,
the first temperature rate threshold is greater than the second temperature rate threshold.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , further comprising: a thawing switch disposed on any one of the compartment doors and configured to control the start and stop of a thawing program; and the radio frequency generation module being configured to:
start to work when the thawing switch is turned on; and
stop working when the thawing switch is turned off.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 5 , wherein a refrigerating system of the refrigerator is configured to:
stop providing a cooling capacity for the containing space provided with the thawing device when the thawing switch is turned on; and
run an original refrigerating program of the refrigerator when the thawing switch is turned off.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the thawing device further comprises: a detection module, configured to detect an incident wave signal and a reflected wave signal of an electrical connection wire connecting the radio frequency generation module to the upper electrode plate, and calculate a load impedance of the radio frequency generation module according to a voltage and a current of the incident wave signal and a voltage and a current of the reflected wave signal.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 7 , wherein the thawing device further comprises: a load compensation module, configured to controllably increase or reduce the load impedance of the radio frequency generation module, and enable a difference between the load impedance of the radio frequency generation module and an output impedance of the radio frequency generation module to be greater than or equal to a first impedance threshold and less than or equal to a second present impedance threshold to improve the thawing efficiency of the object to be processed.

9. The refrigerator according to claim 8 , wherein the detection module is configured to further calculate a change rate of a dielectric coefficient of the object to be processed according to the load impedance of the radio frequency generation module, and the radio frequency generation module is configured to:
stop working when the change rate of the dielectric coefficient of the object to be processed decreases to be less than or equal to a dielectric rate threshold.

10. A refrigerator, comprising a refrigerator body defining at least one containing space, a compartment door for opening and closing the at least one containing space separately, and a thawing device disposed in one of the containing spaces, wherein the thawing device comprises:
a cavity, defining a thawing chamber having a forward opening therein, the thawing chamber being configured for placement of an object to be processed;
a device door, disposed at the forward opening of the thawing chamber and configured to open and close the thawing chamber;
a radio frequency generation module, configured to generate a radio frequency signal; and
an upper electrode plate and a lower electrode place, horizontally disposed on a top wall and a bottom wall of the thawing chamber respectively and electrically connected with the radio frequency generation module respectively to generate radio frequency waves of corresponding frequencies in the thawing chamber according to the radio frequency signal and thaw the object to be processed in the thawing chamber; and
at least one temperature sensor is disposed on an inner wall of the thawing chamber and configured to sense a temperature of the object to be processed and adjust a working power of the radio frequency generation module according to the temperature of the object to be processed to prevent the object to be processed from being excessively thawed;
wherein the radio frequency generation module is configured as follows:
when a change rate of the temperature of the object to be processed is greater than or equal to a first temperature rate threshold, the working power is a rated power;
when the change rate of the temperature of the object to be processed is less than the first temperature rate threshold and gr

Assignees

• Haier Smart Home Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhu Xiaobing
• Li Peng
• Wang Ming
• Dai Jianbin
• Xu Tong

Classifications

• A23B2/82

  Thawing subsequent to freezing · CPC title

• F25D23/12 Primary

  Arrangements of compartments additional to cooling compartments; Combinations of refrigerators with other equipment, e.g. stove · CPC title

• H05B6/62

  Apparatus for specific applications · CPC title

• F25D29/003

  for movable devices · CPC title

• F25D2700/121

  of particular compartments · CPC title