Refrigerator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11519663-B2
Application number	US-201916706227-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2019
Priority date	Jun 6, 2017
Publication date	Dec 6, 2022
Grant date	Dec 6, 2022

Abstract

A refrigerator having a thawing device. The thawing device includes: a cavity, a device door, a radio frequency generator module, an upper electrode plate and a lower electrode plate, and 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 to determine the thawing progress of the object to be processed.

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 at least one containing space, 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;
an upper electrode plate and a lower electrode plate, horizontally disposed on a top wall and a bottom wall of the thawing chamber 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
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 change rate of a dielectric coefficient of the object to be processed according to a voltage and a current of the incident wave signal and a voltage and a current of the reflected wave signal to determine the thawing progress of the object to be processed.

2. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein
when the change rate of the dielectric coefficient of the object to be processed is greater than or equal to a first rate threshold, working power of the radio frequency generation module is reduced by 30% to 40% to prevent the object to be processed from being excessively thawed.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein
when the change rate of the dielectric coefficient of the object to be processed decreases to be less than or equal to a second rate threshold, the radio frequency generation module stops working.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a thawing switch disposed on the compartment door 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.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein
a rear plate of the cavity is provided with a device air inlet, so that air outside the thawing device enters the thawing chamber through the device air inlet; and
side plates at two transverse sides of the thawing chamber are provided with device air outlets, so that gas in the thawing chamber is discharged to outside of the thawing device through the device air outlets.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 5 , wherein
a distance between the thawing device and the two transverse side walls of the containing space provided with the thawing device is 2 to 3 mm to discharge the gas in the thawing device to the containing space.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a power supply module for supplying power for the thawing device; and
a rear plate of the cavity is provided with a first wire-passing port, so that an electrical connection wire of the thawing device is led out from the first wire-passing port and connected to the power supply module.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an elastic conductive loop, disposed at a periphery of the forward opening so as to generate compression deformation when the device door is closed, and closely fits the device door.

9. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the thawing device further comprises:
a tray, disposed in the thawing chamber to carry the object to be processed; and
the tray is configured to controllably move in a depth direction of the thawing chamber, so that the object to be processed can be placed and taken out.

10. The refrigerator according to claim 9 , wherein
a distance between a lower surface of the tray and the lower electrode plate is 8 to 12 mm, thereby preventing friction between the tray and the lower electrode plate in a drawing process of the tray.

Assignees

• Haier Smart Home Co Ltd

Inventors

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

Classifications

• A23B4/07

  Thawing subsequent to freezing · CPC title

• F25D29/00

  Arrangement or mounting of control or safety devices · CPC title

• F25D11/02 Primary

  with cooling compartments at different temperatures · CPC title

• F25D29/003

  for movable devices · CPC title

• F25D23/12 Primary

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