Ice-free meat fresh-preservation control method, controller, and refrigerator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12063940-B2
Application number	US-201716611795-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2017
Priority date	May 9, 2017
Publication date	Aug 20, 2024
Grant date	Aug 20, 2024

Abstract

A non-freezing meat fresh-preservation control method, a controller and a refrigerator are provided. The non-freezing meat fresh-preservation control method includes: acquiring a current temperature of meat food in a compartment of a refrigerator in real time; judging whether the current temperature of the meat food is greater than or equal to a first temperature threshold t 0 , and if yes, controlling the compartment to perform a cooling operation; judging whether the meat food is frozen during the cooling operation, and if yes, controlling the compartment to perform a heating operation; and continuing the performance of the acquiring the current temperature after the performance of the heating operation is completed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A controller in a refrigerator, comprising:
a temperature acquisition module configured to acquire, from one or more temperature detecting devices, a first temperature of a piece of meat in a compartment of the refrigerator;
a first judgment module configured to determine whether the first temperature of the piece of meat is greater than or equal to a first temperature threshold;
a first control module configured to start a cooling operation on the compartment by controlling an opening state of a damper of the compartment when the first judgment module determines that the first temperature of the piece of meat is greater than or equal to the first temperature threshold;
a second judgment module configured to determine whether the piece of meat is frozen during the cooling operation based on one or more of the first temperature being lower than a second threshold or a period of time during which the first temperature remains being longer than a third threshold; and
a second control module configured to start a heating operation on the compartment when the second judgment module determines that the piece of meat is frozen during the cooling operation.

2. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the second control module is further configured to control a heating operation on the compartment when the first judgment module determines that the first temperature of the piece of meat is less than the first temperature threshold.

3. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the first control module is further configured to continuously control the cooling operation on the compartment when the second judgment module determines that the piece of meat has not been frozen during the cooling operation.

4. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the second judgment module is configured to:
determine that the piece of meat is frozen during the cooling operation if the piece of meat has a valley temperature point during the cooling operation and a temperature elevation amount in a first preset continuous time period starting from the valley temperature point is greater than or equal to a preset temperature change amount; and
determine that the piece of meat is frozen during the cooling operation if a temperature of the piece of meat remains unchanged during a second preset continuous time period during the cooling operation.

5. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the temperature acquisition module is configured to:
acquire the first temperature of the piece of meat in the compartment of the refrigerator using a plurality of temperature sensors in real time; and
the second judgment module is configured to:
determine whether the piece of meat is frozen during the cooling operation using the plurality of temperature sensors and based on a first determination result of a temperature sensor of the plurality of temperature sensors indicating that the piece of meat has been frozen during the cooling operation.

6. The controller of claim 1 , wherein when the first control module controls the cooling operation on the compartment, it is configured to:
control the cooling operation on the compartment according to an initial target temperature, the initial target temperature being in a range from about −10 to about −1° C.

7. The controller of claim 1 , wherein when the first control module controls the cooling operation on the compartment, it is configured to:
control the cooling operation on the compartment according to a first target temperature, and continuously control the cooling operation on the compartment according to a second target temperature after a temperature of the piece of meat has been cooled down to the first temperature threshold, the first target temperature being lower than the second target temperature.

8. The controller of claim 1 , wherein when the first control module controls the cooling operation on the compartment, it is configured to:
control a damper of the compartment to be fully opened and perform the cooling operation according to an initial target temperature, and control the damper of the compartment to be half-opened and continuously perform the cooling operation according to the initial target temperature after the a temperature of the piece of meat has been cooled down to the first temperature threshold.

9. The controller of claim 1 , wherein when the second control module controls the heating operation on the compartment to perform, it is configured to:
control the heating operation on the compartment according to a third target temperature, the third target temperature being in a range from about −1° C. to about 6° C.

10. The controller according to claim 1 , wherein the first temperature threshold is in a range from about −2 to about 4° C.

11. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the compartment is one or more of:
a variable temperature chamber of the refrigerator or a variable temperature region isolated by the variable temperature chamber, a variable temperature drawer in a refrigerating compartment of the refrigerator or a variable temperature region isolated by the variable temperature drawer, and a variable temperature drawer in a freezing compartment of the refrigerator or a variable temperature region isolated by the variable temperature drawer.

12. The controller of claim 1 , further comprising:
a reminding module configured to send a reminder information to a user through one or more of an indicator light coupled to the refrigerator or an user interface coupled to the refrigerator if it is judged that a storage time of the piece of meat in the compartment of the refrigerator exceeds a preset number of days.

Assignees

• Hefei Hualing Co Ltd
• Hefei Midea Refrigerator Co
• Midea Group Co Ltd

Inventors

• Gong Qinqin
• Shi Huixin
• Wu Zhigang
• Ning Zhifang

Classifications

• F25D2700/16

  Sensors measuring the temperature of products · CPC title

• F25D2600/04

  Controlling heat transfer · CPC title

• F25D29/008

  Alarm devices · CPC title

• A23B4/08 Primary

  with addition of chemicals {or treatment with chemicals} before or during cooling {, e.g. in the form of an ice coating or frozen block} · CPC title

• F25D29/005 Primary

  Mounting of control devices · CPC title