Refrigerator

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12313305-B2
Application number	US-202017434714-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2020
Priority date	Feb 28, 2019
Publication date	May 27, 2025
Grant date	May 27, 2025

Abstract

A refrigerator includes a refrigerator chamber; a freezer chamber partitioned from the refrigerator chamber; a deep-freezing chamber accommodated inside the freezer chamber and partitioned from the freezer chamber; and a freezer evaporator chamber formed on the rear side of the deep-freezing chamber. The refrigerator may include a partition wall including a grill fan, which partitions the freezer evaporator chamber and the freezer chamber, and a shroud which is connected to the back surface of the grill fan and forms a flow path for supplying cold air of the freezer evaporator chamber to the freezer chamber.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A refrigerator comprising:
a refrigerating compartment;
a freezing compartment partitioned from the refrigerating compartment;
a cooling compartment accommodated in the freezing compartment and partitioned from the freezing compartment;
a freezing evaporation compartment;
a partition wall comprising a grille pan to partition the freezing evaporation compartment and the freezing compartment from each other, and a shroud disposed at a rear surface of the grille pan to define a passage through which cold air of the freezing evaporation compartment is supplied to the freezing compartment;
a freezing compartment evaporator accommodated in the freezing evaporation compartment to generate the cold air for cooling the freezing compartment;
a freezing compartment fan mounted on the shroud to supply the cold air of the freezing evaporation compartment to the freezing compartment;
a thermoelectric module comprising: a thermoelectric element comprising a heat absorption surface facing the cooling compartment and a heat generation surface that is an opposite surface of the heat absorption surface; a cold sink in communication with the heat absorption surface and disposed behind the cooling compartment; a heat sink in communication with the heat generation surface; and a housing to accommodate the heat sink and having a rear surface exposed to the cold air of the freezing evaporation compartment;
a cooling compartment fan disposed in front of the heat absorption surface to cause air within the cooling compartment to forcibly flow;
a cold sink heater disposed at the cold sink; and
a back heater disposed at one side of the shroud,
wherein the back heater is disposed at a rear side of the shroud and disposed outside the passage.

2. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the partition wall comprises a module sleeve extending from a front surface of the grille pan to communicate with the cooling compartment, and
a thermoelectric module accommodation portion to accommodate the thermoelectric module is defined in the module sleeve,
wherein the cold sink heater is mounted on the thermoelectric module accommodation portion.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 2 , further comprising a defrost water guide extending downward from a bottom of the thermoelectric module accommodation portion to guide discharge of defrost water formed in the thermoelectric module accommodation portion, and
wherein a housing accommodation hole is defined at one side of the shroud, which corresponds to a rear surface of the thermoelectric module accommodation portion,
wherein the housing is fitted into the housing accommodation hole and partition the thermoelectric module accommodation portion from the freezing evaporation compartment.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 3 , wherein the cold sink heater extends along a bottom of the thermoelectric module accommodation portion and into an inside of the defrost water guide.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 4 , wherein the shroud comprises a back heater seating portion that covers a rear surface of the defrost water guide,
wherein the back heater is seated on the back heater seating portion.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 5 , wherein a guide through-hole through which a lower end of the defrost water guide communicates with the freezing evaporation compartment is defined at one side of the shroud, which corresponds to a lower side of the back heater seating portion so that defrost water formed by the cold sink heater is discharged to the freezing evaporation compartment.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the back heater constitutes a portion of the cold sink heater, and
the back heater and the cold sink heater are turned on or off at the same time.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the back heater is provided as a separate heater that is distinguished from the cold sink heater so that the back heater and the cold sink heater are controlled to be turned on or off independently.

9. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the cold sink heater and the back heater are:
turned on when a freezing compartment defrost period has lapsed, and cooling operations of the freezing compartment and the cooling compartment are ended; and
turned off when all of freezing compartment defrost and cooling compartment defrost are ended.

10. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the cooling compartment defrost comprises:
a controller configured to initiate a cold sink defrost in which a reverse voltage is applied to the thermoelectric module to remove frost or ice attached to the cold sink; and
the controller configured to initiate a heat sink defrost in which a constant voltage is applied to the thermoelectric module to remove frost or ice attached to a rear surface of the housing,
wherein the back heater is turned on during at least the heat sink defrost operation.

11. A refrigerator comprising:
a refrigerating compartment;
a freezing compartment partitioned from the refrigerating compartment;
a freezing compartment evaporator to cool the freezing compartment;
a freezing compartment defrost heater disposed at the freezing compartment evaporator;
a cooling compartment accommodated in the freezing compartment and partitioned from the freezing compartment;
a freezing evaporation compartment to accommodate the freezing compartment evaporator;
a partition wall to partition the freezing evaporation compartment and the freezing compartment from each other, the partition wall to constitute at least a portion of a wall defining the freezing evaporation compartment;
a freezing compartment fan disposed at the freezing evaporation compartment to supply cold air of the freezing evaporation compartment to the freezing compartment;
a thermoelectric module to cool the cooling compartment to a temperature lower than that of the freezing compartment and comprising:
a thermoelectric element comprising a heat absorption surface facing the cooling compartment and a heat generation surface that is an opposite surface of the heat absorption surface;
a cold sink in communication with the heat absorption surface and disposed at one side of the cooling compartment; and
a heat sink in communication with the heat generation surface;
a cooling compartment fan disposed at one side of the heat absorption surface to cause air within the cooling compartment to forcibly flow;
a cold sink heater disposed at the cold sink;
a back heater disposed at one side of a wall of the freezing evaporation compartment; and
a controller configured to control the refrigerator so that, when a cooling operation for cooling the cooling compartment and a cooling compartment defrost operation for removing frost or ice generated on the thermoelectric module conflict with each other, the cooling compartment defrost operation is performed by priority, and the cooling operation is stopped,
wherein, when an input condition for the cooling compartment defrost operation is satisfied, the controller is configured to perform the cooling operation,
the cooling operation is an operation performed to apply a constant voltage to the thermoelectric element and drive the cooling compartment fan so that a temperature of the cooling compartment drops, and
when the cooling compartment defrost operation is performed after the cooling operation is ended, the controller is configured to:
perform a first operation in which a reverse voltage is applied to the thermoelectric element to melt the frost or ice deposited on the cold sink, and
apply a voltage to the back heater after the deep-cooling operation is ended, in order to red

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Yun Seokjun
• Lim Hyoungkeun
• Song Seongmin
• Lee Junghun
• Lee Hoyoun

Classifications

• F25B2321/02

  using Peltier effects; using Nernst-Ettinghausen effects · CPC title

• F25B47/006

  for preventing frost · CPC title

• F25D11/02

  with cooling compartments at different temperatures · CPC title

• F25D2317/066

  characterised by the air supply · CPC title

• F25D2317/063

  with air guides · CPC title