Abstract:
A radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator includes an airflow guide that separates a condenser from a blower fan in order to prevent a cool air and a hot air from mixing together, thereby increasing an efficiency of the built-in refrigerator.

Description:
This Nonprovisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 10-2003-0086307 filed in Korea, Republic of on Dec. 1, 2003, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator, and more particularly, to a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator that has a less pneumatic resistance for an efficient flow of a cooling air. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     A refrigerator is a kitchen appliance in which foods can be stored at a low temperatures in order to freshly store the foods for a long time. The refrigerator largely includes a main body in which food storage room is located and a machine room in which refrigeration cycle is performed for cooling. 
     Since the refrigerator inevitably has a certain amount of volume, it sticks out from a wall when installed at a kitchen or a living room. This is not good for a space saving as well as a beautiful appearance. 
     To solve the above problem, there is provided a built-in refrigerator that is installed in a cabinet or a sink, looking to be an integral part of the kitchen or the living room. 
     The built-in refrigerator includes a main body having a food storage room and a machine room in which a refrigerant circulates for keeping the food storage room cool. 
     Because of an installation condition of the built-in refrigerator as mentioned above, there is a disadvantage in circulating an air through the machine room for heat exchange. Therefore, the heat exchange efficiency and a discharge of the air after the heat exchange are increasing concerns of the related art built-in refrigerator. 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic sectional view illustrating a built-in refrigerator of the related art. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , a built-in cabinet  10  includes a refrigerator main body  11  installed therein, a baseboard  14  disposed at a bottom of a front side thereof, a machine room  15  disposed at a bottom of a rear side of the refrigerator main body  11 , and a support board  13  supporting the refrigerator main body  11 . 
     The built-in cabinet  10  also includes an air-introducing hole  21  formed in the baseboard  14 , a suction passage  18  communicating with the air-introducing hole  21 , and an air discharge passage  19  located at a rear side of the refrigerator main body  11 . The suction passage  18  and the air discharge passage  19  together constitute a radiation passage. 
     The refrigerator main body  11  is installed within an inner space of the built-in cabinet. Particularly, the refrigerator main body  11  is mounted on the support board  13  and between a front door panel  12  and a back wall  17 . The baseboard  14  is installed to block external dirt and for a beauty purpose. 
     The machine room  15  is protected using a back cover  16 , and it induces and discharges an ambient air. 
     The ambient air is introduced at the air-introducing hole  21  that is disposed at a bottom of the font side of the built-in cabinet  10 . The introduced air flows along the suction passage  18  that is disposed in a bottom of the built-in cabinet  10 . After circulating the machine room  15 , the introduced air is discharged along the air discharge passage  19 . 
       FIG. 2  is a front view illustrating a structure of the machine room  15  of the built-in refrigerator of the related art. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2 , the machine room  15  is disposed at a bottom of a rear side of the refrigerator main body  11 . The machine room  15  includes a compressor  23  stably mounted in a predetermined portion thereof for compressing a refrigerant, a condenser  24  in which heat is exchanged between the refrigerant and the introduced ambient air, and a blower fan  25  mounted at a front and/or a back of the condenser  24  for inducing the introduced ambient air. 
     The back cover  16  is attached on a back of the machine room  15  in order to protect parts disposed in the machine room  15  from an external impact, and to provide an air passage therethrough. The back cover  16  is formed with inlet holes  20  in order to induce the ambient air when the blower fan  25  is driven, outlet holes  22  in order to draw off the introduced ambient air. 
     When the blower fan  25  is driven, the ambient air is introduced into the machine room  15  through the inlet holes  20  of the back cover  16 . The introduced ambient air is discharged through the outlet holes  22  of the back cover  16  after exchanging heat with the condenser  24  and the compressor  23 . The discharged air from the machine room  15  flows through the air discharge passage  19  to an outside of the built-in cabinet, simultaneously another ambient air being introduced from the suction passage  18  to the machine room  15 . 
     However, since the blower fan  25  of the related art is an axial flow fan, it induces an air in an axial direction and discharges the air in the same direction. Therefore, there is a drawback in that the condenser  24  must be disposed at a front or a rear of the blower fan  25 . 
     In other words, though the related art machine room of the built-in refrigerator has a small volume, it is provided with the axial flow fan that induces and discharges the ambient air in the same axial direction. Therefore, it is difficult for the related art built-in refrigerator to form an efficient air-flowing channel. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art. 
     An object of the present invention is to provide a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator that has a machine room having an improved structure such that an air flows therethrough with a low resistance, thereby attaining an efficient radiating. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator in which a machine room is divided into a compressor section having a compressor and a condenser section having a condenser, the machine room being modified to have low pneumatic resistance, thereby increasing a radiating efficiency. 
     A further another object of the present invention is to provide a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator that has an airflow guide curved upwardly for discharging an air upwardly from the machine room. 
     Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention 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, there is provided a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator including: a refrigerator main body installed in a built-in cabinet; a machine room disposed at one side of the refrigerator main body, the machine room including a compressor for compressing a refrigerant, a condenser for exchanging heat between the refrigerant that has passed the compressor, and an air, a blower fan for forcing the air to flow, and an airflow guide for separating the condenser from the blower fan; and a back cover for protecting a back side of the machine room. 
     In an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator comprising: a refrigerator main body installed in a built-in cabinet; a machine room positioned at a predetermined portion of a rear side of the refrigerator main body; a condenser disposed at an inner predetermined portion of the machine room; a blower fan installed above the condenser, for inhaling ambient air; an airflow guide for partitioning the condenser and the blower fan into an upper side and a lower side; and a support board disposed on a bottom of the refrigerator main body, for supporting the refrigerator main body. 
     In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator comprising: a machine room including a compressor section in which a compressor is accommodated and a condenser section in which a condenser in which a refrigerant that passes through the compressor exchanges heat with air is accommodated; a blower fan for introducing the air into the machine room; a vertical barrier for partitioning the machine room into the compressor section and the condenser section; and an airflow guide horizontally formed between the condenser and the blower fan, the airflow guide having one edge curved upward. 
     In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator comprising: a compressor for compressing a refrigerant; a condenser for condensing the compressed refrigerant; a cross flow fan disposed above the condenser, for inhaling an ambient air; and an airflow guide formed between the condenser and the cross flow fan. 
     According to the inventive machine room of the built-in refrigerator, the machine room is partitioned into an upper and an lower portions by an airflow guide, and an ambient air communicates between the upper portion and the lower portion, thereby separating inflow and outflow and increasing an heat exchange efficiency. 
     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. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings: 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic sectional view illustrating a built-in refrigerator of the related art; 
         FIG. 2  is a front view illustrating a structure of a machine room of a built-in refrigerator of the related art; 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic sectional view illustrating a structure of a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator according to the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is an enlarged sectional view of a machine room depicted within a circle of  FIG. 3 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view of a machine room depicted in  FIG. 4 ; 
         FIG. 6  is a plan view illustrating a flow of an air that passes through a machine room according to the present invention; and 
         FIG. 7  is a front view illustrating a flow of an air that passes through a machine room according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred 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. 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic sectional view illustrating a structure of a radiating apparatus of a built-in refrigerator according to the present invention,  FIG. 4  is an enlarged sectional view of a machine room depicted within a circle of  FIG. 3 , and  FIG. 5  is a perspective view of the machine room depicted in  FIG. 4 . 
     Referring to  FIGS. 3 through 5 , a built-in cabinet  100  includes a refrigerator main body  110  installed therein, door panels  120  provided at a front side of the refrigerator main body  110 , a support board  130  formed horizontally at a lower side of the main body  110 , for supporting the refrigerator main body  110 , and a baseboard  140  disposed at a front side of the support board  130 . 
     The built-in cabinet  100  also includes a machine room  150  installed at a lower side of a rear side of the refrigerator main body  110  and a radiation passage configured to exchange heat generated from the machine room  150  with outdoor air. 
     In detail, the radiation passage includes an air-introducing hole  141  formed at a lower portion of the baseboard  140 , a suction passage  180  for guiding the air inhaled through the air-introducing hole  141  to the machine room  150 , and an air discharge passage  181  vertically formed at a rear side of the refrigerator main body  110  such that the air inhaled into the machine room  150  through the suction passage  180  is heat-exchanged and then discharged. 
     In more detail, the air discharge passage  181  is vertically formed between the rear side of the refrigerator main body  110  and a rear wall  170  of the built-in cabinet  100 . 
     The machine room  150  is divided into a compressor section  156  and a condenser section  159 . The compressor section  156  is provided with a compressor  151  stably mounted therein. The condenser section  159  is provided with a condenser  152  in which the ambient air exchanges heat with a refrigerant, and a blower fan  153  stably mounted above the condenser  152 , for inhaling the ambient air. The machine room  150  further includes an airflow guide  155  separating the condenser  152  from the blower fan  153 . 
     A back cover  160  having a board shape is attached on an opened back of the machine room  150  and protects an inside of the machine room  150 . The back cover  160  is screwed to a rear side of the refrigerator main body  110 . The back cover  160  is formed with a plurality of air holes  161 ,  162 , and  163  such that the ambient air passes therethrough. 
     In detail, the air holes include one or more condenser inlet holes  161 , one or more condenser outlet holes  162 , and one or more compressor inlet/outlet holes  163 . The condenser inlet holes  161  allow the ambient air introduced along the suction passage  180  to be again introduced into the condenser section  159  by the blower fan  153 . The condenser outlet holes  162  allow the ambient air introduced into the condenser inlet holes  161  to exchange heat with the condenser  152  and then to be discharged through the air discharge passage  181 . The compressor inlet/outlet holes  163  allow the ambient air to be introduced into or to be discharged from the compressor section  156 . It will be apparent that shapes and numbers of the air holes  161 ,  162 , and  163  are not restricted to the embodiment of the present invention and all possible ways that flow resistance is minimized while the ambient air is introduced into and discharged from the machine room can be provided. 
     The blower fan  153  may be a cross flow fan that allows an air introduced thereinto to be discharged at a right angle. The airflow guide  155  is formed above the condenser  152  to partition the condenser section  159  into two parts. 
     In detail, the airflow guide  155  is disposed between the condenser inlet holes  161  and the condenser outlet holes  162  and is rounded upward at a predetermined curvature from one edge adjacent to the blower fan  153  toward the other edge neighboring the back cover  160 , such that the ambient air discharged from the blower fan  153  flows upwardly through the condenser outlet holes  162 . 
     Thus, since the airflow guide  155  has one edge rounded upward, it is prevented that the ambient air discharged through the condenser outlet holes  162  flows back to the machine room  150  through the condenser inlet holes  161 . 
     An overall flow of the ambient air through the radiating apparatus of the present invention will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     An ambient air inhaled through the air-introducing hole  141  flows along the suction passage  180 . The air flows into the condenser section  159  through condenser bottom inlet holes  158  and the condenser inlet holes  161 , and the compressor section  156  through the compressor inlet/outlet holes  163 . 
     The air flowed into the condenser section  159  exchanges heat with the condenser  152  and is then forced to flow through a rear opening  154  by the blower fan  153 . The forcibly flowing air flows upward along the rear opening  154 , flows upward along an upward curve of the airflow guide  155  and is then discharged through the condenser outlet holes  162  such that the air having a high temperature goes to an outside along the air discharge passage  181 . 
       FIGS. 6 and 7  are a plan view and a front view illustrating a flow of an air that passes through a machine room according to the present invention. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 6 and 7 , the machine room  150  is divided into the compressor section  156  and the condenser section  159  by a vertical barrier  157 . The compressor section  156  is provided with the compressor  210 . The condenser section  159  is provided with the condenser  152  at a lower portion and the blower fan  153  at an upper portion. 
     The airflow guide  155  is horizontally installed between the condenser  152  and the blower fan  153  such that the condenser  152  positioned at a lower side and the blower fan  153  positioned at an upper side form a multi-layer structure. The airflow guide  155  is perpendicularly secured to the vertical barrier  157  and is formed with the rear opening  154  such that the air that has passed through the condenser  152  can flow upward by an inhaling force of the blower fan  153 . 
     The airflow guide  155  may be integrally formed with the vertical barrier  157  by an injection molding. Also, the airflow guide  155  may be constructed such that one edge thereof is in contact with the vertical barrier  157 , the other edge is in contact with a wall of the machine room  150 , and the one edge and the other edge are coupled by a coupling member. 
     The machine room  150  is provided at a bottom thereof with the condenser bottom inlet holes  158 . The number of the condenser bottom hole  158  is at least one. 
     The overall flow of the ambient air described above will now be described with respective to an operation of the blower fan  153 . 
     When the blower fan  153  is driven, an ambient air is introduced into the machine room  150  through the condenser bottom inlet holes  158  and the condenser inlet holes  161 . The introduced air exchanges heat with the condenser  152  and then is forced to flow through the rear opening  154  toward the blower fan  153 . After passing through the blower fan  153 , the air is discharged along the upward curve of the airflow guide  155  formed between the condenser  152  and the blower fan  153 . 
     The airflow guide  155  guides the air discharged from the blower fan  153  in an upward direction as well as the air introduced from the low-positioned condenser  152 . Therefore, the discharged air is injected upward along the air discharge passage  181  formed between the rear side of the refrigerator main body  110  and the wall  170 , so that the air easily goes to an outside along the air discharge passage  181 . 
     The rear opening  154  formed at the rear of the airflow guide  155  provides a passage for the air to flow from the condenser inlet holes  161  to the blower fan  153 , connecting the lower portion with the upper portion of the condenser section  159 . 
     The airflow guide  155  has a curved shape for the air to be discharged upwardly. According to a preferred embodiment, the curved shape may be an upwardly curved “L” shape, and also a “T” or “Y” shape having a curve on each side of the airflow guide  155 . 
     If the built-in refrigerator installed in the built-in cabinet is powered on, each part disposed in the machine room  150  installed at the rear of the refrigerator main body  110  starts to operate. 
     The compressor  210  disposed in the machine room  150  compresses a refrigerant at a high temperature and a high pressure. The compressed refrigerant flows through the condenser for exchanging heat with the air such that the refrigerant cools down at a low temperature and a high pressure. 
     As the blower fan  153  operates, the ambient air is introduced into the condenser section  159  through the bottom inlet holes  158  and the condenser inlet holes  161  and exchanges heat with the refrigerant flowing in the condenser  152 . 
     The airflow guide  155  may be secured to each side and rear side of the machine room  150  in order to guide the inflow and outflow of the air without the vertical barrier  157  that divides the machine room  150 . 
     Though the airflow guide  155  is horizontally installed within the machine room, it may extend to the wall  170  that is spaced out a predetermined distance apart from the refrigerator main body  110 . 
     As described above, the machine room  150  of the built-in refrigerator of the present invention includes the airflow guide  155  that horizontally partitions the machine room into the upper and the lower portions and defines the rear opening  154  between the upper and the lower portions, so that separates the inducing airflow from the discharging airflow in order to increase the heat exchange efficiency. 
     The blower fan  153  may be a Sirocco fan or a turbo fan for inducing and discharging the air in a wanted direction so that the efficient heat exchange can be attained. 
     Further, the condenser is disposed at the lower portion of the machine room  150  and the blower fan  153  is disposed at the upper portion of the machine room  150  in order to prevent the discharged air from flowing back, thereby maximizing the heat exchange efficiency. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention. 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.