Patent Description:
With the advancement of technology and the improvement of people's living standards, users have higher and higher requirements for refrigerators. The traditional refrigerators with only a refrigerating room, a freezing room and a temperature-variable room can no longer meet users' diverse needs for storage space.

In recent years, a composite door body technology has emerged in the field of refrigerators. As is well-known to all, a traditional refrigerator door body is used to open and close a refrigeration chamber of a refrigerator body. At most, a bottle holder is disposed at an inner lining of the refrigerator door body for placing bottled articles. As for a refrigerator with the composite door body, the structure and functions of the door body are improved, which makes the door body include a main door and a secondary door, and enables the main door to be used for opening and closing the refrigeration chamber. In addition, the main door defines a door body chamber with an open front side, and the secondary door is used to open and close the door body chamber. The secondary door remains closed during rotation of the main door. The door body chamber can be used for placement of stored articles, and only the secondary door needs to be opened when taking and placing the stored articles, without opening the main door. It not only makes the operation more convenient and faster, but also avoids excessive cold energy loss caused by frequent opening of the main door.

For instance, <CIT>) relates to a refrigerator having a freezing chamber in a door. The refrigerator includes a case having a door which can be opened/closed, a refrigerating chamber provided on an inside of the case, a freezing chamber provided in a rear of the door, a freezing chamber door for opening/closing the freezing chamber, and a duct for suppling cold air to the freezing chamber, permitting convenient storage in and taking out food of the freezing chamber owing to a large width of the freezing chamber.

<CIT>) teaches a housing mounted at a rear surface of a door to define a storage space of food, a basket disposed inside the housing, a duct extending to the housing from one side of an evaporator to supply cold air generated by the evaporator into the storage space of the housing, and a fan assembly coupled to the duct to allow the cold air to be forcibly supplied.

<CIT>) discloses a refrigerator that comprises a refrigerator body, main door bodies and first auxiliary door bodies. A storage chamber is formed in the refrigerator body. The main door bodies are used for opening and closing the storage chamber. A door body storage chamber is formed by the main door bodies. A cold injecting port communicated with a refrigerator air feed flue and a cold returning port communicated with a refrigerator air returning flue are formed in the side wall of the door body storage chamber.

<CIT>) provides a refrigerator which comprises: a cabinet forming a storage space; a cold air supply unit supplying cold air to the cabinet; a first door rotationally installed in the cabinet to open and close the storage space, wherein an open portion which is divided with the storage space is formed; and a cold air duct individually installed in the cabinet and the first door to selectively guide cold air of the cold air supply unit to the open portion. The cold air duct connects the cold air supply unit and the open portion when the first door closes the storage space, and blocks connection between the cold air supply unit and the open portion when the first door opens the storage space.

However, the refrigerator with the composite door also has many defects. For example, the space of the door body chamber is too small, the temperature is not easy to control, the storage conditions of the door body chamber are similar to those of the refrigerating room, or even the door body chamber is in complete communication with the refrigerating room to become a part of the refrigerating room. These problems will have a negative impact on user experience and hinder the further development of the composite door technology.

Further relevant prior art document is <CIT>.

An object of the present invention is to solve at least one of the above-mentioned defects existing in the prior art, and to provide a refrigerator in which the temperature of a chamber of a door body is independent of the temperature of a chamber of a refrigerator body.

Another object of the present invention is to make the temperature distribution throughout the chamber of the door body more uniform. The invention is defined by its independent claim <NUM>. Further preferred embodiments are defined by the dependent claims.

According to the refrigerator provided by the present invention, the second chamber defined by the door body is not simply and directly communicated with the first chamber defined by the refrigerator body for uncontrolled cold and heat exchange, but is specially designed with an air duct for cooling the second chamber. As a result, the refrigerator can adjust the cryogenic temperature of the second chamber by adjusting the supply of cold air from the air duct to the second chamber, thus making the second chamber truly an independent storage space independent of the first chamber, enriching users' choices and improving the user experience.

Further, according to the refrigerator provided by the present invention, the air duct is in a square ring shape surrounding the outer side of the second chamber, and the air supply sections, located at the two transverse sides of the second chamber, of the air duct are used to supply air to the second chamber. Since the air supply sections span the entire height range of the second chamber, a designer can choose to dispose a plurality of air supply portions at multiple height positions of the air supply sections to meet the cold air demand at various height positions of the second chamber, and the temperature distribution throughout the second chamber is accordingly more uniform. Moreover, the cold air of each air supply portion comes directly from the air duct, so that the coverage of the air supply portions is directly cooled by the cold air of the air duct, and the refrigeration efficiency is thus higher.

Further, according to the refrigerator provided by the present invention, the second chamber is divided into the plurality of sub-chambers, and each of the sub-chambers is matched with the independent air supply portions, so that each sub-chamber is independently supplied with the cold air, and the temperatures of all the sub-chambers can be independently adjusted to form storage environments which are different from each other. A user can individually adjust the temperature of each sub-chamber according to the special requirement for the temperature of articles stored in the sub-chamber, so that a best storage state can be achieved.

The above and other objectives, advantages, and features of the present invention will be better understood by those skilled in the art according to the following detailed description of specific embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the following part, some specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail in an exemplary rather than limited manner with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals in the accompanying drawings indicate the same or similar components or parts. Those skilled in the art should understand that these accompanying drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. In figures:.

A refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to <FIG>. The orientations or positional relationships indicated by 'front', 'rear', 'upper', 'lower', 'top', 'bottom', 'inside', 'outside', 'transverse', etc. are based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, only for the convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that a device or an element referred to must has a particular orientation, and be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore cannot be construed as a limitation of the present invention.

<FIG> is a principle schematic diagram of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention; <FIG> is another principle schematic diagram of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention; <FIG> is a schematic diagram of a structure of a door body <NUM> in a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention; <FIG> is an N-N sectional schematic diagram of a main door <NUM> in <FIG>; and <FIG> is an enlarged view at A of <FIG>.

As shown in <FIG>, the refrigerator according to claim <NUM> includes a refrigerator body <NUM> and a door body <NUM>. A front side (the side where the door body <NUM> is located is used as the front side of the refrigerator provided by the present invention, and the front and rear directions have been shown in the figures) of the refrigerator body <NUM> is open to define a first chamber <NUM>. The door body <NUM> is used for opening and closing the first chamber <NUM>, and a second chamber <NUM> is defined by the door body <NUM>. The first chamber <NUM> and the second chamber <NUM> are both used for storage.

As shown in <FIG>, the door body <NUM> further defines a square annular air duct <NUM> surrounding an outer side of the second chamber <NUM>. The air duct <NUM> includes an air inlet section <NUM>, two air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM> and an air outlet section <NUM> which are respectively located at an upper side, two transverse sides and a lower side of the second chamber <NUM>. The air inlet section <NUM>, the two air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM> and the air outlet section <NUM> are only names for all sections of the square annular air duct <NUM>, and the air duct <NUM> is completely through on the whole.

In all the sections of the air duct <NUM>, the air inlet section has an air inlet <NUM> for intake of cold air, each of the air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM> has an air supply portion <NUM> for conveying the cold air to the second chamber <NUM>, and the air outlet section <NUM> has an air outlet <NUM> for discharging the remaining cold air in the air duct <NUM>. When the refrigerator is running, the cold air outside the second chamber <NUM> enters the air inlet section <NUM> of the air duct <NUM> through the air inlet <NUM>, and then flows from the air inlet section <NUM> in two ways to the left and right respectively so as to enter the two air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM>. The air supply portions <NUM> on the air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM> can be controlled to open to introduce part of the cold air into the second chamber <NUM> so as to cool the second chamber <NUM>, and the remaining air flow that does not enter the air supply portions <NUM> continues to flow downward into the air outlet section <NUM> and finally flows out of the air duct <NUM> through the air outlet section <NUM>. In this way, the air duct <NUM> completes the supply of cold air to the second chamber <NUM>, and fresh cold air continuously enters the air duct <NUM> from the air inlet <NUM> and flows to the air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM>, so as to be ready to be supplied to the second chamber <NUM> at any time, so that the cold air entering the second chamber <NUM> is fresher and has a lower temperature.

Each of the air supply portions <NUM> may be allowed to include an electric damper <NUM> so as to adjust the flow rate of the cold air entering the second chamber <NUM> from the air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, the air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM> are provided with ventilation openings <NUM> leading to the second chamber <NUM>, and the electric damper <NUM> is disposed at the ventilation openings <NUM> and is controlled by a main control panel of the refrigerator to adjust the ventilation volume of the ventilation openings <NUM> in a controlled manner (including closing the ventilation openings <NUM>).

In some existing structures, a plurality of ventilation openings are directly reserved on a rear wall of a door body, so that a chamber defined by the door body is directly communicated with a chamber defined by a refrigerator body, the cold air circulates freely, and the chamber of the refrigerator body is used to supply cold air to the chamber of the door body. However, in this way, the storage environment of the chamber of the door body is not much different from that of the chamber of the refrigerator body, so that the existence of the chamber of the door body is of little significance.

In the present invention, the second chamber <NUM> defined by the door body <NUM> is not simply and directly communicated with the first chamber <NUM> defined by the refrigerator body <NUM>, but is specially designed with the air duct <NUM> for cooling the second chamber <NUM>. Therefore, the refrigerator can adjust the cryogenic temperature of the second chamber <NUM> by adjusting the supply of cold air from the air duct <NUM> to the second chamber <NUM>, thus making the second chamber truly an independent storage space independent of the first chamber <NUM>, enriching users' choices and improving the user experience.

Furthermore, the air duct <NUM> is in a square ring shape surrounding the outer side of the second chamber <NUM>, and the air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM>, located at the two transverse sides of the second chamber <NUM>, of the air duct <NUM> are used to supply air to the second chamber <NUM>. Since the air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM> span the entire height range of the second chamber <NUM>, a designer can choose to dispose a plurality of air supply portions <NUM> at multiple height positions of the air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM> to meet the cold air demand at various height positions of the second chamber <NUM>, and the temperature distribution throughout the second chamber <NUM> is accordingly more uniform. Moreover, the cold air of each air supply portion <NUM> comes directly from the air duct <NUM>, so that the coverage of the air supply portions <NUM> is directly cooled by the cold air of the air duct <NUM>, and the refrigeration efficiency is thus higher.

For example, as shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, the second chamber <NUM> may be divided into a plurality of sub-chambers <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and each of the sub-chambers <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> is matched with at least one of the air supply portions <NUM>. For example, as shown in <FIG> and <FIG>, the four sub-chambers <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> can be provided, and storage modules such as storage boxes, drawers, and shelves may be disposed in the sub-chambers <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>. Each sub-chamber may be matched with the air supply portions <NUM> on the two air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM>. That is to say, there are one or more air intake points on both transverse sides of each sub-chamber, so as to give full play to the advantage of the air duct <NUM> having the two air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM>, so that the cold air supplied to the two transverse sides of the sub-chamber is allowed to be more equalized.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the second chamber <NUM> is provided with the plurality of sub-chambers <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and each of the sub-chambers is matched with the independent air supply portions, so that each sub-chamber is independently supplied with the cold air, and the temperatures of all the sub-chambers can be independently adjusted to form storage environments which are different from each other. A user can individually adjust the temperature of each sub-chamber according to the special requirement for the temperature of articles stored in the sub-chamber, so that a best storage state can be achieved.

In some embodiments, the door body <NUM> is configured to make both the air inlet <NUM> and the air outlet <NUM> located in the first chamber <NUM> when the door body is in a closed state, so as to allow the air duct <NUM> to introduce the cold air in the first chamber <NUM> and return air to the first chamber <NUM>. In some alternative embodiments, the air inlet <NUM> of the air duct <NUM> may also introduce cold air from other cold sources, for example, the air inlet is connected to an air path of the refrigerator body <NUM> to directly introduce the cold air from an evaporator room of the refrigerator. This alternative method will not be repeated here.

The refrigerator can be refrigerated by a vapor compression refrigeration cycle system, a semiconductor refrigeration system or other means. According to different refrigeration temperatures, all chambers inside the refrigerator can be divided into a refrigerating room, a freezing room and a temperature-variable room. For example, the temperature in the refrigerating room is generally controlled within a range of <NUM> to <NUM>, preferably <NUM> to <NUM>. The temperature range in the freezing room is generally controlled at -<NUM> to -<NUM>. The temperature-variable room can be adjusted within a temperature range of -<NUM> to <NUM> to achieve a variable temperature effect. Different types of articles are different in optimal storage temperatures and storage chambers suitable for storage. For example, fruit and vegetable foods are suitable for storage in the refrigerating room, and meat foods are suitable for storage in the freezing room. The first chamber <NUM> in the embodiment of the present invention is preferably a refrigerating room.

A bottom of the second chamber <NUM> may be provided with an air return inlet <NUM>. When the door body <NUM> is in the closed state, the air return inlet <NUM> is located in the first chamber <NUM> to allow the second chamber <NUM> to return air to the first chamber <NUM>. After entering the first chamber <NUM>, a return air flow flows from bottom to top due to its higher temperature and lower density, and is gradually cooled again by the cold air of the first chamber <NUM> in the flowing process.

In some embodiments, an exhaust fan <NUM> is disposed at a transverse central position of the air outlet section <NUM> to exhaust air to the air outlet <NUM>, so as to promote the flowing of air flow in the air duct <NUM>, as shown in <FIG>.

In addition, an air inlet fan may be disposed in the air inlet section <NUM> to suck the cold air into the air duct <NUM> through the air inlet <NUM> to promote the flowing of the air flow in the air duct <NUM>. Both the air inlet <NUM> and the air inlet fan are located at a transverse central position of the air inlet section <NUM>, so that the air inlet fan blows uniformly to both transverse sides of the air inlet section <NUM>.

<FIG> is an exploded schematic view of the main door <NUM> in <FIG>.

As shown in <FIG>, the door body <NUM> includes an inner liner <NUM> and an enclosure cover <NUM> The inner liner <NUM> defines the second chamber <NUM> and the air inlet section <NUM>. The door body <NUM> may further include an outer frame <NUM>, and the inner liner <NUM> is installed in the outer frame <NUM>. The enclosure cover <NUM> surrounds and covers the inner liner <NUM> at a circumferential outer side of the inner liner <NUM>, so as to define the two air supply sections <NUM>, <NUM> and the air outlet section <NUM> together with an outer wall of the inner liner <NUM>. A top of the enclosure cover <NUM> is provided with an air inlet grille <NUM> opposite to the air inlet <NUM>, and the air outlet <NUM> is provided at a bottom thereof. In the embodiment, the air duct <NUM> is formed by the enclosure cover <NUM> covering the outer side of the inner liner <NUM>, so that the structure is very simple and practical.

Claim 1:
A refrigerator, comprising:
a refrigerator body, a front side of which is open to define a first chamber (<NUM>); and
a door body (<NUM>), used for opening and closing the first chamber (<NUM>) and defining a second chamber (<NUM>), wherein the door body (<NUM>) further defines a square annular air duct (<NUM>) surrounding an outer side of the second chamber (<NUM>), and the air duct (<NUM>) comprises an air inlet (<NUM>), an air inlet section (<NUM>), two air supply sections (<NUM>, <NUM>) and an air outlet section (<NUM>) which are respectively located at an upper side, two transverse sides and a lower side of the second chamber (<NUM>); and
the air inlet (<NUM>) is configured for intake of cold air, each air supply section has an air supply portion for conveying the cold air to the second chamber (<NUM>), and the air outlet section (<NUM>) has an air outlet for discharging the remaining cold air in the air duct (<NUM>), wherein the door body (<NUM>) comprises a main door (<NUM>) and a secondary door (<NUM>), wherein the main door (<NUM>) is used for defining the second chamber (<NUM>) and the air duct (<NUM>), and the secondary door (<NUM>) is used for opening and closing the second chamber (<NUM>), and the refrigerator can adjust the cryogenic temperature of the second chamber (<NUM>) by adjusting the supply of cold air from the air duct (<NUM>) to the second chamber (<NUM>), thus making the second chamber (<NUM>) a storage space being independent of the first chamber (<NUM>), wherein the door body (<NUM>) comprises:
an inner liner (<NUM>), defining the second chamber (<NUM>) and the air inlet (<NUM>) section (<NUM>); and
an enclosure cover (<NUM>), which surrounds and covers the inner liner (<NUM>) at a circumferential outer side of the inner liner (<NUM>), so as to define the two air supply sections (<NUM>, <NUM>) and the air outlet section (<NUM>) together with an outer wall of the inner liner (<NUM>); and
a top of the enclosure cover (<NUM>) is provided with an air inlet grille (<NUM>) opposite to the air inlet (<NUM>), and the air outlet is provided at a bottom thereof.