Patent ID: 8220289

Claim:
A refrigeration apparatus in which a compressor, a radiator, a pressure reducing unit and an evaporator are successively annularly connected to one another to constitute a refrigerant circuit, the refrigeration apparatus comprising: a refrigerator unit provided with at least a compressor and a radiator; one or a plurality of cooling units, each provided with at least a pressure reducing unit and an evaporator; an internal heat exchanger unit provided with a plurality of internal heat exchangers each constituted of a double tube and configured to perform heat exchange between a refrigerant discharged from the radiator and a refrigerant discharged from the evaporator, wherein the double tube constituting the internal heat exchanger is constituted of an inner tube and an outer tube, a high pressure side flow path through which the refrigerant from the radiator flows is constituted in the inner tube, and a low pressure side flow path through which the refrigerant from the evaporator flows is constituted between the inner tube and the outer tube; branch pipes connecting in parallel the low pressure side flow paths of the internal heat exchangers; and branch pipes connecting in parallel the high pressure side flow paths of the internal heat exchangers; the refrigerator unit being connected to each cooling unit via a communication pipe to constitute the refrigerant cycle, wherein the internal heat exchanger unit is provided in the communication pipe, and wherein the branch pipes are structured so that the number of low pressure side flow paths and high pressure side flow paths in the apparatus can be changed, such that the number of the internal heat exchangers to be connected to the communication pipe can be changed in accordance with the number of the cooling units connected to the refrigerator unit via the pipes, and the thermal load due to a use environment.