Refrigerator
AssigneeSanyo Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorsYasuyuki Takahashi, Kiyotaka Nagao, Toshihide Hasegawa, Motoyuki Murakoso
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refrigerator is divided into a storage compartment and an air duct in a thermal insulating housing. The cold air for use of the thermal exchange with a cooler in the duct circulates in the storage compartment by a fan. The refrigerator has an ultraviolet ray irradiating device capable of irradiating ultraviolet rays. The ultraviolet ray irradiating device is installed at the inflow side of cooler, but separated from the cooler, so that the ultraviolet rays irradiate the duct by the ultraviolet ray irradiating device. Therefore, various germs such as bacteria or molds in the refrigerator can be prevented from growth, and the refrigerator can be deodorized.
Claims19
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a thermal insulating housing, formed in the refrigerator, and a storage compartment and an air duct being divided therein;
- a cooler, formed in the air duct, for use of a thermal exchange with the cooler to cool cold air in the air duct;
- a fan, for circulating the cold air cooled by the cooler, in the storage compartment;
- an ultraviolet ray irradiating device, having a first surface capable of irradiating ultraviolet rays and a second surface capable of irradiating visible light, wherein by the ultraviolet ray irradiating device, the ultraviolet rays irradiate the air duct and visible light irradiates the storage compartment.
A refrigerator, comprising
- a thermal insulating housing, formed in the refrigerator, and a storage compartment and an air duct are divided therein;
- a cooler, formed in the air duct for use of a thermal exchange with the cooler to cool cold air in the air duct;
- a fan, for circulating the cold air cooled by the cooler, in the storage compartment;
- an ultraviolet ray irradiating device, capable of irradiating ultraviolet rays, wherein the ultraviolet ray irradiating device is installed at the inflow side of the cooler but separated from the cooler, so that the ultraviolet rays irradiate the air duct by the ultraviolet ray irradiating device;
- and
- a partition plate for dividing the storage compartment and the air duct, wherein the ultraviolet ray irradiating device is installed on the partition plate embedded in the partition plate.
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cooler, formed in an air duct, for use of a thermal exchange with the cooler to cool cold air in the air duct;
- a fan, for circulating the cold air cooled by the cooler in storage compartment;
- an ultraviolet ray irradiating device, wherein the ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet ray irradiating device irradiate the storage compartment and the air duct;
- and
- a plurality of special compartments adjacently formed in the storage compartment, wherein at least one of the special compartment serves as the disinfection compartment, and at lease one surface of another special compartment covers one surface of the disinfection compartment.
A refrigerator, having a cold temperature area and a freezing temperature region, comprising:
- a first cooler, arranged at an upper portion from a middle of an innermost of the cold temperature area, for cooling the cold temperature area;
- a second cooler for cooling the freezing temperature region;
- an air duct, located at the innermost of the cold temperature area and below the first cooler, for returning cold air to the first cooler;
- and
- a discharging lamp, placed under the first cooler for creating ultraviolet rays and irradiating the ultraviolet rays to the air duct.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.