US1810916A - Refrigerating apparatus - Google Patents

Description

June 23, 1931. J. 6. KING REFRIGERATING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 28, 1927 June 23, 1931. .1. G. KING REFRIGERATING APPARATUS I Fil ed Sept. 28. 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Quota:

Patented June 23, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE JESSE G. KING, OF DAYTON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO FRIGIDAIRE CORPORATION, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Application filed September 28, 1927. Serial No. 222,673.

This invention relates to refrigerating ap-' paratus particularly to the form of refrigerating element and its arrangement in household refrigerator cabinets. One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an evaporator which is eflective to cool circulating air in a refrigerating cabinet and to freeze ice for table use, and which may be placed within a confined space.

Another object of the invention is to improve and simplify the arrangement and con struction of evaporators to reduce their cost of manufacture and to facilitate their installation.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly 20 shown.

In the drawings:

Figs. 1 and 2 are front and side elevations respectively of an evaporator constructed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 3 is an elevation of a household refrigerating cabinet, a portion being broken away to show my improved evaporator therein, and

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on the line 30 H of Fig. 3.

In mechanical household refrigerators it is usual to provide a refrigerating element or evaporator which serves two purposes, cooling circulating air in order to cool the cabinet, and freezing ice fortable use. In small cabinets designed to beplaced in restricted spaces, food storage space is important, hence little space is available for the evaporator and consequently special provision must be made to enable an evaporator which will serve both these purposes to be installed in such cabinets. One form of evaporator widely in use includes a header such as indicated by in Figs. 1 and 2 forming a reservoir for liquid refrigerant supplied thereto through a conduit 11 and from which refrigerant vapor is withdrawn through a conduit 12 by any suitable refrigerator apparatus, not shown. The supply of liquid refri erant to the header is regulated by a float va ve in the header as more fully disclosed in the patent to Osborn No. 1,556,708, October 13, 1925. In order to be able to disconnect the header from the refrigerating apparatus in service, the refrigerant conduits 11 and 12 are ordinarily connected to shut- oil valves 13 and 14 which are attached to cover plate 15 which carries the float valve referred to and forms the closure for the end of the header. Each shut-off valve includes a housing 1311 which contains a valve stem (not shown) and which is closed by a plug 136 for preventing the escape of any refrigerant which might possibly leak past the stem when the valve is open. The valve may be operated by removing the plug and inserting a key. The structure and arrangement of the portions of the valves within the casings may be as more fully shown in the application of Jesse G. King and Harry B. Hull, Serial No. 209,587, filed July 30, 1927.

Due to the space requirements'of the float mechanism and to the space occupied by the shut-01f valves, the header is necessarily long. Evaporators of this type heretofore made include, besides the header referred to, a numberof loops of pipe depending from the header for circulating refrigerant and for enclosing an ice freezing space, all as more fully disclosed in the application of Jesse G. King, Serial No. 666,257, filed September 29, 1923.

There is a large class of refrigerator cabinets for use in restricted spaces which are relatively wide from side to side and relatively thin from front to back so as not to project any great distance in the room in which they are used. Such a cabinet is illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, wherein 30 designates a cabinet having a cooling compartment 31 and a food storage compartment 32. The two compartments are separated by a partition 33, having an opening 34 to permit the flow ofcold air from the cooling compartment to the storage compartment, and having side openings 35 for the flow of warm air from the storage compartment to the cooling compartment. Vertical baflles 36 form flues 37 which carry the warm air from the storage compartment up into the top of the cooling compartment from where it flows downward-" ly in contact with the refrigerating element and thence out through the opening 34;. The cooling compartment and storage compartment are provided with doors 38 and 39 respectively. The evaporators heretofore constructed cannot be placed in such cabinets because the necessary length of the header prevents the evaporator being placed in the cabinet with its axis perpendicular to the door, that is, so that ice trays may be withdrawn from the freezing space.

In accordance with my invention I prefer to construct the evaporator with the usual header and to form the freezing space by a number of fiat loops of conduit 20, which are arranged in planes transverse to the axis of the header. Preferably two groups of such loops are used, each consisting of a plurality of loops as shown in Fig. 2, the groups being arranged in two planes parallel to each other and transverse to the axis of the header. These planes define a freezing space 21 in which is placed one or more enclosures 22 for ice-making receptacles. Preferably the enclosures are in the form of metal sleeves open atone end and are closed at the other end by a metal plate 24, and soldered to the tubes 20. The sleeves form pockets or chambers for receiving pans in which water is frozen.

In accordance with my invention I place the evaporator in the cooling compartment 31 of the cabinet with its header parallel to the door and with the open end of the ice chamber toward the door. The evaporator is supported inthe cabinet in any suitable manner as by resting on blocks 40. Thus although the cabinet is too thin from front to'back to receive the usual evaporator, my invention .enables an evaporator of adequate capacity to be placed in this restricted space. The loops 20 circulate refrigerant to freeze water within the enclosures 22 and air circulating up through the side flues 37 and down over the header is chilled to cool the storage compartment below. The shut-off valves are preferably arranged so as to point toward the door and are consequently readily accessible. Likewise the freezing compartment is placed in the most convenient manner, ice trays being removable from the front of the evaporator when the door is open.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, all coming within the scope of the claim which follows.

What is claimed is as follows:

Refrigerating apparatus comprisin in combination a refrigerator cabinet having a. cooling compartment; a door forming a closure for the front of said compartment; and a refrigeratin element including an elongated header orming a reservoir for liquid refrigerant extending substantially the entire width of the compartment, an elongated casing for supportin an ice-makin contalner transverse to t e header and avlng an opening facing the door, and a lurality nature.

JESSE G. KING.

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