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EP-3699532-B1 - ENTRANCE REFRIGERATOR

EP3699532B1EP 3699532 B1EP3699532 B1EP 3699532B1EP-3699532-B1

Inventors

  • Oh, Minkyu
  • LEE, WONJIN
  • CHOI, KYUKWAN
  • YEO, INSUN
  • KIM, MINSEOK
  • LEE, Deukwon
  • YUN, YEZO

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20200224

Claims (12)

  1. A refrigerator (10) comprising: a cabinet (11) suitable to be installed to pass through or inserted into a door or a wall and defining a storage compartment (111) for storing goods; a housing (15) coupled to or formed integrally with a lower part of the cabinet (11); an outdoor side door (12) configured to open or close a front side of the storage compartment (111) and exposed to an outside of a space, the door or the wall being a boundary of the space; an indoor side door (13) configured to open or close a rear side of the storage compartment and exposed to an inside of the space; and a cold air supply device (30), at least a part of which is disposed in the housing (15), configured to make air in the storage compartment (111) cold, wherein the refrigerator further comprises at least one guide duct (16) mounted on a bottom surface of the housing (15) and extending in a front-to-rear direction of the housing (15), the at least one guide duct (16) having a discharge port (161) formed at a front end of the guide duct (16), such that the guide duct (16) is configured for indoor air, characterised in that the guide duct (16) is configured such that said indoor air may forcibly flow into the cold air supply device (30) in the housing (15) due to a heat dissipation fan of the cold air supply device (30) being configured to perform a function of heat dissipation from the cold air supply device (30) and become relatively high temperature air, and such that said indoor air may be discharged out of the housing (15) through the discharge port (161) and may flow downward along a surface of the door or wall.
  2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the guide duct (16) is mounted on a left side and/or a right side of the bottom surface of the housing (15).
  3. The refrigerator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the guide duct (16) comprises: a bottom portion (165); and a left side portion (163) and a right side portion (164) extending upward from left and right edge of the bottom portion (165), respectively.
  4. The refrigerator according to claim 3, wherein the guide duct (16) comprises a front portion (162) suitable to come in contact with the door or the wall, wherein the discharge port (161) is formed between the front portion (162) and a front end of the bottom portion (165).
  5. The refrigerator according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the bottom portion (165) is rounded upward and toward a rear end from a point which is spaced apart rearward from a front end by a predetermined distance.
  6. The refrigerator according to claim 4, wherein a suction hole (151a) for suctioning air is formed in a center of the housing (15), and wherein a suction plate (17) in which a plurality of through-holes are formed is mounted on the suction hole (151a).
  7. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the housing (15) comprises a first discharge port (158, 159) for discharging air, the first discharge port (158, 159) being disposed in a bottom portion of the housing (15) corresponding to a portion right above the guide duct (16).
  8. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the housing (15) further comprises a front discharge port (156) formed on a front surface of the housing (15) facing the door or the wall.
  9. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the housing (15) further comprises a rear discharge port (157) formed on a rear surface of the housing (15), and the rear discharge port (157) is covered by the indoor side door (13).
  10. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 9, insofar as depending on claim 6, wherein the cold air supply device (30) comprises: a thermoelectric element (31) having a heat absorbing surface and a heat generating surface; a cold sink (32) being in contact with the heat absorbing surface; and a heat sink (34) being in contact with the heat generating surface.
  11. The refrigerator of claim 10, the cold air supply device (30) further comprises: a heat absorption fan (33) disposed on or above the cold sink (32); the heat dissipation fan (36) disposed on or below the heat sink (34); and an insulation material (35) disposed between the cold sink (32) and the heat sink (34) to block heat transfer.
  12. The refrigerator of claim 11, wherein, when the heat dissipation fan (36) is driven, air is introduced into the housing (35) through the suction plate (17), and the air introduced into the housing (15) is discharged back through the discharge port (161).

Description

The present application claims the benefits of priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2019-0021867, filed on February 25, 2019, and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2019-0086973, filed on July 18, 2019. The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator installed at an entrance of a building, such as a home or a business. Recently, delivery services for delivering fresh goods to predetermined places are being utilized. In particular, when the goods are fresh food, a delivery vehicle is provided with a refrigerator or a warmer to store and deliver the food so as to prevent the food from spoiling or cooling. Generally, the food is packed in a packaging material and delivered so as to keep the food cool or warm, depending on the type of food. The packaging material is often composed of environmental pollutants such as polystyrene foam. The social atmosphere recently has placed an emphasis on a reduction of an amount of packaging material used. When a user is at home at the time of a delivery, the delivery person may deliver the food to the user in a face-to-face manner. However, when the user is not at home or when the delivery time is too early or too late, it is difficult for the delivery person to deliver the food in a face-to-face manner. Therefore, there is a need to be able to deliver the food even if the delivery person does not face the user, and to prevent the food from spoiling or cooling until the food is finally delivered to the user. To solve this problem, in recent years, a product has been introduced in which a refrigerator is installed at an entrance (e.g. a front door) of a predetermined place, so that a delivery person can deliver the food into the refrigerator in order to keep the food fresh until a user can receive the food by accessing the refrigerator at a convenient time. EP 0 920 686 A1 discloses a storage device for delivery and pickup of goods. FR 1 347 414 A discloses a refrigerator having a duct, which forms an air flow passage for cooling fins of a thermoelectric assembly. KR 200 357 547 Y1 discloses a refrigerator according to the preamble of appended claim 1 for storing foods, which is installed in a house door or a wall near the house door. JP 2003 307376 A discloses a drawer-type refrigerator using a Peltier module. An aspect of the present disclosure provides an entrance refrigerator in which relatively high temperature air forcibly flowing due to a heat dissipation fan of a cold air supply device does not come into direct contact with a user. The present invention is defined by the appended independent claim, and preferred aspects of the present invention are defined by the appended dependent claims. According to one embodiment, an entrance refrigerator comprises: a cabinet installed to pass through or inserted into a door or a wall and defining a storage compartment for storing goods; a housing coupled to or formed integrally with a lower part of the cabinet; an outdoor side door configured to open or close a front side of the storage compartment and exposed to an outside of a space, the door or the wall being a boundary of the space; an indoor side door configured to open or close a rear side of the storage compartment and exposed to an inside of the space; a cold air supply device, at least a part of which is disposed in the housing, configured to make air in the storage compartment cold; and at least one guide duct mounted on a bottom surface of the housing and extending in a front-to-rear direction of the housing, the at least one guide duct having a discharge port formed therein. Preferably, the guide duct may be mounted on a left side and/or a right side of the bottom surface of the housing. According to the invention, the guide duct comprises a bottom portion in which the discharge port is formed; and may comprise a left side portion and a right side portion extending upward from left and right edge of the bottom portion, respectively. Preferably, the discharge port may be formed in a front end of the bottom portion, wherein front ends of the left side portion and the right side portion of the guide duct are configured to come in contact with the door or the wall. Preferably, the bottom portion may be rounded upward and toward a rear end from a point which is spaced apart rearward from a front end by a predetermined distance. According to the invention, the housing may comprise a first discharge port for discharging air, the first discharge port being disposed in a bottom portion of the housing corresponding to a portion right above the guide duct. In addition, the housing may further comprise a second discharge port formed on a front surface of the housing facing the door or the wall. Further, the housing may further comprise a third discharge port formed on a rear surface of the housing. The third discharge port may be covered by the indoor side door. Preferably, the cold air supply device comprises: a thermoelectric element having a heat absorbing surface and a