Kimchi refrigerator and method for controlling the same

Abstract

A kimchi refrigerator having sensing devices to sense whether doors of the kimchi refrigerator are opened. The kimchi refrigerator includes a main body forming an external appearance, and including storage chambers opened at one surface for storing food; doors to open and close the opened surfaces of the storage chambers; and sensing devices to sense whether the doors are opened. Since the sensing devices detect whether the doors are opened and the opening time of the doors, and lamps to illuminate the inner portions of the storage chambers and alarm devices to inform a user of the opening of the doors for a designated time or more are turned on and off based on the results detected by the sensing devices, the kimchi refrigerator compensates for the leaked cold air due to the opening of the doors.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application Nos. 2004-10125 and 2004-34902, filed Feb. 16, 2004 and May 17, 2004, respectively, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a kimchi refrigerator, and more particularly to a kimchi refrigerator for sensing whether doors of the kimchi refrigerator are opened, and a method for controlling the same.

2. Description of the Related Art

Generally, a kimchi refrigerator is an apparatus for supplying cold air, generated from an evaporator constituting a refrigerating cycle, to a storage chamber containing various food, particularly kimchi, thereby maintaining the freshness of the stored food.

A conventional kimchi refrigerator includes a main body forming an external appearance and including storage chambers, and doors hinged to one side of the main body and rotated to open and close the storage chambers. Components constituting a refrigerating cycle for supplying cold air to the storage chambers are installed in the main body.

The door of the kimchi refrigerator cannot be completely closed if an excessive quantity of food is stored in the storage chamber, or may not be completed closed if a user is careless. The conventional kimchi refrigerator fails to provide a function for sensing the incomplete closing of the door, thereby causing loss of the cold air.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention is to provide a kimchi refrigerator, which can sense whether doors of the kimchi refrigerator are opened.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

The foregoing and/or aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing a kimchi refrigerator including a main body forming an external appearance, and including storage chambers each opened at one surface for storing food, doors to open and close the opened surfaces of the storage chambers, and sensing devices to sense whether the doors are opened.

Each of the sensing devices may include a magnetometric sensor installed on one of the main body and the corresponding one of the doors, and a magnet installed on the other one of the main body and the corresponding one of the doors, wherein the magnet is distant from the magnetometric sensor according to the opening of the corresponding door.

The storage chambers may be opened to the upper surface of the main body, and the doors may be hinged to a rear end of an upper surface of the main body and rotated to open and close the corresponding storage chambers..

The magnetometric sensors may be installed on the rear end of the upper surface of the main body, and the magnets may be installed on the doors such that the magnets are separated from a rotary center of the doors hinged to the main body.

A first hinge unit having hinge protrusions formed on both ends thereof may be installed on the rear end of the upper surface of the main body so that the doors are hinged to the hinge protrusions, second hinge units each provided with a hinge hole to receive the corresponding one of the hinge protrusions to hinge the doors to the main body. The second hinge units may be respectively installed on rear ends of the doors and the magnets may be respectively installed in the second hinge units.

Lamps to illuminate inner portions of the storage chambers when the doors are opened at a designated angle or more, may be respectively installed in the doors.

Temperature sensors to sense temperatures of the inner portions of the storage chambers may be respectively installed on designated side walls of the storage chambers.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a method for controlling a kimchi refrigerator, the method including operating the kimchi refrigerator in a normal mode, wherein inner portions of storage chambers of the kimchi refrigerator are maintained at a designated temperature, detecting whether doors of the kimchi refrigerator are opened, and operating the kimchi refrigerator in a low temperature-compensating mode, when it is detected that the doors are opened, wherein the inner portions of the storage chambers are maintained at a temperature lower than the temperature of the storage chambers in the normal mode for a designated time.

In the normal mode, the inner portions of the storage chambers may be maintained at a temperature of −1° C.; and in the low temperature-compensating mode, the inner portions of the storage chambers may be maintained at a temperature of −1.5° C. for a predetermined period of time (for example, approximately 8 hours).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a kimchi refrigerator in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view illustrating the connection between a main body and a door of the kimchi refrigerator of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal-sectional view illustrating the connection between the main body and the door of the kimchi refrigerator of FIG. 1, when the door is closed;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal-sectional view illustrating the-connection between the main body and the door of the kimchi refrigerator of FIG. 1, when the door is opened; and

FIG. 5 is a graph illustrating a method for controlling the kimchi refrigerator of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to an embodiment of the present invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiment is described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.

In FIG. 1, a kimchi refrigerator includes a main body 10 forming an external appearance and including a pair of storage chambers 11, which is upwardly opened to store food such as kimchi, and a pair of doors 20 rotatably connected to sides of the opened surfaces of the storage chambers 11 of the main body 10 to open and close the storage chambers 11. Although not shown in the drawings, components constituting a refrigerating cycle, such as a compressor (not shown), an evaporator (not shown), a condenser (not shown), etc., which are known to one skilled in the art are installed in the main body 10. These components generate cold air, and cool the food placed in the storage chambers 11 so that the food is stored for a long period of time.

A pair of the storage chambers 11 are provided in parallel in the main body 10, and a pair of the doors 20 are hinged to the rear end of the upper surface of the main body 10 to respectively open and close the storage chambers 11.

As shown in FIG. 2, in order to hinge each of the doors 20 to the main body 10, a first hinge unit 12 provided with hinge protrusions 12a formed on both ends thereof, is formed on the rear end of the upper surface of the main body 10, and second hinge units 21 having arc-shaped cross-sections 21a, which are respectively inserted into the hinge protrusions 12a formed on both ends of the first hinge unit 12, are respectively installed on both sides of the rear end of the door 20. An electric wire cover 13 is disposed between the two neighboring second hinge units 21 of the two doors 20, for covering an electric wire (not shown) transmitting power to a lamp 22 installed on the door 20.

The kimchi refrigerator further includes sensing devices 30 to sense whether t the corresponding doors 20 are opened. Each of the sensing devices 30 includes a magnet 31 to generate a magnetic field, and a magnetometric sensor 32 to detect the intensity of the magnetic field. One of the magnet 31 and the magnetometric sensor 32 is installed on the door 20, and the other one of the magnet 31 and the magnetometric sensor 32 is installed on the main body 10. The magnetometric sensor 32 detects the intensity of the magnetic field, and detects the distance with the magnet 31 using the-detected intensity of the magnetic field, thereby determining an angle of the door 20, and sensing whether the door 20 is opened.

In FIG. 3, a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the magnetometric sensor 32 is installed on a rear end of an upper surface of the main body 10 hinged to the door 20, and the magnet 31 is installed on the door 20 such that the magnet 31 is separated from a rotary center C of the door 20 by a designated distance. The magnet 31 moves in a circumferential direction by means of the rotation of the door 20, and is gradually distant from the magnetometric sensor 32.

In this embodiment, the magnetometric sensor 32 is located below the second hinge unit 21 hinged to the first hinge unit 12 (i.e., on the rear part of the upper surface of the main body 10), and the magnet 31 is installed on the second hinge 21 above the magnetometric sensor 32 at a position corresponding to a position of the magnetometric sensor 32 when the door 20 is closed.

The lamp 22 to illuminate the inner portion of the storage chamber 11, to thereby allow a user to easily see the food stored in the storage chamber 11, is formed on the door 20 of the kimchi refrigerator of the present invention. When it is determined that the door 20 is rotated at a designated angle or more by the sensing device 30, power is applied to the lamp 22 and-the lamp 22 illuminates the inner portion of the storage chamber 11.

Temperature sensors 14 (shown in FIG. 1) are respectively disposed at the central portions of designated side walls of the storage chambers 11 of the kimchi refrigerator. Each of the temperature sensor 14 serves to detect the temperature of the inner portion of the respective storage chamber 11, and the components constituting the refrigerating cycle are controlled by the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 14 so that the inner portion of the storage chamber 11 is kept at a constant temperature.

Since the kimchi refrigerator cools the storage chambers 11 using a direct cooling method, in which refrigerant pipes directly contact the outer walls of the storage chambers 11 to cool the storage chambers 11, cold air is scarcely circulated in the storage chambers 11. Therefore, the cold air is leaked from the upper portion of the inner portion of the storage chamber 11 to the outside by the opening of the door 20 and the temperature of the upper portion of the storage chamber 11 is increased, the temperature sensor 14 placed at the central portion of the storage chamber 11 cannot detect the increase of the temperature of the upper portion of the storage chamber 11 so that the upper portion of the storage chamber 11 is kept at a temperature higher than other portions of the storage chamber 11.

Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 5, the kimchi refrigerator of the present invention is operated in a normal mode, wherein the inner portion of the storage chamber 11 is maintained at a constant temperature proper to the food stored therein, and a low temperature-compensating mode, wherein when the sensing device 30 detects that the door 20 is opened, the inner portion of the storage chamber 11 is maintained at a temperature lower than the temperature of the storage chamber 11 in the normal mode for a designated time from a point of the time (DO) when the door 20 is opened so as to compensate for the leaked cold air of the storage chamber 11 due to the opening of the door 20. Here, when the sensing device 30 senses that the door 20 is opened again during the operation of the kimchi refrigerator in the low temperature-compensating mode, the kimchi refrigerator is again operated in the low temperature-compensating mode for a designated time from a point of the time (D1) when the door 20 is opened finally.

In this embodiment, the kimchi refrigerator is operated in the normal mode, in which the inner portion of the storage chamber 11 is maintained at a temperature of −1° C., is operated in the low temperature-compensating mode, wherein when the sensing device 30 detects that the door 20 is opened, the inner portion of the storage chamber 11 is maintained at a temperature of −1.5° C. for approximately 8 hours from when the door 20 is opened, and is then operated in the normal mode.

An alarm device 40 (shown in FIG. 1) to sound an alarm when the door 20 is opened for a designated time or more may be installed in the kimchi refrigerator of the present invention. Accordingly, when the sensing device 30 senses that the door 20 maintains its opened state for the designated time or more, the alarm device 40 sounds the alarm. Although one alarm device 40 is illustrated in FIG. 1, an alarm device 40 may be provided for each door 20. Further, the position of the alarm device 40 may be varied.

The magnets 31 of the kimchi refrigerator in this embodiment are installed on the second hinge units 21, but the positions of the magnets 31 are not limited thereto. That is, the magnets 31 and the magnetometric sensors 32 may be installed on various positions of the doors 20 and the main body 10 such that the magnets 31 and the magnetometric sensors 32 correspond to each other and are distant from each other by means of the opening of the doors 20.

Hereinafter, the operation and effects of the kimchi refrigerator of the present invention will be described in detail.

As shown in FIG. 3, when the door 20 closes the storage chamber 11, since the magnet 31 and the magnetometric sensor 32 are sequentially disposed below the rotary center C of the door 20, the distance between the magnet 31 and the magnetometric sensor 32 is the shortest, and the intensity of the magnetic field detected by the magnetometric sensor 32 is maximized.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the door 20 is rotated, in order to take food from the storage chamber 11, the magnet 31, which is separated from the rotary center C of the door 20 by a designated distance, moves in a circumferential direction together with the movement of the door 20, and is distant from the magnetometric sensor 32, and the intensity of the magnetic field detected by the magnetometric sensor 32 is gradually decreased. Accordingly, the angle of the door 20 and the opening time of the door 20 are determined by the intensity of the magnetic field detected by the magnetometric sensor 32.

Accordingly, whether the door 20 is opened is determined by the angle of the door 20 detected by the sensing device 30, thereby turning on and off the corresponding lamp 22. Further, the alarm device 40 (shown in FIG. 1) is turned on and off by the opening time of the door 20 detected by the sensing device 30.

When the sensing device 30 senses that the door 20 is opened, the kimchi refrigerator performs the operation of the storage chamber 11 in the low temperature-compensating mode, in which the inside of the storage chamber 11 is cooled for a designated time at a temperature lower than the temperature of the inside of the storage chamber 11 in the normal mode, thereby compensating for the cold air due to the opening of the door 20.

As apparent from the above description, the present invention provides a kimchi refrigerator including sensing devices to sense whether doors of the kimchi refrigerator are opened so that whether the doors are opened and the opening time of the doors are detected by the sensing devices, thereby turning on and off lamps and corresponding alarm devices based on the results detected by the sensing devices.

Further, the kimchi refrigerator of the present invention is operated in a low temperature-compensating mode for a designated time, when the sensing devices sense that the doors are opened, thereby compensating for loss of cold air generated by the opening of the doors.

Although an embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in this embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A kimchi refrigerator comprising:

a main body forming an external appearance, and including storage chambers each opened at one surface for storing food;

doors to open and close the opened surfaces of the storage chambers; and

sensing devices to sense whether the doors are opened.

2. The kimchi refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein each of the sensing devices includes:

a magnetometric sensor installed on one of the main body and the corresponding one of the doors; and

a magnet installed on the other one of the main body and the corresponding one of the doors such that the magnet is distant from the magnetometric sensor according to the opening of the corresponding door.

3. The kimchi refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein:

the storage chambers are opened to an upper surface of the main body, and the doors are hinged to a rear end of the upper surface of the main body and rotated to open and close the corresponding storage chambers;

the magnetometric sensors are installed on the rear end of the upper surface of the main body; and

the magnets are installed on the doors such that the magnets are separated from a rotary center of the doors hinged to the main body.

4. The kimchi refrigerator according to claim 3, wherein:

a first hinge unit having hinge protrusions formed on both ends thereof, is installed on the rear end of the upper surface of the main body so that the doors are hinged to the hinge protrusions;

second hinge units, each having a hinge hole to receive the corresponding one of the hinge protrusions to hinge the doors to the main body, are respectively installed on the rear ends of the doors; and

the magnets are respectively installed in the second hinge units.

5. The kimchi refrigerator according to claim 3, wherein lamps to illuminate inner portions of the storage chambers,-when the doors are opened at at least a designated angle, are respectively installed in the doors.

6. The kimchi refrigerator according to claim 1, further comprising:

temperature sensors to sense temperatures of inner portions of the storage chambers respectively installed on designated side walls of the storage chambers.

7. A method for controlling a kimchi refrigerator, the method comprising:

operating the kimchi refrigerator in a normal mode, wherein inner portions of storage chambers of the kimchi refrigerator are maintained at a designated temperature; and

detecting whether doors of the kimchi refrigerator are opened; and

operating the kimchi refrigerator in a low temperature-compensating mode, when it is detected that the doors are opened, wherein the inner portions of the storage chambers are maintained at a temperature lower than the temperature of the storage chambers in the normal mode for a designated time.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein:

when in the normal mode, the inner portions of the storage chambers are maintained at a temperature of −1° C.; and

when in the low temperature-compensating mode, the inner portions of the storage chambers are maintained at a temperature of −1.5° C. for a predetermined period of time.

9. The kimchi refrigerator of claim 1, further comprising:

an alarm device positioned on each door to sound an alarm, wherein when the respective sensing device senses the respective door is opened for at least a predetermined period of time the respective alarm device sounds the alarm.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

sounding an alarm when it is detected that the doors have been opened for at least a predetermined period of time.

11. The kimchi refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the sensing devices sense whether the doors are opened based on an angle of each door as detected by the sensing devices.

12. A kimchi refrigerator comprising:

storage chambers to store food therein and having doors to open and close each of the storage chambers; and

sensing devices which correspond to each door and which detect the opening of the respective doors, wherein when it is detected that the respective door is opened, a temperature of an inner portion of the storage chamber is decreased to a temperature below that of a temperature of the storage chamber when the respective door is closed.

13. An apparatus comprising:

storage chambers maintaining a predetermined temperature and having doors to open and close each of the storage chambers; and

sensing devices which correspond to each door and which detect the opening of the respective doors.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

an alarm device positioned on each door to sound an alarm, wherein when the respective sensing device senses the respective door is opened for at least a predetermined period of time the respective alarm device sounds the alarm.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the sensing devices sense whether the doors are opened based on an angle each door as detected by the sensing devices.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein when the sensing devices detect that the respective doors are opened, the predetermined temperature of the storage chambers decreases to a temperature below that of the predetermined temperature of the storage chambers when the respective doors are closed.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the predetermined temperature of the storage chambers is equal to −1° C. when the respective doors are closed; and

the predetermined temperature of the storage chambers is equal to −1.5° C., when the respective doors are opened for at least a predetermined period of time.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein each of the sensing devices includes:

a magnet to generate a magnetic field; and

a magnetometric sensor to detect the intensity of the magnetic field,

wherein the magnet is positioned on one of an upper surface of the storage chamber and the respective door, and the magnetometric sensor is positioned on the other one of the upper surface of the storage chamber and the respective door.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

lamps installed in the respective doors, to illuminate inner portions of the storage chambers when the respective doors are opened at at least a designated angle.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

temperature sensors positioned on inner side walls of the storage chambers, to sense temperatures of the inner portions of the storage chambers.