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  Freezing furniture and an insert thereforRelated Patent Categories: Refrigeration, Display Type, With Air Controlling Or Directing MeansThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070130979. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] In a first aspect, this invention relates to a piece of freezing furniture, which comprises a storage space, intended for products to be frozen, and a primary air duct, which partly surrounds said storage space and which comprises a suction duct, having an inlet that mouths at one side of the opening of the storage space, as well as a rising duct, having an outlet that mouths at the opposite side of said opening, and a temperature-change unit, which is located in the primary air duct and separates the suction duct from the rising duct and includes a fan, a heating element and a cooling element, wherein, in normal operation, cooled air flows from the temperature-change unit via the rising duct, over and past said opening, through the suction duct and back to the temperature-change unit. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] In the food-distribution business, pieces of freezing furniture, such-as freezing gondolas, freezing shelves, frozen food displays, etc., are utilized in order to store and offer frozen or deep-frozen foods. According to existing regulations, the temperature in such freezing furniture should advantageously be below -10.degree. C. for frozen goods and -18.degree. C. for deep-frozen goods, respectively. An important factor in the offer of the goods is that the piece of freezing furniture is partially open for a customer to easily be able to see the range of products and choose a specific package. However, this entails that the warm shop air can be mixed with the cold air in the piece of freezing furniture. [0003] In order to maintain a low temperature in the storage space of the piece of freezing furniture, cooled air is circulated according to prior art around the same. The air is cooled down by a cooling element and a fan provides the necessary circulation. The air flows from the cooling element, which most often is located below the storage space, via a rising duct, over and past the opening and past the foods placed in the storage space, down via a suction duct to the fan and then back to the cooling element. In this type of freezing furniture having circulating cooling air, it is inevitable that the cooling air is mixed with the surrounding shop air, when the cooling air flows past the opening of the piece of freezing furniture. The surrounding air has higher air humidity, which entails that the cold, circulating air continuously is added a large quantity of moisture when the air masses are mixed. The moisture condenses in the air duct and is deposited above all on the cooling element in the form of hoarfrost or ice, and will accordingly disturb the cooling function thereof. In order to remove the hoarfrost/ice and thereby maintain a satisfactory cooling production, it is required that the cooling element of the piece of freezing furniture is defrosted either at regular intervals or when need arises. [0004] In order to defrost the cooling element, one or more heating elements are used, which frequently are placed upstream the cooling element in the airflow direction. According to prior defrosting methods, the fan continues to circulate the air via the same air duct as in normal operation, but upon defrosting, the heating element is activated at the same time as the cooling element is switched off. Thereby, the air is warmed up to degrees above zero, the ice on the cooling element and on other surfaces melting. The meltwater formed is collected and allowed to run out via a drainpipe located at the bottom of the piece of freezing furniture and further to, for instance, a floor drain. A great disadvantage is that the entire circulating air mass has to be warmed up to degrees above zero in order to get as efficient a defrosting as possible. The goods that are kept in the storage space will consequently be exposed to air temperatures exceeding 0.degree. C. during a major part of the defrosting procedure. It has been shown that also a short, applied heat shock on the surfaces of a merchandise may be very harmful, as the same is propagated through the entire frozen merchandise even if cold again is supplied to the surfaces. All air that circulates in conventional freezing furniture may, as a consequence of the air being warmed up, in the final stage of a defrosting procedure, on the whole, be saturated by moisture. After initiated cooling production, this moisture will directly condense and become deposited on the coolest surfaces, which is the cooling element, in the form of hoarfrost or ice, and will accordingly disturb the cooling function thereof. If ice is formed on the cooling element directly after a defrosting procedure, consequently the defrosting has, to a certain extent, been useless. Also the goods placed in the storage space are still so cold in the final stage of the defrosting that the moisture-saturated air, upon contact with the goods, will become deposited on the same. This entails the troublesome drawback that when the goods are selected by a customer and transported through the shop in a cart, the ice will melt and wet other goods in the cart. [0005] Defrosting according to this technique usually takes place before the shop is opened and when the shop has been closed, since the shopkeeper does not want that the customers should buy goods having a-partly elevated temperature. An elevated temperature entails that the goods experience a shortened time window, during which the same should be transported out of the shop and further on to the home without risk of going bad. If defrosting takes place before the shop is opened and when the shop has been closed, the goods will maintain satisfactory low temperature during the time the same are exposed for the customers. Due to long opening hours in a shop, up to 12 h or longer, much moisture has the time to become deposited on the cold surfaces of the piece of freezing furniture, which is a reason why each defrosting may take long time, not rarely 0.5-1 h per occasion. Apart from the foods being exposed to harmful temperatures, it is also very energy demanding to warm up and cool the entire large circulating air mass, such as has been described above, and to cool the circulating air in normal operation if the cooling element is ice-covered. [0006] In order to manage the problem of allowing warm air to circulate around the entire storage space 1-2 h per day and thereby damage the food, many attempts have been made to allow the warm air, upon defrosting, to flow via other air ducts than those through which the cold air flows in normal operation. Freezing furniture having defrosting devices based on the use of a bypass are previously known by, among others, the publications DE 1 751 731, DE 19 810 232 A1, and DE 19 844 854 A1. [0007] In the first-mentioned publication (DE 1,751,731), a defrosting device is presented that makes use of a bypass situated in the air duct. The bypass is open at both ends, in normal operation as well as during defrosting, which entails that in normal operation, a large quantity of the cooled air will take the short, simple way through the bypass and only circulate below the storage space of the piece of freezing furniture. Upon defrosting, the direction of rotation of the fan is changed and a damper closes the suction duct, after which the air flow is forced through the bypass, the outlet opening of which mouths in the rising duct. Since warm air has lower density than cold, the warmed air flow that leaves the bypass will rather rise up through the rising duct than fall down to the temperature-change unit, at the same time as cold air will be drawn down through the rising duct in exchange for the warm, rising air. If defrosting takes place during the shop's opening hours, the goods will be exposed to a temperature rise, such as in the above-described prior art. Thus, the presented device provides a less efficient defrosting procedure as well as a clearly deteriorated circulation of cooled air in normal operation. [0008] Also the two last-mentioned publications (DE 19,810,232 A1 and DE 19,844,854 A1) disclose devices comprising bypasses located in the air duct. In contrast to DE 1,751,731, each of these publications shows that an end of the bypass is possible to open and close by means of a damper, cooled air being forced to pass through the ordinary air duct in normal operation. Furthermore, the inlet of the suction ducts and the outlet of the rising ducts are also provided with dampers, which are closed upon defrosting at the same time as the dampers of the bypasses are opened. Thus, the warm air can only circulate through the bypass during a defrosting procedure, but since the dampers in the suction ducts and the rising ducts are located at the inlet and outlet thereof, respectively, also the last-mentioned ducts will be filled with warm air during the defrosting, and consequently it is still a very large air mass that is to be warmed up. Furthermore, in normal operation it is utmost important that the air flow leaving the outlet of the rising duct is not too turbulent and that the same leaves the outlet at a determined angle, in order to, in a reliable way, flow over and past the opening of the storage space to the opposite side. In the inlet of the suction duct, similarly it is important that nothing disturbs or blocks the air flow from being sucked down into the duct. Thus, it is not very functional, as is shown in the mentioned publications, to locate a number of coarse dampers on these locations. The dampers may even cause that the cooled air. is mixed with the surrounding shop air to a higher extent than previously. It may be that the dampers in the disclosed devices fulfil the functions thereof during defrosting to an acceptable degree, but risk to create large operational disturbances in normal operation. OBJECTS AND FEATURES OF THE INVENTION [0009] The present invention aims at obviating the above-mentioned disadvantages of previously known freezing furniture and at providing an improved piece of freezing furniture. Thus, a primary object of the invention is to provide a piece of freezing furniture that can be defrosted whenever need for defrosting arises without damaging the goods stored in the storage space by warming and thereby causing drawbacks for the customers. It is also an object to provide a piece of freezing furniture that does not disturb the air flow in normal operation and thereby guarantees satisfactory function. An additional object is to provide a piece of freezing furniture that saves energy by efficient defrosting. An additional object is to provide a piece of freezing furniture having a defrosting device in the form of an insert that can be installed in an existing piece of freezing furniture. It is also an object to provide a piece of freezing furniture having a defrosting device that includes few movable parts, in order to minimise the risk of operational disturbances and malfunctions. [0010] At least the primary object is attained by means of the piece of freezing furniture defined by way of introduction, which is characterized in that the same comprises an insert placed in the primary air duct, which insert comprises a secondary air duct having, on one hand, an inlet opening, which mouths in the primary air duct, downstream the temperature-change unit, and is possible to open and close by means of a damper having double-acting function, and on the other hand an outlet opening, which mouths in the primary air duct upstream the temperature-change unit. Adjacent to said outlet opening a guiding means may advantageously--though not necessarily--be arranged, with the purpose of guiding the air flow, which leaves said outlet opening, in the direction of the temperature-change unit and on the outside of the insert toward said inlet opening. Preferred embodiments of the invention are further seen in the dependent claims 2-8, and in the subsequent detailed description. [0011] In a second aspect, the invention also relates to an insert that is distinguished by the features defined in the characteristic part of the independent claim 9. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE APPENDED DRAWINGS [0012] In the drawings: [0013] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a piece of freezing furniture, [0014] FIG. 2 is a cross section of a piece of freezing furniture according to the invention, [0015] FIG. 3 is an enlarged, cut detailed view of the damper in a first position, [0016] FIG. 4 is a detailed view, corresponding to FIG. 3, of the damper in a second position, FIG. 5 is an enlarged, cut detailed view of an alternative embodiment of the damper in the first position, [0017] FIG. 6 is a detailed view, corresponding to FIG. 5, of the damper in the second position, [0018] FIG. 7 is an enlarged, cut detailed view of an additional alternative embodiment of the damper in the first position, and [0019] FIG. 8 is a detailed view, corresponding to FIG. 7, of the damper in the second position. [0020] FIG. 9 is an enlarged, cut detailed view of an alternative embodiment of the damper in a first position, Continue reading... Full patent description for Freezing furniture and an insert therefor Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Freezing furniture and an insert therefor patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Freezing furniture and an insert therefor or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Air conditioner Next Patent Application: Air conditioner Industry Class: Refrigeration ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Freezing furniture and an insert therefor patent info. 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