Subject of Invention

The subject of the invention is a refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, preferably a household refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, comprising at least one cell with at least one compartment for storing foodstuffs below or above freezing point, wherein the circulation of cold air in said compartment is carried out by means of at least one fan.

Technical Problem

The technical problem is how to configure a refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, preferably a household refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, in which the noise resulting from the fan operation is eliminated or at least reduced to such an extent that it is not disturbing to the user.

Prior Art

A refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, preferably a household refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, comprises a housing with a front opening to allow foodstuffs to be put into the appliance and the refrigerated foodstuffs to be taken out of the appliance, said opening being closed by a door. A refrigeration system arranged in the household appliance and enabling the refrigeration of foodstuffs comprises a compressor supplying work to the refrigeration system, a condenser emitting heat to the surroundings and an evaporator removing heat from the interior of the refrigerating appliance. The air at the evaporator cools down and, due to the increased density, descends towards the bottom of the household appliance interior. The constant flow of cold air into the lower part of the household appliance makes the lower part cooler than the upper part. This leads to a temperature difference between the upper and lower parts of the household appliance interior, which is not desirable.

In order to achieve as uniform a temperature as possible within the entire household appliance compartment, at least one fan is usually arranged inside the compartment to create a forced movement of cold air. The fan is arranged within a protective casing which prevents the user from gaining access to it, in particular to the rotating fan impeller and electrical parts. At the same time, the fan casing must be configured for efficient cold air circulation.

The fan is mounted within the fan casing and they together form a fan assembly which is rigidly fixed to the household appliance housing, e.g. by a screw. The rotation of the fan impeller, in particular, generates vibrations which are transmitted from the fan to the fan casing and then to the household appliance walls, causing disturbing noise. By installing a vibration damping material at the point where the fan is mounted in the fan casing, the transmission of vibrations is reduced, but not to such an extent not to cause disturbing noise. The stiffness of the elements of the vibration damping material must remain sufficiently high to ensure that, despite the transmission of weight and vibration, there is still a satisfactory co-axiality between the fan impeller and the fan diffuser which is part of said casing.

Vibrations are transmitted from the fan casing to the inner wall of the appliance housing at all points of contact, in particular at the point where the fan casing is attached to the appliance housing. The fan assembly is arranged in the interior of the household appliance at a spot which is the most favourable from the point of view of energy consumption and the user of the appliance. To minimise the loss of usable space for the placement or handling of foodstuffs, this is usually on the wall or in close proximity to the top of the rear wall of the appliance interior. A particularly favourable position is in one of the corners, e.g. between the rear wall and the top wall and/or one of the side walls. Due to the rigid attachment of the fan assembly to the household appliance housing vibrations of the fan casing are transmitted to the household appliance housing. Due to the relatively rigid structure and low density of the household appliance housing, these vibrations are transmitted from the inside of the household appliance housing to the outside of the household appliance housing and even get amplified, resulting in excessive noise.

The transmission of vibrations to the walls of the appliance can be reduced by installing a vibration damping material between the fan casing and the inner wall of the appliance. The reduction in vibration transmission to the housing can be reduced by installing a vibration damping material of a large thickness between the fan casing and the inner wall of the housing, which represents a loss of working space, or by selecting a vibration damping material with a high damping characteristic, which is not economically efficient for an appliance of the type described.

Solution to the Technical Problem

The technical problem is solved by a refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, preferably a household refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, having the characteristics as defined in claim 1. Further characteristics are defined in dependent claims.

A refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, preferably a household refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, comprises a housing with an opening; a door closing the opening and enclosing, together with the housing, at least one cell with at least one compartment for storing foodstuffs below or above freezing temperature; at least one fan assembly arranged in the cell for circulating cold air within the cell, the fan assembly comprising a fan with a fan impeller and a fan casing, wherein the fan assembly is attached to the housing of said appliance via a fan assembly support having a mounting member and at least one support leg arranged on the mounting member in a way to extend into the interior of the cell when mounted and forming, together with the mounting member, a compartment for receiving the fan assembly, said fan assembly support and/or at least one of its attachments to the appliance housing or fan casing having vibration damping properties.

Preferably, the support leg is arranged perpendicularly to the mounting member. The support leg is formed in a way that at least one of its support points, which supports the fan casing and thus the fan assembly in a vertical direction, lies in a plane parallel to the plane of the wall of the household appliance, onto which wall the fan assembly support or its mounting member is attached and which is at least as far from the plane of the wall of said appliance as the distance of a plane, that is parallel to the plane of the wall of said appliance and in which the centre of gravity of the fan assembly lies, from the plane (S) of the wall of said appliance.

Each support leg is connected in a material-locking manner with the mounting member of the fan support assembly. The mounting member of the fan assembly support is provided with a through screw hole in the upper part on the side which faces the wall of the housing in the mounted condition. The mounting member is formed as a planar element, it may be in the form of a flat plate.

In order to maximise the damping of vibration transmission from the fan casing to the fan assembly support and further to the appliance housing, an elastic element made of vibration-damping material may be arranged on each support leg to damp vibration. The fan assembly support is made from a plastic material or a metallic material.

The fan casing is detachably attached to the fan assembly support by means of a positive-fit elastic connection.

The refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, preferably the household refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, according to the invention, reduces the transmission of vibrations from the fan assembly, thereby reducing the noise of the whole appliance. The transmission of vibrations to the housing of said appliance is reduced by the incorporation of a fan assembly support which exhibits vibration damping properties.

The fan assembly support according to the invention acts as an elastic element both in itself and also by its attachment to the housing of said appliance and by the attachment of the fan assembly thereto, thereby damping vibrations and preventing them from being transmitted from the fan assembly through the clamping area to the appliance housing.

The elastic properties of the support acting as the elastic element are achieved by the shape as well as by the choice of material of the support. The damping of vibrations and the reduction in vibration transmission may further be increased by the elastic elements at the contact points between the fan assembly and the fan assembly support, or at the contact points between the fan assembly support and the housing of the household appliance. This can be achieved by means of known structural approaches, such as by using slim, easily bendable parts of the fan assembly support through which forces are transmitted from the fan assembly, a fan support made of several elements with certain parts made of softer and thus more elastic and/or vibration damping material, e.g. by so-called double injection moulding method.

As the fan assembly is supported in its centre of gravity, the static load on the elastic members is minimised, which has a positive effect on the stiffness or elasticity of the elastic elements. The stiffness of these elements remains almost unchanged. High loads exerted on the elastic elements would increase the stiffness of these elastic elements and, as a consequence, the ability to damp dynamic loads would be considerably reduced. If the fan assembly is mounted to the fan assembly support, the transmission of vibrations from the mounting area of the fan assembly to the appliance housing is reduced. The fan assembly support is rigidly attached to the housing of the household appliance by a detachable or inseparable connection such as a screw connection or any other known type of positive-fit connection. The mounting and attachment of the fan assembly to the fan assembly support is provided by means of a detachable or inseparable connection, preferably a form-fit connection of a type which allows it to be mounted and attached without the use of additional tools, while additional tools are required for its removal. Such attachment may be made, for example, by a generally known snap-fit connection. This also prevents the user of the household appliance from removing the fan assembly and thereby interfering with its area of operation.

The simple design of the fan assembly support makes it easy to be manufactured from a variety of materials, both metal and plastic materials. In particular, it is economically and design-wise advantageous to produce the support from plastic material.

A refrigerating and/or freezing appliance, preferably a household refrigerating and/or freezing appliance of the invention, will be described hereinbelow in more detail by way of an embodiment and drawings representing in:

Fig. 1 Schematic view of the refrigerating and/or freezing appliance in cross-section, Fig. 2 a fan assembly with a fan assembly support in transversal cross-section, Fig. 3 a fan assembly with a fan assembly support.

The relative expressions such as front, rear, upper, lower, etc. are herein defined from the perspective of the household appliance user, when the appliance is in its functional state.

A refrigerating and/or freezing appliance 100 comprises a housing 1 with an opening 2 for allowing foodstuffs to be placed in said appliance and for taking the refrigerated foodstuffs out of said appliance; a door 3 closing the opening 2 and enclosing, together with the housing 1, at least one cell 4 with at least one compartment for storing foodstuffs below or above freezing point; at least one fan assembly 5 arranged in the cell 4 and comprising a fan 6 with an impeller and a fan casing 7. The fan 6 is mounted in the fan casing 7, the mounting being provided with elastic elements of vibration damping material to reduce vibrations and the transmission of vibrations from the fan to the fan casing.

The fan assembly 5 is attached to the appliance housing 1 by means of a fan assembly support 8. The fan assembly support 8 comprises a mounting member 10 and at least one support leg 9 arranged perpendicularly to the mounting member 10 and connected in a material locking manner thereto in a way that, when mounted, it extends into the interior of the cell 4 and forms, together with the mounting member 10, a compartment 18 for receiving the fan assembly 5. At least one support leg 9 is formed in a way to support the fan casing 7 and thus the fan assembly 5 in a vertical direction in at least one support point lying in a plane Z parallel to a plane S of the wall of said appliance, to which wall the fan assembly support 8 or its mounting member 10 is attached and is at least as far from the plane S of the wall of said appliance as the distance of a plane T, in which the centre of gravity of the fan assembly 5 lies and is parallel to the plane S of the wall of said appliance.

In the embodiment, the mounting member 10 is formed as a planar element in the form of a flat plate, but this does not exclude other shapes, such as a frame, a non- planar plate, etc. The mounting member 10 has, in an upper portion 12 of the side facing a wall 14 of the appliance housing in the mounted condition, a projection 15 provided with a screw through-hole 16 for fixing the fan assembly support 8 to the appliance housing 1 by means of a screw. The mounting member 10 and a respective support leg 9 are connected in a material-locking manner to each other. In the embodiment, the support leg 9 is arranged perpendicularly to the mounting member 10. The fan assembly 5 is inserted into the compartment 18 formed by the mounting member 10 and a respective support leg 9. The fan casing 7 is formed in a way that at least one of its parts engages a respective support leg 9 and rests thereon. A respective support leg 9 is arranged on the support member 10 in a way to engage the adjacent mounting member of the fan casing 7.

The fan casing 7 may also be formed in a way to abut the support leg 9 over the entire length of the support leg 9, or over only part of its length. Regardless of the abutment length, the fan casing 7, when viewed perpendicularly to the mounting member 10, always abuts the support leg 9 at a point at least equidistant from the mounting member 10 as the centre of gravity T of the fan assembly 5 is distant from the mounting member 10.

The fan casing 7 is detachably attached to the fan assembly support 8 by means of a positive-fit elastic connection, which does not require any additional tools for the installation and attachment of the fan assembly 5. Tools are required to remove the fan assembly 5. This meets the user safety requirement.

The fan assembly 5 is arranged in the cell 4 of the appliance, preferably in one of the corners, so as to minimise the impact on the reduction of usable space.

The fan assembly support 8 is rigidly fixed to one of the inner walls 14 of the appliance housing, preferably to the rear inner wall of the appliance housing, by means of the projection 15 arranged on the rear side of the mounting member 10. The attachment of the fan assembly support 8 is made by a screw connection in the upper part 12 of the base plate, so that a respective support leg 9 extends into the interior of the cell 4. A bottom part 13 of the mounting member, when in the mounted condition, is offset from the inner wall 14 of the appliance housing. At least one, preferably a plurality of elastic elements 17 of vibration damping material is arranged on the bottom part 13 of the mounting member to damp the transmission of vibrations from the fan casing 7 to the appliance housing 1.

In order to minimise the transmission of vibrations from the fan casing 7 to the appliance housing 1, an additional elastic element 20 made of vibration damping material is provided on a respective support leg 9 at the point where the fan casing 7 abuts the support leg 9.

In order to prevent contact of the fan assembly 5 with the appliance housing 1, elastic elements 21 made of vibration damping material are additionally provided on the fan casing 7 to further damp the transmission of vibrations from the fan casing 7 to the appliance housing 1.