Cooling element and cooling device

Abstract

The invention relates to a cooling element (1) for use in a cooling device (11), comprising a front face and a rear face and four side faces. The cooling element (1) is characterized in that the rear face of the cooling element (1) is substantially planar and the front face has reinforcing elements, wherein the reinforcing elements prevent deformation of the cooling element (1) during cooling and freezing. The invention also relates to a cooling device (11), in particular a freezer, comprising at least one cooling circuit, wherein the cooling circuit has a compressor, an evaporator, and a condenser. The cooling device (11) also has a closable cooling space (15) that comprises a plurality of cooling space side walls, a cooling space base, a space for cooling goods (17), and at least one cooling element (1) according to the invention. The cooling device (11) is characterized in that the evaporator and the cooling element (1) are arranged within the cooling space (15), such that the rear face of the cooling element (1) rests against the evaporator and the front face is facing the space for cooling goods (17).

Claims

1. A cooling device comprising at least one cooling circuit, wherein the cooling circuit has a compressor, an evaporator, and a condenser, a closable cooling space with a plurality of cooling space sidewalls, a cooling space base, and a space for cooling goods, and at least one cooling element, wherein the cooling element comprises a front face and a rear face, wherein the evaporator and the cooling element are arranged in the cooling space such that the rear face of the cooling element fits to the evaporator and the front face is facing the space for cooling goods, wherein the rear face of the cooling element is substantially planar, wherein the front face has reinforcing elements, wherein the reinforcing elements prevent deformation of the cooling element during cooling and freezing and wherein the reinforcing elements comprise connecting elements which connect the front face of the cooling element and the rear face of the cooling element.

2. The cooling device of claim 1, wherein the evaporator extends at least partially over all cooling space sidewalls and one cooling element is assigned to each cooling space sidewall.

3. The cooling device of 2, wherein the cooling elements are arranged spaced apart, wherein insulation means are arranged between the cooling elements.

4. The cooling device of claim 3, wherein the cooling device has at least one partition wall, wherein the partition wall separates the space for cooling goods from the at least one cooling element.

5. The cooling device of claim 4, wherein the cooling device has a connection for a photovoltaic power source.

6. The cooling device of claim 5, wherein the cooling device has a controller, and wherein the controller keeps the temperature of the space for cooling goods in a range between 2 C. and 8 C.

7. The cooling device of claim 1, wherein the cooling element comprises reinforcing elements in a surrounding periphery between the front face of the cooling element and side faces of the cooling element and wherein said reinforcing elements protrude into the front face and into the side faces.

8. The cooling device of claim 1, wherein a plate-like insulation element is arranged between the front face of the cooling element and the cooling space.

9. The cooling device of claim 1, wherein the cooling element has a recess on its front face and wherein a plate-like insulation element is inserted into the recess.

10. The cooling device of claim 9, wherein the plate-like insulation element is selected from a foamed plastic insulation element and a vacuum insulation element.

11. The cooling device of claim 1, wherein the cooling element comprises a valve at one side face for filling the cooling element with a cooling liquid.

12. The cooling device of claim 11, wherein the cooling element is filled with water.

13. A cooling device comprising at least one cooling circuit, wherein the cooling circuit has a compressor, an evaporator, and a condenser, a closable cooling space with a plurality of cooling space sidewalls, a cooling space base, and a space for cooling goods, at least one cooling element, wherein the cooling element comprises a front face, a rear face and four side faces, and a controller, and wherein the controller keeps the temperature of the space for cooling goods in a range between 2 C. and 8 C., wherein the evaporator and the cooling element are arranged in the cooling space such that the rear face of the cooling element fits to the evaporator and the front face is facing the space for cooling goods, wherein the rear face of the cooling element is substantially planar, wherein the front face has reinforcing elements, wherein the reinforcing elements prevent deformation of the cooling element during cooling and freezing and wherein the reinforcing elements comprise connecting elements which connect the front face of the cooling element and the rear face of the cooling element, wherein the cooling element has a recess on its front face and wherein a plate-like insulation element is inserted into the recess, and wherein said plate-like insulation element is selected from a foamed plastic insulation element and a vacuum insulation element.

14. The cooling device of claim 13, wherein the cooling element comprises reinforcing elements in a surrounding periphery between the front face of the cooling element and side faces of the cooling element and wherein said reinforcing elements protrude into the front face and into the side faces.

15. The cooling device of claim 13, wherein the cooling element comprises a valve at one side face for filling the cooling element with a cooling liquid.

16. The cooling device of claim 15, wherein the cooling element is filled with water.

Description

(1) In the following, the invention is explained in detail by way of an example represented in the drawings. Here:

(2) FIG. 1 schematically shows a perspective frontal view of a cooling element according to the invention with an insulation element inserted;

(3) FIG. 2 schematically shows a perspective rear view of a cooling element according to the invention;

(4) FIG. 3 schematically shows a perspective frontal view of a cooling element according to the invention without insulation element;

(5) FIG. 4 schematically shows a perspective view of four cooling elements according to the invention with an intermediate insulation means;

(6) FIG. 5 schematically shows the cooling elements shown in FIG. 4 with an evaporator;

(7) FIG. 6 schematically shows a cooling device according to the invention with inserted cooling elements without partition wall;

(8) FIG. 7 schematically shows the cooling device shown in FIG. 6 with partition wall;

(9) FIG. 8 schematically shows a principle sectional view of the construction of the cooling device; and

(10) FIG. 9 schematically shows a schematic representation of the cooling system.

(11) In FIGS. 1 to 3 a cooling element 1 having a front face 2, a rear face 3, and four side faces 4 is shown. The cooling element on its front face 2 has a plurality of reinforcing elements 5a that at least partially are connected to the rear face 3 of the cooling element 1 via connecting elements 6. The reinforcing elements 5a are arranged in a projecting manner in a recess 7 on the front face 2 and have a quadrangular shape with rounded edges. Further, the cooling element has nine reinforcing elements 5b in the surrounding periphery between the front face 2 and the two longer side faces 4. The reinforcing elements are designed as recesses and protrude both into the respective side faces 4 and the front face 2. In FIG. 1, the cooling element 1 according to the invention is shown with a plate-like insulation element 8 of polyurethane that is inserted into the recess 7.

(12) Further the cooling element 1 according to the invention has a valve 9 with which the cooling element 1 can be filled with cooling means or discharged, respectively. For example, valve 9 may be realized as a screw or bolt cap.

(13) As in particular represented in FIGS. 1 and 3, the cooling element 1 has a plurality of mounting areas 10 for mounting the cooling element in the cooling space 15 of the cooling device 11 (cf. FIG. 4 and FIG. 6) as well as mounting the evaporator 13 (cf. FIG. 5). In this example, the cooling element 1 has four mounting areas 10 at which mounting lugs 19 can be mounted (see, FIGS. 4 and 5).

(14) The cooling element 1 represented in FIGS. 1 to 3 is made of polyethylene and is prepared by rotation molding. However, it is also conceivable that other materials and/or methods can be applied for the preparation.

(15) FIG. 4 shows four cooling elements 1 according to the invention, as represented in FIGS. 1 to 3, that are rectangular arranged with intermediate insulation means 18. The cooling elements 1 are arranged spaced apart such that no direct contact between the cooling elements 1 is generated, wherein in each of the four corner areas one insulation means 18 is arranged that keeps the cooling elements 1 in a distance. Insulation means 18 are columnar and in particular made of polyurethane. Each insulation means 18 has two side faces and one rounded outer face. In this example, the side faces of the insulation means 18 are not identical, wherein the actual size or geometry, respectively, results from the geometry of the cooling space 15 of the cooling device 11 (see, FIGS. 6 and 7).

(16) The cooling elements 1 are arranged such that the front faces 3 with insulation elements 8 face each other. For securing the position the insulation means 18 may for example be mounted to the respective adjacent cooling elements 1 with an easily detachable adhesive.

(17) Further, in FIG. 4 mounting lugs 19 are illustrated with these extending in a U-shape from the front face 2 to the rear face 3 of the cooling element. As is shown, the mounting lugs 19 at each end have an opening for a mounting means, such as for example a screw or a pin. In this example, in total four mounting lugs 19 are used per cooling element 1, wherein also more or less mounting lugs 19 can be used.

(18) FIG. 5 shows the arrangement of the cooling element 1, as represented in FIG. 4, wherein here also the evaporator 13 is shown. The evaporator 13 comprises four interconnected plates each of which fits flat to the planar rear face 3 of each cooling element 1. The evaporator 13 is mounted by the mounting lugs 19 to the cooling elements 1 and the cooling elements 1 are mounted by the mounting lugs 19 to the evaporator 13, respectively. From FIG. 5 it is also well seen that due to the arrangement of the cooling elements 1 in interaction with the insulation means 18 no direct contact between the space for cooling goods 17 (see FIG. 6) and the evaporator 13 is generated, so that no cold bridges can establish.

(19) In FIG. 6 a cooling device according to the invention is shown in the form of a freezer 11 having two closable cooling spaces 15, 20. The cooling spaces 15, 20 can be closed with lids 23a, 23b. The lids 23a, 23b are mounted to the freezer body 22 by means of a hinge and can be mounted via locking means 24. These locking means 24 may be lockable, so that protection against theft can be ensured.

(20) In the example shown in FIG. 6 the arrangement of four cooling elements 1 shown in FIG. 5 is already mounted in the first cooling space 15. As can also be well seen in FIG. 5, the cooling elements 1 and the evaporator 13, respectively, do not extend over the entire depth of the cooling space 15. Accordingly, this results in a space for cooling goods 17 partially defined by the cooling elements 1 and partially by the cooling space sidewalls.

(21) The second space for cooling goods 20 (the right one in the illustration) in this example is a freezing compartment in which (not shown in detail) ice bags or freeze packs can be frozen. Said ice bags or freeze packs can be removed when the cooling good has to be transported over limited routes for example to a patient, so that the cold chain is not interrupted.

(22) The freezer 11 shown in FIG. 7 corresponds to the freezer 11 as illustrated in FIG. 6, wherein in FIG. 7 additionally the partition walls 21 for the individual cooling elements 1 are shown. Here, the partition walls 21 are in the form of an inner container 21 fitting to the insulation elements 8 of the cooling elements 1. The inner container 21 is for the better control and adjustment, respectively, of the temperature of the space for cooling goods. Not shown, but to be mentioned in this context is a temperature sensor detecting the temperature of the space for cooling goods. Preferably, this sensor is arranged at the bottom of the first cooling space 15.

(23) The schematic construction of the freezer 11 consisting of freezer body 22, evaporator 13, cooling element 1, insulation element 8, and partition wall 21 is shown for better clarity in FIG. 8 as a principle sketch. Here, the evaporator 13 is guarded against the space for cooling goods 17.

(24) FIG. 9 shows the schematic construction of a first (at the top) cooling circuit 25 and an optional second cooling circuit 31 (at the bottom). Seen in the flow direction of the refrigerant, the first cooling circuit 25 consists of a compressor 12, a condenser 14, and a drier 28. In particular, the drier 28 can be realized as a filter drier. The drier 28 is followed by a three-way valve 27 that is connected to a controller 26. In this example, a three-way solenoid valve is used. The three-way valve 27 is switched by the controller such that either a first evaporator 13 or a second evaporator 29 is selected. For example, the first evaporator 13 may be the above described evaporator 13 in the cooling space 15 for cooling the cooling good, whereas the second evaporator 29 is assigned to the freezing compartment or second cooling space 20, respectively, illustrated on the right side in FIGS. 5 and 6, for example. Alternatively, the second evaporator 29 may also be assigned to a storage tank (not shown) that is used for cooling the space for cooling goods 17, for example in case of an insufficient solar insulation. Upstream of the evaporators 13, 29 there is still provided a throttle 30 for expansion of the refrigerant. Here, the controller 26 is programmed such that the second evaporator 29 is only selected when a sufficiently low temperature has been achieved in the space for cooling goods 17, namely a temperature in range between +2 C. and +8 C.

(25) The optional second cooling circuit 31 shown below in FIG. 9 substantially corresponds to the first cooling circuit 25, wherein the valve and the respective controller were omitted. Thus, the second cooling circuit 31 consists of a compressor 12, a condenser 14, a drier 28, a throttle 30, and an evaporator 32. For example, the second cooling circuit 31 can cool an above described storage tank or can be used for cooling the freezing compartment or the second cooling space 20, respectively.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

(26) 1 Cooling element 2 Front face 3 Rear face 4 Side face 5a, b Reinforcing element 6 Connecting element 7 Recess 8 Insulation element 9 Valve 10 Attachment area 11 Freezer/Cooling device 12 Compressor 13 Evaporator 14 Condenser 15 Cooling space 16 Cooling space sidewall 17 Space for cooling goods 18 Insulation means 19 Mounting lug 20 Second cooling space 21 Partition wall/Inner container 22 Freezer body 23a, b Freezer lid 24 Locking means 25 Cooling circuit 26 Controller 27 Three-way valve 28 Drier 29 Second evaporator 30 Throttle 31 Second cooling circuit 32 Evaporator (second cooling circuit)