Daikin Industries, Ltd.

Atsushi Ozato

Noritaka Kamei

Naohiro Tanaka

Kazuma Yokohara

Makoto Ikemiya

Yuusuke Fujimoto

Tetsuya Ukon

Masataka Nakano

Wataru Hirata

A container refrigeration apparatus includes: a casing which forms an external storage space communicating with the exterior of the container and an internal storage space communicating with the interior of the container; a refrigerant circuit; an external fan; an internal fan; and an inside air control system including an exhaust passage which allows a space on a blowout side of the internal fan in the internal storage space to communicate with the external storage space, and controls composition of the inside air in the container. An external end of the exhaust passage is open on a suction side of the external fan in the external storage space.

Refrigeration apparatus for containers

A container refrigeration apparatus includes a CA system which controls the composition of the air in the container. The CA system includes a gas supply device which supplies nitrogen-enriched air, an intake duct which guides outside air to a first space on a suction side of an interior fan, and an exhaust duct which guides air in a second space on the blowout side of the interior fan out of a container. The exhaust duct has an inlet at a location where the flow of the air blown from the interior fan is blocked by a fan housing.

Refrigeration device for container

Disclosed herein a technique for producing a gas mixture for controlling an oxygen concentration in the interior of a container while reducing the overall weight of the apparatus. For this purpose, a gas mixture supply device is provided for a container refrigeration apparatus. The gas mixture supply device is provided with adsorption columns. If one of the first and second adsorption columns is supplied with air, the adsorption columns are pressurized, and nitrogen in the air is adsorbed onto an adsorbent. If air is sucked from the other of the first and second adsorption columns, the adsorption columns are depressurized, and nitrogen adsorbed onto the adsorbent is desorbed. A gas mixture including the nitrogen desorbed from the adsorbent is supplied to the interior of a container.

Refrigeration unit for container

A gas supply device is configured such that its supply state is switchable between a first supply state supplying, as supply air, nitrogen-enriched air produced from outside air into a containe, and a second supply state in which the gas supply device takes outside air therein and supplies, as supply air, the outside air into the container. A CA system is provided with a branch pipe which guides at least part of the supply air flowing through a supply passage to an oxygen sensor, and an open/close valve which opens/closes the branch pipe. An outside air calibration operation is performed in which the open/close valve is opened in the second supply state to guide the least part of the outside air flowing through the supply passage to the oxygen sensor, thereby calibrating the oxygen sensor using the outside air.

An oxygen concentration in the interior of a container is detected by an oxygen concentration detection sensor. If the oxygen concentration detected by the oxygen concentration detection sensor is higher than that of a gas mixture, the container is supplied with the gas mixture having an oxygen concentration lower than that of the outside air and higher than a target concentration. The oxygen concentration in the interior of the container is reduced to the vicinity of the oxygen concentration of the gas mixture by supplying the interior of the container with the gas mixture, and then is further reduced to the target concentration by respiration of plants. This appropriately controls the oxygen concentration in the interior of the container, and reduces a decrease in the degree of freshness of the plants.

Disclosed is a gas supply device provided for a container in which a breathing plant is housed. The device supplies nitrogen-enriched air into the container. The device is provided with a malfunction diagnosis section which checks whether each of components of the device works properly or not and specifies a malfunctioning portion if an oxygen concentration of the nitrogen-enriched air does not fall to or below a predetermined concentration. The malfunction diagnosis section checks whether each of an air pump, a motor, and a switching mechanism works properly or not, and determines that an adsorbent is not working properly when it is determined that all of the air pump, the motor, and the switching mechanism are working properly.

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Osaka, Japan

Atsushi Ozato