Panasonic Corporation

Matsushita Refrigeration Company

Masato Sasaki

Kazutaka Uekado

Takao Sato

Yoshiki Ohashi

Haruyuki Ishio

Frozen products requiring cold insulation are housed inside of the cold-insulating container structured of a vacuum heat-insulating material, and the cold-insulating containers are loaded in a refrigerator vehicle, cold-insulating vehicle, or room-temperature vehicle other than a freezer vehicle for delivery. Each of the peripheral walls, lids, and bottom faces of this container is made of a sheet material enveloping the vacuum heat-insulating material therein. In each of the peripheral walls adjacent to the peripheral walls connected to the lids, the vacuum heat-insulating material is divided along folding line so as to be foldable.

Foldable heat insulating container and distribution method

An insulation box unit and a refrigerator of the present invention employs i) rigid urethane foam with a 8.0 MPa-or-greater bending modulus, and a 60 kg/m-or-lower density, and ii) a vacuum insulation material. The proper bending modulus provides the insulation box unit with a substantial strength, even in the case that the coverage of the vacuum insulation material with respect to the surface of the outer box exceeds 40%. The proper density prevents the insulation box unit from poor insulation efficiency due to undesired solid thermal conductivity. Despite of an extended use of the vacuum insulation material, the insulation box unit offers an excellent insulation efficiency and therefore accelerates energy saving. According to the recycling method of the present invention, rigid urethane foam formed of tolylene di-isocyanate composition, which was separated from refrigerator wastes, is recycled as a material of rigid urethane foam.

Growing community of inventors

Shiga, Japan

Masato Sasaki