WO2009115279A1

WO2009115279A1 - Refrigerator ducting system

Info

Publication number: WO2009115279A1
Application number: PCT/EP2009/001927
Authority: WO
Inventors: Justin Formica; Lyndon Craig; Lars Erikson; Paul Mullins; Philip Sanders; Wendy Banks; Raman Dhingra; Keiran Taylor; Mark Roberts
Original assignee: Aktiebolaget Electrolux; Electrolux Home Products Pty Limited
Priority date: 2008-03-17
Filing date: 2009-03-16
Publication date: 2009-09-24
Also published as: AU2009226721A1; AU2009226721B2

Abstract

The present invention provides an appliance (10) including a cabinet (11), at least one drawer or carriage (9) including a door panel (12) and a rear panel (18) being held in a spaced apart relationship defining a storage or other space therebetween, the door panel (12) and rear panel (18) being moveable together, the rear panel (18) having a plurality of apertures (81) therethrough with the apertures (81) performing one or more of the following functions: flow through of air or -gases; to decrease a vacuum effect when the door and rear panels are being moved; means to allow shelves which extend across the storage space to be connected to the rear panel; allow air or gas flow into and out of the storage space for cooling or heating purposes when the drawer or carriage is in the cabinet. The apertures can be arranged as an array.

Description

Refrigerator Ducting System

Field of the invention

[001] The present invention relates to ducting systems for refrigerators, freezers and other appliances which include drawers.

Background of the invention

[002] Fridges, freezers and fridge freezer combinations have been in existence for a long time, from time to time there is need to provide improved product for consumer choice.

[003] The present application is related to co-pending Australian patent application

2008901307 and corresponding PCT application, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.

[004] Any reference herein to known prior art does not, unless the contrary indication appears, constitute an admission that such prior art is commonly known by those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, at the priority date of this application.

Summary of the invention

[005] The present invention provides an appliance including a cabinet, at least one drawer or carriage including a door panel and a rear panel being held in a spaced apart relationship defining a storage or other space therebetween, the door panel and rear panel being moveable together the rear panel having a plurality of apertures therethrough with the apertures performing one or more of the following functions: flow through of air or gases; to decrease a vacuum effect when the door and rear panels are being moved; means to allow shelves which extend across the storage space to be connected to the rear panel; allow air or gas flow into and out of the storage space for cooling or heating purposes when the drawer or carriage is in the cabinet. The apertures can be arranged as an array.

[006] The present invention also provides an appliance comprising a cabinet and at least one moveable door panel and a respective rear panel being held in a spaced apart relationship defining a storage space therebetween and moveable together, the rear panel having a series, or an array, of apertures therethrough with columns or rows of the apertures performing different functions.

[007] The rows or columns of the apertures can perform one or more of the following functions: flow through of air or gases; to decrease a vacuum effect when the door panels are being moved; means to allow shelves which extend across the storage space to be connected to the rear panel; allow air or gases flow into and out of the storage space for cooling or heating purposes.

[008] The rear panel when fully retracted into the cabinet makes communicable passage with a duct located in the cabinet, so that air or gas flowing from the duct can exit the duct and subsequently pass through at least one aperture in the rear panel.

[009] Between the duct and at least one aperture in the rear panel is compressible seal to seal the aperture relative to an outlet of the duct when the rear panel is fully retracted into the cabinet.

[010] The compressible seal can be mounted on the duct or the compressible seal can mounted on the rear panel, or each can carry a portion of the compressible seal which forms a seal once the duct and rear panel are in close proximity to each other.

[Oi l] The duct can include a plurality of rows or columns.

[012] The duct can include a bifurcated portion.

[013] A plurality of rows or columns of the duct can spaced from each other to enable an intermediate row or column of apertures in the rear panel to lie therebetween.

[014] The seals and or the duct can operate to retard, stop or slow down said carriage relative to the appliance cabinet.

Brief description of the drawings

[015] An embodiment or embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[016] Figure 1 is a perspective view of an appliance being a refrigerator with a bottom mount freezer;

[017] Figure 2 is an upper perspective view of the appliance of Figure 1 ;

[018] Figure 3 is a section through the appliance of Figures 1 and 2;

[019] Figure 4 is a front view of the appliance of Figures 1 to 3 with the upper and lower door panels removed;

[020] Figure 5 is an upper perspective view of a shelf and drawer arrangement (with front panel removed) for use with the appliance of Figures 1 to 4; [021] Figure 6 illustrates a refrigerator carriage having front and rear panel upper strut and two side struts which forms a sub-assembly of the unit of the previous figures together with a ducting arrangement for use therewith and which shows the arrangement of the duct relative to the drawer when the drawer is pulled out from the refrigerated cabinet.

[022] Figure 7 illustrates the components of Figure 6 when the drawer or carriage is pushed back into the refrigerator and the duct is next adjacent to the rear panel;

[023] Figure 8 shows the side elevation of the components of Figure 6;

[024] Figure 9 shows a cross section through the parts of Figure 8 in line with ducts;

[025] Figure 10 illustrates the side view of the arrangement of components of Figure 7;

[026] Figure 11 shows a section through these components;

[027] Figure 12 illustrates the duct component in larger perspective, and

[028] Figure 13 illustrates in perspective view detail A of Figure 12.

Detailed description of the embodiment or embodiments

[029] Illustrated in Figure 1 is an appliance 10 with a refrigerator cabinet in the upper portion closed by a door panel 12, and a freezer cabinet in the lower portion closed by a door panel 14.

[030] The door panel 12 and rear panel 18 form a carriage unit defining a space between them, with the door panel 12 and rear panel 18 moving together and being held in a spaced apart relationship, by means of two lower struts 20 and 21 (see Figures 2 and 3) and an upper strut 22.

[031] The struts 20, 21, and 22 are of a generally C-shape in cross section, and form rails which are part of a sliding drawer mechanism or a telescoping mechanism, which carries and transmits the weight forces of the carriage unit and all that it contains, to the refrigerator cabinet.

[032] The lower struts 20 and 21 are located at a height above the lower most edge 13 of the door panel 12, so as to accommodate the height of a crisper or vegetable bin or drawer 32 both within the refrigerator cabinet and above the bottom edge 13.

[033] The upper strut 22 is located near the centre of the door panel 12 at the upper edge thereof. While one strut 22 is used, two struts 22 and 23 which form a composite strut can replace the single strut 22, as illustrated in Figures 12 to 14 as described below. [034] The rear panel 18 has a series of apertures or holes 81, which in this instance are each of an obround shape, while the rear facing side of the door panel 12 as illustrated in Figure 4 or 10, has respective or corresponding locking formations 12.1 in the shape of obround projections, so that at least one or a multiple of shelves 26, 28 and 30, can be suspended between the rear panel 18 and rear face of the door panel 12. As can be seen from Figures 3 and 4 the shelf 30 is the full width of the carriage unit formed by the door panel 12 and rear panel 18, as is shelf 28, whereas shelf 26 is approximately half the width of the carriage unit or the rear panel 18.

[035] The array or series of holes 81 and corresponding locking formations 12.1 on the rear face of the door panel 12 allow the removable/repositionable shelves to be installed in a number of different positions on the carriage unit, and at a variety of heights or width locations when a partial width shelf unit is used, or at a selection of heights when a full width shelf unit is used.

[036] The shelves have rearwardly extending obround projections not illustrated which fit into the holes 81 , while at the front edges thereof the shelves have half obround recesses 67 which receive the obround projections 12.1 to mount a shelf between rear panel 18 and front panel 12.

[037] The shelf 24 has its base secured to the bases of the struts 20 and 21, and is not repositionable like the other shelves 26, 28 and 30, relative to the rear panel 18.

[038] However, as can be seen from Figure 3, the use of the half or fraction width shelf

26 allows the shelf 24 to be used to carry or hold bottles which will extend past the height of shelf 26, and this allows sufficient space above the bottles to assist in their removal from the carriage unit. If desired the half or fraction width shelf 26 can be slidably mounted to the rear panel and the door so as to be slidable across the width of the carriage.

[039] The holes 81 in the rear panel 18 have several purposes. A first is that when a spigot 18.1 is not located therein, they allow the flow through of air or gases, in addition to the spaces around the sides and top and bottom, to decrease a vacuum effect that may otherwise be produced when the carriage unit is being moved out of the refrigerator cabinet or a piston effect when the carriage unit is being moved into the refrigerator cabinet. A second function is the one mentioned earlier which is to provide a peg board type arrangement to allow the shelves to be supported and located by the rear panel 18. The final function is to allow air flow into and out of the space between the rear panel 18 and door panel 12 for cooling purposes (or heating purposes if the appliance were an oven or cooking appliance).

[040] Illustrated in Figure 6, is the carriage 9 which comprises the front door panel 12, rear panel 18 with its series of apertures 81 and struts 20, 21, 22 interconnecting them. In the refrigerator of Figures 1 to 5, there is a duct 110 as illustrated in Figure 6 which sits behind the rear panel 18 and delivers refrigerated air to the refrigerator cavity via this duct 110.

[041] As illustrated in Figure 6, the rear panel is made up of 7 rows of apertures, two large apertures in row 120, 25 apertures in the 5 rows 122 and 3 further apertures as the lowest row 124.

[042] As illustrated in Figure 7, when the carriage 9 is pushed back into the cabinet so that the rear panel 18 is adjacent the duct 110, only the apertures 113, 10 apertures 111 and the top 2 apertures 1 12 make contact with the flexible seals 21 1 (see Figures 12 and 13) thereby ensuring that the cold air exiting the duct 110 passes through the rear panel 18. The 3 columns of 5 apertures namely columns 130, 131 and 132 are useful for mounting shelves and allowing for equalisation and flow of air as described previously.

[043] By the seals 211, 213 and 212 being of a spongy nature and able to maintain this characteristic in the relatively cool environment of a refrigerator, these seals can act as a means to slow down the carriage 9 as it comes to rest inside the cabinet 1 1. Such an action can be in addition to or separate from any springy resistance offered against compressive forces by the shape of the duct 110, when the rear panel engages the duct 110. This can be used a stop or retardation means of the carriage's movement with respect to the appliance cabinet.

[044] The rows 112 and 113 are provided to ensure that relatively large amounts of cool air can pass through to the refrigeration space from the duct 1 10 should for example 3 of the 5 rows 112 be utilised as illustrated in Figure 1 and 2 to carry shelving. In this case, as illustrated in Figure 3 if shelves were utilised the whole row of apertures 122 where the shelf is located would be effectively occluded or partially occluded by the shelf and as such decreased cool or refrigerated air flow would occur and the rows 120 and 124 ensure sufficient air flows out if say 3 of the 5 rows 120 were occluded or partially occluded.

[045] As can be seen from Figures 8 and 9, the lower end of the duct 1 10 includes a bulbous portion 140 which fits snugly into the space under the rear panel 18 in the region of 141. This can help to ensure the vertical alignment of the apertures in the duct 110 with the respective apertures through the rear panel 18 as is illustrated in Figures 10 and 1 1. The lower reaches of the duct 110 in the region of 214 is for interconnecting of the duct 110 to the duct delivering refrigerated air from the evaporator.

[046] Where ever it is used, the word "comprising" is to be understood in its "open" sense, that is, in the sense of "including", and thus not limited to its "closed" sense, that is the sense of "consisting only of. A corresponding meaning is to be attributed to the corresponding words "comprise", "comprised" and "comprises" where they appear.

[047] It will be understood that the invention disclosed and defined herein extends to all alternative combinations of two or more of the individual features mentioned or evident from the text. All of these different combinations constitute various alternative aspects of the invention.

[048] While particular embodiments of this invention have been described, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments and examples are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and all modifications which would be obvious to those skilled in the art are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

Claims

1. A appliance comprising a cabinet, at least one drawer or carriage including a door panel and a rear panel being held in a spaced apart relationship defining a storage or other space therebetween, said door panel and rear panel being moveable together said rear panel having a plurality of apertures therethrough with said apertures performing one or more of the following functions: flow through of air or gases; to decrease a vacuum or compression effect when said door and rear panel is being moved; means to allow shelves which extend across said storage space to be connected to said rear panel; allow air or gas flow into and out of said storage space for cooling or heating purposes when said drawer or carriage is in said cabinet.

2. An appliance comprising a cabinet and at least one moveable door panel and a respective rear panel being held in a spaced apart relationship defining a storage space therebetween and moveable together, said rear panel having a series, or an array, of apertures therethrough with columns or rows of said apertures performing different functions.

3. An appliance as claimed in claim 2, wherein said rows or columns of said apertures perform one or more of the following functions: flow through of air or gases; to decrease a vacuum effect or compression when said door and rear panel is being moved; means to allow shelves which extend across said storage space to be connected to said rear panel; allow air or gases flow into and out of said storage space for cooling or heating purposes.

4. An appliance as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said rear panel when fully retracted into said cabinet makes communicable passage with a duct located in said cabinet, so that air or gas flowing from said duct can exit said duct and subsequently pass through at least one aperture in said rear panel.

5. An appliance as claimed in claim 4, wherein between said duct and at least one aperture in said rear panel is compressible seal to seal said aperture relative to an outlet of said duct when said rear panel is fully retracted into said cabinet.

6. An appliance as claimed in claim 5, wherein said compressible seal is mounted on said duct.

7. An appliance as claimed in claim 5, wherein said compressible seal is mounted on said rear panel.

8. An appliance as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said duct includes a plurality of rows or columns.

9. An appliance as claimed in claim 8 wherein said duct includes a bifurcated portion.

10. An appliance as claimed in any one of claims 8 or 9, wherein a plurality of rows or columns of said duct are spaced from each other to enable an intermediate row or column of apertures in said rear panel to lie therebetween.

11. An appliance as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein said seals and or said duct can operate to retard, stop or slow down said carriage relative to the appliance cabinet.