CN111059828B

CN111059828B - Refrigerator with a door

Info

Publication number: CN111059828B
Application number: CN201910420825.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘磊; 孟亮; 梁龙旭
Original assignee: Qingdao Haier Refrigerator Co Ltd; Haier Smart Home Co Ltd
Current assignee: Qingdao Haier Refrigerator Co Ltd; Haier Smart Home Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-05-20
Filing date: 2019-05-20
Publication date: 2020-10-30
Anticipated expiration: 2039-05-20
Also published as: CN111059828A

Abstract

The invention provides a refrigerator, which comprises a refrigerator body; the first door body and the second door body are arranged on the front side of the box body in a left-right split manner; the sealing beam extends vertically and can be arranged on the inner side of the first door body in a reciprocating translation mode along the transverse direction of the first door body, and the front part of the sealing beam is provided with a sealing strip capable of stretching back and forth; the first driving mechanism is used for driving the sealing beam to transversely reciprocate and translate; the second driving mechanism is used for driving the sealing strip to stretch back and forth; and the refrigerator is configured to: after the first door body and the second door body are both closed, the sealing beam is translated from a retracted state to a second door body to an extended state for sealing a gap between the first door body and the second door body, and the sealing strip is extended forwards out of the sealing beam to be sealed and attached to the inner surface of the first door body; and before the first door body and/or the second door body are opened, the sealing beam is enabled to translate from the extending state to the retracting state, and the sealing strip is enabled to move backwards to be separated from the inner surface of the first door body. The invention has better sealing performance between the two split door bodies and less noise when opening and closing the door.

Description

Refrigerator with a door

Technical Field

The invention relates to a refrigerating and freezing device, in particular to a refrigerator.

Background

Some large-capacity refrigerators have a left-right side-by-side door structure, i.e., a storage compartment is closed by two left and right door bodies. The split door structure has high requirement on the sealing performance of the gap between the two door bodies.

A common prior art method is to mount a vertical beam for sealing on a door body. When the door body is opened, the vertical beam is in a state of being approximately vertical to the door body. In the closing process of the door body, the vertical beam is guided by the box body to rotate along a vertical axis to a state approximately parallel to the door body so as to seal a gap between the door body and the other door body and reduce the leakage of the cold energy of the storage chamber through the gap.

However, the above-described method is of a purely mechanical structure. In the process of opening and closing the door, the vertical beam is difficult to rotate, jamming is easy to occur, and the vertical beam is easy to collide with the box body to generate noise. More importantly, due to the structure, the vertical beam is difficult to be in close contact with the two door bodies, and the sealing performance is not good.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present invention is to overcome at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a refrigerator having better sealing performance between side-by-side combination doors and less noise in opening and closing the doors.

It is another object of the present invention to reduce friction with the door body when the seal beam translates.

The invention further aims to realize automatic translation of the sealing beam, so that the door opening and closing process of a user is more labor-saving, and the user experience is enhanced.

In particular, the present invention provides a refrigerator, comprising:

a box body;

the first door body and the second door body are arranged on the front side of the box body in a left-right split manner;

the sealing beam extends vertically and can be arranged on the inner side of the first door body in a reciprocating translation mode along the transverse direction of the first door body, and the front part of the sealing beam is provided with a sealing strip capable of stretching back and forth;

the first driving mechanism is used for driving the sealing beam to transversely reciprocate and translate; and

the second driving mechanism is used for driving the sealing strip to stretch back and forth; and the refrigerator is configured to:

after the first door body and the second door body are both closed, the sealing beam is translated from a retracted state to a second door body to an extended state for sealing a gap between the first door body and the second door body, and the sealing strip is extended forwards out of the sealing beam to be sealed and attached to the inner surface of the first door body; and is

Before the first door body and/or the second door body are opened, the sealing beam is enabled to translate from the extending state to the retracting state, and the sealing strip is enabled to move backwards to be separated from the inner surface of the first door body.

Optionally, the second drive mechanism comprises: the elastic element is arranged on the sealing beam and is used for applying elastic force for promoting the sealing strip to extend forwards; one end of the traction line is fixed on the sealing strip; and the second motor is fixed in the sealing beam and configured to wind the traction line to pull the sealing strip in the forward rotation so that the sealing strip is retracted into the sealing beam by overcoming the elastic force, and release the traction line in the reverse rotation so as to allow the sealing strip to extend out of the sealing beam under the action of the elastic force.

Optionally, the second drive mechanism further comprises: the wheel disc is arranged on a rotating shaft of the second motor and used for winding the pulling wire; and the pulley is arranged on the sealing beam and used for tensioning the traction line.

Optionally, the refrigerator further comprises two sealing blocks which are respectively telescopically mounted at the upper end and the lower end of the sealing beam up and down; and the refrigerator is configured to: after the sealing beam is translated to the extending state, the two sealing blocks extend out of the sealing beam to respectively and hermetically abut against the top wall and the bottom wall of the box body; before the sealing beam leaves the extended state, the two sealing blocks are retracted into the sealing beam.

Optionally, the second driving mechanism further includes a vertically extending screw rod, and the upper and lower ends of the vertically extending screw rod are screwed into the threaded holes formed in the two sealing blocks respectively, so that the screw rod is rotated to change the screwing depth of the screw rod into the threaded holes to drive the two sealing blocks to extend and retract up and down.

Optionally, the second drive mechanism further comprises: the first gear is arranged on a rotating shaft of the second motor; and the second gear is arranged on the lead screw and is meshed with the first gear so as to synchronously drive the first gear to rotate when the second motor winds or releases the traction line, and further drive the lead screw to rotate.

Optionally, a vertically extending fixing beam is arranged at a position, close to the opening end, of the inner surface of the second door body, and a groove extending in a long strip shape along the vertical direction is formed in the side surface, facing the first door body, of the fixing beam; the side surface of the sealing beam facing the second door body is provided with a sealing stop block which can stretch along the transverse direction of the first door body and extend into a strip shape along the vertical direction; and the refrigerator is configured to: when the sealing beam is in an extending state, the sealing stop block extends out of the sealing beam to extend into the groove; and after the sealing beam leaves the extending state, the sealing stop block is retracted into the sealing beam.

Optionally, the second drive mechanism further comprises: the third gear is arranged on the rotating shaft of the second motor; the second rack is fixed on the sealing stop block in an extending mode along the transverse direction of the first door body and meshed with the third gear, so that when the second motor winds or releases the traction line, the third gear is driven to rotate synchronously, and the sealing stop block is driven to stretch.

Optionally, the refrigerator further comprises a door opening sensing device, which is used for generating a door opening sensing signal when sensing the action of opening the first door body or the second door body by a user; the door closing sensing device senses that the first door body and the second door body are both closed and then generates a door closing sensing signal; and the controller is configured to control the first driving mechanism and the second driving mechanism to respectively drive the sealing beam and the sealing strip to make corresponding translation according to the received door opening sensing signal and door closing sensing signal.

Optionally, the refrigerator further includes an emergency sensing device, which is installed on a side surface of the sealing beam facing the second door body and configured to generate an emergency sensing signal when sensing that an object enters a gap between the first door body and the second door body in the process that the sealing beam translates toward the extended state; and the controller is also configured to control the first driving mechanism to stop working after receiving the emergency induction signal.

The refrigerator adopts the sealing beam to replace the traditional rotating vertical beam to seal the gap between the two oppositely-opened door bodies, and has novel and ingenious structure. In the invention, the motion mode of the sealing beam is translational reciprocating motion, and compared with the traditional rotating vertical beam, the sealing beam is easy to cling to the second door body with larger pressure, so that the sealing performance is better. Moreover, the rotating vertical beam can impact the box body or the door body under the action of elasticity after the door is opened and closed, so that great impact noise is generated. The translational motion of the sealing beam can avoid the defect.

And after the sealing beam enters the extending state, the sealing strip at the front part of the sealing beam extends forwards to be in sealing contact with the inner surface of the first door body, so that the sealing performance is better. And before the seal beam translates away from the extended condition, the seal strip moves rearward to disengage from contact with the first door body interior surface. Therefore, when the sealing beam translates subsequently, friction cannot be generated between the front surface of the sealing beam and the first door body, and the problems of energy consumption and noise caused by friction are avoided.

Furthermore, the refrigerator utilizes the motor, the pulling line and the elastic element to realize the telescopic driving of the sealing strip, has skillful structure, simple structure, lower design and processing cost and high reliability.

Furthermore, in the refrigerator, after the two door bodies are closed, the two sealing blocks at the upper end and the lower end of the sealing beam are in sealing contact with the top wall and the bottom wall of the refrigerator body, so that the upper end and the lower end of the sealing beam are well sealed with the inner wall of the refrigerator body. Before the two door bodies are opened, the two sealing blocks are retracted into the sealing beam and are not contacted with the box body any more, so that the sealing blocks are prevented from rubbing against the box body when the first door body is opened subsequently, and the problems of energy consumption and noise caused by friction are avoided.

Further, in the refrigerator, the telescopic sealing stop block is arranged on the side face of the sealing beam to be in sealing fit with the groove of the fixing beam on the inner surface of the second door body, and compared with a scheme that the sealing beam directly seals the inner surface of the second door body, the refrigerator can enable the sealing beam to be directly pressed on the fixing beam with larger pressure, so that the sealing performance is better undoubtedly.

Furthermore, the refrigerator utilizes a second motor to synchronously drive the sealing strip, the sealing block and the sealing stop block, so that the sealing strip, the sealing block and the sealing stop block can synchronously translate, and the movement mechanism is very fine and ingenious in design.

Furthermore, the refrigerator automatically controls the translation process of the sealing beam by sensing the door opening action and the door closing action of a user, so that the movement precision of the sealing beam is higher, and the user saves more labor. Meanwhile, the automation level of the refrigerator and the grade of the refrigerator are improved, and the user experience is enhanced.

The above and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of specific embodiments thereof, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

Some specific embodiments of the invention will be described in detail hereinafter, by way of illustration and not limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in the drawings identify the same or similar elements or components. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention when two door bodies are closed;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 with both door bodies open;

FIG. 3 is a schematic top view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention when two door bodies are closed and the sealing beam is in a retracted state;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 3 at A;

FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 3 with the seal beam translated to an extended condition;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 5 at B;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the internal structure of the first door body according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the first door body of FIG. 7 with the seal beam translated to an extended condition;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of the internal construction of the first door body in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the first door body of FIG. 9 with the seal beam translated to an extended condition;

FIG. 11 is still another internal construction view of the first door body in the refrigerator of FIG. 3;

FIG. 12 is still another internal construction view of the first door body in the refrigerator shown in FIG. 5;

fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 14 is a schematic side view of a first door in a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the invention.

Detailed Description

The refrigerator according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to fig. 1 to 14, and the orientations or positional relationships indicated by "front", "rear", "upper", "lower", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "lateral", etc. in the description of the embodiment of the present invention are based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience of describing the present invention and simplifying the description, but do not indicate or imply that the referred device or element must have a specific orientation, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and thus, cannot be construed as limiting the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention when two door bodies are closed; fig. 2 is a schematic view of the refrigerator shown in fig. 1 when both door bodies are opened.

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention may generally include a cabinet 10 and two door bodies. The two door bodies are respectively a first door body 20 and a second door body 30. The cabinet 10 defines a storage compartment 11. The first door 20 and the second door 30 are attached to the front side of the cabinet 10 so as to be left-right-side-opened. Taking the illustrated structure as an example, the pivoting end (the right end in the state of fig. 1) of the first door body 20 is rotatably mounted to the right end of the front side of the cabinet 10 about a vertical axis, and the pivoting end (the left end in the state of fig. 1) of the second door body 30 is rotatably mounted to the left end of the front side of the cabinet 10 about a vertical axis. When the two doors close the storage compartment 11, a gap is formed between the open end (left end in the state of fig. 1) of the first door 20 and the open end (right end in the state of fig. 1) of the second door 30 (refer to fig. 1).

In order to seal the gap between the two door bodies, the refrigerator is particularly provided with a sealing beam 50 and a first driving mechanism for driving the sealing beam 50 to transversely reciprocate and translate. The sealing beam 50 extends in the vertical direction and is mounted on the inner side of the first door body 20 (i.e., the side facing the storage compartment 11 when the door is closed) in a manner of reciprocating translation along the transverse direction of the first door body 20. The lateral direction of the first door body 20 refers to a direction parallel to the x-axis.

In the embodiment of the present invention, after both the first door body 20 and the second door body 30 are closed, the first driving mechanism is controlled to make the sealing beam 50 translate from a retracted state toward the second door body 30, and finally move to an extended state for sealing a gap between the first door body 20 and the second door body 30, referring to fig. 1.

In order to ensure tightness, the sealing beam 50 is necessarily tightly, tightly or even locked to the second door body 30 when in the extended state. Therefore, before the first door body 20 and/or the second door body 30 are opened, the first driving mechanism is controlled to enable the sealing beam 50 to translate from the extending state to the retracting state, so that the constraint of the sealing beam 50 on the second door body 30 is relieved, and the opening of one door body is not influenced by the other door body.

The refrigerator adopts the sealing beam 50 to replace the traditional rotating vertical beam to seal the first door body 20 and the second door body 30 which are split, and the structure is simple and novel. The movement form of the sealing beam 50 is translational reciprocating movement, and compared with the rotating vertical beam, the sealing beam is easy to be attached to the second door body 30 with larger pressure, so that the sealing performance is better. And the rotating vertical beam can return under the action of elasticity after the door is opened and closed, and the box body or the door body can be impacted under the action of the elasticity to generate impact noise. The translationally moving seal beam 50 avoids this disadvantage.

FIG. 3 is a schematic top view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention when two door bodies are closed and the sealing beam is in a retracted state; FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 3 at A; FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 3 with the seal beam translated to an extended condition; fig. 6 is an enlarged view of the refrigerator shown in fig. 5 at B.

As shown in fig. 3 to 6, the front portion of the seal beam 50 has a seal bar 56 that is retractable forward and backward, and a second driving mechanism 100 for driving the seal bar 56 to move telescopically. After the sealing beam 50 enters the extended state, the second driving mechanism 100 is controlled to drive the sealing strip 56 to extend forward to a position where it is sealed against the inner surface of the first door body 20, as shown in fig. 6. At this time, the seal beam 50 forms a good seal with the inner surface of the first door body 20. Before the sealing beam 50 is translated away from the extended position, the second drive mechanism 100 is controlled to drive the sealing strip 56 rearward out of contact with the inner surface of the first door body 20, as shown in fig. 4. Thus, when the seal beam 50 is subsequently translated, no friction is generated between the front surface of the seal beam and the inner surface of the first door body 20. I.e., the seal beam 50 can be smoothly moved to the retracted state.

An alternative form of the second drive mechanism 100 is described below. As shown in fig. 4 and 6, the second driving mechanism 100 includes an elastic member 150, a pulling wire 130, and a second motor 110. Wherein a resilient member 150 is mounted to the seal beam 50 for applying a resilient force to the seal bar 56 urging it forwardly. One end of the pull wire 130 is fixed to the seal bar 56. The second motor 110 is fixed in the seal beam 50 and configured to wind the pulling wire 130 to pull the seal strip 56 during the forward rotation, so that the seal strip 56 retracts into the seal beam 50 against the elastic force of the elastic element 150; the second motor 110 reverses to release the puller wire 130 to allow the seal bar 56 to extend out of the seal beam 50 under spring force.

Referring specifically to fig. 6, a stop 58 is provided behind the seal bar 56, the stop 58 being secured to the seal beam 50. The resilient member 150 is a compression spring that is disposed between the stop 58 and the seal 56. The second drive mechanism 100 also includes a sheave 120 and a pulley 140. The pulley 120 is mounted to a rotation shaft of the second motor 110 for winding the pulling wire 130. A pulley 140 is mounted to the seal beam 50 for tensioning the puller wire 130.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the internal structure of the first door body according to another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the first door body of FIG. 7 with the seal beam translated to an extended state. For the sake of simplicity, the components for driving the sealing strip, such as the pulling wire, the elastic element, etc., have been omitted from fig. 7 and 8.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 1, 2, 7 and 8, the refrigerator further comprises two seal blocks 54, 55. Two seal blocks 54, 55 are attached to the upper and lower ends of the seal beam 50 so as to be vertically extendable and retractable, respectively. After the sealing beam 50 is translated to the extended state, the two sealing

blocks

54 and 55 are extended out of the sealing beam 50 to seal against the top wall and the bottom wall of the box 10 (actually referred to as the top wall and the bottom wall of the storage compartment 11), respectively, so that the gap between the first door body 20 and the second door body 30 is completely sealed, as shown in fig. 1 and 8. Before the sealing beam 50 leaves the extended state, the two sealing

blocks

54, 55 are retracted into the sealing beam 50, see fig. 7. Therefore, the sealing blocks 54 and 55 are prevented from rubbing against the top wall and the bottom wall of the box body 10 when the first door body 20 is subsequently opened, and the problems of energy consumption and noise caused by friction are avoided.

The second drive mechanism 100 is also used to drive the two sealing

blocks

54, 55 to move. As shown in fig. 7 and 8, the second driving mechanism 100 further includes a lead screw 191 extending vertically. The upper and lower ends of the screw rod 191 are screwed into the threaded

holes

541 and 551 of the two sealing

blocks

54 and 55 respectively. That is, the screw 191 and the seal blocks 54 and 55 constitute a screw 191-nut mechanism. When the screw shaft 191 is driven to rotate, the sealing blocks 54 and 55 do not rotate, so that the depth of the screw shaft 191 screwed into the threaded

holes

541 and 551 is changed, and the two sealing

blocks

54 and 55 are driven to extend and retract up and down.

Further, the second driving mechanism 100 may further include: a first gear 180 and a second gear 190. The first gear 180 is mounted to a rotation shaft of the second motor 110. The second gear 190 is mounted to the lead screw 191 and engaged with the first gear 180 to synchronously drive the first gear 180 to rotate when the second motor 110 winds or releases the pulling wire 130.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 2, 3 and 5, a fixing beam 40 may be protruded backward from a position of an inner surface of the second door 30 (a surface of the second door 30 facing the inside of the storage compartment 11 when being closed) near the open end, and a side of the fixing beam 40 facing the first door 20 is inwardly opened with a groove 41 extending in a long shape along the vertical direction. A seal stopper 51 that is extendable and retractable in the lateral direction of the first door body 20 and extends in a vertical direction in an elongated shape is attached to a side surface of the seal beam 50 facing the second door body 30. The shape of the sealing stop 51 matches the shape of the recess 41. With the sealing beam 50 in the extended state, the sealing stop 51 is extended beyond the sealing beam 50 to extend into the groove 41, see fig. 5. After the seal beam 50 leaves the extended state, the seal stop 51 is retracted into the seal beam 50. The design has at least three advantages, firstly, the locking between two door bodies can be realized, the door bodies are not easy to shake after being closed, and the sealing performance is better. And compared with two plane contact seals, the plug-in structure has better sealing performance obviously. Thirdly, the sealing beam 50 is made of hard material which is easy to process into the shape of the sealing beam, and only the sealing stopper 51 is made of material which has elasticity and is suitable for sealing.

As shown in fig. 3, a sealing sheet 43 is disposed in the recess 41, and the sealing sheet 43 may be made of a rubber strip or other material with elasticity and suitable sealing property. When the sealing beam 50 is in the extended state, the sealing stop 51 abuts against the sealing plate 43, which can further improve the sealing performance.

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of the internal construction of the first door body in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the first door body of FIG. 9 with the seal beam translated to an extended state. For the sake of simplicity, fig. 9 and 10 illustrate only a portion of the second driving mechanism 100 for driving the sealing stopper, and other portions are not shown.

The sealing stopper 51 may be driven using the second driving mechanism 100. As shown in fig. 9 and 10, the second drive mechanism 100 further includes a third gear 160 and a second rack 170. The third gear 160 is mounted to a rotation shaft of the second motor 110. The second rack 170 is fixed to the sealing stopper 51 to extend in the lateral direction of the first door body 20, and is engaged with the third gear 160 to constitute a rack and pinion mechanism. When the second motor 110 winds or releases the pulling wire 130, the third gear 160 is synchronously driven to rotate, and the sealing stopper 51 is driven to extend and retract.

The invention utilizes a second motor 110 to simultaneously drive the sealing strips 56, the sealing blocks 54 and 55 and the sealing stop block 51 to move, so that the sealing blocks 54 and 55, the sealing strips 56 and the sealing stop block 51 synchronously translate, the design of a motion mechanism is very fine and ingenious, parts and space are saved, and the control is simplified. It should be noted that the transmission ratio of the first gear 180 and the second gear 190, the pitch of the lead screw 191, and the parameters of the rack and pinion mechanism should be selected to ensure that the sealing blocks 54 and 55, the sealing strip 56, and the sealing stop 51 move to the positions that should be reached at the same time, and detailed description is omitted. Of course, another motor may be provided to drive the sealing blocks 54, 55 and the sealing stopper 51 to move.

FIG. 11 is still another internal construction view of the first door body in the refrigerator of FIG. 3; fig. 12 is still another internal configuration diagram of the first door body in the refrigerator of fig. 5.

An alternative form of the first drive mechanism of the present invention will now be described with reference to figures 11 and 12. As shown in fig. 11 and 12, the first drive mechanism 60 includes a first motor 61, a fourth gear 62, and a first rack 63. The first motor 61 is fixed to the first door 20. The fourth gear 62 is driven by the first motor 61. The first rack 63 is used for being meshed with the fourth gear 62, and the first rack 63 is fixed to the seal beam 50, and the length direction of the first rack is parallel to the transverse direction of the first door body 20. When the first motor 61 drives the fourth gear 62 to rotate, the fourth gear 62 drives the first rack 63 to translate along the transverse direction of the first door 20, so as to drive the sealing beam 50 to translate. It will be appreciated that the first motor 61 should be a motor capable of controlled positive and negative rotation. The refrigerator changes the translational direction of the seal beam 50 by switching the rotational direction of the first motor 61. For example, when the first motor 61 is rotated forward, the seal beam 50 is driven to translate from the retracted state illustrated in fig. 12 to the extended state illustrated in fig. 11. When the first motor 61 is reversed, the seal beam 50 is driven to translate from the extended condition illustrated in fig. 11 to the retracted condition illustrated in fig. 12.

As shown in fig. 11 and 12, the first door body 20 may be provided with at least one guide groove 22 horizontally extending in a lateral direction thereof. The sealing beam 50 has at least one guide post 53 to define the direction of translation of the sealing beam 50 by the guide slot 22. I.e. so that the sealing beam 50 can only translate in the horizontal transverse direction. The number of the at least one guide groove 22 is preferably two, and the two are arranged up and down. The number of the first driving mechanisms 60 is also preferably two, and the two first driving mechanisms 60 respectively drive the upper half part and the lower half part of the sealing beam 50, so that the translation of the sealing beam 50 is more stable and accurate.

The above embodiment describes the case where the refrigerator has only two door bodies. Of course, the refrigerator may have other door bodies than the two door bodies. In the above embodiment, the door body located on the right side in the drawing is the first door body 20, and the seal beam 50 is provided thereon. It is understood that the first door body 20 may be disposed on the left side and the second door body 30 may be disposed on the right side.

Fig. 13 is a schematic block diagram of a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 13, in some embodiments, the refrigerator further includes a door opening sensing device 90, a door closing sensing device 70, and a controller 80.

The door opening sensing device 90 is used for sensing the user's action of opening the first door body 20 and the second door body 30. When the door opening sensing device 90 senses an action of opening the first door body 20 or the second door body 30 by a user, a door opening sensing signal is generated. The door opening sensing device 90 may specifically include two infrared sensors disposed on the handle portion 21 of the first door body 20 and the handle portion 31 of the second door body 30. When a human hand enters the

handle portions

21 and 31 to open the door, the infrared sensor senses the approach of the human hand and generates the door opening sensing signal.

The door closing sensing device 70 is used for sensing whether both the first door body 20 and the second door body 30 are closed. When the door closing sensing device 70 senses that both the first door body 20 and the second door body 30 are closed, a door closing sensing signal is generated. The door closing sensing device 70 may be, for example, an infrared distance sensor disposed on the front surface of the cabinet 10 or on the inner surfaces of the two doors, and when the infrared distance sensor detects that the distances between the inner surfaces of the two doors and the front surface of the cabinet 10 are both smaller than a preset threshold, it is determined that the two doors are both closed.

The controller 80 is electrically connected to the door opening sensing device 90 and the door closing sensing device 70, and is configured to control the first driving mechanism 60 to drive the sealing beam 50 to make corresponding translation according to the door opening sensing signal and the door closing sensing signal received. Specifically, after receiving the door opening sensing signal, the controller 80 controls the first driving mechanism 60 to drive the sealing beam 50 to translate to the retracted state, and controls the second driving mechanism 100 to drive the sealing strip 56 to move backward to be separated from the first door 20. After receiving the door closing sensing signal, the controller 80 controls the first driving mechanism 60 to drive the sealing beam 50 to move horizontally to the extended state, and controls the second driving mechanism 100 to drive the sealing strip 56 to move forward to abut against the inner surface of the first door body 20.

In some embodiments, the controller 80 may control the two driving mechanisms to operate after receiving the door-closing sensing signal for a predetermined time (e.g., 0.5s, 1s, 2s, or 3 s). Therefore, the two door bodies can be ensured to be normally closed for a long time, and the accident that the user opens the door bodies immediately after closing the door bodies temporarily is eliminated.

The refrigerator of the invention automatically controls the translation of the sealing beam 50 and the sealing strip 56 by sensing the door opening action and the door closing action, thereby not only improving the movement precision, but also saving more labor for users. Meanwhile, the automation level of the refrigerator and the grade of the refrigerator are improved, and the user experience is enhanced.

Fig. 14 is a schematic side view of a first door in a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 13 and 14, the refrigerator may further include an emergency sensing device 91. The emergency sensing device 91 is installed at a side of the seal beam 50 facing the second door body 30, and may specifically include a plurality of infrared sensors. In the process that the sealing beam 50 moves horizontally towards the extending state, the emergency sensing device 91 generates an emergency sensing signal when sensing that an object enters a gap between the first door body 20 and the second door body 30. The controller 80 is electrically connected to the emergency sensing device 91. After receiving the emergency sensing signal, the controller 80 controls the first driving mechanism 60 to stop working, so as to prevent the moving sealing beam 50 from being clamped to a human hand.

Of course, when the emergency sensing device 91 senses that the object leaves the gap between the first door body 20 and the second door body 30 for a preset time (e.g., a short time such as 1s or 2 s), the first driving mechanism 60 is still controlled to continue to operate, and the sealing beam 50 is driven to continue to translate in the extending direction.

Thus, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that while a number of exemplary embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described in detail herein, many other variations or modifications consistent with the principles of the invention may be directly determined or derived from the disclosure of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be understood and interpreted to cover all such other variations or modifications.

Claims

1. A refrigerator, comprising:

a box body;

after the first door body and the second door body are both closed, the sealing beam is made to translate from a retracted state to an extended state for sealing a gap between the first door body and the second door body, and the sealing strip is made to extend forwards out of the sealing beam to be sealed and attached to the inner surface of the first door body; and is

2. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the second drive mechanism comprises:

the elastic element is arranged on the sealing beam and is used for applying elastic force for promoting the sealing strip to extend forwards;

one end of the traction line is fixed on the sealing strip;

and the second motor is fixed in the sealing beam and configured to wind the pulling line to pull the sealing strip in the forward rotation so that the sealing strip is retracted into the sealing beam against the elastic force, and release the pulling line in the reverse rotation so as to allow the sealing strip to extend out of the sealing beam under the action of the elastic force.

3. The refrigerator of claim 2, wherein the second drive mechanism further comprises:

the wheel disc is arranged on a rotating shaft of the second motor and used for winding the traction line; and

a pulley mounted to the seal beam for tensioning the puller wire.

4. The refrigerator of claim 2, further comprising:

the two sealing blocks are respectively arranged at the upper end and the lower end of the sealing beam in a vertically telescopic manner; and the refrigerator is configured to:

after the sealing beam is translated to the extending state, extending the two sealing blocks out of the sealing beam to respectively seal against the top wall and the bottom wall of the box body;

retracting the two seal blocks into the seal beam before the seal beam leaves the extended state.

5. The refrigerator of claim 4, wherein the second drive mechanism further comprises:

and the upper end and the lower end of the vertically extending screw rod are respectively screwed into threaded holes formed in the two sealing blocks, so that the screw rod is rotated to change the screwing depth of the screw rod into the threaded holes to drive the two sealing blocks to stretch up and down.

6. The refrigerator of claim 5, wherein the second drive mechanism further comprises:

the first gear is arranged on a rotating shaft of the second motor; and

and the second gear is arranged on the lead screw and meshed with the first gear so as to synchronously drive the first gear to rotate when the second motor winds or releases the traction line, thereby driving the lead screw to rotate.

7. The refrigerator of claim 2, wherein

A vertically extending fixed beam is arranged at the position, close to the opening end, of the inner surface of the second door body, and a groove which extends in a long strip shape along the vertical direction is formed in the side surface, facing the first door body, of the fixed beam;

the side surface of the sealing beam facing the second door body is provided with a sealing stop block which can stretch along the transverse direction of the first door body and extends into a strip shape along the vertical direction; and the refrigerator is configured to:

when the sealing beam is in the extended state, extending the sealing stop block out of the sealing beam to extend into the groove;

retracting the seal stop into the seal beam after the seal beam leaves the extended state.

8. The refrigerator of claim 7, wherein the second drive mechanism further comprises:

the third gear is arranged on the rotating shaft of the second motor;

and the second rack is fixed on the sealing stop block in an extending manner along the transverse direction of the first door body and is meshed with the third gear, so that when the second motor winds or releases the traction line, the third gear is synchronously driven to rotate, and the sealing stop block is driven to stretch.

9. The refrigerator of claim 1, further comprising:

the door opening sensing device is used for generating a door opening sensing signal when sensing the action of opening the first door body or the second door body by a user;

the door closing sensing device senses that the first door body and the second door body are both closed and then generates a door closing sensing signal; and

the controller is configured to control the first driving mechanism and the second driving mechanism to respectively drive the sealing beam and the sealing strip to make corresponding translation according to the received door opening sensing signal and the door closing sensing signal.

10. The refrigerator of claim 9, further comprising:

the emergency sensing device is arranged on the side surface, facing the second door body, of the sealing beam and is configured to generate an emergency sensing signal when sensing that an object enters a gap between the first door body and the second door body in the process that the sealing beam translates towards the extending state; and is

The controller is further configured to control the first driving mechanism to stop working after receiving the emergency induction signal.