EP1434968B1 - Refrigeration device and door storage compartment for said device - Google Patents

Abstract

A door storage compartment is provided for a refrigeration device, such as a refrigerator or similar. The door storage compartment contains at least one section of maximum depth and at least one section of a lesser depth. The sections succeed one other in a longitudinal direction of the door storage compartment.

Description

The present invention relates to a refrigerator and a storage compartment for mounting on an inside of a door of the refrigerator.

The doors of refrigerators, especially household refrigerators, are usually equipped on their inside with door storage compartments, of which at least the lowest is provided to accommodate beverage bottles or other upright containers. The tallest container stored in such a storage compartment determines the distance that an overlying storage compartment must have.

In recent years, plastic bottles with a volume of 1.5 or 2 I, which are significantly higher than conventional glass bottles, whose capacity is usually in the range between 0.5 and 1 I are increasingly used for soft drinks. If these plastic bottles are to be stored together with other bottles of smaller format in a door storage compartment, there is an unfavorable space utilization, since the distance from the bottle storage compartment to the overlying compartment must be so large that the largest to be stored bottle without difficulty but in general only a few of the bottles in the bottle rack may have this height.

To alleviate this problem, doors for refrigerators have been developed with a vertical central spar, which allows door storage compartments, each extending over only half the door width, to be mounted on the right and left of the central spar at different heights. This e.g. However, in DE-GM 90 14 463 described solution is not fully satisfactory, since the central spar itself takes up space that is no longer available for the storage of refrigerated goods.

The US 6,085,542 discloses a refrigerator with a door having a cabinet-like chamber which is closable by a hinged door leaf. In the cabinet-like chamber, a storage floor is arranged, which extends only over half the width of the chamber between two bars of the door leaf. For fixing the storage floor the opposite distant Holm, a narrow bridge is led from the storage floor to the spar.

The US 2,074,785 discloses a door shelf having a full depth portion and a smaller depth portion. The door rack is designed as a wire basket. The two sections of different depths are barrier-free connected, so that they form a single storage basket.

The object of the invention is therefore to provide a door storage compartment and a refrigerator equipped with such a compartment, which allow an intensive use of the available storage volume.

This object is achieved on the one hand by a door storage compartment for a refrigeration device, which is composed of at least one section with full depth and at least a portion of lesser depth, which follow one another in the longitudinal direction of the door storage compartment, wherein the sections box-shaped with front walls and with a two Sections common, one-piece rear wall formed and separated by an intermediate wall.

This door storage compartment can be mounted on the inside of a refrigeration appliance door at a vertical distance from an underlying Flaschenabstellfach which is smaller than the height of the highest bottles to be stored in the Flaschenabstellfach. Namely, when a high bottle is set below the portion of lesser depth of the door storage compartment according to the invention, its bottleneck may protrude up past the portion of lesser depth. This portion of lesser depth may be used for storage of small items such as e.g. Tubes are used. Thus, a similar dense height graduation of the storage compartments on the door can be reached as in a door with central spar, but with the additional advantage that at the level of the necks of the high bottles additional storage space in the form of the section of lesser depth is available.

To ensure a stable, tilt-free state of tall bottles in the bottle storage compartment, the depth of the lesser depth section is preferably less than half the depth of the full depth section, which generally also corresponds to the depth of the bottle storage compartment.

The sections of different depth of the door storage compartment are each separated by an intermediate wall. This contributes to the stability of the door storage compartment and prevents deflection under load.

As a further stability increasing measure a horizontal reinforcing web on the partition wall makes sense. This horizontal reinforcing web preferably forms an upper end of the intermediate wall.

The object is further achieved by a refrigeration device having a housing and a door, wherein a second door storage compartment of the type defined above is mounted on the door above a first door storage compartment for bottles.

Figur 1

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines Türabstellfaches gemäß einer ersten Ausgestaltung der Erfindung;

Figur 2

einen Teilabschnitt durch das Türabstellfach der Fig.1 in der mit II-II bezeichneten Ebene der Fig.1;

Figur 3

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines zweiten erfindungsgemäßen Türabstellfaches;

Figur 4

eine Teilansicht der Innenwand einer Kältegerätetür mit montierten Türabstellfächern, und

Figur 5

eine Abwandlung des Türabstellfachs.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the accompanying figures. Show it:

FIG. 1

a perspective view of a door storage compartment according to a first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2

a section through the door storage compartment of Fig.1 in the plane designated II-II Fig.1 ;

FIG. 3

a perspective view of a second door storage compartment according to the invention;

FIG. 4

a partial view of the inner wall of a refrigerator door with mounted door storage compartments, and

FIG. 5

a modification of the door storage compartment.

An in FIG. 1 shown door storage compartment 11 comprises two sections 1, 2, each substantially in the form of a box open at the top. Section 1 has a "full" depth, ie its depth is sufficient to accommodate, for example, the bottom of a commercially available 1.5 liter or 2 liter PET beverage bottle. The depth of the second section 2 is less than half that of the first section, preferably 30 to 40% thereof. This makes it possible to set up in a on the same inside door side as the door storage compartment below this mounted door storage compartment full depth a large beverage bottle whose neck is in the amount of section 2 without this bumps against the bottle and hinders their stable installation.

In order to increase the bending stiffness of the door storage compartment during loading, in the area in which the two sections 1, 2 adjoin, an intermediate wall 3 is provided, which faces the interior of the refrigerator front walls 4, 5 of the sections 1, 2 with a two Section common, one-piece rear wall 6 connects, which abuts in the assembled state of the door storage compartment on the inner wall of the refrigerator door. The intermediate wall 3 prevents for a lateral deflection of the rear wall. 6 under bending load, on the other hand, it forms a support for the front wall 5 of the section 2 lesser depth.

In order to achieve the greatest possible stability of the intermediate wall 3 against bending forces exerted by the front wall 5 horizontal forces, the intermediate wall 3 closes at its upper end with a reinforcing web 7 from, as in the section of FIG. 2 shown in detail.

A downwardly open recess 8 at the outer longitudinal end of the section 2 lesser depth and a corresponding, not visible in the figure recess at the opposite end of the section 1 full depth are used to suspend the door storage compartment of nubs 9 (see FIG. 4 ), which are arranged on vertical uprights 10 of the door inner wall at regular intervals to allow suspension of the door storage compartments at different heights.

At the in FIG. 1 the example shown, the longitudinal extent of the two sections 1, 2 is the same, ie, the intermediate wall 3 of the mounted door storage compartment is located approximately in the middle of the door. Such a division is useful in a compact refrigerator, where the longitudinal extent of each section 1, 2 corresponds approximately to the diameter of two large bottles of beverage. Of course, as in FIG. 3 shown, also different proportions possible. Here behave the lengths of the section 1 full depth and the section 2 lesser depth approximately as 3: 1, so that in a storage compartment below a large-sized bottle can be placed below the section 2 lesser depth.

FIG. 4 shows a partial perspective view of the door inner wall of a refrigerator, which is equipped with a door storage compartment 11 according to the invention. Another door storage compartment 12 of consistent over its entire length depth is mounted in the lower region of the door inner wall. This compartment 12 can accommodate large bottles in its right half, below the lower depth section 2, while compact containers such as tetra packs are conveniently adjusted in the left area, below the full depth section 1.

It is obvious that the door storage compartment according to the invention is not limited to two sections of the same depth. For example, there may be three sections, two sections of full depth and one of intermediate sections of lesser depth, so that in an underlying compartment large bottles can be centrally adjusted and thus always equally accessible, regardless of whether the door is hinged on the right or left.

It is also conceivable to reduce the depth of the section 2 lesser depth practically to zero, so that such a designed door storage compartment is mounted at a height below the neck of a large bottle set in the underlying tray.

Another Abwandlungsmöglichkeit is the front wall 5 of the section 2 of lesser depth obliquely, jumping back down to run so as to be able to mount the door storage compartment at the level of the neck approach of underlying bottles. With a portion of lesser depth modified in this way, as in FIG FIG. 5 shown, the bottom of the section may be omitted or reduced, for example, to allow the vertical insertion of tubes.

Claims (10)

1. Door deposit compartment for a refrigerating appliance, such as a refrigerator or the like, which has at least one section (1) with full depth and at least one section (2) of smaller depth, which sections follow one another in longitudinal direction of the door deposit compartment (11), characterised in that the sections (1, 2) are formed to be box-shaped with front walls (4, 5) and with a unitary rear wall (6) common to both sections (1, 2) and are separated by an intermediate wall (3).
2. Door deposit compartment according to claim 1, characterised in that the intermediate wall (3) has a horizontal reinforcing web (7).
3. Door deposit compartment according to claim 2, characterised in that the reinforcing web (7) forms an upper termination of the intermediate wall (3).
4. Door deposit compartment according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the sections (1, 2) of the door deposit compartment (11) are formed to be at least substantially of the same length.
5. Door deposit compartment according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the sections (1, 2) of the door deposit compartment (11) are formed to be different lengths.
6. Door deposit compartment according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the door deposit compartment (11) is of integral construction.
7. Door deposit compartment according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the depth of the section of smaller depth (2) is less than half the depth of the section of full depth (1).
8. Door deposit compartment according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the section (2) of smaller depth has an obliquely extending front wall (5) drawing back in downward direction.
9. Door deposit compartment according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that a base of the section (2) of smaller depth is omitted or reduced so that vertical insertion of tubes is made possible.
10. Refrigerating appliance with a housing and a door at which a first door deposit compartment (12) is mounted, characterised by a second door deposit compartment (11) according to any one of the preceding claims, which is mounted on the door above the first door deposit compartment (12).

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