EP1710521A2 - Refrigerating and/or freezing apparatus and motion damper therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

The refrigerated compartment in a domestic refrigeration appliance has a cover (5) with bearings (7) at the sides (4) of the compartment with a cam (9) rotating in a fixed housing (10) having a projecting part which interferes with the cam rotation shortly prior to the closing position but is resilient and damps the movement.

Description

The present invention relates to a refrigerator and / or freezer with a hinged flap, in particular storage flap for closing a storage compartment.

In refrigerators and / or freezers various receptacles such as storage compartments for butter, eggs storage and the like are often closed with hinged flaps or lids, which fall by gravity into its closed position by itself. This uncontrolled coincidence brings a loud collision noise with it and affects the sense of quality of the user, who regularly expected from higher quality equipment and expected full movements of the corresponding components.

The present invention is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved refrigerator and / or freezer of the type mentioned above, which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art and the latter further develops in an advantageous manner. Preferably, an uncontrolled slamming of the hinged flap should be avoided in a simple manner.

According to the invention this object is achieved by a refrigerator and / or freezer according to claim 1. Preferred embodiments of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

According to the invention, therefore, a motion damper for damping the pivotal movement of the flap is provided, by means of which an uncontrolled slamming of the pivotable flap and the associated collision noise can be avoided. The flap or lid moves gently and controlled.

In a further development of the invention, the motion damper can be integrated into the pivot bearing of the flap, in particular be formed by parts of the pivot bearing and / or form parts of the pivot bearing. As a result, a compact, optically not disturbing arrangement can be achieved. The parts of the motion damper can basically be formed as a separate part and connected to the flap or the counterpart thereto. Alternatively, parts of the motion damper can also be integral with the flap, whose pivot bearing or the counterpart for this purpose be molded, in particular molded.

In a further development of the invention, the motion damper has an elastically deformable damping element, which is deformable to achieve the damping of a deformable relative thereto deformers. The motion damper thus works as a deformation damper. The deformation work on the deformable damping element causes the damping of the movement of the pivotable flap. This design of the motion damper is particularly advantageous for use in the refrigerator compartment because it is insensitive to low temperatures and no sensitivity to cold, such. B. fluid damper having.

Preferably, the motion damper is designed as a rotary damper, which has a rotor and a stator interacting therewith. In particular, the motion damper may have a cam and a cam engagement element. In this case, the cam can form the rotor and the cam engagement element form the stator. However, it is also possible to couple the cam-engaging element with the movable lid so that it forms the rotor. In this case, the cam is connected to the fixed bearing piece for the flap and forms the stator.

The cam and / or the cam engagement element may be formed elastically deformable, so that when the cam sweeps over the cam engagement element, the cam and / or the cam engagement element undergo deformation and the motion damper works as a deformation damper. In principle, it would also be possible to displaceably mount the cam and / or the cam engagement element, so that the damping effect is achieved by displacing the cam and / or the cam engagement element with corresponding movement of the flap. Preferably, however, the damper operates as a deformation damper in the manner previously described. In particular, the cam can be made rigid and the cam engagement element elastically deformable, so that with appropriate flap movement, the cam engagement element is deformed by the cam and causes the damping.

In principle, the motion damper can be effective over the entire path of the pivotable flap. However, in order to avoid slamming the flap with the corresponding noise, it may be sufficient if the motion damper works dampening motion only over a limited portion of the pivotal movement of the flap, in particular in the end section before reaching the closed position. In the remaining area, the motion damper can advantageously have a freewheel, so that the flap is unhindered and smoothly movable.

It is particularly advantageous if the damping point and / or the length of the damped path is adjustable relative to the closed position. Is adjusted by means of a corresponding adjustment of the damping starting point to early, the flap is further before reaching the closed position by the motion damper braked. If, on the other hand, the damping starting point is adjusted later, the damping of the flap movement does not commence until relatively close to the closed position.

Optionally, the motion damper also have an adjustment for adjusting the strength of the damping effect.

A simple adjustment of the damping point can be achieved according to an advantageous embodiment of the invention in that the cam and / or the cam engagement element can be fixed in different initial positions. If the rotational initial position of the cam and / or the cam engagement element is changed, the point of engagement between cam and cam engagement element can be adjusted and thereby the starting point of the damping action relative to the closed position of the lid or the flap can be changed. If appropriate, the cam and / or the cam engagement element can additionally or alternatively be adjusted in the radial direction in relation to the rotary adjustment. As a result, the strength of the damping effect can be adjusted.

Fig. 1:

eine schematische, perspektivische Darstellung eines Kühlschranks nach einer bevorzugten Ausführung der Erfindung,

Fig. 2:

eine perspektivische ausschnittsweise Darstellung eines an der Türinnenwandung des Kühlschranks aus Fig. 1 befestigten Abstellbehältnisses mit einer schwenkbar gelagerten Klappe zum Verschließen des Behältnisses,

Fig.3:

eine vergrößerte ausschnittsweise Darstellung auf den Bewegungsdämpfer des Deckels des Abstellbehältnisses aus Fig. 2, wobei der Nocken des Bewegungsdämpfers in drei verschiedenen Stellungen relativ zu dem Nockeneingriffselement dargestellt ist.

The invention will be explained in more detail below with reference to a preferred embodiment and associated drawings. In the drawings show:

Fig. 1:

a schematic, perspective view of a refrigerator according to a preferred embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 2:

1 is a perspective detail of a fixed to the door inner wall of the refrigerator of FIG. 1 storage container with a pivotally mounted flap for closing the container,

Figure 3:

an enlarged fragmentary view of the motion damper of the lid of the Abstellbehältnisses of Fig. 2, wherein the cam the movement damper is shown in three different positions relative to the cam engagement element.

The refrigerator 1 shown in Figure 1 has in a conventional manner a substantially cubic cooling container 2, which is closed by a door 3. On the inside of the door 3, the Abstellbehältnis 4 is attached, which forms a Butterabsteller in the illustrated embodiment. The container 4 is closed by a pivotally mounted flap 5 in the form of a lid, wherein the flap 5 is pivotally mounted with laterally molded flanges 6 right and left on the side walls of the Abstellbehältnisses 4. The pivot bearings 7 define a substantially horizontal pivot axis which is arranged such that the flap 5 falls under gravity to its closed position, which is shown in Figure 2 and from which it can be pushed upwards.

In at least one of the pivot bearing 7, a motion damper 8 is integrated, which consists in the illustrated embodiment of a cam 9 and a cooperating annular cam engagement element 10. In the illustrated embodiment, the cam 9 is attached to the flap 5, in particular integrally formed on the flange 6 in the region of the pivot bearing 7. The cam engagement element 10, however, is attached to the side wall of the Abstellbehältnisses 4, in particular there used in a substantially cup-shaped depression.

The pivot bearing 7 itself may be formed by an annular projection and a complementary annular groove formed on the side wall of the Abstellbehältnisses 4 and the flange 6 and are concentric with the annular cam engagement member 10 and the axis of rotation of the cam 9. As FIG. 2 shows, the cam 9 projects into the cup-shaped depression and is surrounded by the cam engagement element 10 inserted therein.

If the flap 5 is rotated about the axis defined by the pivot bearings 7, the cam 9, as shown in FIG. 3, rotates. Over a wide range of possible pivotal movement of the flap 5, the motion damper is the eighth formed freely, ie there is no engagement between the cam 9 and the cam engagement element 10. This free range extends from the open position of the lid to about 20 ° to 40 ° before the closed end position. If the lid or the flap 5 is moved from the open position shown in Figure 3a toward the closed position, the cam 9 first strokes without engagement via the cam engagement element 10. About 20 ° to 40 ° before the closed position, the cam 9 reaches a Engaging projection 11 of the cam engagement element 10, which extends gently rising into the trajectory of the head of the cam 9 (see Figure 3b). With this engagement projection 11 of the cam 9 engages.

In order to allow further movement of the flap 5 despite the presence of the cam 9 on the engagement projection 11, the cam engagement element 10 is formed elastically deformable. The cam 9 acts as a deformer and pushes the engaging projection 11 aside. The cam engagement element 10 is deformed to the extent that the cam 9 can move over the engagement projection 11. The deformation energy applied here causes the damping of the flap 5 in the desired manner.

In the fully closed position of the flap 5, the cam 9 has traveled over the engagement projection 11, so that it can easily deform back and holds the flap 5 in the closed position (compare FIG. 3c).

The damping point relative to the closed position of the flap 5 can be advantageously adjusted. For this purpose, the cam engagement element 10 can be positioned in different rotational positions, in particular latched. As FIG. 3 shows, the essentially annular cam engagement element 10 has a toothing 12 which interacts with a toothing on the peripheral wall of the cup-shaped recess 13 in the wall of the storage container 4. If the cam engagement element 10 is removed from this recess 13, it can be twisted and placed in another desired position again in the recess 13 and locked therein. This gives the Engagement projection 11 a different position, so that the rotating with the flap 5 cam 9 of the engagement projection 11 corresponding to sooner or later before the closed end position of the flap 5 with the engagement projection 11 engages. The damping starts accordingly sooner or later.

In order to be able to adapt the damping to different flap weights, the damping effect can be adjusted in a simple manner by exchanging the cam engagement element 10 and changing the hardness of this cam engagement element 10, in particular of the engagement projection 11.

Claims (13)

Refrigerator and / or freezer with a hinged flap (5), in particular storage flap for closing a storage compartment (4), characterized in that a motion damper (8) for damping the pivotal movement of the flap (5) is provided. Refrigerator and / or freezer according to the preceding claim, wherein the motion damper (8) in the pivot bearing (7) of the flap (5) is integrated, in particular of parts of the pivot bearing is formed and / or forms parts of the pivot bearing and / or on parts of the pivot bearing is formed. Cooling and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the motion damper (8) has an elastically deformable damping element (10) which is deformable to achieve the damping of a deformable relative to the damping element (10) deformer (9). Cooling and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the motion damper (8) is designed as a rotary damper with a rotor (9) and a stator (10) cooperating therewith. Cooling and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the motion damper (8) has a cam (9) and a cam engagement element (10). The refrigerator and / or freezer according to the preceding claim, wherein the cam (9) and / or the cam engagement element (10) are designed to be elastically deformable and undergo deformation for movement damping with appropriate flap movement. Cooling and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the motion damper (8) formed motion damping only over a limited portion of the pivotal movement of the flap (5), in particular in an end portion before reaching the closed position of the flap (5) and via a further limited portion of the pivotal movement of the flap (5) is designed to run freely. Cooling and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the motion damper (8) has an adjusting device (12, 13) for adjusting the effective range, in which a damping effect is provided, relative to the closed position of the flap (5). Cooling and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the motion damper (8) has an adjusting device for adjusting the size of the damping effect. Refrigerating and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims in conjunction with claim (5), wherein the cam (9) and / or the cam engagement element (10) can be fixed in different starting positions, in particular latched. Refrigerating and / or freezing appliance according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the flap (5) falls under gravity in its closed position. Motion damper for pivotable cooling and / or freezing appliance flaps (5), comprising a rotor (9, 10) and a cooperating stator (10, 9), characterized in that the rotor and the stator form an elastically deformable damping element (10), that undergoes elastic deformation by rotation of the rotor relative to the stator. Motion damper according to the preceding claim, wherein the rotor and the stator form a cam (9) and a cam engagement element (10) or vice versa.

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