EP2394116B1 - Refrigerator with height-adjustable shelf for refrigerated goods - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a refrigeration appliance, in particular a domestic refrigeration appliance, with a housing and a refrigerated goods storage rack which is vertically adjustable in the housing.
US 6,065,821 discloses a height-adjustable shelf which can be adjusted in height mechanically by means of a worm drive or electrically by means of an electric motor.
JP 2000-249463 discloses a height-adjustable shelf, the height adjustable by means of a ratchet unit JP 2000-249463 discloses a refrigerator according to the preamble of claim 1. On the market are refrigerators with attached to the side walls of the interior at different heights horizontal guide grooves, are inserted into the Kühlgutabsteller. With such a construction, the height of the trays delimited by the shelves can be varied only in discrete steps corresponding to the distance of the grooves from each other. The height adjustment is tedious and time-consuming, since a staggering stowage unloaded before pulling out and must be loaded again after Neuplatzieren.
In order to allow a comfortable Höhenverstellen a Kühlgutabstellers without prior unloading, which was in the non-prepublished German patent application DE 10 2007 029 176 A1 described refrigerator developed. In this refrigerator, a Kühlgutabsteller is supported on arranged at its corners snails to tooth profiles, which are fixedly mounted on an inner wall of the refrigerator. About a mounted on the front edge of Kühlgutabstellers handle the rotary body are driven in rotation to adjust the height of the Kühlgutabstellers.
The freedom of movement of the handle is not greater than the length of the front edge of the Kühlgutabstellers, so that a movement of the handle over this distance must be sufficient to adjust the Kühlgutabsteller over its entire vertical freedom of movement away. This has the consequence that either the vertical Freedom of movement of Kühlgutabstellers is limited or that a user must exert strong forces on the handle to adjust the refrigerated goods shelf.

In another application of the same Applicant, not previously published, a handle with two drive levers has been considered, one of which drives an upward movement of the refrigerated goods store and the other a downward movement via a ratchet mechanism. Another embodiment described in this application has as a handle on a single drive lever, and a Ratchet mechanism is switchable between a state in which the drive lever drives the upward movement, and a state in which it drives the downward movement.
The object of the invention is to provide a refrigeration device with height-adjustable refrigerated goods, in which a single drive lever for driving up and down movement is sufficient without requiring a switch.

The object is achieved by a refrigeration device according to claim 1. According to the ratchet mechanism is designed to translate a movement of the drive lever from the center position to one of the stop positions each in a height adjustment of the refrigerated goods, a movement of the drive lever from the stop position to the middle position, however, not. Therefore, the movement of the lever back to its center position typically requires less force than movement from the center position so that a user can feel the mid-position reaching an immediate increase in the resistance of the drive lever. He will therefore generally not move the drive lever beyond the center position and thus change the height of the refrigerated goods inadvertently in the wrong direction, but on reaching the center position, reverse the direction of movement of the drive lever and move it back out.
Moreover, this design of the slip mechanism allows the use of a return spring, which automatically returns the drive lever to the middle position from any position in which a user can release it.
The drive lever preferably comprises a pivotable arm about a vertical axis.

In order to accommodate the largest possible length of the drive lever in the housing of the refrigerator, on the other hand, excessive projection of the drive lever in its central position, whereby the closing of a door of the housing could be hindered to avoid, it is expedient that the axis of a rear edge the Kühlgutträgers is adjacent.

In order to stabilize the drive lever, this can be conveniently performed horizontally at a front edge of the refrigerated goods carrier.

In order to avoid an associated with the pivotal movement of the drive lever variable projection of the drive lever in the depth direction of the housing, the drive lever suitably comprises a slider, play in the depth direction is connected to the arm and forms its guided at the front edge part.

The ratchet mechanism preferably includes a gear rotatable about the axis and two fingers, mirror images of each other and radially against the gear, associated with the drive lever for transmitting torque from the drive lever to the gear.

The fingers can easily be part of a leaf spring mounted on the drive lever.

Preferably, a stationary contour is provided which holds one of the fingers spread apart by gear when the drive lever is in a position deviating from the middle position.

Such a contour may expediently engage in a gap between the two arms.

The refrigerated goods can be mounted in different ways on the housing of the refrigerator height adjustable. According to a first solution, a rear region of the refrigerated goods carrier can be guided vertically movably in a guide rail on an inner wall of the refrigeration device, and a swivel arm articulated on the inner wall is in one horizontal guide a front portion of the refrigerated goods carrier displaced and lockable.
In order to stabilize the horizontal position of the refrigerated goods carrier and to prevent tilting in the guide rail, a handlebar may be provided, which is pivotally connected on the one hand with a central region of the pivot arm and on the other hand with a rear portion of the refrigerated goods.
To drive the height adjustment such a refrigerated goods preferably has at least one parallel to the horizontal guide aligned and driven by the ratchet mechanism threaded rod, wherein a hinged to the pivot arm sliding block has an internal thread, which is in engagement with the threaded rod.
The thread pitch of the threaded rod is preferably such that the engagement of the threaded rod and sliding block is self-locking.
A coupling between the threaded rods and the toothed wheel of the ratchet mechanism can be produced by extending in the width direction of the refrigerated goods carrier waves, which are coupled via bevel gears on the one hand to the gear and on the other hand to the threaded rods.
According to a second solution, the refrigerated goods carrier comprises at least one screw which is rotationally driven about a vertical axis via the ratchet mechanism and which meshes with a tooth profile of a housing of the refrigeration device.

Fig. 1

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines Kühlgutträgermoduls zur Verwendung in einem Haushaltskältegerät;

Fig. 2

einen Teilschnitt durch das Kühlgutträgermodul der Fig. 1 entlang der in Fig. 1 mit II-II bezeichneten Ebene;

Fig. 3

einen schematischen Schnitt durch den vorderen Bereich des Kühlgutträgers mit einem Antriebshebel gemäß einer ersten Ausgestaltung;

Fig. 4

einen horizontalen Teilschnitt des Kühlgutträgers entlang der in Fig. 3 mit IV-IV bezeichneten Ebene, die den Antriebshebels in verschiedenen Stellungen zeigt;

Fig. 5

einen zu Fig. 3 analogen Schnitt durch einen Kühlgutträger mit einem Antriebshebel gemäß einer zweiten Ausgestaltung;

Fig. 6

einen zu Fig. 3 analogen Schnitt gemäß einer dritten Ausgestaltung;

Fig. 7

einen zu Fig. 4 analogen horizontalen Teilschnitt durch den Kühlgutträger gemäß der dritten Ausgestaltung;

Fig. 8

eine Draufsicht auf den Ratschenmechanismus; und

Fig. 9

eine nochmals abgewandelte Ausgestaltung des Kühlgutträgermoduls.

Fig. 10

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines Kühlgutträgers gemäß einer vierten Ausgestaltung; und

Fig. 11

einen Teilschnitt durch den Kühlgutträger der Fig. 10.

Further 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 Kühlgutträgermoduls for use in a household refrigerator;

Fig. 2

a partial section through the Kühlgutträgermodul the Fig. 1 along the in Fig. 1 level designated II-II;

Fig. 3

a schematic section through the front portion of the refrigerated goods carrier with a drive lever according to a first embodiment;

Fig. 4

a horizontal partial section of the refrigerated goods along the in Fig. 3 IV-IV designated plane, which shows the drive lever in different positions;

Fig. 5

one too Fig. 3 analogous section through a refrigerated goods with a drive lever according to a second embodiment;

Fig. 6

one too Fig. 3 analog section according to a third embodiment;

Fig. 7

one too Fig. 4 analogous horizontal partial section through the refrigerated goods according to the third embodiment;

Fig. 8

a plan view of the ratchet mechanism; and

Fig. 9

a further modified embodiment of the refrigerated goods carrier module.

Fig. 10

a perspective view of a Kühlgutträgers according to a fourth embodiment; and

Fig. 11

a partial section through the refrigerated goods of the Fig. 10 ,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a Kühlgutträgermoduls, which is provided for releasable attachment inside a domestic refrigerator, in particular a refrigerator. The module comprises a vertical wall plate 1 for attachment to the rear wall of the refrigerator, which carries two vertical profiles 2 adjacent to its vertical edges. The profiles 2 define two mutually facing vertical grooves. 3

A refrigerated goods carrier 4 comprises a rectangular frame with a front cross strut 5, right and left longitudinal struts 6 and a rear cross strut 7. While the struts 5, 6 may be formed integrally, for example in one piece from a sheet and cut, the rear cross member 7 is hollow and picks up a transmission, which will be explained later in more detail. A circumferential shallow recess 8 at the top of the frame is provided to provide an in Fig. 1 not shown glass plate or the like to take, which fills the opening of the frame and can be parked on the refrigerated goods. From the back of the rear cross member 7 protruding hooks 9 engage in the grooves 3 of the profiles 2, whereby the refrigerated goods 4 is guided vertically displaceable on the profiles 2.

Two pivot arms 10 are each hinged at its lower end to a lower end of the profiles 2, and an upper end of the pivot arms 10 is rotatably connected to a sliding block 11, which extends on a respectively adjacent to one of the longitudinal struts 6 extending threaded rod 12 of the refrigerated goods 4 sits. A connecting portion 13 between sliding block 11 and pivot arm 10 each intersects an elongated horizontal slot 14 of the two longitudinal struts. 6

The two threaded rods 12 are driven via the gear inside the rear cross member 7 and coupled to each other, so that the sliding blocks 11 each move to the same extent. Thus, when the sliding blocks 11 are displaced towards the wall plate 1, thereby increasing the pitch of the pivot arms 10, the refrigerated goods carrier 4 has to move upwards, while it continues to move away from the wall plate 1 when the sliding blocks move.

The threaded rods 12 are self-locking, i. Their thread pitch is so small that they can not be put into rotation solely by the pressure of a load on the refrigerated goods carrier 4, without the addition of an external drive. Due to the small pitch, a drive with low torque is sufficient to lift the refrigerated goods carrier 4 - even against a counteracting load.

In order to preclude tilting of the refrigerated goods carrier 4 during the height adjustment, the friction between the refrigerated goods carrier 4 and the profiles 2 can be minimized, for example by using rollers resting on the profiles 2. Another, preferred solution is the in Fig. 1 shown, attack in the handlebar 15 on the one hand centrally on each pivot arm 10 and on the other hand at a rear end of the longitudinal struts 6. By the handlebars 15 rotate in opposite directions to the pivot arms 10, a deviation of the refrigerated goods from the horizontal orientation and tilting of the profiles 2 is excluded.

As in the sectional view Fig. 2 shown, the vertical wall plate 1 may be provided for mounting on the rear wall of the refrigerator at its back with hooks 44, which are hooked into known, embedded in the refrigerator rear wall holding profiles. Above and / or below the module can not be mounted vertically adjustable refrigerated goods directly in the same holding profiles, or it can be several Kühlgutträgermodule of in Fig. 1 be mounted on top of each other.

Of course, instead of the removable wall plate 1, the guide profiles 2 could also be mounted directly on a wall of the inner container of the refrigerator.

The transmission in the rear cross member 7 is manually actuated by means of a drive lever 16. The drive lever 16 is constructed in two parts, with a pivotable about an axis extending through the rear cross member 7 vertical axis 17 and a slider 18 which is slidably guided in a horizontal slot 19 of the front cross member 5. Arm 17 and slider 18 engage in the depth direction playful each other to a displacement of the slider 18 along the cross member 5 between a in Fig. 1 implement with solid lines drawn center position and dashed end positions in a pivoting movement of the arm 17.

As in Fig. 3 shown in more detail, the game-engaging engagement of slider 18 and arm 17 is realized by the slider 18 facing the end of the arm 17 is forked and the two prongs 20 of the fork are interconnected by a pin 21 having a longitudinally extending slot 22th of the slider 18 crosses. The slider 18 is guided linearly by the edges of the slot 19 engage with a small clearance from above and below in grooves 23 of the slider.

Fig. 4 shows in a section along the in Fig. 3 With IV-IV level designated the drive lever 16 in a central position and from there to the right or left deflected stop positions. In the central position, the arm 17 is perpendicular to the (in Fig. 4 The two stop positions are either by the contact of the slider 18 with one end of the slot 19 or by the contact of the pin 21 with the rear end of the Long hole 22 defined.

At the in 3 and 4 shown construction may come to visible wear marks of the slider 18 on the front cross member 5 with prolonged use. Fig. 5 shows an alternative construction that avoids this problem. The front cross member 5 is here designed as a downwardly open C-profile, in the downwardly open undercut groove 24, a head piece 25 of the slider 18 engages positively. A frictional contact is possibly still possible on the underside of the transverse strut 5, which, when it is below eye level of a user, is normally not seen.

In order to hide any possible grinding marks even better, vertical walls of the transverse strut 5 can, as indicated in the figure by dashed outlines 26, be extended downwards.

An alternative embodiment of the drive lever is in the FIGS. 6 and 7 each based on one Fig. 3 analog section or a section along the plane VII-VII Fig. 6 shown. The drive lever 16 in turn has a pivotable about an axis extending through the rear cross member 7 pivotal arm 17. On this telescopically slidably fitted a sleeve 27, of which a front end through the slot 19 of the front cross member 5 projects forward to a gripping portion for To make operation by a user. A protruding from the sleeve 27 cylindrical pin 28 is guided in a groove 29 of the front cross member 5 slidably in the longitudinal direction. As seen from the top of the Fig. 7 to recognize, guided by the pin 28 sleeve 27 slides on the arm 17 the further forward, the further this is deflected from its central rest position to the left or to the right.

Fig. 8 shows a plan view of the drive lever 16 driven by the ratchet mechanism in the interior of the rear cross member 7. From a bottom plate of the cross member 7 is a shaft 30 vertically into its inner cavity from inside. The arm 17 of the drive lever 16 is slidably mounted on the shaft 30. Above the Arms 17 is mounted on the shaft 30, a gear 31 with a radial sprocket 32 and a conical sprocket 33. The teeth of the latter appear in Fig. 8 in plan view. Below the gear 31, a hairpin spring 34 is fixed centrally on the bottom plate of the transverse strut 7. Two legs of the hairpin spring 34 press from right and left against the arm 17 to drive it back from a deflected position to the rest position.

A second hairpin spring 35 is attached centrally to the arm 17. When the arm 17 is in its in Fig. 8 is drawn with solid lines drawn center position, the tips of the two legs of the hairpin spring 35 on the radial sprocket 32 attack. A pin 36 projecting from a ceiling of the rear cross brace 7 in the interior thereof contacts the inner sides of both legs of the hairpin spring 35.

Two in the lateral direction mirror images of each other extending shafts 37 each carry a meshing with the ring gear 33 bevel gear 38 and at her in Fig. 8 not shown end another bevel gear 39, which, as in Fig. 2 shown, meshes with a bevel gear 40 one of the threaded rods 12 to transmit each rotation of the gear 31 to the threaded rods 12.

When the arm 17 out of his in Fig. 8 shown with solid lines central rest position to the right in the position shown by dashed lines, then the left leg of the hairpin spring 35 is spread by the pin 36 from the sprocket 32, while the right leg presses against the ring gear and the gear 31 drives clockwise , When the arm 17 is moved back to the center position, the right leg sweeps over the teeth of the ring gear 32, without taking the gear 31. Only when the arm 17 passes the center position and its left leg again comes into contact with the ring gear 32, the gear 31 is driven by him counterclockwise, while at the same time the right leg is spread by the pin 36. Thus, by pivoting the arm 17 back and forth between the center position and a right stop position, the gear 31 can be rotated arbitrarily far in a first direction, and by pivoting the arm 17 between the middle position and a left stop position, it is rotated in the opposite direction ,

Fig. 9 shows in a perspective view of a modified embodiment of the Kühlgutträgermoduls Fig. 1 , The difference between the two embodiments lies in the design of the rear cross member 7. This has in the case of Fig. 9 centrally a circular projection 41 which receives the gear 31. The front side of the transverse strut 7 has, in the amount of the projection 41, an opening 43 in order to enable the reciprocating movement of the arm 17 entering the transverse strut 7 there. At the bottom and the ceiling of the crossbar 7 43 guide rails are formed at the level of the opening, in which slats 42 connected to each other to a flexible band are taken longitudinally displaceable. A middle of these blades 42 surrounds the arm 17, so that upon each pivotal movement of the arm 17, the fins 42 follow in their guide rails. The band of the lamellae 42 is longer than the opening 43, so that the opening 43 is closed in its entire extent by the lamellae 42 in any position that the arm 17 can assume. Thus, pinching of objects between the arm 17 and an edge of the opening 43 and the ingress of dirt into the interior of the transverse strut 7 is excluded.

Fig. 10 is a perspective bottom view of a refrigerated goods carrier 4 and a wall plate 44 according to another embodiment of the present invention. The refrigerated goods carrier 4 comprises a hollow, open at its top, substantially rectangular frame 45, whose open top is covered by a plate 46 made of safety glass. In downwardly protruding bulges at the four corners of the frame 45 four threaded screws 47 are mounted. The screws 47 are each slightly over the lateral edges of the plate 46 to support the refrigerated goods 4 on protruding from the wall plate 44 teeth 48.

The teeth 48 of the wall plate 44 shown in the figure form two vertically oriented racks or tooth profiles 49, which support the two screws 47 on the left side of the refrigerated goods carrier 4. A wall plate, which is mounted in mirror image to the wall plate 44 on an opposite side wall of a refrigerator housing to support the right screws 47, is not shown in the figure.

In the same way as with respect to Fig. 1 to 7 a drive lever 16 is described pivotable about a vertical axis crossing a rear cross member 7 of the frame 45. The drive lever 16 is in a horizontal slot 19 of a front cross member. 5 guided. The drive lever 16 can in particular the in Fig. 2 and 3 shown construction with an arm 17 and a slidable in the slot, playfully connected in the depth direction with the arm 17 slider 18 or the structure of 6 and 7 with sleeve 17 telescopically movable sleeve.

The arm 17 extends as in the embodiment of Fig. 8 through an opening 43 of the transverse strut 7, are slidable in the blades 42 with the movement of the arm 17. The opening 43 is located at a central projection 41 of the transverse strut 7, the in Fig. 11 receiving ratchet mechanism shown in plan view.

The operation of the ratchet mechanism, insofar as it relates to the interaction of the drive lever 16 with the gear 31, the same as with respect to Fig. 8 and therefore will not be explained again here. The main difference between the mechanism of Fig. 11 and that of Fig. 8 lies in the power transmission to the worm 47. For this purpose, the conical ring gear 33 of the Fig. 8 replaced here by a second radial toothed ring 50, which is looped by a toothed belt 51. The toothed belt 51 also wraps around two gears 52 which are rotatably connected to the two screws 47 at the ends of the rear cross member 7. Since the structure is mirror-symmetric, is in Fig. 11 only one of these gears 52 is shown.

In order to drive the screws 47 at the ends of the front cross member 5, the same toothed belt may be extended to gears of these screws around, or there may be provided secondary toothed belts, each extending in a longitudinal strut 6 of the frame 45 and gears of a front and a wrap around the rear snail.

The sprocket 50 is shown here for the sake of clarity of the larger than the sprocket 31, both sprockets can be congruent, or the sprocket 50, in order to realize a power-saving gear ratio between the drive lever 16 and the screws 47, a smaller radius as the sprocket 31 have.

Claims (13)

1. Refrigeration appliance, in particular domestic refrigeration appliance, with a height-adjustable refrigerated goods shelf (4), in which the refrigerated goods shelf (4) has a crank lever (16) which can be moved in a reciprocating manner and a ratchet mechanism (31-36) for converting a reciprocal movement of the crank lever (16) into a height adjustment of the refrigerated goods shelf (4), characterised in that a reciprocal movement of the crank lever (16) between a centre position and a first end position can drive an upward movement of the refrigerated goods shelf (4) and a reciprocal movement of the crank lever (16) between the centre position and a second end position opposite to the first end position can drive a downward movement of the refrigerated goods shelf (4), and
   the ratchet mechanism (31-36) is designed to translate a movement of the crank lever (16) from the centre position to one of the end positions into a height adjustment of the refrigerated goods shelf (4) and not to transfer a movement of the crank lever (16) from the end position to the centre position onto the refrigerated goods shelf (4).
2. Refrigeration appliance according to claim 1, characterised in that the crank lever (16) comprises an arm (17) which can be pivoted about a vertical axis.
3. Refrigeration appliance according to claim 2, characterised in that the axis is adjacent to a rear edge (7) of the refrigerated goods shelf (4) and the crank lever (16) is horizontally guided to a front edge (5) of the refrigerated goods shelf (4).
4. Refrigeration appliance according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the crank lever (16) comprises a sliding part (18) which is connected to the arm (17) so as to retain play in the depth direction and is guided to the front edge (5).
5. Refrigeration appliance according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the ratchet mechanism (31-36) has a toothed gear (31) which can rotate about the axis and two fingers which are connected to the crank lever, are mirror images of one another and engage against the toothed gear radially.
6. Refrigeration appliance according to claim 5, characterised in that the fingers are part of a leaf spring (34) assembled on the crank lever (16).
7. Refrigeration appliance according to claim 5 or 6, characterised by a stationary contour (36), which in each case holds one of the fingers spread away from the toothed gear (31) when the crank lever (16) is in a position deviating from the centre position.
8. Refrigeration appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that a rear region (7) of the refrigerated goods shelf (4) is guided such that it can be moved vertically in a guide rail (2, 3) on an inner wall (1) of the refrigeration appliance and a pivot arm (10) articulated on the inner wall (1) can be displaced and secured in a horizontal guiding (14) of a front region of the refrigerated goods shelf (4).
9. Refrigeration appliance according to claim 8, characterised by a guide rod (15), which is pivotably connected on the one hand to a central region of the pivot arm (10) and on the other hand to a rear region of the refrigerated goods shelf (4).
10. Refrigeration appliance according to claim 8 or 9, characterised in that the refrigerated goods shelf (4) has at least one threaded rod (12) which is driven via the ratchet mechanism (31-36) and aligned in parallel with the horizontal guiding (14), and one sliding block (11) articulated on the pivot arm (10) has an inner thread which engages with the threaded rod (12).
11. Refrigeration appliance according to claim 10, characterised in that the engagement is self-locking.
12. Refrigeration appliance according to claim 10 or 11, if reference is made to claim 5, characterised in that shafts (37) extending in the width direction of the refrigerated goods shelf (4) are coupled via bevel gears to the toothed gear (31) at one end and to the threaded rod (12) at the other.
13. Refrigeration appliance according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the refrigerated goods shelf (4) comprises at least one worm (47) rotationally driven about a vertical axis via the ratchet mechanism (31, 32, 34-36, 50), which worm (47) meshes with a toothed profile (49) of a housing of the refrigeration appliance.

Images