EP2876390B1

EP2876390B1 - Combined refrigerator

Info

Publication number: EP2876390B1
Application number: EP13890253.1A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Jinbo GAN; Huimin YAO; Xiaowu ZHOU; Jianqun Zhou; Xiangqian CUI
Original assignee: Hisense Ronshen Guangdong Refrigerator Co Ltd
Current assignee: Hisense Ronshen Guangdong Refrigerator Co Ltd
Priority date: 2013-08-13
Filing date: 2013-08-29
Publication date: 2021-06-23
Anticipated expiration: 2033-08-29
Also published as: EP2876390A1; CN103423941A; CN103423941B; AU2013396182B2; AU2013396182A1; EP2876390A4; WO2015021671A1

Description

The present invention relates to the technical field of refrigeration devices, and more particularly, relates to a combined type refrigerator.

BACKGROUND

To keep food fresh, markets and families all use refrigeration or freezer storage cabinets. With the development of markets and the improvement of life standards, people are imposing higher and higher requirements on refrigerators having great capacities. Since different consumers have different needs, each family has different eating habits and food storage habits, and even in different seasons or different periods, people's such needs may vary, which requires that more functions be provided while the capacities of the refrigerators are increased, and that the different functional modules be independently controlled and used.
However, the manufacture cost of the large capacity refrigerator is high, mould investment is huge, product deformation is severe, requirements on the technique manufacture are high, and production cycle is long. A commonly used method at present is to respectively manufacture desired module units, and then splice and combine these module units to form a combined type refrigerator product. Chinese Patent Office has disclosed several relevant patents (CN102980345A , CN200950957Y , CN1184924A , and CN2397456Y ) regarding cabinets splicing combinations. A combined freezing and/or refrigeration system is formed by using at least two cabinet units. The cabinet units are independent relative to each other, and can be singly controlled and transported. However, among these combination manners, some need to assemble cabinet units to an outer cabinet, and the bottom of a single-body cabinet is provided with a guide strip (without any other support structure except the guide strip) mating with a guide groove of the outer cabinet. As a result, a single-body storage cabinet may not be used independently of the outer cabinet, and may not be favorable to sales alone, for example, patent application CN102980345A . While in some combination manners, several cabinet units need to be mounted on a condenser installation board and a compressor installation board, and the circuit systems thereof are connected in parallel. As a result, the cabinet units may not be used alone or sold alone. In addition, if one cabinet unit fails, the entire condenser installation board or compressor installation board needs to be changed, which is not convenient to operations, for example, patent application CN200950957Y . The combination manner disclosed in patent application CN2397456Y is take advantage of cooperation between a convex block at the bottom of the freezer cabinet and a pit at the top of the freezer cabinet and then secure the cooperation therebetween via bolts. Since cabinet units are provided with structures (convex blocks, pits) for splicing and combination, the cabinet units are not favorable to sale alone. The operation manner disclosed in patent CN1184924A is to supply power by using an external power supply to a combined type refrigeration system, and each cold unit cannot be singly used after being disassembled. Furthermore, cabinet structures of left, middle, right refrigeration units involved in the this combination manner are not completely consistent (mainly embodied in structures of left and right side walls of the cabinets), and cannot be sold alone.
When multiple module units are spliced to combine a large capacity refrigerator, it is normally required that when a door opens at not more than 90 degrees, parts or articles in the cabinet can still be conveniently taken or replaced in order not to affect normal use of modules. Chinese Patent Office has disclosed several relevant technical solutions, wherein patent CN202947411U implements article taking when the cabinet door is opened at 90 degrees by using structure designs and cooperation of door accessories (bottle holders) and cabinet accessories (drawers). To be specific, the bottle holder on the door and the drawer in the cabinet are completely malpositioned in the direction of height. When the door is opened at 90 degrees, a gap exists between an inner surface of the door and a movement trajectory of pulling out the drawer, and thus the drawer can be pulled out from the cabinet without any barrier. According to patent CN201757560U , a support strip is provided on the inner wall of the cabinet inner tank, a front end support portion and a rear end gap portion making way for the support strip of the cabinet are provided on two sides of a shelf board, and by means of the structure configuration and cooperation between the shelf board and the cabinet, articles can be taken out when the door is opened at 90 degrees. According to patent CN1487255A , a shelf board support axis prominent to an inner side of the storage cabinet is provided on the side of the cabinet. Since the support axis can be accommodated in the cabinet, the height of the shelf board may also be adjusted even when the door is not opened at 90 degrees. However, in above described combination manner, structures of the cabinet, the door, and related inner parts (i.e., shelf frame/shelf board/bottle holder/drawer) need to be considered when the refrigerator is designed, which causes poor design flexibility of products, requires cooperation consistency of related parts, and imposes higher requirements on design, assembling, and production and manufacture, and thus the mould investment is huge. When the volume of the product is specially required, or parts in other cabinet accessories needs to be configured, or technique manufacture problems regarding the cabinet and/or the door are present, for the purpose of taking out articles when the door is not opened at 90 degrees, it is hard to change the structures of parts or product design inputs, which is not favorable to optimizing product performance or impelling of expansion and modification of the product. Documents CN102226613 , CN2397407Y and CN102183115A disclose known combined type refrigerators, while US5921095A discloses a known expandable type refrigerator capable of coupling a plurality of refrigerating units or freezing units.

SUMMARY

The present invention is disclosed in the independent claim 1. Further embodiments are disclosed in the dependent claims.
As a preferred solution, a door hinge center A of each of the cabinet units is close to a side of a door housing, and a horizontal spacing L1 between the door hinge center A and a lowest point B of a door housing arc surface is less than a horizontal spacing L2 between the door hinge center A and a side board of the cabinet unit.
As a preferred solution, when a ligature AD connecting the door hinge center A with a center D of the door housing arc surface coincides with a ligature AA' connecting door hinge centers AA' of two spliced cabinet units, a horizontal spacing L4 between door hinge sides of two neighbor doors reaches a minimum value, but is still greater than a spacing L0 between two spliced cabinet units.
As a preferred solution, when the door of the cabinet unit is opened at 90 degrees, parts or articles in the cabinet unit can be taken or replaced as desired.
When the combined type refrigerator is placed against the wall and a horizontal spacing L6 between the cabinet and the wall is not less than 10 mm, the cabinet unit can still be opened at 90 degrees and articles can still be taken or placed as desired.
As a preferred solution, the external coupling member comprises:

two upper coupling blocks, respectively installed at screw holes provided on a back portion and a top portion of the cabinet unit;
a lower coupling block, installed at screw holes provided on a front lower portion of the cabinet unit; and
a lower coupling block cover, assembled on the lower coupling block.

As a preferred solution, the external coupling member further comprises a coupling strip which is inserted into a slit between side boards of two neighbor cabinet units, wherein a top end of the coupling strip is leveled to a top cover board of the cabinet unit and a bottom end of the coupling strip is leveled to the lower coupling block cover.
In the above technical solution, the cabinet unit is a refrigeration cabinet or a freezer cabinet that can be sold alone or used alone, whose doors are a left-open door or a right-open door.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a side-by-side-open combined type refrigerator that is assembled by two spliced cabinet units according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic view illustrating adjusting an adjustable base foot to keep two cabinet units leveled in depth and height according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIGS. 3-9 are views of components or parts for splicing the cabinet units according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 10 is a schematic view illustrating a splicing and combination process of the cabinet units according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 11 is a schematic view illustrating a seamless integral splicing process of the cabinet units according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 12 is a schematic view illustrating positions of the upper and lower hinges of the door and the corresponding cooperation relations according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 13 is a schematic view illustrating opening or closing of two neighbor doors according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 14 is a schematic view illustrating taking parts or articles in the cabinet when the cabinet is opened at 90 degrees according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 15 is a schematic view illustrating placing of the cabinet unit at the wall corner and opening of the door at 90 degrees according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 16 is a schematic view illustrating a simultaneously-left-open combined type refrigerator formed by splicing two cabinet units in parallel according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 17 is a schematic view illustrating a simultaneously-right-open combined type refrigerator formed by splicing two cabinet units in parallel according to an example not being part of the present invention;
FIG. 18 is a schematic view illustrating a simultaneously-back-open combined type refrigerator formed by splicing two cabinet units in parallel according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 19 is a schematic view illustrating a simultaneously-left-open and side-by-side-open combined type refrigerator formed by splicing three cabinet units in parallel according to an example not being part of the present invention.

In the drawings, 1 denotes a refrigeration cabinet unit, 2 denotes a freezer cabinet unit, 3 denotes an adjustable base foot, 4 denotes an upper coupling block, 5 denotes an ST4.8*16 dedicated flange head tapping screw, 6 denotes a lower coupling block, 7 denotes a lower coupling block cover, 8 denotes an ST4.2*16 cross recessed pan head tapping screw, 9 denotes an M5*16 cross recessed countersunk head screw, 10 denotes a coupling strip, 11 denotes a compressor cabin, 12 denotes a top cover board, 13 denotes a cabinet unit side board, 14 denotes a door seal working face, 15 (15') denotes a drawer, 16 (16') denotes a door inner tank, and 17 denotes a wall.
A (A') denotes a door hinge center, B denotes a lowest point of a door housing arc surface (on the door hinge side), C denotes a highest point of the door housing arc surface (in the middle portion of the door), D denotes a center of the door housing arc surface, and E denotes an intersection point of the ligature AD connecting the door hinge center A with a center D of the door housing arc surface, and the door housing arc surface.
L0 denotes a spacing between two spliced cabinet units, L1 denotes a horizontal spacing between point A and point B, L2 denotes a horizontal spacing between point A and a side board of the cabinet unit, L3 denotes a horizontal spacing between point A and point C, L4 denotes a minimum horizontal spacing between door hinge sides of two neighbor doors during the opening or closing of the door, L5 (L5') denotes a horizontal spacing between one side of a part in the cabinet, such as the drawer 15 (15'), close to the door and a highest surface of the door inner tank 16 (16') in the corresponding position, and L6 denotes a horizontal spacing between the cabinet unit 1 or 2 (side board) and the wall 17.
The drawings are for illustration purpose only, but shall not be construed as limitations to the present invention. For better illustration of the following examples not being part of the present invention and an embodiment of the present invention, some parts or components would be omitted, scaled up or scaled down in the drawings, which are not indicative of the practical sizes. For a person skilled in the art, it shall be understandable that some commonly known structures and description thereof are omitted for brevity.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example 1

1. Sidc-by-sidc-opcn combined type refrigerator formed by splicing two cabinet units

As illustrated in FIG. 1, two cabinet units are placed together in parallel, wherein a left freezer cabinet unit 2 is a left-open cabinet (a door hinge thereof is located on the left side of the cabinet), a right refrigeration cabinet unit 1 is a right-open cabinet (a door hinge thereof is located on the right side of the cabinet). The combined cabinet units may be spliced together in such a way as refrigeration cabinet-freezer cabinet, or refrigeration cabinet-refrigeration cabinet or freezer cabinet-freezer cabinet, which cabinets are spliced together to form a large capacity and multifunctional side-to-side-open combined type refrigerator.
The two spliced cabinet units shall have the same height (the longitudinal distance from the top to the bottom of the cabinet) and depth (the distance from the front end face to the rear end face of the refrigerator door), and shall be substantially consistent in terms of color, door panel, and other appearance effect. The width of the cabinet (the spacing between the left side board and the right side board of the cabinet) may be the same or different according to design requirements.
In the above combined type refrigerator, each of the cabinet units has an independent compressor, an independent refrigeration system, an independent circuit system, and an independently configured accessory system. The cabinet units are completely independent of each other, without causing any interference to each other. With respect to two cabinet units, power supply wires thereof are separated, wherein one power supply corresponds to one cabinet unit, and during use, users only need to connect the respective power supply wire. Each of the cabinet units may be independently controlled, and one or more of the cabinet units may be started or stopped according to actual needs. If one cabinet unit is subjected to a failure and needs to be powered down for repair or replacement, the use of the other cabinet unit is not affected. This is favorable to reuse, upgrade, and repair of the cabinet units, and also favorable to dismantling, recovery, and processing in case of disposal of the product.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, before splicing and combination, the cabinet units need to be leveled in the direction of height and depth: The cabinet is forwardly or backwardly moved by means of an adjustable base foot 3, such that the cabinets are leveled in the direction of depth; and the adjustable base foot 3 is then adjusted by means of rotation such that the cabinets are elevated (by clockwise rotation) or lowered (by counterclockwise rotation), such that the cabinets are leveled in the direction of height.
The parts or components used for splicing and combining the cabinet units are as illustrated in FIG. 3 to FIG. 9, wherein one upper coupling block 4 is installed at screw holes provided on a back portion of the cabinet unit, i.e., at the upper left corner or upper right corner of a compressor cabin 11, and the other upper coupling block 4 is installed at screws provided on a top portion of the cabinet unit, i.e., the left side or right side of a top cover board 12. A lower coupling block 6 is installed at screw holes provided on a front lower portion of the cabinet unit (a convergence between a front lower beam on the left side or right side and a side board), and a lower coupling block cover 7 is assembled on the lower coupling block 6. Screws 5, 8, and 9 are respectively installed at the top portion, back portion, and front lower portion of the cabinet unit, and are configured to secure and combine the cabinet units. FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the assembly process.
As illustrated in FIG. 11, for the purpose of achieving a seamless integral splicing effect, a coupling strip 10 is inserted into a slit between side boards 13 of the cabinet units, and a top end of the coupling strip 10 is leveled to the top cover board 12, and a bottom end of the coupling strip 10 is leveled to the lower coupling block cover 7.
The following section describes opening or closing of the door of a combined type refrigerator, and taking out articles from the combined type refrigerator when the door is opened at 90 degrees.
When the cabinet units are spliced and combined together, for the purpose of not affecting normal use of each of the cabinet units, it is generally required that the door of each of the cabinet units be smoothly opened or closed, without causing any interference to a neighbor cabinet unit. In addition, when the door is opened at 90 degrees, parts or articles may still be taken or replaced from the cabinet. To achieve this objective, the present example not being part of the present invention achieves the above described requirements by reasonably configuring the installation positions of the upper and lower hinges of the door as follows.
A door hinge center A is close to a side of a door housing, and a horizontal spacing L1 (16.6 mm) between the door hinge center A and a lowest point B (a door hinge side) of a door housing arc surface is less than a horizontal spacing L2 (17.5 mm) between the door hinge center A and a side board 13 of the cabinet unit. In addition, to prevent the cooperation problem of the door seals, the door hinge center A is configured inside a door seal working face 14, as illustrated in FIG. 12.
During the opening or closing of the door of the cabinet unit of the combined type refrigerator, point E (an intersection point of an extended line of a ligature connecting the door hinge center A with a center D of the door housing arc surface, and the arc surface) is the farthest point of the movement trajectory of the door on the door hinge side in the horizontal direction, which determines a minimum spacing L4 (in the horizontal direction) of two neighbor doors. When the ligature AD coincides with a ligature AA' connecting door hinge centers AA' of two spliced cabinet units (in this case, the door is opened at about 59 degrees), the horizontal spacing L4 between the two neighbor doors (on the door hinge side) reaches the minimum value (7.88 mm), which is still greater than a spacing L0 (5.0 mm) between two spliced and combined cabinets, as illustrated in FIG. 13. In this way, it may be ensured that when one cabinet unit is opened, the door of a neighbor cabinet unit will not be affected in terms of door opening or closing, which is favorable to implementation of splicing and combination of more subsequent cabinet units.
When the cabinet unit of the combined type refrigerator is opened at 90 degrees, there is still a spacing (L5 = 5.9 mm, L5' = 12.8 mm) between one side of the parts, such as a drawer (15 or 15') in the cabinet, close to the door and a highest surface of a refrigeration inner tank 16 or a freezer inner tank 16' in the corresponding position, as illustrated in FIG. 14. In this way, parts such as drawers or articles stored in the cabinet may be smoothly taken or replaced from the cabinet.
In addition, since a horizontal spacing L3 (27 mm) between the door hinge center A and a highest point C (at the middle portion of the door) on the door housing arc surface is greater than a horizontal spacing L2 (17.5 mm) between the door hinge center A and a side board 13 of the cabinet unit, there is a 9.5 mm gap therebetween. When the combined type refrigerator is placed against the wall and a horizontal spacing L6 between the refrigeration cabinet unit 1 or the freezer cabinet unit 2 (the side board) and a wall 17 is very small (for example, 10 mm), there is still a gap between the highest point C on the door housing arc surface and the wall 17, and the door of the cabinet unit may still be opened at 90 degrees and parts or articles may still be taken from or placed into the cabinet, not affecting normal use of the combined type refrigerator, as illustrated in FIG. 15. In this way, the problem that a large capacity refrigerator occupies a large space and the position to place the cabinet is limited (i.e., a greater spacing between the cabinet and the wall that is desired).

Example 2

2. Simultaneously-left-open combined refrigerator formed by splicing two cabinet units

Similar to the side-by-side-open combination of the cabinet units described in the first example not being part of the present invention, two cabinet units are placed together in parallel. When the left cabinet unit and the right cabinet unit are both left open, a simultaneously-left-open multifunctional combined type refrigerator is formed after these two cabinet units are spliced and combined, as illustrated in FIG. 16, which is a refrigerator formed by splicing two freezer cabinet units 2 in parallel.

Example 3

3. Simultaneously-right-open combined refrigerator formed by splicing two cabinet units

Similar to the side-by-side-open combination of the cabinet units described in the first example not being part of the present invention, two cabinet units are placed together in parallel. When the left cabinet unit and the right cabinet unit are both right open, a simultaneously-right-open multifunctional combined type refrigerator is formed after these two cabinet units are spliced and combined, as illustrated in FIG. 17, which is a refrigerator formed by splicing two refrigeration cabinet units 1 in parallel.

Embodiment 1

Simultaneously-back-open combined refrigerator formed by splicing two cabinet units

Similar to the side-by-side-open combination of the cabinet units described in the first example not being part of the present invention, two cabinet units are placed together in parallel. When the left cabinet unit is right open, and the right cabinet unit is left open, a simultaneously-back-open multifunctional combined type refrigerator is formed after these two cabinet units are spliced and combined, as illustrated in FIG. 17, which is a refrigerator formed by splicing a refrigeration cabinet units 1 and a freezer cabinet unit 2 in parallel.

Example 4

Simultaneously-left-open and side-by-side-open combined refrigerator formed by splicing three or more cabinet units

FIG. 19 illustrates an effect view of a simultaneously-left-open combined type refrigerator formed by splicing and combining three cabinet units in parallel. The simultaneously-left-open combined type refrigerator is specifically formed by splicing left and middle freezer cabinet units 2 and one right refrigeration cabinet unit 1. According to actual needs, the number of cabinet units may also be over three. Correspondingly, the number of cabinet coupling members is also increased, and the combination manner may include: any combination of refrigeration cabinets and freezer cabinets.
Similar to splicing and combination of two cabinet units, these cabinet units shall be consistent in terms of height and depth, and shall be substantially consistent in terms of color, door panel, and other appearance effect. The width of the cabinet may be the same or different according to design requirements.
In conclusion, multiple cabinet units may be spliced and combined in different manners or based on different functions to form a large capacity and multifunctional refrigerator according to user's preferences, thereby implementing user's personalized or customized selection of refrigerator functions.
Basically it is required that the refrigeration cabinet units be consistent in height and depth, and the cabinets be opened at 90 degrees in the manner described in the present invention.
Obviously, the above embodiment is merely an exemplary one for illustrating the present invention, but is not intended to limit the implementation of the present invention.

Claims

A combined type refrigerator, comprising at least two cabinet units (1, 2), wherein each of the cabinet units (1, 2) has an independent compressor, an independent refrigeration system, and an independent circuit system; the cabinet units (1, 2) are consistent in height and depth; the cabinet units (1, 2) are spliced in parallel via an external coupling member, and form an integral body, and after splicing, a door of each of the cabinet units (1, 2) can be smoothly opened or closed, without interference with a neighbor cabinet unit (1, 2);
characterized in that the combined type refrigerator is a simultaneously-back-open combined refrigerator, wherein a left cabinet unit (1) is right open and a right cabinet unit (2) is left open.
The combined type refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein a door hinge center A of each of the cabinet units (1, 2) is close to a side of a door housing, and a horizontal spacing L1 between the door hinge center A and a lowest point B of a door housing arc surface is less than a horizontal spacing L2 between the door hinge center A and a side board (13) of the cabinet unit (1, 2).
The combined type refrigerator according to claim 2, wherein when a ligature AD connecting the door hinge center A with a center D of the door housing arc surface coincides with a ligature AA' connecting door hinge centers AA' of two spliced cabinet units (1, 2), a horizontal spacing L4 between door hinge sides of two neighbor doors reaches a minimum value, but is still greater than a spacing L0 between two spliced cabinet units (1, 2).
The combined type refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein when the door of the cabinet (1, 2) is opened at 90 degrees, there is a spacing between one side of the parts or articles in the cabinet (1, 2) close to the door and a highest surface of an inner tank in the corresponding position of the cabinet (1, 2), so that parts or articles in the cabinet (1, 2) can be taken or replaced as desired.
The combined type refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the external coupling member comprises:
two upper coupling blocks (4), respectively installed at screw holes provided on a back portion and a top portion of the cabinet unit;

a lower coupling block (6), installed at screw holes provided on a front lower portion of the cabinet unit; and

a lower coupling block cover (7), assembled on the lower coupling block (6).
The combined type refrigerator according to claim 5, wherein the external coupling member further comprises a coupling strip (10) which is inserted into a slit between side boards (13) of two neighbor cabinet units (1, 2), wherein a top end of the coupling strip (10) is leveled to a top cover board (12) of the cabinet unit (1, 2) and a bottom end of the coupling strip (10) is leveled to the lower coupling block cover (7).
The combined type refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the cabinet unit (1, 2) is a refrigeration cabinet (1) or a freezer cabinet (2) that can be sold alone or used alone, whose doors are a left-open door and a right-open door.