EP2942588A1 - Shelf for a refrigeration device - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a shelf for a refrigerator, on the underside of a receiving device is arranged. Such a shelf has been further developed such that the receiving device comprises two along the shelf (1) relative to each other adjustable support rails (2, 3), which are connected via sliding blocks (4, 5, 6, 7) with the shelf (1).

Description

The invention relates to a shelf of a refrigerator according to the preamble of claim 1.

From the DE 20 2010 004 943 U1 already a shelf for a refrigerator is known, arranged on the underside of a receiving device and is attached hanging on the shelf. The disclosed in this document embodiment of the recording device refers to a wavy base plate for receiving a plurality of beverage cans, wherein the receiving device connected via claw-like sliding blocks with the shelf and thus a sideways displacement of the entire recording device along the shelf is possible. In this way, the storage space between two superimposed shelves can be optimally used. The accessibility to the parked on the under the receiving device shelf or stored products thus remains guaranteed.

A major disadvantage of this solution, however, is that the presented recording device is only suitable for the aforementioned beverage cans. Consequently, the recording device can not adapt flexibly to changing needs. In a refrigeration appliance, however, there is often a need to store and refrigerate leftovers contained in a vessel. If such a vessel placed on the shelf, it takes up a considerable amount of storage space, which is therefore no longer available for other products to be cooled.

The invention thus has the problem of providing a shelf for a refrigerator, which has a receiving device that can be flexibly adapted to changing needs and is able to accommodate different containers or vessels.

According to the invention this problem is solved by a shelf for a refrigerator with the features of claim 1.

Advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention will become apparent from the following subclaims.

A shelf for a refrigerator, on the underside of a receiving device is arranged, according to the invention has been developed to the effect that the Receiving device comprises two along the shelf relative to each other adjustable support rails, which are connected via sliding shoes with the shelf.

A significant advantage in the present case is that the holding rails are designed to be movable relative to one another. This allows flexible adaptation to different vessel or container sizes. With this solution, it is thus possible, for example, to insert a bowl from a steam cooker into the receiving device, so that the food stored therein can be cooled in the refrigerator. Depending on the design of the retaining rails, the receiving device designed according to the invention can be adapted as needed to the vessels or containers to be stored. Due to the hanging storage valuable storage space is saved within the refrigerator and the parked on the below the receiving device shelf or deposited products are still accessible by the possibility of shifting the entire recording device without restrictions. In this case, the term relative mobility of the support rails is to be understood both that both support rails are designed to be movable, as well as that only one support rail is movable and the other support rail is fixedly arranged on the shelf.

According to a first embodiment of the invention, it is proposed that the sliding shoes encompassing an edge portion of the shelf are designed claw-like. By this design of the sliding blocks, it is possible to provide the receiving device both on shelves, which consist only of a glass plate, as well as on shelves, which have a frame-like enclosure or are designed as a grid. The term "claw-like" is understood quite generally to mean a geometric shape which, viewed in cross-section, has at least one U-shape. In addition, the claw-like design may also consist in that the sliding shoe almost completely surrounds a frame element of the shelf. However, the term "claw-like" likewise encompasses a barb-like geometry of the surfaces of the sliding shoe which contact the compartment bottom.

To improve the slidable guidance of the sliding shoes along the shelf, a further proposal according to the invention is that guide shelves are assigned to the shelf or the shelf has guide means therefor. In other words, the guide means may be immediate, one-piece component of a shelf or connected to the shelf. Thus, for example, this solution also includes a solution in which the guide means are fastened to at least one side wall and / or the rear wall of the cooling device and the sliding shoes these guide means are brought into engagement when the provided with the sliding shoes shelf is inserted into the refrigerator.

As for the feasibility of the invention suitable guide means, in particular slides or guide rails have been found that can be formed according to a very advantageous embodiment of the invention by a frame member of the shelf itself. In other words, in such a case, the shelf has, on two opposite sides, a frame member adapted to serve as a slide rail or guide rail. If the shelf already has such a frame, then advantageously this frame can be used for the purposes according to the invention. In this way, a change in the structural design of the shelf can be avoided and an existing system can be retrofitted with a corresponding receiving device, which represents a further advantage of the invention.

The ability to move the support rails of the receiving device along the shelf infinitely, so freely movable, is advantageous because it allows flexible adaptation to different container or vessel sizes can be done. In addition, however, a releasable fixation of the shoe may be useful to prevent, for example, an undesirable, automatic displacement of the support rails and thus to avoid that a container inserted into the receptacle or a vessel, for example, by vibrations, as in opening and closing of the refrigerator may occur, undesirably moved or even released from the receiving device. A first solution for this is seen in the fact that there is a detent between at least one shoe and the shelf. In other words, a stepped or wavy contour is provided on the shelf, for example, against the resistance of the sliding block can be moved along the shelf. If this contour also has an increased friction, as is the case, for example, with rubber materials, it is possible in this very simple manner to effectively prevent undesired proper movement of the sliding shoes and thus of the retaining rails. The recorded in the receiving device container can thus not solve automatically, which makes a significant contribution to the improvement of a shelf according to the invention.

Starting from this idea of the invention, it is also sufficient if the contact surface of at least one sliding shoe of a holding rail and / or the shelf is provided with a friction-intensive coating. In the simplest case, this can be a covering of an elastomer material, for which purpose a rubber material is suitable, for example. Of course, other adhesion promoters can also be used, wherein, of course, a food-neutral material must be taken into account in a refrigeration appliance. This type of coating is intended only to prevent the unwanted, automatic movement of the retaining rails relative to each other. Thus, the goal of this solution is to maintain a distance between the support rails once adapted to a container or vessel, as long as that container or vessel remains in the receiver. Although the sliding of the sliding shoes is slightly hampered by such a coating on the one hand. On the other hand, however, this solution has the aforementioned advantages.

According to a development of the invention is also proposed that at least one shoe is made fixable to the shelf. Under the said fixability of the shoe is to be understood, of course, a releasable fixation.

One way to fix the sliding blocks on the shelf and thus define a defined position of the support rails to each other, for example, is to provide a clamping device on at least one shoe. This releasable clamping device can be manually fixed or loosened. In this case, for example, generally resilient, that is to say elastically deformable latching elements, clamping elements for producing a friction connection or spring-ball detents have proven to be suitable.

According to a further proposal according to the invention, each retaining rail is connected via two sliding shoes with the shelf and has in the region of the sliding blocks in each case a receiving sheet. In addition, the retaining rail has a rectilinear support section between the receiving sheets. The receiving sheet is provided for facilitating the insertion of a container provided with an edge. In addition, such a receiving sheet also has a guiding function for the container to be used or the vessel to be inserted, which is thereby aligned during insertion.

The retaining rails of the receiving device are designed in this way so that they are suitable for inserting a shell or for fixing a holder. The holder, which can be placed on the support rails, for example, can be used to be used as a bottle holder or beverage can holder. In this way, the flexibility of the entire recording device and the tray equipped with it can be significantly improved.

As already stated, shelves with different design variants can be used for the solution according to the invention. This makes the flexibility of present invention. Consequently, such a shelf can also be combined with other elements in order to simultaneously store and cool different products in the refrigerator and still make maximum use of the existing storage space. According to a further proposal according to the invention, the shelf designed as a grid is at least partially usable for supporting a glass plate or it has at least one recessed portion into which a glass plate can be inserted. Thus, the running as a grid part of the shelf can be used for storage of rotationally symmetrical containers, so for example, of beverage cans, while stored on the inserted or inserted glass plate other, smaller items and can be cooled. Below such a shaped shelf, the receiving device according to the invention is preferably also arranged, so that the existing storage space under the shelf is optimally usable.

Not least object of the invention is also a cooling device with such a shelf. As a refrigerator can be considered both a refrigerator, a freezer or a fridge-freezer or a wine storage cabinet. The refrigerator may contain one or more shelves according to the invention, whereby a combination with different shelves is possible.

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments shown are not limiting to the variants shown, but merely serve to explain a principle of the invention. Identical or similar components are always denoted by the same reference numerals. In order to be able to illustrate the mode of operation according to the invention, only greatly simplified schematic representations are shown in the figures, in which the components which are not essential to the invention have been dispensed with. However, this does not mean that such components are not present in a solution according to the invention.

Figur 1:

ein Beispiel für einen Fachboden in perspektivischer Ansicht,

Figur 2:

die vergrößerte Einzelheit II aus Figur 1,

Figur 3:

die Sicht auf einem Gleitschuh in Blickrichtung des Pfeils III in Figur 2,

Figur 4:

die Sicht auf einem Gleitschuh in Blickrichtung des Pfeils IV in Figur 2,

Figur 5:

ausschnittsweise einen Blick in ein Kühlgerät mit einem Fachboden und einer in der Aufnahmevorrichtung aufgenommenen Schale,

Figur 6:

einen Fachboden mit einer Halterung in der Aufnahmevorrichtung
und

Figur 7:

eine weitere Ausführungsvariante eines Fachbodens mit einer Glasplatte.

It shows:

FIG. 1:

an example of a shelf in perspective view,

FIG. 2:

the enlarged detail II FIG. 1 .

FIG. 3:

the view on a shoe in the direction of arrow III in FIG. 2 .

FIG. 4:

the view on a shoe in the direction of arrow IV in FIG. 2 .

FIG. 5:

a partial view into a refrigerator with a shelf and a recorded in the receiving cup,

FIG. 6:

a shelf with a holder in the receiving device
and

FIG. 7:

a further embodiment of a shelf with a glass plate.

The in FIG. 1 shown shelf 1 has an approximately rectangular shape. It is basically designed as a grid and has a frame consisting of two frame members 10 and 11 which are interconnected by two further frame members 21 and 22. The frame members 10 and 11 form the longitudinal sides of the shelf 1 and the frame members 21 and 22, the transverse sides. In addition, between the frame elements 10, 11, 21, 22 bars 20 are arranged, on which products or objects to be cooled can be stored. The inventive feature of in FIG. 1 illustrated shelf 1 is that it has on its underside a receiving device consisting of two support rails 2 and 3. These support rails 2, 3 can preferably be continuously moved towards or away from each other, for which purpose they are attached to the shelf 1 via two slide shoes 4, 5 and 6, 7 made of a plastic. The support rail 2 in this case consists of the sliding block 4 in the front area of the shelf 1 and the sliding block 7 in the rear wall area of the compartment used in the refrigerator compartment 1. The sliding blocks 4 and 7 are connected by a support portion 16 which serves to create a in the recording device used in the FIG. 1 however, not shown shell to receive a container or a vessel. For this purpose, a container or container suitable for insertion into the receiving device has an edge section which is supported by the support section 16. The rectilinearly executed support section 16 merges on the sliding shoe 4 into a receiving sheet 12 and on the sliding shoe 7 in a receiving sheet 15. The receiving sheets 12, 15 serve to facilitate the introduction of a container or a shell or a vessel in the receiving device.

The design of the retaining rail 3 is designed analogously to the retaining rail 2 described above. Thus, the support rail 3 also has two, opposite one another arranged on the shelf 1 sliding shoes 5 and 6, which are connected by a rectilinearly executed support portion 17. The rectilinear running support section 17 is in the region of the shoe 5 in a receiving sheet 13 and in the region of the shoe 6 in a receiving sheet 14 over. Another particularity of the illustrated embodiment of a shelf 1 is present in that the longitudinal frame member 10 forms a guide means 8, on which the sliding blocks 4 and 5 are slidably guided. Consequently, no additional element is required here to receive and guide the sliding shoes 4, 5. The opposite longitudinal side of the shelf 1 is formed by the frame member 11. This frame member 11 is assigned in the present case, a guide means 9 in the form of a guide rail, that is the Guide rail 9 is connected to the frame member 11 and receives the sliding shoes 6, 7 slidable. On the sliding shoe 6, an elastically deformable latching tongue 30 is integrally formed in addition, which engages in a corresponding, existing in the guide means 9 detent and thereby prevents unwanted, automatic movement of the support rail 3. Likewise, such a locking device is provided on the support rail 2, which consists of an integrally formed on the slide shoe 7 latching tongue 31 which engages in the corresponding detent of the guide means 9. In order to move the support rails 2, 3 towards each other or apart, they must therefore be moved against the force of the elastically deformable locking tongues 30, 31.

It needs at this point no special mention that the recording device also transversely to the in FIG. 1 shown arrangement can be provided on the shelf 1. In such a case, therefore, the retaining rails 2, 3 would be attached to the lateral frame members 21, 22.

From the FIG. 2 the enlarged detail II leaves FIG. 1 out. So is in the FIG. 2 the sliding block 5 is shown, which surrounds the frame element 10 designed as a guide means 8 in the manner of a claw. The claw-like fixation of the sliding shoe 5 is evident in that a part of the sliding shoe 5 barb-like acts on the rear side of the frame element 10 and thus the frame element 10 is almost completely enclosed by the sliding block 5. At the bottom of the shoe 5, the receiving sheet 13 of the support rail 3 emerges and then passes into the rectilinear support portion 17.

The view in the direction of arrow III in FIG. 2 that the presentation in FIG. 3 corresponds, shows that the consisting of a metallic material receiving sheet 13 approximately perpendicularly emerges from the surface of the underside of the shoe 5 and is then bent approximately at right angles to then pass over an arcuate course in the rectilinear support portion 17. The rectilinear portion 17 of the support rail 3 extends below the lattice bar 20 of the shelf. 1

The FIG. 4 allows a view in the direction of the arrow IV in FIG. 2 on the shoe 5. Here, in particular, the claw-like design of the shoe 5 is clear. This surrounds the frame member 10 except for a narrow slot 23 almost completely.

From the FIG. 5 In addition, an example of a look into a refrigerator, from which a partial side wall 24 and a rear wall 25 can be seen. In the refrigerator, a shelf 1 is also used, which is equipped with a recording device. In The receiving device is also a shell 18 made of stainless steel, as used for example in Dampfgargeräten use. In the FIG. 5 is one compared with the representation in FIG. 1 variant embodiment of a shelf 1 shown. From this, the variety of variants of a shelf according to the invention 1 is clear. This consists namely in the present case of a glass plate, which has only one frame element 10 or 11 in the front and in the rear wall side area. The frame members 10, 11 form guide means 8, 9 for receiving the sliding blocks 4, 5, 6, 7 as components of the support rails 2, 3. The shelf 1 is used in total in the refrigerator which on its side walls 24 via a plurality of superimposed receptacles 26 has, which are designed as a circular segment-shaped formations of the side wall 24. Between two superimposed receptacles 26 each have a gap distance 27 is also present, the height of which is sufficient to insert the shelf 1 so that it rests on the underlying receptacle 26.

Another design possibility of a shelf 1 according to the invention is apparent from the illustration in FIG. 6 out. Also, this shelf 1 is as in the example in FIG. 5 from a glass plate, the rear side and front side has a respective frame member 10 and 11 respectively. In this example, below the frame member 11, a guide means 9 is arranged in the form of a U-shaped in cross-section guide rail, in which the sliding shoes 6, 7 are slidably received. Another peculiarity of this embodiment is that at the rectilinear support portions 16, 17 of the support rails 2, 3 are each a holder 19 is attached, wherein arcuate wire bracket 32 of the bracket 19 serve to accommodate, for example, bottles, milk containers or beverage cans. An essential advantage of this embodiment is that the holder 19 can be moved along the rectilinear support sections 16, 17 as a whole. Thus, not only is it possible to move the holding rails 2, 3 sideways, but also to make a movement of the holder 19 inserted into the receiving device transverse to the longitudinal direction of the shelf 1.

Another, very advantageous possibility of use of a shelf 1 according to the invention is in the FIG. 7 shown. In this case, a glass plate 28 is used, which has on its underside several usable as a foot spacer 29. This glass plate 28 is loosely placed on the bars 20 of the designed as a grid shelf 1 and can therefore be removed together with the parked products or containers from the refrigerator. The glass plate 28 thus has a tray function and can be used in many ways. In addition to the in FIG. 7 Of course, this version of a shelf 1 shown this can also have a recessed area in the the glass plate 28 is inserted, so that the surface of the shelf 1 as a whole forms a plane.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS:

1

Fold bottom

2

retaining rail

3

retaining rail

4

shoe

5

shoe

6

shoe

7

shoe

8th

guide means

9

guide means

10

frame element

11

frame element

12

receiving sheet

13

receiving sheet

14

receiving sheet

15

receiving sheet

16

bearing section

17

bearing section

18

Bowl

19

bracket

20

Gitterstab

21

frame element

22

frame element

23

slot

24

Side wall

25

rear wall

26

admission

27

gap distance

28

glass plate

29

Spacer / foot

30

catch tongue

31

catch tongue

32

wire hanger

Claims (13)

Shelf for a refrigerator, on the underside of a receiving device is arranged,
characterized in that
the receiving device comprises two holding rails (2, 3) which are adjustable relative to one another along the shelf (1) and which are connected to the shelf (1) via sliding shoes (4, 5, 6, 7). Shelf according to claim 1,
characterized in that
the sliding blocks (4, 5, 6, 7) embracing an edge section of the shelf (1) are designed claw-like. Shelf according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized in that
the guide plate (8, 9) are assigned to the shelf (1) for sliding guide of the slide shoes (4, 5, 6, 7) or the shelf (1) has guide means (8, 9) for this purpose. Shelf according to claim 3,
characterized in that
the guide means (8, 9) are slide rails or guide rails. Shelf according to claim 3 or 4,
characterized in that
the guide means (8, 9) are formed by a frame element (10, 11) of the shelf (1). Shelf according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized in that
between at least one slide shoe (4, 5, 6, 7) and the shelf (1) a detent is present. Shelf according to one of claims 1 to 5,
characterized in that
the contact surface of at least one sliding shoe (4, 5, 6, 7) and / or the compartment base (1) is provided with a friction-intensive coating. Shelf according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized in that
at least one sliding shoe (4, 5, 6, 7) on the shelf (1) is designed to be fixed. Shelf according to claim 8,
characterized in that
the sliding shoe (4, 5, 6, 7) for fixing to the shelf (1) has a clamping device. Shelf according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized in that
each retaining rail (2, 3) via two sliding shoes (4, 5 or 6, 7) with the shelf (1) is connected and in the region of the sliding shoes (4, 5, 6, 7) each have a receiving sheet (12, 13, 14 , 15), wherein between the receiving sheets (12, 13, 14, 15) each have a rectilinear support portion (16, 17) is present. Shelf according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized in that
the retaining rails (2, 3) of the receiving device for inserting a shell (18) or for fixing a holder (19) are suitable Shelf according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized in that
the shelf (1) designed as a grate can be used, at least in sections, for supporting a glass plate (28) or has at least one recessed portion into which a glass plate (28) can be inserted. Refrigerator with a shelf (1) according to one of the preceding claims.

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