EP3788223A1

EP3788223A1 - Hinge device for refrigerator and furnishings

Info

Publication number: EP3788223A1
Application number: EP19720671.7A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Emanuele TERENZI
Original assignee: CMI Cerniere Meccaniche Industriali SRL
Current assignee: CMI Cerniere Meccaniche Industriali SRL
Priority date: 2018-05-03
Filing date: 2019-05-03
Publication date: 2021-03-10
Also published as: IT201800005039A1; CN112154247A; WO2019211435A1

Abstract

An hinge device for refrigerators, other appliances and furnishings, in an operating condition of assembly to refrigerator or to other, comprises a first member (3) fixed to a refrigerator body and a second member (5) fixed to a door of said refrigerator or obtained in such a door where said first member (3) and second member (5) are mutually connected by means of a hinge pivot (7) for the rotation of the door. The hinge pivot (7) is constrained to rotate in a first seat (9) obtained in a shelf means (11) fixed to the first member (3) and has at least one connection portion (13) with a polygonal section engaged in a complementary connection seat (15) of a connecting means (17) and in a complementary housing (18) of the second member (5) so as to prevent the mutual rotation between the hinge pivot (7), the second member (5) and the connecting means (17) which is rotatably connected to a first end of a connection rod means (21) whose second end is rotatably connected to a crank means (25) revolving around an own rotation pin (27) fixed to the first member (3). The crank means (25) has at least a first cam contour (29) onto which acts a roller (31) with an elastic force of a resilient means (33) having a first end connected to the first member (3) and a second end connected to said roller (31) by means of drive means (35). The first cam contour (29) is shaped to transmit to hinge pivot (7) and to door a closing couple in an end closing condition and close to said closing condition.

Description

HINGE DEVICE FOR REFRIGERATOR AND FURNISHINGS

DESCRIPTION

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field concerning hinges and it refers to a hinge device for furniture and appliances, particularly for refrigerators, with doors, windows or revolving doors around vertical or horizontal hinge axis and able to give such prefixed doors elastic forces.

PRIOR ART

The known hinges for vertical refrigerator doors are generally each made up of a shelf fixed to the frame or body of the refrigerator and having a vertical axis hole for a vertical hinge pin which engages in a respective cylindrical seat with vertical axis fixed to the door or refrigerator door.

A disadvantage of these known hinges is that they do not contribute in any way to the closure of the door which, for example, can remain ajar with the imaginable consequences.

Another disadvantage of these known hinges consists in that they do not restrain or dampen the closing and opening rotation of the door, causing, mainly in the second case, risks of damaging the door or adjacent objects.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to propose a hinge device for refrigerators and furnishings with a vertical hinge axis which, at the same time, is very compact to be installed even in current refrigerators, appliances and furnishings and can provide a closing elastic force of the door from a predetermined opening angle of the door. Another object is to propose a device that can be manufactured in such a way that it is able to supply, according to the applications and requirements, closing forces, opening forces and metastable intermediate positions.

A further object is to propose a device capable of braking the angular speed of the door.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DARWINGS

The characteristics of the invention are shown below with particular reference to the attached drawings in which:

- figure 1 shows an axonometric view of two examples of the hinged device for refrigerators and furnishings, object of the present invention, associated with the upper portions of two refrigerator doors;

- figure 2 shows an enlarged view of a particular of figure 1, in which some details have been removed to better highlight others;

- figure 3 shows an axonometric view of the device of figure 2 from a different point of view;

- figure 4 shows an orthogonal view from above of the device of figure 3 associated with a door portion, in an overtaking condition of about 4° of the closure and reachable in the absence of door seals, and in which some details have been removed to better highlight others;

- figures 5, 6 and 7 illustrate the device of figure 4 respectively at closing condition, in which the door seals are abutting, at partial opening condition at about 40° and at complete opening condition at about 135°;

- figure 8 shows an axonometric view of the device of figure 7 in a partially disassembled condition;

- figure 9 shows an axonometric and exploded view of the device of figure 3;

- figures 10 and 11 show the respectively horizontal and vertical views of the device sectioned at the longitudinal plane.

BEST FORM TO CARRY OUT THE INVENTION With reference to figures 1 - 11, numeral 1 indicates the hinged device for refrigerators F, for other household appliances and in general for equipment and furnishings, with doors or windows A and for example with a vertical or horizontal rotation axis, object of this invention; hereafter, conciseness, this hinged device for refrigerators will also be referred to as a hinged device or simply a device and the term refrigerator will be used to indicate also other appliances and furnishings such as electric, gas and microwave ovens, dishwashers, wall cabinets kitchen, frames, furniture and the like.

In an operative assembly condition to the refrigerator or to other elements, the device 1 comprises a first member 3 fixed to a refrigerator body and a second member 5 fixed to a refrigerator door or obtained in said door. In the case where the second member 5 is obtained in the door, the complete realization of the hinged device takes place in the assembling condition; nevertheless the hinge is such and falls within the scope of the present document even without the second member 5 being arranged for it.

In the following, the upper, lower, upper and lower terms refer to the hinged device shown in figures, in the operative condition and installed at the upper end of a door or wing side with a vertical rotation axis. When the device is installed at the lower end of the door or wing side, said terms are reversed.

In the case of installation in an appliance or furniture with a revolving door around a vertical axis, the high and low references will be intended as right and left.

These first and second member 5 are mutually connected by means of a hinge pivot 7 (exemplary vertical in the figures) for the door rotation around the longitudinal geometric axis of said hinge pivot 7 between end opening condition O and end closing condition C.

The hinge pivot 7 has an upper cylindrical portion constrained to rotate in a first circular or cylindrical seat 9 formed in a shelf means 11 fixed to the first member 3 or made in this first member 3. The hinge pivot 7 also carries a connection portion 13, coaxial to the cylindrical portion, having a polygonal cross section, preferably square, and divided into two sectors by an intermediate annular or toroidal spacer.

The upper polygonal sector, interposed between the upper cylindrical portion and the spacer, is engaged in a complementary connection seat 15 of a connecting means 17. The remaining polygonal sector, below the spacer, is engaged in a complementary housing 18 of the second member 5 so as to prevent mutual rotation between the hinge pivot 7, the second member 5 and the connecting means 17 which therefore rotate integrally around the axis of the hinge pivot 7. The hinge pivot 7 can be made of metal, for example of steel worked from solid or zamak or other die-cast alloy or synthetic material preferably composite or reinforced. The connecting means 17 can be, for example, in punched and folded metal sheet with two parallel and spaced main walls.

The connecting means 17 is rotatably connected, by means of a first pin 19, to a first end of a connection rod means 21 whose second end is rotatably connected, by means of a second pin 23, to a crank means 25 rotatable around its own rotation pin 27 fixed to the first member 3.

The crank means 25 is preferably plane with a circular plan shape or, as shown, approximately circular or irregular curved and can be obtained by die-cutting or better by cutting from a metal plate.

The distance between the axis of the hinge pivot 7 and the first pin 19 is smaller than the distance between the first 19 and second 23 pins, for example said first distance may be between one third and one fifth of said second distance. The pins 19, 23 and rotation pin 27 may be of a metal rectified type to reduce the rotation friction and/or be provided with bushes.

This crank means 25 has at least a first cam contour 29 onto which a roller 31 or roll acts with an elastic force provided by a resilient means 33 acting onto the roller itself. A first end of the resilient means 33 is connected to the member 3 and a second end is connected to a pin which acts as a rotation axis of said roller 31 by mean of drive means 35. Preferably the resilient means 33 consists of a helical spring, for example in harmonic steel, operating in traction and its first end is connected in a position furthest from the roller with respect to the first end, moreover the straight line joining these ends, and approximately coinciding with the longitudinal axis of the spring, intersects the axis of rotation pin 27 or passes near thereof.

The geometric longitudinal axis of the hinge pivot 7, of the connection seat 15, of the first 19 and second 23 pins, of the rotation pin 27 and rotation pin of the roller 31 are mutually parallel.

The first cam contour 29 is shaped to transmit to the hinge pivot 7 and to the door a closing and/or opening torque in an angular portion or sector of the door rotation; by way of example, and as illustrated in the accompanying figures, the first cam contour 29 can be shaped to transmit a closing torque to the wing or door at an end closuring condition and closed to said closing condition.

The first cam contour 29 consists of a shaped slot totally obtained in the crank means 25 and having an abutment edge 30 with the roller 31 which rolls along the roller 31.

Said slot and edge 30 may have segments shaped as circumference arc centered on the axis of the rotation pin 27 and straight or curved segments which move away or approach said axis of the rotation pin 27 and therefore inclined with respect to the respective radiuses. The spring force transmitted by the spring of the resilient means 33 is approximately radially directed and in the opposite direction to the rotation pin 27 and edge 30, along which the roller 31 runs, transmitting said force, is that external of the slot of the first cam contour 29. Where the device is constructed in such a way that the action line of the force transmitted by the roller to the first cam contour 29 intersects the axis of the rotation pin 27, as illustrated in the accompanying exemplary figures, in the positions and portions of the edge 30 where the geometric tangent thereof is perpendicular to the corresponding geometric radius jointing the axis of rotation pin 27 with such positions and portions, the force transmitted by the roller is directed straight onto said rotation pin 27 without generating torques. Vice versa in the points with inclined tangent with respect to the radius in the corresponding inclined sections of the edge 30 the roller transmits a component of the force of the elastic means with a non zero arm and which generates a torque applied to the crank means 25 and transmitted to the door or wing.

In this way it is possible to convert the elastic force in a torque which is transmitted to the hinge pivot 7, for example in the final portion of the closing stroke to transmit to the door or leaf a closing torque so avoiding the door to remain partially open and which may place seals in a compressed sealing condition. For example, in the accompanying figures, the edge 30 moves away from the rotation pin in the end portion of the closing rotation, allowing the spring to transmit a closing force to the door, in its positions near to closing.

The elastic force of the resilient means 33 which causes the roller 31 to abut against the edge 30 of the first cam contour 29 is transmitted to the roller 31 at least by means of a first tie-rod means 37, the first end of which is fixed to the rotation pivot of the roller 31 and whose opposite second end is connected to a second interconnected tie -rod means 39, by respective end pins with axis perpendicular to that of the roller 31, between said second end of the first tie-rod means 37 and the corresponding end of the resilient means 33.

Alternatively, the invention provides that the first end of the first tie-rod means 37 is directly fixed to a corresponding end of the resilient means 33.

The first 37 and second 39 tie-rod means are preferably made of punched and/or cut and folded metal sheet.

The invention provides that the end of the resilient means 33 opposite the roller 31 and the drive means 35 can be rigidly and directly attached to the first member 3 or preferably that the device 1 comprises a strut means 41 connected to the first member 3 and having a first end connected to the end of the resilient means 33 opposite to that acting onto the roller 31.

The strut means 41 is approximately rectilinear in shape and is connected to the first member 3, by means of guide means 43, slidingly along a sliding direction parallel to the longitudinal extension of the strut means 41 and incident with or approximately directed towards the axis of the rotation pin 27 of the crank means 25.

The first end of the strut means 41, opposite to said rotation pin 27 and to the roller, is connected to the resilient means 33 by means of a respective a connecting pin means and the second end of the strut means 41, next to said rotation pin 27 and to the roller, has a sliding element 45 slidably engaged to a second cam profile 47 of the crank means 25.

The second cam contour 47 consists of a shaped peripheral edge of the crank means 25 and the sliding element 45 has at least one cavity for slidingly and frictionally accommodating this shaped peripheral edge. This shaped perimetrical edge of the second cam contour 47 may be facing and/or adjacent the edge 30 of the first cam contour 29.

The sliding element 45 can be made of a synthetic material having a friction coefficient suitable for the desired braking action or this sliding element 45 can be of any material, also metallic, and can be provided with a friction pad or pad having the necessary friction coefficient, for example, to obtain the stability of the door or shutter in certain positions and to allow the spring to close the wing positioned near the closed condition.

The second tie-rod means 39 and the strut means 41 are exemplary embodiments of punched and cut and folded sheet metal and are box-like with respective longitudinal cavities.

The second tie-rod means 39 is slidably housed in the longitudinal cavity half-strut 41. The device may further comprise a damper means 49, of the linear type, housed in the longitudinal cavity of the second tie-rod means 39.

One end of the damper means 49 is in contact with a transverse face of the first tie-rod means 37 (as illustrated in the accompanying figures) or with one of the end pins of the second tie -rod means 39 and its opposite end is locked, for example, by means of a block-shaped abutment or by direct contact, to a bond pin 51 engaged without play or almost in holes 53 formed in strut means 41; furthermore, the bond pin 51 passes through the slide slots 55 formed laterally in the second tie-rod means 39 in such a way that said pin and the corresponding end of the damper means 49 can slide with respect to the second tie-rod 39.

The damper means 49 is of the cylinder type with a piston and rod sliding in a viscous manner and is equipped with an internal spring for pushing the rod outwardly.

In the example illustrated in the accompanying figures, the damper means 49 is compressed in the terminal portion of the closing rotation of the door, preventing it from beating due to the excessive angular speed; when the door angular speed is low, the viscous friction is also low and therefore it does not significantly oppose the closing of the door.

The guide means 43 are placed on both sides of the strut means 41 and each of guide means 43 comprises a flat lip laterally formed in a side of the strut means 41 and a flap of the first member 3 folded to form a sliding cavity. Obviously the position of the lips and the sliding cavities can be reversed. Alternatively, the guide means can be in any material and shape and be fixed to the strut means 41 and to the first member 3.

The shape of the first cam contour 29 is determined according to the opening angles at which the device must transmit the closing force of the leaf and that the radial distance, with respect to the rotation pin 27 of the crank means 25, between the first cam contour 29 and the second cam contour 47 is determined as a function of the desired force of the resilient means 33 acting onto the roller 31 and onto the sliding element 45. In fact, the greater is the radial distance, the greater is the spring elongation and the force it transmits to the roller 31 and to the sliding element 45.

The invention provides, alternatively and mutatis mutandis, the adoption of a spring- type resilient means 33 acting in compression and, for example, provided with a spring guide which crosses it longitudinally and which transmits the elastic force to the second tie -rod means 39.

Claims

1) Hinge device for refrigerators, other appliances and furnishings comprising, in an operating condition of assembly to refrigerator or to other, a first member (3) fixed to a refrigerator body and a second member (5) fixed to a door of said refrigerator or obtained in such a door where said first member (3) and second member (5) are mutually connected by means of a hinge pivot (7) for the rotation of the door around the longitudinal geometric axis of said hinge pivot (7) between extreme opening (A) and closing (C) conditions; said device (1) is characterized in that the hinge pivot (7) is constrained to rotate in a first seat (9) obtained in a shelf means (11) fixed to the first member (3) or carried out in that first member (3) and has at least one connection portion (13) with a polygonal section engaged in a complementary connection seat (15) of a connecting means (17) and in a complementary housing (18) of the second member (5) so as to prevent the mutual rotation between the hinge pivot (7), the second member (5) and the connecting means (17) which is rotatably connected to a first end of a connection rod means (21) whose second end is rotatably connected to a crank means (25) revolving around an own rotation pin (27) fixed to the first member (3), this crank means (25) has at least a first cam contour (29) onto which acts a roller (31) with an elastic force of a resilient means (33) having a first end connected to the first member (3) and a second end connected to said roller (31) by means of drive means (35); where the first cam contour (29) is shaped to transmit to hinge pivot (7) and to door a closing and/or opening couple in a portion of the rotation of the door.

2) Device according to claim 1 characterized in that the first cam contour (29) consists of an edge (30) of a shaped slot formed in the crank means (25) and that the resilient means (33) acts on the roller (31) with an elastic abutment force against said edge (30) at least by means of a first tie-rod (37), the first end of which is fixed to a rotation pivot of the roller (31) and the opposite second end is connected to a corresponding end of the resilient means (33) directly or by means of a second tie-rod (39) interconnected, by respective end pins with axis perpendicular to that of the roller (31), between said second end of the first tie-rod (37) and the corresponding end of the resilient means (33).

3) Device according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that it comprises a strut means (41) connected to the first member (3) and having a first end connected to the end of the resilient means (33) opposite to that acting onto the roller (31) through a pin means.

4) Device according to claim 3 characterized in that the strut means (41) is of roughly rectilinear form and is connected to the first member (3) by means of guide means (43) sliding along a sliding direction parallel to the longitudinal development of the strut means (41) itself and incident with direction approximately directed towards the axis of the rotation pin (27) of the crank means (25) where the end of strut means (41) opposed to said rotation pin (27) is linked to the resilient means (33) by means of a respective connecting pivot means and the end of the strut means (41) next to said rotation pin (27) has a sliding element (45) slidingly engaged to a second cam contour (47) of crank means (25).

5) Device according to claim 4 characterized in that the second cam contour (47) consists of a shaped perimetrical edge of crank means (25) and the sliding element (45) has at least one cavity to accommodate slidingly and with friction this shaped perimetrical border.

6) Device according to claims 2 and 3 characterized in that at least the second tie- rod (39) and the strut means (41) are box-like and have respective longitudinal cavities and that the second tie-rod (39) is slidingly housed in the longitudinal cavity of strut means (41).

7) Device according to claims 2 and 6 characterized in that it comprises a damper means (49) of linear type housed in the longitudinal cavity of second tie-rod (39) and having an end in contact with the first tie-rod (37) or with one of the end pivots of second tie-rod (39) and having the opposite end locked, by means of an abutment, to a bond pin (51) engaged in holes (53) obtained in the strut means (41) through slide slots (55) obtained in the second tie-rod (39).

8) Device according to claim 7 characterized in that the damper means (49) is of cylinder type with piston and rod sliding in a viscous manner and provided with a thrust spring towards the outside of stem.

9) Device according to claim 4 characterized in that the guide means (43) are placed on both sides of the strut means (41) and that each of guide means (43) comprises a flat lip and a folded flap to form a sliding cavity where said lip and folded flap are fixed or obtained in the strut means (41) and in the first member (3) or vice versa.

10) Device according to any previous claims characterized in that the shape of first cam contour (29) is defined according to opening angles at which the device must transmit the closing force of wing and that the radial distance, with respect to rotation pin (27) of crank means ( 25), between the first cam contour (29) and the second cam contour (47) is determined according to desired force of the resilient means (33) acting onto the roller (31) and onto the sliding element (45).