GB2247402A

GB2247402A - Internal lighting in a cooling appliance

Info

Publication number: GB2247402A
Application number: GB9116170A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rolf Kordon; Horst Kutschera; Roland Maier
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1990-07-30
Filing date: 1991-07-26
Publication date: 1992-03-04
Anticipated expiration: 2011-07-26
Also published as: GB2247402B; ES2044751A2; IT1251060B; ES2044751R; ITMI911873A1; DE4024174C1; GB9116170D0; FR2665247A1; FR2665247B1; ES2044751B1; ITMI911873A0

Description

INTERNAL LIGHTING IN A COOLING APPLIANCE The present invention relates to

a cooling appliance, such as a refrigerator or freezer, and has particular reference to internal lighting in the appliance.

In refrigerating and freezing appliances it is desired to arrange the internal illumination so that on the one hand the entire cooling chamber is illuminated as uniformly as possible even when full and on the other hand the loading and unloading of the chamber is not made unnecessarily difficult by projecting parts of the lighting arrangement.. It is therefore usual to arrange a light unit deep inside the appliance housing at a side wall thereof. In the case of heavy loading of the chamber, at least partial shading of the light source by the stored stock is to be expected. In order to avoid undue impairment of the illumination conditions in the cooling chamber, the space near the lighting unit must bekept clear during loading. This is particularly disadvantageous, since for reasons of economy such appliances are often loaded nearly to the limit of their capacity and are frequently sited in locations with insufficient externally sourced lighting.

In DE-GM 19 14 139 there is disclosed a cooling appliance in which the internal illumination is arranged in a depression in that wall of the housing, possibly recessed in its centre, which is opposite the door fitting. Through such an arrangement, almost flush with the inward wall of the cooling chamber, of the internal lighting unit there is achieved an increase in useful space while avoiding reduction of the loading cross-section by the unit. Such an arrangement, however, has the disadvantage that the light source can also be easily hidden by the contents of the chamber. Moreover, the depression in the wall of the housing forms a thermal bridge which has an unfavourable effect on the energy consumption of the appliance.

According to DE-GM 16 50 290 there is disclosed a cooling appliance in which an internal lighting device, which is mounted in a housing of a switch-regulator combination and provided with a reflector, is arranged in the cooling chamber near the rim of the housing opening, but.still in the region of the storage shelves, in a depression in the housing wall at the hinge side. Although potential shading of the light source is reduced by this arrangement, the source is no longer in the centre but in the forward edge region between the deposit shelves and the quality of illumination of the chamber is less satisfactory with a lighting unit recessed in such a manner.

There thus remains a need for the internal light arrangement able to provide good lighting of a cooling chamber even in the case of heavy loading of the chamber, but withot impairing the loading and unloading of the chamber.

According to the present invention there is provided a cooling appliance comprising a housing with a cooling chamber, a door to open and close an access opening of the chamber and having a projecting portion which projects into the chamber in the closed state of the door, and an internal lighting unit which is pivotably mounted in a tl recess in a wall of the chamber and which is pivoted into the recess by the projecting portion of the door on the door being closed and pivots out of the recess on the door being opened, the lighting unit being controlled by switching means operable in response to opening and closing of the door and being arranged to direct light into the chamber in the pivoted-out state.

In a preferred embodiment, the appliance comprises a thermally insulated housing, the opening of the chamber being closable by the door, which in the closed state by its rim covers the opening rim of the housing and by projections or the like, which protrude from its inward side in the proximity of the rim, projects into the opening of the cooling chamber. The internal lighting unit sits at least partially under a cover in the recess and is controlled by a switch which is actuable by one of the projections of the door. The light unit is pivotable in the recess and at least partially covered by a projection of the door in such a manner that it is urged back into the recess by the projection when the door is closed and pivots out therefrom on the door being opened, the light emanating therefrom being directed substantially into the cooling chamber. 20 By means of a light unit arranged to be pivotable out in front of storage shelves in such manner, the entire cooling chamber even if fully loaded, may be able to be illuminated uniformly and free of glare for the user. Preferably, the recess in the wall of the housing is lined by a troughlike moulded lining element which is substantially matched at least in part to the outline of the adjacent side of a body of the lighting unit, whereby the unit may be relatively-easy to mount and also secure against unauthorised access to electrical connections thereof.

For preference, the body of the unit has a cross-section substantially in the shape of a circular sector and is pivotably connected with the lining element by an axle disposed in the centre of the circular sector. This has the advantage that a housing of the unit can be constructed in a space-saving manner.

Preferably, a force store acting on the housing of- the unit exerts thereon a turning moment able to pivot it out of the recess and into its operative position. This gives the advantage that the housing of the unit under the control of the movement of the door is automatically pivoted out of its rest position into the operative position. Moreover, it has proved to be very advantageous that the lighting unit pivoted into its operative position can move into the recess in the case of unintended contact, thus being protected against damage, and the loading and unloading of the cooling chamber is not obstructed.

The wall of the recess, in particular of the lining element, and the housing of the lighting unit can be provided with co-operating abutments which limit the pivot angle of the lighting unit. Thus, when the door is open, the unit always moves into the end position permitting optimum illumination of the cooling chamber.

A control, which is particularly simple and correlates with the opening angle of the door, of the lighting unit on opening of the door results if the lighting unit, in particular the housing thereof, has a cam surface portion which co-operates with the projecting portion at the inward side of the door.

For preference, the switching means comprises a switch which switches the lighting unit in dependence on its end positions.

A lighting unit with these features distinguishes itself not only in that the unit always lights up with certainty when the door is open and is switched off reliably when the door is closed, but also the lamp of the unit is switched on, in energy-saving manner, only in its most favourable lighting position.

A parti cul arl y high operational reliability without the requirement of an exact position adjustment for a switch of the 10 lighting unit may be achieved if a reed switch is used at the switch.

An embodiment of the invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a cooling appliance embodying the invention, the appliance having a cooling compartment which is closable by a door and an internal lighting unit; and - Fig. 2 is a detail view, approximately to scale, in hori'zontal section through a wall of the appliance housing, showing (in solid lines and chain-dotted lines) two end positions of the lighting unit.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown in Fig. 1 a refrigerator/freezer appliance 10 with three vertically stacked cooling compartments which provide cooling at respectively different temperatures and which are separately closable by individual doors. The compartments are disposed in a thermally insulated housing 11 and the middle compartment serves as a normal (refrigerating) cooling compartment 12, the access opening of which is closable by a door 13. In the closed state, a rim at the door 13 covers a rim 15 of the opening of the compartment 12. Provided on the inward side of the door 13 and in the proximity of its rim are projections 16 which project directly up to the front edges of storage shelves 17 arranged one above the other in the compartment 12. In front of the shelves 17, a wall 18 of the housing is provided with an internal lighting unit 20, which sits in a recess 19 and is equipped with a housing 21.

As illustrated in chain-dotted lines in Fig. 2, the lighting unit 20, when the door 13 is closed, is covered at least partially by the projection 16. As described further below, the unit 20 is arranged to be pivotable in the recess 10 so that when the door 13 is closed, the unit is urged back by the projection 16 into the recess and when the door 13 is opened the unit is freed as the projection 16 moves away from the opening rim 15 and can pivot out.

The light produced'by the unit 20 when the door 13 is open and which is radiated by a lamp 23 arranged approximately in the focal centre of a parabolic reflector 22, it directed substantially into the cooling compartment 12. The housing 21, receiving the lamp 23 and the reflector 22, of the unit 20 is equipped with a light permeable cover in its region facing the compartment 12.

On its side facing the recess 19, the outline of this housing 21, constructed in two parts, approximately corresponds to the outlines of a troughlike moulded lining element 24 lining the recess 19 in the wall 18 of the housing 11.The housing 21 of the unit 20 has a cross-section substantially in the form of a circular sector and is pivotably connected with the lining element 24 by way of an axle 25 which is disposed in the centre of the circular sector.

A force store (not shown), for example a torsion spring or the like, which bears against the housing 21 on the one hand and against the lining element 24 on the other hand, exerts a turning moment which endeavours to pivot the unit 20 into its operative position (illustrated by solid lines) on opening of the door 13. The pivot angle between the rest position and the operative position is limited by an abutment 27 on the element 24 and a counter- abutment 28, co- operating therewith,.on the housing 21.

The pivotal movement of the unit 20 is controlled by a camlike projection 29, which is formed by the wall of the housing 21 and cooperates with the projection 16 on the inward side of the door 13 and which according to direction of movement of the door pivots the housing 21 or allows the housing 21 to pivotal into the respective end position. The un-it 20 in the pivoted-out end position is switched on by way of a switch 31 provided with connecting contacts 30. This can be, for example, a reed switch which can be installed without exact positional adjustment.

On opening of the door 13, the camlike projection 29 of the housing 21 is caused to slide, due to the turning moment emanating from the force store, along the projection 16 at the inward side of the door 13 until the unit 20 has reached its pivoted-out end position. Simultaneously with reaching of this end position, the current circuit of the lamp 23 is closed by way of the switch 31.

When The abutments 27 and 28 contact each other in the pivoted-out end position so as to stop further pivotal movement of the unit 20 and the projection 16 lifts off the camlike projection 29 on further opening of the door 13.

the door 13 is closed again, after contact of the camlike projection 29 with the projection 16 the unit 20 is pivoted back into the recess 19 against the force of the force store, until the door rim lies against the opening rim 15. Immediately after initiation of the inward pivotal movement, the switch 31 interrupts the current circuit to the lamp 23. The unit 20, when the door 13 is closed, 'Is held in the rest position by the co-operation of the projection 16 and the camlike projection 29, in which position it is received to a large extent in the recess 19.

r 4 1

Claims

1. A cooling appliance comprising a housing with a cooling chamber, a door to open and close an access opening of the chamber and having a projecting portion which projects into the chamber in the closed state of the door, and an internal lighting unit which is pivotably mounted in a recess in a wall of the chamber and which is pivoted into the recess by the projecting portion of the door on the door being closed and pivots out of the recess on the door being opened, the lighting unit being controlled by switching means operable in response to opening and closing of the door and being arranged to 10 direct light into the chamber in the pivoted-out state.

2. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the recess is lined by a moulded lining element substantially corresponding in shape at least in part to the shape of an adjacent side of a body member of the lighting unit.

3. An appliance as claimed in claim 2, wherein the body of the unit at least in part has the form substantially of a segment of a circle and is pivotably connected to the lining element by axle means disposed at or in the region of the centre of radius of the segment.

4. An appliance as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, comprising resilient means arranged to urge the lighting unit out of the recess.

5. An appliance as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the lighting unit and wall means of the recess are provided with mutually co-operating abutment surfaces to limit pivot movement of the unit out of the recess.

6. An appliance as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the unit has a cam surface portion co-operable with the 10 projecting portion of the door.

7. An appliance as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, the switching means comprising a switch to switch illuminating means of the lighting in dependence on end positions of the unit.

8. An appliance as claimed in claim 7, wherein the switch is a reed switch.

9. An appliance as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, the appliance being a refrigerator.

10. An appliance as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8, the appliance being a freezer.

Z c - 11

11. A cooling appliance substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Published 1992 at The Patent Office. Concept House. Cardiff Road. Newport. Gwent NP9 I RH. Further copies may be obtained from Sales Branch. Unit 6. Nine Mile Point. Cwrnfelinfach. Cross Keys. Newport. NP I 7HZ. Printed by Multiplex techniques lid. St Mary Cray, Kent.