JP2002257466A - Door opening unit for refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a door opening unit for a refrigerator capable of reducing a collision contacting sound when a door is opened with the door opening unit constituted simply, compactly constituting the opening unit itself and recycling by decreasing its weight and being effective in its safety field, in an electric drive system for opening the door by a switching operation from the surface of the door of the refrigerator. SOLUTION: The door opening unit for the refrigerator comprises the opening/closing door provided at a front surface opening of a refrigerator body, a magnet gasket mounted on the inside peripheral edge of the door to be attracted to the front surface opening surface. The door opening unit installed on the front surface of the body comprises a drive motor, a reduction gear for transmitting the rotation of the motor, and a cam unit projected from the body to the door side by a rotating operation by energizing the motor for a predetermined time to open the door.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for opening a door which is disposed at a front opening of a refrigerator or the like and which opens and closes the front opening by rotating or pulling out.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, refrigerators have been required to have a large storage capacity along with diversification of eating habits. The pod depth tends to increase. Along with this, the doors of the refrigerator compartment, freezer compartment, and vegetable storage compartment have become larger and the amount of storage in the storage compartment inside the door has also increased, especially when a large amount of food has been placed. The need was strong, and the burden was greater for weak women and the elderly.

At present, an electric drive system is proposed in which a door is opened by pushing a door surface with an extruding rod using an actuator such as an electromagnetic solenoid provided on the refrigerator body by operating a switch from the surface of the refrigerator door. Have been.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned drive system, the impact sound on the door when the push rod attracted by the electromagnetic solenoid protrudes is large, the structure for noise reduction becomes complicated, and the cost is reduced. Was too expensive. Further, the electromagnetic solenoid type has a high input to obtain instantaneous power, and the number of turns of the coil is 3000 to 40.
It has to be 00 turns and the shape has to be bigger,
It has a problem of heavy weight, and furthermore, since a 100 V AC circuit is used for driving the solenoid, it is necessary to use a thermosetting resin to secure insulation, and recycling is difficult. Was.

The present invention has been made in view of this point. The door opening device has a simple structure to reduce the impact noise at the time of opening the door, and to reduce the size of the device itself and reduce the weight. It is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator door opening device that enables recycling and is effective in terms of safety.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, an opening / closing door is provided at a front opening of a refrigerator main body, and the door is suctioned to an inner peripheral edge of the door at the front opening surface. A drive motor installed on the front side of the refrigerator body side, a reduction gear that transmits the rotation of the drive motor, and an output stage of the reduction gear, which is provided at an output stage of the reduction gear and is energized to the drive motor for a predetermined time. The present invention is characterized in that the door opening device of the refrigerator comprises a cam device which projects from the main body to the door side by rotating operation to open the door.

[0007] With this configuration, when the door is opened, no impact noise is generated due to the push rod coming into contact with the door surface as compared with the case where the drive source is an electromagnetic solenoid, and the door surface is slidably pressed. Since the opening operation is performed in such a manner that the opening operation is performed, the noise can be reduced, and the device unit can be reduced in size and weight, and can be made more compact, and an inexpensive opening device can be obtained.

Further, since the motor can be constituted by a DC low voltage circuit of 12 V, it is safe from electric shock and heat generation.
In addition, a recyclable thermoplastic resin such as polyacetal can be used, which is also effective for environmental protection.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the opening / closing door is of a pivot type in which one end of the opening of the refrigerator body is pivotally supported by a hinge device, and the pivot door is provided on either the right or left pivot portion. It has the advantage that it can be applied to the type having.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an opening device in which a drive motor, a worm mounted on an output shaft of the drive motor, a worm wheel, and a cam gear coupled via an idler are housed and arranged in a unit case. The drive motor and the cam are juxtaposed on the same plane.

[0011] With this configuration, the opening device is small in size and light in weight in terms of parts, so that the device unit can be made compact and an inexpensive opening device can be obtained.

The invention according to claim 5 is characterized in that the cam device is formed in a flat plate shape and the contact portion to the opening / closing door is formed in an arc shape. With this configuration, the cam slides on the door surface. Since the opening operation is performed by dynamically pressing and releasing, it is possible to reduce noise without generating an impact sound.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the refrigerator compartment door of the refrigerator according to the present invention is opened, and a refrigerator main body formed of an outer box, an inner box, and an insulating box body in which a heat insulating material is foam-filled between these inner and outer boxes. 1 is a storage space inside the inner box, a refrigerator compartment 2 at the top, a vegetable compartment 3 below it, and a freezer compartment 4 at the bottom, which are independently arranged, and between the freezer compartment 4 and the vegetable compartment 3 Each has an ice storage room 5 and a temperature switching room 6 which are divided into right and left sections through a heat insulating partition wall. A dedicated door is provided at the front opening of each storage room so that the storage room can be opened and closed. I have.

A door 8 pivotally supported on one side by a hinge 7 is rotatably mounted on the front surface of the opening of the refrigerator compartment 2 having the largest storage volume, and corresponds to the opening on the periphery of the door 8. A magnet gasket 9 is attached to the portion, and when the door is closed, the gasket 9 is attracted to the opening by the magnetic force of the magnet, and the inside of the refrigerator compartment 2 and the outside are hermetically insulated to prevent heat leakage.

The other vegetable compartment 3, the ice storage compartment 5, the temperature switching compartment 6, and the freezing compartment 3 arranged below the refrigerator compartment 2 are mounted on a frame (not shown) which is attached to the inside of the door and extends to the back of the storage compartment. Along with the storage container, the door is pulled out in the front-rear direction by a rail mechanism between the frame and the inner wall surface.

A door opening device 10, which is a feature of the present invention, is installed at the center in the width direction of the ceiling of the refrigerator body 1, which is located above the refrigerator compartment 2. This door opening device 10
As shown in FIG. 1, a drive motor 12 is installed in a unit case 11 via a vibration absorbing material, and a worm 13 is attached to an output shaft of the motor 12.
The worm wheel 14 is further coupled to several stages of reduction gears such as an idler 15, and a cam 16 is provided at the last stage. These drive motor 12 and gear train 15,
The cams 16 are arranged in compact engagement with each other, and as shown in FIG.
It is about 5 millimeters, and is installed in an inconspicuous state at the upper center of the refrigerator body.

Each gear such as the worm 13 is made of polyacetal (P
OM) and the like, and it is possible to recycle it and to cope with environmental problems.

The cam 16 has a substantially semicircular outer shape, and the center of the axis of a rotary gear 17 connected to the idler 15 is eccentric to the end.
From the door closed state in contact with the inside edge 19 of the first embodiment, the inner edge 19 is slid and pressed with the rotation indicated by the two-dot chain line, and the door 8 is released in the opening direction. It is.

The drive motor 12 is a DC motor,
Using a low-voltage DC circuit, the torque is 1.7 Ncm,
The number of revolutions is 9000 revolutions / minute. The motor rotation speed is greatly reduced by the worm gear 14, and further reduced by the following gear train. At a gear ratio of 1:60, the rotation of the cam 16 is 2.5 rotations / sec. In seconds, the door is opened within one second from the operation of the door opening switch, so that the user does not feel discomfort that the door opening time is slow. In addition, 10
Even when a driving force of 0N is required, as shown in the open state diagram of the door 8 shown in FIG. 3, the rotation of the cam 16 in the counterclockwise direction causes the closed state indicated by the two-dot chain line to open the direction indicated by the solid line. 20 mm, it overcomes the magnetic attraction force of the magnet gasket 9 and rides over a locking claw of a not-shown half-door stopper provided on a hinge portion 7 that performs a self-closing operation for preventing a half-door from being refrigerated. Room door 8
To the outside to open the door. The above-described embodiment is a case where the door opening device is installed substantially at the center of the width of the refrigerator main body, and has an advantage that it can be applied to a type in which a pivoting door has a left or right pivot portion.
When installed at the end on the anti-pivot side, a stroke of 40 millimeters is required, but a driving force of 50 N is sufficient and the door opening force is sufficient. Just fine.

The operation of opening the door 8 with the above configuration will be described. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, initially, the drive motor 12 of the door opening device 10 is in a cut-off state, and the detection of the door switch 21 indicates that the door is in the closed state. By operating the door open switch 22 provided on the front surface, the drive motor 12 is driven by the ON signal to open the door 8. In this case, the door opening signal is output from the control circuit 23 to the driver 24 composed of a transistor, a drive circuit for driving the motor 12 is connected, and the motor 12 is energized for a predetermined time, for example, one second. It returns to the original position by one-way rotation and deenergizes. If the return position of the cam 16 is unstable, the stop position is specified by setting the number of rotations using a stepping motor. The stop position may be determined by a position detection sensor or the like.

In the above description, the cam shape is a substantially semicircular plate, but the shape is not limited to this, but may be a circle, an ellipse, an oval, or a crescent, such that the distance from the rotation axis is not constant such as an involute curve. What is necessary is just to have a part and to press the door side outward at the peripheral part while rotating.

Further, the door opening device may be installed not only so as to protrude from the upper surface of the refrigerator main body as in the embodiment, but also at least a part may be buried in the heat insulating wall to improve the appearance design. In addition to the installation, the cam may be buried in the partition wall between the storage rooms and the cam may protrude from the front surface of the partition member toward the door.

Further, in the above embodiment, the example of the revolving door in the refrigerator compartment door has been described. However, the cam of the opening device is installed at the center of each storage compartment door in the width direction, and the door is moved from the back to the inside of the main body. The present invention can also be applied to a drawer-type door in which a container portion is placed on a frame body extending to the front and moved back and forth by the frame body and the main body rail.

Further, in the above embodiment, the drive motor is rotated in the same direction. However, the present invention is not limited to this. After the door is opened, that is, the cam is rotated up to the maximum projecting amount toward the door side, the motor is reversely rotated. May be returned to the position.

According to the above embodiment, the door opening device is
By operating the door opening switch 21, the drive motor 12 is rotated, the rotation of the motor 12 is reduced by the gear train 15 and transmitted to the cam 16, and the rotating cam 16 slides and presses the door inner end face 19. Door 8
In comparison with the case where an electromagnetic solenoid is used as the driving source, no impact noise is generated due to the contact of the push rod with the door surface, and the noise is extremely reduced. Further, as compared with the electromagnetic solenoid type, the opening device unit 10 is small and lightweight, and the device unit can be made compact. Further, the motor 12 can be constituted by a DC low-voltage circuit of 12 V, and it is not necessary to secure the insulating properties of the material of the gear 15 and the like, so that it is possible to use a thermoplastic resin such as polyacetal which can be recycled. Is also effective.

[0026]

As described above, according to the refrigerator door opening device of the present invention, the opening of the door by the rotation of the cam is
Compared to the case where the drive source is an electromagnetic solenoid, no impact noise is generated by the push rod coming into contact with the door surface. be able to.

Further, as compared with the electromagnetic solenoid type, the opening device unit is composed of only a cam, a motor and a gear, so that the opening device unit is small and light in weight of parts, so that the device unit can be made compact and inexpensive. A simple opening device can be obtained.

Further, since the motor can be constituted by a DC low voltage circuit of 12 V, it is safe from electric shock and heat generation.
Since it is not necessary to ensure the insulating properties of the gears and the like, a recyclable thermoplastic resin such as polyacetal can be used, which is effective in protecting the environment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a door opening device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2

FIG. 1 is a side view showing an internal configuration of a door opening device in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a door opening operation state of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a refrigerator equipped with the refrigerator door opening device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing an electrical configuration of the door opening device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the door opening operation of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerating room main body 2 Refrigerating room 8 Refrigerating room door 10 Door opening device 12 Drive motor 13 Warm 14 Worm wheel 15 Gear train 16 Cam 18 Arc-shaped part 23 Control circuit

Claims (5)

[The claims] 1. An opening / closing door provided at a front opening of a refrigerator body, a magnet gasket attached to the front opening surface attached to an inner peripheral edge of the door, and a magnet gasket installed at a front part of the refrigerator body side. A drive motor, a reduction gear that transmits the rotation of the drive motor, and a cam that is provided at an output stage of the reduction gear and that protrudes from the main body to the door side to open the door by a rotation operation by energizing the drive motor for a certain period of time. A refrigerator door opening device consisting of a device. 2. The refrigerator door opening device according to claim 1, wherein the opening / closing door is a rotary type in which one side end of the opening portion of the refrigerator main body is pivotally supported by a hinge device. 3. The refrigerator door opening device according to claim 1, wherein the cam device is installed at a substantially central portion in a width direction of the refrigerator main body. 4. An opening device includes a drive motor, a worm mounted on an output shaft of the drive motor, a worm wheel, and a cam gear coupled via an idler, which are housed and arranged in a unit case. 2. The refrigerator door opening device according to claim 1, wherein the doors are arranged on the same plane. 5. The refrigerator door opening device according to claim 1, wherein the cam device has a flat plate shape, and a contact portion with the opening / closing door has an arc shape.