JP2003056976A - Door supporting unit and refrigerator having the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve reliability of a hinge and an appearance in a hinge type opening/closing door and a decoration cover mounting structure. SOLUTION: A door supporting unit comprises a decoration cover 9 integrally clamping with the hinge 4 and an outer case 2 via a screw 10 at a rear part of a supporting shaft 7 of the hinge and a flange 11 detoured to a gap 12 between a front part of the shaft 7 and a lower surface of a distal end 4a of the hinge and provided at the cover 9. Even if the shaft 7 is removed from the hinge 4, one end of the cover 9 is clamped at the case 2 via the screw, and the flange 11 is engaged and held at the end 4a of the hinge 4. Accordingly, since the cover 9 is not removed from the hinge 4 and the shaft 7 is retained and held from an upper surface, and hence it can prevent the shaft from being removed from a bearing 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a door support device for a refrigerator.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a hinge structure of a refrigerator door,
For example, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-146490.

The conventional door support device for a refrigerator will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a conventional refrigerator door support device, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional refrigerator door support device.

In FIGS. 5 and 6, the refrigerator body 1 is composed of an outer box 2 and a door 3 for closing the front opening thereof. Reference numeral 4 denotes a hinge that rotatably supports the door 3, one end of which is fixed to a ceiling surface 6 of the outer box 2 by a screw 5, a support shaft 7 is provided at the other end, and a bearing 8 provided on an upper surface of the door 3 is provided. Has been inserted. Further, a makeup cover 9 for covering the hinge 4
Is attached.

The door 3 is rotatably opened and closed about a support shaft 7 provided at the tip of the hinge 4. Further, the hinge 4 is covered by the decorative cover 9 to improve the appearance.

[0006]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional structure, since the rear side of the hinge 4 is fixed to the ceiling surface 6 of the outer box 2 with screws, the hinge 4 and the decorative cover 9 are provided on the front surface, which is the appearance of the refrigerator 1. The gap between them is not uniform. Further, when the hinge 4 and the support shaft 7 are not joined properly, there is a drawback that the makeup cover 9 is detached by the force of pushing the support shaft 7 upward.
Further, in the case of a refrigerator in which the door operation unit and the main body are connected by electric wiring, it is necessary to make the support shaft hollow, and when the support shaft is hollow in the above conventional configuration, the support shaft and the hinge are not attached. Usually, spot welding is adopted. However, the ones that are attached by spot welding have drawbacks that the work is time-consuming, the cost is high, and the attachment is not reliable.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and improves the appearance by an inexpensive method, and even when the support shaft comes off the hinge, the decorative cover does not come off and the support shaft does not come off from the bearing of the door. An object is to provide a door support device.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hinged opening / closing door for opening / closing an opening of a housing, and a pivot for pivoting the opening / closing door above the housing. Consisting of a hinge to support and a cosmetic cover that covers the upper part of the hinge,
The support shaft projects downward from the upper part of the hinge and is joined thereto, and the decorative cover has a flange part which covers the upper part of the support shaft and wraps around the tip part of the hinge and the opening / closing door. Even if the support shaft is lifted up, the flange is caught on the tip of the hinge to prevent the cosmetic cover from coming off. In addition, since the decorative cover presses from the upper surface of the support shaft, the support shaft does not come off from the bearing of the door. Further, it has a function of preventing the tip end portion of the hinge from being exposed externally.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a hinge-type opening / closing door for opening / closing the opening of the housing, a hinge for pivotally supporting the opening / closing door on the upper part of the housing, and an upper part of the hinge are provided. The hinge is screwed directly to the casing, and is also screwed to the casing through the decorative cover at the rear portion of the spindle and at the front portion of the spindle. Is screwed only to the decorative cover, and has a function of preventing the spindle from coming off from the bearing of the door even if the spindle is lifted up, by the screws screwed to the front and rear of the spindle.

According to a third aspect of the invention, in the invention according to the first or second aspect, the supporting shaft is inserted into the mounting hole of the hinge and caulked, which simplifies the mounting work and is reliable. You can enhance your sex.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the support shaft is hollow, and electric wiring for connecting the opening / closing door and the housing is inserted therein. Since it is made possible, the effect of preventing the floating is exerted even on a hollow support shaft whose strength is apt to decrease.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigerator having the door supporting device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects on the upper surface of the refrigerator body, and even if the spindle is lifted up, makeup is applied. Prevent the cover from coming off.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the fifth aspect, the refrigerating chamber is arranged at the uppermost portion of the refrigerator main body, and the opening / closing door of the refrigerating chamber is pivotally supported by a door supporting device. Generally, since the size is large and the amount of storage is large, the weight becomes heavy, and even in the case of a refrigerator compartment door where the hinge spindle is easily subjected to force, the cosmetic cover should be removed in case of lifting of the spindle. To prevent.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a door support device for a refrigerator according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the same configurations as those of the conventional one are denoted by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a refrigerator door support device according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the refrigerator door support device of the same embodiment.

Reference numeral 1 is a refrigerator body, and an outer box 2 and a front door 3 are provided.
It is composed by. Reference numeral 4 denotes a hinge, which is fixed to a ceiling surface 6 of the outer box by a screw 5, and a support shaft 7 rotatably supports the door 3. The support shaft 7 is inserted into the bearing 8 of the door 3. Further, the support shaft 7 is formed separately from the main body plate of the hinge 4, and the both are joined.

A decorative cover 9 covers the upper surface of the hinge 4 after the hinge 4 is attached to the door 3 to improve the appearance. The decorative cover 9 is screwed to the hinge 4 and the outer case 2 together with the screw 10 at the rear portion of the support shaft 7, and is screwed to only the hinge 4 at the front portion of the support shaft 7 with the screw 10a. Is held from above. Further, the holding force is larger than the force of the shaft that works when the support shaft 7 is disengaged from the hinge 4.

The operation of the supporting device for the refrigerator door configured as described above will be described below.

During normal use, the door 3 rotates by using the support shaft 7 attached to the hinge 4 as a rotation shaft to open and close the door. In addition, if a large force is applied when the door is opened or closed for some reason, and the support shaft 7 is disengaged from the hinge 4, the support shaft is forced to come out upward, but the decorative cover 9 does not come off and the support shaft is not removed. 7
Therefore, the support shaft 7 can be prevented from coming off the bearing 8 of the door 3.

As described above, in the refrigerator door supporting apparatus of this embodiment, the decorative cover 9 is attached to the hinge 4 and the outer box 2 with screws 10.
Since it is fixed by the screw and is further fixed by the screw 10a at the front portion of the hinge, the support shaft 7 is held by being pressed from above. Further, since the holding force is larger than the force of the support shaft 7 trying to come out upward when the support shaft 7 is disengaged from the hinge 4, the makeup cover 9 is not removed even when the support shaft 7 is disengaged from the hinge 4. Since the support shaft 7 is held, the support shaft 7 can be prevented from coming off the bearing 8 of the door 3. Further, the makeup cover 9 itself can be prevented from coming off at the same time.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a refrigerator door supporting apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 9a denotes a decorative cover, one end of which is fixed to the outer box 2 with a screw 10, and a flange portion 11 provided at the front end of the decorative cover 9 is provided at the front end portion of the other end of the tip portion 4a of the hinge 4. It goes around the gap 12 between the hinge 4 and the door 3, which is the lower surface.

In the present embodiment, the refrigerator door supporting device according to the first embodiment is further provided with a flange 11 which is inserted into the gap 12 on the front lower surface of the hinge 4 at the tip of the decorative cover 9.

The operation of the supporting device for the refrigerator door constructed as described above will be described below.

During normal use, the door 3 rotates by using the support shaft 7 attached to the hinge 4 as a rotation axis to open and close the door 3. In addition, if a large force is applied when the door is opened or closed for some reason and the support shaft 7 is disengaged from the hinge 4, the support shaft 7 is forced to come out upward, but one end of the decorative cover 9 is screwed. Since the flange 11 is fixed to the outer box 2 by 10, and the flange 11 provided at the tip end is wrapped around the gap 12 on the lowermost front surface of the hinge 4, the flange 11 is caught by the tip end 4a of the hinge and the makeup cover 9 is disengaged from the hinge 4. Can be prevented.
For this reason, since the decorative cover 9 holds the support shaft 7 by pressing it from above, the support shaft 7 can be prevented from coming off the bearing 8 of the door 3.

Further, the flange portion 11 is the tip portion 4a of the hinge.
Since the front part of the decorative cover 9 does not float above the hinge 4 because it goes around the gap 12 on the lower surface of the hinge, the front end part 4a of the hinge is not exposed because it can surely cover the foremost part of the hinge. The designability can be improved.

As described above, in the refrigerator door support device of the present embodiment, one end of the decorative cover 9 is fixed to the outer box 2 with the screw 10 and the other end is provided with the flange portion 11 provided at the tip of the decorative cover 9.
Wraps around the gap 12 on the lower surface of the tip of the hinge 4, so that even when the support shaft 7 comes off the hinge 4, the cosmetic cover 9
Since the support shaft 7 holds the support shaft 7, the support shaft 7 can be prevented from coming off the bearing 8 of the door 3. The decorative cover 9 itself also has a flange portion 11.
It does not come off due to being caught. Also, the tip 4 of the hinge
It does not spoil the appearance design by covering a.

In recent years, from the viewpoint of improving the usability, the most popular type of refrigerator is one in which a refrigerating room with the highest frequency of use, a large amount of food and a large amount of storage, is partitioned and formed in the upper part where the user can use it without crouching. . For this reason, the hinge 4 attached to the uppermost part of the refrigerator body 1 is often attached to the door 3 of the refrigerating compartment, and because of the large capacity of the refrigerating compartment, the size of the door 3 also becomes large due to the above-mentioned reason. , Door 3
Since a large number of heavy articles such as bottles are stored in the back side storage portion (not shown), the load on the door 3 is generally large.

The structure of the present embodiment is particularly effective under the condition that stress is easily applied to the hinge support shaft 7 as described above, and the structure of the first embodiment is also effective.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a refrigerator door supporting apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 4, 13 is a shaft mounting hole provided at the tip of the hinge 4, 14 is a hollow support shaft which is caulked and mounted in the shaft mounting hole 13, and 9 is a decorative cover. Reference numeral 15 is an electric wire for operating the refrigerator, which is connected to an operation unit (not shown) attached to the door 3 through the hollow portion of the hollow support shaft 14.

In this embodiment, the support shaft 14 provided at the tip of the hinge 4 in the refrigerator door supporting apparatus according to the first and second embodiments is hollow, and the hollow support shaft 14 is used as the hinge 4.
This is a door support device for a refrigerator which is caulked and attached to the shaft attachment hole 13 of the above.

The operation of the refrigerator door supporting apparatus constructed as described above will be described below.

Electric wiring 1 for operating the refrigerator from the door 3
In the refrigerator in which 5 is connected to the main body, the spindle provided at the tip of the hinge 4 for passing the electric wiring 15 is hollow, and the hollow spindle 14 is caulked into the shaft mounting hole 13 of the hinge 4 to be attached. ing.

As described above, since the supporting device for the refrigerator door according to the present embodiment is mounted by caulking the hollow support shaft, it does not require time and labor for the work, and can be mounted securely, and the cost does not increase. Further, the lifting prevention effect can be exerted even on the hollow support shaft, which is apt to decrease in strength.

[0036]

As described above, the invention according to claim 1 comprises a hinge for pivotally supporting the hinged opening / closing door with a support shaft, and a decorative cover for covering the upper part of the hinge. The cosmetic cover covers the upper part of the support shaft and has a flange part that wraps around the top of the hinge and the gap between the hinge door and the opening / closing door, so that the cosmetic cover will not come off even if the support shaft rises. can do. In addition, since the decorative cover presses from the upper surface of the support shaft, the support shaft does not come off from the bearing of the door. In addition, the tip end portion of the hinge is not exposed, and the appearance design can be improved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the hinge comprises a hinge for pivotally supporting the hinged opening / closing door with a support shaft, and a decorative cover for covering an upper portion of the hinge. The hinge is directly screwed to the housing and is supported. At the rear part of the shaft, it is screwed to the housing even through the decorative cover, and at the front part of the support shaft, it is screwed only to the cosmetic cover. It is possible to prevent the support shaft from coming off from the bearing of the door by the screwed screw, and to prevent the decorative cover from coming off.

In the invention described in claim 3, in the invention described in claim 1 or 2, the support shaft is inserted into the mounting hole of the hinge and caulked, so that the mounting work is simplified and the reliability is improved. Can be increased.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the first to third aspects, the support shaft is hollow, and electric wiring for connecting the opening / closing door and the housing is inserted therein. As a result, it is possible to exert the lifting preventing effect even on the hollow support shaft, which is apt to decrease in strength.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refrigerator having the door support device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects on the upper surface of the refrigerator main body, and even if the spindle is lifted up, makeup is applied. It is possible to prevent the cover from coming off.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the fifth aspect, a refrigerating chamber is arranged at an uppermost portion of the refrigerator main body, and an opening / closing door of the refrigerating chamber is pivotally supported by a door supporting device. Even in the door of the refrigerating room where the hinge shaft is likely to receive a force due to the size of the door, it is possible to prevent the decorative cover from coming off even if the shaft is lifted up.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a refrigerator door support device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of a door support device for a refrigerator according to the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts of a second embodiment of a refrigerator door support device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of essential parts of a third embodiment of a refrigerator door support device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional refrigerator door support device.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a conventional refrigerator door support device.

[Explanation of symbols]

3 doors 4 hinges 4a tip 5,10,10a screw 6 Upper body 7 spindle 9 Makeup cover 11 flange 12 gap 13 Shaft mounting hole 14 Hollow support shaft 15 Electric wiring

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Yoshihiro Ito             4-2-5 Takaidahondori, Higashi-Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture               Within Matsushita Cold Machinery Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 3L102 JA01 KA01 KB05 KB25

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A hinge-type opening / closing door for opening / closing an opening of a housing, a hinge for pivotally supporting the opening / closing door on a supporting shaft at an upper portion of the housing, and a makeup cover for covering an upper portion of the hinge. The support shaft is projected downward from the upper portion of the hinge and is joined thereto, and the decorative cover has a flange portion that covers the upper portion of the support shaft and wraps around a gap between the tip end of the hinge and the opening / closing door. Door support device. 2. A hinge-type opening / closing door for opening / closing an opening of a housing, a hinge for pivotally supporting the opening / closing door on a supporting shaft at an upper portion of the housing, and a cosmetic cover for covering an upper portion of the hinge. , The hinge is directly screwed to the housing, is screwed to the housing through the decorative cover at the rear portion of the spindle, and is only screwed to the decorative cover at the front portion of the spindle. A door support device characterized by being worn. 3. The door supporting device according to claim 1, wherein the support shaft is inserted into a mounting hole of the hinge and caulked. 4. The door supporting device according to claim 1, wherein the supporting shaft is hollow and an electric wire connecting the opening / closing door and the housing is inserted therein. . 5. The refrigerator according to any one of claims 1 to 4 on the upper surface of the refrigerator body.
A refrigerator equipped with the door support device according to any one of items. 6. A refrigerating room is arranged at the top of the refrigerator body,
The refrigerator equipped with the door supporting device according to claim 5, wherein the opening / closing door of the refrigerating room is pivotally supported by a door supporting device.