JP2003185331A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator capable of keeping the storage capacity of a pocket without increasing an opening size of a small door mounted on a door, smoothing the goods storing and taking-out work with a simple structure, and preventing the wasteful outward flow of the cold air. <P>SOLUTION: This refrigerator is composed of a heat insulating door 2 openably and closeably mounted on a front opening part of a heat insulating box body 1, an opening 15 formed on a surface part of the heat insulating door in a penetrated state through the inside and outside of the refrigerator, the small door 17 openably and closeably pivoted on one side of the opening, and a storage pocket 20 mounted on a part inside of the refrigerator, of the small door. A supporting guard 21 face forming the storage pocket is inclined toward the inside of the refrigerator, and an inner plate of the small door positioned at an upper part of the storage pocket is provided with a small article storage pocket 22. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly to a refrigerator provided with a small door in a front opening.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, refrigerators have been diversified in their eating habits and the storage capacity has been increasing. Especially in household refrigerators, the storage capacity of more than 400 liters has become the mainstream, and the height and width of the refrigerator body are high. The size also tends to increase.

Along with this, the doors of the refrigerating room, the freezing room, and the vegetable storage room have become larger, and the amount of storage in the storage pocket inside the door has also increased. Due to the increased width, the opening space for the open / close door becomes large, making it difficult to install in a kitchen where the front is not wide and open, and a large opening is formed when the door is opened. Since a large amount of cold air flows out, the temperature in the refrigerator rapidly rises, and there is a waste of additional cooling operation power to maintain the cooling temperature in the refrigerator.

Also, since there is a tendency for a large amount of food to be stored in the storage pocket inside the door, and because the door of the refrigerating room itself is large, a large amount of force is required to open the door, and a powerless woman or an elderly person is required. In this case, there is a problem that the burden becomes heavy, it takes time to put the stored products in and out, and the number of times of opening and closing increases further in the summer when the plastic bottles are frequently used, which causes a large amount of cold air to flow out.

As a structure to cope with the above problem, a so-called side-by-side type in which a partition plate or a partition wall for partitioning the opening of the storage chamber into left and right is provided, and a left opening door and a right opening door are installed in each of the left and right openings. There is a refrigerator,
In addition, a rotary partition body is provided on the opposite pivot side of one of the left and right doors, and this partition body is placed in front of the opening when the door is closed to form a suction member for the gasket, thereby providing a partition member on the main body side. There is a French door system that has been eliminated, and there is a configuration in which only one of the doors is opened, if necessary, to prevent the outflow of cold air in the refrigerator.

Furthermore, a small door is formed in the door to close the opening, and a storage pocket is formed inside the small door to store bottles and small seasonings. Conventionally, there is also a configuration in which a stored item in a storage pocket is taken out from the storage and stored by an opening.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned side-by-side method, the partition plate is present, so that the volume inside the storage is reduced and the inside is divided into left and right parts, which limits the utilization of the internal space. However, there is a drawback that it causes usability and deteriorates usability. Further, although the French door system has good usability, it has a complicated structure, and when opening the doors, both doors tend to be opened substantially at the same time, which does not contribute much to the prevention of cold air leakage.

Further, the structure in which a small door is formed on the surface of the door is opened and closed by a hinge provided on the side portion of the small door, and the pocket integrally attached to the inside of the small door is horizontally moved as the small door rotates. It is configured to rotate and be extracted to the outside of the storage. When the storage capacity of the pocket is increased, the protruding amount of the stored product into the storage also increases. There was a problem that it was damaged by touching or the door could not be opened.

In order to prevent this, the width of the storage pocket can be made considerably narrower or the depth can be made thinner than that of the small door. However, there is a drawback that the storage capacity of the small door is small. If the small door is enlarged to maintain the volume, there is a problem that the opening through which cold air flows out becomes large.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and the storage capacity of the pocket can be maintained without increasing the opening size of the small door provided in the door, and the storage and removal of the storage item can be performed with a simple structure. An object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator in which unnecessary work of cold air can be prevented by smoothly performing work.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention of a refrigerator according to claim 1 is to provide a heat-insulating door which is openably and closably provided in a front opening of a heat-insulating box body, and a surface portion of the heat-insulating door. An opening that penetrates the inside and outside of the refrigerator, a small door that pivotally supports one side of the opening to open and close, and a storage pocket that is provided inside the storage compartment of the small door. The support guard surface to be formed is inclined toward the inside of the refrigerator, and the small door inner plate located above the storage pocket is provided with a small article storage pocket.

With this configuration, the storage capacity of the pocket can be maintained without increasing the opening size of the small door provided on the door, and the storage and removal work of the stored items can be smoothly performed with a simple structure, and the cool air can be kept cool. It is possible to prevent outflow and reduce power consumption.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the refrigerator according to the first aspect, the pivot shaft of the small door is provided at the lower end of the opening, and the small door is opened and closed in a direction perpendicular to the opening. Since the opened item causes the stored item stored in the small item storage pocket to come out to the front side of the user, the storage volume can be secured and the stored item can be stored and taken out easily.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the surface plate of the small door is made of a magnetic material, and memo paper or the like can be attached by a magnet, and the surface of the small door serves as a predetermined message panel. Can be utilized.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator according to the present invention in which a refrigerator door is provided with a small door. The refrigerator main body (1) formed of an outer box, an inner box, and a heat-insulating box body in which a heat insulating material is foam-filled between the inner and outer boxes has a refrigerating chamber (2) at the top as a storage space inside the inner box, and below the lower box. A vegetable compartment (3) is provided, and an ice making storage compartment (4) and a temperature switching compartment (5) are divided into left and right side by side through a heat insulating partition wall below the vegetable compartment, and frozen at the bottom. The chambers (6) are arranged independently, and a dedicated door is provided at the front opening of each storage chamber so as to be openably and closably closed.

Refrigerating room (2) having the largest storage volume
As is clear from FIG. 2 which is a cross-sectional view showing an essential part of the present invention, a plurality of stages of loading shelves (7) are provided to form a storage space for stored items and a front surface of the opening is formed. Is a door (8) which is filled with a heat insulating material (11) similar to that of the refrigerator body (1) between an outer plate (9) whose one end is pivotally supported by a hinge and an inner plate (10) is rotatable. It is attached to the magnet gasket (1
2) is attached, and when the door is closed, the gasket (12) is attracted to the peripheral edge of the opening by the magnetic force of the magnet, and the inside and outside of the refrigerating chamber (2) are hermetically sealed to prevent heat leakage. is doing.

Inside the refrigerating compartment door (8), a storage space is formed by arranging a plurality of pockets (14) over the front by a support guard (13) protruding and attached to the inside of the refrigerator. Vegetable room (3), ice making storage room (4), temperature switching room (5), and freezing room (6) arranged in the lower part of the refrigerating room (2).
Is a drawer door that is pulled out to the outside of the refrigerator in the front-rear direction by each rail mounted on the support frame by a rail mechanism of a support frame (not shown) and a wall surface inside the refrigerator that are attached to the doors and extend to the back of the storage chamber. The method.

In the lower part of the center of the surface of the refrigerating compartment door (8), an opening (1
5) is formed through the heat insulation wall (11) of the refrigerator compartment door. The opening (15) has an opening formed in the door outer plate (9) and an inner plate (10) having a slightly smaller opening.
Are formed by penetrating the inner and outer plates while connecting a space between them with a frame (16) to close the gap.

As shown in FIG. 3 on the outer surface side between the inner and outer plates of the frame body (16).
As shown in, a stepped portion (16a) is provided, and a small door (17) that engages with the frame body (16) to openably and closably closes the opening (15) is provided. The small door (17) is arranged so as to be rotated in the direction perpendicular to the opening by the shaft (18).

The small door (17) is formed by integrally molding inner and outer double walls having a heat insulating space inside by blow molding or injection molding of synthetic resin, and has a step corresponding to the step (16a) of the frame body. Forming the part (17a) on the inner peripheral edge,
A gasket (19) is attached between the step (16a) (17a) between the frame (16) and the small door (17) to isolate the opening (15) from the outside air.

As shown in FIG. 4, the pivot shaft (18) of the small door (17) has guide grooves (26) formed at the lower ends of both sides of the frame (16) forming the opening (15). The small door (17) can be opened and closed vertically by inserting it into the guide groove (26a).
Is covered with the convex portion (27a) of the decorative frame (27) located on the outer periphery of the small door (17).

Regarding the sealing of the opening (15), in addition to the above-mentioned construction, the attraction and repulsion of the magnets provided on the small door side and the frame side of the opening are utilized, or the same gasket system as that of the latch or the refrigerating compartment door is used. It is possible to select and adopt various methods such as the above.

If the airtight seal of the opening by the small door (17) is performed by the magnet gasket method, the small door (17)
Is formed of a thin steel plate that is a magnetic body, and the magnetic force of a magnet gasket attached to the frame body (16) side can be used to attract it.
According to this structure, it is possible to use the surface of the small door as a memo board such as sticking a memo paper with a magnet.

At the inner side of the small door (17), a support strip (21) having an L-shaped cross section that forms a storage pocket (20) is provided on both sides of the inner plate (17b) of the small door. Part,
The support guard (21) is attached to the inside of the storage in an inclined state, and the support guard (21) is configured to open and close independently of the support guard (13) of the storage pocket provided in the door inner plate. And the storage pocket (21) formed by this inclination
A small article storage pocket (22) is attached to the gap between the upper part of the and the inner plate (17b) of the small door by the same engagement structure as the storage pocket (21).

The storage pocket (21) stores bottles and cans such as PET bottles (23), and the small goods storage pocket (22) stores tubes (24) such as kneaded wasabi. To do.

When taking out a stored item by opening and closing the small door (17), if the small door handle (25) is rotated vertically, the small door (17) will rotate in the front direction and open. It is a door, and the storage pocket (21) is also opened to the front so that stored items such as the plastic bottle (23) can be easily taken out. Further, when the door is closed, the small article storage pocket (22), which was located between the inner plate (17b) of the small door and the storage pocket (21), is opened to the front side of the upper surface of the small door inner plate (17b). As a result, the tube (24) can be taken out very easily for the user.

When the small door (17) is opened, the support guard (13) on the innermost side of the refrigerator forming the pocket (14) of the refrigerating compartment door remains in the refrigerator, and therefore the small door storage pocket (20). )
The depth dimension of the refrigerator does not become large, and it is possible to prevent the opening for opening the door from becoming larger than necessary, and when the refrigerating compartment door (8) is opened, the small door storage pocket (20 ) And small items storage pockets (22) can be stored and taken out from the inside of the storage without any trouble.

The operation of storing the stored items (23) (24) is the same as in the case of taking out the stored items (23) (24), and the storing pocket (21) and the small article storing pocket (22) are the small door inner plate (17b). The storage work can be performed smoothly because it is located on the upper surface of the front side of the door opener.

As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, the stored goods (23) (24) in the refrigerator are taken out from the outside of the opening (15) by the opening of the small door (17), and the inside of the refrigerator is removed. It is extremely easy to store in
As in the conventional case, by opening the refrigerating compartment door (8), stored items can be stored in and taken out from the storage pocket (21) and the small item storage pocket (22) even from the inside of the refrigerator.

In the above description of the embodiment, the structure in which the small door (17) is opened in the vertical direction has been described, but the opening and closing of the small door (17) has a pivot portion at the side of the opening (15). If provided, it may be opened and closed horizontally. in this case,
The effect of being able to hold a large storage volume of stored items without expanding the width of the storage pocket by the small item storage pocket attached in the gap between the upper part of the storage pocket that is inclined to the inside of the cabinet and the inner plate of the small door Is obtained.

[0031]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, the storage capacity of the pocket can be maintained without increasing the opening size of the small door provided in the door, and the storage of the storage item can be performed with a simple structure. Moreover, the taking-out work can be performed smoothly, and the effect of preventing the outflow of cold air and reducing the power consumption can be obtained.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to easily store or take out stored items such as bottles. Also,
When the small article storage pocket is opened, the small article storage pocket is located on the upper side of the small door inner plate and in front of the user, which makes it extremely easy to store and take out the tubes.

According to the invention of claim 3, memo paper or the like can be attached to the surface of the small door with a magnet, and it can be utilized as a message panel.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a refrigerator provided with a small door according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view showing details of a small door portion in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partial detailed cross-sectional view showing a small door opening portion of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the small door opening shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Refrigerator main body 2 ... Refrigerator 8 ... Refrigerator door 13 ... Pocket 14 ... Support guard 15 ... Opening 16 ... Frame 16a ... Step of frame 17 ... Small door 17a ... Step of small door 18 ... Pivot Shaft 19 ... Gasket 20 ... Storage pocket 21 ... Support guard 22 ... Small storage pocket 23 ... PET bottle 24 ... Tubes 25 ... Handle 26 ... Guide groove 26a ... Insertion groove 27 ... Decorative frame 27a ... Convex part

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A heat-insulating door which is openably and closably provided in a front opening of a heat-insulating box body, an opening which is formed in a front surface of the heat-insulating door and penetrates the inside and outside of the refrigerator, and one side of which is pivotally supported to open and close. It consists of a small door that can be freely installed and a storage pocket that is provided inside the storage compartment of the small door. The support guard surface that forms the storage pocket is tilted toward the storage compartment inside and the small door that is located above the storage pocket. A refrigerator having an inner plate provided with a small article storage pocket. 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein a pivot shaft of the small door is provided at a lower end of the opening, and the small door is opened and closed in a direction perpendicular to the opening. 3. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the surface plate of the small door is made of a magnetic material.