JP2009074763A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator capable of minimizing the deformation of an outer casing and eliminating the inclination of the refrigerator as a whole. <P>SOLUTION: The outer casing has the U-shape composed of side beams 12a, 12b and a top plate connecting upper ends of the side beams. Lower ends of side plates 21a, 21b are provided with a base plate 11, and L-shaped side beams 12 are respectively disposed on lower end portions of the side plates 21a, 21b. Both end portions of the base plate 11 are provided with screwing portions 31a, 31b, screwing portions 32a, 32b are formed on vertical portions of the side beams 12a, 12b, and the base plate 11 and the side beams 12a, 12b are firmly fixed by screws 33a disposed on the screwing portions 31a, 32a, and screws 33b disposed on the screwing portions 31b, 32b. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a fixing method of a side plate of an outer box constituting a shell of the refrigerator, a side beam for reinforcing the outer box, and a base plate at the lower part of the refrigerator.

In recent years, the size of household refrigerators has increased, and strength maintenance and strength improvement against external pressure on a heat insulating box constituting the outer shell of the refrigerator have been attempted. In addition, as the demand for refrigerators with double doors increases with the increase in size of refrigerators, and the demand for refrigerators with double doors increases, the left and right door steps of the refrigerator compartment doors become more prominent, which is a major problem. It has become a point.
In view of this, the inventors of the present patent application have disclosed a refrigerator in which reinforcing members are provided at the lower end portions of both side plates in order to reduce deformation of the outer box constituting the outer shell of the refrigerator (for example, Patent Documents). 1).

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-37542 (page 4-5, FIG. 3)

In the refrigerator disclosed in Patent Document 1, an L-shaped reinforcing member for reinforcing the outer box (same as the side beam) is inserted and fixed to the lower part of the side plate of the refrigerator, and the reinforcing member (side beam) is placed on the rear side of the refrigerator. A base plate is provided on the lower side, and the base plate is fastened together with the reinforcing members (side girders) to the side plate by four bottom surface fixing screws. At this time, the reinforcing member (side girders) is screwed to the side plate in two directions from the two directions by the bottom surface fixing screw and the front surface fixing screw, respectively.
That is, in addition to fixing in the front-rear direction and the vertical direction by screws, the side plate and the reinforcing member (side girders) are restrained with respect to the refrigerator width direction and the refrigerator width direction. In addition, a strong and less distorted refrigerator outer box is provided at low cost.

  However, although the refrigerator disclosed in Patent Document 1 has the above-described effects, it is required to further reduce the deformation of the outer box and to further reduce the manufacturing cost.

  The present invention has been made to meet the above demands, and can eliminate the inclination of the entire refrigerator, which minimizes deformation of the outer box, with a minimum number of member configurations and a simple assembly procedure. An object is to provide a refrigerator that can be used.

(1) A refrigerator according to the present invention includes a pair of side plates and a U-shaped outer box composed of a top plate connecting the upper ends of the side plates;
A pair of L-shaped side girders that reinforce each lower end of the side plate;
A base plate having both ends connected and fixed to the pair of L-shaped side beams by screws,
Have
By the connection and fixation, the entire inclination is eliminated and the overall stability is improved.

Therefore, in the refrigerator according to the present invention, both end portions of the base plate are connected and fixed to the pair of L-shaped side girders by screws,
(I) By connecting and fixing, the inclination of the entire refrigerator can be eliminated and the overall stability can be improved.
(Ii) Moreover, the strength of the entire refrigerator can be improved by eliminating the overall inclination and improving the overall stability.
(Iii) Furthermore, when it has a pair of double doors hinged to each of a pair of side plate, the door | step difference of the double doors can be improved by improving the whole stability.
(Iv) Further, if a stepped bead is provided on the base plate, the bead provides a strong structure and can improve the overall stability and reduce the thickness of the base plate. This makes it possible to reduce the manufacturing cost.

[Embodiment: Refrigerator]
1 to 7 illustrate a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a front view schematically showing the refrigerator, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a machine room at the lower back of the refrigerator, and FIG. (A) is a perspective view showing the bottom of the machine room, FIG. 3 (b) is a perspective view showing the bottom of the machine room through a part of the cover, FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the refrigerator base plate, and FIG. It is a perspective view which shows a refrigerator side beam.
FIGS. 6 to 8 illustrate door steps, FIG. 6 is a perspective view schematically showing deformation of the refrigerator outer box, and FIGS. 7 and 8 schematically show the refrigerator. A front view and (b) are top views. In the following description, the suffixes “a, b” may be omitted when common contents are described.

  In FIG. 1, a refrigerator has a refrigerator compartment left door 1, a refrigerator compartment right door 2, an ice making compartment door 3, a switching compartment door 4, a vegetable compartment door 5, and a freezer compartment door 6 that can be freely opened and closed. At this time, the refrigerator compartment left door 1 and the refrigerator compartment right door 2 constitute a pair of double doors.

2 to 5, the outer box has a U-shape that includes refrigerator side plates (hereinafter referred to as “side plates”) 21 a and 21 b and a top plate that connects the upper ends of the side plates 21 a and 21 b. A refrigerator base plate (hereinafter referred to as “base plate”) 11 that supports the compressor 13 and the like is installed at the lower ends of the side plates 21a and 21b. L-shaped refrigerator side girders (hereinafter referred to as “side girders”) 12 each having a vertical portion and a horizontal portion are installed at the lower ends of the side plates 21a and 21b.
Screw fixing portions (through holes) 31a and 31b through which screws 33a and 33b can enter are formed at both ends of the base plate 11, and screws 33a and 33b are screwed into the vertical portions of the side girders 12a and 12b, respectively. Freely screwed portions (female screws) 32a and 32b are formed, and the base plate 11 and the side are formed by screws 33a installed in the screwed portions 31a and 32a and screws 33b installed in the screwed portions 31b and 32b. The girders 12a and 12b are firmly fixed.

That is, by fixing the base plate 11 and the side beam 12 together with the screws 33, the stability of the entire refrigerator can be increased and four-point support can be maintained.
Therefore, the relationship between the members is firmly connected, and the feet of the refrigerator are firm, so that the refrigerator is not tilted. Moreover, since it fixes with the screw | thread 33, even if there exists shaping | molding variations, such as an outer box, it can fix easily. Furthermore, since the foot is firm and a load is applied to the entire foot, not a single point, and the force can be distributed, the strength of the entire refrigerator is improved.

In addition, the refrigerator of the present invention is one in which the strength (rigidity) of the reinforcing member (side girders) is increased as compared with the refrigerator disclosed in Patent Document 1, and the latter is the base plate 11 and the reinforcing members (side girders). Since the former and the base plate 11 and the side beam 12 are firmly fixed, deformation of the entire refrigerator is further suppressed.
In FIG. 3, since the base plate 11 is provided with a stepped beat (refer to the cross-sectional view shown in FIG. 4B) 11a, the strength is increased and the stability of the refrigerator is increased.

FIG. 6 shows the inclination of the entire refrigerator.
In FIG. 7, when at least one of the legs on the rear side of the refrigerator floats and cannot be supported, the edge far from the hinge of the refrigerator compartment left door 1 constituting the pair of double doors is the original position (position when there is no deformation). ) And the edge far from the hinge of the refrigerator compartment right door 2 is shifted downward from the original position (position when there is no deformation).
In FIG. 8, when at least one of the feet on the front side of the refrigerator floats and cannot be supported, an edge far from the hinge of the refrigerator compartment left door 1 and a hinge of the refrigerator compartment right door 2 constituting a pair of double doors. Both of these are deviated downward from the original position (position when there is no deformation), and both do not conflict with each other in the vertical direction, but a door step is generated with respect to the original position.
7 and 8 show the deformation exaggeratedly. The door itself is not deformed, and the entire refrigerator is inclined, so that the door step is generated.

As described above, in the refrigerator of the present invention, the base plate 11 supporting the machine room and the side girder 12 supporting the side plate 21 are screwed to each other so that the base plate 11 and the side plate are related to each other. 21. It is possible to stabilize the side beam 12 and eliminate the inclination of the entire refrigerator.
In addition, by eliminating the inclination of the entire refrigerator, the box body that is likely to be supported at three points as a whole can be stabilized at four points. As a result, it is possible to solve the problem of the door level difference of the refrigerator compartment door (see FIGS. 7 and 8) that appears prominently when the entire refrigerator is stable and unstable.
Furthermore, by attaching a stepped bead 11a to the base plate 11 supporting the machine room, a stronger structure can be realized, and the thickness of the base plate 11 can be made thinner than before, leading to cost reduction.

  As mentioned above, since the inclination of the whole refrigerator can be eliminated by minimizing the deformation of the refrigerator and the outer box of the present invention, it can be widely used as various refrigerators for home use and business use.

The front view which shows typically the refrigerator which concerns on embodiment of this invention. The perspective view which shows the machine room of the refrigerator back lower part of the refrigerator shown in FIG. The perspective view which shows the machine room bottom face of the refrigerator shown in FIG. The perspective view which shows the refrigerator baseplate of the refrigerator shown in FIG. The perspective view which shows the refrigerator side girder of the refrigerator shown in FIG. The perspective view which shows typically the deformation | transformation of the refrigerator outer box of the refrigerator shown in FIG. The door level | step difference of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 is demonstrated, (a) is a front view, (b) is a top view. The door level | step difference of the refrigerator shown in FIG. 1 is demonstrated, (a) is a front view, (b) is a top view.

Explanation of symbols

  1: cold room left door, 2: cold room right door, 3: ice making room door, 4: switching room door, 5: vegetable room door, 6: freezer room door, 11: refrigerator base plate, 11a: base plate bead, 12: Refrigerator side girder, 13: Compressor, 14: Condenser with fins, 15: Drain steaming dish, 16: Machine room fan, 17: Refrigerator bottom plate, 21: Refrigerator side plate.

Claims (5)

A U-shaped outer box comprising a pair of side plates and a top plate connecting the upper ends of the side plates;
A pair of L-shaped side girders that reinforce each lower end of the side plate;
A base plate having both ends connected and fixed to the pair of L-shaped side beams by screws,
Have
A refrigerator characterized in that the overall inclination is eliminated and the overall stability is improved by the coupling and fixing.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the overall strength is improved by eliminating the overall inclination and improving the overall stability. A pair of double doors hinged to each of the pair of side plates;
The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein a door level difference of the double door is improved by improving the overall stability.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein a stepped bead is provided on the base plate, and the bead has a strong structure and can improve the overall stability.   The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein a stepped bead is provided on the base plate, and the thickness of the base plate can be reduced by providing the bead.

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