JP2999865B2 - Refrigerator door opening device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

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

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art Prior to the present invention, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-84384.
The publication discloses a refrigerator having a drawer and storage mechanism, that is, a drawer / storage mechanism for pulling out and storing the vegetable storage chamber itself. The drawer / storage mechanism described in this publication is configured to transmit the rotation of the motor to the storage chamber via a gear, a pinion, and a rack. That is, the rack and the pinion are arranged so that the pinion that is driven to rotate in accordance with the rotation of the motor meshes with the rack provided on the storage chamber side, and the drawer and storage of the storage chamber are automated. .

[0003]

However, in the drawer / storing mechanism described in the above publication, the rack and the pinion are always meshed, so that when the vegetable storage chamber is manually put in and out, the user needs to use the rack. An extra force is required for rotating the motor in association with the engagement between the pinion and the pinion, and there is a problem that it is difficult to manually put the vegetable storage chamber in and out of the vegetable storage chamber. In particular, since the motor rotates at a constant speed, even if it is desired to open or close the storage room immediately, the operation of this automatic opening and closing mechanism must be waited for, and the manual opening and closing is not performed because of the convenience of the automatic opening and closing operation. There were difficult disadvantages. In addition, when the manual operation and the automatic opening and closing are selectively used, in order to engage or disengage the rack and the pinion, another component for performing the switching is added, which increases the cost. There was a defect.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator door opening apparatus in which a drawer door can be automatically opened and a drive unit such as a motor does not become a load for opening and closing during manual operation. .

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a pair of rails attached to the left and right side walls of a heat insulating box,
The rail comprises a drawer door which is guided in and out of front and rear, and the drawer door includes a receiving member for detachably receiving a container having an upper surface opening, and a roller attached to the receiving member and guided by the rail. In the refrigerator provided, the refrigerator includes: a projection formed to project downward at a lower portion of the receiving member; and a driving device provided in a space formed by the side wall and the container and for pushing the receiving member forward. The apparatus provides a refrigerator door opening device provided with a driven portion having a pressing portion that comes into contact with the projection from behind the projection, and a driving portion that moves the driven portion in the front-rear direction. Things.

[0006]

Since the driven portion of the driving device has a pressing portion that comes into contact with the projection of the receiving member from behind, the driven portion contacts the projection when the driven portion moves forward by the driving portion. Move the receiving member forward to open the drawer door.
Further, when the driven part moves rearward, the driven part is separated from the protruding part, so that the drawer door is stopped in an open state. Furthermore, since the driven part only comes into contact with the rear of the protrusion, when the drawer door is manually opened, the protrusion moves in the direction away from the driven part, so the drawer is pulled out regardless of the drive device. The door can be pulled out.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a front open-type refrigerator, which is a metal outer box 2, a resin inner box 3 arranged in the outer box with a space therebetween, and a filling container between the inner and outer boxes 2, 3. A heat-insulating box 5 having a front opening made of a heat-insulating material 4 such as foamed polyurethane to be foamed; and a plurality of (four upper and lower in this example) heat-insulating doors 6, which open and close the opening of the heat insulating box 5 7, 8, and 9. In the present embodiment, the upper two doors 6 and 7 are rotatable doors provided corresponding to the freezer compartment F and the refrigerator compartment R, and the lower two doors 8 and 9 correspond to the ice hot compartment H and This is a drawer type door provided corresponding to the vegetable room V, and the doors 8 and 9 are hereinafter referred to as drawer doors. A is a partition separating the freezer compartment F and the refrigerator compartment R, B is a partition partitioning the refrigerator compartment R and the ice compartment H, and C is a partition partitioning the ice compartment H and the vegetable compartment V.

A drawer for holding the drawer doors 8 and 9 so that they can be freely inserted and removed will be described below.
Has the same configuration, only the drawer 10 of the door 9 will be described.

Reference numeral 11 denotes a pair of left and right receiving members horizontally mounted rearward on the rear portion of the drawer door 9, which detachably receive a container 12 having an upper surface opening for storing mainly breathable foods such as vegetables and fruits. It is. This receiving member 1
A roller 13 which is guided by a rail 15 to be described later is attached to a rear portion of each of the rollers 1. Reference numeral 14 denotes a pair of left and right grooves formed by a projection 14a integrally formed on the inner box in the front-rear direction and opposed to the left and right side walls of the inner box 3. A metal rail 15 for guiding in the front-back direction is attached. A fixed roller 30 for supporting the receiving member 11 of the drawer door 9 is fixed in front of and above the groove 14 of the inner box 3.

A lower portion of the receiving member 11 has a flange 16 projecting toward the side wall of the inner box, and a rear end of the flange 16 has a projection 17 formed to project downward.

Reference numeral 21 denotes a driving device that pushes the receiving member 11 of the drawer door 9 forward to open the door 9. The driving device 21 forms a space K formed by the side wall of the inner box 3 and the side wall of the container 12. It is arranged below the receiving member 11 by utilizing.

The driving device 21 includes a driven part 22 for pushing the receiving member 11 forward, and a driving part 23 for moving the driven part 22 back and forth. The driven portion 22 is held in a state in which it can move in the front-rear direction and is restricted from moving in the vertical direction with respect to the guide groove 26 formed on the upper portion of the drive portion 23. The driven portion 22 has a projection 24 as a pressing portion for hitting the projection 17 of the receiving member 11 from behind and pushing the projection 17 from rear to front. Reference numeral 25 denotes a rack that meshes with a final gear (not shown) disposed inside the driving unit 23 described later.

The driving section 23 has a motor and gears built therein. When a plurality of gears are used, the final gear meshes with the rack, and the teeth of the final gear face the guide groove 26. I have.

The door opening device S of the present invention comprises a projection 17 of the drawer door 9, a driving device 21 and a driving circuit for supplying a driving signal to the driving device. It is only necessary to provide an open switch for instructing the opening of the power supply and the door. When the release switch is operated, the motor is operated for a certain period of time to move the driven part 22 forward by a certain distance and backward by the same distance to return to a steady position and stop. Good. Also, the driven part 22 is in the steady position and the door 9
When the door is in the closed position, if a slight gap is provided between the protrusion 24 and the rear surface of the protrusion 17, the protrusion 17 collides with the protrusion 24 when the door 9 is stored, and the drive device 21 is damaged. The fault goes away. Moreover, since the projections 24 of the driven portion are located behind the projections 17 of the receiving member 11 and are spaced from each other,
The receiving member 11 can be moved back and forth regardless of the driving device 21. In this embodiment, two opening switches are provided on the door 7 of the refrigerator compartment, one for opening the door of the ice compartment and the other 32 for opening the door of the vegetable compartment.

According to the above configuration, the drawer door 8
Alternatively, in addition to being able to automatically withdraw (open) 9, it can be manually inserted and removed.

(A) Open switch 31 or 3
By pressing 2, the driving unit 23 of the driving device 21 of the door 8 or 9 operates to move the driven unit 22 forward by a certain distance. At this time, the projection 24, which is located at a slight distance behind the projection 17 of the receiving member 11, is
When the driven portion 22 moves until it comes into contact with the rear surface, the driven portion 22 and the receiving member 11 are engaged with each other, so that the forward movement of the drawer door starts with the subsequent forward movement of the driven portion 22. When the drawer door is pulled out by the distance the driven unit 22 has moved forward (strictly, a distance obtained by subtracting a small distance from a certain distance), the driven unit 22 stops temporarily, so that the drawer door is also at that position. Stop.

(A) Next, the driven part 22 moves backward by the above-mentioned fixed distance. At this time, the projection 24 of the driven portion 22
Is changed from the contact state with the projection 17 of the receiving member 11 to the non-contact state, and the driven part 22 is gradually widened.
Only move backwards (drawer door remains stationary).

(C) When the drive unit 23 has moved backward by a certain distance, the drive unit 23 stops and the driven unit 22 returns to the steady state.

On the other hand, when the drawer door 9 is pulled out by a manual operation, the projection 17 of the receiving member 11 is slightly spaced from the projection 24 of the driven part 22. Regardless, only the door 9 is pulled out. Therefore, when the door 9 is pulled out, the driving device 21
Does not become a load in the opening direction, and can be pulled out with the same force as that without the drive device. Similarly, when the door 9 is stored, the driving device does not become a load.

On the other hand, since the driving device is installed using the space between the side wall of the heat insulating box 5 and the container 12, the volume of the container is not reduced, and the dead space can be effectively used. In addition, the driving device can be made hard to see from the outside.

[0022]

According to the present invention, since the pressed portion of the driven portion is brought into contact with the receiving member from behind the projecting portion,
Only when the driven part moves forward during operation of the driving device, the projection and the driven part come into contact (engagement relation), and the drawer door can be automatically opened. Also,
Since the driven portion has a pressing portion that comes into contact with the projection from behind, when the drawer door is manually pulled out, the projection is separated from the pressing portion of the driven portion, so that the driving device contacts the projection. The relationship can be easily released, the driving device does not become a load in the opening direction, and the drawer door can be lightly moved in and out.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part showing a door opening device of the present invention and a peripheral structure thereof.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a relationship between a receiving member and a driving device.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the refrigerator in a state where a part of a drawer door is removed.

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of the refrigerator as viewed from the right side.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of a main part of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerator 5 Heat insulation box 9 Drawer door 11 Receiving member 12 Container 17 Projection 21 Drive device 22 Driven portion 23 Drive portion 24 Pressing portion S Door opening device

Continuation of front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) F25D 23/02 F25D 25/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A pair of rails attached to the left and right side walls of a heat-insulating box body and a drawer door which is guided by the rails and puts in and out of the container. In a refrigerator provided with a detachable receiving member and a roller attached to the receiving member and guided by the rail, a projection formed to project downward at a lower portion of the receiving member, the side wall and the container. A driving unit provided between the driving unit and pushing the receiving member forward. The driving unit includes a driven unit having a pressing unit that hits the projection from behind the projection, and a driven unit that moves the driven unit back and forth. A door opening device for a refrigerator, comprising a driving unit for moving the door in a direction.