JP5112142B2 - Refrigerator door storage device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator door storage device configured by providing a pocket on a refrigerator door.

The door that opens and closes the refrigerator compartment of the refrigerator is provided with a plurality of pockets for storing bottles and cans. However, since the refrigerator compartment is usually provided in the upper part of the refrigerator main body, there is a problem that in a large refrigerator, it is difficult to take in and out articles particularly in the upper pocket.
In order to solve this problem, in Patent Document 1, a concave opening is formed in the upper part of the protruding front surface of the box-shaped pocket, and the opening is opened and closed by a lid that can be rotated in the front-rear direction. Thus, the removal property of the article is prevented and the take-out property of the article is improved.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-96586

  In Patent Literature 1, the lower end portion of the lid body is rotatably supported by the pocket, and the opening portion of the pocket is always held in a closed state by a locking structure provided on the upper portion, and is stored in the pocket. This prevents the articles from dropping off due to impacts when the door is opened or closed. When removing the article from the pocket, if the article hits the top of the lid, the lid is unlocked and the lid falls forward, thereby opening the opening and allowing the article to be easily removed. It is a configuration that can be done.

However, in this configuration, when the lid is unlocked and the lid pivots forward to open the opening, the lid must be pivoted back again to return to the latched state. It was troublesome.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is not only to prevent the articles stored in the pockets from dropping off, but also to return to a state in which the articles can be easily taken out and the articles can be prevented from falling off. The object is to provide a storage device for a refrigerator door that does not require any operation.

  The refrigerator door storage device of the present invention is a refrigerator door storage device provided with a pocket protruding from the inside of the door that becomes the storage chamber side when closed, out of both the inside and outside of the door that opens and closes the front opening of the storage chamber, A guard member provided so as to be able to turn in the vertical direction that contacts and separates from the protruding front end of the pocket, and the guard member is normally biased upward to separate the guard member upward from the protruding front end of the pocket. When the article stored in the pocket is taken out and pressed by the article, the guard member is biased to allow the guard member to rotate downward approaching the protruding front end of the pocket. Means.

  According to the above configuration, since the guard member is always held at the guard position spaced upward from the front end of the pocket by the urging means, it is possible to prevent the articles stored in the pocket from falling off by the guard member. When taking out the article from the pocket, if the article hits the guard member, the guard member rotates downward against the urging force of the urging means, so that the article can be taken out easily and after the article is taken out. Since the guard member automatically returns to the original guard position by the urging force of the urging means, there is no need to perform an operation of returning the guard member.

  A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 shows the entire refrigerator. As shown in FIG. 5, the refrigerator body 1 is provided with a refrigerator compartment 2 (shown in FIG. 4) in the upper half, and a freezer compartment in the lower half in order from the bottom. There are a vegetable room, an ice making room and a specification switching room (both not shown) arranged on the left and right. These storage rooms are opened and closed by doors 3 to 8 provided in the refrigerator main body 1. In the case of the present embodiment, the refrigerator compartment 2 is constituted by two double doors 3 and 4, and the other freezer compartment, vegetable compartment, ice making compartment, and specification changeover compartment are each a single drawer type. It is comprised by the doors 5-8.

  FIG. 4 shows a state in which the left door 3 of the refrigerator compartment 2 is opened. As shown in FIG. 4, on the back side of the door 3, a plurality of, for example, three resin pockets 9 to 11 are provided in three upper and lower stages. Here, the front and back sides of the door 3 are in a state in which the refrigerator compartment 2 is closed, and the front side in the closed state is referred to as the front side, and the side desired in the refrigerator compartment 2 is referred to as the back side. Similarly, the right door 4 is provided with pockets in three upper and lower stages.

  The pockets 9 to 11 are provided on the door back plate 3 a constituting the back side of the door 3 so as to protrude to the refrigerator compartment 2 side. As is well known, these pockets 9 to 11 store articles such as bottles, cans, paper packs, plastic bottles, and food containers. Each of these pockets 9 to 11 has a box shape. Among the upper two-stage pockets 9 and 10, the entire front walls 9 a and 10 a which are front ends protruding from the door back plate 3 a and the front half portions of the left and right side walls 9 b, 9 c and 10 b, 10 c are both side walls 9 b, 9c and 10b, 10c are cut lower than the latter half. For this reason, when the doors 3 and 4 are opened and closed, articles stored in the pockets 9 and 10 may fall down from the front walls 9a and 10a or the left and right side walls 9b, 9c and 10b, 10c.

  In order to prevent the articles from dropping from the pockets 9 and 10, guard members 12 are provided in the pockets 9 and 10, respectively. Since the configuration and the mounting configuration of the guard member 12 are the same for the pockets 9 and 10, the pocket 9 will be described below, and the description of the pocket 10 will be omitted.

  The guard member 12 is made of, for example, a metal wire coated with a resin, and as shown in FIG. 2, the guard member 12 substantially follows the upper end shape of the front half 9a of the pocket 9 and the front half of the left and right side walls 9b and 9c. It is formed in a U shape. Here, when the portion following the upper end of the front wall 9a from which the pocket 9 is cut out is the main portion 12a, and the portion following the upper end of the front left and right side walls 9b, 9c is the arm portion 12b, the guard member 12 has a substantially U-shape in which a pair of arm portions 12b are provided on both the left and right sides of the main portion 12a, and a downward connecting portion 12c is bent at the tip of the arm portion 12b.

  The guard member 12 is disposed in the pocket 9 so as to be rotatable in the vertical direction via a relay mechanism 13 provided on both the left and right sides in the pocket 9. The relay mechanism 13 includes an attachment member 14 and a rotation member 15. The mounting member 14 is formed with a shaft portion 14a and a locking portion 14b, and the rotating member 15 is formed with a shaft hole 15a and a locking portion 15b. Then, after the coil portion 16a of the torsion coil spring 16 as the biasing means is fitted into the shaft portion 14a of the mounting member 14, the rotating member 15 is fitted into the shaft portion 14a by fitting the shaft hole 15a into the shaft portion 14a. 15 is rotatably connected to the mounting member 14. At this time, the torsion coil spring 16 can lock one winding end 16 b to the locking portion 14 b of the mounting member 14 and lock the other winding end 16 c to the locking portion 15 b of the rotating member 15. Arranged in a possible state.

  The rotating member 15 has a substantially semicircular groove 15c formed in the upper end portion thereof, and an insertion hole 15e formed in a protruding portion 15d projecting from the rear portion. The arm of the guard member 12 is formed in the groove 15c. The tip of the portion 12b is fitted, and the connecting portion 12c is press-fitted into the insertion hole 15d. Thereby, the guard member 12 is attached to the rotation member 15 and assembled to the relay mechanism 13 so as to rotate integrally with the rotation member 15.

  The attachment member 14 is fixed to both the left and right sides of the pocket 9 by bonding or the like, whereby the guard member 12 is connected to the pocket 9 so as to be rotatable in the vertical direction. In this arrangement state, the torsion coil spring 16 has both the winding end portions 16b and 16c engaged with the engaging portions 14b and 15b, respectively, and the mounting member 14 on the pocket 9 side and the rotating member on the arm portion 12b side. An urging force is exerted between the rotating member 15 and the guard member 12 in an upward direction.

  The guard member 12 holds the main portion 12 a at a guard position spaced upward from the upper end of the front wall 9 a of the pocket 9 by the rotational biasing force of the torsion coil spring 16. Then, when the article stored in the pocket 9 is taken out, if the article hits the main portion 12a of the guard member 12 and pushes the main portion 12a downward, the guard member 12 is attached to the torsion coil spring 16. It turns downward against the force.

  In the above configuration, when the article is taken out from the pocket 9, if the guard member 12 is in the way of taking out the article, the article comes into contact with the guard member 12, particularly the main portion 12a. Then, the guard member 12 rotates downward against the urging force of the torsion coil spring 16, and the position of the main portion 12a is lowered as shown in FIG. 3, for example, so that the article can be easily taken out. When the article is taken out from the pocket 9, the guard member 12 is naturally returned to the original guard position by the torsion coil spring 16.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the guard member 12 is always held by the torsion coil spring 16 at the guard position (position shown in FIG. 1) away from the upper end of the front wall 9 a of the pocket 9. Further, it is possible to prevent the article from dropping out from the pocket 9. In addition, when the article is taken out from the pocket 9, if the guard member 12 interferes with the taking out, the guard member 12 will naturally rotate downward and escape as the article abuts. Excellent in properties. Moreover, since the guard member 12 automatically returns to the original guard position after the article is taken out, it is not necessary to perform a troublesome return operation.
Furthermore, in this embodiment, since the torsion coil spring 16 is configured to be held between the attachment member 14 and the rotation member 15, the torsion coil spring 16 can be concealed and the appearance is not impaired.

  6 and 7 show a second embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment described above in that a holding piece 17 as a holding portion is integrally projected at the center of the upper end of the front wall 9a of the pocket 9. This holding piece 17 can be elastically deformed by itself or with elastic deformation of the front wall 9a, and has a claw portion 17a on the upper front side. When the main portion 12a of the guard member 12 is rotated downward and gets over the claw portion 17a, the holding piece 17 is rotated downward against the biasing force of the torsion coil spring 16, that is, the position where the holding piece 17 is rotated. The main portion 12a is held at a position in contact with or close to the upper end of the front wall 9a of the pocket 9.

  In this configuration, when the article is stored in the pocket 9, if the guard member 12 is high and interferes with the storing operation, the guard member 12 is rotated downward, and the main part 12 a is illustrated. 7 is engaged with the claw portion 17 a of the holding piece 17. As a result, the guard member 12 is pivoted downward and the main portion 12a is held in a state of being overlapped with the upper end of the front wall 9a of the pocket 9, so that the article can be placed in the pocket 9 without being obstructed by the guard member 12. It can be stored.

  Then, after the article is stored in the pocket 9, the holding piece 17 is elastically deformed to unlock the main portion 12a by the claw portion 17a. Then, the guard member 12 is rotated upward by the urging force of the torsion coil spring 17, and the main portion 12 a is held at a guard position away from the upper end of the front wall 9 a of the pocket 9. In this state, the guard member 12 supports the article stored in the pocket 9 and acts so as not to drop out of the pocket 9.

FIG. 8 shows a third embodiment of the present invention. The difference from the first embodiment is that the left and right side walls 9b and 9c of the pocket 9 are formed with portions protruding from the outside to the inside. Thus, the relay mechanism 13 is provided in the concave portion 18 generated on the outer surface side of the left and right outer side walls.
If comprised in this way, since the relay mechanism 13 can be hidden, an external appearance can be improved.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described above and shown in the drawings, and can be expanded or changed as follows.
The holding piece 17 is not particularly required to be provided.
The guard member 12 is not limited to one composed of a metal wire.
The guard member 12 may be configured such that the connecting portion 12c is bent so as to protrude outward (horizontal sideways), and the connecting portion 12c is directly supported on the left and right side walls of the pocket 9 so as to be rotatable.
The present invention may be applied to the pocket of the door 4 on the right side of the refrigerator compartment 2, or may be applied to a pocket provided on another door.

The perspective view of the pocket which shows the 1st Embodiment of this invention Exploded perspective view of pocket The perspective view of the pocket shown in the state where the guard member was rotated below Partial perspective view of the refrigerator shown with the left door of the refrigerator compartment open Perspective view of the entire refrigerator The perspective view of the pocket which shows the 2nd Embodiment of this invention and hold | maintains the main part of a guard member in the state accumulated on the front wall upper end of the pocket. Pocket profile side view The perspective view of the pocket which shows the 3rd Embodiment of this invention

Explanation of symbols

  In the drawings, 1 is a refrigerator body, 2 is a refrigerator compartment (storage room), 3 and 4 are doors, 9 to 11 are pockets, 12 is a guard member, 13 is a relay mechanism, 14 is a mounting member, 15 is a rotating member, 16 is a torsion coil spring (biasing means), and 17 is a holding piece (holding portion).

Claims (5)

Among the front and back sides of the door that opens and closes the front opening of the storage room, in the refrigerator door storage device provided with a pocket protruding on the back side that becomes the storage room side when closed,
A guard member provided so as to be pivotable in the up and down direction contacting and separating from the protruding front end of the pocket;
The guard member is urged upward, and the guard member is normally held at a guard position spaced upward from the protruding front end of the pocket. When the article stored in the pocket is taken out, it is pressed by the article. And a biasing means for allowing the guard member to rotate downward approaching the protruding front end of the pocket. The guard member has a substantially U-shape with a pair of arm portions provided on the left and right sides of a main portion that is displaced in the vertical direction that contacts and separates from the projecting front end of the pocket, and each arm portion rotates to the pocket. Concatenated,
The storage device for a refrigerator door according to claim 1, wherein the biasing means comprises a torsion coil spring that applies a resilient force between the pocket side and the arm portion side. Furthermore, a relay mechanism comprising an attachment member fixed to both the left and right sides of the pocket, and a rotation member that is rotatably supported by both the attachment members and fixes each arm portion of the guard member,
The refrigerator door according to claim 2, wherein the torsion coil spring is disposed between the mounting member and the rotating member to exert a resilient force between the mounting member and the rotating member. Storage device.   The storage device for a refrigerator door according to claim 3, wherein the relay mechanism is disposed outside the left and right side walls of the pocket.   The storage device for a refrigerator door according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the pocket is provided with a holding portion that holds the guard member in a position rotated downward.

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