JPH03225188A - Rack device for refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the invasion of foreign matters into rails and eliminate the hindering of discharging of cold air upon the up-and-down movement of a rack by a method wherein the rack and frames are permitted to move up-and- down while being kept horizontally by spur gears, rotated and moved up-and- down simultaneously on the left and right racks, while the height of the flange of the rack put on frames is designed so as to be high near the rails and low near the front surface of a cold air discharging port for a control panel. CONSTITUTION:Spur gears 5, provided at left and right ends are rotated simultaneously by a driving device 6 arranged on a frame 2 whereby a rack 14b can be moved up-and-down. The adhesion of foreign matters to rails 14 is eliminated under usual use by an outer peripheral flange 1a of a rack in a refrigerator, which is put on the frame 2. The height of the control panel 15 of the outer peripheral flange of the rack in the refrigerator is designed so as to be low at a place near the front surface of the cold air discharging port of the same whereby problems of blockading the cold air discharging port and bringing a trouble in performance or the like can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a shelf device for a refrigerator, which is used inside a refrigerator and whose vertical position can be changed in various ways.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of refrigerator shelf device has been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,841,469.

This conventional refrigerator shelf device includes a shelf disposed inside the refrigerator, a flail that holds the shelf, two rails that slide and hold rollers supported on the left and right sides of the frame, and a flail that holds the shelf. Equipped with screws and jacks for fixing in any position. The flail rotatably held a nut fitted into the screw jack and a shaft with a handle for rotating the nand. Further, the rails are installed vertically in the back of the refrigerator, on the left and right sides,
The screw jack was installed vertically in the center of the interior of the refrigerator. Then, the shaft with the handle is turned to rotate the nut fitted into the screw jack, thereby changing the position of the nut and changing the position of the frame holding the shelf.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention The conventional refrigerator shelf device described above has a structure that allows the shelves to be moved up and down.
This is a frame that is fixed with screws installed in the center of the interior of the refrigerator.If food is placed on either the left or right side of the shelf, the shelf with the most food will tilt and the rollers will roll off the shelf. The shaft with the handle did not rotate smoothly as it came into contact with the handle at an angle, and the shaft with the handle had to be turned with great force. In addition, since there is a shaft with a handle and a screw jack in the center of the shelf, and the structure is relatively large, there is also a problem with the food storage surface on the lower shelf or lower tier.

In addition, when a combination of spur gear and rack is used as a vertical mechanism, foreign matter (food scraps, etc.) may get between the spur gear and the rack, causing problems with sliding movement, or the internal shelf may block the cold air discharge hole of the control panel, resulting in poor performance. There were problems such as disruption to the system.

Further, in the combination of a spur gear and a rack as an up-and-down mechanism, there have been problems such as foreign matter (food scraps, etc.) entering between the spur gear and the rack, causing problems with sliding and breaking of the sliding part.

The present invention improves the above-mentioned problems of conventional refrigerator shelf devices, thereby preventing the shelves from tilting from side to side, allowing the shelves to be moved with a relatively small force, and preventing food storage from being obstructed at the bottom. To provide a refrigerator shelf device which does not interfere with sliding due to foreign matter and does not block cold air discharge holes and cause performance problems.

Means for Solving the Problems For the above-mentioned purpose, the refrigerator shelf device of the present invention includes rails disposed on the left and right walls of a refrigerator and having a guide surface and a rack surface;
A sliding member that slides on the guide surface of the rail, a spur gear provided at the left and right ends that coaxially rolls on the rack surface, a frame in which a drive device that drives the spur gear is arranged, and a back surface inside the refrigerator. A cooler/trawl panel with a stately interior and a cold air outlet in the front cloth part, and an internal shelf with a lowered flange height near the front of the control panel's cold air outlet, which is installed above and below the frame. It is composed of.

Function: With this configuration, the spur gears provided at the left and right ends are simultaneously rotated by the driving device disposed on the frame, thereby making it possible to move the rack up and down. Further, the outer peripheral flange of the internal shelf mounted on the frame prevents foreign matter from adhering to the rail during normal use. By lowering the height of the control panel of the inner shelf outer periphery flange near the front of the cold air outlet, it is possible to prevent problems such as blocking the cold air outlet and causing performance problems.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be explained based on the drawings of FIGS. 1 to 9.

In the figure, 1 is a shelf on which food is placed, and 1a is a flange provided on the outer periphery of the shelf. Reference numeral 2 denotes a frame that holds the shelf 1, and is formed by a left frame 2a, a right frame 2b, and a rear frame 2C that connects the left and right frames 2a and 2b.

Reference numeral 3 denotes sliding members attached to the rear left and right sides of the frame 2, and 3a and 3b are an upper roller and a lower roller that constitute the sliding member 3. Also, upper and lower rollers 3a.

3b are each made of a metallic shirt 3c. Note that the upper roller 3a and the lower roller 3b are the same. A gear shaft 4 is rotatably attached to the back of the frame 2, and fixed flat gears 6 are attached to both left and right ends. 6a is a dial rotatably attached to the dial hole 2d in the front part of the right frame 2b;
is a dial shaft connected to this diamond/I/6, and 8 is a drive gear fixed to this diamond/L/shaft 7 and usually called a worm gear. Reference numeral 9 denotes a transfer gear, usually called a helical gear, which is fixed to the gear shaft 4 adjacent to the spur gear 6 on the right side. 10 is inside the refrigerator. 11 is an outer box made of iron plate of the refrigerator body. 12
is an inner box molded from resin. 13 is a foamed heat insulating material filled between the outer box 11 and the inner box 12. 14 is a rail fixed to the rail groove 12a of the inner box 12 with screws or the like. 14a is a guide surface formed on the rail 14, which guides at least a portion of the spur gear 5 and the sliding member 3, that is, the upper roller 3&, and the lower roller 3b and holds them in a sliding manner. 14
b is a rack surface formed on the guide rail 14 and meshing with the flat gear. Note that the width dimension W of the guide surface 14a and the rack surface 14b is 0.1 from the outer diameter of the upper roller 3a and lower roller 3b.
It's about 1 size larger. Further, the upper roller 3a, the lower roller 3b, and the spur gear 6 are located on the same line, the upper roller 3a is in contact with the rack surface 14b, the lower roller 3b is in contact with the guide surface 14a, and the spur gear 6 is in contact with the rack surface 14b. They are arranged on the left frame 2a and the right frame 2b, respectively, so as to mesh with the surface 14b. Further, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the frame 2 includes a spur gear 6, a drive gear 8. The shape is such that the rolling gear 9 is covered from the inside of the refrigerator. Further, the guide surface 14a of the rail 14 and the rack surface 14b are formed at the upper end of the frame 2.
Upper roller 3a, with flange 2e provided with a narrow gap
Covers spur gear 5. Next, reference numeral 16 denotes a control panel provided with an air passage inside to cool the inside 10 of the refrigerator, and a cold air discharge hole 1 that supplies cold air to the inside 1o of the refrigerator.
5a is provided.

Further, the height of the flange 1a of the shelf 1 is set high near the rail 14 and low near the front face of the cold air discharge hole 15a of the control panel 15.

When moving the shelf 1 of the refrigerator shelf device of this embodiment upward or downward, first the dial 6 is rotated, and the dial shaft 7 and drive gear 8 are rotated. Therefore, the transfer gear 9 that meshes with the drive gear 8 rotates, and the gear shaft 4 and the spur gears 5 on both sides rotate. At this time, the spur gear 5 moves through the gear shaft 4 while meshing with the rack surface 14b on the front side of the rail 14, but since the left and right spur gears 6 are fixed to the gear shaft 4 and rotate in the same manner, the frame 2, that is, the shelf 1 moves up and down in the same way as on the left and right, and there is no difference in height between the left and right sides. Furthermore, the flange 1a of the shelf 1 is raised near the rail 14, so that when food is tilted or spilled on the shelf 1, it can be prevented from entering the guide surface 14a of the rail 14 and the rack surface 14b.

As a result, the sliding member 3 that moves up and down within the guide surface 14a can slide smoothly without being obliquely bothersome or producing abnormal noise, so that the operating force for the dial 6 can be small. Furthermore, shelf 1
The flange 1 & is the cold air discharge hole 1 of the control panel 16.
The height near the front part 5a is lowered, and it is possible to prevent the flange 1a from blocking the cold air discharge hole 15a and blocking the supply of cold air to the inside 10 of the refrigerator, and there is no problem in performance.

In addition, in this embodiment, the roller shirts 3c of the upper and lower rollers 3a and 3b are made of metal, so even if a large number of foods are placed on the shelf 1, the upper and lower rollers 3a and 3b will not be bothersome and will rotate smoothly and reduce frictional force. Since it can be reduced, the operating force for the dial 6 can be extremely small.

Next, when shelf 1 moves to the desired position using Diamond/I/6 and then stops, shelf 1 or frame 2 will be lowered due to the weight of shelf 1 and frame 2 and the weight of the food on shelf 1. trying to fall. As a result of this force, the spur gear 6 first tries to rotate. Therefore, the gear shaft 4 and transfer gear 9 rotate c
However, the transfer gear 9 meshes with the drive gear 8, and it is mechanically easy to rotate the transfer gear 9 by rotating the drive gear 8, but due to the tooth profile 9a of the rolling gear 9, The force that rotates the screw-shaped tooth profile 8a of the drive gear 8 is caused by the friction force that becomes extremely large due to the tooth profile 9a of the rolling gear 9 meshing with the tooth profile 8a of the drive gear 8 in a direction substantially perpendicular to the tooth profile 8a of the drive gear 8. It is not possible to rotate the drive gear 8. Therefore, when the shelf 1 is in a stopped state, the drive gear 8 and transfer gear 9 serve as a stopper mechanism, and even when food is placed on the shelf 1, the shelf 1 does not go down and is held at that position.

As explained above, the refrigerator shelf device of this embodiment does not require a large force to move the shelf 1 even when food is placed on the shelf 1, and does not cause the shelf 1 to tilt. There was no abnormal noise, and the control panel 1
The supply of cold air from the cold air discharge hole 15a of No. 6 to the inside 1o of the refrigerator is not obstructed.

In this embodiment, the dial 6a, dial shaft 7, drive gear 8, and transfer gear 9 are referred to as a drive device 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As described in detail, the refrigerator shelf device of the present invention includes: a rail disposed on the left and right walls of the refrigerator and having a guide surface and a rack surface; and a sliding member that slides on the guide surface of the rail. , a spur gear provided at the left and right ends that coaxially rolls on the rack surface, a frame in which a driving device for the spur gear is arranged, a flange placed on the frame with the entire height of the flange raised near the rail, and a control panel; Since the refrigerator is provided with an internal shelf with a lowered area near the front of the cold air discharge hole, the refrigerator can be smoothly rotated up and down by the rotation of the spur gear rotated by the drive device. The shelves and frames can be raised and lowered while being kept horizontal by means of spur gears that simultaneously rotate up and down on the left and right racks. In addition, the flange height of the shelf mounted on the frame is high near the rail and low near the front of the control panel's cold air outlet, preventing foreign objects from entering the rail and allowing the shelf to move up and down. It does not obstruct the discharge of cold air at any time. These factors make it possible to provide a refrigerator shelf device that can slide smoothly.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional perspective view of a refrigerator to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a frame used in this embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the shelf used in this embodiment, FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the main part of this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the main part.
Figure 6 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A in Figure 5, Figure 7 is a perspective view of the main parts of the rail, Figure 8 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B in Figure 1, and Figure 9 is the right frame. FIG. 1...shelf, 1 a----flange,
2...Frame 3...Sliding member, 5.
... Spur gear, 6 ... Drive device. 1o・・・Interior, 14・・・Rail, 14
a...Guide surface, 14b...Rack surface,
15... Control panel, 15a...
・Cold air discharge hole.

Claims (1)

[Claims] a rail disposed on the left and right walls of the refrigerator and having a guide surface and a rack surface; a sliding member that slides on the guide surface of the rail;
A frame is provided with a spur gear provided at the left and right ends that coaxially rolls on the rack surface, a drive device for driving the spur gear, and an air passage is provided inside the refrigerator, and the front part is installed at the back of the refrigerator. A shelf device for a refrigerator, comprising: a control panel having a cold air discharge hole; and an internal shelf installed on the frame and having a lower flange height near the front surface of the cold air discharge hole of the control panel.