KR100425733B1 - Door open apparatus for refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a door opening device of a refrigerator, comprising: a main body having at least one cooling chamber formed therein; A door rotatably coupled to the main body to open and close the front opening of the cooling chamber; A fixed shaft disposed on one of the door and the main body along a rotation axis of the door to rotatably support the door; A fixed gear integrally coupled to the fixed shaft; A drive gear disposed in the other one of the door and the main body so as to be movable along the axial direction of the fixed shaft so as to be mutually engaged and disengaged with the fixed gear; A linear driving unit for linearly driving the coupling position of the driving gear to be engaged with the fixed gear and a spaced position from which the driving gear is disengaged; A rotation driving unit which rotationally drives the drive gear at the engagement position of the drive gear; A door opening button installed outside one of the door and the main body to input an opening signal of the door; And a control unit for controlling the linear driving unit and the rotation driving unit to open the door based on the signal of the door opening button. Thereby, the door opening apparatus of the refrigerator which can open a door easily is provided.

Description

DOOR OPEN APPARATUS FOR REFRIGERATOR}

The present invention relates to a door opening device of a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a door opening device of a refrigerator that allows the door to be easily opened.

The refrigerator is a device for storing food at low temperature, and generally includes a main body in which at least one cooling chamber is formed, and a door hinged to the main body to open and close the front opening of the cooling chamber.

A machine room is formed in the lower rear region of the main body, and a compressor for compressing a refrigerant is provided inside the machine room, and a condenser for condensing the refrigerant compressed by the compressor by heat radiation. An evaporator is installed in the rear region of the cooling chamber to cool the air while circulating.

The door is provided with a door outer plate forming an outer appearance and a door inner plate spaced apart from each other at a filling interval between the door outer plate and a predetermined heat insulating material. The gasket is coupled to the contact area with the main body of the door inner plate to maintain the airtight between the inside and the outside, and the permanent magnet is usually embedded in the gasket so as to be in magnetic contact with the main body.

Food is stored in the cooling chamber, and when the compressor starts to operate, the refrigerant compressed from the compressor is radiated and condensed in the condenser, condensed and expanded under reduced pressure through an expansion device, and the latent heat of surroundings is absorbed by the evaporator disposed in the cooling chamber. It absorbs and evaporates cooling.

When cold air is supplied to the inside of the cooling chamber through the evaporator in such a state that the door is blocked, the temperature of the inside decreases, and the volume of air inside the cooling chamber is reduced. Accordingly, the inside of the cooling chamber is in a negative pressure state in which the pressure is relatively lower than the external atmospheric pressure.

By the way, in such a conventional refrigerator, the door is not only coupled to the main body by the magnetic force of the permanent magnet, but also has a problem that the interior is cooled and is in a negative pressure state, so that the door is not easy to open.

Recently, the door is enlarged according to the trend of increasing the capacity of the refrigerator, in particular, children and the elderly have a problem that a lot of inconvenience in opening the door.

In addition, to open the door while holding the item with both hands to store the food during cooking, put the food down and lift the food with both hands while keeping the door open and not close the door. Since there is a need to be stored, there is a problem that the opening time of the door is extended as well as very troublesome to use.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a door opening device of a refrigerator which can easily open a door.

1 is a view showing a state of use of the door opening device of the refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention,

2 is a partially enlarged plan view of FIG. 1;

3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. 2;

4 is an enlarged view of the drive gear region of FIG. 3;

5 is a plan view of the door open state of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line VI-VI of FIG. 5.

** Description of symbols for the main parts of the drawing **

11: body 15: freezer door

17: refrigerator door 19: shaft work

21 control unit 31 hinge bracket

33: fixed shaft 35: fixed gear

41 housing 43 drive gear

44: drive gear rotation shaft 45: locking jaw

51: linear driving unit 61: rotary driving unit

62: harmonic drive 63: wave generator

64: bearing member 65: flexible gear

68: round gear 71: electric motor

73: freezer door open button 74: cold room door open button

The above object is, according to the present invention, a body in which at least one cooling chamber is formed; A door rotatably coupled to the main body to open and close the front opening of the cooling chamber; A fixed shaft disposed on one of the door and the main body along a rotation axis of the door to rotatably support the door; A fixed gear integrally coupled to the fixed shaft; A drive gear disposed in the other one of the door and the main body so as to be movable along the axial direction of the fixed shaft so as to be mutually engaged and disengaged with the fixed gear; A linear driving unit for linearly driving the coupling position of the driving gear to be engaged with the fixed gear and a spaced position from which the driving gear is disengaged; A rotation driving unit which rotationally drives the drive gear at the engagement position of the drive gear; A door opening button installed outside one of the door and the main body to input an opening signal of the door; And a control unit for controlling the linear driving unit and the rotation driving unit so that the door can be opened based on the signal of the door opening button.

Here, the fixed shaft is preferably formed to protrude downward to the end of the hinge bracket fixed to the main body.

In addition, the linear driving unit may effectively include a solenoid for linearly driving the rotation axis of the drive gear.

In addition, the rotation driving unit preferably includes a harmonic drive.

And, it is effective to configure the door opening button to be installed in the lower front area of the door.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail with respect to the present invention.

1 is a view showing a state of use of the door opening device of the refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a partially enlarged plan view of Figure 1, Figure 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view along the line III-III of FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the drive gear region of FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a plan view of the door open state of FIG. 2, and FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line VI-VI of FIG. 5. As shown in these figures, the refrigerator includes a main body 11 in which a freezer compartment and a refrigerating compartment are formed, respectively, with partition walls formed along the vertical direction, and the main body 11 so as to open and close each front opening of the freezer compartment and the refrigerating compartment. It is provided with a freezer compartment door 15 and a refrigerating compartment door 17 rotatably coupled to the. Opposite sides of the rotation side edges of the freezer door 15 and the refrigerating chamber door 17 are provided with handles 16 and 18 so that the doors 15 and 17 can be easily opened and closed, and the freezer door 15 and Each upper region of the refrigerating chamber door 17 is provided with a door opening device of the refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively.

The door opening device of the refrigerator has a fixed shaft 33 protruding downward from the hinge bracket 31 which is fixed at one side to the upper surface of the main body 11 and extends upwardly of the doors 15 and 17 along the plate surface direction. ), A fixed gear 35 which is integrally fixed to the end of the fixed shaft 33, a coupling position that is embedded in each of the doors 15 and 17 and meshes with the fixed gear 35, and is spaced apart from being disengaged. A drive gear 43 arranged to linearly move between positions, a linear drive unit 51 for linearly driving the drive gear 43 in the axial direction of the fixed shaft 33, and a drive gear 43 to rotate the drive gear 43; Of the rotary drive unit 61, the freezer door open button 73 and the freezer door open button 74, and the freezer door open button 73 and the freezer door open button 74, which are disposed in the lower front area of each door. And a controller 21 for controlling the linear driver 51 and the rotary driver 61 based on the input signal. There.

Since the freezing chamber door opening device and the refrigerating chamber door opening device have the same technical configuration, the following description will be made only for the case of the refrigerator door opening device for convenience of description.

In the rear region of the upper surface of the main body 11, a control unit 21 composed of a microcomputer with a built-in control program is provided, and a hinge bracket 31 is coupled to the upper side of the refrigerating chamber to protrude forward. The bottom end of the protruding side end portion of the hinge bracket 31 is formed with a fixed shaft 33 protruding along the vertical direction, the fixed gear 35 is integrally coupled to the end of the fixed shaft 33.

Meanwhile, a shaft hole 19 is formed at one side of the upper surface of the refrigerating chamber door 17 to allow the fixed shaft 33 to be inserted therein, and the drive gear 43 and the linear driving unit 51 inside the refrigerating chamber door 17. And a housing 41 for forming an installation space of the rotation driving unit 61.

A drive gear 43 is provided inside the housing 41 so as to be able to move up and down in parallel with the axial direction of the fixed shaft 33, and to drive up and down the drive gear 43 below the drive gear 43. The linear drive part 51 is provided. The lower side of the linear drive unit 51 is provided with a rotary drive unit 61 to drive the drive gear 43 in rotation.

The linear drive unit 51 includes a bobbin 52 forming a receiving space therein, a magnetic rod disposed to be movable along an axis of the bobbin 52, and wound around the bobbin 52 to generate a magnetic force. It is comprised by the solenoid containing the coil 53 and the spring member 55 arrange | positioned inside the bobbin 52 and which returns a magnetic rod to an initial position. In this embodiment, the magnetic rod is integrally formed with the drive gear rotation shaft 44.

The locking jaw 45 is formed to protrude horizontally in the longitudinal direction so as to be in contact with one end of the spring member 55 in the drive gear rotation shaft 44, and the spline shaft portion is formed on the outer diameter surface of the lower region over a predetermined length section ( 46) is formed. The lower end of the rotation shaft of the drive gear 43 is provided with a rotary drive portion 61 to drive the drive gear 43, the rotary drive portion 61 is the driving force to the harmonic drive 62 and the harmonic drive 62 It is configured to include an electric motor 71 to provide.

The harmonic drive 62 includes a wave generator 63 having an elliptic cam shape, a plurality of bearing members 64 disposed around the wave generator 63, and a bearing generator 64 therebetween. A flexible gear 65 disposed to be elastically deformable on the outer side of the upper surface 63 and having a first gear 66a formed on an outer surface thereof, and a second gear 69 formed on an inner surface thereof so as to have teeth different from the first gear 66a. Circular gear 68 is formed and fixed to the refrigerating chamber door 17 by fixing means not shown coaxially to the outside of the flexible gear 65 so that the first gear 66a and the second gear 69 are engaged. ) Is configured to include.

The output shafts of the electric motor 71 are rotatably connected to each other with the wave generator 63, and one side of the flexible gear 65 meshes with the spline shaft portion 46 of the drive gear 43 in the rotational direction. The spline boss portion 66b is formed so as to be possible.

By this configuration, when the user operates the refrigerating chamber door opening button 74 by foot, the control unit 21 is linear so that the drive gear 43 is elevated to engage and rotate with the fixed gear 35. The driving unit 51 and the rotation driving unit 61 are controlled.

When power is applied to the coil 53 of the linear drive unit 51, the drive gear rotation shaft 44 rises along the axial direction. At the same time, when power is applied to the electric motor 71, the power of the electric motor 71 The wave generator 63 rotatably coupled to the rotation shaft 72 rotates. Due to the action of the first gear 66a and the second gear 69 engaged with different tooth numbers, the flexible gear 65 has a predetermined reduction ratio in a direction opposite to the rotation direction of the wave generator 63. It rotates with, the drive gear rotation shaft 44 is formed with a spline shaft portion 46 is engaged with the spline boss portion 66b of the flexible gear (65).

As the drive gear rotation shaft 44 rotates, the drive gear 43 meshed with the fixed gear 35 pivots around the fixed gear 35, whereby the refrigerating chamber door 17 is shown in FIG. 5. As it is rotated about the fixed shaft 33 to open the refrigerating chamber.

When the refrigerating chamber door 17 is opened, the control unit 21 controls the linear drive unit 51 and the rotary drive unit 61 so that the engagement state of the drive gear 43 and the fixed gear 35 is released, and the rotation is performed. To be stopped.

In the above-described and illustrated embodiments, the present invention is applied to a side-by-side type refrigerator in which a freezer compartment and a refrigerating compartment are formed with partition walls formed along the up and down directions, but the freezer compartment and the refrigerating compartment are respectively formed along the up and down directions. Of course, the present invention is applied to a refrigerator.

In addition, in the above-described and illustrated embodiments, the case where the rotational drive unit is configured including the harmonic drive is described by way of example. Instead of the harmonic drive, other transmission means, for example, a planetary gear device or a worm gear and a worm wheel, etc. It is also possible to configure the rotary drive unit using.

In the above-described and illustrated embodiments, the fixed shaft and the fixed gear are arranged to be fixed to the main body, and the driving gear, the linear driving part and the rotary driving part are configured to be embedded in the door. And a fixed gear and a driving gear, a linear driving part and a rotating driving part arranged on the main body.

In addition, the case where the door opening button is configured to be installed only one in each of the lower region of the freezer door and the refrigerating chamber door, but an additional opening button may be added to the handle portion of each door.

As described above, according to the present invention, a fixed shaft and a fixed gear that is fixedly arranged on any one of the main body and the door, a drive gear that is arranged to engage with the fixed gear on the other of the main body and the door, and the drive gear is fixed A linear driving unit for linearly driving and disengaging gears, a rotary driving unit for rotating the driving gears, a door opening button, and a control unit for controlling the linear driving unit and the rotary driving unit when inputting an open signal from the door opening button; By providing, the door opening apparatus of the refrigerator which makes it easy to open a door is provided.

Claims (5)

A main body in which at least one cooling chamber is formed; A door rotatably coupled to the main body to open and close the front opening of the cooling chamber; A fixed shaft disposed on one of the door and the main body along a rotation axis of the door to rotatably support the door; A fixed gear integrally coupled to the fixed shaft; A drive gear disposed in the other one of the door and the main body so as to be movable along the axial direction of the fixed shaft so as to be mutually engaged and disengaged with the fixed gear; A linear driving unit for linearly driving the coupling position of the driving gear to be engaged with the fixed gear and a spaced position from which the driving gear is disengaged; A rotation driving unit which rotationally drives the drive gear at the engagement position of the drive gear; A door opening button installed outside one of the door and the main body to input an opening signal of the door; And a control unit for controlling the linear driving unit and the rotation driving unit to open the door based on the signal of the door opening button. The method of claim 1, The fixed shaft is a door opening device of the refrigerator, characterized in that formed to protrude downward on the end of the hinge bracket fixed to the main body. The method of claim 1, And the linear driving part includes a solenoid for linearly driving a rotation axis of the driving gear. The method of claim 1, The rotation driving unit is a door opening device of the refrigerator, characterized in that it comprises a harmonic drive. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The door opening button is a door opening device of the refrigerator, characterized in that installed in the lower front area of the door.