KR20090076555A - Apparatus for automatically opening door of refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

An automatic opening device of a refrigerator door is provided to improve convenience of a user by opening completely the door rapidly and successively after sensing the user when the user tries to open the door. An automatic opening device(100) of a refrigerator door includes a base plate(110), a driving motor(120), a driving gear(140), a first opening unit(200), a second opening unit(300), a torque transmitting member(410), and a control part. The base plate is installed an upper part of the refrigerator. The driving motor is mounted on the base plate. The driving gear delivers torque of the driving motor. The first opening unit includes a driven gear(210), a first pulley, a first cam, a first push member, and a spring. The driven gear receives the torque. The first pulley is rotated with the driven gear. The first cam is formed on an upper part of the first pulley. The first cam is rotated with the first pulley. The spring restores the first push member to an initial location. The first opening unit includes a second pulley(320), a second cam(330), a second push member(350), and a spring(360). The second pulley is installed at the base plate rotatably. The control part controls driving of the driving motor.

Description

Refrigerator door automatic opening device {APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPENING DOOR OF REFRIGERATOR}

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator door automatic opening device having an improved opening structure of a refrigerator door to more easily open a door of the refrigerator.

In general, a refrigerator is a device for storing food fresh for a long time and includes a refrigerating cycle for refrigerating and cooling a storage compartment including a refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment in which food is stored. In recent years, as the demand for large-scale and high-quality refrigerators increases, the development of double-door refrigerators in which the storage capacity is increased and the internal spaces are divided to the left and right in response to these demands is active.

In the two-door refrigerator, the internal space of the refrigerator main body is generally partitioned from side to side, and a freezer compartment is formed on the left side and a refrigerator compartment is formed on the right side. On the door for opening and closing the freezer compartment and the refrigerating compartment, a convenience device such as a home bar having a dispenser made to easily draw ice or water from the outside without opening the door may be added.

A typical conventional refrigerator is shown in FIG. The conventional refrigerator has a main body (2), as shown in FIG. A door (4) rotatably installed on a front surface of the main body (2) and having a handle part (3) formed at one side thereof; And a gasket 6 provided at an inner edge of the door 4 and having a rubber magnet or the like for packing between the main body 2 and the door 4.

The user pulls or pushes the handle 3 to open or close the door 4 to put or remove food or the like stored in the storage compartment. The gasket 6 which prevents the cool air in the storage chamber from leaking outside or the outside air inflows during the storage of food is sealed between the main body 2 and the door 4 to seal the storage chamber. Therefore, once the door 4 is closed, the air flow in and out between the storage compartment is blocked.

On the other hand, once the door is opened and closed, the outside air flows into the storage compartment, and the introduced outside air gradually cools down over time, thereby reducing the specific volume, thereby lowering the pressure inside the storage compartment compared to the outside. Therefore, when the user wants to open the door 4 again, the door 4 must be opened with a force capable of overcoming such a pressure difference, and in some cases, the door 4 is opened only when a considerable force is applied. There is this. In particular, in the case of a large refrigerator in which the external size and weight of the door 4 are increased, this problem is more serious for the elderly, children, women, and the like, who are relatively weak in force, and may act as a cause of dissatisfaction. .

In order to improve this problem, an apparatus for automatically opening a door of a refrigerator has been developed, and an example of a conventional refrigerator door automatic opening device is illustrated in FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 2, the conventional refrigerator door automatic opening device 30 includes a driving motor 31 capable of large forward and reverse rotation; A main cam 32 rotated by the drive motor 31; First and second sub cams 33 and 34 operated by the main cam 32 to open left and right doors 10 and 20, respectively; Consists of a control unit (not shown) for operating the drive motor 31 is accommodated in the upper inner space of the refrigerator body 40. Reference numerals 33a and 34a denote rotation axes for rotatably supporting the left and right doors 10 and 20, respectively, and 35 and 36 respectively indicate restoring force to the initial positions on the left and right doors 10 and 20, respectively. The springs to provide are shown, 33b and 34b represent the projection which supports each said spring 35 and 36.

Referring to the operation of the refrigerator door automatic opening device 30, when a signal for opening the left door 10 is input, the control unit operates the drive motor 31, as shown in Figure 2, the main cam ( 32) is rotated clockwise by a certain angle. The front end portion of the main cam 32 is in sliding contact with the first sub cam 33 to push the first sub cam 33 to rotate counterclockwise. At this time, the first sub cam 33 is rotated about the rotary shaft (33a) as a part of the protruding to the outside of the refrigerator main body 40 to push the left door 10, accordingly the left door 10 Is opened. Once the left door 10 is opened, the control unit rotates the drive motor 31 in reverse to return the main cam 32 to the center. Accordingly, the first sub cam 33 is returned by the elastic force of the first restoring spring 35, and a part of the first sub cam 33 that protrudes out of the left door 10 also comes back inward.

On the other hand, the opening operation of the right door 20 is the same as the opening operation of the left door 10 described above, except that the rotational direction of the drive motor 31 is opposite.

However, the refrigerator door automatic opening device 30 according to the prior art described above not only decreases the reaction speed, but also hardly expects a large force required to open the door, and thus does not simply open the door completely desired by the user. Since it only drops away from the refrigerator body, there is an insufficient problem to meet the user's expectations.

The present invention has been made to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art as described above, when the user wants to open the door of the refrigerator, it detects this and quickly opens the door automatically and sequentially to improve the convenience of the user The technical problem is to provide an automatic opening of the refrigerator door.

Refrigerator door automatic opening device according to the present invention for achieving the above technical problem and the base plate which is installed inside the top of the main body of the refrigerator; A drive motor mounted to the base plate; A drive gear for transmitting a rotational force of the drive motor; A driven gear that meshes with the drive gear to receive rotational force, a first pulley provided at an upper end of the driven gear to rotate integrally with the driven gear, and an upper end of the first pulley to be integrated with the first pulley And a first cam rotating on the first cam, a first push member acting on the door of the refrigerator by converting the rotational motion of the first cam into a linear motion, and a spring restoring the first push member to its initial position. One opening means; A second pulley rotatably installed on the base plate, a second cam provided at an upper end of the second pulley and integrally rotating with the second pulley, and converting a rotational movement of the second cam into a linear motion; Second opening means including a second push member acting on the door of the refrigerator and a spring for restoring the second push member to an initial position; A rotational force transmission member for transmitting the rotational force of the first pulley to the second pulley; And a control unit for controlling the drive of the drive motor.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when the door of the refrigerator is a double door type, the first opening means and the second opening means are provided with a pair so as to be symmetric about the drive gear to open each door.

In an embodiment of the present invention, each of the first plate is provided on the base plate by a plurality of supports, each having a hollow, and having an LM guide for guiding linear movement of each of the first and second push members. The first and second push members are mounted to the second plates, respectively.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the rotational force transmitting member is composed of a belt or a chain connecting the first pulley and the second pulley.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the tension pulley for adjusting the tension of the rotational force transmitting member is further provided on the base plate.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the first opening means is disposed at a position adjacent to the edge of the door furthest from the hinge axis of the door, and the second opening means is disposed at a position adjacent to the hinge axis of the door. .

In one embodiment of the present invention, the first opening means and the second opening means are configured such that the first opening means acts first, and then the second opening means acts sequentially.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the handle of the door is further provided with a touch sensing unit for detecting whether the user contacts the handle and transmits it to the control unit, the touch sensing unit may be configured as a proximity sensor or a vibration sensor.

According to the automatic opening of the refrigerator door according to the present invention having the configuration as described above, if the user wants to open the door of the refrigerator by improving the opening structure of the refrigerator door to more easily open the door of the refrigerator, There is an advantage that the convenience of the user can be improved by quickly opening the door automatically and sequentially in steps and steps.

Specifically, the first opening means for primarily opening the door of the refrigerator is disposed at a position adjacent to the edge of the door furthest from the hinge axis of the door, and the driving force is transmitted from the first opening means through a belt or a chain. A second opening means configured to receive the second opening means to be positioned adjacent to the hinge axis of the door to operate the first and second opening means sequentially and stepwise so that the door can be efficiently The opening angle of the door can be increased even with a small displacement by appropriately adjusting the arrangement position of the second opening means for fully opening the door. In particular, the angle of the first and second opening means can be increased. The cam and the push member are configured to engage with each other by biting the teeth, so that the rotary motion can be converted into linear motion without slipping. There is an advantage that is capable of delivering power to open the door efficiently.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the refrigerator door automatic opening device according to the present invention. Figure 3 is a plan view showing the configuration of the automatic refrigerator door opening apparatus according to the present invention, Figure 4 is a partially enlarged perspective view of Figure 3, Figures 5a to 5g is an operating state diagram of the automatic refrigerator door opening apparatus according to the present invention.

As shown in Figure 3 and 4, the refrigerator door automatic opening device 100 according to the present invention is largely the base plate 110, the drive motor 120, the drive gear 140, the first and second opening means 200, 300, the rotational force transmitting member 410, and a control unit (not shown).

The base plate 110 is mounted inside the upper end of the main body of the refrigerator is mounted with various components of the automatic refrigerator door opening device 100 according to the present invention to be described below.

The driving motor 120 is mounted on the base plate 110 to provide a driving force for opening the door 70 of the refrigerator. The driving motor 120 is capable of forward rotation and reverse rotation, and a contact sensing unit (not shown). Is driven through the control of the control unit based on the signal of.

The rotational force of the drive motor 120 is appropriately decelerated through the reduction gear 130 engaged with the rotation shaft 122 of the drive motor 120, and then through the drive gear 140 engaged with the reduction gear 130. It is transmitted to the driven gear 210 of the first opening means 200 to be described later.

The first opening means 200 is disposed at a position adjacent to an edge of the door 70 that is furthest from the hinge shaft 60 of the refrigerator door 70 to open the door 70. While the door 70 is separated from the refrigerator main body, the door 70 rotates at a predetermined angle.

The first opening means 200 is provided at the top of the driven gear 210 and the driven gear 210 and the driven gear 210 is engaged with the drive gear 140 to rotate integrally with the driven gear 210. The first pulley 220 to be provided, the first cam 230, which is provided on the upper end of the first pulley 220 to rotate integrally with the first pulley 220, the rotation of the first cam 230 A first push member 250 acting on the door 70 of the refrigerator by converting the motion into a linear motion, and a spring 260 for restoring the first push member 250 to the initial position.

The first push member 250 is provided with an LM guide 242 for guiding the linear movement of the first push member 250 is installed on the base plate 110 by a plurality of supports 244 It is mounted to the plate 240. The first plate 240 is provided with a hollow 241 formed to expose the first cam 230 to the top.

The first cam 230 includes a plurality of teeth 231, 232, 233, and 234, each of which includes actuating protrusions 231a, 232a, 233a, and 234a. Of the plurality of teeth 231, 232, 233, and 234, the actuating protrusions 231a and 234a provided at the teeth 231 and 234 disposed at both edges have a greater thickness than the other actuating protrusions 232a and 233a. Has

On the other hand, the first push member 250 that is linearly moved along the LM guide 242 of the first plate 240 by the rotation of the first cam 230 is the rotation of the first cam 230 At the time, the plate 251 is formed with teeth 251a provided to engage the actuating projection 231a formed on the teeth 231 of the first cam 230, the teeth 232, 233 of the first cam 230 It is composed of an auxiliary plate 253 having teeth 253a and 253b provided to engage each of the operation protrusions 232a and 233a formed on the bottom surface of the plate 251. The reason why the actuating protrusions 232a and 233a formed on the teeth 232 and 233 of the first cam 230 described above have a smaller thickness than the other actuating protrusions 231a and 234a is described herein. That is, the height of the actuating protrusions 232a and 233a may be lower than that of the lower surface of the plate 251 so as to enter the lower portion of the plate 251 of the first push member 250 when the first cam 230 rotates. At the same time it is formed so as to be caught on the teeth 253a, 253b of the plate 251.

One end of the spring 260 restoring the first push member 250 to its initial position is fixed to the plate 251 of the first push member 250, and the other end of the spring 260 rests on the first plate 240. Support is fixed.

On the other hand, the second opening means 300 is disposed in a position adjacent to the hinge shaft 60 of the refrigerator door 70, the first opening means 200 is operated, and then operated sequentially with a predetermined time difference to the The first opening means 200 further rotates the refrigerator door 70 which is rotated at a predetermined angle away from the refrigerator main body to perform a full opening.

The second opening means 300 is provided on the top of the second pulley 320 and the second pulley 320 rotatably installed on the base plate 110 and integral with the second pulley 320. The second cam 330 to rotate to a second, the second push member 350 to act on the door 70 of the refrigerator by converting the rotational movement of the second cam 330 to a linear motion, and the second It includes a spring 360 for restoring the push member 350 to the initial position.

The second push member 350 has a LM guide 342 for guiding the linear movement of the second push member 350 is installed on the base plate 110 by a plurality of supports 344 It is mounted to the plate 340. The second plate 340 is provided with a hollow 341 formed to expose the second cam 330 upward.

Since each of the second cam 330 and the second push member 350 is the same as the first cam 130 and the first push member 250 described above, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. A spring 360 for restoring the second push member 350 to its initial position is fixed at one end thereof to the second push member 350 and fixed at the other end to the second plate 340.

The driving force of the second opening means 300 is by the rotational force transmitting member 410 for transmitting the rotational force of the first pulley 220 provided to the first opening means 200 to the second pulley 320. Is provided. As the rotation force transmitting member 410, a belt or a chain connecting the first pulley 220 and the second pulley 320 may be used. In this case, the tension pulley 420 for adjusting the tension of the rotational force transmitting member 410 is further provided on the base plate 110 to improve the efficiency of the rotational force transmitting member 410.

When the refrigerator to which the refrigerator door automatic opening device 100 according to the present invention is applied is a double door refrigerator, the first opening means 200 and the second opening means 300 may be configured to open the doors 70 and 80. As shown in FIG. 3, a pair may be provided so as to be symmetrical about the drive gear 140, and the drive gear 140 is disposed at a central portion inside the upper end of the refrigerator body. At this time, the driven gear 210 meshed with the drive gear 140 is provided with a one-way bearing (not shown) to rotate only in a predetermined direction. That is, the left side of the driven gear 210 meshed with the driving gear 140 is provided with a one-way bearing to allow counterclockwise rotation but not clockwise rotation with reference to FIG. 3. On the contrary, the right side of the driven gear 210 meshed with the drive gear 140 is provided with a one-way bearing to allow clockwise rotation but not counterclockwise rotation. Therefore, according to the present invention having the above-described configuration, it is possible to provide the driving force necessary to open the doors 70 and 80 of the double-door refrigerator with only one drive motor 120.

On the other hand, the handles 71 and 81 of the refrigerator doors 70 and 80 are further provided with a contact detecting unit (not shown) for detecting whether the handles 71 and 81 of the user are in contact with each other and transmitting the detected contact to the control unit. The touch sensing unit may be installed inside the handles 71 and 81 of the refrigerator doors 70 and 80 so as not to be exposed to the outside in consideration of the appearance of the refrigerator and to prevent malfunctions by children. Various kinds of well-known ones capable of detecting can be selectively applied. For example, the contact detecting unit may be configured as a proximity sensor or a vibration sensor.

Hereinafter, the operation of the refrigerator door automatic opening device 100 according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 5A to 5G.

First, when the user touches the handle 71 of the left door 70 by the user to open the refrigerator, the touch sensing unit detects the signal and transmits a signal to the control unit, and the control unit drives the driving motor 120 to decelerate. The drive gear 140 is rotated in the clockwise direction with the gear 130 properly decelerated. In conjunction with this, the driven gear 210 of the first opening means 200 rotates in the counterclockwise direction to integrally rotate the first pulley 220 and the first cam 230. At this time, the second pulley 320 connected to the first pulley 220 by the rotation force transmitting member 410 such as a pulley also rotates in a counterclockwise direction. On the other hand, the driven gear (not numbered) of the right side meshed with the drive gear 140 on the basis of FIG. 3 allows one-way bearing to allow clockwise rotation but not counterclockwise rotation (not shown). It is configured not to rotate by the action of).

The arrangement relationship of the above-mentioned viewpoint is shown in FIG. 5A. At this time, the first push member 250 of the first opening means 200 and the second push member 350 of the second opening means 300 are located at the lowest positions by springs 260 and 360, respectively. Only the actuating projection 231a provided on the teeth 231 of the first cam 230 is in a state of acting on the teeth 251a formed on the plate 251 of the first push member 250.

Subsequently, if the first cam 230 is further rotated counterclockwise as the driven gear 210 rotates according to the rotation of the drive gear 140, as shown in FIG. 5B, the first cam 230 is rotated. The actuating protrusion 231a pushes the teeth 251a of the first push member 250 such that the first push member 250 linearly moves upward along the LM guide 242.

Thereafter, the first cam 230 continues to rotate, and as shown in FIG. 5C, the actuating protrusion 232a of the first cam 230 is lowered below the plate 251 of the first push member 250. The teeth 253a of the auxiliary plate 253 are pushed up. At this time, the second cam 330 of the second opening means 300 starts to act on the second push member 350.

Thereafter, the first cam 230 continues to rotate, and as shown in FIG. 5D, the actuating protrusion 233a of the first cam 230 is applied to the auxiliary plate 253 of the first push member 250. The teeth 253b formed are pushed up. On the other hand, the second cam 330 of the second opening means 300 pushes the second push member 350 a little further.

Thereafter, the first cam 230 continues to rotate, and as shown in FIGS. 5E and 5F, the actuating protrusion 234a of the first cam 230 is a plate of the first push member 250. The left door 70 is moved away from the refrigerator main body by pushing a lower end to push the edge of the left door 70 to rotate at a predetermined angle.

Subsequently, when the first cam 230 continues to rotate, as shown in FIG. 5G, the action of the first cam 230 on the first push member 250 is released, thereby restoring the restoring force of the spring 260. As a result, the first push member 250 returns to the initial position shown in FIG. 5A. At this time, since the first push member 250 is disposed at a position higher than the first cam 230, the first push member 250 is returned to the initial position by the spring 260 without interference by the first cam 230. On the other hand, the second cam 330 of the second opening means 300 by pushing the second push member 350 to the highest point to perform a push action to a portion adjacent to the hinge shaft 60 of the left door 70 The left door 70 further rotates at a predetermined angle away from the refrigerator main body by the first push member 250 of the first opening means 200, and as a result, the left door 70 is completely opened. .

On the contrary, when the user contacts the handle 81 of the right door 80 to open the refrigerator, a process corresponding to the above-described process is performed. At this time, the drive motor 120 rotates the drive gear 140 in a counterclockwise direction, and the driven gear 210 on the left side of the driven gear connected thereto allows the counterclockwise rotation, but the clockwise rotation There is a difference in that only the driven gear (not numbered) on the right side is rotated while it is not rotated by the action of a one-way bearing (not shown) which does not allow it. Since other operations are the same as the above description, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As described above, in the detailed description of the present invention, a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described, but those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. Of course. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined not only by the claims below, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

1 is a plan view showing a door opening structure of a conventional refrigerator,

Figure 2 is a plan view showing the configuration of the automatic door opening device of a conventional double-door refrigerator,

3 is a plan view showing the configuration of a refrigerator door automatic opening device according to the present invention;

4 is a partially enlarged perspective view of FIG. 3;

5a to 5g is an operating state diagram of the automatic refrigerator door opening apparatus according to the present invention.

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

110: base plate 120: drive motor

130: reduction gear 140: drive gear

200: first opening means 210: driven gear

220: first pulley 230: first cam

231: tooth 231a: working protrusion

240: first plate 241: hollow

242: LM guide 250: first push member

251: Plate 251a: Teeth

253: auxiliary plate 253a, 253b: teeth

260: spring 300: first opening means

410: rotational force transmitting member 420: tension pulley

Claims (10)

A base plate installed inside the top of the main body of the refrigerator; A drive motor mounted to the base plate; A drive gear for transmitting a rotational force of the drive motor; A driven gear that meshes with the drive gear to receive rotational force, a first pulley provided at an upper end of the driven gear to rotate integrally with the driven gear, and an upper end of the first pulley to be integrated with the first pulley And a first cam rotating on the first cam, a first push member acting on the door of the refrigerator by converting the rotational motion of the first cam into a linear motion, and a spring restoring the first push member to its initial position. One opening means; A second pulley rotatably installed on the base plate, a second cam provided at an upper end of the second pulley and integrally rotating with the second pulley, and converting a rotational movement of the second cam into a linear motion; Second opening means including a second push member acting on the door of the refrigerator and a spring for restoring the second push member to an initial position; A rotational force transmission member for transmitting the rotational force of the first pulley to the second pulley; And Refrigerator door automatic opening device including a control unit for controlling the driving of the drive motor. The method of claim 1, When the door of the refrigerator is a double door type, a pair of automatic opening of the refrigerator door, characterized in that a pair is provided so that the first opening means and the second opening means are symmetrically disposed about the drive gear. The method according to claim 1 or 2, Each of the first plate and the second plate is provided on the base plate by a plurality of supports, each having a hollow, and having an LM guide for guiding linear movement of each of the first and second push members The refrigerator door automatic opening device, characterized in that the first push member and the second push member is mounted respectively. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The rotation force transmitting member is a refrigerator door automatic opening device, characterized in that the belt or chain connecting the first pulley and the second pulley. The method of claim 4, wherein The refrigerator door automatic opening device, characterized in that the base plate is further provided with a tension pulley for adjusting the tension of the rotational force transmitting member. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the first opening means is disposed at a position adjacent to an edge of the door furthest from the hinge axis of the door, and the second opening means is disposed at a position adjacent to the hinge axis of the door. Opening device. The method of claim 6, And the first opening means acts first, and then the second opening means acts sequentially. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The driven gear automatically opens the refrigerator door, characterized in that it has a one-way bearing to rotate only in a predetermined direction. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The door handle of the door automatically opening the refrigerator door, characterized in that the touch sensing unit for detecting whether the user contacts the handle and transmits it to the control unit. The method of claim 9, The touch detection unit is a refrigerator door automatic opening device, characterized in that the proximity sensor or vibration sensor.

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