KR20110029516A - Door opener for a refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A refrigerator door opening device is provided to enable a user to easily open a refrigerator door because the user doesn't need to excessively rotate a handle. CONSTITUTION: A refrigerator door opening device(120) comprises a handle(110), a slide member, a link member(150), and a pressing member. The handle is rotatably installed on the front surface of a refrigerator door. The slide member is slid in the inner side of the door when the handle is rotated. The slide member comprises a slide plate(140). The slide plate is arranged to be parallel with the side surface of a refrigerator body. The link member is connected to the slide member. The pressing member is connected to the link member and is rotatably coupled to the inner side of the door.

Description

Refrigerator Door Opener {DOOR OPENER FOR A REFRIGERATOR}

The present invention relates to a refrigerator door opening device, and more particularly, to an opening device and a refrigerator using the same, which are mounted on a door of a refrigerator so as to open the door more easily.

Refrigerators may be classified into various types according to their use and form, but in any case, the main body providing a storage space for storing the object to be stored and the open front of the main body to open and close the main body to be sealed to the outside air It has a door for

Such a door may be divided into a rotary door having one side coupled to a front surface of the main body by a hinge, and a drawer type door which is opened while sliding in the front and rear direction of the main body. At this time, a gasket is installed between the main body and the door so as to prevent cold air from leaking between the door and the contact surface of the main body, and the gasket allows the door to maintain a close contact with the main body if the user does not want to. It also functions as a fixing device.

That is, a magnet is embedded in the gasket to maintain the gasket in close contact with the main body of the refrigerator using magnetic force. Due to this structure, the door can be fixed with the main body to a sufficient extent, thereby improving the sealing property, but there is a problem that a larger force must be applied to open the door. In particular, a pressure difference occurs between the internal space of the main body and the outside due to the internal temperature of the refrigerator, which makes the door more difficult to open.

In order to solve this problem, a refrigerator having a door opening device attached to the door of the refrigerator to assist opening of the door has been proposed. As an example, European Patent EP1174668 discloses a door opening with a push rod rotatably mounted with respect to the door, contacting one end of the handle and protruding from the inner side of the door when the handle is rotated. The device has been disclosed.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the opening device disclosed in EP1174668. Referring to FIG. 1, a door 20 is positioned at a front surface of a refrigerator body 10, and between the body 10 and the door 20. In the gasket 30 is located. Meanwhile, a handle 22 rotatably coupled to the front of the door 20 by a hinge is installed, and a push rod 24 is installed at an end of the door 20 to contact an end of the handle 22. have. In addition, a spring 26 for applying an elastic force in the direction to retract the push rod 24 is located between the door and the push rod.

In FIG. 1, when the user pulls the handle 22, the handle rotates about the hinge, and thus the push rod 24, which is in contact with the end of the handle 22, protrudes toward the main body 10, and the door ( 20 is pushed out of the main body 10. As a result, the gasket 30 can be more easily separated from the main body 10 so that the door can be easily opened even with a small force.

However, in the above example, since the push rod 24 is set long enough to penetrate the door 20, the push rod 24 is vulnerable to deformation. In addition, since the push rod 24 is moved by the displacement of the handle 22, in order to obtain a sufficient degree of displacement, the rotation angle of the handle 22, which is fixed in a pivot form, must be turned on. For this reason, there exists a problem that a door opening becomes inconvenient.

The present invention has been made in order to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art as described above, it is a technical problem to provide a refrigerator door opening device to open the door of the refrigerator more easily and conveniently than in the prior art.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, a handle rotatably installed on the front of the door of the refrigerator; A slide member that slides inside the door by the rotation of the handle; A link member connected to the slide member; And a pressing member having one side connected to the link member and rotatably coupled to the inside of the door, wherein the free end of the pressing member is rearward of the door as the slide member slides toward the front side of the door. A door opening device of a refrigerator protruding to the side is provided.

In the above aspect of the present invention, when the user pulls the handle, the slide member slides inside the door while the pressing member protrudes to press the main body. At this time, the pressing member is rotated like a seesaw around the coupling point with the door, and adjusts the ratio of the distance between the coupling point and the linking portion of the link member and the distance between the coupling point and the free end of the free end. The extent to which the end protrudes or the force pushing the front of the main body can be adjusted appropriately. This makes it possible to open the door even if the handle is rotated less.

Here, the slide member may include a slide plate disposed in parallel with the side of the refrigerator main body. In this case, the handle may be a so-called 'vertical' handle disposed up and down with respect to the main body.

In addition, the slide member may include a slide plate disposed in parallel with the bottom surface of the refrigerator main body. In this case, the handle may be a so-called 'horizontal' handle disposed to the left and right with respect to the main body.

Here, a stopper for limiting the slide amount of the slide plate may be formed inside the door. In addition, the case in which the slide plate is accommodated may be mounted inside the door, and the stopper may be formed in the case.

On the other hand, in the initial opening of the door it is necessary to apply a lot of force to remove the gasket, for this purpose it is possible for the pressing member to protrude slowly initially and quickly after the gasket is separated. At this time, the user does not adjust the speed, it is good to make the pressing member slowly protrudes initially and then quickly protrudes even when pulling the handle at a constant speed.

To this end, the ratio of the amount of protrusion of the pressing member to the unit slide amount of the slide member may increase as the slide member slides. In this case, the ratio may increase linearly or non-linearly as the slide member protrudes.

For example, the pressing member may have an elliptical arc shape, and the radius of curvature may be set to decrease from the coupling point inside the door toward the free end.

According to another aspect of the invention, the case is fixed to the inside of the refrigerator door; A handle rotatably installed inside the case; One side is connected to the handle, the link member is displaced by the rotation of the handle; And a pressing member connected to the link member and the one side protruding toward the main body of the refrigerator while being displaced by the displacement of the link member.

Here, the handle is a handle portion located in the front of the door; A hinge coupling part spaced apart from one side of the handle part; And a connection part extending from the hinge coupling part.

In addition, one end of the link member may be connected to the connection part, and the other end may be connected to the pressing member.

In addition, the ratio of the protrusion distance of the pressing member to the rotation angle of the handle may be increased as the rotation angle of the handle increases. In this case, the pressing member has an elliptical arc shape, the door opening device of the refrigerator, characterized in that the radius of curvature decreases toward the free end from the coupling point inside the door.

According to the aspects of the present invention having the configuration as described above, it is possible to adjust the distance that the pressing member protrudes according to the rotation angle of the handle can open the door without excessively rotating the handle can increase the ease of use Will be.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail an embodiment of the refrigerator door opening apparatus according to the present invention.

2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a refrigerator equipped with a door opening device according to the present invention. In the above example, the refrigerator and the freezer are vertically arranged, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and the refrigerator may be applied to a refrigerator having any form such as a double door refrigerator or a drawer refrigerator.

2, the refrigerator 100 includes a main body 102 in which a storage space for storing food and the like is formed, and the refrigerating chamber side door for opening and closing the opened front surface of the main body 102. 104 and a freezer compartment side door 106 are provided at the upper and lower portions of the main body 102, respectively. Each of the doors 104 and 106 is hinged to one side of the main body 102, and rotates about the hinge coupling point to open and close the inner space.

Handles 110 are respectively installed on the front surfaces of the doors 104 and 106 to assist the opening and closing process. The handle 110 has a form extending in the longitudinal direction as a whole, it is installed substantially parallel to the bottom surface of the main body (102). Here, the free end 112 of the handle 110 is bent to allow the user's hand to slide along the handle when the door is opened and closed to prevent the user from missing the handle. A guide slot 114 is formed near the fixed end of the handle 110, and the guide slot 114 extends along the length direction of the handle 110.

On the other hand, the handle 110 is fixedly installed in a pair of door opening device is installed to be inserted into the door (104, 106). 3 is an enlarged perspective view of the door opening device 120, and the handle fixing part 132 protrudes outward near the upper end of the case 130 forming the outer shape of the door opening device 120. Is formed. The handle fixing part 132 is positioned to protrude to the outside of the refrigerator door as shown in Figure 2, one end of the handle is hinged to the bottom of the handle fixing part 132 is rotatably mounted .

Here, the handle fixing part 132 does not necessarily protrude to the outside of the door, and an example in which only the handle is located inside the door and located outside the door may be considered.

The case 130 has a flat rectangular parallelepiped shape as a whole, and a slide plate 140 is slidably mounted therein. One side of the slide plate 140 is formed with a link portion 142 extending to the door side, the coupling protrusion 144 formed at the end of the link portion 142 is the interior of the guide slot 114 described above. Is fitted on. As a result, the rotation of the handle causes the slide movement of the slide plate 140. A guide groove 146 is formed in the slide plate 140 to guide the slide movement, and a guide boss 136 formed in the case 130 is inserted into the guide groove 146.

On the other hand, the hinge end portion 134 is formed at the other end of the case 130, the push arm 160 is rotatably inserted into the hinge fixing portion 134. The push arm 160 is bent to form a 'V' shape as a whole of the central portion and one side end 162 is located outside the case 130. The end 162 is also positioned to face the body of the refrigerator.

The link 150 is positioned between the push arm 160 and the slide plate 140. Both ends of the link 150 are connected to the push arm 160 and the slide plate 140, respectively, and convert the slide movement of the slide plate 140 into the rotational movement of the push arm 160. Do it.

In other words, when the user pulls the handle 100, as the handle 100 rotates, the link part 142 is pulled, and thus the slide plate 140 retreats in the same direction as the handle 100. . The retraction of the slide plate 140 causes the link 150 to rotate, and thus the push arm 160 also rotates. Since the push arm 160 has a central portion hinged to the case 130, the end 162 of the push arm 160 protrudes out of the case 130 due to the rotation of the push arm 160. Will be.

That is, the end 162 of the push arm 160 protrudes in the opposite direction to the handle 110. At this time, the end portion 162 protrudes to a distance a between the hinge fixing part 134 and the end portion a and the distance b between the fixing part of the hinge fixing part 134 and the link 150. It depends on the rain. That is, in contrast to the case where a is larger than b and a is smaller than b, in the former case, the protrusion amount of the end portion is larger than the latter case even if the knob is rotated in the same manner. In this case, the force which an end pushes the main body of a refrigerator becomes small. Therefore, in the former case, the door is opened by pulling the handle a little, and in the latter case, the door can be opened with little force.

Therefore, the opening force of the door can be appropriately set in consideration of the weight of the refrigerator door, the adhesive force of the gasket attached to the door, and the like.

Meanwhile, the shape of the push arm does not necessarily have to be a 'V' shape as shown, and an example of having an elliptical arc shape as a whole may be considered. In this case, when the handle is retracted by a certain distance, the free end of the push arm is also protruded correspondingly, and this amount of protrusion increases nonlinearly as the handle is retracted away. This is because the push arm has an elliptical arc shape, so that a relatively large amount of force is initially applied to the main body so that the gasket of the door can be easily separated, and after the gasket is removed, a large force is not necessary, so it is free. The end can be quickly protruded to facilitate opening.

4 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the door opening device according to the present invention. The embodiment shown in FIG. 4 basically has the same structure as the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, but differs in that the handle and the case are located parallel to each other. Specifically, the handle fixing part 132 ′ formed in the case 130 extends in parallel with the bottom surface of the case 130. For this reason, in the above embodiment, the case is disposed in parallel with the bottom of the refrigerator inside the door.

5 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the door opening device according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, in the above embodiment, the handle 210 has a flat rectangular plate shape, and a support arm 212 protrudes from an inner surface on an inner side thereof. A sleeve 214 is formed at the end of the support arm 212, and the drive arm 216 extends from the sleeve 214 at an angle that is not parallel to the support arm 212. In FIG. 5 the angle is approximately 90 °.

The handle 210 is rotatably installed in the case 230. More specifically, a fastening boss 232 is formed inside the case 230 to protrude from the bottom surface of the case 230, and the sleeve 214 described above is fitted to the fastening boss 232. Through this, the handle is rotated about the fastening boss 232. At this time, the fastening boss is provided with a return spring (not shown) for applying an elastic force to the handle, so that the end of the push arm 160 to maintain the state as close as possible to the case when no external force is applied.

A hinge coupler 234 is formed in the case 230, and the push arm 160 is rotatably coupled to the hinge coupler 234. The link 150 is connected between the push arm 160 and the end of the driving arm 216.

In the above embodiment, the slide plate as shown in FIG. 3 is integrally formed with the handle. Through this, the structure can be further simplified, and the structural strength can be improved.

The door opening device shown in FIG. 5 may be mounted horizontally with the bottom surface of the refrigerator or may be mounted vertically. That is, the embodiment shown in Figure 5 can be used in common to the vertical type mounted vertically and the horizontal handle is mounted horizontally with the refrigerator bottom surface.

1 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a conventional refrigerator door opening device.

2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a refrigerator to which a door opening device according to the present invention is applied.

3 is an enlarged perspective view illustrating the door opening device of FIG. 2.

4 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the door opening device according to the present invention.

5 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the door opening device according to the present invention.

Claims (13)

A handle rotatably installed on the front of the door of the refrigerator; A slide member that slides inside the door by the rotation of the handle; A link member connected to the slide member; And One side is connected to the link member, the pressing member rotatably coupled to the inside of the door; And the free end of the pressing member protrudes toward the rear side of the door as the slide member slides toward the front side of the door. The method of claim 1, The slide member is a door opening device of the refrigerator, characterized in that it comprises a slide plate disposed in parallel with the side of the refrigerator body. The method of claim 1, The slide member is a door opening device of the refrigerator, characterized in that it comprises a slide plate disposed in parallel with the bottom surface of the refrigerator body. The method according to claim 2 or 3, And a stopper for limiting the amount of slide of the slide plate is formed inside the door. The method of claim 4, wherein A case accommodating the slide plate is mounted inside the door, The stopper is a door opening device of the refrigerator, characterized in that formed in the case. The method of claim 1, And a ratio of the amount of protrusion of the pressing member to the unit slide amount of the slide member increases as the slide member slides. The method of claim 6, And the ratio increases non-linearly as the slide member protrudes. The method of claim 6, The pressing member has an elliptical arc shape, and the radius of curvature of the refrigerator is reduced toward the free end at the joining point inside the door. A case fixedly installed inside the refrigerator door; A handle rotatably installed inside the case; One side is connected to the handle, the link member is displaced by the rotation of the handle; And And a pressing member connected to the link member and the one side protruding toward the main body of the refrigerator while being displaced by the displacement of the link member. 10. The method of claim 9, The handle is, A handle located at the front of the door; A hinge coupling part spaced apart from one side of the handle part; And And a connection part extending from the hinge coupling part. The method of claim 10, One end of the link member is connected to the connection portion, the other end of the refrigerator door opening device, characterized in that connected to the pressing member. The method of claim 11, And a ratio of the protruding distance of the pressing member to the rotation angle of the handle increases as the rotation angle of the handle increases. The method of claim 12, The pressing member has an elliptical arc shape, and the radius of curvature of the door opening device of the refrigerator is reduced toward the free end from the coupling point inside the door.

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