ANAQUEL PARA REFRIGERADOR
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. - FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a refrigerator shelf and, more particularly, to a refrigerator shelf that is capable of reducing a production cost, facilitating its manufacture while obtaining the same external quality as a shelf manufactured by an insert injection method. or by an ultrasonic anastomosis method.
2. - DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKGROUND TECHNIQUE
Figure 1 is a plan view of the shelf and Figure 2 is a side view of the shelf installed in a refrigerator chamber of a refrigerator according to the conventional technique. With reference to figures 1 and 2, a plurality of shelves 1 are mounted in a cooling chamber (not shown) on which food products are placed and stored for a certain time to maintain their freshness. The shelf 1 is typically made by an insert injection method or by an ultrasonic anastomosis method. Figure 3 is a sectional view of a shelf made by the insert injection method, taken along the line III-III of Figure 1. As shown in the drawing, the shelf 1 is made by the method of injection by insertion, combining a tempered glass 3, a shelf support 2 and a shelf frame 4 by simultaneous injection, instead of using a fixing member such as a screw. Figure 4 is a sectional view of a shelf made by the ultrasonic anastomosis method, taken along the line IV-IV of Figure 1. The shelf 1 is made so that an outer surface of a tempered glass 3 is left inserted into a glass fixing groove 2c formed between the lower surfaces of the upper and lower shelf supports 2a and 2b as they are divided. And, after the shelf supports 2a and 2b are subjected to ultrasonic anatomy, a shelf frame 4 is hooked to the bottom shelf support 2a with a screw 5. As for the shelf manufactured by the conventional insert injection method, it has an advantageous structure in view that even when the food products are spilled on the shelf it will not flow into an opening of the shelf. However, it has problems in the sense that the expense of investment in the installation is required costly and that its defective level of generation is high during molding. Meanwhile, as for the one manufactured by the conventional ultrasonic anastomosis method, it also has an advantageous structure so that food products are not allowed to flow into the openings of the shelf, such as the shelf made by insert injection. However, since two shelf supports are required to support the tempered glass, the production cost of the shelf is increased. Also, since the ultrasonic anastomosis equipment must be further prepared, the investment expense in the installation is increased accordingly.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a shelf for a refrigerator that is intended to facilitate its production in order to reduce a production cost and an expense in the installation and a molding investment, while obtaining the same external quality that a shelf manufactured by the method of injection by insertion or that a shelf manufactured by an ultrasonic anastomosis method. In order to achieve these and other advantages in accordance with the purposes of the invention, as modeled and broadly described herein, a shelf is provided for a refrigerator that includes: a shelf support having a glass fixing groove formed on the inner surface thereof and an inclined guide face is formed at the upper rear end of the inner surface; a tempered glass inserted into the glass fastening groove along the guide of the inclined guide face, deforming the shelf support; and a shelf frame combined on both sides of the shelf support by a combination member.
The shelf support is provided with a plurality of protruding fixing portions formed at predetermined intervals in the outer wall thereof and the front end portion of the shelf frame is inserted into the space between the fixing projections and the exterior wall, thus preventing his movement
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a greater understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of a shelf mounted in a refrigerator chamber of a refrigerator according to the conventional technique; Figure 2 is a side view of a shelf mounted in a refrigerator chamber of a refrigerator according to the conventional technique; Figure 3 is a sectional view of a shelf, taken along line III-III of Figure 1, manufactured by an insert injection method and according to the conventional technique; Figure 4 is a sectional view of a shelf, taken along line IV-IV of Figure 1, manufactured by ultrasonic anastomosis according to the conventional technique; Figure 5 is a plan view of a shelf of a refrigerator in accordance with the present invention; Figure 6 is a side view of a shelf of a refrigerator according to the present invention; Figure 7 is a sectional view of the shelf, taken along the line VI I-VI I of Figure 5, illustrating a combination structure of both rear sides of the shelf according to the present invention; Figure 8 is a sectional view of the shelf, taken along the line VIII-VIII of Figure 5, illustrating a combination structure of the portion in which a projecting part of central fixation is formed on the shelf of the refrigerator according to the present invention; Figure 9 is a sectional view of the shelf, taken along line IX-IX of Figure 5, illustrating a combination structure of the front end portion of the shelf for a refrigerator according to the present invention; Figures 10A and 10B illustrate combination structures of the rear end portion of the shelf of a refrigerator in accordance with the present invention, of which Figure 10A is a sectional view of the shelf showing a state before the tempered glass is combines to a shelf support and Figure 10B is a sectional view of the shelf showing a state after the tempered glass is combined to a shelf support.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Fig. 5 is a plan view of a shelf of a refrigerator according to the present invention and Fig. 6 is a side view of a shelf of a refrigerator according to the present invention. As shown in the drawings, in order to store food products in a refrigerating chamber or in a freezing chamber for a predetermined time, a plurality of shelves 10 are provided in the refrigeration chamber "shown" of the refrigerator, on which the food products. The shelf 10 includes a shelf support 20 made of material by injection, a tempered glass 30 fixedly inserted in a glass fixing slot (not shown) formed on the inner surface of the shelf support 20, a screw 40 hooked to the portions bottoms of both rear sides of the shelf support 20 and a shelf iron frame 50 protruding down on both sides about the center and which is fixedly attached to the shelf support 20 by means of a plurality of fixing protruding parts 41 which prevents movement to the right or to the left. The coupling structure of the shelf 10 according to the present invention will now be described., with reference to the accompanying drawings. Figure 7 is a sectional view of the shelf, taken along line VII-VII of Figure 5, illustrating a combination structure of both rear sides of the shelf according to the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the tempered glass 30 is fixedly inserted in the glass fixing groove 21 formed on the inner side of the shelf support 20 and the shelf frame 50 is fixedly attached to the lower portion of the shelf support 20. by means of the screw
40. Fig. 8 is a sectional view of the shelf, taken along the line VIII-VIII of Fig. 5, illustrating a combination structure of the portion in which a protruding central fixing part of the shelf for the refrigerator is formed according to the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the tempered glass 30 is fixedly inserted in the glass fastening groove 21 formed in the inner side of the shelf support 20. A vertical end portion 50a of the shelf frame 50 is inserted between the protruding part of the shelf. fixing 41 formed downwardly in parallel to the shelf support 20 and an outer wall of the shelf support 20, the fixing fixing portion 41 being separated at a distance from the outer wall of the shelf support 20, in which the portion vertical end 50a of the shelf frame 50 and the horizontal end portion 50b of the shelf frame 50 is inserted into a fixing hole 22 formed in the shelf support 20 in the horizontal direction, to thereby prevent movement of the shelf frame 50. Figure 9 is a sectional view of the shelf, taken along line IX-IX of Figure 5, illustrating a combination structure of the front end portion of the shelf for a refrigerator in accordance with the present invention and Figures 10A and 10B illustrate combination structures of the rear end portion of the shelf for a refrigerator in accordance with the present invention. As shown in the drawings, a tempered glass 30 is fixedly inserted in a glass fastening groove 21 formed in the inner surface of the shelf support 20. With reference to this, with reference to the coupling structure of the rear end portion of the shelf 10, as shown in Figures 10A and 10B, the upper portion of the inner surface of the shelf support 20 is formed to have an inclined guide face 20a, so that the tempered glass 30 can be easily combined with the glass fixing slot 21. The method of assembling the refrigerator shelf of the present invention, constructed as described above, will now be explained.
In order to attach the tempered glass 30 inseparably to the glass fastening groove 21 formed on the inner surface of the shelf support 20 made of material by injection, first, the rear end portion of the shelf support 20 is bent and the front side of the tempered glass 30 to the front end portion of the glass fastening slot 21 of the shelf support 20. In this state, as shown in Fig. 10B, the rear end portion of the shelf support 20 is raised, the tempered glass 30 slides on the inclined guide face 20a formed in the upper portion of the rear side of the shelf support 20 to be inserted into the glass fixing slot 21. And then, the shelf frame 50 is fixedly engaged. in the lower part of both sides of the shelf support 20 with the screw 40. Here, referring to the shelf frame 50, since the vertical end portion 50a of the shelf frame 50 is inserted between the outer wall of the shelf support 20 and the fixing projection 41 and, at the same time, the horizontal end portion 50b of the shelf frame 50 is inserted into the fixing hole 22 formed in the shelf support 20 in the horizontal direction , so that, once the shelf frame 50 is inserted with the shelf support 20 with the screw 40, the shelf frame 50 is effectively prevented from moving. As described so far, according to the shelf for a refrigerator of the present invention, the shelf support, the tempered glass and the shelf frame are simply assembled to the shelf to be installed in the refrigerating chamber of the refrigerator, so that the expense incurred by the installation and the investment of molding can be reduced and the same exterior quality of the shelf can be obtained as a shelf made by the insert injection method or the ultrasonic anastomosis method. Since the present invention can be modalized in several ways without deviating from the spirit or the essential characteristics thereof, it should also be understood that the embodiments described above are not limited by any of the details of the preceding description, unless otherwise specified, but rather should be broadly interpreted within the spirit and scope as defined in the appended claims, and therefore all changes and modifications contained within the compliance and limits of the claims, or the equivalence of such compliance and limits, are therefore intended to be encompassed by the appended claims.