US2051733A

US2051733A - Cold conserver

Info

Publication number: US2051733A
Application number: US5007A
Authority: US
Inventors: Moore Stanford; William C Lyons
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1935-02-04
Filing date: 1935-02-04
Publication date: 1936-08-18
Anticipated expiration: 1953-08-18

Description

Aug. 18, 1936. s. MOOREET AL 2,051,733

COLD CONSERVER Filed Feb. 4, 1935 4 Sheets-Shet 1 ATTORNEY Aug-v 1' 6 s. MOORE ET AL 2,051,733

COLD CONSERVER Filed Feb. 4, 1935 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 4 Stag/0rd /Vwrz INVENTORS ATTORNEY Aug. 13, 1936. 8', RE ET AL 2,051,733

COLD CON SERVER day;

(Tia/yard /%0/6 [07/74/77 (Myafis ATTORNEY Fatented Aug. 31%. 393% tti iii rarest orgies Stanford Moore and William 13. ilyons, @irlahoma City, @ixla.

Application February 4, 1935, Serial No. 5,007

l (Claims.

This invention relates to refrigerators and simi- 1 lar cooling devices'and has for the primary object the provision of a device of this character which will have maximum efiiciency with minimum operating costs. I

Another object of this invention is the provision of means for dividing the refrigerator into compartments each opened and closed by a door and communicative with the compartments adjacent thereto when the doors occupy compartment-closing position so that air circulation may be had between the compartments and each compartment to become non-communicative with the compartment thereabove when the door of the respective compartment is moved into open position which will prevent a down flow of cold air to the compartment which is open, consequently materially reducing the loss of cold air from the refrigerator during the time in which a compartating costs in maintaining the compartments at a desired temperature;

With these and other objects in view, this iii-- vention consists in certain novel features of construction, combination and arrangementsof parts to be hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

For a complete understanding of the invention, reference is to be had to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a perspective view, partly broken away, illustrating a refrigerator constructed in accordance with our invention.

Figure Z is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 3-3'0f Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line LL 8 of Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary plan view illustratingthe door mounting.

Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating either a door or tray frame.

Figure '7 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating a door seal.

Figure 8 is a vertical sectional view showing the air circulation between the compartments of the refrigerator.

Referring in detail to the drawings, the nu-' .50 meral l indicates a refrigerator box or case provided with a doorway or entrance 2, the walls of. which are beveled to form a seat to accommodate a, main door.:3. Arranged within the box or. case i are spaced superimposed shelf supporting medium removabliy supporting shelves d forming in ment may be open and thereby conserve operthe box or case aplurality of superimposed compartments and the uppermost compartment is divided into intermediate and side chambers, which are communicative with each otherand each chamber is closed by a door 5. The inter- 5 mediate chamber is preferably employed for accommodating the cooling unit of the refrigerator while the other chambers and compartments are employed for the accommodation of foodstuffs and the like. The compartments below the up- 10 permost compartment are each closed by a door 6. The doors 5 are hingedly mounted to swing about a vertical axis while the doors 6 are mounted-to swing about a horizontal axis and the doors 5 when in open position .or arranged horizontally 15 align with the shelves so that articles may be rested on said doors 6 either when being removed or replaced in the compartments. The doors are equipped with handles 1 and are of transparent construction so that the contents of the compartments may be viewed without the opening of the

doors

6 and 5 and after the opening of the door 3 and in some instances the door 3 may be omitted from the refrigerator if desired. However, it is preferable that the door 3 be employed so that should one of the

doors

5 or 6 be broken, atmospheric temperature would be prevented from reaching the interior of the box or case due to said door 3. The

doors

5 and 6 are eachconstructed from a frame 8 grooved to form spaced seats to receive spaced transparent or glass panels. it forming therebetween a dead air space it]. It is preferable that the edges of the panels be'beveled, as shown at H, and the seats shaped accordingly so that the panels and frame will not interfere with the door occupying a closed position. The frame 8 is provided with a pintle 92 to fit in a socket l3 and upon the opposite side thereof has a slidable spring pressed plunger 84 received in a seat IS. The pintle l2 and plunger 40 it cooperate in forming a hinge for the door and one that will permit the door to be readily re- ,moved and replaced whenever desired. The plunger M is equipped with a pin 66 operating in a slot it of the frame 8 whereby the plunger M may be easily slid against the action of the spring to disengage said plunger from the seat 55 when desiring to remove or replace the door.

Each tray it consists of a frame l8 having a removable side l9 and is provided with seats to accommodate spaced transparent or glass panels 20 forming therebetween a dead air space 2|. The dead air spaces of the doors and trays materially reduce the formation of frost on these parts and the dead air spaces of the doors materially insulate the compartments to atmospheric temperature while the dead air spaces in the trays aid in insulating the compartments from one another.

The tray supporting mediums each include frame elements 22 removably secured to the walls of the box or case and consists of front, side and rear elements each carrying flanges 23 to form wedge-shaped seats for cushion supporting elements 24 on which rest the trays. The cushion elements 24 cooperate with the frames and the trays in providing seals between the compartments. The front frame elements have longitudinally arranged ribs or projections 25 forming seats for cushion elements 26. The cushion elements 25 are abutted by the doors when the latter are in compartment-closing position. The ribs 25 are shouldered, as shown at 21, to form stops to be engaged by the doors when moved into open position and which support said doors horizontally andin alignment with the trays. The ribs 25 are also equipped with seats or sockets 28 to be engaged by spring pressed catches 29 carried by the doors for retaining the doors in closed position. The frame elements 22 are equipped with flanges 30 apertured to receive fasteners 3| which secure the frame elements to the walls of the box or case.

Formed in walls of the box or case are bypass chambers 32, which chambers establish communication between the compartments and the bypass chambers are so located that their point of communication with the compartments will be above and below the trays. Gratings 33 are provided for the bypass chambers where the latter communicate with the compartments above the trays to prevent articles in the compartments supported by the trays from falling into the bypass chambers. The gratings are supported by the tray supporting mediums.

Gate type valves 34 are journaled in the bypass chambers for opening and closing said chambers and carried by the tray supporting mediums are cushion abutting strips 35 to be engaged by the valves when the latter assume position of closing the "bypass chambers. The mounting for the valves is in the form of pintles fitting in journals and secured to the pintles are pinions 36 meshing with rack bars 31 slidably mounted in guides 38 formed in the walls of the box or case. The guides 38 extend to the doorway of the box or case and the rack bars have beveled faces 39 which are urged outwardly of the guides by coil springs 40 so that the beveled faces of the rack bars will be engaged by the doors when in closed position urging the rack bars inwardly of the guides and positioning the valves 34 to permit free circulation of air through the bypass chambers so that the air from one compartment may pass to another compartment. The doors when moved to an open position free the rack bars and due to the influence of the springs 40 the valves 34 are engaged with the strips 35 and close the bypass chambers cutting off air circulation from one compartment to another. This permits any one of the compartments to be: opened and the air circulation is interrupted from the open compartment to the compartments thereabove which closed and the gate valves open, circulation of air throughout the various compartments will be unobstructed consequently permitting the chilled air from the cooling unit to descend downwardly through the various compartments while the warm air ascends to contact with the cooling unit.

Having described the invention, we claim:

1. In a refrigerator, a box having a main chamber, a plurality of superimposed tray supporting mediums arranged in the chamber and removably secured to the walls of the box, trays removably supported by said mediums and dividing the main chamber into a plurality of compartments, a door hinged to each tray supporting means and when in an open position adapted to be arranged in a plane with a tray, said box having bypass chambers in walls thereof communicating with the compartments above and below the trays, valves for opening and closing the bypass chambers, and

means between said valves and the doors to close the valves on theopening of the doors and to permit opening of said valves on said doors moving into closed position.

2. In a refrigerator, a box having a main chamber, a plurality of superimposed tray supporting mediums arranged in the chamber and removably secured to the walls of the box, trays removably supported by said mediums and dividing the main chamber into a plurality of compartments, a door hinged to each tray supporting means andwhen in an open position adapted to be arranged in a plane with a tray, said box having bypass chambers in walls thereof communicating with the compartments above and below the trays, valves for opening and closing the bypass chambers, guides carried by the box, spring pressed rack bars slidable in said guides, means connecting the rack bars to the valves, said rack bars having beveled faces to be engaged by the doors on the latter occupying closed position to move the valves into open position, said spring pressed rack bars automatically closing the valves on the opening of the doors.

3. In a refrigerator, a box having a main chamber, a plurality of frame elements secured to the walls of the box, cushion elements carried by said frame elements, trays supported by said cushion elements and forming the main chamber into a plurality. of compartments, doors hinged to the frame elements for opening and closing the compartments, cushion elements carried by the frame elements to engage the doors, and means carried by the box and controlled by the movement of the doors to open and close the compartments to one another in accordance with the position of the doors. I

4. In a refrigerator, a box having a main chamber, a plurality of removable trays mounted in the main chamber to divide the latter into compartments, a door for each compartment, said box having bypass chambers communicating with the compartments above and below the trays, gratings between the bypass chambers and the compartments where said bypass chambers communicate with the compartments above the trays, and valve means for opening and closing the bypass chambers in accordance with the positions of the doors.

STANFORD MOORE. WILLIAM C. LYONS.