US2673377A - Refrigerator door - Google Patents

Description

Marh 3G, 1954 R s, GAUGLER 2,673,377

REFRIGERATOR DOOR Filed Jan. 9, 1951 2 Sheets=Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 3U, 1954 REFRIGERATOR DOOR Richard S. Gaugler, Oakwood, Ohio, assgnor to General Motors Corporation, Dayton, corporation of Delaware Ohio, a

Application January 9, 1951, serial No. 205,208

2 Claims. 1

This invention is related in a general way to refrigerating apparatus but more particularly to magnetic door latching arrangements capable of pulling the door closed tight enough to thoroughly seal the door opening.

It is an object of my invention to provide a magnetic door latching arrangement in which the magnetic materials are more eiciently used to obtain the maximum door closing pull within the door sealing range.

It is another object of my invention to provide for the magnetic means upon a door or door jamb a simple full floating universal self-aligning mounting which will assure maximum pull by eliminating any inefficiency due to misalignment.

It is another object of my invention to provide for the magnetic means upon the door or door jamb a simple ornamental readily accessible adjusting means so that the magnetic means may be adjusted to obtain the maximum pull at the desired point in the door sealing range.

These objects are attained by providing magnetic assemblies in the corners of the door and door jamb on the side opposite the hinged edge. These magnetic assemblies preferably include a cylindrical permanent magnetic piece topped by a concentrating pole piece and enclosed in a cup shaped iron cladding member. The assembly is y held together by a ring of nonmagnetic material which breaches the gap between the pole piece and the rim of the iron cladding member. One of each cooperating set of magnet assemblies is mounted upon a resilient diaphragm to give it a full floating self-aligning mounting. The cooperating magnetic assembly is provided with adjustable threaded mounting. To open thel door, a prying and actuated force multiplying lever a1'- rangement is used.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of a household refrigerator embodying one form of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view with the door closed taken along the lines 2-2 of Figs. 1, 4 and 5;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view with the door closed taken along the lines 3 3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view in elevation of the upper left hand corner of the door jamb shown' in Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view in elevation of the corresponding corner of the door shown in Fig. 1; and l Fig. 6 is a sectional View of the door taken along the lines 6-6 of Fig. 1 showing the prying multiplying hand lever arrangement.

For the purpose of illustrating my invention, I have shown my magnetic latching arrangement applied to a household refrigerator cabinet 26 having a food compartment 22 containing a rerigerating unit 24 for cooling the food compartment and if desired, also enclosing a freezing compartment. The front edge of the food compartment 22 is provided with a rectangular door jamb 26. To the right edge of the door jamb, there is pivotally connected a door 28. Around the inner perimeter of the door 28, there is provided a sealing member 30 of a rubber-like material. These features are all conventional in present day household refrigerators.

I have found that moisture and frosting difiiculties are aggravated by poor sealing of the refrigerator door. This is partly due to the fact that the sealing members are comparatively stili and the door latch does not pull the door shut tight enough to press the sealing member into contact with the door jamb at all points around its perimeter. To increase the closing force of the mechanical latch, would cause the latch to be more diflicult to operate and also would require a higher closing force to close the door.

I have overcome these difficulties by providing a highly efficient magnetic latching means which will permit the door to be closed without effort and will hold the door shut with the force of about pounds to insure adequate sealing of the door. Through a multiplying prying leverage action, the door may be opened with a force of only about four pounds.

Referring now more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, the outer shell 32 adjacent its front edge has connected thereto the breaker strips 34 of heat insulating material such as a suitable thermoplastic material upon the four sides of the door jamb. In the upper left hand corner, there is provided a special corner section 36 also of a suitable thermo-plastic material. This thermoplastic corner member 36 is provided with an aperture 38. Behind this aperture 38, there is fastened a cup shaped member 40 having an extruded threaded coaxial aperture 42 in the bottom of its cup shape. Within the cup shaped member 40 is a cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece 44 having a relatively thin rim and heavier end portion provided with a threaded projection |46 which threads through the extruded aperture 42 in the cup shaped member 40.

` Coaxially located within the cup shaped iron cladding member 44 is a cylindrical permanent magnetic member 446 preferably of the material known as Alnico. This permanent magnet 46 is provided with a concentrating inner pole piece 48. The assembly is held together and located by an inner flanged ring having an inner flange which fits the shoulder of the inner pole piece 63. This ring 5t also has an inner portion which ts'between the permanent magnet 4t and the adjacent rim of the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece 44. This member 5|? is made of nonmagnetic material such as brass or stainless steel and is tightly held in place by three long screws |52 which extend through the bottom of the cup shaped iron cladding member and thread into the ring 5i). Fastened to the outer edge of the rim of the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece 44 is a ring 52 which has its rim knurled so that it may be readily used to turn the entire magnetic assembly so as to adjust the location of the magnetic assembly relatively to the cup shaped member lil through the connection of the threaded projection |46 with the threaded aperture 42.

Cooperating with this adjustable magnetic assembly is a rather similar magnetic assembly which is resiliently mounted upon the door through a full floating universal self-aligning mounting. The door 28 is provided with breaker strips of a suitable poor conducting material upon its four sides Within the outer shell of the door. The upper right hand corner of the door, as considered when the door is open, is provided with a special corner piece 5t oi some suitable thermo-plastic material having heat insulating properties. This corner piece 53 has an aperture 5t for receiving the magnetic assembly. The corner piece 5B is also provided with a circular rim 52 which surrounds the aperture 53. A resilient diaphragm 54 is clamped upon this circular rim 52 by a metal ring '136 and eight screws E8 which thread through the ring 55 and the diaphragm 55 into the corner piece 58 shown in Figs. 2 and 5. This diaphragm 34 is provided with concentric circular corrugations so that it provides substantially universal iiexibility Within a reasonable range.

The center portion of this diaphragm G4 is provided With an inturned flanged aperture. This anged aperture is tightly held between the narrow rim of the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece I and the ring l2 which is fastened by three screws i4 which extend through the bottom of the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece le and thread into the ring 12. The ring i2 has an inwardly extending flange which rests upon the concentrating inner pole piece le provided upon the front face of the cylindrical permanent magnet member 'i8 which is preferably of the material commonly known as Alnico.

With this magnetic assembly so mounted upon the diaphragm member Se, it is universally selfadjustable so that the inner pole .pieces 48 and it and the iron cladding members or outer pole pieces 44 and 'it may be magnetically drawn together in perfect alignment so that their faces will contact in absolutely ilush contact to insure maximum door closing pull to insure thatthe sealing member 3i] at all points is in sealing contact with the door jamb 2S provided upon the outer shell 32 of the cabinet 20. Even though powerful, I find that one of such magnetic assemblies is not suicient to insure good sealing of the sealing member all the way around the door. The reason for this is that the `door is made 4 of sheet metal and therefore naturally bends or warps somewhat under stress.

Therefore, in order to insure satisfactory sealing, I place a second set of magnetic assemblies at the lower left hand corner of the doom jamb and the corresponding corner of the door. To do this, I providea cup shaped `member B0 which is sealed or otherwise bonded to the inturned flanged member 82 of the flanged aperture in the lower left hand corner of the door jamb 26. This cup shaped member is provided with a coaxial extruded threaded opening at the bottom of this member which receives the threaded projection 8l! in the bottornof the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece 86.

Resting upon the bottom of this cup shaped iron cladding member 86 is a coaxially located cylind'rical shaped permanent magnet '88 preferably of the material commonly known as Alnico. It isV provided with a concentrating inner pole piece 9 5 held in place by a ring 92 of nonmagnetic material which is held in place by three screws St which extend through the bottom of the cup shaped iron cladding member 6 and thread into the ring @2. A knurled ring 56 is provided upon the outer edge of the rim of the iron cladding member or outer pole piece 86 so! that the entire magnetic assembly may be turned to adjust the location of its threaded projection 86 in Vthe threaded extruded aperture 83 in the cup shaped member 8B.

Upon the adjacent portion Yof the Adoor 28, there is provided a cooperating magnetic assembly which is provided with a universal mounting connection with the door structurein a manner similar to the magnetic assembly provided in the upper corner of this door. As shown in .detail in Fig. 3, there is provided a resilient diaphragm |2l having its outer rim clamped between a pair 1 of rings |23 and |25 which are fastened to the metal structure |21 of the door 28 by eight screws |29. Within the rim portion, the diaphragm i2! is provided with concentric circula-r corrugations to give it flexibility. It is provided with an inturned iianged aperture.

The flange of this aperture is clamped in between the inner face of the rim of the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece |3| and the ring |33 of nonmagnetic material. The ring 33 is provided with an inwardly turned projecting shoulder which rests upon the shoulder of the concentrating inner pole piece |35 and is loa cated on the face of the coaxially located cylindrical permanent magnet r|37 preferably of Alnico material which is held against the inner bottom face the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece |3|. Three screws |39 extend through the bottom of the iron cladding member |3| and thread into the ring |33 to hold the ring |33 in place and to clamp the assembly to the diaphragm l2 I. magnetic assembly is provided with resilient selfaligning full floating universal mounting to make it possible for the pole pieces 90 and |35 and the iron cladding members B6 and |3| to fit completely flush together so that maximum attraction is assured.

To make it possible te provide a lever handle |43 extending upwardly from its pivot pin |45 so that it may be readily grasped at a conventional height. Very .close to the pivot pin |45, there is provided a push rod |41 having a projecting end portion |45 of a 'thermoplastic material. The :handle |43 has a hollow projection |53 adapted to engage the outer end Through this mounting, the

easily open the door, IV

of the push rod |41 so as to push the end |49 into engagement with the plate |5| on the door jamb 28 to pry the door 28 into the open position. Since this projection |53 is very close to the pivot pin |45, there is a large mechanical advantage when the handle |43 is pulled at its upper end. This makes it possible to pull open the door with a very light force such as four pounds. The pivoting of the handle |43 is limited by the engagement of the projection |53 with the adjacent surface of the door 28. Although this arrangement gives the push rod |41 only a limited travel, this is all that is necessary because the magnetic force reduces very rapidly and the remainder of the door opening can be easily accomplished by very light direct pull upon the upper end of the handle |43. The door, of course, can be closed without any diiliculty because it is pulled to the closed position with great force by the magnetic assemblies.

I have used permanent magnets in all the magnetic assemblies because the greatest and most efcient attractive forces can be obtained in this way. If a lesser attractive force is suiiicient, it is obvious that one of the magnetic assemblies with the one permanent magnet could be used alone in cooperation with an armature made of a plain piece of magnetic material.

While the form Aof embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims which follow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A door including an outer face member, an inner member having a peripheral portion connected to the adjacent edge portions of the outer face member, insulating means between said in ner and outer members, said inner member having an aperture therein, a magnet located in said aperture, said magnet including a cup shaped iron cladding member containing a permanent magnet having a pole piece thereon, a ring extending between said pole piece and the rim of said cladding member, an annular resilient supporting diaphragm member, having its inner edge clamped between said ring and said rim and having its outer portion fastened adjacent the periphery of said aperture.

2. A magnetic device including a permanent magnet, a substantally cup shaped iron cladding enclosing the permanent magnet and having its closed portion in contact with the adjacent portion of the permanent magnet, the rim of said cladding being narrower and being spaced farther away from the permanent magnet than the remaining portions of the cladding.

RICHARD S. GAUGLER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,180,615 Serge Nov. 21, 1939 2,209,809 Burton July 30, 1940 2,240,035 Catherall Apr. 29, 1941 2,252,144 Taylor et al. Aug. l2, 1941 2,446,336 Mark et al. Aug. 3, 1948 2,475,226 Ellis July 5, 1949 2,508,305 Teetor May 16, 1950 2,519,435 Byrd Aug. 22, 1950 2,565,891 Sherman Aug. 28, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 72,979 Norway Jan. 12, 1948 456,154 Great Britain Nov. 4, 1936

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