US3077644A - Refrigerating apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 19, 1963 K. K. KESLING REFRIGERATING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 19, 1960 mmvron. Keith K Kes/ing m3 His Afro ney Feb. 19, 1963 K. K. KESLING 3,

A REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Aug. 19, 1960 i A 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 J mmvroa Keith K keyi g His Attorney I United States Patent 3,077,644 REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Keith K. Kesling, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 19, 1960, Ser. No. 50,803 1 Claim. (Cl. 20-69) This invention relates to a refrigerating apparatus and :lIlOie particularly to an improved door seal arrangement door seals and thereafter the magnets attract one another so as to provide a good seal when the doors are in the fully closed position.

A further object of this invention is to reduce the amount of rubbing which takes place at a seal surface -when a magnetic seal slides past an adjacent surface.

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

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a front view of a refrigerator embodying my invention.

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially on line 22 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially on line 33 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is a view similar to FIGURE 2 but showing the door slightly ajar.

FIGURE 5 is an elevational view with parts broken away showing the inside of a refrigerator door.

Referring now to the drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown, reference numeral generally designates a refrigerator cabinet having a pair of doors 12 and 14 which are pivotally supported lon the cabinet 10 adjacent the outer edges of the doors [by means of hinges 16. Each door is provided with a vhandle 18 for selectively opening the doors.

the doors supports a magnetic type door seal general y Each of designated by the reference numeral 20 which serves to engage the front face 22 of the cabinet 10 adjacent three sides of the door. The cabinet is of the type which does not have a center mullion and therefore the seal on the fourth side of each of the doors does not engage the cabinet but engages the seal on the adjacent door to seal .the crack between the meeting edges of the doors.

One of the big problems in providing a seal between adjacent edges of doors of this type is that of eliminating the wear on the door seals as they move past one another in the process of opening and closing the doors. By providing a bar magnet 24 in the bulb portion 26 of each of the sealing strips and by arranging the poles of the bar magnets along opposite edges of each bar on the fourth side of each door as shown in FIGURES 2 and 4 of the drawings, the bar magnets on the meeting edges of the door will repel one another as the seals first approach one another during the door closing operation but will attract one another as the doors move into the fully closed position.

As best shown in FIGURES 2, 4 and 5 of the drawings, the inner door panel 28 of each door is provided with a marginal seal protecting projection 30 which lies close to the one edge of the door seal.

The door seal preferably consists of the usual extruded element which is formed with a magnet receiving recess or bulb portion 26 and a resilient bellows-like formation 32 so as to provide resiliency for the bulb portion of the seal. The seals may be held in place on the door by any suitable means, such as by a metallic strip 34 placed within the bellows portion of the seal 20 and held in place on the outer door panel 36 by means of spring clip fasteners 38.

The magnets employed in the gaskets are preferably formed from finely-divided magnet forming material such as ferrite united by a synthetic resin binder and extruded into an elongated relatively fiat strip. The composite strip is passed through a magnetic field to magnetize the strip with the opposite poles arranged at the opposite edges of the strip. Strip magnets of this type are now well known and have been used extensively commercially and need no further description.

The gaskets are generally formed of rubber, synthetic plastic material such as vinyl, or other elastomeric material which have rubber like properties.

As best shown in FIGURE 5 of the drawings, the sealing strips are mitered at the corners, as indicated by the reference numeral 40. It will be noted that the extruded portion of the door seal is substantially square in cross section with the result that it is possible to miter the door seals to one another at a l four corners even though the flat side of the magnet faces the cabinet along three edges of the door seal where the door seal engages the face of the cabinet and the flat side of the magnet is arranged to abut against the mating seal on the fourth side.

While the embodiments of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitute preferred forms, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

In combination, walls forming a cabinet having a compartment therein, one wall of said cabinet having an opening therein providing access to the interior of said compartment, two doors pivotally mounted upon said cabinet in side by side relationship normally closing the access opening of said compartment, said doors having portions thereof abutting said cabinet wall in a first plane and having adjacent mating edges in .a second plane substantially at right angles to said first plane forming a joint exposed to the interior of said compartment, continuous means for sealing the joint between the mating edges of said doors and between one of said door portions and said cabinet wall, said means comprising a gasket extending along the mating edge of one of said doors and along said one of said door portions, said gasket including a mounting portion secured to said one door and a flexible movable bulb portion formed integral with and projecting from said mounting portion, longitudinally extending magnetic means in said bulb portion having opposite poles arranged adjacent opposite edges thereof, complementary gasket means arranged adjacent the other of said doors and having opposite magnetic poles adjacent opposite edges thereof arranged to attract said first named poles in the closed position of said doors, the mating edge of said one door having a channel formed therein for receiving said gasket and for supporting opposite sides of one section of said mounting portion to prevent excessive sidewise movement of said gasket in either direction in said second plane, and the said one of said door portions having means for unrestrictingly References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 23,920 Mark et al Jan. 11, 1955 2,659,118 Anderson et al Nov. 17, 1953 2,723,896 Wurtz Nov. 15, 1955 2,807,841 Janos Oct. 1, 1957 2,958,912 Bower et al. Nov. 8, 1960 3,004,309 Korodi Oct. 17, 1961

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