WO2003106904A1

WO2003106904A1 - Refrigerator comprising a door-opening aid

Info

Publication number: WO2003106904A1
Application number: PCT/EP2003/005863
Authority: WO
Inventors: Thomas Benz
Original assignee: BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH
Priority date: 2002-06-14
Filing date: 2003-06-04
Publication date: 2003-12-24
Also published as: PL202290B1; BR0311791A; EP1516149A1; DE10226620A1; CN1662783A; RU2004135375A; ATE480744T1; CN100335853C; DE50313069D1; RU2317494C2; EP1516149B1; DE20321753U1; PL372074A1; ES2350096T3

Abstract

Disclosed is a refrigerator comprising a door (14) which is mounted on the heat-insulating housing thereof. Said door (14) comprises a handle (20) which is mounted so as to be rotatable around an axis (23) and is provided with a longer level arm used as a door handle and a shorter lever arm resting on the housing when the handle is actuated. A guiding element (50) has a section (64) which laterally protrudes from the edge of the door (14) surface (16). A guide rail (53) engaging with an opposite guiding member (33) which is arranged on the door handle (20) is disposed along the protruding section (64) of the guiding element (50).

Description

Refrigerator with door opening aid

The present invention relates to a refrigeration device with a door hinged to its heat-insulating housing, a door handle mounted on the door so as to be rotatable about an axis and designed as a two-armed lever, and a guide element which carries a guide rail which is concentric with the axis and which engages in a in the door handle engages formed guide rail. Such a refrigerator is known from EP 0 891524 B1.

In refrigeration appliances, in particular those with large doors, door opening aids are increasingly being installed which make it easier for a user to open the door against a closing force, which e.g. can be generated by magnetic attraction of a magnetic seal or a negative pressure prevailing in the device. In particular, such a negative pressure, which arises when air that has penetrated into the interior of the device after opening the door, can produce a considerable closing force, so that when a user pulls over the closing force to pull the door, it may possibly the stability of the refrigerator can be impaired. In the refrigeration device known from EP 0 891 524 B1, a door handle is used as a door opening aid which, instead of being rigidly attached to the door, is rotatably connected to it about an axis and is made up of two lever arms extending from the axis, a longer, which serves as a handle for opening the door, and a shorter one, which is supported on the housing when the handle is actuated and thus spreads the door away from the housing.

A problem with such a door opening aid is that there must be a certain amount of play between the axis and the door handle so that the door handle can be freely pivoted, but the axis is generally quite short and the rotation of the door handle about the axis consequently has little stability can lead. This low stability can cause a lack of durability and quality of the refrigerator in a user, which must be avoided.

To stabilize the pivoting movement, EP 0 891 524 B1 therefore uses a guide rail which is concentric with the axis and which engages in a counter-guide rail formed on the handle and designed as a counter-guide. This known guide rail is designed as a cranked edge of a metal plate which is attached to a side flank of the door. The cranked edge protrudes laterally from the door and is covered by the door handle. This therefore has a significant lateral projection on the door, it even extends beyond the line of alignment of the side wall of the housing. This lateral projection makes it impossible to set up the known cooling device in direct lateral contact with a second device.

In principle, this problem could be solved by making the door of the refrigerator narrower; then, however, the magnetic seal attached to the door would also have to be shifted inwards, and the contact area for the magnetic seal on the front of the device housing would have to be widened in order to continue to allow tight contact between the magnetic seal and the housing. This would not only require design changes to the refrigeration device housing, in addition, storage volume inside it would also be lost.

The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a refrigeration device with a door handle acting as a door opening aid, in which the lateral protrusion of the door handle over the door is reduced, preferably to the extent that several such refrigeration devices can be placed in contact next to one another without the Door handle of one abuts the door or a door handle of an adjacent device.

The object is achieved by a box device having the features of claim 1.

Since, in the known refrigeration device, the guide rail is arranged opposite the side cheek of the door, an offset and thus a lateral distance of the guide rail from the side cheek of the door is required in order to be able to grip the guide rail with the counter-guide rail on both sides. According to the invention, by shifting the guide rail to a region of the guide element which projects beyond the side cheek of the door, such a cranking is superfluous, and the lateral projection of the door handle over the door can be reduced by the strength of the guide and the fastening of the door handle without loss of stability Cranking can be reduced. Preferably, the guide element in the refrigeration device according to the invention is simply designed as a flat plate. Because the guide element is designed as a flat plate, its manufacture is significantly simplified and therefore very inexpensive. This plate is preferably in the form of a segment of a circle, expediently at least a central section of the curved edge of this plate forming the guide rail.

It is further preferred that the protruding area having the guide rail projects forward from the door, i.e. protrudes beyond the side flank in the tangential direction from the housing of the refrigerator.

In order to effectively stabilize the pivoting movement of the door handle, it is desirable that the counter-guide rail extends over the largest possible angle; preferably the ends of the counter guide rail should span an angle of at least 120 ° with respect to the axis. At the same time, the actuating force exerted on the door handle is introduced over a relatively large area and thus very evenly via the guide element in the door.

On the other hand, the spanned angle must not be too large so that the ends of the counter-guide rail do not unduly impair the desired freedom of pivoting of the door handle by bumping against the door. From this point of view, it is preferable that the ends of the counter guide rail and the axis span an angle of at most 130 °.

Further features and advantages of the invention result from the following description of an exemplary embodiment with reference to the attached figures. Show it:

1 is a perspective view of a freezer according to the present invention;

2 shows a side view of the door handle mounted on the door of the refrigeration device, which illustrates the principle of operation of the door opening aid;

3 shows a section through the door handle along the plane III-III from FIG. 2; 4 shows a view of the door handle from the side facing the door;

5 shows a plan view of the guide element of the door handle; and

Fig. 6 shows a section through the door handle mounted on the door.

1 shows, as an example of a refrigeration device according to the invention, a household freezer 10, the heat-insulating housing 11 of which has a freezer space 12 which serves to hold frozen food containers 13 arranged one above the other and which are accessible via an access opening on the housing 11. The access opening can be covered by a door 14 attached to the housing 11, which in the covered state rests elastically on the edge of the access opening via a magnetic seal 15. To open the door 14, a door handle 20 rotatably mounted thereon is provided on its side cheek 16 opposite the stop side. As can be seen in particular from FIG. 2, the door handle 20 is designed as a two-armed lever which is rotatably mounted about an axis of rotation 23, the lever arms 21, 22 of which have a different lever length 11 and 12, the lever arm 22 having the shorter lever length 12.

The door handle 20 is constructed from a tubular section 24 and a section adjoining this over part of the length of the tubular section 24 in the form of an angle profile 25, as shown in FIG. 2. A leg 26 of the angle profile 25 adjoining the section 24 extends approximately parallel to the front of the door 14; the second leg 27, which is connected to the leg 26 via a curve, is rotatably in contact with the side wall 16 of the door. In the position of the door handle 20 shown in solid lines in FIG. 2, a buffer 28, which forms the end of the lever arm 22, bears against the front edge of the housing 11. When a user pulls on the lever arm 22, the buffer 28 presses against this front edge and spreads the door 14 off the housing 11.

The position of the door handle 20 in this state is shown in Fig. 2 with dashed lines. FIG. 3 shows a section through the door handle 20 at the level III-III from FIG. 2. On the inside of the leg 27, a recess 30 is formed which surrounds a flat, pin-shaped extension 31. A bore 32, which is provided to receive a pin for the rotatable fastening of the door handle 20, runs through the extension 31 coaxially to the axis 23. The recess 30 merges at its edge facing the leg 26 into a groove 33 oriented radially to the axis 23.

Fig. 4 shows a side view of the door handle 20, seen from the side facing the door 14 in the assembled state. At both ends of the groove 33, the edge 40 of the recess is extended in a circular arc.

FIG. 5 shows a metal plate 50 which is provided in order to be fastened to the side cheek 16 of the door and to be inserted into the recess 30 in the door handle 20. The metal plate 50 with a thickness of approximately 1.5 mm has a circular segment shape which is complementary to the groove 33, its circular-arc-shaped edge 53 continuously extending over an angle of more than 180 ° and its center lying centrally in an opening 51 in the plate 50. The opening 51 is an elongated hole which receives the extension 31 in the assembled state. The shorter dimension of the opening 51 corresponds to the diameter of the extension 31 with little play, and the longer dimension D in the vertical is only slightly larger than d. Two further openings 52 serve to fasten the plate 50 to the door 14.

Fig. 6 shows a horizontal section through the door handle 20 and part of the door 14 in the assembled state. The front 17 and side wall 16 of the door 14 and a curved section 18 connecting them are formed in one piece by a sheet metal 60 which encloses an insulating layer 61 made of polyurethane foam. A pin 63 which defines the position of the pivot axis 23 extends through the bore 32 of the door handle 20. The pin 63 has a flat, wide head 65, which is received flush in an outer, wide portion of the bore 32, one to the Shaft 66 adjoining head 65, which crosses a narrower section of bore 32 and rests with a shoulder on side cheek 16, and a threaded section 67 adjoining the shoulder. The length of shaft 66 is dimensioned such that door handle 20 is between head 65 and the side wall 16 has not just been pinched and can thus be freely pivoted about the axis 23. On the side wall 16 of the door 14, on the inside of the sheet 60, a reinforcing plate 62 is attached, in which three screw threads are formed, two for screws (not shown), which extend through the openings 52 of the plate 50, and a third thread 65 for the threaded section 67 of the pin 63. The screws passed through the openings 52 hold the plate 50 pressed flat against the side wall 16, so that a front section 64 of the plate 50 projects tangentially forward over the edge of the side wall 16. The edge 53 of this section 64 positively engages in the groove 33 of the door handle 20. The edge 53 and the groove 33 thus form an arrangement of intermeshing guide rail and counter-guide rail for the pivoting movement of the door handle 20. At the same time, the flat projection 31 engages in the opening 51 of the plate 50. In this way, an exact, tilt-free guidance of its pivoting movement is achieved with a minimal lateral projection of the door handle 20.

Claims

claims

1. Refrigerator with a on its heat-insulating housing (11) hinged door (14), on the door (14) about an axis (23) rotatably mounted as a two-armed lever door handle (20), which is a longer than

Handle for opening the door serving lever arm (21) and a shorter lever arm (22) which is supported on the housing (11) when the handle is actuated, and a guide element (50) mounted on a surface (16) of the door (14), which carries a guide rail (53) which is concentric with the axis (23) and which is provided in a guide rail (20)

Counter-guide (33) engages, characterized in that the guide element (50) protrudes laterally over an edge of the surface (16) of the door (14), and in that the guide rail (53) on the projecting region (64) of the guide element (50) is formed.

2. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that the guide rail (53) and the counter-guide (33) cooperate in the manner of a tongue and groove connection.

3. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the

Guide element (50) is a flat plate.

4. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 3, characterized in that the plate (50) is designed in the form of a segment of a circle.

5. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the laterally projecting area (64) of the plate (50) protrudes from the front of the door (14).

6. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the counter-guide (33) is designed as a receiving groove for the guide rail (53) and is integrally formed on the handle (20).

7. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the ends of the counter-guide (33) with respect to the center of the axis (23) span an angle of at least 120 °.

8. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the ends of the counter-guide (33) with respect to the center of the axis (23) span an angle of at most 130 °.

9. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the door handle (20) has a peg-shaped extension (31) which is in an opening

(51) engages the plate (50) through which the axis (23) extends.

10. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 9, characterized in that the axis (23) is fixed by a pin (63) crossing the opening (51) of the plate (50) and a bore of the extension (31).