WO2015189777A1

WO2015189777A1 - Household appliance

Info

Publication number: WO2015189777A1
Application number: PCT/IB2015/054373
Authority: WO
Inventors: Benhe Dou; Shanshan HUANG; Yunfang Sun; Bernd Osbar; Daniel Wengert
Original assignee: BSH Hausgeräte GmbH
Priority date: 2014-06-12
Filing date: 2015-06-10
Publication date: 2015-12-17
Also published as: EP3155340B1; PL3155340T3; EP3155340A1; CN105222502A; CN105222502B

Abstract

Disclosed is a household appliance, including a shell (10) that accommodates at least one electric part and a lid (11), where the lid (11) is fixed to the shell (10) through at least one connecting member (17, 24), the connecting member (17, 24) includes a terminal (25), and by operating the terminal (25), the lid (11) can be removed from the shell (10), and as suggested herein, the terminal (25) is at least partially located in an edge (26) of the lid (11).

Description

HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCE

BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of household appliances, and in particular, to a household appliance with a shell.

Related Art

In the existing household appliance, such as a refrigerator, it is necessary to dispose a temperature control box for placing, for example, a temperature control board, and as the temperature control board may break down after long-time use, the temperature control box must be removed so as to detect, repair or replace the temperature control board. The above demand needs that the closing lid of the temperature control box should facilitate removal; therefore, the lid may be generally exposed to a surface of the refrigerator or exposed in front of a user after the refrigerator door is opened. In the perspective of beauty, it is hoped that the user is not easily aware of the difference between the lid and outer walls of the refrigerator around the lid; therefore, the surface of the lid is formed in the same color as that of the outer walls of the refrigerator, the lid is disposed as that an outer surface of the lid and the outer walls of the refrigerator around the lid are located in the same plane, and a gap between the edge of the lid and the outer walls of the refrigerator is kept as small as possible, which is not easily perceived by the user. As the closing lid of the temperature control box should facilitate removal, and in order to be beautiful, there may not be a gap between the lid of the temperature control box and the outer walls of the refrigerator around the lid as much as possible; such structure increases the difficulty of removing the lid. At present, two solutions are adopted for the above situation: 1. the lid is fixed to the temperature control box through screws, and in order to block exposed screws, a decorative sheet is added on a metal plate of the refrigerator in front of the lid, so that problems of removal and beauty of the lid can be simultaneously solved, but it is not desired to add a decorative sheet on a metal plate in some refrigerator series; and 2. the lid is fixed to the temperature control box through a buckle, then a smaller operation hole not easily perceived is disposed at a certain distance from the lid, for example, below the top wall of the refrigerator, and an action bar is inserted into the operation hole to remotely strike the elastic part where a latch or slot in the buckle is, so as to remove the lid. Practices have proven that, in such structure, because the latch or slot is farther from the operation hole and an operator cannot see that the latch or slot is struck by the action bar, it is easy to cause the elastic part where the latch or slot is to produce a bending greater than expected due to too much operation strength, resulting in fracture of the elastic part, and the fracture of the elastic part requires replacement of a new box body or a new lid.

SUMMARY

In order to solve the problem mentioned in Related Art that it is not easy to remove the lid from the shell or the removal is prone to damaging the lid or the shell, the present invention proposes a household appliance having a shell with a lid easy to remove.

In order to achieve the objective, the present invention provides a household appliance, including a shell that accommodates at least one electric part and a lid, where the lid is fixed to the shell through at least one connecting member, the connecting member includes a terminal, by operating the terminal, the lid can be removed from the shell, and the terminal is at least partially located in an edge of the lid.

The terminal is at least partially disposed in the edge of the lid, under the action of, for example, a suction cup or another adsorption device, such that the lid slightly moves a short distance outwards, the distance is substantially equal to the thickness of the edge of the lid, the edge of the lid is pulled out to be higher than walls of the household appliance around the lid, and as the lid can be removed from the shell by operating the terminal, the lid can be removed from the shell more conveniently by pushing the terminal exposed and located in the edge of the lid through, for example, a sheet. The removing manner is relatively reliable, and the operator can see, for example, the sheet pushing the terminal during the whole operation, and can control strength and amplitude of the operation, thereby avoiding damage to the connecting member on the lid caused by operational errors.

At least one recess is disposed in the edge of the lid, and the terminal is at least partially located in the recess. In order to make a beautiful effect, an opening of the recess faces the interior of the shell. The depth of the recess is less than half of the thickness of the lid, and preferably, the depth of the recess is a quarter of the thickness of the lid; on the one hand, it can ensure that the terminal has a certain thickness, which is, for example, a quarter of the thickness of the lid, to facilitate the operation, and if the terminal is too thin, the terminal is easily broken during the operation, or it is difficult to push the sheet used for the operation to the terminal; on the other hand, it is necessary to ensure security of the lid, if the terminal is too thick, the thickness of the lid corresponding to the recess where the terminal is is definitely thinner, and there is a risk of fracture if the lid is too thin.

When the lid is fixed to the shell, the connecting member is completely located in the shell, and the connecting member cannot be seen from the outside, which meets the requirements of beauty.

The connecting member includes an elastic part, the terminal is an end portion of the elastic part, and the lid can be removed from the shell by operating the terminal to cause a change in the shape of the elastic part.

The connecting member is a buckle, the buckle includes a first fastener fixed to the shell and a second fastener fixed to the lid, and the first fastener and the second fastener are used in conjunction with each other. The terminal is a part of the second fastener, that is, in the embodiment, the terminal is fixed to the lid.

A buffer part is located between the elastic part and the lid, and the buffer part is to protect the elastic part on the second fastener, to avoid that the elastic part fractures due to too much amplitude of bending. The buffer part is actually also an elastic sheet in a bending shape, one end of the buffer is fixed to the elastic part, and the other end of the buffer abuts against an extending wall of the lid, which produces a displacement relative to the extending wall of the lid when being subject to a force.

The shell has an opening, and the lid and the opening have substantially the same size, so that the lid perfectly closes the opening, a smaller gap not easily perceived is formed between the lid and the walls of the household appliance around the lid, and the color of the lid is identical with the color of the walls of the household appliance around the lid, and thus a better appearance can be maintained.

The household appliance further includes a guide part that guides the lid to move relative to the shell, and the guide part includes a guide projection and a guide recess used in conjunction with the guide projection, for example, the guide projection can be disposed on the extending wall of the lid and the guide recess is disposed on an inner wall of the shell, and when the extending wall of the lid is inserted into the shell, under cooperative use and guide of the guide projection and the guide recess, members including the first fastener and the second fastener can be in correct positions, which facilitates installation of the lid and the shell.

The household appliance is a refrigerator, a washing machine or a gas cooktop.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the disclosure, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a three-door refrigerator in a household appliance according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a shell of a temperature control box on the top wall of the three-door refrigerator;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a lid of the temperature control box;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of Part C in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing that a terminal of a connecting member is located in an edge of the lid;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing that a latch and a slot of a buckle are used in conjunction;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing that a wall of the refrigerator is a metal plate and has a temperature control box;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged view of Part A in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing that a wall of the refrigerator includes a metal plate and a decorative sheet and has a temperature control box; and

FIG. 10 is an enlarged view of Part B in FIG. 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 illustrates a three-door refrigerator 1, including a refrigerating chamber 37 located in an upper portion, a middle chamber 36 located in a middle portion, a freezing chamber 35 located in a lower portion as well as a refrigerating chamber door 34, a middle chamber door 33 and a freezing chamber door 32 of the three chambers respectively, above the refrigerating chamber 37, that is, the top wall of the refrigerator, is a temperature control chamber 10, 11 (see FIG. 2 and FIG. 3) used for placing a temperature controller or other PCB boards, an outer surface 5 of a cover plate 2 of a lid 11 of the temperature control chamber 10, 11 is exposed to a front wall 12 of the top wall of the refrigerator, the front wall 12 is a metal plate, in order to be beautiful, the outer surface 5 of the cover plate 2 and the metal plate 12 are located on the same plane and in the same color, and a gap between the cover plate 2 and the metal plate 12 around the cover plate 2 is ensured to be as small as possible, to avoid being easily perceived. When the refrigerating chamber door 34 closes the refrigerating chamber 37, the cover plate 12 is blocked by the refrigerating chamber door 34, and in addition, a switch that triggers power supply of bulbs in the refrigerating chamber 37 may also be disposed on the front wall 12 of the top wall of the refrigerator, which is not detailed herein as the switch is a common design.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 respectively illustrate a shell 10 of the temperature control chamber and a lid 11 that closes the shell 10, the shell 10 is substantially a cuboid, an extending region is disposed on a corner of a rear wall of the cuboid to adapt to the shape of a PCB board, an opening 22 of the shell 10 is rectangular, two sidewalls of the shell 10 are respectively provided with a first fastener 17 playing a role of connecting and fixing, in this embodiment, the first fastener 17 is a projection, and a guide projection 21 playing a role of guiding is disposed on a lower wall in the shell 10. The lid 11 has a cover plate 2 and four walls 27, 28 extending from an inner surface 4 of the cover plate 2 to a direction of a rear wall of the shell 10, two adjacent walls in the four walls are vertically connected with each other, to form a hollow part whose cross section is rectangular, one wall 28 in the four walls is provided thereon with a guide recess 23 used in conjunction with the guide projection 21 disposed on the inner wall of the shell 10, the guide projection 21 and the guide recess 23 are used in conjunction with each other, so that the lid 11 can be in a correct position when entering the shell 10, to facilitate the lid 11 to be connected to the shell 10. Two extending walls 27 vertically connected with the wall 28 where the guide recess 23 is are provided thereon with a second fastener 27 respectively, and reference can be made to FIG. 4 for the specific structure of the second fastener 27. One end 3 of the second fastener 27 is fixed to one of the extending wall 27, the fixed end 3 is almost flush with an end portion of the extending wall 27, the fixed end 3 includes two fixed pins 8 which are fixed to the extending wall 27 and are parallel to each other and a connecting piece 9 that connects the two fixed pins 8, the second fastener 27 further includes an elastic part 18 that can generate deformation, the elastic part 18 and the connecting piece 9 are an integral structure, the main body of the elastic part 18 is substantially parallel to the extending wall 27, a first slot 20 and a second slot 15 are arranged on the elastic part 18 side by side, an arrangement direction of the first slot 20 and the second slot 15 is perpendicular to a surface of the cover plate 2 of the lid 11, the first slot 20 is closer to the cover plate 2 than the second slot 15, the first slot 20 and the second slot 15 can be used in conjunction with the first fastener 17, that is, the projection. A distance between the first slot 20 and the second slot 15 is designed to be equal to the thickness of a decorative sheet 14 (see FIG. 10) to be added on the metal plate 12 of the refrigerator. Between the elastic part 18 and the extending wall 27 there is a buffer part 19, and the buffer part 19 is to protect the elastic part 18 on the second fastener 27, to avoid that the elastic part 18 fractures due to too much amplitude of bending. The buffer part 19 is actually also an elastic sheet in a bending shape, one end of the buffer part is fixed to the elastic part 18, and the other end of the buffer part abuts against the extending wall 27 of the lid, which produces a displacement relative to the extending wall 27 when being subject to a force. One end of the elastic part 18 is connected with the connecting piece 9, the other end is connected with a terminal 25, the terminal 25 is an operating piece perpendicular to the elastic part 18 and the extending wall 27, the operating piece 25 is completely located in a recess 29 of the inner surface 4 of the cover plate 2, an opening of the recess 29 faces the interior of the shell 10, and the depth of the recess 29 is substantially a quarter of the thickness of the cover plate 2 (see FIG. 5); on the one hand, it can ensure that the operating piece 25 has a certain thickness, to facilitate the operation, and if the operating piece 25 is too thin, the operating piece 25 is easily broken during the operation, or it is difficult to operate the operating piece 25; on the other hand, it can ensure security of the cover plate 2, if the operating piece 25 is too thick, the thickness of the cover plate 2 corresponding to the recess 29 where the operating piece 25 is is definitely thinner, and there is a risk of fracture if the cover plate 2 is too thin. As mentioned above, a first slot 20 and a second slot 15 are arranged on the elastic part 18 side by side, referring to FIG. 6, the first slot 20 and the second slot 15 are located on the elastic part 18 and form an integral structure with the elastic part 18, it would be best that an angle of an acute angle D formed by intersection between an inclined surface of the first slot 20 and the second slot 15 and a surface of the elastic part 18 is less than 45 degrees, in this embodiment, the angle D is 30 degrees, the smaller the angle D is, the more easily the latch 17 is detached from the slots 15, 20, but a too small angle is not good for fixing the latch 17 and the slots 15, 20. In addition, a smaller angle, for example, 30 degrees, causes the latch 17 to easily produce a small displacement from the slots 15, 20 under the action of a small external force. For example, the latch 17 is located in the second slot 15, a suction cup or another adsorption device is used to adsorb the outer surface 5 of the cover plate 2 and pull the cover plate 2 outwards, the latch 17 will move a small displacement relative to the second slot 15 in FIG. 6, which simultaneously causes the cove plate 2 to slightly move a short distance outwards, and the short distance is sufficient to cause a sidewall 26 of the cover plate 2 of the lid 11 to be higher than the walls of the household appliance around the lid; therefore, the lid 11 can be removed from the shell 10 more conveniently by pushing the operating piece 25 exposed located in the sidewall 26 of the lid 11 through a member like, for example, a sheet. The removing manner is relatively reliable, and the operator can see, for example, the sheet pushing the operating piece 25 during the whole operation, and can control strength and amplitude of the operation, thereby avoiding damage to the connecting member on the lid 11 caused by operational errors.

FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 illustrate a connecting relationship between a temperature control box 10, 11 and a metal plate 12 when the wall of the refrigerator is only the metal plate 12. The temperature control box 10, 11 is a cuboid, whose rear wall 6 is different from the shell 10 in FIG. 2, the latch 17 is located in the first slot 20 closer to the cover plate 2, the metal plate 12 has a vertical portion 16, which has a bending end and is perpendicular to the metal plate 12 on the front wall of the top of the refrigerator, near an opening of the temperature control box 10, 11, and the shell 10 is fixed to the vertical portion 16 of the metal plate. An outer surface of the cover plate 2 and the metal plate 12 around the cover plate 2 are located on the same plane, and almost no obvious gap exists therebetween. FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 illustrate a connecting relationship between the temperature control box 10, 11, the metal plate 12 and a decorative sheet 14 after the decorative sheet 14 is added on the metal plate 12. The latch 17 is located in the second slot 15 farther from the cover plate 2, the shell 10 is still fixed to the vertical portion 16 of the metal plate, the outer surface of the cover plate 2 and the decorative sheet 14 around the cover plate 2 are located on the same plane, and almost no obvious gap exists therebetween. The thickness of the decorative sheet 14 is equal to the distance between the first slot 20 and the second slot 15.

List of reference signs:

1 : refrigerator 20: first slot

2: cover plate 21 : guide part

3 : fixed terminal 22: opening

4: inner surface of the cover plate 23 : guide slot

5: outer surface of the cover plate 24: second fastener

6: rear wall of the shell 25: operating piece

7: front wall on the top of the refrigerator 26: sidewall of the cover plate

10: accommodating shell 27: extending wall

11 : lid 29: recess

12: front wall of the top wall of the 30: right edge of the lid

refrigerator (metal plate) 31 : left edge of the lid

14: decorative sheet 32: freezing chamber door

15: second slot 33 : middle chamber door

16: vertical metal plate 34: refrigerating chamber door

17: latch 35: freezing chamber

18: elastic part 36: middle chamber

19: buffer part 37: refrigerating chamber

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A household appliance, comprising a shell (10) that accommodates at least one electric part and a lid (1 1), wherein the lid (11) is fixed to the shell (10) through at least one connecting member (17, 24), the connecting member (17, 24) comprises a terminal (25), and by operating the terminal (25), the lid (11) can be removed from the shell (10), characterized in that, the terminal (25) is at least partially located in an edge (26) of the lid (11).

2. The household appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that, at least one recess (29) is disposed in the edge (26) of the lid (11), and the terminal (25) is at least partially located in the recess (29).

3. The household appliance according to claim 2, characterized in that, the depth of the recess (29) is less than half of the thickness of the lid (11).

4. The household appliance according to claim 3, characterized in that, the depth of the recess (29) is a quarter of the thickness of the lid (11).

5. The household appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that, when the lid (11) is fixed to the shell (10), the connecting member (17, 24) is completely located in the shell (10).

6. The household appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that, the connecting member (17, 24) comprises an elastic part (18), and the terminal (25) is an end portion of the elastic part (18).

7. The household appliance according to claim 6, characterized in that, the connecting member (17, 24) is a buckle.

8. The household appliance according to claim 7, characterized in that, the buckle (17, 24) comprises a first fastener (17) fixed to the shell (10) and a second fastener (24) fixed to the lid (11), and the first fastener (17) and the second fastener (24) are used in conjunction with each other.

9. The household appliance according to claim 8, characterized in that, the terminal (25) is a part of the second fastener (24).

10. The household appliance according to claim 7, characterized by further comprising a buffer part (19), which is located between the elastic part (18, 25) and the lid (11).

11. The household appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that, the shell (10) has an opening (22), and the lid (11) and the opening (22) have substantially the same size.

12. The household appliance according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising a guide part (21, 23) that guides the lid (11) to move relative to the shell (10).

13. The household appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that, the guide part (21, 23) comprises a guide projection (21) and a guide recess (23) used in conjunction with the guide projection (21).

14. The household appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that, the household appliance is a refrigerator, a washing machine or a gas cooktop.