GB2176884A

GB2176884A - Refrigerator door assembly

Info

Publication number: GB2176884A
Application number: GB08613632A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Hans-Reinhard Janssen
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1985-06-20
Filing date: 1986-06-05
Publication date: 1987-01-07
Also published as: FR2583861B1; ES296932U; FR2583861A1; CH670694A5; ES296932Y; IT1204388B; DE8517955U1; GB8613632D0; GB2176884B; IT8620776A0

Abstract

A refrigerator door assembly comprises a door with storage bins 14, (15) which are removably arranged on its inner side between at least two vertically extending bracket members 11, (12) and intended for the reception of foodstuffs to be cooled. Each bin is in the form of an approximately rectangular container which may be mounted on the door in a variable height position. For that purpose, grooves (18) extending inclined downwardly towards the inside of the door are arranged at the flanks of the bracket members 11, (12) and receive correspondingly inclined retaining elements 17 at the narrow end faces of the bins. The inclination in that case is about 30 DEG relative to the horizontal. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Refrigerator door assembly The present invention relates to a refrigerator door assembly.

Arranged at the flanks of support struts in known refrigerator doors are laterally protruding strips and/or knobs on which the storage containers, correspondingly equipped with laterally arranged grooves, are removably insertable at different height positions. Production of the strips and/or knobs requires use of complicated and therefore expensive moulding tools, while grooves arranged at the sides of the containers project inwardly into the container and thereby reduce their usable width. Moreover, it is necessary to mount at the struts and/or at the containers additional securing devices to ensure firm seating of the containers between the struts and prevent them from detaching and falling down on rapid opening or slamming of the refrigerator door.

For this reason, the strips at the flanks of the struts, as well as the grooves at the narrow end faces of the containers, are strongly inclined in a construction described in DE-GM 8416511. This has the consequence that the containers, on removal and transfer to another height position or another arrangement at the inside of the door, must be perpendicularly withdrawn and also be raised strongly. This has the disadvantage that the containers must be emptied each time before the transfer and subsequently refilled. Moreover, the transfer of the containers is difficult in this construction, because the connecting elements are hard to see.

There is thus scope for simplification of such refrigerator doors and to reduce or eliminate the disadvantages present in known constructions.

According to the present invention there is provided a refrigerator door assembly comprising a door provided at an inner side thereof, intended in use to face into a refrigerator cabinet, with at least two vertical bracket members each provided with a plurality of vertically spaced grooves extending at an inclination downwardly towards the inner side face of the door and a plurality of horizontally elongate storage bins each provided at its ends with downwardly inclined retaining elements so engaged in selectable ones of the grooves as to removably mount the bin on the door at a selectable one of a plurality of different heights.

In a preferred embodiment, the bins are removably arranged on the door inner side face between at least two vertically extending bracket members, the bins being intended for the reception of foodstuffs to be cooled and having the form of approximately rectangular containers which, by retaining elements arranged at their narrow sides and in the flanks of the bracket members, are shape-lockingly inserted in the door in different height positions.

Grooves extending at an inclination downwardly towards the inside of the door are arranged at the flanks of the bracket members and receive storage containers equipped with correspondingly inclined retaining elements at their narrow end faces. By means of such a door assembly, it may be possible with good space utilisation to achieve height positioning of the bins even in highly loaded state and thereby simplify the operation of a refrigerator equipped with such a door assembly.

Preferably, the grooves and the retaining elements have an inclination of about 30 of angle relative to the horizontal.

For preference, the narrow side of at least one of the bins removably inserted between the bracket members is at least approximately twice as wide as the depth of the members. In this manner, the inner side of the refrigerator door can be manufactured more easily without the size of the deposit surface being impaired thereby.

The retaining elements at the bins can be constructed as laterally open projections bounded at their longer sides by approximately parallel arms.

The front side of at least one bin can project forward beyond the depth of the bracket members and be widened to cover about half the width of the associated members, wherein the widening provides abutments abutting against the members.

The handling of the bins, which are arranged vertically displaceably at the inside of the door, can be facilitated if the front side of the bin is constructed to be double-walled with a downwardly open space.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a simplified perspective view of a refrigerator door assembly embodying the invention; Figure 2 is a partially sectional side view of part of the door assembly, showing a door bracket member supporting several storage bins in an arrangement different from that of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a perspective view of one form of such a bin and Figure 4 is an exploded perspective view of another form of such a bin.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a refrigerator door assembly in which storage containers 13, 14 and 15, intended for the reception of foodstuffs to be cooled, are removably arranged between vertical bracket members 11 and 12 at the inside of a refrigerator door 10. The containers 13 in that case extend over the full usable width of the inside of the door 10 and are arranged near its upper and lower edges. The lower container 13, intended in particular for the reception of bottles, is in that case equipped with a retaining bar 16. The remaining containers 14 and 15 thereagainst occupy only about half the width of the inside of the door 10.

The containers 15, constructed in the form of rectangular bowls, and the containers 14 are equipped with retaining elements 17, which are arranged at their narrow end faces and insertable into grooves 18, which are provided at the flanks of the members 11 and 12, respectively, and extend downwardly inclined towards the inside of the door, the elements 17 having an inclination corre sponding to the grooves. The inclination of the grooves 18 and elements 17 relative to the horizontal is preferably about 30". The narrow sides of the containers 14 and 15, which are removably inserted between the members 11 and 12, are at least approximately as wide as the depth of these members. In this manner, a sufficiently large deposit surface results with simple manufacture of the facing for the inside of the door.The elements 17 are, for the sake of simpler manufacture and material processing, constructed as laterally open projections bounded at their long sides by parallel walls.

The containers 15 project forward by their front sides beyond the depth of the members 11 and 12 and are in addition widened at their front sides to about half the width of the members. This results in formation of a step 19 which serves as an abutment against the members 11 and 12.

The front side of each container 15 is, as is evident particularly from Figure 3, constructed to be double-walled with a downwardly facing opening.

This provides a handle strip which facilitates the manipulation of the containers 15, particularly in the filled state. Moreover, the front side of each container 15 is provided at its upper edge with an oblique surface 20, which is downwardly inclined outwards and which apart from an improved external appearance facilitates charging of the container with foodstuffs to be cooled.

Each container 14, the basic structure of which corresponds to that of the container 15, has a shortened rim 21 at its front side. The container 14 is closable by a flap 22 which is pivotable about a horizontal axis and resiliently held in a closed position by a leaf spring 23. To facilitate manipulation, the flap is provided with a handle aperture 20 in the middle of its upper side. The height of the flap 27 approximately corresponds to the spacing from the container disposed thereabove so that an almost closed space results on closure of the flap 22.

The containers 14 and 15 can be varied in height position and inter-changed according to the arrangement of the grooves 18 in the flanks of the members 11 and 12, so that the inside of the door 10 can be altered in simple manner at any time according to requirements. For this purpose, it is merely necessary to detach the containers through slight raising and withdrawal from the grooves 17 and to reinsert them at the appropriate new position.

Claims

1. A refrigerator door assembly comprising a door provided at an inner side thereof, intended in use to face into a refrigerator cabinet, with at least two vertical bracket members each provided with a plurality of vertically spaced grooves extending at an inclination downwardly towards the inner side face of the door and a plurality of horizontally elongate storage bins each provided at its ends with downwardly inclined retaining elements so engaged in selectable ones of the grooves as to removably mount the bin on the door at a selectable one of a plurality of different heights.

2. A door assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the grooves and the retaining elements includes an angle of substantially 30 with the horizontal.

3. A door assembly as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the dimension of each of the bins in a direction away from the door inner side face is substantially twice the dimension of each bracket member in that direction.

4. A door assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein each of the retaining elements has the form of an elongate projection with two substantially parallel arms defining longer sides of the projection and bounding an opening therein.

5. A door assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one of the bins has a horizontally enlarged front portion which extends over substantially half of each of the bracket members with grooves receiving the retaining elements of that bin and which defines abutments abutting those bracket members.

6. A door assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one of the bins is provided at a side thereof remote from the door inner side face with a double wall bounding a downwardly open space.

7. A door assembly as claimed in claim 6, wherein the or each bin with said double wall is provided at the upper edge of the double wall with a bevel.

8. A door assembly as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein at least one of the bins has a front portion of reduced height and includes a cover member pivotably mounted on said front portion and urged by resilient means into a closed position.

9. A door assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, comprising three such bracket members, one of the members being arranged between and equidistantly spaced from the other two members.

10. A door assembly as claimed in claim 9, wherein said one bracket member is shorter than the other two bracket members.

11. A door assembly as claimed in claim 10, wherein said one bracket member extends down to approximately the level of the start of the lower third of each of the other two bracket members.

12. A refrigerator door assembly substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.