US2779169A - Refrigerator with can dispenser - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 29, 1957 V. G. SHARPE ETAL REFRIGERATOR WITH CAN DISPENSER 7 Sheeis-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 19, 1954 IN ENTORS M2405 61 me)": BY fpwaeo 6'. 51/7/1006 77/5/11;- flrrawvry Jan. 29, 1957 Filed Jan. l9, 1954 v. G. SHARPE ET AL 2,779,169

REFRIGERATOR WITH CAN DISPENSER 7- Sheets-Sheet 2 .INVENTORS Jan. 29, 1957 v. G. SHARPE EI'AL REFRIGERATOR WITH CAN DISPENSER 7 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan. 19, 1954 INVENTORS 6? Sharpe BY Edward C Simmons 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Jan. 19, 1954 INVENTORS l/aezas 656 08 BY [0 ween C. 5717/70/75 Jan. 29, 1957 v. G. SHARPE ET AL REFRIGERATOR WITH CAN DISPENSER 7 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Jan. 19, 1954 .I\ II! I l| lllll'l'l[I IZIIIIIIIIIlllrlll lllllllllllllfi lllllll- INVENTOR5 Vmms a. SHARP:

' [aw/m0 6. SIMMOMS BY Max/ 41 Jan. 29, 1957 v. G. SHARPE ET AL 2,779,169

REFRIGERATOR WITH CAN DISPENSER Filed Jan. 19, 1954 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 P /00 INVENTORS VERLOS G. SHARPE EDWARD C. SIMMONS in THE/E ATTORNEY Jan. 29, 1957 v. G. SHARPE ET AL 2,779,169

REFRIGERATOR WITH CAN DISPENSER Filed Jan. 19, 1954 7 Sheets-Sheet 7 IN V EN TOR.

Ver/os 6. Sharpe By fc/ward 6. Simmons Their A2Horhey United States Patent REFRKGERATOR WITH CAN DISPENSER Verlos G. Sharpe and Edward C. Simmons, Dayton, ,Ohio, assignors to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Delaware Application January 19,, 1954, Serial him-404,922

7 Claims. (Cl. 62- 117.3)

This invention relates to refrigerating apparatus and more particularly to'refrigerated cabinets.

An object of this invention is toprovide a refrigerated cabinet having an improved frozen juice can dispenser in the cabinet.

Another object of this :invention is to provide a refrigerated cabinet with a tray compartment with a door swingable to a horizontal position and movable toward the back of the cabinet while in horizontal position.

Another object of this invention is to provide a refrigerated cabinet with a liner around which is Wrapped a sheet metal evaporator which discharges into a refrigerant accumulator which forms a hollow vertical partition.

Another object of this invention is :to provide a refrigerated cabinet having an outer casing formed of two vertical side walls joined by atop wall ,in sucha manner that it cooperates with a similar refrigerated cabinet either to be attached'side by side, or to be attached by an intermediate shelf section.

Another object of this invention is to provide a pair of adjacent refrigerated cabinets having, respectively, a food compartment automatically maintained at below freezing temperatures and a food compartmentautomatically maintained cool but above freezing temperatures and each compartment being provided with separate pairs of waist-high vertical doors movable vertically toward and away from each other.

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 invention is'clearly shown,

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view mainly=of the cabinet ;8;

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing the pair of cabinets and the intermediate shelf section;

Figure 3 is a view of a portion ofFigure '2;

Figure 4 is a top plan view, not in perspective, of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a vertical cross-sectional viewof the frozen food compartmentof cabinet8, taken slightly-behind the front of the cabinet;

Figure 6 is a horizontal cross-sectional view taken substantially along the line 66 of Figure 5;

Figure 7 is a cross-sectional viewsomewhat similar to Figure 5, but taken along :a vertical plane further back within the cabinetv and omitting the shelves can dispenser, and movable baskets;

Figure 8 is a vertical.cross-sectional-view taken substantially along the line 8--8 v of Figure -6;

Figure 9 is avertieal.view somewhat diagrammatioand somewhat cross-sectional, taken along a vertical ,plane, substantiallyalong the line 9.- 9 of Figure 5 Figure 10 is a view of partof Figure 9, showirng a door in horizontal outward position;

Figure 11 is a viewsimilar to :Figure .10, =-but showing the door in inward position;

Figure 12 is a horizontal cross-sectional view taken as shown.

Patented .Jan. ,29, 1957 :along the .line 12-12 of Figure 13 alongthe top of the includes an outer casing having two vertical side walls 10 and 11 joined'by a top wall 12. The wall 10 has .legs 13 and 14 at the front and back, and the wall 11 has .legs 15 and 16 at the front and back. This casing cooperates with a similar casing 17, having similar vertical walls joined by a top wall and provided with similar legs. The two cabinets may be attached side by side, as is readily apparent, or they maybe attached together by the shelf section 18. The shelf section 18, when at the corner of a .room, as shown, can be attached to the front edge 19 of the cabinet 17 and to the side Wall 11 of the first-described cabinet. The shelf section 18 itself -may includeside walls, a backside wall and a top wall joined together by shelves 20, 21 and 22. The side and back walls may be provided with supporting legs, or only one leg 25 need be provided when the attachment is firm to the two cabinets. The cabinet 8 is adapted to maintain foods in frozen condition, while cabinet 17 is adapted to maintain food in a cold condition, above a freezing temperature. The end cabinet 8 contains a complete electrically energized refrigerating system, the evaporator of which is maintained at below freezing temperatures. The cabinet 17 has a complete electrically actuated refrigerating system, the evaporator of which may be run on a defrosting cycle to maintain the food compartment cool but above 32 F. The food compartments of these cabinets are maintained at their proper temperatures, preferably by means of thermostats responsive to compartment and/ or evaporator temperatures to turn on and oif the electric motor which drives the compressor of the usual refrigerating system.

The refrigerated cabinet8 also includes a frozen juice can dispenser 30, supported on the hollow vertical partition 31 on one side, and a sheet metal vertical divider 32 onthe other side. The dispenser is further described elsewhere in this specification.

The cabinet 8 has a liner formed by four sheet metal boxes 40, 41, 42'and 43 (Fig. 7), with their adjacent walls slightly spaced from each other to form the hollow divider 31 previously described and the hollow dividers 45, 46 and 47. These boxes are supported at the front of the cabinet by-a one-piece U-shaped molding 50 to which the front edges of the boxes are secured at 51 and to which the outside cabinet walls 10 and 11 are secured A sheet metal refrigerant evaporator 48 is wrapped around the bottom walls of compartments 40 and 41, the outer walls of thesesame compartments and the top walls of these compartments, and if desired, the back walls. This sheet metal evaporator may have refrigerant passageways 49 formed in it in any desired manner and the refrigerant finally discharges into a refrigerant accumulator 60 in the hollow partition 31 and from thence into the motor compressor 61.

The refrigerant motor compressor 61 discharges compressed refrigerant into a condenser 62, which in turn the :formof sealed bags-49a, is placed around the outside walls of :the boxes 40, .41, .42 and 143, as shown.

The compressor 61 may be placed, for example, at the rearupper corner of ,the eabinet,.andth e condenser may -b,e :su pported at the rear of thecabinet, as shown. The

sheet metal divider 32, as wellas the hollow divider 31,

and other walls of the .boxes gform apluralityof .smaller compartments such as 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75. The

ment when the doors are brought together. 'matter of these two doors 101 and 102, aside from their for sliding such door horizontally inward when the door is in horizontal position. To this end, the two side walls of the smaller compartment before which the door 80 is placed, and similar door 81, are each provided with a metal door supporting member or means 83. Each opposed member 83 has a groove 84 formed therein and these grooves face one another and extend horizontally and backwardly into the cabinet. The door has a horizontally extending edge 85, having flanges 86 provided with outwardly extending pins 87 near the edge 85.

The pins 87 extend into the grooves 84. The grooves 84 are provided with means cooperating with the pins 87 to maintain the door in a vertical position, a horizontal position and to permit the door to slide horizontally inward along the grooves. To this end, the lower edge of the grooves 84 at the front is provided with a horizontal recess 90, which receives the pin 87 to form a hinge around which the door 80 swings most of the time. A spring clip 91 cooperates with another pin 92 carried by the flange 86 to hold the door 80 in vertical position but to permit it to be pulled to horizontal position. A stop bar 94 is placed near the lower edge 85 of the door which abuts against the lower edges 95 and 96 of the opposed supporting members 83 when the door is in horizontal position. When the door has been pulled to the horizontal position shown in Fig. 10, the bar 94 abuts against the edge 95, and the door can remain in that position for rearranging the articles within the compartment. The user may push the door inwardly, as shown in Fig. 11, and then the pin 87 rides out of the recess 90 and slides along the lower edge 98 of the groove 84 as far inwardly as desired. The bar 94 slides along the lower edge 96. At the limit of the inward movement, the pin 87 rides over the spring clip 99, and the door is locked releasably in that position until the user desires to pull the door outward. The door may be provided with a suitable handle 100. The door is removable, as it can be pulled out, away from the cabinet, as the pins 87 and 92 can be pulled from recess 90 and spring 91.

The refrigerated cabinet 17 may be provided with a food compartment refrigerated by a plate-type evaporator, not shown. The remainder of the electrically powered refrigerating system for this cabinet may be substantially, as previously described for the cabinet 8. However, the thermostat for cabinet 17 preferably is calibrated to maintain its food compartment properly cool, but above freezing temperatures.

The refrigerated cabinets 8 and 17 are provided each with a pair of waist-high slidable doors 101 and 102 in front of the respective refrigerating compartments, and these doors are adapted to be moved together by an automatically controlled electric motor, not shown, controlled by the switch 103, or these doors can be counterbalanced and may be moved by power from the user, as desired. These doors are moved against their respective compart- The subject relationship to the sub-doors 80, etc., the can dispenser and thetwo cabinets, is disclosed in Patent No. 2,737,781 to V. G. Sharpe and L. Gelfand for Refrigerating Apparatus With Vertically Slidable Door Means, issued March 13, 1956, to which reference is made, if necessary.

The four lower subcompartments 72, 73, 74 and 75 may be provided with wire baskets 105 which have groove forming wires 106 adapted to ride rollers 107 for sliding in and out of the cabinet.

The frozen juice can dispenser 30 is more particularly shown in Figs. 12 and 13.

The dispenser is insertable in and removable from the cabinet. To this end, the dispenser is provided with four rollers which ride on tracks 121 and 122. These tracks are similar, face each other, and are formed of angle sheet iron secured to the partitions 31 and 32.

The dispenser has a plurality of chutes 123a, 124a and 125a, each adapted to receive a plurality of stacks of cans with the longitudinal axes of the cans 140 in horizontal position. The main can supporting portions of these chutes are made by wires 123, 124, 125 and 126, which are spaced a slight distance from the side walls of the dispenser. These wires curve downwardly and forwardly, as shown in Fig. 13 and terminate in forwardly directed outlets 130, 131 and 132.

The side walls of the dispenser are mainly made by vertical wires 133 which extend vertically down from the top horizontal wires 134 along the sides of the dispenser and curve around the bottom, as indicated at 135. In addition, there are other wires 136, 137 and 138 which extend along the side walls of the dispenser and provide lateral gnideways for the ends of the cans 140 to maintain them from lateral displacement.

The rollers 120 are mounted on pins 141 and 142 which are carried by wires 143 which bulge slightly outwardly and inwardly along the sides of the dispenser and which are secured to other wires of the dispenser. All of the wires are secured to each other whenever necessary to form a solid structure.

Means are provided at the dispenser outlets 130, 131 and 132 for liberating one of the cans of each stack of cans for removal and simultaneous restrainment of the remainder of its stack of cans from downward gravitational travel. To this end, the front wires at the front side edges of the dispenser are arced inwardly at 151, 152 and 153 to provide recessed openings so that the fingers of the hand can be placed on opposite ends of the selected can. Levers 154, 155 and 156 are placed at the outlets 132, 131 and 130 in such a manner that when the levers are moved from their downward position, indicated by lever 154, to an upward position, indicated by lever 155, the lowermost can of the stack is released by the end 160 of the respective lever, and this can rolls down against the curved portion 161 of such respective lever. Thereafter, when such lever is lowered from the position indicated by the lever 155 to the position shown by the lever 156 the can moves slightly forward with the lever to the position indicated by the can 157, where it remains until the user removes the can by placing fingers around the ends of the can at the are 153. Simu1taneously with the last-described movement of the lever, the end 163 of the lever moves upwardly and restrains the can 164 and the remainder of its stack of cans from downward travel, so that only one can is removed at a time and the stack is prevented from falling out of the dispenser.

The levers 154, 155 and 156 are preferably made of U-shaped wires provided with hinge flanges 165 to receive hinge pins 166 about which the levers fulcrum.

The cans for the various stacks are inserted into the dispenser by rolling the dispenser outwardly on rollers 120 and then the cans are dropped into the inlets 170, 171 and 172. The stack in chute 125a, if completely filled, is somewhat V-shaped while the other two stacks in chutes 123a and 124a are somewhat L-shaped, as will be apparent from Fig. 13. After the cans have been inserted in the dispenser, it is rolled back on the rollers until the rear rollers 120 reach the detent 173, which positions the dispenser firmly but releasably within the cabinet.

If desired, a front cover 175 may be secured at the upper part of the front of the dispenser.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. In a refrigerating apparatus including a cabinet having a food storage compartment therein provided with a front opening and a refrigerating system including means for cooling said compartment, opposed door supporting members associated with said compartment having Walls forming two spaced apart grooves facing one another and extending horizontally from said compartment front opening rearwardly into said cabinet, a vertically swingable door for said compartment opening having horizontally extending edges, spaced flanges projecting from the inner face of said door adjacent one of said horizontal edges thereof, hinge pins near said one edge of said door projecting laterally from said flanges and extending into said grooves, stop means on the inner face of said door intermediate said flanges and adjacent said one horizontally extending door edge, said stop means being engageable with said door supporting members and so spaced from said hinge pins as to cooperate therewith and support said door in a horizontal position. at the front of said compartment when the door is swung from a vertical closed position to an open position, said stop means and said hinge pins being arranged to permit said door, while in said horizontal open position, to he slid inwardly of said cabinet along said grooves of the door supporting members, and said hinge pins and said stop means being releasable from said grooves while the door is in its said horizontal open position to remove said door from the cabinet.

2. An apparatus as defined by claim 1 wherein the stop means engages a shouldered part on the door supporting members to limit movement of the door inwardly of the cabinet.

3. In a refrigerating apparatus including a cabinet having a food storage compartment therein provided with a front opening and a refrigerating system including means for cooling said compartment, opposed door supporting members associated with said compartment having Walls forming two spaced apart grooves facing one another and extending horizontally from said compartment front opening rearwardly into said cabinet, a vertically swingable door for said compartment opening having horizontally extending edges, spaced flanges projecting from the inner face of said door adjacent one of said horizontal edges thereof, hinge pins near said one edge of said door projecting laterally from said flanges and extending into said grooves, additional pins projecting laterally from said flanges and spaced from said hinge pins, spring clips associated with said door supporting members normally engaging said additional pins to maintain said door in a vertical position, stop means on the inner face of said door intermediate said flanges and adjacent said one horizontally extending door edge, said stop means being engageable with said door supporting members and so spaced from said hinge pins as to cooperate therewith and support said door in a horizontal position at the front of said compartment when the door is swung from its vertical position to disengage said additional pins from said spring clips, and said stop means and said hinge pins being arranged to permit said door, While in its said horizontal position, to be slid inwardly of said cabinet along said grooves of the door supporting members.

4. An apparatus as defined by claim 3 wherein the stop means engages a shouldered part on the door supporting members to limit movement of the door inwardly of the cabinet.

5. An apparatus as defined by claim 3 wherein the hinge pins and the stop means are releasable from the door supporting members while the door is in its hori- Zontal position to remove the door from the cabinet.

6. In combination, a cabinet having a compartment therein provided with a front opening, a refrigerating system associated with said cabinet including means for cooling said compartment to a temperature below 32 F., a frozen juice can supporting and dispensing device slidably mounted in said compartment, said device comprising means forming a plurality of separate chutes each hav zg inlet at the top of said device and curving downwardly and forwardly one above the other, said chutes terminating in forwardly directed superimposed outlets at the front of the device, said device being movable as a unit outwardly of said compartment through said front opening thereof whereby said chutes are fillable from above the device with a plurality of cans to form a stack of cans in each chute, a manually operable can dispenser lever for each of said chutes, said levers each having an inner end and an outer end and pivotally mounted on said device intermediate said ends at the chute outlets, said inner end of each of said levers restraining the cans in a chute from gravitational travel to the outlet thereof, said outer end of each of said levers being movable upwardly about said pivotal mounting to cause the inner end of a lever to liberate a lowermost can in a stack thereof in a chute to the chute outlet, and said outer end of each of said levers being so shaped as to retain the liberated can at a chute outlet and directly exposed to the low temperature within said compartment until removed from said device.

7. The combination defined by claim 6 wherein the chutes and the dispenser levers of the can supporting and dispensing device are formed by a plurality of joined together Wires. I

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 17,340 Wright June 25, 1929 257,123 Worger Apr. 25, 1882 362,306 Neitzel May 3, 1887 1,606,027 Gruendler Nov. 9, 1926 1,700,203 Baker Jan. 29, 1929 1,736,057 Smith Apr. 13, 1929 1,775,989 Dennison Sept. 16, 1930 2,076,835 Young Apr. 13, 1937 2,081,788 Bottum May 25, 1937 2,120,327 Elsaesser June 14, 1938 2,168,537 Pierce Aug. 8, 1939 2,292,821 Caulkins Aug. 11, 1942 2,427,958 Gibson et al Sept. 23, 1947 2,505,379 Benson Apr. 25, 1950 2,584,869 Gunder Feb. 5, 1952 2,618,936 Kennedy Nov. 25, 1952 2,663,604 Davies Dec. 22,1953

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