U.S. patent application number 10/556956 was filed with the patent office on 2007-06-07 for drawer element for a refrigeration device.
This patent application is currently assigned to BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgerate GmbH. Invention is credited to Alexander Gorz, Michaela Malisi.
Application Number | 20070126325 10/556956 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 33441328 |
Filed Date | 2007-06-07 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070126325 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Gorz; Alexander ; et
al. |
June 7, 2007 |
Drawer element for a refrigeration device
Abstract
A drawer element for a refrigeration device. The drawer element
includes a body with a bottom, two side or lateral walls and a rear
wall. The drawer element further includes a front flap hinged to
the body along the bottom thereof and moveable between a closed and
an open position. The front flap is removeably engaged with the
body to retain the front flap in the closed position unless
released by a user. The front edges of the lateral walls and the
front flap had a tongue and groove connection formed in at least
the closed position.
Inventors: |
Gorz; Alexander; (Aalen,
DE) ; Malisi; Michaela; (Heidenheim, DE) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BSH HOME APPLIANCES CORPORATION;INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEPARTMENT
100 BOSCH BOULEVARD
NEW BERN
NC
28562
US
|
Assignee: |
BSH Bosch and Siemens Hausgerate
GmbH
Carl-
DE
|
Family ID: |
33441328 |
Appl. No.: |
10/556956 |
Filed: |
May 25, 2004 |
PCT Filed: |
May 25, 2004 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/EP04/05608 |
371 Date: |
August 18, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
312/404 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F25D 25/025
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
312/404 |
International
Class: |
A47B 96/00 20060101
A47B096/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
May 26, 2003 |
DE |
103 23 852.2 |
Claims
1-17. (canceled)
18. A refrigeration device including at least one drawer element,
said drawer element comprising: a body having at least a floor and
two side walls; said body further including a front flap hinged on
said body moveable between a closed and an open position; and said
body further including said front flap hinged on said body at a
pivoting axis arranged substantially at the level of said body
floor.
19. The refrigeration device according to claim 18, including said
pivoting axis is formed by trunnions arranged on said side walls
and directed away from said body.
20. The refrigeration device according to claim 18, including said
front edges of said side walls are not connected to one another in
their upper area.
21. The refrigeration device according to claim 18, including said
front edges and said front flap have complementary snap-in
means.
22. The refrigeration device according to claim 18, including said
front flap bears at least one snib, said snib can be shifted
between a position, in which it permits said front flap to be
opened, and a position, in which said snib bars opening said front
flap.
23. The refrigeration according to claim 18, including a grip area
formed on an area of said front flap distant from said pivoting
axis of said front flap.
24. The refrigeration device according to claim 23, including a
second grip area formed on an area of said front flap adjoining
said pivoting axis.
25. A refrigeration device including at least one drawer element,
said drawer element comprising: a body having at least a floor and
two side walls; said two side walls, each including a front edge;
said body further including a front flap hinged on said body
moveable between a closed and an open position; and said front
edges of said side walls and said front flap form a tongue and
groove connection at least in said closed position.
26. The refrigeration device according to claim 25, including each
of said front edges form a tongue of said tongue and groove
connection, which engages in a groove formed in said front
flap.
27. The refrigeration device according to claim 26, including said
groove delimited by a pair of ribs protruding from an outside wall
of said front flap.
28. The refrigeration device according to claim 25, including said
tongue and groove connection in said open position of said flap
remains on at least a part of its length.
29. The refrigeration device according to claim 25, including said
pivoting axis arranged substantially at the level of said body
floor.
30. The refrigeration device according to claim 25, including said
front edges of said side walls are not connected to one another in
their upper area.
31. The refrigeration device according to claim 25, including said
front edges and said front flap include complementary snap-in
means.
32. The refrigeration device according to claim 31, including said
front flap is mounted on said body with clearance in the
longitudinal direction of said front edges.
33. The refrigeration device according to claim 25, including said
front flap bears at least one snib (15), said snib can be shifted
between a position, in which it permits said front flap to be
opened, and a position, in which said snib bars opening said front
flap.
34. The refrigeration device according to claim 33, including said
snib is stable in both said open and said closed positions.
35. The refrigeration device according to claim 33, including said
position of said snib is visible on the outside of said front
flap.
36. The refrigeration device according to claim 25, including a
grip area formed on an area of said front flap distant from said
pivoting axis of said front flap.
37. The refrigeration device according to claim 36, including a
second grip area formed on an area of said front flap adjoining
said pivoting axis.
Description
[0001] The present invention relates to a drawer element for a
refrigeration device and a refrigeration device fitted with such a
drawer.
[0002] It is known to provide domestic freezer appliances for
storing and ordering frozen goods with pull-out drawers or drawers.
These pull-out drawers can be gripped by a user by a grip area
provided for this purpose and pulled fully or partially out of the
appliance to put in, sort or remove frozen goods. These pull-out
drawers are usually used at heights of up to ca. 1.4 m above the
floor, since the pull-out drawers make access to the frozen goods
in a high inbuilt position difficult.
[0003] Compartments of a freezer at a height of over 1.4 m are thus
mostly closed by flaps, which are hinged to the inner container of
the freezer and in the open state allow access to the compartment
in behind in a horizontal direction.
[0004] Such flaps cannot be provided on all compartments of a
refrigeration device, since in the case of low-lying compartments
they compel a user to bend down in front of the appliance to access
rear areas of the compartments and thus they make access
considerably more difficult as compared to a pull-our drawer.
[0005] The height below which pull-out drawers should be used for
comfortable access or respectively are more effective above the
flaps, varies depending on body size and mobility of a user. With
inbuilt refrigeration appliances in particular the height, at which
a compartment is situated in the interior of such an appliance
after installation, furthermore is not determined in advance, so
that it is difficult for a refrigeration device manufacturer to
establish in advance the optimal division of the interior of a
refrigeration device into compartments with pull-out drawers and
compartments with flaps.
[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 2,801,146 discloses a freezer with a pull-our
drawer, whereof the front side is formed by a flap which can be
pivoted to enable access to the contents of the drawer. The
pivoting axis of the flap is located at half height of the drawer
element. When the flap is open the free cross-section is
substantially smaller than the surface of the flap itself, which
makes loading and unloading the compartment difficult. The known
drawer is thus recommended only for special cool goods, namely
eggs.
[0007] U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,573 A1 discloses a drawer element for a
refrigeration device, wherein a mobile front flap is hinged on an
upper edge of the drawer. The flap opens automatically when the
drawer is pulled out, since a jib is pressed down by a threshold on
the ceiling of the interior of the refrigeration device. But the
drawer cannot be pulled out far enough from the refrigeration
device to allow access from above to its contents, because then the
flap would fall back and its jib would hinder its being pushed back
in. Furthermore, hinging the flap in the upper area of the drawer
restricts the free cross-section available for loading and
unloading items.
[0008] An object of the invention is to provide a drawer element
for a refrigeration device, which allows comfortable loading and
removal both from the front and from above.
[0009] This task is solved by a mobile front flap of the inventive
drawer element having a pivoting axis at the level of the floor of
the body. In this way, when in the open position the front flap
does not restrict the free cross-section available for loading and
unloading.
[0010] A further object of the invention is to provide a drawer
element for a refrigeration device, which is suited both for access
from the front and from above, and which is cost-effective to
produce and is robust.
[0011] This further object is solved by front edges of walls of a
body of the drawer element with its mobile front flap forming a
tongue and groove connection at least in a closed position. Via
this tongue and groove connection the front flap supports the side
walls of the drawer element against lateral forces, without a
one-piece permanent connection to the side walls being
necessary.
[0012] Producing the drawer element is particularly simple, if a
tongue of the tongue and groove connection is in each case formed
by the front edges of the side walls which engage in a groove of
the front flap.
[0013] Such a groove is delimited on the front flap effectively by
two ribs projecting from an outside wall of the front flap. Groove
and tongue are advantageously dimensioned such that in the open
state of the flap the tongue and groove connection also remains on
at least a part of its length. The tongue and groove connection
remaining in this state stabilises the drawer element also in the
open position of the front flap, and facilitates restoring the full
engagement of groove and tongue when the front flap is closed.
[0014] To reinforce the body the front edges of the side walls can
be connected in their upper area to one another by a cross brace.
Since such a cross brace however hinders loading and unloading of
cool goods from the drawer element via the front flap, in a
preferred design the front edges of the side walls are not
connected to one another in their upper area.
[0015] To stop the front flap in its closed position the front
edges of the side walls and the front flap are preferably provided
with complementary snap-in means.
[0016] To be able to make or respectively release the locking of
the front flap it is preferably mounted on the body with a
clearance in the longitudinal direction of the front edges.
[0017] Also, the front flap is advantageously provided with at
least one snib, which is mobile between a position, in which it
allows the front flap to be folded back, and a position, in which
it blocks opening. Such a snib can be used by a user of the
refrigeration device to block the front flap from pivoting with
low-lying drawer elements, wherein the front flap is not supposed
to pivot if it is pulled on, rather the entire drawer element is to
be pulled out.
[0018] Such a snib is effectively stable in both positions, so that
on the one hand the abovementioned blocking of the folding back is
permanent, on the other hand the possibility for swinging back the
front flap remains intact also when the front flap is swung back
into the closed position in the case of a high drawer element.
[0019] The position of the snib is effectively visible on the
outside of the front flap, so that a user can see immediately from
a drawer element whether it can be pulled out or folded back.
[0020] A grip area for pulling on the drawer element or for
pivoting the front flap is effectively formed on a region of the
front flap distant from a pivoting axis of the front flap.
[0021] In addition, a second grip area can be formed on an area of
the front flap near the pivoting axis. Such a grip area is suited
in particular for pulling out the drawer element from the
refrigeration device.
[0022] A further task of the invention is to provide a
refrigeration device with an interior divided into several
compartments, which, independently of body size and mobility and
independently of the installation height of the refrigeration
device, allows each user the type of access optimal to him/her to
the individual compartments in each case, without inner parts of
the refrigeration device having to be exchanged for this
purpose.
[0023] This task is solved by a refrigeration device having the
features of claim 15.
[0024] Because each compartment is fitted with a drawer element,
which can be selectively pulled out or folded back at the front,
such optimal access is possible. The drawer elements are
preferably, and for the abovementioned reasons, drawer elements of
the abovementioned type.
[0025] Further features and advantages of the invention will emerge
from the following description of embodiments with reference to the
attached figures, in which:
[0026] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a drawer element according
to the present invention, with front flap in closed position;
[0027] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the same drawer element with
front flap in open position;
[0028] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a second form of the drawer
element, with front flap in closed position; and
[0029] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an inventive refrigeration
device.
[0030] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a drawer element according
to a first configuration of the invention. A body 1 of the drawer
element moulded in one piece from plastic comprises a floor 2, two
side walls 3 and a rear wall 4. A front wall of the drawer element
is formed by a front flap 5, which pivots about an axis lying
approximately at the level of the floor 2. Its position is fixed by
two trunnions 6, which in each case protrude outwards from the side
walls 3 and engage in long holes 7, formed in side flanks 8 of the
front flap 5 parallel to the den side walls 3.
[0031] Standing above the trunnions 6 from each side wall 3 is a
snap-in pin 9, which engages in a notch 10 of each side flank 8
open at the edge obliquely downwards. The engagement between
snap-in pin 9 and notch 10 holds the front flap 5 in its closed
position. By lifting the front flap 5 in a vertical direction about
the clearance fixed by the long holes 7 the engagement between
snap-in pin and notch 10 can be cancelled and then the front flap 5
can pivot into the open position shown in FIG. 2. In this open
position of the front flap 5 a user can access items stored in the
inside of the drawer element, without having to pull the drawer
element out of a refrigeration device, in which it is
installed.
[0032] As evident from FIG. 2, the front edges 11 of the side walls
3 form two tongues, which can engage in complementary grooves 13 of
the front flap 5, delimited by the side flanks 8 and walls 12
parallel to the latter. In the open position shown in FIG. 2 the
engagement of the front edges 11 in the grooves 13 is restricted
only on a short section near the lower end of the edges 11. When
the front flap 5 is pivoted into its closed position however, this
engagement is extended until it finally extends over the entire
height of the edges 11. The advantage of continuance of the
engagement in the open position of the flap 5 and its gradual
lengthening with closing of the flap 5 is that in the case of
deformation of the body 1, when the front edges 11 in their upper
area are bent onto or away from one another, such deformation is
eliminated by closing the front flap 5. Closing the front flap 5
never fails to have the edge of one of the side flanks 8 and the
walls 12 collide with the front edge 11 of one of the side walls 3
assigned as tongue.
[0033] Positioned on the external surface of the front flap 5 are
two slides 14, which can be pushed by a user in a horizontal
direction. FIG. 1 shows the slides in each case in an outer stop
position. As FIG. 2 shows the slides 14 are linked with snibs 15,
which engage in the outer stop position of FIG. 1 via openings of
the walls 12 in bores 16 of the side walls 3, and thus stop the
front flap 5 in its closed position. To be able to fold back the
front flap 5 as shown in FIG. 2, the slides 14 must first be pushed
into an inner stop position, in which the snibs 15 disengage from
the bores 16 of the side walls 3. Only then is it possible to raise
the front flap 5 to release the engagement between snap-in pin 9
and notch 10 and top open the flap 5.
[0034] A grip area 17 is arranged centrally along the upper edge of
the front flap 5.
[0035] The grip area 17 is formed by a recess open to the top,
which enables a user to reach in behind an undercut wall piece 18
(marked out in FIG. 1 in dashed lines) with fingers and pull out
the drawer element as a whole from the refrigeration device by
pulling the wall piece 18 forward when the front flap 5 is locked
or, when the front flap 5 is unlocked, pivoting the latter into its
open position.
[0036] Due to the simplified configuration the slides 14 and the
snib 15 are omitted. Here too it is possible for a user to pivot
the front flap 5 back by pulling selectively on the grip area 15
or, in that at the same time it exerts pressure downwards onto the
front flap 5, which prevents the front flap 5 from sliding up on
the snap-in pin 9, pulling out the drawer element.
[0037] In the modification of the inventive drawer element shown in
FIG. 3 an additional grip area 19 is formed on the lower edge of
the front flap 5, at the level of the axis of rotation defined by
the trunnions 6. This grip area 19 open downwards is particularly
easy for a user to grip, if the drawer element is arranged below
the chest height of the user. With such a drawer element it is also
preferred for easy access to pull it out of the refrigeration
device, instead of folding it back. By gripping the grip area 19 at
the level of the axis practically no torque is exerted in the
direction of opening of the front flap 5. With this configuration
the locking of the front flap 5 in the closed position by the
slides 14 and snib 15 can also be replaced for example by an
effective spring element between body and front flap 5, throwing
the front flap 5 downwards, whereof the strength is such that the
torque exerted by pulling on the upper grip area 17 is sufficient
to press the tongue back, lift the flap and release the snap-in pin
9 from the notches 10, whereas with pulling on the lower grip area
19 the tongue maintains engagement of the snap-in pin 9 with the
notches 10, so that the drawer element is pulled out as a
whole.
[0038] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a freezer 21, whereof the
interior is divided into a plurality of compartments, each of which
accommodates a drawer element 22 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
Depending on his/her own body size and, if the freezer 21 is an
inbuilt model, according to installation height, a user can
determine for each individual drawer element 22 by adjusting the
slides 14 whether access to the drawer element 22 should be
possible by pulling out the whole drawer or by pivoting the front
flap. Standardised internal outfitting of the freezer 21 is
therefore sufficient to satisfy the requirements of all users.
* * * * *