U.S. patent application number 12/664895 was filed with the patent office on 2010-07-29 for heat-insulating wall for a refrigerating device.
This patent application is currently assigned to BSH BOSCH UND SIEMENS HAUSGERATE GMBH. Invention is credited to Helmut Hanke.
Application Number | 20100187241 12/664895 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 40092146 |
Filed Date | 2010-07-29 |
United States Patent
Application |
20100187241 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Hanke; Helmut |
July 29, 2010 |
HEAT-INSULATING WALL FOR A REFRIGERATING DEVICE
Abstract
A heat-insulating wall for a refrigerating device having an
exterior wall and an interior wall that delimit a cavity including
a heat-insulating layer. A profile element is arranged, at least
from region to region, between respective lateral edges of the
exterior wall and/or the interior wall to increase the inherent
rigidity of the heat-insulating wall.
Inventors: |
Hanke; Helmut; (Bachhagel,
DE) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BSH HOME APPLIANCES CORPORATION;INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY DEPARTMENT
100 BOSCH BOULEVARD
NEW BERN
NC
28562
US
|
Assignee: |
BSH BOSCH UND SIEMENS HAUSGERATE
GMBH
Munich
DE
|
Family ID: |
40092146 |
Appl. No.: |
12/664895 |
Filed: |
June 12, 2008 |
PCT Filed: |
June 12, 2008 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/EP08/57428 |
371 Date: |
December 16, 2009 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
220/592.09 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F25D 23/02 20130101;
E05Y 2900/31 20130101; F25D 23/06 20130101; F25D 2323/024
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
220/592.09 |
International
Class: |
F25D 23/06 20060101
F25D023/06 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jun 25, 2007 |
DE |
10 2007 029 184.3 |
Claims
1-12. (canceled)
13. A heat-insulating wall for a refrigerating device, comprising:
an exterior wall; an interior wall, the exterior wall and the
interior wall delimiting a cavity; a heat-insulating layer disposed
in the cavity; a profile element arranged, at least from region to
region, between respective lateral edges of at least one of the
exterior wall and the interior wall to increase an inherent
rigidity of the heat-insulating wall.
14. The heat-insulating wall of claim 13, wherein the
heat-insulating wall is a door of a built-in refrigerating
device.
15. The heat-insulating wall of claim 13, comprising a plurality of
profile elements arranged, at least from region to region, between
the respective lateral edges of the at least one of the exterior
wall and the interior wall to increase the inherent rigidity of the
heat-insulating wall.
16. The heat-insulating wall of claim 15, wherein respective ones
of the plurality of profile elements adjoin one another and form a
surface of the heat-insulating wall between lateral edges of the
heat-insulating wall.
17. The heat-insulating wall of claim 13, wherein the at least one
of the exterior wall and the interior wall is made of metal.
18. The heat-insulating wall of claim 13, wherein the at least one
of the exterior wall and the interior all is made of plastic.
19. The heat-insulating wall of claim 13, wherein the profile
element has longitudinal profilings that run in vertical direction
when the heat-insulating wall is built into the refrigeration
device.
20. The heat-insulating wall of claim 19, wherein a cross-section
of the longitudinal profilings forms angular lines.
21. The heat-insulating of claim 19, wherein a cross-section of the
longitudinal profilings forms curved lines.
22. The heat-insulating wall of claim 13, wherein the profile
element extends over at least 60% of a respective wall surface of
the at least one of the exterior wall and the interior wall.
23. The heat-insulating wall of claim 22, wherein the profile
element extends over an entire height of the respective wall
surface of the at least one of the exterior wall and the interior
wall.
24. The heat-insulating of claim 13, wherein the profile element is
located in a region of securing means for chilled goods shelves.
Description
[0001] The invention relates to a heat-insulating wall for a
refrigerating device as claimed in the preamble of claim 1. Such a
wall can be for example a door or housing wall of a refrigerator or
freezer.
[0002] In the field of refrigerating devices such walls generally
have a solid exterior wall formed from metal sheet and a deep-drawn
interior wall made of plastic, connected together at their edges to
bound a cavity. This cavity is filled with a foam material to form
an insulating layer. This structure is very simple but the demands
on such walls are very high because of the field of use and the
competition.
[0003] The heat-insulating walls used in refrigerating devices have
to have a certain stability, since they have to be suitable for
bearing an often considerable weight, as the compartment bases, on
which the chilled goods are supported, are generally secured to the
interior walls of the housing walls of refrigerating devices. Also
door tray elements tailored to the interior wall are often attached
to the refrigerating device door, allowing small items or bottles
to be stored on the inside of the door.
[0004] There is an enormous price pressure for domestic appliances
in which heat-insulating walls are deployed. The appliances and
thus also their components have to be increasingly favorable both
in respect of material costs and assembly. Every effort is
therefore made to keep the material component as small as possible.
Therefore the thinnest possible metal sheets are used for the
exterior walls. So that the walls still have the required
stability, these relatively unstable walls are provided with
stiffening rails, which extend along the walls as a whole or along
particularly neuralgic regions, such as the securing regions for
compartments or holders. However these rails have to be integrated
in the wall or housing wall structure and secured there, which in
turn means an outlay that would preferably be avoided.
[0005] The object of the invention is to provide a heat-insulating
wall for a refrigerating device, which has sufficient rigidity with
the smallest possible material usage.
[0006] The object is achieved according to the invention by a
heat-insulating wall for a refrigerating device with the features
of claim 1.
[0007] According to the invention planar components of the
heat-insulating wall are profiled at least in parts. Profiling is
used for load-bearing parts such as the exterior and/or interior
wall, which can be made more rigid by profiling, so that sufficient
stability of the heat-insulating wall can be achieved with few
material requirements, without additional stiffening elements, such
as stiffening rails, having to be used. The profiling means that
extremely thin material-saving exterior and/or interior walls can
be used, which are nevertheless able to construct a rigid wall,
which is suitable for use as a holder for supports for chilled
goods shelves, such as compartment bases or door trays.
[0008] The metal sheets of the heat-insulating wall are preferably
profiled at least in parts. The surface of the exterior wall of the
refrigerating device housing or the refrigerating device door is
often formed from metal, steel or stainless steel. These metal
sheets are particularly suitable for the introduction of surface
profiles. Profiling can take place particularly advantageously by
means of profile rollers as part of the manufacturing process of
the metal sheets. Profiling of the exterior wall also has the
advantage that the refrigerating device can be individualized from
an aesthetic point of view.
[0009] In one preferred embodiment longitudinal profiles are used,
which extend over the height of the wall. This gives the
heat-insulated walls greater inherent rigidity, particularly in the
direction of gravity, which is the main action direction of the
forces caused by the chilled goods shelves secured to the wall.
[0010] In one preferred embodiment the profiled wall is configured
as a trapezoidal or rectangular wall. This means that the
profiling, at least in parts, produces a planar pattern on the
wall, which in the wall cross-section resembles an oblique line
consisting of a row of trapezoidal or rectangular elements. In
particular the trapezoidal structure of the profiling gives the
wall a particularly high level of rigidity.
[0011] In a further advantageous embodiment the profiling is in
wave form, so that in cross-section the profiled wall shows a wavy
or curved line. This form of profiling produces a rather less
stable wall than profiling with angular lines but the wall is
easier to clean, as a wave surface has no edges but is relatively
smooth.
[0012] Preferably at least 60% of a wall surface is profiled. This
means that the inherent rigidity is increased over the majority of
the wall surface of an exterior and/or interior wall so that there
is no need for additional stiffening elements. The wall as a whole
can thus take on the functionality of a load-bearing wall and it is
also stable enough to have chilled goods shelves secured to it even
though the wall thickness is extremely thin. The peripheral regions
of the wall surface are preferably not profiled, so that simple
connections between the walls or to other components of the
heat-insulating wall can be established on this smooth surface.
[0013] The profilings preferably extend over the entire wall
surface. This is often the simplest to manufacture, as for example,
when introducing profiling by means of rolling technology, the
entire wall can simply be passed through the same profile roller,
which is ideally designed so that it can profile different lengths
of walls of different refrigerating device models.
[0014] In a further preferred embodiment the profilings are located
predominantly in the regions of the exterior and/or interior wall
of a heat-insulating wall, with which securing means for chilled
goods shelves, such as compartment bases or door trays or similar,
engage. Increased wall stability is often necessary in such
regions, to resist deformation of the heat-insulating wall due to
the action of the force of the weight of the loaded chilled goods
shelves. The material strength of the wall must then be so strong
that the inherent rigidity of the wall is sufficient to ensure the
bearing function of the wall per se and/or this can be achieved by
way of stiffening elements, with the profiling providing additional
rigidity in neuralgic regions.
[0015] This means that only parts of the wall are profiled, the
remainder of the wall being smooth and therefore easier to look
after.
[0016] Further details and advantages of the invention will emerge
from the subclaims in conjunction with the description of an
exemplary embodiment, which is explained in detail in relation to a
drawing, in which:
[0017] FIG. 1 shows a schematic sectional diagram of an exterior
wall of a door according to the prior art,
[0018] FIG. 2 shows a schematic sectional diagram of a profiled
exterior wall of a door and
[0019] FIG. 3 shows a schematic view of a profiled refrigerator
door.
[0020] FIG. 1 shows a section through a refrigerator door 1 of the
prior art, having a plastic interior wall 2 formed by deep-drawing,
a heat insulating layer 3 and an exterior wall 4 connected to the
interior wall 2 to form a door unit. The exterior wall 4, which is
formed from steel sheet, is connected to the interior wall 2 by the
wetting action of the insulating layer 3 formed by polyethane foam
in the intermediate space bounded by the interior wall 2 and the
exterior wall 4 to form a structure with a rigid form. Stiffening
rails 5a, 5b, 5c and 5d are generally formed in the foamed
insulating layer 3, giving the refrigerator door 1 sufficient
stability, even though both the plastic interior wall 2 and the
steel exterior wall 4 are configured to be extremely thin and
material-saving. This known structure is the basis of the
invention. It requires improvement primarily because the
introduction of reinforcing elements like the steel rails 5a, 5b,
5c and 5d in the manufacturing process is relatively complex and
therefore increases the costs of such a refrigerator door 1
unnecessarily.
[0021] The inventive refrigerator door 1 shown in FIG. 2 is also
made up of a plastic interior wall 2, an exterior door wall 4
formed from metal sheet and a foam insulating layer 3 introduced
between these. However there is no need for the stiffening elements
5a to 5d shown in FIG. 1 with this refrigerator door 1, as the
exterior door wall 4 has profilings 6, which give the refrigerator
door 1 the required inherent rigidity. The profiling of the
exterior wall 4 can be produced for example as part of the
production process by means of profile rollers, which press the
rectangular profiles into the steel sheet of the exterior wall
4.
[0022] The profilings 6 run over the entire length of the exterior
wall 4 of the refrigerator door 1, as shown in FIG. 3. This
extended pattern of longitudinal rectangular profiles 6 produces a
profile element 7, which encompasses the entire exterior wall 4 of
the refrigerator door 1. These profilings 6 give the exterior wall
4 and therefore the refrigerator door 1 as a whole a rigidity and
stability that are much greater than those provided by the wall
thickness of the exterior wall 4 alone in the direction of gravity,
ensuring that chilled goods shelves (not shown here) can be
attached to the interior door wall 2 without overloading the
refrigerator door 1 in the process
LIST OF REFERENCE CHARACTERS
[0023] 1 Refrigerator door [0024] 2 Interior wall [0025] 3
Insulating layer [0026] 4 Exterior wall [0027] 5 Stiffening rail
[0028] 6 Rectangular profiling [0029] 7 Profile element
* * * * *