EP2326895B1 - Door for a household appliance - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a heat-insulating door for a household appliance, in particular for a refrigeration appliance.

Such doors generally have a solid outer skin made up of a plurality of elements that defines an inner cavity filled with insulating material. A common design is to integrally form the front and side edges of a door of substantially flat parallelepiped shape of sheet metal, this connect along its vertical edges with a thermoformed inner wall and the open upper and lower sides of the thus obtained hollow body with the help of To seal plastic injection-molded closure parts. These end parts extend over the entire width of the door and therefore, if doors are to be manufactured in different widths, each must be provided to match a desired door width. For the production of each type of final part thus specific shapes are needed, which makes the entire manufacturing complex. Since the costs of the molds must be transferred to the devices manufactured therewith, doors in rarely requested widths are disproportionately expensive. For the customer, this leads to the unsatisfactory situation that the price for a small-sized device is at most little less than or even higher than the price of a normal sized device, or that devices are offered at most with a rough gradation of housing widths, not the needs of all Customer is enough.

The US 5,568,712 discloses a one-piece door for a refrigerator from a pre-painted metal sheet. The EP 0 081 249 A1 discloses a furniture element with bent side walls and a corner piece, according to the preamble of claim 1. Further discloses the US 6,209,265 B1 A door for a refrigerator with a reinforcing corner wall bracket forming the corners of the door.

Object of the present invention is therefore to provide a door for a household appliance, which can be made inexpensively and in a variety of formats with little specific tools.

The object is solved by the features of claim 1.

Corner panels can be used consistently regardless of the width of different door models; a broadband customization is then possibly required at the intermediate piece. Since this intermediate piece can generally be of a simpler structure than the Eckabschlussteile, it can be provided inexpensively in different widths.

For rational manufacturability because of is particularly preferred when the intermediate piece is formed integrally with the outer wall or the inner wall.

For aesthetic reasons, a one-piece design of the intermediate piece with the outer wall is preferred because then the material of the inner wall with the door closed is not visible on the outside of the appliance.

In order to facilitate the precise placement of the Eckabschlussteile, these preferably each have a contact surface, which is intended for contact with the inner wall. The intermediate piece may expediently be extended by a web connecting the contact surfaces of two corner end parts in order to provide the inner wall with a contact surface over the entire length of its upper or lower edge.

In order to hold the web exactly in a desired position, it is expedient if at least one of the Eckabschlussteile engages around an end of the web.

To secure the outer wall and Eckabschlussteil each other, a hook may be formed at one end of the web, which engages in a recess of the Eckabschlussteils.

In order to allow installation of the door optionally with right or left stop, it is preferred that each Eckabschlussteil has a bearing bush.

Furthermore, a cable recess is expediently provided on at least one corner end part, in order to guide an electrical line from a body of the joint via a door hinge into the door.

Outer wall and inner wall are preferably connected together along their vertical edges. Side flanks of the door are through the Outside wall formed to keep the inner wall hidden with the door closed. A connection zone in which the vertical edges of the outer and inner walls are fastened together is expediently arranged on a rear side of the door.

In order to improve the cohesion of outer wall and Eckabschlussteilen, preferably, the outer wall has a at an edge of the door rear extending, cranked edge portion, and one of the Eckabschlussteile is pushed onto the cranked edge portion.

Fig. 1

eine schematische perspektivische Ansicht einer erfindungsgemäßen Tür eines Haushaltsgeräts;

Fig. 2

eine rechte obere Ecke der Außenwand der Tür, gesehen von der Türrückseite her;

Fig. 3

die Ecke der Fig. 2 mit einem aufgesteckten Eckabschlussteil;

Fig. 4

einen horizontalen Schnitt durch die Ecke der Fig. 3;

Fig. 5

eine zur Fig. 2 analoge Ansicht gemäß einer zweiten Ausgestaltung;

Fig. 6

eine zur Fig. 3 analoge Ansicht gemäß der zweiten Ausgestaltung; und

Fig. 7

einen horizontalen Teilschnitt durch ein Eckabschlussteil gemäß der zweiten Ausgestaltung.

Further features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying figures. Show it:

Fig. 1

a schematic perspective view of a door according to the invention of a household appliance;

Fig. 2

a right upper corner of the outer wall of the door, seen from the back of the door;

Fig. 3

the corner of the Fig. 2 with an attached Eckabschlussteil;

Fig. 4

a horizontal section through the corner of the Fig. 3 ;

Fig. 5

one to Fig. 2 analogous view according to a second embodiment;

Fig. 6

one to Fig. 3 analogous view according to the second embodiment; and

Fig. 7

a horizontal partial section through a Eckabschlussteil according to the second embodiment.

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view from the front of a refrigerator door according to the present invention. An outer wall 1 cut from sheet metal extends over the front side 2, lateral flanks 3 as well as a predominant part of the upper side and the underside of the essentially flat rectangular door. The outer wall 1 is open can be realized in a simple manner by a rectangular piece is cut to the required dimensions of a sheet roll, at the four corners of the sheet metal piece thus obtained in each case a substantially rectangular piece is cut and thereby obtained at the upper and lower edge of the sheet sections are bent twice at right angles to form an intermediate piece 4 extending over the upper side of the door or an intermediate piece extending over the lower side and respectively an edge strip adjoining the intermediate piece on the rear side of the door, and the laterally projecting portions are bent over the lateral flanks 3 and also to form each one on the back cross border strips.

Four molded plastic Eckverzschlussteile 5, 6 fill the gaps between the folded lateral flanks 3 and the spacers 4 at the top and bottom of the door. The two upper Eckabschlussteile 5 are each formed a mirror image of each other, as well as the lower Eckabschlussteile 6. Upper and lower Eckabschlussteile can be identical to each other.

Fig. 2 is a partial perspective view of the outer wall 1, seen from the back, in the region of its upper right corner. One recognizes the right flank 3 with the adjoining edge strip 7 and the upper intermediate piece 4, to which the edge strip 8 connects. While the edge strip 8 is planar in itself, the edge strip 7 has a curved course in order to form a vertical groove 9 open towards the inner cavity of the door. An adjacent to this groove 9 flat strip 10 of the outer wall 1 lies with the edge strip 8 in a same plane and is provided to attach thereto, not shown in the figure, the inner wall of the door, for example by gluing.

Fig. 3 shows the same corner of the door, with the in Fig. 2 existing gap between the right flank 3 and the upper intermediate piece 4 is closed by a plugged-up from above Eckabschlussteil 5. The corner end part 5 comprises a horizontal base plate 11 in which a bearing bush 12 for receiving a hinge pin of a door hinge is recessed. To the bushing 12 adjacent to a channel-shaped cable recess 13, which is provided to, if necessary, an electrical cable which extends from a device body, not shown, via the hinge into the interior of the door.

On an underside of the base plate 11 is an in Fig. 3 invisible groove shaped in Fig. 2 14 designated upper edge of the flank 3, the edge strip 7 and a part of the front side 2 between the flank 3 and the intermediate piece 4 receives. An edge region of the base plate 11 rests on the intermediate piece 4.

One at a back, in Fig. 3 the viewer facing edge of the base plate 11 subsequent vertical wall 15 of the Eckabschlussteils 5 has a stepped course with an upper portion 16 which rests against the outside of the strip 10 and at an opposite end of the edge strip 8 and thus its orientation and its distance from the front 2 determines exactly. A lower portion 17 of the wall 15 forms a flush connection between the strip 10 and the edge strip 8 and, like this, can serve as a contact surface or bonding substrate for the inner wall.

Fig. 4 is a horizontal section through the right upper corner of the door, in which the base plate 11 of the Eckabschlussteils 5 can be seen from below. It can be seen the cylindrical bushing 12, the subsequent thereto cable recess 13 and various the Eckabschlussteil 5 in itself and in particular the bearing bush 12 with respect to the base plate 11 stiffening ribs 18, 19. The rib 19 also extends over the inside of the wall 15 and forms a lateral stop for the intermediate piece 4 and the edge strip. 8

The wall 15, which is exposed at the rear of the finished assembled door, is adjoined by a vertical wall 20 of the corner end part, which exactly follows the course of the outer wall 1 along its inner side. In particular, the wall 20 engages in the groove 9 and thereby fixes the bending angles both between the front side 2, the side flank 3 and the edge strip 7 and between the front side 2, the intermediate piece 4 and the edge strip 8. By Eckabschlussteile 5, 6 the Flank 3 bordering the top and bottom in the same way, a deformation of the edge 3 and in particular a bending outward is excluded under a prevailing during foaming of the inner cavity of the door pressure.

The FIGS. 5 and 6 show to the FIGS. 2 and 3 analogous views according to a second embodiment of the invention. The adjoining the intermediate piece 4 edge strip 8 carries here at the right and at the left end in each case one piece cut-out hook 21, which is provided to engage in a downwardly open recess 22 in the wall 15. As Fig. 6 shows, in favor of the hook 21, the lower portion 17 of the wall 15 is reduced in width. In the sectional view of Fig. 7 is the recess 22 can be seen, which receives the tip of the hook. The engagement of the hook 21 in the recess 22 stabilizes the connection of the Eckabschlussteils 5 with the outer wall 1 and also helps to absorb an occurring during foaming internal overpressure without deformation of the outer wall 1.

Claims (11)

1. Door for a household appliance having an exterior wall (1), an interior wall, lateral flanks (3) and top and bottom closing parts (5, 6) which together delimit a hollow space, wherein the lateral flanks (3) are formed by the exterior wall (1), wherein a top side and/or a bottom side of the door are each formed by two corner closing parts (5) and by a spacer piece (4) arranged between the corner closing parts (5) and wherein a gap is formed between a lateral flank (3) and the spacer piece (4) respectively, characterised in that the corner closing parts (5, 6) are fastened by attachment to the exterior wall (1) and the gaps are closed.
2. Door according to claim 1, characterised in that the spacer piece (4) is configured integrally with the exterior wall (1) or the interior wall.
3. Door according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the corner closing parts (5) each have a contact surface (17) in contact with the interior wall and that the spacer piece (4) is extended with a web (8) connecting the contact surfaces (17).
4. Door according to claim 3, characterised in that at least one of the corner closing parts (5) surrounds one end of the web (8).
5. Door according to claim 3 or 4, characterised in that a horizontal edge of the interior wall is fastened to the web (8).
6. Door according to claim 3, 4 or 5, characterised in that a hook (21) formed at one end of the web (8) engages in a cut-out (22) of the corner closing part (5).
7. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that each corner closing part (5, 6) has a bearing bushing (12).
8. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that at least one corner closing part (5) has a cable recess (13).
9. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the exterior wall (1) and the interior wall are connected to one another along the vertical edges thereof.
10. Door according to claim 9, characterised in that a connecting zone (10) of the vertical edges is arranged on a rear side of the door.
11. Door according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the exterior wall (1) has a right-angled edge section (7) extending on an edge of the rear side of the door and that one of the corner closing parts (5) is pushed onto the right-angled edge section (7).

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