GB2227160A - Refrigerated cabinet - Google Patents

Abstract

A refrigerated cabinet having interior shelves and with one or more drawers occupying substantially the full width of one or more of the shelves and with the or each drawer being so sized and shaped as to form a receptacle for the fridge contents which, in a conventional fridge, would otherwise sit directly on the shelves themselves. The arrangement makes it easier to access goods stored towards the rear of the refrigerator and to empty the refrigerator for cleaning, etc.

Description

IMPROVEMENTS IN HAND-HELD AND/OR HAND-OPERATED APPLIANCES Background to the Invention The invention relates to appliances which are hand-held and/or hand-operated.

The invention is specifically applicable to hand-held drills (whether hand-rotated or power-driven) and to refrigerated cabinets.

A drill, whether hand-rotated or power-driven, is an increasing ly common item of domestic equipment. Initially it was only the D-I-Y enthusiast who might have one. Nowadays small power drills, particularly, are virtually a standard item of equip ment in every home. Refrigerated cabinets, or Fridges as they are universally known nowadays in this context, are sim ilarly virtually standard equipment in every home today.

Drills and fridges therefore constitute, in at least one context where they are overwhelmingly frequently found, items of dom estic equipment.

In another context, drills and fridges both constitute items of equipment which are hand-operated. A drill, whether power driven or not, has to be hand-held. A fridge is operated primarily by opening its door handle and by sliding its shelves, if necessary, manually into and out of the fridge cabinet.

This patent specification is concerned with two inventions, one applicable specifically to drills, the other to fridges.

On either of the bases just reviewed, therefore, these two Inventions are so linked as to form part of the same inventive concept when the common fields of use of drills and fridges are taken into account as outlined.

Summary of the Invention In one broad aspect, the invention is embodied in the combination of a spirit level with a portable drill so that the drill user, holding and rotating the drill simultaneously in use, can use the movement of the spirit level bubble in the conventional way as a guide to try to keep the drill level.

There are of course two major problems in drilling with a portable drill, one being to hold the drill level, the other to stop it moving from side to side, as drilling proceeds.

These problems are especially apparent with modern portable power drills which, by comparison with their hand-rotated predecessors, sink far more quickly into the workpiece. The rapid advance of the drill into the workpiece makes any offline drilling that much less likely to be corrected in time.

The drill user can control the side-to-side swing of the drill relatively easily, with practise, because he is usually looking down onto the drill casing. What he cannot easily do in that position is to judge whether or not the drill is level. A spirit level of known kind, fixed to the top (for example) region of the drill casing, would tell him whether or not the drill is and was remaining level as it advanced into the workpiece.

The spirit level may be permanently combined with the drill by being built into an appropriate region, for example the top region, end region or a side region, of the drill casing.

It may for example be built into the auxiliary handle, i. e.

the handle which projects substantially at right angles from the drill casing in relation to the rotating drill bit itself.

Alternatively the spirit level may comprise an item which is initially separate and/or separable from the drill.

In the case just outlined, the spirit level may have a magnetic base.

Alternatively or additionally, the spirit level base may be adapted to adhere removably to the drill casing.

It may for example have a peel-off backing strip covering an adhesive layer.

Alternatively or additionally again, in the separate-level case being considered now, the spirit level may be adapted to clip onto or into the drill casing, for example as a snap-fit.

Whatever form the invention takes in this first aspect, the advantages are already evident and will become more so to the intended addressee of this specification now that the invention has been defined.

In this first aspect, the invention clearly includes within its scope a spirit level adapted to be secured to an appropriate region of the casing of a portable drill.

In any embodiment of this first broad aspect of the invention, the construction of the spirit level itself can be conventional and need not be described in any detail.

In another broad aspect, the invention is embodied in the combination of a refrigerated cabinet having interior shelves and with one or more drawers occupying substantially the full width of one or more of the shelves and with the cr each drawer being so sized and shaped as to form a receptacle for the fridge contents which, in a conventional fridge, would otherwise sit directly on the shelves themselves.

Preferably the or each drawer is open-topped.

Preferably also the or each drawer extends substantially the full length of the shelf on which it sits.

It is known to provide open-topped or closed vegetable trays in domestic fridges. These conventionally sit on the bottom of the fridge cabinet. But they do not occupy the width of the bottom surface or shelf on which they sit. And nor are they supplied in numbers which, when fitted into the cabinet, would so occupy the shelf width. They are a one-off container for a sole-purpose function.

Defrosting a fridge, and/or emptying it in order to re-stock it, can involve a good deal of careful handling of individual products. Despite such handling, it is all too easy to spill the contents of some of these products. The product containers themselves may leak inadvertently at any time. With conventional fridges, incorporating usually rack-style shelving, the consequences of leakage and spillage from the upper shelves can contaminate the rest of the fridge contents. And with any shelving, unloading the fridge is still an item-by-item job.

With a fridge embodying the invention, by contrast, individual drawers each containing several products can readily be removed.

Advantageously there may be two drawers per shelf. Given the dimensions of modern domestic fridges, which are virtually standardised, a two-drawer combination is a sound compromise between the desirability of being able to store all products on a given shelf in one drawer, and the need to be able to pull and lift that drawer out of the fridge relatively easily.

The or each drawer may simply sit on its associated shelf, to be slid into and out of position. But alternatively the drawers may locate in runners - for example, simple grooves in the fridge cabinet side in order to make for more precise sliding into and out of position.

Where there is more than one drawer on a given shelf, they may inter-engage at their abutting region in a manner which enables them to slide alongside one another on the shelf with the side of each drawer acting as a locating surface for the abutting side of the other drawer.

The drawer bottoms may be perforated if this proves necessary or desirable in any given instance.

The invention in this aspect overcomes the following difficulties of conventional fridges: a) difficulty in reaching the contents stored at the back of the bottom shelf. These can now be pulled forward in their respective drawer before being removed.

b) Food stored at the back of the bottom shelf tends to be forgotten and will often have to be thrown away. With the invention it is now an easy matter to pull the drawers forward to check the contents regularly.

c) Conventional fridges are difficult to empty and defrost and to wipe out. The drawers in a fridge embodying the invention can rapidly be taken out, without the need to take their contents out individually from the fridge first.

d) Small containers, for example cartons of yoghurt or cream, easily fall over on the racks of a conventional fridge shelf.

They can spill. Drawers in a fridge embodying the invention need not be rack-style construction.

Claims (7)

CLAIMS:

1. A refrigerated cabinet having interior shelves and with one or more drawers occupying substantially the full width of one or more of the shelves and with the or each drawer being so sized and shaped as to form a receptacle for the fridge contents which, in a conventional fridge, would otherwise sit directly on the shelves themselves.

2. A cabinet according to Claim 1 in which the or each drawer is open-topped.

3. A cabinet according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 and in which the or each drawer extends substantially the full length of the shelf on which it sits.

4. A cabinet in accordance with any of the preceding Claims and in which there are two drawers per shelf.

5. A cabinet according to any of the preceding Claims and in which at least one of the drawers is located in runners in the cabinet side in order to facilitate sliding the drawer into and out of position.

6. A cabinet according to any of the preceding Claims and in which there is more than one drawer on a shelf, characterised in that the drawers inter-engage at their abutting region in a manner which enables them to slide alongside one another on the shelf with the side of each drawer acting as a locating surface for the abutting side of the other drawer.

7. A cabinet according to any of the preceding Claims and in which the drawer bottom is perforated.