WO2009124864A2 - Refrigerating appliance comprising a door tray - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a refrigerating appliance, especially a household refrigerating appliance, comprising at least one door (1) having an inner wall on which at least one door tray (2) is arranged, said door tray comprising at least one bottom (3) for placing products to be refrigerated and at least one retaining frame (11) for securing the products to be cooled. The retaining frame (11) and/or the bottom (3) are arranged against at least one height-adjustable device (7) in such a way that the distance between the retaining frame (11) and the bottom (3) can be modified.

Description

 Refrigerating appliance with door compartment

Refrigeration appliances, in particular domestic refrigeration appliances such. Refrigerators, freezers, or fridge / freezer combination appliances usually have door racks, e.g. Storage compartments or storage containers for refrigerated goods, such as Bottles, eggs, butter containers or other smaller refrigerated goods. These door racks are often detachably attached to the door of the refrigerator and arranged adjustable in height, so that the classification of the door racks on the refrigerator door can be adapted to different sizes ratios of refrigerated goods einzulagerndem. Often, different fastening positions are provided for door racks on the door of the refrigerator, which also ensure a flexible classification of the door racks.

An example of a refrigerator door with such height-adjustable door compartments is given in DE 85 17 976. This shows rack-like notches on which the door stoppers can be locked, as a very fine-scale possibility of height adjustment, in which the door racks or their arrangement can be easily adapted to different heights of refrigerated goods to be stored.

Since the refrigerator door is moved respectively when opening and closing the refrigerator, the door racks usually have edges that secure the respective refrigerated goods during the movement of the door against falling out. These edges vary in height for different door racks, depending on the intended for receiving which refrigerated goods the door racks. Thus, the door racks for tall bottles have higher edges than the door racks, which are intended for eggs or butter or the like. This too can be seen in DE 8517976.

Such door racks already offer a certain flexibility. However, their possibilities for variation are often no longer sufficient today in view of the ever more diverse, to be stored refrigerated goods, which is formed for example by bottles or tetra-packs of different sizes. The invention has the object of providing a refrigerator, in particular household refrigeration appliance, with door racks on the refrigerator door in such a way that the door racks can be easily and flexibly adapted to the height of the refrigerated goods to be stored.

The object is achieved according to the invention by a refrigerator with door racks with the features of claim 1.

According to the invention, the refrigeration appliance, in particular domestic refrigeration appliance, or the refrigeration appliance door on a door rack, which combines a floor for storing refrigerated goods with a bracket for securing the refrigerated goods, wherein the two modules, bracket and floor, formed and to each other or on the refrigerator are arranged so that their distance from one another via a height adjustment device is variable. The combination of a floor as a storage area with a relative to this floor height adjustable arranged bow opens up the possibility of using two standard parts, floor and bracket, and a device for height adjustment of the bracket to realize a variety of variants of door racks. The bracket and bottom of the door compartment can be arranged on the height adjustment at different distances from each other, which ensures an adaptation of the door compartment to refrigerated goods of various heights. For the production this means an enormous cost saving. Only the same three standard parts, floor, bracket and height adjustment device have to be produced, for which purpose the same tools can always be used, even if a wide variety of door racks are to be realized. Even the user of the refrigerator, these door racks offer extremely great flexibility and design options, especially the door racks can be adapted to new conditions at any time.

According to an expedient development of the invention, the door rack can only comprise a bottom, relative to the relatively movable a bracket in the height direction is displaced. According to an alternative development of the invention, the respective door racks comprise a bottom and side walls molded or attached thereto in such a way, a front wall, and a rear wall that it is box-shaped. The floor can therefore be surrounded by a frame part. Alternatively, if necessary, the floor can also be designed shell-shaped. In an advantageous embodiment, the height adjustment is attached to the height adjustment of the bracket at the bottom of the door compartment. The distance between the floor and bracket can be varied via the height adjustment, so that the height of the securing edge, which is represented by the bracket, can be adapted to the respective refrigerated goods. Thus, the entire range of variations are included in the door rack itself. The refrigeration device itself does not have to be changed. The thus extremely flexible trained door racks can be used in an advantageous manner instead of the previous door racks in the space provided for this known holders of the doors of refrigerators.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the height adjustment is arranged for adjusting the height of the bracket on the refrigerator door itself. The fixation of the height adjustment device and thus the bracket of the door compartment on the refrigerator door in particular offers the advantage of a high stability of the door compartment. This ensures that even with a large distance between the bracket and the floor, the door racks can, for example, hold large heavy bottles and prevent them from tipping over without the risk of the door racks themselves tipping out or of the bracket being lifted off the door with the height adjustment device moved away. The stability is ensured by the refrigerator door itself or by the attachment of the height adjustment device to this and does not have to be guaranteed by the door rack alone. Thus, floor, bracket and the height adjustment can be designed as a simple plastic parts and thus cost. In addition, a height adjustment device, which preferably pulls over the entire door length, be used for several door racks.

Preferably, the bracket and the bottom of the door compartment are arranged as separate components of the door compartment on the refrigerator door. So they are only connected via the refrigerator door. The bracket and the floor are independent modules that can be manufactured as standard components. They form the unit door racks functionally only when arranged on the refrigerator door. This variant opens the widest range of possible variations. Thus, in a preferred embodiment, the floor can be firmly fixed to the refrigerator door, while the bracket of the door compartment is arranged on the height adjustment of the refrigerator door and thus opposite the floor in different distances can be set. In this embodiment, the Floor are firmly anchored over the fixed arranging on the refrigerator door, while the bracket offers the ability to adjust the door racks to different heights of refrigerated goods to be stored. It would also be possible to firmly anchor the bracket to the refrigerator door, while the bottom is arranged adjustable in height on the height adjustment of the refrigerator door. This also makes it possible to realize different variants of door cabinets.

In a further advantageous embodiment both the bracket and the bottom of the door compartment are arranged on the same height adjustment of the refrigerator door. This embodiment offers the most flexibility, which is particularly useful when several door racks are arranged on the refrigerator door. Both floor and bracket can be arranged in this variant at any height on the refrigerator door, so that both the height of the bracket and the overall height of each door compartment, which results from its distance to the next door rack, can be made individu- eil.

Preferably, the height adjustment device is designed as a latching device. In a locking device, the elements to be latched, such as bow and / or bottom of the door compartment, can be easily solved and fixed again stable. This ensures that the user can vary the door rack very easily, but this is at the same time well and stably fixed. In particular, when in addition to the detents, releasably engage in the bracket and / or floor, nor a guide element is provided on the height adjustment, which is preferably in communication with the refrigerator door and preferably positively engages the bottom and bracket, these elements of the door - Abstellers extremely safe and stable mounted on the refrigerator door. By this guide element bracket and bottom of the door compartment can be held in a fixed position to each other on the door, even if the height distance between the two is changed.

In a further preferred embodiment, the bottom of the door compartment itself is already provided with a raised edge. Thus, the storage shelf is already formed cup-shaped and can hold low refrigerated goods without the additional bracket. This further increases the flexibility of the door compartment. It can be both hes chilled, which is secured by the bracket, as well as lower, which is supported by the raised edge of the floor itself, are stored in one and the same door rack. The raised edge also secures high refrigerated goods from slipping down. Thus, a single type of door racks that allows different height limits for abzustellendes refrigerated goods is sufficient.

In a further advantageous embodiment, the arranged on the refrigerator door height adjustment extends at least over half of the height, in particular over the total height of the refrigerator door itself. This opens up the possibility to arrange several door lock shelves and -bügel at the same height adjustment at a distance variable to each other, so that a large variety of door cabinets on the refrigerator door can be realized via a single height adjustment and several identical standard parts. About enormously cheap to produce elements can be achieved as a very user-friendly flexible adaptation to each stored refrigerated goods.

Other developments of the invention are given in the dependent claims.

The invention and its developments are explained in more detail with reference to drawings.

Show it:

1 shows schematically a section of a refrigerator door with height-adjustable door rack,

2 and 3 schematically a section of a refrigerator door with a first embodiment of a height adjustable bottom and bracket according to the invention constructed door compartment, and

Fig. 4 shows schematically a section of a refrigerator door with inventively designed door rack in a further embodiment. Elements with the same function and mode of operation are each provided with the same reference numerals in FIGS.

Fig. 1 and 2 show a section of a refrigerator door 1, on which a door rack 2 is detachably arranged. The door racks 2 comprises a bottom 3 and as a rim 4 formed or attached longitudinal side walls, a front wall, and a rear wall. The floor can therefore be surrounded by a frame part. Overall, he is box-shaped. Put simply, the door rack 2 has a bottom 3 and a raised edge 4. Bottom 3 and edge 4 are connected to one another and form a shell in which low refrigerated goods, such as smaller glasses or tubes, are easy to store. The edge 4 of the door compartment 2 is provided on both sides in the side wall area with locking elements 5, which engage in a trained as a bar of locking openings 6 height adjustment device 7. About the locking connection 5 formed by locking elements 6 and latching connection of the door rack 2 is supported on the refrigerator door 1. The snap-in connection can be easily solved by exerting pressure from the outside of the edge 4 forth on the web 8 of the locking element 5, so that the door rack 2 can be adjusted in height and thus the arrangement of located on the refrigerator door 1 door rack 2 flexibly selectable and to be adapted to the refrigerated goods to be stored. The height adjustment device 7 additionally has a guide element 9, which is designed as a guide web and in a groove provided for this purpose 10 of the respective side wall of the edge 4 of the door compartment 2 (see Figure 4) engages to this, especially in the height adjustment, in which the Locking connection is solved, to stabilize and secure against tipping, even if it is loaded with heavy refrigerated goods.

Fig. 2 shows how such a height-adjustable door racks 2 can be extended via a combination with a height-adjustable bracket 1 1 in this case. The bracket 11 also has a latching element 12 which engages in one of the latching openings 6 of the height adjustment device 7. He sits in the arrangement shown in this Fig. 2 on the edge 4 of the door compartment 2, so that it closes with this. Bracket 1 1 and equipped with a raised edge 4 bottom 3 thus together form a trained as a higher shell door racks 2, in which higher refrigerated goods, such as small bottles or Tetra packs can be stored easily and against falling out even when moving the refrigerator door. 1 is secured. The bracket 11 and the edge 4 of the Bottoms 3 have substantially the same circumference, so that together they form a uniform, high edge of the door compartment 2. The bracket 1 1 forms a frame of four interconnected walls, namely in the individual front wall 13, side walls 14, 15 and rear wall 16. The front wall 13 serves to protect the stored higher refrigerated goods against falling out as soon as the refrigerator door 1 is opened and thus the stored refrigerated goods is moved. It thus increases the edge 4 of the bottom 3 and thereby allows the storage of higher refrigerated goods in the door rack 2. The side walls 14 and 15 of the bracket 1 1 have as the raised edge 4 of the bottom 3 locking elements 12 and thus serve the releasable attachment of the 1) on the refrigerator door 1. The rear wall 16 of the bracket 1 1 is applied to the refrigerator door 1 and is used to stabilize the entire bracket 11 and thus the stabilization of the door compartment. 2

The respective latching element 12 is preferably formed by a resilient web element or a leaf spring-like bracket element which is cut free within the wall surface of the respective side wall 14. It is hinged at one end to the side wall, while its other edges are cut free. As a result, it can be deflected laterally with its free end, ie laterally out of the positional plane of the side wall 14, in the direction of the height adjustment device 7. Its axis of rotation runs essentially in the vertical direction. The articulation of such a resilient support member may be provided either front or rear of the side wall 14. In the state of expansion, the free, resilient ends of the snap-in elements 12 cut free on both sides expediently project outwards by a predeterminable transverse spacing with respect to the positional planes of their side walls. In addition or independently thereof, one or more latching nubs or latching cams are formed on the outside thereof for latching in the latching grooves 6. The locking elements 12 protruding laterally on both sides by at least one latching nub thus form snap-action or click spring elements which make the bracket wider than the available free space width between the two edge-side, vertically extending side walls or uprights 17 of the refrigerator door 1. When hanging the bracket 11 in the gap between the two guide cheeks 17, the two, laterally movable, free ends of the locking elements 12 are pressed with the outwardly projecting locking knobs inward into the inside of the frame framed by the frame 11 volume under spring tension. When you release the pressed inward free ends of the locking elements spring back into their starting position and their locking nubs snap it in associated locking grooves 6 of the height adjustment 7 in a desired height position. In the views of FIGS. 2 to 4, these locking knobs protruding laterally from the side walls 14 of the bracket 11 are not visible. In particular, the locking knobs of the locking elements 12 and the locking grooves 6 of the height adjustment 7 are formed corresponding to each other so that when a sliding movement of the bracket up for this a freewheel and in the downward direction locking or latching is provided. For this purpose, the outer contour of the respective detent knob is formed to the inner contour of the respective detent groove or the respective detent hole such that the detent knob can hook in the down direction in the respective detent hole, however, the detent knob can slide out of the detent hole in the upward direction. In particular, the respective detent groove and the detent knob have mutually sliding inclined surfaces, the detent knob being undercut at its lower edge, ie preferably angled at right angles or generally angularly, and with this undercut comes to a sitting in a substantially rectangular groove of the detent hole. Possibly. the locking knobs and the locking grooves can also be mutually interchanged provided on the height adjustment device and the locking elements.

The particular laterally, resiliently deflectable snap element can in particular be integrally integrated in the frame and made of the same plastic material as the frame of the bracket in the same manufacturing process. Alternatively, the respective snap element and the other frame of the bracket may optionally be made of two different material components. In particular, can be used for the respective locking element or snap element, a resilient plastic material that can withstand sufficient load, while less load-carrying, thinner plastic material is sufficient for the rest of the frame.

This additional stabilization by the construction of the bracket 11 as a closed frame comes especially to bear when the bracket 1 1 no longer directly on the raised edge 4 of the bottom 3 connects or sits on this, but as seen in Fig. 3 is set higher on the height adjustment device 7, so has a height distance to the edge 4. As a result, the entire door rack 2 quite high, so that even very high, stored refrigerated goods, such as normal bottles, are secured when opening the refrigerator door 1 against falling out. By the user of the refrigerator exerts pressure from the outside on the side walls 14 and 15 of the bracket 11, he can release the locking elements 12 from the locking holes 6 and insert the bracket in each predetermined by the detent holes 6 of the height adjustment 7 position. As a result, the bracket 11 can be brought in almost any height distances from the edge 4, so that the door rack 2 can be adjusted with its associated, separately height adjustable bracket on a variety of variants of it to be stored refrigerated goods.

4 shows a further example of a section of a refrigerator door 1 in which a lower door rack 2a and an upper door rack 2b are arranged on a height adjustment device 7, by means of which their position relative to one another can be selected flexibly. The height adjustment device 7 extends over the entire extent of the refrigerator door 1, so that the door racks 2 a and 2 b are arranged arbitrarily at this. Also, the bracket 1 1 of the door compartment 2a can be set via the same height adjustment 7 at different distances to the bottom 3 of the door compartment 2a. Thus, the door racks 2a and 2b can be extremely variably adapted to the refrigerator door 1 as a kind of railing to be stored refrigerated goods.

As an alternative to the exemplary embodiments of FIGS. 2 to 4, the rear wall 16 of the bracket 11 may also be omitted.

Possibly. For example, the front wall of the stirrup may replace the front wall of the bottom of the door compartment, i. form when the bracket touches with its side wall parts on the upper edge of the side wall parts of the door compartment. When door rack itself can thus account for the front wall at the bottom.

Possibly. It may be expedient to form the respective locking element above or below the respective side wall of the bracket in its positional plane. In that case, only a single free-cutting line will suffice parallel to the longitudinal upper edge or lower edge of the side wall. Preferably, the locking element is hinged to the rear wall of the bracket. In an advantageous further embodiment, the height adjustment can be fixed to the height adjustment of the bracket at the bottom of the door compartment. This can preferably be formed according to the height adjustment device 7 of Figures 2 with 4. It may in particular be formed by vertically extending posts or web elements, which are integrally formed on the bottom of the door compartment. The distance between the floor and bracket can be varied via the height adjustment, so that the height of the securing edge, which is represented by the bracket, can be adapted to the respective refrigerated goods. Thus, the entire range of variations are included in the door rack itself. The refrigeration device itself does not have to be changed. The thus extremely flexible trained door rack can be used in an advantageous manner instead of the previous door racks in the space provided for this known holders of the doors of the refrigerators.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 refrigerator door

2 door racks

3 floor

4 edge

5 locking element

6 detent opening

7 height adjustment

8 footbridge

9 guide element

10 groove

11 stirrups

12 locking element

13 Front wall

14 sidewall

15 side wall

16 rear wall

17 spars of the refrigerator door

Claims

claims 1 . Refrigerating appliance, in particular household refrigerating appliance, with at least one refrigeration appliance door (1), on whose inner wall at least one door compartment (2) is arranged, the at least one bottom (3) for storing refrigerated goods and at least one bracket (11) for securing the Chilled goods, characterized in that the bracket (11) and / or the bottom (3) on at least one height adjustment device (7) are arranged so that the distance between the bracket (11) and bottom (3) is variable. 2. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to claim 1, characterized in that the bracket (1 1) is arranged vertically adjustable on the height adjustment device (7). 3. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the height adjustment device (7) on the bottom (3) of the Tärabstel- coupler (2) is attached. 4. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the height adjustment device (7) on the refrigerator door (1) is arranged. 5. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to claim 4, characterized in that bracket (1 1) and bottom (3) are arranged separately on the refrigerator door (1). 6. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to claim 5, characterized in that the bracket (1 1) displaceable in the vertical direction and the bottom (3) fixed to the refrigerator door (1) is arranged. 7. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the bottom (3) and the bracket (11) on the height adjustment device (7) on the refrigerator door (1) are arranged displaceably in the vertical direction. 8. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized characterized in that the height adjustment device (7) extends at least along half the height of the refrigerator door (1). 9. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one bottom, in particular at least two bottoms (3), and a bracket (11) are arranged on the same height adjustment device (7). 10. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the height adjustment device (7) is designed as a latching device. 11. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the height adjustment device (7) has a guide element (9) up, which engages in bracket (11) and bottom (3). 12. Refrigerating appliance with door racks (2) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the bottom (3) comprises a raised edge (4). 13. Door racks (2) for attachment to the refrigerator door (1) of a refrigeration appliance, in particular domestic refrigeration appliance, in particular according to one of the preceding claims, with a bottom (3) for depositing refrigerated goods, and a bracket (11) for securing the refrigerated goods , characterized in that the bracket (11) via a height adjustment device (7) with the bottom (3) is connected.