Reinforcement piece for a refrigerator door and refrigerator door with such a reinforcement piece

Abstract: Such parts are intended to be situated at the corners of the door of the refrigerator between the external metal panel and the inner plastic door, during the fabrication of the door when proceeding to the injection of insulating material. Their function is to obturate the slits formed at the corners and to solve the problem of guidance of the hinge axis. They have a prismatic shape with triangular base with a perimetral flange (2) which is applied against the walls, and which has two housings (3) for mounting a bushing (4) for rotation of the hinge axis, on the side where the hinges are arranged. The housings (3) communicate with each other and the bottom membrane (12) of the housing (3) unoccupied by the bushing (4) is previously ruptured to let the air inside the door come out during the injection of insulating material.

Description: The present invention refers to a reinforcement piece applicable to refrigerator doors, which has been conceived and developed for placement in the inside corners of refrigerator doors, to a reinforcement assembly including such a reinforcement piece, and to a refrigerator door including such a reinforcement piece. In the manufacturing process of refrigerator doors, one starts with a metal panel that has its edges folded over for the purpose of forming a type of open box in which the plastic inside portion of the door is incorporated. Between the panel of the door and -the plastic inside portion of the door there is an injected insulating material. Since the edges of the metal panel, in this part of the corners of the door, are not joined in a leak-proof manner, in the injection of the insulating material this material inevitably passes through the slots that remain and subsequently this material must be removed. Besides, the rotation axis of the hinges presently has problems of assembly since it is possible that it does not remain centered enough since the injected material offers resistance, when this rotation axis is incorporated in the door. The injected material also comes out through this area as the drilled holes of the panel through which the rotation axes of the hinges protrude are not plugged up adequately. A refrigerator door of the aforementioned type is disclosed in US-Patent No. 4,238,908 disclosing a front panel being first folded backwards to form the side portions and further folded to form a rear open frame whereby a plastic material closure is fitted within said frame. Openings are provided within the upper and lower portions of the door to house vertically inserted bushings secured to a horizontal hinge arm by means of a screw which is screwed through a hole in said arm into said bushing. Supplementary reinforcement plates, corner pieces and washers must be provided to provide resistance against wear out of the fitting of the bushing in the door whereby, when the space between the front panel and the plastic rear cover of the door is injected with insulating material, said material passes through the slots in the corners and, if the bushing has not been installed prior to injection, it leaks through the openings provided for the bushings and may offer resistance to subsequent insertion of the bushings whilst, if the bushings have been installed prior to injecting the insulating material, due to its great pressure it may push said bushing out of its vertical centered position thereby causing problems if not rendering correct hinging impossible. The reinforcement piece permits in the first place, plugging the slots of the corners for the purpose of preventing the injected material from coming through. Secondly, it also resolves the problem of guiding of the axis of the hinge,so that offcentering is not produced. It also prevents the insulating material to come out through the holes provided for said hinge shafts to come out through. A refrigerator door may have four reinforcement pieces, one in each corner and incorporated at the inner surface of the metal panel, before assemblying the plastic inner portion of the door. Only two of these reinforcement pieces are used to assemble the hinge shafts, depending on whether the door opens to the left or to the right. Each of these reinforcement pieces has two recesses whereby only one of both receives a rotation bushing of the shaft of the respective hinge. The rotation bushing will be inserted in either recess depending on whether the door opens to the left or to the right, as well as whether it belongs to a reinforcement piece at a top or bottom corner of the door. In order to facilitate the understanding of the features of the invention and forming an integral part of this specification, drawings, in whose figures, with an illustrative non-restrictive character the following has been represented, are attached hereto: Figure 1 is a bottom plan view of the reinforcement piece applicable to refrigerator doors, object of the invention. Figure 2 is a section along cutting line A-A of figure 1. Figure 3 is a top plan view of what is shown in the above cited figures. Figure 4 is a section along the cutting line B of figure 2. Figure 5 is a side raised view of what is shown in figure 2. Figure 6 is a section along cutting line C of figure 5. Figures 7, 8 and 9 are respective raised views with a sectioned side raised portion with a sectioned quadrant and bottom plan, of one of the rotation bushings. With reference to the numbering indicated in the figures, the reinforcement piece applicable to refrigerator doors of the invention has a general prismatic shape with a triangular base and is made of injected plastic material. Its geometry can be seen in figures 1 to 6. The base of this prismatic shape is a right-angled triangle whose side surface (1) corresponding to the hypotenuse is the one that is to be parallel to the edge corresponding to the edge of the door, this edge being determined by the folded edges of the metal panel that the refrigerator door is made out of. This surface (1) forms a perimetric wing (2) that slightly exceeds the prismatic volume, this wing also having a, beveled edge in order to facilitate pressure contact by the thrust that the expansion of the insulating material that is injected in the door produces, once the metal panel receives the plastic inner portion of the door. The reinforcement piece includes a pair of identical generally cylinder-shaped recesses (3). In each one of them a rotation bushing generally referred to as number (4) can be mounted. The design geometry thereof can be seen in figures 7 to 9. In the inside of this rotation bushing (4) the shaft or pin of the corresponding hinge moves. Depending on whether the opening of the door is to the left or to the right, as well as whether the reinforcement piece is at the top or bottom of the hinging shaft of the door, the rotation bushing (4) is selectively inserted into either one of the recesses (3). Each one of the recesses (3) of the reinforcement piece has a first cylindrical portion and towards the inside they are finished in a flat portion in order to define antirotation means for the bushing (4) comprising a cylindric portion (5) and another flattened one (6) with sections equivalent to those of recess (3). The cylindric portion (5) of the rotation bushing (4) extends into a flange (7) and the free end of the narrow portion (6) has a diametric notch (8). The recesses (3), as clearly seen in figure 2, also open towards one of the side walls (9) of the former general prismatic-triangular shape according to longitudinal grooves (10) flanked by partition walls (11). The longitudinal partition walls (11) are joined by the end corresponding to the closed bottom (12) of the recess (3), while they are separated at the other end and form an opening at the bottom part of figure 2. Upon effecting the assembly of the door, the bottom walls (12) corresponding to the recesses (3) without a rotation bushing (4) and only in the reinforcement pieces at the side of the hinging, are pierced through, operation which is easy since this wall (12) is very thin for this purpose, defining an easily removeable membrane. Since the recesses (3) of a single reinforcement piece are joined, if one of them is used to insert the rotation bushing (4), in which case the reinforcement piece would be located at the hinging side of the refrigerator door, in the injecting process of the insulating material upon the foam increasing in volume, an air outlet is produced precisely by the hole formed upon piercing through the membrane (12), from the free recess (3) without a rotation bushing (4) towards the enclosure formed by the piece and the walls of the door and from there to the recess (3) occupied by said bushing (4) and since the latter is of a tubular structure, by its axial recess (3) the air that the injected insulating material vacates comes out, without the injected material coming out, since the foam acquires enough consistency before coming outside. The rotation bushing (4) is introduced through the hole (4) made in the edge of the door, in correspondence with the recess (3) and though the inside edge reaches the bottom (12) of the recess, there is a radial or side passage due to a lateral notch (8). The notch (8) is diametric so that the rotation bushing (4) can be inserted in any position.

Claims: Reinforcement piece for hinging doors to a refrigerator body and sealing the corner portions of the doors, said refrigerator doors comprising a metal panel forming the outside wall of the door and having folded edges to form the side portions and the perimetral inner walls forming a framework at the rear of the door; a plastic material inner portion received in the opening defined by said inner walls; insulating material placed between said panel and said inner portion by injection; and at least two holes respectively provided in the side portions of said panel, substantially in the proximity of at least two of the four corners of said door; said reinforcement piece including means for receiving a rotation bushing (4) to allow rotatable housing of a substantially vertical shaft of a hinge of said refrigerator body; characterized in that the reinforcement piece comprises a body having substantially the general shape of a right-angled triangle base prisma, the surface (1) corresponding to the hypotenuse defining a perimetric wing (2) that slightly exceeds the prismatic volume and which permits the reinforcement piece to be fixed to a corner of the door by means of pressure; two recesses (3) extending through said body substantially orthogonally from one of its other surfaces towards the surface (1) corresponding to the hypotenuse, said recesses serving for the selective coupling of said rotation bushing (4) which allows rotatable housing of a substantially vertical shaft of a hinge of said refrigerator body, depending on whether the door opens to the right or to the left. A reinforcement piece according to claim 1, characterized in that each one of said recesses (3) comprises a first substantially cylindrical portion which, by a stepped transition portion, extends into an inner narrower flattened end portion. A reinforcement piece according to any of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the bottom end (12) of said recesses (3) (3) is removable or breakable. A reinforcement assembly including a reinforcement piece according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that it further includes a bushing (4), where said bushing (4) is shaped in a substantially equivalent manner to said recesses(3) such that it comprises a first flange portion (7) having a wider perimeter than said first portion of said recesses (3) and emerging therefrom through one of said holes of said side portions of said panel, a second portion (5) having a perimeter substantially complementary to said cylindrical portion of said recesses (3), a third portion having a perimeter being substantially complementary to said transition portion of said recesses (3), and a fourth portion (6) having a perimeter being substantially complementary to said end portion, each recess (3) having at least one lateral window (10) extending between partition walls (11) into a face portion (9) of said prisma being substantially parallel to said recess (3), whereby said bushing (4) has a lateral notch (8) at its fourth portion (6) in a position communicating with said window (10), and whereby the windows (10) of said recesses (3) are communicated with each other by a passage provided substantially in said body of the reinforcement piece. A refrigerator door with a reinforcement piece placed in at least two of its four corners, between the folded edges of a metal panel that forms the outside of the door and a plastic inner portion of the door that is received between said edges, the inside of the door being filled with an injected insulating material, said pieces establishing the sealing of the openings formed between said folded edges of the metal panel and carrying the door hinges, characterized in that each reinforcement piece has a general prismatic form with a right-angled triangle base whose larger surface (1), corresponding to the hypotenuse, defines a perimetric wing (2) that slightly exceeds the prismatic volume and which is applied under pressure against the edges of the panel, each reinforcement piece also including two recesses (3) for selective coupling of a rotation bushing (4) in which a hinge shaft can be housed, depending on whether the door opens to the right or to the left. A refrigerator door according to claim 5, characterized in that each one of said recesses (3) comprises a first substantially cylindrical portion which, by a stepped transition portion, extends into an inner narrower flattened end portion.

Inventors: GARCIA SANTAMARIA SALVADOR, GARCIA SANTAMARIA, SALVADOR
Applicants: BS ELECTRODOMESTICOS SA, BS ELECTRODOMESTICOS, S.A.
Application year: 1992
Main classification: F25D23
IPC codes: E06B3, F25D23, E05D5