Abstract:
A housing for a household appliance, such as a refrigerator, has walls that are covered at least locally by a colored plastic film. Preferably, the film may be a thermoplastic foil that is heated and stretched onto the walls. The film may be applied on the finished housing or it may be placed on individual wall panels prior to the final assembly of the appliance housing.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application is a continuation, under 35 U.S.C. § 120, of copending international application No. PCT/EP03/01378, filed Feb. 12, 2003, which designated the United States; this application also claims the priority, under 35 U.S.C. § 119, of German patent application No. 102 08 065.8, filed Feb. 25, 2002; the prior applications are herewith incorporated by reference in their entirety.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention relates to a housing for a large appliance, that is, a large household appliance such as, for example, a refrigerator device, a kitchen oven, a washing machine, a laundry dryer, and the like.  
         [0003]     Such household appliances are conventionally produced as fitted built-in units or as under-counter units. In the case of fitted units, in the built-in state their housing is completely or at least largely concealed by furniture elements. The aesthetic design of these concealed surfaces is therefore not generally paid any attention.  
         [0004]     In the case of under-counter and table-top units, it has long been customary to produce the housings from metal sheets that are painted white. This leaves the designer little freedom for aesthetic design; although other paint finishes would be possible in principle, they require great effort, and the associated cost is disproportionate to the overall production costs of the appliance.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a housing for a household appliance, and in particular for a refrigerator, which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices and methods of this general type and which renders it possible to realize various surface decorations simply and inexpensively.  
         [0006]     With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a housing of a household appliance, comprising walls bounding the housing, and a colored plastic film at least locally covering said walls.  
         [0007]     The film preferably consists of a thermoplastic material. This material can be made to be stretchable by heating when the film is pulled on, in order in this way to allow even parts of the housing that are not planar to be covered smoothly and without any creases.  
         [0008]     In the case of a housing joined together from a number of wall elements, preferably each wall element is individually covered with a piece of the plastic film, in order that it does not hinder removal of the wall elements for repair purposes.  
         [0009]     The individual wall elements are preferably covered with the plastic film over their entire visible surface.  
         [0010]     Underneath the film, the housing may be painted in a conventional way. This allows a household appliance with a housing according to the invention to be produced on a currently existing production installation without modifications to the conventional production steps and the film to be respectively applied specifically at the request of a user of the finished appliance as a final step of its assembly, or else in a step included between the conventional assembly steps.  
         [0011]     Under the film, the walls of the housing may also be unpainted. If in the case of the series production of such household appliances, unpainted metal sheets are used for the fabrication of the housings, the walls must be covered with film in the case of all appliances of the series in order to protect them from corrosion and ensure a presentable appearance. However, production costs can be saved by dispensing with the painting.  
         [0012]     The film is preferably attached to the walls of the housing in such a way that it can be pulled off. This allows a user easily to do away with a surface which has become unsightly during use or he no longer likes and replace it or have it replaced by a new one. Furthermore, by removing the old film and applying a new film, there is the possibility of giving the household appliance a different appearance at low cost.  
         [0013]     The invention also relates to a method for producing a household appliance of the type described above, with the steps of producing a plastic film which bears the decoration to be applied and of applying the plastic film to the walls of the household appliance.  
         [0014]     Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.  
         [0015]     Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a housing for a household appliance, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.  
         [0016]     The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a refrigerating device according to the invention;  
         [0018]      FIG. 2  is a detailed section taking through a part of a side wall and the door of the refrigerator of  FIG. 1  according to a first embodiment of the invention; and  
         [0019]      FIG. 3  is a partial section similar to that of  FIG. 2 , and illustrating a second variant embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0020]     Referring now to the figures of the drawing in detail and first, particularly, to  FIG. 1  thereof, there is shown a perspective view of an under-counter, or stand-alone refrigerator according to the invention. The housing of the refrigerator is constructed from a box-shaped housing body  1  with two side walls  2 , a top plate  3  and a rear wall, as well as a door  4 . The door  4  is articulated, i.e., hinge-mounted, at an opening in the housing body. The walls of the housing body  1  and also the door  4  have in each case a multilayered structure, which can be seen with more detail in  FIG. 2 . The structure includes outer wall panels  5  and  6  made of metal sheet and inner claddings  7  and  8  made of plastic. The claddings enclose intermediate spaces  15  that are filled with insulating foam.  
         [0021]     The outer wall panels  5 ,  6  of the housing body  1  and of the door  4  may be painted or powder-coated in the conventional way; they may, however, also merely be cleaned or descaled metal sheets, in particular bearing no layer of paint or coating of their own.  
         [0022]     These metal sheets are each individually covered over their entire surface with a thermoplastic film  9  or foil  9 . For the sake of clearer representation, the film  9  is in each case shown pulled away at the corner of the side wall  2  and of the door  4  in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0023]     As  FIG. 2  shows, the outer wall panel  5  and the inner cladding  7  of the housing body are interconnected, in that a spring strip  10  formed onto the edge of the inner cladding  7  engages in a groove  11 , which is formed onto the edge of the outer wall panel by bending over its metal sheet. The film  9  of the outer wall panel  5  extends over its entire free surface into the groove  11 , where it is clamped between the side wall of the groove  11  and the spring strip  10 .  
         [0024]     In order to attach the film  9  in this way to the outer wall panel  5 , it is obviously necessary to apply it before complete assembly of the housing body, in particular before insertion of the spring strip  10  into the groove  11 .  
         [0025]     In order also to cover curved housing surfaces smoothly with the film, the film may be heated—for example with a hot-air blower—and then stretched at the points required.  
         [0026]     The outer wall panel  6  of the door  4  extends over its entire front, its side flanks and, in the form of an edge strip  12 , over part of the rear side of the body of the door  4 . The inner cladding  8  of the door  4  is fastened to this edge strip  12 , for example by adhesive bonding. The outer wall panel  6  is covered with the plastic film  9  over its entire exposed surface, i.e. the front and the side flanks, an edge portion  13  of the film  9  engaging between the edge strip  12  and the inner cladding  8  and being protected in this way from unwanted detachment.  
         [0027]     A magnetic seal  14  is fastened along the periphery of the inner cladding  7 .  
         [0028]     In order to remove the film  9 , it is sufficient to cut through it with the aid of a sharp implement along the edges of the inner claddings  7 ,  8 , for example at points designated in  FIG. 3  by  16  and  17 , in order subsequently to pull it off from the outsides of the wall panels  5  and  6 . The parts of the film  9  that are clamped between an outer wall panel  5 ,  6  and the inner cladding  7 ,  8  are left behind.  
         [0029]     If the outer wall panels  5 ,  6  have been painted, the painted surface can in this way be exposed, whereby even an appliance that is several years old will appear as if it were almost new.  
         [0030]     Renewed covering of the outer wall panels  5 ,  6  with a film  19  of the same type as the film  9  is also possible, the edges  20  of the film  19  extending as far as the inner cladding  7  or  8  during this covering performed on the ready-assembled appliance. This is important in particular in the case of non-painted metal sheets, in order to prevent condensation from the interior of the refrigerator coming into contact with the metal sheets of the outer wall panels  5 ,  6 .  
         [0031]     As a departure from the exemplary embodiment described, it is equally possible to make the free ends of the film  9  reach directly up to the transitions between the outer claddings  5  and  6  and the inner claddings  7  and  8  and fasten them at these transitions, for example by adhesive bonding. In this case, the film  9  may already itself have been provided with an adhesive layer over its full surface.  
         [0032]     Films that are suitable for the purposes of the present invention are commercially available, for example, from Intax GmbH &amp; Co. KG, Oldenburg, Germany, under the designation “Intax-Folie” as decorative and body-protecting elements for motor vehicles. They are available in many different colors. The use of multicolored films, for example with a decoration imitating wood grain, is also possible.