Abstract:
An upper hinge assembly for pivotally mounting a door to a refrigerator cabinet includes an aligning plate fixedly secured atop a hinge plate to the cabinet. Once the hinge and aligning plates are factory set in position, with tight tolerances between fasteners and holes in the aligning plate, the aligning plate is separately fixed to the hinge plate. The hinge plate can be subsequently detached from the cabinet, with the aligning plate remaining affixed to the hinge plate, and then reattached in a manner which enables the desired factory preset position to be reestablished, thereby assuring that a seal between the door and the cabinet can be effectively maintained.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerator cabinets wherein access to an interior of the cabinet is provided by opening a pivotally mounted refrigerator door and, more particularly, to an upper hinge assembly, used to mount the door for pivotal movement, which enables the door to be reinstalled in a precise factory set position following post-manufacturing detachment from the cabinet. 
     2. Discussion of the Prior Art 
     In the art of refrigerators, it is customary to enable access to a refrigerated compartment defined within a cabinet by pivotally mounting a respective door for movement between opened and closed positions. Regardless of the particular door configuration of the refrigerator, there is invariably provided at least one upper hinge for rotatably supporting a compartment door to the cabinet. In a typical refrigerator cabinet arrangement, an upper hinge is provided that includes a first portion fixed to a top wall or panel of the cabinet, such as through the use of various threaded fasteners, and a second, hinge axis defining portion which establishes a pivot axis for the door. 
     When a refrigerator cabinet of this type is initially assembled at a factory, extreme care is taken to assure the precise mounting location for the upper hinge. More specifically, both upper and lower hinges for the door must be properly positioned in order to assure that a gasket provided about a peripheral portion of the door will establish a proper seal with the cabinet upon closing the door. Any misalignment can result in that seal being broken, thereby resulting in a considerable loss of refrigeration and overall product efficiency. 
     Unfortunately, although a refrigerator door may be properly mounted relative to the cabinet at the factory, various occurrences can actually alter the particular mounting, thereby creating a misalignment between the door and the cabinet. For instance, care must be taken during loading, unloading, and shipping of the refrigerator to avoid the development of misalignment problems. In general, these concerns are considered to have been adequately addressed with appropriate packaging and handling techniques. However, it is sometimes necessary for service personnel to remove a door of a refrigerator. In addition, the installation of a refrigerator may require the door to be detached from the cabinet in order to enable the overall refrigerator to clear predefined doorways. Under at least these circumstances, it is necessary to remove one or more of the hinges. Typically, the upper hinge is disconnected from the cabinet. In any case, whenever the upper hinge is removed, it is near impossible to re-establish the original mounting with precision. Therefore, some misalignment is almost invariably created when reinstalling the door relative to the cabinet. 
     With this in mind, there have been attempts to address these concerns. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,028 discloses an arrangement for positively aligning a door on a refrigerator cabinet wherein one or more alignment projections are fixed to a top surface of the cabinet, either directly or through the use of a plate. An upper hinge for the door is initially orientated relative to the cabinet by having each projection extend through a respective hole formed in the upper hinge. Screws are then employed, at positions spaced from each projection, to secure the upper hinge to the top surface of the cabinet. If the door needs to be removed, the upper hinge can be detached from the cabinet. However, the projection structure remains fixed to the top surface of the cabinet, thereby enabling the upper hinge to be reinstalled in the factory set position. 
     Although this patented arrangement describes an upper hinge mounting assembly which addresses certain concerns of the present invention, there still exists a need in the art of refrigerators for an upper hinge assembly which enables a door of a refrigerator cabinet to be efficiently and effectively detached and reattached, while assuring that a factory preset mounting relationship between the door and cabinet can be precisely re-established in order to maintain a proper seal. Moreover, there exists a need for an upper hinge assembly which can perform this function while being simply in construction, economically feasible to implement, and effective over a long period of time. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is directed to an upper hinge assembly for pivotally mounting a door to a refrigerator cabinet in a manner which assures that the door can be detached from the cabinet, thereby voiding a factory setting, and yet be reattached to the exact factory setting. In this manner, the necessary, relative positioning between the door and the cabinet which enables proper peripheral sealing of the door is assured. 
     In accordance with the invention, the upper hinge assembly includes a hinge plate and an aligning plate. During manufacturing of the overall refrigerator cabinet, the aligning plate is arranged atop the hinge plate and fixedly secured to the top panel surface of the cabinet in unison with the hinge plate through the use of mechanical fasteners extending through coaxial holes in the aligning and hinge plates. Preferably, the fasteners are actually received in a reinforcing plate secured below the top panel of the cabinet. Thereafter, the aligning plate is fixedly secured atop the hinge plate, preferably through an additional mechanical fastener which only extends into the hinge plate and not the cabinet. Most preferably, the aligning plate is provided with a slot which receives a small mechanical fastener that maintains the aligning plate in an established orientation relative to the hinge plate. 
     With this construction, both the aligning plate and the hinge plate can be simultaneously fixed to the cabinet in a required, proper seal establishing position at the factory. An additional mechanical fastener is also preferably employed to further connect at least the hinge plate to the cabinet. Thereafter, the aligning plate is fixed directly to the hinge plate. If it becomes necessary to later remove the hinge plate, the aligning plate will still remained fixed to the hinge plate. Although the size of the holes formed in the hinge plate would permit some relative shifting between the hinge plate and the cabinet upon remounting, the holes in the aligning plate are sized to receive the main mechanical fasteners with a tight tolerance such that the fixed position of the aligning plate upon the hinge plate assures the factory established position can be readily reestablished. Therefore, if the hinge plate must be detached to temporarily remove the door for transportation, service, or other purposes, the aligning plate stays fixed to the hinge plate to assure proper remounting of the hinge plate and, correspondingly, proper remounting of the door relative to the cabinet in a single, consistent position so as to reestablish the appropriate seal. 
     Additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to corresponding parts in the several views. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a top portion of a refrigerator cabinet showing the upper door hinge assembly of the invention in an exploded view; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view of the upper hinge assembly of the invention in a filly assembled state; and 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective view of the upper hinge assembly shown subsequently detached from the refrigerator cabinet. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With initial reference to  FIG. 1 , an upper hinge assembly constructed in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention is generally indicated at  1 . In the embodiment shown, upper hinge assembly  1  is applied to a top mount refrigerator cabinet  2 . However, at this point, it should be noted that upper hinge assembly  1  is equally applicable for use in connection with other types of refrigerators, including side-by-side and bottom mount style refrigerators. In any event, the partial view of refrigerator cabinet  2  illustrates a top wall  4 , one sidewall  6 , and a door  8 . An annular seal or gasket  10  is provided about an inner periphery of door  8  and is adapted to engage a front face (not labeled) of cabinet  2  in order to seal a refrigerator compartment access opening in a manner widely known in the art. Also, door  8  includes an upper edge portion  11  provided with a receiving bore  12 . 
     As illustrated in the exploded view of  FIG. 1 , top wall  4  is provided with three, generally triangularly arranged holes  14 – 16  for use in securing upper hinge assembly  1  to top wall  4  of refrigerator cabinet  2 . More specifically, a reinforcing plate  18  is preferably secured beneath top wall  4  in order to act as a structural reinforcement for upper hinge assembly  1 , with reinforcing plate  18  having holes aligned with holes  14 – 16 . Upper hinge assembly  1  includes an aligning plate  20  having an upper surface  21  and a pair of spaced, preferably circular holes  22  and  23 . Aligning plate  20  is also provided with a dedicated fastener receiving hole  26  which preferably takes the form of a substantially transversely extending slot. In the most preferred form of the invention, holes  22 ,  23  and  26  are spaced apart from one another and arranged in a generally triangular pattern, with holes  22  and  23  being alignable with holes  14  and  15  in top wall  4 . 
     Upper hinge assembly  1  also includes a hinge plate  32  provided with a pivot pin  34 . In a manner known in the art, pivot pin  34  can be formed as a separate piece and welded in place or drawn as an integral part of the remainder of hinge plate  32 . In either case, pin  34  is sized to extend into bore  12  of door  8  so as to define a rotational axis for the opening and closing of door  8 . Hinge plate  32  is provided with fastener receiving apertures  36 – 38 . Fastener receiving apertures  36 – 38  are spaced apart and arranged in a generally triangular fashion corresponding to holes  14 – 16  respectively. An additional mounting aperture  40  is also provided in hinge plate  32 . As shown in the preferred embodiment depicted, mounting aperture  40  is preferably much smaller than apertures  36 – 38 . 
     When hinge assembly  1  is being factory mounted to cabinet  2 , the manufacturer determines the mounting position needed for hinge plate  32  in order to properly orientate hinge plate  32 , and thus pin  34 , so that door  8  will be positioned on cabinet  2  in a manner which assures a complete seal through gasket  10 . Once the proper position is achieved, mounting fasteners  44 – 46  are utilized to fixedly secure hinge plate  32 , as well as aligning plate  20 , into reinforcing plate  18  through hole  22  and aperture  36 , hole  23  and aperture  37 , and aperture  38  respectively. At this point, it should be recognized that the tolerances associated with apertures  36 – 38  in hinge plate  32  and fasteners  44 – 46  would not enable hinge plate  32  to be removed from cabinet  2  and later replaced in the same, proper sealing position. If such a tight tolerance was established, there would be no room for any initial adjustment between hinge plate  32  and cabinet  2  at the factory. However, in accordance with the invention, each of fasteners  44  and  45  are specifically configured to have a short shank portion  50  directly adjacent a head  52 . Shank portion  50  has an associated diameter which is tightly toleranced to a respective hole  22 ,  23  in aligning plate  20 . Therefore, although each shank portion  50  is smaller than the diameter associated with each aperture  36 ,  37 , there is no room for alignment plate to shift relative to cabinet  2  once fasteners  44  and  45  are tightened. In this manner, hinge plate  32  can be adjusted relative to cabinet  4 , with hinge plate  32  also being able to initially shift relative to aligning plate  20 . 
     Once the desired positioning of hinge plate  32  is achieved, fasteners  44 – 46  can be tightened to prevent any shifting between aligning plate  20 , hinge plate  32  and cabinet  2 . Thereafter, a dedicated mounting fastener  60  is used to fixedly secure aligning plate  20  upon hinge plate  32  at slot  26  and mounting aperture  40 . Of course, the existence of slot  26  enables the necessary relative positioning between aligning plate  20  and hinge plate  32  as indicated above. At this point, hinge assembly  1  assumes the position shown in  FIG. 2  which is preferably the condition hinge assembly  1  takes upon completion of the manufacturing process. 
     In accordance with the invention, each of fasteners  44 – 46  and  60  is preferably constituted by a screw, however, other known mechanical fasteners could be employed. At this point, it should be noted that only one mounting fastener  60  has been found necessary in securely fixing aligning plate  20  to hinge plate  32 . In any event, it is within the scope of the invention to provide additional mounting structure which can establish another mounting point if desired, such as another hole and fastener combination. 
     Once both aligning plate  20  and hinge plate  32  are fixed to cabinet  2 , as well as each other, in the manner set forth above, hinge plate  32  can be subsequently removed or detached from cabinet  2  by removing fasteners  44 – 46 . However, aligning plate  20  remains fixed to hinge plate  32  as represented in  FIG. 3 . Since shank portions  50  are tightly received in holes  22  and  23  of aligning plate  20 , hinge plate  32  can only be positioned back upon cabinet  4  in a single, predetermined position, thereby assuring a proper alignment between door  8  and cabinet  2  for effective sealing purposes. 
     In accordance with the invention, both aligning plate  20  and hinge plate  32  are preferably made of metal, although other materials could be employed. Although the specific dimensions and the like can change, in the most preferred form of the invention, hinge plate  32  is approximately 3 mm thick, aligning plate  20  is approximately 1.5 mm thick, each aperture  36 ,  37  has a diameter in the order of 9 mm, each hole  22 ,  23  has a diameter in the order of 7 mm, and mounting hole  26  has a width of about 2–4 mm. 
     Although described with reference to a preferred embodiment of the invention, it should be readily understood that various changes and/or modifications can be made to the invention without departing from the spirit thereof. For instance, although fasteners  44 – 46  and  60  are constituted by screws in accordance with the most preferred embodiment of the invention, other types of fastening arrangements could be employed, particularly other known types of mechanical fasteners. In addition, the particular manner in which aligning plate  20  is fixedly secured to hinge plate  32  could also vary while still performing the same function. In any event, the invention is only intended to be limited by the scope of the following claims.