Patent Publication Number: US-2009217698-A1

Title: Refrigerating Device

Description:
The present invention relates to a refrigeration appliance, in particular the structural requirements for a pleasing design of the front face of the appliance, when it is set up together with adjacent other appliances or units. 
     Conventionally refrigeration appliances are usually manufactured either as freestanding appliances or built-in appliances. In the case of freestanding appliances, purchasers generally do not expect the design of such appliances to pick up features of surrounding units or appliances. In contrast built-in appliances are generally fitted in recesses provided for them and covered by a panel, the design features of which correspond to those of adjacent unit doors. 
     Large-format refrigeration appliances cannot be built easily into units. Such appliances can for example be set up between two kitchen cabinets and covered with a panel, which picks up the design features of the adjacent cabinets. However this requires the functionality of the refrigeration appliance not to be impeded by the total coverage of its door. 
     A problem therefore arises in particular in the case of refrigeration appliances with a transparent door, for example in the case of bottle storage cabinets. An attached decor panel, even if it is in the form of a frame around a window aperture, always restricts the visibility of the content of the bottle storage cabinet. Also the height of the upper and lower moldings of such a frame is predetermined by the height of the top and bottom of the body of the refrigeration appliance, so that such moldings generally do not match the different manufacturer-specific heights of the horizontal edges of adjacent unit doors in a harmonious manner. It would be possible to attach a door to a standard model of a refrigeration appliance body, the height of said door being tailored to the dimensions of kitchen units, with which the appliance is to be combined. But producing a plurality of door models in differing heights, each matching the dimensions of the kitchen units of different manufacturers, involves a very high level of outlay and expense. Also with such a door it would be necessary in each instance to provide non-transparent regions at the top and bottom, of a height that differed from model to model, to conceal the top and bottom of the body of the refrigeration appliance and in some instances part of the base region, on which the body rests, since these parts should not be visible through the transparent parts of the door. 
     The object of the present invention is therefore to create a refrigeration appliance, which is suitable for setting up adjacent to units made by different manufacturers, whilst still picking up their design elements, without it being necessary to cover the door completely. 
     The object is achieved in that at least one decor panel, which extends the door in a vertical direction upward and/or downward, is fitted on the door of the refrigeration appliance. 
     A decor panel, which extends the door upward above the upper face of the body allows the apparent height of the appliance to be tailored to the height of adjacent units, which are higher than the upper face of the body of the appliance. 
     A decor panel, which extends the door downward to the level of the base segment, allows the device to be combined with units, which for their part have a base segment, whose height is lower than that of the base segment of the refrigeration appliance. 
    
    
     
       Further features and advantages of the invention will emerge from the description which follows of an exemplary embodiment with reference to the accompanying figures, in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows a perspective, partially exploded, view of an inventive refrigeration appliance set up next to a cabinet, to whose design it is tailored, 
         FIG. 2  shows a partial section through the door of the refrigeration appliance according to a first embodiment; and 
         FIG. 3  shows a schematic partial section through the door according to a second embodiment. 
     
    
    
     The refrigeration appliance shown in  FIG. 1  has a body  1 , which in the known manner has a solid outer shell joined together from metal sheets, a drawn plastic inner container and an intermediate space filled with insulating material between the outer shell and the inner container. The body  1  rests on a base segment  2 , in which parts of the refrigeration unit of the appliance, for example a compressor and condenser, can be accommodated or which essentially serves solely as an air duct to supply cooling air by way of a ventilation grille  3  to refrigeration unit parts, which are accommodated in a rear recess of the body  1 . 
     A door  5  connected to the body  1  by way of multilink hinges  4  comprises an insulating glass pane of a type known per se, which is set into a frame  6  joined together from four profile elements  7 . Through the insulating glass pane inside the body  1  vertically stacked bottle supports  18  are visible, respectively comprising a number of channel-type trays connected by front and rear cross supports to hold a bottle on its side. 
     The structure of the door is shown in  FIG. 2 . The profile elements  7  forming the frame  6  are hollow profiles of roughly rectangular cross-section. A stud  8  protruding from a corner of the hollow profile serves as a support for the insulating glass pane  9 . Studs  10 ,  11  protruding from two other corners define a groove, in whose undercuts a plastic extruded profile  12  is hooked. One arm  13  of the extruded profile holds the insulating glass pane  9  elastically against the stud  8 , at the same time shielding the aluminum profile element  7  from cold air from the interior of the body  1 . A magnetic seal  14  is latched in a groove  15  of the extruded profile  12 . 
     An alternative structure of the door  5  is shown schematically in  FIG. 3 . Here the insulating glass pane  9  is made of two glass plates  16 ,  17  of different sizes, the outer plate  16  being larger than the inner plate  17  and forming the entire front face of the door  5 . A metal profile element  7 , of which four are joined together to make a frame, on which the hinges act, is adhered to the rear face of the outer glass plate  16 . Adhered or latched to the profile element  7  is a plastic extruded profile  12 , which, like the one in  FIG. 2 , serves to shield the metal profile  7  from the interior and to support the magnetic seal. 
     With both the door structure in  FIG. 2  and the one in  FIG. 3  the dimensions of the door  5  are essentially predefined by the front face of the body  1  facing the door  5 . To allow the appearance of the refrigeration appliance to be tailored to a unit  20  adjacent to it, angle pieces  21  are secured to the horizontal profile elements  7 , being provided so that decor panels  22  and/or  23  can be fitted vertically from arms of the angle pieces  21  protruding from the frame  6 . 
     The decor panels  22 ,  23  are made of the same material as the adjacent doors  24 ,  25  of the unit  20  and are like the doors  24 ,  25  in the design of their surfaces, edges, etc. These decor panels  22 ,  23  can be manufactured by the manufacturer of the unit  20  in the required dimensions with little outlay, so that the upper decor panel  22  for example, when fitted in the position shown here as a broken outline, has an upper edge that is higher than the upper face of the body  1  and is flush with the upper edge of the door  24  and the decor panel  23  has a lower edge that is flush with the lower edge of the door  25 . 
     The decor panel  22  conceals a top segment of the body  1  above the upper edge of the door  5 , in which an evaporator chamber for example is concealed, which cools the interior of the body  1  by means of circulated air. It is therefore also expediently present in the case of a refrigeration appliance standing alone, for which it is not necessary to tailor the height of the door to adjacent units. 
     The presence of the lower decor panel  23  allows the base segment  2  to be manufactured in a height necessary to accommodate required components of the refrigeration unit therein, which may be different from the height of a base region  26  of the adjacent unit  20 .