Patent Abstract:
A refrigerator having a cabinet forming a refrigerator compartment; a door opening and closing the refrigerator compartment; and a hinge member rotatably connecting the door to the cabinet. The hinge member has a rotation axis varying in position, depending on rotation angles of the door between a full open position at which the refrigerator compartment is fully opened and a closed position at which the refrigerator compartment is closed.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
         [0001]    This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2002-2340, filed Jan. 15, 2002, in the Korean Industrial Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates in general to a refrigerator, and more particularly, to a refrigerator assembly unit improving a rotation of a door against a cabinet.  
           [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0005]    A refrigerator normally has a cabinet forming a refrigerator compartment, and a door provided in front of the refrigerator compartment to open and close the refrigerator compartment. The cabinet and the door are connected by a hinge member.  
           [0006]    The hinge member includes a hinge bracket having a first end connected to the cabinet, and a second end connected to the door and provided with a hinge hole, and a hinge pin connected with the door through the hinge hole. Thus, the door rotates against the cabinet on an axis of the hinge pin.  
           [0007]    To allow a user to put food into the refrigerator compartment or remove food therefrom, the door is generally rotated over a right angle to open the refrigerator compartment. Herein, the location of the hinge pin is significant as follows.  
           [0008]    [0008]FIG. 7 illustrates a rotation of a door when a hinge pin is positioned at a rear corner of the door, namely, adjacent to a cabinet. As illustrated therein, a door  120  opens and closes a refrigerator compartment  110   a , being rotated on the axis of a hinge pin  135 .  
           [0009]    However, in the case that the hinge pin  135  is positioned as illustrated in FIG. 7, when the door  120  is fully rotated, a corner part of the door  120  positioned in front of the hinge pin  135  protrudes over the outer wall of the cabinet  110 , thereby creating an interference part “I 1 ”. Thus, the refrigerator is required to be disposed at a position spaced apart from a wall, a sink, etc., to avoid the interference part “I 1 ”.  
           [0010]    Contrary to the hinge pin  135  of FIG. 7, FIG. 8 illustrates the rotation of the door when the hinge pin  235  is positioned at the front corner of the door  220 . As illustrated therein, a door  220  also opens and closes a refrigerator compartment  210   a  by being rotated at the axis of a hinge pin  235 .  
           [0011]    In the case that the hinge pin  235  is positioned as illustrated in FIG. 8, when the door  220  is rotated, a corner part of the door  220  does not protrude over the cabinet  210  as compared with the case of FIG. 7.  
           [0012]    However, as the hinge pin  235  is positioned at the front corner of the door  220 , the rotational radius of the door  220  is lengthened, thereby creating an interference part “I 2 ” between a door shelf  240  provided on the inside of the door  220  and an inside wall of the cabinet  210 . Thus, in order to remove the interference part “I 2 ”, the size of the door shelf  240  is required to be decreased, thereby lowering the capacity of the door shelf  240 .  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0013]    Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a refrigerator that avoids the necessity of lowering the capacity of a door shelf and that avoids an interference part usually present while the door is rotated.  
           [0014]    Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.  
           [0015]    The foregoing and other objects of the present invention may be accomplished by providing a refrigerator comprising: a cabinet forming a refrigerator compartment; a door opening and closing the refrigerator compartment; and a hinge member rotatably connecting the door to the cabinet, and having a rotation axis varying in position depending on rotation angles of the door between a full open position at which the refrigerator compartment is fully opened and a closed position at which the refrigerator compartment is closed.  
           [0016]    Preferably, the hinge member comprises: a hinge bracket having a first end provided with a plurality of elongated holes and connected to the door; a second end connected to the cabinet; and a plurality of hinge pins connected to the door through the plurality of elongated holes of the hinge bracket, respectively.  
           [0017]    In one aspect of the invention, the hinge member further comprises a bracket cover covering the hinge member.  
           [0018]    Further, the plurality of hinge pins include three pins, and the plurality of elongated holes comprises: a first elongated hole guiding a first hinge pin therein when the door is rotated from the closed position to the fully open position; a second elongated hole having an arc shape, spaced from the first elongated hole, and guiding the second hinge pin therein on the axis of the moved first hinge pin; and a third elongated hole having a radius of curvature larger than that of the second elongated hole, positioned outside the second elongated hole, and guiding a third hinge pin therein.  
           [0019]    Further, the radius of curvature of the third elongated hole partially varies depending on the rotation angles of the door.  
           [0020]    In another aspect of the invention, the rotation axis of the door moves from the second pin to the first pin according to the rotation angle of the door as it increases from the closed position to the full open position.  
           [0021]    In yet another aspect of the invention, the first elongated hole is positioned at a corner of the hinge bracket connected to the door in a radial direction of the second and third elongated holes. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0022]    These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator according to an embodiment the present invention;  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a hinge part of the refrigerator of FIG. 1;  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view of the refrigerator of FIG. 1 schematically illustrating rotation of a door thereof;  
         [0026]    [0026]FIGS. 4 through 6 illustrate operations of the hinge member according to rotation angles of the door in the refrigerator of FIG. 1; and  
         [0027]    [0027]FIGS. 7 and 8 are schematic sectional views of a conventional refrigerator for illustrating the rotations of a door according to positions of a hinge pin, respectively. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0028]    Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.  
         [0029]    As illustrated in FIG. 1, a refrigerator according to an embodiment of the present invention comprises a cabinet  10  forming a refrigerator compartment  10   a , and a door  20  provided in front of the refrigerator compartment  10   a  (see FIG. 3) to open and close the refrigerator compartment  10   a.    
         [0030]    The cabinet  10  and the door  20  are connected by hinge members  30  provided at the top and bottom of the cabinet  10 . The hinge member  30  operates as a rotation axis of the door  20 . Herein, the rotation axis moves in correspondence to rotation angles of the door  20  rotating between a full open position at which the refrigerator compartment  10   a  is fully opened and a closed position at which the refrigerator compartment  10   a  is closed.  
         [0031]    As illustrated in FIG. 2, the hinge member  30  includes a hinge bracket  31  having first and second ends each connected to the door  20  and the cabinet  10 , respectively, a plurality of hinge pins  35   a ˜ 35   c  to connect the hinge bracket  31  to the door  20 , and a bracket cover  37  covering the hinge bracket  31  and the hinge pins  35   a ˜ 35   c.    
         [0032]    On the first end of the hinge bracket  31  to be connected to the door  20  is provided a plurality of elongated holes  31   a ˜ 31   c , and on the second end of the hinge bracket  31  to be connected to the cabinet  10  is provided a plurality of through holes  33 . On the cabinet  10  is provided a plurality of screw holes  10   b  in correspondence with the through holes  33  of the hinge bracket  31 . Thus, the second end of the hinge bracket  31  is connected to the cabinet  10  by screw-coupling bolts  39  screwed into the screw holes  10   b  of the cabinet  10  through the through holes  33  of the hinge bracket  31 .  
         [0033]    On the door  20  is provided a plurality of through holes  20   a  in correspondence with the elongated holes  31   a ˜ 31   c  of the hinge bracket  31 . Thus, the hinge pins  35   a ˜ 35   c  are inserted into the through holes  20   a  of the door  20  through the elongated holes  31   a ˜ 31   c  of the hinge bracket  31  to thereby enable the door  20  to rotate while centering around at least one of the hinge pins  35   a ˜ 35   c.    
         [0034]    It is an aspect of the invention that three elongated holes  31   a ˜ 31   c  are provided on the first end of the hinge bracket  31  and three hinge pins  35   a ˜ 35   c  are each inserted in the three elongated holes  31   a ˜ 31   c , respectively. Hereinbelow, the first, second and third elongated holes  31   a ˜ 31   c  and the first, second and third hinge pins  35   a ˜ 35   c  will be described in more detail.  
         [0035]    The first elongated hole  31   a  is relatively short and diagonally elongated at one corner of the hinge bracket  31 . The second elongated hole  31   b  is spaced from the first elongated hole  31   a , forming an arc. The third elongated hole  31   c  is spaced from the second elongated hole  31   b  at the outside thereof, forming an arc having a radius of curvature larger than that of the second elongated hole  31   b.    
         [0036]    The first hinge pin  35   a  is accommodated in the first elongated hole  31   a  and diagonally moves in the first elongated hole  31  a when the door  20  is rotated between the closed position and the full open position. The second hinge pin  35   b  is accommodated in the second elongated hole  31   b  and moves within the second elongated hole  31   b  when the door is rotated on the axis of the first hinge pin  35   a.  The third hinge pin  35   c  is accommodated in the third elongated hole  31   c  and guided by the third elongated hole  31   c  according to the movement of the first and second hinge pins  35   a  and  35   c.    
         [0037]    With the above configuration, the rotation of the door  20  will be described hereinbelow while referring to FIG. 3 through  6 .  
         [0038]    In the closed position at which the door  20  closes the refrigerator compartment  10   a , the first, second and third hinge pins  35   a ,  35   b  and  35   c  are, as illustrated in FIG. 4, positioned at “A” of the first elongated hole  31   a , “B” of the second elongated hole  31   b , and “C” of the third elongated hole  31   c , respectively.  
         [0039]    When the door  20  is rotated at an angle of θ 1  (e.g., approximately 20°), the first and third hinge pins  35   a  and  35   c , as illustrated in FIG. 5, move from “A” to “A 1 ” in the first elongated hole  31   a , and from “C” to “C 1 ” in the third elongated hole  31   c , respectively. However, the second hinge pin  35   b  is still at “B”. That is, when the door  20  is rotated at an angle of θ 1  (e.g., approximately 20°), the first and third hinge pins  35   a  and  35   c  move on the axis of the second hinge pin  35   b  within the first and third elongated holes  31   a  and  31   c , respectively. Herein, in the third elongated hole  31   c  corresponding with the third hinge pin  35   c , an arc from “C” to “C 1 ” and an arc from “C 1 ” to “C 2 ” (FIG. 6) are different in a radius of curvature.  
         [0040]    When the door  20  is further rotated at an angle of θ 2  (e.g., approximately 135°) from the state of FIG. 5 to the full open position, the second and third hinge pins  35   b  and  35   c , as illustrated in FIG. 6, move from “B” to “B 1 ” in the second elongated hole  31   b , and from “C 1 ” to “C 2 ” in the third elongated hole  31   c  on the axis of the first hinge pin  35   a  positioned at “A 1 ”, respectively.  
         [0041]    As described above, in the hinge member  30  according to an embodiment of the present invention, the rotation axis of the door  20  moves between the second hinge pin  35   b  and the first hinge pin  35   a  so as to shorten the radius of the rotation of the door  20 . Therefore, there is no need to decrease the capacity of a door shelf  40 . Moreover, even if the door  20  is completely opened, a corner part of the door  20  is prevented from protruding over the cabinet  10 , thereby removing the interference part.  
         [0042]    On the other hand, the rotation of the door  20  from the full open position to the close position is performed in the reverse order to the above-described rotation.  
         [0043]    In the above description, the hinge part  30  provided at the top of the right door  20  in FIG. 1 has been described in more detail. It will be fully appreciated that a hinge member provided at the bottom of the right door or hinge members provided at the left door may have a similar configuration.  
         [0044]    As described above, the present invention provides a refrigerator avoiding the necessity of lowering the capacity of a door shelf so as to open a door and avoiding an interference part present while the door is rotated.  
         [0045]    Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in this embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

Technology Classification (CPC): 4