SEALING ASSEMBLY HAVING IMPROVED HEAT INSULATION PROPERTIES AND COOLING DEVICE HAVING THE SEALING ASSEMBLY

Abstract

A sealing assembly seals an area between a door and a cabinet of a cooling device. The sealing assembly contains a magnet chamber which defines a receiving cavity for accommodating a magnetic element, a first air chamber provided at one side of the sealing assembly, an attachment portion for attaching the sealing assembly to the door of the cooling device, and an inner air chamber provided between the magnet chamber and the attachment portion. The sealing assembly contains a second air chamber provided between the magnet chamber and the first air chamber. A first separator wall is arranged in the second air chamber to partition the second air chamber into at least two upper sections and/or a second separator wall is arranged in the inner air chamber to partition the inner air chamber into at least two intermediate air sections.

Claims

1. A sealing assembly for sealing an area between a door and a cabinet of a cooling device, the sealing assembly comprising: a magnetic element; a magnet chamber defining a receiving cavity for accommodating said magnetic element; a first air chamber disposed at one side of the sealing assembly; an attachment portion for attaching the sealing assembly to the door of the cooling device; an inner air chamber disposed between said magnet chamber and said attachment portion; a second air chamber disposed between said magnet chamber and said first air chamber; and a first separator wall disposed in said second air chamber to partition said second air chamber into at least two upper sections and/or a second separator wall disposed in said inner air chamber to partition said inner air chamber into at least two intermediate air sections.

2. The sealing assembly according to claim 1, further comprising a contact wall forming an upper surface of the sealing assembly to contact the cabinet.

3. The sealing assembly according to claim 2, wherein said first separator wall extends in a vertical direction within said second air chamber with respect to said contact wall.

4. The sealing assembly according to claim 3, wherein said at least two upper sections are identical.

5. The sealing assembly according to claim 3, wherein said at least two upper sections have a rectangular cross-section.

6. The sealing assembly according to claim 2, wherein said first separator wall extends in a horizontal direction within said second air chamber with respect to said contact wall.

7. The sealing assembly according to claim 6, wherein said at least two upper sections are identical.

8. The sealing assembly according to claim 6, wherein said at least two upper sections each have a rectangular cross-section.

9. The sealing assembly according to claim 2, wherein said first separator wall extends in a cross direction within said second air chamber with respect to said contact wall.

10. The sealing assembly according to claim 9, wherein said at least two upper sections are identical.

11. The sealing assembly according to claim 9, wherein said at least two upper sections each have a triangular cross-section.

12. The sealing assembly according to claim 1, wherein said second separator wall has a V-shaped cross-section.

13. The sealing assembly according to claim 1, wherein said second air chamber has a cross-section being smaller than a cross-section of said first air chamber.

14. The sealing assembly according to claim 1, wherein said magnet chamber, said first air chamber and said second air chamber are aligned on a same horizontal axis.

15. A cooling device, comprising: a cabinet; a door closing said cabinet; a sealing assembly for sealing an area between said door and said cabinet of the cooling device, said sealing assembly containing: a magnetic element; a magnet chamber defining a receiving cavity for accommodating said magnetic element; a first air chamber disposed at one side of said sealing assembly; an attachment portion for attaching said sealing assembly to said door of the cooling device; an inner air chamber disposed between said magnet chamber and said attachment portion; a second air chamber disposed between said magnet chamber and said first air chamber; and a first separator wall disposed in said second air chamber to partition said second air chamber into at least two upper sections and/or a second separator wall disposed in said inner air chamber to partition said inner air chamber into at least two intermediate air sections.

16. The cooling device according to claim 15, wherein the cooling device is a refrigerator.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

[0026] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic, cross-sectional view of a sealing assembly according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the sealing assembly according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

[0028] FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the sealing assembly according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

[0029] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the sealing assembly according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

[0030] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a cooling device in which the sealing assembly can be attached, according to the present invention;

[0031] FIG. 6 is another perspective view of the cooling device shown in FIG. 5, according to the present invention; and

[0032] FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the sealing assembly attached to the cooling device according to the prior art.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0033] Referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first, particularly to FIGS. 1 and 6 thereof, there is shown a sealing assembly 10 for sealing an area between a door 101 and a cabinet 102 of a cooling device 100. The sealing assembly contains a magnet chamber 40 which defines a receiving cavity for accommodating a magnetic element 41, a first air chamber 50 provided at one side of the sealing assembly 10, an attachment portion 30 for attaching the sealing assembly 10 to the door 101 of the cooling device 100, and an inner air chamber 70 provided between the magnet chamber 40 and the attachment portion 30. The sealing assembly 10 further contains a second air chamber 60 provided between the magnet chamber 40 and the first air chamber 50; and a first separator wall 61 arranged in the second air chamber 60 to partition the second air chamber 60 into at least two upper sections 62 and/or a second separator wall 71 arranged in the inner air chamber 70 to partition the inner air chamber 70 into at least two intermediate air sections 72, see FIG. 4. The refrigerating compartment of the cooling device can be called a cold region, and outside of the cooling device can be called a warm region. The first separator wall 61 and the second separator wall 71 create one more additional air zone between the cold region and the warm region. The sealing assembly 10 has a contact wall 11, forming an upper surface of the sealing assembly 10 to contact the cabinet 102.

[0034] According to the present invention, four different embodiments of the sealing assembly 10 are shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 4, respectively. According to the first embodiment of the sealing assembly shown in FIG. 1, the first separator wall 61 extends in a vertical direction within the second air chamber 60 with respect to the contact wall 11. According to the first embodiment of the invention, the second air chamber 60 is divided into two sections by the first separator wall 61 to prevent sweating on the sealing assembly 10 and to improve the energy consumption level of the cooling device. As shown in FIG. 1, a vertically-directed first separator wall 61 creates the two identical upper sections 62. Accordingly, the two upper sections 62 have a rectangular cross-section. Moreover, the first separator wall 61 is monolithic and extends between a top wall of the second air chamber 60 facing outside and a bottom wall of the second air chamber 60 facing the inner air chamber 70.

[0035] According to the second embodiment of the sealing assembly 10 shown in FIG. 2, the first separator wall 61 extends in a horizontal direction +X within the second air chamber 60 with respect to the contact wall 11. Similarly, these created the two upper sections 62 are substantially identical and have a rectangular cross-section. As shown in FIG. 2, a horizontally-directed first separator wall 61 creates the two identical upper sections 62. Accordingly, the two upper sections 62 have a rectangular cross-section. Moreover, the first separator wall 61 is monolithic and extends between the sidewalls of the second air chamber 60.

[0036] Similarly, according to the third embodiment of the sealing assembly 10 shown in FIG. 3, the first separator wall 61 extends in a cross direction within the second air chamber 60 with respect to the contact wall 11. The two upper sections 62 are identical and have a triangular cross-section. The cross-directed first separator wall 61 is monolithic and extends from an edge next to the first air chamber 50 to another edge next to the magnet chamber 40.

[0037] According to the fourth embodiment of the sealing assembly 10 shown in FIG. 4, the second separator wall 71 has a substantially V-shaped cross-section. This arrangement can be used with other embodiments of the sealing assembly 10 or alone, thereby preventing (or at least significantly reducing) dewing around the sealing assembly 10. The second separator wall 71 is monolithic and extends from the bottom wall of the second air chamber 60 to the bottom wall of the inner air chamber 70 facing the attachment portion 30. The second separator wall 71 creates two intermediate air sections 72 having different forms each other with elastic outer side walls. Especially, a tip portion 73 of the second separator wall 71 bends towards the magnetic chamber 40. Using more air chambers simultaneously helps to eliminate the negative cooling effect on the functionality of the sealing assembly 10.

[0038] The second air chamber 60 has a polygonal cross-section, preferably a rectangular or a square cross-section. Moreover, a cross-section of the second air chamber 60 is smaller than a cross-section of the first air chamber 50.

[0039] Referring to the FIGS. 1 to 4, the magnet chamber 40, the first air chamber 50, and the second air chamber 60 are substantially aligned on the same horizontal axis +X. The magnetic element 41 is encased within the magnet chamber 40 wherein the magnetic element 41 is an elongated rectangle and is preferably a dual pole magnet having either north or south poles at each of its latitudinal ends.

[0040] Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the cooling device 100 can be a refrigerator, which comprises an insulated body. Door(s) 101 of the cooling device 100 can be secured by hinged attachment to an insulated body so that the door 101 will open away from the cabinet 102 while pivoting upon the hinged attachments. The sealing assembly 10 is arranged to surround the entire periphery of an interior surface of the door 101 and is formed of rubber or another suitable elastomeric material that defines a number of collapsible air spaces. The referred cooling device 100 can be at least one of a refrigerator, a freezer, a fridge-freezer combination device, and a wine cabinet.

[0041] The following is a summary list of reference numerals and the corresponding structure used in the above description of the invention: [0042] 10. Sealing assembly [0043] 11. Contact wall [0044] 30. Attachment portion [0045] 40. Magnet chamber [0046] 41. Magnetic element [0047] 50. First air chamber [0048] 60. Second air chamber [0049] 61. First separator wall [0050] 62. Upper section [0051] 70. Inner air chamber [0052] 71. Second separator wall [0053] 72. Intermediate air section [0054] 73. Tip portion [0055] 100. Cooling device [0056] 101. Door [0057] 102. Cabinet [0058] +X Horizontal axis