Refrigeration device with a drawer

Abstract

A refrigeration device includes a storage area which is delimited by a body and a door and which is subdivided by a shelf into an upper and a lower compartment. A drawer is accommodated in the lower compartment. In a stop position of the drawer in which it is pushed into the lower compartment, a front wall of the drawer bears against a front edge of the shelf. A closure element can be moved across a passage or opening in the shelf between a position which blocks the passage and a position which opens the passage over at least part of its cross section.

Claims

1. A refrigeration device, comprising: a body and a door delimiting a storage area; a shelf subdividing said storage area into an upper compartment and a lower compartment, said shelf having a frame with a front edge and a rear profile, said rear profile having an upwardly protruding rib and said front edge having a passage with a cross-section, and said shelf having a plate partly inserted into a recess formed in said frame; a drawer accommodated in said lower compartment, said drawer configured to be pushed into said lower compartment in a stop position, said drawer having a front wall bearing against said front edge of said shelf in said stop position, and said drawer having side walls, side wall elements suspended from said shelf and sealing said side walls of said drawer in said pushed-in stop position and a rear wall element interconnecting said side wall elements; and a closure element being movable between a position blocking said passage and a position opening said passage over at least part of said cross-section of said passage; said side wall elements having hooks engaging above said upwardly protruding rib of said shelf and defining a gap between said rear profile of said frame and said side walls of said drawer for restricting an exchange of air between an interior of said drawer and the surroundings to permit said closure element to control a climate in said drawer.

2. The refrigeration device according to claim 1, wherein said side walls of said drawer have upper edges forming sealing surfaces bearing on said suspended side wall elements in said pushed-in stop position.

3. The refrigeration device according to claim 1, wherein said side wall elements are suspended from said shelf with vertical play.

4. The refrigeration device according to claim 3, wherein said side wall elements have a flange with an upper edge facing said shelf.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1 shows a schematic partial section through a household refrigeration device according to a first embodiment of the invention;

(2) FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a shelf used in the household refrigeration device from FIG. 1;

(3) FIG. 3 shows a section through a slide used on the shelf from FIG. 2;

(4) FIG. 4 shows a passage of the shelf with the slide in a position blocking the passage, partially in perspective view and partially in section;

(5) FIG. 5 shows a view analogous to FIG. 4 which shows the slide in a position opening the passage;

(6) FIG. 6 shows a schematic section through the front edge region of the shelf and the drawer in a pushed-in stop position, in which the front wall of the drawer touches the front edge of the shelf;

(7) FIG. 7 shows an exploded perspective view of the drawer;

(8) FIG. 8 shows a detail of the drawer from FIG. 7 in side view;

(9) FIG. 9 shows the detail from FIG. 8 with a mounted attachment wall element;

(10) FIG. 10 shows a perspective view of a sealing frame provided for attachment to the shelf;

(11) FIG. 11 shows the shelf from FIG. 2 with a suspended sealing frame;

(12) FIG. 12 shows a detail of a side wall element of the sealing frame in perspective view; and

(13) FIG. 13 shows a section through a rear wall element of the sealing frame in a position sealing the drawer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(14) Referring now to the figures of the drawings in detail and first, particularly, to FIG. 1 thereof, there is seen a schematic section through a household refrigeration device, with a body 1 and a door 2 which surround a refrigerated storage area 3. A shelf 4 subdivides the storage area 3 into an upper compartment 5 and a lower compartment 6. An evaporation chamber 7 is directly connected to the lower compartment 6 via a channel 8, such that by means of an intensive feed of cold air from the evaporation chamber 7 in the lower compartment 6 a lower temperature can be maintained than in the upper compartment 5.

(15) A drawer 9 is accommodated in the lower compartment 6. Gaps 10 between the drawer 9 and the walls of the compartment 6 enable a free circulation of cold air around the drawer 9.

(16) The drawer 9 has a front wall 11 which protrudes above side walls 12 and rear wall 13 and in the pushed-in stop position of the drawer 9 shown closely touches a front edge of the compartment 4. The side walls 12 have upper edges 14 sloping downward toward the rear wall 13. Attachment wall elements 15 mounted on said upper edges extend as far as immediately below the shelf 4.

(17) FIG. 2 shows the shelf 4 in a perspective view. It comprises a plate 16 made of safety glass, which is bounded by an extruded frame 17 made of plastic. A front profile 18 bordering the front edge of the plate 16 is wider than the side profile 19 and a rear profile 20 of the frame and provides space for a passage 21, which in the illustration in FIG. 2 is closed by a slide 22 that moves in the depth direction.

(18) As can be seen in FIG. 3, the slide 22 is composed of an upper and a lower element 23, 24. Base plates 25, 26 of the elements 23, 24 are kept apart in a central region by spacers 27, such that a peripheral groove 28 is formed along their edges. The elements 23, 24 are fixed to one another by latching hooks 29 which protrude from one of the base plates 25, 26 and engage in slots 30 of the other base plate.

(19) FIG. 4 shows the slide 22 in the position closing the passage 21 partly in a perspective view, and partly in section. A web 31 of the front frame profile 18 and the front edge of the plate 16 engage on respectively opposing sides into the groove 28 of the slide 22. The plate 16 does not extend as far as a base of the groove 28, such that the slide 22, guided by a web 32 of the profile 18 which is shown by a dashed line in FIG. 4 and which engages on a narrow side of the slide 22 into the groove 28, can be moved from the position in FIG. 4 into a position shown in FIG. 5, in which the web 31 is largely exposed and an exchange of air is possible via openings 33 of the web 31 between the upper compartment 5 and the interior of the drawer 9 arranged above the shelf and hence moisture can escape from the drawer 9. The magnitude of the exchange of air can be controlled by a user, by selecting a position of the slide 22 between the two extreme positions in FIGS. 4 and 5, in which the openings 33 are more or less extensively concealed.

(20) In order to minimize an exchange of air between the interior of the drawer 9 and its surroundings that cannot be controlled by the user, a seal is provided between the front edge of the shelf 4 and the front wall 11 of the drawer 9. As shown in FIG. 6, this seal can be designed as a flexible lip 34 on the front edge of the shelf 4, which is pressed into contact with the rear side of the front wall 11; alternatively such a seal could also be attached to the rear side of the front wall 11.

(21) FIG. 7 shows the structure of the drawer 9 in greater detail in an exploded perspective view. A base part 35 formed integrally from plastic forms the base plate 36, the side walls 12 and the rear wall 13 of the drawer 9. Along their upper edges 14, 37 the walls 12, 13 are reinforced by webs 38 projecting outward.

(22) The front wall 11 manufactured from transparent plastic is latched onto the base part 35. The base plate 36 which is partially visable through the front wall 11 has an elevation in the form of a ribbed central plateau 40 surrounded by a trench 39 extending as far as the base of the walls 11, 12, 13. Condensate that precipitates on the walls can collect in the trench 39, such that refrigerated goods lying on the ribs of the central plateau are protected against the penetration of moisture.

(23) The side walls 12 attain their greatest height directly at their front end; along a large part of their length they run a few centimeters deeper, at a considerable distance from the shelf 4, such that they prevent an intensive exchange of air between the drawer 9 and its surroundings. If refrigerated goods which are susceptible to drying out are to be accommodated in the drawer 9, it is expedient to close these passages with the help of the attachment wall elements 15. The attachment wall elements 15 are plastic plates molded as complementary to the course of the upper edges 14, 37 of side and rear wall 12, 13 and provided on their lower edges with hooks 41 for latching onto the webs 38 of the walls 12, 13. To enable a detachable anchoring of the hooks 41, the webs 38 are, as shown in a side view of a rear upper corner of the drawer 9 in FIG. 8, in each case provided on part of their length with downwardly protruding ribs 42.

(24) FIG. 9 shows, in a view analogous to FIG. 8, the attachment wall element 15 mounted on the drawer 9. The hooks 41, with which the attachment wall element 15 is clamped to side and rear wall 12, 37 extend along the edges 14, 38 of the walls 12, 37 in each case over a length of a few centimeters and thanks to a longitudinal slot 43 can be elastically deformed, such that a latching lug 44 which is molded on a part of the hook 41 lying underneath the longitudinal slot 43 can be elastically deflected to be in contact with the rib 42 and, as illustrated in FIG. 9, can latch behind the rib 42, in order to fix the attachment wall element 15 in form-locking manner.

(25) FIG. 10 shows in perspective view a sealing frame 45 which is provided instead of the attachment wall elements described above for sealing the intermediate space between the upper edges of side and rear wall 12, 37 and shelf 4. The sealing frame comprises two side wall elements 46, the lower edges of which are molded complementary to the course of the upper edges 14 of the side walls 12 like those of the attachment wall elements 40 in FIG. 7. The side wall elements 46 are connected to one another by a rear wall element 47. In order to create space for this rear wall element 47, the rear wall 37 of the drawer 9 of the region 48 shown in FIG. 7 projecting over the rear ends of the side walls 12 is omitted in this embodiment, and instead the upper edge of the rear wall 13 runs horizontally between the corners.

(26) Horizontally outward projecting flanges 49 are molded on the upper edges of the side wall and rear wall elements 46, 47, and along their upper edges flanges 50 project horizontally inward. Hooks 51 project along the upper edge of the rear wall element 47, which, as shown in FIG. 11, are provided to encompass a rib 52 projecting on the rear profile 20 of the shelf 4 and hence to anchor the sealing frame 45 in a suspended manner on the shelf 4.

(27) Adjacent their front ends the side wall elements 46 in each case have a pin 53 shown in FIG. 12 in an enlarged view which engages with play into a tab 54 projecting downward from its side profile 19.

(28) As is apparent from the sectional illustration in FIG. 13, the engagement of the hooks 51 on the rib 52 of the shelf 4 also has slight play in the vertical direction, such that if, when the drawer 9 is pushed in, the upper edges 14 of the side walls 12 hit against the flange 49 of the sealing frame 45 prior to reaching the stop position, the sealing frame 45 can divert upward. In order to prevent this type of swerving movement, a gap 55 between the sealing frame 45 and the shelf 4 must be open providing the sealing frame 45 hangs free and without contact with the drawer 9 on the shelf 4, said shelf 4, if the drawer 9 is located in the stop position, normally narrowing as a result of lifting the sealing frame 45, but not being completely closed. Thanks to the flange 50 on the top of the sealing frame 45 the path which air must traverse in this gap 55 in order to be exchanged between the interior of the drawer 9 and the surroundings thereof must be considerably lengthened and accordingly the exchange of air is so greatly restricted by the gap 55 that the climate in the drawer 9 can be controlled by the position of the slide 22.

(29) The following is a summary list of reference numerals and the corresponding structure used in the above description of the invention:

REFERENCE CHARACTERS

(30) 1 Body 2 Door 3 Storage area 4 Shelf 5 Upper compartment 6 Lower compartment 7 Evaporation chamber 8 Channel 9 Drawer 10 Gap 11 Front wall 12 Side wall 13 Rear wall 14 Upper edge 15 Attachment wall element 16 Plate 17 Frame 18 Front profile 19 Side profile 20 Rear profile 21 Passage 22 Slide 23 Upper element 24 Lower element 25 Base plate 26 Base plate 27 Spacer 28 Groove 29 Latching hook 30 Slot 31 Web 32 Web 33 Opening 34 Lip 35 Base part 36 Base plate 37 Upper edge 38 Web 39 Trench 40 Plateau 41 Hook 42 Rib 43 Longitudinal slot 44 Latching lug 45 Sealing frame 46 Side wall element 47 Rear wall element 48 Region 49 Flange 50 Flange 51 Hook 52 Rib 53 Pin 54 Tab 55 Gap