Refrigerator

Abstract

A cooling appliance has an appliance body and a door which closes it, with the door being automatically actuable.

Description

The invention relates to a cooling appliance having an appliance body and a door which closes it.

Cooling appliances usually have single-wing doors attached via hinges. In this connection, the hinges are each attached to a side wall. The opening of the door takes place by hand as a rule, with a handle being arranged at the outer side of the door for this purpose. For the secure and tight closing of the door, it frequently has a peripheral magnetic strip in its edge region which ensures a tight contact of the seal at the appliance body of the cooling appliance in the closed state.

It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a new type of opening mechanism for cooling appliances.

This object is solved in accordance with the invention by the combination of the features of claim 1. In this connection, the basic invention consists of the fact that the refrigerator door is no longer manually actuable, but automatically.

This inventive idea finds a plurality of preferred embodiments in the dependent claims following on from the main claim.

The drive for the automatic opening of the door can accordingly takes place electrically or, alternatively, also pneumatically.

A triggering mechanism for the opening and closing of the door can consists of a contact-free sensor. In this connection, it can be a light barrier system or, for example, a capacitive trigger.

The elements of the automatic drive are advantageously integrated in the door. An exception can be formed by the comparatively large structure of the power supply which then has to be accommodated in the appliance body.

The door advantageously consists of a plurality of displaceably supported door elements.

In this connection, in accordance with an advantageous embodiment, it can consist of two door elements which are each displaceable for opening in opposite directions laterally outwardly beyond the boundary of the appliance body.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, two door elements can be present which are each displaceable over one another for opening, whereby in each case one half of the cooling appliance is closed and the other half is accessible.

Finally, in accordance with a preferred embodiment, the door can be made up of four door elements of which the two respective door elements which are adjacent to the wall of the appliance body being stationary, with the middle door elements each being able to be pushed over the stationary door elements for opening.

In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, the door as a whole or the individual door elements can consist at least predominantly of glass.

Finally, the drive control is advantageously provided with finger-jamming protection i or with collision projection.

In accordance with a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the door with the individual door elements can be pivotably supported as a whole around hinges. This therefore means that the individual door elements are formed in the door as sliding elements which can be opened, for example to remove the refrigerated product, in a manner controlled by the contact-free sensor. To now fill the whole cooling appliance, it may be advantageous to open the door as a whole, with the whole door with the individually displaceable door elements supported in it being able to be pivoted open for this purpose around lateral hinges. The storing of the refrigerated product is hereby possible in a simple manner. The pivoting open of the door can admittedly take place automatically in accordance with the invention; however, it an also take place manually since it takes place comparatively rarely.

Further features, details and advantages of the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawing. There are shown:

FIG. 1: the front view of an appliance body in accordance with the present invention; and

FIGS. 2-4: three different embodiments of the door in accordance with the invention in the part section A-A of FIG. 1.

An appliance body 10 of a cooling apparatus is shown schematically in FIG. 1 which has a substantially conventional structure. This appliance body is closed by a door whose mechanism is shown in the different embodiments of FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 which each represent sectional representations along the line A-A of FIG. 1. In this connection, doors 12 are shown in each case in the upper part of the Figure in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 with door elements which are shown in the closed position in the upper part of the respective Figure and in the respective open position in the lower part.

They are sliding doors in all the embodiments shown in the Figures.

In FIG. 2, a door 12 is shown which consists of two door elements 14, with the door elements 14 each consisting of glass and each symmetrically covering half the appliance body 10 in the closed state, as can be seen from FIG. 2. The door elements 14 are laterally displaceable via drives not shown in any more detail here via rails 16 which are only indicated here. In the embodiment in accordance with FIG. 2, in this connection, the door elements 14 are displaced laterally beyond the side wall of the appliance body 10 such that the total inner space of the appliance body is exposed with an open door 12 and is thus available for the removal of goods.

The trigger mechanism for the opening and closing of the door is formed in a manner not shown in any more detail here by a contact-free sensor which can consist, for example, of a light barrier system or of a capacitive trigger. This mechanism can be integrated at the surface of the appliance body so that the door can be opened or closed automatically on a corresponding approach of the hand of the user.

An alternative embodiment of the door 12 is shown in FIG. 3. Here, the door 12 is made of two halves of glass 14 which can be selectively pushed over one another at the right hand side or at the left hand side to open the cooling appliance, as results from the representation in accordance with FIG. 3. In this context, only half of the appliance body is respectively exposed.

Finally, a further alternative embodiment of the invention results from the representation in accordance with FIG. 4. The door 12 is here made of four door elements, with the middle two glass quarter doors 16 being pushable by means of the drive behind the two stationary fixed outer glass quarter doors 16 for the goods removal.

The control of the electric or pneumatic drive not shown in any more detail here has both finger-jamming protection and collision protection.

The doors 12 shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 can be pivotable as a whole around hinges in a manner not shown in any more detail here. In this case shown here, the doors 12 can be manually pivotable. The total cooling appliance can thus be filled after the pivoting open of the door 12. Only the respective door element is opened in the previously described manner for the removal of the refrigerated product, for example of beverage cans or beverage bottles.

Claims

1. A cooling appliance having an appliance body and a door which closes it, wherein the door is automatically actuable.

2. A cooling appliance in accordance with the claim 1, wherein the drive for the automatic opening of the door takes place electrically or pneumatically.

3. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 1, wherein a triggering mechanism for the opening or closing of the door consists of a contact-free sensor.

4. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 3, wherein the triggering mechanism consists of a light barrier system.

5. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 3, wherein the triggering mechanism consists of a capacitive trigger.

6. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 1, wherein the elements of the automatic drive are integrated in the door.

7. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 1, wherein the door consists of a plurality of displaceably supported door elements.

8. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 7, wherein two door elements are present which are each displaceable in opposite directions laterally outwardly beyond the boundary of the appliance body for opening.

9. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 7, wherein two door elements are present which are each displaceable over one another for opening, whereby a respective half of the cooling appliance is closed and half is accessible.

10. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 7, wherein four door elements are present of which the two respective door elements which are adjacent to the wall of the appliance body are stationary, with the middle door elements each being displaceable over the stationary door elements for opening.

11. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 10, wherein the door or the door elements consist/consists at least predominantly of glass.

12. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 1, wherein the drive control is provided with finger-jamming protection or collision protection.

13. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 1, wherein the door with the individual door elements is pivotable as a whole around hinges.

14. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 2, wherein a triggering mechanism for the opening or closing of the door consists of a contact-free sensor.

15. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 14, wherein the triggering mechanism consists of a light barrier system.

16. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 14, wherein the triggering mechanism consists of a capacitive trigger.

17. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 16, wherein the elements of the automatic drive are integrated in the door.

18. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 15, wherein the elements of the automatic drive are integrated in the door.

19. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 14, wherein the elements of the automatic drive are integrated in the door.

20. A cooling appliance in accordance with claim 13, wherein the elements of the automatic drive are integrated in the door.