Refrigerating device with height-adjustable carrier for refrigerated goods

Abstract

The invention relates to a refrigeration device having a thermally insulating housing delimiting an interior space and a height-adjustable carrier for supporting refrigerated goods within the interior space. The refrigeration device also includes a threaded spindle having a threaded extent having a substantially vertical axis, the threaded spindle being rotatably driven such that its threaded extent rotates about the axis and the threaded spindle being operationally connected with the refrigerated goods carrier such that a rotational movement of the threaded extent of the threaded spindle effects a height adjusting displacement of the refrigerated goods carrier.

Description

The present invention relates to a refrigerating device having an inner chamber enclosed by a thermally insulated housing and a height-adjustable carrier for refrigerated goods in the inner chamber. Such a refrigerating device, in which a carrier for refrigerated goods is manually height-adjustable on a vertical support rail attached to the rear wall of the housing is, for example, known from DE 101 45 141 A1.

A problem with this known refrigerating device is that, for adjusting the height of the carrier for refrigerated goods it is necessary to tilt said carrier for refrigerated goods slightly which incurs the risk that objects placed on the carrier for refrigerated goods may slip and that a user, when wishing to release the carrier for refrigerated goods from a detent shoulder and suspend said carrier for refrigerated goods on a different detent shoulder, in the meantime has to support the entire weight of the carrier for refrigerated goods and the objects which have possibly been placed thereon. As a result, before the height adjustment, the user is frequently obliged to empty the carrier for refrigerated goods which is tiresome, in that the need to adjust the height of the carrier for refrigerated goods primarily occurs when it is loaded and the user determines that it has to be positioned at a different height in order to accommodate more refrigerated goods, whether on the carrier for refrigerated goods or thereunder.

It is, therefore, the object of the invention to provide a refrigerating device which allows the height adjustment of a carrier for refrigerated goods in the horizontal position, without the user having to support the weight of the carrier for refrigerated goods and objects which have possibly been placed thereon.

The object is achieved by the carrier for refrigerated goods being in threaded engagement with at least one vertical threaded spindle which may be rotationally driven. By rotating the threaded spindle, a parallel height adjustment of the carrier for refrigerated goods is achieved, whilst the weight thereof is received by the threaded spindle and/or the bearing arrangement thereof in the housing of the refrigerating device.

The threaded spindle may be rotationally driven manually, but for a more comfortable embodiment, said threaded spindle is rotationally driven by a motor.

In order to prevent a height adjustment of the carrier for refrigerated goods beyond a set height range, at least one limit switch actuated by the carrier for refrigerated goods is preferably arranged on the threaded spindle, preferably two limit switches which limit the freedom of movement of the carrier for refrigerated goods both upwards and downwards.

Expediently, the threaded spindle is coupled via a worm to a horizontal output shaft of the motor.

Due to the improved stability, the carrier for refrigerated goods is preferably supported on two threaded spindles, which should be rotationally coupled in order to ensure uniform height adjustment of the carrier for refrigerated goods on both threaded spindles.

The rotational coupling may be created by a worm being associated with each spindle, and the two worms are attached fixedly in terms of rotation to a common shaft.

Said common shaft may, at the same time, be the output shaft of the motor; preferably said common shaft is coupled to the output shaft of the motor via a belt drive, in particular via a toothed belt.

The threaded spindle is preferably received in a vertical guide groove attached to a wall of the housing, and namely preferably in an undercut of the guide groove, so that it is not visible from the outside.

The guide groove is preferably provided on one part of its length, which preferably does not form part of the adjusting region of the carrier for refrigerated goods acting on the threaded spindle, with detent shoulders for engaging a further carrier for refrigerated goods.

Further features and advantages of the invention emerge from the following description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying figures, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of the body of a refrigerating device according to the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a partial section through the body along a first horizontal plane;

FIG. 3 shows a partial section along a second horizontal plane;

FIG. 4 shows a horizontal partial section which shows the attachment of the motor according to a first embodiment; and

FIG. 5 shows a horizontal partial section which shows the attachment of the motor according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 1 shows, in a perspective view, a body 1 of a refrigerating device according to the present invention. A door hinged to the open front face of the body 1 is omitted in the figure. On the right-hand edge of the rear wall 2, a vertical support rail 3 incorporated in the rear wall 2 may be seen, a plurality of support arms 5, 6 engaging in the inlet slot 4 thereof which is open towards the inner chamber. A corresponding support rail 3 with support arms 5, 6 is incorporated on the left-hand edge of the rear wall 2, hidden in the figure by a side wall of the body 1. Each pair of support arms 5, 6 of the same height carries a shelf plate 7, shown to be transparent in the figure and able to be produced as plates made of safety glass. The lower support arms 6 respectively rest on detent shoulders, which are concealed in the interior of the support rails 3.

FIG. 2 shows a partial section through the rear wall 2 of the body 1 and the surroundings thereof in one plane above the support arms 5. As may be seen in this section, the support rails 3 respectively have an undercut guide groove 9, in the undercut 10 of the guide groove 9 a threaded spindle 8 extending vertically and being in engagement with an internal thread, which is formed on a region of the support arm 5 projecting into the undercut 10. The thread pitch of the spindle 8 is small, so that the spindle is not set in rotation by the weight of the support arm 5 loading said spindle and the load carried thereby.

On a side wall of the left-hand support rail 3 an opening is formed through which a pushbutton 11 of a limit switch 12 attached externally to the support rail 3 engages in the guide groove 9. When the support arm 5 reaches the pushbutton 11, said support rail presses said pushbutton out of the guide groove 9 and thereby opens a contact of the limit switch 12, details being given below of the function thereof.

FIG. 3 shows a partial section similar to FIG. 2 at a higher level, adjacent to the top of the body 1. In this case, at the upper end of the threaded spindle 8, one respective worm wheel 13 is arranged fixedly in terms of rotation thereon, which meshes with a worm 14 and forms the worm gear. The two worms 14 are carried by a common shaft 15 which rotationally couples the spindles 8 to one another and thereby ensures that the two support arms 5 always carry out the same vertical displacements.

According to a first embodiment and as shown in FIG. 4, the shaft 15 is simultaneously the output shaft of an electric motor 16. In order to be able to guide the shaft 15 in a space-saving manner closely adjacent to the rear wall 2, the electric motor 16 is partially received in a recess of the rear wall 2. The motor 16 and the shaft 15 are separated by a plastics shell 17 from the inner chamber of the refrigerating device.

As a result of a second embodiment shown in FIG. 5 in a similar section to FIG. 4, the common shaft 15 of the worms 14 is coupled to an electric motor 16 via a toothed belt drive 18 which is formed from a pinion 19 mounted on the shaft 15 and a pinion 20 on an output shaft of the motor 16, and is designed to be speed reducing. This embodiment makes it possible to guide the shaft 15 closely adjacent to the rear wall 2 of the body without a recess having to be provided therein for the motor 16.

In the embodiments of FIGS. 4 and 5, the electric motor 16 is respectively arranged between the two worms 14 on the shaft 15. In particular in the case of the motor coupled via the toothed belt 18, however, it is also conceivable to arrange the pinion 19 on an extension 21 of the shaft 15 (see FIG. 3) projecting beyond the worms 14 towards an adjacent side wall of the body 1 and to accommodate the motor 16, together with a worm 14 and the gear wheel 13 driven thereby, in a common housing.

The electric motor 16 may be switched on and off via a switch, not shown, and may be controlled in its rotational direction. The limit switch 12 is arranged in series with said switch, in order to cancel an adjusting movement of the support arms 5, as soon as said support arms reach an upper or lower limit of their permissible adjusting range indicated by the limiting switch 12.

Claims

1-11. (canceled)

12. A refrigerating device comprising:

a.) a thermally insulating housing delimiting an interior space;

b.) a height-adjustable carrier for supporting refrigerated goods within the interior space; and

c.) a threaded spindle having a threaded extent rotatable about a substantially vertical axis, the threaded spindle being rotatably driven such that its threaded extent rotates about the axis and the threaded spindle being operationally connected with the refrigerated goods carrier such that a rotational movement of the threaded extent of the threaded spindle effects a height adjusting displacement of the refrigerated goods carrier.

13. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the threaded spindle is rotationally driven by a motor.

14. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 13 and further comprising at least one limit switch actuated by the carrier for refrigerated goods and disposed on the threaded spindle.

15. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the threaded spindle is coupled via a worm drive to a horizontal output shaft of the motor.

16. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the carrier for refrigerated goods is supported on two rotationally coupled threaded spindles.

17. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 16, wherein a worm drive is associated with each threaded spindle and the two worms are operatively coupled to a common shaft operable to effect synchronized rotations of the two worms.

18. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 17, wherein the common shaft is the output shaft of a motor for rotationally driving the threaded spindles and the motor is configured as a geared motor.

19. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 17, wherein the common shaft is coupled to the output shaft of a motor for rotationally driving the threaded spindles via a belt drive.

20. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the threaded spindle is received in a vertical guide groove attached to a wall of the thermally insulated housing.

21. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 20, wherein the guide groove includes an undercut and the threaded spindle is disposed in the undercut.

22. The refrigerating device as claimed in claim 20, wherein the guide groove has detent shoulders along an extent thereof for engaging a second carrier for refrigerated goods that is not supported on the threaded spindle.