REFRIGERATION UNIT WITH FRAMED DOOR

Abstract

An appliance having a carcass, a door hinged onto the carcass, and a frame attached to the carcass surrounding edges of the door. In an exemplary embodiment, on at least one hinge-side sidewall of the carcass, the frame may form at least one sidewall of an open slot, and a leaf-type anti-trap element may extend in an outward direction from the door into the open slot.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a built-in refrigeration appliance, the door of which is surrounded on a number of sides by a fixed frame when the appliance is in its built-in state. These types of refrigeration appliances in which the arms of the frame are fastened in each case to sidewalls or to a roof of the carcass of the refrigeration appliance and extend out to the front edges of the walls of a recess in the furniture surrounding the refrigeration appliance in order to cover a gap between the refrigeration appliance and the walls of the recess are in widespread use, especially in the American market.

The fixed frame surrounding the door restricts the freedom of movement of the door so that in general, the use of multilink hinges is necessary to guide an opening movement of the door away from the frame without the door hitting the frame. If a gap occurs between the door and the frame when the door is opened which is wide enough to get a finger into, there is a danger of the finger being injured when the door is closed.

To remove this danger of injury, it is proposed in the German publication DE 10 2005 057 133 A1 that a flexible cover element be fastened to the door which moves so as to penetrate into a gap between side walls of the carcass and the furniture recess lying opposite one another. When the door of the appliance is open, this cover element blocks off the gap between the appliance door and the adjacent furniture front and thus, removes the danger of anything getting trapped in the door. However, the use of such a cover element is precluded if a fixed frame is attached to the side wall of the domestic appliance as described above, since the frame occupies the space needed from the cover element disclosed in DE 2005 057 133 A1.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to create an effective anti-trapping facility for a domestic appliance with a framed door of the type described at the start.

The object is achieved, for a domestic appliance with a carcass, a door hinged onto the carcass, and a frame attached to the carcass surrounding edges of the door by the frame, at least on a hinge-side sidewall of the carcass, forming at least one sidewall of a slot open to the front and a leaf-type anti-trap element extending out from the door into the slot. The anti-trap element thus bridges a gap which is formed between its edge close to the hinge and the carcass when the door is opened, so that there is no space for anything to run the risk of becoming trapped in the gap.

A second sidewall of the slot is preferably formed in a front area by the hinge-side sidewall of the carcass.

In an especially space-saving development the second sidewall is formed completely by the hinge-side sidewall.

To achieve good positional stability of the frame on the carcass it is expedient for the second sidewall of the slot to be formed at least in its rear area by the frame.

For attachment to the carcass, a web of the frame extending backwards beyond a floor of the slot is preferably used.

If the door comprises a door leaf and a decor panel covering the front of the door, the anti-trap element preferably penetrates into a gap between door leaf and decor panel.

The anti-trap element can be fixed in the gap. By contrast it is preferably able to be moved in the depth direction in the slot to enable it to follow a movement of the door.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further features and advantages of the invention emerge from the subsequent description of exemplary embodiments which refer to the enclosed figures. The figures show:

FIG. 1 depicts an exploded diagram of a refrigeration appliance in accordance with the present invention and a furniture recess accommodating it;

FIG. 2 depicts a part section through the housing of the refrigeration appliance and the surrounding furniture parts with the door closed;

FIG. 3 depicts a section similar to FIG. 2 with the door opened;

FIG. 4 depicts a section similar to FIG. 2 in accordance with a second embodiment; and

FIG. 5 depicts a section similar to FIG. 2 in accordance with a third embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a built-in refrigeration appliance in a perspective view with a carcass 1 and a door 2 which is assembled from a decor panel 3 and door leaf 4 largely hidden in the figure behind the decor panel 3. The door leaf 4 is embodied in the known manner as an essentially plate shaped hollow carcass filled with foam as an insulating material, which in its closed position forms an essentially airtight seal with the front side of the carcass 1 and together with said carcass delimits a refrigerated inner space.

The door leaf 4 is connected to the carcass 1 by two multilink hinges 5 which engage on one side on the front of the carcass and on the other side on the upper or the lower narrow side of the door leaf 4. The multilink hinges 5 are also essentially hidden behind the decor panel so that only part of the upper multilink hinge 5 is to be seen.

The decor panel 3 made of wood or from another normal furniture material is matched to the outward appearance of the fronts of kitchen furniture or other appliances not shown in the diagram which surround a furniture recess 6 accommodating the refrigeration appliance.

A frame 7 comprises three profile sections 8, 9, 10, for example made of extruded aluminum profile, which are designed to be installed on the sidewalls 11 or the roof 12 of the carcass 1 protruding a little way beyond the front side of the carcass, so that a front area of the frame encloses the decor panel 3 at its side and top edges and partly covers the front edges of sidewalls 18 of the furniture recess 6, whereas a rear area engages between the carcass 1 and the walls of the furniture recess 6 surrounding it. The profile sections 8, 10 are provided in this rear area with a plurality of screw holes 13 which are used to attach them into ready-made screw holes on the sidewalls 11 of the carcass 1. The corresponding screw holes can also be provided on the top horizontal profile section 9.

FIG. 2 shows the horizontal section through the front right-hand corner of the refrigeration appliance and the sidewall 18 of the furniture recess 6 adjacent to it. Located on this corner—above and below the sectional plane and not shown in the figure—are the multilink hinges 5 which carry the door 2.

A base plate 14 of the profile section 8 lies flat against the side wall 11. A rear section 22 of the base plate 14 behind the web 16 features the screw holes 13 for attaching the profile section 8 to the carcass 1. A front section 15 of the base plate 14 has a web 16 protruding from it and a web 19 parallel to the base plate 14 delimit a slot 20 open to the front. A web 21 adjoins the front edge of the web 19 at right angles which rests against the front edge of the sidewall 18 and thus defines a stop in the depth direction up to which the refrigeration appliance with the frame 7 mounted thereon can be pushed into the furniture recess 6. A U-profile section 23 adjoining the web 21 to the outside protrudes up to the edge of the decor panel 3 and forms a visual frame for the latter.

A screw 28 holds a front area of the web 19 pressed against the sidewall 18. Thus a slight deformation of the—originally straight—web 19 of the profile section 10 (and where necessary the profile section 8 embodied as a mirror image of this) can compensate for deviations in width between the carcass 1 and the furniture recess 6.

A flat flexible cover element 17, here in the form of an angled profile made from a flexible polymer material, penetrates displaceably in the depth direction into the slot 20 with one of its two arms 24 25 connected by a film hinge 27. A front edge of the section 15 of the base plate 14 is tapered in order to facilitate the introduction of the arm 25 into the slot 20. The second arm 24 is clamped between the decor panel 3 and an angled section 26 connecting the decor panel to the door leaf 4.

In the open position of the door, as depicted in FIG. 3, the decor panel 3 is moved forward out of the enclosure of the profile sections 8, 10 surrounding it on the right and on the left, and a gap formed thereby between the web 21 or the U-profile section 23 respectively on the one hand and the edge of the decor panel 3 facing towards this on the other hand is blocked off by the arm 25 of the cover element 17. The arm 25 is pushed forward in the slot 20 but its extension in the depth direction and the slot 20 are dimensioned so that the arm 25 does not completely leave the slot 20 even if the door is opened right up to a stop. Thus no object and no finger can get far enough into the gap to be able to be trapped in the door when it is closed.

The embodiment of FIG. 4 differs from that depicted in FIG. 2 in the absence of the front section of the base plate 14. This is reduced to its rear section 22 screwed to the sidewall 11 of the carcass 1. This makes it possible, while retaining the same width of slot 20 as shown in the embodiments of FIGS. 2 and 3, to reduce the free space needed for installation of the profile section 10 between the walls 11 and 18 of the carcass and the furniture recess by the thickness of the base plate 14. The effect of the profile section 10 and of the cover element 17 penetrating into the slot 20 is the same as described above.

It is also possible, as shown in FIG. 5, to leave out the screw on one of the two sidewalls 18 which fixes the profile section 8 or 10 to the adjacent sidewall 18. This results in width tolerances of the furniture recess 6 and the door 2 being compensated for by a variable overlapping of the web 20 with the front edge 29 of the sidewall 18.

While only certain features of the invention have been illustrated and described herein, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.

Claims

1. An appliance comprising:

a carcass;

a door hinged onto the carcass;

a frame attached to the carcass surrounding edges of the door, wherein on at least one hinge-side sidewall of the carcass, the frame forms at least one sidewall of an open slot; and

a leaf-type anti-trap element extending in an outward direction from the door into the open slot.

2. The appliance as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a second sidewall of the slot formed in a front area by the at least one hinge-side sidewall.

3. The appliance as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a second sidewall of the slot formed completely by the at least one hinge-side sidewall.

4. The appliance as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a second sidewall of the slot formed in a rear area by a part of the frame.

5. The appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein a web of the frame projecting towards a rear area beyond a floor of the slot is attached to the carcass.

6. The appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the door comprises a door leaf and a decor panel covering a front of the door leaf, and wherein the anti-trap element engages into a gap between the door leaf and the decor panel.

7. The appliance as claimed in claim 6, wherein the anti-trap element is fixed in the gap.

8. The appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the anti-trap element is structured to move into the open slot in a depth direction.

9. The domestic appliance as claimed in claim 1, wherein the door and the carcass are connected by a multilink hinge.