Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
. ~ PATENT - ~D-HR-16~41
13~5938
FOUR-POIWT SUPPORT SYSTE~ FOR APPLIANCES,
PARTICULARLY REFRIGERATORS
FIELD OF THE I~VENTIO~
This invention relates to a four-point support system for
appliances having a door pivoted about a vertical axis and, more
particularly, to a refrigerator cabinet having a four-point
support system.
BACKGROUWD OF THE INVENTION
To obtain an effective seal between a refrigerator cabinet's
front wall or face and a gasket on its door, the front wall or face .
of the refrigerator cabinet and the door must be maintained
substantially parallel to each other. If this substantially
parallel relationship is not maintained, the gasket will not have
an effective seal so that heat will leak into the cooling
compartment of tAe refrigerator to cause inefficient refrigeration
and waste of electrical energy. Additionally, in a refrigerator
cabinet having two doors such as a refrigerator/freezer, for
example, in which the doors are either above each other or side
by side, the failure of the doors to remain substantially parallel
to the front wall or face of the refrigerator cabinet not only
results in the leakage of heat into the cooling compartment but
also may prevent the doors from being sufficiently aligned to be
aesthetically acceptable.
While the front wall or face of the refrigerator cabinet and
the door may be maintained substantially parallel when the
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refrigerator cabinet is disposed on a level surface and there is
no load of food in the door, supporting the refrigerator cabinet
on an uneven support surface and/or loading the door with food
creates distortions causing the front wall or face of the
refrigerator cabinet and the door to fail to be substantially
parallel. This distortion is due to several factors.
To keep production costs as low as possible, the walls of a
refrigerator cabinet are made as thin as possible such as with a
mA~ ~ thickness of 0.019", for example. Additionally, to reduce
costs, welding of the various walls of the refrigerator cabinet
to each other is eliminated so that this decreases stiffness of
the cabinet.
While the side, back, top, and bottom walls are infinitely
stiff in the planar direction, they readily bend across their
1~ diagonals. The open front wall distorts similarly to a
parallelogram in keeping its side flanges substantially straight.
Although foamed insulation utilized in a refrigerator cabinet
between its plastic inner liner and its outer walls provides a
sandwich structure having some resistance to bending across the
diagonals, this is not sufficient to provide the necessary stiffness
to prevent twisting of a refrigerator cabinet when it is not
supported on a level support surface.
Even if the refrigerator cabinet could be formed with its
walls having substantial stiffness to prevent twisting, it is not
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economically feasible to form a door of sufficient ~tiffness
that it will not twist, particularly when loaded with food.
Therefore, it is necessary that a refrigerator cabinet be capable
of twisting to some degree to coincide with the door twist.
Otherwise, twisting of the door due to its own weight and, more
particularly, to a food load therein would cause the door to no
longer be substantially parallel to the front wall or face of the
refrigerator cabinet so that the gasket would not have an
effec.ive seal. Accordingly, the refrigerator cabinet cannot be
formed so stiff that it will not twist even when supported on a
level support surface.
Tne twist of the door is created by its thinness along with
the door being hinged on one side for pivoting about a vertical
axis. This twisting is increased when food is loaded into the door.
1~ Because of the relatively large containers now available for
various liquids that are stored in a refrigerator, it is desired
that the door be capable of storing larger containers than
previously. For example, the shelf of the refrigerator door
preferably should extend for six inches into the interior of the
2~ refrigerator ca~inet; this is twice the extension of the present
three inch shelf. Tnis increased size of the shelf not only will
increase the weight of the food load on the door but also creates
further twisting because of the increased size of the shelf.
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A three-point support system for a refrigerator cabinet in
which there is a support at each of the two front corners and one
support in the middle at the rear would normally support a
refrigerator cabinet on a non-level support surfa~e and would not
distort the cabinet due to its own weight and load but would
allow twisting of both the cabinet and the door due to the weight
of the door and its load. However, it will not pass the stability
feel test in which a refrigerator is pushed with a specific force
at a sDecific location on the cabinet since a three-point support
system has potential for rocking of the cabinet when the force
is applied.
Therefore, to pass the stability feel test, it is necessary
to support the refrigerator cabinet on four points. However, with
a four-point support system, the refrigerator cabinet is subjected
to more twisting than with the three-point support system,
particularly on a non-level support surface.
For example, with a support at each of the four corners of a
refrigerator cabinet and the left rear not being supported because
of the support surface not being level, the refrigerator cabinet
tends to deflect towards the left re~r corner due to its own
weight and food load. ~ith a right-hand hinged door, the effect
of the door and its load adds to the deflection created by the
cabinet load. Loading of the right-hand hinged door prevents
roc~ing or lifting at the front right corner when the left rear
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corner is not supported.
~ f the right rear corner of the cabinet is not supported, the
right-hand hinged door and its load will counteract the distortion
due to the load of the cabinet and possibly raise the right rear
corner above its support height.
It should be understood that the door load is forward of the
front supports. This provides a sufficient load to always keep
the front supDorts in engagement with the su?port surface
irrespective of the level of the support surface.
If the refrigerator cabinet has all of its four supports
resting on a level support surface, the support surface acts as
an infinitely stiff panel so that no base deflection occurs.
Thus, ~; n; mum effects from loading of the cabinet and/or door
are experienced when this occurs.
One previously suggested load equalizing support system for a
refrigerator cabinet is disclosed in U.S. patent No. 4,192,564
to Losert. The aforesaid Losest patent has an adjustable threaded
support at each of its two front corners and a pair of rollers at
the rear. The rear rollers are connected to each other so that
one roller is shifted upwardly and the other downwardly when not
resting on a level support surface. However, since the door
always causes the front supports of the cabinet to engage the
surface, it has been found that the support system of the
aforesaid Losert patent does not function satisfactorily as
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would appear since the cabinet becomes rigid because all four
points are on the floor but the door will twist due to its weight
and load to leave a gap between the door gasket and the cabinet.
The support system of the present invention overcomes the
foregoing problems of the previous four-point system by utilizing
the advantages of the three-point system. At the same time, the
- support system of the present invention is capable of passing the
stability feel test.
SUMMARY OF THE INVE~TION
The support system of the present invention contemplates
positioning the two rear supports of the refrigerator cabinet
substantially close to each other so as to have the advantages of
the three-point system while still not having its disadvantage of
failing to pass the stability feel test. The support system of the
1~ present invention contemplates positioning its two rear supports
closer to each other than the sum of the distances of the two rear
supports from the adjacent side walls of the refrigerator cabinet.
An object of this invention is to provide a support system
for an appliance having a door pivotable about a vertical axis,
~articularly a refrigerator cabinet, that decreases its deflection
when disposed on a non-level support surface.
Another object of this invention is to provide a support
system for an appliance having a door pivotable about a vertical
axis, particularly a refrigerator cabinet, having its front wall
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or face maintained substantially parallel to its door irrespective
of the level of the support surface on which the refrigerator
cabinet is disposed.
A Other objects of this invention will be readily perceived
from the following description, claims, and drawings,
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF T~E DRAWINGS
The attached drawings illustrate a preferred embodiment of
the invention, in which:
FIG. l is a top plan view of a refrigerator cabinet having
the four-point support system of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a top plan view, similar to FIG. l, but showing the
door of the refrigerator cabinet in an open position;
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary front elevational view of a portion
of the refrigerator cabinet of FIG. l;
lS FIG. 4 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a portion
of the refrigerator cabinet of FIG. l and showing one of its front
supports and one of its rear supports;
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary too plan view, partly in section, of
the front support of FIG. 4; and
FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the refrigerator
cabinet of FIG. l.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREF~RRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to the drawings and particularly FIG. l, there is
shown a refrigerator cabinet 10 having a top wall ll, a front wall 12,
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a rear wall 13, and side walls 14 and 15 extending between the front
wall 12 and the rear wall 13. The refrigerator cabinet 10 includes
a bottom wall 16 (see FIG. 4).
An opening 17 (see FIG. 3) in the front wall 12 provides
access to a cooling compartment 18 having food stored on shelves 19.
The opening 17 is cIosed by a door 20 (see FIG. 1), which has a
gasket 21 engaging the front wall 12 to form a seal therewith to
seal tne cooling com?artment 18 (see FIG. 3) when the door 20 (see
FIG. 1) is substantially parallel to the front wall 12 in its
closed position to seal the cooling compartment 18 (see FIG. 3).
The door 20 has at least one shelf 22 (see FI5. 2) extending
inwardly therefrom for dis?osition within the cooling com?artment
18 (see FIG. 3) of the refrigerator cabinet 10 when the door 20
(see FIG. 1) is in its closed position.
The door 20 is pivotally mounted on the refrigerator cabinet
10 by a hinge 23, which is fixed to the top wall 11 of the
refrigerator cabinet 10. The door 20 is pivotable about a
vertical pin 24 of the hinge 23.
The refrigerator cabinet 10 has a front roller 25 supported
adjacent each of its front corners and rearwardly of the front
wall 12. Each of the two front rollers 25 is vertically
adjustable relative to the refrigerator cabinet 10.
Tne refrigerator cabinet 10 has a pair of rear rollers 26
mounted inwardly of the rear wall 13 and spaced a selected
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distance from each of the rear corners of the refrigerator
cabinet 10. The distance between the centers of the rear
rollers 26 is smaller than the sum of the distances of the cen-
ters of the rear rollers 26 from the adjacent side walls 14 and 15.
For example, if the r~frigerator cabinet 10 has a width of
34 1/2", the centers of the rollers 26 would be spaced 15" from
each other, and the center of each of the rollers 26 would be
9 3/4" from the adjacent side wall 14 or 15 so that the sum of
the distances i5 19 1/2" and the centers of the rollers 26 are
spaced a lesser distance of 15" from each other.
This arrangement of the rear rollers 26 simulates a three-
point support system while still providing a modified four-point
support system to enable the refrigerator cabinet 10 to pass the
stability feel test. That is, the refrigerator cabinet 10 will
not tilt at one of the rear corners when subjected to a specific
force at a specific location on the refrigerator cabinet 10.
The mounting for each of the front rollers 25 is the same,
and the mounting for one of the front rollers 25 is shown in
FIGS. 4 and 5. The front roller 25 is mounted on an axle 27,
which is rotatably mounted in a U-shaped support 28. Tne support
28 is pivotally mounted by a pivot pin 29 on a pair of brackets
30 on opposite sides of the front roller 25. Each of the brackets
30 is supported by suitable means on a front bracket 31 extending
across the entire front of the refrigerator cabinet 10. The front
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bracket 31 is fixed to the bottoms of a pair of parallel framing
strips 31' (see FIG. 6) secured to the front wall 12.
The U-shaped bracket 28 (see FIGS. 4 and 5) is pivoted about
the pivot pin 29 by rotating a bolt 32, which is rotatably supported
5 in the front bracket 31. The bolt 32 extends through a threaded
ele~ent 33, which is fixed to tne U-shaped support 28 to transform
the rotary motion of the bolt 32 into linear movement of the
upper portion of the U-shaped support 28 along the axis of the
bolt 32 to cause the U-shaped support 28 to pivot about the pivot
10 pin 29.
Thus, rotation of the bolt 32 causes vertical adjustment
of the axle 27 with respect to the refrigerator cabinet 10 to
raise or lower the front of the refrigerator cabinet 10 relative
to a support surface 34. Each of the front rollers 25 is
15 individually adjustable to enable the refrigerator cabinet 10 to
be substantially level when the support surface 34 is not level.
Each of the rear rollers 26 is fixed and not vertically
adjustable relative to the refrigerator cabinet 10. Each of the
rear rollers 26 has its axle 35 supported in a bracket 36
20 extending across the entire rear of the refrigerator cabinet 10.
The bracket 36 has a vertically extending rear portion 37 fixed
to the rear wall 13 of the refrigerator cabinet 10 by suitable
means such as a screw, for example.
Accordingly, the refri~erator cabinet 10 can be mounted on
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the support surface 34, even if the support surface 34 is not
level, so that the refrigerator cabinet 10 will be substantially
stable. This is accomplished through vertically adjusting each
of the front rollers 25 in accordance with the tilt of the
support surface 34.
Because the rear rollers 26 are positioned close to each
other and inward from the side walls 14 (see FIG. 1) and 15 of
the refrigerator cabinet 10, tlle stability of a three-point
system is substantially obtained with the modified four-point
system of the present invention. Therefore, the food load in the
cooling compartment 18 (see FIG. 3) of the refrigerator cabinet 10
will not cause tilting of the refrigerator cabinet 10. Likewise,
when the shelf 22 (see FIG. 2) of the door 20 is loaded with-
food, it also will not cause twisting of the refrigerator
cabinet 10 so that the gasket 21 will remain in sealing engagement
with the front wall 12 of the refrigerator cabinet 10.
~ nile the refrigerator cabinet 10 has been shown and
described as being supported by the front rollers 2~ and the rear
rollers 26, it should be understood that these supports could be
other than rollers if desired. While the refrigerator cabinet 10
has been snown and described as having only the single door 20
and the single cooling compartment 18 (see FIG. 3), it should be
understood that the refrigerator cabinet 1~ could have two separate
compartments with one being a freezer compartment in the well-known
11
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manner. Likewise, there could be two of the doors instead of
the single door 20 (see FIG. 1) with one door being for the freezer
compartment and the other door for a food compartment.
While the modified four-point support system of the present
invention has been shown and described as being employed with the
refrigerator cabinet 10, it should be understood that the modified
four-point support system of the present invention could be
utilized with any appliance having a door pivotable about a
vertical axis for closing an opening in the appliance.
An advantage of this i~vention is that it prevents distortion
of a refrigerator cabinet when the refrigerator cabinet is
installed on a non-level support surface. ~nother advantage of
this invention is that it substantially evenly distributes the
loading of a refrigerator cabinet.
For purposes of exemplification, a particular embodiment of
the invention has been shown and described according to the best
present understanding thereof. ~owever, it will be apparent that
changes an~ modifications in the arrangement and construction of
t~e parts thereof may be resorted to without departing from the
spirit and scope of the invention.
