This application claims priority to German Application No. 102008041487.5, filed Aug. 22, 2008, the entire contents is hereby incorporated by reference.
This present invention relates to a domestic appliance for installation in a furniture frame that has an essentially rectangular body and two cover sections which are fixed to the front vertical edges of the body and extend laterally beyond the vertical edges onto the furniture frame. The cover sections conceal a gap between the body and the furniture frame surrounding it and thus hide irregularities in form and/or dimensions of the appliance body or of the furniture frame, such as may occur in particular with refrigerators with foam-packed housings.
Domestic appliances with vertical cover sections fixed to the body and protruding beyond the sides and possibly with a horizontal cover section fastened to a front upper edge of the body are particularly widespread on the US market.
If vertical cover sections are screwed to the sides of the body of the domestic appliance before installation in a furniture niche, this presents the problem that screw heads protruding from the sides increase the width of the appliance and could damage the furniture niche if they rub against it when the appliance is being pushed into the niche. To avoid this problem it is known for the cover section to be affixed using countersunk head screws, the heads of which disappear into corresponding holes in the cover sections so that they do not touch the furniture frame and also cannot cause any damage. The countersunk holes predefine the exact position of the cover section on the appliance body; therefore it is not possible to correct the height of the cover sections subsequently to compensate for inaccuracies in the positioning of the screw holes in the cover section or the corresponding threaded holes on different sides of the appliance body. Differences in height between the cover sections on opposite sides of the body look particularly unattractive when a horizontal cover section extends between the vertical cover sections.
An object of the invention is to develop a domestic appliance of the type described above so that any risk to the furniture frame when the appliance is pushed in is avoided as far as possible and it remains possible to compensate for tolerances when the cover section is attached.
This object is achieved wherein, in a domestic appliance for installation in a furniture frame with an essentially rectangular body and two vertical cover sections which are fixed to the front vertical edges of the body and extend laterally beyond the vertical edges onto the furniture frame, wherein a leg of a section adjacent to a lateral wall of the body has a hole for a fixing screw and a head of the fixing screw is accommodated at least partially in a depression surrounding the hole, which is level with the floor of the depression surrounding the hole, and with a shaft of the fixing screw maintaining clearance as it passes through the hole.
The head of the fixing screw is preferably completely accommodated in the depression in order to prevent any contact between the furniture frame and the screw head when the appliance is pushed in.
The hole is preferably extended vertically to enable the position of the cover section to be adjusted vertically.
It is further preferable that the hole incorporates a wide section through which the head of the fixing screw passes, and a narrow section through which the head does not pass. It is thus possible initially to affix one or more screws to the body of the domestic appliance and to hang the cover section onto these screws before its vertical position is fixed by tightening the screw (or screws).
On the leg a section adjacent to the lateral wall, a surface running downward of the body 1 and backward onto the lateral wall of the body is preferably formed between the depression accommodating the screw head and a rearward edge of the leg. This sloping surface may come into contact with the furniture frame when the appliance is pushed into the furniture niche without damaging it and may center the body when it is pushed into the niche.
The cover section preferably has a rib adjacent to the front surface of the body which is used firstly as a stop for the positioning of the cover section downward, and secondly may also conceal any gap between the cover section and the lateral wall of the body. Slight unevenness of the lateral wall of the body that may occur with foam packing thus remains inconspicuous.
To ensure that no condensed water falls onto the metallic cover section during operation, the metallic cover section is preferably thermally insulated from a metallic bearing structure of the body by a plastic profile element.
To improve the insulating effect of the plastic profile element it is useful for the plastic profile element to have a base plate and ribs protruding from the base plate toward the bearing structure or toward the cover section. Cavities delimited by these ribs improve the insulation capacity particularly if they remain empty or are filled with the same insulating material as other areas of the appliance housing.
It is further preferable for each recess on an outer surface of the cover section to have a projection on the opposite inner surface of the same. Thus the projections of the cover section can easily be formed by stamping. The projections can effectively be located in a groove of the plastic profile element.
The plastic profile element may be manufactured by extrusion, in exactly the same way as a preliminary stage of the cover section in which the projections are then formed.
The plastic profile element is preferably a component of the body. In particular it may have a groove into which a fixed outer shell of the body is pushed. In particular, in order to absorb the pressure exerted on the outer shell if the body is foam-packed, it is useful for a hook from the plastic profile element to encompass the support structure.
Further features and advantages of the invention are revealed in the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached diagrams, in which;
A door 2 is fixed at the front of the rectangular body of the refrigerator shown in
An adapter plate 6 made of sheet metal is screwed to the upper surface of the body 1. On the front edge of the adapter plate 6 a plurality of brackets 7 are cut free. Each of the brackets 7 projects beyond the front surface of the body 1 but not beyond the front edges of the vertical cover sections 3. The brackets 7 each have two flexible weak points, which are formed by a number of slots stamped along a line. One of these weak points delimits the bracket 7 from the main part of the adapter plate 6; the other subdivides the bracket 7 into a headpiece 9 and a connecting piece 10.
A projection 11 extending downward is stamped into each headpiece 9, and several downward graduated screw holes are formed in the projection 11.
A horizontal cover section 13, which is provided for attaching to the brackets 7 of the body 1 mounted in a furniture niche, is shown in
When the body 1 is placed in a furniture niche so that the leg 5 of the vertical cover sections 3 is adjacent to the front edge of a frame of a furniture niche, then the brackets 7 should be turned upward by an installation engineer so that the projections 11 of their head pieces 9 come to rest on a horizontal upper section of the frame. After the headpieces 9 are screwed firmly to the horizontal upper frame section the horizontal cover section 13 is affixed from the front, wherein its upper leg 15 is inserted between the headpiece 9 and the horizontal frame section and the projections 11 come to rest in the slots 17. A stop position of the horizontal cover section 13 is defined by the contact of the plate 18 with the front surface of the body 1.
A section of the cover section 3 is shown in
The projections on the inner surface of the leg 4 corresponding to the depressions 41 engage into the groove 33 of the plastic profile element 27 in the mounted state. The depressions 41 and the groove 33 are positioned on the cover section 3 and the profile element respectively so that, if a rib 8 protruding inward from the leg 4 touches the front edge of the lateral wall of the body 1, the projections engage in the groove 33.
A keyhole-shaped opening 42 is stamped into each depression 41. The opening 42 includes in its lower area a section 43 with a wide diameter, which is sufficient to allow the head of a screw 39 to pass through. An adjoining, narrower section 44 extending vertically upward is only sufficiently wide to accommodate the shaft of the screw 39. It is thus possible initially to affix screws 39 through the holes 34 in the plastic profile element 27 into the screw necks 38 of the U-profile 25 and then to hang the cover section 3 onto these. Since the screws 39 maintain clearance as they engage vertically into the openings 42, the cover section 3 can be adjusted to the required height before the screws 39 are tightened.
On a rearward edge the leg 4 has a sloping surface 46 leading to a point 45, wherein the pointed edge 45 as shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
10 2008 041 487 | Aug 2008 | DE | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
1657049 | Sicklen, Jr. | Jan 1928 | A |
1743273 | Hammer | Jan 1930 | A |
1748234 | Loeb | Feb 1930 | A |
2649142 | New | Aug 1953 | A |
2771687 | Hutto, Jr. | Nov 1956 | A |
2832080 | Hertenstein et al. | Apr 1958 | A |
2881482 | Hiers | Apr 1959 | A |
3051160 | Nielsen | Aug 1962 | A |
3055468 | Horejs et al. | Sep 1962 | A |
3238686 | Pomeroy | Mar 1966 | A |
3376861 | Bach, Jr. | Apr 1968 | A |
3473858 | Barnett | Oct 1969 | A |
3501186 | Wilcox et al. | Mar 1970 | A |
3516637 | Lawson et al. | Jun 1970 | A |
3594254 | Lemelson | Jul 1971 | A |
4015760 | Bott | Apr 1977 | A |
4312165 | Mizusawa | Jan 1982 | A |
4370007 | Fler | Jan 1983 | A |
4948206 | Fitzpatrick | Aug 1990 | A |
4970874 | Solak et al. | Nov 1990 | A |
5564808 | Gipson et al. | Oct 1996 | A |
5624170 | Hasty | Apr 1997 | A |
5752356 | Miklavic et al. | May 1998 | A |
6460219 | Domenig et al. | Oct 2002 | B2 |
6955019 | Donlin et al. | Oct 2005 | B2 |
6997530 | Avendano et al. | Feb 2006 | B2 |
7293847 | Lee et al. | Nov 2007 | B2 |
20080120912 | Crompton et al. | May 2008 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20100045150 A1 | Feb 2010 | US |