Door hinge constructions are well known and generally include a hinge pin defining an axis of rotation for the door and a hinge bearing for receiving the hinge pin. Generally the axis of rotation of the door remain in a fixed position during the entire opening and closing operation.
In some environments, pivotable doors are arranged adjacent to one another, and open and close towards one another. This can lead to an undesired engagement between the edges of the two doors as one pivots relative to the other, particularly where the positioning of the two doors is close. In some particular environments, such as in French door style refrigerators or some side-by-side refrigerators, there are additional components on the doors, such as sealing gaskets, which can also detrimentally engage one another during the opening and closing operations, causing additional friction and also causing the parts to close improperly. For example, in a French door refrigerator, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,248,159, 4,288,135 and 5,975,661, adjacent doors are provide with sealing gaskets which may include internal magnets which are to sealingly engage one another when the doors close. On occasion, the adjoining gaskets, due to the pivotal movement therebetween, when one door closes relative to the other, interfere with one another and do not effect a tight seal therebetween. This could result in the gaskets not seating against one another in a flush sealing arrangement, thereby preventing a tight seal which can lead to extra energy being consumed by the appliance trying to compensate for the improper seal, damage to goods located in the refrigeration appliance if the compensation is inadequate, and condensation or other unsightly and perhaps damaging conditions to occur. In a side-by-side style refrigerator, a similar result could occur where a gasket might remain engaged against an adjacent gasket or door preventing that gasket from properly sealing against a face of the appliance.
Therefore, it would be an improvement in the art if there were provided a hinge arrangement that would overcome the above noted problems.
The present invention provides a hinge arrangement for a door that addresses the problems noted above, and specifically prevents adjacent doors and components associated with the doors from coming into pivotal engagement with each other when the doors are pivoted into closed positions towards each other.
A door hinge arrangement for a door is provided including a hinge bearing and a hinge pin adapted to be received in the hinge bearing and being rotatable in the hinge bearing about a vertical axis of the hinge pin. The hinge pin has a protruding cam portion extending perpendicular to the axis and the hinge bearing has a recess formed in a side wall to receive a length of the cam portion when the hinge pin is in a first angular orientation relative to the hinge bearing corresponding to a closed position. When the hinge pin is rotated relative to the hinge bearing to a second angular orientation, the cam acts against the recess to translate the axis of the pin from a first axial position to a second axial position, such that the hinge pin will first be translated laterally as the hinge pin is rotated, and then the hinge pin will be rotated about the second axial position.
In an embodiment, the hinge pin and the hinge bearing have mating helical surfaces such that as the hinge pin rotates relative to the hinge bearing, the hinge pin is caused to move axially relative to the hinge bearing.
In an embodiment, the hinge pin and the hinge bearing have a detent mechanism provided therebetween such that the hinge pin, in certain angular orientations relative to the hinge bearing, will be prevented from rotating further, or will be releasably held in a position, requiring an additional level of force to rotate the hinge pin out of that position.
a is a partial plan view of the refrigeration device of
The present invention relates to a door hinge arrangement which can be used in a wide variety of applications, generally wherever there is a door that can be pivoted to an open position and which can accommodate some lateral sliding of the door. In order to provide an environment for describing the invention, the hinge arrangement is discussed in terms of being used on a French door style refrigeration appliance, although the invention should not be deemed to be limited to use in such an environment. Other uses and environments, such as on other types of appliances, cabinets and locations having face mounted doors, including side-by-side refrigeration appliances.
In
Typically a rubber or plastic gasket 20, 22 (
A drawback of this arrangement is that when the doors are pivoted relative to one another to open or close, the two opposing gaskets 20, 22, 20a, 22a rub against one another and may not always provide a tight and complete seal.
To overcome this problem, the present invention provides a hinge construction that shifts or translates the compartment doors 16, 17 laterally outwardly as the doors are first opened, and shifts or translates each door laterally inwardly toward the other door as the closing operation completes. In this manner, the final motion of the doors, and hence gaskets, is laterally towards each other, rather than a pivotal movement. The lateral moving apart also helps break the magnetically effected seal between the gaskets since the force of magnetic attraction is reduces as the gaskets are translated away from one another.
The hinge pin 30 can be viewed in perspective in
The hinge bearing 32 is shown in perspective in
A first section 70 of the sidewall 68 is a partial circular cylinder with a center point 72 in a first axial position. A radius of the first section 70 is substantially the same, or slightly greater than a radius of the cylindrical head portion 38 of the hinge pin 30. A second section 74 of the sidewall 68 is shaped complementary to the cam portion 44 of the hinge pin 30 and has a wall portion 76 and a wall portion 78 angled inwardly in a direction away from the center point 72 with a rounded bight 80. A third section 82 of the sidewall 68 is a partial circular cylinder with a center point 84 in a second axial position. A radius of the third section 82 is substantially the same, or slightly greater than a distance from the axis 42 of the hinge pin 30 to the distal end 52 of the cam portion 44. A fourth section 85 of the sidewall 68 is a flat wall corresponding in length to a length of the sidewall 48 of the cam portion 44. A fifth section 86 of the sidewall 68 is a partial circular cylinder having the same center point 84 as the third section 82. A radius of the fifth section 86 is the same, or slightly greater than the radius of the cylindrical head portion 38 of the hinge pin 30. A sixth section 88 of the sidewall 68 is a straight section arranged tangentially to the first and fifth sections.
In an embodiment, as shown, the support wall 67 may be sloped in the form of a helix with a lowest point adjacent the second section 74 of the sidewall 68 and sloping upwardly in a counter clockwise direction with a highest point adjacent the first section 70 where a vertical step 89 connects the lowest and highest points. In such an embodiment, the support surface 40 of the hinge pin 30 is also formed with a complementary helical slope.
Within the pocket 64, and extending through to a bottom surface 90 of the body 62 is an oval shaped opening 92. The opening 92 is formed by a sidewall 94 having a first section 96 being a semicylinder having its center point coextensive with the center point 72 of the first section 70 of the sidewall 68. A radius of the first section 96 is substantially the same, or slightly greater than a radius of the cylindrical rod portion 36 of the hinge pin 30. The sidewall 94 has a second section 98 which is a semicylinder having its center point coextensive with the center point 84 of the third 82 and fifth 86 sections of the sidewall 68. A radius of the second section 98 is substantially the same, or slightly greater than the radius of the cylindrical rod portion 36 of the hinge pin 30. A third section 100 and a fourth section 102 of the sidewall 94 are straight sections arranged tangentially to the first 96 and second 98 sections and opposite one another. A hemispherical depression 104 may be provided in the support wall 67 adjacent to a junction between the third 82 and fourth 85 sections of the sidewall 68.
As shown in
In operation, and with respect to the hinges for the refrigeration compartment door 16 of
As mentioned above, the retaining cap or washer 54 may be provided to be secured to a lower end of the rod portion 36 of the hinge pin 30. This cap 54 could be provided after the hinge pin 30 is engaged into the hinge bearing 32 to prevent an unwanted vertical disengagement of the hinge pin from the hinge bearing. Although gravity would normally hold the hinge pin 30 in the hinge bearing 32, the cap 54 assures that a manual force applied to the door 16, which might have a vertical upward component, would not dislodge the hinge pin from the hinge bearing.
As the refrigeration compartment door 16 is initially opened, the door is caused to pivot around the axis 42 of the hinge pin 30, due to the connection of the door to the hinge pin through the bracket 16. At this point, the axis 42 is aligned with the center point and first axial position 72 of the hinge bearing 32. However, as soon as the pivoting rotation begins, the cam portion 44, and specifically the sidewall 48, bears against the wall portion 78 of the hinge bearing 32, and due to their angled orientations relative to a radial line from the axis 42, the hinge pin 30 is translated to the right, as seen in
As the opening of the door 16 continues, the hinge pin 30 is translated further to the right until the axis 42 of the hinge pin is aligned with the center point and second axial position 84 of the hinge bearing 32. The rotation of the hinge pin 30 relative to the hinge bearing continues, with the cylindrical contour of the head portion 38 of the hinge pin 30 being rotationally supported and guided by the circular fifth section 86 of the sidewall 68, and the rounded end 52 of the cam portion 44 being rotationally supported and guided by the circular third section 82 of the sidewall 68, as seen in
In the embodiment illustrated, in the full open position as shown in
In the embodiment illustrated, the support wall 67 of the hinge bearing 32 and the support surface 40 of the hinge pin 30 are sloped in a helical manner such that as the refrigeration compartment door 16 is opened, the hinge pin will be moved upwardly on the sloped support wall, this lifting the door 16. While this will slightly increase the force necessary to open the door 16, it will ensure that the door will close completely when rotation of the door towards the closed position begins. As the closing motion occurs, gravity will assist in the rotation of the door 16 as the hinge pin 30 moves downwardly on the sloped support wall 67. This slope and the momentum the door 16 will have as it moves into the final closed position will cause the cam portion 44 to move into the recess 118, thus translating the door to the left towards the freezer compartment door 17, allowing the refrigeration door gasket 20 to slide into position adjacent to the freezer door gasket 22, without any interference between the two.
In embodiments where the support wall 67 and the support surface do not have a helical shape, but rather have a flat horizontal orientation, an additional mechanism, such as a spring acting between the hinge pin 30 and the hinge bearing 32, would be required to translate the door 16 to the left at the end of the rotational movement of the door, to seat the cam portion 44 in the recess 108.
Although only a single hinge arrangement has been shown and described, there would likely be at least two such hinge arrangements provided for each door, with one at a top and one at a bottom of the door. The configuration and arrangement for the hinge pin 30 and the hinge bearing 32 for the left door would be mirror images of the hinge pin and hinge bearing illustrated and described above.
The disclosed hinge arrangement 18 can also be used in a side-by-side refrigeration appliance construction as illustrated in
As is apparent from the foregoing specification, the invention is susceptible of being embodied with various alterations and modifications which may differ particularly from those that have been described in the preceding specification and description. It should be understood that we wish to embody within the scope of the patent warranted hereon all such modifications as reasonably and properly come within the scope of our contribution to the art.
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2975013 | Wallace et al. | Mar 1961 | A |
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Number | Date | Country |
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JP 01275877 | Nov 1989 | CN |
2575512 | Jul 1986 | FR |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20060260097 A1 | Nov 2006 | US |