The present application is a national phase entry of International Application No. PCT/CN2018/120693, filed Dec. 12, 2018, which claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201810175441.3, filed Mar. 2, 2018, which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The present invention relates to a refrigeration and freezing device, and more particularly relates to a refrigerator and a drawer assembly thereof.
A drawer of a refrigerator is generally arranged in a storage compartment in a way of being capable of being pushed and pulled. A slide rail device is arranged iii on an inner wall of the storage compartment, and is beneficial to the forward and rearward movement of the drawer. However, for convenience, a user often closes the drawer with greater pushing force, so that when the drawer is about to be closed, a front end wall of the drawer collides with a refrigerator body, thus generating great noise and damaging articles in the drawer. The drawer is easy to break down due to long-term collision, so that the service life of the drawer is shortened.
One objective of the present invention is to overcome at least one defect in the prior art and to provide a refrigerator with a novel and simple structure and a drawer assembly thereof. When a drawer is about to be closed, the rearward movement of the drawer is cushioned, so that the drawer is stably closed.
Another objective of the present invention is to realize power-assisted automatic closing of the drawer.
A yet another objective of the present invention is to give out a prompt sound during the closing of the drawer, so as to prompt a user to loosen the grip after the prompt sound is heard, so that the automatic subsequent closing process of the drawer is completed.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a drawer assembly for a refrigerator, including:
drawers, arranged in a storage compartment of the refrigerator in a way of being capable of being pushed and pulled forward and rearward between a front extreme position and a rear extreme position; and
two support assemblies in left-right parallel arrangement. Each of the support assemblies includes a support frame. The support frame is fixed to an inner wall of the storage compartment, is provided on an inner side with a first slideway extending forward and rearward, and is provided on a rear portion of the inner side with an elastic tongue.
A left sidewall and a right sidewall of the drawer are respectively mounted on the first sideway of the support frame of one of the support assemblies in a forward and rearward slidable way. The drawer assembly is configured as: when the drawer is moved rearward to approach to the rear extreme position, a rear end of the drawer pushes rearward the elastic tongue, so that the elastic tongue generates elastic deformation, thus allowing the elastic tongue to apply a forward elastic cushioning force to the drawer.
Optionally, the elastic tongue extends forward and rearward. Additionally, a rear portion of the elastic tongue is fixed to the support frame. A front portion gradually slopes upward and tilts from the rear side to the front side. When the drawer is moved rearward to approach to the rear extreme position, the rear end of the drawer is in contact with a lower surface of the front portion of the elastic tongue so as to push rearward the elastic tongue, so that the front portion of the elastic tongue bends upward to apply the elastic cushioning force to the drawer.
Optionally, the rear portion of the elastic tongue extends along a horizontal plane. An included angle between the front portion and the horizontal plane is in a range of 5° to 10°.
Optionally, a first pulley is respectively mounted at a rear end of the left sidewall and the right sidewall of the drawer. When the drawer is moved forward and rearward, the first pulley rolls on an upper surface of the first slideway. Additionally, when the drawer is moved rearward to approach to the rear extreme position, the first pulley is in contact with the lower surface of the front portion of the elastic tongue so as to push rearward the elastic tongue.
Optionally, the left sidewall and the right sidewall of the drawer are respectively provided with a second slideway extending forward and rearward. A front end of the inner side of the support frame is provided with a second pulley. When the drawer is moved forward and rearward, the second pulley rolls along a lower surface of the second slideway so as to support the second slideway.
Optionally, a stop block is fixed to a rear end of the inner side of the support frame. When the drawer is moved rearward to the rearward extreme position, a rear end of the second slideway collides with the stop block, so that the drawer is incapable of being continuously moved rearward.
Optionally, the left sidewall and the right sidewall of the drawer are respectively provided with an upper guide strip and a lower guide strip located below the upper guide strip. The upper guide strip and the lower guide strip are both provided with a bottom edge gradually sloping downward from the rear side to the front side. An upper slide groove and a lower slide groove are formed in the support frame. The upper slide groove extends forward and rearward. The lower slide groove is provided with a front vertical section, a horizontal section extending rearward from a bottom end of the front vertical section, and a rear vertical section extending downward from a rear end of the horizontal section. Additionally, the support assembly further includes: a connecting member and an elastic element. Front and rear ends of the connecting member are respectively provided with a front guide post and a rear guide post with axes extending leftward and rightward. The front guide post extends into the lower slide groove. The rear guide post extends into the upper slide groove. The elastic element applies a rearward elastic pre-tightening force to the connecting member. The drawer assembly is configured as: when the drawer is in a normal open state, the front guide post is clamped in the front vertical section, the upper guide strip and the lower guide strip are located in front of the front guide post; in a process of moving rearward the drawer, the upper guide strip is moved rearward, and at the same time, the bottom edge of the upper guide strip presses downward the front guide post, so that the front guide post leaves away from the front vertical section to enter the horizontal section and is abutted against a front edge of the lower guide strip, thus pushing the drawer to move rearward in an accelerated way under the effect of the elastic pre-tightening force; in a process of moving forward and opening the drawer, the lower guide strip pushes forward the front guide post, so that the front guide post is clamped in the front vertical section again, and the drawer is continuously moved forward; and additionally, when the drawer is in an abnormal open state that the front guide post is clamped at the rear end of the horizontal section, the drawer is moved rearward, the lower guide strip is moved rearward, and at the same time, the bottom edge of the lower guide strip presses downward the front guide post, so that the front guide post enters the rear vertical section so as to allow the lower guide strip to cross the front guide post, and the front guide post is located in front of the lower guide strip again.
Optionally, the drawer assembly is further configured as: in the process of moving rearward the drawer, when the front guide post leaves away from the front vertical section, a front end of the lower guide strip is located at a preset distance in front of the front guide post, so that after leaving away from the front vertical section, the front guide post is moved rearward under the effect of the elastic pre-tightening force to collide with the lower guide strip, and a prompt sound of drawer closing is given out.
Optionally, the support frame is provided with an inner layer plate and an outer layer plate extending forward and rearward and parallel to each other. The upper slide groove is respectively formed in the inner layer plate and the outer layer plate. The lower slide groove is formed in the inner layer plate. The connecting member is located between the inner layer plate and the outer layer plate. The rear end of the connecting member is provided with two of the rear guide posts extending leftward and rightward. The two rear guide posts respectively enter one of the upper slide grooves. The front end of the connecting member is provided with one of the front guide posts extending toward the drawer.
In another aspect, the present invention provides a refrigerator, including a refrigerator body defining a storage component, and at least one drawer assembly according to any one of the above. The support frame of the support assembly is fixed to the inner wall of the storage compartment. The left sidewall and the right sidewall of the drawer are respectively mounted on the first sideway of the support frame of one of the support assemblies in a forward and rearward translatable way.
According to the refrigerator and the drawer assembly thereof of the present invention, each drawer is mounted on the two support frames in a forward and rearward translatable way. When the drawer is moved rearward to approach to the rear extreme position, the elastic tongue at the rear portion of the support frame will be pushed, so that the elastic tongue generates elastic deformation so as to apply the forward elastic cushioning force to the drawer. Therefore, the rearward movement of the drawer is cushioned, and the drawer will be stably closed without seriously colliding with other components of the refrigerator. Generation of great noise is avoided. The service life of the drawer assembly is prolonged. Damage cannot be caused on food in the drawer.
Further, the refrigerator and the refrigerator assembly thereof of the present invention realize the power-assisted automatic closing of the drawer by using the two support assemblies, are simple in structure, and are not easy to break down. Additionally, when the drawer is in the abnormal open state that the front guide post is clamped at the rear end of the horizontal section, the user only needs to move rearward the drawer to allow the front guide post to be back to the front of the lower guide strip again, so that the mechanism returns to normal, professional repair is not needed, and the use is very convenient and fast.
Further, according to the refrigerator and the refrigerator assembly thereof of the present invention, when the drawer is closed, and after leaving away from the front vertical section, the front guide post can be moved forward under the effect of the elastic pre-tightening force to collide with the lower guide strip, so as to give out the prompt sound. After hearing the prompt sound, the user loosens the grip, so that the subsequent closing process of the drawer can be completed automatically. The user experience is very good.
The above and other objectives, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of specific embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Some specific embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail hereinafter in way of example and not by way of limitation with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numerals in the drawings indicate the same or similar components or parts. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that these drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. In the drawings:
An embodiment of the present invention provides a refrigerator and a drawer assembly thereof.
As shown in
In some embodiments, the plurality of drawer assemblies may be arranged. For example, as shown in
As shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
As shown in
Specifically, as shown in
The rear sealing strip 42 is mounted on the lower surface of the upper cover plate 40, and includes a rear sealing section 4201 extending leftward and rightward, and a left sealing section 4203 and a right sealing section 4202 bending forward from the left and right ends of the rear sealing section 4201. When the drawer 20 is in the rear extreme position, the rear sealing section 4201 is abutted against the top edge of the rear sidewall 203 in a sealed way. The left sealing section 4203 is abutted against the top edge of the left sidewall 201 in a sealed way. The right sealing section 4202 is abutted against the top edge of the right sidewall 202 in a sealed way.
Specifically, from a sectional view of the rear sealing strip shown in
In some structures, as shown in
In some of the existing sealing structures, the above front sealing strip and rear sealing strip may be manufactured into an integral quadrangular structure. However, when the drawer using such a structure is moved rearward, the left/right sealing section and the front sealing strip are subject to a rearward friction force of the drawer, and displacement and deformation are easily generated due to the interaction, so that the sealing performance is influenced, and a greater friction resistance may also be brought to the drawer. In the present embodiment, the sealing assembly is divided into two portions: the front sealing strip 43 and the rear sealing strip 42. The front sealing strip 43 is configured to be abutted against the front end wall 204 of the drawer 20 in a sealed way, and cannot bring a friction resistance to the drawer 20 in the process of moving rearward the drawer 20. No fixed connection relationship exists among the left sealing section 4203 and right sealing section 4202 of the rear sealing strip 42 and the front sealing strip 43. In the process of moving rearward the drawer 20, even if being pushed rearward by the top of the drawer 20, the left sealing section 4203 and the right sealing section 4202 cannot apply any acting force to the left and right ends of the front sealing strip 43, so that the left and right ends of the front sealing strip 43 can be prevented from being deformed and displaced to influence the sealing or bring the greater friction resistance to the rearward movement of the drawer.
As shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
For example, the elastic tongue 160 may extend forward and rearward. Additionally, a rear portion 161 of the elastic tongue is fixed to the support frame 100. A front portion 162 gradually slopes upward and tilts from the rear side to the front side. The elastic tongue 160 may be made of materials such as PS or polystyrene. As shown in
The left sidewall 201 and the right sidewall 202 of the drawer 20 are respectively provided with a second slideway 230 extending forward and rearward, and the front end of the inner side of the support frame 100 is provided with a second pulley 700. When the drawer is moved forward and rearward, the second pulley 700 rolls along the lower surface of the second slideway 230 so as to support the second slideway 230. Further, as shown in
In some alternative embodiments, sliding friction connection may also be adopted between the slideway of the drawer 20 and the slideway of the support frame 100 so as to omit the pulleys, or the two pulleys may be both arranged on the drawer 20, or the two pulleys are both arranged on the support frame 100. The specific structure is omitted herein.
As shown in
A preferable structure form of the support assembly is illustrated hereafter through
Each support assembly 10 includes a support frame 100, connecting members 300 and elastic elements.
An upper slide groove 150 and a lower slide groove 140 are formed in the support frame 100. The upper slide groove 150 extends forward and rearward. The lower slide groove 140 is of a three-section structure, and includes a front vertical section 141, a horizontal section 142 extending rearward from the bottom end of the front vertical section 141, and a rear vertical section 143 extending downward from the rear end of the horizontal section 142. Smooth transition is preferably adopted between the front vertical section 141 and the horizontal section 142.
The front and rear ends of the connecting member 300 are respectively provided with a front guide post 310 and a rear guide post 320 with axes extending leftward and rightward. The front guide post 310 extends into the lower slide groove 140, and can slide in the extending direction of the lower slide groove 140. The rear guide post 320 extends into the upper slide groove 150, and can slide in the extending direction of the upper slide groove 150. It could be understood that because the shape of the lower slide groove 140 is irregular, when the connecting member 300 slides forward and rearward, rotation taking the axis of the rear guide post 320 as an axis will further be generated.
The elastic element is configured to apply a rearward elastic pre-tightening force to the connecting member 300. The elastic element may be specifically a tension spring 500. The front end of the tension spring 500 is fixed to the rear portion of the connecting member 300. The rear end is fixed to the support frame 100.
The processes of opening and closing the drawer 20 will be described hereafter:
(1) The drawer 20 is in a normal open state, as shown in
(2) The process of closing the drawer 20, i.e., the process shown in
Preferably, in the process of moving rearward and closing the drawer 20, when the front guide post 310 leaves away from the front vertical section 141, the front end of the lower guide strip 220 is located at a preset distance (such as 1 to 3 cm) in front of the front guide post 310 (instead of being just in contact with the lower guide strip 220), so that after leaving away from the front vertical section 141, the front guide post 310 is moved rearward in an accelerated way under the effect of the elastic pre-tightening force to collide with the lower guide strip 220, and a prompt sound is given out to prompt the user to close the drawer. The user can loosen the grip after hearing the prompt sound, so that the drawer 20 is automatically closed, and the user experience is very good.
(3) The process of normally opening the drawer 20, i.e., the process in
(4) Under some abnormal conditions, the drawer 20 is in an abnormal open state. As shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
As described above, for the embodiment provided with two drawer assemblies, the support frame of the right support assembly of the drawer assembly located on the left side and the support frame of the left support assembly of the drawer assembly located on the right side are formed on the support frame base 510, so as to form the integral middle support assembly 50. The inner layer plates 120 of the two support frames 100 on the support frame base 510 of the middle support assembly 50 are formed on the support frame base 510. Additionally, the outer layer plates 130 of the two support frames 100 are of an integrally formed integral member, and are detachably located between the two inner layer plates 120. The two outer layer plates 130 and the support frame base 510 are in separated arrangement so as to facilitate mold design.
Hereto, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although a number of exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described in detail herein, many other variations or modifications in accordance with the principles of the present invention can be directly ascertained or derived from the disclosure of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should be understood and deemed to cover all such other variations or modifications.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
201810175441.3 | Mar 2018 | CN | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/CN2018/120693 | 12/12/2018 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2019/165823 | 9/6/2019 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5040856 | Wilkins | Aug 1991 | A |
8864250 | Anderson | Oct 2014 | B2 |
9488405 | Lee | Nov 2016 | B2 |
20090309472 | Park | Dec 2009 | A1 |
20110095670 | Cho | Apr 2011 | A1 |
20160209107 | Choi | Jul 2016 | A1 |
20170198963 | Hanson | Jul 2017 | A1 |
20200224959 | Wantland | Jul 2020 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
201051979 | Apr 2008 | CN |
103148672 | Jun 2013 | CN |
204421472 | Jun 2015 | CN |
205493181 | Aug 2016 | CN |
106979644 | Jul 2017 | CN |
206600958 | Oct 2017 | CN |
108050759 | May 2018 | CN |
108204708 | Jun 2018 | CN |
208059395 | Nov 2018 | CN |
H08219634 | Aug 1996 | JP |
5320228 | Oct 2013 | JP |
2477826 | Mar 2013 | RU |
2529916 | Oct 2014 | RU |
Entry |
---|
International Search Report for PCT/CN2018/120693 dated Feb. 15, 2019, ISA/CN (4 pages). |
Written Opinion for PCT/CN2018/120693 dated Feb. 15, 2019, ISA/CN (8 pages). |
1st Search Report of priority application CN201810175441.3 dated Jul. 15, 2019 (3 pages). |
1st Office Action of priority application CN201810175441.3 dated Jul. 24, 2019 (3 pages). |
Search Report for Russian Application No. 2020132270 completed Dec. 20, 2020, with English translation (4 pages). |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20200393195 A1 | Dec 2020 | US |