US2565995A - Refrigerator cabinet construction - Google Patents

Description

19571 R. L. SPENCER 2,565,995

REFRIGERATOR CAB'INET CONSTRUCTION Filed Jan. 4, 1949 IN V EN TOR. ROBERT LOU/S SPENCER ATTV.

Patented Aug. 28, 1951 REFRIGERATOR CABINET CONSTRUCTION Robert Louis Spencer, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Avco Manufacturing Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Application January 4, 1949, Serial No. 69,169

3 Claims. 1

This invention relates to refrigerators and more particularly to a refrigerator of the household type having an auxiliary food storage compartment in the door.

An object of my invention is to provide a refrigerator door having an auxiliary food storage compartment disposed entirely within the door and accessible from the inner side of the door when the door is open.

Another object of my invention is to provide an auxiliary food storage compartment in a refrigerator door in which the auxiliary door compartment is maintained at a relatively high temperature ascompared to the temperatures within the refrigerator proper without any special heating, heat conducting, or other means for raising the temperature of the auxiliary compartment.

A further object of my invention is to provide an auxiliary food storage compartment in a refrigerator door positioned substantially opposite the trim frame joining the inner and outer shells of the refrigerator at the front of the cabinet whereby a restricted airflow relationship is provided between the area defined by the opening to the auxiliary compartment and the interior of. the refrigerator.

A still further object of my invention is to provide an auxiliary food storage compartment ,in a refrigerator door having a door providing access to the interior of said compartment and a shelf disposed upon said compartment door for withdrawing food from said compartment when said auxiliary door is opened.

These and further objects of my invention will be apparent from the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the accom panying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a refrigerator cabinet provided with a door embodying my in vention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view through the door and refrigerator cabinet illustrating. the main refrigerator door in its closed position;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the door to the auxiliary food storage compartment. showing the configuration of the shelf carried by the door;

Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the door illustrating a slide member mounted on the door for regulating air flow through the door.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a refrigerator of the household type having a cabinet I! and a door l2 and provided with a non-refrigerated bin It at the bottom of the cabinet. The refrigerator may be cooled by any conventional refrigerating system adapted to circulate refrigerant through an evaporator IS in order to cool compartment II. The cabinet is constructed of spaced inner and outer shells l8 and 20 having insulation l9 therebetween. A breaker strip 2! extends between the inner and outer shells at the front of the cabinet. Door l2 extends upwardly to the top of the cabinet.

During operation of the refrigerating mechanism, the cabinet interior is maintained at a temperature sufiiciently low to preserve food stored therein, for example, 40 F. When butter or the like is placed within the cabinet, it will be maintained at a temperature sufliciently low to render the butter diflicult to spread upon its removal. Accordingly, I provide an auxiliary compartment for butter or the like which is normally maintained at a temperature sufliciently high to render the butter capable of easy spreading immediately upon its removal from the compartment. This temperature, which is preferably to F., is adequate to preserve butter for a limited time and is obtained by positioning the auxiliary compartment so that a restricted airflow relationship is maintained between the area defined by the opening to the auxiliary compartment and the interior of the cabinet.

Referring to Fig. 2, door l2 includes a recessed portion 22 adapted to receive a plurality of shelves 2;, 26, 28, for receiving food to be stored therein. Above recessed portion 22, door 12 includes a forwardly extending portion 3|! provided with a flat vertical front 32 which is disposed closely ad acent to breaker strip 2| when the door is closed. A-door gasket 33 extends entirely about the outer periphery of the door to seal the cabinet against leakage of heat therein. An auxiliary food storage compartment or butter conditioner 34 includes a liner 36 within portion 30 with insulation extending. about the top,

sides, bottom and rear of the compartment.

Compartment 34 is preferably positioned in the door so that while most of the compartment lies above the vertical extremity of the interior of the refrigerator cabinet, the lower extremity of the auxiliary compartment lies below the upper extremity of the interior of the compartment Thus the bottom wall 31 of compartment 34 extends slightly below the top wall 23 formed by the inner shell of the refrigerator cabinet. Satisfactory results have been obtained by positioning the auxiliary food storage compartment so that more than half of the compartment lies vertically above wall 23.

A door 40 is pivotally mounted on a vertically disposed hinge 42 which may be provided with a preloaded spring (not shown) to maintain the door in a normally closed position. A shelf 48 is mounted on door 40 such that the shelf will be disposed into and withdrawn from compartment 34 upon closing and opening of the door. A vertical rail 35 extends around the periphery of the shelf to prevent food from fallingoil' the shelf when door 40 is opened. In order to provide maximum shelf area and to permit opening and closing of door 40, shelf 48 is recessed on its sides at the forward end of the shelf as shown at 50 and 52 in Fig. 3. Thus, shelf 48 is substantially as wide as com partment 34 at the end of the shelf adjacent door 40 but is reduced in width near the opposite end thereof to accommodate the lateral offset of the shelf as it is withdrawn from the compartment.

In order to permit flexibility in the amount of airflow into and out of compartment 34, door 40 is provided with a series of openings 54 in the surface thereof and a shutter 56 slidably mounted on the door. As shown in Fig. 4, shutter Siiincludes a series of openings 51 in its face which cooperate with openings 54 to vary the effective opening in door 40. Oppositely disposed brackets 60 and 62 serve to slidably support shutter 56 on door 40. A recess is provided in trim strip 2| to accommodate handle 65 of the door 40 when door I2 is closed.

Butter conditioners have heretofore been placed either directly in the main food storage compartment of the refrigerator or hung on the door in such manner that the open end of the conditioner directly faces the interior of the refrigerator. With such arrangements it has been necessary to provide a tight seal about the door opening to the conditioner, and in many cases to heat the interior of the conditioner either electrically or, in some instances, by a metallic thermally conductive path through which heat is conducted to the interior of the conditioner. By placing the conditioner so that more than half of the auxiliary compartment is disposed vertically above the upper extremity of the refrigerated interior of the refrigerator, insulation may be utilized entirely around the auxiliary compartment at the top, sides, rear and bottom. All need for introducing heat by special means is eliminated, heat loss into the refrigerator is minimized, and expensive door seals at the door to the auxiliary compartment are omitted. The temperature of the door to the compartment and the temperature at the area adjacent the exterior of the door at the opening to the compartment is sufliciently high to permit direct airflow into the interior of the compartment through openings in the door and still eliminate the need for any special heating means for raising the temperature within the compartment. There is a constant restricted airflow relationship between the area exterior of the compartment between the door and breaker strip which results in a door temperature substantially higher than that in the refrigerator cabinet itself.

By this construction there is provided an auxiliary food storage compartment having a shelf for automatically withdrawing food stored in the compartment when the door to the compartment is opened. The lower portion only, of the compartment, faces directly into the relatively cold portion of the refrigerator cabinet. Due to the restricted airflow between the exterior of the auxiliary compartment door and the breaker strip, relatively high temperatures are maintained in this area. Heat loss into the refrigerator proper is reduced and at the same time all auxiliary heating means for the conditioner and door seals are therefore eliminated.

While a particular embodiment of my invention has been disclosed and described, various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope thereof as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a refrigerator cabinet formed of spaced inner and outer shells having a breaker strip extending therebetween and having a door extending to the upper extremity of said outer shell, an auxiliary food storage compartment in said door, said compartment extending partially above and partially below the inner shell of said cabinet, and a second door for providing access to said food storage compartment.

2. In a refrigerator cabinet formed of spaced inner and outer shells having a breaker strip extending therebetween, said inner shell defining a space adapted to be refrigerated, a door for providing access to said space, an auxiliary food storage compartment in said door extending above the upper extremity of said inner shell and adjacent said breaker strip, a second door for providing access to said auxiliary food storage compartment, said space and said second door being in restricted airflow relationship.

3. In a refrigerator cabinet having a refrigerated main food storage space, a door providing access to said space, an auxiliary food storage compartment disposed within said door having an opening facing in part the interior of the refrigerated space and in restricted airflow relationship therewith when said door is closed, a second door for providing access to said compartment, and a variable restricting means communicating with said compartment and the space to regulate air flow between the refrigerated space and the interior of said compartment.

ROBERT LOUIS SPENCER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,027,124 Stockstrom Jan. 7, 1936 2,068,550 Knight Jan. 19, 1937 2,086,019 Dyer JuLv 6, 1937 2,300,405 Cook Nov. 3, 1942 2,303,806 Wild Dec. 1, 1942 2,311,549 James Feb. 16, 1943'

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