Clarion Technologies, Inc.

Donnelly Corporation

Alan D Picken

David E Nestell

R Scott Repp

Kevin J Schroeder

William Beckman

John Brownlow

Ye Cailin

A shelf assembly for use in a refrigerator includes a glass panel having a central region and a perimeter region, with the perimeter region having an upwardly turned spill prevention lip. The upwardly turned spill prevention lip is upwardly turned relative to the central region via a glass forming process. The upwardly turned spill prevention lip includes upwardly turned lip portions at the front, rear, left and right sides of the glass panel. The central region of the glass panel includes a storage portion. The upwardly turned spill prevention lip circumscribes the periphery of the central region to limit spillage of liquid over the sides of the glass panel. The shelf assembly may include a pair of support rails bonded at lower surfaces of the left and right sides of the glass panel and having attachment elements configured to mount the shelf assembly at the refrigerator.

Refrigerator shelf assembly

A formed glass shelf is provided having a central region with an upper planar surface and a curved perimeter region surrounding the central region, which has an edge. The curved perimeter region is non-coplanar with the central region, and the edge is offset in a range of about 2 mm to 6 mm from the upper planar surface of the central region to contain spills on the shelf. A method is provided for slump-forming the shelf, including slump-forming an oversized blank and removing an outermost portion to achieve the finished size.

Frameless spill-safe shelf

A shelf assembly for use in a refrigerator includes a shelf panel and a pair of opposite support rails. The shelf panel has upwardly angled perimeter regions and may comprise a strengthened glass material, such as a transparent strengthened glass material, such as tempered glass. Each of the support rails includes a base portion and an angled portion that extends at an angle from the base portion. The angled portions of the support rails are bonded along the lower surface of the upwardly angled side perimeter regions of the shelf panel.

Refrigerator shelf

Growing community of inventors

Manitou Beach, MI, United States of America

Alan D Picken