Matsushita Refrigeration Company

Panasonic Corporation

Hirofumi Waki

Koji Suzuki

Takashi Aoki

Toshiyuki Moriuchi

Kazuyoshi Takeuchi

Akihiko Manabe

Takeshi Onaka

Hidetomo Takanishi

Tadahiro Kawamura

Katsuhiko Morimoto

A refrigerator includes a thermally insulated housing opening forwardly at a front surface thereof; a door for selectively opening and closing the opening of the housing; a magnetic gasket fitted to a portion of the door which is engageable with an open edge of the housing; a pivotally supported handle connected to the door for movement between opened and closed positions for opening and closing the door, respectively; and a trigger member drivingly coupled with the handle for movement between projected and retracted positions. The trigger member is moved from the retracted position towards the projected position, as the handle is pivoted from the closed position towards the opened position, to abut the open edge to thereby physically release a contact between the magnetic gasket and the open edge. The trigger member is spaced a distance from an abutment face of the open edge of the housing so long as the handle is held in the closed position, but temporarily brought into engagement with the abutment face of the housing as the handle is pivoted from the closed position towards the opened position to open the door.

Refrigerator door opener

Growing community of inventors

Kusatsu, Japan

Hirofumi Waki