General Electric Company

Joseph Anthony Tobbe

Roger Shawn Nelson

Nicholas David Tackett

Brent Alden Junge

Michael Thomas Chezem

Jeffrey Martin Wood

Blake Philip Bomar

John (Jack) Joseph Roetker

Juan David Payares

An appliance is provided with a cabinet having a plurality of fill holes along a rear section or panel of a cabinet whereby expandable foam material may be injected at multiple locations into voids within the cabinet. The plurality of fill holes avoids or minimizes problems with conventional methods such as sink parks, unfilled spaces, and uneven distribution. In certain embodiments, patterns or configurations of the fill holes are provided to e.g., improve the effectiveness of the injection process and conserve the amount of material required to fill the voids in the cabinet. Related methods are also provided.

Appliance with expanding foam material

An appliance includes a water heater storage tank, a heating assembly configured to heat water within the water heater storage tank, and a heat exchange device disposed within the heat storage unit in a fixed relationship relative to a position of the heating assembly. The heat exchange device includes a hollow object and a phase change material within the hollow object.

Water heater containing a phase change material

A refrigerator appliance is provided with a dispenser for directing a flow of ice and/or water to a dispenser recess of the dispenser. A camera is directed towards the dispenser recess, and a display is also provided for displaying an image from the camera. The image can assist a user in positioning a container within the dispenser recess.

Refrigerator appliance with features for assisted dispensing

A method for filling the internal cavity of an appliance cabinet with an expanding foam material includes defining a pattern of fill holes in the outer cabinet wall at defined locations for injecting foam into identified sections of the cavity. Measured quantities of the foam material are injected into the fill holes in a sequential manner starting at one end of the cabinet and working towards an opposite end of the cabinet so as to sequentially deposit measured amounts of the foam material into the cavity against previously deposited sections of foam along the length of the cabinet while driving air within the cabinet towards a last section of the cabinet to be filled.

Growing community of inventors

Louisville, KY, United States of America

Joseph Anthony Tobbe