Camco Inc.

Les A Jeziorowski

Nedo Banicevic

Arnold Estravillo

Edward George Simmons

A refrigerator cabinet has a food storage compartment bounded by front facing vertical and horizontal walls. A pair of French doors are pivotally mounted to the refrigerator cabinet to close the open front of the refrigerator. In the closed position the doors have vertically extending confronting walls which include an intermediate sealing gasket extending along a major vertical portion of the confronting walls which are adapted to sealingly engage against each other to form a vertically extending seal. Upper and lower corner sealing gasket members are respectively positioned above and below the intermediate sealing gasket members and adjacent a corresponding horizontal wall of the cabinet. Each of the corner sealing gasket members has a first sealing surface adjacent the intermediate sealing gasket member to complete the vertical seal between the confronting walls of the doors when the doors are in a closed position. The corner sealing gaskets further include a second sealing surface generally orthogonal to the first sealing surface. The second sealing surface in an open position has one vertically extending outwardly protruding ridge contracting the second sealing surface to withdraw the first sealing surface back from its vertical sealing position. The ridge engages one of the horizontal walls as the door closes so as to flatten the second sealing surface into sealing engagement with this horizontal wall and to advance the first sealing surface towards the location of the vertical seal position. Magnetic strips are also located in the corner sealing gasket members to facilitate the sealing of the first sealing surfaces to each other and to the front facing horizontal wall.

French door gasket corner seal

A refrigerator has French doors with vertically extending confronting side walls. At least one of the confronting side walls has a movable sealing gasketing member adapted to sealingly engage the other confronting side wall when the doors are in a closed position. The doors move between an open position and into the closed position through a temporary intermediate partially closed position. In the partially closed position the doors extend over the refrigerator compartment with temporary non-sealing vertically extending portions of the confronting side walls of the doors spaced apart from one another a predetermined gap distance. A first set of magnets are positioned in the doors at least along the temporary non-sealing vertically extending portions of the confronting side walls. The first magnets have a magnetic field attraction strength insufficient to move the gasketing member across the predetermined gap distance and sufficient to seal the gasketing member to the other confronting side wall when the predetermined gap distance is reduced. A second set of magnets have a magnetic field strength greater than the first magnets. The second magnets are positioned in at least one location along each of the confronting side walls to trigger local movement of the gasketing member towards the other confronting side wall locally reducing the predetermined gap. This triggers the first magnets to move the gasket along the vertically extending portions into sealing engagement with the other side wall. In the preferred embodiment the second magnets are located as a continuation of and in alignment with the first magnets. Swiping of the confronting side walls of the doors is limited at the second magnets.

Refrigerator door seal assembly

A gasket assembly for use in side-by-side, or French doors for a refrigerator has door stops which bear the door closure forces by engaging the top and bottom walls of the refrigerator food compartment. The door stops form part of an edge flange of a retainer that extends along the length of the refrigerator door. The retainer acts as a seat for a flexible gasket and maintains the integrity of the flexible gasket seal alignment between the side-by-side doors. The advantage provided is that a thermal seal barrier is maintained along the entire length of the door by the door stops maintaining the gasket a constant distance from the top and bottom walls of the food compartment.

Refrigerator side-by-side door seal assembly

A refrigerator door tray assembly includes a refrigerator door with an inner liner having a cavity defined by a rear wall and two forwardly projecting supporting side walls. Each of the side walls includes an inwardly projecting shoulder having an upwardly facing ledge that slopes downwardly toward the rear wall at a predetermined angle. A tray is provided for insertion into the cavity between the side walls. The tray comprises upstanding walls each having an outwardly extending arm. The arm has a downwardly facing surface that slopes downwardly at the predetermined angle such that the downwardly facing surface of the arm is adapted to at least partially engage the ledge during insertion and lie flush on the ledge once inserted into the cavity. The tray further includes laterally extending flanges adapted to engage the ends of the supporting side walls so as to cooperate with the arms and ledges to positively locate the tray in the door cavity. The flanges help to locate the bin above the shoulders in the door liner so that the tray can move downwardly into engagement with the shoulders to positively locate the tray in the cavity.

Growing community of inventors

Coquitlam, Canada

Les A Jeziorowski