Camco Inc.

Nedo Banicevic

Muc Dang

Murray Klaas

Arnold Estravillo

Les A Jeziorowski

Samir Atalla

Richard Adamczyk

Edward George Simmons

James Matthew Yates

Wilfred Wong

There is disclosed a support tube for use in supporting a refrigerant tube within the insulation of a refrigerator cabinet. The support tube is mounted at it's lower end by a shoulder to extend through an exit opening in the bottom wall of the shell from the compressor motor housing up through a cavity space between the rear walls of the inner liner and the outer cabinet shell and into an insulation block. The insulation block has a passageway that faces downwardly, vertically into the cavity and curves gently to a refrigerant suction tube access opening in the inner liner. This opening and a corresponding opening in the tube have an elliptical shape which together with the gentle curvature of the tube permits for the easy insertion of the refrigerant tube in through the liner access opening, through the tube, and into the compressor motor. The use of the tube permits for field servicing of the refrigerant tube, positively locates the refrigerant tube in the rear cavity thereby reducing the risk of sweating associated with the refrigerant tube being shifted close to the rear walls during foaming and eliminates an unsightly and spatial encumbering refrigerant tube protruding beyond the rear wall of the outer shell of the refrigerator cabinet.

Refrigerator cabinet refrigerant tube assembly

A refrigerator door has reinforcing corner brackets that structurally complete the corners of the door. The corner brackets are located at the door corners adjacent vertical and horizontal side walls of the outer door skin of the door. At least one reinforcing member such as a sheet or rectangular collar, for example, or preferably reinforcing cross brace members are connected to the corner brackets. To achieve this connection and restrict heat transfer through the door and or adjacent the inner liner or in-turned flange of the outer door skin, the corner brackets have connecting tab portions that extend into the cavity of the door away from one of the side walls of the door and spaced from the other side wall of the door. The connecting tab portion is also spaced from the outer skin sheet and the inner door liner. As a result, the reinforcing member or members extend substantially across the width of the door spaced from the outer door skin wall and the inner door liner and are connected to the connecting bracket which is connected in heat transfer relation with side walls, horizontal or vertical, of the door. This reduces heat losses from the refrigerator cabinet conducted through the reinforcing member or members of the door.

Thermal and reinforced refrigerator door

A refrigerator with a pull out drawer has plastic cabinet and drawer liners and a closed reinforcing assembly mounted within the drawer and cabinet for supporting loads carried by the drawer. The assembly has a reinforcing brace secured within the drawer having two spaced apart wing members and a cross member connected to and extending between the wing members adjacent an inside surface of the inner liner. The assembly has a pair of telescopically extendable guide rails each mounted to one of the opposing liner side walls of the cabinet and the through the liner of the drawer to support the drawer for relative movement with the cabinet. The cabinet has a pair of reinforcing bracket members located therein each having a side reinforcing portion extending adjacent a corresponding one of the guide rails and mounted to the liner side wall by fasteners passing through the guide rails and liner side walls. The reinforcing bracket members each having a rear wall portion extending orthogonal from the respective side reinforcing portions adjacent to and in contact with the rear wall of the interior liner secured to each other to form a continuous arm to interconnect and reinforce the side reinforcing portions. The closed reinforcing assembly comprising the reinforcing brackets, the guide rails and the reinforcing brace provide a closed loop rectangular reinforcing structure for loads carried by the guide rails and drawer.

Reinforced refrigerator cabinet closing drawer

A hollow full grip gas assist appliance handle for use in a household refrigerator has a hollow full grip portion comprising a thermal plastic material that is a 10-40% glass filled homopolymer polypropylene. The distal ends of the hollow grip portion are solid thermoplastic material which encases a metal insert that is adapted to be secured to a side panel of the refrigerator door. The hollow appliance handle provides a solid feel or touch handle along it's full grip portion with solid distal end portions subject to little bending movement due to the metal inserts permitting the door handle to be firmly attached to the side panels of the refrigerator door.

Hollow appliance handle

A refrigerator door has reinforcing corner brackets that structurally complete the comers of the door. The corner brackets are located at the door corners adjacent vertical and horizontal side walls of the outer door skin of the door. At least one reinforcing member such as a sheet or rectangular collar, or preferably reinforcing cross brace members are connected to the corner brackets. To achieve this connection and restrict heat transfer through the door and or adjacent the inner liner or in-turned flange of the outer door skin, the corner brackets have connecting tab portions that extend into the cavity of the door away from one of the side walls of the door and spaced from the other side wall of the door. The connecting tab portion is also spaced from the outer skin sheet and the inner door liner. As a result, the reinforcing member or members extend substantially across the width of the door spaced from the outer door skin wall and the inner door liner and are connected to the connecting bracket which is connected in heat transfer relation with side walls, horizontal or vertical, of the door. This reduces heat losses from the refrigerator cabinet conducted through the reinforcing member or members of the door.

A mullion assembly for a refrigerator cabinet has a pair of adjacent edge wall insulating gasket members extending toward the open side of the cabinet. The edge wall members each have a forward surface extending flush to the open side for supporting a portion of a door sealing gasket and a recessed channel extending rearwardly of the open side. One of the edge wall members has a locating flange member with an edge portion extending toward the other one of the edge wall members. A metallic mullion bar extends between the pair of edge wall members and has a flat wall portion against which seals another portion of the door sealing gasket carrying a magnet. The mullion bar has rearwardly extending flanges extending into and supported by a respective one of the recessed channels of the edge wall members. A block of fiberglass insulation is mounted rearwardly of the metallic mullion bar within the space between the interior cavities. The insulation member is held in engagement by and between the pair of edge wall members by the locating flange member edge portion urging the insulation member against the other edge wall member. This assembly has reduced thermal transfer from outside ambient to the interior cavity of the cabinet through the metallic mullion bar.

Refrigerator mullion

The present invention relates to a door for a refrigerator appliance having reinforcing corner brackets that structurally complete the corners of the door. The corner brackets are located at the door corners of the vertical and horizontal side walls of the outer door skin. The brackets structurally replace and reinforce the horizontal side wall immediately adjacent the vertical side wall with a thicker, stronger material, such as, metal or steel, so that loading normally transferred to the outer door skin through the horizontal side wall at this corner location is instead transferred directly to the brackets mounted in the door. The horizontal side wall at the corner adjacent the vertical side wall has a cut-out or an open section. The brackets each have an opening positioned at the cut-out section. The opening is adapted to receive a hinge pin or closure cap. The door has an elongate supporting strut in the form of a hollow cylindrical tube engaging the brackets to reinforce the corners. The strut extends adjacent the one vertical side wall for supporting the corner brackets within the door to reinforce the door. Reinforcement brackets and tubes are located on each side of the door.

Refrigerator door corner construction

A refrigerator cabinet has an exterior cabinet shell and a plastic liner insert defining a fresh food compartment and a freezer compartment where foamed in place insulation extends between the exterior cabinet shell and the interior liner. The liner has a partition with upper and lower walls extending rearwardly of a front mullion wall and between sidewalls of the liner. The upper sidewall has a cut-out recess adapted to receive an evaporator tray housing that is seated on edges of the upper wall of the partition. The tray supports an evaporator coil, motor, and fan. The tray has a cover that forms, together with the upper wall of the partition, the floor of the freezer compartment. By locating the evaporator tray recessed in the partition, in the partition space between the two compartments can be filled with rigid foam that extends between the upper and lower food compartments and to the exterior shell of the cabinet.

Refrigerator evaporator housing

A refrigerator damper control and lighting assembly is mounted to a top wall of a fresh food compartment. The housing includes dials which are accessible from the front of the housing to a user to control thermostat and to control a damper located on a rear wall of the refrigerator. The dial controlling the damper has a post onto which a connecting arm to the damper interconnects the damper with the dial so that rotation of the dial effectively operates the control of the damper. The dial has a peripheral flange that extends around only a portion of the circumference of the dial and is adapted to contact opposing sides of the connecting arm to thereby limit rotational movement of the dial and which in-turn limits opening and closing movement of the damper depending on direction of rotational movement of the dial. Further, the housing includes a recessed lamp receiving section which is provided with direct line of sight to the dials so as to allow for light to be directed rearwardly or towards the front of the housing to illuminate the dials while at the same time projecting light into the fresh food compartment.

Refrigerator damper control and lighting assembly housing

A refrigerator door has an outer door panel having an outer skin with rearwardly extending peripheral vertical and horizontal side walls. Four corners are located between adjacent horizontal and vertical side walls. An inner door liner is secured to the outer door panel to define a cavity between the inner liner and the sheet. Cut-out sections are formed in the horizontal side walls adjacent the corners to define exposed edges extending along the vertical side wall, the horizontal side wall and outer skin of the door. A reinforcing corner bracket is positioned within the cavity adjacent each cut-out section assuming normal loading forces associated with the door. Epaulet covers extend over the cut-out sections and the exposed edges. The epaulet covers each have a flange depending therefrom and adapted to overlay an outside surface portion of the outer door skin and the vertical side wall. The epaulet covers have a plurality of ribs extending therefrom adjacent the flange for engaging the inside of the outer door skin and the vertical side wall. The epaulet cover has fasteners comprising an extension and hook shaped end that pass through slotted apertures in the corner bracket permitting the hook shaped surface to engage a rear side of the corner bracket. The slotted apertures are sized larger than the fasteners to permit lateral movement of each epaulet cover relative to its corresponding corner bracket as the epaulet cover is secured over the at least one exposed edge.

Refrigerator door epaulet

A refrigerator door for use in a refrigerator appliance has an outer door panel, an inner door liner, a metal reinforcing collar and a paper sheet. The collar has a generally rectangular frame that extends over a peripheral border of a central portion of the door liner. The collar also includes sidewall flanges which extend rearwardly from the frame around a corner at the peripheral border of the central liner portion and over an inner wall of a dyke sidewall of the liner. The collar provides localized support for shelves carried by the door liner and improves door rigidity. The sheet of paper extends across an opening in the middle of the frame of the collar to further improve door rigidity.

Refrigerator door construction

A refrigerator cabinet construction is disclosed where a breaker strip interconnects an exterior cabinet shell with an interior liner. The exterior cabinet shell has an open side and a shell edge flange. The interior liner is to fit within the exterior cabinet shell and has a liner flange extending outwardly of said liner. The breaker strip includes an exterior wall with first and second ended flanges. The breaker strip includes a first interior wall and a second interior wall projecting inwardly from said exterior wall to define a first channel. The first interior wall has a first flange co-extending with the first end flange of the exterior wall to define a shell receiving channel, wherein the shell edge flange is inserted into the shell receiving channel. A third interior wall is connected to second exterior wall and coextends with the second end flange of the exterior wall to define a liner receiving channel into which the liner flange extends. The third interior wall is joined through a hinge to a hinged flange adapted to pivot about the hinge and engage the liner flange and the liner during foaming to locate the liner flange in the liner receiving channel against the second end flange of the exterior wall. A magnetic strip is disposed in the first channel. The use of the hinged flange part of the breaker strip provides the advantage of having the breaker strip secure the outer shell relative to the liner while at the same time thermally insulating the outer casing shell from the inner liner.

Refrigerator cabinet breaker assembly

A refrigerator cabinet has an outer metallic shell into which is inserted a one-piece plastic interior liner having a fresh food compartment separated by a mullion wall from the freezer compartment. The mullion wall is part of the interior liner. A metallic reinforcing mullion strap extends between side walls of the exterior cabinet shell to reinforce the side walls and prevent buckling. The mullion strap extends through an open space between the fresh food compartment and freezer compartment on the interior liner. The mullion strap does not touch the interior liner and is surrounded by thermally insulating foam whereby heat loss through the mullion strap from the refrigerator compartment is reduced. Further, the mullion wall of the interior liner is covered by a plastic mullion cap which protects the mullion wall of the interior liner from stresses associated with door closure and includes a decorative mullion cover in which a heater is provided to compensate for sweating associate with heat loss through the mullion cap to ambient. By using a plastic mullion cap, heat loss is significantly less than using a metal mullion bar directly exposed to ambient.

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.

Growing community of inventors

Hamilton, Canada

Nedo Banicevic