General Electric Company

Phillip D Baker

Claude L Blake

Bruce L Ruark

Jerry C Martin

Duane Jubenville

Joseph Murphy Miller

Michael Joseph McCauley

John Joseph Domagala

Gerald Lee Mitchell

Michael Stephen Csernik

Gordon Turner Walker

Charles William Nelson

Mark Walter Steiner

Dennis Paul Matz

John T Ulmer

A refreshment center having a modular construction and including a mini door and a frame is described. The mini door is fabricated and assembled separate from the frame, and the mini door includes a hinge system and a trigger. The mini door provides quick and convenient access to the refreshment center by being simple and easy to open and close. The frame, in an exemplary embodiment, is a one piece plastic molded part which serves as the main structural member of the assembly. The frame includes first and second spaced apart planar members, and further includes a keeper slot and a keeper for being inserted within the slot. The keeper extends from the slot and at least partially through a keeper slot in the door trim. The frame further includes a switch cavity for housing at least a portion of a switch assembly. A switch bracket is provided to be secured over the switch cavity and is engaged to the frame by a screw. The mini door is secured to the frame by a hinge system which includes a hinge arm which extends between, and is secured to, the mini door and the frame. More specifically, at the frame, the hinge arm is secured to a slide located between the frame first and second planar members. Hinge pins are secured to the mini door outer door member and extend from the outer door member and through the bushings of pivot slides. The pivot slides are secured to the frame by retainers, and springs are provided to maintain the pivot slides in position within the retainer. The switch assembly includes a switch having a switch actuator arm. Wires extend from the switch to a harness which mates with a receptacle. The receptacle is in electric circuit with a light in the fresh food compartment. The light used to illuminate the refreshment center can be one of the existing lights used in current side-by-side refrigerators since the inner cover is transparent.

Modular refreshment center for refrigerator fresh food compartment

A modular storage drawer assembly includes a molded drawer having bottom, side and rear walls and a front wall which is only partly as high as the side walls. A molded front module includes a rectangular frame. The drawer and frame include mating projections and openings to attach the frame to the drawer. The frame has a central opening and a panel is positioned over the opening. The frame and panel have interfitting edges and the panel includes a rib which protects the junction between the edges. The panel includes ventilation openings and a slide control member is mounted to selectively expose or close the openings.

Modular storage drawer assembly for use in a refrigerator

A refrigerator storage drawer system includes a drawer having side walls with upper ledges terminating in downwardly projecting lips. Spaced apart support structures support the lips for sliding movement of the drawer. Each support includes a pair of slide type support bearings spaced apart along the support. The bearings on one side of the drawer closely interfit with the drawer to provide smooth, non-binding operation of the drawer. The bearings on the other side of the drawer provide wide slide bearing surfaces which accommodate tolerance build-up in the system. An additional bearing is positioned on the support structure above the drawer ledge, forward of the rear one of the support bearings and engages the drawer ledge if the drawer tends to tilt downwardly as it is pulled out of the refrigerator.

Refrigerator storage compartment with slide bearing system

Growing community of inventors

Morgantown, NC, United States of America

Phillip D Baker