General Electric Company

Robert L Werkmeister

Benson T Taylor, Jr

Michael Joseph McCauley

A storage module assembly for a refrigerator door having an outer shell and an inner liner, including a rear wall and side walls forming a recess in the liner. Each side walls has a series of vertically spaced apart ribs aligned with corresponding ribs on the facing side wall. The ribs extend outwardly from the liner bottom wall and each rib has a horizontal top wall with an upwardly projecting tab adjacent its distal end. The bottom wall of each rib has a short horizontal portion adjacent the liner rear wall and an upwardly inclined portion adjacent its distal end. The module includes side walls positionable adjacent the liner side walls. A pair of vertically spaced apart, generally horizontally extending rails project outwardly of each module side wall and each rail defines a downwardly opening recess. The module is assembled to the door by sliding the module rails between vertically adjacent pairs of liner ribs until tabs are aligned with recesses and then lowering the module to insert the tabs into the recesses.

Refrigerator door module mounting assembly

An improved vacuum forming process for forming a deep drawn plastic article with a flange in an area of high forming stresses wherein a mold mounted on a base forms the shape of the article. A sheet of hot plastic material is placed over the mold and a vacuum is drawn to form the plastic sheet into the shape of the mold to form the article. The improvement is forming a character in the mold portion that forms the flange in the area of the high forming stress, said character having dimensions such that properly heated plastic sheet material will be imprinted with a predetermined clarity during the molding operation. A heated sheet of plastic material is placed over the mold and a vacuum is drawn to draw the plastic material around the mold including the mold portion that forms the flange in an area of high forming stresses. The plastic material is then solidified and removed from the mold. The flange is visually inspected to determine if the imprinted character has the predetermined clarity. If it does, the plastic material was heated to the proper temperature for the molding operation. If it does not, it means that the plastic material was not heated to the proper temperature and the area will be subjected to stress cracking and therefore the article is defective and should be discarded.

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Shepherdsville, KY, United States of America

Robert L Werkmeister