Refrigerator Door Hinge Stop to Prevent Hidden-Hinge Impact Damage
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing refrigeration devices, such as refrigerators and freezers, face the risk of damage to the door or carcass when the door is opened, as the side edge of the door can collide with the front of the carcass, particularly when the door hinge is hidden behind a panel, leading to potential bending or breaking of parts.
Innovation Solution
The door bearing pin extends through a hole in the delimiting body, allowing the force from the stop projection to be absorbed by the door bearing pin, preventing damage by distributing the force internally, and a non-rotatable connection between the delimiting body and the door is maintained, with a lever arm design that minimizes stress on the door, and the contact surface's normal and radius span an angle of no more than 30° to effectively absorb forces without damaging the door.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If the door hinge fitting is hidden behind a panel for aesthetic reasons, then the appearance is improved, but the risk of damage to the door or body increases due to contact between the door side edge and the body front
Solution Approach 1:
A delimiting body (abgrenzender Körper) is introduced as an intermediary element between the door and the body. This delimiting body extends in the depth direction and has a stop projection that prevents the door from rotating too far, thereby avoiding contact between the door side edge and the body front while maintaining the hidden hinge design for aesthetic purposes.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If a stop projection is added to prevent door-body contact, then damage risk is reduced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The delimiting body with the stop projection is merged with the existing hinge fitting structure. The stop projection is integrated into the delimiting body that is already part of the hinge assembly, so the protective function is added without significantly increasing the number of separate components or complicating the overall hinge mechanism.
3Strength
If the door bearing pin extends through the delimiting body, then force distribution is improved and damage is prevented, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hinge fitting is segmented into distinct functional parts: the fitting part mounted on the body, the delimiting body extending in the depth direction, and the door bearing pin that extends through the delimiting body. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured separately with optimized geometry and then assembled, making the through-extension of the bearing pin feasible without excessive manufacturing complexity.
Data Source
Figure 1~6
Figure 3~5
AI summary
The invention relates to a refrigerating appliance comprising a body (1), a mounting part (3) that is fixed to the body (1) and carries a door bearing journal (11), and a door (2) that can be pivoted about the door bearing journal (11). The mounting part (3) carries an abutment projection (9). In an open abutted position of the door (2), a limiting body (13) mounted on the door (2) in a rotatably fixed manner butts up to the abutment projection (9).