Refrigerator Sub-Door Hinge Wiring for Protected Cable Routing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Refrigerators face challenges in guiding multiple electric wires through the hinge shaft due to thickness restrictions, leading to exposure and potential damage when the door is opened, causing interference with other elements and operational issues.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a sub-door with a sub-hinge cover that shields both the sub-hinge and main hinge shafts, using a cover connection part to guide wires through the sub-hinge shaft and main hinge shaft internally, preventing exposure and interference, and includes a wire entrance part for additional wires, ensuring they are not exposed during door rotation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If electric wires are guided through the hinge shaft, then wires are protected from exposure and damage, but the hinge shaft inner diameter is restricted by door thickness making it impossible to guide multiple or thick wires
Solution Approach 1:
The invention divides the wire routing path into two segments: wires that can pass through the hinge shaft are guided internally for protection, while wires that cannot pass through due to space constraints are routed through a separate wire guide groove in the door body. This segmentation allows both protected routing and accommodation of multiple/thick wires.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces a wire guide groove as an intermediary structure in the door body to accommodate wires that cannot pass through the hinge shaft. This mediator structure provides an alternative protected path for wires, resolving the conflict between limited hinge shaft diameter and the need to guide multiple or thick wires.
2Ease of manufacture
If door thickness is reduced for design flexibility, then manufacturing and aesthetics improve, but the hinge shaft inner diameter becomes even more restricted preventing wire guidance
Solution Approach 1:
The invention segments the wire protection function between two structures: the hinge shaft for thin wires and the wire guide groove for thicker or multiple wires. This allows the door to be made thinner for manufacturing flexibility while still providing protected routing paths for all necessary wires through the combined system.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention adds a new spatial dimension for wire routing by creating a wire guide groove in the door body's thickness direction, separate from the hinge shaft's internal passage. This dimensional addition provides an alternative path that accommodates wires without increasing door thickness, maintaining manufacturing flexibility while ensuring wire protection.
3Ease of manufacture
If wires are routed externally without through-hinge guidance, then installation is simpler, but wires become exposed, movable, and susceptible to damage and interference
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces wire guide grooves as intermediary structures that provide a simple yet effective protected path for wires along the door body. These grooves are easier to implement than complex through-hinge routing while still providing protection against exposure, movement, and damage, achieving a balance between installation simplicity and wire integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
A refrigerator includes a cabinet, a control unit provided in the cabinet and controlling an operation of the refrigerator, a main door that opens or closes the cabinet and has an opening formed therein, a main hinge that couples the cabinet to the main door and allows the main door to be pivotably mounted, a sub-door that is formed on a front surface of the refrigerator and opens or closes the opening, a sub-hinge that couples the main door to the sub-door and allows the sub-door to be pivotably mounted, a sub-hinge cover that simultaneously shield a main hinge shaft of the main hinge and a sub-hinge shaft of the sub-hinge, and a wire disposed to extend from an inside of the sub-door, to be connected with the control unit, and to sequentially pass through the sub-hinge shaft and the main hinge shaft along an inside of the sub-hinge cover.