Side support assembly within a refrigerator appliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
The assembly process of side supports in refrigerator appliances is laborious and requires multiple screws and screw anchors, making it inefficient and cumbersome.
Innovation Solution
A refrigerator appliance design featuring a side support with hooks and locators that align with cutouts and slots in the inner liner, allowing for easy assembly without screws or screw anchors, by sliding and aligning the side support within the cooled chamber.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple screws and screw anchors are used to securely fasten side support, then the structural integrity and reliability of side support is improved, but the assembly process becomes laborious and device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates multiple fastening functions into a single side support component. The side support incorporates both hooks for engaging with cutouts and locators for engaging with locating slots, combining what would traditionally require separate screws and anchors into one integrated piece that provides both attachment mechanisms simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts and eliminates unnecessary fastening components (screws and screw anchors) by designing the side support with built-in hooks and locators that directly engage with the inner liner features. This removes the need for separate fastening parts while maintaining secure attachment.
2Reliability
If multiple screws and screw anchors are used to fasten side support, then the reliability of side support installation is improved, but the assembly time and productivity are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The side support is pre-configured with hooks and locators in their correct positions and orientations before installation. The hooks are pre-aligned to engage with cutouts and locators are pre-positioned to engage with locating slots, eliminating the need for alignment adjustments during assembly and enabling rapid installation.
Solution Approach 2:
The side support performs its own fastening function through its integrated hooks and locators that automatically engage with the inner liner features when installed. The design enables the component to secure itself without requiring separate fastening operations or additional parts.
3Stability of the object's composition
If multiple screws and screw anchors are used for side support assembly, then the structural stability is improved, but the ease of manufacture and assembly is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The side support is designed as a modular component with distinct functional elements (hooks and locators) that are integrated into a single manufacturable piece. This segmentation of functions within a unified structure allows for stable assembly while simplifying manufacturing compared to assembling multiple separate fastening components.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of assembling a refrigerator appliance includes sliding, approximately in the transverse direction, an inner side of a side support along an inner wall of an inner liner, and aligning, in the transverse direction and the vertical direction, each of a plurality of hooks of the side support with a respective cutout of a plurality of cutouts of the inner liner and a plurality of locators of the side support with a plurality of locating slots of the inner liner.