Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a hinge assembly suitable for a door of a refrig erating compartment, in particular a chiller cabinet.

Background

Vertical doors of refrigerating compartment are often provided with means for ensuring that the door will be closed after it has been opened by e.g. a cus tomer, mainly for saving of energy by preventing the warmer air from the sur roundings to enter into the inner of the refrigerating compartment, which air also often has a higher absolute humidity, which may cause deposition of fro zen water on the evaporator inside the refrigerating compartment. Different means has been applied to prevent a hard impact between the door and the frame of the refrigerating compartment, in particular when the door is forced to wards the closed position.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved hinge assembly, with optimized means to prevent a hard impact between the door and the frame of the refrigerating compartment.

Brief description of the invention

The present invention relates to a hinge assembly for a door arranged to facili tate opening and closing said door when attached to a refrigerating compart ment, wherein the hinge assembly comprises a hinge pin of a substantially elongated shape, arranged to be fixed to the door at one end and having a pin connector part at an opposite second end, wherein a first axis comprises said longitudinal centre-axis of said hinge pin, a rotation damper arranged to be fixed to a frame part of the refrig erating compartment, wherein the rotation damper is connected to a damper connector part arranged to cooperate with the pin connector part for transfer ring torque around a second axis of rotation between the damper connector part and the pin connector part throughout an opening angle of the door, such that a rotational movement of said damper connector part about said second axis of rotation in at least a first rotational direction is dampened by said rota tion damper, wherein the pin connector part and the damper connection part are arranged to allow an initial closing angle of rotation of the door before the damper acts on the rotation of the hinge pin, the initial closing angle being at least 2°, such as in the range of 3° to 20°, more preferably in the range of 4° to 8°, and the initial closing angle being an angle of rotation of the door towards a closed position thereof immediately after an opening rotation of the door in the opposite direction of rotation.

By providing the connection between the door and the damper, i.e. the pin con nector part and the damper connector part in a manner that allows a certain mutual closing rotation of the door before the damper will act on the rotation, a simple arrangement may be provided. One solution is exemplified below with reference to the drawings, another possible solution could include an elliptic connector part in an elliptic opening of larger dimensions and yet other solu tions could be envisaged by the skilled person.

A preferred connection between the door and the damper is provided wherein one of the pin connector part and the damper connector part comprises one or more protrusions extending radially in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal centre-axis of said connector part, and wherein the other of the pin connector part and the damper con nector part comprises one or more recesses in one or more walls thereon, wherein each protrusion is positioned within one of the recesses(s) during any axial movement and rotational movement of said hinge assembly, the protru sion^) are arranged to engage with the wall(s) of the connector part upon rota tional movement of said hinge pin such that the connector part is forced into a rotational movement about said second axis of rotation, and wherein the radial width of the protrusion(s), i.e. the extent of the protrusion(s) in the radial direction, is smaller than the radial width of the corre sponding recesses(s), thereby allowing for the initial closing angle of the door. The difference in radial width of the protrusions and the recesses amount to a difference in angular extent of the protrusions and of the recesses, and that dif ference is equal to the initial closing angle of the door.

According to a further preferred embodiment of the hinge assembly the pin con nector part is arranged with said damper connector part so as to allow a tilting of the hinge pin independently of the damper connector part without the tilting causing a torque between the pin connector part and the damper connector part, wherein said tilting may amount to an angle between said first axis of the hinge pin and said second axis of rotation of the damper connector part of at least 5°, preferably at least 8°.

In a particular embodiment, one of the pin connector part and the damper con nection part comprises one or more walls surrounding the other of the pin con nector part and the damper connector part, wherein a tilting space is concentri cally provided between the pin connector part and the damper connector part, wherein the tilting space allows for tilting of said hinge pin independent of said damper connector part.

It is further preferred that the hinge assembly comprises a self-closing mecha nism comprising a first sloping surface arranged to rotate with the door and a second sloping surface directed towards said first sloping surface and arranged to be stationary with respect to the refrigerating compartment, wherein the first and the second sloping surfaces are arranged to be in abutment such that a ro tational movement of the door relative to refrigerating compartment provides an axial displacement of the door relatively to the refrigerating compartment in the vertical direction.

In particular, said first recesses(s) may be of a shape allowing at least axial movement of the one or more protrusions within the first recesses, provides a guiding slot in said connector part in which the one or more protrusions of the hinge pin can move, so that a rotational movement of the hinge pin in turn forces the connector part into a rotational movement about said second axis of rotation caused by an interaction between the protrusions and the one or more walls. The present invention further relates to a refrigerating compartment comprising at least one door provided with a hinge assembly as disclosed herein.

Brief description of the drawings

Aspects of the present disclosure are exemplified with reference made to the enclosed drawings of which:

Fig.1 shows a refrigerated furniture comprising a refrigerating compartment having a number of doors,

Fig. 2 shows a detail of the furniture of Fig. 1 with the lower part of a door and a hinge assembly,

Fig. 3 shows hidden details of the view in Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 shows a cross section of the hinge assembly,

Fig. 5 shows a perspective view of the hinge assembly,

Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of the lower, stationary part of the hinge as sembly,

Fig. 7 shows a perspective view of hidden details of the hinge assembly,

Figs. 8a, 8b, and 8c show a horizontal cross-sectional view of the pin connector part and the damper connection part at various mutual positions during opera tion of the door,

Fig. 9 shows the door at various positions during closing of the door, and

Figs. 10 illustrates the pin connection part tilted with respect to the damper con nection part. Detailed description

The refrigerating compartment 1 shown in Fig. 1 has a plurality of vertical doors 2 for providing access to the interior of the compartment, where cooled or fro zen goods can be stored and displayed for customers. At the bottom corner of the door 2 where it is connected to the frame part 10 of the refrigerating com partment 1 is arranged a hinge assembly 3 as shown in e.g. Figs. 2 and 3.

The hinge assembly 3 comprises a stationary hinge part 5 mounted to the frame part 10 and enclosing a rotational damper 4, which is shown in Fig. 3, and a hinge-mounting bracket 7 for mounting at the lower edge of the door 2. A damper connection part 6 is provided to transfer a rotating motion from the hinge pin 8 fixed to the hinge-mounting bracket 7 to the damper 4 and to trans fer torque between the hinge pin 8 and the damper 4.

The damper 4 is a one-way rotational damper, which is arranged for allowing undampened opening movement of the door 2 whereas the closing movement of the door 2 will, at least to a certain extent, be dampened by the damper 4.

The hinge assembly 3 is provided with a gravity-driven self-closing mechanism comprising a first sloping surface 14 arranged on the hinge mounting bracket 7 as shown in Fig. 7 which is arranged co cooperate with a second sloping sur face 15 formed in the stationary hinge part 5 as shown in Fig. 6. The first and the second sloping surfaces 14, 15 are arranged to be in abutment such that a rotational movement of the door 2 relative to the refrigerating compartment 1 provides an axial displacement of the door 2 relatively to the refrigerating com partment 1. When the door 2 is opened by e.g. a customer, it is at the same time moved upwards by the interaction between the first sloping surface 14 and the second sloping surface 15 and when the customer releases the open door 2, the self-closing mechanism will make the door 2 turn back towards the closed position the due to the force of gravity on the door 2. Thus, during the opening and closing of the door 2, it will move in an axial direction with respect to the refrigerating compartment 1. The pin connector part 9 is provided with two protrusions 11 extending radially from the pin connector part 9 into corresponding recesses 12 in a wall part 13 of the damper connection part 6, which recesses 12 extend in an axial direction of the damper connection part 9 so as to form guiding slots for the protrusions

11 when the hinge pin 8 is moved axially with respect to the damper 4 and the damper connection part 6 during rotational movement of the door 2.

The recesses 12 has a radial width Wr which is some degrees larger than the radial width Wp of the protrusions 11 which means that when the door 2 is be ing opened, the protrusions 11 are in abutment with one side of the recesses

12 as shown in Fig. 8a. When the door 2 is released in the opened position, the gravity-driven self-closing mechanism comprising the first and the second slop ing surfaces 14, 15 will reverse the direction of rotation of the door 2 towards the closed position and the pin connector part 9 with the protrusions 11 will ro tate within the recesses 12 at an angle equal to the difference between the ra dial width Wr of the recesses and the radial width Wp of the protrusions without also rotating the damper connection part 6 as shown in Fig. 8b. This angular difference Wr - Wp allows for an undampened acceleration of the rotational speed of the door 2 towards the closed position, and the angular difference may be at least 2°, such as 5° or 8°, where after the protrusions 11 come into abutting contact with the other side of the recesses 12 as shown in Fig. 8c and the rotation of the hinge pin 8 and the pin connector part 9 will rotate the damper connecter part 6 and the rotational damper 4 will start to dampen the rotational movement of the door 2 as shown in Fig. 9 until a constant rotational speed phase is reached which ends when the door 2 makes contact with the frame part 10 of the refrigerating compartment 1. The advantage of having the angular difference Wr - Wp which is the angle through which the door will ac celerate undampened is that the door 2 will close faster than it would if the damper was acting on the rotation of the door 2 from the very beginning of the closing movement of the door 2 and that the period the door 2 will remain open thereby is shortened. Thus, less hot air will enter the compartment 1 and the energy consumption of the refrigerating compartment 1 is reduced. Fig. 9 shows the various stages of the closing movement of the door 2 as seen from above, the first stage 16 being the undampened acceleration of the door 2, the second stage 17 being the dampened movement where the damper 4 adjusts the closing speed of the door 2 to the third stage 18 where the closing speed of the door 2 is constant until the door 2 makes contact with the frame 10 of the refrigerating compartment 1 and the movements stops.

The outer diameter of the pin connector part 9 is less than the inner diameter of the wall part 13 of damper connection part 6 to allow a tilting of the hinge pin 8 independently of the damper connector part 6 as shown in Fig. 10. Due to the mass of the glass door 2, which typically is made with at least two parallel glass panes is and quite heavy, the door 2 will be prone to sag, which means that the axis of rotation of the door 2 will have a tendency to be tilting with respect to the frame part 10 of the refrigerating compartment 1 , where the damper 4 and damper connection part 6 are oriented about a second axis X2 of rotation. With the present construction, it is achieved that a possible tilting of the hinge pin 8 will not cause a torque to be transferred between the pin connector part 9 and the damper connector part 6. Said tilting may amount to an angle between said first axis X1 of the hinge pin 8 and said second axis of rotation X2 of the damper connector part 6 of at least 5°, preferably at least 8°.

List of reference numerals

1 Refrigerating compartment

2 Door of refrigerated compartment 3 Hinge assembly

4 Damper

5 Stationary hinge part

6 Damper connection part 7 Hinge mounting bracket 8 Hinge pin

9 Pin connector part

10 Frame part of refrigerating compartment 11 Protrusions on pin connector part 12 Recess 13 Wall part of damper connection part

14 First sloping surface

15 Second sloping surface

16 Acceleration stage of door closing 17 Adjustment stage of door closing 18 Constant speed stage of door closing

Wp Angular extent of protrusion

Wr Angular extent of recesses X1 First axis

X2 Second axis of rotation