Refrigerator and manufacturing method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9429357-B2
Application number	US-201313939662-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 11, 2013
Priority date	Jul 12, 2012
Publication date	Aug 30, 2016
Grant date	Aug 30, 2016

Abstract

A refrigerator and a manufacturing method thereof including processes of separately manufacturing partitions dividing a storage space into a plurality of storage chambers from a main body including an inner casing and an outer casing, coupling the partitions to an inner surface of the inner casing, filling a space between the inner casing and the partitions with an insulator, and filling the partitions with the insulator by filling a space between the inner casing and the outer casing with the insulator. Since the insulator uniformly fills the partitions dividing the storage space into the plurality of storage chambers, the partitions may possess improved insulating qualities.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A refrigerator comprising a storage space having an opened front portion and partitions coupled to an inner surface of the storage space to divide the storage space into a plurality of storage chambers, the refrigerator further comprising:
an inner casing having the storage space defined thereby, and including a plurality of side walls, a rear wall and a bottom wall respectively formed with coupling recesses to which the partitions are coupled to;
an outer casing coupled to the inner casing to define an appearance of the refrigerator; and
an insulator disposed in a space between the inner casing and the outer casing,
wherein
the partitions include a first partition horizontally coupled to the plurality of side walls and the rear wall of the inner casing to divide the storage space into an upper storage chamber and a lower storage chamber, and a second partition vertically coupled to a bottom surface of the first partition and the bottom wall of the inner casing to divide the lower storage chamber into a left chamber and a right chamber,
the insulator fills the first partition and fills the second partition,
the second partition is connected with the first partition such that the insulator in the first partition flows into the second partition,
the first partition includes a lower plate, an upper plate coupled to the lower plate, an insulating body disposed between the lower plate and the upper plate, and a reinforcing frame coupled between the lower plate and the upper plate to reinforce the first partition,
the reinforcing frame includes a front portion and side portions which respectively extend from opposite ends of the front portion in a front to rear direction,
the front portion is coupled to a front side of the first partition and the side portions are respectively coupled to opposite sides of the first partition,
the insulating body includes cut-out portions provided on opposite sides thereof, so as to provide a space to accommodate respective side portions of the reinforcing frame between the upper plate and the lower plate, and
the insulator is provided between the cut-out portions of the insulating body and the respective side portions of the reinforcing frame.

2. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the coupling recesses include a first coupling recess formed at the plurality of side walls, a second coupling recess formed at the rear wall, and a third coupling recess formed at the bottom wall of the inner casing, and
the first coupling recess and the second coupling recess have a length corresponding to a horizontal length of the plurality of side walls and the rear wall of the inner casing, respectively, and the third coupling recess has a length corresponding to a horizontal length of a portion of the bottom wall of the inner casing other than a portion occupied by a machine room cover.

3. The refrigerator according to claim 2 , wherein the first partition includes a plurality of side surfaces which are slanted in a substantially inverted-trapezoidal shape, and
the first coupling recess has a shape corresponding to the shape of the plurality of side surfaces of the first partition.

4. The refrigerator according to claim 3 , wherein the first partition includes a rear surface which extends vertically, the second partition includes a bottom surface which extends horizontally, and the second coupling recess and the third coupling recess have a shape corresponding to the shape of the rear surface of the first partition and the bottom surface of the second partition, respectively.

5. The refrigerator according to claim 2 , wherein the first coupling recess, the second coupling recess and the third coupling recess are formed with second filling holes, and
a space formed between the first, second and third coupling recesses and the first partition is filled with the insulator.

6. The refrigerator according to claim 1 , wherein the lower plate is provided with a coupling part to which the second partition is coupled, and the coupling part is formed with communication holes to communicate with the second partition, and
the insulator in the first partition is continuously connected through the communication holes with the insulator in the second partition.

7. The refrigerator according to claim 6 , wherein the insulating body is formed with guide paths at a bottom surface thereof, and
the guide paths include a first guide path and second guide paths,
the first guide path and the second guide paths are channels in which the insulator is disposed, and other portions of the insulator body are formed of a prefabricated insulator,
wherein the first guide path is disposed to correspond to a location of the communication holes of the coupling part,
the second guide paths are disposed to correspond to supplementary filling holes formed at the plurality of side surfaces of the front portion of the insulating body.

8. The refrigerator according to claim 7 , wherein the first partition is formed with an opening at the rear surface thereof, and
the opening communicates with the guide paths such that insulator in the opening of the first partition is continuously connected with insulator in the guide paths.

9. The refrigerator according to claim 8 , wherein the second coupling recess formed at the inner casing is formed with first filling holes, and
the first filling holes communicate with the first partition such that insulator in the first filling holes is continuously connected with insulator in the first partition.

10. The refrigerator according to claim 6 , wherein the second partition includes a left plate, a right plate coupled to the left plate, a hot pipe support part coupled between the left plate and the right plate to support a hot pipe and maintain a gap between the left plate and the right plate, and a cover coupled to a front surface of the hot pipe support part.

11. The refrigerator according to claim 10 , wherein the second partition is formed with an opening at a top surface thereof, and
the opening of the second partition communicates with the communication holes so that the insulator in the first partition is continuously connected through the communication holes and the opening of the second partition with the insulator in the second partition.

12. The refrigerator according to claim 11 , wherein the left plate and the right plate are adhered to each other by the insulator filled in a space between the left plate and the right plate.

13. A refrigerator comprising a main body, a storage space formed in the main body and having an opened front portion, and partitions coupled to an inner surface of the storage space to divide the storage space into a plurality of storage chambers,
wherein the partitions include a first partition horizontally coupled to the storage space to divide the storage space into an upper storage chamber and a lower storage chamber, and a second partition vertically coupled to a bottom surface of the first partition and a bottom surface of the storage space to divide the lower storage chamber into a left chamber and a right chamber, and
the first and second partitions are configured to be filled with an insulator so that when the first partition is filled with the insulator, a portion of the insulator in the first partition flows to the second partition to fill the second partition with the insulator,
wherein the second partition is configured to receive the insulator via the first partition so that an inner space of the second partition is filled between a bottom surface of the second partition and an upper portion of the second partition with the insulator receive

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Cha Kwang Hyuk
• Park Ho Sang
• Yun Kwon Chul

Classifications

• F25D2400/06

  Refrigerators with a vertical mullion · CPC title

• Y10T29/49357

  Regenerator or recuperator making · CPC title

• F25D23/00

  General constructional features (F25D21/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• F25D25/02

  by shelves · CPC title

• F25D23/063 Primary

  formed by an assembly of panels · CPC title