Refrigerator appliance ice storage bin retention

A refrigeration appliance, comprising:

• a storage compartment for storing food items in a cooled environment;
• an ice maker assembly disposed within the storage compartment for freezing water into ice pieces, the ice maker assembly comprising:
• an ice maker housing having an internal cavity;
• an ice bin for storing the ice pieces produced by an ice making apparatus, the ice bin being linearly removable from the internal cavity along a longitudinal central axis of the internal cavity;
• and
• a latch assembly configured to aid in retaining the ice bin in the ice maker housing, the latch assembly including a tang that is flexible at its base, and a linearly extending receiver configured to deflect the tang out of a latched orientation thereof,
• wherein upon linear insertion or removal of the ice bin relative to the internal cavity, the receiver is configured to transfer a respective linear pushing force or linear pulling force of a user acting on the ice bin into a deflection of a distal end of the tang over the receiver, to thereby cause respective coupling or decoupling of the latch assembly,
• wherein a pair of angled mating elements includes the tang and the receiver, wherein the tang includes a longitudinally extending arm and a distal snap extending from said arm, wherein at least one distal rib extends from said distal snap, wherein the receiver includes a pair of opposed receiver angled surfaces, including a receiver lead surface and a receiver engagement surface, with a receiver intermediate surface therebetween, wherein during assembly of the latch assembly into the ice bin, the at least one distal rib and the receiver lead surface are configured to engage one another first, and
• wherein the receiver further includes a resting surface adjacent to the receiver engagement surface, wherein the resting surface is configured to abut a tang intermediate surface that extends between a pair of opposed tang angled surfaces when the latch assembly is in a fully engaged orientation.

An ice maker arrangeable within a storage compartment of a refrigeration appliance, the ice maker for freezing water into ice pieces, and the ice maker, comprising:

• an ice maker housing;
• an ice making apparatus disposed within the ice maker housing and configured to make the ice pieces;
• and
• an ice bin selectively receivable into and removable from the ice maker housing in a horizontal direction,
• wherein one of the ice bin or the ice maker housing includes a longitudinally extending tang and the other of the ice bin and the ice maker includes a laterally extending receiver,
• wherein the tang and the receiver are selectively engageable with one another to restrict unintended withdrawal of the ice bin from the ice maker housing,
• wherein the tang includes a longitudinally extending arm and a distal snap extending from said arm, wherein at least one distal rib extends from said distal snap, wherein the receiver includes a pair of opposed receiver angled surfaces, including a receiver lead surface and a receiver engagement surface, with a receiver intermediate surface therebetween, wherein during assembly of the ice bin and the ice maker housing, the at least one distal rib and the receiver lead surface are configured to engage one another first,
• wherein the tang further includes a pair of opposed tang angled surfaces, wherein the pair of opposed tang angled surfaces extend transverse to one another and the pair of opposed receiver angled surfaces extend transverse to one another,
• wherein the tang angled surfaces and the receiver angled surfaces are jointly configured to enable both sliding engagement and sliding removal of the tang and the receiver relative to one another upon linear translation of the ice bin relative to the ice maker housing, and
• wherein the receiver further includes a resting surface adjacent to the receiver engagement surface, wherein the resting surface is configured to abut a tang intermediate surface that extends between the pair of opposed tang angled surfaces when the tang and the receiver are in a fully engaged orientation.