Sliding apparatus and refrigerator having the same

A refrigerator comprising:

• a main body;
• a plurality of storage chambers, each of which is provided with an opened front surface, provided in the main body;
• a plurality of drawer-type doors opening and closing the storage chambers in a sliding manner;
• a receiving container mounted on the rear surfaces of the drawer-type doors, received in the storage chambers, and inserted into and extracted out of the storage chambers together with the drawer-type doors in the sliding manner;
• and
• a sliding apparatus including a cover rail respectively combined with both side walls of the inside of each of the storage chambers and provided with a rack gear at the lower ends thereof, and a slide unit, each of which is provided with one side connected to each of the receiving containers and the other side slidably combined with each of the cover rails,
• a pinion gears engages with the rack gears and moving are provided on the sliding apparatus so that each of the receiving containers may slide along the cover rails, and the rack gear is removed from a section of the lower end of each of the cover rails on which the pinion gears move so that noise due to friction generated when the pinion gears are engaged with the rack gears and move is eliminated in the section from which the rack gear is removed.

A sliding apparatus to insert and extract a storage unit received in a storage chamber, the front surface of which is opened, into and out of the storage chamber in a sliding manner, comprising:

• a cover rail respectively combined with both side walls of the inside of the storage chamber in which the storage unit is received, and provided with a rack gears at the front regions of the lower ends thereof and planar parts, from which the rack gears are removed, at the rear regions of the lower ends thereof;
• a slide unit respectively combined with both side surfaces of the storage unit, and including a pinion gear moving in a state in which the pinion gear engages with the rack gears and are rotated, at the front regions of the lower ends of the cover rails and moving in a state in which the pinion gears are suspended above the planar parts, at the rear regions of the lower ends of the cover rails so as to allow the storage unit to slide;
• a connection bar connected between the pinion gears of the slide units to prevent movement of the storage unit when the storage unit is inserted into and extracted out of the storage chamber;
• and
• a reinforcing frame connected between the slide units of the storage unit to prevent warpage of the storage unit generated when the pinion gears pass through the rack gears and move above the planar parts during the sliding process of the storage unit in the forward and backward directions.

A storage apparatus comprising:

• a body;
• a storage compartment disposed within the body;
• a drawer-type door to open and close the storage compartment;
• a storage container attached to the rear of the drawer-type drawer that slidable into and out of the storage compartment with the movement of the drawer-type drawer;
• a cover rail disposed on opposing sides of the storage compartment;
• a sliding unit attached to opposing sides of the storage container to slidably interact with the cover rail;
• wherein the cover rail comprises:
• a rack gear disposed on the front portion of cover rail;
• a smooth portion disposed on the rear portion of the cover rail adjacent to the rack gear;
• wherein the sliding unit comprises:
• a plurality of slide rails that allow the draw to slide;
• a pinion gear to engage the rack gear of the cover rail and to be suspended over the smooth portion of the cover rail;
• a connection bar connecting each of the pinion gears disposed on opposing sides of the storage container;
• a reinforcement member to connect each of the opposing sliding unit to each other to prevent warping.