Refrigerator door having multiple stop positions
AssigneeDongbu Daewoo Electronics Corporation
InventorJae Uk LEE
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A refrigerator and a method of removing a stored item from the refrigerator. A hinge device couples the refrigerator door to the refrigerator main frame and can control the door to be opened in a multiple stepwise manner. The hinge device includes a compressive member and a hinge bracket having a protruding portion. When the door is pulled by a user to rotate to a first rotation angle, the compressible member comes into contact with the protruding portion of the hinge bracket and thereby blocks further motion thereof. At the first rotation angle, if the user applies additional rotational force on the door, the compressible member can be compressed such that it releases the protruding portion for further motion, thereby allowing the door to be opened to a wider angle.
Claims19
A refrigerator comprising:
- a refrigerator main body comprising one or more storage chambers therein;
- a door hingedly coupled to the refrigerator main body;
- and
- a hinge device coupling the door to the refrigerator main body and configured to cause the door to open through multiple open positions.
A refrigerator comprising:
- a refrigerator main body comprising one or more storage chambers therein;
- a door hingedly coupled to the refrigerator main body;
- a hinge device coupling the door to the refrigerator main body and configured to cause the door to open through an intermediate open position that requires additional opening force to pass through to a fully open position;
- and
- a liner that restrict flow of cold air from the storage chambers when the door is in the intermediate open position.
A method of using a refrigerator, the method comprising:
- applying a rotational force on a free edge of a refrigerator door that is in a closed state with respect to a main frame of the refrigerator, wherein the refrigerator door is coupled to the main frame via a hinge device operable to cause the refrigerator door to automatically stop at a stop position under the rotational force;
- with the refrigerator door at the first stop position, removing an item stored in a compartment adjacent to the free edge from the refrigerator;
- and
- applying an additional rotational force on the free edge to further open the refrigerator door.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.