US 3,942,853 AGranted

Gasket assembly of a household refrigerator

AssigneeGeneral Electric Company

InventorsBernard J. Grimm, Stephen G. Boughton

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Abstract

A gasket assembly for side-by-side doors of a household refrigerator-freezer has first and second cooperating gasket elements. Each gasket element is connected to a respective door of the refrigerator-freezer. Each gasket element has a magnet in a magnet chamber for sealing the doors one to the other and a longitudinally extending insulating chamber for contacting the refrigerator mullion and forming a seal between the respective door and the mullion, as is known in the art. The improved construction of this invention has a pair of elongated flanges, each connected to a respective insulating chamber. The flanges each extend from their respective gasket element toward the other gasket element in the closed position of the doors. Where a mullion is present, the flanges are each urged into contact with the mullion by their associated magnet for forming an improved seal. In the absence of a mullion, the flanges contact one another for sealing one gasket element to the other. The gasket elements each have a second longitudinally extending insulating chamber contacting the inner surface of the respective door for forming an improved, insulated seal.

Claims6

Dependent claims

In an improved gasket assembly for adjacent doors of a household refrigerator-freezer, said gasket assembly having first and second gasket elements each associated with a respective door, each gasket element having a longitudinally extending insulating chamber, a magnet chamber, a magnet positioned in the magnet chamber, means connecting each magnet chamber to its respective insulating chamber, and means connecting each gasket element to its respective door, said magnets being opposed one to the other and each of said magnet chamber connecting means being of a length sufficient for contacting the magnet chambers one with the other in the installed position on closed doors, the improvement comprising:

a pair of second longitudinally extending insulating chambers each having first and second sides and being connected along the first side to the insulating chamber of a respective gasket element with the second side being in contact with an inner surface of the respective door in the installed position on the door, said insulating chambers extending across an inner side of their respective magnet chamber for separating the magnet chambers from the refrigerator food compartments;
and
a pair of flanges each connected to a respective insulating chamber and extending outwardly therefrom, said flanges each being of a length sufficient for extending behind their respective magnet chamber and contacting one another in the installed position on closed doors.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.