Sealing retainer

A retainer for use in assembling a refrigerator door and the like wherein the door is adapted to have foamed insulative material formed in situ on the interior of the door, the door being constructed in a manner which includes an exterior shell and an interior pan, the retainer being arranged to couple the shell and pan together, the retainer having opposed interior slots and the shell having an interior facing edge adapted to be engaged in one of the slots while the pan having an exterior edge adapted to be engaged in the other of the slots, said retainer comprising:

• a. An elongate extruded member of uniform cross section and having pairs of flanges extending in opposite directions, each pair being spaced apart to provide a slot therebetween whereby there are two slots opening in opposite directions;
• b. Each flange pair having juxtaposed spaced apart surfaces comprising said slots, the pan and shell of the refrigerator door adapted to be respectively inserted in oppositely opening slots to generally form and combine the insulative material chamber on the interior of the door when so assembled;
• c. Said retainer having flexible fins formed on at least one of said spaced apart surfaces of each slot and extending across said slot whereby said fins will be engaged by the pan and shell as the said edges are inserted into the respective slots to enable the formation of a seal for preventing leaking of the foam insulative material between the flexible fins and the pan and shell when the foaming operation is carried out.