Upper hinge assembly for refrigerator door
AssigneeMaytag Corporation
InventorDouglas A. Pohl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An upper hinge assembly for pivotally mounting a door to a refrigerator cabinet includes an aligning plate fixedly secured atop a hinge plate to the cabinet. Once the hinge and aligning plates are factory set in position, with tight tolerances between fasteners and holes in the aligning plate, the aligning plate is separately fixed to the hinge plate. The hinge plate can be subsequently detached from the cabinet, with the aligning plate remaining affixed to the hinge plate, and then reattached in a manner which enables the desired factory preset position to be reestablished, thereby assuring that a seal between the door and the cabinet can be effectively maintained.
Claims20
An upper refrigerator hinge assembly for pivotally mounting a door to a refrigerator cabinet, said hinge assembly comprising:
- an aligning plate provided with at least first and second holes;
- a hinge plate provided with at least first and second apertures;
- a first fastener fixedly securing both the hinge plate and the aligning plate to a cabinet, with said aligning plate being located upon said hinge plate and the first fastener extending through each of the first hole and the first aperture;
- and
- a second fastener for attaching the aligning plate to the hinge plate, with the second fastener extending through each of the second hole and the second aperture wherein, upon subsequent detachment of the hinge plate from the cabinet, the aligning plate remains fixed upon the hinge plate in order to enable proper orientation of the hinge plate relative to the cabinet during reattachment.
In a refrigerator cabinet including an upper hinge assembly for pivotally mounting a door to an outer exterior top surface of the cabinet, said upper hinge assembly comprising:
- an aligning plate;
- and
- a hinge plate, wherein both the hinge plate and the aligning plate are secured to the outer exterior top surface of the cabinet, and wherein said aligning plate is separately, fixedly secured atop and directly to the hinge plate such that, upon detachment of the hinge plate from the cabinet, the aligning plate remains fixed upon the hinge plate in order to enable proper orientation of the hinge plate relative to the cabinet during reattachment.
A method of mounting an upper refrigerator door hinge assembly to a refrigerator cabinet comprising:
- positioning an aligning plate atop a hinge plate;
- securing both the aligning plate and the hinge plate in a desired location and orientation to an outer exterior a top surface of the refrigerator cabinet;
- and
- separately, fixedly securing the aligning plate to the hinge plate in order to set the desired location and orientation of the hinge plate relative to the cabinet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.