In order to conserve on the expensive steel used to manufacture domestic refrigerators, the practice for several years has been to make the cabinet and doors of such refrigerators from rather thin sheet steel, often on the order of 0.017 inch thick. One result is that the doors often must be reinforced in order to maintain their rectangular shape and support the items stored in door mounted shelves. The normally used foamed-in-place urethane insulation provides some stiffening and reinforcing. However, on some models, particularly with larger doors, additional reinforcing is needed. One approach has been to attach cross braces to the inside of the door before the insulation is injected. Such braces are relatively expensive, canceling a part of the savings of using thin material for the door. Another approach has been to use a sheet of cardboard which adheres to the insulation. One problem with that approach is the propensity of the cardboard to shift in the door cavity before the foam cures. Yet another approach has been to use a large sheet of paper or aluminum foil which is placed in the door cavity before the insulation material is injected. The sheet is sufficiently large to assure that it covers the inside of the door, even if the sheet shifts. However, this requires that an operator remove the excess paper or foil after the foaming operation. Also such materials do not provide optimum reinforcement. In summary, none of the prior approaches has been fully satisfactory.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved reinforced door assembly for use in refrigerators.
It is another object of this invention to provide such an improved door assembly, including a high modulus of elasticity reinforcing member with a front panel and a generally perpendicularly projecting flange which is secured in a predetermined position within the door cavity.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds