1. Field
A refrigerator and a shelf assembly for a refrigerator are disclosed herein.
2. Background
Generally, a refrigerator is an appliance for storing food, beverages, or other items in a frozen or refrigerated state within a storage compartment by discharging, into the storage compartment, cold air generated through a refrigeration cycle formed by a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve, and an evaporator. The refrigerator generally may include in a cabinet a freezer compartment for storage of food, beverages, or other items in a frozen state, and a fresh food compartment for storage of food, beverages, or other items at a low temperature. A Kimchi refrigerator, which stores food, such as Kimchi or vegetables, in a fresh state, is another form of refrigerator.
At least one of a plurality of doors installed at a refrigerator may be connected to a side of the cabinet by a hinge to open or close a front of the cabinet through pivotal movement thereof. In addition to such a door that pivots about a hinge, a drawer type door may also be employed. The drawer type door may include a drawer, and a door mounted to a front surface of the drawer to be pulled out or retracted in a forward or rearward direction together with the drawer.
Generally, storage compartments of a refrigerator, namely, a freezer compartment and a fresh food compartment, may be provided with a plurality of shelves that horizontally divide the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment into sections in order to accommodate items of various sizes and enhance space utilization of the storage compartments. As items of various sizes need to be placed on the shelves, the shelves may be installed to be vertically movable in the freezer compartment and fresh food compartment. That is, the shelves may be slidably mounted on a plurality of support ribs formed on or at left and right side surfaces of the freezer compartment and fresh food compartment, or may be mounted on a mount rail having a plurality of vertically formed holes by mounting a pair of cantilevers coupled to the shelves on the mount rail.
In conventional cases, however, when a user desires to adjust a height of a mounted shelf, the user needs to remove all items from the shelf, separate the shelf from the support ribs or mount rail, and then install the shelf at another position. Accordingly, adjusting the height of a shelf is difficult and inconvenient.
Hence, a shelf assembly supported by a worm gear that allows a user to rotate the shelves has been proposed. However, manipulating this assembly requires the user to apply a great force, and reliability of adjustment of the height of the shelves and durability may be degraded.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds