US2115321A - Refrigerating apparatus - Google Patents

Description

A ril 26, 1938. s. M; SCHWELLER ,1

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed April 27, 1935 ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 26, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE REFRIGERATI NG APPARATUS Sylvester M. Schweller, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware x -Application April 27, 1935, Serial No.*18,686

1 Claim. (01. 211- g m This invention relates to refrigerating apparaing drawing, wherein a preferred form of the tus and more particularly to a novel cabinet construction whereby an article supporting shelf may be positioned in the cabinet at a plurality of levels therein in order to provide vertical adjustment therefor.

Heretofore, in providing refrigerator cabinets with means for positioning one or more shelves therein at different levels in order to permit the user to adjust the shelf spacing to suit his particular needs, it has been customary to provide a.

plurality of sets of shelf supports on the inner wall of the refrigerator cabinet for each shelf in such a manner that a shelf may be positioned to cooperate with any one of the set of supports. 1

It is also desirable in refrigerator cabinets for household use to avoid theuse'of shelf supporting devices which create corners or pockets which are diflicult to cleanin order to facilitate the maintenance of the cabinet in a sanitary condition. For this reason, it has been common to form slight depressions or protuberances in the inner wall of the cabinet itself for shelf supports. In a cabinet where each of the shelves is adjustable, and the shelf supports are formed in the inner wall, the number of protuberances or depressions is somewhat excessive, making the cost of manufacture of the cabinet high as well as increasing the'labor of cleaning the refrigerator.

In order to obviate these difllculties, the present invention provides a refrigerator cabinet having an adjustable shelf adapted to coact with but a single set of shelf supports whereby-at least one supporting portion of the shelf maybemounted in the cabinet in any of a plurality of vertically spaced positions.

It is a further object to' provide a shelf for a refrigerator cabinet adapted to support a sliding tray beneath a cooling element at different distances therefrom whereby the tray may be supported in close proximity to the cooling element at such times as it is desired to collect 'water dripping therefrom, for. example, when the cooling element is defrosting, or at times when it is desired to store tall articles on. the nextlower shelf; and to support said tray or other articles at a greater distance below the cooling element at other times when it is desirable to provide space for large articles to be stored immediately below the cooling element for maintaining them at a lower temperature than prevails in other portions of the cabinet. Further'obiects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanypresent invention is clearly shown.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator cabinet embodying the present invention and showing the 5 shelf in one position;

Fig. 2 is a view corresponding to Fig. 1 showing the shelf in another position; and

Fig. 3 is a top view of the shelf when in the position shown in Fig. 2.

Referring now to Fig. 1, there is illustrated a refrigerator cabinet i0 having a food compartment I2. In the food compartment I 2, there is mounted a cooling element l4 adjacent the top vwall of the compartment I2 for maintaining a 15 circulation of cooled air within the compartment l8 illustrated in Fig. 3 is adapted to be supported upon the shelf supports IS in either of two positions whereby an article supporting portion thereof may be positioned in the cabinet at either of two levels. The shelf i8 is formed with a wirelike edge or boundary member 20 of generally rectangular outline when viewed from the top.,

The boundary member. 20 is provided with a vertically offset portion 22 formed and disposed to lie immediately below the cooling element ll.

'The offset portions 22 of the boundarysmember 18 are connected by a plurality of cross rails 24 extending from the front to the back of the shelf land which extend vertically slightly beyond the plane of the oifset portion 22. A third cross rail '26 is provided at one side of the oif-set'portions 22 to form one boundary member of a wovenwire grid 28 which is secured to the cross rail 26 and to the boundary member 20 at the right of the 1 offset portions 22. Two or more cross rails are provided connecting the offset portions 22.to form an article supporting portion whereby a drip aray 32 or other article may be supported in offset 60 relation to the plane of the grid 28. Preferably, I the rails 24, 26 and 30 form guides for sliding the tray 32 into and out of position beneath the cool-' ing unit M. The longitudinally extending side portions 34 of the boundary member '20. provide a Conplurality of support engaging portions on the shelf whereby the shelf may be mounted upon the support l6 either in the position illustrated in Fig. 1 or in the position illustrated in Fig. 2. Thus, considering the shelf as positioned in Fig. 1, the bottom surface of the members 34 provides one set of shelf support engaging portions whereby the shelf may be supported on support IS with the article supporting portion 30 disposed above the support Hi. The top surface of the members 34 as viewed in Fig. 1 provides a second set of support engaging portions on the shelf whereby the same may be supported on the support l6 with the article supporting portion 30 disposed below the support 16 as illustrated in Fig. 2.

It will, therefore, be seen that the present invention provides a cabinet construction whereby an article supporting portion of the shelf may be positioned in either of two vertically spaced planes while supported upon the same set of shelf supports.

While the form of embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed constitutes a. preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adpoted, all coming within the scope of the claim which follows. What is claimed is as follows:

In a refrigerating apparatus comprising, a cabinet having a food storage compartment formed therein, a set of shelf supports associated with the walls of said compartment, a shelf adapted to coact with said supports and having on opposite sides thereof .a support engaging means, the support engaging means on one side of said shelf being in the same horizontal plane shelf.

SYLVESTER M. SCHW'ELLER.

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