Thermal breaker strip

Nov. 21, 1967

J. P. HEILWEIL ET AL

THERMAL BREAKER STRIP

Filed Feb. 8, 1965

3,353,301

Sheets-Sheet i

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Nov. 21, 1967 j. p. heilweil etal 3,353,301

THERMAL BREAKER STRIP Filed Feb. 8, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2

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JEEOME E HE/LWEJL /U.3ERT E. SCHWE/ZER

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United States Patent Office

3,353,301

Patented Nov. 21, 1967

3,353,301 THERMAL BREAKER STRIP Jerome P. Heilweil, Philadelphia, and Albert E. Schweizer, Morrisville, Pa., assignors to Glenco Refrigeration Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of Pennsyl- ⁵vania

Filed Feb. 8, 1965, Ser. No. 431,142 4 Claims. (Cl. 49—489)

This invention relates to a thermal breaker strip for ₁₀use around the opening leading into a refrigerated cabinet so as to minimize heat exchange between said cabinet and the door which closes said opening.

One object of the invention is to produce an improved breaker strip for the purpose set forth.

In order to draw the door into, and to hold it in, tightly closed position, it used to be the practice to provide a complicated, and relatively expensive latch which has spring-loaded toggles and eccentrics, etc., which were adapted to be triggered by the initial contact with a 2( keeper. In addition to being bulky and expensive, the powerful and fast acting latch mechanism referred to could crush or snap off a finger carelessly thrust into the opening which receives the keeper.

To avoid these disadvantages, it has been proposed to provide a magnetic element carried by a gasket on the door and a magnet-attracting strip carried by the front wall of the refrigerated cabinet, or vice versa. In order to produce a tight seal, the magnet used must be strong enough to close the door with a force sufficient to effect 30 a tight seal between the door and the cabinet, and if the magnet and the magnet-attracting strip are not to be too heavy and expensive, it is necessary that at least the magnet, or the magnet-attracting strip, be exposed to the direct action of the other. An exposed magnet, or magnet- 35 attracting strip, presents a metallic surface which, when cold, induces condensation of moisture from the air. The condensed moisture tends to drip on to the floor or other support; tends to collect dirt; and tends to produce rust or. other damage. Furthermore if the metallic surface is 40 cooled enough, the condensate can freeze and prevent opening of the door until it is de-iced.

It is therefore a further object of this' invention to produce an improved thermal breaker strip for supporting an exposed magnet-attracting strip in such a thor- 45 oughly insulated manner that the strip remains at, or close to, room temperature, thus preventing, or greatly reducing condensation thereon.

The breaker strip against which the door abuts when closed, sooner or later fatigues or wears out and must be 50 replaced.

It is therefore a still further object of the invention to produce a thermal breaker strip formed of a first part which is permanently secured to the front wall of the cabinet and which does not come in contact with the door, 55 and a second part which is detachably engaged with said first part by a “snap on” action and which takes the brunt of the repeated impact of the door whereby only the second part need be replaced.

A still further object is to produce an improved thermal θθ breaker strip which is made of a material having a very low coefficient of heat conductivity; which has sufficient rigidity to withstand the impact of the door; and which has sufficient resiliency to permit the engagement and disengagement of said first and second parts of the strip 65 by snap action.

A still further object of the invention is to produce a thermal breaker strip which includes a readily accessible channel for the electric wires which, conventionally, are embedded in the foam, or other, insulation which is used 70 between the outer wall and the inner liner of the refrigerated cabinet.

A still further object is to produce a highly efficient thermal breaker which is inexpensive to manufacture and is easy to install.

The full nature of the invention will be understood from the following specification and the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of a conventional refrigerator provided with a thermal breaker strip embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view on line 2—2 on FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, perspective view of the first part of the breaker strip which is shown in FIG. 2 and which is permanently secured to the front wall of the refrig15 erated cabinet.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the second part of the thermal breaker strip which is shown in FIG. 2 and which is detachably securable to the first part to form the breaker strip shown in FIG. 2.

_ FIG. 5 is a top plan view showing the first step in snapping the second part of the breaker strip on to the first part.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view and shows the second, and last step in securing the parts of the breaker strip together. 25 FIG. 7 is a top plan view showing the parts secured together with the door and the wall of the refrigerated cabinet which are shown in FIG. 1, omitted for clarity.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary exploded view showing details of construction.

FIG. 9 is similar to FIG. 2 but showing another embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 10, 11, 12, and 13, are similar to FIGS. 3, 4, 6, and 7, but relate to the embodiment of FIG. 9.

In the drawings, 10 designates a conventional refrig35 erator having a front opening 11 which is closed by a conventional door 12 provided with a handle 14. Since the refrigerator, as such, forms no part of this invention, only a portion 16 of one side wall of the refrigerated cabinet, and the corresponding portion 18 of the door are 40 shown in FIGS. 2 and 9. It will be understood, however, that the breaker strip which is carried by side wall portion 16 and which is generally designated as 29, and the gasket which is carried by the door and which is generally designated as 22, continue along the entire perimeter of 45 the cabinet opening and along the entire perimeter of the door as shown by the broken lines in FIG. I.

In both embodiments, the thermal breaker strip is formed of two complementary parts A and B, and A' and B'. See FIGS. 3 and 4 and FIGS. 10 and 11.

In both embodiments, parts A and A' may be described as the fixed elements, and parts B and B' may be described as the removable elements of the respective breaker strips.

In the first embodiment of the breaker strip which is 55 shown in FIGS. 2 to 8, the fixed element A includes an inner wall 24 which extends across the entire width of the side wall portion 16 of the cabinet and which is adapted to be permanently secured to the front face of side wall portion 16.

As can be seen from FIG. 2 the side wall of the refrigerated cabinet is formed of an inner liner 28 and outer liners 29 and 30. The end of liner 29 is bent as at 31 and the end of liner 30 is extended as at 30A and bent as at 33 to provide a pocket which is hereinafter referred to.

Wall 24 is extended rearwardly to form arcuate element 32 which encloses flange 34 of side wall 28 and abuts said wall, as shown in FIG. 2. Adjacent arcuate element 32, wall 24 is provided with forwardly extending flanges 36 and 38 which define channel 40 therebetween.

Γ0 Part A of the breaker strip also includes walls 42, 44, and 46, which with the aligning portion of wall 24 define . a first dead air chamber 47 which overlies a portion of

3,353,301 above referred to. Such materials are presently available on the open market.

The gasket 22 includes a base flange 79 which is suitably secured to the inner face 80 of the door, and carries 5 a bulb-like structure 82 which defines an enclosure for accommodating a magnet 84 adapted to be attracted by strip 68 to draw the door to closed position.

Because strip 68 is not in any way obstructed, and because the strip and the magnet extend over the entire Ιθ periphery of the door and completely around the opening closed by the door, a relatively small unobtrusive and inexpensive magnet can be used. Also, its thorough insulation from the wall of the refrigerated compartment keeps magnet attracting element 68 at, or close to, the ambient 15 temperature, thus preventing condensation of moisture thereon.

In the embodiment of FIG. 9, part A' of the breaker strip is provided with an angular wall 90 which terminates in a round rib 92 which coacts with round rib 94 to 20 provide a narrow entrance into a cavity 96, and part B' is provided with an arrow shaped tongue 98 which can be introduced into cavity 96 by forcing ribs 92 and 94 apart. It will be noted that the contour of member 98 is somewhat rounded so as to facilitate its insertion and 25 withdrawal but that its size and shape are such as to prevent accidental disengagement of part B' from part A' of the breaker strip.

In the embodiment of FIG. 9, false outer liner 29' is extended forward and bent to form wall 31' which abuts 30 wall 44' and outer liner 30' is extended forward and bent to provide wall 33' which terminates in flange 76' which corresponds to flange 76 of the embodiment of FIG. 2. Walls 31' and 33' coact to form a chamber for receiving heating wire W-l which may be used if it is 33 found necessary to raise the temperature of magnet attracting strip 68' to prevent condensation thereon.

Flange 76' is also engageable with rib 100 and forms an abutment for the beveled edge of wall 56' when the parts are assembled as shown in FIG. 9.

It will be noted that, in both embodiments, the front face of wall 16 is fully covered by dead air spaces of substantial depth; that the metal exposed to the refrigerated area is effectively separated, by the breaker strip, from any contact with the metal exposed to the ambient ₄₅ temperature; and that the part of the strip which is subject to the repeated impact of the door is easily removed and replaced.

Arcuate portion 32 provides a trim finish which covers the edge of inner liner 28 and the edge of outer wall 38 50 of channel 40.

In practice, wall 24 serves to bridge the gap between the metal of the inner and outer liners so as to seal that opening during the generation of the foam between said inner and outer liners.