Supports: cabinet structure – With movable components – Horizontally movable
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-07
2001-04-24
Cuomo, Peter M. (Department: 3636)
Supports: cabinet structure
With movable components
Horizontally movable
C312S404000, C312S334240
Reexamination Certificate
active
06220682
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates generally to refrigerators employed primarily as home appliances and pertains, more specifically, to a shelving system providing increased ease of access to items stored in such refrigerators.
Despite the many years since the refrigerator has become universally accepted as an essential kitchen appliance, little change has been made in the manner in which items are stored within a refrigerator. In particular, refrigerator shelving arrangements continue to be offered in various conventional configurations wherein the shelves span the width of the interior of the refrigerator, rendering access to the rear areas of the shelves at best inconvenient and, at worst, quite difficult. Consequently, it is not unusual for items stored toward the rear of a refrigerator to linger there, long past the expiration of freshness and usefulness.
The present invention provides a refrigerator shelving system which essentially eliminates hard-to-reach areas located toward the rear of the interior of a refrigerator, enabling easy access to the entire volume of the interior of the refrigerator for effective storage and retrieval of a wide variety of items. As such, the present invention attains several objects and advantages, some of which are summarized as follows: Provides a refrigerator shelving system which enables increased ease of access to items stored throughout the entire interior of a refrigerator; essentially eliminates ordinarily hard-to-reach areas located at the rear of a refrigerator interior; makes effective storage use of the full volume of a refrigerator interior; increases the availability of readily usable storage space within the interior of a refrigerator; allows increased ease in locating and accessing items stored in a refrigerator; provides a refrigerator shelving system having increased effectiveness in storage and use, with a relatively simple and economically fabricated construction; provides an easily modified arrangement which enables increased versatility for the storage of a wide variety of items in a refrigerator; avoids excessive residence time of stored items, and consequent spoilage, by affording ease of access to items stored at virtually any location within a refrigerator; provides an ergonomic arrangement which encourages effective utilization of available storage capacity of a refrigerator; enables increased ease in viewing and identifying items stored throughout the interior of a refrigerator; provides a shelving system compatible with conventional refrigerator construction for ease of incorporation into currently available refrigerator configurations; provides a relatively rugged construction capable of effective operation over a long service life.
The above objects and advantages, as well as further objects and advantages, are attained by the present invention which may be described briefly as a shelving system for a refrigerator having a cooled interior bounded by a top wall, an altitudinally opposite bottom wall, laterally opposite side walls, a rear wall and a longitudinally opposite front opening, the shelving system comprising: a plurality of shelf units, each shelf unit including laterally opposite sides aligned generally with the laterally opposite side walls of the interior of the refrigerator and shelves, each shelf having a longitudinal length and a lateral width, the shelves being arranged in an array of altitudinally spaced apart shelves with access to each shelf available through at least one side of a corresponding shelf unit, in lateral directions; and at least one suspension assembly mounting each shelf unit within the interior of the refrigerator for selective movement along longitudinal forward and backward directions between a retracted position, wherein the shelf unit is located fully within the interior of the refrigerator, between the front opening and the rear wall, and an extended position, wherein the shelf unit is extended longitudinally forward to expose the shelves for simultaneous access to all of the shelves of the shelf unit in lateral directions through at least one of the opposite sides of the shelf unit.
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Anderson Jerry A.
Cuomo Peter M.
Jacob Arthur
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