Granted Patent B2

US 12,264,873 · App. 18/402,508 · Granted Apr 1, 2025

Inventor: Seonwoo Choi (Seoul, KR)

Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.

F25D25/005A47B88/457F25D25/025A47B88/90A47B2088/901A47B2210/175F25D2325/021

Abstract

Claims (17)

1. A refrigerator comprising:

a cabinet having an opening to access a storage chamber provided within the cabinet;

a drawer including a front panel and a storage bin coupled to a rear of the front panel, the drawer being coupled to the cabinet such that drawer moves between a first position in which the front panel closes the opening of the cabinet and the storage bin is received in the storage chamber, and a second position in which the front panel is spaced away from the opening of the cabinet and at least a portion of the storage bin is positioned outside of the storage chamber;

at least first and second pinions positioned at a lower surface of the storage chamber;

a driving motor to supply a driving force for rotation of the first and second pinions; and

at least two rack gear assemblies positioned at a lower surface of the storage bin, and to operate based on rotations of the first and second pinions so that the drawer moves between the first position and the second position,

wherein the first rack gear assembly includes:

a first rack having a first rack gear to engage with gear teeth of the first pinion; and

an idle gear provided at the first rack to engage with the gear teeth of the first pinion, and the idle gear to allow the first pinion to idle,

wherein lower ends of teeth of the idle gear are lower than a lower end of gear teeth of the first rack gear,

wherein a spaced distance L between the first pack gear and a rear side gear tooth of the idle gear is formed longer than a pitch of each year tooth.

2. The refrigerator of claim 1 ,

wherein the spaced distance L is formed longer than a distance between two gear teeth of the idle gear or a distance between two gear teeth of the first rack gear, and

wherein the spaced distance L is formed shorter than a distance between three gear teeth of the first rack gear.

3. The refrigerator of claim 1 ,

wherein a width of the tooth of the idle gear is formed to be smaller than a width of the gear teeth of the first rack gear, and

wherein the teeth of the idle gear are arranged with their center shifted toward a cover body.

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (217)