US 7,600,829 B2
Refrigerator having basket lift apparatus
Seung-Hwan Oh, Gyeonggi-Do (Korea, Republic of); Kyung-Han Jeong, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); and Sang-Oh Kim, Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
Assigned to LG Electronics Inc., Seoul (Korea, Republic of)
Filed on Dec. 30, 2004, as Appl. No. 11/24,475.
Claims priority of application No. 10-2004-0067606 (KR), filed on Aug. 26, 2004.
Prior Publication US 2006/0042301 A1, Mar. 02, 2006
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A47B 96/04 (2006.01); A47B 95/02 (2006.01)
U.S. Cl. 312—404  [312/402; 312/319.5] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A refrigerator comprising:
a body having a cooling chamber;
a basket arranged at the cooling chamber for storing food;
a door arranged at a front side of the cooling chamber and movable in back and forth directions;
a basket lift apparatus for lifting the basket; and
a damping unit installed at the basket lift apparatus for attenuating an impact generated when the basket is lowered,
wherein the basket lift apparatus includes:
a pair of lifting rails connected to the door;
a lifting frame movably connected to each of the pair of lifting rails, and on which the basket is positioned;
a pair of driving arms contacting a lower surface of the lifting frame to be roll-motioned and rotatably supported at the door b a hinge shaft; and
a driving unit connected to the hinge shaft to rotate the pair of driving arms, and
wherein each of the driving arms is provided with a roller roll-motioned at the lower surface of the lifting frame at one end thereof, the pair of driving arms being connected by the hinge shaft extending therebetween, the hinge shaft being rotatably supported by a supporting bracket fixed to a rear surface of the door, and
wherein a distance between the connections of the lifting frame to the pair of lifting rails measured in a lateral direction of the door is greater than a distance between the pair of driving arms measured in the lateral direction of the door.