	US 7,600,831 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 Jan. 05, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/28,633.
Claims priority of application No. 10-2004-0055262 (KR), filed on Jul. 15, 2004.
Prior Publication US 2006/0042304 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]

16 Claims

1. A refrigerator comprising:

a body having a cooling chamber;

a basket received in the cooling chamber for storing food;

a basket lift apparatus for lifting the basket; and

a door arranged at a front side of the cooling chamber for drawing out the basket in back and forth directions of the body,

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; and

a driving unit for moving the lifting frame up and down, the driving unit including:

a pair of driving arms, each driving arm having one end contacting a lower surface of the lifting frame to be movable back and forth, and another end rotatably supported at a rear surface of the door; and

a driving motor fixed to a rear surface of the door for rotating the pair of driving arms,

wherein each driving arm is provided with a roller roll-motioned at a lower surface of the lifting frame at one end thereof, the pair of driving arms being connected by a hinge shaft extending therebetween, and the hinge shaft is rotatably supported by a supporting frame 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.