The present application is a 35 U.S.C. § 371 National Phase conversion of International (PCT) Patent Application No. PCT/CN2017/118853, filed on Dec. 27, 2017, which claims the priority of the Chinese patent application No. 201611225466.7 filed on Dec. 27, 2016 and titled “Automatic Door Opening Device and Refrigerator Having the Same”, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. The PCT International Patent Application was filed and published in Chinese.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention belongs to the technical field of household appliance manufacturing, and particularly relates to an automatic door opening device and a refrigerator having the same.

BACKGROUND

At present, due to relatively larger sizes, middle-high-grade refrigerators on the market require larger refrigerator door bodies, heavier door body load, and higher door seal suction for the door bodies or drawer-type door bodies. As a result, more and more users report a problem that the refrigerator door bodies are difficult to open. Aiming at this problem, an electric opening device appears.

In a process of opening a refrigerator door body by the existing electric opening device, a screw rod is driven by an electric motor to rotate forward to be meshed with a gear assembly, thereby enabling a rack pushing rod to drive the door body to be opened. After the door body is opened, the screw rod is driven by the electric motor to rotate backward to be meshed with the gear assembly, thereby resetting the rack pushing rod. However, for this existing electric opening device, noise is larger as the gear assembly needs to be meshed with the screw rod again in the resetting process of the rack pushing rod.

Therefore, it is necessary to provide an improved automatic door opening device and a refrigerator having the same to solve the above problem.

SUMMARY

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic door opening device and a refrigerator having the same.

In order to achieve the above object, an embodiment of the present invention provides an automatic door opening device, including: a base, a driving source member fixed in the base, two pushing members which have the same structure and are configured to push a door body to be opened, and a transmission body configured to mesh the driving source member with the two pushing members.

The pushing member includes: a pushing rod and a first elastic member connected to the pushing rod and arranged away from the door body.

The transmission body includes: two mechanical clutch gear sets which are meshed with the two pushing members respectively and have the same structure, wherein the mechanical clutch gear set includes a mechanical master gear meshed with the driving source member, a mechanical slave gear meshed with one of the pushing members, and a mechanical clutch member configured to selectively connect the mechanical master gear and the mechanical slave gear.

In an initial state, the mechanical master gear is partially engaged with the mechanical clutch member, and is partially meshed with the mechanical clutch member; and the mechanical clutch member is separated from the mechanical slave gear.

In a door body opening process, the mechanical master gear of one of the at least two mechanical clutch gear sets is partially engaged with the mechanical clutch member which is meshed with the mechanical slave gear; and the driving source member drives the mechanical master gear to drive the mechanical slave gear to be in a transmission state, so that the pushing rod corresponding to the mechanical slave gear is driven to move toward the outside of the base to open the door body, and an acting force toward a distal end of the door body is applied to the first elastic member.

After the door body is opened, the mechanical clutch gear set that currently drives the door body to be opened is recovered to an initial connection state; the mechanical master gear is in a stationary state; and the first elastic member applies a tensioning force to the corresponding pushing rod, so that the pushing rod is driven to move toward the inside of the base, and the mechanical slave gear corresponding to the pushing rod is driven to rotate backward.

As an improvement of the embodiment of the present invention, the two pushing members are symmetrically close to two opposite side walls of the base, respectively; the two mechanical clutch gear sets are symmetrically arranged between the two pushing members; the driving source member is arranged between the two mechanical clutch gear sets; and meshing teeth on the two mechanical clutch gear sets are arranged in opposite directions.

As a further improvement of the embodiment of the present invention, the mechanical master gear, the mechanical slave gear and the mechanical clutch member in each mechanical gear set are arranged coaxially.

As a further improvement of the embodiment of the present invention, the mechanical clutch member includes: a mechanical clutch portion and a second elastic member that stretches and shrinks in the axial direction of the mechanical clutch portion.

One end of the second elastic member is detachably connected to the mechanical clutch portion, and the other end of the second elastic member is movably connected to the mechanical master gear or the base.

In an initial state, the mechanical master gear is partially engaged with the mechanical clutch member, and is partially meshed with the mechanical clutch member; and the mechanical clutch member is separated from the mechanical slave gear.

In a door body opening process, the mechanical master gear is partially engaged with the mechanical clutch member which is meshed with the mechanical slave gear; and the second elastic member applies an acting force toward the direction of the mechanical master gear to the mechanical clutch portion.

After the door body is opened, the second elastic member applies a tensioning force to the mechanical clutch portion to drive the mechanical clutch portion to move toward the direction of the mechanical master gear, so that the initial state is recovered.

As a further improvement of the embodiment of the present invention, a through hole is axially formed in the mechanical clutch portion, and one end of the second elastic member is engaged in the through hole.

As a further improvement of the embodiment of the present invention, the mechanical clutch portion includes: an annularly-cylindrical mechanical clutch portion main body.

An end surface of the mechanical clutch portion main body close to the mechanical slave gear is arranged as a first annularly-stepped slope composed of a plurality of slope-shaped steps.

A first accommodating groove with a ring-shaped radial cross section is formed in an end surface of the mechanical clutch portion main body close to the mechanical master gear.

The bottom wall of the first accommodating groove is arranged as a second annularly-stepped slope composed of a plurality of slope-shaped steps.

At least two second limiting protrusions are evenly arranged on an end surface of the mechanical clutch portion main body close to the mechanical master gear, and are close to an outer wall side of the mechanical clutch portion main body.

A height difference exists between the start and the end of each slope-shaped step in each annularly-stepped slope in the axial direction of the mechanical clutch portion; and the starts of the all slope-shaped steps are located in the same plane, and the ends of the all slope-shaped steps are located in the same plane.

In the first annularly-stepped slope, the all slope-shaped steps are connected clockwise or counterclockwise.

In the second annularly-stepped slope, a connecting direction of the all slope-shaped steps is opposite to that of the all slope-shaped steps in the first annularly-stepped slope.

As a further improvement of the embodiment of the present invention, the mechanical slave gear includes: a mechanical slave gear connecting portion, and a mechanical slave gear meshing portion extending from the mechanical slave gear connecting portion.

A plurality of meshing teeth is arranged on an outer wall of the mechanical slave gear meshing portion.

A second accommodating groove with a ring-shaped radial cross section is formed in an end surface of the mechanical slave gear connecting portion away from the mechanical slave gear meshing portion.

The mechanical slave gear connecting portion further includes: a first supporting rotating shaft perpendicularly extending outwards from the center of the second accommodating groove, and a third annularly-stepped slope which is formed on the bottom wall of the second accommodating groove and is composed of a plurality of slope-shaped steps.

The second elastic member sleeves the supporting rotating shaft.

In the door body opening process, the first annularly-stepped slope is meshed with the third annularly-stepped slope to maintain the mechanical clutch member and the mechanical slave gear in a relatively stationary state.

As a further improvement of the embodiment of the present invention, the mechanical master gear has a ring-shaped diameter cross section; and a plurality of arc-shaped accommodating holes having the same structure is formed in the mechanical master gear at an equal interval, and runs through the two end surfaces of the mechanical master gear, so that the mechanical master gear is radially divided into an inner ring stage and an outer ring stage connected to each other.

A plurality of meshing teeth is arranged on an outer wall of an end of the outer ring stage away from the mechanical slave gear.

The second limiting protrusion is always movably arranged in the corresponding arc-shaped accommodating hole.

An end surface of the inner ring stage close to the mechanical clutch member is arranged as a fourth annularly-stepped slope composed of a plurality of slope-shaped steps.

In the initial state, the second annularly-stepped slope is meshed with the fourth annularly-stepped slope.

As a further improvement of the embodiment of the present invention, the transmission body further includes: at least one set of transmission wheels corresponding to each mechanical clutch gear set.

Each set of the transmission wheels is simultaneously meshed with the corresponding pushing member and mechanical clutch gear set; and/or

each set of the transmission wheels is simultaneously meshed with the corresponding mechanical clutch gear set and the driving source member.

In order to achieve one of the above objects, embodiments of the present invention provide a refrigerator, including: a refrigerator body having a compartment, a drawer arranged on the refrigerator body, and a door body for opening or closing the compartment; and the refrigerator is further provided with the above-described automatic door opening device to open the drawer or the door body.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following technical effects. In the automatic door opening device provided by the present invention, the pushing member can be automatically recovered to the initial state through the first elastic member arranged in the pushing member after the pushing member drives the door body to be opened. Further, through the two mechanical clutch gear sets with the same structure, noise indirectly generated to the driving source member in the resetting process of the pushing member is avoided. Meanwhile, in the automatic door opening device adopting the above structure, after the door body is opened, there is no need to electrically drive the pushing member to be reset, so that the power consumption and the component cost of the automatic door opening device are reduced. Moreover, in the door body opening process, the two clutch gear sets are driven by the electric motor to rotate simultaneously to open the two door bodies at the same time, so that the power consumption and the component cost of the automatic door opening device are further reduced. Therefore, the user experience is excellent, and users can conveniently operate and control the refrigerator.

