Method and apparatus for clinched door design

Abstract

A refrigerator includes a refrigerator cabinet and a refrigerator door for providing access to a compartment within the refrigerator cabinet, the refrigerator door includes a door pan and a plurality of corner brackets. The door pan includes a front surface, four sidewalls members extending rearwardly from the front surface thereby forming four corners, and an inwardly extending flange from each of the four side wall members. Each of the plurality of corner brackets is connected to two flanges of the door pan by clinching to thereby conceal the clinching from consumers of the refrigerator and to provide support to the door pan without welding. A method includes clinching a plurality of corner brackets to inwardly extending flanges of the prepainted door pan without welding to form a door pan assembly and assembling the refrigerator using the door pan assembly.

1 . A refrigerator, comprising:
 a refrigerator cabinet;   a refrigerator door for providing access to a compartment within the refrigerator cabinet, the refrigerator door comprising a door pan and a plurality of corner brackets;   wherein the door pan includes a front surface, four sidewalls members extending rearwardly from the front surface thereby forming four corners, and an inwardly extending flange from each of the four side wall members;   wherein each of the plurality of corner brackets is connected to two flanges of the door pan by clinching to thereby conceal the clinching from users of the refrigerator and to provide support to the door pan without welding.   
   
   
       2 . The refrigerator of  claim 1  wherein the plurality of corner brackets includes four corner brackets. 
   
   
       3 . The refrigerator of  claim 2  wherein each of the plurality of corner brackets is clinched to each of the two flanges of the door pan with two clinches. 
   
   
       4 . The refrigerator of  claim 1  wherein each of the plurality of corner brackets is clinched to each of the two flanges of the door pan with two clinches. 
   
   
       5 . The refrigerator of  claim 1  wherein the door pan is stainless steel. 
   
   
       6 . The refrigerator of  claim 5  wherein the door pan is prepainted. 
   
   
       7 . The refrigerator of  claim 1  wherein the refrigerator door provides access to a freezer compartment and wherein the freezer compartment is positioned below a fresh food compartment in the refrigerator cabinet. 
   
   
       8 . The refrigerator of  claim 1  wherein each of the four corners has a seam to allow for one of the corner brackets to be placed in each of the plurality of corners. 
   
   
       9 . A refrigerator, comprising:
 a refrigerator cabinet;   a refrigerator door for providing access to a compartment within the refrigerator cabinet,;   wherein the refrigerator door comprises a prepainted door pan and four corner brackets;   wherein the prepainted door pan includes a prepainted front surface, four sidewalls members extending rearwardly from the front surface to form four corners, and an inwardly extending flange from each of the four side wall members;   wherein each of the four corner brackets is connected to two flanges of the door pan with two clinches to thereby conceal the clinching from users of the refrigerator and to provide support to the prepainted door pan without welding.   
   
   
       10 . The refrigerator of  claim 9  wherein the prepainted door pan is stainless steel. 
   
   
       11 . The refrigerator of  claim 9  wherein the refrigerator door provides access to a freezer compartment and wherein the freezer compartment is positioned below a fresh food compartment in the refrigerator cabinet. 
   
   
       12 . The refrigerator of  claim 9  wherein each of the four corners has a seam to allow for one of the corner brackets to be placed in each of the plurality of corners. 
   
   
       13 . A method of manufacturing a refrigerator, comprising:
 providing a prepainted door pan having a prepainted front surface, four sidewalls members extending rearwardly from the front surface to form four corners, and an inwardly extending flange from each of the four side wall members;   clinching a plurality of corner brackets to inwardly extending flanges of the prepainted door pan without welding to form a door pan assembly; and   assembling the refrigerator using the door pan assembly.   
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising mitering each of the four corners of the door pan to allow for insertion of the corner brackets. 
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the prepainted door pan is stainless steel. 
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising directly attaching a door stop to one of the corner brackets without use of a tap plate. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the step of clinching includes clinching four corner brackets. 
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the step of clinching includes clinching each of the corner brackets to two separate inwardly extending flanges. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 18  wherein each of the corner brackets is clinched to the two separate inwardly extending flanges with a plurality of clinches.