In general, a refrigerator is an apparatus that may keep food fresh for a certain duration by cooling a storage compartment (a freezing compartment or a refrigerating compartment) while repeating a freezing cycle.
The refrigerator includes a compressor, which compresses refrigerant, circulating through a freezing cycle, into high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant. The refrigerant, compressed in the compressor, cools air while passing through a heat exchanger, and the cooled air is supplied to the freezing compartment or the refrigerating compartment.
The refrigerator may have a configuration in which the freezing compartment is at the upper side and the refrigerating compartment is at the lower side. A side-by-side-type refrigerator may be configured such that the freezing compartment and the refrigerating compartment are arranged side by side on the left and right sides, respectively.
In addition, there is another type of refrigerator in which a single storage compartment, provided at the upper side or the lower side, may be opened by two doors, which are arranged side by side.
In the case where two doors are arranged side by side to open or close a single storage compartment, a pillar is installed on one of the two doors. The pillar is provided at any one of the two doors, and functions to increase the sealing efficiency of the storage compartment by coming into contact with the two doors when the two doors seal the storage compartment.
In the related art, in order to rotate the pillar, an inner case of the refrigerator is generally provided with a structure including a protrusion and a guide groove to guide the rotation of the pillar.
According to the related art, the structure for guiding the rotation of the pillar needs to protrude downwards from the upper side of the inner case, and thus a user experiences inconvenience when using the storage compartment.
In addition, in the state in which the door provided with the pillar seals the storage compartment, the pillar may block the path along which a drawer installed in the refrigerator moves because the pillar is moved away and unfolded from the corresponding door. Therefore, in the case where two drawers are arranged parallel to each other, the two drawers must have different widths.
In addition, in consideration of the fact that the pillar is in the unfolded state, in the case where a basket is installed in the door so as to be rotated together with the door, the basket requires a gently curved corner portion so as not to come into contact with the pillar, which may result in a reduction in the storage capacity of the basket.