1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerators and, more particularly, to a storage bin assembly for retaining articles on a door of a refrigerator.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is well known in the art of refrigerated appliances to form doors having inner liners that are provided with structure to support storage units for retaining various food containers. Typically, the storage units are in the form of fixed or removable bins that are supported by the door. The removable bins can be arranged at various positions on the inner liner to provide adequate spacing for food items and containers having varying heights.
In many cases, the bins are of a unitary construction and typically injection molded from plastic. In other cases, the bins are formed from multiple pieces that enable designers to construct creative shapes and/or tailor the bins to meet particular consumer tastes. Multiple-piece bins generally take the form of a base portion to which is attached a unique facade. The facade can either be opaque or transparent and shaped or formed with various designs that enable the bin to blend or otherwise compliment aesthetic features present in the refrigerator.
The prior art contains a number of examples of multi-piece bins, as well as methods of attaching a facade to a base portion. Ideally, the base portion is designed so as to cooperate with a wide range of appliance platforms and to accept a wide variety of facades. In this manner, a single base portion can be employed to create a number of different storage bin configurations for use in various appliance models. The prior art contains examples of securing facades to the base portion through use of adhesives, sonic welding or through a simple snap-in arrangement. While each method has a particular advantage, the snap-in arrangement results in lower manufacturing costs.
Despite the existence of multi-piece storage bins in the prior art, there still exists a need for simple, cost effective and robust mounting arrangements for securing facades to bases of multi-piece storage bins.