US2800128A

US2800128A - Hinge for oven door

Info

Publication number: US2800128A
Application number: US405965A
Authority: US
Inventors: Cecil E Chesser
Original assignee: Sears Roebuck and Co
Current assignee: Sears Roebuck and Co
Priority date: 1954-01-25
Filing date: 1954-01-25
Publication date: 1957-07-23
Anticipated expiration: 1974-07-23

Description

July 23, 1957 c; E. cHEssER .1 2,

HINGE FOR OVEN DOOR Filed Jan. 25', 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 L il ,6]: 6.. BY Z ,7925% r y 23, 1957 c. E. CHESSER 2,800,128

HINGE FOR OVEN DOOR I Filed Jan. 25, 1954- I 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent HINGE OVEN DOOR Cecil E. Chesser, Hebron, Ohio, assignor to Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago, 11]., a corporation of New York I Application January 25, 1954, Serial No. 405,965 12 Cl'aims. (Cl. 126-191) My invention relates to hinges especially applicable to oven doors and the like, although. useful for cabinets generally having downwardly swinging doors.

Among the objects. of my invention are provision of a new and improved hinge for oven doors and like appliances which. will be especially simple in construction, quickly and easily assembled because subject to convenient sub-assembly, inexpensive to produce, and which will provide a fully balanced door in all positions. Thus, a door provided with my inmproved hinge can be opened and closed with a minimum of effort..

3 Another advantage of my invention isthat my improved hinge is preferably attached directly to the oven liner rather than tothe stove frame, as is commonly the case; hence, there is no substantialheat differential between the hinge and the parts. to which it is' attached and, therefore, a proper closure is provided by the door at all oventemperatures, avoiding. the difliculties usually encountered where. the door is hinged to the stove frame or other parts cooler than the oven. a

My invention will be best understood by reference to the drawings forming a part of this specification and illustrating a preferred embodiment of'myi-nvention, where- Fig. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view showing my improved hinge attached to a door and associated stove parts, the door being shown in partially open position;

Fig. 2 is a similar view with the door in fully closed position; i v

Fig. 3 is a similar view with the door fully open, and

Fig.4 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 44 of Fig. 3. r

The numeralindicates generally a stove or other cabinet and'more specifically a kitchen range, suchas a gas or electric range for cooking, baking, broiling, etc. Such a range as now commonly constructed has a skeleton frame, usually formed of structural metal, the numera1 12 indicating a vertical corner support and 13 being a horizontal structural member extending from front to rear and disposed at the bottom of an oven. The oven usually has a sheet metal liner 15, an outer panel of metal, with intermediate insulating material (not shown) being attached outside of the liner 15.

A door D is mounted at the front portion of the range and my invention is particularly concerned with the hinging mechanism for mounting the door on the range. (Although one hinge only is shown, it will be understood that, for best results, as to balance, the hinge construction will be duplicated on opposite sides of the door.) Attached to a side of the door D, as by means of screws and nuts 18, is an angular bracket 20 which may be of more or less Z- formation, as seen best in section in Fig. 4. Pivotally attached to the bracket 20 are a pair of arms or

links

23 and 25. These arms are preferably formed of stiff sheet metal, the arm 25 being of approximately U-formation and fixedly secured to the oven liner by any suitable means such as a screw, etc. as at 27. The arm 23 has a substan- 2,800,128 Patented July 23, 1957 ice . 2 tially straight portion 24 and an arcuate portion 24. The arm 25 has an extension 28 extending toward the door and adjacent this end, as at 29, itis pivotally secured to a lever 3,1, this. lever being attached to a tension-coil spring 33, as at 34.

Spring 33 is in turn attached at its opposite end to the stove frame at a point not seen in the drawings.

Arm 23 is pivotally attached to the bracket 20 as at 35 and at its opposite end, as indicated at 37, arm 23 is pivotally connected to a cam plate 40. I This cam plate has a convex arcuat'e dwell '42 with a slight reverse portion serving as a stop, as hereinafter described.

The lever 31 at one end has a slightly offset extension 45 which carries a roller bearing 47,, the latter normally engaging the dwell' of the cam plate 40 by reason of the tension. of spring 33 acting on lever 31. Another tension spring 48 attached to the support 12 of the stove frame as at 49 is secured to cam plate 40 as at 50, at such a point that the cam. may rotate about 45 degrees before the spring goes into tension, as seen in Figs. 1 and 3. 1 The cam plate 40 is provided with a keyhole slot 53 engageable withalstud 55 which is T-shaped in section, the head of the stud 55 overlying the edges of and being swiveled in the slot 53 and this stud 55 being carried by an ear 56 extending from the arm 25.

If desired, auxiliary tensioning meansof orthodox construction, and, therefore,"not shown, maybe attached to the lower portion of the door D and adjustably secured to the stove frame whereby closing tension on the door may be adjusted to compensate for warpage or the like.

It is believed that the operation of the construction just described will be clear. The door when closed will. assume a position substantially as shown in Fig. 2, together with tlre hinge and associated parts. When his desired to open the door, as seen in Fig. l, the gravity pull on the door will becompensated for by the tension of spring 33 acting through the lever 31 and cam. plate 40,. the latter reacting on the door through link 23. As the door moves farther open beyond the position shown in Fig; 1, auxiliary' sprin'g 48 goes into effect. These forces will continue with increasing effect until the door has assumed a fully open position as seen in Fig. 3. Obviously,

in closing the dooragainst. the pull of gravity, the tensional effectof the aforesaid. springs will work in favor of closing the door and in overcoming the effect of gravity.

I have found that oven doors equipped with my improved hinge operate. extremely smoothly in all positions, the door being, well balanced in all positions, so that it will remain in any angular position in which it is manually placed.

It should be noted, furthermore, that when the door is closed the roller 47 will be disposed in the concave portion 60 of the cam surface where the pressure of the roller tends to retain the door in closed position. Thus, the cam plate serves also as a closure stop by reason of V the slight humpthereon.

It should be noted, furthermore, that between the fully closed position of the door as seen in Fig. 2 and the partially open position as seen in Fig. 1 the auxiliary spring 48 exerts no force whatsoever, this springs tension coming into play only between the partially open position of Fig. l and the fully open position of Fig. 3, where gravity is most effective on the door, Whereas the tension of the main spring 33 is in force in substantially all positions of the door. This makes for especially smooth action and proper balance in all positions of the door.

It is again pointed out that, inasmuch as the hinge of my invention is attached directly to the oven liner rather than to the stove frame or other parts which will not receive the full heat of the oven, there wiill be substantially no heat differential between the hinge mechanism and the oven and hence the difficulties of proper closure which Hence, I do not wish to'be'lirnited to the specific embodiments shown and described or uses mentioned, but intend the same to be merely exemplary, the scope of my invention'being limited only by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination of a cabinet having a closure door and a hinge mounting said door on the cabinet on a horizontal axis at the bottom of the door, said hinge comprising a pair of arms pivoted at spaced points on the door, one of said arms being fixed to the cabinet, a cam pivoted at spaced points thereon to said arms, and a spring-biased lever pivotally carried by said one of said arms and acting on a surface of said cam and'therethrough against the other arm at such point, and in such direction on the operative surface of said cam as to counterbalance the door, said cam surface being so arranged that the counterbalancing eifect of .said spring-biased lever will increase in the course of opening movement of said door.

2. A combination as defined in claim 1 having an auxiliary springconnccted to the cam and the cabinet and normally ineffective when the door is closed and so arranged that it will becomeetl'ective as a counterbalancing force on the door only after the latter has been partially opened by a substantial amount.

3. A combination as defined in claim 2 wherein the auxiliary spring is attached at such a point on the cam that the spring will exert substantial tension-a1 force on the cam only after the latter has been rotated. about 45 from its position when the door is closed.

4. A combination as defined in claim 3 wherein said cam has a relatively long convex arcuate dwell and a relatively short concave dwell adjacent one end of the convex dwell, said spring biased lever having an antifriction member engaging the convex dwell during the opening of the door and engaging the concave dwell in i the closed position of the door, said concave dwell providing a relatively slight resistance to the opening of the door.

5. The combination of claim 1 wherein the cabinet is a cabinet oven, said oven having a sheet metal liner and said hinge being attached in heat-conductive relation to said liner.

6. A combination as defined in claim 1 wherein both of said arms have a substantially straight portion and a portion offset therefrom in the same direction, the olfset portions being attached to the door at points so' spaced that, when the door is fully open, thestraight portions will lie adjacent and substantially parallel to each other, whereby to provide a stop to limit opening movement of the door.

7. A combination as defined in claim 6 wherein said cam has a relatively long convex arcuate dwell and a relatively short concave dwell adjacent one end of the convex dwell, said spring biased lever having an antifriction member engaging the convex dwell during the opening of the door and engaging the concave dwell in the closed position of the door, said concave dwell providing a relatively slight resistance to the opening of the door.

8. A combination as defined in claim 1 having a bearing carried by said lever and engaging a surface of said cam in counteraction to the gravity effect on the door in open and partially open positions.

9. A combination as defined in claim 1 wherein the cam is attached to said one of said arms by means of a keyhole slot in one of the two last mentioned members and a stud in the other of said members. I

10. A combination as defined in claim 1 wherein said cam has a relatively. long convex arcuate dwell and a relatively short concave dwell adjacent one end of the convex dwell, said spring biased lever having an antifriction member engaging the convex dwell during the opening of the door and engaging the concave dwell in the closed position'of the door, said concave dwell providing a relatively slight resistance to the opening of the door- 11. A combination as defined in claim 1 wherein said cam has a relativelylong convex arcuate dwell eccentric to the axis of rotation of said cam, whereby, as the door is moved to maximum opening, the cam will disproportionately increase the counterbalancing spring resistance through its reaction against said spring biased lever.

12. A combination as defined in claim 1 wherein said cam has a relatively long convex arcuate dwell eccentric to the axis of rotation of said cam, whereby, as the door is moved to maximum opening, the cam will disproportionately increase the counterbalancing spring resistance through its reaction against said spring biased lever, and an auxiliary spring connected to the cam and the cabinet and normally ineffective when the door is closed and so arranged that it will become eifective as a counterbalancing force on the door only after the latter has been partially opened by 'a'substantial amount.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Davidson Aug. 12, 1947