KITCHEN FURNITURE WITH A PIVOTING TOP COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR AN INNOVATION PATENT Applicant: FAB KITCHENS PTY LTD Inventor: Nohad D'Alessandro Address for service: Mari Kiuru, 4/10 Rawson Street, Mosman NSW 2088 Invention title: KITCHEN FURNITURE WITH A PIVOTING TOP 1 KITCHEN FURNITURE WITH A PIVOTING TOP Technical Field This application relates to kitchen furniture. In particular, this application relates to a cooking surface having a working surface acting as a cover for the cooking surface. 5 Background Art Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field. 10 Kitchen furniture typically includes one or more working surfaces so that food can be prepared before cooking or kitchen utensils or foodstuff can be placed while working in the kitchen. Such surfaces take up a considerable amount of space. In the outdoors, many barbeques and grills include a little side table for this purpose. 15 However, such side tables tend to be very small, often of folding structure supported by the wheeled frame of the barbeque. These types of barbeques and grills typically also have a lid that provides an enclosed cooking chamber and allows the heat to circulate around the food as it 20 cooks. Another purpose of the lid is to keep the grill clean from dust and dirt. A popular trend is to build outdoor entertainment areas where the barbeque is a part of a built-in cooking area. Outdoor kitchens typically include a barbeque, maybe some food or drink storage space and even a tap and a sink for cleaning up purposes. 25 Outdoor kitchens are commonly built under a roofing but nevertheless have covers that protect the kitchen from outdoor elements such as rain, dust and dirt. Barbeque covers are commonly made of heat and water resistant fabric that are relatively lightweight so that the wind can cause damage and dislodge the cover. Barbeque covers also tend to get dirty easily and they are difficult to clean. 30 2 Summary It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art, or to provide a useful alternative. 5 According to the present invention there is provided a kitchen assembly comprising a cooking surface defining a horizontal plane and a substantially parallel working surface connected to the cooking surface by a pivot arrangement. The working surface is pivotable between a first closed position wherein the working surface overlies the cooking surface and a second open position wherein the cooking surface 10 is exposed for use. In an embodiment, the cooking surface is the top surface of a freestanding cooking module. According to an embodiment, the working surface is supported by one or more floor supports and the pivot arrangement. 15 According to an embodiment, the one or more floor supports has at least one wheel. According to an embodiment, the kitchen assembly further comprises at least one spacer located between cooking surface and the working surface proximal the pivot arrangement. 20 Brief Description of Drawings Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a side view of an embodiment of the kitchen assembly when the working surface is in its first closed position overlying the cooking surface; 25 Figure 2 shows, schematically, an embodiment of the kitchen assembly in its first closed position; Figure 3 shows, schematically, an embodiment of the kitchen assembly in its second open position wherein the cooking surface is exposed; 3 Figure 4 shows a top view of the kitchen assembly with the pivoting working surface; and Figure 5 shows a cross-sectional side view of the pivoting connection between the working surface and the cooking surface in another embodiment of the kitchen 5 assembly. Detailed Description of Embodiments Figure 1 depicts an outdoor kitchen assembly 20 having a cooking surface 10, and a pivoting working surface 12. The cooking surface 10, such as a grill or a burner, is 10 part of a freestanding cooking module 14 in an outdoor kitchen assembly. The working surface 12 is planar and sized so that it substantially covers the cooking surface 10 of the cooking module 14 (seen in Figure 4). The working surface 12 is supported over the cooking module 14 parallel to the substantially horizontal cooking surface 10 by two support members. The first support member is a floor 15 support 18 and the second support member is a pivot arrangement 16 that allows the working surface 12 to pivot between a first closed position, shown in Figures 1 and 2, and a second open position, shown in Figure 3. The pivot arrangement 16 allows the working surface 12 to be pivoted about an axis 20 A (Figure 1). In the embodiment seen in Figures 1 to 3, the pivot 22 is an elongate element such as a rod or a bolt disposed substantially vertically between the working surface 12 and the cooking surface 10. The top end of the pivot 22 is connected to the working surface 12 and the lower end of the pivot 22 is connected to the cooking surface 10 of the cooking module 14. One or more spacers 24 are inserted between 25 the cooking surface 10 and the working surface 12. The one or more spacers 24 prevent the working surface 12 from touching and scratching the cooking surface 10. In its first closed position, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, the working surface 12 overlies the cooking surface 10. The cooking surface 10 comprises a barbeque or a 30 grill, or any other type of burner suitable for cooking or grilling food. The grill or the burner is housed by the cooking module 14 so that the top surface of the grill is 4 recessed or flush with the rest of the cooking surface 10 of the cooking module 14. This enables the working surface 12 to be placed parallel to the cooking surface in close proximity to prevent the ingress of dirt or dust on the grill of the cooking surface 10. The cooking module 14 may include a variety of different kitchen 5 equipment such as food or drinks storage or a tap and a sink. In this embodiment, the cooking module 14 includes a tap (not shown in the accompanying figures) together with a recessed sink. The tap is a folding tap that can be folded down into the sink for storing. When the tap is folded down into the sink, no part of the tap or the sink is higher than the cooking surface 10 of the cooking module 14 allowing the working 10 surface 12 to slide on top of the cooking module 14 along arrows 34 (Figure 4). When the working surface 12 is in its closed position, the floor support 18 of the working surface 12 is located on one side of the cooking module 14 forming a lateral part of the kitchen assembly 20 as seen in Figures 1 and 2. With reference to Figure 15 4, it can be seen that the distance from the pivot point or the pivot arrangement 16 to the attachment point of the floor support 18 of the working surface 12 must be longer than the distance from the pivot 16 to point B of the cooking surface 10 (point B being a point on the cooking surface that is furthest away from the pivot arrangement 16) so that the floor support may pivot around the cooking surface 10. In this 20 example, the floor support 18 is a rectangular support plate located at the end of the working surface 12 (seen in Figures 2 and 3). However, the floor support or floor supports 18 may be of any suitable shape. In this example, the floor support 18 and the working surface are made of the same material and are substantially the same width (w) and thickness (d) so as to provide a seemingly continuous surface from the 25 horizontal top of the working surface 12 down towards the floor as a vertical floor support. The floor support 18 rests on the floor or the ground via one or more wheels (not shown in the accompanying drawings). The one or more wheels or rollers are 30 preferably mounted inside the floor support 18 so that they keep the floor support slightly above the floor but are not seen when a person is standing up and looking down to the floor. The wheels prevent the floor support 18 from touching and 5 scratching the floor. The wheels also reduce the friction between the floor support 18 and the floor and allow pivoting of the working surface with ease. The working surface 12 is pivoted to its second open position by swivelling the 5 working surface 12 about the pivot 22. When the working surface is in its second open position, the cooking surface 10 and the grill are exposed and can be used for cooking. In addition, the tap of the cooking module 14 can be straightened and used as desired by the user. Furthermore, the working surface 12 can be continued to be used for food preparation but it can also be used as a table for eating. 10 Figure 5 illustrates a cross-sectional side view of a second embodiment of the pivot arrangement 16 of the kitchen assembly 20. In this embodiment, the pivot 22 is a turn table that allows pivoting of the working surface 12 about an axis A. The turn table has a ball bearing 28. The ball bearing 28 is housed by support plates 30 having 15 a trough for the ball bearing race. The turn table is attached to the cooking surface 10 and the working surface 12 via wooden support frames or plates 32. The wooden support is preferably connected to the cooking surface by an adhesive, and the turn table is attached to the wooden support 32 by suitable bolts or screws. In the embodiment of Figure 5, the working surface 12 is attached to the top of the turn 20 table 30 by bolts 32 which hold the working surface above the cooking surface 10. The bolts 32 and the one or more spacers 24 ensure the separation between the cooking surface 10 and the working surface 12. The weight of the working surface is held by the turn table and the floor support 18 (not shown in Figure 5). 25 The advantage of the present invention is that it allows more working surface area in an outdoor kitchen. It also allows combining cooking and eating by enabling working surface to function as a breakfast bar that can be used for eating as well as for food preparation. It is a further advantage of the present invention that the working surface acts as a cover for the outdoor cooking module when the cooking 30 surface is not being used. The working surface protects the cooking surface from the weather conditions and dust. It is easy to keep clean and safe to use.
6 It will be appreciated that although the described embodiment refers to an outdoor kitchen assembly the pivoting working surface can be used in an indoor kitchen assembly in a similar manner. It should also be noted that the cooking module could be a traditional cart-grill type barbeque and the pivoting working surface could 5 connected to the frame of this type of barbeque. Furthermore, the working surface may have any desired shape so long as the support floor support 18 is at such a distance from the pivot 22 that the working surface 12 can be pivoted around the cooking module 14. 10 Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment", "some embodiments" or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment", "in some embodiments" or "in an embodiment" in various places throughout this 15 specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinarily skill in the art from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments. 20 As used herein, unless otherwise specified the use of ordinal adjectives "first", "second", "third", etc., to describe a common object, merely indicate that different instances of like objects are referred to, and are not intended to imply that the objects so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally, spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner. 25 In the claims below and the description herein, any one of the terms comprising, comprised of or which comprises is an open term that means including at lest the elements/features that follow, but not excluding others. Thus, the term comprising, when used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being limitative to the means or 30 elements or steps listed thereafter. For example, the scope of the expression a device comprising A and B should not be limited to devices consisting only of elements A and B. Any one of the terms including or which includes or that includes as used 7 herein is also an open term that also means including at lest the elements/features that follow the term, but not excluding others. Thus, including is synonymous with and means comprising. 5 It should be appreciated that in the above description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, various features of the invention are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, FIG., or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. This method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as reflecting an 10 intention that the claimed invention requires more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less that all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus the claims following the Detailed Description are hereby expressly incorporate into this Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment 15 of this invention. Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include some but not other features included in other embodiments, combination of features of different embodiments, as would be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in the 20 following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any combination. In the description provided herein, numerous specific details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments of the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques 25 have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of this description. Similarly, it is to be noticed that the term coupled, when used in the claims, should not be interpreted as being limited to direct connections only. The terms "coupled" 30 and "connected", along with their derivatives, may be used. It should be understood that these terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. Thus the scope of the expression a device A coupled to a device B should not be limited to devices or 8 systems wherein an output of device is directly connected to an input of device B. It means that there exists a path between an output of A and an input of B which may be a path including other devices or means. "Coupled" may mean that two or more elements are either in direct physical or electrical contact, or that two or more 5 elements are not in direct contact with each other but yet still co-operate or interact with each other. Thus, while there has been described what are believed to be the preferred embodiments of the invention, those skilled in the art will recognize that other and 10 further modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit of the invention, and it is intended to claim all such changes and modifications as falling within the scope of the invention. For example, any formulas given above are merely representative of procedures that may be used. Functionality may be added or deleted from the block diagrams and operations may be interchanged among 15 functional blocks. Steps may be added or deleted to methods described within the scope of the invention. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the disclosure as shown in the specific embodiments 20 without departing from the scope of the disclosure as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.