EP0464695B1

EP0464695B1 - Microwave oven comprising equipment for discharging overflow

Info

Publication number: EP0464695B1
Application number: EP19910110700
Authority: EP
Inventors: Yung Hwa Kim
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 1990-06-30
Filing date: 1991-06-27
Publication date: 1996-10-16
Anticipated expiration: 2011-06-27
Also published as: EP0464695A3; DE69122676T2; EP0464695A2; DE69122676D1

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a microwave oven of the kind referred to in the pre-characterizing part of claim 1.

Description of the Related Art

In cooking a food to be boiled such as rice and a pot stew with a microwave oven, the cooking materials and water may be generally boiled over and fallen down to be scorched or burnt on the flat bottom of the cooking compartment by cooking heat.
A ventilation system for exhausting water vapor generated in the cooking compartment has been known from example Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open 78-44339, which discloses a microwave oven including a cabinet having a ceiling, which is provided with openings matched with exhaust openings in an oven ceiling, an exhaust opening plate formed with openings for preventing electric wave leakage and inserted in the oven ceiling, and a door formed with openable and shutable openings and having an upper end close to the openings in the cabinet ceiling and a lower end mounted on the oven ceiling. The microwave oven can, however, exhaust water vapor generated in the cooking compartment outwards, but can not discharge the cooking materials and water overflowed on the bottom of the cooking compartment .
Furthermore, Patent Abstracts of Japan, Vol. 014, No. 163 and JP-A-2 021 590 disclose an overflow discharger for a heating cooking utensil having a disconnectable receiving means and sloped down surfaces, so that the overflow easily flows into said receiving means.
In the existing microwave ovens, the overflows fallen on the bottom are left as they are to be scorched thereon by heating in the cooking compartment, requiring hard scrubbing to be removed. Moreover, in electrostatic focusing areas, the overflows may be burnt to generate sparking carbon particles leading to the shortened life and deteriorated reliablity of the system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a microwave oven enabling overflows in a cooking compartment to be drained out.
This object is solved by the features described in claim 1.
Particular embodiments of the invention are set out in the dependent claims 2 and 3.
The invention is described in detail below with reference to the drawings, in which :

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a microwave oven according to the invention;
Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the mounting of a receiving vessel on the microwave oven according to the invention;
Fig. 3 is a schematic sectional view illustrating the construction and function of the invention; and
Fig. 4 is a schematic front view of Fig. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As can be seen in Fig. 1, showing a microwave oven 1 according to the invention in a perspective view, a cooking compartment 2, whose door is removed to provide easy observation, has a bottom declined from the middle to the sides except for the region of a tray 8. The four sides of the bottom are formed with guide grooves 2a, and the front side has also a plurality of discharge openings formed therein. The guide grooves 2a in the right and left sides are declined from the rear side toward the front side to make it easy for overflows flooded over during cooking to find their way to the front side. Thereby, the overflows run down along the guide grooves 2a and are led to the front guide groove 2a.
The discharge openings (not shown in the figures) provided in the front guide groove 2a, which is the lowest one of the guide grooves 2a, discharge the overflows accumulated in the front guide groove 2a to outside of the microwave oven 1, and have a diameter less than 1cm to prevent high frequency radio waves from leakage.
To receive the overflow discharged through the discharge openings, a receiving vessel 4 is provided under the front end region of the microwave oven 1. The receiving vessel 4 is made from a material which can isolate penetration of high-frequency waves, and has a opened top side having a length and width enough to cover all of the discharge openings in the front guide groove 2a.
The mounting of the receiving vessel 4 on the microwave oven 1 is attained by a web 4a extended rearwards from the top side of the receiving vessel 4 along the longitudinal direction thereof, and a guide flange 3 having a cross section of "L" shape is correspondingly provided under the microwave oven 1 to be engaged with the web 4a. When mounting the receiving vessel 4 on the microwave oven 1, the receiving vessel 4 is inserted into the guide flange 3 with its web 4a from the right or left side of the microwave oven 1. To this end, the right or left end of the guide flange 3 is opened to allow the insertion of the receiving vessel 4 and the other end is closed to form a stopper wall 7 for defining the insertion position. In addition, under the front end region of the microwave oven 1, a supporting flange 9 is provided being analog with but opposite to the guide flange 3 to prevent the receiving vessel 4 from escaping from the guide flange 3.
The depth of the receiving vessel 4 shall be naturally lower than that of legs of the microwave oven 1, so that it can be easily mounted on or dismounted from the microwave oven 1 left on a table.
The device according to the invention for discharging overflows in cooking compartment 2, having the construction as described above, functions as follows:
A cooking ware 5 provided with a cover 6 and containing food to be boiled such as rice or pot stews is put on the tray 8 in the cooking compartment 2 to be heated by turning-on the microwave oven. With the lapse of time, the heated water and cooking materials come to the point of boiling over to overflow on to the base of the cooking compartment 2, as shown in Fig. 3.
The fallen overflow of the water and cooking material run down the declined base to the four guide grooves 2a and then along the also both declined side guide grooves 2a to accumulate in the front guide groove 2a. The overflow reached in the front guide groove 2a is discharged through the discharge openings to be received by the receiving vessel 4 provided under the space of the front guide groove 2a.
The receiving vessel 4 slidably mounted in the guide flange 3 by its web 4a can be easily dismantled therefrom, so that the user can do away with the accumulated overflow therein on demands and then slide it into the guide flange 3 to remount it. The supporting flange 9 formed opposite to the guide flange 3 prevents the inserted receiving vessel 4 from moving forward.
The receiving vessel 4 may also have different constructions from the illustrated embodiment, for example a front drawing out and pushing back mechanism in the mounting, an application of discharging tubes extended from the discharge openings to an exterior receiving vessel.
As stated above, the equipment according to the invention enables overflow, flooded over from the cooking ware in cooking to be run down along the bottom sides of the cooking compartment 2 to the receiving vessel 4 under the microwave oven 1, so that the cooking compartment 2 keeps clean and the overflow can no longer be scorched or burnt.

Claims

A microwave oven (1) with a cooking compartment (2) and a tray (8) supporting a cooking ware (5) in the cooking compartment, characterized in that:
the bottom of said cooking compartment (2) declines from its middle to its sides except for the region of said tray (8);

guide grooves (2a) are formed along said sides of said bottom to receive fluid materials, one of said guide grooves (2a) being formed deeper than the others;

a plurality of discharge openings having a diameter of less than 1 cm are formed in said deeper guide groove and lead downwards to the outside of said cooking compartment (2);

receiving means (4) are provided under said cooking compartment (2) covering said discharge openings to receive said fluid materials therethrough; and

a supporting means (3, 9) is formed under said compartment (2) for supporting said receiving means (4).
A microwave oven according to claim 1, wherein said guide grooves (2a) running down to said deeper guide groove (2a) are declined toward said deeper guide groove (2a).
A microwave oven according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the supporting means consist of a set of guiding flanges (3, 9).