EP1995523A1

EP1995523A1 - Improvement in the adjustment of the door of a cooking oven

Info

Publication number: EP1995523A1
Application number: EP07108948A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Mirko Capacci
Original assignee: Electrolux Home Products Corp NV
Current assignee: Electrolux Home Products Corp NV
Priority date: 2007-05-25
Filing date: 2007-05-25
Publication date: 2008-11-26
Anticipated expiration: 2027-05-25
Also published as: ATE503154T1; DE602007013368D1; EP1995523B1

Abstract

The present invention refers to a cooking oven, which is provided with a cooking cavity and a related door hinged on a vertical side edge thereof, a control panel arranged above said door on the same plane thereof, means supporting at least at least one hinge located on a corresponding vertical side edge of said door, and securing it in a stable manner to the structure of the oven, said means comprising: a plate member applied vertically on to the vertical side flank of said oven and firmly secured at a lower end portion thereof to said side flank, and means adapted to adjust the distance between the upper end portion of said plate member and said vertical side flank of the oven.

Said distance adjusting means comprise a first internally threaded through-bore extending through said plate member, and a screw member adapted to be inserted in and engage said first internally threaded bore in an adjustable manner, whose end portion facing said vertical side flank is adapted to be selectively pressed against said side flank or rotated so as to reduce its pressure thereagainst.

Description

The present invention refers to an improved kind of oven for cooking food, preferably intended for home use, comprising a laterally opening door for gaining access into and closing the cooking cavity of such oven.
While reference is specially made throughout the following description to a food cooking oven of the built-in type, it will nevertheless be appreciated that what is being explained, illustrated and generally set forth in the same specification shall be understood as equally applying to - and thus used in - food cooking oven that is integrated in a free-standing cooking appliance that includes both a cooking oven and a cooking surface, i.e. a cooktop.
The ovens, which the present invention refers to, are largely known as such in the art, as they are for instance described in the German utility model specification DE 20 2004 003 997 U1 .
These ovens are generally characterized in that they are provided with:

a laterally, i.e. sidewise opening door, that is therefore provided with two hinges arranged vertically above each other along a side edge of the same door used to provide access into and close the cooking cavity of the oven, and
a control panel, the surface of which is situated vertically above said door used to provide access into and close the cooking cavity of the oven, as aligned with the vertical plane of such door.

As a result, as particularly illustrated in Figure 1, a groove 1 practically forms between the upper edge of the door and the lower edge of said control panel, which looks out as a split or slit separating said two parts from each other horizontally.
Since these ovens are manufactured using such techniques and materials as they are generally employed in mass-production applications, and considering the rather sizeable manufacturing and construction tolerances that have to be allowed in such applications, it most frequently occurs that the door and the control panel of these ovens are mounted with some slight differences in the inclination thereof relative to a horizontal plane, as this is shown schematically in Figure 1.
Such differences - albeit quite slight in absolute terms - must however be appreciated and confronted with, i.e. seen against the background of the average width of the above-mentioned groove existing between the door and the control panel thereabove, so that they are generally perceived as being rather great in relative terms.
Furthermore, since these ovens are usually installed at eye level, i.e. at the height of the eyes of the user, it also ensues that such groove extending horizontally between the door and the control panel is automatically, albeit unintentionally, observed close up each time the oven is used.
It therefore becomes a matter of course and a basically instinctive fact for the user to notice whether such groove is more or less regular or is rather slightly sloping, thereby immediately revealing the existence of a difference in the inclination, i.e. a deviation in the correct alignment of the door with the control panel, or vice-versa.
It has also been noticed that any irregularity that may be perceived in the way in which such groove extends between the door and the control panel of an oven, although fully unimportant from a functional point of view, nevertheless tends to arouse an impression of poor quality in the user, and this impression tends in turn to be most immediately extended over to the entire oven and the overall operation thereof.
In an effort to do away with this drawback, various techniques have been introduced to enable the height or the inclination of the oven door to be adjusted. For example, the solution proposed in the afore-cited publication DE 20 2004 003 997 U1 is based on adjusting the height of the door relative to the pins, which it is hinged on, through the insertion of proper kinds of washers between the hinge members attached to the door and said same pins.
This solution, although quite effective and fitting for adjusting the height of the door relative to the structure of the oven as far as solely a translatory displacement thereof is concerned, has however been found to be fully ineffective and useless when it comes to adjusting the inclination of such door relative to a horizontal plane and, therefore, adjusting and setting the regularity of the width of the afore-mentioned groove between the same door and the control panel thereabove.
It would therefore be desirable, and it is actually a main purpose of the present invention, to provide an oven for food cooking applications, which is provided with a side-hinged door, in which there are provided adjustment means adapted to enable the sole inclination of the door relative to the horizontal plane to be adjusted in a simple and effective manner upon such door having been mounted to close the cooking cavity of the oven.
According to the present invention, these aims, along with further ones that will become apparent from the following disclosure, are reached in a kind of cooking oven provided with a sidewise opening door that incorporates the features and characteristics as defined and recited in the appended claims.
Advantages and features of the present invention will anyway be more readily understood from the description that is given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is an outer view of a typical alignment imperfection occurring between the control panel and the door of a cooking oven according to the prior art;
Figure 2 is an outer perspective view of a side of an oven provided with an adjustment plate according to the present invention;
Figure 3 is an enlarged view of a detail of Figure 2;
Figure 4 is a plan front view of the oven-door adjustment means according to the present invention, as shown in a symbolical, exemplary representation;
Figure 5 is a perspective view of a part of the arrangement shown in Figure 3, according to the present invention;
Figure 6 illustrates an operating mode of the arrangement according to the present invention shown in Figure 3;
Figure 7 is a plan cross-sectional view, extending parallel to the oven door, of the adjustment means according to the present invention.

With reference to Figure 1, a food cooking oven according to the present invention comprises:

a cooking cavity capable of being closed by a door 2 that is hinged on a vertical side edge 3 thereof, and
a control or facia panel 4 arranged above said door on the same plane thereof.

While reference is made throughout the following description to a control panel located to extend above the oven door, it will nevertheless be appreciated that the present invention equally applies to control panels located to extend below the door.
With reference to Figures 2 and 3, in order to support the door and enable it to rotate, the oven also comprises support means, as usually formed of a plate 5 extending heightwise and securely applied on the side of the oven, namely on the same side on which there are located the hinges enabling the door to rotate sidewise.
Such plate 5 is usually provided with a plurality of pins or pivots 9 protruding towards the front portion of the oven by the side of the door 2, wherein these pins are used as pivots intended to be engaged by appropriate engagement means, typically hinges that are firmly secured to the corresponding vertical side edge of the door for the latter to be able to turn thereabout.
According to the present invention, such plate 5 is secured at least at a point thereof, namely at a lower end portion 6 that is connected to the lower portion of the corresponding side flank 7 of the oven (wherein the term oven is in this case used to mean the outer wall of the cooking cavity).
The upper end portion 8 is on the contrary not fully adhering against the same side flank 7, but is rather opening out slightly, i.e. diverging slightly away therefrom; it is furthermore provided with adjustable spacer means that enable the distance of said upper end portion 8 from said side flank 7 to be increased or reduced in a pre-established manner.
As a result, by taking advantage the fact that said lower end portion 6 is firmly secured to the same side flank 7 it will be possible - when said adjustable spacer means are acted upon accordingly - for said plate to be caused to rotate, albeit to a small extent, about said lower end portion 6, which therefore works as a pivot, as illustrated exemplarily in Figure 4.
In addition, since said lower and upper end portions 6 and 8 of said plate 5 are arranged vertically relative to each other, those skilled in the art will be able to readily appreciate that, when the distance d (see Figure 6) of the upper end portion 8 of the plate 5 to the side flank 7 is in this way varied even slightly, the same plate rotates to a corresponding slight extent about the lower end portion 6 thereof, which practically works as a pivot.
Since also a related hinging pivot 9 for the rotation of the door 2 is applied close by said upper end portion 8 of the plate 5 (see Figure 3), it can further be most readily appreciated that a variation in the distance d of said upper end portion 8 of the plate to the side of the oven gives rise to a corresponding rotation of the plate 5 and - as a result - also a rotation of the hinging pivot 9 located close by and, ultimately, a rotation of the same door 2, which in fact is hinged on such pivot 9, about a horizontal axis X (see Figures 2 and 4) extending parallel to said side flank 7 and, therefore, orthogonal to the plane of said door 2 when the latter is closed.
The basic aim of the present invention is in this way reached, since appropriately setting the distance of said upper end portion 8 from the side flank 7 of the oven is practically all it takes for the inclination of said door 2 on the horizontal plane and, as a result, the width and - above all - a possible angulation of the groove 1 formed between the door 2 and the control or facia panel 4 to be adjusted accordingly.
The present invention may moreover be embodied in a number of different manners, as well as be the subject of a number of further improvements, as exemplarily set forth below:

according to a preferred embodiment (Figure 3), said adjustment means are provided to comprise a first internally threaded through-bore 10 extending through said plate 5, as well as a screw member 11 (Figures 3, 5) adapted to be inserted in and engage said through-bore; as a result, when the position of such screw member 11 in said through-bore is adjusted by screwing/unscrewing it (Figure 6), the screw member itself is inserted to a greater or smaller depth into the through-bore 10, so that, when abutting against said flank 7 and pressing thereagainst accordingly, the tip portion 12 of said screw member 11 causes the distance of the plate to the flank to be adjusted by the simple mechanical reaction of said upper end portion 8 of the plate.

Such mechanism is also naturally favoured by the fact that the plate 5 - owing to its being usually made of metal - has of course an inherent elastic property in response to a bending stress imposed upon the upper end portion 8 relative to the lower end portion 6 acting as the resisting member.
With particular reference to Figures 3 and 7, an advantageous improvement may be derived from the fact that second internally threaded through- bores 20, 21 are provided in said plate 5, as preferably arranged close to said first internally threaded through-bore 10, whereas the flank 7 is correspondingly provided with third threaded bores 22, 23 corresponding to said second bores 20, 21.
These pairs of corresponding, i.e. matching bores 20, 22 and 21, 23 are adapted to be mutually engaged by respective screws or bolts 24 and 25.
As a result, the possibility is thereby created for the sidewise inclination of the oven door 2 to be first adjusted by acting on the afore-mentioned screw member 11 accordingly, and the position thus taken by the plate 5 and, therefore, the door 2 itself to be then firmly and definitively set by causing said pairs of corresponding bores 20, 22 and 21, 23 to mutually engage by means of said respective screws or bolts 24 and 25, thereby preventing the door from becoming again inclined as it keeps being used.
It may also be readily appreciated that the present invention will provide an optimum solution to the afore-cited problem when an hinging pivot 9 of the door is located close by said first internally threaded through-bore 10, since the rotational movement of the plate 5 would in this case be fully transferred onto said pivot 9 and, therefore, would fully translate into a corresponding adjustment of the sidewise inclination of the door.

Claims

Food cooking oven comprising:
- a cooking cavity,

- a door (2) provided to close said cooking cavity and hinged on a vertical side edge (3) thereof,

- a control or facia panel (4), preferably arranged above said door on the same plane thereof,

- support means adapted to support at least one hinge located on a corresponding vertical side edge of said door, and secure it in a stable manner to the structure of the oven,
characterized in that said support means comprise:

- a plate member (5) applied vertically on to the vertical side flank (3) of said oven and firmly secured at a lower or upper end portion (6, 8) thereof to said side flank, and

- adjustment means adapted to adjust the distance of the lower or upper end portion (6, 8), respectively, of said plate member to said vertical side flank of the oven.
Cooking oven according to claim 1, characterized in that said distance adjusting means comprise:
- a first internally threaded through-bore (10) extending through said plate member (5), and

- a screw member (11) adapted to be inserted in and engage said first internally threaded through-bore (10) in an adjustable manner, wherein its tip portion (12) facing said vertical side flank (7) is adapted to be selectively brought into abutting and pressing against said side flank, or rotated so as to reduce its pressure thereagainst.
Cooking oven according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said plate member (5) is provided with one or more second internally threaded and correspondingly engageable through-bores (20, 21), and said corresponding vertical side flank (7) is in turn provided with corresponding third internally threaded locking through-bores (22, 23), wherein all said bores are adapted to receive respective threaded means, preferably screws or bolts (24, 25to receive respective threaded means, preferably screws or bolts (24, 25), which join said plate member with said corresponding vertical side flank.
Cooking oven according to claim 3, characterized in that said second internally threaded and correspondingly engageable through-bores (20, 21) are arranged close by said first internally threaded through-bore (10).
Cooking oven according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said hinge comprises at least a vertical-axis pivoting pin (9) that is connected to said plate member (5) in a stable manner and is arranged in a position close by said first internally threaded through-bore (10).