EP2090831A1

EP2090831A1 - Oven door

Info

Publication number: EP2090831A1
Application number: EP08002598A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bernd Heisswolf; Harald Pörner; Christoph Walther; Klaus Wälzlein
Original assignee: Electrolux Home Products Corp NV; AEG Hausgeraete GmbH
Current assignee: Electrolux Home Products Corp NV
Priority date: 2008-02-13
Filing date: 2008-02-13
Publication date: 2009-08-19
Anticipated expiration: 2028-02-13
Also published as: EP2090831B1

Abstract

The invention relates to a door (1) for closing a cooking cavity of an oven, especially of a household oven, with a first unit (2) and a second unit (3) characterized in that one unit (2, 3) is guided by at least one detachable or releasable connection means, in particular snapping and/or plugging and/or sliding means, in the other unit (2, 3), and at least one unit (2, 3) is provided with at least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B), which is connected in a closed position of the door (1) to an air suction area of the oven.

Description

The present invention relates to a door for closing a cooking cavity of an oven, especially of a household oven, with a first unit and a second unit.
For ovens, several types of doors for closing cooking cavities compromising a first unit and a second unit are known in the state of the art. However, it is also desired to prevent that the outer surface of the door heats up too much when the oven is in use. This improves the comfort when cooking and the decreases the risk of getting burned, especially for children. Furthermore, it is important that the door can be produced, maintained and cleaned in an easy way.
DE 84 13 224 U1 describes an oven door, with a front cover which comprises feather elements directed towards the inner door part to connect the front part with the inner part. The inner part is made from sheet metal in one piece. This piece contains the inner window and the door frame. The frame part of the inner part comprises openings in order to connect the inner part with feather elements of the front part. The feather elements snap into these openings for connection, and can be released for disassembling the door parts. To produce these complex door parts, however, is very time consuming. Further, sheet metal does not meet the durability requirements of a modern oven door. Also, the outer surface of the door is not cooled or isolated.
DE 101 63 150 shows an oven door where the plates are connected through corner elements and horizontal and vertical elements. All these elements constitute a door frame in an assembled condition of the door. One disadvantage of this oven door is that there is no ventilation of the interior space possible. The exactly aligned horizontal and vertical elements complicate the assembling of the door. Finally, these pieces are expensive to produce.
In DE 199 06 747 A1 , an oven door is shown whose inner plate can be removed. The door has an upper and lower horizontal element. Between the upper horizontal element and an upper end element a pivotal point for turning the inner plate is arranged. The inner plate is connected with the lower horizontal element which snaps in a connection part of the feather element to fix the door plates. This enables the inner plate to be fold out, but the inner plate cannot be taken out. For this design, a lot of different parts are necessary, which are expensive and time consuming in their manufacture. Finally, for this door no ventilation is provided.
DE 696 09 223 T2 shows an oven door with a detachable device. Side bars build a frame on the inner plate. On these bars and the frame of the outside part connection elements are arranged, so that these two devices can be snapped together. Guiding elements on both devices provide the correct assembling. This connection is detachable. The main disadvantage is that the devices are connected only though single points. So this connection is not very durable. There is no possibility of inserting an additional inside plate.
Therefore it is an object of the invention to provide a door for closing a cooking cavity of an oven, especially a household oven which offers ventilation for cooling the door and which is easy to assemble, to repair and to clean.
The solution of this object according to the invention is achieved by a door according to claim 1 and an oven according to claim 16. Advantageous embodiments are described particularly in the dependant claims.
According to claim 1, a door is provided for closing a cooking cavity of an oven, especially a household oven, with a first unit and a second unit characterized in that one unit is guided by at least one detachable or releasable connection means, in particular snapping and/or plugging and/or sliding means, in the other unit, and at least one unit is provided with at least one opening for ventilation, which is connected in a closed position of the door to an air suction area of the oven.
This makes it possible to use the air which is sucked into the oven for cooling also for cooling the outer surface of the door. In other words, the ambient air is cooling the outer surface of the door at first and then cooling the surrounding area of the cooking cavity. The detachable or releasable connection means facilitate production, maintenance as well as cleaning of the door.
Preferably, the first unit is an outer unit and contains a front plate, two vertical elements arranged in parallel on the front plate and at least one inside plate arranged between the vertical elements. This enables a compact and stable structure of the front plate and the at least one inside plate which is, in addition, mountable in an easy way.
Preferably, the second unit is an inner unit and contains an inner plate and a frame, which extends over the side areas and the upper transversal area of the inner plate. By this, the structure which is carrying the at least one inside plate can be covered so that dirt can be reduced. If dirt intrudes nevertheless, it can be easily removed after detaching or releasing the connection of the two units.
Preferably, the at least one opening for ventilation is arranged close to the upper transversal area of the inner plate. This makes it possible to ventilate the plates up to their upper end.
Preferably, the at least one opening for ventilation is located in the same plane or at the same level as the inner plate, that means they are directed towards the oven when the door is locked. The air suction area of the oven, which is the area where the at least one ventilation opening normally leads to, can advantageously be arranged over the cooking cavity. As an alternative, it is possible to arrange the at least one opening for ventilation in the inner plate. This is possible particularly if the inner plate covers the cooking cavity and the air suction area.
According to a preferred embodiment, the at least one opening for ventilation extends in a horizontal direction over about the width of the inside plates. That provides a maximum cross sectional area of the air flow, and improves the cooling of the oven door. Alternatively, two or more openings for ventilation can be arranged side by side so that the air flow can disperse over the whole cross sectional area advantageously.
Preferably, the at least one opening for ventilation is arranged between the upper transversal area of the frame and the inner plate. It is possible that this is provided through a distance or gap between these two parts.
According to a preferred embodiment, the at least one opening for ventilation is arranged in a separate ventilation bar, which is preferably placed between the transversal frame part and the inner plate. The ventilation bar preferably extends also into the inside of the door, which stabilises the complete door construction. Furthermore, the air flow can advantageously lead from the door inside to the air suction area of the oven through the ventilation bar without any turbulences.
Preferably, the at least one opening for ventilation is arranged in an extension of the frame which adjoins the inner plate at the level of the cooking cavity. In this area of the frame part, the openings for ventilation can be inserted.
The interior area of the door has preferably at least one opening or opens towards the bottom, so that ambient air can be sucked in from the surrounding environment outside the oven.
Preferably, the ventilation of the door is provided by an air flow, which gets sucked in from the bottom, is lead through the inside of the door and directed through the at least one opening for ventilation to the air suction area of the oven. In a preferred embodiment, the air flow cross section stays at least approximately the same inside the door. Preferably, the vertical connection elements are arranged in the side areas of the unit, so that the air flow has no barriers to bypass and can be easily guided without turbulences from the bottom of the door to the upper openings for ventilation.
Preferably, the second unit is mounted on the first unit.
Preferably, the frame is guided by at least one connection means in the vertical elements of the first unit. Preferably, the connection of the two units is realized with at least one bayonet connection. To connect the two units, preferably one unit is put on the other at first and then the two units are slided against each other, so that shaped connection means of one unit can reach into corresponding recesses, the bayonet openings or recesses, of the other unit. Preferably, several connection means are arranged on each side of the units which can be connected at the same time so that the two units can be connected easily one the one hand but also establish a stable connection on the other hand.
Preferably, the shaped connection means snap into a final position, which is the position when both units form the assembled door, in corresponding gaps to establish and fix the connection of the two units.
This connection can be unfixed by opening the snapping connection and sliding one unit out of the bayonet guides. So the door can be disjoined in its main parts, the two door units, for cleaning or maintenance.
Preferably, the door frame is made at least essentially of metal. In a preferred embodiment, the door frame is made at least essentially of steel. This has the advantage that the frame can be cleaned particularly easily and the connection of the two units is very durable. It is also possible to have only parts of the frame made of metal. However, this invention is not limited to the use of metal for the frame, instead of metal any other suitable material can be taken. The plates are usually made of glass or other transparent material.
Preferably, the first unit comprises at least one snapping device, particularly a snapping hook,
where the second unit comprises at least one opening, particularly with a rectangular shape,
where the snapping device is releasably pushable into the opening to connect the first unit and the second unit. This enables an easy and stable fixing and a simple releasing of the first and the second unit with each other.
According to claim 16, the invention comprises an oven with a cooking cavity and a door for closing the cooking cavity according to one of the claims 1 to 15.
The invention will be described in further detail with reference to the drawings in which

FIG 1: shows the assembled door,
FIG 2: shows the outer unit of the door,
FIG 3: shows the inner unit of the door,
FIG 4: shows a back view of the assembled door and
FIG 5: shows the cross-sectional view of a side view,
FIG 6: shows another embodiment of the invention in a released position,
FIG 7: shows the door according to FIG 6 in fixed position,

FIG 8: shows a detail of FIG 6,
FIG 9: shows the surrounding area of the upper end of the oven door and
FIG 10: shows the door assembled with the oven.

FIG 1 and FIG 4 show a completely assembled door 1 which consists of a first unit 2 used as an outer unit and a second unit 3 used as an inner unit.
The outer unit 2 comprises a front plate 21 of the door 1 which is visible from the outside. On the upper outer surface of the front plate 21, a handle 28 is arranged.
The inner unit 3 is arranged on the inner surface of the front plate 21. The inner unit 3 comprises a frame 32, which extends over the outer side areas 32A and 32B, respectively, and the upper transversal area 32C of the inner unit 3. In the lower transversal area 32D of the outer unit 3, no frame is provided. Consequently, the bottom of the door 1, which is not shown in FIG 1, stays open for ventilation purposes.
Underneath the upper transversal area 32C of the inner unit 3, a ventilation bar 34 with openings 33A, 33B for ventilation is arranged. For durability, the ventilation bar 34 has a thin stabilisation bar 35 in the middle between the openings 33A and 33B for ventilation. So the ventilation is spread over two openings for ventilation 33A and 33B. The inner
plate 31 of the door 1 closes or seals the cooking cavity. The openings for ventilation 33A and 33B adjoin directly to an air suction area of the oven, which is placed over the cooking cavity. The air suction area of the oven is not shown in FIG 1.
FIG 2 shows the outer unit 2. The two parallel vertical elements 22A and 22B are fixed, preferably glued or screwed, on the back-sided side areas of the front plate 21. Between the vertical elements 22A and 22B, an inside plate 23 is arranged which is hold parallel to the front plate 21 by the vertical elements 22A and 22B. On their outwardly directed sides, the vertical elements 22A and 22B have insertion areas 41A and 41B in the upper area, insertion areas 51A and 51B in the middle area and insertion areas 61A and 61B in the lower area.
Adjacent to the front plate 21, the insertion areas 41B, 51B and 61B comprise elongated supports 42B, 52B and 62B, respectively. Underneath the insertion areas 41B, 51B and 61B, also adjacent to the front plate 21, elongated openings 43B, 53B and 63B are arranged. In the lower area of the openings 43B and 53B, recesses 44B and 54B, respectively, are arranged.
The insertion area 41B, the support 42B, the opening 43B and the recess 44B on the outward side of the vertical element 22B form a bayonet or snapping connection to fix the inner unit 3. Also, the insertion area 51B, the support 52B, the opening 53B and the recess 54B on the outward side of the vertical element 22B form another bayonet or snapping connection to fix the inner unit 3. The insertion area 61B, the support 62B and the opening 63B on the outward side of the vertical element 22B form a third bayonet or snapping connection to fix the inner unit 3.
Correspondingly, the insertion area 41A, the support 42A, the opening 43A and the recess 44A on the outward side of the vertical element 22A form a bayonet or snapping connection to fix the inner unit 3. The insertion area 51A, the support 52A, the opening 53B and the recess 54A on the outward side of the vertical element 22A form another bayonet or snapping connection to fix the inner unit 3. Finally, the insertion area 61A, the support 62A, the opening 63A and the recess 64A on the outward side of the vertical element 22A form a bayonet or snapping connection to fix the inner unit 3.
FIG 3 shows the inner unit 3. The frame 32 extends over the side areas 32A and 32B of the inner plate 31 of the inner unit 3 and the upper transversal area 32C over the ventilation bar 34. The inner plate 31 closes the cooking cavity, not shown here. The ventilation bar 34 adjoins to an air suction area, not shown here, which is arranged over the front of the cooking cavity. The connection means for connecting the inner unit 3 with the outer unit 2 which are not shown in FIG 3 are arranged on the interior side of the side areas 32A and 32B of the frame.
To connect the two units, the connection means of the frame 32 of the inner unit 3, here not shown, are positioned over the inserting areas 41A, 51A, 61A, 41B, 51B and 61B of the outer unit 2 and then concurrently inserted into these areas, orthogonally to the plane of the inner plate 31 and following direction D1.
Afterwards, by sliding the connection means of frame 32 downwardly in parallel to the plane of the inner plate 31, following direction D2, into the openings 43A, 53A, 63A, 43B, 53B and 63B of the vertical elements 22A and 22B, the units 2 and 3 are connected. For fixing this connection, the connecting elements of the inner unit 3 snap into a final end position into the recesses 54A, 54B of the vertical elements 22A and 22B of the outer unit 2.
FIG 5 shows a cross sectional view from a side view of the oven door 1. The ventilation bar 34 extends under the traversal area 32C of frame 32 into the interior 27 of the first unit 2 between front plate 21 and inside plate 23. The interior 27 of the first unit 2 is open at the bottom 9. By this, ambient air flow A is sucked through the bottom 27 of the door 1 into the interior 27 of the first unit 2 to cool the front plate 21. The air flow A is guided between or through the space between the front plate 21 and the inside plate 23. The air flow A extends from the bottom to the ventilation bar at the top and finally in the air suction area of the oven.
By repeatedly assembling and disassembling of the first unit 2 and the second unit 3, the cross-section of the air flow A is not noteworthy affected, as the front plate 21 and the interior plate 23 stay in their positions relative to each other. This makes it possible to optimize and preserve the form of the cross section over a long time which is helpful for maintaining the air flow A in the desired way.
The plates 21, 23, 31 are usually made of glass or other transparent material.
Figures 6 to 8 show another embodiment of the invention where the inner unit 3' is fixed to the outer unit 2' by two snapping hooks 72B' and, not shown, 72A'. The snapping hook 72B' is sprayed onto the base area of the vertical, not shown element 22B'. It comprises a support plate 71B' which works as a base plate and which comprises an edge 76B' at its outer end. A carrying element 75B' is arranged on the support plate 71B' where the carrying element 75B', at its outer end, forms the snapping hook 72B'. The snapping hook 72B' is bent downwards at a bending 74B'.
On the other hand, the inner unit 3' comprises at the bottom of its side area 32B' a notch 73B'. The notch 73B' is formed as a rectangular opening.
When pushing the inner unit 3' onto the outer unit 2', the snapping 72B' is pushed into the notch 73B' and, by this, fixes the inner unit 3' and the outer unit 2' with each other. The fixed state is shown in FIG 7, whereas FIG 6 and FIG 8 show the released state. By pushing the snapping hooks 72B' and 72A' with the fingers, the connection can be released again.
Figures 9 and 10 show the door assembled with the oven. For this, FIG 10 shows the muffle 80, the door 1 in front of the muffle and the fan 81 which is arranged above the muffle. Above the fan 81, an air suction channel 82 which constitutes the air suction area is arranged and above the air suction channel 82, an air blowing channel 83 is arranged. The fan 81, when operated, sucks the air out of the door 1 along the air suction channel 82, where it also sucks hot air out of the muffle 80 through the opening 84 above the muffle 80. After passing the fan 81, the air is blown through the blowing channel 83 and is blown out of the oven over the door 1. Over the door, a top plate 182 is arranged.

Reference Signs

1, 1': door
2, 2': first unit
21: front plate
22A, 22B: vertical elements
23: interior plate
27: interior
28, 28': handle
29: bottom

3: second unit
31: inner plate
32: frame
32A, 32B, 32B': side areas
32C: transversal area
33A, 33B: openings for ventilation
34: ventilation bar
35: stabilisation bar

41A, 41B, 51B, 61B: insertion areas
42B, 52B, 62B: supports
43B,53B, 63B: openings
54B: recess
71A',71B': support plate
72B': snapping hook
73B': notch
74B': bending
75B': carrying element
76B': edge
80: muffle
81: fan
82: air suction channel
83: air blowing channel
84: muffle opening
182: top plate
A: air flow
D1, D2: assembling directions

Claims

Door (1, 1') for closing a cooking cavity of an oven, especially of a household oven, with a first unit (2, 2') and a second unit (3, 3') characterized in that one unit (2, 3; 2', 3') is guided by at least one detachable or releasable connection means, in particular snapping and/or plugging and/or sliding means, in the other unit (2, 3; 2', 3'), and at least one unit (2, 3; 2', 3') is provided with at least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B, 33A', 33B'), which is connected in a closed position of the door (1, 1') to an air suction area of the oven.
Door (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the first unit (2) is an outer unit (2) and contains a front plate (21), two vertical elements (22A, 22B) arranged on the front plate (21) and at least one inside plate (23) arranged between the vertical elements (22A, 22B), where especially an air flow (A) is guided between the front plate (21) and the inside plate (23).
Door (1) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the second unit (3) is an inner unit (3) and contains an inner plate (31) and a frame (32), which extends over the side areas and the upper transversal area of the inner plate (32).
Door (1) according to claim 3, characterized in that the at least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B) is arranged close to the upper transversal area of the inner plate (31).
Door (1) according to claim 4, where the at least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B) is located in the same plane or at the same level as the inner plate (31).
Door (1) according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the at least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B) has about the same width as the inside plate (23).
Door (1) according to one of claims 4, 5 or 6, characterized in that the at least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B) is arranged between the upper transversal area of the frame (32) and the inner plate (31).
Door (1) according to claim 7, characterized in that the at least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B) is arranged in an separate ventilation bar (34).
Door (1) according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that the at least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B) is arranged in an extension of the frame (32) which adjoins the inner plate (31) at the level of the cooking cavity.
Door (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the interior of the door (1) has at least one opening or opens towards the bottom, for sucking in ambient air.
Door (1) according to claim 2 or to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the ventilation of the door (1) is provided by an air flow (A), which gets sucked in from the bottom, is lead through the inside of the door (1), especially through the space between the front plate (21) and the inside plate (23), and directed through at the least one opening for ventilation (33A, 33B) to the air suction area of the oven.
Door(1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the second unit (3) is mounted on the first unit (2).
Door (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the frame (32) is guided by at least one connection means in the vertical elements (22A, 22B) of the first unit (2).
Door (1) according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the frame (32) is made at least partly of metal, especially of steel.
Door (1') according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that
a) the first unit (2') comprises at least one snapping device (72B'), particularly a snapping hook,

b) where the second unit (3') comprises at least one opening (73B'), particularly with a rectangular shape,

c) where the snapping device (72B') is releasably pushable into the opening (73B') to connect the first unit (2') and the second unit (3').
Oven with a cooking cavity and a door for closing the cooking cavity according to one of the claims 1 to 15.