EP2167878B1

EP2167878B1 - Gas cooktop

Info

Publication number: EP2167878B1
Application number: EP08750934.5A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Marcello Cutino
Original assignee: Glem Gas SpA
Current assignee: Glem Gas SpA
Priority date: 2007-06-06
Filing date: 2008-05-14
Publication date: 2014-04-30
Anticipated expiration: 2028-05-14
Also published as: ITAN20070036A1; PT2167878E; TWI467120B; EP2167878A2; WO2008149189A2; PL2167878T3; WO2008149189A3; ES2477015T3; TW200912212A; SI2167878T1

Description

Technical Field

This invention relates to a gas cooktop.
In particular this invention relates to means suitable for fastening the various parts of said modular cooktop in a removable way.

Background Art

It is a known fact that a very large variety of cooktops exist, gas or electric, such as to cater for a broad variety of consumer needs and expectations.
Most of these cooktops are fixed and fitted directly in the worktop of a base unit.
Said first solution, though by far the most used, has however a series of drawbacks that go from the obligation to cut the worktop of the base unit in order to make the housing for said cooktop to the complexity of dismantling the entire cooktop for replacement or maintenance.
Furthermore, the removal of the residues of the cooking operations and the cleaning of said current state-of-the-art recessed cooktops can be difficult or in any case not optimal from a hygienic viewpoint, this necessarily having to be done manually.
In fact, only the pan support grilles and the gas rings of the relevant burners are easily removable so as to be, e.g., conveniently washed in a dish washer while the surface below the grilles, which tends to become dirty, is fixed.
To overcome at least this last drawback, the use is sometimes made of absorbent, disposable or washable film, or trays with the same dimensions and shape as the cooktop and on which openings are naturally made for the passage of burners, as described in detail in the documents FR 2 656 070 , FR 2 678 849 and WO 2005/040683 .
Said solutions, though simple and inexpensive, may not however be aesthetically satisfactory and in any case not very practical.
The document JP 02 101329 A discloses a portable gas burner which has a spill pan provided separately from a top plate and a kettle holder which has claws arranged radially and which is supported by a burner head. The spill pan is provided with projecting lines which are engageable with the tip ends of the claws when the kettle holder is installed to the burner head.
The document US 6 817 355 B 1 discloses a gas burner mounting assembly in a cooking appliance including a ceramic-based cooktop, wherein a gas burner assembly includes lower and upper portions secured one to the other with the cooktop been sandwiched therebetween. Further prior art is disclosed in JP-61086521 .

Object of the Invention

A first object of this invention is to indicate a gas cooktop that can be easily dismantled and put together again.
A second object of this invention is to indicate means suitable for fastening together the various parts of said modular cooktop in a removable way.
A third object of the present invention is to indicate a gas cooktop having means suitable for collecting up the dirt and residues of the cooking operations. A fourth object of this invention is to indicate means suitable for collecting up dirt and residues of the cooking operations that are simple to dismantle and easily and quickly washable.
A further object of this invention is to indicate a gas cooktop the structural conception of which allows a very high quantity of aesthetic variations.
These and other objects are obtained with a gas cooktop according to the invention, made as described below and on the attached claims that form an integral part of the description itself.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Possible embodiments of the cooktop are described below with reference to the attached drawings wherein :

Figure 1 shows an axonometric view of the cooktop according to a first variation of the invention;
Figure 2 shows an axonometric view of the cooktop disassembled in its component parts according to the first variation of the invention;
Figure 3 shows an axonometric view of the cooktop disassembled in its component parts according to a second variation of the invention;
Figure 4 shows an axonometric view of the cooktop disassembled in its component parts according to a third variation of the invention;
Figure 5 shows an axonometric view of a detail of the cooktop according to the third variation of the invention;
Figure 6 shows an axonometric view of a stacking of several elements as shown in figure 5;
Figure 7 shows an axonometric view of the cooktop disassembled in its component parts which is not part of the invention.
Figure 8 shows an axonometric view of the cooktop, which is not part of the invention.

Embodiments of the Invention

With reference to the figures 1,2, 3, and 4, by 1 is indicated a gas cooktop connected to the mains gas supply and positioned on a worktop 3, henceforth, for the sake of simplicity, called top, of a base unit, not shown in the illustrations.
To further make description easy, henceforth reference will be made to a cooktop 1 having a single burner 2 with a head that protrudes with respect to the top 3 itself.
With reference to the figure 2, said cooktop 1 comprises a burner-holder 101 having at least the cup 101.a of the burner 2, a work plate 102, that can be housed, using means to be described later, on said burner-holder 101 and a grille 104 positioned above said work plate 102 and suitable, as is known, for supporting pans and containers.
According to the variation being described, said burner-holder 101 is recessed in said top 3 and further comprises the knob 101.b for the supply and adjustment of the flow of gas reaching said burner 2 by means of the supply pipe 101.c. Said cooktop 1 is completed by the gas ring 103 and the relevant cover 103.a of the burner 2.
As shown in the figures 1 and 2, said work plate 102 has a hole 102.a, with round cross section, substantially at the centre of its bottom, and edges 102.b suitable for preventing dirt and residues of the cooking operations from ending up in the underlying top 3.
Said work plate 102 and said burner-holder 101 are joined together in a removable way by means of a centring means 101.d, preferably with a truncated cone shape, positioned around the cup 101.a of said burner 2.
Said centring means 101.d does in fact allow centring the hole 102.a of said plate 102 on the cup 101.a of said burner 2, at the same time leaving freedom of movement for the plate 102 itself.
The work plate 102 can in fact be turned and positioned, at the user's discretion, in any preferred direction with respect to the burner-holder 101 on which it rests and, furthermore, it can be quickly and easily removed from the underlying burner-holder 101 to be easily cleaned and washed, e.g. in a dish washer.
Said centring means 101.d can, furthermore, have locator means, not shown on the attached illustrations, suitable on the other hand for defining the angular position of said work plate 102.
With the centring 101.d as described, the work plate 2 can be made of any shape and size and whatever the shape and size of the burner-holder 101 on which it is housed, thereby allowing considerable personalisation and aesthetic versatility of the cooktop 1 itself.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention said work plate 102 has a substantially rectangular shape (see fig. 1 or 2).
Now to come to the grille 104 suitable for supporting pans and containers, this is simply rested, by means of feet 104.c, on the edges 102.b of said work plate 102, as shown in figure 2.
Nothing however prevents said grille 104 from being obtained in a single body with said work plate 102, instead of simply being rested in a removable way on the edges 102.b of same.
The figure 3, e.g., shows a variation of the invention according to which the prongs 104.a of said grille 104 are integrated and rigidly fastened to the work plate 102.
A further variation of the invention (see fig. 5) contemplates that said prongs 104.a of said grille 104 be fixed to said work plate 102 by means of hinges 104.b for easy lifting and lowering.
Said solution makes possible the stacking of two or more work plates 102 with a considerable reduction in overall dimensions, and thus permits their easier introduction and washing in a dishwasher (see in particular the figures 5 and 6). Furthermore, according to this variation, said prongs 104.a can be easily replaced by prongs of other shape, size and length and therefore more suitable for supporting pans and containers of particular shape, such as fish kettles or pyrex dishes, and so able to obtain more cooktop models with just a few alternative component parts.
Said work plate 102 and grille 104 are preferably made of materials resistant to high temperatures and easy to wash, such as e.g. aluminium or ceramic. Numerous other variations of the cooktop 1, referred to in this invention, are clearly available to the expert in the field, without because of this exiting from the confines of newness implicit in the inventive idea, just as it is clear that in the practical implementation of the invention the various component parts described previously can be replaced by technically equivalent elements.
The work plate 102 e.g., instead of having edges 102.b suitable for containing drippings and residues of the cooking operations, can simply be made with a concavity such as to prevent said residues escaping towards the top 3 (see e.g. fig. 4).
Furthermore, though not shown in any illustration, said burner-holder 101 can simply be rested above the top 3 or alternatively fastened, by means of known means, underneath the top 3 itself, instead of being recessed as described thus far (see fig. 7).
In the first case, a housing does not have to be made on the top 3 to recess the burner-holder 101 itself while in the case of the second solution, said top 3 of the base unit has holes 201 and 202 of reduced cross dimensions, only for housing the burner 2 and the adjustment knob 101.b, respectively, thereby leaving said top 3 substantially integral.

Claims

Gas cooktop (1) positionable on a worktop (3) of a base unit comprising:
- a single burner (2) with a head that protrudes with respect to said worktop (3),

- a burner-holder (101) for being recessed in a cavity of said worktop (3) of the base unit and suitable for carrying a cup (101.a) of said burner (2),

- a work plate (102) housed on said burner-holder (101), above said worktop (3), having a hole (102.a) with a round cross section at its bottom, for the passage of said burner (2), wherein said work plate (102) comprises edges (102.b) or a concavity for preventing dirt and residues of the cooking operations from ending up in said worktop (3),

- a grille (104) suitable for supporting pans and containers and
positioned above said work plate (102),
characterized by further comprising

- coupling means (101.d) for coupling said work plate (102) with said burner-holder (101) in a removable way, wherein said coupling means (101 .d) consist of centring means (101 .d) suitable for centring said hole (102.a) of said work plate (102) on said cup (101.a) of the burner (2) and wherein said centring means (101.d) is placed around said cup (101.a) and has a substantially truncated cone shape, and

- the burner-holder (101) carries a knob (101.b) for the supply and adjustment of the flow of gas reaching said burner (2) by means of a gas supply pipe (101.c).
Cooktop (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that said work plate (102) can be turned and positioned, at the user's discretion, in any preferred direction with respect to the burner-holder (101) on which it rests.
Cooktop (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that said centring means (101.d) comprises further locator means suitable for defining the angular position of said work plate (102) on said burner-holder (101), thus preventing its rotation.
Cooktop (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that said grille (104) suitable for supporting pans and containers only rests on the edges (102.b) of said work plate (102) in a removable way.
Cooktop (1) according to claim 4, characterized by the fact that said grille (104) suitable for supporting pans and containers only rest on the edges (102.b) of said work plate (102) by means of feet (104.c).
Cooktop (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that said grille (104) suitable for supporting pans and containers is obtained in a single body with said work plate (102).
Cooktop (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the prongs (104.a) of said grille (104) are fastened to said work plate (102) by means of hinges (104.b) for easy lifting and lowering.
Cooktop (1) according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that said burner-holder (101) is fastened, by means of known means, underneath said worktop (3) of the base unit, said worktop (3) having only a first and a second holes (201, 202) suitable for housing said burner-holder (101) and said knob (101.b) respectively.