GB2040162A

GB2040162A - Fitted kitchen furniture

Info

Publication number: GB2040162A
Application number: GB7942097A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1979-01-31
Filing date: 1979-12-06
Publication date: 1980-08-28
Also published as: IT8019291A0; IT1129557B; GB2040162B; AT368862B; IT8020524V0; DE7902525U1; ATA774679A; FR2447697A1; FR2447697B1

Abstract

A domestic appliance, especially a dishwashing machine, a laundering machine, a drier, a cooker, a refrigerator, a freezing cabinet, or a refuse compactor, comprises a shutter (20) which is arranged in the upper region of the front side of the appliance and may be provided with operating and indicating elements (22). The shutter (20) comprises a body member (22) receiving at least one strip member (23, 24) placed on along the lower edge zone thereof. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A domestic appliance The present invention relates to a domestic appliance, especially a dishwashing machine, a laundering machine, a drier, a cooker, a refrigerator, a freezing cabinet, a refuse compacter and the like.

During the fitting of domestic appliance into for example a kitchen cupboard line, it is desirable to adapt the appliances in frontal appearance largely to the adjoining kitchen cupboards. For this, the appliances are cladded by plates which in material and appearance correspond to the doors of the kitchen cupboards. Similarly, importance is attached to a uniform line guidance in the region of the upper front sides of the cupboards, where a drawer is arranged frequently above a door with the formation of a conspicuous gap.Although the upper boundary surfaces of the drawer shutters and the shutters of the appliance are usually aligned by reason of the standardized co-inciding heights of the household appliances and of the cupboards, a difference in height of several centimeters can however occur in the lower boundary surfaces of the drawer and appliance shutters, since the shutters have different dimensions in accordance with appliance and kitchen manufacture.

Although it has been disclosed to adapt a shutter body arranged around the pedestal recess of laundering machines to differently high pedestals by assembling shutters of different height (DE-GM 74 07 777), this form of construction is however very expensive due to the manufacture and the inventory of a plurality of dimensionally different shutters.

It has been proposed in a known dishwashing machine to structure the pedestal recess height variably by shortening a wood plate arranged above the recess (DE-GM 73 05 982). Such a construction presents an appreciable effort in tooling as well as time and requires very careful working because of the severing of plate parts during the subsequent incorporation of the dishwashing machine into a cupboard line.

According to the present invention there is provided a domestic appliance comprising a shutter at an upper region of the appliance, the shutter comprising a body member and at least one strip member connected to and extending along a side of the body member to vary the corresponding dimension of the shutter.

The appliance may comprise one of a dishwashing machine, a laundering machine, a drier, a cooker, a refrigerator, a freezing cabinet and a refuse compactor.

The shutter may carry indicating operating elements of the appliance.

The appliance may comprise a plurality of strip members laminated together.

The laminate may comprise strip members each of different thickness.

The body member and the or each strip members may be provided with detent means connecting the body member and the or each strip member together.

The appliance may comprise screw means to fasten the or each strip member to the body member.

The or each strip member may be connected to the lower side of the body member.

By having strip members of different thickness a finely stepped height adaption of the shutter is possible.

By using detent means to connect the body member and the or each strip member together the shutter can in simple manner be assembled in a short time without tools.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 shows a perspective view of the dishwashing machine arranged between kitchen cupboards, Figure 2 shows a perspective view of the upper section of the machine door with the shutter, and Figure 3 shows a partially sectionally section of the shutter augmented by laminations and seen in the direction of arrow Ill of Figure 2.

A dishwashing machine designated by 10 is arranged superficially flush by its front side 11 between two adjacent kitchen cupboards 12 and 13 and together with these covered over by a common work plate 14 (Figure 1). For assimilation of the machine front side 11 to the appearance of the cupboards 12 and 13, which are each provided with a door 15 and a drawer shutter 16, the machine 10 has a front plate 18 of wood placed in front of its door 17 as well as a wooden cladding plate 19 arranged below this plate.

In the region of the upper edge zone of the machine front slide lithe door 17 is provided with a shutter 20, which receives the operating and indicating elements 21 of the machine 10. The shutter 20 comprises a box-shaped shutter body 22 containing all elements 21 and strip members 23 and 24 laminated together which are placed on along the lower edge thereof and which extend over the entire width of the drawer 17 (Figure 2). The shutter body 22 is fastened to the door 17 at such a height that its upper boundary surface 25 is aligned with those of the adjoining drawer shutters 16. In order that the lower boundary surface 26 of the shutter 20 extends in one plane with the respective surfaces of the drawer shutters 16, the strip members 23 and 24 are added in appropriate number to the shutter body 22.

For the connection of strip members 23 and 24 of different thickness to each other and to the body 22, detent means in the shape of inter-engaging claspshaped tongues are provided at the mutually adjoining sides of these components (Figure 3). These facilitate a shape-locking connection of respective strip members 23 or 24 to the shutter body 22 or to an already assembled lamination of strip members in the direction indicated by a bent arrow 28 in Figure 3. The detent means 27 are distributed over the width of the shutter in multiple sequence on the shutter body 22 as well as also one the laminations 23 and 24. The strip members 23 and 24 at the front side have a closed, smooth surface which extends approximately in the plane of the front side of the shutter body 22. The downward termination of the shutter 20 is formed by the strip member 24, after the assembly of which all assembled strip members 23 and 24 are additionally connected for secure mounting with the shutter body 22 through screws 29 distributed over the width of the shutter before the front plate 18 is fastened to the door 17.

The above-described embodiment has the advantage that starting from a one-piece shutter body which agrees in terms of height with the smallest height of commerically usual kitchen drawers, separate strip members enclosed with the shutter or strip members already assembled at the factory can be adapted to other drawer shutters at the place of erection of the appliance until the lower boundary surface of the shutter agrees with that of the adjoining drawer shutter.

Claims

1. A domestic appliance comprising a shutter at an upper region of the appliance, the shutter comprising a body member and at last one strip member connected to and extending along a side of the body member to vary the corresponding dimension of the shutter.

2. An appliance as claimed in claim 1, comprising one of a dishwashing machine, a laundering machine, a drier, a cooker, a refrigerator, a freezing cabinet and a refuse compactor.

3. An appliance as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the shutter carries indicating or operating elements of the appliance.

4. An appliance as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, comprising a plurality of strip members laminated together.

5. An appliance as claimed in claim 4, wherein the laminate comprises strip -member of different thicknesses.

6. An appliance as claimed in either claim 4 or claim 5, wherein the body member and the or each strip member are provided with detent means connecting the body member and the or each strip member together.

7. An appliance as claimed'in any one of the preceding claims, comprising siew means to fasten or each strip member to the bod} member.

8. An appliance as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the orusach strip member is connected to the lower sidejof the body member.

9. A domestic appliance substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.