GB2057254A

GB2057254A - Oven

Info

Publication number: GB2057254A
Application number: GB8017579A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co Ltd
Current assignee: Toshiba Corp
Priority date: 1979-06-09
Filing date: 1980-05-29
Publication date: 1981-04-01
Also published as: FR2458761B1; JPS6220447B2; GB2057254B; AU518430B2; DE3021144C2; FR2458761A1; DE3021144A1; MY8500394A; AU5901980A; JPS55165428A

Abstract

An oven having an air circulating fan (21) incorporated in one internal side wall (11c) and a heater element (5) which is pivotable between a position in which it is adjacent the air circulator (21) and a position in which it lies parallel to the top wall (4) of the oven. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Oven This invention relates to an oven having an air cir culatorfor uniformly heating foods.

There have been proposed and devised various types of ovens wherein a heating device is disposed in an oven parallel to an upper wall thereof.

However, uniform heating is not satisfactorily obtained from the heater alne. In order to improve distribution of heat, a fan for circulating heated air may be installed on the side wall ofthe oven, but it is still difficult to achieve uniform heat distribution.

Accordingly, the present invention seeks to provide an improved oven including a heater device and an air circulator.

According to the present invention there is provided an oven including a movable heating device, one of the internal walls of the oven being provided with an air circulating device and the heating device being movable between one position in which it is adjacent the air circulating device and another position in which it is adjacent another of the internal walls.

This arrangement has the additional advantage that the apparatus is easily cleaned.

Some embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a front view of one embodiment of an oven according to the invention; Figure 2 shows a partial sectional view of Figure 1; Figure 3 shows a heater; Figure 4 shows a schematic view of the mechanism for supporting the heater of Figure 3; Figure 5 shows a partial sectional view of another embodiment of an oven according to the invention; and Figure 6 shows a sectional view ofthe embodiment of Figure 5 along the lines 5-5 Figure 1 shows the front view of an embodiment of an oven according to the present invention. The apparatus comprises a housing 1 for an oven 2 in which an object is to be heated. Near upper wall 4 of oven 2 is disposed a heating device 5 of which detailed features are illustrated in Figure 3.Heating device 5 consisting of a U-shaped heater element 50 and a plate member 40 is arranged parallel to upper wall 4. Heater 50 is attached with brackets 8 to plate 40. A plurality of apertures 6 is provided through plate member 40 adjacent heater 50. Apertures 7 are provided at the center of plate member 40. These apertures are employed as vent holes when the oven operates.

The ends 50a and 50b of heater element 50 are bent outwards and extend in opposite directions from each other through holes provided on each of side walls 11 a and 11 b of oven 2, respectively. In a space defined between side wall 11a and housing 1, one end portion 50a is welded to a curved member 12. The curved member 12 has a recessed portion 12a and a tongue 12b which is pulled downwardly by a spring 13 so that it tends to rotate clockwise about the axis of the end portion 50a of the heater element.

The rotation of curved member 12 is, however, normally prevented bya bar 14, one end 14a of which engages with the recessed portion 12a. The bar 14 is rotatable about a vertical pivot member 15. The heating device 5 is thus held parallel to the upper wall 4 of oven 2 unless the bar 14 is disengaged from the recessed portion 1 2a. The other ends of the bar 14 is connected to an operating rod 16 one end of which extends through a front panel of the apparatus to an operating button 17.

A coil spring 18 is connected between the inside of the front panel and the rod member 14to normally bias the operating rod 18 in the direction indicated by arrow B and thus urge the bar 14 into engagemenu with the curved member 12.

By pressing button 17, operating rod 16 is moved in the direction opposite to that indicated by arrow B against the force of coil spring 18 so that rod member 14 rotates in the direction idicated by the arrow A. Since the heating element 5 is hinged at both ends 50a and 50b it is then rotated in an anticlockwise direction by its own weight until it is held parallel with a back wall 1 inc of the oven 2.

At the center of the back wall of oven 2, there is provided an opening 19 whose diameter is larger than that of the apertu res 6 or 7 provided on the plate 40, and also a plurality of openings 20 surrounding the opening 19. Afan 21 driven by a motor 22 is installed in a casing 23 attached behind the back wall of oven 2 so that air is circulated within oven 2 through openings 19 and 20.

As shown, the apparatus has two modes of use.

One mode is that in which the heating device 5 held at the upper wall ofthe oven 2 during use.

The other mode is that in which the heating device 5 is held atthe backwall 11coftheoven 2.

Preliminary heating may be achieved by heater 50 without using fan 21; however, uniformity of heating may not be achieved using heater 50 alone, so, the heating device 5 can be rotated so as to face the back wall 1 1c of the oven 2 by pressing the button 17.

With both heater 50 and fan 21 in use, heated air is circulated within the oven 2. Heater 50 can be manually or otherwise returned to its position parallel to plate member 40.

Although plate member 40 confronts fan 21, it does not prevent air circulation because of the apertures provided in it. As a result, the temperature of the oven 2 is rapidly raised and the object 3 is heated quickly.

A "self-cleaning" coating may be provided on the plate 14 so that contamination caused by water, oils, gravy or the mixture of these during heating, may be removed by heating to a high temperature, such as 180"C-250"C. The surface of the plate member can be wiped easily after rotation of the heater 50.

In the first embodiment of the present invention described above, a plurality of openings are provided on the center of the back wall of the oven for the purpose of circulating the airtherethrough; however, a pair of slits as shown in Figure 6 instead of the openings may be used. Blades 30a and 30b projected inwardly for guiding heated airto the oven 2 enhance the circulation of the air and uniformity of oven temperature is rapidly obtained.

Claims

1. An oven including a movable heating device, one of the internal walls of the oven being provided with an air circulating device and the heating device being movable between one position in which it is adjacent the air circulating device and another position in which it is adjacent another ofthe internal walls.

2. An oven according to claim 1 in which said air circulating device includes a fan.

3. An oven according to claim 1 or claim 2 in which the air circulating device is associated with one of the side walls of the oven, and the heating device is rotatably mounted for movement between a position adjacent the said side wall of the oven, and a position adjacent an upper wall of the oven.

4. An oven according to claim 3, further comprising means for retaining said heating device in said position adjacent said upper wall and means for manually releasing said retaining means so that said heating means can pivot to said position adjacent said air circulating means.

5. An oven according to claim 3 or claim 4 wherein said heating means is attached to a plate member having an opening for permitting air to pass therethrough.

6. An oven according to claim 5, wherein said opening is a slit.

7. An oven according to claim 6, wherein said opening comprises a plurality of apertures.

8. An oven substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.