GB2270356A - Piping for gas hob - Google Patents

Abstract

Pairs of gas taps 7, 8 on a gas hob control the flow of gas to respective burners not shown. They are supplied by a single gas rail 17 with apertures 17a, 17b in place of the two parallel gas rails hitherto provided because the gas rail of the invention is elongate in section and this provides adequate spacing of the gas taps 7,8 and clearance for securing the gas taps 7,8 to walls 23, 24 above and below the hollow region of the rail. <IMAGE>

Description

GAS HOB This invention relates to gas hobs, and particularly to gas supply rails for burner taps on the hob.

The gas supply to the hob passes through the rails to the taps and thence to the burners. Referring to Figure 1, in a typical known gas hob, there are four burners 1 - 4 centred approximately on the corners of a square and respective gas taps 5 - 8 (the associated knobs not being shown) arranged in a corresponding configuration to make it easy for the user to relate a particular tap to the respective burner. The gas inlet 9 to the hob is connected by a pipe 10 to two gas supply rails 11, 12, which feed taps 5, 7 and 6, 8, respectively, and there is a connection 13 16 between each gas tap and the associated burner.

The Applicants considered simplifying the above arrangement by replacing the two gas rails 11, 12 by a single, centrally positioned, gas rail, and by providing pairs of openings on opposite sides of the gas rail to connect with the gas taps. However, with the standard gas taps available, this resulted in the gas taps being set too close to each other in a direction of right angles to the gas rail, both from the point of view of allowing adequate sideways clearance between the knobs for cleaning purposes and from' aesthetic considerations.

The invention provides a rail for the supply of gas to burner taps on a hob, the rail having openings on opposite sides to communicate with respective gas taps, and the rail being elongate in section and the openings being in the region of greatest diameter.

By using a single elongate rail, it is possible to provide an adequate separation between gas taps fed from the openings on opposite sides of the rail without recourse to using modified gas taps or special couplings between the gas taps and the rail.

Advantageously, opposite sides of the rail are part-cylindrical in order to engage with existing gas taps.

The rail may be formed by a single extrusion, and mounting surfaces may be integral or may be part of that extrusion.

A rail for the supply of gas to burner taps on a hob, constructed in accordance with the invention, will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 2 is a plan view of the hob; and Figure 3 is an axial cross-section through the rail.

Like reference numerals have been given to corresponding parts of the prior hob and hob according to the invention.

Thus, the hob has a gas inlet 9 which is connected by a pipe 10 to gas taps 5 - 8 via the gas rail of the invention, and connections 13 - 16 connect the gas taps to the associated gas burners 1 - 4.

It will be seen that, in accordance with the invention, a single gas rail 17 is provided in place of the two gas rails 11, 12 of the prior gas hob. Referring to Figure 3, which shows the gas rail in enlarged view, the sides of the rail are part-cylindrical where as the top and bottom are flat. The part-cylindrical surfaces mate with the cylindrical recesses of the gas taps 7 and 8, the openings in the wall of the rail being 17a and 17b.

The flat upper and lower sections of the rail are integrally formed with mounting portions. A flange 19 engages the base panel 20 of the hob and a channel 21 engages a rib formed on a mounting panel 22 which is in turn secured to a glass upper panel 23. The outlets 7a, 8a of the gas taps feed to the respective gas burners (not shown in Figure 3) the rail has upstanding walls 24a, 24b between the gas supply conduit and the mounting portions, and into these sections of wall, mounting bosses 7b, 7c, 8b, 8c of the gas taps can be screwed.

Even if a close spacing of the knobs was accepted from cleaning and aesthetic purposes, a simple cylindrical shape for the rail with a single upper and lower upstanding wall would make it impossible to insert screws into the bosses 7b, 7c, 8b, 8c to secure the gas taps 7, 8 to the upstanding walls. It would if fact be necessary to off-set the gas taps in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper, which would create an aesthetically unpleasing effect.

The gas rail 17 together with its mounting surfaces 19, 21 and the connecting double upstanding wall may be formed as a single extrusion, closed off in a suitable way at one end. The extrusion may be of aluminium.

The hob may be part of a free-standing cooker or may be built into a work surface, either on its own or in conjunction with a gas or other type of oven.

Variations may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, instead of four knobs as shown, the invention is applicable to a single pair of knobs arranged as in Figure 3 or more than one such pair.

Equally, while in figure the gas taps 5, 6 and 7, 8 are shown as being directly opposite each other, they could if desired be staggered. The gas to be burnt may be the domestic gas supply or bottled gas for purposes such as camping equipment.

Claims (7)

1. A rail for the supply of gas to burner taps on a hob, the rail having openings on opposite sides to communicate with the respective gas taps, and the rail being elongate in section and the openings being in the region of greatest diameter of the rail.

2. A rail as claimed in claim 1, in which opposite sides of the rail are part-cylindrical.

3. A rail as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, in which the rail is formed integrally with upstanding walls to which the gas taps can be secured.

4. A rail as claimed in claim 3, in which the upstanding walls carry mounting surfaces for mounting the gas rail.

5. A rail as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4, in which the rail is formed by an extrusion.

6. A rail for the supply of gas to burner taps on a hob substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

7. A gas hob including a rail as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6.