GB2305359A - Toaster - Google Patents

Description

- 1 TOASTER 2305359 The present invention relates to a toaster.

In DE 42 43 994 there is disclosed a toaster in which displacing and tilting movements of the heating units are realised by means of constructionally complicated auxiliary devices, namely a control cam and a tension spring. The heating units are transferred from a Vshaped basic setting, for insertion of an item to be toasted, to a parallel operative setting in which the units lie against the item. This is not only complicated, but also additional measures are required so that, when the units are moved together and set parallelly, there is no overheating or damage of the toaster if it has been forgotten to place an item in the toasting chamber. Moreover, it is advantageous that when using a bread roll attachment for the toasting of bread rolls or when directly laying an item to be toasted onto the top opening of the toasting chamber of the toaster, the parallelly set heating units form a narrow gap from which the heat rises. The shape of this gap can be burnt onto the bread roll.

It would thus be desirable to eliminate the above disadvantages.

According to the present invention there is provided an electric bread toaster with at least one vertical toasting chamber which is accessible from above and serves for the reception of an item to be toasted and which is bounded at two sides by heating units, wherein the heating units are displaceable towards each other and at least one of the units is mounted to be pivotable about a horizontal axis, characterised in that a tilting device engages at the heating unit in such a manner that this tilts outwardly by its upper region and is resettable by the item to be toasted.

In the case of two mutually opposite heating units deflected in such a manner, a basic setting of the units in a rest state of the toaster is thus realised by the units lying against inward wall surfaces of a housing of the toaster. When an actuating slide is moved down as is conventional in a toaster, the two heating units can move towards each other at least in the lower section of the travel path of the slide by virtue of a control of the kind described in DE 44 27 053. Thus, the spacing of the pivot axes of the two units reduces. Since the two units move away from the two side walls of the toaster housing each unit tilts by its upper region so far outwardly that it touches the associated wall. Thus, the lower regions of the units move towards each other, whilst, when the toasting chamber is empty, they adopt a Vshaped setting during toasting operation of the units or when the slide has been moved down fully. If, however, an item to be toasted is inserted into the chamber, this pivots the units, in consequence of touching the item in its lower region, against the resistance of the tilting means so that the units lie substantially parallelly, for example against a slice of toast.

In the case of appropriate positioning of the pivot axis relative to the centre of gravity of the heating unit it is ensured, without additional component, that the unit automatically tilts outwardly by its upper region. The pivot axis is in that case arranged in such a manner relative to the centre of gravity of the unit that, on the one hand, a reliable automatic tilting of the heating unit, by reason of its weight force, by its upper region towards the outside is ensured and that, on the other hand, the force to be exerted by the item to be toasted in order to pivot the unit into the parallel setting is not too great. Instead of a particular arrangement of pivot axis to centre of gravity, the actuating means can be realised by springs engaging the heating units. These bear either against the toaster housing or against bearing brackets, which define the pivot axis, for the heating unit. It is also possible to connect two mutually opposite heating elements directly with an appropriately arranged compression or tension spring.

Preferably, the heating units are arranged to be spaced in such a manner and their displacement stroke is so dimensioned that an item to be toasted above a thickness of at least about 10 millimetres automatically sets the units co-operating therewith in the toasting operation to be parallel and to lie against the item. Thus, it is ensured that an item to be toasted with a width of only about 10 millimetres i S capable of automatically setting the units to be parallel in toasting operation.

Advantageously, the heating unit in toasting operation with the toasting chamber empty lies against the housing only in the upper region. A thermal overloading of the bread toaster is thus avoided.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be more particularly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic side elevation of a toaster embodying the invention; and Fig. 2 is a cross-section, to enlarged scale, along the line IIII in Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings there is shown a bread toaster with a housing 2, which consists of a hood 4 and a base 6 of plastics material and which is divided, by transverse walls 8 and 10 of sheet metal into a toasting region 12 and differently sized control spaces 14 and 16 in the end regions of the housing. The larger control space 16 contains a control slide, which is not illustrated and can correspond to that described in DE 44 27 053, which has a bread carrier 18 and is lowerable by means of a handle 24 projecting through a vertical slot 22 in the housing 2.

The toasting region 12 includes a toasting chamber 26, in which the bread carrier 18 is arranged to be vertically displaceable in the direction of arrow 19. The bread carrier 18 has support tines 160 and 164 projecting horizontally towards the side walls of the hood 4. The housing 2 has a large entry opening 30, below which are arranged cover plates 32 of sheet metal. These cover plates 32 bound a slot 34 above 15 the toasting chamber 26. Two pivotable brackets 52 and 54 are mounted at the base 6 by centre connecting webs 56 and 58 extending in the longitudinal direction of the toaster and, in the control spaces 14 and 16 of the housing 2, the brackets have upwardly projecting arms 60 and 62, which form pivot axles by respective horizontally bent-over upper 20 end portions 63 and 64. The arms extend through respective openings 66 and 68 in the transverse walls 8 and 10 and rotatably carry heating units 70 and 72. The heating units 70 and 72 have respective reflectors 74 and 76, which in the upper and lower regions project towards the interior of the toasting chamber 26 and, over the entire height, are spanned by protective grids 78 and 80 with substantially vertically extending grid rods 82 and 84.Each protective grid 78 or 80 and the associated reflector 74 or 76 are connected together over their entire width at the upper and lower end portions of the reflectors. Somewhat below the halfway point in the height of the end walls 8 and the transverse walls 10, ceramic carrier elements 90 and 92 are arranged at the wall sides facing the interior of the toasting region 12. The carrier elements carry heating rods in the form of quartz radiators 94 and 96, which have the form of cylindrical rods and extend horizontally between the reflectors 74 and 76 and the protective grids 78 and 80 arranged in front thereof. Each quartz radiator consists of a quartz glass tube in which a coiled electrical heating conductor is arranged. A lobe-shaped abutment 98 at the upper end portion of each of the reflectors 74 and 76 projects in the direction towards the hood 4. In this region, a respective wall 100, which limits the tilting of the heating unit 70 or 72 outwardly, is formed at the outward lower edge of each of the cover plates 32.

In use, when the control carriage is disposed in its upper position or rest setting, the two heating units 70 and 72 extend substantially verticallY in the toasting chamber 26 as shown in Fig. 2. This position results from the turning moment which, due to the arrangement of the centre of gravity of the heating unit 70 relative to its pivot axle 63, endeavours to rotate the unit 70 in counterclockwise sense according to Fig. 2. The rotational movement is limited by the co- operation of the abutment 98 and the wall 100. The free gap between the bearing tines 160 and 164 and the protective grids 78 and 80 is so small that no item to be toasted can fall down therebetween. When the bread carrier 18 is moved downwardly, the two pivot brackets 52 and 54, which are biassed towards each other by auxiliary springs 102 (illustrated only schematically), are moved towards each other by rotation about the axles 56 and 58 by means of the control slide. The heating units 70 and 72, which are mounted at the pivot brackets 52 and 54 or suspended thereon to be pivotable, then move towards each other. In consequence of the turning moment present due to the position of the centre of gravity relative to the pivot axle 63, the heating unit 70 tilts further in anticlockwise sense. Since the abutment 98 already lies against the wall 100, the lower regions of the heating units pivot more strongly inwards towards each other. The heating units then assume a V- shaped toasting setting, in which the tines 160 and 164 project through the protective grids 78 and 80. It is ensured by the structuring of the control dog that the clear width between the protective grids is reduced downwardly by the pivotation of the heating units only in about the last fifth of the movement travel of the control slide. If no item to be toasted is disposed in the toasting chamber 26, but a bread roll grate 110 supporting an item is arranged above the slot 34, there is an optimum heat loading of the item on the grate 110 due to the V-shaped arrangement of the heating units 70 and 72 and the form of their reflectors 74 and 76 in conjunction with the arrangement of the radiators 94 and 96.

If, thereagainst, an item to be toasted is placed on the carrier 18, this automatically sets the heating units 70 and 72 into the parallel toasting positions and against the item to be toasted. A narrow item to be toasted, which is:uSqally not below a thickness of about millimetres, moves down to the bottom whilst resting on the carrier 18. In the lowered setting, the thickness of the item to be toasted is greater than the clear width between the protective grids 78 and 80 if no item to be toasted were present. Consequently, the item to be toasted comes into contact with the lower regions of the grids 78 and 80, which causes a turning moment to be exerted on the heating units 70 and 72 in such a manner that the units in their upper regions are each moved away from the associated wall 100 inwardly towards the item. The geometries and arrangements of the units 70 and 72 and gri-ds 78 and 80 and their displacement travels are designed so that even a narrow item is capable of setting the units fully parallelly and against the item. For the toasting of thicker items, when the tilting of the units alone is no longer sufficient to create space in the toasting chamber 26 for the item, the item urges the pivot brackets 52 and 54, which are biassed in closing direction, apart to a sufficient degree against the force of the springs 102.

Claims (6)

1. An electric toaster comprising a toasting chamber for an item to be toasted, the chamber being accessible from above, and two heating units respectively bounding the chamber at two opposite sides thereof and displaceable towards each other, at least one of the units being pivotable about a substantially horizontal axis, wherein said at least one unit is influenced to pivot outwardly at the top and is repositionable by such item.

2. A toaster as claimed in claim 1, wherein the axis is so arranged relative to the centre of gravity of said at least one unit that the unit is urged by its own weight to pivot outwardly at the top.

3. A toaster as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the heating units are disposed at such a spacing and displaceable by such an amount that the units are movable into a substantially parallel setting by an item having a thickness of at least substantially 10 millimetres and into contact with that item.

4. A toaster as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein said at least one unit bears against a housing of the toaster at and only at an upper region of the unit during operation of the units with the toasting chamber empty.

5. A toaster as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, comprising means for supporting a toasting grate above the chamber.

6. A toaster substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

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