GB2401932A - Oven featuring superposed cooking chambers with ventilated doors - Google Patents

Abstract

A combination of cooker ovens comprising two superposed cooking chambers 10,20, each chamber 10,20, having a ventilated door 11,21 comprising a plurality of walls 11',21' forming at least one passage for circulation of cooling air flowing from the bottom towards the top, inside each of the doors 11,21 of chambers 10,20, and a device 40 disposed between the ventilated doors 11,21 of the two superposed chambers 10,20 for separating flows of air C,G. The separator device 40 may feature a top face (42, figure 3) for directing a flow of air into the top door 21. The top face (42, figure 3) may have a right angle profile with a first portion (42a, figure 3) parallel to a bottom edge of the top door 21 and a portion (42b, figure 3) perpendicular to a bottom edge of the top door 21. There may be an aspirator device 12 associated with the bottom chamber 10 for the aspiration of air through an orifice 14 near the top edge of the bottom ventilated door 11. The separator device 40 may feature a bottom face (41, figure 3) for directing the flow of evacuated air perpendicular to the bottom door 11. There may be a second aspirator device 22 associated with the top chamber 20.

Description

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( 2401 932 Cooker oven combination The present invention relates to a cooker oven combination.

It applies generally to the field of domestic electric cooker ovens and in particular to cooker ovens authorizing cleaning of the cooking chamber by pyrolysis.

Equipping the front of a cooker oven of this kind with a ventilated door to limit the temperature of the front, in particular during pyrolysis, is known in the art.

A code of practice drawn up by the GIFAM (Groupement Interprofessionnel des Fabricants d'Appareils d'equipement Menager) defines a door as "cold" if the temperature of the front does not exceed 70 C during pyrolysis.

To this end, each ventilated door is in practice generally made up of a plurality of superposed glass walls.

At least one passage for circulation of cooling air in the plane of the door is formed between these walls.

Cool air generally enters via an orifice in the bottom edge of the door, the air thereby circulating from the bottom to the top of the door.

The door has an air outlet orifice near its top edge so that air may circulate within the door.

The air is circulated by a suction fan situated inside the oven, at the level of the air outlet orifice, for example, and which aspirates air through the door.

The present invention is aimed at a cooker oven combination of the above type in which two cooking chambers closed by respective ventilated doors are superposed one above the other.

There is a real need to provide two separate cooking chambers, the operation of the ovens being controlled by a common control panel.

However, the superposition of the cooking chambers, and in particular of the front doors, which are therefore in the / same plane and superposed one above the other, has the drawback of disturbing the aerodynamics of the doors, with the result that the door cooling function is no longer realistically assured.

An aim of the present invention is to remove the drawbacks previously cited and to propose a cooker oven combination guaranteeing correct cooling of the front doors regardless of the conditions of use of the cooker ovens.

To this end, the present invention is aimed at a combination of cooker ovens comprising two superposed cooking chambers, each oven having a ventilated door comprising a plurality of walls forming at least one passage for circulation of cooling air flowing from the bottom towards the top inside the door of each oven, which combination comprises a device disposed between the ventilated doors of the two superposed ovens for separating flows of air.

By using a separator device placed between the ventilated doors in this way, it is possible to eliminate all interaction between the aerodynamics of the two superposed ventilated doors. Thus the doors may be cooled independently of each other and the cooling maintained at a level conforming to the "cool door" code of practice.

Thus simultaneous operation of the two cooking chambers is possible, whilst guaranteeing relatively low temperatures of the front doors.

According to one preferred feature of the invention, the separator device has a top face adapted to direct a flow of air entering the top ventilated door into the plane of the top door.

This is because the presence of a bottom door disposed under the bottom edge of the top door is liable to impede entry of the flow of air into the top door. The separator device directs the flow of air into the interior of the top ventilated door. (

In practice, a top face of the device for separating the flow of air has a right-angle profile, a first portion of this top face being parallel to a bottom edge of the top ventilated door and a second portion of the top face being perpendicular to said bottom edge of the top ventilated door, said bottom edge of the top ventilated door comprising at least one air inlet orifice.

To cool the ventilated door of the bottom cooker oven, an aspirator device associated with the bottom cooker oven is adapted to aspirate air through an orifice situated near the top edge of the bottom ventilated door and to evacuate the air in front of the oven.

According to another preferred feature of the invention, a second aspirator device associated with the top cooker oven is adapted to evacuate air near a top edge of the top ventilated door, said top edge comprising at least one air outlet orifice.

Thus hot air leaving via the top edge of the door draws air into the interior of the door. The pressure reduction obtained in this way at the top of the door aspirates air into the interior of the door, and thus creates a circulation of air that is beneficial for cooling the top door.

According to another feature of the invention, the combination of cooker ovens comprises a separator member disposed at the rear of the cooking chambers and adapted to separate flows of air displaced by a first aspirator device associated with the bottom cooker oven and by a second aspirator device associated with the top cooker oven.

The aerodynamics for cooling the cooking chambers can therefore be independent of each other.

Other features and advantages of the invention will

become more apparent in the following description.

In the appended drawings, provided by way of non-

limiting example:

- figure 1 is a diagrammatic view in elevation of an oven combination conforming to one embodiment of the invention; - figure 2 is a perspective view of an air flow separator device integrated into the figure 1 cooker oven combination; and - figure 3 is a view in section taken along the line III.III in figure 2.

A cooker oven combination conforming to one embodiment of the invention is described first with reference to figure In principle, this oven combination comprises two superposed cooking chambers 10 and 20.

Each of the cooking chambers 10, 20 has a front door 11, 12 that is usually mounted to pivot about a horizontal axis at the bottom or a lateral axis.

The cooking chambers 10, 20 thus form two separate cooking cavities which can be used separately or simultaneously to cook food.

In the conventional way, the cooking chambers 10, 20 have heating elements, usually at the top and at the bottom of the cooking chamber, and a fan adapted to agitate the air and thereby homogenise the cooking temperature, usually disposed near the back wall of the chambers 10, 20.

These heating and air agitation components (not shown) are well known to the person skilled in the art and need not be described in detail here.

Control and monitoring means for operating the cooking chambers are disposed in the upper portion of the cooker oven combination.

In particular, a control panel 30 is provided on the front of the oven combination, above the front doors 11, 21 of the cooking chambers 10, 20.

The control panel 30 may include diverse controls and displays for commanding and managing the operation of either of the superposed cooker ovens.

The aim of the present invention is to improve the aerodynamics of the superposed cooker ovens, and figure 1 shows only components of the cooker oven combination relating to the system of circulating cooling air.

In particular, and as is described in more detail hereinafter, it is necessary to provide a flow of cooling air at the perimeter of the cooking chambers to prevent overheating of the casing of the oven in order to protect the environment and in particular the built-in units in which the cooker ovens are placed.

Moreover, it is necessary to provide for circulation of cooling air in the area of the control panel 30, and more particularly near the control circuit card carrying electronic components, which must be cooled at all times.

Finally, there must be provision for circulation of cooling air in the front doors in order to maintain them at relatively low temperatures, given the high temperatures inside the cooking chambers 10, 20.

In particular, the structure of the doors 11, 21 is made up of glass walls 11', 21' juxtaposed in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the doors 11, 21.

A space for the circulation of cooling air, preferably from the bottom of the door to the top, is therefore provided between the walls 11', 21'.

Reference may advantageously be made to the documents FR 2 726 633 and FR 2 746 903 in which the structure of this kind of cool door is described in detail.

Each door 11, 21 has on its top edge lib, 21b an air outlet orifice 16, 26 and on its bottom edge lla, 21a an air inlet orifice 17, 27.

The air inlet and outlet orifices may be continuous or discontinuous slots in the widthwise direction of the doors 11, 21.

To cool the environment of the first cooking chamber 10, an aspiration device 11 is associated with the bottom cooker oven. This aspiration device is a tangential fan 12 adapted to draw in cool air.

The tangential fan 12 is mounted above the first cooking chamber 10 and towards the rear of the oven, so that circulation of air is assured behind the cooking chamber 10 (arrow A). To be more precise, air may be drawn between the back of the cooking chamber 10 and the casing of the bottom oven, under the first cooking chamber 10, at the sides thereof, and at the rear thereof.

An air guide 13 at the outlet of the tangential fan 12 directs the flow of air aspirated by the tangential fan 12 onto the front of the cooker oven.

The air guide 13 is therefore between the tangential fan 12 and the front of the oven.

An evacuation orifice 14 opens onto the front of the oven.

The flow of air (arrow B) circulating in this way in the air guide 13 may be evacuated to the front. It will be noted that this evacuated flow of air is relatively hot. It corresponds to initially cool air that was aspirated into the environment of the cooking chamber and then heated by contact with the cooking chamber before it is evacuated via the evacuation orifice 14.

Moreover, the tangential fan 12 is also adapted to aspirate air in the region of a second air guide 15 disposed under the first air guide 13.

To be more precise, the second air guide 15 is disposed between the first air guide 13 and a top wall of the first cooking chamber 10.

The orifice 16, which is near the top edge llb of the ventilated door 11 of the bottom cooking chamber, opens into the second air guide 15.

Thus circulation of air may be obtained inside the ventilated cool door 11 between the orifice 17 on the bottom edge lla of the door and the outlet orifice 16 opening into the inlet of the second air guide 15.

This circulation of air (arrow C) therefore maintains the door 11 at a temperature close to 35 C during cooking and not exceeding 65 C during pyrolysis.

The flow of air recovered in this way at the second air guide 15 is also aspirated by the tangential fan 12 and is evacuated at the first air guide 13 into the circulation flow indicated by the arrow B. In the same way, a second aspiration device 22 is associated with the top cooker oven.

This second aspiration device 22 is also a tangential fan adapted in particular to aspirate a flow of cooling air (arrow D) in the region of the control panel 30 to cool the control electronics continuously.

The tangential fan 22 is also adapted to circulate air (arrow E) behind the second cooking chamber 20 in order to maintain its casing and its environment at a temperature preventing any damage of the built-in units.

As previously, the outlet of this tangential fan is coupled to an air guide 23 opening onto the front of the oven. Thus an air outlet orifice 24 is provided at the end of the air guide 23, substantially at the front of the oven.

Thus a flow of air (arrow F) may be evacuated to the front of the oven via the orifice 24.

The orifice 24 opens near the top edge 21b of the ventilated door 21 of the top cooking chamber 20.

Thanks to the air outlet orifice 26 provided in the top edge 21b of the ventilated door 21, a flow of air (arrow G) may be aspirated through the door by the Venturi effect.

Air therefore circulates inside the door, from the inlet orifice 27 to the outlet orifice 26, because of the reduced pressure created in the upper portion by the flow of air (arrow F) evacuated via the orifice 24.

To make the aerodynamics of the two cooker ovens independent, a separator member 31 is provided at the rear of the oven, for closing the air circulation spaces at the rear of the cooking chambers 10, 20. In particular, with reference to figure 1, the separator member 31 makes the flows of air represented by the arrows A and E independent of each other, the tangential fan 12 creating no aspiration phenomenon at the level of the second cooking chamber 20.

In this example the separator member is a virtually solid separator plate 31, the only holes in it enabling control and power supply cables of the bottom cooker oven to pass through it. These cables power the various units of the first cooking chamber 10 from the control panel 30.

Furthermore, and in accordance with the invention, a separator device 40 is disposed at the front of the oven combination, between the ventilated doors 11, 21 of the two superposed cooking chambers 10, 20.

This separator device is shown in detail in figures 2 and 3.

Generally speaking, the separator device is formed of an elongate thermoplastics part for separating the flows of air between the two ventilated doors 11, 21.

The separator part 40 extends the entire width of the doors 11, 21 and therefore faces the top edge llb of the bottom door 11 and the bottom edge 21a of the top door 21.

The separator part 40 has a bottom face 41 that is adapted to direct the flow of air (arrow B) evacuated via the orifice 14 perpendicularly to the bottom door 11.

In practice, the bottom face 41 defines a plane parallel to the top edge llb of the ventilated cool door 11 and substantially above the outlet orifice 14 of the air guide 13.

Thus the flow of air evacuated via the orifice 14 is guided between the bottom face 41 of the separator device 40 and the top edge llb of the ventilated door 11, and therefore exits in a direction substantially perpendicular to the bottom ventilated door 11. Thus the separator device 40 channels the flow of evacuated air, preventing it interfering with the entry of air via the bottom edge 21a of the top ventilated door 21.

Moreover, the separator device 40 has a top face 42 adapted to direct the incoming flow of air at the level of the orifice 27 in the bottom edge 21a of the top door 21 into the plane of the top door 21.

This is because, in contrast to the situation in which the oven is on its own so that air may easily enter the bottom edge of the door, in this kind of superposed oven combination the incoming flow of air into the top door is impeded by the presence of the bottom door and where applicable by the flow of air evacuated from the bottom cooking chamber 10 when the latter is operating.

In order to direct the flow of air primarily into the top door 21, the top face 42 of the separator device has a right-angle profile: a first portion 42a of the top face 42 is parallel to the bottom edge 21a of the top ventilated door 21 and a second portion 42b of the top face 42 is perpendicular to the bottom edge of the top ventilated door, and extends in the direction of the bottom edge 21a.

The top face 42 therefore forms a right-angle with the closed corner directed towards the air inlet orifice 27.

The air aspirated via the orifice 27 in this way is guided by the top face 42 so that after it has been introduced perpendicularly to the door 21, its direction is modified by the second portion 42b of the top face 42, so that it propagates substantially in the plane of the ventilated door 21.

As previously explained, the operation of the ventilated door 21 is based on the principle of the Venturi effect, and the reduced pressure created in the vicinity of the outlet orifice 26 therefore draws in air so that air may enter via the inlet orifice 27 in the bottom edge 21a of the ventilated door 21.

A suction system of the above kind works only if the pressure at the top of the door is lower than that at the bottom of the door. The particular shape of the top face 42 of the separator device guarantees this pressure difference.

It is important for the separator device 40 to be reliably positioned on the front of the oven, to avoid disturbing the air pressure in the bottom of the ventilated door 21, near its bottom edge 21a.

To this end, the air separator device 40 is fixed to the front of the oven by screws (not shown). Fixing lugs 43 may therefore be provided at either end of the separator device to allow the device to be fixed to lateral walls of the bottom oven by means of screws.

Moreover, it is important for the air flow separator device 40 to project sufficiently far between the two ventilated doors 11, 21 to limit the effects of the orientation of the flows of air, and thereby pressure variations leading to a malfunction of the aerodynamics of the system for cooling the doors 11, 21.

It is therefore important that the edge 44 of the separator device 40 discharge at least in a plane coinciding with the front plane of the ventilated doors 11, 21.

Different shapes or notches 45, 46 can be used for the passages for the fixing screws and for concealing the screws, without impacting on the aerodynamics.

Furthermore, an additional thickness portion 47 can be provided to consolidate the profile of the part 40.

Thanks to this device for separating the flows of air, it is possible to retain satisfactory aerodynamics in the juxtaposed cooker ovens, and in particular correct operation of the system for cooling the doors.

It should be noted in particular that the device 40 for separating the flows of air assures uniform cooling of the doors irrespective of the operating conditions of the cooker oven combination, i.e. when either oven is in use or when both ovens are in use simultaneously.

Of course, many combinations of ovens may be produced that conform to the principle of the combination according to the invention.

In particular, in the example described two types of aerodynamics for obtaining the ventilation of the front doors of the ovens are described (by aspiration and by the Venturi effect).

Ovens using the same cooling aerodynamics could be juxtaposed, of course.

Moreover, the ovens may be different sizes.

Finally, the number of juxtaposed ovens is not limited to two.

Claims (11)

1. A combination of cooker ovens comprising two superposed cooking chambers, each oven having a ventilated door comprising a plurality of walls forming at least one passage for circulation of cooling air flowing from the bottom towards the top inside the door of each oven, and a device disposed between the ventilated doors of the two superposed ovens for separating flows of air.

2. A combination of ovens according to claim 1, wherein the separator device has a top face adapted to direct a flow of air entering the top ventilated door into the plane of the top door.

3. A combination of ovens according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein a top face of the device for separating the flow of air has a right-angle profile, a first portion of this top face being parallel to a bottom edge of the top ventilated door and a second portion of the top face being perpendicular to said bottom edge of the top ventilated door, said bottom edge of the top ventilated door comprising at least one air inlet orifice.

4. A combination of ovens according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein an aspirator device associated with the bottom cooker oven is adapted to aspirate air through an orifice situated near the top edge of the bottom ventilated door and to evacuate the air in front of said oven.

5. A combination of ovens according to claim 4, wherein the separator device comprises a bottom face adapted to direct the flow of evacuated air substantially perpendicularly to said bottom ventilated door.

6. A combination of ovens according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein a second aspirator device associated with the top cooker oven is adapted to evacuate air near a top edge of the top ventilated door, said top edge of the top ventilated door comprising at least one air outlet orifice.

7. A combination of cooker ovens according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the device for separating flows of air extends the entire width of the ventilated doors of the superposed cooker ovens.

8. A combination of cooker ovens according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the device for separating flows of air is fixed to the front of the bottom oven.

9. A combination of cooker ovens according to any of claims 1 to 8, comprising a separator member disposed at the rear of the cooking chambers and adapted to separate flows of air displaced by a first aspirator device associated with the bottom cooker oven and by a second aspirator device associated with the top cooker oven.

10. A combination of cooker ovens according to claim 9, wherein said separator member is a plate with openings in it for control and power supply cables of the bottom cooker oven.

11. A combination of cooker ovens substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.