JP2006275439A - Home appliance equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide home appliance equipment having high conveniences without giving influences to opening/closing operating force during other operation than on-operation while actualizing a reliable door closing condition during operating the equipment. <P>SOLUTION: The home appliance equipment comprises a body 1 having an opening portion, a door 4 for opening/closing the opening portion, a detector 12 for detecting the condition of opening/closing the door, and a drive mechanism 20 for generating the force of pushing the door toward the body. Only when a door opening/closing detecting switch 15 is turned on, namely, the door 4 is determined to be closed, the operation is allowed. Then, after the operation is turned on by an operation button installed on an operation panel 5, the drive mechanism 20 is actuated to push the door toward the body with its hitching pawl 22 engaging with a protruding pawl 23 of the door 4, thus improving closing force. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a home appliance having a door that can be freely opened and closed.

  Conventional home appliances are configured to detect the open / closed state of a door and not accept input for device operation unless the door is in an open or closed state (see, for example, Patent Document 1). ).

JP 11-214147 A (page 2-4, FIG. 1)

  The conventional home appliance disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a structure in which each micro switch provided in the housing is pushed by a plurality of protrusions provided on the door as a fail-safe means in case of erroneous driving operation. ing. And it is the structure which enables an operation | movement only in the state by which each microswitch was pushed, and prevents the driving | operation in a door open state.

  Even with the above configuration, it is considered that the fail-safe functions will be sufficient, but the door springs will deteriorate over time, the protrusions that push the microswitch will heat, unintentional operation off when the door is closed due to manufacturing dimensional errors, etc. The possibility of malfunctioning cannot be denied.

  In addition, in order to ensure the closed state of the door, there is a user who locks the door by rotating the door handle, etc., but it is not always used because the lock mechanism requires human power. It was not an easy-to-use mechanism.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and realizes a reliable door closing state during operation of the device, and convenience that does not affect the opening / closing operation force except when the operation is on. The purpose is to obtain a high-end household electrical appliance.

  A home electric appliance according to the present invention includes a main body having an opening, a door that opens and closes the opening, a detection device that detects an open / closed state of the door, and a driving device that generates a force that presses the door toward the main body. The detection device detects a door closed state, and when the user performs an operation of driving, the drive device is activated to press the door toward the body. It is what.

  The home electric appliance of the present invention is provided with a driving device that generates a force for pressing the door in the direction of the main body in addition to the detection device that detects the open / closed state of the door. , And when the user enters the operation to start, the door can be securely held in a closed state, and the door closing force can be increased. It is. Furthermore, the door can be freely opened and closed when the operation is not on.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Here, the case of a microwave oven will be described as an example.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
1 is an external perspective view of the microwave oven showing the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional side view of the microwave oven door closed state showing the main part of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 2 and 3 correspond to the longitudinal sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.

  In the microwave oven, there is a heating chamber 2 in the main body 1, and a user pulls the handle 3 toward the front to open the door 4, and an object to be heated is placed in the heating chamber 2. After installation, when an operation button (not shown) for performing cooking arranged on the operation panel 5 is pressed, microwaves are supplied from the magnetron (not shown) into the heating chamber 2 and heated by dielectric heating. Is supposed to do.

As shown in FIG. 2, the opening / closing mechanism of the door 4 is arranged inside the side surface of the main body 1 (in the space between the main body case and the heating chamber case). The door 4 is connected to the main body 1 so as to be openable and closable by a hinge 6 having a lower portion as a fulcrum of rotation. A door arm 7 provided on the main body 1 side is connected to the door 4 via a shaft 8 and is locked to a rotary shaft 9 provided on the main body 1. Further, the door arm 7 is moved to the main body 1 side by a spring 10. Be attracted. One end of the spring 10 is fixed to the main body 1 by a spring fixing tool 11, and the other end is fixed to the door arm 7.
Therefore, the door 4 is closed by the restoring force of the spring 10. By appropriately setting the spring constant of the spring 10, the user can manually open the door 4 and close the door 4 with the assistance of the spring force.

As a detection device 12 for detecting the open / closed state of the door 4, a protrusion 13 is provided on the door 4. On the main body 1 side, when the door is closed, a lever 14 pushed by the protrusion 12 and a door open / close pushed by the lever 14 are opened. A detection switch 15 is provided. These lever 14 and door open / close detection switch 15 are arranged inside the side surface of the main body 1, and the front panel 16 provided around the opening of the heating chamber 2 is provided with an insertion port 17 for the protrusion 12. .
Therefore, when the door is closed, when the projection 12 is inserted from the insertion port 17 and pushes one end of the lever 14, the lever 14 rotates in the direction of the arrow and pushes the door open / close detection switch 15 at the other end, whereby a switch-on signal is generated. Since it outputs, it can detect that the door 4 is in a closed state.
When the door open / close detection switch 15 is pushed, a control circuit (not shown) shorts or opens the circuit to permit operation, and permits the user to perform operation on the operation panel 5. It will be.

Further, after the detection of the door closing of the detection device 12, a driving device 20 that is activated by a user's operation-on operation and generates a force that presses the door 4 toward the main body 1 is installed on the main body 1 side. As shown in the perspective view of FIG. 4, the drive device 20 is composed of, for example, a stepping motor, and a hooking claw 22 is attached to the rotating shaft 21. A projection claw 23 with which the hook claw 22 engages is provided on the door 4. Further, the front panel 16 around the opening of the heating chamber 2 is provided with an insertion port 24 into which the protruding claws 23 are inserted.
Accordingly, when the projection claw 23 is inserted from the insertion port 24 when the door is closed, the hook claw 22 is rotated in the direction of the arrow by the drive device 20, the hook claw 22 is engaged with the projection claw 23, and the projection claw 23 is pulled. The door 4 can be pressed in the direction of the main body 1, that is, in the closing direction, and the closing force of the door 4 is increased.

  The shapes and structures of the hooking claws 22 and the projecting claws 23 are not limited to those shown in the drawings, and can be changed as appropriate. That is, the engagement is released when the door is opened so as to allow the door 4 to be opened, and when the door is closed, the power of the drive device 20 serving as a power source acts as a force for pressing the door 4 toward the main body 1 (including an attracting member). Or a claw member. Therefore, the driving device 20 is not limited to a stepping motor, and a magnet, a solenoid, a cylinder, or the like can be used.

  Also, by installing a plurality of drive devices 20 having the hooking claws 22 and the projection claws 23 of the door 4, the effect of increasing the closing force of the door 4 can be enhanced, and the pressing force of the door 4 can be made uniform. it can. In addition, the hooking claw 22 and the protruding claw 23 are preferably arranged at positions farther from the hinge 6 of the door 4 (in this example, the door 4 and the upper part of the main body 1), and the drive device 20 can be downsized.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a sequence from opening / closing of the door 4 to operation.
After the door 4 is opened and the object to be heated is placed in the heating chamber 2, the door 4 is closed (S1). When the door 4 is closed, the door opening / closing detection switch 15 in FIG. 2 is pushed by the projection 13 via the lever 14 and is turned on. That is, only when it is determined that the door 4 is closed by the ON signal of the door opening / closing detection switch 15 (S2), the operation can be performed by a control circuit (not shown). Thereafter, after the operation is turned on by the operation button installed on the operation panel 5 (S3), the driving device 20 is activated and the hooking claw 22 rotates by a predetermined angle, whereby the hooking claw 22 and the door 4 are turned on. The closing claw 23 provided on the door 4 engages and the protruding claw 23 is displaced in the direction of the main body 1 to increase the closing force of the door 4 (S4). Thereafter, a magnetron that is a microwave oscillation source is oscillated (S5). Thereby, a to-be-heated material can be heated and cooked.

  Thus, before the operation is turned on, since no external force is applied to the door 4 other than the closing force by the spring 10 attached to the door arm 7, the user opens and closes the door 4 easily and freely. be able to. Therefore, even a weak person such as an elderly person or a child can easily open and close, and the convenience is high.

  Further, the generation of the pressing force of the door 4 is not limited to the input by the operation button (S3) in the flowchart of FIG. As an example, it is possible to generate a pressing force only in the case of microwave heating and not to generate a pressing force in the case of oven heating.

Embodiment 2. FIG.
FIG. 6 shows a cross-sectional view of a main part of the microwave oven in the door closed state according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
For the purpose of improving the thermal efficiency by preventing the hot air or steam generated in the heating chamber 2 from leaking from the periphery of the door 4, a packing 25 is provided at a portion where the door 4 contacts the periphery of the opening of the main body 1. The packing 25 is made of flexible rubber and the like, and by applying a pressing force by the driving device 20, more reliable sealing is possible, and the heating time of the object to be heated placed in the heating chamber 2 is shortened. Is possible. The packing 25 may be provided on at least one surface of the door 4 or the closed surface (front panel 16) around the opening of the main body 1. Since other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment, the same reference numerals are given and the description thereof is omitted.

Embodiment 3 FIG.
In FIG. 6, the packing 25 with conductivity can be obtained by using the packing 25 mixed with carbon powder or metal powder. By imparting electrical conductivity, electromagnetic wave reflection performance can be improved. Conventionally, in the microwave oven, there is a known technique for preventing electromagnetic wave leakage by using a choke structure in which a metal plate is folded in a complicated manner inside the door 4, but the choke and the surrounding area of the opening of the main body 1 necessary for preventing electromagnetic wave leakage are known. There is a disadvantage that the size is about λ / 4 (λ is the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave) and the size is increased. However, in the case of this structure, the size can be constituted only by the dimensions of the conductive packing 25 and the protruding claws 23. Therefore, the dimensions of the door 4 portion and the peripheral portion of the opening of the main body 1 can be greatly reduced. As a result, the main body itself can be reduced in size and electromagnetic leakage can be reduced.

It is an external appearance perspective view of an example of the household electrical appliance which shows Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is principal part sectional drawing in the door closed state of the household appliances which show Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is principal part sectional drawing in the door open state of the household appliances which show Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a perspective view of the drive device for door pressing force generation in Embodiment 1 of the present invention. It is a flowchart which reaches to the pressing force generation | occurrence | production at the time of the door closing in Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is principal part sectional drawing in the door closed state of the household appliances which show Embodiment 2 and Embodiment 3 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body, 2 Heating chamber, 3 Handle, 4 Door, 5 Operation panel, 6 Hinge, 7 Door arm, 8 axis, 9 Rotating shaft, 10 Spring, 11 Spring fixing tool, 12 Detector, 13 Protrusion, 14 Lever, 15 Door Open / close detection switch, 16 front panel, 17 insertion slot, 20 drive unit, 21 rotating shaft, 22 hooking claw, 23 protrusion claw, 24 insertion slot, 25 packing.

Claims (6)

A main body having an opening; a door that opens and closes the opening; a detection device that detects an open / closed state of the door; and a drive device that generates a force to press the door toward the main body.
The home appliance, wherein the detection device detects a door closed state, and the drive device is activated to push the door toward the main body when the user performs an operation of turning on the drive. machine.   The household electrical appliance according to claim 1, wherein the door and the driving device are provided with an engaging member or a claw member that is disengaged when the door is opened and is engaged by a user's operation of turning on the drive.   The household electrical appliance according to claim 2, wherein the engagement member or the claw member is disposed at a position farther than a hinge of the door.   4. The home appliance according to claim 1, wherein the drive device is activated by operating a specific input key.   5. The household electrical appliance according to claim 1, wherein packing is provided on at least one surface of a closed surface around the door or the opening of the main body. The household electrical appliance according to claim 5, wherein the packing is an electromagnetic shielding material.

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