US2921576A - Securement means for wall-mounted cooking ovens - Google Patents

Description

T. C. NOLAN Jan. 19, 1960 SECUREMENT MEANS FOR WALL-MOUNTED COOKING OVENS Filed Aug. 31, 1956 Terence Wad/ atent Gfiice 2,921,576 Patented Jan. 19, 1960 SECUREMENT MEANS FOR WALL-MOUNTED COOKING OVENS Terence C. Nolan, Niles, Ill., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application August 31, 1956, Serial No. 607,399

2 Claims. (Cl. 126-273) This invention relates to cooking ovens, and, in particular, to an oven to be mounted in a wall cavity or a cabinet.

The presently popular built-in oven is installed in a cavity provided in a wall of the room, or into a wood or metal cabinet designed to receive the oven. The cabinet or wall construction provides a bed or foundation along which the oven is slid into final position. In view of the weight and relatively cumbersome size of the oven and the accompanying difliculty of placing the oven within the cavity, the cavity or cabinet opening is made suitably oversize in relation to the outside dimensions of the oven itself. The gap between the oven and the adjacent wall defining the cavity is covered by a suitable trim formed as part of the front oven structure.

An oven dooris usually bottom-hinged so that it may be swung between a vertical closed position and a horizontal open position. The door and its hinges are made strong enough to permit the open oven door to serve as a shelf or landing space on which to place the foodstuff before or after it has been cooked. Because of the clearance between the oven wall and the wall defining the cavity in which the oven is placed, a heavy load on the open door may overbalance the oven, causing it to tilt forwardly about its base. Although the oven will quickly engage the upper cavity wall and its forward motion be arrested thereby, even a small tilting motion may be somewhat frightening to the user. In the average installation it would be difficult to fasten the oven directly to the wall by passage of screws or the like through the trim members; for in order to reduce the overall frontal area of the oven, it is advantageous to have the trim overlap the adjacent wall structure to the minimum extent necessary to provide coverage for the gap. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide concealed means at the top of the oven structure which will not interfere with the placement of the oven within the cavity and may be easily adjusted after such placement to secure the oven within the cavity and prevent the forward movement thereof.

In practicing the invention, I use seeurement plates associated with the top of the oven at the front corners thereof, and arrange said plates to be in a withdrawn position. during the installation of the oven but extensible after the installation to engage the rear surface of the wall or structure defining the cavity. Said plates are slidably. mounted on the oven structure, and have a sloping forward wall forming a cam surface which tends to draw the oven into the cavity as the seeurement plates are drivenhome. Preferably, the slope commences at a sharp apex and is quite acute, adapting the devices to bite into a brick or similar Wall of such thickness as to make it impossible for the cam surface to pass behind the wall. The mounting arrangement for the 'securement plates may comprise a machine screw and slot to'perrnit the necessary extension or retraction thereof relative to the wall. Desirably, the screw heads are concealed behind a panel which must be removed to alfordaccessto the screws, thus reducing the likelihood of tampering with the seeurement members.

Other features and advantages will best be understood by the following detailed description of a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, read in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a fragmentary perspective of a portion of a kitchen wall arranged to receive an oven embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view based on Fig.1 but showing the oven control panel removed and also showing a step in the method of practicing the invention;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view of the oven showing a seeurement plate in fully withdrawn position but showing in broken line how its camming surface passes behind the adjacent wall when the device is in an extended position;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section taken on lines 44 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3 showing a seeurement plate in locking position with the sharp apex thereof penetrating an adjacent wall.

In Fig. 1, a kitchen or other building wall 1 is constructed to define an opening for the reception of an oven structure 2. I have chosen to illustrate a plaster wall with which the facing strips 3 are used to present a finished appearance. A suitable framework, including posts 4 and rails 5, provides a structure on which the oven rests. The top of the rails 5 is at the level of the top of the lowermost strip 3 so that the oven may be slid directly into place.

The overi comprises a box-like outer casing 6 within which is supported the actual oven structure (not shown). Said oven structure is sufiiciently smaller than the easing to provide for relatively heavy insulation between the oven and'casing. Above the oven an intermediate wall 7 and the top wall 8 of the casing cooperates with the side walls 6a, 6b thereof to provide an open front chamber '9 which accommodates switches, etc., which are mounted on a removable control panel 10. The door 11 is bottom hinged so as to be swung from the illustrated closed position to a horizontal open position. The oven door mounting means is made strong enough to permit foodstuffs to be placed thereon prior to or after cooking in the oven. The oven door thus forms a convenient shelf or landing space.

The wall structure defining the oven-receiving cavity is deliberately made oversize to facilitate the installation of the oven. The control panel 10 and side and base trim panels 12 are arranged to cover the gaps between the oven and the Wall structure. When it is considered that modern domestic ovens are sized to accommodate a twenty-four pound turkey, and that a roasting pan containing such a turkey may be placed on the lowered oven door, it is apparent that the load may cause the oven to tilt forward to the extent provided by the space 14 between the top wall 8 of the oven casing and the top edge of the cavity. Although this is not a frequent occurrence, it can be very frightening to the user.

The present invention provides a simple and effective means for securing the oven wall within the cavity. As shown in Fig. land Fig. 2, the front of the oven casing is provided with a rigid vertical frame 15, of which the upper portion thereof as defined by the respective upwardly extending side walls 15a and 15b and transverse wall 150, serves removablyto support the control panel 10. For example, the panel may have hooks or the like (not shown) which engage over the shoulders 16 of the frame and the frame may have tapped holes 17 to accommodate screws passing through the panel. Such which slidably receives the body of a screw 19. The screws are inserted from beneath, as suggested in Fig. 2. The screw at each side of the oven enters a tapped hole near the inner end of a securement plate 20 which rests slidably on the wall 8. Preferably, the front edge wall portion 20a of each plate 20 is slidably guided by the wall 150 of the frame 15, as appears in Figs. 3 and 5. In this manner, the plates are permitted only a very limited rotation about the respective screws as an axis.

The plates 20 are of relatively heavy rigid stock and have a camming surface 21 extending at an acute angle from the sharp apex 22. The location and length of the slots 18 and the length of the securement plates are such that the plates may be completely drawn inwardly of the side walls 6a and 6b of the oven casing, as shown in Fig. 3, to permit installation of the oven. When extended to securement position, the plates engage behind the adjacent wall structure, as shown in broken line in Fig. 3. The angle of the surface 21 and the extension permitted by slot 18 adapts the plates to various wall thicknesses. Occasionally, an oven may be installed in a brick-front wall, or other wall construction so thick that the surface 21 will not engage behind the wall. In such installations, the plates may be driven outwardly so that the apices thereof bite into the adjacent wall material, or the installer may chisel a small indentation in the wall, as I shown in Fig. 5, in which the wall is identified as In.

After the installation of the oven in the cavity and the removal of the control panel 10, it is a simple matter to drive the securement plates into their home position behind the adjacent wall. The operator merely reaches into the chamber below the wall 8 and by a suitable screwdriver unloosens the screw 19 slightly to permit the plate 20 to be driven outwardly. This he can do merely by holding the blade of the screwdriver against the head of the screw and then tapping the screwdriver in the proper direction to effect the outward projection of the plate. As the relatively acute angled surface 21 engages behind the adjacent wall surface, the oven body portion is drawn inwardly in relation to the wall surface. Also, there is a tendency for the plate to rotate about the screw 19. Because of. the rearward location of the screw and the leverage resulting therefrom, the rear portion of the plate will press strongly against the frame member 15. The friction thus resulting holds the plate 20 in its outwardly driven position until the installer retightens the screw 19. It will be apparent that the engagement of tion in the projecting position,

the respective plates 20 with the adjacent walls effectively holds the oven against forward tilting in the cavity. When used in connection with a brick or other thick wall, the holding power of the plates is essentially related to the extent of penetration of the pointed ends of the plates into the wall material. Even where there is no appreciable penetration, the frictional engagement of the plates into the wall is effective to hold the oven against any forward tilting.

While there has been described what is at present considered to be the preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that various modifications may be made therein, and it is intended to cover in the appended claims all such modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. An oven unit adapted to be accommodated by a supporting wall structure having an opening to receive said unit into a cavity inside said wall structure, said unit comprising an oven having a coking chamber, casing structure for said oven and defining an upper chamber above said oven, said casing structure being open at the front into said chambers, said upper chamber having a top wall, means comprising rigid frame means forming a rigid front portion of said oven casing structure, said frame means having a wall structure extending outward from the front edge of said top wall at each side thereof,

front closure means on said oven casing structure for said chambers, a rigid, elongated plate member slidably mounted on said top wall at each side thereof, each said plate member being immediately behind and guided by said frame wall structure, and, means accessible from the inside of said upper chamber for manually sliding each said plate member along said frame wall structure into a position where said plate member projects beyond a corresponding side of said oven casing structure and including means for releasably securing each said plate member to said top wall in the projection position, each of said plate members having an end portion extending angularly outward and rearwardly with respect to the frame wall structure to produce a camming action urging the oven unit rearwardly in the circumstance that said angularly extending end portion is passed behind a portion of the supporting wall structure, said angularly extending end portion further affording a sharp point for engagement with the adjacent supporting wall structure under the circumstance that the supporting wall structure is in the path of said point when the plate member is slid outward from the oven casing structure.

2. An oven unit adapted to be accommodated by a supporting wall structure having an opening to receive said unit into a cavity inside said wall structure, said unit comprising an oven having a coking chamber, casing structure for said oven and defining an upper chamber above said oven, said casing structure being open at the front into said chambers, front closure means on said oven casing structure for said chambers, rigid, elongated plate members slidably mounted on said oven casing structure each in a position above said oven and behind the front of said casing structure, guide means for so guiding each said plate member that said member may be manually slid lengthwise generally parallel to the front of said casing structure to project beyond said casing structure, said guide means restraining said plate member against rotaand means accessible from the inside of said upper chamber for manually sliding each said plate member along said guide means and including means for releasably securing each said plate member in the projecting position, each of said plate members having an end portion extending angularly outward and rearwardly with respect to the front of said casing structure to produce a camming action urging the oven unit rearwardly in the circumstance that said angularly extending end portion is passed behind a portion of the supporting wall structure, said angularly extending end portion further affording a sharp point for engagement with the adjacent supporting wall structure under the circumstance that the supporting wall strucure is in the path of said point when the plate member is slid outward from the oven casing structure.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,246,107 Kendig Nov. 13, 1917 1,492,582 Smith May 6, 1924 1,492,909 Waizenegger May 6, 1924 1,743,273 Hammer Jan. 14, 1930 1,795,224 Mangin Mar. 3, 1931 2,140,861 Steketee Dec. 20, 1938 2,672,390 Blashfield Mar. 16, 1954 2,684,220 Beber et al July 20, 1954 2,739,584 Hupp Mar. 27, 1956 2,752,217 Simon June 26, 1956 2,769,562 Rudolph Nov. 6, 1956 2,775,500 Etherington Dec. 25, 1956 2,812,149 Appleton Nov. 5,1957

FOREIGN PATENTS.

8,251 Great Britain Dec. 15, 1904 511,141 Great Britain Aug. 10, 1 939

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