Cooking appliance

The present disclosure relates to an appliance for cooking dishes which finds its use in the field of cooking equipment for cooking, in accordance with the preamble of claim.

Appliances for cooking dishes comprising an oven, defining a cooking compartment selectively accessible by means of a door, and a hob arranged above the oven are known in the state of the art.

During food baking, the door tends to rise to the temperature of the cooking compartment, which typically ranges between 150° and 250°.

In order to prevent accidental burns, there is a need perceived by the oven manufacturers to cool the outer wall of the door with which the user could come into contact.

In this regard, it is known to obtain a cooling cavity in the door of the oven in which an air flow is made to flow which, by convection, reduces the temperature of the door.

The aforesaid cavity is typically made by spacing the inner and outer wall of the door in a thickness direction.

The air flow through the cavity is then expelled into the environment surrounding the oven by means of a thin discharge slit, which, having a smaller outlet section than the cross section of the cavity, tends to increase the speed thereof.

This air flow exiting from the door, in particular due to its thermal and kinetic energy, also called air curtain, can cause discomforts to the users who are near the appliance during the preparation of the dishes.

In addition, the aforesaid air flow exiting from the door carries with it traces of the cooking smells of the dishes arranged in the compartment, thus causing unpleasant olfactory sensations to those standing in the room in which the appliance is arranged.

Document AU514079B2 discloses an appliance comprising an oven, a hob and a downdraft hood. Said downdraft hood is configured to generate both a suction flow through a suction opening arranged on the hob, and a cooling flow in the cavity of the door of the oven.

It is known that the regions close to the cooking compartment of the oven are subject to overheating which can cause damage to electronic, electronic or structural components of the appliance, thus affecting the reliability thereof. To avoid the aforesaid hearings, the appliance described in document AU514079B2 comprises a thermally insulating layer surrounding the cooking compartment. A similar insulating layer is shown in document U.S. Pat. No. 3,756,217A.

Disadvantageously, this thermally insulating layer, in addition to increasing the production costs, reduces the cubing of the cooking compartment of the oven with the same overall footprint of the appliance. In this regard, it should be noted that, to ensure a sufficient thermal insulation, the insulating material must have a high thermal capacity that is obtainable either with high thicknesses or by using particular materials with high specific heats. However, the latter have a high cost that does not justify their use in the sector of the appliances. Therefore, in order to ensure the integrity of the components close to the cooking compartment, thermal insulating layers with high thicknesses are commonly employed.

Furthermore, disadvantageously, the thermally insulating layer complicates the design and the construction of the appliance since it reduces the inner volume of the appliance used for arranging the electronic and structural components of the appliance.

In this context, the technical task underpinning the present disclosure is to propose an appliance for cooking dishes that overcomes the drawbacks of the above-mentioned prior art.

In particular, it is an object of the present disclosure to make available an appliance for cooking dishes capable of reducing the disturbance perceived by the user as a result of the operation thereof, without compromising the safety of use.

More specifically, it is an object of the present disclosure to make available an appliance for cooking dishes capable of eliminating the cooling air flow of the door exiting from the oven, without exposing the user to risks of burns.

It is also an object of the present disclosure to make available an appliance for cooking dishes which, for the same footprint of the appliance, is able to maximize the cubing of the cooking compartment without affecting the reliability of the appliance itself.

The appliance of the present disclosure solves the above-mentioned technical problem in that it comprises a downdraft hood having a suction unit fluid-dynamically connected to the cooling cavity of the door for sucking a cooling air flow and expelling it through an outlet duct of the downdraft hood.

In detail, the appliance object of the present disclosure comprises a special duct (hereinafter “second suction duct”), configured to put the suction unit in fluid connection with the cooling cavity of the door.

It should be noted that, regardless of whether the downdraft hood is installed in filtering or suction mode, the cooling air flow is not expelled directly from the oven in the environment in which the appliance is arranged so as not to generate the so-called air curtain and avoid the discomforts to which the uses of traditional appliances are subjected.

In fact, if the downdraft hood is installed in suction mode, the cooling flow is expelled in an environment outside that of the kitchen, otherwise, in filtering mode, the outlet duct will be configured to release the sucked air flow through an opening of a kitchen cabinet (near, for example, the socket) in which the appliance is integrated.

Therefore, advantageously, the appliance object of the present disclosure allows to eliminate the cooling air flow of the door exiting from the oven, without compromising the refrigeration of the door and therefore exposing the user to risks of burns.

Furthermore, advantageously, by controlling the intensity of actuation of the suction unit of the hood as a function of the temperature of the cooking compartment of the oven it is possible to minimize the amount of the energy consumption by the appliance required to cool the door of the oven.

The appliance object of the present disclosure further comprises a third suction duct fluid-dynamically connected to the suction unit of the downdraft hood and at least partially surrounding the cooking compartment.

Advantageously, the actuation of the suction unit generates an air flow in the third duct which, by lapping the cooking compartment, allows to thermally isolate the regions of the appliance close to the cooking compartment, thus preventing potential overheatings and damages. It should be noted that the third duct is able to guarantee an efficient thermal insulation although it has a small footprint since, taking advantage of convection, it continuously transfers heat to the air flow that flows inside it which is then expelled from the appliance. It is therefore evident that the third duct makes it possible to preserve the integrity of the appliance without entailing a significant reduction in the cubing of the cooking compartment.

The present disclosure relates to an appliancefor cooking dishes that can be installed in kitchens for domestic or professional use.

With reference to, the appliancecomprises an oven, i.e. a device configured to perform cooking of foodstuffs in a thermally controlled environment.

The aforesaid ovenhas a cooking compartment, that is, a cavity adapted to accommodate dishes to be cooked and delimiting a volume of air that is temperature-controllable by means of special heating members that, as known to the person skilled in the art, will not be further described.

With reference to, the cooking compartmentis delimited by a plurality of walls,,,which preferably give it a parallelepiped shape. In detail, the cooking compartmentis delimited at the top by an upper wall, at the bottom by a lower wall, and laterally by a pair of opposite side wallsand by a rear wall.

According to one aspect, the ovenis arranged to perform steam cooking of foodstuffs. To this end, for example, the lower wallof the cooking compartmentmay have a concave region adapted to be filled with water or, alternatively, the ovenmay comprise a special boiler adapted to produce water steam to be introduced into the cooking compartment.

With reference to, the ovenhas an access openingconfigured to allow the introduction and the extraction of dishes from the cooking compartment. Said openingmust therefore be specially sized to allow the easy movement of containers for cooking foodstuffs, such as for example ovenproof dishes, baking pans and trays, to and from the cooking compartment.

Still with reference to, the openingis delimited by a perimeter contour C and is arranged in front of the rear wallof the cooking compartment. Preferably, the perimeter contour C comprises an upper edge Cassociated with the upper wall, a lower edge Cassociated with the lower wall, and a pair of side edges Ceach associated with a respective side wall.

The ovenfurther comprises a doorconfigured to selectively allow access to the cooking compartment.

In detail, said dooris switchable between an access position (), in which it leaves the openingof the cooking compartmentfree so as to allow the introduction and the extraction of the dishes in the oven, and a cooking position () in which it completely obstructs the openingof the cooking compartment.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the switching of the doorbetween the access position and the cooking position takes place through rotation of the dooraround a hinging axis. However, in alternative embodiments such switching could take place by a translational movement. It should be noted that the implementation of the movement of the door between the access and cooking position falls within the field of competence of the person skilled in the art, therefore it will not be further described hereinafter.

With reference to, the doorcomprises a cooling cavityconfigured to be crossed by a cooling air flow F.

According to one aspect, the doorcomprises an inner wallassociable with the openingof the cooking compartment, and an outer wallopposite to the inner wall. Preferably, the inner walland the outer wallare parallel and spaced apart along a thickness direction S-S of the doorthereby defining the cooling cavity. Therefore, the cooling cavityis delimited on opposite sides by the inner and outer wall,.

With reference to, the cooling cavityof the doorcomprises an inlet openingand an outlet opening.

The inlet openingis configured to allow the introduction of the cooling air flowinto the cooling cavity. The inlet openingthus places the cooling cavityin fluid-dynamic communication with the environment outside the oven.

Preferably, in accordance with what is shown in, the inlet openingis obtained at a lower edge Sof the door.

It should be noted that, when the door is in the cooking configuration, the lower edge Sof the dooris arranged at the lower edge Cof the openingof the cooking compartment.

The outlet openingis configured to allow the discharge of the cooling air flow Fintroduced into the cooling cavityby means of the inlet opening.

Preferably, in accordance with what is shown in, the outlet openingis obtained at an upper edge Sof the door, opposite to the aforesaid lower edge S. Therefore, preferably, the inlet openingand the outlet openingare arranged at opposite ends of the door.

The cooling flow Fthen passes through the cooling cavityfrom the inlet openingto the outlet openingexchanging heat with the walls of the door.

Therefore, when the cooking compartmentof the ovenis brought to temperature, the cooling air flow Fallows to lower the temperature of the door, in particular that of the outer wall.

It is worth specifying that, even if not shown in the present description, the ovencomprises all those components typical of the ovens such as, for example, the ventilation system of the cooking compartment or the support grilles adjustable on different levels.

With reference to, the applianceobject of the present description further comprises a hobarranged above the ovenalong a vertical direction V-V.

It is worth specifying that in the context of the present disclosure by hobis meant a device having a plurality of cooking regions adapted to receive restingly pots containing dishes to be heated. For the purposes of the present disclosure, the hob may be of either the induction, electric or hybrid type (i.e. induction or electric and gas).

The hobcomprises one or more suction openingsthrough which it is possible to generate a suction effect of the cooking steams coming from the pots containing the dishes to be heated. This suction effect gives rise to a suction air flow indicated with Fin.

It should be noted that, in accordance with what is shown in, the suction openingsare of the passing-through type, that is, they cross the entire thickness of a platedefining the rest surface of the hob.