Appliance for cooking dishes

The present invention relates to an appliance for cooking dishes, in accordance with the preamble of claim.

In particular, the present invention relates to an appliance for cooking dishes which integrates an oven, a cooking hob and a hood of the type commercially known as downdraft hood.

In the state of the art there are known appliances for cooking dishes comprising an oven, a cooking hob and a hood for suction of cooking fumes.

In particular, some of such appliances have downdraft hoods integrated in the cooking hob or alternatively in the top of a kitchen cabinet where the appliance for cooking dishes is housed.

Such a downdraft hood is configured to generate a descending current greater than the ascending speed of the fumes caused by cooking, so that these fumes are sucked towards an opening provided in the cooking hob itself with motion having a downwards direction.

For example, document U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,818 B1 shows an appliance for cooking dishes comprising an oven and a cooking hob arranged vertically above the oven.

Such a cooking hob has a central opening arranged between a plurality of cooking zones and is in fluid communication with a suction assembly, positioned below the cooking hob. During use, the suction assembly is configured to generate a negative pressure which results in a suction effect of the cooking fumes through the central slot.

Said appliance for cooking dishes comprises a filter assembly arranged in the slot and vertically removable from the cooking hob to enable the operations of cleaning or replacing the filters to be carried out.

In particular, the filter assembly comprises a grease filter and a collection portion configured to accumulate the liquids and greases present in the cooking fumes sucked through the central slot of the cooking hob.

Given the limited liquid storage capacity of the collection portion, the user must necessarily carry out periodic emptying operations which, similar to the operations of cleaning and replacing the filters, require the complete vertical extraction of the filter assembly from the central slot.

In particular, such emptying operations are necessary downstream of the accidental spillage of liquids used for cooking the dishes in the central slot of the cooking hob.

It is useful to note that in the act of extraction, to avoid the spread of liquids from the collection portion, it is necessary to take the utmost care, limiting as much as possible the tilting and shaking of the filter assembly.

Disadvantageously, the vertical extraction from the central slot of the cooking hob shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,455,818 B1 causes the user to tilt the filter assembly thus increasing the risk of liquid spillage from the collection portion.

In fact, when gripping the filter assembly, the user places their fingers between the cooking hob and the filter assembly, causing the latter to be tilted and jolted.

Further, the extraction along the vertical direction does not allow the user to grasp the filter assembly firmly until the filter assembly is spaced sufficiently away from the cooking hob. Therefore, in the first stage of lifting, the filter assembly could inadvertently slip out of the user's hand, falling violently into the opening and causing liquids to spill out of the collection portion.

It is also worth to note that the user performs the operation of lifting the filter assembly with their arms spaced apart from their torso so as to reach the central slot in which the filter is arranged. This position of the arms is particularly inconvenient for the vertical lifting of objects, in particular it does not guarantee full control of the movement. Thus, disadvantageously, during the extraction operation the user could inadvertently induce undesired tilting and vibrations in the filter assembly thereby causing the spillage of liquids from the collection portion.

In this context, the object underlying the present invention is to provide an appliance for cooking dishes adapted to facilitate the operations of emptying the liquids extracted from the cooking fumes and accumulated in a dedicated collection tray.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide an appliance able to minimize the risk of spillage of the liquids accumulated in the collection tray when it is extracted.

In accordance with the present invention, the technical task indicated and the specified objects are achieved by an appliance for cooking dishes according to one or more of the claims below.

By means of the present invention, it is possible to provide a domestic appliance for cooking dishes having an opening, arranged on the front surface of the oven cavity, specially sized to allow the extraction/insertion of a liquid collection tray.

During use, to empty the liquid collection tray, the user moves the latter to and from the opening on the front wall of the oven.

It should be noted that, in the act of extracting and inserting the liquid collection tray, the user is arranged in front of the front surface of the oven cavity, therefore he/she can easily and firmly grasp a peripheral portion of the tray to move it towards and away from the opening.

It is important to specify that, by means of the opening arranged on the front surface of the oven, before inducing any movement in the tray, the user is able to grasp the tray firmly so as to be able to better control its movement and avoid involuntary tilting and vibrations. In this regard, it should be noted that the user, before handling the tray, is able to grip the lower and upper of a peripheral portion of the tray (“pinching” the tray with their fingers).

In addition, it should be noted that the movement of the tray through the opening can be carried out by the user with the arms near the torso, i.e. in a position to allow the movement of the objects to be easily controlled. Therefore, advantageously, the arrangement of the extraction/insertion opening on the front surface of the cavity allows the user to have better control of the movement, so as to prevent unintentional tilting and vibration of the liquid collection tray.

The present invention relates to an appliance for cooking dishes, indicated byin the attached figures.

With particular reference to, the appliancecomprises an ovenwith a cavityand a doorassociated with a front surfaceA of the cavity.

It is important to specify that in the context of the present invention, cavityrefers to a temperature-controllable cooking chamber adapted to accommodate one or more dishes to be baked.

The cavityis bounded at the top, bottom and sides by respective walls,,of a frame of the oven. According to a preferred embodiment, the cavity is parallelepipedal in shape.

The dooris configured to selectively provide access to the inside of the cavityof the ovenso as to allow the dishes that are to be cooked to be loaded and the cooked dishes to be unloaded.

In detail, the doorcan be switched between a cooking position in which it frontally closes the cavityby being disposed in the front surfaceA, and an access position in which it allows access to the cavitythrough the front surfaceA.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the dooris rotationally constrained to a main body of the oven so that, rotating around a hinging axis, it switches between the aforementioned cooking position and access position. It should be noted that a person skilled in the art is able to independently realize the kinematic connection between the doorand the main body of the oven, therefore no further details will be given in this regard.

The access position, shown in, will also be indicated hereinafter as a maintenance configuration, as it allows the ordinary maintenance operations to be carried out on some components of the appliance. More details on this will be provided later in the description.

The appliancewhich is the object of the present invention also comprises a cooking hobdefining an upper surfaceA which limits the applianceat the top.

Preferably, the cooking hobcomprises a plurality of heating elementssuitably distributed on the upper surfaceA and, in particular, capable of transmitting energy to the bottom of the containers in which the dishes to be heated are kept.

In a preferred embodiment, the at least one heating elementis embodied in a resistive, or gas, or, preferably, conductive heating element.

Furthermore, the plurality of heating elements can be distributed on the upper surfaceA by means of a plurality of micro-conductors homogeneously distributed throughout the entire cooking hob.

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper surfaceA is embodied in a glass-ceramic plate.

The appliancethat is the object of the present invention further comprises at least one inlet openingarranged on the upper surfaceA of the cooking hoband configured to allow the suction of cooking fumes from the containers for the dishes. Therefore, the inlet openingrepresents the point at which the suction of the cooking fumes takes place.

Said inlet openingpasses, i.e. extends, in the cooking hob, along a thickness direction, between upper surfaceA and a lower surfaceB opposite to the upper one.

According to one aspect, the inlet openingis quadrangular in shape and one of its two dimensions is much larger with respect to the other.

In particular, it is important to specify that the inlet openingis not configured to allow the extraction/insertion of any component of the appliance, in particular of the filter and the liquid collection tray disclosed below. That is to say, the liquid collection tray and filter have a larger footprint than the inlet opening, thus geometrically impinging on the latter.

In this regard, it is worth noting that it is advantageous to keep the inlet openingsmall in order to maximise the surface area of the cooking hob that can be used to support the containers with which to cook the dishes.

In the embodiment shown in, the appliancecomprises a pair of inlet openingsarranged near a perimeter edge P of the cooking hob. Preferably, the inlet openingsare arranged at opposite sides of the perimeter edge P, thus being positioned laterally to the oven cavity along a width direction L-L of the appliance.

The appliancefurther comprises an outlet openingplaced in fluid communication with the inlet openingand representing the point of expulsion of the sucked cooking fumes.

In the embodiment shown in, the outlet openingis arranged at a lower portion IC of the appliance, opposite to the cooking hob.

As shown in, the appliance I comprises a downdraft-type hood.

Preferably, the downdraft-type hoodcan be operated in suction or filtering mode. In greater detail, in suction mode the hoodis configured to expel the cooking fumes to an environment outside the room in which the hoodis disposed, preferably an open environment, while in filtering mode the hoodexpels the cooking fumes into the room in which the hoodis disposed.

Such a downdraft hoodhas one or more suction assemblieseach of which is configured to suck the cooking fumes through the at least one inlet openingand to expel them through a respective outlet opening.

The suction assemblyis configured to generate a negative pressure (less than atmospheric) that causes the suction effect of the cooking fumes through the inlet opening.

It should be noted that the suction assemblies for downdraft hoods, in particular those with centrifugal impellers, are known to the person skilled in the art, therefore they need not be described further.