Appliance for cooking dishes

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

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

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

In particular, some of such apparatuses 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 having a speed greater than the ascending speed of the fumes due to cooking so that such 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. In 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 unit arranged in the slot and vertically removable from the cooking hob to carry out filter cleaning and replacing operations.

The use of ovens which cook food using steam is also known.

To this end, the known ovens have a tank which can be filled with water and a boiler configured to generate steam.

Such a tank usually has a volume varying between 0.51 and 21 and is made of plastic material.

Usually, the tank of the known steam ovens can also be refilled several times during the preparation of a dish and this implies that its positioning is easy to reach by the user and that above all it is not at a temperature such as to constitute a danger to the user.

The arrangement of the tank in the known ovens has the disadvantage of using a non-negligible amount of energy to allow the passage of the water contained in the tank from liquid to gas state, into steam. This depends on the fact that the temperature of the water in the tank is substantially fixed and equal to the temperature of the mains water, i.e., a temperature which is variable in a range between 12° C. and 18° C.

In this context, the object underlying the present disclosure is to provide an appliance for cooking dishes capable of limiting the use of energy necessary to change the state of the water from liquid to gas (i.e., water vapour).

In accordance with the present disclosure, 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 virtue of the present disclosure, positioning the tank near the suction ducts of the cooking fumes, which fumes are generated by the cooking activity on the cooking hob, allows to preheat the water contained in the tank and therefore to use a lesser amount of energy to carry out the passage from liquid to gas state of the water contained in the tank.

The present disclosure relates to a recessed appliance for cooking dishes, indicated byin the accompanying figures.

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

It should be specified that in the context of the present disclosure, cavityis intended as a temperature-controllable cooking chamber adapted to receive one or more dishes to be baked in the oven.

The cavityis delimited above, below, and to the side by respective walls,,of a frame of the oven. According to a preferable embodiment, the cavity has a parallelepiped shape.

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

In detail, the dooris switchable between a cooking position in which it frontally closes the cavity, being arranged 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 constrained in rotation to a main body of the oven so that, rotating around a hinging axis, it switches between the aforesaid cooking and access positions. It should be noted that a person skilled in the art is capable of independently achieving the kinematic connection between the doorand the main body of the oven, therefore no further details will be provided in this regard.

The access position, shown in, will hereinafter also be indicated as 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 applianceobject of the present disclosure further comprises a cooking hobdefining an upper surfaceA which limits the applianceabove.

The cooking hobcomprises a plurality of heating elementssuitably distributed on the upper surfaceA and adapted to transmit 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, inductive heating element.

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

Preferably, but not necessarily, the upper surfaceA is made of a glass-ceramic plate.

The applianceobject of the present disclosure 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 of the dishes. Therefore, the inlet openingrepresents the point at which the suction of the cooking fumes occurs.

The aforesaid inlet openingis through, i.e., it extends in the cooking hob, along a thickness direction, between upper surfaceA and a lower surfaceB opposite the upper one.

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

In particular, it should be specified 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 described below. That is, the liquid collection tray and the filter have a larger footprint than the passage section of the inlet opening, thus geometrically interfering with the latter.

In this regard, it should be noted that it is advantageous to keep the inlet openingof small dimensions to maximize the surface of the cooking hob which can be used to support the containers with which to cook the dishes.

In the embodiment shown in, appliancecomprises a pair of inlet openingsarranged near a peripheral edge P of the cooking hob. Preferably, the inlet openingsare arranged on opposite sides of the peripheral edge P, thus being located to the sides of 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 expulsion point of the sucked cooking fumes.

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

As shown in, the appliancecomprises 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 eject the cooking fumes in an environment outside the room in which the hoodis arranged, preferably an open environment, while in filtering mode the hoodejects the cooking fumes inside the room in which the hoodis arranged aver having filtered them.

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

The suction assemblyis configured to generate a negative pressure (less than atmospheric) responsible for 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 impeller, are known to a person skilled in the art, therefore they need not be further described.

According to an aspect shown in, the applianceobject of the present disclosure comprises a suction chamberinside which the suction assemblyis arranged.

The suction chamberis arranged downstream of the one or more inlet openingsand upstream of the outlet openingso that the suction assembly is interposed therebetween.

With reference to, the appliancecomprises a conduit systemcomprising a first cooking fumes pathThe sucked cooking fumes flowing along the first cooking fumes pathflow between the inlet openingand the outlet opening.

In other words, the first cooking fumes pathfluid-dynamically connects the inlet openingand the outlet opening.

According to an aspect the conduit systemis made of metallic material to better resist the heat emanating from the cavityof the ovenduring its operation. However, other suitable materials can be used instead of metallic.

In the embodiment with two inlet openingsshown in, the conduit systemcomprises a cooking fumes path for each inlet opening. That is, the conduit systemcomprises a first and a second cooking fumes patheach of which is associated to a respective inlet opening but with the same outlet opening.

The first and the second cooking fumes path are shown inwith a first group of solid line arrows Fand a second group of dashed line arrows F, respectively.

In the embodiment shown in the attached figures, the first and the second cooking fumes pathextend along a vertical direction at a respective side wallof the cavityof the oven. The ovenis thus interposed between the first and the second cooking fumes path