Exhaust Hood Device

This application claims benefit of priority to Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2024-0122602 filed on Sep. 9, 2024, and 10-2024-0080402 filed on Jun. 20, 2024 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

The present disclosure relates to an exhaust hood device that is installed above a cooking table to discharge smoke generated during a cooking process to the outside and, more particularly, to an exhaust hood device in which a telescopic pipe unit including an inner pipe and an outer pipe is provided on a lower end of a filter box unit capturing oil vapor introduced along with smoke, a hood unit is provided on a lower end of the telescopic pipe unit, the outer pipe can be stably moved without much effort when the expanding or contracting operation of the telescopic pipe unit is performed to adjust the height of the hood unit, and the inner pipe and the outer pipe are spaced apart from each other during the movement of the outer pipe, thereby preventing oil attached to an inner surface of the telescopic pipe unit from falling off during the movement of the outer pipe.

In general, an exhaust hood device is used to discharge odors and smoke generated during the cooking process to the outside, preventing them from spreading indoors.

The smoke generated when grilling meat or fish contains oil vapor, fine particles, and various chemicals. If they are left untreated, they may contaminate surrounding furniture, structure and clothing, and may have a negative impact on the health of a user. Therefore, the exhaust hood device is used to adjust the height of a hood to bring it closer to a grill when grilling meat or fish, allowing smoke to be more quickly sucked in and discharged.

As the related art for an exhaust hood device capable of adjusting the height of a hood, Korean Utility Model No. 20-0416595 (May 10, 2006, hereinafter referred to as the “related art document”) has been proposed. As shown in, the exhaust hood device according to the related art document includes a fixed pipeand a movable pipe. The height of the hood that absorbs smoke is adjusted by moving the movable pipeup and down while it is coupled to the fixed pipe.

In the exhaust hood device according to the related art document, a plurality of catch membersare radially installed on the fixed pipeso that inner ends thereof protrude from the fixed pipe. The plurality of catch membersare installed on the fixed pipeto form a multi-stage structure, and a flangein which a plurality of through groovescorresponding to the catch membersare radially formed is installed on the upper end of the movable pipe. Thereby, the movable pipeis movable up and down in a position where the catch membersand the through groovesare aligned, and the flangeis seated on the catch membersin a position where the catch membersand the through groovesare misaligned, so that the movable pipemaintains the adjusted height.

The related art document enables the smoke to be quickly absorbed and discharged by bringing a smoke suction position closer to a grill through the vertical movement of the movable pipe.

However, in order to move the movable pipeup and down, the related art document should align the catch membersand the through groovesby rotating the movable pipe. However, this is problematic in that the inner ends of the catch membersand the flangewhere the through groovesare formed are located inside the fixed pipeand are not visible, making it very inconvenient and difficult to use.

Further, in the related art document, the height is maintained by seating the flange, installed on the movable pipe, on the catch members. Thus, this is problematic in that the height cannot be freely adjusted, and the number of catch membersshould be increased for precise height adjustment, thereby leading to a complex structure due to the installation of a large number of catch members.

Moreover, the flangelocated inside the fixed pipescratches the inner surface of the fixed pipeduring the vertical movement of the movable pipe, causing oil from oil vapor attached to the inner surface of the fixed pipeto drip onto food being cooked, leading to an unsanitary situation.

An object of the present disclosure is to solve the aforementioned problems and other problems related thereto.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide an exhaust hood device that can easily adjust the height of a hood unit through which smoke is sucked and can prevent oil attached to an inner surface of a telescopic pipe unit from falling in the process of adjusting the hood unit.

Another object of the present disclosure is to provide an exhaust hood device, in which a guide bar and a spring balancer for supporting a telescopic pipe unit are symmetrically provided on both sides of the telescopic pipe unit, thereby enabling the stable supporting and expanding or contracting operation of the telescopic pipe unit.

A further object of the present disclosure is to provide an exhaust hood device, in which a guide bar and a spring balancer are detachably attached.

In an aspect for achieving the object, the present disclosure provides an exhaust hood device configured to absorb smoke generated during a cooking process and to discharge the smoke to the outside, the device including a filter box unit including a filter box in which a filter capturing oil vapor introduced along with the smoke is installed, and connected at an upper portion thereof to an exhaust duct, a telescopic pipe unit including an inner pipe connected to a lower portion of the filter box to allow the smoke to flow into the filter box, an outer pipe moving up and down while being coupled to an outer lower end of the inner pipe, and a cylindrical ball reducer secured to a lower end of the inner pipe to be located inside the outer pipe, a plurality of balls being provided on an outer circumference of the ball reducer and pressing an inner circumference of the outer pipe by elasticity of a spring so that a position of the outer pipe is relatively fixed, and a hood unit including an expanded hood on a lower end of the outer pipe, and an oil tray provided in the expanded hood to collect oil that flows down along an inner surface of the telescopic pipe unit.

An auxiliary handle may be formed on an outer upper end of the outer pipe to ensure stable vertical movement of the outer pipe around the ball reducer.

The auxiliary handle may include a pair of protruding pieces that protrude from the outer pipe to be vertically spaced apart from each other, and a grip piece that connects the protruding pieces to each other to be gripped, and a guide bar may be provided to extend vertically along the telescopic pipe unit at a position adjacent to the telescopic pipe unit, and a lower-end fastening hole may be formed in an upper protruding piece and an upper-end fastening part may be formed on a lower surface of the corresponding filter box so that upper and lower ends of the guide bar are detachably fastened.

The exhaust hood device may further include a spring balancer mounted on an outer upper end of the inner pipe to face the guide bar with the telescopic pipe unit interposed therebetween, and assisting the vertical movement of the outer pipe by fastening a wire wound by elasticity of a spring to the outer pipe.

A fastening bracket may be installed on the outer upper end of the inner pipe such that a vertical piece is connected between a pair of fixing pieces that are vertically spaced apart from each other, and a mounting groove may be provided on the vertical piece of the fastening bracket and may include a horizontal groove portion that is open at one side thereof, and a vertical groove portion that is integrally formed on the other side of the horizontal groove portion, and a bolt shaft may be provided on a back surface of the spring balancer to protrude therefrom, and be secured to the fastening bracket by tightening a nut while being inserted into an open end of the horizontal groove portion and then seated in the vertical groove portion.

The exhaust hood device may further include an elastic fixer mounted on the vertical piece of the fastening bracket, and the elastic fixer may include an elastic deformation piece contacting a bolt shaft seated in the vertical groove portion, receiving tension applied to the wire through the bolt shaft to be deformed, and restored to an original shape thereof when the tension applied to the wire is released, and a pair of restraint pieces locked to an upper portion of the bolt shaft seated in the vertical groove portion to restrain the bolt shaft when the elastic deformation piece is elastically deformed, and spaced apart from the bolt shaft to release restraint of the bolt shaft when the elastic deformation piece is restored.

The ball reducer may include a cylindrical housing having a plurality of spring insert holes formed so that springs are radially provided on an inner circumference thereof, with a catch being provided at an upper end thereof to be bent outward, and a ball installed in each of the spring insert holes to be elastically supported outward by the spring, and pressing the inner circumference of the outer pipe, and a step portion may be formed on a connection socket, which is coupled to an upper end of the outer pipe to connect the outer pipe and the inner pipe, to be seated on the catch, and is reduced in diameter to prevent removal.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. When it is determined that the detailed description of the known art related to the present disclosure may obscure the gist of the present disclosure, the detailed description will be omitted.

As shown in, an exhaust hood device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a filter box unit, a telescopic pipe unit, and a hood unit. The telescopic pipe unitis connected to a bottom of the filter box unit, and the hood unitis connected to a bottom of the telescopic pipe unit, thereby forming the exhaust hood device.

The filter box unitis connected to an exhaust duct (not shown) to discharge smoke from which oil vapor has been removed to the exhaust duct. The filter box unit includes a filterthat captures oil vapor, and includes a filter boxthat accommodates the filtertherein.

As shown in, the filterincludes an inner filterand an outer filter. Both the inner filterand the outer filterhave a conical shape. The inner filteris formed in a relatively small size such that it is inserted into the outer filterto form a double filter structure.

The inner filterand the outer filterare formed of stainless steel to have excellent heat resistance and corrosion resistance, and are configured such that comb-shaped partsandand exhaust holesandare repeated in circumferential directions around their centers to exhaust smoke and capture oil vapor.

In order to more effectively capture the oil vapor, the comb-shaped partsand exhaust holesof the inner filterand the comb-shaped partand exhaust holesof the outer filtermay be alternately formed.

As shown in, the filter boxhas a box shape to accommodate the filtertherein, and has on a side thereof a doorthat may be opened or closed to allow the insertion and removal of the filter. Such a filter boxmay be formed to have various cross-sections, such as a circular cross-section or a polygonal cross-section including a tetragon or a hexagon, and is connected to the exhaust duct to discharge smoke from which oil vapor has been removed to the exhaust duct (not shown).

The filter boxaccording to an embodiment of the present disclosure may be configured to collect oil in one place without using a separate oil tray.

To be more specific, the filter boxincludes on a lower end thereof a curved partso that oil flowing down along an inner wall is directly guided to the inner circumference of the telescopic pipe unitwithout collecting on the bottom and is collected in an oil trayof the hood unit. At this time, the curved partmay be formed as a spherical curved surface bent into a three-dimensional shape to naturally connect the inner wall of the filter boxand the inner circumference of the telescopic pipe unit.

In this way, the curved partformed on the lower end of the filter boxallows oil flowing down along the inner wall of the filter boxto flow naturally to the inner circumference of the telescopic pipe unit, thereby enabling oil to be collected without installing a separate oil tray in the filter box, and consequently improving the convenience of maintenance.

The telescopic pipe unitconnects the filter box unitand the hood unit. As shown in, the telescopic pipe unit includes an inner pipe, an outer pipe, and a ball reducerto enable an expansion operation for adjusting the height of the hood unit.

The inner pipeis installed so that an upper end thereof is connected to the lower surface of the filter box, and extends vertically downward from the lower surface of the filter box. Smoke introduced into the lower portion of the inner pipeis discharged into the filter boxthrough the lower surface of the filter box. The smoke introduced into the filter boxpasses through the filterand then is discharged to the exhaust duct.

The outer pipeis coupled to the lower end of the inner pipeto enable the expansion operation of the telescopic pipe unit. The outer pipe is formed of a pipe having a diameter larger than that of the inner pipeso that the inner circumference thereof is spaced apart from the outer circumference of the inner pipe. The outer pipe is arranged outside the inner pipeto be coupled thereto and surround the lower end of the inner pipe. The outer pipemoves up and down while being coupled to the inner pipe, thereby leading to the expansion and contraction of the telescopic pipe unit.

As shown in, an auxiliary handlemay be formed on the outer upper end of the outer pipeto ensure stable vertical movement of the outer pipearound the ball reducer.

The auxiliary handleincludes a pair of protruding piecesthat protrude from the outer pipeto be vertically spaced apart from each other, and a grip piecethat connects the outer ends of the protruding piecesto each other. The grip pieceis formed to be held by a user, so that the user may use the auxiliary handletogether with a main handleat a lower end when the outer pipemoves up and down. That is, by moving the outer pipewhile grasping the handle near the ball reducerin a relative position, more stable vertical movement can be achieved.

Meanwhile, in order to ensure stable connection between the inner pipeand the outer pipehaving different diameters, a connection socketis installed at the upper end of the outer pipe. The connection socketincludes two or more pipes having different diameters, and the lower end of the connection socket is fixedly coupled to the upper end of the outer pipeto move up and down together with the outer pipe, and the upper end of the connection socket is formed close to the outer circumference of the inner pipeto surround the inner pipe, thereby preventing smoke from leaking through a gap between the outer pipeand the inner pipehaving different diameters.

Further, a step portionis formed on the connection socketto be seated on the upper end of the ball reducer, thereby preventing the outer pipefrom falling downward. The step portionmay be formed in a shape in which the diameter becomes narrower to connect pipes of different diameters.

The ball reducerfixes the vertically moving outer pipeto a certain height. As shown in, the ball reducer is installed at the lower end of the inner pipeto be positioned inside the outer pipe, and includes a cylindrical housingand a ball.

The cylindrical housingis coupled the lower end of the inner pipesuch that the lower end of the inner pipeis inserted into the upper end thereof, and may be fastened to the inner pipeby a fastening means such as a rivet or welding.

Further, a plurality of spring insert holesare radially formed at the upper end of the cylindrical housingto be spaced apart from each other in a circumferential direction. The plurality of spring insert holesmay be spaced apart from each other in a vertical direction to form a multi-stage structure.

A springis accommodated in each spring insert holeto elastically support the ball. The spring insert hole is formed to protrude inward from the cylindrical housingwhile extending along the normal line of the cylindrical housing, and the outer end of the spring insert hole is exposed through the outer circumference of the cylindrical housing.

Further, the cylindrical housinghas a catchthat is provided at an upper end thereof to be bent outward and have an expanded diameter, and the step portionof the connection socketis seated on the catch, thereby preventing the removal of the outer pipedue to downward movement.

The ballis installed in each spring insert holeto be elastically supported by the spring. The ball moves outward by the elasticity of the springso that a portion thereof protrudes from the spring insert hole, and thereby the inner circumference of the outer pipeis fixedly pressed by the ball.

As shown in, the hood unitis a part where smoke is sucked in, and is installed on the lower end of the outer pipeto be located at the lower end of the telescopic pipe unit. Such a hood unitincludes an expanded hood, an oil tray, and a reducer.

The expanded hoodforms the lowest structure of the hood unit, and may be formed in the shape of a bell mouth that extends downward to allow smoke to be sucked in over a wide range.

The oil trayhas a collection spacethat is open at a top thereof, and is mounted on the inner upper end of the expanded hoodto collect oil flowing down along the inner circumferences of the inner pipeand the outer pipe.

The reducerconnects the outer pipeand the oil tray, with an upper end thereof being coupled to the outer pipeand a lower end thereof being coupled to the oil tray.

In order to facilitate the maintenance of the oil tray, the oil traymay be detachably mounted on the reducer. To this end, a plurality of L-shaped fastening groovesare radially formed on the lower end of the reducer, while a plurality of fastening protrusionsare radially formed on the upper end of the oil trayto be inserted into the plurality of corresponding fastening grooves, so that the oil traymay be mounted on the lower end of the expanded hoodto be separated by rotation.