Patent Application
20090296371
The present invention relates generally to a control device for an appliance. More particularly, the present invention relates to a control device for a household appliance and a household appliance incorporating such a control device.
A household appliance normally has various controls so that an operator can selectively control the operation of the appliance. Some types of household appliances, such as washers or dryers, typically do not have any integral lighting devices for illuminating the controls. Moreover, these types of household appliances are often located in low-light areas such as utility rooms, basements, and/or under objects such as cabinets. Low-light conditions can make it difficult to read the controls and/or to set the controls properly. If a household appliance is not set properly due to low-light conditions, it may not perform as expected by the operator or it may run longer than necessary and therefore waste energy.
Some types of household appliances often have integral lighting devices for illuminating at least some of the controls. Ranges are a good example. A typical, mainstream range often has burner controls on a front panel of the range and oven controls on a back panel of the range. Since the range is often placed in a kitchen and under a top object such as a vent hood or a cabinet that often blocks some of light from the kitchen light, the back panel typically has a single integral lighting device for illuminating all of the oven controls. However, in today's high-end ranges, the trend is to eliminate the back panel and to place all of the controls on the front panel of the ranges without employing any integral lighting device for illuminating the controls. Needless to say, low-light conditions, such as when the kitchen light is turned off, can make it difficult to read the controls and/or to properly set the controls of such ranges.
It is therefore desirable to incorporate lighting devices into household appliances for the purposes of illuminating the controls of the appliances. In the past, various attempts have been made to provide a control device for an appliance, which has integral lighting devices for illuminating the respective controls. Although these control devices may operate with some degrees of success, they often have various disadvantages. For example, the integral lighting devices often have a complicated structure and/or components. In addition, when each control has its own, exclusive lighting device, typically light is not used to illuminate the control directly. Furthermore, once each lighting device is installed in the appliance, it is often difficult to reach, repair or replace it.
As described herein, the preferred embodiments of the present invention overcome one or more of the above or other disadvantages known in the art.
One aspect of the present invention relates to a control device for an appliance. The control device includes a control panel having a front panel and a panel lip extending outward from the front panel; a plurality of controls for selectively controlling operation of the appliance, the controls being disposed on the front panel; and a plurality of lighting devices supported by the panel lip for illuminating the respective controls.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a household appliance such as a gas range that incorporates the inventive control device. More specifically, the appliance includes a control panel having a front panel and a panel lip extending outward from an upper edge of the front panel, the panel lip having a downward facing surface having a plurality of openings; a plurality of controls for controlling operation of the household appliance, the controls being disposed on the front panel and below the respective openings of the panel lip; and a plurality of lighting devices disposed inside of the panel lip for illuminating the respective controls.
These and other aspects and advantages of the preferred embodiments of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. Moreover, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
In the drawings:
An exemplary household appliance incorporating a preferred embodiment of the control device of the present invention is generally designated by reference numeral 100 in
The gas range 100 includes an outer body or housing 101 that has a generally rectangular shaped cook top or top surface 102. A main oven 103 is positioned below the cook top 102 and has a first front-opening access door 104. Optically, a smaller, companion oven 105 is positioned adjacent to the main oven 103 and below the cook top 102. The companion oven 105 has a second front-opening access door 106. The gas range 100 also includes a plurality of heating elements such as burners 110 positioned or arranged on the cook top 102 as well as heating elements in the ovens 103, 105.
A range control device 111 is positioned above the access doors 104, 106. As illustrated in
As is well known in the art, the switch knobs 113 are used to selectively control the operation of the burners 110 and the ovens 103, 105. Additionally, as is well known in the art, each switch knob 113 is rotatable and axially displaceable relative to the front panel 112. As shown in
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Each lighting device 130 is assembled and installed as follows. First, an electrically insulating and thermally conducting member 154 is placed on the second portion 150 of the mounting member 140. The electrically insulating and thermally conducting member 154 has a corresponding light pass-through hole 155 and preferably a corresponding fastener pass-through hole 156. Then the carrying member 141 is placed on the electrically insulating and thermally conducting member 154 with the LED 142 being substantially aligned with and disposed in the aligned light pass-through holes 155 and/or 152 and the fastener pass-through hole 142a being substantially aligned with the fastener pass-through hole 156 and the threaded hole 151. The carrying member 141 is then releasably attached or affixed to the second portion 150 of the mounting member 140 by an electrically non-conductive or electrically isolated fastener such as a screw 160 (electrically isolated means the screw 160 is not in contact with anything electrical). By this configuration, any heat generated by the LED 142 can be easily dispatched to the side wings 153 which function as heat sinks for the LED 142.
Then, as illustrated in
Next, the two-pin connectors 142b are electrically connected to a source of electricity by connecting wires 163. A control 164 (see
Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
