The present invention is directed to a household appliance, and more particularly, to a household appliance having a system and method of aligning a plurality of household appliance doors, and more particularly, three or more doors of an appliance.
A conventional appliance may include a plurality of doors providing access to a plurality of interiors chambers of the appliance. For example, a conventional oven/range may have multiple doors, such as an oven door, a steam and/or convection oven door, or a warming drawer door, which provide access to an interior of, for example, a cooking chamber, a steam cooking chamber, or a warming drawer, etc. A user, technician, or installer may wish to adjust the doors to align the doors for aesthetic reasons or to provide proper spacing and clearances between adjacent doors to avoid interference with the proper function of the doors. However, in some instances, each of the doors may have a different construction and may be moveable with respect to a housing of the appliance in a variety of ways, such as pivoting, sliding, etc., and thus, may have different attachment means such as hinges or slides. Each of the doors also may have handles, for example, that correspond to each other in location and shape and also may need to be aligned to provide a suitable or desired aesthetic appearance. In some instances, one or more of the doors may be adjustable, while in other instances, one or more of the doors may not be adjustable. As a result, the doors of many conventional appliances are difficult to align properly, particularly for a user, technician, or installer, and in some cases, may not be capable of being aligned with one another. In other cases, the doors of the conventional appliances may require complex and time-consuming adjustment procedures and special tools to align the doors properly.
The present invention recognizes that, in a household appliance, for example, having three or more doors, a user, technician, or installer may need to align the top edges of two or more adjacent doors, the bottom edge of two or more adjacent doors, the handles of two or more adjacent doors, as well as to position two or more adjacent doors to have a constant gap between adjacent edges of the doors.
A first exemplary embodiment of the present invention is directed to a system for aligning a plurality of doors on an appliance, such as a range/stove, in which a first non-adjustable door remains stationary or fixed, a second adjustable door is at least one-dimensionally adjustable, and a third adjustable door is at least two-dimensionally adjustable.
Another embodiment is directed to a system for aligning doors on an appliance in which a first non-adjustable door remains stationary or fixed, a second adjustable door is at least one-dimensionally adjustable, and a third adjustable door is three-dimensionally adjustable.
Yet another embodiment is directed to a system for aligning doors on an appliance in which a first non-adjustable door remains stationary or fixed, a second adjustable door is at least two-dimensionally adjustable, and a third adjustable door is three-dimensionally adjustable.
More particularly, in an example embodiment, a household appliance includes a plurality of doors, such as three or more doors (e.g., a first or main oven door; a second or steam oven door, and a third or warming drawer door). The doors can be arranged such that each door is adjacent to at least two of the other doors. For example, a main door (e.g., main oven door) may be larger than the other two secondary doors (e.g., steam oven door and warming drawer door) such that a single edge of the main door is adjacent to an edge of each of the secondary doors. In this example, the appliance may include a main door and two smaller doors disposed alongside the main door, with the smaller doors aligned one on top of the other. However, other arrangements are contemplated by the present invention.
A first door (in this example, a steam oven door) can be configured to be a non-adjustable door such that the first door remains fixed or stationary and cannot be adjusted to align the door with other doors. For purposes of this disclosure, “non-adjustable” means that, when the door is closed (i.e., when the door is covering the chamber of the appliance), an up or down position, side-to-side position, forward or backward position, or angular position of the door cannot be adjusted or altered from the current position of the door without modifying, replacing, removing, or adding parts. The exemplary embodiments use the first non-adjustable door as a reference point for adjusting the additional doors of the appliance.
A second door (in this example, the main oven door) can be configured to be adjustable up or down to align with the first door (e.g., a steam oven door). A third door (in this example, a warming drawer door) can be adjusted up and down, side-to-side, and angled to align with both the first door (e.g., steam oven door) and the second door (e.g., a main oven door). The exemplary embodiment provide a simple and convenient means for ensuring that all doors (e.g., all three doors) can be aligned/adjusted with even spacing and no interference to each other or to other parts of the range or cabinetry.
In an embodiment, the second door (e.g., a main oven door) can include an adjustable hinge receiver for adjusting the door up and down to align with the first door (e.g., a steam oven door). Conventional hinge receivers may be adjustable by turning an adjustment screw located under the hinge. In contrast, the exemplary embodiment includes an inverted adjustable hinge receiver in which the adjustment screw is disposed above the hinge to provide simple and easy access and adjustment of the second door.
Particularly, an exemplary embodiment uses the first, non-adjustable door (e.g., steam oven door) as a fixed reference point. The second door (e.g., main oven door) may be disposed a fixed horizontal distance from the first door (e.g., steam door), but may be adjusted up and down so that the handle and top edge of both doors are at the same height. The third door (e.g., warming drawer door) can use screws with fender washers to hold or maintain the horizontal and vertical position in oversized holes relative to its mounting plate. The third door is adjusted such that the horizontal gap between the third door and the second door is the same as the gap between the second door and the first door. The third door is then adjusted vertically such that the third door is level and such that a bottom edge of the third door is at the same height as the bottom edge of the second door. The angle of the mounting plate of the third door can be adjusted in order to bring a front face of the third door out flush with the first door and the second door.
An exemplary embodiment is directed to a system for aligning a plurality of doors of a household appliance, the system includes a housing having a first chamber, a second chamber, and a third chamber. Each of the first chamber, the second chamber, and the third chamber has an access opening formed in a front wall of the housing of the household appliance. The system can include a first door covering a first opening of the first chamber, the first door being fixed in a vertical direction, a horizontal direction, and in a direction that is perpendicular to the vertical direction and the horizontal direction with respect to the front wall of the housing. The system can include a second door covering a second opening of the second chamber, the second door being fixed in a horizontal direction with respect to the housing, but adjustable in a vertical direction. The system further can include a third door covering a third opening of the third chamber, the third door being adjustable in a vertical and horizontal direction with respect to a front of the housing, as well as toward and away from the front wall of the housing of the household appliance.
The exemplary embodiments can provide a system for, and method of, adjusting a plurality of doors to ensure that all of the doors can be arranged to fit properly relative to one-another. The exemplary embodiments can minimize installation and adjustment time for a user or installer, for example, by minimizing or eliminating unnecessary adjustments that may increase cost and time. The exemplary embodiments can provide a system and method that allows adjustment of all of the doors without special tools and/or without having to remove other components of the appliance.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following detailed description and drawings.
These and other aspects and features of embodiments of the present invention will be better understood after a reading of the following detailed description, together with the attached drawings, wherein:
The present invention now is described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
Referring now to the drawings,
With reference to
With reference again to
In other embodiments, the second door (e.g., 200) may be two-dimensionally adjustable in a vertical (up and/or down) direction and a horizontal (side-to-side) direction, and the third door (e.g., 400) may be three-dimensionally adjustable in a vertical (up and/or down) direction, a horizontal (side-to-side) direction, and normal direction (forward and back) with respect to a plane of the other doors, as shown by the arrows in
With reference to
A first adjustment device (not shown) can adjust the adjustable second door 200 in a first vertical direction until one of a handle 202, 302 and a top edge of the non-adjustable first door 300 and the adjustable second door 200 are aligned at a same height (e.g., H1, E1).
A second adjustment device (not shown) can adjust the adjustable third door 400 in a horizontal direction such that a gap (e.g., at G2) between the adjustable third door 400 and the adjustable second door 200 is equal to a gap (e.g., at G2) between the non-adjustable first door 300 and the adjustable second door 200, and adjusts the adjustable third door 400 in the first vertical direction such that the adjustable third door 400 is level and a bottom edge of the adjustable third door 400 is aligned (e.g., at E2) with a bottom edge of the adjustable second door 200 and/or that a gap (e.g., G1) between the adjustable third door 400 and the adjustable first door 300 is constant.
As shown in
With reference again to
With reference to
In operation, a user, technician, or installer can adjust the adjustable second door in a vertical direction until one of a handle and a top edge of the non-adjustable first door and the adjustable second door are aligned at a same height (S700). Next, the user, technician, or installer can adjust the adjustable third door in a horizontal direction such that a gap between the adjustable third door and the adjustable second door is equal to a gap between the non-adjustable first door and the adjustable second door (S702). Further, the user, technician, or installer can adjust the adjustable third door in the first direction such that the adjustable third door is level and a bottom edge of the adjustable third door is aligned with a bottom edge of the adjustable second door (S704). In an optional embodiment, the user, technician, or installer can adjust an angle of a front face of the adjustable third door such that the front face of the adjustable third door is flush with a front face of one of the non-adjustable first door and the adjustable second door (S706).
With reference to
With reference to
The second adjustment device can include the bracket 408 having a second opening 508 corresponding to a location of the first opening 506 of the rear cover 406. The second opening 508 can be configured to be larger than the first opening 506. The fastener 502 can extend through the second opening 508 of the bracket 408 and be secured in the first opening 506 of the rear cover 406. The second adjustment device further can include a washer 504 disposed between an end or head of the fastener 502 and the bracket 408. The washer 504 can be configured to be larger than the second opening 508. For example, the washer can be a fender washer.
With reference again to
With reference again to
With reference again to
With reference again to
The exemplary embodiments can provide a system for, and method of, adjusting a plurality of doors to ensure that all of the doors can be arranged to fit properly relative to one-another. The exemplary embodiments can minimize installation and adjustment time for a user, installer, for example, by minimizing or eliminating unnecessary adjustments that may increase cost and time. The exemplary embodiments can provide a system and method that allows adjustment of all of the doors without special tools and/or without having to remove other components of the appliance.
The present invention has been described herein in terms of several preferred embodiments. However, modifications and additions to these embodiments will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the foregoing description. It is intended that all such modifications and additions comprise a part of the present invention to the extent that they fall within the scope of the several claims appended hereto.
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