Patent Application
20170082296
This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2015-0134288, filed on Sep. 23, 2015, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to an oven and a control method thereof, and more particularly, to an oven capable of blocking high-temperature heat and water vapor which are discharged upwardly from a cooking chamber through a wind shield formed in door opening and a control method thereof.
Description of the Related Art
Ovens may be apparatuses which cook cooking materials by sealing and heating the cooking materials and may be typically divided into electrical ovens, gas ovens, and electronic ovens according to a heat source. The electrical ovens may use an electrical heater as the heat source, the gas ovens may use heat by gas as the heat source, and the electronic ovens as microwave ovens may use frictional heat of water molecules due to high frequency as the heat source.
In cooking using the oven in the related art, the temperature in the inside of the cooking chamber may be increased to about 300° C. Accordingly, in response to the door being opened to withdraw the cooking materials to the outside of the cooking chamber from the cooking chamber after the cooking being completed, the heat-temperature heat and water vapor may be discharged upwardly. Since the user who opens the door in front of the oven is directly exposed to the high-temperature heat and water vapor discharged upwardly from a cooking chamber, the user may suffer burns.
To overcome the problem, an oven, which blocks high-temperature heat and water vapor through an air curtain formed by discharging the cooling air to a direction substantially perpendicular to a plurality of air discharge holes formed over a front of a cooking chamber, has been developed. However, the air curtain has limits in blocking the high-temperature heat and water vapor which are rapidly discharged from the cooking chamber at the same time that the door is opened.
Exemplary embodiments may overcome the above disadvantages and other disadvantages not described above. Also, an exemplary embodiment is not required to overcome the disadvantages described above, and an exemplary embodiment may not overcome any of the problems described above.
One or more exemplary embodiments relate to an oven capable of efficiently blocking high-temperature heat or water vapor emitted toward a front of the cooking chamber from the cooking chamber through a wind shield formed through simultaneous operations of a blocking plate and a cooling fan in door opening and a control method thereof
One or more exemplary embodiments relate to an oven capable of removing noise generated by a blocking plate in door closing.
According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided an oven including a case including a cooking chamber in an inside thereof; a door hinge-coupled to the case and configured to open and close the cooking chamber; a cooling fan disposed in an upper portion of the inside of the case and configured to discharge air toward a front of the cooking chamber; and a heat blocking unit configured to form a wind shield which blocks high-temperature heat and water vapor discharged from an inside of the cooking chamber by changing a direction of the air discharged through the cooling fan to a lower side of the cooking chamber. In response to the door being closed, a portion of the heat blocking unit may be pressed through an upper portion of the door and may non-interfere the air discharged toward the front of the cooking chamber and in response to the door being opened, the portion of the heat blocking unit pressed by the upper portion of the door may be released and may interfere the air discharged toward the front of the cooking chamber to form the wind shield.
The cooling fan may rotate at a first speed in cooking and may rotate at a second speed faster than the first speed in response to the door being opened after the cooking.
The heat blocking unit may include a blocking plate hinge-coupled to a portion of the case close to an upper end of an opening of the cooking chamber and an elastic member configured to operate the blocking plate according to opening and closing of the door.
The blocking plate may be pressed through the door and set to a first position which non-interferes the air discharged toward the front of the cooking chamber in response to the door being closed and the blocking plate pressed through the door may be released and set to a second position which interferes the air discharged toward the front of the cooking chamber in response to the door being opened.
The blocking plate may be obliquely disposed downward toward the inside of the cooking chamber in the second position.
The second position may be located at an angle rotated by 50 to 90 degrees from the first position.
The oven may further include at least one buffer member provided in the portion of the case to absorb a shock of the blocking plate which moves from the second position to the first position.
The oven may further include a door open/close detector configured to detect the opening/closing of the door. The cooling fan may rotate at a first speed in response to the closing of the door being detected through the door open/close detector and may rotate at a second speed faster than the first speed in response to the opening of the door being detected through the door open/close detector.
According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided an oven including a case including a cooking chamber in an inside thereof; a door configured to open and close the cooking chamber; a cooling fan configured to change speed of air discharged toward a front of the cooking chamber by changing rotation speed; and a heat blocking unit configured to form a wind shield by changing a moving direction of the air through interference of the air discharged through the cooling fan according to opening of the door. In response to the door being closed, a portion of the heat blocking unit may be pressed through an upper portion of the door and may non-interfere the air discharged toward the front of the cooking chamber and in response to the door being opened, the portion of the heat blocking unit pressed by the upper portion of the door may be released and may interfere the air discharged toward the front of the cooking chamber to form the wind shield.
The wind shield may be obliquely formed directed to a lower portion of the inside of the cooking chamber from an upper portion of an opening of the cooking chamber.
The portion of the blocking plate may be set to a position which non-interferes the air discharged by the cooling fan in response to the door being closed. The oven may further include at least one buffer member configured to absorb a shock generated by an operation according to a movement of the portion of the heat blocking unit to the position which non-interferes the air from a position which interferes the air.
According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a method of controlling an oven, the method including setting a blocking plate disposed in an upper portion of an opening of a cooking chamber to a first position by closing a door; setting the blocking plate to a second position by opening the door after cooking is completed; and forming a wind shield from the upper portion of the opening of the cooking chamber to a lower portion of the opening through collision of air continuously discharged toward the blocking plate with the blocking plate.
Discharging speed of the air discharged toward the blocking plate set to the second position may be larger than that of air discharged in response to the blocking plate being set to the first position.
The discharged air may be provided through a cooling fan, and rotation speed of the cooling fan in the first position may be larger than that of the cooling fan in the second position.
The discharged air may be provided through a cooling fan, and the method may further include rotating the cooling fan at a first speed in response to closing of the door being detected and rotating the cooling fan at a second speed faster than the first speed in response to opening of the door being detected.
Additional aspects and advantages of the exemplary embodiments are set forth in the detailed description, and will be obvious from the detailed description, or may be learned by practicing the exemplary embodiments.
The above and/or other aspects of the present invention will be more apparent by describing certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Various embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings in which some embodiments are shown. The techniques described herein are exemplary, and should not be construed as implying any particular limitation on the present disclosure. It should be understood that various alternatives, combinations and modifications could be devised by those skilled in the art. In the following description, unless otherwise described, the same reference numerals are used for the same elements when they are depicted in different drawings.
It will be understood that the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements and/or components regardless of the order and/or importance, and these elements and/or components should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element or component. For example, a first user apparatus and a second user apparatus may refer to user apparatuses different from each other regardless of the order or importance. Thus, without departing from the scope in the document, a first element and/or component discussed below could be termed a second element and/or component, and vice versa.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the present inventive concept. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this inventive concept belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. In some cases, the terms defined in the document should not be interpreted to exclude embodiments herein.
Hereinafter, a configuration of an oven according to an exemplary embodiment will be described in detail with the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
The cooking chamber 20 may be provided in the inside of the case 11 and a plurality of inhalation holes 11a may be formed to inhale the air in the outside of the case 11 to the inside of the case 11 according to driving of the cooling fan 50. The inhalation holes 11a may be formed in both sides, a bottom, and a rear of the case 11. The case 11 may form an outer appearance of the oven 10 together with the door 30 rotatably coupled to a lower end of the case 11.
The cooking chamber 20 may be a cooking space formed by a top plate 21, a bottom plate 22, both side plates 23, and a rear plate 24, and various parts constituting the oven 10 may be built in a space between the outside of the cooking chamber 20 and the case 11. Heat-insulating members 44 configured to heat-insulate the cooking chamber 20 from the outside may be disposed in outer sides of the top plate 21, the bottom plate 22, and the side plates 23 constituting the cooking chamber 20 and a fan cover 40. A control panel 38a configured to control an operation of the oven 10 may be installed in an upper end portion of the case 11. The convection fan 41 which the fan cover 40 is coupled thereto and is configure to circulate the air through the cooking chamber 20 may be built in an outer side of the rear plate 24. A plurality of inlet holes 25 may be formed around the center of the rear plate 24 facing the convection fan 41 to allow the air inside the cooking chamber to flow in, and a plurality of outlet holes 26 may be formed to supply the heat to the cooking chamber in an edge of the rear plate 24.
At least one rack 15 configured to allow food to be placed thereon may be disposed in the inside of the cooking chamber 20. Rails 23a which the rack 15 is attachable/detachable thereto/therefrom may be installed in inner side of the side plates 23. The user may move the rack 15 through the rails 23a and may take out the food or place the food on the rack 15.
The door 30 may be hinge-coupled to the lower end portion of the case 11 and may be installed to open/close the cooking chamber 20 by the user. A handle 27 configured to easily rotate the door 30 by the user may be attached to an upper portion of the door 30.
The user may place the food on the rack 15 supported by the rails 23a and close the cooking chamber 20 by closing the door 30. The user may operate the control panel 38a to allow an electrical heater 42 to generate heat and the convection fan 41 may be rotated through a driving motor 43. Accordingly, the air in the inside of the cooking chamber 20 may flow in through the inlet holes 25, heated through the electrical heater 42, and then supplied to the cooking chamber 20 through the outlet holes 26. The heated air supplied through the outlet holes 26 may be circulated in the inside of the cooking chamber 20 to cook the food.
Temperature in the inside of the cooking chamber 20 in the cooking process may be largely increased and the heat of the cooking chamber 20 may be transfer to the door 30 located in a front of the cooking chamber 20. Since the door 30 is a part which is frequently touched by the user, it is important for the user not to suffer burns by the door 30 heated by the heat of the cooking chamber 20. Accordingly, the oven 10 may include the cooling fan 50 configured to cool the door 30.
The cooling fan 50 may be disposed to an outer side of the top plate 21 of the cooking chamber 20. The cooling fan 50 may allow the external air to flow in the inside of the case 11 through the plurality of inhalation holes 11a of the case 11 and allow the air to be discharged to the front of the oven 10 again. For the operation of the cooling fan 50, a cooling motor 52 may be coupled to one side of the cooling fan 50. As the air is circulated through the cooling fan 50, the door 30 and the whole inside of the case 11 may be cooled.
A cooling channel 55 may be installed in an upper side of the top plate 21 to discharge the air inhaled through the cooling fan 50 toward the front of the oven 10. The cooling channel 55 may include an air discharge hole 57 in one end thereof close to the door 30 so as to discharge the inhaled air.
The air discharge hole 57 may be located in rear of the door 30 so that the air passing through the cooling channel 55 is discharged to the upper portion of the door 30. The cooling channel 55 may be formed to be gradually narrowed toward a side of the air discharge hole 57 from a side of the fooling fan 50. Accordingly, the speed of the air discharged from the narrowed air discharge hole 57 may be increased. As the speed of the air is increased, the pressure of the air may be reduced, and a venturi effect that inhales the air of atmospheric pressure may be generated in a place which the air passes through. Accordingly, the pressure in the upper portion of the door 30 which the discharged air passes through may be reduced, and thus the surrounding air may be collected to the upper portion of the door 30.
The door 30 may be cooled using the force that the surrounding air is collected to the upper portion of the door 30. For example, at least one door channel 60 and 70 may be provided in the inside of the door 30. The door channels 60 and 70 may be installed so that the air inhaled in a lower end of the door 30 may flow toward the upper end of the door 30 close to the cooling channel 55 via the inside of the door 30.
To form the at least one door channel 60 and 70, the door 30 may include a plurality of piece of glasses 31, 32, and 33 provided to be spaced from each other. The plurality of piece of glasses 31, 32, and 33 may include an outer side glass 33, a middle glass 32, and an inner side glass 31 sequentially arranged at intervals. The outer side glass 33 may be exposed to the outside, and a handle 37 provided to easily rotate the door 30 by the user may be attached to the outer glass 33. The inner glass 31 may be installed to seal the cooking chamber 20 and may be exposed to the outside in a state that the door 30 is opened. The middle glass 32 may be located between the inner glass 31 and the outer glass 33 and form the plurality of door channels 60 and 70.
In the oven 10 according to the exemplary embodiment, only one piece of middle glass 32 may be installed, and the door 30 may include one piece of outer glass 33, one piece of middle glass 32, and one piece of inner glass 31. Accordingly, the door channels 60 and 70 may include a first door channel 70 formed between the outer glass 33 and the middle glass 32 and a second door channel 60 formed between the middle glass 32 and the inner glass 31.
The door channels 60 and 70 may be formed to have a width of 5 mm or more sufficient to move the air. For example, the plurality of piece of glasses 31, 32, and 33 may be installed to be spaced at an interval of 5 mm or more.
A cooling operation of the door 30 will be described below. The door 30 may include the door channels which are coupled to the front of the oven 10 and allow the air to flow in the inside of the door, and the cooling fan 50 provided in an upper portion of the inside of the oven 10 may inhale the external air and discharge the air again. The air circulated through the cooling fan 50 may flow from the rear to the front of the oven 10 along the cooling channel 55 and may be discharged at fast speed to the upper portion of the door 30 through the air discharge hole 57 by the cooling channel 55 which is gradually narrowed toward the air discharge hole 57. Accordingly, the external air which the pressure thereof is lowered and is discharged to the upper portion of the door 30 may move from the lower end of the door 30 to the upper end of the door 30 through the door channels 60 and 70 and may cool the door 30. After the door 30 is cooled, the air moved to the upper end of the door 30 may pass through a plurality of exhaust holes (see 30c of
The control unit 38 which is separated from the door 30 by a space that the air passing through the cooling channel 55 and the door channels 60 and 70 can escape to the front of the door 30 may be located over the door 30. For example, the control unit 38 may be located in rear of the control panel 38a exposed to the outside. The control unit 38 may perform a cleaning mode which removes foreign materials through thermal decomposition by increasing the temperature of the inside of the cooking chamber 20.
After the cooking through the heating of the food in the cooking chamber 20, oil and the like derived from the food may be attached and then stiffed to an inner wall of the cooking chamber 20, and thus the pyrolytic cleaning function may be used in response to the cleaning being difficult. The pyrolytic cleaning may be a method of burning and removing contaminants by keeping an internal temperature of the cooking chamber 20 to high temperature for a long time using the electrical heater 42. Since a temperature larger than a cooking temperature is necessary for the pyrolytic cleaning, it may prevent the door 30 from being heated using two pieces of middle glass. Since the temperature of the cooking chamber 20 in the cooking keeps higher than the temperature in the pyrolytic cleaning, the cooling fan 50 may rotate at higher speed in the pyrolytic cleaning than in the cooking so that the door 30 is substantially maintained to the cooling state in the cooking.
A configuration of the heat blocking unit 100 will be described in detail with reference to
Referring to
The blocking plate 110 may be elastically hinge-coupled to a portion of a rear of the control panel 38a. In response to the door 30 being closed, the blocking plate 110 may be pressed through a pressing projection 30b disposed over the heated 30a of the door 30 and may be disposed in a first position (see
The blocking plate 110 located in the second position may be rotated by a fixed angle α and may block the high-temperature heat and water vapor discharged from the cooking chamber 20. For example, the angle α of the blocking plate 110 in the second position may be set in a range of 50 to 90 degrees toward the front of the cooking chamber 20 from the first position. In this example, the angle α of the blocking plate 110 in the second position may be set in a range of 50 to 70 degrees from the extension plate 38b. The direction of the wind shield may be changed according to the set angle α of the blocking plate 110.
CAE air flow data with respect to the discharge degree of the heat and water vapor in response to the door being opened after the cooking is completed in an oven having no blocking plate in the related art and the oven in the exemplary embodiment will be compared with reference to
Referring to 9(a), in the oven having no blocking plate in the related art, as the heat and water vapor are obliquely discharged upwardly toward an upper end of an opening of the oven 1, the surrounding temperature of the upper end of the opening of the oven 1 is increased to about 175° C. or more due to the discharged heat and water vapor at the same time that the door 3 is opened. The surrounding temperature distribution in the upper end of the opening of the oven 1 is represented in red in
Accordingly, in response to the heat and water vapor discharged from the oven 1 in the related art being directed to a face of the user, the user may suffer burns.
In the exemplary embodiment, in response to the door 30 being opened, both in response to the set angle α of the blocking plate 110 being 90 degrees as illustrated in
The temperature over time after the door is opened will be described with reference to
In the oven according to an exemplary embodiment, in response to the set angle α of the blocking plate 110 being 90 degrees, the temperature is about 25° C. at 0.5 second after the door is opened, and the temperature is about 100° C. even at 1.5 seconds and then gradually reduced. Further, in response to the set angle α of the blocking plate 110 being 60 degrees, the temperature is increased close to about 25° C. at 0.5 second after the door is opened, and the temperature is maintained to about 25° C. even about 1.5 seconds and the temperature is maintained to about 40° C. at about 3 seconds.
The blocking plate 110 may be disposed in a lower end portion of the control panel 38a, for example, a bottom surface of the extension plate 38b formed to extend toward the inner side of the oven 10 from the lower end of the control panel 38a as illustrated in
Hinge units 111 may be formed to extend in both end portions of the blocking plate 110, and the hinge units 111 may be hinge-coupled to the rear of the control panel 38a through the hinge pins 130. The hinge unit 111 may be coupled to the hinge pin 130 by passing through through holes 38c formed in the extension plate 38b of the control panel 38a.
The hinge pin 130 may be coupled to a pair of brackets 38d and 38e formed in the rear of the control panel 38a. For example, a fixing ring, for example, an E-ring may be coupled to the hinge pin 130 to prevent the hinge pin 130 from being separated from the brackets 38d and 38e.
The elastic member 150 may elastically support the blocking plate 110 so that the blocking plate 110 rotates from the first position (see
The operation of the heat blocking unit 100 will be described with reference to
As illustrated in
In response to the cooking chamber 20 being opened through opening of the door 30 to withdraw the cooking material from the cooking chamber 20 after the cooking is performed in the state that the door 30 is closed as illustrated in
A plurality of buffer members 200 may be disposed at intervals along a length direction of the blocking plate 110 as illustrated in
A configuration of the door open/close detector 160 provided in the oven 10 according to an exemplary embodiment will be described with reference to
The door open/close detector 160 may include a magnetic sensor 161 and a magnet 163 as a non-detection material detectable through the magnetic sensor 161.
The magnetic sensor 161 may be disposed in an upper end portion of the door 30, for example, the head 30a of the door 30 and the magnetic sensor 161 may be electrically coupled to the control unit 38 and may transfer a door open/close signal to the control unit 38.
The magnet 163 may be disposed in a portion of the lower end of the control panel 38a so that the magnet 163 may be disposed in a position corresponding to the magnetic sensor 161 in a state that the door is closed.
The magnetic sensor 161 may be disposed in a position close and corresponding to the magnet 163 in a state that the door 30 is closed and may transfer a first voltage value to the control unit 38. In response to the first voltage value being received from the magnetic sensor 161, the control unit 38 may determine that the door 30 is closed.
In response to the door 30 being opened in a state that the door is closed, the magnet sensor 161 may be away from the magnet 163 and may transfer a second voltage value smaller than the first voltage value to the control unit 38. Accordingly, the control unit 38 may determine that the door 30 is opened. In response to being determined that the door 30 is opened after the cooking is completed, the control unit 38 may rotate the cooling fan 50 at faster speed than speed in the cooking, for example, at the same speed as speed that the cooling fan 50 is rotated in the pyrolytic cleaning and may discharge the cooling air to the air discharge hole 57.
It has been described in the exemplary embodiment that the door open/close detector 160 includes the magnet sensor 161 and the magnet 163, but this is not limited thereto. For example, the door open/close detector 160 may include a switch such as a plunger switch or a tactile switch. In this example, the magnet 163 as the non-detection material which is detected through the magnet sensor 161 may be omitted. The switch may be disposed in the upper end portion of the door 30 or the lower end portion of the control panel 38a. The switch may be disposed in any position that the switch is turned on/off by a neighboring structure in response to the door 30 being opened and closed. For example, in response to the switch being installed in the upper end portion of the door 30, the neighboring structure may be installed in the lower end of the control panel 38a that the portion of the switch may be pressed to operate in response to the door being closed.
The oven 10 according to the exemplary embodiment may include a locking device (not shown) configured to prevent the door from being opened by an arbitrary behavior of the user during the cooking. The locking device may be locked and unlocked through the control unit 38.
Hereinafter, the operation of the oven 10 having the above-described configuration according to an exemplary embodiment will be described with reference to
First, the user may place the cooking material in the cooking chamber 20 of the oven 10 to cook and close the door 30 (S1). While the door 30 is closed, the blocking plate 110 of the heat blocking unit 100 may be pushed through the pressing projection 30b of the door 30, may be elastically supported through the elastic member 150, and may be rotated to the first position (see
In response to the door 30 being closed, the door open/close detector 160 may transmit the first voltage value to the control unit 38. In response to the first voltage value being received from the door open/close detector 160, the control unit 38 may determine that the door 30 is closed and lock the door 30 through the locking device.
In response to the setup for desired cooking time and temperature being completed through the operation of the control panel 38a by the user, the cooking may start through the control unit 38 (S2). For example, in response to the starting of the cooking, the control unit 38 may supply high-temperature air heated through the electrical heat 42 to the cooking chamber 20 by controlling the electrical heater 42 to generate heat and driving the convection fan 41. Accordingly, the door 30 may also be heated through the temperature of the cooking chamber 20 gradually heated, and simultaneously the control unit 38 may rotate the cooling fan 50 at the first speed to cool the door 30 (S3).
As the cooling fan 50 is rotated at the first speed, the external air may flow in the inside of the case 11, may be collected to the cooling fan 50, and may be discharged to the air discharge hole 57 through the cooling channel 55 via the cooling fan 50. The negative pressure may be formed in the upper end of the door 30 through the air discharged at the fast speed from the air discharge hole 57. Accordingly, the external air may flow in the door channels 60 and 70 from the lower end of the door 30 and move to the upper end of the door, and thus the door 30 may be cooled.
In response to the cooking being completed (S4), the control unit 38 may release the locking of the door 30 by operating the locking device so that the cooking chamber 20 is opened by opening the door 30.
In response to the door 30 being opened (S5), the door open/close detector 160 may transmit the second voltage value to the control unit 38. The control unit 38 may determine that the door 30 is opened through the second voltage value received from the door open/close detector 160.
While the pressed state of the blocking plate 110 by the pressing projection 30b of the door 30 is released through the opening of the door 30, as illustrated in
The air discharged at the fast speed through the air discharge hole 57 from the cooling channel 55 may collide with the blocking plate 110 and form the wind shield to a downwardly inclined direction to a direction toward the cooking chamber 20 (S7).
Accordingly, the high-temperature heat and water vapor discharged upwardly from the cooking chamber 20 while the door is opened may be blocked through the wind shield so as not to be discharged toward the user in front of the door 30. The user may be secured against a burn accident due to the high-temperature heat and water vapor discharged from the cooking chamber 20.
The foregoing exemplary embodiments and advantages are merely exemplary and are not to be construed as limiting the present invention. The present teaching can be readily applied to other types of apparatuses. Also, the description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, and not to limit the scope of the claims, and many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2015-0134288 | Sep 2015 | KR | national |
