Patent Application
20210230920
The present subject matter relates generally to door assemblies for appliances, and more particularly, to a mechanism employing balancing masses adjustably mounted to the door assembly to create a predetermined gravitational moment.
Conventional residential and commercial oven appliances generally include a cabinet that includes a cooking chamber for receipt of food items for cooking. Multiple heating elements are positioned within the cooking chamber to provide heat to food items located therein. The heating elements can include, for example, radiant heating elements, such as a bake heating assembly positioned at a bottom of the cooking chamber and/or a separate broiler heating assembly positioned at a top of the cooking chamber.
Conventional oven appliances further include a door that is pivotally mounted to the oven cabinet via a spring hinge, e.g., to insulate and provide selective access to the cooking chamber. Traditionally, assembly of such oven appliances occurs in manufacturing settings in which a wide variety of oven models are being produced. Consequently, an assembler must select among a variety of oven doors having varying masses and dimensions, depending on which model oven is to be assembled. Oven doors of different models have differing configurations and thus different centers of gravity. As such, each door configuration exerts a different gravitational moment on the spring hinges connecting the door to the cabinet. Traditionally, this problem was addressed by maintaining a large inventory of spring hinge variants with different levels of torsional stiffness. The assembler would then be required to specially calibrate each assembly to ensure that the proper hinges were used to counterbalance the gravitational moment generated by the door.
Accordingly, an improved door assembly for an appliance and method of assembly would be useful. More particularly, a door assembly comprising one or more balancing masses adjustably mounted to the door assembly to alter the door's center of gravity would be especially beneficial, as a single spring hinge could be used for all door assemblies, regardless of the mass and dimensions of the door assembly, thus simplifying the manufacturing and logistics of assembly.
Aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be apparent from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
In a first example embodiment, a door assembly for providing selective access to a chamber of an appliance is provided. The door assembly includes a frame, a hinge for rotatably coupling the frame to the appliance, a mounting apparatus, and a balancing mass. The frame defines a vertical, a later, and a transverse direction. The mounting apparatus is attached to the frame. The balancing mass is position on the mounting apparatus such that the frame and the balancing mass exert a predetermined gravitational moment on the hinge. The balancing mass is at least partially contained within the volume defined by the frame.
In a second example embodiment, an oven appliance is provided. The oven appliance includes a cabinet, a cooking chamber positioned within the cabinet, and a door assembly rotatably mounted to the cabinet for providing selective access to the cooking chamber. The door assembly includes a frame, a hinge for rotatably coupling the frame to the appliance, a mounting apparatus, and a balancing mass. The frame defines a vertical, a later, and a transverse direction. The mounting apparatus is attached to the frame. The balancing mass is position on the mounting apparatus such that the frame and the balancing mass exert a predetermined gravitational moment on the hinge. The balancing mass is at least partially contained within the volume defined by the frame.
In a third example embodiment, a method of balancing a door assembly of an appliance is provided. The method includes rotatably coupling a frame of the door assembly to the appliance using a hinge having a predetermined torsional stiffness, attaching a mounting apparatus to the frame of the door assembly, and adjusting a balancing mass attached to the mounting apparatus.
A full and enabling disclosure of the present invention, including the best mode thereof, directed to one of ordinary skill in the art, is set forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appended figures.
Repeat use of reference characters in the present specification and drawings is intended to represent the same or analogous features or elements of the present invention.
Reference now will be made in detail to embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the invention, not limitation of the invention. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment can be used with another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
Within cabinet 102 is a single cooking chamber 120 which is configured for the receipt of one or more food items to be cooked. However, it should be appreciated that oven appliance 100 is provided by way of example only, and aspects of the present subject matter may be used in any suitable cooking appliance, such as a double oven range appliance. Thus, the example embodiment shown in
Oven appliance 100 includes a door assembly 200 rotatably attached to cabinet 102 in order to permit selective access to cooking chamber 120. Handle 126 is mounted to door assembly 200 to assist a user with opening and closing door assembly 200 in order to access cooking chamber 120. As an example, a user can pull on handle 126 mounted to door assembly 200 to open or close door assembly 200 and access cooking chamber 120. One or more transparent viewing windows 128 (
In general, cooking chamber 120 is defined by a plurality of chamber walls 130 (
Oven appliance 100 also includes a cooktop 140. Cooktop 140 is positioned at or adjacent top 104 of cabinet 102 such that it is positioned above cooking chamber 120. Specifically, cooktop 140 includes a top panel 142 positioned proximate top 104 of cabinet 102. By way of example, top panel 142 may be constructed of glass, ceramics, enameled steel, and combinations thereof. One or more grates 144 are supported on a top surface of top panel 142 for supporting cooking utensils, such as pots or pans, during a cooking process.
Oven appliance 100 may further include one or more heating elements (identified generally by reference numeral 150) for selectively heating cooking utensils positioned on grates 144 or food items positioned within cooking chamber 120. For example, referring to
In addition, heating elements 150 may be positioned within or may otherwise be in thermal communication with cooking chamber 120 for regulating the temperature within cooking chamber 120. Specifically, an upper gas heating element 154 (also referred to as a broil heating element or gas burner) may be positioned in cabinet 102, e.g., at a top portion of cooking chamber 120, and a lower gas heating element 156 (also referred to as a bake heating element or gas burner) may be positioned at a bottom portion of cooking chamber 120. Upper gas heating element 154 and lower gas heating element 156 may be used independently or simultaneously to heat cooking chamber 120, perform a baking or broil operation, perform a cleaning cycle, etc. The size and heat output of gas heating elements 154, 156 can be selected based on the, e.g., the size of oven appliance 100 or the desired heat output. Oven appliance 100 may include any other suitable number, type, and configuration of heating elements 150 within cabinet 102 and/or on cooktop 140. For example, oven appliance 100 may further include electric heating elements, induction heating elements, or any other suitable heat generating device.
A user interface panel 160 is located within convenient reach of a user of the oven appliance 100. For this exemplary embodiment, user interface panel 160 includes knobs 162 that are each associated with one of heating elements 150. In this manner, knobs 162 allow the user to activate each heating element 150 and determine the amount of heat input provided by each heating element 150 to a cooking food items within cooking chamber 120 or on cooktop 140. Although shown with knobs 162, it should be understood that knobs 162 and the configuration of oven appliance 100 shown in
Generally, oven appliance 100 may include a controller 166 in operative communication with user interface panel 160. User interface panel 160 of oven appliance 100 may be in communication with controller 166 via, for example, one or more signal lines or shared communication busses, and signals generated in controller 166 operate oven appliance 100 in response to user input via user input devices 136. Input/Output (“I/O”) signals may be routed between controller 166 and various operational components of oven appliance 100 such that operation of oven appliance 100 can be regulated by controller 166. In addition, controller 166 may also be communication with one or more sensors, such as temperature sensor 168 (
Controller 166 is a “processing device” or “controller” and may be embodied as described herein. Controller 166 may include a memory and one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICS), CPUs or the like, such as general or special purpose microprocessors operable to execute programming instructions or micro-control code associated with operation of oven appliance 100, and controller 166 is not restricted necessarily to a single element. The memory may represent random access memory such as DRAM, or read only memory such as ROM, electrically erasable, programmable read only memory (EEPROM), or FLASH. In one embodiment, the processor executes programming instructions stored in memory. The memory may be a separate component from the processor or may be included onboard within the processor. Alternatively, controller 166 may be constructed without using a microprocessor, e.g., using a combination of discrete analog and/or digital logic circuitry (such as switches, amplifiers, integrators, comparators, flip-flops, AND gates, and the like) to perform control functionality instead of relying upon software.
Although aspects of the present subject matter are described herein in the context of a single oven appliance, it should be appreciated that oven appliance 100 is provided by way of example only. Other oven or range appliances having different configurations, different appearances, and/or different features may also be utilized with the present subject matter, e.g., double ovens, standalone cooktops, etc. Moreover, aspects of the present subject matter may be used in any other consumer or commercial appliance which includes a door, particularly those with viewing windows.
Referring now to
Door assembly 200 further comprises one or more hinges 204. A first end of hinges 204 may be coupled to frame 202 and second end or hinges 204 may be coupled to oven appliance 100 in any manner known in the art. As depicted in the embodiment of
Of course, different springs have different torsional stiffnesses and thus exert different rotational forces on door assembly 200. Thus, a spring hinge with a lower torsional stiffness may be appropriate to counteract the gravitational moment generated by a smaller, lightweight door, but may be insufficient to provide adequate aid in the opening or closing of a bulkier, heavier door. In contrast, a spring hinge having a higher torsional stiffness may balance out the gravitational moment of a larger, heavier door, but may cause a lighter, smaller door to slam shut. Due to the wide variety of combinations of hinges and oven doors that could be employed in the manufacture and assembly of commercially available ovens, it is desirable to have an apparatus and method of adjusting a door assembly to ensure compatibility between selected spring hinges and oven doors.
In one embodiment, the present subject matter addresses this problem by employing one or more balancing masses 208 which may be mounted to varying locations on one or more mounting apparatuses 206 on frame 202 of door assembly 200. Mounting of the balancing mass 208 at different mounting locations may impact the center of gravity of door assembly 200, thus changing the gravitational moment that door assembly 200 exerts on hinge 204. This enables variation in assembly of door assembly 200 to account for the known torsional stiffness of hinge 204.
To illustrate this,
In the embodiment of
In some embodiments, mounting apparatus 206 and balancing mass 208 are at least partially contained within a volume defined by frame 202. In other embodiments, mounting apparatus 206 and balancing mass 208 are fully contained within the volume defined by frame 202, thus hiding the adjustment mechanism from view of end users and discouraging readjustment of balancing mass 208.
The center of gravity of door assembly 200 determines the gravitational moment exerted on hinge 204. Thus, a balancing mass mounting position may be selected to create a gravitational moment that is appropriately balanced against a known torsional stiffness of hinge 204. This enables a simplification of the assembly process, permitting the assembler to, for example, use a single, high tension spring hinge 204—regardless of the door assembly 200 to be used—and then to alter the center of gravity of door assembly 200 by selecting the appropriate position of balance mass 208 on mounting apparatus 206, or otherwise adjusting balancing mass 208, to achieve a predetermined gravitational moment that provides an appropriate balance based on the counteracting force generated by the torsional stiffness of hinge 204.
Although the gravitational moment and torsional stiffness are described herein as being “predetermined,” it should be appreciated that aspects of the present subject matter may not involve the calculation or determination of actual moment or stiffness values. Instead, door assembly 200 may be balanced by a technician or assembler by simply installing the door assembly 200 and adjusting the mass until the proper balance is achieved. Alternatively, the torsional stiffness of the spring may be a known value and the mass may be positioned at a specific location based on the specific door configuration being used, e.g., based on a model number and empirical data regarding the center of gravity of that door. In such circumstances, the predetermined gravitational moment may be understood as measured by the proxy force that the technician or assembler must apply to open door assembly 200 or to resist its closing. This force may be directly measured during adjustment of the balance of door assembly 200 or may be based on the technician's experience and/or guidelines for a desired force level as established by the manufacturer or other authority.
In some embodiments, such as that shown in
Mounting apparatus 206 need not be a ball screw, however. In other embodiments, mounting apparatus 206 may be an adhesive as shown in
Alternatively, in other embodiments, mounting apparatus 206 may be a clip mechanism, such as a din rail or guide rail as shown in
Now that the construction of oven appliance 100 and door assembly 200 have been presented according to exemplary embodiments, an exemplary method 300 of operating balancing a door assembly of an appliance will be described. Although the discussion below refers to the exemplary method 300 of balancing door assembly 200 of oven appliance 100, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the exemplary method 300 is applicable to the balancing and/or assembly of any other suitable door for any other suitable appliance.
Referring now to
For example, continuing the example from above, method 300 may be implemented during the assembly and/or mounting of door assembly 200, e.g., by using mounting apparatus 206 to adjust the position of balancing mass 208. In this manner, the gravitational moment that door assembly 200 exerts on hinges 204 may be adjusted depending on the torsional stiffness of hinges 204.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they include structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.
