Electric heating – Microwave heating – Enclosed cavity structure
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-22
2003-01-28
Leung, Philip H. (Department: 3742)
Electric heating
Microwave heating
Enclosed cavity structure
C126S27300R, C248S317000, C248S339000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06512214
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to microwave ovens and, more particularly, to an apparatus for suspending a microwave oven.
2. Description of the Related Art
A microwave oven is a cooking apparatus for making food by means of electromagnetic waves generated from a magnetron therein. Generally, the microwave oven is placed on a lower sink table or in a space provided within a cabinet in the kitchen. Considering a user's convenience, space for installation or interior design, the microwave oven is sometimes installed over a sink table on the bottom face of an upper cabinet, and is referred to as “a wall-mounted type microwave oven.”
Referring to
FIG. 5
, which is an enlarged perspective view showing a main portion of a conventional wall-mounted microwave oven, the microwave oven is provisionally installed to a support plate
116
of a planar shape fixed to a wall face before it is suspended on the bottom plate of the upper cabinet. The provisional installation of the microwave oven is required because it is not easy to directly suspend the relatively heavy microwave oven over the sink table while lifting up the microwave oven. To facilitate the suspension, the microwave oven is provisionally installed by means of the support plate
116
.
A pair of projections (not shown) are provided in the lower part of the support plate
116
. Hooking members
118
are disposed over the projections in parallel with each other and between a main body
121
and an outer casing (not shown), as shown in
FIGS. 5 and 6
. The hooking members
118
pass through through holes
135
formed in the main body
121
. Each of the hooking members
118
comprises an extension
119
protruding from the planar surface of the support plate
116
and a hook
120
bent downward from an end of the extension
119
.
The main body
121
is formed with a cooking chamber
122
and a component chamber
127
, and has a rear plate
133
formed with the through holes
135
. The outer casing (not shown) encloses the main body
121
and defines an outer appearance of the microwave oven.
An apparatus for suspending the microwave oven is constructed as follows. As shown in
FIG. 6
, the suspending apparatus comprises the engagement parts (not shown) provided on the bottom of the main body
121
so as to be engaged with the projections of the support plate
116
, a reinforcement member
148
installed adjacent to the through hole
135
formed in the rear plate
133
of the main body
121
, a movable member
151
coupled to a planar surface of the reinforcement member
148
, and an actuating member
153
moving the movable member
151
.
The reinforcement member
148
comprises a flat part
149
installed on the rear plate
133
, and having an opening communicating with the through hole
135
of the rear plate
133
, and a bent part
150
bent transversely relative to the flat part
149
. The movable member
151
is hinge-coupled to the plane of the bent part
150
of the reinforcement member
148
by means of a hinge part
157
formed at one end thereof, and is coupled to a fixing point
154
of the reinforcement member
148
spaced from the hinge part
157
via a coil spring
155
at the other end thereof. The movable member
151
also has an engagement part
158
for engagement with the hook
120
of the hooking member
118
. The movable member
151
is connected to the actuating member
153
which has the shape of a long rod; and the actuating member
153
is disposed between the main body
121
and the outer casing.
Hereinbelow, the process of provisionally installing the microwave oven to the support plate
116
will be described.
The support plate
116
is firstly fixed to a wall face to which the microwave oven is mounted. The microwave oven is lifted up so that the engagement parts formed in the lower part of the main body
121
are engaged with the projections of the support plate
116
. After the engagement parts of the microwave oven are engaged with the projections of the support plate
116
, the microwave oven can be rotated vertically relative to the engagement parts and the projections.
A grill member (not shown) is disengaged from the microwave oven, and the actuating member
153
is pulled forward while pushing the microwave oven toward the support plate
115
. When the actuating member
153
is pulled forward, the coil spring
155
is extended and the movable member
151
rotates by a predetermined degree. If the microwave oven is pressed to the planar surface of the support plate
116
and then the actuating member
153
is released, the coil spring
155
is retracted and the movable member
151
is rotated reversely, so that the engagement part
158
of the movable member
151
is engaged with the hook
120
of the hooking member
118
.
After the microwave oven is provisionally installed to the support plate
116
fixed to the wall face, the suspension of the microwave oven is finished by screw-coupling the outer casing to the upper cabinet.
However, the suspending apparatus for the conventional microwave oven has a complicated structure for provisionally installing the microwave oven to the support plate as shown in
FIG. 6
, thereby making it difficult to install the microwave oven and further increasing the cost of production.
Further, the length of the extension
119
of the hooking member
118
is short, making narrow a moving space of the engagement part
158
of the movable member
151
. In order to solve this problem, the extension
119
of the hooking member
118
may be increased in length; however, in this case, the coupling force of the engagement part of the movable member
151
and the extension of the hooking member
118
becomes feeble. Therefore, when suspending the microwave oven from the shelf plate, the microwave oven may become disengaged from the support plate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for suspending a microwave oven, allowing the microwave oven to be installed to a support plate with a simplified structure and further reducing the cost of production.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for suspending a microwave oven, with a high coupling force relative to a support plate.
These and other objects of the present invention may be accomplished by provision of an apparatus for suspending a microwave oven which includes a main body having a rear plate formed with a through hole thereon and a cooking chamber formed therein, the apparatus comprising: a support plate mounted to a wall face to which the microwave oven is installed; a hooking member protruding toward the main body through the through hole of the rear plate from a planar surface of the support plate; a plate spring having one end portion fixed to the main body and the other end portion elastically deformable between a first position where the plate spring is disengaged from the hooking member and a second position where the plate spring is engaged with the hooking member; and an actuating member connected between the microwave oven and the plate spring for elastically deforming the plate spring between the first position and the second position.
An elongated hole is formed on the plate spring, and the hooking member is inserted into the elongated hole.
The actuating member is comprised of a shaft taking a long rod shape, crossing the microwave oven, and a bent part bent from an end of the shaft.
The bent part is engaged with a front portion of the main body.
The support plate includes at least one projection protruding from its lower end, supporting the lower part of the microwave oven.
The apparatus further comprises at least one engagement part provided on the bottom of the main body, being engaged with the projection of the support plate.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4580853 (1986-04-01), Hitzeroth et al.
patent: 4651963 (1987-03-01), Busse et al.
patent: 4666113 (1987-05-01), Itoh et al.
Jeong Sang-jin
Yang Kwang-il
Bushnell , Esq. Robert E.
Leung Philip H.
Samsung Electronics Co,. Ltd.
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