Microwave oven with increased usable space

Details Microwave oven with increased usable space Microwave oven with increased usable space

2002-03-21

2004-06-08

Leung, Philip H. (Department: 3742)

Electric heating

Microwave heating

Field modification

C219S756000, C219S762000, C126S338000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06747255

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a microwave oven, and more particularly, to a microwave oven improved in a structure of a cavity casing forming a cooking compartment.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 4
is an exploded perspective view of a conventional microwave oven, and
FIG. 5
is a sectional view of
FIG. 4
, taken along line V—V, for illustrating the state that a cavity casing is combined to a main casing. As shown therein, a conventional microwave oven
101
comprises a main casing
110
formed with a cooking compartment
121
and a component compartment
122
, a cavity casing
120
provided inside the main casing
110
, an outer casing
105
having an inverted “U” shape and covering the main casing
110
and the cavity casing
120
, and a door
107
provided in the front of the main casing
110
and opening/closing an opening
118
of the cooking compartment
121
.
The main casing
110
is comprised of a lower plate
111
, a front plate
113
standing on the front of the lower plate
111
and provided with the opening
118
having an approximately rectangular shape, a rear plate
115
standing on the rear of the lower plate
111
. Inside the main casing
110
is provided the cavity casing
120
forming the cooking compartment
121
.
The cavity casing
120
is of an approximately rectangular box shape opened forward and backward, and edges thereof are each provided with flanges
123
a
and
123
b
which are bent outwardly. Further, on a bottom of the cooking compartment
121
, i.e., on the bottom plate
125
of the cavity casing
120
is provided a tray seating part
131
having a circular shape and recessed downwardly. On the tray seating part
131
is seated a rotatable tray
141
for putting food thereon, and under the center of the tray seating part
131
is provided a driving motor
143
for rotating the rotatable tray
141
.
The cavity casing
120
is coupled to the main casing
110
by projection welding in the state that the front flange
123
a
thereof is in contact with the edge of the opening
118
provided on the front plate
113
of the main casing
110
and the rear flange
123
b
thereof is in contact with the rear plate
115
of the main casing
110
, respectively.
Herein, the projection welding is a kind of a resistance welding. According to the projection welding, a projection part is interposed between two metal workpieces at predetermined intervals, and high electric current is applied to the projection part. Then, heat generated due to resistance of the projection part melts the projection part, so that the melted projection part joins two metal workpices together.
However, according to the conventional microwave oven
101
, in order to perform the projection welding for coupling the cavity casing
120
to the front plate
113
and the rear plate
115
of the main casing
110
, there is in need of a sufficient space for inserting a welding electrode
150
between the front plate
113
or the rear plate
115
of the main casing
110
and the tray seating part
131
of the cavity casing
120
, so that the diameter of the tray seating part
131
should be small in comparison with the width of the cooking compartment
121
.
Moreover, according as the diameter of the tray seating part
131
is relatively small, the diameter of the rotatable tray
141
seated on the tray seating part
131
should get small, so that the amount of food accommodated in the microwave oven is also small.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above-described shortcomings and user's need, and an object of the present invention is to provide a microwave oven in which a tray seating part and a rotatable tray are enlarged, securing a sufficient space needed for performing welding work.
This and other objects of the present invention may be accomplished by the provision of a microwave oven comprising a main casing, a cavity casing combined to the main casing so as to form a cooking compartment and having opposite side walls and a bottom plate, and a tray rotatably seated on the bottom plate of the cavity casing, the bottom plate of the cavity casing comprising a tray seating part for seating the tray on the center thereof; and an elevated part protruded upwardly around the tray seating part.
Preferably, between the elevated part and the tray seating part is provided an inclined part.
Preferably, between the elevated part and the each side wall of the cavity casing is provided a recess part.
Preferably, the elevated part forms a pair, being oppositely provided around the tray seating part, and having open parts forward and backward.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3440385 (1969-04-01), Smith
patent: 4107502 (1978-08-01), Tanaka et al.
patent: 5097106 (1992-03-01), Arai et al.
patent: 5674421 (1997-10-01), Beaver, II et al.
patent: 6252214 (2001-06-01), Han et al.
patent: 2003/0089708 (2003-05-01), Hudson et al.
patent: 2001-077299 (2001-08-01), None

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