Electric heating – Heating devices – Combined with container – enclosure – or support for material...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-26
2002-03-19
Pelham, Joseph (Department: 3742)
Electric heating
Heating devices
Combined with container, enclosure, or support for material...
C219S402000, C219S536000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06359262
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to support bars or brackets for electric heating elements in bake ovens, and more particularly, to a support bar or bracket having standoffs to prevent the bottom of the bake oven cavity from touching the electric heating element.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventional bake ovens have electric heating elements to produce heat to bake or broil food set in a cavity of the oven. It is typical to install an upper and lower heating element inside the oven cavity. The upper heating element is suspended immediately below the top wall of the oven cavity. The lower heating element is mounted above the bottom wall of the oven cavity. More recently, it has been known to install the lower heating element below the bottom wall of the oven cavity. Installing the heating element below the bottom wall of the oven cavity improves the appearance of the oven and makes the oven easier to clean. However, a problem occurs when installing the heating element below the bottom wall of the oven cavity. When the bottom wall reaches increased temperatures as a result of activating the heating element, the bottom wall of the oven cavity expands and warps. This may cause the bottom wall of the oven cavity to gravitate down and touch the heating element mounted below the bottom wall. Thus, for heating elements mounted below the bottom wall of an oven cavity, a need exists to prevent the bottom wall from touching the heating element when the wall expands and warps.
FIG. 1
shows a prior heater element support assembly
10
that attempts to solve the above problem. The support assembly
10
includes a heating element
12
, four support brackets
14
, four steel rods
16
and two legs
18
. The assembly
10
is installed below the bottom wall of the cavity of a bake oven. The heating element
12
has electrical terminals
20
at each end. The terminals
20
attach to electrical receptacles (not shown) located at the back wall of the oven. The heating element
12
is contoured to have two serpentine sections S
1
and S
2
and a straight longitudinal section L
1
. The serpentine sections S
1
and S
2
of the heating element
12
are supported by the four support brackets
14
. The longitudinal section L
1
is supported by two legs
18
. To prevent the bottom wall of the bake oven from touching the heating element
12
, the assembly requires four steel rods
16
and two legs
18
. The four steel rods
16
are mounted to the top of the support brackets
14
by crimping the rods
16
to slots in the support bracket. The two legs
18
are mounted on the straight longitudinal section L
1
of the heating element
12
by crimping the legs to the heating element
12
.
Although the above assembly will assist in preventing the bottom of the oven cavity from contacting the heating element, there is a further need to reduce the amount of material and parts used to perform this preventative function. The manufacture and sale of bake ovens is a high-volume industry. In such an industry, there is a continued need to reduce material costs and the number of parts for bake ovens. Moreover, there is a need to reduce assembly costs in fabricating a heating assembly. The assembly described in
FIG. 1
takes excessive time to fabricate and assemble given the number of parts and the need to crimp the steel rods
16
and legs
18
. Thus, it would be helpful to have a simple, readily installed support means which reliably supports the heating element while protecting the heating element from coming in contact with the bottom wall of the oven cavity.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To that end, the present invention includes an apparatus supporting an electrical heating element installed in an oven and extending generally horizontally therethrough from one side of the oven to the opposite side thereof for heating an oven cavity to bake or broil food set inside the oven cavity. The oven cavity has side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. The apparatus and heating element are located below the bottom wall of the oven cavity. The apparatus includes at least one support bracket extending horizontally in the oven and has a plurality of openings formed therein each of which is generally presented in the upward vertical direction and sized for the heating element to be installed in the openings. The support bracket also has a plurality of standoffs generally presented in the upward vertical direction and having a height sufficient to prevent the bottom wall of the oven cavity from coming in contact with the heating element.
The support bracket may also have a plurality of legs to allow the main body of the support bracket to generally stand apart from a bottom surface of the oven. The heating element may include electrical terminals that are connected to a circuit at the back wall of the oven. In one embodiment, a top portion of the plurality of standoffs are in a spaced apart relationship with the bottom wall of the oven cavity when the oven is turned off.
In another embodiment, the present invention includes a bracket supporting an electrical heating element installed in an oven and extending generally horizontally therethrough from one side of the oven to an opposite side thereof for heating the oven to cook food. The heating element has a sinuous shape and has a plurality of horizontally extending segments extending longitudinally in the oven. The bracket has a plurality of openings formed therein each of which is generally presented in the upward vertical direction and sized for a portion of the heating element to be received in the opening. The oven has an oven cavity wherein the oven cavity has side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. The bracket and heating element are located below the bottom wall of the oven cavity. The bracket further has a plurality of standoffs generally presented in the upward vertical direction. The standoffs have a height sufficient to prevent the bottom wall of the oven cavity from coming in contact with the heating element when the bottom wall expands at an increased temperature.
In a further embodiment, the present invention is an oven to bake or broil food. The oven includes a cavity, an electrical heating element and at least one bracket. The cavity has side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. The electrical heating element is located below the bottom wall of the cavity and extends generally horizontally in the oven from one side of the oven to an opposite side of the oven to heat the oven cavity. The bracket supports the heating element and also extends horizontally in the oven. The bracket has a plurality of openings and a plurality of standoffs. The plurality of openings are formed in the bracket and are generally presented in the upward vertical direction and sized to receive the heating element. The plurality of standoffs are also generally presented in the upward vertical direction but have a height sufficient to prevent the bottom wall of the cavity from coming in contact with the heating element.
The above summary of the present invention is not intended to represent each embodiment, or every aspect of the present invention. This is the purpose of the figures and detailed description that follows.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2799766 (1957-07-01), Tuttle
patent: 3005082 (1961-10-01), Ammerman
patent: 3154669 (1964-10-01), Binder
patent: 3770939 (1973-11-01), Kokjohn
patent: 4272638 (1981-06-01), Cimochowski
patent: 4392052 (1983-07-01), Magnusson et al.
patent: 6008478 (1999-12-01), Crone et al.
patent: 6097003 (2000-08-01), Markum et al.
patent: 6121584 (2000-09-01), Key et al.
patent: 626997 (1961-09-01), None
patent: 1 565 683 (1966-09-01), None
Robertson John P.
Springer Stacy V.
Emerson Electric Co.
Howrey Simon Arnold & White
Pelham Joseph
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