TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an oven for cooking food stuff.

BACKGROUND ART

Ovens for cooking food stuff are known, which comprise: a support housing defining a front opening closed by a door which is angularly movable with respect to the housing about an axis of rotation parallel to a first side of the door; an inner coating accommodated inside the support housing and defining therein a cooking chamber which is accessible through the front opening; a heat insulating layer (usually fiberglass) arranged in the gap defined between the inner coating and the support housing.

The door is provided with a lock adapted to keep the door firmly closed during the operation of the oven itself when the temperature inside the baking chamber reaches high values. Such a lock generally comprises an appendix which extends from a portion of the door towards the housing and is adapted to be coupled with a retaining device arranged in the housing, normally accommodated in the gap.

In known ovens, the device is mechanically operated with manual control. It has been proposed to implement a retaining device assisted by electric actuators; this solution, however, is extremely critical since electrically controlled actuators are subject to high temperatures (which can reach 90-100 C°) reached by the oven area wherein the retaining device is accommodated. Moreover, the proposed solutions are quite complicated in mechanical and electrical terms.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to implement an oven for cooking food stuff provided with an electrically- operated retaining device having a simple and sturdy structure in such a way as to be inherently reliable even in a context characterized by high temperatures.

The above object is achieved by the present invention as this is related to an oven for cooking food stuff comprising: a support housing defining a front opening closed by a door which is angularly movable with respect to the housing about an axis of rotation parallel to a first side of the door; an inner coating accommodated inside the support housing and defining therein a cooking chamber which is accessible through the front opening; a heat insulating layer arranged in the gap defined between the inner coating and the support housing; a door lock comprising an appendix which extends from a portion of the door near a second side opposite to the first towards the housing; said appendix is adapted to be coupled with a retaining device arranged in said gap and being part of said lock, characterized in that said retaining device comprises: a supporting and heat shield plate; a shaped wall made in a single piece and comprising: a middle portion carried by the supporting plate and hinged with respect to the supporting plate so as to be angularly movable about a second axis which is perpendicular to the supporting plate; a first end portion shaped to stably accommodate a first end portion of a spring provided with a second end portion firmly fixed to a connecting element which extends transversally from the supporting plate; said spring extending along a direction transversal to the second axis and being adapted to exert a force of traction adapted to cause the shaped wall to rotate with respect to the supporting plate according to a first angular direction (VI) ; a second end portion hinged with an outlet member of an electrically-operated linear actuator carried by the supporting plate; a tooth portion which extends from the middle portion and is limited by a straight front edge which is contiguous to an approximately C-shaped edge delimiting a hook seat; said retaining device being configured to perform a manual hooking operation in which the door is closed manually, the appendix couples with the retaining device and abuts against the tooth portion, and a pin of said appendix abuts against the straight front edge thus causing a rotation of the shaped wall according to a second angular direction (V2) opposite to the first (VI) against the action of said spring; at the completion of the pin sliding along said straight edge, the pin snaps on the tooth portion and is firmly accommodated in said hook seat thus creating a stable hooked position between the appendix and the retaining device; said retaining device being configured to perform a remote-controlled releasing operation in which said linear actuator is supplied thus causing the outlet member to slide in order to obtain a rotation of the shaped wall according to the second rotation direction which causes said pin to come out of said hook seat and the pin to uncouple from the tooth portion, thus uncoupling said appendix from the retaining device .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings which show a preferred non limiting embodiment thereof, in which:

figure 1 shows a partly exploded perspective view of an oven for cooking food stuff according to the teachings of the present invention; and

figure 2 shows an enlarged scale view of a detail of the oven shown in figure 1. BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

In Figure 1, reference numeral 1 globally indicates an oven for cooking food stuff.

Oven 1 comprises a parallelepiped support housing 2 for example made of metal (such as steel) and defining a front opening 3 closed by a rectangular door 4 which is angularly movable with respect to housing 2 about an axis of rotation 6 parallel to a first side 4-a of door 4. Door 4, of the known type, generally comprises a square metal frame 7 (partly shown) and a pair of parallel glasses 9 (only the outer glass is shown) carried by opposite faces of the frame and adapted to make the cooking process inside oven 1 visible.

Oven 1 further comprises an inner coating 8 formed by flat rectangular metal walls (typically made of steel) accommodated inside housing 2 and parallel to the walls defining the support housing 2. The inner coating 8 defines therein a parallelepiped cooking chamber 10 accessible through the front opening 3 and receiving a heat flow by means of heating means (of the known type and therefore not shown) .

A heat insulating layer 12 (typically glass wool) is arranged in the gap 14 delimited between the inner coating 8 and the walls defining the support housing 2.

Oven 1 further comprises a lock 16 of door 4 comprising an appendix 18 which extends from a portion of the door near a second side 4-b opposite to the first side 4-a towards housing 1. Appendix 18 is adapted to be coupled with a retaining device 19 arranged in gap 14 and being part of lock 16.

With reference to figure 2, the retaining device 19 comprises :

a flat rectangular supporting and heat shield plate

21;

a T-shaped wall 23 made in a single piece and comprising :

- a middle portion 23c carried by the supporting plate 21 and hinged with respect to the supporting plate so as to be angularly movable about an axis 24 which is perpendicular to the supporting plate 21;

- a first end portion 23a shaped to stably accommodate a first end portion of a spring 26 provided with a second end portion firmly fixed to a connecting element 27 which extends transversally from the supporting plate 21; spring 26 extending along a direction transversal to the second axis 24 and being adapted to exert a force of traction adapted to cause the shaped wall 23 to rotate with respect to the supporting plate according to a first angular direction (indicated by arrow VI - there is provided a stop pin 28 against which the end portion 23a abuts, thus limiting the angular rotation of wall 23 about direction VI) ;

a second end portion 23b hinged with an outlet member 29 of an electrically-operated linear actuator 30 carried by the supporting plate 21;

- a tooth portion 23d which extends from the middle portion 23c and is limited by a straight front edge 32 which is contiguous to an approximately C-shaped edge 33 delimiting a hook seat 34;

The retaining device 19 is configured to perform a manual hooking operation in which door 4 is closed manually, appendix 18 penetrates into gap 14 where the retaining device 19 is arranged and abuts on the tooth portion 23d. In particular, appendix 18 comprises a C- shaped fork 40 (figure 2) which carries a transversal pin 42 having circular section. Pin 42 abuts against the straight front edge 32 thus causing a rotation of the shaped wall 23 according to a second angular direction opposite to the first (arrow V2 ) against the elastic action of spring 26; at the completion of pin 42 sliding along the straight edge 32, pin 42 snaps on the tooth portion 23d and wall 23 rotates in direction VI under the action of spring 26 so that pin 42 slides on edge 33 and is firmly accommodated in the hook seat 34, thus creating a stable hooked position between appendix 18 and the retaining device 19.

The retaining device 19 is configured to perform a remote-controlled releasing operation in which the linear actuator 30 is supplied (the control may be provided by an electronic control unit which supplies a DC voltage pulse having a predetermined duration, in turn the electronic control unit is controllable by means of a button accessible on housing 2), thus causing the outlet member 29 to slide (retract) in order to obtain a rotation of the shaped wall according to the second rotation direction V2 to cause pin 42 to come out of the hook seat 34 and pin 42 itself to uncouple from the tooth portion 23d, thus uncoupling appendix 18 from the retaining device 19. Door 4 can thus be opened manually.

The retaining device 19 described above only consists of four component elements, namely:

i) the supporting and heat shield plate 21;

ii) the shaped wall 23;

iii) spring 26;

iv) actuator 30.

Such a retaining device 19 therefore has a simple, plain and inherently sturdy structure. The number of active elements is also reduced because there is only actuator 30 which is carried by plate 21 which shields actuator 30 from the heat flow coming from the cooking chamber 10, thereby making the retaining device 19 little sensitive to the heat flow inside oven 1.

Typically, plate 21 is interposed between the heat insulation 12 and a lateral wall of the support housing 2 and internally fixed (such as welded) to a wall of housing 2 delimiting opening 3. This further reduces the heat flow impinging on actuator 30.

According to a preferred embodiment (figure 1), the support housing 2 has a service through opening 45 positioned with respect to plate 21 so as to allow access to the shaped wall 23 from the outside of housing 2 by means of a tool (such as a screwdriver, not shown) and perform a manual rotation of the shaped wall 23 in direction V2 to move the retaining device 19 from the hooked position to the release position in case of malfunction/absence of power supply of actuator 30.

Preferably, the service through aperture 45 is positioned with respect to plate 21 in such a way as to allow direct access to the second end portion 23b on which actuator 30 acts.