Cooking appliance comprising a lowerable door, which has a specific retaining spring for a bearing bush
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cooking appliances with retractable doors and stationary handles face challenges in maintenance and cleaning due to the permanent installation of the door, which makes it difficult to dismantle and reassemble without complex mechanical devices.
Innovation Solution
A cooking appliance design featuring a door that retracts into a storage space with a stationary handle, utilizing a retaining spring and guide element with an adjustment pin for easy and safe mounting and dismounting, allowing for a defined and smooth movement mechanism that simplifies handling and reduces noise.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the door is permanently installed to the housing, then the door structure is stable and secure, but maintenance and cleaning become difficult due to the permanent installation
Solution Approach 1:
The door assembly is segmented into separable components: the door leaf with guide elements can be detached from the housing. The guide elements (bushings) are separate components that can be removed and reinstalled, enabling maintenance while maintaining structural stability during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The door mounting system transitions from a static permanent installation to a dynamic removable configuration. The guide elements can be positioned in different states: engaged with the housing for stable operation, or disengaged for maintenance. The spring mechanism enables this dynamic transition between fixed and removable states.
2Ease of operation
If a movable handle is used on the door, then the handle can be gripped from the front when the door is open, but complex mechanical devices are required which increase installation space and door weight
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of making the handle movable relative to the door leaf (complex solution), the invention inverts the approach by keeping the handle fixed to the door leaf while making the entire door assembly movable relative to the housing. This achieves front accessibility when open without complex handle mechanisms.
3Ease of repair
If the door is designed to be easily removable, then maintenance and cleaning are simplified, but the door may become unintentionally detached or lost its coupling position
Solution Approach 1:
The spring mechanism is pre-loaded to automatically maintain the guide elements in their coupling positions within the guide tracks. This preliminary spring action ensures that the door remains securely coupled during normal operation, while still allowing intentional removal when needed for maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The spring-loaded guide elements automatically self-adjust and self-lock into the coupling positions within the guide tracks. The system maintains itself in the correct coupled state without external intervention, preventing unintentional detachment while allowing controlled removal.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design enables easy and non-destructive assembly and disassembly of the door, reduces noise, and provides a mechanically stable and component-minimized coupling mechanism, improving maintenance and cleaning accessibility while maintaining a secure and noise-reduced operation.
Implementation Method 1
The guide element (19) is movably mounted on the door (4) and directly connected to a first end (29a) of a retaining spring (29) on the door (4), which retains a fixed coupling position of the guide element (19) on the door (4)
Implementation Method 2
The retaining spring (29) is a particularly advantageous component because it securely holds the coupling position and allows for a very continuous, spring-defined range of motion for this guide element (19)
Implementation Method 3
Furthermore, the retaining spring (29) ensures that the coupling position is automatically returned after assembly, as its preload during disassembly automatically resets the coupling position
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~5
Figure 6~7
AI summary
The invention relates to a cooking appliance (1) having a housing (2) in which a cooking chamber (3) is formed, and having a door (4) for closing the cooking chamber (3), which is movably arranged on the housing (2), wherein a handle (6) is arranged in a fixed location on the door (4), and having a storage space (7) which is separate from the cooking chamber (3) and is formed in the housing (3) and into which the door (4) can be lowered when opened, wherein the storage space (7) has at least one guide track (10, 11), in which a guide element (18, 19) of the door (4) is guided, wherein the guide element (18, 19) is movably mounted on the door (4) and is connected directly to the first end (29a) of a retaining spring (29) of the door (4), by means of which spring at least one coupling position of the guide element (18, 19) is held on the door (4).