Mini Oven Door Structure With Top-Front Opening Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mini ovens with downward opening doors face challenges such as difficulty in opening and inserting shelves in narrow spaces, risk of falling due to biased center of mass, limited passage for checking cooking state, and structural rigidity issues leading to gaps and aesthetic problems.
Innovation Solution
A cooking appliance design with a door that opens both the front and top surfaces, featuring a hinge assembly and side surface cover parts to enhance structural rigidity, reduce gaps, and improve aesthetics, allowing for easier food insertion and withdrawal and safer operation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the door opens downward in a mini oven, then the door structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the door protrudes to the front when opened making it difficult to operate in narrow spaces and causing the center of mass to bias forward increasing fall risk
Solution Approach 1:
The door opening direction is changed from downward (vertical dimension) to upward (also vertical but opposite direction), allowing the door to open away from the front of the appliance. This dimensional change resolves the conflict by enabling operation in narrow spaces while preventing forward protrusion and center of mass bias.
2Device complexity
If the door opens downward, then the structure is simple, but the center of mass biases toward the front increasing the risk of the appliance falling forward
Solution Approach 1:
Changing the door opening direction to upward causes the door to rotate in the opposite vertical direction, moving the door mass away from the front of the appliance. This prevents center of mass bias toward the front and eliminates the falling risk, while maintaining structural simplicity.
3Ease of operation
If a downward opening door is used, then the passage for checking cooking state is limited to the front surface, but this limits accessibility when the oven is installed at low places
Solution Approach 1:
The door opening direction is changed to upward, creating an upper passage for checking the cooking state. This allows users to check food from above when the oven is installed at low places, improving accessibility and adaptability to different installation positions while maintaining ease of operation.
4Ease of operation
If the housing has open upper and front surfaces for door operation, then the door can open properly, but the housing lacks structural rigidity causing gaps and aesthetic problems
Solution Approach 1:
Reinforcement ribs are added to specific local areas of the housing (side surfaces and upper surface) to provide structural support. This localized reinforcement maintains the open upper and front surfaces needed for door operation while preventing gaps and maintaining aesthetic appearance by strengthening only where structurally necessary.
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed herein is a cooking appliance. The cooking appliance is provided such that upper and front surfaces of a housing are open and a door can open and close the upper and front surfaces of the housing. The cooking appliance having such a configuration can provide an expanded passage required to enable a user to easily and conveniently insert or withdraw food or a tray into or from a cooking compartment.