Oven appliance with air curtain
AssigneeHaier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.
InventorsStephen Bernard Froelicher, Kevin Farrelly Nolan, Christopher James Adelmann
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An oven appliance includes a cooking chamber disposed within a housing with an opening in the housing for accessing the chamber. A casing is disposed around the opening, and the casing includes an air curtain outlet configured to prevent smoke and other vapors from escaping the cooking chamber to the ambient atmosphere via the opening.
Claims19
An oven appliance, comprising:
- a housing defining a cooking chamber, the housing also defining an opening for accessing the cooking chamber of the housing;
- an upper heating element array positioned within the housing at a top portion of the cooking chamber;
- a baking stone positioned within the housing at a bottom portion of the cooking chamber;
- a lower heating element array positioned within the housing below the baking stone adjacent the bottom portion of the cooking chamber;
- a hollow casing mounted to the housing at the opening of the housing, the hollow casing comprising an ambient air intake proximate to and contiguous with interior room ambient atmosphere about the housing, a smoke intake proximate to and contiguous with the cooking chamber, a venting exit proximate to and contiguous with the interior room ambient atmosphere about the housing, and an air curtain outlet proximate to the opening of the housing;
- an air handler located within the hollow casing and operable to cause gases to flow into the ambient air intake and the smoke intake, such that the gases from each of the ambient air intake and the smoke intake intermix within the hollow casing and the mixed gases flow to the venting exit and to the air curtain outlet.
An oven appliance, comprising:
- a housing defining a cooking chamber, the housing also defining an opening for accessing the cooking chamber of the housing;
- an upper heating element array positioned within the housing at a top portion of the cooking chamber;
- a reflector positioned above the upper heating element array;
- a baking stone positioned within the housing at a bottom portion of the cooking chamber;
- a lower heating element array positioned within the housing below the baking stone adjacent the bottom portion of the cooking chamber;
- a hollow casing defining a lower portion, an upper portion, and one or more side portions, the one or more side portions extending vertically between the lower portion and the upper portion, the hollow casing extending around the opening of the housing, the lower portion of the casing comprising a plurality of air intakes contiguous with the interior room ambient atmosphere about the housing, the hollow casing defining a first air flow path from a first set of the air intakes to the upper portion of the casing via the cooking chamber, the hollow casing also defining a second air flow path from a second set of the air intakes to the upper portion of the casing via the one or more side portions providing relatively fresh, cool air to the upper portion, the upper portion further comprising a venting exit contiguous with the interior room ambient atmosphere about the housing and an air curtain outlet, the hollow casing also defining a confluence of the first air flow path and the second air flow path in the upper portion upstream of the venting exit and the air curtain outlet such that the confluent air can flow out of the upper portion via the venting exit and the air curtain outlet.
The oven appliance of claim 11, further comprising a hook-shaped recirculating duct configured to divert a portion of the confluent air from the venting exit to the air curtain outlet.
The oven appliance of claim 19, wherein the first air flow path and the third air flow path converge near the top portion of the cooking chamber upstream of the upper portion of the casing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.