Abstract:
A smoke exhauster comprises a housing with a back side which has a left wall contact surface and a right wall contact surface for making contact with two wall surfaces of a corner, thereby enabling the smoke exhauster to be mounted in the corner to exhaust the fumes and to facilitate the user to stand in front of the smoke exhauster to cook, without having to modify the kitchen furniture to coordinate with the smoke exhauster. The housing of the smoke exhauster is economical and capable of keeping the beauty and the function of kitchen.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates generally to a smoke exhauster, and more particularly to a smoke exhauster housing suitable for mounting at a wall corner.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The smoke exhauster is generally rectangular in shape and is mounted over a gas, electric, or induction range for removing the kitchen smoke such that the back of the smoke exhauster is fastened to the kitchen wall. The smoke is apt to escape from the spaces located at the left and the right sides between the range and the smoke exhauster. As a result, the interior designers make an effort to solve such a problem as described above by mounting the smoke exhauster and the cooker at the wall corner of the kitchen, so as to prevent the escape of the cooking smoke by two wall surfaces of the wall corner. The conventional gas stove is generally rectangular in shape. As shown in FIG. 1, the gas cooker and the smoke exhauster  91  are mounted at the kitchen corner such that their back sides and one of the left and the right sides are rested against the two wall surfaces which meet at right angle. The kitchen sink  92  extends along the wall corner to have an L shape. The user U must stand at the turning corner of the sink  92  to do the cooking. In light of the cooker being located at an inner corner of the sink  92 , the user U, the cooker, and the smoke exhauster are located in an aslant relationship, thereby resulting in a great deal of inconvenience to the user for operating the control panel. In order to provide a remedy, a design change is made by the interior designer such that the gas range and the smoke exhauster  93  are located slantingly at the kitchen corner, as shown in FIG. 2. The back corners of the gas range and the smoke exhauster  93  are rested against the two wall surfaces which meet at right angle, thereby resulting in a triangular space between the back sides of the gas range and the smoke exhauster and the walls. As a result, the kitchen sink and the overhead cabinet must be widened. The modern kitchen sink and the modern overhead cabinet are of a modular design such that they have a fixed size. For example, the sink has a depth of 60 cm, whereas the overhead cabinet has a depth of 37 cm. In order to coordinate the design that the gas range and the smoke exhauster are mounted slantingly at the kitchen corner, the depth of the sink and the depth of the cabinet must be increased at an additional cost. In addition, the sink and the cabinet would take up additional space in the kitchen.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a smoke exhauster with a housing which is designed to facilitate the mounting of the smoke exhauster at a kitchen corner without compromising the smoke exhausting efficiency of the smoke exhauster, and without a coordinating effort to redesign the kitchen sink or overhead cabinet.  
           [0004]    The smoker exhauster housing of the present invention is provided in the back side with a left wall contact surface and a right wall contact surface. The smoker exhauster is mounted at a kitchen wall corner such that the two wall contact surfaces of the back side of the housing of the smoke exhauster are rested against the two wall surfaces of the kitchen corner. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0005]    [0005]FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a prior art smoke exhauster which is mounted at the corner of a kitchen.  
         [0006]    [0006]FIG. 2 shows a schematic view of a prior art smoke exhauster which is mounted at the corner of a kitchen in another manner.  
         [0007]    [0007]FIG. 3 shows an angle of elevation perspective view of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 4 shows a top view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 5 shows a schematic view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention in use.  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 6 shows a top side shematic view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention in use.  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 7 shows an angle of elevation perspective view of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 8 shows a top view of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 9 shows a schematic view of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention in use.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 10 shows a top side schematic view of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention in use.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 11 shows a sectional view of the joining relationship of the smoker exhauster of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention and an overhead cabinet.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 12 shows a perspective view of a third preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 13 shows a perspective view of a fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 14 shows a perspective view of a fifth preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0019]    As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a smoke exhauster housing  10  of the first preferred embodiment is provided in the interior with a bellows and a smoke exhausting duct, which are not the subject matters of the present invention. The housing  10  has a sectoral profile, a left wall contact surface  11 , a right wall contact surface  12 , an arcuate front side  13 , and a top  14 . The left wall contact surface  11  and the right wall contact surface  12  are rectangular in shape and are joined together at the rear longitudinal sides thereof at about 90 degrees. The two opposite side edges of the front side  13  are joined with the outer side edges of the left wall contact surface  11  and the right wall contact surface  12 . As a result, the wall contact surfaces  11  and  12  are joined with the front side  13  to form a cylindrical body. The front side  13  is provided at the bottom of the front thereof with a switch  20  for controlling a motor mounted in the bellows and a lamp (not shown in the drawings).  
         [0020]    As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the housing  10  of a smoke exhauster  30  is mounted in a kitchen comprising an L-shaped kitchen sink  42 , a gas range  44  located on the corner of the sink  42 , two overhead cabinet sets  46 , and a space located over the range  44  for mounting the smoke exhauster  30  between the two overhead cabinet sets  46  such that the left wall contact surface  11  and the right wall contact surface  12  of the housing  10  are securely held to the two wall surfaces forming a right angle, and that the front side  13  faces the kitchen center, and further that the left and the right side are rested against the inner sides of the cabinet sets  46 , and further that the upper and the lower end edges are flush with the overhead cabinets  46 .  
         [0021]    The user stands at the corner of the sink  42  such that the user faces the range  44  and the smoke exhauster  30 . The cooking fumes are prevented by the walls from spreading throughout the kitchen or even to other rooms. The user can easily maneuver the switch  20 . The housing  10  is so shaped to fit into the corner without forming a triangular gap of the prior art. In addition, the front side of the exhauster  30  is not overextended so as to coordinate with the existing sink and cabinets. In short, the housing  10  of the present invention is so designed to fit beautifully with the kitchen corner without obstructing the arrangement of the cabinets.  
         [0022]    As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, a housing  50  of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention has a pentagonal profile, a left wall contact surface  51 , a right wall contact surface  52 , a left side  53  facing the left front, a right side  54  facing the right front, and a front side  55  facing the front. They are all rectangular surfaces, with the longitudinal side edges of two adjoining surfaces being joined together. They are joined with a pentagonal top  56  to form a pentagonal housing such that a right angle is formed between the left wall contact surface  51  and the right wall contact surface  52 , and that a right angle is formed between the left side  53  and the left wall contact surface  51 , and further that a right angle is formed between the right side  54  and the right wall contact surface  52 . The housing  50  is therefore fitted well with the corner of right angle and the rectangular overhead cabinets. The foregoing angles can be modified to adapt to a specific corner or cabinet design. The left side  53 , the front side  55  and the right side  54  are provided in the bottom edge thereof with a protruded edge  57  extending along an edge. The protruded edge  57  is provided in the underside with a switch  64  corresponding in location to the front side  55 .  
         [0023]    As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, the housing  50  of the smoke exhauster  70  is disposed between the two cabinet sets  46 ′ such that the left wall contact surface  51  and the right wall contact surface  52  are rested against the corner walls, and that the left side  53  and the right side  54  are in contact with the inner sides of the cabinet sets  46 ′. The smoke exhauster  70  is secured to the right angle junction of the two cabinet sets&#39;  46 ′ such that only the front side  55  of the housing  50  is exposed to face the user, and that the protruded edges  57  come in contact with the side edge of the undersides of the cabinet sets  46 ′, as shown in FIG. 11, so as to seal off the gap between the housing  50  and the cabinet sets  46 ′.  
         [0024]    As shown in FIG. 12, the planar front side  55  of the housing  50  described above is changed to have an arcuate surface. The arcuate front side  55 ′ of the housing  50 ′ is extended between the two cabinet sets to enhance the esthetic effect and to enlarge the volume of the housing.  
         [0025]    The present invention is provided in the back side with a left wall contact surface and a right wall contact surface, which come in contact with the corner walls. The front side of the housing is of any geometric form. In addition, the left wall contact surface and the right wall contact surface of the back side of the housing of the present invention are not directly connected, as shown in FIG. 13 in which a housing  80  is shown to have a hexagonal profile, and a back side  81  connected with a left wall contact surface  82  and a right wall contact surface  83 . The left wall contact surface  82  and the right wall contact surface  83  are in contact with two walls of the corner such that a triangular space is formed at the innermost angle and is covered with a cover plate. As shown in FIG. 14, a housing  85  is a hybrid of those of FIGS. 7 and 13 and is provided with a pentagonal bottom and a hexagonal top.