Abstract:
A wall mounted type microwave oven including an improved exhaust and cooling unit to allow a direction of an outlet of an exhaust fan casing or a cooling fan casing to change while retaining or reducing an original size thereof. The exhaust and cooling unit includes an exhaust fan and a cooling fan, a driving motor to rotate the fans, the casings to house the respective fans, axes of the casings being eccentric to axes of the respective fans, and first and second brackets to hold the casings fixed to the respective fans, the axes of the brackets substantially coinciding with axes of the respective fans. A length between the axis of the cooling fan and a maximum radius region of the cooling fan casing is equal to or smaller than a half of a length of a side of the second bracket.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-87204, filed Dec. 3, 2003 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates a wall mounted type microwave oven, and more particularly, to a wall mounted type microwave oven including an improved exhaust and cooling unit, which allows a direction of an outlet of an exhaust fan casing or an cooling fan casing to be changed to another direction while retaining an original size or reducing the original size thereof.  
         [0004]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0005]     A conventional wall mounted type microwave oven is generally installed above an oven range is typically placed on kitchen appliances in a kitchen, and serves to perform an operation of exhausting, for example, exhaust air, smoke and food odors, which are generated from other cooking apparatuses, to an outside of the kitchen, as well as an operation of cooking food by high frequency electromagnetic waves in a typical microwave oven.  
         [0006]     The wall mounted type microwave oven includes an oven cabinet forming an external appearance thereof as in a typical microwave oven, and is provided with a cooking chamber to cook foods therein and an electrical component compartment to house various electrical components, the cooking chamber and the electrical component compartment being isolated from each other by a partition plate. The wall mounted type microwave oven further includes an exhaust path defined between the cooking chamber and the oven cabinet, and an exhausting unit positioned at an upper portion of the exhaust path, so as to draw exhaust gas and the food odors generated from the other cooking apparatuses installed below the oven cabinet through the exhaust path and discharge the exhaust gas and the food odors to the outside of the kitchen.  
         [0007]     The exhausting unit includes a driving motor, a pair of exhaust fans coupled to opposite ends of the driving motor, each of the exhaust fans having a common size, and a pair of casing surrounding the exhaust fans. Thus, according to the conventional exhausting unit, the pair of exhaust fans is rotated by a single driving motor to perform an exhausting operation.  
         [0008]     Among the two sets of exhaust fans and respective casings, one set of the exhaust fan and the casing may be configured to cool the various electrical components installed in the electrical component compartment.  
         [0009]     In this case, each of the exhaust fan casing and of the cooling fan casing is configured such that an axis of each of the fan casing (i.e., the exhaust fan casing and the cooling fan casing) is positioned to be eccentric to an axis of the corresponding fan, so as to draw the exhaust gas into the corresponding fan and to be discharged therefrom. That is, on a circumference of each of the fan casings, a major radius region, which corresponds to the maximum radius between the axis of the fan and the circumference of the fan casing, and a minor radius region, which corresponds to the minimum radius between the axis of the fan and the circumference of the fan casing, are present.  
         [0010]     The exhaust fan casing is configured such that an outlet of the exhaust fan casing is selectively directable to any one of an upside direction, a rear direction and a front direction of the exhaust fan casing, depending on conditions of a location at which a wall mounted type microwave oven is installed, so as to allow the exhaust gas to be efficiently discharged to the outside of the kitchen. The cooling fan casing is configured such that an outlet of the cooling fan casing must be always directed toward only an electrical component compartment.  
         [0011]     The conventional wall mounted type microwave oven includes an exhaust fan casing and a cooling fan casing which have a common size. Accordingly, when changing a direction of the outlet of the exhaust fan casing to another direction is necessary, either the exhaust fan casing or the cooling fan casing is rotated after being dismounted from the microwave oven and is remounted on the microwave oven in a state of the outlet of the fan casing being directed to a desired direction. Since the major radius region of the respective fan casing is rotated with respect to a fixed axis of the corresponding fan, by a change of a direction of the outlet of the respective fan casing, a part of the circumference of the respective fan casing corresponding to the major radius region protrudes in another direction.  
         [0012]     Accordingly, to change the direction of the outlet of the exhaust fan casing, the wall mounted type microwave oven must have an additional space to accommodate a protrusion of one of the exhaust fan casing and the cooling fan casing due to the change of a position of the respective fan casing. Consequently, a volume of the cooking chamber to cook the food therein must be reduced, or a volume of the oven cabinet must be increased.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0013]     Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a wall mounted type microwave oven including an improved exhaust and cooling unit, which allows a direction of an outlet of an exhaust fan casing or a cooling fan casing to change while retaining an original size thereof or reducing the original size thereof.  
         [0014]     Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.  
         [0015]     The above and/or other aspects are achieved by providing a wall mounted type microwave oven including an oven cabinet with an exhaust path disposed at a side of the oven cabinet, a cooking chamber and an electrical component compartment formed in the oven cabinet to be isolated from each other, and an exhaust and cooling unit disposed at an upper portion of the oven cabinet. The exhaust and cooling unit includes an exhaust fan to discharge exhaust gas introduced into the exhaust path, a cooling fan to blow air into the electrical component compartment, which has a diameter smaller than that of the exhaust fan, and a driving motor coupled to the exhaust fan and the cooling fan at opposite ends thereof to rotate the exhaust fan and the cooling fan.  
         [0016]     The exhaust and cooling unit may further include an exhaust fan casing to house the exhaust fan, a cooling fan casing to house the cooling fan, and first and second brackets disposed at opposite ends of the driving motor to hold the exhaust fan casing and the cooling fan casing fixed to the first and second brackets, respectively.  
         [0017]     An axis of the cooling fan casing may substantially coincide with an axis of the second bracket and may be eccentric to an axis of the cooling fan, and the cooling fan casing may have a diameter smaller than a diameter of the exhaust fan casing.  
         [0018]     A length between the axis of the second bracket and a maximum radius region of the cooling fan casing may be equal to or smaller than a length between the axis of the second bracket and a point on a side of the second bracket at which a line connected between the axis and the side of the second bracket is perpendicular to the side.  
         [0019]     The cooling fan casing may include a pair of lugs, each having a screw hole, which are diagonally positioned with respect to the second bracket to be diametrically opposed to each other and fixed to the second bracket by screws.  
         [0020]     An outlet of the cooling fan casing may be positioned to face the electrical component compartment, and the outlet of the exhaust fan casing may be positioned to face upward, rearward or forward of the oven cabinet, depending on installing conditions of the microwave oven.  
         [0021]     A direction of the outlet of the cooling fan casing may be changed such that the cooling fan casing rotates by 90 degrees with respect to the second bracket. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0022]     These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
         [0023]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a wall mounted type microwave oven according to an embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0024]      FIG. 2  is an exploded perspective view of an exhaust and cooling unit of the wall mounted type microwave of  FIG. 1 ;  
         [0025]      FIG. 3  is a perspective view of the exhaust and cooling unit of  FIG. 2 , in which an outlet of an exhaust fan casing is positioned to face upward while an outlet of a cooling fan casing is positioned to face downward;  
         [0026]      FIG. 4  is a side view of the exhaust and cooling unit of  FIG. 3 ;  
         [0027]      FIG. 5  is a side view of the exhaust and cooling unit of  FIG. 3 , in which the outlet of the cooling fan casing rotates by 90 degrees from a position shown in  FIG. 4 ;  
         [0028]      FIGS. 6 and 7  are perspective views showing an operation of directing the outlet of the cooling fan casing downward while directing the outlet of the exhaust fan casing rearward; and  
         [0029]      FIGS. 8 and 9  are perspective views showing an operation of directing the outlet of the cooling fan casing downward while directing the outlet of the exhaust fan casing forward. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0030]     Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiment of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like elements throughout. The embodiment is described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.  
         [0031]      FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a wall mounted type microwave oven according to an embodiment of the present invention, which shows flows of exhaust gas and cooling air. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the wall mounted type microwave oven includes a box-shaped oven cabinet  10 , and a cooking chamber  11  and an electrical component compartment  12  which are provided in the oven cabinet  10  to be separated from each other by a right plate  11  of the cooking chamber  11 . .  
         [0032]     The box-shaped oven cabinet  10  is provided at a lower face thereof with a hood  14  having an intake opening  15 , so that, for example, exhaust gas and smoke generated from other cooking apparatuses such as a gas oven range (not shown) from a cooking operation thereof are introduced into the box-shaped oven cabinet  10  through the intake opening  15 . An exhaust path  13  is provided between a left panel  10   a  of the box-shaped oven cabinet  10  and a left plate  11   a  of the cooking chamber  11 , so as to allow the exhaust gas introduced through the intake opening  15  of the hood  14  to be directly exhausted to an outside of a room, or to be filtered and then discharged to the room.  
         [0033]     An air inlet  20 , an air outlet  21  and an exhaust outlet  22  are provided at front and upper portions of the electrical component compartment  12  and the cooking chamber  11 . A right plate  11   b,  which isolates the cooking chamber  11  from the electrical component compartment  12 , includes a plurality of through-holes  23 , and a top plate  11   c  of the cooking chamber  11  includes a plurality of through-holes  24 .  
         [0034]     The top plate  11   c  of the cooking chamber  11 , which serves as a common ceiling of the cooking chamber  11  and the electrical component compartment  12 , is provided with a duct unit  25  thereon. An exhaust and cooling unit  40  is disposed in a rear of the duct unit  25 , which operates to draw and discharge exhaust gas as well as to blow air toward the electrical component compartment  12  and the cooking chamber  11 .  
         [0035]     The exhaust and cooling unit  40  includes a driving motor  41 , an exhaust fan  42  and a cooling fan  43  coupled to opposite ends of the driving motor  41 , and rotated by the driving motor  41 , an exhaust fan casing  44  and a cooling fan casing  45  to house the exhaust fan  42  and the cooling fan  43 , respectively, and first and second brackets  46  and  47  to hold the exhaust fan casing  44  and the cooling fan casing  45 , respectively (see  FIG. 2 ). A structure of the exhaust and cooling unit  40  will be described later with reference to  FIG. 2 .  
         [0036]     The exhaust fan  42  and the exhaust fan casing  44  communicate with the exhaust path  13  to discharge the exhaust gas, and the cooling fan  43  and the cooling fan casing  45  communicate with the air inlet  20  positioned on the electrical component compartment  12  to cool electrical components such as a magnetron  17 , a high voltage transformer  18  and a condenser  19 .  
         [0037]     Accordingly, when the driving motor  41  is operated to, for example, discharge the exhaust gas, the exhaust gas and the smoke are introduced into the exhaust path  13  through the intake opening  15  of the hood  14 , and then discharged from the box-shaped oven cabinet  10  in a rearward direction, in an upward direction or in a forward direction of the box-shaped oven cabinet  10 , depending on an orientation of the exhaust fan casing  44 . For example, the exhaust outlet  22  is provided an upper, center portion of a front of the box shaped oven cabinet  10  to discharge the exhaust gas and the smoke introduced into the exhaust path when the exhaust fan casing  44  is oriented to blow the exhaust gas and the smoke in the forward direction  
         [0038]     When food is cooked in the cooking chamber  11 , air is introduced into the electrical component compartment  12  through the air inlet  20  by a suction force of the cooling fan  43 , where the air cools the electrical components such as the magnetron  17 . Subsequently, the air in the electrical component compartment  12  is introduced into the cooking chamber  11  through the through-holes  23  to eliminate moisture and food odors in the cooking chamber  11 , and is discharged to the room through the through-holes  24  and the air outlet  21 .  
         [0039]      FIG. 2  is an exploded perspective view of the exhaust and cooling unit and  FIG. 3  is a perspective view of the exhaust and cooling unit of  FIG. 2 , which is assembled. As shown in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the exhaust and cooling unit  40  includes the driving motor  41 , the exhaust fan  42 , the exhaust fan casing  44 , the cooling fan  43 , the cooling fan casing  45 , and the first and second brackets  46  and  47 .  
         [0040]     The driving motor  41  is fixed to the first and second brackets  46  and  47  at opposite ends thereof by screws. The exhaust fan  42  and the cooling fan  43 , each of which includes a plurality of blades radially arranged as, for example, in a Sirocco fan, are coupled to rotating shafts  41   a,  respectively, projected from opposite ends of the driving motor  41 .  
         [0041]     The exhaust fan casing  44 , which receives the exhaust fan  42  and provides a space to compress and to discharge air by a centrifugal force of the rotating exhaust fan  42 , is constructed to have an approximate cylindrical shape with opposite ends opened. The exhaust fan casing  44  includes an outlet  48  at a circumferential surface thereof to allow air to discharge therethrough.  
         [0042]     The exhaust fan casing  44  includes a pair of lugs  49 , each of which protrudes from an opened end (or a fixing end) of the exhaust fan casing  44  and has corresponding screw holes. The first bracket  46  includes a plurality of threaded holes  54  corresponding to the screw holes of the exhaust fan casing  44 . Accordingly, the exhaust fan casing  44  is fixed to the first bracket  46  by tightening screws into the threaded holes  54  of the first bracket  46  through the screw holes of the exhaust fan casing  44 . Another end (or a free end) of the exhaust fan casing  44  is provided with an inlet  50  to allow air to be drawn into the exhaust fan casing  44  therethrough.  
         [0043]     Similar to the exhaust fan casing  44 , the cooling fan casing  45 , which receives the cooling fan  43  and provides a space to compress and to discharge air by a centrifugal force of the cooling fan  43 , is constructed to have an approximately cylindrical shape with opposite ends opened. The cooling fan casing  45  includes an outlet  51  at a circumferential surface thereof to allow the air to discharge therethrough.  
         [0044]     The cooling fan casing  45  includes a pair of lugs  52 , each of which protrudes from an opened end (or a fixing end) of the cooling fan casing  45  and has corresponding screw holes. The second bracket  47  includes a plurality of threaded holes  54  corresponding to the screw holes of the cooling fan casing  45 . Accordingly, the cooling fan casing  45  is fixed to the second bracket  47  by tightening screws into the threaded holes  54  of the second bracket  47  through the screw holes of the cooling fan casing  45 . Another end (or a free end) of the cooling fan casing  45  is provided with an inlet  53  to allow the air to be drawn into the cooling fan casing  45  therethrough.  
         [0045]     The pair of lugs  52  of the cooling fan casing  45  is diagonally positioned to be diametrically opposed to each other. The second bracket  47  is provided with threaded holes  54  at corners thereof to correspond to the screw holes of the lugs  52 . Accordingly, when the cooling fan casing  45  is fixed to the second bracket  47 , the lugs  52  of the cooling fan casing  45  are positioned at the corners of the second bracket  47 .  
         [0046]     The cooling fan  43  and the cooling fan casing  45  have diameters smaller than those of the exhaust fan  42  and the exhaust fan casing  44 , respectively. The exhaust fan  42  and the cooling fan  43 , which are coaxially coupled to the rotating shafts  41   a , respectively, of the driving motor  41 , are installed such that axes “C” of the exhaust fan  42  and the cooling fan  43  are aligned with centers of the first and second brackets  46  and  47  (see  FIG. 4 ).  
         [0047]     The exhaust fan casing  44  and the cooling fan casing  45  are installed such that axes of the exhaust fan casing  44  and the cooling fan casing  45  are eccentric to the axes “C” of the exhaust fan  42  and the cooling fan  43  so as to compress and to discharge the air by centrifugal force of the exhaust fan  42  and the cooling fan  43  (see  FIG. 4 ).  
         [0048]     The first bracket  46  is shaped into an approximately square form such that a length of a side of the first bracket  46  is nearly equal to a diameter of the exhaust fan casing  44 , which is positioned to be eccentric to the axis of the exhaust fan  42 . Therefore, by removing only the cooling fan casing  45  from the second bracket  47  and changing an orientation of the cooling fan casing  45 , a direction of the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  is simply changeable.  
         [0049]     The second bracket  47  has a common shape and size as those of the first bracket  46 . Accordingly, the cooling fan casing  45 , which is smaller than that of the exhaust fan casing  44  and positioned to be eccentric to the axis of the cooling fan  43 , is changeable in an orientation thereof within an area of the second bracket  47 .  
         [0050]     Although the first and second brackets  46  and  47  are described to be square in shape, the first and second brackets  46  and  47  are not limited to the square shape and may be shaped into other forms.  
         [0051]      FIGS. 4 and 5  show the cooling fan casing  45  which is changed in a direction of the outlet  51  thereof. As shown in  FIGS. 4 and 5 , the cooling fan casing  45  is positioned such that the outlet  51  of the cooling fan casing  45  faces downward. In this state, since the axis of the cooling fan casing  45  is positioned to be eccentric to the axis “C” of the cooling fan  43  or the axis of the second bracket  47 , air is drawn into the inlet  53  of the cooling fan casing  45  and then is discharged through the outlet  51  by a rotation of the cooling fan  43 .  
         [0052]     Thus, the cooling fan casing  45  includes a major radius region, which is located at a farthest point from the axis “C” of the second bracket  47 , and a minor radius region which is located at a closest point from the axis “C” of the second bracket  47 . An eccentric length of the cooling fan casing  45  is equal to a difference between a maximum radius L 2 , which is a length between the axis “C” of the second bracket  47 , and the major radius region, and a minimum radius L 3  which is a length between the axis “C” of the second bracket  47  and the minor radius region.  
         [0053]     The cooling fan casing  45  may be flexible in an orientation thereof within an area of the second bracket  47 , so as not to protrude beyond the area of second bracket  47 . The maximum radius L 2 , which is a length between the axis “C” of the second bracket  47  and the major radius region of the cooling fan casing  45 , may not be larger than a length L 1 , which is a length between the axis “C” and a point on each of sides of the second bracket  47  at which a line connected between the axis “C” and the side of the second bracket  47  is perpendicular to a respective one of the sides. That is, the length L 2  may not be larger than a half of a length of each of the sides of the second bracket  47 .  
         [0054]     By the above configuration of the exhaust and cooling unit, even when the cooling fan casing  45  rotates clockwise by an angle of 90 degrees from a position shown in  FIG. 4 , as shown in  FIG. 5 , the major radius region of the cooling fan casing  45  does not protrude from the second bracket  47 .  
         [0055]     An operation of changing a position of the cooling fan casing  45  with respect to the second bracket  47  to cover a direction of the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  will now be described with reference to  FIGS. 6 through 9 .  
         [0056]      FIGS. 6 and 7  show an operation of directing the outlet  51  of the cooling fan casing  45  in a downward direction while directing the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  in a rearward direction.  
         [0057]     To change a posture of the exhaust fan casing  44  to a position in which the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  faces in an upward direction (see  FIG. 3 ) from a position in which the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  faces in the rearward direction, the exhaust and cooling unit  40  is first rotated clockwise by an angle of 90 degrees, and the cooling fan casing  45  is removed from the second bracket  47 , as shown in  FIG. 6 .  
         [0058]     Subsequently, the cooling fan casing  45  rotates counterclockwise by an angle of 90 degrees, and mounted on the second bracket  47  by screws, as shown in  FIG. 7 . As a result, the outlet  51  of the cooling fan casing  45  is directed downward while the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  remains to be directed in the rearward direction. Accordingly, the exhaust fan  42  is dischargeable exhaust gas in the rearward direction, and the cooling fan casing  45  may direct air into the electrical component compartment  12 .  
         [0059]      FIGS. 8 and 9  show an operation of directing the outlet  51  of the cooling fan casing  45  in the downward direction while directing the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  forward.  
         [0060]     To change a posture of the exhaust fan casing  44  to a position in which the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  faces forward from a position in which the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  faces in the upward direction (see  FIG. 3 ), the exhaust and cooling unit  40  is first rotated counterclockwise by an angle of 90 degrees, and the cooling fan casing  45  is removed from the second bracket  47 , as shown in  FIG. 8 .  
         [0061]     Subsequently, the cooling fan casing  45  rotates clockwise by an angle of 90 degrees, and is mounted on the second bracket  47  by screws, as shown in  FIG. 9 . As a result, the outlet  51  of the cooling fan casing  45  is directed in the downward direction while the outlet  48  of the exhaust fan casing  44  remains to be directed in a forward direction. Accordingly, the exhaust fan  42  may discharge exhaust gas in the forward direction, and the cooling fan casing  45  can direct air into the electrical component compartment  12 .  
         [0062]     As is apparent from the above description, a wall mounted type microwave oven is provided, which is constructed such that it is not necessary to modify a space which is occupied by an exhaust and cooling unit set on the microwave oven even when an orientation of a cooling fan casing is changed to change a direction of an outlet of an exhaust fan casing to any one of the upward, rearward and forward directions of an oven cabinet. Accordingly, there is no necessity to enlarge the oven cabinet or to reduce a volume of a cooking chamber in order to change an orientation of the exhaust and cooling fan.  
         [0063]     Although an embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in the embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.