Microwave oven

A microwave oven including a cabinet defining a cooking chamber therein, and a door coupled to the cabinet to open and close the cooking chamber. The door includes a door frame forming an appearance of the door, a shielding plate installed in the door frame to prevent high-frequency electromagnetic waves from radiating from a small gap between the door and the cabinet, a choke member provided at a peripheral edge of the shielding plate and having a high-frequency choke groove, a cover to cover the high-frequency choke groove, and a retaining member provided at the cover to elastically support the choke member. When the cover is attached to the choke member, an end of the choke member is supported on an inner rib section of the cover via the retaining member, thus reducing deformation of the choke member.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-67541, filed Sep. 29, 2003 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a microwave oven, and more particularly, to a microwave oven, which is designed to prevent a choke member of a door from being deformed during an assembly of the door.

2. Description of the Related Art

Generally, a microwave oven is a cooking appliance that is intended to cook foods in a cooking chamber by heat from intermolecular friction, which is generated by increasing the vibration of the water molecules of the foods with high-frequency electromagnetic wave energy introduced into the cooking chamber from a magnetron.

The microwave oven includes a cabinet, which is comparted into a cooking chamber and an electric component compartment. The electric component compartment contains a magnetron to generate high-frequency electromagnetic waves into the cooking chamber, and a high voltage transformer to apply a high voltage to the magnetron.

A door is rotatably coupled to a front face of the cabinet corresponding to a front face of the cooking chamber to open and close the cooking chamber. The door includes a door frame having a transparent surface at its center and defining an appearance of the door, and a screen-shaped shielding plate attached to an inner surface of the door frame to block high-frequency electromagnetic waves. The shielding plate is bent inwardly at the edges thereof to form a choke member having a high-frequency choke groove. The choke member is configured such that the high-frequency choke groove is opened over a predetermined length to face the front face of the cabinet.

The high-frequency choke groove is covered with a cover, which is disposed between a rear face of the shielding plate and the font face of the cabinet, so as to prevent ingression of extraneous substances into the high-frequency choke groove. The cover includes an inner rib section extending into the high-frequency choke groove through an opening of the high-frequency choke groove, an outer rib section extending between the door frame and the choke member, and a connecting section connected between the inner end section and the outer end section.

In the conventional microwave oven, because the inner rib section of the cover, which extends into the high-frequency choke groove, is maintained to be spaced apart from the end of the choke member without a separate support, the end of the choke member may be deformed toward the inner rib section of the cover when an excessive force impacts the door during an assembly of the door. The deformation of the choke member causes high-frequency electromagnetic waves to radiate from the small gap between the door and the cabinet.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an aspect of the present invention to provide a microwave oven, which is improved in a structure of a door thereof, to prevent deformation of a choke member, which may occur during an assembly of the door.

The above and/or other aspects are achieved by providing a microwave oven including a cabinet defining a cooking chamber therein, and a door coupled to the cabinet to open and close the cooking chamber. The door includes a door frame forming an appearance of the door, a shielding plate installed in the door frame to prevent high-frequency electromagnetic waves from radiating from the small gap between the door and the cabinet, a choke member provided at a peripheral edge of the shielding plate and having a high-frequency choke groove, a cover to cover the high-frequency choke groove, and a retaining member provided at the cover to elastically support the choke member.

The cover may include an inner rib section extended into the high-frequency groove, and an outer rib section extended between the door frame and the choke member, and the retaining member may be disposed between an end of the choke member near to an opening of the high-frequency choke groove and the inner rib section of the cover.

The retaining member may be provided along the inner rib section of the cover.

The end of the choke member may be extended into the high-frequency choke groove, and the retaining member may include an extension section, which is extended toward the end of the choke member from the inner rib section of the cover, and a support section extended from an end of the extension section while being parallel to the end of the extension section, to support the end of the choke member.

The retaining member may further include an inclined section extended from an end of the support section while being inclined toward the inner rib section of the cover, to guide the retaining member into the high-frequency choke groove, in which an end of the inclined section is spaced apart from the inner rib section of the cover by a predetermined distance.

The retaining member may further include a contact section provided at an end of the inclined section, which comes into contact with the inner rib section of the cover when the retaining member is elastically deformed, so as to allow the retaining member to be deformed within a certain deformation range.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As shown inFIG. 1, a microwave oven according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a cabinet10, which is comparted into a cooking chamber20and an electric component compartment30containing various electric components.

The cooking chamber20includes a cooking tray21rotatable by a motor (not shown). The electric compartment30includes a magnetron31to irradiate high-frequency electromagnetic waves into the cooking chamber20, a high voltage transformer32to apply a high voltage to the magnetron31, and a cooling fan33to cool the various electric components housed in the electric component compartment30.

A control panel40, which has a plurality of control buttons41to control various functions of the microwave oven, is coupled to a front face of the electric component compartment30of the cabinet10. A door50is hingedly coupled to a front face of the cooking chamber20of the cabinet10, to open and close the cooking chamber20.

In the microwave oven according to this embodiment of the present invention, food to be cooked is placed on the cooking tray21and the door50is closed. Thereafter, when the control panel40is manipulated by a user, high-frequency electromagnetic waves generated from the magnetron31are introduced into the cooking chamber20to cook the food in a cooking chamber by heat from intermolecular friction, which is generated by increasing the vibration of the water molecules of the food.

As shown inFIGS. 2 and 3, the door50includes a box-shaped door frame60defining an appearance of the microwave oven and opening at its rear face, and a shielding plate70fitted in the door frame60to block high-frequency electromagnetic waves.

The door frame60includes a transparent window61at the center thereof to allow a user to view inside the cooking chamber20. The shielding plate70includes a screen member71at the center thereof, to allow a user to view the inside of the cooking chamber20, similar to the transparent window61. The shielding plate70is bent inwardly at an edge thereof to form a choke member73having a high-frequency choke groove72.

The choke member73is provided to prevent high-frequency electromagnetic waves from radiating from the small gap between the door50and the cabinet10. The choke member73is formed along a peripheral edge of the shielding plate70, and opened toward the front face of the cabinet10at a predetermined area thereof.

The door50includes a cover80to cover the high-frequency choke grooves72in a state of the shielding plate70being fitted in the door frame60. The cover80includes an inner rib section81extending into the high-frequency choke groove72through an opening of the choke groove72, and an outer rib section82extending between the door frame60and the choke member73, and a connecting section83connecting the inner and outer rib sections81and82to each other, to prevent ingression of extraneous substances into the high-frequency choke groove72. The outer rib section82of the cover80includes hooks82aat an end thereof, so as to hold the cover80in the shielding plate70. The choke member73includes hook holes73a, into which the hooks82aare fitted.

In an assembly of the door50, the shielding plate70is fitted into the door frame60, and the high-frequency choke groove72is covered with the cover80. Thereafter, when the cover80is forcedly pressed toward the door frame60, the components of the door50come into close contact with each other, thus completing the assembly of the door50.

The cover80includes a retaining member90to prevent deformation of the choke member73during assembly of the door50.

The retaining member90is provided between the opening of the high-frequency choke groove72, that is an end of the choke member73and the inner rib section81of the cover80. Because an external force is applied to the choke member73when the hooks82aare fitted into the hook holes73a, the choke member73may be deformed. The retaining member90is intended to prevent the deformation of the choke member73.

In this embodiment, the retaining member90is integrally formed with the cover80, and protruded along the inner rib section81of the cover. Since the retaining member90is positioned between the opening of the high-frequency choke groove72, that is the end of the choke member73and the inner rib section81of the cover, the choke member73is supported on the inner rib section81of the cover80during an assembly of the door50, thus preventing deformation of the choke member73.

The retaining member90is elastically deformable to elastically support the end of the choke member73, so that the cover73is easily fitted into the choke member73at the time of fitting of the cover73. To this end, the retaining member90includes an extension section91extended toward the end of the choke member73, and a support section92extended from an end of the extension section91while being substantially parallel to the end of the choke member73, to support the end of the choke member73. Since the end of support section92is a free end, which is elastically deformable, the support section92can elastically support the end of the choke member73while being in contact with the end of the choke member73.

The retaining member90further includes an inclined section93, which is extended from an end of the support section92while being inclined toward the inner rib section81of the cover80. When the retaining member90is inserted into the high-frequency choke groove72, the inclined section93is moved along the end of the choke member73, thereby allowing the cover80to be easily fitted into the choke member73. An end of the inclined section93is spaced apart from the inner rib section81of the cover80, so that the support section92is elastically deformed within the spaced distance.

As shown inFIG. 4, the retaining member90may include a contact section94. As the support section92is elastically deformed, the contact section94comes into frictional contact with the inner rib section81of the cover80. Accordingly, the support section92is deformed within a certain deformation range, thereby preventing the support section92from being plastically deformed.

An assembly process and functions of the door of the microwave oven according to the present invention will now be described.

First, by inserting the hooks82aof the cover80into the hook holes73aof the shielding plate70, the cover80is joined to the shielding plate70, thereby covering the high-frequency choke groove72. When the cover80is joined to the shielding plate70, the cover80is guided into the high-frequency choke groove72by the inclined section of the retaining member90. After the retaining member90is inserted into the high-frequency choke groove72while being elastically deformed, the retaining member90is restored to its normal position. As a result, the retaining member90is disposed between the inner rib section81of the cover80and the end of the choke member73, thus supporting the inner rib section81of the cover80and the end of the choke member73.

When the cover80is fitted into the choke member73, a force, which is directed toward the inner rib section81of the cover80, is applied to the choke member73by the hooks82a. At this point, because the end of the choke member73is supported on the inner rib section81of the cover80via the retaining member90, an inward deformation of the choke member73is reduced. Even though the choke member73is slightly deformed, the retaining member90is elastically restored to its normal position, thus greatly reducing deformation of the choke member73.

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention provides a microwave oven, which includes a retaining member provided on an inner rib section of a cover to support an end of a choke member. Accordingly, when the cover is installed with the choke member, the end of the choke member is supported on the inner rib section of the cover via the retaining member, thereby reducing deformation of the choke member.