SAFETY-DEVICE FOR STOVES

Abstract: Children safety device for cookers or stoves where such a device must be used when using the stove. The children safety device comprises a front plate (1) which may be raised in tracks (A6) and cooperating side plates (2) which together comprise an at least partially peripheral obstacle, and optionally an additional down-folding panel which may cover the switch panel and/or the stove door in a down-folded position.

Description: The present invention concerns a childrens safety-panel for cookers and stoves, where the panel is movable and all the time prevents children from hurting themselves either in use of the stove or when it is turned off. Many accidents happening nowadays in the community are accidents in the home, and a large proportion of such accidents involves children and stoves. Against the background that children are curious and are not always conscious of the "modus operandi" or the dangers of household apparatuses it is important, when children are present, to have safety devices which prevent the children from being hurt. In this connection childrens safety devices on cookers/stoves are very important, both because the child may become seriously burnt by hot material such as pots or hot fat inside these on top of the stove, and because the stove may be ruined if the child playing turns on the switches in the control panel on the stove when it is unused. Preventing children from turning on stoves will in addition prevent the possibility of fires occurring. It is accordingly of importance that both these modes of operation are achieved in childrens safety devices, namely both that the child does not come to harm, and that neither is the stove damaged by for example by overheating. Such a childrens safety device ought to be safe for the child both from the front and the sides of the cooker/stove. There are previously known different devices which attempt to produce childrens safety devices for stoves, where one or the other of the above-mentioned modes of action are attempted to be achieved. There is thus known from DE Patent No. 2658099 a switch panel folded into the stove where the switches are not accessible in the folded position. Such a device has, however, the main purpose of protecting the clockwork inside the switch panel and produces no safety for the plates or the pots which may be present on top of the stove. Also European Patent No. 0183887 discloses a switch panel on a stove, where the switch panel is protected by fastening a plate in front of the switches. Neither does this provide any protection for the heating plates or the pots which may be present on top of the stove. In SE Publication No. 385402 there is disclosed a childrens safety device where there is achieved security for both the switch panel and the heating plates of the stove. Such a childrens safety device has however the disadvantage that the user may forget to erect or fold down the safety device during use of the stove, and thus the childrens safety device may completely lose its function. In addition, when such a safety device is not in use it does not have the function of making certain that the switch panel is not accessible. It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a childrens safety device for cookers/stoves where such a safety device during use of the stove protects against the accessibility to the heating plates and the switch panel, and when the stove is not in use there is protection against accessibility to the switch panel. At the same time, such a childrens safety device must be used when the stove is to be used. To achieve these purposes there is produced a childrens safety device for stoves comprising the features which appears from the preamble of claim 1, and which in addition comprises the features which are given in the characterising part of claim 1. According to the invention the front panel of the childrens safety device may be directed in its up-and-down movement by directing devices such as directing tracks which may be mounted on the sides of the stove. Such tracks may optionally ensure that the front panel of the safety device may not be demounted and that the safety device must be used when the stove is to be used. In addition, the front panel of the childrens safety device may comprise guide tracks for its side walls so that such side walls are erected simultaneously as the front panel is raised. The childrens safety device according to the invention may also, as a possible and optional feature, comprise an additional front panel which may slide on the outside of the first mentioned front panel. Such an additional folding down front panel has the purpose of protecting against accessibility to the switch panel of the cooker/stove and/or the stove handle when the stove is in use with the childrens safety device in erected position. The childrens safety device according to the invention may be made of any convenient material such as plastic or metal. For the user of the cooker/stove to have control over the indicator lamps which show whether the heating plates/stove is in use, the childrens safety device according to the invention is preferably made of a fine mesh or transparent heat resistant plastic or corresponding material. One embodiment of the present invention will be described below in connection with the attached drawings, wherein: FIGURE 1 shows a first embodiment of the device according to the invention, in erected position, where the switch panel may be exposed at the same time as possible pots and frying pans are secure from accessibility by children. In this embodiment there is no extra folding down panel mounted in front of or behind the front panel 1 of the childrens safety device (such as in Figure 3). The side wings 2 are hinged about the horizontal axis A1-A3 so that these may be folded down through 90° relative to the top plate (hob) 3 of the stove. The front panel 1 of the device must accordingly slide downwardly in vertical guide tracks A6 simultaneously as the bolt A4 slides along track A5 when the side wings 2 are folded down. FIGURE 2 shows the same embodiment of the device according to the invention in a folded down position. In this position the switch panel of the stove is protected behind the front panel 1, and cannot be accessed unless the childrens safety device is folded up. FIGURE 3 shows a second embodiment of the invention, which comprises an additional front panel I which may slide in the same or different tracks as the guide tracks for the first-mentioned front panel 1. Such an additional panel has the purpose of sliding down and blocking unintended use of both the switch panel of the stove and the door of the stove. In the Figures, A2 represents a guide bolt for the front panel sliding in track A6. A7 is a slot for fastening screws to accommodate different stove types. Detail (DET) 2 shows that the device may be locked in an open position due to the fact that the sliding track A5 has an end portion deflected at an angle of 90° as shown in the drawing. Accordingly, bolt A4 locks the side walls in a vertical position when the front panel is pressed a little down from its completely unfolded position. The block (lock) is accordingly released by lifting the front panel up a bit so that bolt A4 leaves the angle bend in its track and may be moved freely along the sliding track A5. The side walls may now be folded down with a slight pressure. The front panel thereby also slides down along the guide track A6 and blocks the switch panel. Detail (DET) 1 shows how the front panel is secured to the fastening plate.

Claims: Childrens safety device for cookers and/or stoves comprising at least one planar vertical front panel (1) and side walls (2) which are attached to the front panel and are pivotably secured to the stove on horizontal axes along the stove top, characterized in that in a collapsed position of the side walls the front panel (1) extends downwards and covers at least the switch panel of the stove, and in an erected position of the side walls they and the front panel comprise at least a partly peripheral obstacle to prevent accessibility to the heating plates of the stove; and in that the side walls (2) co-operate with the vertical front panel (1) to drive the front panel between its upwardly and downwardly extending position during movement of the side walls between corresponding erected or and collapsed positions. Childrens safety device according to claim 1, characterized in that the front panel comprises at least one vertical guide track. Childrens safety device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the co-operation between the front panel (1) and the side walls (2) comprises guide tracks (A5) formed on the front panel to guide bolts (A4) of the side walls. Childrens safety device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized by further including a second front panel (I) which may be lowered below the lower edge of the first front panel (1). Childrens safety device according to claim 4, characterized in that the additional front panel (I) comprises guide means, preferably sliding means, for lowering the additional front panel (I). Childrens safety device according to either of claims 4 and 5, characterized in that the additional front panel (I) may be lowered as far as the oven door of the stove. Childrens safety device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the first front panel (1) and/or the second front panel (I) is made of mesh or heat resistant transparent plastic.

Inventors: SAGA, HALVOR
Applicants: SAGA, HALVOR
Application year: 1988
Main classification: F24C15
IPC codes: F24C15