Patent Publication Number: US-6700107-B2

Title: Wall-mounted type microwave oven

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2002-32163 filed on Jun. 8, 2002, in the Korean Industrial 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 wall-mounted type microwave oven, and more particularly, to a wall-mounted type microwave oven having a lighting device which illuminates the inside of a cooking chamber and a kitchen space below an oven body of the microwave oven. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     FIG. 1 shows a conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven  3 . Generally, the wall-mounted type microwave oven  3  is installed on a wall  2  over an oven range  1 , and carries out an exhausting operation to exhaust gas and fumes generated from the oven range  1  to the outside, as well as a cooking operation to cook food using electromagnetic waves. 
     The wall-mounted type microwave oven  3  is provided at its top with an upper lighting device  5  which illuminates a cooking chamber  4  to enable a user to observe the inside of the cooking chamber  4 . Furthermore, the wall-mounted type microwave oven  3  is provided at its bottom with a lower lighting device  6  which illuminates a kitchen space below the wall-mounted type microwave oven  3 . Generally, the upper lighting device  5  is automatically turned on when a user carries out a cooking activity, while the lower lighting device  6  is turned on when a lighting button provided on a control panel (not shown) of the wall-mounted type microwave oven  3  is pressed. 
     However, since the above-described wall-mounted type microwave oven  3  requires an upper lighting device  5  to illuminate the cooking chamber  4  and a separate lower lighting device  6  to illuminate the kitchen space below the wall-mounted type microwave oven  3 , productivity of the wall-mounted type microwave oven  3  is decreased and the manufacturing cost is increased due to an increased number of components. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wall-mounted type microwave oven which is adapted to illuminate a cooking chamber and a kitchen space below an oven body, simultaneously, by using a single lighting device. 
     Additional objects and 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. 
     To achieve the above and other objects of the present invention, there is provided a wall-mounted type microwave oven comprising an oven body which defines an outer appearance of the microwave oven, and includes a cooking chamber, an exhaust system provided in the oven body to exhaust gas and fumes in a kitchen space below the oven body, and a lighting device which is provided at a lower portion of the oven body and generates light to illuminate the cooking chamber and the kitchen space, wherein the cooking chamber includes an upper opening which is formed at a bottom plate of the cooking chamber and allows the light emitted from the lighting device to pass into the cooking chamber therethrough, and the oven body includes a lower opening which is formed at a bottom plate of the oven body and allows the light emitted from the lighting device to pass to the kitchen space therethrough. 
     The lighting device may be provided in a space defined between the bottom plate of the cooking chamber and the bottom plate of the oven body. 
     The lighting device may include a housing having an upper opened end attached to the bottom plate of the cooking chamber and a lower opened end attached to the bottom plate of the oven body, wherein the upper and lower opened ends correspond to the upper and lower openings. 
     The upper and lower openings may be provided with corresponding transparent cover plates to prevent foreign substances from entering into the interior of the housing. 
     The upper opening may be equipped with a porous shield plate, which allows the light emitted from the lighting device to pass therethrough while preventing high-frequency electromagnetic waves from passing therethrough. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which: 
     FIG. 1 is a side cross-sectional view of a conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven, which is mounted on a wall above an oven range; 
     FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a wall-mounted type microwave oven according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a side cross-sectional view of the wall-mounted type microwave oven shown in FIG. 2 mounted on a wall above an oven range; and 
     FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a lighting device incorporated in the wall-mounted type microwave oven shown in FIG.  2 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present invention by referring to the figures. 
     FIGS. 2 and 3 show a wall-mounted type microwave oven according to an embodiment of the present invention. A body  10  of the wall-mounted type microwave oven is mounted on, for example, a kitchen wall over an oven range  100 . The oven body  10  includes a cooking chamber  11  to cook food therein, and an electrical component compartment  12  which is isolated from the cooking chamber  11 . The oven body  10  further includes an exhaust path (shown by dark arrows) to exhaust gas and fumes generated from the oven range  100 . The exhaust path is isolated from the cooking chamber  11  and the electrical component compartment  12 . An exhaust fan  13  is provided at a rear upper portion of the oven body  10 , and discharges the gas and fumes guided through the exhaust path. A door  14  is provided at a front face of the cooking chamber  11  to place and remove the food from the cooking chamber  11 . 
     The electrical component compartment  12  is isolated from the cooking chamber  11  by a partition plate  15 . The electrical component compartment  12  includes a magnetron  16  which generates high-frequency electromagnetic waves, a high voltage transformer  17  which applies a high voltage to the magnetron  16 , and a cooling fan  18  which cools electric components, such as the magnetron  16  and the high voltage transformer  17 , equipped in the electrical component compartment  12 . 
     The magnetron  16  is disposed at an upper portion of the electrical component compartment  12 , and the high voltage transformer  17  is placed on a bottom of the electrical component compartment  12 . A waveguide  19  is provided to the cooking chamber  11  and the electrical component compartment  12 , and serves to guide the high-frequency electromagnetic waves generated from the magnetron  16  to the cooking chamber  11 . Though not shown in the drawings, the electrical component compartment  12  is equipped at its front face with a control panel including a plurality of control buttons which control various functions of the microwave oven and a display which indicates an operational condition of the microwave oven. 
     The exhaust path is adapted to exhaust gas and fumes generated from the oven range  100  disposed below the oven body  10 . The exhaust path includes an intake port  21  formed at a bottom plate  20  of the oven body  10 , a lower flow path  23  defined between bottom surfaces of the cooking chamber  11  and the electric component compartment  12 , and the bottom plate  20  of the oven body  10 , a pair of rising flow paths  24  and  25  which are disposed at corresponding sides of the cooking chamber  11  and the electric component compartment  12  to extend up and down, and an upper flow path  26  which is disposed on an upper portion of the oven body  10  to guide the gas and fumes introduced through the pair of rising flow paths  24  and  25  toward the exhaust fan  13 . Accordingly, by rotation of the exhaust fan  13 , the gas and fumes sucked through the intake port  21  of the bottom plate  20  are exhausted to the outside through the lower flow path  23 , the rising flow paths  24  and  25 , and the upper flow path  26 . 
     The wall-mounted type microwave oven according to the present invention is further provided with a lighting device  30  which concurrently illuminates the inside of the cooking chamber  11  and a kitchen space below the microwave oven. 
     FIG. 4 shows an exploded perspective view of the lighting device  30 . The lighting device  30  comprises a housing  31  disposed in a space defined between a bottom plate  22  of the cooking chamber  11  and a bottom plate  20  of the oven body  10 , and lamps  32  disposed in the housing  31 . The housing  31  is shaped as a hexahedral box having front and rear side faces and left and right side faces, with upper and lower faces being opened. The lamps  32  are fixed to the rear side face of the housing  31  by fastening screws  36 . The housing  31  is provided with its upper and lower faces with upper and lower flanges  33  and  34 , respectively, so as to fix the housing  31  to the bottom plate  22  of the cooking chamber  11  and the bottom plate  20  of the oven body  10 . More specifically, the upper and lower flanges  33  and  34  are fixedly attached to the bottom plate  22  of the cooking chamber  11  and the bottom plate  20  of the oven body  10  by fastening screws  35 . 
     The bottom plate  22  of the cooking chamber  11  is formed with an upper opening  41  at a position corresponding to that of the opened upper face of the housing  31 , so as to have light emitted from the lamps  32  of the lighting device  30  pass into the inside of the cooking chamber  11 . Likewise, the bottom plate  20  of the oven body  10  is formed with a lower opening  42  at a position corresponding to that of the opened lower face of the housing  31 , so as to have the light emitted from the lamps  32  pass toward the kitchen space below the oven body  10 . 
     The lighting device  30  is designed so as to have the lamps  32  disposed in the housing  31  to be protected by the housing  31 . The light from the lamps  32  is reflected via inner faces of the housing  31  and simultaneously directed toward the inside of the cooking chamber  11  and the kitchen space below the oven body  10  through the corresponding upper and lower openings  41  and  42 . 
     The upper opening  41  formed at the bottom plate  22  of the cooking chamber  11  is equipped with a porous shield plate  45 . The porous shield plate  45  allows the light emitted from the lamps  32  to pass therethrough while preventing high-frequency electromagnetic waves in the cooking chamber  11  from leaking outward through the upper opening  41 . In addition, the upper and lower openings  41  and  42  are provided with transparent cover plates  43  and  44 , respectively, to prevent foreign substances from entering into the interior of the housing  31 . The porous shield plate  45  and the cover plates  43  and  44  are applied with an adhesive at their peripheral edges to maintain the housing  31  in an airtight state. 
     In a lighting operation, the lighting device  30  may be automatically turned on at the time of a cooking operation of the microwave oven. In addition, the control panel of the microwave oven may be provided with an additional lighting button to allow a user to selectively turn on the lighting device, so as to illuminate the kitchen space below the oven body  10  where the microwave oven is not operated to cook food therein. 
     As described above, the present invention provides a wall-mounted type microwave oven having a lighting device which can simultaneously illuminate the inside of a cooking chamber and a kitchen space below the microwave oven. Consequently, the wall-mounted type microwave oven according to the present invention has a simplified structure, and the number of components used in the microwave oven can be reduced. Therefore, as compared to a conventional wall-mounted type microwave oven, the manufacturing cost for the present microwave oven is reduced and the productivity is increased. 
     Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.