Patent Publication Number: US-6216686-B1

Title: Slanted motor housing for range hood

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
     1. Field of Invention 
     The present invention relates to range hoods, and more particularly to a slanted motor housing for range hood which is adapted to be dissembled for easy clean-up and can highly increase the efficiency of filtering out cooking contaminants such as grease, odor, and grease risen from the cooking burners before they mix with the rest of the air in the home. 
     2. Description of Related Arts 
     When we cook foods at home, pollutants such as greases, odor, and hazardous gas are created. Home cooking can produce over gallons of vaporized grease, especially grease forms an extremely tough film that sticks like glue to everything it touches. So, grease created in cooking must be collected and removed from the home. 
     In order to filter out the cooking contaminants, most family have a range hood installed directly above the cooking burners of the gas or electric range such that vaporized grease produced during cooking can be dragged to the range hood so as to remove the cooking contaminants. There are two types of range hood in the market, which are ducted hood and ductless hood, wherein the ducted hood vents contaminated air to the outside and the ductless hood pulls air through a grease filter and a charcoal filter to clean the air which is then returned into the room. No matter which type of range hood is used, the purpose of the range hood is to remove cooking contaminants before they mix with the rest of the air in home. 
     The two types of range hood have a common structure design wherein a pair of motors are horizontally installed in a hood body. The two motors are arranged to drive a pair of fans to exhaust the vaporized grease into the hood body. In other words, the motors are horizontally positioned right above the cooking stove or range such that the fans will directly exhaust the vaporized grease over the cooking stove or range. 
     A suction area is provided directly under the fan driven by the motors. Usually, the suction area can cover the cooking range having a pair of burners in which the two fans are vertically aligned with the two cooking burners. However, when there are four cooking burners in a stove, such as an American style, the suction area of the range hood can only partially cover the entire cooking surface, especially the two front cooking burners. So, some vaporized grease may escape from the suction area, and especially when the user stands in front of the stove, his or her body may absorb some vaporized grease containing hazardous gas that may hazard his or her health. 
     Furthermore, when the vaporized grease is sucked into the range hood, the grease will stick to the hood casing, fans, and even motors. In order to maintain the high performance of the range hood, regularly clean up the range hood is needed. User usually has difficulty to clean up the range hood because all parts in the range hood are assembled by manufacturer, which are very seldom to be disassembled for clean up individually. So, the user can hardly clean up all single part in detail, especially the interior parts, while the range hood is installed in such upper position without uninstalling the parts from the range hood. 
     SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
     A main object of the present invention is to provide a slanted motor housing for range hood which can easily be disassembled and be re-assembled by the user for easy clean up. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a slanted motor housing for range hood which can highly increase the efficiency of filtering out the cooking contaminants from the cooking stove or range. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a slanted motor housing for range hood which can effectively increase the suction area for the cooking stove or range. 
     Another object of the present invention is to provide a slanted motor housing for range hood wherein the grease after filtration may easily to drain off and be collected from the range hood. 
     Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a slanted motor housing for range hood, which comprises: 
     a casing having a box shaped structure comprising a ceiling adapted for horizontally mounted on a ceiling of a kitchen; 
     a motor housing detachably mounted under the ceiling of the casing, wherein the motor housing having two slanted motor supporting platforms downwardly protruded therefrom; 
     two motors, which are disposed in the motor housing on the slanted motor supporting platforms respectively, each having a driving shaft outwardly extended therefrom; and 
     two ventilating fans detachably attached on the driving shafts for being driven to rotate respectively. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a slanted motor housing for range hood according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the slanted motor housing for range hood according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the motor housing of the range hood according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of the slanted motor housing for range hood according to the above preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring to FIGS. 1 to  4  of the drawings, a range hood  1  according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated, which comprises a casing  2 , a motor housing  3 , two motors  4 , and two ventilated fans  5 . 
     The casing  2 , which has a trapezoid cross sectional structure adapted for securely mounted on a ceiling of a kitchen, comprises a ceiling  21 , a front panel  22 , a rear panel  23 , two trapezoid shaped side panels  24 , and a base cover  25  having a rear side pivotally mounted on the rear plane  23  and a front side detachably attached to the front panel  22 , so as to adapt for pivotally opening and closing, wherein two circular vent holes  251  are provided on the base cover  25 . Furthermore, a pair of electrical terminals  26  are mounted inside the front panel  22  of the casing  2 . 
     The motor housing  3 , which is disposed in the casing  2 , comprises a horizontal top panel  31  detachably mounted on the horizontal ceiling  21  of the casing  2  by an attaching means  6  and a shelter  32  mounted on the top panel  31 . The shelter comprises two circular motor covers  321  aligned with the two vent holes  251  of the base cover  25  respectively. 
     Two slanted motor supporting platforms  311  are protruded downwardly from the top plane  31  and coaxially aligned with the two motor covers  321  of the shelter  32  respectively. Each slanted motor supporting platforms  311  has in circular shape and is integrally and inwardly protruded from the top panel  31 . Each of the slanted motor supporting platforms  311  has a thickness gradually increase from its front portion to its rear portion such that the slanted motor supporting platform  311  is inclined for a predetermined angle A, for example 5 to 30 degrees, with respect to the horizontal top panel  31 , as shown in FIG.  4 . 
     The two motors  4 , which are disposed in the motor housing  3 , each comprises a driving shaft  41  coaxially extended therefrom. The two motors  4  are detachably mounted on the two slanted motor supporting platforms  311  of the top panel  31  respectively by the attaching means  6 , so that the two motors  4  are supported inclinedly wherein the driving shaft  41  of each of the motors  4  is frontwardly inclined for the predetermined angle A with respect to the vertical. 
     The two motor covers  321  of the shelter  32  surround the two motors  4  respectively, wherein each of the two motor covers  321  has a rear portion thicker than a front portion and a central axis of each of the circular motor covers  321  is also inclined for the predetermined angle A with respect to the vertical, as shown in FIG. 4. A pair of conducting wires  42  are extended from the two motors  4  to the two terminals  26  of the casing  2  through the motor housing  3  respectively, wherein each conducting wire  42  has a connector  421  at its free ends such that the conducting wires  42  are adapted to connect or disconnect to the terminals  26  by plugging or unplugging the connectors  421  to the terminals  26  respectively. 
     The two ventilating fans  5  are detachably attached on the driving shafts  41  of the motors  4  and disposed inside the two motor covers  321  of the motor housing  3  respectively, wherein the two ventilating fans  5  are arranged to have the same respective slanted angle to the motors  4  and to be driven by the motors  4  to rotate  4  through their driving shafts  41  respectively in order to suck the vaporized grease into the range hood  1 . In order to securely mount the ventilating fan  5  to the motor  4 , a locker cap  51  is detachably attached to a free end of the respective driving shaft  41 . In such arrangement, the ventilating fan  5  can be detached for easy clean up after the locker cap  51  is unscrewed from the driving shaft  41 . 
     Accordingly, in order to cover the slanted motors  4 , the shelter  32  of the motor housing  3  is arranged to be a trapezoid cross sectional structure so as to fitly dispose the motors  4  therein. The shelter  32  has a height gradually increase from a front thereof to the back such that the openings of the motor covers  321  are coaxially parallel to the ventilating fans  5 . In such arrangement, according to the fluid dynamic air flow, the air will flow from the narrow portion (the front portion) to the wide portion (the rear portion) of the shelter  32  with less air friction. As a result, the range hood  1  will highly increase the amount of air dragging into the range hood  1 . 
     The range hood  1  further comprises a pair of grease collectors  7  each detachably mounted on an opening of the respective motor cover  321  of the shelter  32  of the motor housing  3 . Each grease collector  7  comprises a circular hollow body  71  encircling the opening of the motor cover  321  and an elongated guiding slot  72  is mounted on the hollow body  71  such that the heavy grease sucked inside the range hood  1  will drop off to the hollow body  71  and will be collected into the guiding slot  72 . An elongated tube body  73  is integrally and rearwardly extended from the hollow body  71  to the rear panel  23  of the casing  2  wherein a L-shaped tube extension  74  is fittedly connected between a free end of the tube body  73  and a grease outlet  231  on the rear panel  23  of the casing  2 . So, the grease collected in the guiding slot  72  of the hollow body  71  will further drain off from the grease outlet  231  of the casing  2  of the range hood  1  through the tube body  73  and the tube extension  74  respectively. 
     The range hood  1  further comprises a housing handle  322 , a pairs fan guards  81  detachably mounted on the base cover  25  and an air regulator  82  slidably mounted on the front portion the base cover  25 . The housing handle  322  is firmly affixed on an outer surface of the shelter  32  of the motor housing  3  wherein the user can easily handle and carry the motor housing  3  when the motor housing  3  is detached from the casing  2 . Each fan guard  81  having a circular shape coaxially and encirclingly mounted on each vent hole  251  of the base cover  25  in order to protect the ventilating fans  5  and motors  4  from being attacked while operation and prevent a child from putting his or her hand to the high revolution of the ventilating fans  5 . The air regulator  82  which has a rectangular shape is horizontally mounted on the front portion of the base cover  25  so that the air above the range hood  1  will not be sucked therein by the high power of the motors  4 . Therefore, the air regulator  82  will help to block and regulate the air above the range hood  1  such that the ventilating fans  5  will more effectively suck the air below the range hood  1  positioned above the cooking burners. 
     Referring to FIG. 2, all parts of the range hood  1 , including the fan guard  81 , grease collector  7 , ventilating fans  5 , motors  4 , and the motor housing  3 , can be disassembled for easy clean up and dishwasher-safe except the motors  4 . The base cover  25  can be pivotally open and detach from the casing  2 . The motor housing  3  and the motors  4  are adapted to be detached by unfastening the attaching means  6 . Accordingly, the attaching means  6  may comprises a plurality of handy screws  61  wherein each of the handy screws  61  has an elongated head portion such that the user is able to twist the screw  61  by hand for screwing or unscrewing operation. 
     In view of the above disclosure of the preferred embodiment, it is apparent that the present invention can achieve the following advantages: 
     (1) The maintenance of the range hood  1  is simple and easy. All parts of the range hood  1  including the motors  4  are easily disassembled to facilitate the user to clean up the range hood  1  parts by parts and most of the parts are made of durable plastic which are dishwasher-safe. So that, the range hood  1  is easy to keep clean in order to have a better performance. 
     (2) The efficiency of sucking the cooking contaminants from the cooking burners can be highly increased. According to the fluid dynamic air flow, the shape of the motor housing  3  will highly increase the air flow of the range hood  1 . The air inside the motor housing  3  will flow and be compressed from the front portion (with lesser volume) and the rear portion (with larger volume) of the motor housing  3  so as to increase the sucking effect of the range hood  1 . 
     (3) The motors and the fans are arranged inclinedly so as to increase the suction area of the range hood  1  to more effectively cover the two front cooking burners. However, the motor and fan of the conventional range hood are perpendicularly mounted above the cooking burners so that the suction area can mainly cover the two rear cooking burners. The slanted motor housing  3  of the present invention will rotate the displacement of the motors  4  forwardly such that the suction area of the range hood  1  will automatically spread out for covering the more cooking area. 
     (4) Accordingly, the range hood  1  of the present invention can be assembled or disassembled without using any tools. The handy screws  61  of the attaching means  6  enable the user to remove or attach the assembly parts by hands. 
     (5) The collected grease is easy to drain off the range hood  1 . The grease collector  7  is detachably and encirclingly mounted on the opening of the motor cover  321  with the respective slanted angle of the motor housing  3 , as shown in FIG.  4 . So, the collected grease will be drained off along the inclined grease collector  7  and out of the casing  2 .