Abstract:
A lid with a housing suited for receiving a filter for absorbing odors and fats given off during cooking, and having inlets and outlets communicating externally, the housing has an opening emerging on the side of the lid, and the filter is mounted retractable and sealed through said opening.

Description:
This application is a 371 of PCT Application No. PCT/FR98/01822, filed on Aug. 19, 1998. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to the covers of bowls of cooking apparatus having a recess which is adapted to receive a filter suitable to absorb odors and greases emitted in the course of cooking, and which has inlet openings as well as escape openings communicating with the outside. 
     DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART 
     In most of the covers of existing apparatus on the market, the recess is formed by a hollow provided in the upper wall of the cover enclosed by a trap having escape openings. However, such an embodiment must satisfy not only aesthetic requirements requiring a trap-recess assembly without play and if possible such that the trap will be flush with the surface of the upper wall of the cover, but also, high thermal requirements due to the superheated steam passing upwardly through the filter and the recess; which requirements are antithetical to aesthetic requirements. 
     The manufacturer must thus make a compromise and design a particular assembly with a lock that takes up play whilst preserving easy disassembly to permit changing the used filters. Such an embodiment is thus costly and also requires, during production of the apparatus, painstaking manual assembly operations, inconsistent with mass production. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention has particularly for its object to overcome these drawbacks and to provide a cover with a filter which will be of simple design. 
     According to the invention, the recess has an opening which opens laterally of the cover, and the filter is retractably mounted in a sealed manner through said opening. 
     Thus, the fact of providing a recess opening laterally of the cover, and no longer into the upper wall of the cover, permits guaranteeing a good appearance of the cover whilst overcoming the problems of trap-recess assembly. These advantages are particularly important when the cover is made of a less costly plastic material such as polypropylene. 
     Moreover, in known covers provided with filters and during cooking by frying, these filters are rapidly impregnated and saturated with tarry residues which render extremely delicate their extraction from the recess. 
     According to another important characteristic of the invention, the filter is deposed in a drawer slidably mounted in the recess and comprises a gripping means of which one region is adapted to close the opening of said recess. 
     Thus, thanks to this drawer, the emplacement or extraction of the filter, which will be in the form of a cartridge or loose material, poses no problem for the user, and guarantees a certain cleanliness. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The characteristics and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description which follows, given by way of non-limiting example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic transverse cross-sectional view of a cover provided with a filter according to the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a modified embodiment of the cover according to the invention seen in partial perspective illustrating a drawer for supporting a filter in retracted position; 
     FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, but with the drawer in the extraction position. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     In all the mentioned figures, common elements performing common functions are designated by the same reference numerals. 
     In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the cover shown at  1  comprises an upper wall  2  which is made of a plastic material such as polypropylene and whose peripheral edge  3  carries a downwardly extending lateral skirt  4 . This cover could also be made of a stamped metallic member. The cover also comprises a lower wall  5 , preferably made of metal, fixed at a distance from the upper wall  2  and thereby delimiting a practically closed space  6 . This lower wall  5  has steam inlet openings  7 , whilst the upper wall  2  has escape openings  8  communicating with the exterior. In a manner known per se, the lower wall  5  carries a sealing joint adapted to be applied in operation against the edge of the bowl receiving food to be cooked of a cooking apparatus which can for example be a rice cooker, a fryer or a multi-cooker. 
     In the closed space  6  is provided a recess  9  suitable to recess a filter  10  adapted to absorb odors and greases emitted in the course of cooking. 
     According to the invention, the recess  9  has an opening  12  opening laterally of the cover  1 , and the filter  10  is mounted retractably in a sealed manner through said opening  12 . 
     In a first embodiment as shown in FIG. 1, the opening  12  is provided in the skirt  4  and opens directly outside the cover. 
     In a second embodiment as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the opening  12  opens laterally into a depression  14  formed jointly in the lateral skirt  4  and in the upper wall  2 . 
     So as to seal the recess  9 , the invention provides closing the opening  12  by a sealing means  13  which can for example be a plug (not shown) of a shape complementary to that of the opening. There will later be described another sealing means which would be more appropriate to the embodiments described. 
     The filter  10  could be constituted for example by a cartridge with a rigid casing or a filtering fabric containing grains of active carbon, or by filtering layers loaded with active carbon, or else even by one or more perforated metallic sheets superposed and forming baffles. 
     According to an important feature of the invention, the filter  10  is disposed in a drawer  18  slidably mounted in the recess  9  and comprising a gripping means  20  of which one region  22  is adapted to form a sealing means  13  and to close the opening  12  in a sealed manner. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the drawer  18  is slidably mounted on the lower wall  15  and has the general shape of a parallelepipedal rectangular whose two large lateral sides (not visible) slide respectively on two ribs  25  secured to the cover. The bottom  26  of the drawer has passages  27  letting the steam pass from the inlet openings  7 , whilst its outlet  28  lets the steam pass toward the escape openings  8  after having passed through the filter. 
     To ensure good sealing of the drawer  18  in the recess  9 , there can be provided, by way of example, a sealing joint  29  between the upper edge  30  of the drawer and the internal wall  31  of the recess which is now the internal surface of the cover. 
     Concerning this drawing, the gripping means  20  is formed by a handle secured to a small side  32  of the parallelepipedal and whose shape matches the general shape of the cover so as to render more aesthetically pleasing the cover provided with its filter. 
     In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the drawer  18  is formed by a frame  33  comprising a projection forming the gripping means  20  and internal peripheral flange  34  adapted to receive a cage  35  having cross-members  36  so as to constitute the framework for a compartmented filter  10  with active carbon for example and of which the bottom  37  schematically and partially shown in FIG. 3 can be provided with an inert screen or grill. Thus, this cage  35  can be easily replaced and the loading and unloading operations of the drawer are rendered clean and convenient. 
     As is better seen in FIG. 3, the projection has a shape complementary to the depression  14  of the cover and its front portion  38  is adapted to constitute the sealing means  13  and thus forms a plug for the opening  12  or of the recess  9 . 
     Thanks to the invention, to withdraw or introduce a filter into the cover and more precisely into the recess  9 , the user, by means of the gripping portion  20 , causes the drawer  18  to slide through the opening  12  and brings it either to the withdrawn position shown in the retracted positions of FIGS. 1 and 2 in which the sealing of the recess  9  is automatically ensured, or into the extended position of FIG.  3 . 
     Once the drawer is withdrawn, the user, as a function of the filter  10  that is used, can either remove this filter by gripping it, or convert the drawer  18  above a garbage can into which the filter falls.