Patent ID: 8376418

Claim:
A latch for locking an appliance, said latch arranged for receiving a strike along an axis to hold a door of the appliance closed, a portion of the appliance having a gasket to cooperate with the door, said latch comprising: a latch frame affixable to the portion of the appliance; a carriage held by the latch frame and axially spring biased in a door closing direction; a hook cam carried by the carriage to releasably engage the strike to pull the door against the gasket under a spring biasing action of the carriage; a stop assembly movably fitted between the carriage and the latch frame to bridge an axial separation between the carriage and latch frame; and an electric actuator for moving the stop assembly between a locked position in which the stop assembly bridges the axial separation between the carriage and the latch frame to block movement of the carriage in a door opening direction, and an unlocked position in which the stop assembly does not bridge the axial separation between the carriage and the latch frame, wherein the stop assembly includes at least one stop wedge, the carriage includes at least one carriage wedge corresponding to the stop wedge, and the at least one stop wedge being laterally movable perpendicular to the axial separation between the carriage and the latch frame into cooperation with the at least one carriage wedge to bridge the axial separation between the carriage and the latch frame when the stop assembly is in the locked position.