GB2354795A

GB2354795A - Oven door catch

Info

Publication number: GB2354795A
Application number: GB9922942A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Glyn Ridgeway
Original assignee: SILICONE ALTIMEX Ltd
Current assignee: SILICONE ALTIMEX Ltd
Priority date: 1999-09-29
Filing date: 1999-09-29
Publication date: 2001-04-04
Also published as: GB9922942D0

Abstract

An oven door catch comprises a flexible member 5 in which is embedded, several rigid members 6 which divide a guide recess 7 of the catch into a mouth region 7A and a retention region 7B. The head 13 of striker 12 enters the guide region 7 and deflect the rigid members in a first direction as the head 13 enters the retention region 7B. Once the head 13 has passed a critical point 6A, the rigid members 6 spring back toward their original position and trap the head 13 in position. To withdraw the head, a positive pull on the striker pulls the head 13 back passed, the rigid members 6 flexing them in a second opposite direction.

Description

2354795 CATCH The invention relates to a catch and, particularly, but not

exclusively, to door catches of a type for use with domestic appliances such as may be found on domestic oven doors and similar items.

Common designs of oven door catch include a number of separate parts, and often inclu'de a number of parts which are mounted for movement with respect to one another. Typically, an oven door catch might include a pair of sprung plates between which a striker is arranged to fit, the sprung plates typically being of steel and including springs to ensure that they move in a given plane and will return to their original positions when the door is opened.

Such catch mechanisms can tend to be quite fiddly to install due to their number of different discrete elements and, also due to their construction, they tend to fail often during the course of a normal domestic oven's life. It is not at all uncommon to find domestic appliances therefore which have'sloppily fitting doors.

It is an aim of preferred embodiments of this invention to address the abovementioned problems and provide a simple and effective door catch mechanism.

Rccording to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a catch for use on an appliance comprising an enclosure with an openable door, the catch comprising a flexible member arranged for mounting to a surface of the appliance, said flexible member having a guide recess for 2 cooperating with a striker mechanism, the guide recess including at least one relatively rigid member housed within it, the catch being arranged, in use, such that when said door is moved towards a closed position, a head of the striker mechanism is received within the guide recess and acts to deflect said rigid member in a first direction from an original position and, once said head has entered a predetermined distance into the guide recess, said rigid member is arranged to return under action of the resilient nature of the flexible member towards it's original position to aid closure of the door and to resist removal of the head of the striker mechanism.

Preferably, the guide recess has a mouth region to one side of the rigid member and a retention region to the other side of the rigid member, the mouth region being arranged to first receive the head of the striker within it when closing the door and the retention region being arranged to latch the head in position once the door has closed.

Preferably, said rigid member has a first portion which is embedded within the material of the flexible member and a second portion which protrudes beyond the material of the flexible member to extend inwardly into the guide recess and divide the guide recess into the mouth and retention regions.

Preferably, the flexible member includes a circumferential slot for mounting the flexible member to the surface of the appliance. The flexible member may have the appearance of a grommet such that, when fitted, 3 an enlarged head protrudes to one side of the surface on which the member is mounted and an enlarged body extends to the other side of the surface, said member being fixed in position with regard to the surface by virtue of a neck region joining the head to the body. The neck region is preferably defined by the circumferential slot. Preferably, the head defines a main extent of the mouth region of the recess and the body defines a main extent of the retention region.

Preferably, in use, when the door of the appliance is in the closed position and it is desired to open the door, the head of the striker mechanism is arranged to deflect said rigid member in a second direction and, once said head has withdrawn toward the mouth region of the guide recess by a predetermined degree, said rigid member is arranged to return under action of the resilient nature of the flexible member towards it's original position and aid passage of the head from the retention region to the mouth region.

In order to extricate the head of the striker mechanism from the catch, it is necessary to pull the head using a certain degree of force to overcome the resilient nature of the flexible member, which, when the door is in it's closed position, will tend to keep the head of the striker in the retention region of the guide recess.

Preferably, a plurality of said rigid members are provided within the guide recess of the catch. Said plurality of rigid members may be provided opposing one another across the guide recess.

4 Said plurality of rigid members may comprise parts of a split washer. By split washer, it is understood that this means a washer which is manufactured as a single piece, but which may be split along one or more fault 5 lines to provide a multi-piece structure.

Said rigid member or members may comprise any rigid material such as a hardened steel, a plastic or ceramic material.

Preferably, said flexible member comprises a silicone moulding.

Preferably, the body of the flexible member is tapered to assist entry of the catch into an aperture formed in the mounting surface of the appliance.

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how embodiments of the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:

Figures 1 and 2 show examples of apertures formed in an appliance chassis within which catches in accordance with the present invention may be housed; Figure 3 shows a cross-sectional view of a first embodiment of a catch in accordance with the present invention; Figure 4 shows a perspective view of a second embodiment of a catch in accordance with the present invention; Figure 5 shows a cross-sectional view of a third embodiment of a catch in accordance with the present invention; and Figure 6 shows an example of a rigid insert forming part of a catch in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

Referring now to Figure 1, there is shown a chassis 1 of an appliance to which a catch in accordance with the present invention may be mounted. The chassis 1 includes an aperture 2 and a silicone door seal 3 which acts to seal the door to the chassis of the appliance and to work is with a striker mechanism of the door to cushion closing of the door.

Figure 2 shows a similar portion 1 of chassis of an appliance and shows a round aperture 4 instead of the 20 rectangular aperture 2 of Figure 1.

Referring now to Figure 3, there is shown a round door catch which may be used in conjunction with the round aperture 4 of the chassis I of Figure 2.

The door catch comprises a flexible member 5 and a pair of rigid members 6 housed within a guide recess 7 of the catch.

The flexible member 5 essentially comprises a head 5a, a body 5b and a neck Sc joining the head 5a to the body 5b. The neck 5c is formed by a circumferentially 6 extending recess or slot. Typically, the flexible member 5 will be a single silicone moulding.

The rigid members 6 act to divide up the guide recess 5 7 into a mouth region 7A and a retention region 7B.

Fitting a door catch such as that shown in Figure 3 to an aperture 4 of Figure 2 is carried out in the same way that a cable grommet may be fitted to a mounting surface.

In other words, the body 5b of the flexible member 5 (which is tapered to assist initial entry into the aperture 4 of chassis 1) is pushed through aperture 4 from the front surface of chassis 1 and those parts of the tapered body which are of larger external circumference than the aperture 4 are compressed and pushed through the aperture 4 formed in the chassis 1 until neck region 5c (which is of a reduced diameter as compared to the widest part of the body 5b and head 5a) is within the aperture 4. At which point, the body 5b is allowed to decompress and reassume it's usual enlarged form. Because there is then a large step difference in adjoining parts of the outer circumference between the neck/body and neck/head, the catch fits snugly in the aperture 4.

Considering now the rigid members 6,these may in fact comprise opposing halves of a split washer 8 of the type shown in plan view in Figure 6. Whilst Figure 6 shows the two parts joined to one another, it will be appreciated that either prior to or subsequent to manufacture of the door catch itself (which involves moulding the flexible member 5 around the rigid members 6), the washer 8 is split along the fault line 9 so as to thereby form two discrete rigid members 6.

7 The rigid members 6 are arranged such that during compression of the body portion 5b of the catch, when fitting the catch to a chassis 1, the two rigid members do not obstruct catch fitment.

operation of the door catch of Figure 3 will now be described.

In Figure 3, there is shown a striker 12, that striker is associated with a door of the enclosure (not shown) and the catch is arranged such that as the door is brought towards a shut position, a head 13 of striker 12 enters the mouth region 7a or the guide recess 7 along a central axis of the guide recess 7 such that the head 13 contacts with the inwardly protruding portions of the rigid members 6. As the striker mechanism 12 enters further into the guide recess 7, the two rigid members 6 are deflected by the head 13 and effectively pivot about their embedded portions. Once the head 13 has passed a critical point so that it's widest point has passed the inner points 6a of the rigid members 6, the rigid member 6 will then be allowed to spring back towards their original un-deflected positions and trap the head 13 within the retention region 7B to therefore hinder withdrawal of the head 13 from the catch. Also, as the head 13 is positively drawn in by the springing back of the rigid members 6, the door is securely shut and sealed to the enclosure.

Opening of the door proceeds in opposite manner to the closing method already described. Suffice to say that in order to overcome the resilient nature of the material which comprises the flexible member 5, sufficient opening 8 force needs to be exerted to pull the head 13 back out of the guide recess 7. When pulling the head 13 out of the retention region 7B of the guide recess 7, the, rigid members 6 will at first resist such movement and will be deflected so as to pivot about their embedded ends in an opposite manner to the way in which they pivoted during the closing operation. Again, once the head 13 has moved passed the critical point 6A of the rigid members 6, the rigid members 6 may then return under spring action toward their original positions and r emoval of the head 13 of the striker mechanism 12 from the guide recess 7 is thereby facilitated.

Figures 4 and 5 show alternative formations of the door catch which all utilise the same principles as described in relation to Figure 3.

In Figure 4, there is shown a rectangular mounting catch having a pair of rigid members 6 located within guide recess 7.

Figure 5 shows a variation on the Figure 3 type arrangement and includes a rear undercut portion 14 which, in use, gives a greater tolerance for flexibility during entry of the striker into the retention region of the guide recess 7.

It will be appreciated that whilst a chassis mounting option with striker mounted on a door has been discussed, the catch may just as easily be door mounted with the striker being mounted on the chassis. Also, the term door is intended to cover other "opening" items such as windows, lids etc.

9 Advantages of the catch reside in it's simple construction and installation, the design is naturally noise deadening and cushions impact, there is less chance of the door bouncing open, the catch has a minimum of parts, all parts are thermally stable and embodiments may be colour co-ordinated with the appliance on which they are mounted.

The reader's attention is directed to all papers and documents which are filed concurrently with or previous to this specification in connection with this application and which are open to public inspection with this specification, and the contents of all such papers and documents are incorporated herein by reference.

All of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), and/or all of the steps of any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where at least some of such features and/or steps are mutually exclusive.

Each feature disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent or similar purpose, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

The invention is' not restricted to the details of the I foregoing embodiment (s). The invention extend to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract and drawings), or to any novel one, or any novel combination, of the steps of any method or process so 5 disclosed.

Claims

1. A catch for use on an appliance comprising an enclosure with an openable door, the catch comprising a flexible member arranged for mounting to a surface of the appliance, said flexible member having a guide recess for cooperating with a striker mechanism, the guide recess including at least one relatively rigid member housed within it, the catch being arranged, in use, such that when said door is moved toward a closed position, a head of the striker mechanism is received within the 'guide recess and acts to deflect said rigid member in a first direction from an original position and, once said head has entered a predetermined distance into the guide recess, the said rigid member is arranged to return under action of the resilient nature of the flexible member towards it's original position to aid closure of the door and to resist removal of the head of the striker mechanism from the catch.

2. A catch according to claim 1, wherein the guide recess has a mouth region to one side of the rigid member or members and a retention region to the other side of the rigid member or members, the mouth region being arranged to first receive the head of the striker within it when closing the door and the retention region being arranged to latch the head in position once the door has closed.

3. A catch according to claims 2, wherein the flexible member includes a circumferential slot for mounting the flexible member to the surface of the appliance.

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4 A catch according to claim 3, in which the flexible member comprises an enlarged head which, when the device is fitted to the mounting surface, protrudes to one side of that surface and an enlarged body which, when the device is fitted to the mounting surface, extends to the other side of that surface, said member being located in position with regard to the surface by virtue of a neck region which joins the head to the body.

5. A catch according to claim 4, wherein the neck region is defined by the circumferential slot.

6. A catch according to any of claims 4 or 5, wherein the head defines the mouth region of the recess and the body defines the main extent of the retention region.

7. A catch according to any of claims 2 to 6, wherein, in use, when it is desired to open the door from the closed position, the head of the striker mechanism is arranged to deflect said rigid member or members in a second direction and, once said head has withdrawn toward the mouth region of the guide recess by a predetermined degree, said rigid member is arranged to return under action of the resilient nature of the flexible member towards it's original position and aid passage of the head -from the retention region to the mouth region.

8. A catch according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said rigid member or members include a first portion which is embedded within the material of the flexible member and a second portion which protrudes beyond the material of the flexible member so as to extend 13 inwardly into the guide recess and divide the guide recess into the mouth and retention regions.

9. A catch according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of said rigid members are provided partially embedded within the material of the flexible member and extending into the guide recess of the catch.

10. A catch according to claim 9, wherein said plurality of rigid members are provided opposing one another across the guide recess.

11. A catch according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a plurality of rigid members are provided, said rigid members being originally formed as a single member.

12. A catch according to claim 11, in which the single member comprises a washer having lines of weakness so as to be divisable into a plurality of parts, each of said plurality of parts forming a single rigid member of the catch.

13. A catch according to any of the preceding claims, in which said rigid member or members comprise hardened steel, plastics or ceramic material.

14. A catch according to any of the preceding claims, in which said flexible member comprises a silicone moulding.

15. A catch according to any of the preceding claims, in which part of the flexible member is tapered to assist entry of the catch into an aperture formed in the mounting surface of the appliance.

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16. A catch substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.