Abstract: An oven door latching system has a latch bolt with a latch arm at one end and its other end pivotably connected to a lever through a resilient connection. The lever in turn is pivotably coupled to a positioning device which has a positioning element which is reciprocatable between spaced positions. When the positioning element is moved, pivotal motion is imparted to the other end of the lever, and the connection enables pivotal motion of the latch bolt. A solenoid acts on the positioning device to move the positioning element between its stable positions and produces concurrent motion of the lever to enable movement of the bolt between an oven door latching position and an oven door unlatching position.

Abstract: A latch for oven doors and the like includes a support, and a latch assembly movable on the support between latching and unlatching positions having a handle, a latching arm and a projecting arm. The handle is operative to move the latch arm between latching and unlatching positions. Also included are a locking pawl having an abutment thereon engagable by the projecting arm to block its movement from latching to unlatching position, a thermal element operatively connected to the locking pawl and responsive to elevated temperatures to move the pawl from a first position wherein the abutment is removed from the path of movement of the projecting arm from latching position to unlatching posiiton and to a second position wherein the abutment is disposed in the path of movement of the projecting arm to block its movement into unlatching position.