Cooking apparatus

Abstract

A cooking apparatus that is capable of effectively cooling a heat reflecting unit without increasing a temperature thereof, thereby preventing oil dropped onto the heat reflecting unit from being burnt. The cooking apparatus includes a grill unit disposed on a body of the cooking apparatus, a plurality of heating units mounted at sides of an interior of the body while being inclined toward the grill unit, and a heat reflecting unit disposed under the grill unit in the body. The heat reflecting unit includes a pair of partitions disposed in the longitudinal direction thereof while being opposite to the heating units, respectively, such that an interior of the heat reflecting unit is partitioned into a pair of side channels and a central channel by the partitions. The cooking apparatus further comprises cooling fans mounted in front of the side channels, respectively, to cool the heat reflecting unit.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2005-4717, filed on Jan. 18, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a cooking apparatus, and more particularly, to a cooking apparatus that is capable of effectively cooling a heat reflection unit to reflect heat generated from a heating unit to a grill unit.

2. Description of the Related Art

Generally, a cooking apparatus to cook in a grill-cooking manner including a heating member to directly apply heat to food to be cooked and a grill member on which the food is placed such that the food is exposed to the heating member. In such a cooking apparatus, heat generated from the heating member is directly transmitted to the food to be cooked on the grill member, to thereby cook the food.

When food is directly heated, the food is very tasty. For this reason, people enjoy cooking meat, such as beef, pork or chicken, in a grill-cooking manner.

In order to cook meat, such as beef, pork or chicken, in a grill-cooking manner, appropriate sized pieces of meat marinated in sauce made of various seasonings are placed on the grill member. When the pieces of meat marinated in sauce are heated by heat transmitted from the heating member, the sauce applied to the pieces of meat or oil of the meat itself falls.

Also, the heating member is not disposed directly under the grill member to prevent the heating member from being contaminated by oil and sauce dropped from the food. As a result, heat from the heating member is not effectively transmitted to the food placed on the grill member, and therefore, heat efficiency is lowered.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a new type of cooking apparatus has been proposed, which is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-71023, assigned to the assignee of the present application. The proposed cooking apparatus includes a grill member disposed on a body, a pair of heating members mounted at sides of the body under the grill member while being inclined, and a heat reflecting member disposed directly under the grill member, whereby some of the heat generated from the heating members is transmitted directly to the grill member, and the remainder of the heat is reflected by the heat reflecting member and then transmitted to the grill member so as to effectively cook the food in a grill-cooking manner.

In the proposed cooking apparatus, oil collection grooves are provided at the upper surface of the heat reflecting member to collect oil and sauce (hereinafter, referred to as “oil”) dropped from the food being cooked on the grill member, and a cooling fan is mounted in the heat reflecting member to prevent oil on the heat reflecting member from being burnt.

In the conventional cooking apparatus, however, the heat reflecting member is cooled only by a single cooling fan, and a channel to guide cooling air is not provided in the heat reflecting member. As a result, the heat reflecting member is not effectively cooled.

Both sides of the heat reflecting member are positioned closer to the heating member than the center of the heating reflecting member. As a result, temperature is locally increased at the heat reflecting member, and therefore, oil dropped onto both sides of the heat reflecting member may be burnt into smoke.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a cooking apparatus capable of effectively cooling a heat reflecting unit without increasing a temperature thereof, thereby preventing oil dropped onto the heat reflecting unit from being burnt.

Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

The foregoing and/or other aspects of the present invention are achieved by providing a cooking apparatus including a body, a grill unit disposed on the body, a plurality of heating units mounted at sides of an interior of the body, facing the grill unit, and a heat reflecting unit disposed under the grill unit in the body, to reflect heat generated from the heating units to the grill unit, wherein the heat reflecting unit has a pair of cooling fans mounted therein to enable air to flow along side surfaces thereof adjacent to the respective heating units.

The heat reflecting unit includes two side plates and a rear plate, a front part having a predetermined space formed therein, and a heat reflecting plate including a pair of first reflecting surfaces extending from upper ends of the side plates while being inclined downward, respectively, and a pair of second reflecting surfaces extending from lower ends of the first reflecting surfaces while being inclined upward, respectively, until the upper ends of the second reflecting surfaces meet each other, and wherein the cooling fans are disposed to forcibly blow air toward the respective first reflecting surfaces.

The heat reflecting unit further includes a pair of partitions to partition the first reflecting surfaces from the second reflecting surfaces, respectively, and two side channels to allow air forcibly blown by the respective cooling fans to flow from a front to a rear of the heat reflecting unit along the sides thereof, respectively, and a central channel to allow the air to flow from the rear to the front of the heat reflecting unit along a center thereof.

Each of the cooling fans is mounted in a fan casing having an inlet port formed at an upper part thereof and an outlet port formed at a rear part thereof, and wherein a front part of the fan casing includes a plurality of suction holes formed at sides of an upper surface thereof, and a plurality of discharge holes formed at a center of the front surface thereof, whereby air is introduced through the upper surface of the front part to cool the heat reflecting plate and then discharged through the front surface of the front part.

The body includes a plurality of communication holes formed at the upper part of the front surface thereof, the communication holes communicating with the suction holes such that air is introduced into the suction holes through the communication holes in a front part of the body.

Each of the cooling fans may be a centrifugal fan. However, the type of fan is not limited hereto, and any suitable type of fan recognized by one skilled in the art may be utilized

The body includes a front opening formed at the front surface thereof, through which the heat reflecting unit is released from/mounted into the body in a sliding fashion, and wherein a bottom of the body corresponding to the front part of the heat reflecting unit is opened such that air circulated through the interior of the heat reflecting unit is also discharged through the lower part of the front part.

The cooking apparatus further includes recesses formed between the first reflecting surfaces and the second reflecting surfaces, respectively, by the inclined structure of the first reflecting surfaces and the second reflecting surfaces, the recesses serve as oil collection parts to collect oil dropped from food placed on the grill unit.

It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a cooking apparatus including a body, a grill unit disposed on the body, a plurality of heating units mounted at sides of an interior of the body while being inclined toward the grill unit, and a heat reflecting unit disposed under the grill unit in the body, wherein the heat reflecting unit includes a pair of partitions disposed in a longitudinal direction thereof while being opposite to the heating units, respectively, such that an interior of the heat reflecting unit is partitioned into a pair of side channels and a central channel by the partitions, and the cooking apparatus further includes cooling fans mounted in front of the side channels, respectively, to cool the heat reflecting unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a cooking apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an assembled perspective view of the cooking apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 1, illustrating each pair of cooling fans and partitioning plates mounted to a heat reflecting unit; and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 2, illustrating the rear surface of the heat reflecting unit partitioned into two side channels and a central channel by the pair of partitioning plates.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below to explain the present invention by referring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a cooking apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an assembled perspective view of the cooking apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the cooking apparatus comprises a body 10 formed in the shape of a box and having an upper opening 11 and a front opening 12, a plurality of heating units 30 mounted at sides of the body 10 to generate heat necessary to cook food, a grill unit 20 disposed on the body 10 to allow the food to be placed thereon, and a heat reflecting unit 40 disposed under the grill unit 20 in the body 10 to reflect radiant heat emitted from the heating units 30 to the grill unit 20.

The heating units 30 are disposed at sides of an interior of the body 10 out of the upper opening 11 in a horizontal direction (i.e., front-to-back direction) such that oil dropped from the food placed on the grill unit 20 is not attached to the heating units 30, and the heating units 30 are inclined toward the grill unit 20 to effectively transmit heat to the food.

The grill unit 20 includes a pair of water buckets 21 spaced apart from each other such that the water buckets 21 are located on seats 13 respectively provided at sides of an upper surface of the body 10, respectively, and configured to store water therein, and a plurality of grill pipes 22, each grill pipe having ends connected with the water buckets 21, respectively, such that the grill pipes 22 are filled with water.

The heat reflecting unit 40 includes two side plates 41 and a rear plate 42, a front part 43 having a predetermined space formed therein, and a heat reflecting plate 44 defined by the side plates 41, the rear plate 42 and the front part 43.

The heat reflecting plate 44 includes a pair of first reflecting surfaces 44a extending from upper ends of the side plates 41 while being inclined downward, respectively, and a pair of second reflecting surfaces 44b extending from lower ends of the first reflecting surfaces 44a while being inclined upward, respectively, until the upper ends of the second reflecting surfaces 44b meet each other. As a result, the heat reflecting plate 44 is of a shape of a “W”.

Specifically, each first reflecting surface 44a is inclined downward from the lower end of the corresponding heating unit 30, and each second reflecting surface 44b is inclined upward from the lower end of the corresponding first reflecting surface 44a until each second reflecting surface 44b reaches a middle position between the heating unit 30, so as to reflect heat generated from the heating units 30 to the grill unit 20.

Also, recesses between the first reflecting surfaces 44a and the second reflecting surfaces 44b facing the first reflecting surfaces 44a are used as oil collection parts 45 to collect oil dropped from the food placed on the grill unit 20 onto the first and second reflecting surfaces 44a and 44b.

In order to prevent a temperature of the heat reflecting unit 40 from being increased above a predetermined level due to heat transmitted from the heating units 30, and thus, to prevent oil dropped onto the heat reflecting unit 44 from being burnt, a pair of cooling fans 50 are mounted in the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 while being located in fan casings 51, respectively, and a pair of partitions 60 are disposed vertically at the lower surface of the heat reflecting plate 44 in the longitudinal direction of the heat reflecting unit 40 (see FIG. 4).

In order to introduce air outside the body 10 to the cooling fans 50 mounted in the heat reflecting unit 40, a plurality of communication holes 55 are formed at the upper part of the front surface and the front part of the upper surface of the body 10, and a plurality of suction holes 56 are provided at sides of the upper surface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 facing the respective cooling fans 50.

Also, a plurality of discharge holes 57 are formed at the front surface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40, to discharge air forcibly moved at the rear surface of the heat reflecting unit 40 by the cooling fans 50, to cool the heat reflecting unit 40 of the body 10.

Consequently, external air is introduced to the upper surface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 through the front and upper parts of the body 10 to cool the heat reflecting unit 40, and then discharged through the front surface of the front part 43.

In order to quickly discharge air circulated through the heat reflecting unit 40, and to prevent air circulated through the heat reflecting unit 40 from being reintroduced to the cooling fans 50, the bottom 14 of the body 10 corresponding to the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 is opened, and therefore, air circulated through the interior of the heat reflecting unit 40 is also discharged through the lower part of the front part 43.

In order to extend/retract the heat reflecting unit 40 from/into the body 10 through the front opening 12 in the horizontal direction such that the heat reflecting unit 40 is released from/mounted in the body 10, a grip 46 is formed at the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 while being protruded frontward.

Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 2, when a user holds the grip 46 of the heat reflecting unit 40 and pushes the heat reflecting unit 40 into the body 10 through the front opening 12 in a sliding fashion, the heat reflecting unit 40 is easily mounted in the body 10. In this state, the grill unit 30 is placed to the upper surface of the body 10 such that food is cooked in a grill-cooking manner.

The heat reflecting unit cooling structure will be described hereinafter with reference to FIG. 3, which is a sectional view taken along the line III-III of FIG. 1, and FIG. 4, which is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV of FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the pair of cooling fans 50 are mounted in the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 while being surrounded by the fan casings 51, respectively. Each fan casing 51 comprising an inlet port 51a formed at the upper part thereof and an outlet port 51b formed at rear part thereof. Each cooling fan 50 may be of a centrifugal fan, which suctions air through the upper part of each fan casing 51 and discharges air through the rear part of each fan casing 51.

The pair of partitions 60, which are disposed vertically at the lower surface of the heat reflecting plate 44, extend along the lines at which the first reflecting surfaces 44a meet the corresponding second reflecting surfaces 44b. The rear ends of the partitions 60 are spaced apart from the rear plate 42 of the heat reflecting unit 40.

At the lower surface of the heat reflecting plate 44 are formed a pair of side channels 61 and a central channel 62, which communicate with one another at the rear end of the heat reflecting plate 44, by the partitions 60. Each fan casing 51, in which the corresponding cooling fan 50 is mounted, is disposed in front of the corresponding side channel 61 while the outlet port 51b faces the corresponding side channel 61.

Consequently, air forcibly blown by the respective cooling fans 50 and having flowed along the side channels 61 meet at the rear end of the heat reflecting plate 44, where a flow direction of the air is changed, and the air then flows along the central channel 62.

Here, the cooling fans 50 may be designed such that the cooling fans 50 are automatically operated or stopped based on whether the cooking apparatus is operated or not. Alternatively, temperature sensors 70 may be attached to the lower surface of the heat reflecting plate 44 such that the cooling fans 50 are automatically operated when the temperature of the heat reflecting plate 44 increases to a level high enough to burn oil on the heat reflecting plate 44 and the cooling fans 50 are automatically stopped when the temperature of the heat reflecting plate 44 decreases to a level low enough not to burn oil on the heat reflecting plate 44.

When the user puts food to be cooked in a grill-cooking manner on the grill pipes 22 and operates the heating units 30 and the cooling fans 50, to cook the food using the cooking apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, some of the heat generated from the heating units 30 is directly transmitted to the food, and the remainder of the heat is reflected to the food by the first reflecting surfaces 44a and the second reflecting surfaces 44b, to thereby cook the food. While the food is cooked as described above, oil drops from the food onto the first reflecting surfaces 44a and the second reflecting surfaces 44b, and is then collected in the oil collection parts 45.

At this time, external air is introduced into the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40 through the communication holes 55 formed at the upper part of the front surface and the front part of the upper surface of the body 10 and the suction holes 56 provided at sides of the upper surface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40. The introduced air passes through the respective fan casings 51, and then flows to the rear of the heat reflecting unit 40 along the side channels 61 to cool the respective first reflecting surfaces 44a of the heat reflecting plate 44 adjacent to the respective heating units 30.

The air having passed through the respective side channels 61 is gathered at the rear end of the heat reflecting unit 40, where the flow direction of the air is changed, and then flows forward along the central channel 62 to cool the second reflecting surfaces 44b of the heat reflecting plate 44.

Some of the air having passed through the central channel 62 is discharged out of the body 10 through the discharge holes 57 formed at the front surface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40, and the remainder of the air is discharged out of the body 10 through the lower part of the front part 43.

External air continuously circulates in the heat reflecting unit 40 along the above-mentioned channels to cool the heat reflecting unit 40.

The communication holes 55 provided at the body 10 to introduce external air are spaced an appropriate distance from the discharge holes 57 provided at the front surface of the heat reflecting unit 40 to discharge circulated air out of the body 10. Consequently, air discharged through the discharge holes 57 is not reintroduced through the communication holes 55. Also, the inlet ports 51a of the fan casings 51 are close to the suction holes 56 provided at the upper surface of the front part 43 of the heat reflecting unit 40, and therefore, air having flowed from the central channel 62 to the front part 43 is not reintroduced to the cooling fan 50.

The external air flows along both sides of the heat reflecting unit 40 and then flows along the center of the heat reflecting unit 40 by the cooling fans 50 and the partitions 60. As a result, a sufficient amount of air is uniformly supplied to the entire surface of the heat reflecting unit 40, and therefore, the heat reflecting unit 40 is effectively cooled.

Especially, temperature of the first reflecting surfaces 44a of the heat reflecting unit 40 adjacent to the heating units 30 may be locally increased to a higher level than that of the second reflecting surfaces 44b of the heat reflecting unit 40 away from the heating units 30. However, external air flows along the first reflecting surfaces 44a, and then flows along the second reflecting surfaces 44b. Consequently, temperature of the first reflecting surfaces 44a is prevented from locally increasing, and therefore, oil is prevented from being burnt due to the local increase of temperature at the first reflecting surfaces 44a.

As apparent from the above description, a pair of partitions are disposed in the heat reflecting unit in the longitudinal direction thereof to partition the interior of the heat reflecting unit into a pair of side channels and a central channel, and the cooling fans are mounted in front of the side channels, respectively. As a result, the heat reflecting unit is effectively cooled without increasing the temperature thereof, and therefore, oil dropped onto the heat reflecting unit is prevented from being burnt. Consequently, the present invention has the effect of cooking food in a pleasant state and quickly cleaning the heat reflecting unit.

Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in this embodiment without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A cooking apparatus comprising:

a body;

a grill unit disposed on the body;

a plurality of heating units mounted at sides of an interior of the body, facing the grill unit; and

a heat reflecting unit disposed under the grill unit in the body, to reflect heat generated from the heating units to the grill unit, wherein

the heat reflecting unit comprises a pair of cooling fans mounted therein to enable air to flow along the side surfaces thereof adjacent to the respective heating units.

2. The cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat reflecting unit comprises:

side plates and a rear plate;

a front part having a predetermined space formed therein; and

a heat reflecting plate comprising a pair of first reflecting surfaces extending from upper ends of the side plates while being inclined downward, respectively, and a pair of second reflecting surfaces extending from lower ends of the first reflecting surfaces while being inclined upward, respectively, until the upper ends of the second reflecting surfaces meet each other, and wherein

the cooling fans are disposed to forcibly blow air toward the respective first reflecting surfaces.

3. The cooking apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the heat reflecting unit further comprises:

a pair of partitions to partition the first reflecting surfaces from the second reflecting surfaces, respectively, and wherein

the heat reflecting unit comprises two side channels to allow air forcibly blown by the respective cooling fans to flow from a front to a rear of the heat reflecting unit along sides thereof, respectively, and a central channel to allow the air to flow from the rear to the front of the heat reflecting unit along a center thereof.

4. The cooking apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

a plurality of fan casings, wherein each of the cooling fans is mounted in a respective fan casing; and

each fan casing comprising an inlet port formed at an upper part thereof and an outlet port formed at a rear part thereof, and wherein the front part includes a plurality of suction holes formed at both sides of the upper surface thereof, and a plurality of discharge holes formed at a center of the front surface thereof, wherein air is introduced through the upper surface of the front part, to cool the heat reflecting plate and the air is then discharged through the front surface of the front part.

5. The cooking apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the body comprises a plurality of communication holes formed at the upper part of the front surface thereof, and the communication holes communicating with the suction holes such that the air is introduced into the suction holes through the communication holes in front of the body.

6. The cooking apparatus according to claim 4, wherein each of the cooling fans is of a centrifugal fan.

7. The cooking apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the body comprises a front opening formed at the front surface thereof, through which the heat reflecting unit is slidably released from/mounted into the body, and wherein a bottom of the body corresponding to the front part of the heat reflecting unit, is opened such that air circulated through an interior of the heat reflecting unit is discharged through a lower part of the front part.

8. The cooking apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising:

recesses formed between the first reflecting surfaces and the second reflecting surfaces, respectively, by the inclined structure of the first reflecting surfaces and the second reflecting surfaces, the recesses serving as oil collection parts to collect oil dropped from food placed on the grill unit.

9. A cooking apparatus comprising:

a body;

a grill unit disposed on the body;

a plurality of heating units mounted at sides of an interior of the body while being inclined toward the grill unit;

a heat reflecting unit disposed under the grill unit in the body, wherein

the heat reflecting unit comprises a pair of partitions disposed in the longitudinal direction thereof while being opposite to the heating units, respectively, such that an interior of the heat reflecting unit is partitioned into a pair of side channels and a central channel by the partitions; and

cooling fans mounted in front of the side channels, respectively, to cool the heat reflecting unit.

10. The cooking apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the heat reflecting unit has a plurality of suction holes, which are provided above the cooling fans, and the heat reflecting unit has a plurality of discharge holes formed at the center of the front surface thereof.

11. The cooking apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising:

oil collection parts provided at the sides of the upper surface of the heat reflecting unit to collect oil dropped from food placed on the grill unit.

12. The cooking apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: temperature sensors attached at a lower surface of the heat reflecting unit to sense the temperature of the heat reflecting unit, wherein the cooling fans automatically operate when the temperature of the heat reflecting unit increases above the predetermined level.

13. The cooking apparatus of claim 9, further comprising: temperature sensors attached at a lower surface of the heat reflecting unit to sense the temperature of the heat reflecting unit, wherein the cooling fans automatically operate when the temperature of the heat reflecting unit increases above the predetermined level.