Cooking plate and a procedure for mounting a cooking plate

Abstract

A cooking plate mountable into an opening of a resting surface, in particular of a surface of a kitchen worktop, wherein the cooking plate comprises: a component box for housing functional components of the cooking plate (1), which has a base and side walls, wherein at least one of the side walls is connected to a resting fin that can rest on the resting surface in a mounted state of the cooking plate in the opening, and a positioning device with at least a limiter limiting the minimum distance from the wall to an opening edge in the mounted state of the cooking plate in the opening, where the limiter is adjustable in at least two fixed positions for limiting the minimum distance from the side wall of the component box to the edge of the opening.

Claims

1-12. (canceled)

13. A cooking plate mountable into an opening of a resting surface, said cooking plate comprising: a functional component; a component box configured to house the functional component and including a base and side walls, at least one of the side walls being connected to a resting fin capable of resting on the resting surface in a mounted state of the cooking plate in the opening; and a positioning device including a limiter limiting a minimum distance from the at least one of the side walls of the component box to an opening edge in the mounted state of the cooking plate in the opening, said limiter being adjustable in at least two fixed positions for limiting the minimum distance from the at least one of the side walls of the component box to the opening edge of the opening.

14. The cooking plate of claim 13, constructed for mounting into an opening of a surface of a kitchen worktop.

15. The cooking plate of claim 13, wherein the limiter is arranged on the resting fin.

16. The cooking plate of claim 13, wherein the positioning device includes a further limiter limiting a minimum distance from another one of the side walls of the component box to an opening edge of the opening.

17. The cooking plate of claim 13, wherein the component box and the resting fin are made of a sheet material.

18. The cooking plate of claim 13, wherein the component box and the resting fin are made in one piece.

19. The cooking plate of claim 13, wherein the limiter is made on the resting fin.

20. The cooking plate of claim 13, wherein the limiter is formed by a flange arranged at a perimeter of the resting fin and foldable downwards according to a direction of installation of the cooking plate, thereby fixing the minimum distance to the at least one of the side walls of the component box.

21. The cooking plate of claim 13, wherein the limiter is formed by an inner die-cutting point of the resting fin and foldable downwards according to a direction of installation of the cooking plate, thereby fixing the minimum distance to the at least one of the side walls of the component box.

22. The cooking plate of claim 13, wherein the limiter is made by an additional piece that is moveable and capable of being blocked, thereby fixing the minimum distance to the at least one of the side walls of the component box.

23. The cooking plate of claim 13, further comprising a top sheet mounted onto the component box and covering the resting fin, said top sheet configured to rest at least in part directly on the resting surface.

24. The cooking plate of claim 23, wherein the limiter is fixed to a lower face of the top sheet.

25. A process of installing a cooking plate into an opening of a resting surface, said process comprising: determining a distance between opposite opening edges of the opening; adjusting a limiter at a desired distance to limit a minimum distance from a side wall of a component box of the cooking plate to a respective one of the opening edges; and mounting the cooking plate into the opening.

26. The process of claim 25, further comprising arranging the limiter on a resting fin of the side wall.

27. The process of claim 26, wherein the limiter is formed by a flange arranged at a perimeter of the resting fin and is foldable downwards according to a direction of installation of the cooking plate, thereby fixing the minimum distance to the side wall of the component box.

28. The process of claim 25, wherein the limiter is formed from an inner die-cutting point of the resting fin and foldable downwards according to a direction of installation of the cooking plate, thereby fixing the minimum distance to the side wall of the component box.

29. The process of claim 25, wherein the limiter is made by an additional piece that is moveable and capable of being blocked, thereby fixing the minimum distance to the side wall of the component box.

30. The process of claim 26, further comprising mounting a top sheet onto the component box and covering the resting fin such that the top sheet rests at least in part directly on the resting surface.

31. The process of claim 30, further comprising fixing the limiter to a lower face of the top sheet.

Description

[0019] The invention is described in the following taking the following figures as a reference:

[0020] FIG. 1 shows a top perspective view of a kitchen plate in a pre-installation position over the kitchen worktop,

[0021] FIG. 1a shows a side view of a plate according to the invention facing an insertion opening of a kitchen worktop,

[0022] FIG. 1b shows a side view of a plate according to the invention facing an insertion opening of a kitchen worktop,

[0023] FIG. 2a a detail of a resting fin with a configuration of the positioning element having three limiters at a different distance from the side of the base,

[0024] FIG. 2b the resting fin of FIG. 2a with one of the limiters of the positioning element folded to limit the distance from the plate to the opening edge,

[0025] FIG. 3 a view of a cooking plate according to another embodiment of the invention lying over the opening of the kitchen worktop, and

[0026] FIG. 4 a bottom view of a kitchen worktop with a plate according to another embodiment of the invention mounted in the opening.

[0027] FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b show the cooking plate 1 of the invention in a pre-mounted position in the opening 21 over the kitchen worktop 20. The kitchen plate has a component box 11 with a base 12 and side walls 13. Resting fins 14 extend from the top perimeter of the side walls 13 and are provided to rest on the top surface of the kitchen worktop 20. The cooking plate 1 is provided to be installed into an opening 21 having a rectangular perimeter observed from above in the kitchen worktop 20. In this case, a resting fin 14 projects from each side wall 13 and can rest on the surface of the kitchen worktop 20 in its installation position.

[0028] The cooking plate 1 from FIGS. 1a and 1b is the same one and can be installed in kitchen worktops 20 with openings 21 of a different size. The distance between two of the opposite side walls 13 of the box 11 is “L”. In FIG. 1a, the opening 21 has a rectangular shape and a distance “d” between two of its opposite edges 22 being slightly bigger than the distance “L”, a difference amounting to 1 cm to 3 cm. In FIG. 1b, the distance between two of its opposite edges 22 is “D”, significantly bigger than distance “L” and distance “d”. The distance between the other two opposite edges 22 of the openings 21 from FIGS. 1a and 1b are substantially identical and slightly bigger than the distance between the other two side walls 13 of the component box 11. In particular, in FIG. 1a, the surface of the opening 21 is slightly bigger than the section surface of the component box 11 cut by the plane formed by the surface of the kitchen worktop 20 and, in FIG. 1b, the surface of the opening 21 is significantly bigger than the section surface of the component box 11 cut by the plane formed by the surface of the kitchen worktop 20. FIG. 1 shows in a top perspective view the kitchen plate from FIG. 1a with its top sheet 17 with its cooking zones, in a pre-installation position over the opening 21 of the kitchen worktop 20.

[0029] FIGS. 2a and 2b show in a detailed manner one of the resting fins 14 of the kitchen plate 1 having a positioning device 15 formed by three limiters 16 made in the form of die-cutting points inside the surface of the resting fin 14 arranged at a different distance to the side wall 13 of the component box 11. In FIG. 2a, limiters 16 in the form of die-cutting points are not folded. Therefore, virtually the entire resting fin 14 could rest in a plane manner on the surface of the kitchen worktop 20, the side wall 13 being adjacent to the edge 22 of the opening 21. In FIG. 2b, one of the die-cutting points 16 is folded down in the mounting direction of the plate 1. Therefore, when the kitchen plate is installed into the opening 21, the limiter 16 projecting downwards defines a minimum distance from the side wall 13 to the edge 22 of the opening 21. On a side spaced apart from the resting fin 14, there can be other limiters 16 (not shown) being part of the positioning device 15 to define even better the minimum distance from the side wall 13 to the edge 22. Furthermore, on the other side of the component box 11, there can be another resting fin 14 having more limiters 16 being part of the positioning device 15 to define the minimum distance from the opposite side wall 13 to the opposite side wall 13.

[0030] FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the invention in which the limiters 16 of the positioning device 15 are made in a similar manner to those from FIGS. 2a and 2b. In this case, they are arranged on the perimeter of the resting fins 14 and can be folded downwards in the direction of installation of the cooking plate 1. In the figure, two limiters 16 are shown being arranged on one of the resting fins 14 spaced apart from one another to better define the minimum distance from the side wall 13 to the edge 22 of the opening 21. To reduce the distance from the side wall 13 to the edge 22, the limiters 16 can be folded at a distance closer to the side wall 13. As it has been explained in the previous embodiment, on the opposite resting fin 14 (not shown) there can be more limiters 16 than can be folded down to limit the minimum distance.

[0031] FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the invention in which the limiters 16 of the positioning device 15 are made as additional pieces connected to the lower face of the resting fin 14 having relative movement. In the figure, two limiters 16 are shown being arranged on one of the resting fins 14 spaced apart from one another to better define the minimum distance from the side wall 13 to the edge 22 of the opening 21. To reduce or increase the distance from the side wall 13 to the edge 22, the ends of the limiters 16 are displaced and fixed at the desired distance from the side wall 13. As it has been explained in the previous embodiments, on the opposite resting fin 14 (not shown) there can be more limiters 16 identical to these ones or any one from those of the previous embodiments to limit the minimum distance.

[0032] That is to say, any of these types of limiters can be used on the same cooking plate, on the same resting fin or on opposite resting fins. There can be limiters on a resting fin or on the four resting fins, and they can be adjusted having different distances to the side walls in order to place the cooking plate relative to the opening in the most convenient manner for the installer.

[0033] All the installer of the cooking plate 1 needs to do is first measuring the distance “d” or “D” from the edges 22 of the opening 21, afterwards adjusting the limiters 16 at a distance from the side walls 13 of the component box 11, thereby fixing a minimum distance to each of the side walls 13 and, after that, installing the cooking plate 1 into the opening 21. If there is access under the kitchen worktop, the plate could also be installed into the opening to access the limiters afterwards and adjust them conveniently.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

[0034] 1 Cooking plate [0035] 11 Component box [0036] 12 Base [0037] 13 Side walls [0038] 14 Resting fin [0039] 15 Positioning device [0040] 16 Limiter [0041] 17 Top sheet [0042] 20 Resting surface [0043] 21 Opening [0044] 22 Edge