Door for a household microwave appliance

Abstract

A door for a household microwave appliance includes a perforated electrically conductive lattice configured to cover a viewing opening of the door and having a plurality of microholes arranged in a regular pattern. The microholes have a rectangular basic shape with rounded corners.

Claims

1. A door for a household microwave appliance, said door comprising a perforated electrically conductive lattice configured to cover a viewing opening of the door and including a plurality of microholes arranged in a regular pattern, said microholes having a rectangular basic shape with rounded corners.

2. The door of claim 1, wherein the lattice is a metal lattice.

3. The door of claim 1, wherein the basic shape of the microholes is square.

4. The door of claim 1, further comprising a transparent door pane, said lattice being configured as a layer applied to the transparent door pane.

5. The door of claim 1, wherein the rounded corners have a predefined radius in a range between 7 micrometers and 15 micrometers.

6. The door of claim 1, wherein the lattice is configured as a layer having a cumulative layer thickness in a range between 2 micrometers and 5 micrometers.

7. The door of claim 1, wherein the lattice is exactly one lattice in the form of a layer having a layer thickness in a range between 2.5 micrometers and 5 micrometers.

8. The door of claim 7, wherein the one lattice includes a plurality of lattices arranged one behind the other on the door in a front view, said plurality of lattices having a cumulative layer thickness in a range between 2 micrometers and 5 micrometers.

9. The door of claim 1, wherein the microholes are arranged in a rectangular matrix shape.

10. The door of claim 1, wherein the lattice has strip regions to delimit the microholes, said strip regions having a width which is at least three times as great as a thickness of the lattice.

11. The door of claim 1, wherein the lattice has strip regions to delimit the microholes, said strip regions having a width which is at least four times as great as a thickness of the lattice.

12. The door of claim 1, wherein adjacent microholes define a pitch in a range between 50 micrometers and 100 micrometers.

13. The door of claim 1, wherein the microholes have an edge length between 30 micrometers and 100 micrometers.

14. The door of claim 1, wherein the microholes have an edge length between 40 micrometers and 75 micrometers.

15. The door of claim 1, wherein the household microwave appliance is a dedicated microwave appliance or a microwave combination appliance.

16. The door of claim 1, wherein the household microwave appliance is an oven with microwave functionality.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The above-described properties, features and advantages of this invention and the manner in which these are achieved will become clearer and more readily understandable in connection with the following schematic description of an exemplary embodiment, which will be described in further detail making reference to the drawings.

(2) FIG. 1 shows a front view of a cutout of a door according to the invention; and

(3) FIG. 2 shows a front view of an enlarged cutout of the lattice of the door from FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

(4) FIG. 1 shows a front view of a cutout of a door 1 according to the invention of a microwave appliance G with a viewing window 2 in the form of e.g. a transparent plastic or glass pane 3, which is coated on a surface with a perforated metal lattice 4 in the form of a layer. The metal lattice 4 may consist of aluminum or copper, for example.

(5) For its perforation, the metal lattice 4 has microholes 5 arranged in a regular square matrix pattern. The microholes 5 have a square basic shape with rounded corners.

(6) The corners have a predefined radius R, as shown in FIG. 2. Here, the radius R amounts to between 7 micrometers and 15 micrometers, while an edge length K of the microholes 5 in particular may lie between 40 micrometers and 75 micrometers. A pitch L of adjacent microholes in particular lies between 50 micrometers and 100 micrometers.

(7) In addition, a width W1, W2 of vertical strip regions 6 and horizontal strip regions 7 of the metal lattice 4 which delimit the microholes 5 is in each case at least three times, in particular four times as great as a layer thickness (extending perpendicular to the sheet plane) of the metal lattice 4, which lies between 2.5 micrometers and 5 micrometers. Here, the widths are the same, but in principle may also be different.

(8) In particular, the following variants of the metal lattice 4 can be used:

(9) TABLE-US-00001 Variant 1 2 3 4 5 Pitch L [μm] 100 100 65 65 50 Width W [μm] 25 35 20 15 10 Radius R [μm] 15 15 10 10 7 Metal Al Al Cu Cu Cu Layer thickness [μm] 3 3 5 5 2.5 Transparency [%] 54.6 40.3 45.9 57.1 62.5 Permeability for microwaves [dB] −59.6 −63.9 −68.3 −64.5 −63.8 at 2.45 GHz

(10) All variants have a transparency (determined as a relationship of a radiated light current compared to a door without lattice 4) of more than 40%, which is considerably better than the 28% achieved by the metal lattices most commonly used. The best shielding of microwave radiation is given by variant 3.

(11) The present invention is of course not restricted to the exemplary embodiment shown.

(12) In general, “a”, “an”, etc. can be understood as singular or plural, in particular in the sense of “at least one” or “one or more”, etc., provided this is not explicitly excluded, e.g. by the expression “exactly one”, etc.

(13) A numerical value can also include the given value as a typical tolerance range, provided this is not explicitly excluded.