Dishwasher

Abstract

A dishwasher, in particular a free-standing dishwasher or a high-level built-in dishwasher, includes an appliance door and a bottom-side plinth cover which is aligned essentially flush with a front face of the appliance door. The plinth cover has a top wall which faces a lower edge of the appliance door and is spaced from the lower edge of the appliance door to allow for an opening movement of the appliance door across a free movement gap. At least one lighting element is provided to allow illumination of the movement gap between the lower edge of the appliance door and the top wall of the plinth cover.

Claims

1. A dishwasher, comprising: a wash container; a mounting base disposed underneath the wash container and having a front portion; an appliance door having a front face; a support disposed on the front portion of the mounting base, the support having a front face that is proximate to but not flush with the front face of the appliance door; a bottom-side plinth cover mounted on the support, said plinth cover having a front wall aligned essentially flush with the front face of the appliance door, said plinth cover having a top wall which faces a lower edge of the appliance door and is spaced from the lower edge of the appliance door to allow for an opening movement of the appliance door across a free movement gap; and at least one lighting element which extends in a lateral direction of the dishwasher over an entire width of the dishwasher and which is configured to illuminate the movement gap between the lower edge of the appliance door and the top wall of the plinth cover, wherein the lighting element is located in a mounting at a bottom-side of the appliance door behind the front face of the appliance door, wherein the top wall of the plinth cover has a profile formed with a curved trough shape which follows an approximate shape of a pivoting movement of the lower edge of the appliance door, wherein the support has an upper edge which has a curved shape that is complementary and adjacent to the curved trough shape of the top wall of the plinth cover, and wherein the curved trough shape of the top wall of the plinth cover is configured as a reflector which deflects light of the lighting element essentially horizontally outwards through the movement gap, such that the movement gap is uniformly illuminated over the entire width of the dishwasher.

2. The dishwasher of claim 1 constructed in the form of a free-standing dishwasher or a high-level built-in dishwasher.

3. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the lighting element is positioned inside the dishwasher behind the front face of the appliance door.

4. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the lighting element is placed at a height difference above the lower edge of the appliance door.

5. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the lighting element is located in a mounting depth direction by an offset dimension behind the front face of the appliance door.

6. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the lighting element is retained at a rear face of the appliance door, which faces away from the front face of the appliance door.

7. The dishwasher of claim 1, further comprising a fixed housing component, said lighting element being retained independently of the appliance door at the fixed housing component.

8. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the lighting element has a light guide having at least one optical interface into which light of a light source is introducible.

9. The dishwasher of claim 8, wherein the light guide extends in a lateral direction essentially over an entire width of the dishwasher.

10. The dishwasher of claim 9, wherein the light guide has in the lateral direction opposing front faces which have optical interfaces for disposition of light sources, respectively.

11. The dishwasher of claim 1, wherein the lighting element comprises a plurality of light-emitting diodes arranged in a row in the lateral direction of the dishwasher.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

(1) Two exemplary embodiments of the invention are described below with the aid of the accompanying figures, in which

(2) FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a dishwasher realized as a free-standing appliance according to a first exemplary embodiment;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a partial sectional view of a bottom section of the dishwasher;

(4) FIG. 3 shows an individual lighting element of the dishwasher;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a view corresponding to FIG. 2 of a dishwasher according to the second exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

(6) FIG. 1 shows as an exemplary embodiment a dishwasher realized as a free-standing appliance or intended as a high-level built-in appliance. It can also be designed as an integrated appliance or a drawer dishwasher. The dishwasher has an appliance door 1 with which a front loading opening of the wash container 3, indicated only by the dash-dot line, can be closed. The appliance door 1 is hinged to a housing of the dishwasher by a bottom, horizontal pivot axis. In addition, according to FIG. 2, the appliance door 1 is supported at both sides in the usual pivoted manner at lateral hinge brackets 5 fixed to the housing by means of lateral hinge levers.

(7) As is further revealed in FIG. 1, the dishwasher has a bottom plinth cover 19 which is spaced from a lower edge 25 of the appliance door 1 via a free movement gap 23. The gap dimension of the movement gap 23 is designed so that, with a hinged movement of the appliance door 1, the lower edge 25 of the appliance door cannot collide with an opposing top wall 20 of the plinth cover 19. According to FIG. 2, the profile of the top wall 20 of the plinth cover 19 is formed with an approximately curved trough shape. Apart from this top wall 20, the plinth cover 19 has a front wall 22 and a bottom wall 24. In this case the front wall 22 of the plinth cover 19 is oriented approximately flush with a front face 28 of the appliance door 1. The plinth cover 19 is mounted on a support 26 which in turn is located at the front face on a mounting base 13.

(8) The mounting base 13 is provided underneath the wash container 3. Appliance components of the dishwasher, for instance circulating pump or washing liquor pump, are located inside the mounting base 13.

(9) As is further revealed in FIG. 2, the appliance door 1 is constructed with an inner door panel 7 and an outer door panel 9. The outer door panel 9 of the appliance door 1 is covered at the front by a cabinet panel 11 which forms the lower edge 25 of the appliance door 1 in FIG. 2.

(10) As is further revealed in FIG. 2, a lighting element 29 is located behind the cabinet panel 11 of the appliance door 1. The lighting element 29 is placed in a concealed manner behind the front face 28 of the appliance door 1 by an offset dimension a. In addition, the lighting element 29 is permanently attached to the housing by a height difference h above the lower edge 25 of the appliance door, for example mounted on the two lateral hinge brackets 5. As an alternative to this, the lighting element 29 can also be retained on other fixed components of the dishwasher.

(11) The lighting element 29 indicated in FIG. 2 has a U-profile shaped housing extending in the lateral direction y of the appliance, which has a light aperture. A light source 31 is located in the housing. The light source 31 of the lighting element 29 can consist for example of a number of light-emitting diodes which are arranged in a row in the lateral direction y of the appliance.

(12) According to FIG. 2, the trough-shaped, upwards-drawn top wall 20 of the plinth cover 19 is directly illuminated with light by means of the lighting element 29. Here, for uniform illumination of the gap, the lighting element 29 extends in the lateral direction y of the appliance over the entire width of the dishwasher. In this case, the angle of incidence of the light from the lighting element 29 on the top wall 20, and the profile shape of the top wall 20 are designed so that the light is deflected essentially horizontally outwards through the movement gap 23.

(13) In FIG. 3, the lighting element 29 is not formed from a row of light-emitting diodes 31, but the lighting element 29 has a rod-type light guide 33 which has optical interfaces at its lateral front faces 35. Light-emitting diodes 37 as light sources are assigned in each case to the optical interfaces 35 in the light guide 33. The light of said light sources is introduced into the light guide 33 via the optical interfaces 35. Furthermore, the light guide 33 has light exit faces extending in the lateral direction y of the appliance, by which the light can exit downwards in a uniformly distributed manner.

(14) FIG. 4 shows a further exemplary embodiment whose construction is identical to that of FIG. 2. In contrast to FIG. 2, the lighting element 29 is not permanently attached to the housing and mounted on the hinge brackets, but rather to a rear face of the cabinet panel 11 of the appliance door 1. In this case the lighting element is therefore motion-coupled to the appliance door 1.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

(15) 1 Appliance door 3 Wash container 5 Component 7 Inner door panel 9 Outer door panel 11 Cabinet panel 13 Mounting base 19 Plinth cover 20 Top wall 22 Front wall 23 Movement gap 24 Bottom wall 25 Lower edge 28 Front face 29 Lighting element 31 Light source 33 Light guide 35 Optical interface 37 Light source a Offset dimension h Height difference x Mounting depth direction y Lateral direction of the appliance