GLASS-CERAMIC WORKTOP

Abstract

The present invention relates to an advantageously interactive item of furniture and/or appliance comprising: at least one worktop formed from at least one substrate made of a monolithic glazing material and of area larger than 0.7 m.sup.2, said substrate having a lightness L* higher than 10, a light transmission T.sub.L lower than 50%, an opacity indicator higher than 90, and if needs be a haze higher than 15%; at least one heating element; at least one light source, in particular intended to light up one or more zones or one or more elements or displays of the substrate, in particular by projection, this source for example being located plumb with the substrate; and at least one interface for communicating with at least one element of the worktop such as the one or more light sources and/or the one or more heating elements and/or if needs be wirelessly with at least one external element.

Claims

1: An item of furniture and/or appliance, advantageously interactive, comprising: at least one worktop formed from at least one substrate made of a monolithic glazing material and of area larger than 0.7 m.sup.2, said substrate having a lightness L* higher than 10, a light transmission T.sub.L lower than 50%, an opacity indicator higher than 90, and if needs be a haze higher than 15%; at least one heating element; at least one light source, in particular intended to light up one or more zones or one or more elements or displays of the substrate, in particular by projection, this source for example being located plumb with the substrate; and at least one interface for communicating with at least one element of the worktop such as the one or more light sources and/or the one or more heating elements and/or if needs be wirelessly with at least one external element.

2: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the area of the substrate made of a glazing material is larger than 0.9 m.sup.2, especially larger than 1 m.sup.2 and in particular at least 2 m.sup.2, the thickness of said substrate being at least 2 mm, especially at least 2.5 mm, and in particular about 3 to 30 mm, said thickness advantageously being smaller than 15 mm, in particular about 3 to 15 mm and especially from 3 to 10 mm.

3: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the substrate has a flatness lower than 0.1% of the diagonal of the substrate, and preferably lower than 3 mm, especially lower than 2 mm and in particular lower than 1 mm or even of about zero.

4: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the substrate is made of tempered glass or glass-ceramic and preferably is made of glass-ceramic.

5: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the substrate is opaque and/or weakly transmissive and is bulk tinted or colored, this color including white and any color of lightness L* higher than 10, darker colors such as black or dark brown being excluded, and preferably has a lightness L* higher than 15, in particular higher than 30 and/or if needs be a haze higher than 20%, or even higher than 40%, or even higher than 80% and/or a light transmission T.sub.L lower than 32%, and/or an opacity indicator higher than 95 and lower than or equal to 100, the substrate made of a glazing material advantageously having these properties intrinsically, the glazing material forming the substrate advantageously being translucent or opaque.

6: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the substrate or the glazing material contains colorants and/or is equipped with a coating providing it with a hue different from its own.

7: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the item of furniture and/or appliance comprises by way of heating element(s) one or more inductive heating means, the one or more heating elements possibly being located in one or more zones of the substrate or being uniformly distributed under the substrate, for example occupying at least 25% of the area of the substrate, or occupying more than 50%, especially more than 75%, or even more than 85% of the area of the substrate.

8: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the cooking locations on the worktop, plumb with the heating means, and/or other zones and/or elements and/or functions and/or decorations are signaled, on activation and/or permanently, by means of one or more light sources and/or by means of a permanent decoration, made of enamel for example.

9: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that the one or more cooking locations and/or other zones and/or elements and/or functions and/or decorations are signaled and/or revealed by means of at least one light source, on activation of said source, said source being placed above the substrate or on the same side as the visible face of the substrate, i.e. on the side on which the display is to be formed or from which it is intended to be viewed, and allowing a luminous display to be formed via projection onto this face, which then forms a screen, said source in particular being placed under the substrate and allowing a luminous display to be formed via the transmission of light through the worktop.

10: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that the substrate has a light transmission T.sub.L of at least 5%, and the one or more cooking locations and/or other zones and/or elements and/or functions and/or decorations are signaled and/or revealed or by means of at least one light source, on activation of said source, said source being placed under the substrate and being hidden thereby when turned off, said source allowing a luminous display to be formed via transmission through the worktop.

11: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the one or more light sources or other components are activatable via contact with the surface of the worktop and/or with the interface and/or with an external system, or via a movement, especially of the hand.

12: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the item of furniture and/or appliance comprises a plurality of light sources that are placed so that the angle between each source, or between each element transmitting the light to the worktop, and the normal to the worktop is comprised between 5 and 60 and preferably between 30 and 45, in order to minimize the effects of shadows projected by a person using the worktop.

13: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the interface enables wireless communication, in particular with a system external to the worktop, for example allowing heating zones and/or light sources to be activated and/or various functions to be controlled remotely, the external system for example taking the form of a keyboard, a tablet or a touch screen or a cellphone, this system possibly being fixedly mounted or movable, the wireless communication for example being of limited range, for example of range limited to the volume of the room in which the item of furniture and/or appliance is located.

14: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the interface allows various signals initiated via contact or a movement to be transmitted in order to activate various components and/or allow data such as Internet pages, wallpapers or culinary recipes to be downloaded and/or transmitted, these data for example being transmitted to light sources in particular allowing them to be displayed on the surface of the worktop.

15: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the item of furniture and/or appliance comprises one or more interfaces, of the same or different types, allowing one or more elements to be controlled, or for example allowing the activation of the heating zones to be coordinated with the activation of the light sources.

16: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the worktop comprises one or more functional and/or decorative coatings, for example based on enamel or paint or one or more thin films.

17: The item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the worktop is mounted, in particular horizontally, on at least one or more than one supporting element, such as a carcass of a unit or one or more supporting legs, thus forming, with said supporting elements, a table, an optionally unapertured unit, or a counter.

18: A worktop formed from at least one substrate made of a monolithic glazing material and of area larger than 0.7 m.sup.2, said substrate having a lightness L* higher than 10, a light transmission T.sub.L lower than 50%, an opacity indicator higher than 90, and if needs be a haze higher than 15%, this worktop being intended to form part of a multiuse interactive item of furniture or appliance, in particular such as defined in claim 1.

19: The use of a substrate, and in particular of a plate, made of a monolithic glazing material and of area larger than 0.7 m.sup.2, said substrate having a lightness L* higher than 10, a light transmission T.sub.L lower than 50%, an opacity indicator higher than 90, and if needs be a haze higher than 15%, as a multiuse interactive worktop, in particular as claimed in claim 18, if needs be in an item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1.

20: A process for manufacturing an item of furniture and/or appliance as claimed in claim 1 or a worktop as claimed in either of claims 18 and 19, the worktop being formed from at least one glass-ceramic substrate of area larger than 0.7 m.sup.2, in which at least one cycle of ceramitization of a glass plate of area larger than 0.7 m.sup.2 is carried out in order to obtain said substrate, and in which run speed is decreased by at least 25% and preferably by at least 50%, or the length of the ceramitization furnace or the dwell time in said furnace is increased by at least 25% and preferably at least 50%, relative to the optimal or conventional speed, length or dwell time, respectively, used to obtain a glass-ceramic substrate of area smaller than 0.4 m.sup.2.

Description

[0068] Other details and advantageous features will become more apparent below from the description of a nonlimiting embodiment of the invention, given with reference to the appended drawings in which:

[0069] FIG. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of an item of furniture and/or appliance according to the invention;

[0070] FIG. 2 shows a schematic top view of a similar item of furniture and/or appliance (the utensils on the surface and the underlying unit elements are not shown); and

[0071] FIG. 3 shows a schematic side view in which a side panel of the unit (23) has been removed in order to allow certain components of the item of furniture and/or appliance to be seen.

[0072] In this example the item of furniture and/or appliance (1) according to the invention comprises a unit (2) formed from a carcass (4) surmounted by a worktop (5) formed from at least one monolithic glass-ceramic substrate (6) of 2.2 m.sup.2 area. This substrate is for example a translucent white-colored plate of the same type as those sold under the reference KeraWhite by Eurokera, this plate having a smooth upper face and a smooth lower face (this face possibly also being provided with studs) and a thickness of 4 mm, and having a lightness L* of 81.51, a haze of 96.9%, a light transmission T.sub.L of 19.4% and an opacity indicator of 96.9. This substrate is for example obtained by proceeding in the way described in patent application WO9906334 but while decreasing the run speed through the ceramitization furnace by 50%.

[0073] This substrate may if needs be also be colored or equipped with a resin layer on its lower face in order to give the substrate a hue, and for example is equipped with a coat of paint based on a silicone resin giving it a gray hue, the worktop (coated substrate) thus having a lightness L* of 79.45, a haze of 100%, a light transmission T.sub.L of 1.53% and an opacity indicator of 99.94, this coat having been applied to the glass-ceramic substrate after its manufacture.

[0074] Alternatively, this substrate may also for example be a translucent cream-colored plate of the same type as those sold under the reference KeraBiscuit by Eurokera, this plate having a smooth upper face and a smooth lower face (this face possibly also being provided with studs), and a thickness of 4 mm, and having a lightness L* of 81.76, a haze of 95.4%, a light transmission T.sub.L of 29.17% and an opacity indicator of 98.5.

[0075] In both cases, the glass-ceramic substrate obtained has a flatness of less than 2 mm (the flatness obtained being between 2 and 3 mm for a speed decreased by only 25%, and being more than 15 mm for a speed that is unchanged relative to that used in the aforementioned application to obtain a plate of standard size smaller than 0.4 m.sup.2), the flatness required to obtain good optical properties and good coupling and thermal efficiency properties in particular being lower than 3 mm and preferably lower than 2 mm.

[0076] The item of furniture and/or appliance furthermore comprises in the present example three heating elements (7), inductors for example, placed under the plate (6) and fixed to a supporting member (10). These inductors are in the present case arranged in the middle of the worktop, but they could equally well be located at one end of the worktop.

[0077] The item of furniture and/or appliance also comprises three light sources (8) intended to signal the cooking locations, and placed above the substrate (plumb above the worktop). These sources allow the cooking locations to be signaled, for example by way of a disk or circle of colored light (9) delimiting each location (the colors possibly if needs be being identical or different for each location) and encircling the inductors, when these sources are activated, or even when the heating elements are activated if the sources are connected to said elements via an appropriate interface. The sources (8) are for example formed by a plurality of LEDs borne by a base housed in a profile, and for example integrated into an extractor hood (14) located plumb above the worktop. These sources, apart from signaling heating zones, may also or alternatively serve to illuminate (locally or entirely) the worktop, or to display by projection various items of information, such as data to be displayed, culinary recipes (11), etc.

[0078] The item of furniture and/or appliance furthermore comprises at least one interface (12) (hidden by the substrate) for communicating with the heating elements, and, if needs be, with the light sources, this interface also communicating wirelessly with an external system for example taking the form of a touch-sensitive tablet (13) for controlling the activation of various zones or functions of the plate or item of furniture and/or appliance. The external system may advantageously be movable and be kept on the worktop (FIG. 1) or be used to remotely activate (FIG. 3) various zones or functions. Alternatively or cumulatively, the interface could also comprise or be connected to an integrated control panel, located on the surface of the substrate (2), for controlling the activation of various zones and functions, in particular of the substrate.

[0079] The item of furniture and/or appliance also comprises other elements, especially electrical cables (15) for the activation of the heating elements and for the activation of the sources, and comprises drawers (15) or cupboards (17) arranged in the carcass supporting the worktop, for storing various articles, etc. The item of furniture and/or appliance may also comprise other elements, for example the worktop may comprise a trim and the substrate may be coated with an optionally localized permanent decoration, an enamel decoration for example. The carcass may be unapertured or comprise various voids (such as the void (18)), or incorporate other elements (for example a built-in oven, etc.). The worktop (5) may be used for various purposes, such as for writing (as symbolized by the paper and pen (19)), to hold objects (as symbolized by the tableware (20)) while also allowing food to be cooked (as symbolized by the cooking recipients (21)), etc. If needs be, the carcass may also be replaced by supporting legs (for example only the panels 22 and 23, or four legs at the four corners, components located under the worktop in this case preferably being hidden by a localized housing of a few centimeters thickness, under the substrate) like those of a table.

[0080] The item of furniture and/or appliance according to the invention may especially and advantageously be used to create a new range of interactive and multiuse units especially integrating cooking zones or a cooking function.