The present invention refers to a door for a household appliance, in particular for an oven, where said door comprise an outer glass, at least one middle glass, an inner glass and a device for securing glass, said outer glass being provided at the inner side thereof and in the marginal area of each vertical side with a vertical bar provided to receive a door hinge, and said outer glass being provided at the inner side thereof and in the upper marginal area between said vertical bars with a transversal bar serving as an air guide, said transversal bar being associated with a handle arranged at the outside of the outer glass.

Several known documents disclose solutions regarding door for a household appliance such as for instance WO 2010/076181 A1, DE 103 36 138 B3, EP 1 081 437 A2, EP 2 244 017 A2, WO 2010/049337 A2. None of the known documents, however, does not teach how to secure a glass of said door. Usually, securing one or more middle glass and the inner glass with the door of the household appliance, in particular of an oven, is achieved by means of adhesive, snapping-in, locking by mechanisms and, respectively, handles, different levers and similar. Chattering of glass occurs very often due to the specific characteristics of glass and due to the fixing thereof, and during heating up of the oven a breaking or twisting of the glass may occur due to the influence of the local temperature differences. Thus, securing glass is rather complex job resulting in difficulties for the user when cleaning of the glass is to take place.

It is the object of the present invention to create a door for a household appliance, in particular for an oven, which remedies drawbacks of known solutions.

According to the present invention, the object as set above is solved with characteristics disclosed in claim 1. Details of the invention are further disclosed in the corresponding subclaims.

The invention is further described in detail by way of non-limiting embodiment, and with a reference to the accompanying drawings, where

Fig. 1

shows a three-dimensional view of a door of an oven,

Fig. 2

shows a cross-sectional view door of Fig. 1 in a vertical plane,

Fig. 3

shows a door of Fig. 2 with glass partially inserted,

Fig. 4

shows a detail of a door assembly in an exploded view,

Fig. 5

shows a three-dimensional view of a device for securing glass according to the invention,

Fig. 6

shows a device of Fig. 5 viewed from the other side.

An embodiment of the invention is described in the foregoing with reference to a household appliance, in particular an oven, where the term outside/outer refers to a position and an arrangement facing away from the oven compartment, and where the term inside/inner refers to a position and an arrangement facing the oven compartment. The term glass refers to a transparent door element made of an arbitrary transparent material. A door 1 of a household appliance and, respectively, an oven comprises an outer glass 2, at least one middle glass 3 and an inner glass 4. Said outer glass 2 is provided on the inner side thereof and in the marginal area of each vertical side with a vertical bar 5 resembling the cross-sectional form of a letter U and being provided to receive a hinge 6 of the door 1. Furthermore, said outer glass 2 is provided on the inner side thereof and in the upper marginal area between said vertical bars 5 with a transversal bar 7 serving as an air guide and being associated in a manner know per se with a handle 8 arranged at the outside of the outer glass 2. An assembly of at least one middle glass 3 is inserted into a frame composed of each vertical bar 5 and the transversal bar 7 and fixed by means of at least one device 9 for securing glass, preferably by means of two said devices for securing glass each of them cooperating with one of said bars 5, and by means of at least one spacer 10, preferably by means of two said spacers. Inner glass 4 is fixed into said device 9 after said at least one middle glass 3 has been inserted into said frame. Said device 9 is preferably arranged and articulated with the vertical bar 5 in the area of the free end thereof, whereas the spacer 10 is arranged in the area of the transversal bar 7.

Each said device 9 for securing glass comprises a body 11 having at least one groove 12 to accommodate the middle glass 3, said body preferably having two grooves to accommodate the middle glass 3. Each groove 12 is formed slightly conical in the direction from an aperture 13 towards a bottom 13', thus, additionally securing the middle glass 3. Said body 11 is formed at its side which is averted from the transversal bar 7 and faces the outer glass 2 with a chamfer 14. The side of the body 11 being averted from the outer glass 2 is provided in the area above the groove 12 for the accommodation of the middle glass 3 with a T shaped recess 15 in which is arranged a damper 16 for the inner glass 4. In addition, a tooth 17 for accommodation of the inner glass 4 is provided in the area above the groove 12 for the accommodation of the middle glass 3, said tooth 17 being placed onto said side of the body 11 which is averted from the outer glass 2. Once the inner glass is placed onto the body 11 it is secured by means of a securing means 18 arranged in an additional T shaped groove 19 formed in the area above said chamfer 14. Said securing means 18 holds the inner glass by means of a tongue 20, whereas said securing means 18 is formed at its opposite end and at the side facing said body 11 with a snap-in tooth 21 which cooperates with a recess 22 in the body 11, thus preventing the inner glass 4 to be unintentionally released. Moreover, a through-hole 23 is formed in the area between said grooves 12 for accommodation of middle glass 3, said through-hole 23 intended to fasten said body 11 when the door 1 is produced without middle glass 3. In the present embodiment, said securing means 18 can be moved only manually from the position when the inner glass 4 is released to the position when the inner glass 4 is secured, and vice versa. It is understood that an embodiment is possible where a resilient means is arranged between the securing means 18 and the body 11, said resilient means facilitates by elastic action the movement of the securing means into a position when the inner glass 4 is released. It is further provided for according to the present invention that the body 11 of said device 9 is formed on its side facing the vertical bar 5 with a cylindrical projection 24 which cooperates with a suitable hole 25 formed in the area of the free end of said bar 5. Said projection 24 enables for the device 9 to rotate about the centre line of the projection 24 when the latter is inserted into said hole 25 in the bar 5. Said projection 24 comprises snap-in protrusions 26 preventing the projection 24 to unintentionally slip out of the hole 25.

One device 9 for securing glass according to the invention is inserted with said projection 24 into each said hole 25 in each bar 5 where it is locked by means of snap-in protrusions 26 in order to prevent unintentional disengagement. Said device 9 is oriented in a manner that said chamfer 14 faces the outer glass 2 and the bottom section of the door where said hinges 6 are located. Afterwards, both devices 9 are rotated about the centre line of said projection 24 so as said chamfer 14 lies essentially in parallel with the outer glass 2 and, respectively, may even sit thereon. The middle glass 3 is inserted into said grooves 12 of each device 9, where at least one spacer 10 is placed on the free end of the middle glass 3 inserted into the device 9, said spacer 10 securing the middle glass 3 in the required distance. Afterwards, the module of middle glass 3 assembled in the described manner is rotated along with each device 9 about the centre line of said projection 24 into direction toward the outer glass 2, so that middle glass 3 in now aligned in parallel with the outer glass 2, and the spacer 10 locks in said transversal bar 7. Eventually, the inner glass 4 is mounted, the first end thereof being pushed into a slit of the transversal bar 7. The inner glass 4 is afterwards placed in a flat position onto the damper 16 on the device 9, wherein the glass 4 abuts with the free end thereof against said tooth 17. After that the inner glass 4 is secured against disengagement by means of securing means 18 which is pushed in the plane of the inner glass 4 so as to said tongue 20 press the inner glass 4 against the body 11 of the device 9 and, respectively, against the damper 16. Said tooth 21 of the securing means 18 sits into said recess 22, thus securing the inner glass 4 both against disengagement as well as against possible unintentional movement. In order for the the glass 3, 4 to be removed, the free end of the securing means 18 is to be lifted so that said tooth 21 disengages the recess 22, and after that the securing means 18 is to be moved in the direction towards the bottom section of the door so that the inner glass 4 is released.