This invention relates to utensil supporting grates of cooktops and, more particularly, to a cooktop/grate combination which provides greater stability of the grates.
For many years grates were mounted to cooktops by inserting depending fingers or knobs of the grate through mating openings in the cooktop. This had a number of drawbacks. For example, it required that holes extend through the cooktop, providing sites for possible rusting of the body of the cooktop.
More recently the burner openings have been surrounded by relatively large recessed areas and the grates have been mounted within these recessed areas. In one embodiment the grate includes an annular base with a vertical outer surface and a bottom edge. The recessed area of the cooktop includes spaced apart bosses with horizontal upper surfaces that support the bottom edge of the grate base. The recessed area also includes dams with vertical inner surfaces that contact the outer surface of the grate base to restrain the grate should a lateral force tend to slide the grate out of the recessed area.
At times such dams do not exert sufficient restraining force on the grates, which then can slide out of the recessed area. A significant reason for such sliding is that the dams do not have sufficient vertical overlap with the grate base. This results from the restraints on the vertical dimensions of various elements.
Grates must support heavy utensils when at high temperatures. Thus they are made of relatively large amounts of expensive materials. Thus it is desirable to minimize the size of the grate. At the same time, for optimum operation of the burner flame, the grate must support the utensil at a predetermined distance above the burner. For this reason, the grate does not rest on the bottom of the recessed area. Rather bosses are formed part way up the peripheral wall of the recess and the grate is supported on the bosses. This enables the base of the grate to have a smaller height and use less material.
In order to restrain the grates from sliding out of the recessed areas substantially vertical opposing surfaces are provided. Essentially the entire periphery of the grate base can be used as one vertical surface, while the other must be formed along the periphery of the recessed area. The recessed areas usually are large in cross-section and deep. Attempts to draw such a recessed area with a generally vertical wall into the steel or other metal forming the cooktop leads to excessive failures of the metal. Therefore, individual small dams, with substantially vertical inner surfaces, have been formed in spaced apart relationship about the peripheral portion of the recessed area. These dams and the corresponding portions of the grate base form the opposing vertical surfaces. In some instances the area so provided is not sufficient.
One possible solution would be to remove or shorten the bosses. However, since the top of the grate must be at least a predetermined distance above the burner, this would require greater height of the grate base and would greatly increase the cost of each grate.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved cooktop and grate assembly.
Another object is to provide such an assembly in which the grates are resistant to sliding out of the mating recess in the cooktop.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide such an improved cooktop and grate assembly that does not involve any increase in material.