Hamilton Beach/proctor-silex, Inc.

Alan M Garber

Phillip L Brookshire

David L Slayton

Stacey R Just

Lawrence M Pillion

Paul M Blankenship

Timothy E Covington

Terry L Myers

James Robert Gaynor

Nhiem Viet Nguyen

Derwood Stephen DeLong

William K Lee

Helmut Prager

A toaster having an electronic circuit including a chip-on-board ASIC that controls the operation of toaster heating elements and an electromagnet to which relatively high voltage is applied to hold an armature carried by a bread carriage and toaster-operating assembly. The armature is freely suspended from a bread carriage and toaster-operating assembly and accurately guided onto the electromagnet when the bread carriage is lowered. The toaster has a one-piece main frame that includes both a base frame plate and a rear frame plate. Several economies are obtained by virtue the construction of the toaster. A one-piece control support member is mounted on the base frame plate that supports both mechanical and electronic assemblies for controlling the operation of the toaster in predetermined relative positions. The armature can move upward relative to the bread carriage at the end of a toasting cycle if the bread carriage accidentally becomes stuck so that the power switches will assuredly be opened at the end of toasting cycle. A barrier is provided between live electricity and the toaster cover. A crumb tray is provided that may be mounted on the base frame member without the use of tools or additional parts.

Household electronic toaster and method of manufacture

A household electric appliance has three basic components, a griddle, a skillet which can be placed on the griddle to be heated thereby when the griddle is not otherwise in use, and a skillet lid which can be placed atop the skillet. The appliance can be compactly assembled for storage by changing the manner in which the components are stacked. When compactly assembled for storage, the three basic components can be clamped together and stored on edge to conserve lateral storage space. Two types of clamps are described, a resilient strap clamp and a wire rod clip. Operation of the appliance is controlled by a thermostat and a heating control panel is provided that has two sets of indicia, one for use when the griddle is used by itself and one for use when the skillet is used.

Household electric cooking appliance and apparatus for assembling and storing the appliance

Household electronic toaster

Skillet

Griddle

Skillet lid

Griddle, skillet, and lid assembly

Flat bread maker and spatula

A household electric flat bread making appliance has a heated lower pressure plate fixed to a frame, an upwardly biased upper heated pressure plate pivotally mounted on the frame, and a heated skillet mounted on the frame in general vertical alignment with the pressure plates. A handle is connected to the upper pressure plate to enable the upper pressure plate to be manually pivoted downwardly toward the lower pressure plate to flatten a mass of dough between the two pressure plates. The handle is rotatable and has a generally circular arm with an eccentric upper surface for engaging an abutment that projects forwardly from the lower pressure plate in a position wherein the arm is engageable with the bottom surface of the abutment by rotation of the handle so that the handle may be rotated when the upper pressure plate is lowered toward the lower pressure plate to engage under the abutment and the handle may be released by the operator with the engagement of the abutment by the arm preventing the upper pressure plate from being pivoted upwardly. The handle can be disconnected and stored in a holster when the appliance is not in use. The skillet has sloping sides so that it may be used to heat fillings for a flat bread roll up.

Household electric flat bread maker and skillet

An under-the-cabinet appliance includes a housing for operating parts of the appliance having a front wall, a rear wall, and a pair of side walls. Each sidewall has an outwardly-opening groove extending from the front wall toward the rear wall. Each groove also has a forward end opening to the front wall. A mounting bracket has a pair of bracket arms having mutually-confronting support rails that project from the bracket arms. The support rails are configured to be slidably received by the grooves so that the housing may be assembled on the mounting bracket by orienting the housing so that the forward ends of the grooves are aligned with rearward ends of the rails and then moving the housing forwardly relative to the mounting bracket. To facilitate assembly, the rails and grooves are tapered so that they decrease in height from their forward ends to their rearward ends. Additionally, the bracket arms also have outwardly-facing surfaces that are coplanar with outwardly-facing surfaces of the housing when the appliance is assembled on the mounting bracket.

Under-the-cabinet appliance having a unitary mounting bracket and method

Growing community of inventors

Richmond, VA, United States of America

Alan M Garber