Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Tomoyuki Hosokawa

Shigeru Kusunoki

Hirofumi Yoshimura

Teruhisa Takano

A microwave oven comprising an enclosure including a wall member defining an opening for providing access to a heating cavity, the wall member having a continuous uninterrupted planar surface portion substantially surrounding the access opening. A door is provided for closing the opening in the wall member, the door having a continuous uninterrupted planar surface portion positioned, when the door is closed, opposite and substantially parallel to the planar surface portion of the wall member. An energy seal comprising walls defining a sealing cavity is formed in either the wall member or the door, the sealing cavity extending in a longitudinal direction to substantially surround the continuous uninterrupted planar surface portion of the member in which it is located. A segmented partition wall is interposed between the walls of the sealing cavity thereby separating it into two longitudinally extending spaces. A path is formed by the opposing planar surface portions of the wall member and the door which extends from the heating cavity to the sealing cavity resulting in substantial reduction, in combination with the sealing cavity, in the amount of microwave energy leaking from the heating cavity when the heating cavity is radiated with microwave energy from a microwave generator.

Growing community of inventors

Nara, Japan

Tomoyuki Hosokawa