Terminal board assembly for out-of-plane contacts

Claim 2

In a cooking assembly, the combination of a pair of utensil supporting cover plates of frangible material each having a predetermined planar extent, means for retaining said plates in said cooking assembly whereby said plates are arranged in spaced edge to edge relation, a heater block supporting at least one electrical resistance element beneath each of said cover plates, said resistance elements adapted to be energized by a circuit including a pair of lines from an AC power source, each said cover plate having an electrically conductive stripe mounted in an open pattern on the underside thereof such that the paired free terminal ends defined by the open regions of said stripes are located adjacent said spaced edges, said conductive stripe paired free terminal ends being electrically connected in the circuit by means of a terminal board bridging the space between said plates, said terminal board having four contacts thereon defining substantially a rectangle such that each adjacent pair of said contacts are aligned respectively with the paired free terminal ends of said stripes, three of said contacts being in fixed coplanar relation and said fourth contact being a resilient contact, divider strip means extending between the edges of said plates and spanning the space between them, spring biasing means connected between said divider strip means and the undersurface of said terminal board to bias said terminal board upwardly against said pair of plates, said biasing means operative to exert pressure within the triangular area defined by said three fixed contacts whereby three point positive contact is maintained with three of said stripe free terminal ends, said resilient contact being biased upwardly to maintain positive engagement with its aligned free terminal end to compensate for out-of-plane conditions existing between said pair of plates and thereby insuring electrical continuity between said electrically conductive stripes in the circuit during normal operation of said cooking assembly.

Claim 3

In a cooking assembly, the combination of a pair of utensil supporting cover plates of frangible material each having a predetermined planar extent, means for retaining said plates in said cooking assembly whereby said plates are arranged in spaced edge to edge relation, a heater block supporting at least one electrical resistance element beneath each of said cover plates, said resistance elements adapted to be energized by a circuit including a pair of lines from an AC power source, each said cover plate having an electrically conductive stripe mounted in an open looped pattern on the underside thereof such that the paired free terminal ends defined by the open regions of said stripe are located in mirror opposite relation adjacent said spaced edges, said conductive stripe paired terminal ends being electrically connected in said circuit by means of a terminal board bridging the space between said plates, said terminal board having four contacts thereon defining substantially a rectangle such that each adjacent pair of said contacts are vertically aligned respectively with the paired terminal ends of said stripes, three of said contacts being in fixed coplanar relation and said fourth contact being a resilient contact in the form of an upwardly bowed leaf spring contact arm, said terminal board having an elongated open end clearance slot extending transversely of the plate spaced edges so as to underlie said contact arm throughout the major portion of its free end whereby said contact arm is free to move below the plane of said terminal board, divider strip means extending between the edges of said plates and spanning the space between them, spring biasing means in the form of a C-shaped resilient clip connected between said divider strip means and the undersurface of said terminal board to bias said terminal board upwardly against said pair of plates, said C-shaped clip operative to exert pressure on said terminal board within the triangular area defined by said three fixed contacts whereby three point positive contact is maintained with three of said free terminal ends, said resilient contact arm being biased upwardly to maintain positive engagement with its aligned conductive stripe free terminal end to compensate for out-of-plane conditions existing between said pair of plates and thereby insuring electrical continuity between said conductive stripes in the circuit during normal operation of said cooking assembly.

Claim 4

In a cooking assembly, the combination of a pair of utensil supporting cover plates of frangible material each having a predetermined planar extent, means for retaining said plates in said cooking assembly whereby said plates are arranged in spaced edge to edge relation, a heater block supporting at least one electrical resistance element beneath each of said cover plates, said resistance elements adapted to be energized by a circuit including a pair of lines from an AC power source, each said cover plate having an electrically conductive stripe mounted in an open looped pattern on the underside thereof such that the paired free terminal ends defined by the open regions of said stripe are located in mirror opposite relation adjacent said spaced edges, said conductive stripe paired terminal ends being electrically connected in said circuit by means of a terminal board bridging the space between said plates, said terminal board having four contacts thereon defining substantially a rectangle such that each adjacent pair of said contacts are vertically aligned respectively with the paired terminal ends of said stripes, three of said contacts being in fixed coplanar relation and said fourth contact being a resilient contact in the form of an upwardly bowed leaf spring contact arm, said terminal board having an elongated open end clearance slot extending transversely of the plate spaced edges so as to underlie said contact arm throughout the major portion of its free end whereby said contact arm is free to move below the plane of said terminal board, divider strip means extending between the edges of said plates and spanning the space between them, spring biasing means in the form of a C-shaped resilient clip connected between said divider strip means and the undersurface of said terminal board to bias said terminal board upwardly against said pair of plates, said C-shaped clip operative to exert pressure on said terminal board within the triangular area defined by said three fixed contacts whereby three point positive contact is maintained with three of said free terminal ends, said resilient contact arm being biased upwardly to maintain positive engagement with its aligned conductive stripe free terminal end to compensate for out-of-plane conditions existing between said pair of plates and thereby insuring electrical continuity between said conductive stripes in the circuit during normal operation of said cooking assembly.

Claim 5

In an infrared radiant cooking assembly, the combination of a pair of utensil supporting cover plates of infrared transmissive frangible glass ceramic material each having a predetermined planar extent, means for retaining said plates in said cooking assembly whereby said plates are arranged in spaced edge to edge relation, a heater block supporting at lease one electrical resistance heating element in spaced relation beneath each of said cover plates, said resistance elements adapted to be energized by a circuit including a pair of lines from an AC power source, each said cover plate having an electrically conductive stripe mounted in an open rectangular pattern on the underside thereof such that the paired free terminal ends defined by the open regions of said stripe are located in mirror opposite relation adjacent said spaced edges, said conductive stripe paired terminal ends being electrically connected in said circuit by means of a terminal board bridging the space between said plates, said terminal board having four contacts thereon defining substantially a rectangle such that each adjacent pair of said contacts are vertically aligned respectively with the paired terminal ends of said stripes, three of said contacts being in fixed coplanar relation and said fourth contact being a resilient contact in the form of an upwardly bowed leaf spring contact arm, said terminal board having an elongated open end clearance slot extending transversely of the plate spaced edges so as to underlie said contact arm throughout the major portion of its freE end whereby said contact arm is free to move below the plane of said terminal board, a T-shaped in cross section sealing and locking divider strip extending along and between the edges of said plates, said divider strip head portion spanning the space between said plates and the stem portion thereof protruding downwardly through the space between said plates, said T-shaped strip having a pair of cutout openings forming an intermediate shank portion therebetween, said terminal board having a longitudinal aperture receiving said shank portion, spring biasing means in the form of a C-shaped resilient clip connected between an opening in said shank and said terminal board to bias said terminal board upwardly against said pair of plates, a portion of said C-shaped clip operative to exert pressure on said terminal board within the triangular area defined by said three fixed contacts whereby three point positive contact is maintained with three of said free terminal ends, said resilient contact arm being biased upwardly to maintain positive engagement with its aligned conductive stripe free terminal end to compensate for any out-of-plane condition existing between said pair of plates and thereby insuring electrical continuity between said conductive stripes in said circuit during normal operation of said cooking assembly, said conductive stripe being responsive to a predetermined break in either of said frangible plates for energizing control means thereby opening the circuit to deenergize the resistance elements.

Claim 6

In an infrared radiant cooking assembly, the combination of a pair of utensil supporting cover plates of infrared transmissive frangible glass ceramic material each having a predetermined planar extent, means for retaining said plates in said cooking assembly whereby said plates are arranged in spaced edge to edge relation, a heater block supporting at lease one electrical resistance heating element in spaced relation beneath each of said cover plates, said resistance elements adapted to be energized by a circuit including a pair of lines from an AC power source, each said cover plate having an electrically conductive stripe mounted in an open rectangular pattern on the underside thereof such that the paired free terminal ends defined by the open regions of said stripe are located in mirror opposite relation adjacent said spaced edges, said conductive stripe paired terminal ends being electrically connected in said circuit by means of a terminal board bridging the space between said plates, said terminal board having four contacts thereon defining substantially a rectangle such that each adjacent pair of said contacts are vertically aligned respectively with the paired terminal ends of said stripes, three of said contacts being in fixed coplanar relation and said fourth contact being a resilient contact in the form of an upwardly bowed leaf spring contact arm, said terminal board having an elongated open end clearance slot extending transversely of the plate spaced edges so as to underlie said contact arm throughout the major portion of its freE end whereby said contact arm is free to move below the plane of said terminal board, a T-shaped in cross section sealing and locking divider strip extending along and between the edges of said plates, said divider strip head portion spanning the space between said plates and the stem portion thereof protruding downwardly through the space between said plates, said T-shaped strip having a pair of cutout openings forming an intermediate shank portion therebetween, said terminal board having a longitudinal aperture receiving said shank portion, spring biasing means in the form of a C-shaped resilient clip connected between an opening in said shank and said terminal board to bias said terminal board upwardly against said pair of plates, a portion of said C-shaped clip operative to exert pressure on said terminal board within the triangular area defined by said three fixed contacts whereby three point positive contact is maintained with three of said free terminal ends, said resilient contact arm being biased upwardly to maintain positive engagement with its aligned conductive stripe free terminal end to compensate for any out-of-plane condition existing between said pair of plates and thereby insuring electrical continuity between said conductive stripes in said circuit during normal operation of said cooking assembly, said conductive stripe being responsive to a predetermined break in either of said frangible plates for energizing control means thereby opening the circuit to deenergize the resistance elements.