Kitchen unit for physically handicapped persons

• US 4,799,743 A
• Filed: 05/01/1987
• Issued: 01/24/1989
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/1986
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kouichi Imai, Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kouichi Imai, Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Fukuyama, Hirohisa, Imai, Kouichi, Kikuchi, Nobuaki, Hirabayashi, Tamio
• Primary Examiner(s): Falk, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US07/044,620
• Time in Patent Office: 634 Days
• Field of Search: 312/228, 312/236, 312/194, 312/196, 312/239, 312/195, 312/209, 312/210, 312/138 A, 312/140, 312/309
• US Class Current: 312/228
• CPC Class Codes: A47B 77/02 General layout, e.g. relative arrangement of compartments, working surface or surfaces, supports for apparatus A47B77/08 takes precedence ; combinable furniture units A47B87/00

Abstract

In a kitchen unit specifically designed for use by physically handicapped persons sitting in a wheelchair, a pair of base cabinets mounted under a countertop are laterally spaced to define therebetween a wheelchair space opened forward and downward for allowing rolling entry of the wheelchair. With the kitchen unit thus configured, the physically handicapped person can use the kitchen unit satisfactorily and comfortably with the wheelchair extending into the wheelchair space under the countertop. Preferably, the kitchen unit includes an armrest table slidably mounted in one of the base cabinets adjacent the wheelchair space to provide a support or aid for the handicapped person during the kitchen work. A sink and surface cooking elements are located on the end portions of the countertop so as to leave therebetween a center cooking work surface while ensuring facilitated use thereof. The cooking elements are arranged in consideration of human engineering to assure comfortable handling of the cooking elements by the handicapped persons in the wheelchair. An auxiliary cabinet may be selectivly used for closure of the wheelchair space when the unit is utilized by non-handicapped persons.

Claims

1. A kitchen unit comprising:

a pair of base cabinets for fixedly mounting on the floor of a room;

a countertop extending horizontally across the top of the base cabinets and having mounted therein, adjacent one of its ends, a sink and, adjacent its other end, at least two surface cooking elements with a cooking workspace on said countertop therebetween;

said base cabinets being arranged in laterally spaced relation and defining therebetween a frontally accessible wheelchair space below said countertop and said cooking workspace thereon,

said wheelchair space having its bottom opened to the floor so as to permit entry therein of a wheelchair and the use of the kitchen unit by a physically handicapped person in the wheelchair,

said cooking elements being mounted in said countertop in a staggered relation with the surface cooking element located closest to the cooking workspace displaced rearward of the countertop and the surface cooking element located remotest from the workspace displaced forward of the countertop, and

an auxiliary cabinet removably received in said wheelchair space for use of the kitchen system by non-handicapped persons, sad auxiliary cabinet being an L-shaped structure with a bottom plate and a front door frame upstanding from the front edge of the bottom plate, said bottom plate being provided with a set of rollers for rolling movement of the auxiliary cabinet on the floor into and out of said wheelchair space, and said front door frame being provided with a pair of hinged doors for closing the front of the wheel chair space and for providing access to the interior thereof when the auxiliary cabinet is selected in use to occupy the wheelchair opening.