3D Food Shaping and Heating Control for Low-Waste Cooking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cooking apparatuses with 3D printing technology face inefficiencies in food ingredient extrusion, leading to waste, as they lack effective methods to manage the discharge of food ingredients, resulting in uneven cooking and resource wastage.
Innovation Solution
A cooking system comprising a user interface, transceivers, and processors that allow for precise control of food shaping and heating, enabling the discharge of food ingredients in controlled amounts and patterns, with multiple cooking apparatuses connected to receive and execute food models and cooking methods, ensuring efficient shaping and heating of food.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If food ingredients are extruded using conventional methods, then the cooking process can proceed, but a large amount of food ingredients is thrown out in a state of being contained in the cartridge, leading to waste
Solution Approach 1:
The system incorporates sensors that detect the amount of food ingredients remaining in the cartridge and provide feedback to the control unit. The control unit adjusts the extrusion process in real-time based on this feedback, ensuring complete utilization of ingredients and preventing waste. This closed-loop control system enables precise management of food ingredient discharge.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically changes extrusion parameters such as pressure, temperature, and flow rate based on the cooking stage and ingredient properties. By adjusting these parameters, the system optimizes ingredient discharge to ensure complete extrusion without leaving remnants in the cartridge, thereby eliminating waste while maintaining manufacturing simplicity.
2Productivity
If multiple cooking apparatuses are used to cook food simultaneously, then productivity increases, but coordination and control of food models across apparatuses becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs a universal food model format and standardized communication protocol that can be used across multiple cooking apparatuses. The control unit in each apparatus can independently process the same food model data, enabling parallel operation without requiring complex inter-apparatus coordination. This universality simplifies the system while maintaining high productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooking process is divided into independent stages (shaping, heating, cooking) that can be executed simultaneously across multiple apparatuses. Each apparatus operates as an independent unit with its own control loop, allowing parallel processing of multiple food items without increasing overall system complexity. The segmentation enables scalable deployment of multiple apparatuses.
3Productivity
If food shaping is performed quickly to reduce cooking time, then productivity increases, but the precision and quality of food shaping may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The food shaping process uses periodic extrusion cycles with controlled pause intervals. During these periodic cycles, the system extrudes ingredients in controlled bursts followed by brief pauses that allow for precise positioning and layer consolidation. This periodic action maintains high overall shaping speed while ensuring accuracy at critical moments.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary shaping of food layers before final assembly and cooking. By pre-shaping components with high precision and then rapidly assembling them, the system achieves both quick overall processing time and high shape accuracy. The preliminary action separates the precision-requiring steps from the speed-requiring steps.
Data Source
AI summary
A cooking system is provided. The cooking system includes a user equipment and one or more cooking apparatuses. The user equipment may include a user interface configured to receive an input of a food model including at least one of a shape, an ingredient, or a color of a food in accordance with a touch input of a user, a first transceiver configured to transmit information on the food model to the one or more cooking apparatuses, and a first processor configured to transmit information of the food model to the plurality of cooking apparatuses via the first transceiver. Each of the one or more cooking apparatuses may include a second transceiver configured to receive information on the food model from the user equipment, a food shaping device configured to discharge food ingredients, a food heating device, and a second processor.