Bite-Sized Waffle Assembly With Tear Portions for Easy Separation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional waffles are too large to be consumed without cutting, requiring significant force and often resulting in condiment waste due to their shape and size.
Innovation Solution
A waffle making assembly that produces bite-sized waffles with co-aligned troughs on the upper and lower surfaces, allowing them to be easily separated by hand, eliminating the need for utensils and maintaining condiments within depressions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional waffle makers are used to produce large waffles, then the waffle structure provides sufficient containment for condiments, but the waffle size requires cutting into smaller portions for consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The waffle iron incorporates partitioning flanges that divide the cooking chamber into multiple sub-cavities, each producing a bite-sized waffle portion. This segmentation allows the waffle to be consumed without cutting while maintaining adequate size for condiment containment in each individual portion.
2Ease of operation
If a large conventional waffle is cut into smaller pieces using a fork, then bite-sized portions are achieved, but significant force is required and condiments spill onto the plate
Solution Approach 1:
The partitioning flanges create predetermined separation planes between adjacent waffle portions during the cooking process. These pre-formed planes of weakness allow the waffle to be easily separated into bite-sized pieces by hand without requiring cutting force, and condiments remain contained within each portion's depressions.
3Ease of operation
If the waffle surface area is reduced to bite-sized portions, then ease of consumption improves, but the number of waffle irons required increases
Solution Approach 1:
The partitioning flanges divide a single waffle iron's cooking chamber into multiple sub-cavities, enabling one device to produce multiple bite-sized waffles simultaneously. This maintains consumption convenience while avoiding the need for multiple separate waffle irons.
4Quantity of substance
If conventional waffles are made with sufficient size for condiment containment, then condiment storage is adequate, but the waffle cannot be consumed without cutting
Solution Approach 1:
Each sub-cavity in the partitioned waffle iron produces a bite-sized waffle portion that independently contains sufficient depressions for condiment storage. This segmentation ensures each consumable unit has adequate condiment capacity without requiring the entire waffle to be large enough to need cutting.
Data Source
AI summary
A waffle making assembly for the creation of a plurality of bite-sized waffles, wherein said bite-sized waffles have the necessary dimensional qualities to enable the consumption thereof without having been previously severed into multiple pieces. The waffle making assembly comprises an upper and lower plate, each having an inner surface with a cavity formed therein such that the cavities form a chamber for the creation of a waffle matrix when the inner surfaces of each plate lie adjacent each other. Easy separation of individual bite-sized waffles from the waffle matrix is enabled by tear portions formed in the upper and lower surfaces of the waffle matrix. The tear portions are formed in the waffle matrix during the cooking operation by a plurality of partitioning flanges defined by lattices in the upper and lower cavities, which sub-divides the cavity into a plurality of smaller sub-cavities. Means are disclosed that enable the creation of contiguously alignable bite-sized waffles having triangular, rectangular, hexagonal, or the like type outer peripheral shapes as well as non-contiguously alignable bite-sized waffles such as those having a circular, or oval type outer peripheral shape.