Machine for cooking bread
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing food cooking appliances with two heating plates suffer from non-uniform cooking due to pressure and temperature variations, especially when cooking leavened foods that emit gases, as the traditional hinge-based systems fail to maintain consistent conditions.
Innovation Solution
A food cooking appliance with a movable upper heating plate connected by parallelogram linkage means to a lower heating plate, featuring vent channels for pressure relief and a variable calibration spring to maintain parallel alignment and adjust resistance, allowing the plates to open when gas pressure exceeds a threshold, ensuring uniform cooking conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If a hinge-based plate positioning system is used to allow plates to rotate relative to each other, then the appliance structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but cooking uniformity deteriorates due to pressure and temperature variations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a parallelogram linkage mechanism that dynamically maintains parallel alignment between the upper and lower heating plates during the cooking process. This dynamic geometric constraint ensures that the plates remain parallel even when food expands and generates gas pressure, thereby maintaining uniform cooking conditions throughout the cooking chamber.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention introduces a calibrated spring element that can be adjusted to modify the resistance force opposing plate separation. By changing the spring calibration parameter, the system adapts to different cooking requirements and food types, allowing optimization of pressure conditions for uniform cooking while maintaining the parallel plate geometry.
2Adaptability or versatility
If plates are allowed to move relative to each other during cooking, then cooking flexibility is improved, but pressure and temperature uniformity deteriorates due to food expansion and gas emission
Solution Approach 1:
The parallelogram linkage provides a dynamic mechanism that allows controlled plate movement while maintaining parallel geometry. This enables the cooking chamber to adapt to food expansion and gas generation without compromising the uniform temperature distribution between the heating plates.
Solution Approach 2:
The calibrated spring acts as a feedback mechanism that responds to pressure changes within the cooking chamber. As food expands and generates gas pressure, the spring adjusts the plate positioning to maintain optimal pressure conditions, thereby preserving temperature uniformity throughout the cooking process.
3Manufacturing precision
If a parallelogram linkage system is used to maintain parallel plates, then cooking uniformity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The parallelogram linkage utilizes basic geometric principles to achieve parallel plate maintenance through a simple four-bar mechanism. This dynamic geometric constraint provides cooking uniformity without requiring complex control systems, sensors, or actuators, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity to only the mechanical linkage components.
Solution Approach 2:
The inclusion of a calibrated spring adds a single adjustable parameter to the system. This simple mechanical element provides the necessary resistance force to maintain plate alignment and pressure control, achieving improved cooking uniformity with minimal additional complexity compared to the hinge-based system.
4Stress or pressure
If spring resistance is increased to maintain plate closure, then pressure control is improved, but cooking uniformity deteriorates due to non-parallel plate alignment
Solution Approach 1:
The parallelogram linkage dynamically maintains parallel plate alignment regardless of the spring resistance force applied. The geometric constraint of the four-bar mechanism ensures that the plates remain parallel even under increased closure force, thereby preserving cooking uniformity while achieving effective pressure control through the calibrated spring.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution ensures improved cooking uniformity by maintaining consistent pressure and temperature conditions within the cooking chambers, allowing for efficient cooking of foods that expand during the cooking process.
Implementation Method 1
Heating surfaces, in use, face each other and transfer heat, mainly by thermal conduction, necessary for cooking food that, to this end, is in contact with both of them
Implementation Method 2
linkage means further comprise opening means configured for operating the linkage means and for moving the plates away from each other such to allow the cavities to be opened towards the external environment when gas pressure inside said cavities exceeds a threshold value
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
The present invention relates to an appliance (1) for cooking food comprising an upper heating plate (2) and a lower heating plate (3) provided with surfaces (2a, 3a) facing each other. The upper heating plate (2) being movable between a closed position in which the upper (2) and the lower (3) heating plates are in contact with each other and an open position in which the upper (2) and the lower (3) heating plates are spaced from each other. The appliance (1) further comprises parallelogram linkage means (5) constrained to the upper heating plate (2) and to the lower heating plate (3) to allow the upper heating plate (2) to be lifted from or to approach in a parallel manner the lower heating plate (3). The appliance (1) further comprises one or more cavities (8) for housing food to be cooked at least at one of said surfaces (2a, 3a) and at least one vent channel (9) adapted to put one or more cavities (8) in fluid communication with an environment external to the appliance (1) when plates are in the closed position, and the parallelogram linkage means (5) comprise a variable calibration spring connected to the opposite vertices of the parallelogram linkage to allow the cavities (8) to be opened to the external environment when gas pressure inside the cavities (8) exceeds a threshold value.