Compact Portable Cooker with Nested Storage and Adjustable Spit Racks
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing portable cookers lack versatility and compactness for efficiently roasting and baking large items like small pigs, as they often require multiple setups and are not easily transportable.
Innovation Solution
A compact portable cooker design featuring a fire pan, hinged plates, support racks, and an electric motor-driven spit, allowing for adjustable cooking levels, dual heat sources, and easy storage, enabling roasting, baking, and smoking with the option to use as an oven or open pit cooker.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If a portable cooker is designed to be compact for easy transportation, then portability is improved, but cooking versatility for large items deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cooker is divided into separable components including a fire pan, support racks, spit, and cover that can be disassembled and stored within the fire pan itself. This segmentation allows the entire cooking system to be compacted into a small storage volume for easy portability, while still providing all necessary components for versatile cooking of large items when assembled.
Solution Approach 2:
The support racks and spit are designed to nest within the fire pan when not in use, with the spit storing horizontally inside the fire pan cavity. This nesting arrangement maximizes compactness for transportation while maintaining full cooking functionality when assembled, directly resolving the contradiction between portability and cooking versatility.
2Ease of operation
If the cooker structure is simplified for easy assembly and disassembly, then ease of operation is improved, but structural stability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cooker employs segmented components with simple connection interfaces - the support racks attach to the fire pan rim, and the spit connects to the support racks. This segmentation enables quick assembly and disassembly operations while maintaining structural integrity during cooking through proper mechanical connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The fire pan features a curved rim that interfaces with the support racks, and the spit has a cylindrical shape that fits into curved receptacles on the support racks. These curved geometries provide natural mechanical interlocking that enhances structural stability while allowing simple insertion and removal motions for easy operation.
3Device complexity
If the cooker is designed for single-function use, then device complexity is reduced, but adaptability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cooker is designed as a universal cooking system that can handle multiple cooking tasks including roasting large items on the spit, baking with the cover enclosed, and open-pit cooking. The same basic structure with fire pan, support racks, and cover serves all these functions, achieving versatility without adding separate specialized devices or complex mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooker employs dynamic configuration where the cover can be positioned in different states (closed for baking, open for roasting), and the spit can be rotated or removed as needed. This dynamic adaptability allows a single simple structure to perform multiple cooking functions by changing its operational state rather than requiring complex specialized components.
Data Source
AI summary
A compact versatile portable cooker comprising a fire pan, a cover, and a pair of support racks adapted to support a spit and adapted to be attached to the opposed ends of the fire pan. Front and back plates are hinged to the fire pan, and one can alternately either secure the cover or the support racks to the fire pan, to provide with the cover a dosed container for containing and storing all of the parts of the portable cooker; and to provide with the support racks a support for the spit above the fire pan.