Cooking appliance, in particular commercial cooking appliance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Commercial cooking appliances with cameras in the cooking chamber door face overheating issues due to heat radiation, requiring additional cooling measures and complicating the detection of items inside the chamber.
Innovation Solution
The optoelectronic sensor is positioned inside the cooking chamber door's reception area outside the door seal, utilizing the existing door seal as a thermal shield and leveraging air flow between panes for cooling, eliminating the need for additional cooling devices and allowing for a more aesthetically designed, cost-effective setup that enables item observation before and during cooking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If the camera is arranged in the cooking chamber door to take pictures of items to be cooked, then the ability to observe items inside the cooking chamber is improved, but the camera is overheated through heat radiation from the cooking chamber
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a reflective element (mirror or prism) as an intermediary to redirect light from the cooking chamber to the camera. This allows the camera to be positioned outside the direct heat radiation path while still capturing images of items in the cooking chamber, thus resolving the contradiction between observation capability and thermal protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent positions the camera in the door panel at a location that is spatially separated from the direct line of sight to the cooking chamber interior. By using optical elements to extend the field of view and redirect light paths, the camera operates from a thermally favorable position while maintaining imaging capability, effectively using dimensional positioning to resolve the thermal contradiction.
2Temperature
If cooling devices with cooling elements, heat insulation material and cooling channels are added to prevent camera overheating, then the camera temperature is controlled, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the camera from the high-temperature zone by repositioning it in the door panel away from the cooking chamber interior. This eliminates the need for active cooling devices, cooling channels, and heat insulation material, thereby resolving the contradiction between temperature control and device complexity by removing the entire cooling subsystem.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes the natural thermal barrier provided by the door panel structure itself and passive convection currents in the door cavity to protect the camera from heat. This self-cooling approach eliminates the need for active cooling devices, reducing device complexity while maintaining temperature control.
3Temperature
If cooling bodies are attached to door panels to prevent overheating, then the camera is protected from heat, but the detection of items to be cooked inside the interior cooking chamber and in front of the cooking appliance is hindered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent positions the camera in the door panel and uses optical elements (mirrors or prisms) to create extended field of view paths. This allows the camera to capture images of items both inside the cooking chamber and in front of the appliance without requiring physical attachment of cooling bodies that would block the view, thus resolving the contradiction between thermal protection and detection capability.
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
This solution prevents overheating, enhances process reliability, improves hygiene documentation, simplifies product traceability, and reduces operational errors while maintaining a cost-effective and easy-to-maintain design.
Implementation Method 1
the already provided door seal can be used as a thermal shield for the optoelectronic sensor
Implementation Method 2
an air flow occurs between the inner pane and the outer pane, which can be used as a cooling flow for the optoelectronic sensor
Data Source
AI summary
A cooking appliance, in particular to a commercial cooking appliance with a housing, with a cooking chamber that is arranged in the housing and that has a cooking chamber opening that is surrounded by a circumferential door seal that is arranged at the door inner side and/or a housing area adjacent to the cooking chamber opening and that can be opened and closed by a cooking chamber door, wherein the cooking chamber door has an inner pane that is adjacent to the cooking chamber and that, in the closed state of the cooking chamber door, abuts a door seal as well as an outer pane that is arranged at a distance to the inner pane and that together with the inner pane delimits a cooking chamber door interior space, and with an optoelectronic sensor, wherein, in the closed state of the cooking chamber door, the optoelectronic sensor projects into a reception area of the cooking chamber door interior spaces arranged outside the door seal.