Flexible Cooking Container Sealing and Venting Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing microwave cooking containers often burst due to increased gas pressure during heating, either damaging the container or scattering food, and existing venting solutions can compromise cooking efficiency if not properly opened before use.
Innovation Solution
A flexible cooking container with a sealed top portion using press-fit or zip-like sealing means, featuring strips that form a seal and include a flap to manage pressure, preventing bursting and allowing controlled venting to release vapors during cooking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the container is sealed to maintain cooking efficiency and prevent food loss, then the container may burst due to increased gas pressure during microwave heating
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing system is divided into two functional segments: a primary seal for maintaining cooking pressure and a secondary venting mechanism for pressure relief. This segmentation allows the container to simultaneously maintain sealed conditions for cooking efficiency while providing a dedicated pathway for pressure management to prevent bursting.
Solution Approach 2:
A venting mechanism acts as an intermediary element between the sealed container interior and the external environment. This intermediary allows controlled pressure release without compromising the overall seal integrity, enabling the container to withstand cooking pressures while preventing dangerous pressure buildup that would cause bursting.
2Reliability
If the container is partially opened or cut to allow vapor escape, then pressure buildup is reduced, but cooking efficiency decreases and heat loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The harmful excess pressure is extracted from the container through a dedicated venting mechanism, while the beneficial cooking environment remains sealed. This selective extraction allows pressure management without compromising the seal, maintaining cooking efficiency while preventing pressure-related failures.
Solution Approach 2:
The container exhibits different sealing qualities at different locations: a high-seal-quality primary seal for maintaining cooking efficiency and a controlled-low-seal-quality venting area for pressure relief. This local differentiation allows the container to simultaneously maintain overall seal integrity while providing localized pressure management.
3Reliability
If the user must manually open the container before heating to prevent bursting, then pressure safety is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates and user error increases
Solution Approach 1:
The container's venting mechanism performs the pressure management function automatically without requiring user intervention. The system self-regulates pressure during cooking, eliminating the need for users to manually open or modify the container, thereby maintaining both safety and ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The venting mechanism is pre-configured and ready to function before heating begins. This preliminary preparation ensures that pressure relief is automatically available when needed, eliminating the need for users to perform preparatory opening actions while maintaining pressure safety throughout the cooking process.
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 the container remains sealed during cooking, preventing food loss and maintaining cooking efficiency by managing pressure internally, allowing for safe and effective microwave cooking of selected foodstuffs at higher than atmospheric pressure for improved health and flavor.
Implementation Method 1
a pair of plastics material strips are secured to respective inside portions of the plastics material film forming said side portions of the container. When the two sides of the container are pressed together in the top portion region, the two strips cooperate and form a sealing means.
Implementation Method 2
the lower portion of one of the strips is not secured to the inside of the plastics material in the top portion of the container to leave a flap member which, when the pressure increases inside the cooking container when cooking takes place, is forced up into the region of the press-fitting seal between the two plastic strip members and thereby prevents such press-fitted sealing means from being breached.
Implementation Method 3
when the container is placed in a microwave oven and cooking therein takes place
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention is concerned with flexible cooking containers which the user can fill with selected foodstuff and then seal same prior to inserting in the microwave oven for preferably cooking the contents at greater than atmospheric pressure for improved health/hygiene reasons and for improved taste and flavor. The user can thus select the nature of the foodstuffs which are to be cooked.