Cooking Chamber Divider Circuit With Door-Interlocked Two-Contact Power

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Solution Overview

Problem

Standard cooking space dividers require two lines for power supply and a separate line for protective grounding, leading to bulky and complex contact solutions due to safety requirements.

Innovation Solution

A door safety circuit is connected in series with the electrical connection for the cooking chamber divider, eliminating the need for a protective conductor, allowing for various connection implementations, including mechanical contact elements, and ensuring safe operation by monitoring the door's closed state with redundant switches.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If standard cooking space dividers use two power supply lines and a separate protective grounding line, then safety requirements are met, but the contact solutions become bulky and complex

Engineering Contradiction:
ImprovesafetyVSAvoidcontact solution complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The protective grounding function is merged with the power supply lines by connecting them in series with the door safety circuit. The door switch acts as a common safety mechanism for both power lines, eliminating the need for a separate protective conductor and reducing contact complexity from three contacts to two contacts while maintaining safety requirements

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

2Reliability

If a separate protective conductor is used, then safety is ensured, but space requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:
ImprovesafetyVSAvoidspace requirements
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSArea of stationary object

Solution Approach 1:

The protective grounding function is merged with the power supply lines through series connection with the door safety circuit. This integration eliminates the need for a separate protective conductor, reducing the spatial requirements for electrical contacts while maintaining safety through the door switch mechanism

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Ease of manufacture

If mechanical contact elements are used for electrical connection, then implementation is simplified, but safety monitoring becomes more challenging

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveimplementation simplicityVSAvoidsafety monitoring
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of manufactureVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The door switch acts as an intermediary safety mechanism that monitors the closed state of the door and controls the electrical connection. This intermediary component provides reliable safety monitoring by preventing power supply when the door is open, while allowing simple mechanical contact elements to be used for the actual electrical connection

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentEP2463584B1Cooking device
Publication Date: 2018.09.05 BSH HAUSGERATE GMBH
  • EP2463584B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2463584B1 patent drawingFigure 2

AI summary

The device has a door safety circuit connected in series with electrical connectors (102, 103) i.e. bipolar electrical contacts, for contacting a cooking space divider (101). A cooking controller (106) controls the cooking space divider over the electrical connectors, where the electrical connectors are formed as plugs or sockets. The door safety circuit is provided with two switches (104, 105) for determining whether a door of the cooking device is in a closed condition, where the switches are switched in series.