Cooking Apparatus Door Drain Hole Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing cooking apparatuses, such as microwave ovens with a hood function, face issues with capillary action and osmotic effects due to the close contact between the cover glass, touch panel, and door frame, leading to water accumulation and potential short circuits or malfunctions in the touch panel.
Innovation Solution
An improved drainage structure is introduced, featuring a drain hole at the lower end of the touch panel that penetrates the door frame, allowing for communication between the front and rear surfaces, which prevents capillary action and osmotic effects while also serving as a passage for the electric wire connection, enhancing manufacturing efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the touch panel is arranged in close contact with the door frame to improve sealing and structural integrity, then the structural strength is improved, but water accumulation occurs due to capillary action and osmotic effects causing reliability deterioration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the harmful effect by introducing a drain hole that removes accumulated water from the gap between the touch panel and door frame. This extraction of water prevents capillary action and osmotic effects while maintaining the close contact structure, thus preserving structural integrity while improving reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The drain hole acts as an intermediary element between the sealed gap and the external environment. It provides a controlled pathway for water removal without compromising the close contact sealing, mediating between the need for structural integrity and the need to prevent water accumulation.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a separate wire passage is added to allow electric wire transmission, then the functionality is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The drain hole is designed to serve multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as a water drainage pathway to prevent capillary action, and also serves as a passage for the electric wire connecting the touch panel to the control board. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate wire passages, reducing device complexity while maintaining full functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the water drainage function and the wire transmission function into a single structural element (the drain hole). By combining these two functions, the design avoids adding extra components or passages, thus improving adaptability without increasing device complexity.
3Ease of operation
If the touch panel is pressed closely against the door frame to improve contact sensitivity, then the operational sensitivity is improved, but water infiltration into the gap causes harmful effects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the potentially harmful close contact gap into a beneficial structure by adding the drain hole. The same gap that could allow water infiltration under capillary action is now equipped with a drainage pathway, turning the potential harm into a controlled system where water can be actively removed, thus maintaining both sensitivity and preventing water damage.
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 drainage structure effectively prevents water from flowing into the gap between the cover glass, touch panel, and door frame, thereby preventing short circuits and malfunctions, while simultaneously allowing the electric wire to pass through, improving the overall efficiency and reliability of the cooking apparatus.
Implementation Method 1
the existing cooking apparatuses, such as microwave ovens with a hood function, face issues with capillary action and osmotic effects due to the close contact between the cover glass, touch panel, and door frame
Implementation Method 2
The door may further include a sponge provided to absorb water flowing down from the drain hole and the auxiliary drain hole
Implementation Method 3
The drain hole may include a first inclined member formed on a lower end of an inner surface of the drain hole to be inclined to the rear surface of the door frame
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein is a cooking apparatus having an improved drainage structure. The cooking apparatus includes a main body having a cooking chamber with an opening provided to be opened forward, and a door coupled to the main body so as to open and close the cooking chamber. The door includes a door frame, a cover glass arranged on a front surface of the door frame, a touch panel arranged between the cover glass and the front surface of the door frame and provided to be in close contact with the front surface of the door frame by being pressed by the cover glass, and a drain hole arranged at a region, corresponding to a lower end of the touch panel, of the front surface of the door frame, and provided to allow a front surface and a rear surface of the door frame to communicate with each other.